The adequate notice of this regular meeting as required by the open public meetings act was provided by the posting mailing delivery and filing of this notice on January 27th, 2026. This notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board in the township
office, sent to the courier news, echoes sentinel, and tap into Warren, filed with the township clerk of the township of Warren, and posted on the district's website, all in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act. Please rise for the pledge of
>> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, >> indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mr. Hegel,
>> I will call the role. Mr. Brosby, >> here. >> Mrs. Dalton, >> here. >> Mrs. Granholm >> here. >> Miss Keller >> here. >> Mr. Mulfetta, >> Mr. Tour >> here, >> Mr. Valentino >> here,
>> Mr. Weinstein >> here, >> and Mrs. Zan >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Miss Keller. >> Resolved that the board of education approves the public session minutes of the January 5th, 2026 board meeting. >> Do I have a second? >> Second.
>> I'll call the role on the uh on the minutes. Mr. Brodies. >> Yes. Mrs. Dalton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Granholm, >> yes. >> Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Tour, >> yes. >> Mr. Valentino, >> yes. >> Mr. Weinstein, >> yes. >> And Mrs.
>> Yes. Correspondence and information. Dr. Mingle. >> The board is in receipt of three emails of correspondence. Two related to anti-semitism and one related to ICE activity. There's nothing to report on suspensions or HIV.
>> Thank you, Dr. Mingle. Uh, good evening and welcome to the February 2nd meeting of the board of education. This meeting was originally scheduled for last Monday. Uh, but as you all know, we had weather. I hope that everyone enjoyed the big first big storm of 2026 and came
through it without any difficulty. Thank you to everyone for accommodating the change in schedule. Appearing on tonight's agenda as item C4 is the approval of six retirements. Laura Lamson who has served the students
of Warren for 31 years. Noel Perne for 21 years. Denine Albani for 31 years. Rosemary Keelbach for six years. Kathleen Erskin for three years and Susan Jackson for 31
years. Just want to draw everyone's attention to the longevity of some of these um staff members. Uh thank you to each of them. Um they are each valued members of our school community and thank you for your dedication. We wish
you all the best in your retirement. I want to follow up on a public comment made at our last board of education meeting. As the public knows and the district and police disclosed, a swastika was discovered in a middle
school bathroom in December. Anti-semitism is a distinct form of prejudice that has no place in our schools. We have all witnessed a recent and disturbing rise in incidents locally, nationally, and
internationally that threatened the safety and well-being of our Jewish community. The board is committed to providing a safe, welcoming, and inclusive learning environment for all students, staff, and community members, regardless of their
religious, ethnic, or national background. The board of education stands stands firmly against anti-semitism and all forms of hate, bigotry, and discrimination. As part of addressing anti-semitism in
our school community, on January 15th, Dr. Mingle, Mr. Balar, Miss Keller, and I met with Rabbi Greenbound and Mr. Michael Lindy at Temple Har Shalom. Dr. Mingle will speak a little more in a moment about that meeting, but let me
share that I expressed to Rabbi Greenbound and Mr. Lindy and want to make clear here that the board of education unequivocally condemns anti-semitism in the strongest possible terms and supports the administration in
addressing it in our schools. Additionally, I want to thank Rabbi Greenbound for an invitation. On January 29th, I was honored to attend the world premiere of The Kid Officer, a documentary telling the story of
Holocaust survivor and Israeli pioneer and local resident Fred Beerman. I attended this attemple harsh shalom. The documentary chronicled Fred's journey over decades from a young boy watching Hitler Parade pass his bedroom window to
helping to build the state of Israel to his eventual life in the United States. Mr. Mr. Beerman was present for this screening. He was born in 1930. So yeah, um it was really an honor to be invited. Thank you, Rabbi Greenbomb, for
that invitation. And with that, superintendent's remarks. Dr. Mingle. >> Thank you, Mrs. Zan. As mentioned, we had a very thoughtful and productive conversation with Rabbi Greenbomb and Mr. Lindy, who's also a Warren parent. Uh the focus of that
meeting was not only on responding to one specific incident, but on how we as a school community and as a larger community can continue to strengthen understanding, awareness, and belonging within our schools in ways that are developmentally appropriate, sustainable, and aligned with our
strategic goals. One of the helpful outcomes of that conversation was the sharing by Rabbi Greenbound of several professional and educational resources that we believe could help support our staff development efforts and future curriculum conversations specifically within our social studies curriculum
which is uh be which will begin a review process in the near future. In the coming weeks, we'll review those resources and consider how they may inform the work that we're already doing around respect, inclusion, and historical understanding. Uh, and as I said at the beginning though, it's important to emphasize that this isn't
