##VIDEO ID:J8nQPXrew7I## e I'd like to call this meeting to order roll call please Michela Giuliani is she here Mr Bono here Mr foki here Mr Harris here Mr Holmes present Mrs Perez here Mr Rivera here Mr Silva here Mr sabran present Mrs kispa present in compliance with the New Jersey open public meeting law commonly referred to as the Sunshine Law the violent board of education has caused notice and posting of this meeting to be sent to the following announcing time place agenda Etc The Daily Journal SNJ today the Press of Atlantic City Vista Bueno the clerk for the city of vinand and the administrative office public bulletin board would barcy and Wallace middle school students come up for the flag salute Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation God indivisible withy andice for e for thank you Mr must is there resolution for executive session there is now therefore be a resolve that the Board of Education of the city V school district will convene an executive session for the following reasons is outlined in njsa 10 col 4-12 discussion is about the employment matters and any matters Fallen within the attor attorney client privilege to the extent that confidentiality is required in order for the attorney to exercise her ethical duties as a lawyer do I have a motion so move second second roll call please two Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries Mr Yano are there any special presentations yes there are excuse me sorry for my voice we have three presentations we're going to begin with Mr Justin Adams VHS principal he will provide an overview of the ninth grade academy along with executive director of curriculum susette the Mari and our director of Special Operations and projects Ishmael bermudes good evening Mrs kispa Mr sbrana vent Board of Ed members Mr Yano and the community tonight we will provide an overview of violent High School's 9th Grade Academy which is set to launch in September in just a moment Mr Bermudez and I will turn the presentation over to Mr Adams but first I wanted to share a rationale behind the 9th Grade Academy we recognize that the transition from middle school to high school can be very challenging for many of our students the nth Grade Academy at vinand High School will provide a structured and very supportive environment to ease the adjustment for our students as always we will provide we will prioritize academics social and emotional development while also fostering school spirit and student engagement the academy will help our incoming ninth graders build confidence form meaningful connections and establish a strong foundation for our students High School career good evening uh my name is Mr Bermudez and I'm going to speak to the vision of our um nth grade academy so the n9th grade academy will be housed at the VHS North Tanner building uh there was some careful discussion about what would be the most appropriate location and so um after meeting with Mr Adams and his team we decided on utilizing the first floor of the building um there will be some opportunities where students will um travel uh from one building to the next um but those are going to be more limited and it's going to be dictated by the courses that those students are taking the focus of the um n9th grade academy is on that academic preparedness and just making sure that students are going to be prepared for the advanced courses that they'll be taking in the future um and our vision is that there is going to be a dedicated staff um whe be be it uh Administration teaching staff support staff that is going to be committed to helping students in that success and that personal growth uh one of the things I did want to share just briefly as well is I had an opportunity uh earlier this morning to uh visit the north building um Mr Adams and his his administrative team had arranged an academic pep rally and it was uh Beyond inspiring uh to see the students engaged in that sort of way to be C to celebrate the academics within the building and I had a chance to actually speak with one of the staff members and she had uh she had disclosed to me that you know she remembered that we came in to visit with them to talk about the academy and how she was excited about the future and the opportunities that were there so it was nice to hear that and it's uh you know looking forward to the great work that Mr Adams and his team is going to do for our ninth graders at VHS and at this time I'd like to turn it over to Mr Adams all right thank you to Mr Mari and Mr Bermudez so our goal for our ninth grade academy is very simple um we are recognizing where the student need is whether it be academically socially um or emotionally and our goal is to equip our students with all of the tools that they need to succeed um and to have a successful four-year uh tenure at violent High School um some staffing updates we have um I will be assigned to the ninth grade academy as I oversee 9th and 10th grade on the tan uh Dennis Tanner campus uh Mr Hall Mr Lapsley and Miss Craig will be the um assistant principal supports um for guidance all guidance counselors will be involved in scheduling planning meeting with students checking connects um and that team of guidance counselors will be led by Mr burnhard as the point person um and Mrs Ren as well our social workers uh that will be part of the team are Mr Martin who recently started and he has hit the ground running so I'm very excited to see uh what he can bring to the table uh at with a fresh start next year and Mr scanland will assist us as well um as of right now I sent an email out to our staff uh last week and I already received about 90 responses back just to gauge their interest you know do you some of our staff members have taught the same subject the same prep and the same lunch for 20 25 years so I just let them know at this time if you want to shake things up if you want to join the ninth grade academy if you want to change up what you're teaching Ju Just to let us know um and Mr Lapsley and I will be scheduling new schedules for all staff but our primary uh focus is going to be on the ninth grade academy and we've received a lot of positive feedback um just expressing gratitude for saying thanks for asking what what I want to do next year so our staff members I'm hoping feel like they have a stake um in our school year a little more so than ever before um our reutilization piece that's going to be the longest uh or the most arduous process um we have 14 to, 1500 students in our building at any given time um but we have limited space that we're going to have to be uh be creative in using um one other thing that we would like to do at the direction of miss fiori our media specialist is to start a stem room um where kids just get to come in within their regular classroom throughout the day or throughout their lunch periods um to work on science math technology engineering um there are so many advances in AI 3D printers and we want to give our students all of the tools that they possibly uh may need to be successful not only in high school but in their careers as well and then as always this is a new program um this is something that uh we have tried in the past but not quite to this degree so assignments are tentative right now we are going to work through it and just kind of review as we need um our class schedule is not going to change much at all so with the new change of the ninth grade academy it was decided um within our various meetings that it's best to keep our schedule as is for right now um I know we brought up six seven eight nine 10 schedules to see what would best suit us but we figured with all of the change coming with all the teacher movement coming with all of the reassignment coming that keeping things um status quo for our students and our staff uh would be the best direction to go the biggest change that students will see academically is within their course offerings so we have really streamlined what we are going to offer specifically to our ninth graders as we've noticed their uh gaps in achievement or as we've noticed their challenges in achievement um so as you can see here our core four plus health and PE um everyone will take an Ela every student will take a math every student will take a science social studies and a health and PE the big difference with our social studies program um and our social studies math and our Ela program is that we have eliminated Advanced courses in hopes that we challenge students more right um we don't want students to settle for that advaned when they can be an honor student and we want those honor students to become AP students because we have well over 30 AP offerings and that essentially is free money and free tuition um to their colleges of choices if they're able to pass that AP exam at the end of the year so that is going to be a big uh goal of ours and a big push of ours if you look at Social Studies you can see instead of honors they have a preap just kind of introdu uction to an AP course um just as an exposure to them to again challenge them when it comes to our electives our electives at the Tanner campus will remain the same um we have our world language electives we have our Visual and Performing Arts electives and our CTE our career and Tech electives um some of our CTE courses that are offered are four-year opportunities just as our world languages are and our Fin and Performing Arts so we still want to give that exposure uh to all of our students that are interested in that they will be able to choose from two of these elective offerings after their core four plus their health and PE is chosen the kind of the caveat that is different going into 2526 as compared to this year um our course offerings that are at our 1112 building or a Sela building will now um need uh administrative approval for students to travel um all of these courses that are listed are fouryear courses or it is a stepping stone to prerequisite to a four-year course so our Dance Academy which I cannot say enough about our dance team our marching band our Arts programs they are absolutely phenomenal kids um but our Dance Academy our marching band those electives are still going to be offered to students but there will be a a slight difference and I'll get into that on the next slide and then if you look down at our CTE our intro to a is one of our programs um that kind of Falls within our FFA program that will be offered to students and again amazing opportunity for our kids all right some of the benefits that we have of the ninth grade academy um we are looking to benefit Social Development for our students so we want our students not only to be academically sound but we want them to be able to relate to somebody um we want to be able to build a connection and build a bridge from school to home that is often times uh fragmented throughout the years right we see a ton of participation in elementary school we see quite a bit in middle school and then High schoool happens and then something happens so our goal of this n9th grade academy is to just to get that development back and to set our foundation for not only our students but our parents as well we're also looking for improved retention rates um and we know with a firm foundation in ninth grade students are successful the students that uh earn their 20 credits or more have a much higher propensity of graduation in four years versus graduating in 5 years and then lastly our trans itions we have anywhere between 1 and 200 students uh transitioning between buildings every period and that's a loss of instructional time so it takes about 7 Minutes 8 minutes um on a kind of a crowded day it's kind of like merging onto I95 sometimes um so we want to reduce that transition and really increase that seat time if you miss 3 minutes a day you are well above um a handful of weeks that you've missed out of class