I can't. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Miss Carbonel, present. Mr. Cohan, Mrs. Conte Mackey here, Mrs. Pereia
here, Mr. McDow, present, Mrs. Mani here, Mr. Nasta here, Miss Santana, Mrs. Scott Heden, here. Thank you so much, Miss Capiello. Tonight, we have a very special
guest, Mariela Garcia. Did I say that correctly? one of our lovely students from um the high school. She's a senior and she really represented last night, but we're going to learn a little bit more about her later on. But she is
going to lead us in the flag salute. Amen. 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. Thank you so much, Mariela. Board member Nasta, would you please read the mission statement? The mission of the township of Union public schools is to build on the
foundations of honesty, excellence, integrity, strong family and community partnerships. We promote a supportive learning environment where every student is challenged, inspired, empowered, and respected as diverse learners. Through
cultivation of students intellectual curiosity, skills and knowledge, our students can achieve academically and socially and contribute responsible and productive citizens of our global community.
Thank you so much, board member Nasta. Miss Pum, please read the open public meetings act statement. Mhm. In accordance with the provision of the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act, the Township of Union Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and
place thereof, published in the Star Ledger and Union County local sources, posted in the administrative building of 2369 Mars Avenue in Union, New Jersey, filed with the township clerk, and mailed to all persons if any who had requested said notice. The board of
education offers members of the public the opportunity to address issues regarding items on the agenda or on any item. Individuals need to identify themselves by name and address. Public comments are limited to three minutes. Issues raised by members of the public
may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asked all members of the public to be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Comments regarding students and
employees of the boards will not be responded to by the board. Madam, thank you so much, Mun. The board will now go into executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues and action will be taken. May I have a motion to move into
executive session? Second. Any discussion? This motion has been properly moved by Miss um Scott Hayden and Miss Mani. Can I have a roll call, please? into our public regular meeting. So move
second. The motion have has been properly moved by Miss Scott Hayden and seconded by Miss Many. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Mackey here. Mrs. Faria, here. Mr. McDow,
yes. Mrs. Mani, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Miss Santana, yes. Mrs. Scott Heden, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. At this time, the junior ROC will do the presentation of colors.
Ladies and ladies and ladies and gentlemen, my name is cadet captain. I bring you warm greetings from the 126 fart army JRTC cadets that make up the Union High School Fighting former Battalion. Presenting the colors this
evening is the Union High School Army Jar to see ceremonial color guard. Their primary role of the ceremonial color guard is to perform ceremonial duties as special events and official occasions in representation of the US Army's 250 year of service and defense of our nation. At
this time I would like to introduce tonight's ceremonial color guard. The lead guard, cadet force sergeant Dino Florentino with a US flag and commanding the color guard. Cadet Sergeant Firstclass Kervin Pier as a state flag. Cadet First
Sergeant Stacy Charles holding the Army flag. Cadet Sergeant Firstclass Milton Tan with the prisoner of war flag. Cadet Captain Kimberly Cano with a Union High School flag. Cadet Captain Jefferson is the rear guard. Cadet Staff Sergeant
Daniel Hurley. Please stand for the posting of the colors. [Music]
If tomorrow things were gone for all my life and I had to start just my children and my
wife my lucky stars to be living Cuz the fastest stand for freedom and they can't take that
[Music] away to still
today. There ain't no doubt. God bless the [Music] USA. From the lakes of Minnesota to the hills of
Tennessee, across the plains of Texas, from city sh down to New York to the bright Heat.
[Music] Heat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]
Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] How to
[Music] be a blessing.
[Music] Please remain standing as we honor America with the playing of our national anthem.
[Music] Can you see by the dawn early light? And so proudly
we at the twilight [Music] last night we [Music]
watch [Music] all of See through the Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat.
[Music] Hold right face hard. Oh,
all hell. [Applause] That was touching. Extremely touching. Um I'm so proud of all of you tonight. Um and I'm proud to be sitting on this board. Amen. Thank you.
particularly since Memorial Day weekend is coming up. Nice timing. Approval of the minutes. May I have a motion to appro approve the following minutes? So moved. Second.
Approved by Miss Santana, seconded by Miss Mani. Roll call, please. Miss Capiello. Mrs. uh Mrs. Oh, sorry. Mrs. Conte Maki, yes. Mrs. Faria,
yes. Mr. McDow, yes. Mrs. Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Miss Santana, yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Next, we will have our communications that are reflected in operations in the
personnel agendas. Good evening, everyone. I would like to take Good evening. Thank you. I would like to take a moment to thank you all for being here tonight. As we begin the public comment portion of this
meeting, I want to remind everyone that we value your input and appreciate your time and effort in sharing your thoughts and concerns. We ask that all your comments be respectful and constructive as we aim to foster a
productive dialogue that benefits our community and the work we are here to do. Each speaker will be given three minutes to address the board. Please remember that while we are eager to hear your perspectives, we are unable to
engage in a discussion during this portion of the meeting. However, your comments will be carefully considered by the board and if necessary, the administration will follow up. With this said, do we have
any speakers for this portion of the Good evening, Miss Jeff. Please step in. Did you say my name? Yes. you call my name. Good evening, Miss Jeff. I apologize.
Um, before I start, Virginia Jeff, 236 Brighton Avenue. Before I start, I am so impressed by that color guard and I would hope that they continue to
serve after they graduate, but I hope they never have to serve under any war circumstances. But they were they were great. Absolutely. So, moving on to my comments. Uh, good
evening to all in attendance. There are concerns on the agenda um regarding F-15, F-25, F-26, F-27, F-37, F20, 38, 28, 30, 31, 31B, 32, 33,
37, 38, F56, and item 17, approval of bills. an F-15. Why not have separate contracts for the general counsel and special educ education council? A, special ed law is
a very specialized area. B, it's easier for the board to set a cap for special ed services. C, it's easier for the board to track costs. F-25 for evaluations. The funds that are set aside can only service four
students for the upcoming school year. F-26, the funds set aside only service seven students for the upcoming school year. F27, the fund set aside can only service 5.3
students at 830 $830 an hour and only five students at $880 per hour. F-28 the funds set aside can only service three students. F30 only one K5 student and only one 6
to 12th grade student can be serviced and there are no funds to cover an aiological consultation. F-31A only five students for this school year can receive services.
F-31B 13 students eight more than this current year will be able to receive services based on what projections? F-32 only 10 students to receive services based on what projections? F-33 only 10 students can
be serves can receive services based on what projections in F-37 only one student can receive services at the maximum for autism and only 3.6 Six students can have services for dyslexia,
desaphica, and the third one. It's hard for me to pronounce. F38 will not be able to service students at all as the minimum possibilities exceed $1,400. Um, and
finally, the Excuse me, your time has expired. Oh, it would be so much better if there was a clock up so people or a warning bell when we're down to the one minute. It would be it would be nice to have that. Good good point. Thank you, Miss
Jefferson. Again, wonderful presentation by the color guard. Well, you signed up for both, so maybe if you truncate the later message, you'll have time to finish. I recorded it. Oh,
sorry. Anyone else? Not not for first uh comment. Next we will have the education and student discip. No, I apologize. I skipped a whole section. Um
superintendence reports. Sorry, Dr. Venquist. That Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Madam President. So, uh I know we just heard comments about how well presenting of the colors went, but
um you know, tonight we get to also highlight how well our whole program uh is doing. in the new Union High School junior ROTC. Uh just got back recently um and won the uh national championship
for the second consecutive year, which has never been done to my knowledge in Union. So I know Colonel Alvarado, do you want to come forth? And Sergeant Sheml uh is Sergeant Sheml uh here as well. All right.
Um, Sergeant Sherml and Colonel Torres, uh, you talk about staff, uh, that go above and beyond helping our children. They're here, um, I don't even want to know how many hours, a day, a week, a
year. Um, but, um, I want you to come up and just share a little bit about this experience. I know we've been doing it for many years, but what it meant this year to win uh the national championship a second time. Sure. Uh thank you Dr.
Bquista. Madam President, it's a pleasure to be here. It's an honor to be here. And as you can see, I have a lot of my proud cadetses here with us tonight. They could be home doing something else, but they'd rather be here representing and basically uh taking care of each other like they've always done because they know one thing
is the element of teamwork. And tonight they knew that they had to come and represent each other and back each other up. So uh we uh took the cadetses down to u another national uh event. It was uh 100 of the best
schools of the best schools that win all the championships of the states. And last year we won the division three national title temp and then moved us up to division two this time and we won it again. So now next year we got to take division one and we're going to work hard for that. Okay. Okay. That's already for that. Okay.
Uh but like Dr. Biden Christrista said, it doesn't come easy. Uh the kids put in they come in at 6 o'clock in the morning and they leave at 6:00 p.m. in the afternoon. So as you can see, they put a lot of hours. Uh this stuff doesn't come uh because of luck. It becomes because of hard work and dedication. So I I like
to acknowledge my cadets for for the hard work that they they do every single day. not only to uh win awards but to do the best thing and every single day to put in that discipline that they learn in school. They learn about responsibility, accountability and more importantly about becoming better
Americans. And that's what I'm very proud of. But at the same time, I'd like to thank the administration for making it possible. You know, it takes funds, it takes the uh the parents who uh provide the kids to us and they not only do they provide the kids, but they also they trust those trust with those kids
because we see them so many times that sometimes parents come to me and say, "Hey, please relate this to my son or daughter." Because they think that we're the first echelons of support. So, um again, Dr. Mquista and Madam President, it is a an honor to be here, but I it's not for me, it's about the cadets. So, I
like that this time is introduce our battalion commander for this year. He's the one who put the team together. He's the one that p practiced with the team. He's the one that put all the time and effort into making this happen. And this is our battalion commander Genesis Muya. [Applause]
Um hello, my name is obviously Genesis Munos. I'm commander at 2025 Fighting Farmers Battalion. All I really want to say while I'm up here is that one, I've been doing RCU for four years since my freshman year. I wouldn't have been here and none of us
would have been here without the leadership from my freshman year, my junior year, and my sophomore year. And that I recognized that not one thing could be done with one person. And that I wouldn't have done any of this without any of the cadets I've worked with or
any of the leadership that taught me. And out of my four years, we've had a lot of skill there. There was a lot of people with like really high skill. They were really good. And this year going into my team, it wasn't the best. A lot of them didn't compete the previous year
at all. But we ended up being the best out of the four years. Not because of that, but because of the fact that they understood that wanting it and having a why for what you want to do in something is the biggest thing you could do to
actually achieving something. And that I stapled it into their head that they wanted it. They wanted to do it for the second year whether the odds were against us or not. And I want to say thank you to everyone that I worked with. I couldn't have done it without you.
