[0:01] Good evening.

[0:03] I would like to call this meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please, Ms.

[0:07] Cappiello?

[0:09] Ms. Carbonell?

[0:10] Present.

[0:11] Mr. Kohan?

[0:12] Here.

[0:16] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[0:16] Here.

[0:18] Mrs. Faria?

[0:18] Here.

[0:18] Mr. McDowell?

[0:21] Mrs. Munisi?

[0:23] Mr. Nesta?

[0:24] Here.

[0:24] Ms. Santana?

[0:25] Present.

[0:27] Mrs. Scott-Hayden?

[0:28] Here.

[0:29] Please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

[0:32] Mr. McDowell?

[0:33] Both of you. Begin.

[0:38] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the

[0:43] Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with

[0:49] liberty and justice for all.

[0:55] Our mission statement is to empower and inspire every student, every

[1:01] day.

[1:03] Ms. Kuhn, will you please read the Open Public Meetings Act statement?

[1:08] In accordance with the provision of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, the

[1:12] Township of Union Board of Education has caused this notice of this meeting to be

[1:17] published by having the date, time, and place thereof published on the board's

[1:22] official internet website with a direct hyperlink to legal notice,

[1:28] conspicuously placed on the website's home page, posted in the administrative

[1:34] building at 2369 Morris Avenue, Union, New Jersey, filed with the township clerk,

[1:39] and mailed to all persons, if any, who have requested said notice.

[1:44] Thank you so much. The board will go into executive session to discuss personnel

[1:48] and legal issues, and actions will be taken.

[1:51] May I have a motion to move into executive session?

[1:53] So moved.

[1:54] Second. Any discussion?

[1:57] Seeing none, the motion has been properly moved by Vice President Kohan and

[2:00] seconded by Chasity Santana. Can I have a roll call, please, Ms. Cappiello?

[2:04] Ms. Carbonell?

[2:05] Yes.

[2:06] Mr. Kohan?

[2:07] Yes.

[2:08] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[2:09] Yes.

[2:10] Mrs. Faria?

[2:11] Yes.

[2:12] Mrs. Munisi?

[2:13] Yes.

[2:14] Mr. Nesta?

[2:15] Yes.

[2:16] Ms. Santana?

[2:17] Yes.

[2:17] Mrs. Scott-Hayden?

[2:18] Yes.

[2:22] That's the one I'm still hearing.

[5:29] Madam President, I move we rise from executive session, go back to public session.

[5:35] The motion has been properly moved and seconded.

[5:38] Moved by Vice President Kohan and seconded by Nancy Munisi.

[5:41] Can I have a roll call, please, to move back into regular session?

[5:45] Ms. Carbonell?

[5:48] Yes.

[5:49] Mr. Kohan?

[5:50] Yes.

[5:51] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[5:52] Yes.

[5:52] Mrs. Faria?

[5:53] Yes.

[5:54] Mr. McDowell?

[5:55] Yes.

[5:56] Mrs. Munisi?

[5:57] Yes.

[5:57] Mr. Nesta?

[5:58] Yes.

[5:58] Ms. Santana?

[5:59] Yes.

[6:00] Mrs. Scott-Hayden?

[6:03] Yes.

[6:06] Next, we have the approval of the minutes.

[6:08] May I have a motion to approve the following minutes, the August 18th 2026 regular

[6:12] meeting, and also the August 18th 2026 executive sessions number one and two?

[6:19] So moved.

[6:22] Do I hear a second?

[6:25] Second. Approval of the minutes, we need a second.

[6:27] Second. Thank you. The motion has been properly moved by Mr.

[6:30] Nesta and seconded by Mrs. Munisi. Can I have a roll call, please, Ms. Cappiello?

[6:34] Ms. Carbonell?

[6:35] Yes.

[6:35] Mr. Kohan?

[6:36] Yes.

[6:37] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[6:38] Yes.

[6:38] Mrs. Faria?

[6:40] Abstain.

[6:42] Mr. McDowell?

[6:43] Yes.

[6:44] Mrs. Munisi?

[6:45] Abstain.

[6:47] Mr. Nesta?

[6:48] Yes.