so we want to improve that time some of of our benefits and we saw some of this today um to what Mr Bermudez alluded to we're going to have additional school spirit for our freshman historically we have uh had our freshmen kind of prove it and earn it to us and show their maturity before we allowed them to just show it right off the Jump um so we're going to start in August our tenative date for our freshman orientation is going to be August 18th it's going to be one day with a 30 minute overlap so students can co-mingle for that half hour We're going to have some activities planned for them as well well and then we're going to bring them back for an open house our freshman orientation day for any parents or board members that haven't been to it is packed it's three hours of non-stop start to finish there is really no time um in between to go off of our agenda so that open house will give students a chance to come back meet their teachers take a tour of the building ask questions reach out to guidance make connections with our administrators um so forth and so on we're also uh working on just building connections through schedule optimization so like Mr Bermudez said we will have downstairs will be all in 9th grade upgrade upstairs will be all of 10th grade and those students um after I met with our Genesis um president said that we can optimize the schedule to really reduce travel time and increase that seat time um and then we are going to attempt to link classes last year I sent out an email to our staff we had 21,900 and some odd individual requests from students students so it's like a massive puzzle and then in August we get thrown puzzle pieces that don't necessarily fit and we're told make it work so we are going to try to link some classrooms together so students develop that sense of community um and then kickoff events um today's pep rally yesterday's pep rally was phenomenal our Roc always shows up and shows out for our kids our marching band our cheerleaders our advisers our class officers did an excellent job Mr Hall and Mr Lapsley held everything down so any credit that I received uh I I take none of it and give it to all of them because they work their butts off the last month to get this going um and to the board members and our Central administrative team that came we we definitely appreciate it our teachers notice our kids notice uh when you are present some of the courses that may replace an elective course so we have noticed um throughout the last few years specifically from covid that we have achievement gaps and what we've done with it through asp asp money and federal funding is we've tried to infuse technology try to recreate the classroom and we've seen that has worked in some instances but that doesn't always work so with our experience as a collective whole um with the whole committee that uh kind of created the ninth grade academy we noticed we're struggling in a handful of areas math definitely is one area we're struggling in ela is another area we are struggling in and then we are bringing back a class that was successful in freshman seminar so if we go over our prealgebra and math class classes these classes are replacement classes to a student elective so instead of taking a World Language or a CTE those fun classes we are giving our students those skills that they need those foundational skills they need to graduate we want our kids to have fun right we want them to enjoy coming to school but we also want to create an academic student that graduates in four years with no failed classes so these two um math courses will supplant um an elective course if uh if chosen students still will have the opportunity to take an additional elective if they're allowed in their schedule and we will have conversations with parents um all throughout the summer as these students are identified so three sections each of pre-algebra and math we have three sections of seminar which essentially is just a um it's essentially a cheat sheet of How To Succeed in high school so it's going to set students up with how to make appointments and guidance how to study how to take a crazy thing called Cornell notes which was drilled into my head in in school so it's just going to make the Stu or give the students more Tools in their tool bin that they can pull from throughout all of their classes that they can pull from emotionally and socially and then our last class is our close read which we will have three sections of as well currently we have a close read section right now um and we are identifying students that are two to three grade levels below where they should be so if they're still in that fifth sixth seventh eighth grade um reading level some of those students are taking the close read and it has already paid off we have 16 total students students I believe enrolled in that and we are seeing um significant growth with them and then the the big question is how do we measure this right we're putting time into this we're putting money into this we're putting effort into this we're putting resources into this so we're going to really measure it in two or or I'm sorry we're going to have metrics that measure it with two guiding questions the first guiding question being is how is the ninth grade academy measured and then what does the ninth grade Academy's long and short-term accountability look like I preach to our students all of the time if I say take your hood off well everybody else is doing it and I say everybody speeds on 55 doesn't make it right so if I'm preaching to our students accountability Mr Hall Mr Lapsley Miss Craig Miss Arena has filled in for us as well if they are preaching accountability I'm going to hold myself accountable so we will have um four times throughout the year where we compare our data we are going to compare attendance data and academic data using just um climate and culture data that we already run as it is in Genesis um we have a pretty good database that we can collect from anything and then disaggregate as needed um the other thing that we are going to talk about is or we will gauge is our program success and sustainability so looking at our close read our math lab our pre-algebra and our freshman seminar those courses that we are looking to really raise the bar for our students and then meet them where they at where they are to get them to where we need them to be um those results will not be seen until 2029 so this can cannot be a one-year thing um it has to be a long-term goal if we are going all in with it and if it's not we're wasting a lot of time so those data points we will receive initially but those final results aren't going to be seen until the class of 20129 when we can compare those four and fiveyear graduation rates four and fiveyear graduation rates go weigh heavily on our annual School plan our annual School plan depends on funding so there's a lot of uh different variables that add in here and then the last measurement which would be a graduation requirement would be the NJ GPA we would compare this year's NJ GPA to next year's NJ GPA all the way through 28 29 so we have those short-term comparisons of did it boost our attendance this year is our discipline down is the climate of our students when we send out student surveys do they feel safe at school do they feel seen at school do they feel heard at school do they feel like they have somebody to go to so those short-term um kind of checking connects will help us see that initial data and then the long term in 2029 it seems like a long time from now and I'll probably have a lot more gray hairs um but I I think it will be worth it if we wait it out and then this is kind of what we have done um and what we still have to go I do apologize the red didn't come I tried to use red and gray all right guys um the red didn't come off as good as it it should but it looks great on the computer um so our Genesis coding which was the singular most important step if we don't have the back end of Genesis coded none of this works for course selection that is complete our course selection guide uh Mr Marie and our supervisors and I have to give a shout out to her and our supervisors I have seen them um in at violent High School more than I think I've seen my own family some days so I do appreciate them coming out and really supporting it um that is completed our written end and our back end of scheduling is still in progress we have ins and outs trackers which essentially is is a teacher retiring who are we replacing them with how are we going to replace that that's something that we discuss um with our Personnel department and then our new course assignments um we did have our eighth grade visits that happened last week um and a shout out to all of our uh Middle School principles your kids were phenomenal um at the visit they brought some energy they asked some really really good questions about n9th grade academy and about programs overall and I I appreciate that because it seems like they want to get involved and we know that involved students not just in the classroom but from an extracurricular standpoint are successful students and you will see that when one of our uh student class officer speaks today um and then kind of what is next We are continuing our meetings uh within our own building with VHS amongst myself and my APS and then we are continuing meetings with Central as well we've had 17 that I can count um but I'm sure there's a handful more that we have had um that I may have lost count of um but I have 17 on my calendar as of right now and then I've brought our staff in as well so if a staff member has a question about the n9th grade Academy if they say well I I kind of want to teach math lab but what is it about my my door is open at all times my staff knows that my students know that and I'm trying to build that rapport with our parents so that they know my doors open at all times the big piece here is budgeting right success comes down to finances sometimes so 25 26 our budget is good we have it all situated um 26 27 if our three courses work for close read and we see success that's going to affect about 10% % of our students I want 100% of our students right so I may ask for more and more and more money but I'm also reasonable in understanding that we don't have money that grows on trees um but if it works and our data supports it it's definitely something where I'm going to have to become um kind of innovative and flexible in how our budgeting process goes using some of our ASP money our state money our federal money to move things around a bit to reach more students so within two years if we're able to fully staff um a math lab close read and those those total four courses we're looking at 25% of our students which is a massive jump um compared to what 242 25 26 is looking like um course selection is underway it began February 3rd at the middle schools at the high school um Mr burnhard is leading the way with our guidance staff uh going into classes with hand with paper copies which is kind of a foreign thing and they're asking students to fill things out on paper and pencil so uh I did ask our students how many of them brought us a pencil to school today and I didn't get much of a reply so hopefully on February 11th we have a bit more um our room utilization sheet um we are working to include all of our special ed students our resource room students our icr students and our lldd students within the n9th grade academy so that they understand just because of a um an IEP does not take the ninth grade experience away from them so they are being infused within our regular classes and then our scheduling season and um when we kind kind of go into a a war room or a draft room if you guys can imagine an NFL draft room that's essentially what my conference room turns into and I lock Mr Lapsley in there for about five months and