Okay. And uh this isn't for me or Jesus. This is for all of you guys. Everybody come up here. Just come on everybody. All of you. Okay. and Colonel, this is a a small presentation of uh just appreciation of what you do for our
program and and the kids and uh I just thank you. Uh it it is amazing. It's awesome to say we have national champs. So, um but it it like it was said, it's it's everyone working together. So, I I really do appreciate it.
Congratulations. Why don't we get together? We'll take a picture of the board. Go. I didn't see Oh, yeah. You can see me. Three, two, one. Anybody else take it? I won't let
him. Okay. Thank you very much. Congratulations again everyone. Thank you so much. So, um so I asked Colonel Alvarado to stay up first. I I just want we're going to highlight two students um next. And if
you go on when this is presented, it shows all the things our OTC accomplished. So go on. I didn't read through everything. Uh but um this will be made public, but I asked Colonel to stay up. Um you know, we have two
students that are uh which I'm going to be introducing um going to West Point, but uh throughout our district every year, uh we have students uh going off uh to West Point and other ummies that
are going to be in a program to serve our country. Uh, but we also have staff, and I'm going to put uh one on the hot seat because I do think it's important. We have uh a lot of people that have served our country. Um, and I don't know if we really uh say thank you enough. Is
there any uh community members in here that served? Uh, if you did stand up, but I otherwise I do want to also highlight one of our staff members that served as well, Mr. Shaw, and just say thank you. And thank you. I know I put people on
the spot. I appreciate it. Uh but again I don't think we uh you know sometimes things go by so quick and we don't realize you know people again what they did for our country. So next I would like to uh um now from what I understand
one of uh we have two people going to West Point which is amazing. Um, one was part of ROTC, one wasn't, correct? But I want you to kind of talk about I know with ROTC, um, because how good we are, um, it's a
different entrance in a in a sense to a little bit they trust in your leadership. So, our Union High School ROC program is considered a honor unit with distinction. That means that we ranked 10 in the top 10% of,700 schools nationwide. and we're actually ranked
number eight out of 1700 schools. As such, we have a uh the authority to actually directly appoint cadetses into West Point. Now, these two uh young gentlemen that are going to be going to West Point are going to be joining another cadet was that's already started
last year. Um we did not use that authorization. They did go through their congressman. However, we do also have that in our back pocket in case they needed that. So, we can appoint cadetses, one cadet per year to go to West Point also. And that's because we're an honor, you know, with distinction, which is I mean in the top
10% in the nation. Again, that's that is amazing. So, I would like to uh ask Rayu and Ethan to come up and be recognized. Um I am uh very proud of you guys representing uh not just yourselves, but our community
at West Point. Um, uh, I'm hoping you come back and share what you're learning because, you know, going to West Point is again an amazing opportunity, but also I think it's it's something that, uh, I know if you came back and shared
with me, I would learn from. So, uh, I do, uh, I I am intrigued by some of the things they do to build leaders. But you guys obviously going there getting accepted. I believe you already have it in you to be that next leader. So, I wish you the best. I wanted to recognize both of you tonight because I think this
is a huge accomplishment. So, congratulations. Congratulations. And then let's just get a picture. Congratulations. And as the family here, just one with the family members, come on up. have to squeeze in there.
We have to get closer, right? Thank you. Thank you very much and congratulations again. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. So, next up, uh, we have our, uh, our board liaison, our third board liaison
representing our board, one of our amazing students at Union High School, Mariela Garcia, and she's going to share, uh, some highlights uh, about our district. Correct. Come on, Dad. Thank you. Good evening everybody. My name is
Mariela Garcia. I am a senior at Union High School and I am one of the three student representatives along with Ayana Joseph and Alan Mao. So, some upcoming dates, we have the senior class trip to Hershey Park next
week and the swimming the swim the pool party tomorrow. I mean, not tomorrow, next week on May 30th. And this week we have the football game which is students versus teachers where some of our staff will be going against some of our
students. I hope the students win, but you know, and we also have our senior prom on June 5th. And yesterday we also had our senior awards ceremony and we also had our senior day. Our senior day is basically like a carnival outside just for our seniors where we have
bouncy houses, a bunch of games outside and some delicious food. On May 1st, we also had our commit day on that morning. We had a bunch of students come out with their commitment shirts. We have Summer Ruckers, Seden
Hall and JCU and Yukon. So, sports, we are doing really well in sports. Our flag football team now updated. They are number four in the state and they are 80 and one. And Amaya
Lewis Giles is now was the big central conference player of the week and she will also be playing for the North South Conference for the football team at Kane University. And also we also had the day of service on May 9th, 2020 2025 where
15 of our student athletes went out and served and organized and cleaned a local VFS and this was organized by our athletic director Ron Caesar. We also had our commits more commits to our sports which is Caleb Dove. He will be
committing to NGIT for throwing. Merly Tiveres for Lasal University for acro tumbling. Woodley Aiel for Union College for wrestling. And Baba Baba Aloe for Delaware State University for shot
put. So, you guys also heard about RT JRTC earlier, but I'd like to highlight some of their awards. The Arm Inspection earned first place. Unarmmed inspection earned first place. Armed Exhibition earned first place. Arm regulation
earned third place. Armed color guard earned fifth place. And on an armed color guard won second place. So, our arts, we have such a bright community in arts. Earlier this month, the UHS Pack, which is our
performing arts company, went out and competed at the Orlando Fest competition in Disney World where they won concert band second place, the UHS string orchestra in first place, and the UHS dance team in first place, the UHS choir
concert choir in second place, the UHS swing choir in first place, and the outstound outstanding soloist Grace Lasano. She did amazing. And yes, they they had a they had a great time at Disney World. I saw their all their
pictures. So, our clubs, we have a bunch of clubs at Union High School, but I'd like to highlight some of them here today. So, Key Club, last month they attended NJCON, which is the New Jersey District Education Conference in Berkeley Hotel in Asbury Beach. And here
they won multiple multiple awards where Elena Jensen won first place in t-shirt design. Hannah Hippolito won first place in club club website. Talia Johnson, Kristen Kadua, Sophia Inhazo, Kyrie Towns, Veronica Kosul, and Hannah
Hippalo won third place in the major emphasis award, which is an award to emphasize one of the events they had during the school year, which was the the Santa event at no bird temple this year. And later on we also have Tracy
Chan and Eli Bio winning first place in the club digital poster and JC GK first place in club bulletin. Myself, Aduko IU and the rest of the media committee won second place in social media. Leo Panz in winning platinum platinum award for
single service award and Hadasa Trundade with the international distinguished club. And that's not only all the awards they've won, but they've won more, but those are the more important ones for now. Um, next with our clubs, the Red Cross Club is currently creating cards
for kids in hospitals all over the United States and they are being handed in in the moment. For the law club next week, I believe, or the week after, they will have a guest speaker coming in, and they are an attorney. I have no idea who it is, so I'm really excited to see what type of attorney they are and who they
are. and the art club. They are working well with painting the mural at Union High School which is being painted in front of the attendance office. Some of the artistic elements in the mural comes from Keith Herring, Tekashi Murakami and
more. And I am also painting it too. And that is all for the high school. And I hope you enjoyed my presentation. Excellent. Excellent. Great job, Mariela. And Madame President, do you want to I know I I do want to invite the board. Do you have any comments about
the beautiful presentations tonight? Anyone? No. Please use your microphones. To sum it up is short. Um just absolutely amazing, right, of what our students are capable of. We never doubted you. Um, thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight because
like your uh star just said that you could be doing something else this evening. So, thank you so much. Congratulations to you and to our board leaison. Amazing. Amazing. I saw you last night at the award ceremony uh receiving multiple awards along with a lot of our other excellent scholars. So,
congratulations and thank you also for your time for being the student liaison. Nicely said, madame vice um Mr. McDonald. Um, just to add to that, uh, especially, uh, our junior ROC, um, as as somebody said a little a
little bit earlier, uh, I hope that you will never have to sacrifice yourselves for for this country, but I will respect you and honor you because you're willing to do just that. Thank you. Beautiful. Anyone else?
I just wanted to say thank you for your dedication. Um, our students are amazing. I'm the first one I get all choked up. I'm the first one to um tell everyone that we have the best in this town and thank you. Thank you to our
staff, you know, to help develop them, but um the dedication and um just your energy is amazing. So, thank you. Thank you. As a mom of a soon to be Union High School student and a little nervous that
I have a high school student, seeing this just reminds me what a great place it is. I'm proud and I can't wait for all the act all the opportunities that lie there for our children, including my own who's about to go there. But thank you to everyone because this is just the
what makes Union such a great place and what makes our schools such a great place for our kids to be. And thank you to everyone. It's not easy getting up at 6 a.m. or being there at 6 a.m., but you do it. So, thank you, Miss K Mackey. Thank you. I just want to
say amazing. Um, my son is my children are products of union education. Um, my son is currently approaching senior year. um and watching him go and watching each of you and seeing what we as a district offer to see how far
you've come, the excellence that you raise. Just want to say thank you to all of you. You make us proud and we're proud to serve you. We're proud of the educators that help you grow. As you can see, we have teacher of the year here. Um I can't wait to see Miss Brown come
up. Um but I want to let you all know, thank you so much. Sky's the limit. continue to represent union because we are the you um do amazing things. Know that we are always here to support you. It doesn't end with you graduating and going on. This is a unit. This is a
family. Um and to the parents, guardians, grandparents, and family members of these amazing students, thank you so much. You've raised some amazing kids. And thank you for having them here in Union because we are that community.