about, you know, running one assembly or one special program. It's more about how we can ensure that our teachers, our educators are prepared to address difficult topics when they arise and to ensure that our curriculum continues to help our students understand history, bias, and the importance of treating
others with dignity. As Mrs. Zan said, "We're very grateful for the willingness of community partners to engage in this work with us, and we will continue those conversations thoughtfully as part of the board's ongoing uh strategic goal around community outreach. And as always, it's
important to remember that there are reporting mechanisms for incidences of any kind, anonymous if desired, available to our students and their parents and the general public, which you can find on the district website. Do have a few other announcements tonight as well. Uh as you see on the agenda, it
is it would have been schoolboard recognition month last Monday. Uh January was schoolboard recognition month in New in New Jersey. Our board of education is part of a statewide network of local boards that set policy, provide public accountability, and work closely with administrators, staff, families,
and community to ensure high quality learning for all students. As certainly the board members of the day know, and I'm sure many members of the public as well, school board members serve in New Jersey without compensation. Yet, they dedicate countless hours to supporting students, overseeing district operations, and
helping ensure the resources are in place to meet the needs of every learner, including all students with special needs. On behalf of our school community, thank you to our board members for your service, leadership, and commitment to the children of Warren. There's not there's not a crowd here for you to ask to applaud. And so I'll just
we'll clap for you. Thank you for your your a few other announcements. I do want to highlight um that last month the business office under the direction of school business administrator Chris Hegel completed a migration to a new payroll system. The payroll migration is
an important part of a larger effort to consolidate our district systems and provide our staff with seamless access to information while also reducing our reliance on paper to complete critical workflows. As it relates to this portion of the project, I would like to recognize Mary Grace Sutski, assistant
school business administrator, Darlene Nardy, payroll administrator, and Katherine Gorski, human resources coordinator, along with Mr. Hegel, for their hard work and dedication to making this part of the project a success. It was quite an endeavor to make that shift uh over the last it took place with the
first payroll of January, but many months of work going into that. And finally, I wanted to share a brief update regarding Warren Middle School's 2026 school of character application. So, for the last several years, there has been a board and district goal around this work. Uh, it was our first
application to the program this school year. Uh, at the in that first application, Warren Middle School was recognized as a state honorable mention recipient in the school of character program. Uh, the thresh with an overall score of 3.0 on the rating scale. This is um on a scale of up to four. The
threshold for being a state school of character as opposed to honorable mention is 3.3. So just uh slightly above our initial rating. Importantly, the evaluation team, this is all evaluated by an outside agency, noted several strengths, including the school's strong commitment to social
emotional learning, a whole school approach to character development, meaningful staff collaboration and professional learning, and examples of character education embedded within classroom instruction. The report also provided clear actionable recommendations that will help us further uh our programming for future
submissions and consideration. We are proud of the work underway at Warren Middle School and appreciate the staff's ongoing focus on building a positive culture and supporting student growth. We appreciate the board's support in that effort. And that's all for me. >> Thank you, Dr. Mingle. Um moving on then
to presentation. We have a presentation on the midyear strategic plan update. Okay. It's our pleasure to It's our pleasure to be able to update the board and the community on the work so far this year towards the goals in
the 2025 to 2030 strategic plan. Just as a reminder, this slide comes from last spring when the board approved the strategic plan, which has three big goal areas. The first one being around student learning with a focus on how do we challenge and support our students. That's goal 1.1 and 1.2. Student and
staff well-being, which is around how do we ensure that we have safe, inclusive schools uh with mental health supports where needed. And finally, planning for growth, which is goal three, which is around the space and sustainability of our facilities as we see student enrollment increasing. Uh, I'll be brief
on that one tonight as I did provide an update at the last meeting in January as well. This time, I'll turn it over to Mr. Kimick, assistant superintendent, to talk about goal one. >> Thank you, Dr. Mangle. Uh, so you could see we have a goal of elevate academic rigor and engagement. Uh, I'll also I
won't read the target to you, but this has been a target that we've had in place for a few years now, which is to just steadily increase the percentage of students that are passing on our NJSLA or I Ready exams that we that we offer each year to the students. This is really closely tied to the other goal that I'm going to talk to you about, but