tell him come out with something good at 95% um by August so uh that's kind of where we're at and where we're going I know I spoke quick your time is valuable I didn't see my three minutes up yet so uh if if anybody has any questions comments whatever it may be um Feel Free at this time I have a question question um I know you talked about long-term plans um and I know it's kind of hard right now to imagine that but for the ninth grade academy um what are the long-term plans regarding the program expansion and hiring because they're going to probably have to be more courses and things like that right yeah so I I did have a conversation with members of our Central team um and I think it comes down to budget flexibility right there's a lot of uncertainty with Department of Education federal funds things like that right now um so I'm going to lean on our annual School plan initially um as a kind of as a see if it works kind of as a pilot um right now we are living the pilot going into the 25 26 school year with no additional expenditures so we'll be able to really take a deep dive and look at is it worth it um if students are just skating by with D's and C's and we're not seeing the growth we have to go back to the drawing board and I'm not afraid to admit if something's failing right I did have a ation with my APS today and I said we we don't fail um and if we do start to fail we just go back to the drawing board and we that's what education is a lot of it is you're building the plane while you're flying it sometimes um so that is one thing that we will have to look at as far as staff and goes is the program successful and is it sustainable long term Mr Adams thank you for your presentation I do have a question other than budget biggest challenge getting everybody on board and on the same page I think that is the biggest challenge um and when I say getting everybody on board I mean our staff our students when we call parents and say Hey listen your child cannot take a dance one because we really need their foundational reading to be better um so having that parental support and then having the support of our board and our Central Administration so I think really having everybody Buy in um is crucial um I was not at the high school when small learning communities was a thing but people either loved it or hated it right um so with my last faculty meeting I said you guys can love this or you can hate this but it's happening so I would much rather you be happy and ask me questions now then be upset and be the kid that's kicking and screaming because they didn't get the bubble gum in the in the line at shop right right I said so the the the train has left the station on this and it is going through um and I'm very open and honest with my staff I'm very transparent with them if they ask me a question I tell them I don't have the brain capacity to lie because I just have too many things that go through my head and about 2:30 I run out of words I saved my words for today because we had a pep rally so we're good um but I think me being transparent with my staff and then my staff taking an honest effort um and then some staff members are going to have to be a part of it that don't want to uh of the nth grade academy just based off of certificates at the high school level um but having their Buy in and having support I think is the biggest thing and I will try that through just being transparent and honest with people when they ask questions Mr Adams if we make the change for September do you are are you in agreen that we have enough or adequate staff to make this change at this time as of right now Staffing should be good um our class coming in our junior class this year was our current junior class was a massive freshman class and our our staff was stretched very thin um um right now with our staffing as long as we do not lose people through attrition and just not replace them because of budgetary constraints I think we should be good um we have projecting 640 to 650 is um n9th graders we don't know the full numbers until that other school across town lets us know how many kids they're taking um but once we once we do get those numbers it'll be a more accurate projection of of Staffing but as of right now um we should be able to staff classes with a cap of 24 with a Max of 24 in those classes and then the caps for resource s uh sld and icr um okay as of now thank you and then lastly um extracurricular activities would freshmen be you know able to do what they're doing currently or is well any restrictions on extra there are no restrictions outside of disciplinary or academic restrictions that we already have so if a student wants to be a part of the football team dance team uh soccer team swim team whatever it may be as long as they meet their njsa requirements as long as they meet their GPA requirements as long as they meet their credit requirements as a freshman uh going into semester 2 if you want to play baseball you need at least 15 passing credits at that time those requirements stay the same the the goal with this is to get more students involved we have about a thousand student athletes we have about a thousand students that are involved um in extracurricular activities whether it be dance whether it be uh afjrotc those students are our most successful students so that narrative uh does not change I want every student to be involved in something um our volleyball club this year had about 200 kids turn out for it and that is just a club um several staff members have as asked me about different clubs for next year um and that is uh from student interest and the students know if they come to my office Mr Hall's office Mr Lapsley Miss Craig if they come to us with a plan of I want this club just like they did with the volleyball club a handful of years ago we will make it work as long as we can staff it and and we know that they are safe in the environment they're at thank you any further questions I'd like to thank you and your team um for for your hard work it was a great presentation and for your teamwork and cooperation with central office in doing this I know you guys are working as a team to do this and I appreciate it so thank you absolutely and I can't give my staff Mr Hall Mr lapley and Mr Mrs Mrs Craig enough credit they are the backbone they get all the credit thank you Mr Adams as you can see there's been a lot of work put into the Ninth Grade Academy Mr Adams has been leading the charge with susette and is uh backing him up along with the rest of our administrative team so thank you for all your effort thank you Mr Hall Mr lapsy for being here tonight it takes a team to make to move this work forward and I know Mr Adams is really diving into the details doing the work to get ready so we can launch in September at this time I would like to uh call up Mr Mike Garcia of Ford Scott Associates LLC to present the 2324 audit report thank you um just a brief reminder on the audit the audit the annual audit actually has two components obviously a major component is looking at the financial numbers but then we're also looking um at the practices and procedures that the district employs to make sure that you're following the rules and regulations that the state and the federal government impose on all school districts whenever we find an area of error or exception we're required to submit and write a finding and recommendation to the board for corrective action I'm happy to um to inform everybody that there are no findings and recommendations so it's a clean audit um and um maybe give you a brief idea of some of the things that we're looking at just as reminders though um when we come in and and do the audit procedures we um do review your cash accounts to make sure that they're properly reconciled and that the cash is in the um the proper bank account and that is in agreement with the board secretary's report that's submitted to the board for approval each and every month um we review the revenues to make sure your revenues are properly recorded posted and received obviously your most significant revenue is state aid but also um the tax levy that you receive from the city as well as other miscellaneous revenues um in the area of expenditures we review payments of bills to make sure that um when bills are paid there's a proper invoice in the proper amount that it's properly approved for purchase that um when the payment is made it's charged to the prop ER budget line item and that it's properly approved um by the board um also certain expenditures are required to have a bid or a quote um we do testing to make sure that bids and quotes are received when appropriate um in the payroll area we test employee um salaries to make sure that they're being paid in accordance with the um contracts and other um agreements um we test the withholdings from employees salaries to make sure that they're being properly remitted to either the pension health insurance um um or taxing agencies um additionally your employees are required to contribute um towards a portion of their health insurance cost there's a calculation that's required to be done um so we do tests to make sure that those withholdings from employee salaries are correct and the amounts are um reimbursed back to the board's um um budget um your food service fund as a your food service fund is a recipient of federal and state subsidies so there's additional rules and regulations that go into that so we do testing to make sure that um you're following um those areas um properly um we do examine your annual report um enrollment report that goes to the state that's known as the Assa the application for state school aid it's basically a headcount by grade but the most important thing about it is your state aid is based on those numbers that are submitted to Trenton every October um so we do review those to make sure that they're done properly um there is there's a brief handout that everyone has and the first thing it's actually if you go to the last page is the first thing that I want to draw everyone's attention to and this goes back to my original statement that there are no findings and recommendations so the last page of this synopsis here basically gives you a summary of the various areas that we're looking at and then also with the word none for findings and recommendations so there are no findings and recommendations then if you roll forward one more page you'll see I've highlighted in yellow the ending fund balance numbers does everyone see that just want to give you a recap of where where the district ended up we ended up the year with fund balance of 37 million 87,8 31 but it's important to realize that the vast majority of that money is already as we stand here either spent or spoken for I'm going to go through the categories that that that those funds are allocated and that is in the little yellow box that I've highlighted first you have a maintenance Reserve in the amount of $5.6 million that money is set aside and can only be used for the repairs and maintenance of your facilities you have a reserve for excess Surplus a quick reminder on excess Surplus the state imposes a 2% cap on School District Surplus whenever you have funds that are greater than that 2% that money gets set aside and must be used to fund the subsequent Year's budget so in this case the first line the um reserve for excess surplus of 13,619 28198 that money is in your bank today but must be used to fund the 2526 school year budget right below it you'll see we have another excess Surplus account that is hyphenated designated for subsequent years expens 10, 87,88 those are funds that were in your bank at June 30th 20 um4 that were the amount above 2% from the previous year that money is now currently being used to fund this school Year's budget the 2425 year so that money is being spent as we speak to fund District Operations