Thank you so much, Mr. Nasta. [Music] I do want to congratulate uh all the junior ROTC with all their uh first place finishes. Uh everyone really look great tonight
coming up here uh with their uh pre presentation of the colors. I also want to congratulate the two fine young men uh who will be attending West Point in the fall. Uh I I'm not sure if everyone realizes
the commitment you're both making and I'm sure you've made both your families proud and you've also made this district proud as well. So again, congratulations to everyone. Thank you so much, Mr. Nassa. If if you know me a little bit,
you know that I'm never um at a loss for words. And Nancy, you you started it. I couldn't stop myself. Um, I'm just so proud and and you know in education um we strive to teach students the content
whether it is reading, writing, mathematics, science and if we're lucky we do just enough with the parents to create adults that are selfless, are courageous and are leaders in their own
right. And that is what I saw tonight from e every single student that spoke tonight, including you, Mariela. I am so proud to live in Union. And we
hear enough things about everything that is going wrong, but tonight tonight represents union right. So if you will permit me, Mr. Shaw, I also want you to come up because you also exemplify
courage, selflessness, and leadership. Can we have all the students up here? And where is Miss NS? I want you to take a picture. And we need to post that somewhere cuz that should make us really
proud. And I believe it was Genesis, Rio, and Ethan. But I Genesis, you spoke about the leadership that you had access to, but in hearing you speak, you were a leader for your teammates. So, congratulations to all of
you. Let's give them love and a hand. [Applause] Everyone will come up for a picture. One more picture. You go over there, too. Leadership comes in all forms. In the
ROTC, too, right? Everyone come back up. Another picture. You were the first. The Township of Union Public Schools is not about us. It's about these young men and women before us. Let's double up. Taller. taller and
back. We're gonna have to do two rows. You guys want me to go right behind or? Yeah. Squeeze in that way. Squeeze in that way. Can you get everyone? I tried. Sorry. Look that way. Look this way.
All right. Now they can steal it from Facebook. Thank you again, everyone. [Applause] And by extension, if parents, please stand up. I know they're going to kill me tonight, but parents, please stand up. We can't do it without you. Let's
give the parents a hand. and the rides. Great job. So, next up, I would like to So, every month we have our principal sharing a little bit about the schools. Uh, we're at the last two. So, I would like uh Miss Lorenzo is going to lead us off. Where's Miss
Lorenzo? All right, Miss Lorenzo, come on up. I was worried I didn't see you back there. and uh your PTA president for Livingston School, Doron Cassell. Uh Dr. Benquis, before we continue, I I would be remiss. I did ask the other
student representatives, Mariela, what are you last night you represented, you got a number of awards. Can you tell us a little bit about that? And when you graduate, what you plan to do after graduation? Hi everyone, I'm Mariela. Um, yesterday
I won um the student council award where I got a scholarship of $150 and I also got a stole as well for my president this year for being president this year. And I plan to uh major in political science and minor in sustainability and
Korean. [Applause] Awesome. Thank you, Dad. You should be very proud. My turn. Hi. Um, I'm Ivon Lorenzo and this is
She's the coolest PTA president ever. Made this little logo here for just for a little while. Leaving a handprint on your children's hearts because that's what our teachers do because they're fantastic. So, let's take a peek inside of our halls. Communication. We do have a uh a
letter that we send out every month. Uh it is a uh a letter that talks about all the different things. It says the events of the month. It says uh it highlights different activities that the the students do. We throw pictures in there
and we do reminders about uh little uh events that are coming up so everyone has uh something to read once a month when they're drinking their coffee in the morning. We had an awesome presentation for teacher appreciation done by our
PTA. You want to talk about that a little bit? Yes. Um I believe that the teachers work very hard every day and they don't get uh appreciated as much as we should. So um the last two years I think I went over and beyond because I'm the next year's president is already
like I cannot walk in your footsteps. Um I get the teachers massages. I bring them breakfast, lunch. Um this year we had ice cream from Oh So Delicious. We had a cart that went around. They got to pick um like lip gloss, nail polish, uh
beach towels, certain kind of things. Um we had a display in the hallway. And what else did we do? Um last year we did ice cream as well. And oh, last year everybody got a special gift in the bag, but we won't talk about that. Um but
they are very appreciated. And Livingston School, um the teachers there are they're just so warm and caring. And I am going to miss them very dearly because I like to say lees is my little family and we also have a lovely new
addition. Miss Lorenzo is the principal now and it's just a everyone is just a nice little family there and the teachers show up for us at the PTA um all the time for activities and events and I couldn't be more happy with them and it makes the children happy and
everything. We have VIP dances where we invite them personally to come and they come out and show um support for that as you'll see some pictures in there next. Okay. Um we have our concert coming up next week uh the 28th. And this year
we're doing the third and fourth grade chorus together because I'm my career is music and we've always when I started here we did third and fourth grade together. So, we didn't think we could fit it at Livingston School because we didn't want to limit the amount of
people came in. So, we're moving everybody over to Kowami Middle School. Really excited about that. Um, the art display is on display in Livingston School right now. Uh, not sure if she's moving it over to Kowami for the concert, but she does this beautiful um
this beautiful display where she has banners and all the kids work is up there. So, if you're a river around Livingston School, come into our halls and check it out. It's beautiful. We have the band performing and the chorus performing. So, we have Treps. I asked
the uh leaders of Treps to write me a little bit of a um a blurb on what it was about so that I didn't forget anything. So, if you notice, Treps is spelled T R E P with a dollar sign. Why is it a dollar sign? Because these
students are learning how to make money. They uh invent and create their own little businesses. They do learn about all kinds of entrepreneurship. They learn about financial literacy uh essential business concepts such as
product development, marketing, budgeting, and customer service. They participate in weekly workshops that guide them through this process of establishing what their product is going to be. They brainstorm their ideas. They decide how to market it. They decide
what it's going to cost. Then this year we had 34th graders in participating in the program and on April 9th we had a trips marketplace was very very cool. Um their creativity led
to a wide range of products including dog treats, bracelets, face painting, AI generated personalized photos. Yeah, I have one. Um but they made money. Like these kids made money. I know I went broke that night, but they made money. And to be
honest, not ever having been at the marketplace, which is you can see kind of some of the pictures there. Um, I didn't know what to expect, but I was walking around going, "Wow, these are earrings." Like real like earrings. Like I could wear them. I I'll take that.
I'll take that bracelet. And it was just amazing. I I just couldn't believe these were fourth grade kids doing all this really cool stuff. So, because they did such an amazing job, we are having uh one uh another little kind of resurface of it, we're doing it this is it this
Friday? It's this Friday and we're going to do it in school and there the peers their kids there all the kids in school are going to have an opportunity to go shop. We made sure we told mom and dad and everybody bring in the money. So, that's really exciting. Our awesome um
program adviserss are Heather Shanley, Alyssa Santos, and Maria Sibilia. And they're so thrilled. They're going to they're excited about doing it for next year. But it is the coolest program ever. Our teachers are very active in everything that we do. Um we had
teachers versus teachers obstacle games, which was formulated by the PTA but run by our physical education teachers, Mr. Miller and Mr. Shaw, uh, who didn't really tell us what we were doing, just signed us up, go to the high school, and we're standing there like, "Okay, well,
we did. We had a blast. It was great. The kids were all there. They were cheering us on." I didn't know I would be so exhausted after becoming an elementary interim principal. But yeah, that's how it is. And, uh, the PTA had a tricky tray.
And want to talk about that a little bit? Last year's tricky tray was an 80. And of course our whole st all the teachers always come out and support and this year we had another one. It was a a luau. They all came out and supported again. It is one of our biggest fundraisers of the school year. On se on
that note tricky chase the biggest fundraiser. Our second biggest fundraiser is called the power of purpose. Power of purpose is a program where we ask parents to donate $5, $10. They connect aunts, uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. And we have a purpose. The purpose is last year we raised
enough money to buy five picnic tables for our playground. So the teachers can go out um during class time and on nice days and have class outside or if the the garden club wanted to use it or even at recess it's nice. So we had raised
enough money to have um buy five picnic tables and this year we did it again and we had enough money to buy umbrellas for the picnic tables. So it is a very nice program and then at the end of the year they come the power comes to our school, they throw a big huge carnival for our
kids free of charge because we use their program and we use the name and we got it out there. So, they'll be coming this uh next week, I believe, with bouncy houses, um music, hula hoops, and 29th. Yes, it's it's very nice. If any of the
other elementary schools want to get into it, the power of purpose, it's a very good program. Uh yeah, they every time you turn around, they're running something. They're very, very busy. And I tried to upload all of the all call letters that I sent out with all their really cool,
they make very nice little flyers to go out, but it wasn't cooperating with me. So, I gave up. I was like, I'm done. So, this they we had two dances. One was the VIP dance, and it was everyone from kindergarten on up to fourth grade,
little kitties in tuxedos. It was so cool. like little three-piece suits. I was uh I was really excited. They were dancing. They were having a blast. And if you look up there in the right hand corner, those are those are high school kids. They came to help out. And that
was that was just really This is the first year that the high school kids, I think it's the Key Club and another club. We had so many students come from the high school to help at our dances um and other things. They're also coming to the tracking, no carnival day. They're
coming to help us as well. There was so many students from the high school that were on call for us. They enjoyed it and it was great for our little guys to hang out with the big guys, too. So, it was very well appreciated. Thank you. And then they had the fourth grade dance and you could see they're dancing. It was
great. They're all dressed up again. To see all these little kids get dressed up and just have a great time participating is pretty cool. So, uh, our counselor's corner, she is very busy, uh, Miss, uh, Robson. So, I just wanted to show you some of the things that, so we had a random acts of
kindness week. She sends it around. We have activities every single day for that week. Another thing that she did was, oh, how do I go backwards? Oh, there we go. Was an autism week. So, we did she we sent a letter out to the parents that she that she wrote. And
then we had an acceptance week. We did whatever, you know, most of the schools wear blue, but every single day we had something different going on to recognize uh autism. And next week is career
exploration week. And uh she has asked all of the all of us who are not students to send in a picture of us when we were really young. I think mine are pretty dusty, so I don't know what I'm getting. But then we have to put hints up and then he's gonna she's going to
take them put them along the walls and the kids are going to guess who is who and what they did or what they do. So there's a different um event every day planned for that. Then we had NJSLA pep rally. The NJSLA pep rally was
where all of the third and fourth graders came down to the auditorium and under the leadership of Miss Robson, they participated in all these kinds of activities. Uh they talked about what is NJSLA, why is important. They recognized the hard work of the teachers, the
students. Then we had a good look video that we showed the kids from uh the students, staff and families who talked and and and in this thing and said, "Good luck. You're going to do great on the test." Blah blah blah. Then they did pass the dance game, pass the bucket of
balls game, human tic-tac-toe game, and the pass my test parody sing along. And that's when they watched this. That's what I keep on learning. It's like I got
these in my mind. This is [Music] them. It's like in my mind. It was a really It was a great success.