[6:49] Ms. Santana?

[6:50] Abstain.

[6:52] Mrs. Scott-Hayden?

[6:53] Yes. Motion carried.

[6:57] Next, we have our communications that are reflected on the operations and personal

[7:01] agendas. You can review them at your leisure.

[7:08] And then we will move into

[7:12] comments from the public on resolutions.

[7:16] Before we move into comments from the public, I would like to say good evening to

[7:20] everyone. I would like to take a moment to thank you for being here today.

[7:24] And as we begin the public comment portion of this meeting, I want to remind

[7:27] everyone that we value your input and appreciate your time and effort in sharing

[7:32] your thoughts and concerns. We ask that all comments be respectful and constructive

[7:38] as we aim to foster a productive dialogue that benefits our community and the work

[7:43] that we are here to do. Each speaker will be given three minutes to address the

[7:48] board. Please remember that while we are eager to hear your perspectives, we are

[7:53] unable to engage in a discussion during this portion of the meeting.

[7:57] However, your comments will be carefully considered by the board and, if necessary,

[8:02] followed up upon. With that being said, I want to call the first person who is

[8:07] speaking on the resolutions only, and that is Virginia Jeffries.

[8:15] I'm re-- I'm re--

[8:17] I only have one person.

[8:17] Yes. We only have one person, Ms. Jeffries.

[8:20] Okay.

[8:31] Virginia Jeffries, 236 Brighton Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey.

[8:35] Board President Scott-Hayden, good evening board members, staff, and members of the

[8:39] public in attendance physically and virtually.

[8:43] Corrections and questions on the agenda are the minutes and bills.

[8:48] For the approval of minutes of the August 8-- 18th 2026 regular meeting,

[8:56] amendments to the minutes need to be made as there was an essential omission in

[8:59] regarding to the following: Franklin Elementary

[9:04] This was the main statement I made, yet it is not existent.

[9:08] The June 26, 2026, LRFP, Long Range Facility Plan, does not

[9:14] have the closure of Franklin School Elementary, nor the proposal to convert to

[9:20] a pre-K/K school. Under Lehigh Avenue, 855 Lehigh Avenue,

[9:27] I specifically asked, do the auditors have access and/or a copy of this

[9:32] lease? This needs to be amended to include that question.

[9:37] Under Approval of Bills, Northeastern Interior Services,

[9:42] 224,000-plus. What is this contract award amount?

[9:48] What is the length of this contract to be in effect?

[9:51] And is this in the 2026-'27 budget?

[9:55] The Township of Union for custodial services, over $62,000.

[10:01] What is the contract award amount?

[10:03] What is this length of this contract to be in effect?

[10:06] What are the services to be contracted for?

[10:08] Is this in the 2026-2027 budget? And what will be the status of the current

[10:14] custodial staff?

[10:17] Under Jewish Vocational Services of MetroWest, Liberty Science Center, and Pearson

[10:22] Education, these are lost checks. Why are there so many lost checks?

[10:29] And Delan

[10:31] Financial Services, over $255,000. Is there a contract?

[10:38] What is the contract award amount?

[10:40] And what is the length of this contract to be in effect?

[10:44] After the executive session last week, a resolution for a student pen trip to visit

[10:50] a professional sports team was passed.

[10:53] When will this resolution be put on the agenda for any upcoming board of education

[10:58] meetings? Thank you.

[11:00] Okay, so I believe your questions were also emailed.

[11:04] So our board secretary/business administrator is prepared to answer some of your

[11:10] questions, Sia, probably.

[11:11] I'm sorry, I didn't hear what you were saying.

[11:13] The mic didn't-

[11:13] She's here to answer some of your questions. You did submit that via email?

[11:17] Yes, I did.

[11:17] So our board secretary/board business administrator is prepared to answer the

[11:22] probably majority of your questions.

[11:23] Thank you.

[11:24] Mm-hmm.

[11:24] Okay, good evening.

[11:29] However, moving forward, basically, I responded to all the questions, they were

[11:33] highlighted in purple, and I'm

[11:37] wanting to encourage the community to follow protocol and fill out the

[11:43] open request form and send it to me, as I was omitted from that

[11:50] email.