um we also have a reserve for unemployment in the amount of $1,139 th000 obviously for potential unemployment claims um you will see we have assigned fund balance for incumbrances in the amount of 1,694 15.20 that money is set aside to pay bills that related to the June 30th year that were not paid in cash by June 30th which is a normal operating procedure that the vendors don't get all their paperwork in to get a check by June 30th so the money is set aside once the bill goes through the proper payment process it's dispersed so those funds have now been dispersed towards those um bills related to the 23 24 year um and then we have um additional designated um Surplus that's designated for subsequent years expenditures and what this means this 933 th000 is in addition to the 10, 87 that we spoke about previously as um excess Surplus the board also contributed some um undesignated funds on hand to fund this year's budget budet once again this year I'm talking about 2425 it leaves us with our unassigned fund balance in the amount of 4 million $777,000 3 that is your 2% number that's the maximum amount that you're allowed to carry over from one year to the next you know it is it's good news that you have the full 2% but when you look at your overall budget um you know $4.7 million is not a huge amount of surplus um you know to have but it's the maximum that the state allows and you do have that those are the items that I wanted to um to highlight I I feel that's the area that's most important for the board to be aware of as well as the public the full audit report itself is over I think it's almost 200 pages long um I did hit the highlights but of course if there are any comments or questions on areas I didn't discuss that you would like me to cover you know I am I'm I'm I'm here for you we good I just want to say thank you to Mr mustell and his team for because of you guys we have these numbers so thank you thank you I'd like to thank my team as well Shannon Cary Cara Irvine Dave Hart and um Millie Torres all right thank you all good night thank you sir next we have Mr ish Bermudez executive director for special projects and operations he'll provide a semiannual hi report good evening members of the board so I just going to share um our our report for uh this this reporting period of September 5th uh 2024 through January 31st 2025 each of you should have a document that outlines the the number of harassment intimidation and bullying incidents that reported to each of our respective schools the number of which were founded and the number of which were founded I'm going to just kind of review the total numbers so that we can kind of take a look at that together and and certainly if there's any questions feel free um for school year 2425 again during that reporting period um we had a total of 64 um HIV uh incidents reported uh 22 of which were founded 42 of which were unfounded that is uh compared to the same uh reporting period last year where there were 57 reports so there was an increase this year unfortunately in the number of incidents that were reported however there were 28 founded instances which is a decrease from last year and then there were 29 that were unfounded last year I had an opportunity earlier this week to also meet with all of the anti-bullying specialists at each of the respective buildings I hosted a professional development opportunity for them to just review the HIV process as it relates to the anti-bullying bill of Rights we talked about our our our reporting mechanism which is hipster and um my assistant has actually scheduled an opportunity for us to meet with hipster to really do a more comprehensive overview of of the platform for the staff um and then you know all of all of the anti-bullying Specialists work at each of their respective schools to um work with students to provide programming um that hopefully curbs those incidents of harassment intimidation bullying within our schools any questions or concerns thank you thank you MRIs are there any questions and comments on the hip report approval of minutes are there any questions or comments do I have a motion so moved second second second roll call please Mr Bono yes to December 4th and January 8th uh for January 15th combined meeting and executive meeting I was here for the executive session beginning of the meeting but I was not here to vote so I have to abstain from those thank you Mr Fuki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes to all except December 4th I was not on the board at that time you're abstaining then to be clear thank you Mr Rivera on December 4th item five the PLC grievance I recuse myself from that one yes to the rest on January 15th number three item three I recuse myself from that one as well yes to the rest and yes to the other meetings I don't think you're recusing yourself from the January 15th item well in that case I will not recuse myself on the January 15th meeting so understanding on my behalf yes to be clear you're recusing yourself from item five on the December 4th yes and that's the only that is correct okay thank you thank you Mr Silva tough December 4th board meeting of the executive session I have to recuse myself from item number five um yes to the rest on the January 15 executive session I have to recuse myself for item number three yes to arest and yes to all the other reorg combined meetings thank you Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries committee reports I apologize Mr mustell can you just go back to Mr fi please I think we might might need to clarify his you need yes uh Mr fi on recuse on Executive session for January 15th is there a specific item number no J you're not recusing yourself from January 15th not from December 4th is that a accused from December 4th executive session all of it or just item five just item item five yes yes for everything else perfect same as Mr Rivero okay motion carries thank you now we'll have committee reports all right Mr fi thank you uh finance committee met Tuesday January 28th at 8: a.m. via Google meet in attendance was Mr mustell Mr Miss Cary Mrs Prez Mr Silva and myself following topics were discussed uh still workshopping ideas for the 1.5 million SDA Grant current rfps being released uh lease for 1350 Southwest Boulevard athletic field maintenance contract substitute Staffing Services uh data analysis contract facilities ongoing HVAC issues including equipment and Personnel following Personnel items were discussed uh VHS uh building principal assistant director of Information Technology principal of Memorial and Technology coaches uh four of them there will be um the vill's grants will subsidize uh their salary Food Service midyear financial review uh replacing frederation unit at VHS South and lastly 2526 budget ongoing efforts to submit a balance budget thank you on Monday January 27th the curriculum and instruction committee met president word uh Mrs Demari superintendent Yano Miss galuski Miss Perez Mr saan Mr Silva and myself we discuss the following topics the nth Grade Academy Round Table and financial literacy the VHS course selection guide for 2526 school year summer reading planning for grade 6 to 12 with more information to follow up coming professional development the gifted and talented program the CTE Carnival and special education updates on Tuesday January 28th the transportation committee met president was superintendent Yano Mr Bermudez Mr mustell Miss Mason Mr Rivera Mr Bono Mr Harris and myself driver recap 143 drivers budgeted 140 Route packages which is drivers needed 37 fielded positions nine drivers on leave 12 substitute drivers and four drivers in training average absences in the morning January 2025 is 20 average absences in the afternoon for January 2025 is 23 we discussed the current number of open registrations and the number of registrations completed in January 2025 we reviewed our joint chur and co-ops with other districts we reviewed the number of accidents in December which were three no injuries reported we discussed Personnel items that are still in progress there's no new um business regarding January events with the Department no new business regarding vehicles or the garage uh and last week we discussed the our conversations with Zonar and transfinder to explore opportunities to improve the collection of wrers ship data and increase efficiency within the department thanks on Thursday January 23rd at 4:30 p.m via GLE meet the facilities committee met in attendance were Mr Bono Mr Harris Mr Yano Mr mustell Mr fonio and myself discussed were the VHS campus signage chest and signage is they're both up and and up South and North is up and installed and the final project the the project is being finalized we also discussed the Energy savings Improvement plan among the items we disc discussed that are potentially under this plan are the makeup air and dehumid uh humidification units in Sab D Lago and pway complete boiler replacement at Landis energy management system replacement updates districtwide LED lighting districtwide insulation improvements districtwide PC monitoring and uh load control districtwide the Landis section of roof work was also discussed heating issues were we were updated on by uh Mr farachio uh ongoing challenges exist with the Aging buildings in the systems uh BHS North Mr fat she'll confirm the HVAC units for the four wings will occur this summer 2025 also discussed with theit and Rosy HVAC equipment uh discussed for the SDA Grant in emerging application 1.5 million we received from the SDA uh we're also looking out for additional grants and we're going to be uh applying through the SDA and Technology overview Mr Fran just spoke on the current Department mental objectives which included the replacement hire for an assistant director of information and Technology this position will replace the former uh individual that was there uh cyber security enhancements are planning ongoing student technology plan is also being done to devices and both technology and Facilities budgets were recently reviewed by Mr Yano Mr Mell Mrs Cary for the upcoming fiscal year any other reports seeing none do we have a public meeting report by the board solicitor nothing to report thank you Miss juliani would you like to come up good evening my name is Michaela Jani and I the senior class president at finin high school like always VHS has been buzzing with activity on January 16th we held our 30th annual Mr vinand a male pageant for the senior boys where 12 compete in various categories for the title this year we had 13 contestants each of the 12 months as usual and a mystery anniversary additionally past Mr violent contestants were honored amid the night's entertainment after performing a heartwarming act with his father Mason afanador was crowned Mr Vin in 2025 the 910 building has been busy this month too throughout the last week of January all VPS 8th grade students visited to see what was in store come September as Mr Adams mentioned this week freshman and sophomore had the opportunity to attend an academic pep rally and it was a hit everyone in the school has been raving about it and I'm incredibly happy for the underclassmen who got to experience their first pep rally every year in both buildings the Tanner and assulta media centers host African-American reading where students share black literature historic events and notable individuals to celebrate Black History Month as a history and literature buff myself this is one of my favorite events all year in other exciting news VHS will invite our alumni to join us for a throwback dance on Saturday February 22nd ticket orders can be processed by the historical committee adviser Christopher mhan the next couple of months are very exciting for VHS students especially seniors and I can't wait to keep you updated on everything going on next month however I am