And then um I I have to give a little props here. We have the Livingston Eagles garden and that is created by the Garden Club. Um so there is so much to learn about what they do there. Um the benches are out
there because of the PTA and they uh use utilize those because the kids go out uh and they will plant they're going to learn how to plant. They learn about seedlings. So if you go visit their link tree page at Livingston Eagles
garden oh garden um you will find that this beautiful community oasis that is carefully attended by the students of Livingston School is really something to brag about. And thank you for visiting with us.
[Applause] Madame President, do you want I just think I love the song. I think we should have a competition, right? Each school the kids should be singing and then submitting a video. Dr. Vanquista
for next year. Thank you. Nice job. I'm not sure anybody President, I just wanted to say, Miss Lorenzo, you forgot to mention the slime. Aren't they going to slime you?
No, I made slime on June 9th. Can you teach me that take pictures? So, I I went to the PTA meeting the other night and I they mentioned all the things I was going to mention later in comments, but she did not mention the slime, so I had to bring that to your
attention. Anyone else? No. So, next up, our last principal uh to um Yes. Best for last. Right. Um Mr. Melanda is coming up with Miss Ahern, the PTA president, uh to share a little
bit about Kami uh Middle School. My mom had just hit that. All right. Good evening, everybody. How we doing? I'm going to try to not take as much time as Miss Lorenzo did. They're broken up right now. They're
broken up. All right. So, Miss Ahern and I are here tonight. We're going to I'm going to talk about some of our academic endeavors. Uh and she's going to kind of go into, you know, more of the PTA fun stuff. So, just try to follow along. Uh the the biggest thing for us this year
is the implementation of our instructional coaches. Uh they work with our ELA and math teachers on a weekly basis on a variety of things. The coaches work with teachers to develop common formative assessments often mim mimicking styles of NJSLA testing. All
of the tests uh in a markup period assess the same standards and allow teachers to track growth and retach when appropriate. The coaches analyze testing data to identify gaps in learning and create lessons in units to address these gaps. Students are assessed after each
unit and then reassessed in a three-unit master test at the end of each marking period. This not only becomes another common data point for our teachers to discuss, but it also fosters very good student study skills. The coaches provide and share resources. They teach model lessons and they work with
teachers on integrating various technologies to make lessons more interactive. Coaches join the teacher PLC's two days a week. Their conversations help teachers adjust their pacing to better align assignments with New Jersey student learning standards.
They create a space to share new strategies and to help teachers better understand and reflect on student data. Overall, our coaches are a valuable resource for our teachers and instructional programs and we are grateful to have them. One of the programs that we
instituted a few years ago uh compliments of Miss Lorenzo um is our ready set read. Uh each Friday during an extended home room, the entire KMS community, teachers, staff, students uh participate in our Ready Set Read initiative, which is 30 minutes of
dedicated time for students and staff to read and enjoy a book of their choice. To spark excitement, sometimes Miss Lorenzo, our librarian, often hosts readalouds featuring engaging sections from different different genres. This schoolwide effort helps foster a love of reading and builds a positive reading
culture across all grade levels. This was our first ever climate convention. Uh, this brought the New Jersey mandated current uh, climate curriculum to life, giving our eighth grade students a chance to explore real world issues in a hands-on meaningful
way. In science unit 3, students explored the causes and effects of climate change and use that understanding to define problems they could address through collective action and studentled nonprofit initiatives. It also tied directly into unit 3 of ELA taking a stand as students researched
environmental topics they cared about and presented their ideas for change. Sixth and seventh grade students got an opportunity to walk through the gymnasium and and view all of the presentations and then vote for their favorite project. The event was a powerful way to connect classroom
learning and global challenges. The daffodil project was taken on by our eighth grade ELA team. Uh as part of the daffodil project, students planted daffodil bulbs in front of KMS to honor the 1.5 million children killed during the Holocaust. The project, which aims
to build a living memorial tied into unit 2 of the ELA curriculum by deepening the students understanding of the Holocaust, literature, and themes of remembrance and resilience. And finally, these are our peer leaders. Uh they are consist of our seventh and
eighth grade students who work very closely with our school counselors. Uh their job is to basically welcome new students to our school. They have one-on-one meetings with them and they provide tours of our school. They recently helped facilitate advisory sessions within our school focused on
kindness within our home rooms. Uh they provide fifth graders at Jefferson School with information about middle school, answering all of their questions and helping to make the transition from fifth grade to sixth grade much smoother. And they also visit Washington and Livingston elementary schools. They talk with the little guys about
anti-bullying, friendship, and they'll also be helping in the upcoming days with their field days and their carnivals. I got you. Okay, I got you. Um, I think I'm supposed to stand close to you, but I think I have a voice that projects, so I think we're No, I think we're good.
Oh, it's at home. Oh, we're recording. We're recording. I didn't know. Hello everyone. My name is Nicole Ahern. I am proud to be the PTA president of Kwami School in my second year. Um, I've been there for four. I can't believe I'm leading. I'm with GA that my second one
is coming up. We have eighth graders together at KMS. um in being a PJ president at Washington School, at Jefferson School, Kowami brings apart a different perspective. So, we still do the fun stuff, but it looks a little bit different than it does at the
elementary. But we try to figure out ways as a parent teacher association that we can engage the students and do things that are of interest to them, that they want to participate in, that they'll be engaged with. So we work really closely with the staff there as well as parents and we are able to do
student surveys to see what it is that they would like to do and then as the PTA we run with it. Whatever it is we need to get done we try to either fund raise or we try to use our funds that we already have in order to bring experiences to the kids. I didn't name all that stuff. I
put this in there because this is a tradition. Kowami versus PTA staff volleyball game. We do this every year. Usually it's dodgeball for one season, volleyball for another. Um this year and we have the principles and the two PTA presidents. Our teachers selflessly and
actually all of our staff. We have parros, we have administrative assistants, they give up their time and they stay late. And I would have to say that Mr. Shaw knows this too. It gets pretty heated. Gets pretty heated. I didn't realize it. Um but you have to watch yourself for flying things in the air. But what's nice is Bernett and
Kwami get to collaborate and we can share things as a PTA and it brings the two middle schools together twice a year. So they're seeing each other in a different context. They're we let them mingle. We don't have a brunette side and a Kwami side. We kind of bring them together and let them root for their teachers. They bring signs. They love
it. So it's just one way that we're able to bring everybody together as a community before they head up to the high school. And we think that's really important and the PTA continues to sponsor those two events. Um, so I'm not sure if anybody is aware, but New Jersey PTA is actually the
oldest, largest nonprofit child advocacy association in New Jersey. Not everybody realizes that that it has it stems from a great history. Some of us do. Um, but together, one of the major um parts of their mission statement is advocacy. So,
not only are we talking about strengthening the quality, we could be talking about children's health, education, safety, wellness, and we always want to give back. Dawn mentioned that as well. It's not just about gaining money for them to have dances.