[11:53] I've also attached the link for your convenience.

[12:01] Regarding the minutes.

[12:04] In New Jersey public schools, as a business administrator, board secretary, the

[12:10] minutes serve as the official legal record of what occurred and what action the

[12:15] board took at its meeting. They are not intended to be a word-for-word

[12:20] transcript of everything everyone says.

[12:25] Under the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA

[12:30] 10:4-14, the board must keep reasonable,

[12:36] comprehensive minutes. At a minimum, the minutes must show

[12:42] the time, place of the meeting, the members present, the subjects considered,

[12:48] action taken, and a vote of each member, along with anything else

[12:53] specifically required by law. Generally,

[12:59] comments do not need to be recorded verbatimly.

[13:03] The statute requires reasonable comprehensive minutes, not a transcript.

[13:10] As it pertains to the Northeastern Interior service bills,

[13:16] your question was what was the contract awarded amount?

[13:19] The awarded amount is $224,700. Your question,

[13:25] what is the length of the contract to be in effect?

[13:28] The length of this contract would be in effect when the job is completed.

[13:34] There were painting and ceilings, and a lot of other work done over the summer.

[13:39] The districts estimated the time of the project to end by August

[13:45] 2026 for the start of the new school year, and we did reach that

[13:51] goal.

[13:53] Franklin was opened,

[13:55] and it was a nice building.

[13:57] Mm-hmm.

[13:59] The next question is, is this in the '26-'27 budget?

[14:04] The answer was no, it is not in the '26-'27 budget.

[14:08] However, the purchase order and work began at the end of last year's school year,

[14:14] hence we used the funds from '25-'26 school year's budget.

[14:21] Next question was

[14:26] the Township of Union check for 62,500. What is the contract amount?

[14:32] The award is 125 for the year. The length of this contract is five years.

[14:39] What are the service to be contracted for?

[14:42] The service is to be contracted for the collection of our solid waste.

[14:46] Is this in the '26-'27 budget? Yes.

[14:51] What is the status of the current custodial staff?

[14:54] Need more clarification on this question, because I'm not sure exactly what you're

[15:01] asking about custodial.

[15:06] As far as the Jewish Vocational, Liberty Science, and Pearson's Education,

[15:13] why are there lost checks? There are

[15:17] various reasons to reissue checks when the original amount cannot be either

[15:23] deposited, processed, or accounted for properly.

[15:26] It could have been lost, stolen, or damaged check.

[15:30] It could be basically the original check was lost in the mail, misplaced by a

[15:36] payee, stolen or damaged the physical check at the point where the bank

[15:41] could not process it. It could be incorrect payment details.

[15:46] The check could've been printed with errors, such as a misspelled payee

[15:52] or a missing signature. Or it could be expired stale date

[15:57] checks. The payee failed to cash or deposit a check within the validity of

[16:02] typically the 90 to 18 days, making it expired under banking

[16:08] rules.

[16:10] It could be the mailing or address change.

[16:14] The vendor could have not updated us with their correct

[16:19] mailing address, and it was undeliverable by postal service.

[16:24] Could be a stop payment issue. Accounts payable proactively

[16:30] can place a stop payment on a check if there's a suspicion of fraud or a double

[16:36] payment or a dispute. Could be a bank process failure, or it could

[16:42] be a return check.

[16:46] So that was that. And last, you wanted to know about Delan Financial

[16:51] Service. Is there a contract? Yes. This is a lease contract for five years.

[16:58] It is for our Cisco firewall at Jefferson and the high school.

[17:03] This is year three of five. And what is the contract amount?

[17:07] The contract amount is $390,320.69.

[17:13] And you wanted to know what was the contracted

[17:18] length of that contract, which is five years.

[17:22] Thank you, Madam President.

[17:23] Thank you, Board Secretary Clooney.

[17:27] We have no more comments from the public regarding resolutions, so with that

[17:33] being said, we're now moving on to the superintendent's report.

[17:57] Thank you, Madam President.

[18:00] Welcome, everyone.