traveling and will not be able to attend the March meeting in my stad the junior class president Jobim okaf for will be representing VHS so I will see you in April thank you we have public comment on agenda items or any other manner please state your name and limit yourself to 3 minutes thank you Mr mustell do we have any yellow sheets we do l Vasquez good evening L Vasquez Community member from vand uh a couple things I sent a message to some of the board members that for the Academy presentation we were able to see on the board and that was great but it would be nice to kind of follow along with some of the highlights on the budget and even the hi report we just kind of listened to it but we didn't really have anything to follow so it's something that maybe you want to keep in mind for the next meeting but the main purpose of me speaking today is uh concerning a memo that was brought to my attention in an email uh the memo was dated January 23rd and it was uh the subject School related state and federal requirements pertaining to Immigrant students and families a few things uh alarmed me about this memo one is the time uh we all know the president of the United States was inaugurated January 20th this is dated the 23rd I'm not sure how valid any guidance uh could be given to the board when uh the president hasn't even had a chance to uh settle in into his office let alone establish some major changes with immigration that his agenda is set yet uh I I don't believe that anything happens in two days so for this member to be sent out out with the timing uh it caused two things one fear among those that with mixed uh status in their families and that should be a concern for everybody too it cause outrage for those that feel that there may have been some political motive with this memo uh for it to be sent out with this timing uh lends to question what the motive was for the timing of this memo with guidance two days after the president was was inaugurated ated I just think that Without accusing anybody of anything I don't believe that was the intent of the board but we really should uh take these matters into consideration considering the sensitivity the nature of this and make sure that uh your your board it's discussed thoroughly as well as run run it through the your solicitor to make sure that there's no inflammatory language when it comes to certain issues that are very sensitive especially in this community uh I it just is just alarming that this went out and it just names the president I mean you know if you're not a fan of the president you're really not a fan after this memo and that and that concerns me because I don't think that was that's the intent really of any District nor is it the place of any District to be taking a political position I'm I'm just saying that I think that we could have waited uh for some real guidance that is still re being worked out as we speak um and I just think that we need to do a little better next time thank thank you Miss Miss Basquez if I can comment my my name is Sandra Grace I'm actually the the board solicitor and I I appreciate your your input tonight I just want to let you know that your your con your considerations and and input and feedback is is absolutely heard by by everybody here and and the board um you know I I I know that you mentioned that it should have gone under solicitor review I can tell you that um neither the board nor myself um had input on the memo before it was uh pars through but we're absolutely going to be working through it and having internal discussions um you know based on your feedback and any other feedback thank you I appreciate that of course Justin Rogue uh pronounced Roy uh hello my name is Justin I am a graduate of the violin Public Schools I graduated 2022 um currently student in Temple University here to speak today on the same memo um first of all I would like to applaud Mr Yano for affirming that we are going to protect uh students regardless of their citizenship or documentation status in this District ice has no place in our schools if they're looking for criminals they're not going to find them in the public schools let me also stress that ice poses a risk to all of our students the number of Puerto Rican people that have been apprehended and detained by ice in the past two week since Donald Trump's executive order has been put in place has only gone up since ice was founded in the early 2000s a majority of this district is now Hispanic or Latino ice is not looking for people who are just oh we think they're undocumented they're actively engaging in racial profiling we saw that with the veteran that was the detained in nework we saw that with a Puerto Rican family that was detained in Milwaukee we saw that with a Puerto Rican restaurant that was almost Raiden in Philadelphia because they thought there would be undocumented people here we are at a dangerous time in our country where people are being referred to as illegal and people look illegal or our proximity to looking illegal is enough to be stopped in the street it's enough to be detained it's enough to have a business rated and now churches are allowed to be rated schools are allowed to be raided we are at a very dangerous time where they targeting children they want to use public they want to use private information from be it from immigration attorneys be it from the school district archives or or files to try and get information on families that they wish to detain that they essentially wish to kidnap all of the children in vinand regardless of where they were born where their parents are born are entitled to have an education free from the anxiety that their school district might hand over information of where they were born or where their parents were born they have the right to not have to deal with the anxiety that their friends or family members might be detained within the schools or that the school district will hand over information that could lead to them being detained when they get home that is why I'm calling on the board of education to support the state guidelines of not letting ice within the schools and if ice wants to go in they can go to the superintendent but you have a duty to protect all of the students within the school district no matter where they were born no matter whether they're a citizen of this country you better keep to that job because we're going to keep you accountable thank you thank you sir and and just as as a further comment um the board and and the district as a whole um has every intention to follow um Federal Regulations federal law uh federal guidelines as it relates to uh anything in whether it be this matter or or any other matter um in addition to following its uh policy its existing policy 9320 uh in terms of cooperation with law enforcement agencies um that's existed thank you Jose barrero sorry I mispronounced your name good evening Schoolboard uh my name is hos barrero I am here tonight both as an educator and a parent of a child in the district I'm here to speak on the same issue Justin and the previous lady spoke on um I believe it's an urgent issue the safety and security of our students in light of the recent changes I know was brought up changes haven't been made the first day of office Department of Homeland had a long-standing policy that ice is not allowed in schools that policy has now been since rescinded we have reports of ice trying to get in schools um I know firsthand from my child's friends that kids are scared they hear the news they see what's happening and they wonder if their families will be safe Their Fear is not unfounded have spoken with teachers in other districts specifically in Livingston New Jersey and in New York New Jersey where there was two separate verified accounts of ice trying to access those schools with the recent resending of dh's policy that once provided protections we know that this is no longer just a hypothetical concern it's real and it is happening I am grateful that the New Jersey state board of education has issued guidance to help protect our students and their families our state is doing what's right for kids but I want to know what is our District doing does the district have plans to implement the state's guidelines the state issued about a little over two dozen suggestions that school district should follow um namely will staff be trained to identify the difference between a Judicial warrant and an administrative one will students and families be given access to know your rights information so they can protect themselves or what ways does this District plan to implement the guidelines from the state I don't see this as a political issue I don't want to turn this into a debate about immigration policy I do not believe this is the forum for that what this is about is about making sure every child in our schools can focus on learning and not living in fears schools should be places of safety not uncertainty I ask this board to take action to ensure that our district is not call unprepared and that EV every family knows where this District stands thank you for your time John Mark Gus good evening uh my name is John Mar Ren Meer uh I am a history teacher at violin High South uh members of the Board of Education Mr Yano thank you for allowing me to present you some thoughts and concerns uh regarding the same letter that everybody else has apparently been addressing I and my fellow educators are fully committed to teaching and caring for our students each day making sure that every student feels safe and comfortable in our classrooms however the involvement of our students or their families with the legal system whether it be local police or federal immigration agents does not fall within the purview of our role in their lives it would certainly be inappropriate if not downright illegal to attempt to interpose ourselves between our students or their families and law enforcement for any reason it was thus with alarm that I read the contents of Mr Yan's letter which seemed to suggest that we ought to walk as close a line as possible in protecting students from federal immigration agents carrying out their lawful duties we are working as teachers we should not be on the lookout for ice agents in order to quickly inform Administration nor should we be spending valuable time and resources on extra training in order to prepare for a possible visit from Ice especially when we already have policies and procedures in place whenever law enforcement comes to the school to speak with students or take them into custody to suggest that we bear a responsibility to in any way Place ourselves between students and federal law enforcement puts an unreasonable and dubiously legal burden upon us as Educators when our job is simply to educate the children in our classrooms to the best of our ability the letters to staff and administrators also reveal distinct bias against the agenda of the current presidential Administration which I likewise find to be unnecessary and unwise our staff members reflect a variety of political beliefs and from an electoral standpoint there is a very good chance that at least half of the employees in the district support this administration's policy goals to send such a letter invites division among the staff when quality education not politics should be our sole Focus once we enter the building the tone and content of the letter seem to imply that we Educators all come from or agree with leftist politics when it comes to important topics like immigration which I assure you is far from the truth it makes staff members with more conservative beliefs feel ostracized and silence a a lamentable State of Affairs that has become the status quo in much of the educational world to conclude I would implore Mr Yano and the Board of Education to reconsider sending the sorts of communications that can seem so