It's more about what we can do as an association to support the missions of the schools and of the district. So, one thing that came up with my executive board this year was, let's find something that Kowami needs. And what Kowami needed this year was a little bit of motivation, a little bit of fun, and
a lot of engagement. So, we worked with the counselors as a PTA board, and they identified this wonderful presentation, Corey the Dribbler, and who doesn't love basketball? Um, and even if you're not a sports kid, they were engaged. He had a wonderful message, and it was all about
respect, education, attitude, activity, keeping fit, keeping healthy, keeping your mind right. and we did it with all the grades and the PTA was able to fund that. So that's what's really important that little part about giving back because the fun stuff is great but it's stuff like this that you could bring a message that you can then carry over
into what Mr. Manda was talking about advisory committee. So you have the assembly and then you have the advisory committee with your trained staff me members to follow up to say okay let's talk about the assembly that you just had so we can make it more impact it could have more of an
impact. Um, we have some other things that we do, again, some fundraising, but we also try to stick to union businesses. We try to bring back to the community. So, we do at Kami, we make sure we're using, you know, union and small business and even some of the
chains, but that are located in Union. Um, our our donation drives are a huge hit because it's a way to raise funds, but we also involve some of our student groups as well as the high school community volunteers to come out and support us. So, we had kind of put that
up there, too. Um, we have the dance, but I wanted to use this slide to give a shout out to the teacher liaison that are in every building. So again not if everyone is not aware the PTAs have a teacher liaison someone on the staff and again it could be anyone not just a
teacher any support staff but someone that's identified as that liaison they come to our PTA meetings again giving their time at night and they are that link to the staff in to us with the principal we have a principal report but the teacher liaison brings a different
perspective kind of what it is that they need or what it is that they're seeing and some events we are truly blessed that we have Mr. Nikki Kelly and we have had her the four years that I've been involved. She also is the student council advisor so she has a pulse on
what's happening. She's taught sixth grade and eighth grade so she really knows the building and we're able to support her when she comes to us and says we're having this great dance but we're a little bit low on funds. Do you think maybe you could communicate to the parents and maybe we could do an Amazon wish list? And we wind up that's how we
get that link between school and community. if they're having a project within the science classes and they need materials, that's something that she could say, "Hey, PTA, can you help us out?" So, every school has one and it really is a wonderful resource. And our dance was amazing. The eighth graders had a great time. Um, we truly
appreciate our staff. As Dawn says, everybody works so hard. So, we do these about, you know, not just on staff appreciation week, but welcome back. Try to surprise them with something as they come in for the year. We have wonderful staff participation in terms of being
active PTA members and that makes all the difference. Tradition Kami, Mr. Melanda's favorite, Miss Hall in the back. I know she is a big chief supporter, so you actually can speak better to this as a former PTA president yourself, but Kowami chiefs are
tradition. What are they? They are specific awards that are given to students as a result of teacher nominations, staff nominations. They have criteria, they have committee, but they all have a purpose. It might be academics, it might be athletics, it
might be motivation, perseverance, character, but it's a tradition that has been with Kowami for a very long time. I'm not sure when we adopted it, but it is something that we are so proud of because as a PTA, we're able to as a PTA we're able to sponsor these awards. As I
like to say, I used to say this 15 years ago when Mr. Shaw was working with me, but they're sold that Mr. Shaw got one when he was in middle school. Yes. Oh, do you have a you have one too? Yes. So, these Chiefs are a hot item, but it is
something special and we're able and as the program has grown, we've added awards and it's something that the PTA does for the kids. So, we put it in our budget. We, you know, to make sure that it's something that the kids can still can receive. So, that's our presentation. I'll just
talk about uh as we close out the school year, we're proud to reflect on the growth, resilience, and collaboration that defined our work. From academic achievements to community building initiatives, every success was truly a team effort. We look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.
Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll miss you. Thank you, Mr. Melanda, Miss Ahair, and Madam President. Nice job everyone and I'm glad that you connect the activities to the learning. So kudos to you for that. Sometimes that's missed.
So um I'm because and again tonight was a lot. I'm going to rush through this. This is posted online. And I'm going to highlight a couple more things, but um these are some of the things that uh were already highlighted earlier by our student liaison, but you guys could uh you know look at this at uh along the
way. Next up, I would like to uh honor um our teachers of the year and our ESPs uh uh of the year uh educational support professionals um and our our teachers for the 2425 school year. So, um, Miss
Watson's going to help me. Uh, but I would like the teachers to come up when I call your name. Uh, the teachers do get a, uh, it's nice. Kane puts on a a a breakfast for all the Union County teachers of the year. It's coming up. Um, and it's another way to be highlighted and it's nice. It's a really
nice program. Um, you know, our ESPs of the year, um, we're going to shift it. I was working with the leadership of the union. Uh we're going to do it now for this year, but next year we're going to do it during the month that ESPs uh uh again educational support professionals
are recognized. And that's November. Uh Miss Shannon, right? November. So we're going to shift it up. So it'll be split next year, but we got to again this is going to be the last time we'll do it at the end of the year. But I do want to congratulate we we talk a lot about all the great things the students that's
going on in the schools. uh without our professionals working with them daily uh it wouldn't be possible. Um we have great staff. Uh I I've said it for years in our district and the best part about this this is from their peers. So they get nominated and then there's a
selection from there and some of the things you read about the nominations really hit home because when you're reading it from a colleague writing something about what this person's doing above and beyond, it's amazing to to to read. So, I would like first I'll call up our teachers of the year and I
apologize all my glasses. Jennifer Chamberlain, can you come on up? Miss Watson, I'll help me. Um, Maria uh Verdello or Bolino and I know Miss Mackey's happy.
Yvon Brown, stay up here because we're going to get a picture real quick. Uh Gail Richardson, Britney Schill, Jennifer Reginino, [Applause]
Caribore Cynthia Freddy, Lauren Con and I I saved uh Joyce Shaw for last because I want to say a special thank you. When I came to the district in 2000 um as a new teacher uh didn't go to I
went back then was alternate route. I was walking in not really didn't get the same prep as everyone else going through a program. And I just want to personally thank Miss Shaw who uh we taught the same classes in a in a sense at the high school. And I have to say not just her
but the high school team like a lot of our teachers who like you guys who give back uh helped me in my beginning years to be successful and I probably wouldn't have stayed if it wasn't uh that's one of the the people that definitely helped me get through. So, thank you so much.
The board want to come behind? Stand behind us. Let me guess where you're standing. Come on, Mariel. Get down here, girl. Everyone thought I was Everyone thought I was forgetting you. Thank you. Congratulations.
Congratulations. Congratulations. So they told me something because you look familiar. Are you from NY? We got to squeeze in. I think she You guys ready? 3 2 1 [Music]
He was like Families want to come up quickly to take a picture photo op. Dave, I know you're so excited. One more. You've been every picture so far. Come on. One more. What's one more?
I don't know how we can fit everyone. Party. I'm not going down. Party on. Jesus Christ. Wait, shouldn't you be hitting it? I'm going to block you. That's all right. It's [Applause] okay. Ready?
You can't see me. I can't see you. I'm trying. Yeah, baby. 22 more. I am not counting. Hold on. 60 for us again. Thank you.
Thank you all. I truly appreciate everything. Thank you. And I'm looking forward to the breakfast. You get to go home if you want after that, too. Congratulations. So, a as I've uh shared a lot uh
throughout the months, uh our board of education um well-versed in education, total support of our community. I I would I I probably wouldn't feel right if I didn't share how Miss Kimberly Scott Hayden
advocates for our educational support professionals in such a positive way that I know she's she's influenced me to understand a little deeper um and and when you hear things that she talks about. So, we we can't say enough. There's so many integral parts to being
successful as a school and our educational support professionals um are are the the glue that's making everything uh work um or stay together. So, I I can't thank uh again your peers nominated you guys. You should be very
proud of this award uh and being recognized as the ESP of the year for 2425. and I would like to call you up and and again uh there's anyone here tonight. So nobody's here but um we will um just
Yes. And we'll make sure they get their um so anything I know before I move on. Uh I I think we should say something and I know my colleagues want to say something. I I want to congratulate everyone that was um recognized here
tonight. it it is a tribute to you and a testament of the work that you do day in and day out when your peers um nominate you for this award. Um thank you so much. This education is a vocation
um and it is a service. Um, I know that sometimes we are not um recognized as we should, but please know that I I believe I I speak for everyone on this board. We
do appreciate our staff, whether teachers, whether paraprofessionals or any support staff. We appreciate you and we thank you for your service. Thank you.
[Applause] If I just may, I apologize. Thank you. I just wanted to say yes. I'm sorry. Really, um, I'm sitting here today because of Paris and I thank all of our paras and all our teachers, all everyone
in the district. Thank you. So, real quick, I just like to last night was our uh senior awards and you could see how many scholarships were given out and uh 91,250 is very impressive. Um so that it'll all the awards will be shared who donated as
well as uh the recipients. Um our flag football team is amazing. Uh I think it's the second year uh that we've been doing this and they're in the the playoffs, but they were I think divisional champs. They're undefeated, too. So, um can't wait to
see how they finish. Haven't lost the game so far. Um and we also have some of our athletes are are being represented in the All-Star game and I think that's coming. No, the playoff game's coming up. But again, uh I know a lot of this was highlighted so I'll quick go through
quick. You guys could look at it. Uh just uh another highlight, our band, orchestra, uh concert, uh choir uh competed in Orlando Fest. I wasn't sure if they were going to get back with all the issues at North Airport, but they did a little bit late. Uh but we had a
lot of high finishes there. And just congratulations to uh our our leadership of of the uh music and and orchestra and and band. Um they always do an amazing job. Look out for the new It's All About You. There is a parent survey out for uh
students with disabilities. Make sure you fill that out. It was sent to uh all the parents. Uh Friday, May 9th, the athletic director, Ronnie Caesar, uh who oversees ROC uh brought 15 uh Union High School athletes uh to help um at the
VFW. Uh and they were there working, helping organize and and uh to help people that need uh uh assistance. Uh teacher appreciation um just a short video
um with all the uh great things that were going on through the week. And again, I can't say thank you enough to our educators, our teachers. again thank you for all you do. So, uh we started our strategic plan process. Uh I did announce earlier at
another meeting that we had over 2000 or 2,300 uh responses to our survey. Then we brought it to uh uh strategic plan nights and I really want to uh thank our teachers, our faculty, our parents, uh our administration who came and
supported that those nights. I got a lot of positive feedback. I'm looking forward to presenting in June our strategic plan. Um it really is uh the voice of many. So I'm hoping this is finally uh set to really guide us over the next three to five
years. as I have to do. I'm reporting on HIB uh during uh uh uh the reporting period of uh one found at Union High School, unfounded, not uh inconclusive. There was two and two uh um so there's four total three uh Union High School,
one at Franklin and uh reporting uh the last one was a firm uh was three founded at Union High School, not founded in conclusive was Ann at Calwell. And two things to highlight on the
agenda tonight. Uh we're accepting for esports. Uh uh I'd like to highlight the grants that come in. Uh and we're also on E14. We're applying for grants uh for AP. Uh this will help bring three more AP classes to Union High School next
year or the start of 26. I believe it is the start of September 26. We are looking to bring September of 25 a pre-AP course at the middle school and again that was uh through collaboration with our board of ed but
uh madam president I know it was long uh but it was worth it and thank you so much. It certainly was. Thank you. We appreciate your dedication and your passion. All right, let's move move it
along. Next, we will have the education student discipline committee chairs, Miss Mania and Miss Faria, to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Thank you, Madam President. Um, so Miss Bria will start
and just review some of the um discussion from the committee meeting. Good evening everyone. So, some of the points were already shared. So, I want to make it quick. Really want to highlight the work that the district is doing to acquire additional funding
through grants. I don't think we can say enough about that when we're thinking about esports. It's something that's going to get our students, it's going to go towards our middle school students. Um, but it's also going to educate them on career technical education. So, we're preparing them for future careers. And
so I just want to highlight we're also uh accepting a lot of partnerships with colleges to have some interns come into our schools. So the district is really being creative and finding resources that aren't costing us the those additional tax dollars. So thank you.
