There we go. [Music] >> Turn off my mic. There we go. [Music] >> Let me guess. There we go. Here we go. >> And try that again. >> Okay. >> Good evening and welcome to the West
Orangeian public board meeting on Monday, October 27th, 2025. Thank you for your patience. We had some technical difficulties with the live stream trying to get started. I'd like to thank all of you here in person and those watching from home for joining us tonight. Like to welcome my fellow board members and
Mr. Moore and Miss Flowers. Miss Flowers, would you please take the roll call? >> Good evening. Roll call, please. Dr. Bryant, >> here. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> here. >> Miss Vera, >> here. >> Mr. Ker, >> here. >> Mr. Rock,
>> here. >> Thank you. Notice of meeting. The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting your interests are
discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of the act, a written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board on September 8th, 2025. That said notice was sent by regular mail to the West Orange Township clerk and the editor of
the West Orange Chronicle and by email to the Star Ledger. That said notice was posted in the lobby of the administration building of the board of education and posted on the district website. Please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and the
district's website at a future date. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance [Music] to [Music] Thank you, Miss Consideration of the closed and public meeting of September
15, 2025. Do I have a motion to accept these minutes? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Ker. Any comments hearing? None. Miss Flowers, please take the role. >> Dr. Bryant, here. Yes. Sorry,
>> Mr. Stevenson. >> Yes. Miss Vera, >> yes. >> Vice President, >> yes. >> President Rock, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Next, good evening to our student liaison, Adam and Nefertitary. Would you two please share your student leaison report with us at this time?
>> Good evening everybody. To start off, we'll be talking about our West Orange district news and highlights. So, we would like to recognize that our West Orange Public Schools received the NJSP school communications award for e excellence in social media, which is a
reflection of our strong community, which is a reflection of our strong community engagement and school pride. And then looking more into our highlights, we would like to recognize a few students. our valatoran Josie Josear Josie Mayor who with a GPA of 4.7 and
our Suliatoran Ava Neritech with a GPA of 4.6. And we'll also like to recognize the people the seven students who received the National Merit Comet Scholars. Those are the people who beat the odds in the top 3% for the PSAT scores. And that is
Caleb Bond, Marlon Bravo, Emal Conning, Jose, David Milstein, Aeritech, and Hudson Scalker. Regarding our sports, our football team is having a standout season, defeating our rivals East Orange and maintaining a strong momentum and now winning the
Freedom Red Division for the third year in a row. Our nationally ranked soccer team continues to perform at an elite level, showcasing teamwork and school spirit, showing dominant wins over Livingston and Bloomfields. They will continue their run in their Essex County Community Tournament this week. They are
currently ranked as the number one public school in the state. The Marching Mountaineers remain undefeated, earning first place at every competition so far this season. Now we'll be talking about school events and like community community spirit. Um
at our homecoming game, our Kelly elementary school sung the national anthem and it just showed beautiful like West Orange pride and communication. And then our homecoming um winner was announced, Sophia Marillo. She is an
honored academic student um varsity on volleyball and track and field and her commitment to um community service is impeccable. >> For breast cancer awareness month, students across the district united to wear pink at football games, step shows,
and school events, raising awareness and showing support for those affected by breast cancer. West Orange students took center stage at this year's Italian-American Heritage Month celebration. Students performed both national anthems and the pride and culture were on full display. Looking ahead this upcoming week, students will
be partaking in a statewide NJSLA state testing. Athletics wise, the boys soccer team will be playing MK on October 27th tonight. And this will in turn decide who or if they continue to play this Thursday, October 30th for the Essex County tournament. As for our football
team, they will be playing Pake on Friday, October 31st. We hope to finish off October strong and start November off even stronger. Uh reminder, Glee Broadway night is this Wednesday, October 29th at 7 p.m. in the Toroff cafeteria. >> Thank you very much for that. Uh Mr.
Moore, it is now time for your report. Would you please share your superintendent's report with us? >> Thank you, President Rock. Good evening, everyone. Um, tonight we have the good fortune to acknowledge an outstanding high school senior, Miss Juliana Harris,
who has been nominated for the Best Buddies Champion of the Year award. If I may, I'd like to call upon another one of our Best Buddy champions, Marie Never, who works with us here in the high
school. Marie, if we can, can we recognize our best buddies nominee? Marie, come on up. Do you want to say a few words? Here's my mic.
Good evening, members of the board of education, administrators, and attendees. On behalf of the West Orange High School Best Buddies Friendship Chapter, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude for inviting us here tonight to recognize the accomplishments of Juliana Harris. Your acknowledgement
affirms the value of her hard work, resilience, and determination, but more importantly, it echoes our mission for inclusion for the intellectual developmental disability community. It is an honor for me to share that Juliana is a nominee for Best Buddies Champion of the Year campaign, which honors
leaders in inclusion and ad um and advocacy. Juliana started Best Buddies as a shy and quiet sophomore who did not want to socialize with her peers and prioritize class over any activity that required her to miss it. Juliana loves math and can be found writing numbers in
a notebook throughout the day. When you ask Juliana what she wants to be when she graduates, she will tell you that she wants to be an accountant. And there is no doubt in my mind that she will that she will not achieve this goal. As a senior, she is the secretary of our friendship chapter, eager to be a part
of every activity and initiates new friendships without waiting to be included. This is what Best Buddies is about. It's a beautiful thing to see our students, especially those with intellectual disabil developmental disabilities, advocate for themselves. But the reality is the world outside of
West Orange School District will not be as friendly. And statistically, when they leave the doors of West Orange High School, one in nine will remain unemployed, which is why they need our support more than ever. Tonight, as I stand before you, we ask the board and community members to support Friendship through donating to Juliana's campaign
through the academic year. We respectfully ask and encourage the board to consider broadening their agenda to include all of our special education programs as we continue to share information of upcoming events and collaborations with the Best Buddies organization. We welcome your continued engagement and presence at these
initiatives. Thank you for your ongoing partnership and for your steadfast dedication to fostering an inclusive educational environment for all learners. I have one more. Um Mr. Guerrero could not be here tonight and he asked me to say a few words on his behalf. The high
school administration extends its congratulations to Juliana on her well-deserved nomination for Best Buddies Champion of the Year. We couldn't be more proud of the incredible student she is and everything she has accomplished on her journey. At this time, I'd like Juliana to come
up and receive her achievement. We'll be joined by our board, Maria Vera. Oh, no. Re not anymore, right? Board member now. Sorry, Maria. You guys changed. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Meritus Robert is the vice president people. I'm sorry. Maria Vera. Um, and here's your award. >> I'm sorry. Thank you, Juliana. Congratulations. Next on my next in my report, we're lucky tonight.