politically charged clarify your intentions and set our minds at ease regarding our proper role as Educators rather than as activists against the Endeavors of federal law enforcement thank you for your time and consideration Chris Wilson uh good evening bo uh Chris Wilson uh CEO of sound mind sound body also um chairman of the County Recreation Commission um um we have about 300 kids in our program um maybe close to 50% of them are Hispanic um we had a lot of um parents that Express gratitude in the letter that was sent um that they received um I don't know where the political motivation is or why someone or people would think that I would like to applaud the superintendent for sending this letter out um not only did it allow our parents um to see and be a prepared for possible um ice interventions um it really um was thankful on their behalf um I'm boots on the ground I see these kids every day I don't know how many people in this crowd are in the trenches but I know the kids I see the kids I see the kids and they're with me we have parent and child yoga programs that we do with the um children with sound mind and these parents have bought into us and express their concern on things so I I will leave with this uh word of advice um that I was told when I was about 12 years old from my grandfather um my um everybody has a little piece of God in them no matter how evil no matter how kind everybody has a little peace of God in them you search for that peace in that person and you speak to it now what we always got to ask ourselves is make sure you have that little piece of God and you before you speak to them thank you Charlie Santos good evening my name is Shirley Santos I'm a resident of violin and a retired educator from violin public schools and of course a proud grandma of two Violin public school students uh I wanted to talk about the recent directive that permits ice agents to enter educational campuses churches and other sensitive areas that were previously off limits uh I can imagine that this has created additional stress for our schools which are already facing numerous challenges many uh superintendents across New Jersey probably you've seen it in the news and various reports um have communicated with staff parents and the community to ensure that families feel safe in their Communications they have established clear protocols to protect the rights of every member of the school community and EAS emphasize that schools are safe spaces for all children I am pleased to see that our superintendent Mr jono has taken similar actions I am gr I'm very grateful for his timely statement to parents in our district much like Dr Gro did back in 2017 okay at that that time a group of community members parents and students from the group Bridges which I am part of approached her with concerns regarding ice activity in schools all those schools at that time were still designated as Sensi sensitive areas that were protected from Ice intervention this board passed or the board at the time passed a resolution reaffirming violent Public Schools commitment to providing a safe and secure environment for our staff and students while also offering information and resources for our families it is encouraging to see some of the work we did back then reflected in the latest State guidelines shared with the New Jersey schools due to this unprecedented Federal action I truly believe that no student should have to carry the weight of fear while trying to learn we must do everything we can to ensure that our C counselors and social workers have the resources to help students teachers and staff also cope with the situation I thank you Mr jonno for acknowledging and not minimizing the potential anxiety surrounding immigration issues while assuring the community community that the school is committed to supporting all students I recognize that at times we can be dismissive of other experiences from our position of privilege I appreciate that you empathized with those affected and displayed the fortitude and common sense to do what is right for our students and families I want to conclude by stating that I'm here in support of all of our students and families especially those who may not be able to speak today and are directly impacted by these unprecedented circumstances are as you can see there are others here tonight we stand United and ready to help violent Public Schools uh help our kids our staff and families feel safe and protected thank you so much Maria Le boy good evening everyone I'm Maria la boy a former educator here in the public schools for like 32 years I started as an ESL teacher in the bilingual program and then I was a coordinator of special programs I want to hats off to the high school who has the The Freshman Academy because when I worked as a supervisor I've supervised a lot of programs for under repesent resented the students so I want to thank you because really they all needed it they all needed that extra help so I'm glad that you're doing that for them um I uh I when I retired well I W I became involved in a group as Charley Santos just said Bridges we were all very concerned about the situation in the communities Across the Nation and yes we did speak we had a number of meetings with um Mary Gro and uh she later sent a letter out to the parents uh letting them know that their children would be safe and telling everybody in the schools that if ice came that they would send them to the main office and uh and I'm so happy that Mr Jano did the same thing because it's it it worked out just it allayed the fears of so many uh parents and their students because as you know it's hard to learn on an empty stomach so we give them food it's hard to learn when you haven't slept very much so we encourage parents to put their kids to bed early at night well let me tell you something trying to learn with all that stress on you I mean stress is even worse than being hungry or or having lack of sleep the Stress and Anxiety that you're going to go home and not find a parent there or the Stress and Anxiety that somebody might come to the school and take you away and those are actually real life real life feelings for these kids so thank you very much because you I I believe that you just like Mary did back then allay the feelings of many of those uh students uh and parents um which which I'm very happy to hear and um to lose a former speaker um everyone knew because uh the president didn't you know even before he became president he said he was going to do it so it wasn't a surprise that he wrote an executive order that day so and I'm not here to talk politics you know we all know what happened and we all know what's happening now and like was mentioned before a lot of Puerto Ricans have been taken and when I was I went to Puerto Rico one time to Mexico one time on a school trip for a conference and on the way back they stopped the car at the border and they want to to leave me there and I said no everybody in the car was saying the same thing no she's with us she's with us why because I looked theart you know my face was a Latina face everybody else in the car was not Latino so they thought they were trying to take somebody across the the border so thank God you know I came back but um the same thing happened to my mother years later but I want to thank you all and and think about you know what what you're doing when you're doing it and um and as Shirley said please go along with what is going on in the state you know to try to if anybody comes in and to the gentleman who had fears about his his teachers how were they going to they're not supposed to be dealing with I well they're not even going to get to you if if rules are followed like they get to the main office they are sent to the superintendent of schools why does that have to you know teachers do not have to deal with them so I want to thank you again Mr jonos and thank you all Board of me board of education for having our backs throughout this thank you Joanne Brown hello good evening um I'm standing standing in my name is amont Maxi I'm here speaking on behalf of the bus attendance it's been a very challenging school year and we're in charge of the Safe Transportation of the kids between school and home and we do the same work as the classroom assistants and we're the lowest paid in the district and we're asking for uh a rais in pay we're the lowest like I said we're the lowest paid and we do just as much work as the bus drivers and minimum wage is not fair for the work that we do and the dedication we put our district so we just would like you to take this into consideration I have a list of the bus drivers who couldn't make it and the ones who are here if you would like a copy of it the bus AIDS okay thank you for your time and consideration thank you Mr Yano do you have any um motions and resolutions yes we're going to get into our motions and resolutions at this time I'd like to request discussion and approval of personnel items 1.1 through 1.2 questions or comments do I have a motion so moved roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr Fuki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mr Perez Mrs Perez I'm sorry it's okay yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries at this time I would like to congratulate and call up to the microphone Mr masonet the new vhsa building principal good evening good evening um funny story my when I was thinking about coming here today and told my family I had to come here my daughter asked me if I was getting inaugurated or winning a Grammy so I told her it was neither um but I am uh very grateful for the opportunity uh take a moment to thank my wife Ashley and my daughters uh Ariana Abigail and Amelia um also my colleagues that came today uh pup Miss shenik um and everybody else here today and also I want to thank um the board um you know for trusting me with this position Mr Yano for the support um I'm a proud violent graduate and I am looking forward to making violent High the best school in New Jersey and in the country if that if that's possible so and with your support I believe we can do it and I know it's a lot of work and I'm ready for the work and I'm excited for the opportunity thank you thank you I also would like to congratulate Jacqueline mangaloo who now be the principal of Memorial School he's coming up I would just like to to say Thank you Mr Yano and members of the board of education for putting your faith in me um it is always Bittersweet I absolutely love Petway Elementary um but I started in secondary um and I also love the challenges that are ahead for Memorial I actually grew up uh about six blocks away from Memorial School and grew up playing softball on those fields um and probably was in that building when I shouldn't have been in that building um but watching please playing hanging out with my friends and that's I really want the building to continue to be a community school um and a place for kids to grow and learn and a side note too I'm also super proud I'm born and raised in violand violand high school graduate um and I'm so proud to see our community come out um for and against whatever it may be um but that we are able to come together to speak to to speak our minds um and do it peacefully I'm super proud uh to say that I am from Vin and to see what I saw tonight um so thank you again and I look forward to the challenges ahead thank you and next I would like to introduce our newest assistant principal from at Wallace Middle School Shannon Enders let's rig Round of Applause to Shannon thank you for joining the team Dr Speakman maybe uh Dr Speakman and Mr masonet if you can introduce yourselves as the vast of reps to Shannon AB I know you're on it thank you yeah next I'd like to request approval discussion and approval of procedures and operations items 2.1 through 2.5 questions or comments do I