Good. Okay. So upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the education student discipline committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration. So E1 and E1A, E11 and E12 were approved at last week's work
session. Um E11A um does not require a vote. So um E11 affirm superintendence determination of PIB. E2 approve affiliation agreement
with Satan Hall University. E3 approved memorandum of understanding Union College of Union County, New Jersey. E4 approved to coordinate graduate level school psychology externs from with Kain University. E5 approved family center of Monontlair screening and intervention.
E6 approved to accept funds for esports. E7 approved to accept funds for um products uh reimbursement. E8, approve professional development, train the trainer session at Franklin Elementary School. E9, approve removal
of library books from Kowami Middle School. E10, accept grants from Township of Union Education Foundation. E13, professional development workshops districtwide. E14, approve application for grants. Is there a second?
Second. Second. first. Sorry. Any discussion? Well, I do see E10. So, I I want to thank Miss Libstein. Lipstein. I didn't
want to mispronounce, but I I know that you represent the Union Education Foundation and thank you for contributing to our school system. Um, this motion has been properly moved by Miss Mani and seconded by Mr. McDow.
Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Maki? Yes. Mrs. Fia? Yes. Mr. McDow? Yes. Mrs. Mani? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Miss Santana? Yes. Mrs. Scott Heden? Yes. Miss Carbonel?
Yes. Next, we will have the fiscal and planning committee chair, Mr. McDow. Mr. Bowen um could not be with us tonight to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Thank you, Madam
President. There are 60 fiscal and planning resolutions tonight. Uh I will not go over all of them. Some will be passed in bulk. But upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the fiscal and planning committee presents the following resolutions for the board's
consideration. F1 is the treasur's report. F2 is to the secretary's report. F3 is to certify the treasury and secretary's report. F4 is to approve appropriations transfer. F5 is to approve the attached list of contracts and purchases. F6 is to approve
district-wide travel and related expenses. Uh F7 was voted on last week. Uh F7A to approve districtwide student field trips. F8 is to approve list of state contracts. F9A is to approve a list of contracts. Uh F9B approve the
list of fundraisers listed there. Uh F9 is to accept donations. F10 is to approve uh out of district student placement list. Uh F11 is approve travel and related expenses. And as I uh I'll remind uh the board members to abstain
from voting on their own names. Uh in F11 uh F12 is to approve tuition rates. F-13 is to approve connect connect one for banking services. Uh F-14 is to approve the auditor uh Sup uh Clooney. Uh F-15 is to
approve general counselor and special education counselor the Taylor Law Group. F16 is to approve special counsel uh uh Auzy McDermott Mastro Murphy on an as needed basis. Uh F17 is being pulled.
Uh F18 is to approve the property casualty workers compensation brokerage uh service of Fair View Insurance Agencies. F19 is approved healthcare broker. Uh F20 is to approve healthcare plans. F21 is to approve Pmptonian for
district food services. F22 is to approve the uh architects. There are three listed there. Uh F23 is to prove engineers uh and consulting engineers. There three listed
there. F24 is to prove council, bond council, Willlets, Gman, and Spitzer. Uh F-25 through F-56 are special ed services. Uh so I will not read each one of those. Thanks be to
God. Uh again, that's uh F-25 through F-26. Uh F58 was approved last week. F-59 was also approved last week. And I'm sorry, uh F57 is to approve uh the establishment of a petty cash account
for Battle Hill Elementary School. Uh and F60 is to approve the change order for the HVAC clean energy grant uh project for Hannah Cwell. Uh uh the last uh fiscal and planning is the uh attorney and that's not for voting. It's
only for the purposes of information. Madam President, those are our resolutions for the fiscal planning committee F1 through F60 and F attorney. Thank you so much, Mr. McDow. Is there a second? Second.
Thank you, Miss Faria. Any discussion? I do want to speak on F11. Yes. Um, for those of you that do not know, in order to be a board member, it's not just getting elected, but we also have to go through rigorous training every
year. And F11 is part of that endeavor where, you know, we we actually have to acrew certain units from year to year to continue being a board member. I just wanted to clarify everyone for everyone.
The motion has been properly moved by Mr. McDow and seconded seconded by Miss Faria. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Macki. Approve all um except I approve F11, but I abstain for
myself. Mrs. Faria, yes to all except for F11. I abstain for myself. Mr. McDow. Yes to all. And I also abstain for myself on F11, but approve the rest of the members on F11.
Mrs. Mani, uh, yes to all except F11. Abstain for myself, approve everyone else. Mr. Nasta, yes to all except for F11, abstain from myself, approve for everyone else. Miss Santana
for F11 I abstain for myself approve everyone else and I approve everything else. Mrs. Scott Hayden yes for all resolutions F11 abstain for myself and yes for everyone else.
Miss Carbonel. Yes to all. For F11 I abstain for myself and approve everyone else. There are no grievance negotiations um items to present tonight. Next, we will have the operations and technology
committee chair Mr. Nasta and Miss Kante Maggie to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Thank you, Madam President. I wanted to say a few words before board member Nasta goes through our resolutions. Um I just wanted to talk to the community and
all. Um I wrote something because normally I'll just speak. Um but I said you know what today let me um write my thoughts together um and just speak to the state of the operations. Our century old school buildings home to our students, staff and educators stand to a
testament to a bygone era. But their age brings significant challenges. These structures are quite literally being held together by the dedication and ingenuity of our building and grounds team who perform day-to-day miracles for with severely limited budgets in keeping
our buildings together. Bless you. The looming pro the looming prospect of the further budget cuts to the essential building maintenance service is deeply concerning. As all know we are faced with a budget that is tight. We have
limited funding coming from the federal government and our buildings are getting older. Um, which is deeply concerning. While we all understand, Greg and I, and we agree that education is the main top priority for our students, we must remember that the
functional safe buildings are the very foundation upon which quality education is built. We urge continued advocacy and support and understanding for funding to ensure adequate maintenance of these vital structures which protect both our
students, the staff and our future of our educational community. So we ask that everyone is mindful in their conversations and their thoughts that our buildings are getting older. We have multiple issues and our team members are doing the best that they can but the
repeated budget cuts have an adverse effect on the structures that house our precious our precious precious gems which are students of Union. Thank you. Thank you. That was uh well said by my fellow board
member and committee woman uh Miss Kante Mackey. U upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the operations technology committee presents the following resolutions for the board's
considerations. O1, approve security drill and bus evacuation reports. 02 approve participation in non-binding cooperative purchase agreements. 03 approved requests from Township of
Union Education Foundation. 04 was voted on at last week's work work session. That was a shared services agreement between the Township of Union and Regional Industry Services. 05 approved request from Union
Township Community Action Organization. uh so they get to hold their pre-p prom red carpet event at Jefferson School on June 5th and then T1 approve recycling of
equipment and T2 approve advertisement for sale of IT equipment that is all I have my madam president thank you so much Mr. NASA. Is there a second? Second. This any discussion?
This motion has been properly moved by Mr. Nassa and seconded by Miss Conte Mackey. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria? Yes. Mr. McDow? Yes. Mrs. Mani? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Miss Santana?
Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden? Yes. Ms. Carbonel? Yes. Next, we will have the personnel committee chair, Miss Scott Hayden and Miss Antana, to present the following resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Good evening. Um, I won't be long-winded
because I think um, what we saw this evening definitely displays um, the educational excellence that we have within our school district here in regards to our personnel. So, what I will say is um congratulations to every person who was honored this evening. Uh to our amazing students who were before
us tonight. Um this is what union is. It's not just the you and union is the you and I in union. So, um to them, I don't want to be long-winded. Again, it's been a long evening. Um due to certain things that we discuss in uh personnel, due to legal obligations, we
cannot disclose them. But what I will say is that with the remaining positions that we currently have open for this school year, we will be actively working to fulfill those positions. Um, seeking top talents as um, our students don't deserve anything less than that. Um, I would also be remissed if I didn't say
congratulations to all of our retirees who are on the agenda tonight. You have reached a milestone. And for those of you who are not on the agenda retiring, we look forward to continuously working with you in the upcoming school year. Nicely said, Madame Vice. Thank you so much. U Madam Chair, may I
move the following uh resolutions in blocks if possible? Yes. Thank you. So, upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the personnel committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration. I have P1A all the way up
until P13. Second. Thank you. Any discussion? I have none. This motion has been properly moved by Miss Antana and seconded by Miss Hayden. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello.
Mrs. Conte Maki. Yes. Mrs. Furia. Yes. Mr. McDow? Yes. Mrs. Mani? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Miss Santana? Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden? Yes. Miss Carbonel? Yes. Next, we will have the policy committee
chair, Miss Mani and Miss Faria, to present the following resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Thank you, Madam President. Um, the policy committee upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the policy committee presents the following policies and um regulations for um final
reading. Um, policy one through policy five, regulation one through regulation three. Second. I apologize. Is there a second? Second.
Any discussion? The motion has been properly moved by Miss Mani and seconded by Miss Faria. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capriello. Mrs. Conte Macki. Yes. Mrs. Faria.
Yes. Mr. McDow. Yes. Mrs. Mani. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes. Miss Santana. Mrs. Scott Hayden. Yes. Miss Carbonel. Miss Carbon. Yes. Moving along, we will
have the residency committee chair, Miss Benise. I still have the one for his first and final reading. I apologize. May I? Sure. Okay. Upon recommendation of superintendent schools, the policy committee presents the following policy for the board's consideration. This is a first and final
reading. Policy uh 1A, eligibility of resident, not resident students. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? This motion has been properly moved by Miss Mani and seconded by Miss Varia.
Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria, yes. Mr. McDow, yes. Mrs. Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Miss Santana, Mrs. Scott
Hayden, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Moving along, we will have the residency committee chair, Miss Venicia, Miss Faria, to present the following non- voting resolutions. So, upon recommendation of uh superintendent of schools, the residency committee presents the following resolution for
the board's consideration R1 um which is um students that um after investigation voluntarily um uh removed, transferred out of the district. And then the other one is it's all forformational purposes. How many
removed and how many voluntarily transferred? Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the bill's list? So move. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? This motion has been
properly moved by Miss Conte Macki. No, Miss Scott Hayden and seconded by Mr. Nasta. Can I have a roll call, please, Miss Capiello? Mrs. Mrs. Conte Maki. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes.
Mr. McDow. Yes. Mrs. Mani. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes. Miss Santana. Mrs. Scott Heden. Yes. Miss. Carbonel. Yes. Unfinished business. New business. Madam President, may I please? Okay. I just wanted to
remind everyone that this coming Monday um is the Memorial Day parade and um kickoff is at uh 10:00 a.m. on Monday, but on Sunday there'll be an encampment in front of the town hall on Sunday from 1 to 4 and there'll also be
a living history uh demonstration. So that'll be Sunday in front of town hall 1 to 4 and then the parade kickoff is at Monday 10:00 a.m. Thank you. And this year we are participating. We are participating. Um we have very exciting about 50 groups
between I think there's nine bands and then the rest are are marching units. Um so we're very happy and one of our own from town. Bob Johnson is the grand marshal this year who's is very instrumental all these years with um organizing the parade. He's a Vietnam
veteran. So um I encourage everyone to come out and participate, you know, cheer everyone on. It's a It's a really a great event. Thank you so much, Miss Benzy. Anyone else? New business? Um, Mr. McDow and then Miss Faria. Thank you, Madam President. Uh last night I
attended along with other board members the uh senior awards ceremony at the high school and as I looked over all the honores I I was touched by one thing that I saw that made me proud of Union and that was the rainbow of students
that we have. Unbelievable. Uh and and and I saw that reflected in our junior ROC. Same way. And if you look down this board, a rainbow again. And it's one of the things that makes Union such a great place to live is the diversity. And we
have nothing but strength in that diversity. And it was great to see that last night and today. Thank you, Madam President. That was beautifully said. You're welcome, Miss Faria. I just wanted to congratulate Bernett
Middle School for their performance of Sister Act. Um, unfortunately did not get a chance to go, but my daughter was there and they said they did a really nice, beautiful job. So, I really just want to make sure we congratulate those students and all the staff for supporting that. And if anyone's interested in seeing our students
shining, Kuwami, I believe, has their uh, bands orchestra concert tomorrow. Um, so it's a good opportunity to see our students that work. Thank you so much, Miss Furia. Anyone else? Um, I would be remiss, um, I'm not sure
if you're aware, but in April, we celebrated Asian and Pacific Islander Month, and that was culminated with a beautiful festival in um, in town. Um, and Miss Kaki and I were able to go
attend and get participate in in some of the wonderful um, activities that were there. I know that they were doing the henna tattoos that I see my friend here
um has one. Um but the food, the people, it it was just a very very nice experience. Um in addition to that, we did attend um the chamber of commerce gala event recently. Um,
and I think my board members and some members of the audience have said this, we will only be successful as a community when everybody's working together. And the beautiful thing about these presentations and these events is
when we see the town leadership, the parents, the staff, the students, and everyone that makes up our community coming together to make sure that everything that we do is a success. And the Chamber of Commerce gala exemplify
that. So, um, I thank them for inviting us and for us to be a part of it. Thank you. Um, anyone else? No. Um, comments comments from the public and we will
begin with Miss and Margaret Shannon and Margaret Shannon 2591 Spruce Street and UTA president. First, I want to thank Dr. Benquista. I don't know if the board and the residents know that the county only recognizes the
teacher of the year. So many years ago, UTA started the ESP of the year, but in working with Dr. Benquista, he's recognized its importance and we successfully have handed over the ESP of the year to the central office for which I'm very thankful. It's one less thing
for me to do. Um, next, uh, I've heard that last week some board members were unclear about my message. I was really happy tonight. I think all the presentations really uh helped me out, you know, just trying to explain how wonderful Union is and and the staff.
But I did want to explain a little more. Um I've been reminded that in this district there are many struggling students, which is true. But when I attended these same schools many, many, many years ago, believe it or not, there were also struggling students. And as long as
there are quizzes, exams, standardized tests, I think the district will unfortunately probably always document some list of struggling students. And for months now, we've heard uh parents come and talk about the district's test scores. But I think what's been missing,
but it wasn't missing tonight was the uh from the conversation is the other side of the coin. All the students who succeed as witnessed here tonight. Uh some of you did attend the uh UHS award ceremony last night and uh does anyone ever ask who works with these
award-winning students? Do the kids do this on their own without the help from the district? I don't think so. Right. I I just wish that we would acknowledge I know we've been having a you know it's a hard year but I want to acknowledge that the same UTA members who work with our needy students also push students to
excel. Another point question I think last week was when I mentioned the ceremony for the students who scored well on the standardized tests for which Dr. Rodriguez did organize an event. Uh I'm sure some of you attended it. I think the confusion perhaps was that the
ceremony was held this year but just like the nature of standardized tests the scores were from last year but there was a celebration of students who did well on the standardized test. And no surprise to me because the students in
union, they they do well. I mean, it's we have proof. Um, our UTA members do help struggling students, but they also help, as I mentioned, you know, with the uh doing well, the AP students, the honor students, the musically talented students. And I want to give uh personal
congratulations to Colonel Al Alvarado and First Sergeant Sheml who are UTA members who do work really hard for our students. Um, but I lost my train of thought. Uh, I wrote it down to be organized, too. Um, but do do we win these awards
because every student in union is talented in all those things? No. All of our children have different gifts, but the dedicated UTA members serve them all, participating in their struggle and also celebrating their many wonderful accomplishments. Excuse me. think the
district uh one sent I do think the district should be thankful that the UTA members do work and are above average and I think I heard that tonight from all of you and I appreciate Thank you [Applause]
Miss Zurka. Good evening everybody. Christine Zurka Twain place in Union. Good evening. I am an ESP. The definition of an ESP is we are
non-eing staff who who play a vital role in supporting students, teachers and the overall functioning of schools. We work in various roles to ensure a safe,
healthy and conducive learning environment. Being a parah or ESP has a lot of challenges which get greater day by day. That's why we deserve a fair increase in
salary. I love what I do or else I wouldn't have stayed here for 20 years. But ESPs are not going to stay working in this district for 20 years if the board cannot provide a livable
wage. They will be leaving union for better paying districts. And you will not and you will have no one to support our children. And that's what we all are here for the children. So please
consider giving us a livable wage. Thank you. Thank you so much. We will certainly work on that, Miss Lipstein. Lipstein, I apologize, Miss Lipstein. It's been a long It's okay. It's okay.
Susan Lipstein, 2569 Jackson Avenue. I'm talking tonight as president of the Township of Union Education Foundation because I want to go over a little bit about the grants that you've accepted. so the community is aware. Um, we have been giving ads at grants for 24 years.