Our very own director of early childhood is here this evening to provide an update on our universal prek program. Our director is joined by also also our supervisor. Our director is Kalishia Darlene. Our
supervisor Samantha Arraa um who will when you're ready come on up. We invite you up to the front so you can please give us an update. By the way, Kishia did give uh did represent West Orange at the uh super at the New
Jersey, it's a superintendent school boards association, both superintendent and board members where Kisha spoke about our universal prek and the uh state praised us for so when you're ready come on up and uh
I'll go on the other side. Okay, Kish, you need the mic. Okay. Hello, good evening everyone and thank you for allowing me to present this evening. Um, joining me is Samantha Arakaya. She is the supervisor of early
childhood for our program and we're going to give you an overview. Um it's an abbreviated version of what I presented at the New Jersey school board's presentation. Um just so you can get an idea as to where we are within our fourth year of implementation. So, I had the honor and privilege of
presenting with Tez Roaro, who started the grassroots of this initiative of preschool expansion within West Orange. And she gave the thorough um explanation and highlight of the preschool advocacy that took place for us to implement this
program. and it began in October 2019 and concluded when they were awarded the pea grant for expansion in September 2022. It heavily relied on community partnerships and the PTA council and
private provider interests. They gauged private providers and to see who was willing to participate in the city um and just really ensure that they were a part of the process as they continued the application and drafted everything. And then it was adopted as a district
goal by the board which ensured that it was a priority for the district to make sure that all families were going to be able to participate in this initiative. They received the award on September 8th, 2022. And that's when we were able to create our mini mountaineer program.
And this outline or this design was from Perry Bashoff as well as myself and Superintendent Moore that really signified the change for the district with moving from a K12 model to a preK to 12 model because now we have an entirely different grade level of our
preK3 and PreK4 students and we are ensuring that they are receiving an early education that will support them throughout their entire academic career. Highlights of the application included a mixed model. Um, one of the things that the state really enjoyed in the
application which allowed West Orange application to soar above the rest was the instructional practices as well as the inclusive services of preschool private providers and Head Start. Having those early conversations with preschool
providers really allowed the state to see that we were focused on engaging families that were already participating in some of these programs and in conversations with people that already had child care centers and that was essential to the growth and development of the program essentially because we
did not have space within our district schools. So how are we going to be able to provide this service to reach 90% of our universe which is two times our first grade model. So that would be about 900 kids if we didn't have space. It's utilizing the space that's already
there, developing those partnerships and knowing that the community providers are our partners in this endeavor. So over the course of the last four years, we've been able to expand on that model. The first year, we started with five district classrooms, three head start classrooms, and two private
provider classrooms over three locations. The following year we expanded and we added about six more seven more private provider locations and that included our still five district classrooms, five head start classrooms and then our additional
private provider 12 classrooms there which brought us actually to serving a total of 330 students for the second year. So we went from 150 to 330. In our third year of implementation, we reached 480 students total and that included our 35
inclusion. So, if you're looking at the chart, you can see we constantly increased the number of students that had IEPs within our program with classrooms that were already established for a minimum one year. That way, we could ensure we were providing those services and curriculum implementation
for those teachers prior to having them implement higher skill sets of integrating learning on a higher level. This year we have a capacity of 600 students over 15 locations. That includes our five remaining district classrooms, four Head Start classrooms,
one in Orange, three in Monontlair, and then 31 private provider classrooms. So, as you can see, we've had a progressive expansion to over 40 classrooms to serve the students within our community. So this is a highlight of all of our
locations. We actually have one location in Rosland, one in Orange, one in Montlair, three in Livingston, and then the other nine are in West Orange. So, um, as you may already know, of course, transportation is something that has been a concern, but we do make sure that
parents have the opportunity at all of our private provider locations to participate in before and afterare services, which actually supports curbing that cost for the district. As our program expand to serve 600 students, so has our administrative team. So we started with one
administrator as a supervisor and then one administrative assistant, a person that served a dual role as a preschool instructional coach and PERS and one nurse. And now we've expanded to serving all 40 classrooms with adding a supervisor, myself as director, two
administrative assistants that support our locations, two PICSS and two PERS, in which case they go into the classroom and provide that one-on-one service. They speak to teachers about curriculum engagement, social emotional competencies and provide them that
ongoing support. Um, our CPIS/social worker, the community and parent involvement specialist, works with family workers at our locations to ensure that they have ongoing family and community engagement activities. If parents want to more information about wraparound services and also
coordinating our registration and lottery events. So, it's a lot of different components within our early childhood department. And then our nurse also provides ongoing health and safety reinforcement at all of our locations by making sure that our students are meeting their requirements because as
soon as they come in on our ground level with preschool, they have to make sure they have their immunizations early on as well as their physical and they check all of that. So we're grateful for our ever growing team. What we've identified over the past few
years as our program strengths is we've been able to work on a higher level of understanding of high scope curriculum and implementation. With each year we create or host a high scope training for our new teachers or even with some new
teachers that are onboarded at locations that have been existing for a while. We want to make sure that they have the foundation and a thorough understanding of the curriculum that we're utilizing to reinforce learning with our students. So, we've also developed last year math
guidance for high school that our preschool instructional coaches were able to work on um in collaboration with myself and the previous assistant superintendent. This year, we're going to be focusing on our ELA guidance as well that align with high scope curriculum. So we'll be able to do a
dual focus next year with our roll out that also came with a concentrated approach on reflecting on student data. What child assessment are we using? Does it align the way that we wanted to specifically with our K3 alignment or the expectations and standards for what we want to see with our students when
they reach those grades? And we're able to track that through our I Ready data and to see how our students that have participated in our program are actually performing against students that did not participate in preschool. process and procedures have constantly been updated. As we've gone through this process, we've been able to identify how