have a motion so moved second roll call Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries requesting discussion and approval of Finance items 4.1 through 4.21 question or comments do I have a motion so move roll call Mr Bono yes Mr fi uh I will have to recuse from the following you ready it's a few hold please get the get the pencil ready I'm ready for you okay 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 4.19 yes on the remaining items is that it uh yeah for now Mr Harris yes Mr holes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes we all up Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries there no regular agenda items no proposed items for review or discussion or adoption by the board members are there any questions or comments for the itemized bills do I have a motion so move second roll call please Mr Bono yes Mr foki yes Mr Harris yes Mr Holmes yes Mrs Perez yes Mr Rivera yes Mr Silva yes Mr sabran yes Mrs kispa yes motion carries there are no emergent items old business new business board member and superintendent remarks I'm going to start with Mr foke yes good evening uh I just would like to congratulate uh Mr masonet Mrs mongalo and Mrs Enders as well wish you all the best of luck thank you and have a good evening Mr Holmes yes I'd like to also congratulate Mr Mason and Mrs mongalo and your well-deserved promotions uh these are two proven leaders and I'm glad um that they'll be continuing their work in different capacities welcome Miss Enders to the viny public schools district thank you for everyone to everyone that spoke uh tonight i' like to congratulate all the promotions in our district and wish you guys the best of luck in your new positions uh we look forward to working with you and helping provide you with the tools you need to keep succeeding within our district very proud of you and to our newest member of the team thank you so much um heard you did a wonderful job in your interview and um you're a strong strong applicant so I hope you're a true leader for our district thank you um just a few night notes from me it was a very another very busy month um I was part of part of an attended a very successful and well attended uh fundraising event here at atlis school um for the uh pasta and meatballs Cookoff fundraiser for our scholarship program um what a great event it was we would have loved to seen another two three maybe 400 people here with as many District employees we have I want to see more the next time we do this but it was an awesome event uh Mrs Speakman Mr Stell uh principal um yeah sorry principal mangoa sorry a little tongue twisted there you should I should know that pretty well right um but um yeah it was great competition friendly conversation and we uh we're supported um by uh our head here with our culinary division um who supplied us with alente pasta which is big one so shout out to PES um and a big thank you to the junior Police Explorers that helped volunteer and help man our tables to serve the attendees uh these kids always come out no matter what they're asked they're always out same thing with the r r RC or the uh RTC RC thank you sorry tongue twister there um but these students they always come out for for us in support our events and it's um it's a great showing uh to our district very proud of these kids um I'd like to wish the uh VHS girl swim team good luck tomorrow evening we have a home playoff meet for the first round um it's it's home here at the Tanner building at the Cadia pool starts at 5:00 versus Kingsway these girls work so hard early morning practices late practices swim meets um if you're around you have nothing to do it's a great event come watch the spe uh the swim meet and support them uh for the first round of the playoffs in uh group four um I'd also like let you know I attended my first academic pep rally I've attended many pet rallies over the years but never an academic pep rally and um I wasn't sure what to expect there first but it was a well- ran um event a great showing from the freshman there at the Tanner building it was led by uh principal Adams principal Hall principal Lapsley all their staff my favorite all-time coach coach the shields you know he's still he was like the MC of the event but what a what an amazing uh job they did um celebrating the academics of the students uh faculty and staff um they were all there in attendance uh they they they just celebrated the years positivity and change um and the direction of of the ninth grade experience is heading uh for some great times as we all learn tonight with the The Freshman Academy presentation some of the highlights um were the the junior Air Force Roc students they rocked the house they were there they were bringing the spirit um also the VHS marching band and cheerleaders they were hyp the crowd up and get students uh you know involved so again a good shout out to principal Adams AP Mr Hall Mr Lapsley and of course uh coach the shields it was a great event that helped build on school spirit and VHS proud Pride uh lastly I'd like to thank everyone that come out tonight to talk about this Hot Topic U that we're all dealing with um being informed is is key and when decisions like this go out to um I like to say a company we 16 schools many many many employees um us as a board us as Administration um we're responsibility we have respons responsibility to everyone in the district and some things I believe should be researched and discussed prior to hitting an entire District um before they hit the streets and before they get out to a staff and as the CEO of a business I like to say you know Mr Mr Yano he's the CEO of our district he is the superintendent of our district I feel that he um spoke for everyone here at this table at this board um instead of getting our opinions and uh you know referring to our solicitor board solicitor um it's a very sensitive Hot Topic and I it's it's should not be a political issue it doesn't matter which way you lean left or right it is about the safety of our students we do have policies and procedures already in place and have been in place for years um I just feel that it should have been discussed with the board prior to being sent out to the entire District to the parents to the families because of the sensitivity of the topic um thank you for listening and thank you again for you know letting us know your side of the story because it all matters and it does help uh when it comes to decisions like this and the safety of our children in these schools because at the end of the day that's what it's about education and our children and viol public schools thank you Miss Perez thank you um huge congratulations to the promotions and I know you're from from what I hear I may be one of the newer members here but from what I hear you're going to do a fantastic job you would not have been promoted otherwise and to our new hire we're looking forward to working with you I I want to Echo a lot of the comments that were said here already I appreciate each and every person who came up and spoke it is not easy to come up to a forum like this and to speak and to give your opinion because you don't know what the audience whether they agree with you or don't agree with you it takes courage and I appreciate each and every one of you who came up and spoke in agreement or disagreement to the memo it it takes our whole Community to come forward and to give their opinions and to be involved and to get down in the trenches and to help us be a better board so I just wanted to say I appreciate each and every one of you thank you for your input and um have a good evening and be safe I don't know if it's icy out there yet Mr Riva good evening everyone um like to thank the students from Wallace and barcy the letters in the flag salute um thank you for the presentations I'm particularly excited about the n9th grade academy I believe it's it's going to be a game Cher and it's going to be something that this district is going to benefit from from years to come um it's good that we're trying new things it's good that we're trying new ideas um to try to revitalize the school district and kind of get our students excited about going to school and learning um and I'm all for it uh congratulations to our you hires M Miss Enders um Mrs mongalo congratulations on your promotion to Memorial Raphael congratulations on your promotion to VI High School I've known Rafael for many years um I don't know how he became a principal but but but he has worked hard and he has worked his way up and and he is definitely deserving of this uh promotion he's going to do a great job and I believe that violent high school has B blessed in many more years of greatness to come under his leadership um no pressure um thank you to all the community members that spoke um it's a topic that we can't escape wherever we are in society wherever we go it's coming up right um I think as a society we can all agree no matter what side you may beond in the argument right or wrong I think as a society we can all agree that it is our duty as human beings to kind of protect and shield the most vulnerable in our society and it doesn't get more vulnerable than our children and our kids these kids didn't have a say where they were born they didn't have a say who their parents were but they're kids and they are under our care for the hours that they're in our buildings um I think that our responsibility and this is not a we're going to go against this Authority or that Authority I think our responsibility as human beings is that when our children are in our care in our buildings that we make it that we there would be a distraction to the reality that many of those kids are living today it is very hard to put your yourself in that situation if you're not experiencing that situation um I cannot imagine myself living in that type of of environment or that type of reality but for our kids they're not at fault they have nothing to say about it they are kids and if we can be a distraction from all of that I don't care what side of the aisle what side of the argument you are I think we can all agree and I think this board can all agree that our priority should be to educate our kids and as long as they're in our buildings that they feel safe they feel protected and that they're not at fault what's going on that's a totally different uh conversation we can have outside of this environment outside of this setting who you think is right who you think is wrong but one thing is that our kids are not wrong our kids are not at fault so I think we should be compassionate and have empathy towards towards their reality and I think our board as a whole I believe wants to protect our kids from that noise from that reality they're going through um so I think I'm confident that we we will do that um and that's all I have to say have a good night and thank you Mr Harris it's a tough act to follow yeah he usually is I wanted to thank the children that uh let us in the flag salute I want to say congratulations on the promotions I'm new here but I wish you both the best congratulations on the new hire if you need anything from me if I can help let me know uh I want to thank the speakers that came forward I listened to their concerns I heard them uh if there's anything I can do to alleviate the fears I'll do everything I can uh I do know that the school has policies in place that I think will answer most people's questions if they read the policies as to when law enforcement can come into the schools and when they can't there is a policy when I was a police officer there was a memorandum of agreement that's spelled out when law enforcement can come into school and when they can't and how they can come in and how they they can't whether they need a warrant or they did need a warrant so I won't get too far into that I just think that uh folks could read