[18:04] So-

[18:06] Some of the things I'm going to be highlighting is over the opening of the year,

[18:09] first of all, I think our district had a very successful opening of the year.

[18:13] I had to unfortunately make a lot of changes over the course of a couple of months.

[18:17] And with that said, I do believe

[18:21] there was some things we're still working on.

[18:24] But for the most part, very minor with all the changes we made.

[18:29] So I think it was very successful. Plus,

[18:32] out on social media, you saw some of the highlights of our kids with smiles coming

[18:36] to our schools, and that's what it's really about and the importance of that.

[18:40] And I'll highlight some of the other things that we did during the opening.

[18:44] But again, as we keep bringing perspective to school funding, this is something we

[18:48] started last year. I just want to put in perspective

[18:54] where we ended, where we're at right now,

[18:59] and reflecting on that October 15th date, that's so important because that's the

[19:04] snapshot that the state uses on funding.

[19:09] So if you see where that 7,671

[19:14] was lower in a sense than the previous year, but we

[19:20] grew throughout that year by June 16th to surpass that October 15th date,

[19:26] which brought us back up to around our district's average.

[19:28] And it happens every year. Year after year, we start off lower,

[19:35] so we don't get a great October 15th date, and then by the end of the year, we

[19:39] grow.

[19:42] So again, why? I think we get a lot of people

[19:47] transient that look to migrate to our district throughout the year.

[19:54] So I think, again, when we look at that 7,497, we'll be back up over the October

[20:01] from the year before and also our June 16th.

[20:04] I think we'll grow during the year to get close to that.

[20:08] The other thing I want everyone to realize is

[20:12] at the end of the year, obviously you have your graduates.

[20:18] That drops your enrollment, but then you have new people registering.

[20:21] What's surprising is from who we could roll over from

[20:27] last year, so anyone that wasn't in our system, is our new registrations, our new

[20:33] enrollment. If you look at from June 15th to September 15th, we registered

[20:39] 772 new people. But what's really surprising is look at that last week of

[20:45] August. It's really pretty much the last week of August because we're about 50/50.

[20:50] We registered 321 kids from August 24th to now and 171 from September 1st to

[20:56] now.

[20:57] Mm.

[20:58] Very busy time. A lot of people coming to our district to start the year.

[21:04] Still didn't bring us to where we were last October 15th, but we'll grow

[21:10] again throughout the year.

[21:12] Just wanted to highlight because we made so many changes.

[21:15] And when you're doing all these changes with boundary lines, going K to 5 on a

[21:21] school district,

[21:23] we did a lot of estimating, but this really shows we balanced out our elementary

[21:28] schools. Washington, obviously, is the one that's always been the biggest.

[21:33] It is still a little bigger, but if you look at all our other schools, they're not

[21:37] far apart from each other. So our enrollment really did balance out at the

[21:41] elementary level. The other thing I want to highlight is Kiwame is a much, in a

[21:47] sense, square footage, smaller school.

[21:49] They're not far off from Burnet on the numbers.

[21:52] Usually, in the past, Burnet could be over 1,000, and Kiwame could be more like 700

[21:58] instead of that 756. So their gap also is getting closer.

[22:03] Again, just perspective on our district enrollment.

[22:07] So yearly, we always have to report on our graduation data.

[22:11] So the way the state looks at your graduation data, it's that 2026

[22:17] cohort. Those are students that started with us freshman year.

[22:21] So our number was 636 that could have graduated from us starting freshman

[22:27] year.

[22:28] Why that's important, because sometimes kids don't stay with you all four years.

[22:34] And if they don't go to another district, they still are in our number.

[22:41] So there's a lot of different things that can happen.

[22:43] There's kids that could say they're moving to a district, be 17, and never enroll.

[22:49] So that's still an unverified student because the state keeps track of it through

[22:52] another

[22:54] school student ID, but a state ID. So it's also, this is not including, we

[23:00] have special ed students that stay with us past senior year.

[23:03] They stay with us for extra years up until they can't turn 21.

[23:08] But those don't count in these numbers because they're still students with us.