we would like teachers to work with students, what additional data we need to collect, anything that's missing with our transitions, and we've developed those processes and actually work with our administrators on them. And then also receive feedback from our families. So, when we're collecting information and surveys, we try to make sure that
every year we're including their responses and in our planning because we want to make sure that we're being responsive to families. Our early childhood advisory council has been played a major role in that as well. So the transition from them being part of those grassroots has actually
established and supported our ongoing early childhood advisory council. They've had the opportunity to provide us feedback before we rolled out processes. Right? So thinking about the lottery over the past couple of years, it has changed because we've also updated the questions based upon parent
feedback, based upon their ongoing engagement. And with registration events, although we have centralized registration to support our families at our various locations, this past year, we took registration to them and we hosted registration nights at all of our private providers, which made it really
easy for families for us to conduct our ongoing update for their residency information. And the parents really enjoyed that as well. With preschool transitions, we try to host our preschool orientation the same way that the elementary schools host kindergarten orientation. So, we have half day and
then all of the preschoolers are invited to come in. Parents are allowed to tour and ask questions at the end of the school year. That way, they're preparing their children for transition in September. Where we continue to face some challenges and we're still developing with growth is provider teacher
retention. Because of the shortage of teachers nationally, teachers are trying to secure tenure. they would like to be hired by school districts and that does pose some challenges for our private providers because they are required to hire teachers that have certifications. So, we've reached out to different
district well different local colleges, informed them of vacancies that we may have and we encourage them to pass out those flyers to their staff or teachers that are um graduating graduating and letting them know that those opportunities are available for them at these private locations and that the
salaries are comparable that they would receive if they were hired by a school district. We're also looking to increase professional development because there is a high turnover rate. Offering additional professional development is essential to teachers being successful in the classroom. So this year, for
example, we've purchased modules that teach teachers pyramid modules or pyramid model practices, which is supporting positive behaviors in the classroom, and they're able to do that independently during their prep time. We're also looking to do earlier recruitment for families, increasing our
advertisement just to make sure that West Orange families know that there is a free pre-K program because we've actually found that not a lot of families know that we're here. So, we've purchased banners and little mailers. That way, we can make sure that we're advertising in different community areas or stores and that our information is
out there and that the mini mountaineer logo is known as the free prek program in West Orange. and then also updating our annual lottery and slot availability. So with the slow increase or steady increase of 150 to 600 students, we're making sure that we're
providing these services to meet the needs of our community, but we also see that a lot of families based upon the changes every year the demographic may change. One year we had a lot of families that were in the Washington area, the following year they were in the Gregory area. So, we're just trying to make sure that we have enough options
for families across the city where you have something that's relatively close to your home. And then transportation. Um, one of the things that we try to work with every year is getting our little ones on the bus. And so, this year we're providing them with their bus IDs and it'll make it easier for their
families to be able to track them on their bus routes. We also switched to centralized pickups. So, we had pickups at the middle schools and that was because the hours were different for the elementary schools and it made it a little bit easier for our families as well. Operations, opportunities, and
considerations. We've really tried to reflect on our growth over the past three or four years and thinking about program hours. All of our preschools have the same program hours as our elementary schools. We recognize that this may pose a challenge for drop off. So, we definitely encourage our sites to
be flexible, but that's also why they host before and afterare services for parents to make it more convenient for them to be able to drop off as well. Our wraparound services, although those are private services hosted by our private provider locations, we try to identify a certain level of equity with the quality
of service as well as the cost to make it efficient for parents. And we still have those ongoing conversations on an annual basis because we do recognize that staffing changes and program changes and that it may increase costs, but we want to make sure there's clarity there for families. And then the
continuity of services. If we have a sibling that is attending Rosland, we want to make sure that if you have a three-year-old that's returning there the next year, then that sibling will be at Rosland as well. So, just looking at how we're doing um our lottery and then also just making sure that we're serving the whole family because we recognize
that you might have siblings in an elementary school. However, because none of our classrooms are in elementary schools, we want to make sure that we're providing you a location that's as close as possible although we are spread out and we appreciate the flexibility that our families have and the feedback they've given to us on their site
assignments as well. And then we've expanded opportunities for inclusion. As you can see, with the steady increase of having six inclusion students all the way now to having an opportunity for 53 students, every year we want to make sure that we're providing opportunities
to increase students to be a part of their least restrictive environment and community collaboration. So for all of our community partners, when families would like to provide us ongoing feedback or contribute to our success, I think the goal is to make sure they're a
part of that conversation. We've encouraged all of our sites to have two part parents as partners that can participate in our ECAC and also provide feedback and updates on their sites because we recognize that each of our locations has an individual gift that they bring to the table or a unique
essence to them and we want to make sure that that's highlighted as well. For the future of UPK, we're looking for continued expansion. We're currently at about 70% this year of our universe and the goal is to serve 90%. We would like
to ensure that we have enough spaces available to serve our entire prek universe. That way, as soon as kindergarten is mandatory in the state of New Jersey, we know all of our students can come into preK and have a prek through grade 12 experience. We're going to be partnering with more local
providers. We have a lot more providers within West Orange now that are interested in partnership. So, we're looking to make sure that we can provide them that opportunity for this experience as well. And then having all of our sites rated by Grow New Jersey Kids, which is the state quality
initiative. So whether it's three stars or five stars, making sure that not only our private provider locations, but also our district locations receive that quality rating. That shows the quality that West Orange is putting forth and requiring of our partners. increase family involvement
opportunities. One of the initiatives that we have for this school year is to have a huge event where we can invite all of our families at all of our locations because we do believe that having collaboration and communication between all of our families is essential to our success. And then continued
alignment with our kindergarten through grade three standards because we want to make sure that we're having the greatest impact on our students. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah, we're just going to move right over to the other side.