the policy and that would alleviate some more of their fears I think it's in line with the uh State guidelines and the federal guidelines uh so I want to thank everybody who came forward I'll take my last moment I wanted to say uh happy birthday to my mentor who's not here I hope he's watching he's a former board member and a Captain Tom Al uh he couldn't make it so cap if you're watching happy birthdays birthday is on the ninth and go birds thank you Mr Silva yes I'd like to commend and congratulate the new hire Miss Enders welcome to her District uh Mr Mason net Miss meluso congratulations on your promotion I know you guys will do really really well um I also would like to tell Mr Rivera the reason why he became a principal is because he Gra graduated from the best class which is 1999 violent high school so I just wanted to shout out my class 1999 um that's one of the reasons why I think that he will do a great job um besides that that's all I have to say but thank you guys and you guys have a great night Mr saana thank you to our flag Salters love seeing kids here congratulations to our new hirers Mr Mason you go m senders and Miss mongalo who is living proof that you can go home again I know there were a lot of tears at Petway the other day when they they heard the news but um that's going to be a big win for Memorial and I'm looking forward to seeing all the great things that are happening there I just want to say one other thing I've been sitting here thinking about it for the last 10 minutes while Mr Rivera gave his usual passionate speech uh I walked in the front door at Reber School in a really cold night in March 1995 and for the next 20 years after that sometimes 14 15 hours a day I roam the buildings of this District talking to our staff parents and a lot of kids and I don't remember one time talking to one person who took a paycheck from this place who wasn't absolutely passionate and committed to protecting our kids every single day they didn't need to be told that they didn't need to be reminded and they didn't need to have anybody quote law to them they believed in it and I believed in it as well our mission always was safety and efficiency and achievement sea and it still is now and in the last 10 years I've sat up here with people like you see sitting here tonight I know they feel the same way because to do this isn't not easy and it is a thank you there's a job that you get thanks but it's not an easy one and there are a lot of days when you say why am I doing this for free because we care and we're going to be sure that whatever happens that to the limit of the law which we will follow the way we're supposed to we are going to make sure those kids go home safe every day no matter what thank you Mr Yano thank you thank you we had a wonderful event last week uh for divine Education Foundation thank you to our participants Mr Bono Dr Speakman Jackie mangaloo Mr mustell it was a great night it was a kickoff for divine Education Foundation which has not had many events in the in the past it was one of those charges that was placed you know before me um when I arrived in the district is to relaunch the vef and a few of our board members have participated and helped bring that vef back to life we have great plans as we move forward and all of the funds that are generated by Divine Education Foundation will go to support teachers and students in our school district with scholarships and innov ation grants it's going to be wonderful as we continue to uh showcase what our school district can do uh we have a great event tomorrow although now the timeline got changed a little bit our starfish event is tomorrow and uh we're going to be busy celebrating our students and our staff members here at Landis our CTE event is coming up at the high school at the end of this month it's going to be absolutely incredible uh I I encourage all of our board board members to participate many came last year and it was excellent so I encourage you to be a part of it this year just to see what our high school has to offer um we want to make sure that U oh I also had the opportunity uh yesterday uh to participate in the Scholastic literacy Summit as a panelist representing vanum Public Schools uh sharing all of the amazing work that we're doing around uh structured literacy the science of reading the work that our teachers and our administrators are doing in the field and also the work that we're doing at the secondary level as we switch into new courses close read and Socratic seminar uh this community this clastic organization wanted us to share wanted me to share what we're doing so I was in front of 200 uh superintendents and uh CEOs from across the United States and it was an amazing experience uh to be able to share what we do well here in violin and to celebrate our students our staff and our administrators I also want to take a moment since it was brought up here in public uh about the timing of memos that go out to uh the community or to our Administration uh every week we receive broadcasts from the Department of Education those broadcasts are alerts to take action on specific areas there was an alert that came by recently not recently last year that said all 11th graders need to take the FASA you know it's one of the new requirements an unfunded mandate so we send information to the high school the high school puts information into play so that their high school students their Juniors can actually take the FASA so these digests come out these broadcasts come out weekly and there are specific things that we need to do as local education agencies and the leads for those departments on January 22nd a digest came out reporting on guidance to school related state and federal requirements pertaining to Immigrant students and families so I read that guidance and I said this community needs to be aware of what going on but it wasn't a new conversation we've been having this conversation for months and years in a in a school district such as violent where we have students from diverse backgrounds so what I put out is exactly what the broadcast announced that all schools in the state of New Jersey are are expected to follow and I did not add any new language freestyle put different words in there I took the language that was in there I understand it's a Hot Topic um but it's one that we have to address headon it's uncomfortable but we need to be there for our students and support our families that's been mentioned here multiple times I also want to note that our staff memo specifically said if some if you see something refer to Administration administrators who are here they know that who are they going to call if something happens in their school that they need to be aware of they're going to call me so we can all be on the same page of how to proceed my phone call is to the solicitor to make sure that we're following the law properly I also want to note that policy 9320 as stated today does not apply to uh federal law enforcement that is specific to local law enforcement because it speaks to the memorandum of agreement between local law enforcement and the school district so it's very clear about what that covers so there's some great areas that we need to be on the same page the guidance was put out there to help us all kind of focus on what's important and that's our students to today yesterday last week we have kids who are scared they're worried you may not know that from where we sit but we get those phone calls we have administrators telling us about situations where students are scared they need support what do we do with them we work with Dina ralo send them the guidance guidance works with the students it's all very clear how we respond but there have been some changes and there will be more changes probably we will adjust our approach and it's out of respect all that I have put out is out of respect for the community nothing was meant to be disrespectful or any encouragement to defy any type of law enforcement that's false there's a false narrative being put out there that that's what I'm advocating for and that is not the case at all I'm asking to comply with the law to make sure we are supporting our students our administrators who I've met with we talked about it we're all on the same page as far as what happens the guidance is clear and I just wanted to put that out on the record that I'm here to support our community and to work with our Board of Education and my my central Office Team and our high school administration our Middle School administration our Elementary Administration our preschool babies the it is a wide range of beautiful children that we work with that we support and we want them to be safe and feel comfortable so I ask that everyone give us a little Grace and give me some Grace in this time of challenging uh times for our families uh because we are looking to do what's right for our community and I understand there's different opinions um but also we have to safeguard what we're doing and we have to system check so I will be collaborating And discussing with our board this evening about you know next steps if any of what we need to do to clarify what's been put out because I'm all about communication and I know this board is committed to that and I love the dissenting ideas the opposing viewpoints because Mr Adams can tell you he and I we talked a lot about ninth grade academy weren't always on the same page right Justin but in the end we get to a great place and look at the presentation it's through that discussion and input of very various ideas and thoughts that we come out with a better product in the end so I encourage that and I appreciate everyone who came out this evening thank you I just want to thank um our students who did come out from varcy and Wallace for our flag salute uh Mr Adams Mr marchie Mr Bermudez Mr Adams team thank you for the great presentation it's answered some of my questions but I'm sure the board we're still going to have a whole lot more for you uh it's a work in progress but it looks really good and it's like Mr Rivera said said it's something different and something maybe that the district needs but again it's a work in progress um to everyone who come out and spoke tonight thank you there are a wide range of opinions um that to being said there's a l wide range of opinions on the board um at no point will we never not protect our students but we will follow state and federal guidelines um I I am going to suggest that the policy that Mr Harris spoke of and that do protect our students be put on front page of the website so it's easily accessed so people can view it and see it um I did get the opportunity to go to the Mr vinin pageant contest I don't know what it was but um I got to judge it it was wonderful congratulations to Mr um afanador he was wonderful they were all wonderful it was very hard to choose these kids just put their hearts and souls into that that contest and it was it was really great I really didn't know who was going to win up until the final five I was you know I was really not sure Mr masonet congratulations Mrs mangaloo congratulations Miss Enders welcome if there's ever anything we can do for you as a board just let us know we're excited for the changes and the possibilities I know Mr masonet and Mr Adams are going to work very well together um I know it's a teamwork and that's a work in progress for everybody um on the final note I know it's Eagle Country however I need to say good luck Isaiah Peko um uh you're still our heart and soul you know you're representing represent us well you have represented us well so um I'm going to be still rooting for you you've not been in a room full of Eagles fans but I want him to do well and um he has proven that so good luck Isaiah good luck Eagles good luck Chiefs and um with that being said do I have a motion to adjourn so