[23:16] So

[23:18] we ended up

[23:20] starting with 636, but we ended up graduating

[23:25] 600 between the end of the year and the seven we graduated over the

[23:31] summer. So we ended up graduating 593, and seven didn't

[23:37] walk, but they finished over the summer, which this is why the state asks districts

[23:42] to report how many more graduates we were able to now report.

[23:48] Mm-hmm.

[23:48] So

[23:50] our graduation rate technically went from 93.2 to 94.3.

[23:54] The only other thing is now the appeal process comes in, so there is a chance out

[24:00] of the, I think it's like 19 students that now we're identifying possibly

[24:05] unverified.

[24:06] Mm-hmm.

[24:08] We're going to have to figure that out, and some might be an appeal that we could

[24:12] end up going up a little bit more again.

[24:15] But

[24:16] again, we started with about 607, I think, seniors to start, or

[24:22] right over to 600, seniors to start the year, in their senior year.

[24:27] So it's a lot of people say, "Well, you graduated 600, and you started with like

[24:31] 607 or 613," something like that. "Why isn't your rate higher?" Because the state

[24:37] looks at it based on your cohort.

[24:41] And again, it doesn't make sense a lot of times, but that's why.

[24:46] So again, if kids are with us and Dr.

[24:50] Rodriguez, I think brought up a good point.

[24:52] If we get a transfer to us midstream that now we're taking on, it'll count towards

[24:58] our cohort, and if that person was not on track to graduate, it could end up

[25:02] hurting us in our data because we have to now keep the child back when they came to

[25:07] us at senior year a year behind, but we're going to be penalized on that in the

[25:13] attendance enrollment.

[25:17] So I just want to highlight, we did a lot of work with, and thank you to the

[25:20] community, thank you to our staff, thank you to the board, thank you to Dr.

[25:23] Rodriguez. We did what we call the CARES Team.

[25:29] The state really wants to put a lot of emphasis on the schools to make sure their

[25:33] kids are in school. We know that kids can't learn if they're not in school.

[25:37] But this is a number we want to get smaller, and we did over the course of the year

[25:42] with what was put in place, and it was our schools, our educators, the teams at

[25:47] each building, working with community and parents to make sure their kids were

[25:51] coming to school, and we dropped in one year over 20% throughout the whole

[25:55] district. We have a ways to go.

[25:58] But again, it's another thing that the state identifies if a school is chronically

[26:02] absent, if it's above 10%. Again, it's not an easy math the way they look at it.

[26:08] It's total number of days. So

[26:12] all our kids might be there for what's allowed under 18 absences, but we might

[26:17] still be chronically absent because the number of days missed in that school.

[26:20] Mm-hmm.

[26:20] But we're trending in the right direction what we're doing.

[26:23] We just need parents to make sure they're communicating with the school and only

[26:27] keeping their kids home if it's for a legitimate reason.

[26:31] Vacations impact our district, and obviously, it also hurts because the child could

[26:36] be behind. And that's something we were working on last year.

[26:39] A lot of parents didn't realize taking their kid out for three weeks before

[26:42] Christmas impacted the district, and it does.

[26:47] So we're going to continue to work on that.

[26:50] These are some of the open houses already happened, but just want to remind

[26:55] everyone in the community our open house dates.

[26:59] We had a great opening of school. Thank you to Ms. Hall, who's sitting here today.

[27:03] She was the one that recommended Brandon McCall, who goes around.

[27:06] Right before us, he flew from Los Angeles, where he spent like 17 days-

[27:13] 17 schools, where he hit every school in LA and then came to

[27:19] us. They hired him to go to every school.

[27:22] Really does impact with the children, and Ms.

[27:24] Hall brought him in last year, really connected, and he sent a great message

[27:31] to our staff on the opening days of school.

[27:33] So again, I thought it was a great opening with Mr. McCall.

[27:41] We had our ribbon cutting at the pre-K center at Franklin. It was awesome.

[27:47] We got to take a tour. We got the teachers, the community involved.

[27:52] They got their open house.

[27:55] They're putting a new spin on that school, where it's our pre-K center, our

[28:00] earliest learners, and they're off to a great start.

[28:05] So, it's something that I think really in time is going to keep growing within our

[28:11] community. Jefferson School, there was a lot on Jefferson School because Mr.