are off right now. Y give me one sec. The wheels broke. So >> thank you for that. Uh, did the board have any questions or comments? >> Dr. Thank you for such a thorough presentation complete with numbers which
are my favorite thing. Um, I also I just wanted to commend and just appreciate the focus on curriculum. So many people think that when children are three and four, they're just there kind of like playing with blocks and watching Scooby-Doo. Um it is so important to have high quality
instruction for even the smallest kids. And so I appreciate that and can see it in your commitment to the staffing as well as um in the programming itself. So thank you. >> Thank you. You know, the only question I would have is you you mentioned one of the issues
being not issues, one of the challenges being making the community aware that this opportunity is available for families. Yes. >> And that we are approaching uh 90% of the universe but not fully there.
Right. And as someone who fortunately pre-k didn't exist in West my kids were a pre-K age, you know, having to write those checks to the private providers to pay for prek. Uh finding a way that we
can figure out to let families know that this is available, right? just from a standpoint of getting kids engaged earlier who may not have the opportunity of an early childhood experience,
parents knowing that this is available uh without incurring the cost I think is really essential. So, so my question is what do you think has been the overall challenge in informing parents and meeting that
universe which obviously we have uh you've set that goal it's there and getting people to and getting families to really take advantage of this and meeting that universe which we all want to see. >> Oh absolutely. So I think right now we
are filling the number of spaces that we have essentially. So, we have 600 slots and the goal is to reach at least 850. So, when we continue our expansion, then we'll be able to house those students. What we did this past school year
though, we did create banners. So, if you've driven by Washington Elementary or Hazel, you'll see they have our prek um mini mountaineer banner hanging outside their facility. And it also has a QR code for if parents are interested, then they can scan it and put their information. and they'll be contacted by
RCPIs. Um I think with the expansion and having the seats available, also the advertising, we did registration nights at all the elementary schools and they sent out the reminders as well. But it's the families that are moving in. I can say that from having the conversations with TZ because she is a real estate
agent. That is something that she pushes, right? Free prek in West Orange. And we have more families that are moving in with preschool age children because they want to participate in that process. However, because we're not at 100%, I have families that email me and ask, "How can I guarantee that my child
will receive a space and I want to be at the point where I can say we have spaces for all children?" We also have received phone calls from local providers that are interested in partnership. So, as we continue this expansion, I've received phone calls from Goddard and other locations that are willing to
participate who probably who weren't interested or included on the application before. And I think that that will assist us in that process because they're already serving our West Orange students. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Uh just two quick things. First of all,
um are you at all concerned or I don't want to say nervous. You don't seem like the nervous type, but um that the expansion is going to get ahead of you and that you're not it's going to be too fast or you're not worried about that? >> No. I think that the expansion um is serving
the families and meeting their needs. And I think as long as we continue to grow and appropriately staff and reinforce expectations and that we can reinforce curriculum, family and community engagement, and what we want to identify, and I'll use it because
there's no other better term, but the West Orange way, right? Then I think that we'll be able to meet their needs. and I'm excited about the opportunity. >> So, I just want to commend you and I want to point out that a few years ago when uh Mr. Moore took over this project
right when he got here, yeah, >> it didn't look like this. It's terrific and everyone involved deserves real credit and people should know that this doesn't just happen accidentally. It takes a lot of hard work, leadership from you, from Mr. Moore and it's it's
not it hasn't gone unnoticed. >> No. And I appreciate that and I think it takes leadership and support and I can say once it was adopted as a goal by the board then we definitely were able to take off running and I appreciate all the support that you guys have provided as well
to to congratulate you for the amazing job that you are doing and we can see how it was progressing since 2022 through now and I feel students get ready to go into
the elementary school. >> Yes. >> Beginning uh kindergartens forward because I always think that you know early age is the foundation to grow and the most important is uh that you
identify the students who really need extra support. Yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And we've really pushed ensuring that our Head Start locations are full as well. Although we went from um five classrooms in 2324 to four
classrooms, we really just couldn't push our families to go to the orange location. So we eliminated one, but those four classrooms this year are full. >> Granddaughter was part of the um community house. >> Oh yes.
