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. Andre >> here. >> Miss Chrisall >> here.
>> Miss Giovani >> here. Miss Hollstat here. Miss Calderon >> here. >> Mr. Sheriff's absent tonight. Mr. Sampone >> here. >> Mr. To >> here. >> Miss Vod >> here. >> Okay. Notice of the February 19th, 2026
meeting of the board of education was emailed to the clerks of the burrows of Essex Falls North Pole on Roseland and to the township of Fairfield and the editor of the progress on January 8th, 2026 and the Star Ledger on the same day. Um
where you can read that? >> Okay, that's um okay. I'm just I have a brief little um report. First of all, I want to just thank our culinary students. They made us uh they provide us dinner this evening. It was delicious. Um they put a
lot of effort into it and it was very enjoyable. We really want to thank them for that. Um I also want to mention that on tonight's agenda, we have five resolutions that we will be voting on to move forward with our referendum project. Uh this represents an important step in our district as we continue to invest in
our facilities and provide the best possible learning environments for our students and our staff. As you know, over the past several months, we've continued to review the scope of our project. And this evening, we will be taking action um which allows us to formally move the process and the
project forward. So, I just wanted to mention that. Um actually, I'll mention this now. After we do, sorry, after we um do our public portion, the agenda items, we're going to move back to the um board
conference room. It's still a public meeting. Uh it'll be our board retreat. We're going to have our ethics and HIV training with our board attorney. And then we will also have a presentation by Jean Clearary, who's our New Jersey school board's rep on data decision making and communications and
engagement. So, it's still a public meeting but just our environment. We'll move there. If there's public that wants to come, they can come and that's it. Um Oh, yes. And there after our uh agenda,
there will be no further action taken tonight. And then um do we have any committee reports? >> Yeah. >> All right. So, um the policy committee um
u policy committee met on February 9, 2026 and we discussed um a couple of policies um mandated policies and what was revised. Um first one was the nepotism. Uh it was a policy that explains the rule about hiring family
members reorganized for clarity. No major changes were made. requires this policy in order to receive statements. Another one was um the employment of the chief school administrator
that explains the rule for hiring and employing the superintendent. It was updated to fix legal references. State requires the executive county superintendent review and approve the superintendent's contract prior to the board approval. It was also reference
there was also a reference in 1620. Um the sexual harassment policy was also discussed. Uh there used to be two separate sexual harassment policies. With the new policy, we're going to abolish all the old sexual harassment policy and make them into one. The 3362
and 43 43 53 policies and regulations, one for teaching staff certificated and one for support staff non-certificated. combined into policy 1552. Um, it also references to it also
referenced the two federal law titles, title seven to protect staff and work workplace sexual harassment and the title nine which also protects sexual harassment uh with stricter investigation rules.
Um and the last one was the organizational chart and this was discussed last month with the job description change. The policy that goes along with the chart is the change of the title from business administrator to assistant superintendent for business
secretary. And that's it. Thank you. Any other committees? >> Yes, I have All right. So, I have the ad hoc um minutes. The ad hoc committee met um
twice with the mayors. Um we met first on February 11th. Um and at that time we introduced everything about the referendum that we knew at the time to them and um had a dialogue with them
regarding what they would like from the school and it was very very constructive um conversation. Um we met with them again. We took everything that they gave us. We went back to the ad hoc. We had an emergency ad hoc meeting. We went
back to the ad hoc committee, discussed all of their suggestions, and then went back to restructure some of the things that we had already decided upon. So, because of that, we also had another meeting this morning on February 9 uh today, February 19th, to
apprise the mayors what we have now changed according to our meeting with them on the 11th. We also agreed that we will keep an open dialogue with them and we will include them throughout the process so that they're aware of everything that will happen in their