[28:17] McDowell, or Mr. Cohen, I know we were talking about it, the last date that it

[28:22] was a K through six school, did we confirm that date?

[28:28] 69? So 1969 was the last time Jefferson was a grade-level school.

[28:35] And the community over the course of years was asking us to bring it back to a

[28:41] grade-level school. And since 2015, about '17, we were working on it

[28:46] with committees. Several people in here were on the committees. And we got it done.

[28:52] I think it's a great thing, again, for the Jefferson area community to have a

[28:57] school where they're not getting on a bus, going across town, not with their

[29:00] neighbors, in a sense. But the community came out. We had a barbecue.

[29:04] Thank you to Pontonian, who donated a little bit of food, some drinks, some treats,

[29:11] and we got to just highlight the

[29:15] historical importance of Jefferson going back to a grade-level school for that

[29:19] community. So, it was a great day,

[29:23] and thank you. Another accomplishment with the support of our board of ed.

[29:33] This is a very big thing. I know Ms. Santana will speak on it later, but I just

[29:38] need to keep getting the word out about e-bikes.

[29:42] We did have one student over the summer that ended up in the hospital because of an

[29:46] e-bike accident.

[29:49] In a sense, I think having one, it's unfortunate, but some towns are dealing with

[29:54] multiple e-bike accidents, and most of the time it's serious.

[29:59] So, we're working with the police. Our manager of security is first.

[30:05] The way we're going to bring this out is the police are going to educate.

[30:09] They're going to come to our schools, talk to our kids. Things have been sent home.

[30:14] But then they're going to start enforcing after we give education to the children.

[30:20] Because truthfully, there might be some parents sending their child on an e-bike

[30:24] with a helmet, but yet it comes off along the route.

[30:28] We need everyone to understand how important it is to keep your helmet on and how

[30:32] it is important to drive safe, but also how important it is to make sure that

[30:37] you're insured and you're in the licensing of it.

[30:39] The parents, from my knowledge, can be sued if something happens, and

[30:45] that's why they need to make sure they have insurance. Correct? All right.

[30:51] At the same time, our athletic director, because over the summers when we saw our

[30:55] athletes were the first children to come into our school, we saw athletes come into

[31:01] school and again, riding a certain way and not having helmets on.

[31:04] So, we made sure our athletic director informed every coach to talk to every

[31:08] student athlete to also enforce making sure for their own safety

[31:15] how important it is with these e-bikes. They're dangerous.

[31:18] And unfortunately, a lot of times, you have to make a quick decision because of a

[31:24] car that might have turned and you're hearing too many things just

[31:29] locally that are happening with these e-bikes.

[31:32] So, I just want to keep sharing the message of how important it is for safety of

[31:36] this, and the police are involved, and we're going to keep growing on the way we're

[31:40] attacking it.

[31:43] Our mayor's 5K is coming up. Anyone that likes 5Ks, you can walk or you run.

[31:48] It's a great event for the town and our chamber.

[31:51] It's September 27th. At

[31:56] 7:30, registration begins, but you can register, I believe now.

[31:59] The applications are out.

[32:03] This is easy to affirm and report here because we have none so far. That's great.

[32:08] And Madam President, that concludes my presentation.

[32:12] Thank you so much,

[32:14] Superintendent Benicoza. I would just ask the young lady who came and approached me

[32:18] before we opened the board, who brought our young students here tonight.

[32:22] Can you just come to the mic and identify your group and talk about the students

[32:26] that you have with us tonight?

[32:37] Hi, my name's Stephanie, and it's a homeschool group, and we're just practicing our

[32:42] civic duties to come to attend the school board.

[32:45] So, thank you very much for allowing us to be here.

[32:47] Thank you for coming. And welcome to each and every one of you.

[32:51] Thank you.

[32:56] Before we move back into the business portion of the meeting, I want to give my

[33:01] vice president a moment and opportunity to reflect.

[33:07] Thank you, Madam President.

[33:11] Late last month, our community, and especially this

[33:17] board family,

[33:19] lost someone very special to us all. He was a predecessor to us all on this board.