>> Yes. And uh I always think that you know it's very important >> and in addition to that I call the parents to support with some of the you know little things that you really need in the place and this is amazing. I
really love you know to have the prek in the town because that's the way the kids grow. >> Thank you. >> Right. Thank you for that presentation. Um you looking back over the last five years it's easy to year to year lose the
magnitude of what you've done here. You know that five years ago we had zero prek seats. That first year it seems small with just a half dozen or so classrooms. But to step back now and see that we have 600 kids who are are getting a free high quality high you know good curriculum prek is an amazing
thing. So echo Dr. Iker's comments and I commend all of you for that. Um and I thank you again for your presentation. >> Thank you. As we continue on with uh the superintendent report, I just have two things uh to mention and uh bring
something to the attention of the uh of our school community um and our community at large. On our agenda this evening, you will find a note of recommendation to approve 20 uh 2526 district goals. I'll bring to I'll bring
it to your attention that everyone so everyone understands that the addition of our personal professional and departmental grade level and program goals the district will also focus its energy towards the success in the areas
of of course budget process our new middle school configuration and towards a five-year strategic plan. These goals are outlined in public attachment number 14 to the board and once approved by the board, the goals
will be posted on our district website. Speaking of the strategic plan, I want to extend an invitation to our public to attend a forum on November 13th where we will look to gather input from our
community. Um, this is a very important part of our five-year strategic planning process. We hope we can you can attend an in-person session that which will be conducted in our Tarnoff cafeteria in West Orange High School from 6:00 p.m.
to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, November 13th. For th for those who cannot attend uh the in-person session on the 13th, an online survey will be made available so that you can contribute um suggestions
or comments to our strategic planning process as we feel it is vital to hear from all of you all stakeholders. And finally, at this time, I present the HIV report.
Um, there's been four incidents of a uh investigations of HIV throughout the district and since last month and all have been deemed unfounded. And that concludes my report. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Moore.
>> Now, we have committee reports and comments from the board. Is anything Mr. Stevenson. >> Thank you, President Rock. Thank you, Superintendent Moore. Uh, so again, I just want to again congratulate our early childhood director for the presentation. uh and to really
compliment President Rock and Superintendent Moore and and my fellow board colleagues on your leadership uh with moving this initiative forward and being sensitive to um the adoption of a mixed delivery system in West Orange
that took into consideration our private providers who have been providing early childhood in the town uh being paid by parents and we may not recall the history but there was some concern that those public providers or those private providers would be kind of exed out of
the equation when there was the conversation of West Orange adopting uh universal prek. And I just again I want to commend the leadership of our board, our board members and superintendent Moore who took into consideration those
private providers in West Orange that they weren't excluded that the that the that the shift and the shock was was one of inclusion that provided opportunities those to those providers to provide early childhood. And in this mixed delivery system uh and was presented in
the presentation, the majority of providers are the private providers. And so I think it's important that uh as we community build that the district did not uh provide all of the seats for the early childhood program, but the private providers were
a significant part of it. And I think that's important for the community uh to know and be reminded of that the superintendent and the board was sensitive uh to that, sensitive to the business owners and sensitive to the needs of parents uh who could access
this opportunity across our community and with providers from the adjacent community. So just wanted to say that President Rock. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Anything for Miss Vera? Anything?
Great. Thank you, Dr. Uh just just two things tonight in my vice president's report. Uh the first one is I want to welcome back Dr. Dia Bryant. Um Dr. Bryant has had some family crises lately, one on top of the other on top
of the other. And you know, of course, our heart breaks for her, but really my comments are just to say how much we respect her for maintaining her focus. She's here at the meeting. She's constantly on calls and doing the business of the board of education. So,
I'm sure that the worst is behind you now and we look forward to happy times ahead. Thank you. I want to comment on uh a visit that I had last week to Redwood. Um as you know, I've been going a bunch of us have been going from
school to school. On Friday, I had the pleasure of uh accompanying Miss Maria Vera to uh Redwood. Um I know you've heard this before. But this time, I really mean it. Redwood Redwood is my favorite school.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I just want to tell you what it's like if you haven't been there in a while. You go in and you know, as the kids say, the vibe is just calm and organized and relaxed. It's really a pleasure. And that starts
with uh the principal, principal Kimmy Jackson. And you know, we went into her office and Miss Vera will tell you about some of the issues that she brought up, but it's just a pleasure. And I said, why is it so calm here? And she said,
you know, we know what we're doing. And we had some rough years. We all did, which so co fortunately came and went. The uh I don't know what you would call it. the turnover in the superintendent's office came and went and now we have a
very strong universally respected uh superintendent and they know what they're doing. Um so it was really a pleasure. We saw all kinds of kids in all kinds of classes, special needs,
whatever it was that everything it was great. And on the way out, we got to speak to a few teachers and there were a couple parents in the parking lot. And you know, one of the uh take-home messages was um we have to try to keep
the classes as small as possible. So, everyone knows that. So, how do we do that? To my unsophisticated way of thinking, to keep classes small, you need more teachers. So if classes if
small classes mean kids do better and small classes come from more teachers, that's easy math. We have to have more teachers. I bring that up now in October because come, you know, April and May, we're going to be, you know, doing it