town. Um, so the referendum questions, this is the final question structure. We will have two questions when we go to vote on November. And question number one is uh going to take into the the uh primary addition the media center and
the classrooms, the middle school auditorium, the infrastructure, the concrete trellis out here, the HVAC high school unit vent replacements and middle school units, the turf fields and lights out front from the uh middle school, the
exterior doors and the security vestibules. That will be our primary question. question passes and then people then can vote for question number two roll over and that would be stadium bleachers
press box and the interior doors the interior doors that being in yellow that's the security component and that is something that we would receive uh monies back from the DOE because it is an item that um the percentage you know
it goes as high as 40 and usually looking at 34% from the state So, as of right now, and we also included in um our meeting last week with the ad hoc our PR person, Christine and our architect and went through everything
with them that the mayors had suggested and they were in agreement with it. So, as a result of that, Allen is going back to the drawing tables not to not to revamp anything that we've come to regarding the structure, but to go into our presentation. So we will have
another presentation coming out in March and in April and at that time we will be able to show renderings and go forward with what you know percentages of each of these the 41 million what percentage of it is going to the classroom the
academics. So we will be coming out of the gate with the academics and security and then for question number two for the stadium and bleachers and press box. Any questions? >> Okay. >> Yeah. I just want to uh thank our ad hoc
committee from the referendum for getting together, you know, multiple times over the last couple weeks to make make, you know, this a priority. It's a lot of time. It's a lot of conversations, listening to a lot of different stakeholders. So, I just want to thank the board referendum committee
for for that. Are there any other board comments? No. Okay. Um, we'll move on to public comments. Do we have any public comments on agenda items? >> No. There being none, we'll move on. All right. Um, finance.
Um, John, do you want to take finance? >> Sure. The following the following finance motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items 1 through 10 will be voted upon in one motion. And I so
>> any questions or comments? You can hold them all, please. >> Mr. Andre, >> yes. >> Miss Crystal, >> yes. >> Miss Giovani, >> yes. >> Miss Holland, >> yes. >> Miss Calderon, >> yes. >> Mr. Samone, >> yes. >> Mr. Toad,
>> yes. >> Miss, >> yes. Debbie Holland staff, do you want to take buildings and grounds, please? >> Sure. The following building and grounds motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda item one will be voted upon in one motion and I
so move. >> Any questions or comments? >> Mr. Andre, >> yes. >> Miss Chrisal, >> yes. >> Miss Giovanni, >> yes. >> Miss Hollstat, >> yes. >> Miss Calderon, >> yes. >> Mr. Samp, >> yes. Mr. Toad.
>> Yes. >> Miss Witz. >> Yes. >> Uh Ruth, you take personnel, please. >> The following personnel motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda. Items one through five will be voted upon with one motion. I move.
>> Second. >> Any questions or comments? >> Mr. Andre? >> Yes. >> Miss Crisal? >> Yes. >> Miss Giovani? >> Yes. >> Miss Hans, >> yes. Miss Calderum, >> yes. >> Mr. Stamp, >> yes. >> Mr. Toad, >> yes.
>> Miss Witz, >> yes. >> Deb, you want to take curriculum? >> Sure. Following special education motions are made at the recommendation of superintendent schools. Anything on this agenda items will be. >> Any questions or comments?
>> Please. >> Mr. Andre. >> Yes. >> Miss Chrisal. >> Yes. Giovani. >> Yes. >> Miss Hollandat. >> Yes. >> Miss Calderon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Samp. >> Excuse myself on item number one. Yes. Number two. >> Mr. Toe.
>> Yes. >> Miss. Yes. Laya. Take. >> Yes ma'am. The following miscellaneous motions are made at the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Anything placed on this agenda, items one through five will be voted upon in
one motion and I >> second >> questions or comments. >> Mr. Andre, >> yes. >> Miss Crystal, >> yes. >> Miss Cabani, >> yes. >> Miss Hollat, >> yes. Miss Calderon, >> yes. >> Mr. Sampone, >> yes.
>> Mr. To, >> yes. >> Miss Wajit, >> yes. Okay, we'll open up the floor for public comments on non-aggenda items. Anyone? Okay, >> there being none. >> Ray, do you want to read this out?
>> Uh, actually, I guess we don't really read out. >> No, we don't read out. >> No, we won't. Yes, that's right. We're going to move into the Yeah. >> relocate and then you can read us out in a little bit. >> Perfect. Thank you.