[33:26] He paved the path for us to show us the way how to serve as a board member with

[33:32] distinction.

[33:34] He was a public servant to this community and many others, serving for many, many

[33:38] years in both official and voluntary capacities.

[33:44] He was a mentor to me and many others.

[33:46] I learned an awful lot from him, and most especially, he was a friend and a

[33:52] brother to our colleague, Mrs. Minisi.

[33:56] Ronald Manzella

[34:00] was really a pillar of this community for many decades.

[34:05] And I'd like to ask our board and those present to

[34:09] acknowledge his passing with a moment of silence.

[34:28] Thank you, Madam President.

[34:30] Thank you, Vice President Cohen.

[34:37] Yes. Do we have any comments on the superintendent's report before we move back

[34:41] into business?

[34:44] Yes, so no better time than the present.

[34:47] I was going to bring this up in old business.

[34:50] But this is what I'm going to tell you.

[34:53] I don't think that I even really cared about e-bikes until most recently when I was

[34:57] just out in town and I saw just--

[35:01] Somebody's going to get hurt. I'm going to tell you right now.

[35:06] And I'm trying to have a proactive approach

[35:11] and reach out to everyone that will listen.

[35:14] I have reached out to the township, the mayor, the police department.

[35:19] If I see you riding in the streets, whether you're my child or not, I will say

[35:25] something. I'd like to just hit some points here.

[35:29] For e-bikes and e-scooters, under 15, no e-bikes or e-scooters.

[35:35] So right now, look at yourself. If you're not 15, you shouldn't be on them.

[35:38] And I'm loud. I know. But I'm being loud for a reason.

[35:41] Under ages 15 to 16, a motorized bicycle license, registration, and

[35:47] insurance, and a helmet. So, if you do not have those, you should not be riding in

[35:53] the streets of Union. I can't talk about all the other streets in the world, but

[35:57] specifically Union. Age 17, you should have a valid driver's license, state

[36:02] registration, and insurance coverage. And let's say you have all those.

[36:06] There's more to it. Must follow all traffic lights, signals, and signage.

[36:12] No riding e-bikes or scooters on sidewalks.

[36:17] You should not be riding on sidewalks except when dismounted.

[36:24] Riders must stay to the right and yield to crosswalk pedestrians.

[36:28] Requires helmets for all operators, passengers, regardless of age.

[36:32] I'm 100 years old, I should have a helmet. You should always have a helmet.

[36:37] Any of it, have a helmet. There's no carrying of objects, must keep both hands on

[36:42] handlebars, no wireless devices, speed modification, kids' fans, abandoned or

[36:48] neglected devices for three days may be removed by police. Ride safe.

[36:54] So basically, I think that the biggest thing that I've seen within Union is...

[36:59] This has been an ordinance for a while.

[37:02] It is the policing or the monitoring of it.

[37:08] I am putting a call out to every single person. Like I said, everyone.

[37:14] You guys might get upset at me. I'm stopping you and the first thing that I say

[37:19] with my loud mouth is, "Where is your helmet?" I am doing this because I see it

[37:25] happening in the future. Somebody's going to get hit, somebody's going to get hurt.

[37:29] It's going to be one of our students, and I do not want it to happen.

[37:32] In the schools, I think that at the precipice, we should be reaching out to our

[37:37] athletes. They should be leading by example.

[37:39] That does not mean that if you are not an athlete, you should not be doing it as

[37:42] well. That is not what I'm saying. But over and over again, we should be making

[37:46] sure that this e-bike and e-scooter situation within Union has to be halted

[37:52] and stopped. If you see something, say something. I don't care who you are.

[37:58] These children should not be... Let me stop saying these children. People. No one.

[38:03] Ronnie, don't ride without your helmet. Do not ride on the sidewalk. Be licensed.

[38:09] Have your registration and insurance. This is something very big.

[38:13] As much as I can, I'm going to be talking to you about it.

[38:16] If I make eye contact with you, I'm talking to you about it.

[38:19] Everybody on this board is tired of me talking about it. Please.

[38:22] And another place that I do want to reach out to is the PTAs.