again with the budget. And in February, we're going to find out how much we get or don't get from Trenton. And if there's one lesson that we learned that we should have learned is we have to start prioritizing early. So more
teachers has to be one of the priorities along with the other things like upgrading some of these buildings that are 100red years old. But um again my visit to Redwood was different than the others but just very positive and uh I
appreciate the time that they gave us on a school day. That's my report. Thank you, Mr. Hicker. I'd like to start my board president's report with all of you now and highlight Hazel Elementary School, celebrating our community. One world, one goal, learning, playing,
winning together. Just like the teams who come together from all around the globe, students and staff are united in our mission to learn with curiosity, play with joy, and win together by supporting one another as a community. We are thrilled to share some exciting highlights from our school so far this year. Hazel is proud to
announce the launch of our Satan Hall Prep tutors program. 55 dedicated Seatan Hall prep students, many in AP and honors courses are volunteering their time to tutor Hazel students after school. So far, over 60 Hazel Eagles have received extra support in both ELA and math, building skills, confidence,
and a love of learning. Recently, Hazel's Alive with culture and creativity during Hispanic Heritage Month. Our Hazel PTA organized a vibrant Hispanic heritage festival for students and families to enjoy featuring music, dance, and cultural activities. Students also participated in a schoolwide
Hispanic heritage assembly presenting a journey through Latin percussion with performances by the artistic group Samba to salsa. Every Tuesday, Hazel proudly host Tony's Kitchen Free Farmers Market, providing fresh produce and resources to support our family's health and well-being. Student council elections
have successfully taken place at Hazel, empowering Hazel Eagles to take active roles in shaping our school community. Uh Hazel also hosted a teacher wellness day sponsored by Alliance Orthopedics to support the health and well-being of our staff. Our Hazel Corner Shop pantry continues to serve families every other
Monday providing essential shelf stable food. The Hazel PTA held a coat drive ensuring our students and families stay warm as the colder months approach. Hazel PTA also organized Hazel Garden Cleanup Day, beautifying our campus and fostering pride in our shared spaces. And finally, in partnership with the
West Orange Hispanic Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas, Hazel hosted a community flu shot clinic, helping our community healthy this stay healthy this season. Through programs like these, Hazel continues to embody the theme of one world, one goal, learning, playing, winning together. Every day, our Eagles, curiosity, joy,
and teamwork strengthen the bond of our school community. They are very busy at Hazel Elementary. Uh, next to wrap up my report, I do want to mention the New Jersey School Boards Association workshop. Mr. Moore had referenced that before. Uh, team from the district was able to go last week down to Atlantic
City. It's the annual uh, convention of schoolboard members along with school business administrators and school administrators. Uh, as docu Mr. Moore mentioned, we had uh, some of our staff present sessions. We did have Kalishia Dorene and as the director of prek and
uh TZ Ro who at the time was the president of the council of PTAs and as Kisha mentioned she was instrumental in that origin story of the prek program. The two of them co-presented a session along with staff from the New Jersey Department of Education about how our
mixed model delivery system worked here uh to other districts that were looking to implement something similar. uh Phil Santiago our director of technology also presented a session which I wasn't able to go to but I think Mr. more and some other people were there. Uh so congratulations to them on their presentations. Uh next one of the
sessions I went to uh was on strategic financial planning. Um something that we talked a lot about. Uh it was presented by two superintendent from districts who uh essentially shared that every district in New Jersey is facing the same financial problems that we are. Uh
they started the session with a joke about two guys who are in the woods and a bear walks up and the one guy looks at the other guy and says, "I hope you're fast because we got to un outrun this bear. And the other guy says, "I don't have to outrun the bear. I just have to outrun you." The moral of their story was that you
can't outrun the bear or the fiscal crisis that every district is facing. You can just try to do a little bit better than the the place down the road and do a little bit better and and minimize the problems that you have to deal with every year. Um so that was the bad news that there is no solution. They didn't have any magic bullets. They did
share a few uh solutions, things that we've been doing here. Um but the sad truth is that every district across the state is facing similar problems and we'll continue to tackle them as best we can uh as as things go forward. And the last thing which also relates to this is
the uh legislative panel at um two state senators to assembly people talked about a number of issues. One of them was school funding and the school funding formula. uh last year the formula itself wasn't changed but the governor did make a few uh changes to the process and how
it was calculated. The vibe I seem to get from them was that the legislature wants to take a little more control of that. Uh the good news is that they will probably be looking at it and making some changes. That could be minimal in which case it won't change much. Uh but it could also be more significant. Um,
it sounds like those changes will happen either in the lame duck period after this election season between November and December or it could happen early in the next term when the legislature reconvenes in January and February. Uh, I know community members have been asking how can we help? What should we
be lobbying for? And I would say, you know, stay tuned because the train may be about to to leave the station. Uh, and as we learn things and have things that we should be asking for, we'll be communicating that to all of you. Uh but the most important thing is just to get in touch with your elected officials and tell them that as Trenton is making
decisions about our schools, don't forget about West Orange. That concludes my report and next we will have questions from the public on agenda items only. Any community member who would like to make comments or ask questions, please come to the podium at
this time. Please state your name and home address for the record, then begin your comments. Uh please limit your comments to 3 minutes. Do we have any members of the public here in the audience tonight who wish to make a public comment? We do have another period for comment after for unrelated things.