really specific to this, I think it's important to understand the the work that's been done around building the capacity of staff to engage with student performance data at regular intervals throughout the year. Uh this is something again that that used to be very much district kind of initiated and it's really been something that I think
over the past three years has become very much building initiated which is really the strength of it. It's where principles and uh coaches and teachers are looking very carefully at student performance data to make adjustments in real time to the efforts that they're making in terms of how we can intervene
for students and actually guarantee that students continue to make progress. Uh so there are many steps within the strategic plan that that that connect to this but I think it's a culmination of work that's been happening over multiple years in terms of building up our capacity to uh use student data have it available to staff and be able to engage
in that effectively. >> Thank you. The second goal as I said is very closely tied to this where it's personalized learning and provide comprehensive support for all learners. This was a quite a big discussion within I think the strategics plan development around talking uh about how we provide
interventions, how we provide supports to students. You'll hear the term MTSS a lot. That's that's known as multi-tered system of supports. This is our first year engaging in the MTSS model. It's not a program that's put in place as much as if it's a philosophy and an
approach that's used universally across the district. When we talk about MTSS and making a transition to that type of model, it's really characterized as something that takes years to put in place. But the thing that we've done most carefully this year is look at students uh schedules within buildings,
how we organize time within buildings, and then how we also think about the way we can use interventionists and staff within those buildings to really solve problems closest to where they're being identified. And one of our goals here you could see is actually addressing the needs of our English language students.
So the students that are again ELA students all of them in general ed having the interventions that those students receive taking place as close to the classroom as possible. So NTSS suggests that 80 to 90% of students should be able to have their their needs
addressed within a tier one program. Tier one is the classroom program. So, we want to make sure that we have really high quality instruction that's taking place, that we have teams within each building that are looking at the patterns in terms of tier one, that they're providing embedded professional development to the teachers that would
benefit from that, and that we're looking at the way that the interventions actually take place. For instance, we used to do basic skills instruction for a full year, identify students for a full year in the elementary grades. We've reduced that to 12week windows with the idea that we should have a very targeted
intervention. we should address the need that the student has and then when that need is addressed we should return them back to the classroom where they're having the tier one or tier 2 support address within the classroom itself. So there's many goals in strategic plan are addressed around this particular uh
approach this year. >> Super. Thanks Bill. All right let me advance the slide here. Um in the area of uh student and staff well-being uh as it relates to safe, supportive and inclusive school climate,
the administration has identified two targets to foster uh that climate with the successful completion of one target, creating the environment for the second target to also be met. Target one requires an implementation plan to execute on the projects that were
identified in the March 2025 referendum. The projects in that REF referendum that directly relate to school security are external strobe lights at each of our buildings, a PA system replacement also at each of our buildings, uh security
camera replacement um at each of our buildings, and this will likely not be in the implementation plan because it's largely been completed at this point. I'm I'm happy to report uh which included the replacement of almost 200 cameras in our school facilities.
uh the interior door replacement at three of our five buildings, the replacement of traditional interior door locks with electronic locks, which will use a swipe access similar to this fob to uh access the door. And then finally, something that we've been working on for
a long time, the construction of a security vestibule here at Warren Middle School. That will likely happen in the summer of 2027. The referendum also includes several other projects that do not directly relate to school security. The largest of which is playground replacement at
each elementary school. Target two requires that the New Jersey school climate improvement scores, otherwise known as NJ Sky, for physical security and belonging are maintained or improved. Our hope is that the capital
projects identified in target one are believed to go a long way towards uh maintaining a feeling of safety and belonging in our school buildings and will naturally um allow for that those scores to be maintained or improved. In addition, besides the security projects identified or included in the
referendum, the playground replacement projects are being designed to enhance the culture within our school communities. Uh, in fact, the final design decisions are being student-led and are being decided by a schoolwide voting process which will include all
students. Again, giving them a sense of belonging within their within their school community. That's all I have on goal 2.1. With that, I'll turn it over to our special service director. >> Okay. So, I have um the next part. Good.