I think I've worked with six superintendents and 24 different boards and we're still here. Um, I also wanted to mention we heard about some of the successes uh that from the principles tonight and Livingston School talked about the Treps program and I want to be
sure that everyone's aware that that was funded this past year with a grant from the Township of Union Education Foundation. as well as um we have provided materials for that. Livingston Eagle's garden, two teachers applied for grants last year
for microscopes. So, two of those things exist in large part because of the education foundation and that is with money that's raised. It's not taxpayers money. And also the climate convention that Mr. Melanda talked about at Kwami
Middle School was funded in part with a grant that the eighth grade teachers applied for and they used a particular uh book a non-fiction book called the 21 and that was what they based a lot of the curriculum which they made up. So we have good teachers and we also they take
the time to apply for grants and this is money that does not come from the taxpayer. This year we had um an application from Marcy Msara and Lauren Cohen. Lauren Con was one of the teachers of the year who was up here and M Marcy Msara is retiring but she took
the time to apply for a grant and this is a small amount of money but it's going to go a long way for the life skills education at Union High School for the 9th through 12th graders in Union High School and it's for a new cookware and utensil set. Sometimes the smallest things do are not restored in a
district especially in the past years and as we face very challenging years ahead. We also gave out to um teachers and this was interesting because we have we used to get a lot of requests for computer equipment. Now we're getting
more for actual books and magazines. So we got a request for a subscription to Scholastic News Magazine for all the fourth graders at Connecticut Farm School. So here again it's something to to stimulate and and uh literacy which is you know is one of my biggest I'm a
biggest proponent of and that's how you excite kids. to give them something exciting to read and to discuss in class. And also all the fourth graders and all the third graders at Connecticut Farm School are going to get a subscription to Scholastic Super STEM
magazine. And those were grants applied by Marielle and Patrico Olga Cororsen and Cynthia Khart. Um, as far as the climate convention, that was that was developed by a crosscurricular um uh uh committee at of all the eighth grade
teachers at Colombia Middle School and it was so successful. I hope you were able to go and see it. It was wonderful. Excuse me. Your time has expired. My two All right, the other grants you see I mean it's really a shame because this probably could have been read. Um, this is what we're giving to the board. One's
a novel and one's the house system. Please ask questions. We're also inviting you to the reception, which we couldn't do until you approved approved our little meeting. So, you'll get an invitation as long as I can get it out, but I wanted to be sure it was approved. And I really appreciate an extension of
time because when you have good news, sometimes it takes more than three minutes to give it. Miss Livstein, I I just want to say thank you to you and your board um for all that you do for the students and the staff here in the district. And it's not
lost on us, all the things that you mentioned. I know I personally I love the scholastic STEM curriculum. Um and climate change is an integral part of the science standards. So, thank you for supporting
those instructional initiatives, but thank you. Yes, that's a great idea, Miss Mani. Dr. Benquista, um, Miss Mani is, and it's true, we need to recognize um, initiatives such as this. maybe we can
publish them on the website um so that everyone can see. Um and thank you once again. Thank you. Thank you for being part of the solution. I apologize I've mixed some of these up. Um Miss
Zada, good evening. Hi there. Michelle Zada, 1523 Brookside Drive. Nice to see you guys again. I also want to uh thank Mrs. Libstein uh for the Township of Union Education Foundation for the grants being a part
of the Livingston Eagles garden. Uh we have parents that meet out every Friday with students and it was a delight last Friday to have uh students actually from Hannah Codwell PreK with electronic microscopes to them look at slides that uh was purchased by the grants but then
also take them into the garden and look at insects and other plants underneath there. So thank you again for that. Um, I also wanted to recognize um the district too for the event that they had for the New Jersey standardized testings for the students that exceeded the five
category. That was really nice to see the students that uh exceeded those expectations and to be recognized by that. Um, also with the district holding the meetings with the strategic planning, teaching and learning and the operations curriculum. It was really great to have those and looking forward
to how all the information was congregated from there. Um, I also wanted to mention too that starting next year, uh, there's a law in New Jersey that just passed. are requiring all K through three students receive universal
screening minimum two times a year to help identify children early who might have reading challenges like dyslexia that doesn't get tested right now and get the appropriate interventions they need before they go so far. I think it's really important particularly in the
foundation years with the reading that we understand where those students are and if they are behind. Um, right now as a parent I only get I ready to see if that's behind. I know for Livingston it was reported that only 29% of the first
graders were at current grade level. So 71% were not. Um I'm still waiting for the report for uh what we had uh they just took another test for that um for the end of year. Uh I think it's also
great for administrators to give out those reports to the uh buildings at each school and the parents to get those diagnostic tests, not to have to wait and ask for the teachers. That should be given, but that should be part of the universal screening that's going to be mandated next year. And I want to make
sure that the district is uh ready for that. Um also too for the students that are behind and are identified at being delayed that they get the appropriate support. I know my child um is getting support, but she's only getting it once
a week, and to be effective, it needs to be three times a week with the reading uh the intervention specialist, not just one. Um and also that um to make sure that we're following true or actually we're supporting and helping the
teachers guide to make sure they're staying true to the curriculum um with phonics. I know phonics is incredibly important with decoding and encoding of words right there. Excuse me. Your time has expired. Thank you,
Miss Zata. That was an excellent um three minutes. Thank you so much because you spoke to the heart of a lot of the things that we're discussing and you are right phmic awareness um decoding and such are foundational things that every child should
experience in the early grades certainly before third grade. Um in terms of the interventions we are doing as a district the best we can. Unfortunately, sometimes f financial resources are limited. Um, but we can certainly do
better and I believe it starts and I would like the education committee chairs to look into how we can engage the parents more in sharing not only the data but also explaining it and possibly teaching the parents of some interventions that they can do at home,
right? So that we are true partners in this endeavor. I mean I also have comments about I Ready and Amira but due to time I mean I have comments about that because those are resources that have been given to parents
there's reservations to those so let's do this um I I want to honor the three minutes but can you email Miss Mani and Miss Faria and maybe we can engage in that dialogue a little Sure further. Sounds great. But thank you so
much. Thank you for your thoughts. Thank you for all your time. Thank you, Miss Louisa Bayz. Louisa Bayas, 591 Dukane Terrace. Good evening. Good evening. So, I just want to it's um teacher
appreciation month. So, I want to start off with saying that um it saddens me that the 29% of Livingston because I have three Livingston graduates that are amazing and the teachers are amazing there and um that saddens me. Um, but
they do have amazing teachers and we're going to work together with the parents so we can get it get it back on the trajectory. Um, I want to talk about the Treps program. I'm so glad it's back and I'm so thank you so much for that. Um, I
actually can speak on Treps because my daughter did it and she's in eighth grade now. um she started her own dog business and um it's just they talk about profit um they talk about how to make a profit, how to merchandise and
it's amazing and I'm so happy that it's back. I miss the market but I will be going to the market because the next year because it's amazing and the kids are it's all kid-run and it's amazing. Um so I want to talk about KMS.
Um, it's my my I have an eighth grader going to high school as well. Um, and I could not not mention Miss Kelly who does so well working with the PTA with parents, with the kids. She engages them. Um, and then I want to talk about
Mr. Petus, the GT teacher for KMS and BMS, Bernett Middle School, and they work together and he is just so amazing. And we have GT in all grades up until 8th grade, but Mr. Petus is something special. He gets these kids. They ran a
car wash. They ran it. They did a list of what they the things they needed, the shifts that they're going to work. And I mean, it was just amazing. This Sunday, I was the parent volunteer who helped them to just supervise, but they did such an amazing job and raised money for
their Boston trip. Um, and then I want to talk about um that he teaches them life skills. Um, the the kids led the event. And then I want to talk about Union High School. I was at the award show, the scholarship last night. And
Union High School has amazing, amazing staff, amazing kids. And I was so happy to see so many kids up there. And um, starting with administration, they are amazing. the support staff, Miss Hall, Miss PTO, they've helped me and they
just go above and beyond and they're not always recognized, but I just want to say that my son's a senior, so he will be leaving. So, it's like it's a bittersweet year for me. I have some leaving high school, some coming to the high school. Um, but the only thing, and
I'm trying to stay as positive as I can because I want to be positive and I want to work together. I'm still at my son's a senior and starting freshman year. here. I came to the board about concerns with bathrooms, especially with girls going to the high school. Um, the
administration is amazing and they do the best they can, but they need help monitoring the situation, especially with a daughter going to the high school. Excuse me, your time is expired. Okay. Just something has to be done. Accountability.
Okay. Thank you. For them to get help to not do that in that respect. So Louisa, I'm not sure in what capacity you're saying that. So I am going to defer situation, the vaping situation. They try they try to control it. They can't
be in all the bathrooms. The kids don't have access to the bathroom. That's you're speaking about every district right now. But um I thought it wasn't as cool in every district, but the way they monitor is they have an electronic system. And I know that the money situation is tough right now, but we
also have to cut the fats a little. More circulation certainly cut it. So I'm going to defer your point, your concern to my colleagues from operations and safety, Mr. Nasta and Miss K Mackey, so that they can follow. Can you send them
We're looking into like a digital way to monitor it and there's no money. Can you just because it's been a long night, can you just send them a a brief like email and that way they can look into it with the leadership team?
Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Madam President. Could I just make a comment real quick? Um, just that the Union High School is scanning into bathrooms. I'm sorry. They are having the kids scan into bathrooms. There's a digital scan. They are
scanning into bathrooms. When I was there, there was a teacher had the machine out, the scanner, and they are scanning in. So, we're trying. Yeah. But you nonetheless, send send a a followup so that they can give you more
information because um those are things that are very important. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. [Music] Um, next we will have I just want to
make sure that I got everyone. I believe it's Miss Jeff. If I miss someone, please raise your hand and I apologize. Miss Jeff, good evening. Yes. Um, Virginia Jeff, 236
Brighton Avenue, East Stars, New Jersey. Uh, good evening to all in attendance. There are concerns on the agenda again regarding F15, F25, 26, 37, 30, 20, 28,
30, 31 A, 31B, 32, 33, 37, 38, F56, and item 17, approval of bills. Challenges to funding is a serious concern on many levels. Servicing of students with special needs and those whose primary language is not
English do require thoughtful and realistic approaches. Also, can comments from the public be expanded to five minutes for organizations who wish to speak before the board? F15. Does the combined contract
for general counsel and special ed counsel exceed the guidelines set by the department of education for general and special ed council expenses per pupil cost based on student population. Two, what is the per pupil
cost set by the department of education for legal services for the for this size of this district? 25 F25 for the growing diverse population of students. This funding seems to be quite
insufficient for F-26. The funds set aside can only service seven students leaving untold others without services for the upcoming school year. F27, what is the percentage of students who do not speak English as
their primary language projected to be in 2025 2026? F28, how was this determination made for 2025 2026? F30. Should they be m be made an adjustment for each category in the
resolution to be a total of$,550 instead of the 1,500 for 2025 2026 that's only additional $50. Uh F-31A only five students can receive services for this current budget
year. at 31B 13 students, eight more than this current year and will receive services based on what projections for 2025 2026. F-32 only 10 students to receive services based on what projections for
2025 2026. F-33 only 10 students to receive verse bases based on what projections for 2025 2026 and should and for F-37 should there be an adjustment made to cover all
categories as the evaluation of autism alone would only leave the remaining fund funding to have a balance of $600 which would not cover any other services for autism.
Also for F-38, should there be an adjustment made to increase funding to allow as A and D alone exceed the $1,400 cap and F7 approval of bills the May 14. Excuse me.
Excuse me. Your time has expired. Your time I just have has expired. Two more sentences. You allowed other people to go over. Close it up. Okay. Okay. The May 14,
2025 work session did not include bills five, six, seven, and eight. When did the physical and planning committee have time to review these additional bills? And thank you. Thank you, Miss Jeff.
Thank you so much. I know it was a long meeting tonight, but we did did appreciate having everyone here. Um, motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. This motion has been approved by Miss Mani and seconded by Miss Faria.
Discussion. Roll call, please. Miss Capiello. Mrs. Conte Macki. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr. McDow. Yes. Mrs. Beni. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes.
Uh, Miss Santana, Mrs. Scott Hayden, Miss Carbonel. Yes. Board members, um, let's do one more picture. Um, Mariela's father is here tonight. And let's take a
picture with her and her dad, if we may.