>> All right. Hi, good evening. William Dano, 84 Cooane Terrace. Uh, good evening. On behalf of the West Orange Parents for Education, I want to thank the board and administration for the recent budget sessions you were talking about. They've been both fruitful and constructive, and we appreciate the
openness and time devoted to helping our community better understand the district's financial realities. I encourage more parents to attend and engage with our district as well. And I'm thrilled about the prek updates. Um, it's one of the places that the state is fully funding. So, I think that's a reflection of kind of like what we're
all of us are advocating for here and highlights what happens when you have the correct amount of funding from the state. Um, I'm sure I share all of your concerns about what's happening in Monontlair is unsettling to say the least. And I'd like to thank everyone here for at least keeping us not like
that. Um, and uh and making the hard fiscal decisions that um other districts can have not. Um, but I think it's also a reminder of the financial pressures that were districts like ours are facing and are still very real. Um, and uh, while their situation may be more
extreme to Dr. Iker's point, um, we could find ourselves confronting similar decisions uh, this year. So, as we head into the next budget process, I want to acknowledge that there are still underlying concerns among parents that persist today. I am here every, you know, most meetings and acknowledging
this, but what I hear from the parents on the black tops and at schools and at the soccer games is still a sense of confusion and frustration. And I know that you are all doing your darnest to address those things. So, these concerns come from a place of care, but parents want to understand and help protect the
quality of education in West Orange in the future. Um, my group still continues to advocate for the creation of a budget advisory committee. I'm absolutely looking forward to the next budget session and the um the town hall that's coming up. I'll look forward to those, but we still are asking for the advisory
committee and tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to speaking with both Dr. Dia Bryant and Dr. Ifker as well. Um thank you for your continued engagement with the entire process and the parents of this town. So that's it. Thank you very much. Larry Wra 76 Cobain Terrace. Um I I just
want to uh commend the board on putting a goal for having a five-year plan on the you know as as this year's goal. I cannot uh nothing you and as has been discussed in these budget sessions which have been
fantastic and really kudos to all of the board members who've attended uh and to the business administration staff who have been really open and engaging um with the questions uh that we've had there and it's it's it's been a a real
trust building process and um I think in this environment in the world today nothing is more important Uh so I also I just really want to we we know from those and we know that you
know um that uh this budget crisis is uh you know the structural budget deficit is not going to get miraculously any better anytime soon. And so it's really important uh to have a long-term plan. Uh, and I'm I'm really thrilled uh both
that the board has set that goal and uh at the near-term community engagement that's going to occur for that. And I really hope uh that as a member of the community um that we can somehow disperse this information to all of the
parents and all of the taxpayers and restaurants so that everybody understands what's coming um and we don't get uh a big free-for-all of everybody trying to save their pet programs in in May. And so thank you
Are we good? Okay. All right. Thank you all for that. Um, we will move on to our resolutions at this time. May I have a motion to approve the personnel items A1 through A6? >> So move, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Is there a second? Second.
>> Thank you, Mr. Ifer. Uh, want to congratulate the following retirees. Wendy Giuliano, a reading specialist at Washington Elementary School for her 16 years of service. Latimer, a ESL teacher at Washington Elementary School for her 34 years of service. Mary Corlli, a pair professional at Liberty Middle School
for her 18 years of service. Maria de Martinez, a par profofessional at Liberty Middle School for her 20 years of service. And Gary Fleming, a custodian at Gregory Elementary for his three years of service. Thank you all for your service to the West Orange students in our school community. Best wishes to you on behalf of the board of
education and welcome to the club where every day is Saturday. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, Miss Flowers, please take the role. >> Dr. Bryant, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Miss Vera, >> yes.
>> Vice President Eker, >> yes. >> President Rock, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. And next, may I have a motion to approve the curriculum and instruction items B1 through B12? >> Motion. >> Thank you, Dr. Bry. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Ver. Any discussion?
>> Seeing none, Miss Flowers, please take the role. >> Dr. Bryant, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Miss Vera, >> yes. >> Vice President, >> yes. >> President Rock, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Next, may I have a motion to approve the
finance item C. Special services items A 1 through 3 and business office items B 1-9. >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. Mr. Flowers, please take the role.
>> Dr. Bryant, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Miss Vera, >> yes. >> Vice President, >> yes. >> President Rock, >> yes. >> Thank you. All right. And next, may I have a motion to approve reports items D1 through two? So,
>> thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Vera. Uh, any discussion? Seeing none, please take uh Miss Flowers, please take the role. >> Dr. Bryant, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Miss Vera, >> yes. >> Vice President,
>> yes. >> President Rock, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> And finally, may I have a motion to approve miscellaneous item E1? motion. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Hker. Is there any discussion?
Right. Uh, this is the portion that includes the district goals. Um, and I would just want to echo the comments about the five-year strategic plan. This is something that has been a long time coming. We've had a lot of transitions over the last few years. We finally have a stable and long-term superintendent. Mr. Moore is going to be here for next
20 years or so. ever. >> It's a you know, we we put it off a little bit in the transition when we had Dr. Shan here for a bit, but now that you're here, looking forward to you putting your stamp on the future of this district for these five years and hopefully another five or 10 or 15 after that.