I got it. I got it. Um so goal 2.2 is about strengthening mental health and wellness supports. Um this being a a new goal area for us, we wanted to look at how we're going to build that plan for the next five years and what it's going to look like. So so far a committee of
stakeholders um was established to help guide this district work in strengthening our mental health and wellness. The team has identified um components to include in a comprehensive needs assessment. They brainstormed key
questions um for further research and that with the hope of that then informing our multi-year action plan. There was significant time spent on discussing um and reviewing our current mental health supports as well as our partnership um with Ruter's UBHC
and exploring how we could potentially um use this collaboration to better meet our student and staff needs in future years. And I think back to Dr. Mingle. >> Thank you.
And the last area as we know is planning for enrollment growth and space needs. The efforts this year which I talked more extensively about in January was really so far has been about learning. making sure that our committee which has about 20 members of the community, staff, administrators, board members,
township committee representatives, community members with and without children to make sure that we all had a strong foundation before jumping to what are the solutions that we should be considering so that we have the space available to provide a highquality educational program not only to the students who are here now but the
students that we know are coming in the next several years. So since June, that group has met regularly. We've looked at enrollment trends and housing driven growth, our existing buildings and how they're used day-to-day, including facility tours and the constraints created by all different kinds of uh
programs, uh state law, and other regulations. We've conducted facility tours, reviewed our space requirements, examined where we have flexibility and where we don't have flexibility, understood the history of how we've addressed these challenges in the past. Uh and and talked about uh what space
looks like when it is available or when it appears to be available. Uh for example, when there's a classroom that seems like it's available for a new kindergarten class, but it doesn't have a bathroom. And what does that require us to do to make it uh accessible? At the same time, we commissioned an updated demographic study which was
publicly reported previously and is available on the district website with key information as well from each of our planning for growth working group meetings. Uh like to thank uh the leadership team for being here tonight to provide these brief updates on the goals. They appear at the end of every board agenda, but we felt it was
important twice a year to come and give a little bit more information about sort of what happens behind the scenes that everybody may not see. We're happy to take any questions from the board on anything related to the strategic plan goals. >> Board questions.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Mingle. Thank you, Mr. Kimick. Um, Miss Lang, Mr. Hegel. Thank you, everyone. >> Thank you. Moving on to tonight's discussion item. Um, this board has long established its
own norms for board communication and operations. Annually, we review those norms um and discuss them if any discussion is needed. Um, this item will appear on next agenda, the next board meetings agenda for approval. At this
time, I'm going to open it up to the board members for discussion regarding the board norms. We like our norms. Okay, thank you everyone for being so good at abiding by them. All right, moving on. that will appear on the next agenda then for adoption by
the board. Um reports from external committees. I do not have any. Anyone has any of those? No. Moving on then to committee reports. Curriculum and technology committee. I believe Miss Granholm is doing the readout for that. Uh so the curriculum and technology
committee met on December 22nd. Uh Mr. Kimick provided an overview of how the district handles our students digital access and device management, the many levels of security, and the different applications used by the district to protect our students and their data. We also discussed the roles of IT staff and
the district data manager. Uh we learned how the district subscription to Class Link allows for the generation of reports on student and teacher usage of certain apps. This helps to inform the district on what should be kept or what should be discontinued. We also discussed how teachers can request
access for new digital tools and how the district reviews the organization's data policies. A continued challenge and discussion for the district is the use of YouTube uh because it is used for valid educational purposes by teachers during the day but then possibly overused by students after school and on
weekends. Uh Mr. Kimick also provided us with an review on the multi-tered system of support model which you just went over. Um the K to5 social studies curriculum review of your process began in January and then the review for grade
six date will follow. These recommendations for program adoptions or revisions will be made to the board and the science curriculum review is set to take place for 2026 to 2027 school year. >> That's it. >> Thank you, Miss Granhold.
>> Thank you. >> The finance operations and security committee met Tuesday, January 20th. We were joined at our meeting by Mr. McDermott, the um district's auditor, who presented the audit report for the fiscal year ending June 30th of 2025.
Appearing on tonight's agenda as item B6 is the acceptance of that audit, and I I want to draw everyone's attention to once again, we have an audit opinion that is unmodified, meaning the financial statements do not depart from the standards in any
material way. There are no formal findings or recommendations. Clean bill of health. Thank you to Mr. Hegel and the business administration staff. You guys do a outstanding job. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. We're grateful. Thank
you. Um also discussed at that meeting uh briefly was um this what the status is currently of the preparation for the 2627 budget. The next um meeting of the finance committee, which is a week away, um will be the big finance committee
meeting where we are going to really knuckle down on what the 2627 budget looks like. Um as has been stated at a number of meetings already. Um we are expecting that it's going to be a challenging budget preparation process in light of the um increases in
particular to healthcare costs. Um the committee discussed a recommendation regarding the use of our maintenance reserve and um supports the use of the maintenance reserve and in full at this time. It will alleviate some of the
pressure on our budget. Um and so uh we we agreed with that and um there was a fairly extensive discussion with regard to security staffing. The administration has u been tasked with gathering additional information and that matter
will go back to the finance committee before going to the full board in executive session for discussion. And um that's it for the finance committee personnel negotiations and communications committee. Miss Keller, the personnel negotiations and
communications committee met on January 23rd. We discussed the goals for the committee for the year, which there are three. One, to review and advise on superintendent recommendations for adjustments to non-aligned staff compensation. Two, conduct the
superintendent evaluation process. And three, draft a communications messaging strategy for key community topics. uh related to goal three. We also in that meeting discussed uh the updates on the school's outreach efforts which I think everybody knows has been a focus for the
last nine months in trying to find opportunities to meet with and connect with different organizations and share some uh key updates from the schools. Uh so we actually had the meeting that uh Dr. Mingle and Mrs. son alluded to with Temple Harsh Shalom leadership and also
met with deputy mayor Keon to discuss our planning for growth working group efforts. Uh the committee also discussed potential outreach opportunities to encourage kindergarten registration for next year. That is it. Uh thank you Miss Keller. Um that is it for committee
reports. So we are moving to the first opportunity for public commentary. This is the first of two opportunities. I ask that anyone that would like to address the board please raise your hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom. Each speaker is limited um to three minutes for their comments. Please begin
your comments by stating your name and address and by directing your comments to the presiding officer. Uh please note the board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. Public commentary is intended as an opportunity for the board to receive such input. Uh
but it is not intended as a Q&A session. Following public commentary, if appropriate, the presiding officer or the superintendent may provide some response. For this first opportunity, we ask that your comments be limited to items that appear on tonight's agenda. There will be a second comment
opportunity for all other comments later in the meeting. So, um, we do not have a live audience, so I'm going to go directly to our Zoom audience. Is there anyone on Zoom that would like to address the board on agenda items? Going once.
Do I have a motion to close public commentary? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed abstain. The first opportunity for public commentary is now closed. Dr. Mingle, do you have any um anything with regard to agenda items?
The only one is to uh underline and restate your uh congratulations at the business office for the audit report. Thank you. You can never have too many congratulations. Um does any board member have any item um for board consideration that they
would like to pull for a separate voter conversation? Seeing none, Miss Keller. >> Motion to approve items for board consideration A1 through A4, B1 through B8, C1 through C11, and D1.
>> We have a second. >> Second. >> All right. This is on the consent agenda. Mr. Bratz, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dalton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Granholm, >> yes. >> Miss Keller, >> yes. >> Mr. Malfeta, he's absent. Mr. Tour,
>> yes. Mr. Valentino, >> yes. >> Mr. Weinstein, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Zan, >> yes. >> Right. Motions pass 8 Z. Thank you. >> Uh, thank you very much. We do not have any unfinished or new business this evening. So, we're going to move to the second opportunity for public
commentary. This is open to any topic you might wish to raise to the board's attention. Again, I ask that you raise your hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom. Remember, the comments are limited to 3 minutes. Please state your name and address before beginning. We still have no public audience. So
going directly to Zoom. Do we have any member in Zoom that would like to address the board on any topic at all? Anything? Seeing none, do I have a motion to close the second opportunity for public commentary? >> Motion.
>> Second. >> All in favor? Opposed? Abstain. Second opportunity for public commentary is now closed. Miss Keller >> motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Abstain. This meeting is
journed. Thank you very much everyone.