[Laughter] >> We'll see. Miss Flowers, would you please take the role? >> Dr. Bryant, >> yes. >> Mr. Stevenson, >> yes. >> Miss Vera, >> yes. Vice President, >> yes. >> President Rock,
>> yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much to all my board colleagues for that. Next up, we have petitions and hearings of citizens for any agenda or non-aggenda item that you wish to discuss. You will have three minutes to speak. Please approach approach the podium at this time. State
your name, address for the record. >> Hey everybody, good evening. My name is Jaclyn Hendy, 6 Beverly Road. Um, I have a question. Um, I just I'm very concerned about what we're hearing on the news regarding I'm sorry I'm going to be a little political, but I'm sorry
it has to come out. Um, regarding the um current administration's refusal to release the USDA funds to support SNAP. Um, in light of that, I'm wondering what efforts the school district is going to do to try to fill in those gaps to keep our children fed. I understand we have
the free and reduced lunch programs, but perhaps we can consider some kind of zerowaste pilot where and we just have pre-approved items that if the children aren't consuming them on their lunch that we set them aside into a separate pantry that perhaps they can children in
need can then go and bring it home to maybe a sibling or a parent who might need a little bit of additional nutritional support. Um, that's really it. Oh, one other thing. And um the last um the PTAs, I don't know how well I'm
not I haven't been able to go to the PTA. I'm very busy. After November 4th, I'll be very much less busy. Um but I'm wondering how they communicate with each other because I'm concerned about Washington kind of being left as kind of the one who doesn't get all any sunshine because and this is just because the of
the demographics of the neighborhood of the people who are zoned for that school district. they just don't have the means, the free time. You know, you have a single working parent, you have dual working parents, sometimes working multiple jobs. So, how do we get these PTAs communicating and sharing resources
a little bit more so that Washington might be able to get a pretty mural sometime or even some greenery around their playground where they're not looking at cars? like what can we do as a community to look at this holistically as opposed to you know you know some schools districts are just going to always have deeper pockets than
Washington will and and I'm assuming Hazel as well though I think Hazel has a little bit more of a a range and um wealth I guess for lack of a better word um I think that's it thank you guys appreciate it
good evening No, six pow drive. Um, you know, I am running for board of ed and I'm not here to talk about the campaign. Um, I'm here to speak as a parent, neighbor, and a proud member of this community. Um, this campaign season has been learning experience in so many
ways attest. While I've been deeply moved by the encouragement and support from so many across West Orange, I've also witnessed something that should give us all pause. What began as a healthy civic engagement has at times been overshadowed by negativity,
misinformation, and personal attacks, including anti-Muslim samir campaign directed at me. These actions go beyond politics. They send the wrong message to our children about how adults handle disagreements and how we treat one another when we seek to serve. West
Orange is better than that. Our children deserve to see leadership that reflects the values we teach them every day. kindness, respect, honesty, and courage. So tonight, I ask our board and district leadership to consider what is our
collective responsibility to ensure that candidates for the board of education now and in future elections are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect. And equally important, what can we do to set a public example that reflects the inclusive, compassionate spirit of West
Orange? After every campaign, we will still be neighbors. We will still see each other at school events, on soccer fields, in the grocery store. Our children will still learn side by side. And that's what makes our town so special. And that's what we must
protect. Thank you. Nicole Rufo for Overlook Avenue West Orange. During my 12 years as a West Orange resident, I have been the campaign manager for four board of education candidates. I have seen and heard whisper campaigns in every one of
them. Often they are harmless and try to sway people to not vote for certain candidates. Working on NOHA's campaign has been a very different experience. We have been subjected to very dangerous and hateful accusations that are full of racism and Islamophobia.
They are mostly online, often by anonymous people, and have never had any proof to back them up. Noa is our neighbor, a mom of three West Orange students, and is currently running for the board of education because she wants to serve her community. We made a choice early on in the
campaign to lead a joyful issue-driven campaign and focus on the students and the success of West Orange School District. We have had a wonderful time meeting the West Orange residents on the campaign trail, being with other board of ed candidates at the forums and debates and truly wanting to make the West Orange community the most inclusive
and supportive environment that it can be. One of the accusations is that West Orange students would not be safe with NOHA on the board of education. With the current accusations and the newest video that is being circulated, I would say that it's actually her own children and Muslim students who might be in critical
danger. Another dangerous message is that the use of Islamophobic tropes, labeling a fellow neighbor as someone who wants to take over the West. At this point, we are not worried if NOHA wins or loses this campaign because of this hateful rhetoric. We know that voters have a choice and that choice
will be made on election day. We are worried about how this is dividing our town and the safety of our neighbors. And with this kind of Islamophobia, even though it's targeted at Noha, you must understand that all of our Muslim neighbors feel these as personal attacks. Just because someone is Muslim
or wears a hijab does not mean that they are a threat to society. In closing, my question for the board of education is how as current leaders will you address this situation when members of our community are targeted and attacked? Do we stay silent? Do we whisper to our
friends and family on the side, "Oh, how difficult that must be to say but say nothing in public." As Dr. Martin Luther King said, "The time comes when silence is betrayal, and that time has come for us today." Thank you. I I just want to say that I appreciate
all calls for civility and kindness and so far I think uh the campaign has been pretty calm. We've shown nothing but respect towards each other, the candidates. Um, the call for civility is
to me about two years late because I could have used it when the crowd that chose not to stand for the pledge of allegiance was following me to my car. Having said that, this is what it is. Unfortunately, when you run in America, I have to look over my shoulder. People
say bad things, some true, some not true. Um, I appreciate the call to civility. Better late than never. Thank you. >> Thank you all for your comments this evening. Uh, anything you wanted to add,
Mr. Moore. >> Our council of PTAs are just to answer the PTA question. the council of PTAs with Steven Little. Um they're always looking for uh people to uh communicate with them and um and uh and I think it's a great way to communicate to get things
out to all PTAs, not you know, not just one or two, but to all and um your message um is pretty universal. And uh absolutely uh I think if you would uh grab the council PTAs, they can get other PTAs aware of it and maybe we can
come together as a community to take a look at Washington or anywhere else that needs to be uh a little more attention. But I think we have to rope in the council of PTAs as it's an organization that is a community-based um and it's and it's supposed to be our unifier of
uh parent parent groups. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mr. Moore. Uh, thank you very much to my board colleagues. Our next board meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on November 10th, 2025. This meeting will be held in the West Orange High School Library Media Center. We will not be going into executive session after the close of
this meeting. There will be no further business discussed and no additional action will be taken. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Thank you, Mr. Stevenson. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Ker. Uh, all in favor? >> I. >> Thank you all for joining us tonight. Our meeting is now adjourned. We wish
you a good night.