[38:27] I'm going to try as much as possible because it has to be with the parents as well.

[38:32] It cannot just be us as board members or the police department or the township.

[38:38] It has to be the parents commanding it, and we have to do it together.

[38:42] We want our children to have fun, we want our children to learn things, but we want

[38:46] them to do it correctly. Please wear your helmets.

[38:50] Thank you.

[38:51] Board President Santana?

[38:53] I'm not the president, but thank you.

[38:54] Oh, oh. You're good. Anybody else have any comments on the superintendent's report?

[39:00] Any questions or comments? Yes.

[39:03] Dr. Beniquit, I'm sorry that I didn't give you a quick heads-up on this beforehand,

[39:07] but

[39:09] we all know that beginning with the school year, the new state statute banning

[39:13] internet-enabled devices from bell to bell took effect.

[39:17] Yeah.

[39:17] Can you give us any kind of an anecdotal report about what has happened in the

[39:22] first week?

[39:26] I know Dr. Rodriguez could also chime in because he obviously had another set of

[39:32] eyes, and to make sure it wasn't just when I was in the building.

[39:35] But I actually want to congratulate everyone right now.

[39:39] Being in the district a long time, I was very skeptical that when I walked into

[39:45] schools on the first day, that I would not see the cell phones.

[39:49] There was some students we had to remind, but for the most part, overwhelmingly,

[39:54] the students had them away where you couldn't see them.

[39:57] Mm-hmm.

[39:58] I think up until today, it's continuing in that direction.

[40:02] But we need to keep reinforcing that it's all year.

[40:05] Mm-hmm.

[40:06] And I think students will start also, in a week or so, feeling better that they

[40:12] don't have it out and using. That's what research does say.

[40:18] But I'm-

[40:19] Very much

[40:20] ... again, thankful to our staff, our administrators, our parents, because we have

[40:26] been sending the messages out. The reinforcement is important and so it's been very

[40:32] positive.

[40:32] Thank you.

[40:34] Anyone else have any questions on the superintendent's report?

[40:38] Okay, I just only had one, and that was just on when you referenced the appeal

[40:42] windows for the class of 2026 has just opened.

[40:44] Is there a deadline or does the window close at a specific time?

[40:48] I believe it has to be by the end of December, but I can confirm that.

[40:53] Okay.

[40:53] I don't want to say it's 100%.

[40:55] Okay. I just wanted to so that the community, if they have a student who they

[41:01] may need to make an appeal for, they have a window, they understand what that

[41:04] window of time is.

[41:05] Yeah, and at this point, we're trying to verify the unverified.

[41:09] So if out of the, I think it was 19 that we've accounted for,

[41:16] because again, we know our special ed students that are staying with us, but

[41:19] there's some students that started with us and then are not with us today that are

[41:23] now unverified. We got to make sure that it could be that they

[41:29] end up in the school, but something went wrong, and they registered, and they have

[41:34] a different state ID or-

[41:35] Yeah

[41:35] ...

[41:36] or they never registered. We've got to figure all that out.

[41:39] Okay.

[41:39] So it's really about, at this point, kind of verifying the unverified.

[41:42] Okay.

[41:43] I just want to make sure they have the opportunity if they are impacted.

[41:49] Yes, Nita.

[41:52] I'm not really sure what

[41:55] I'm asking here, but I think it's an important point to make here.

[41:58] When we look at 171 students being registered from September 1st to September 15th,

[42:04] that has a huge impact on our classrooms, classroom sizes, and the ability of the

[42:08] board to really make adjustments to keep our class sizes in a reasonable place.

[42:14] And sometimes, as parents don't know, sometimes we're all busy.

[42:18] We just think September comes around, we're going to go to kindergarten.

[42:21] I don't know where this number is coming from.

[42:24] But I would like to encourage us to be a little bit more proactive in this because

[42:28] it's hard to plan for class sizes. It's hard to then just go ahead and change a

[42:32] class once school's in session because after a kid's gone through that first week

[42:37] of school, we don't want to go ahead and have to split classes apart, and we can't

[42:40] start a new class with one or two kids.

[42:41] So I guess this is a plea to the community, but also just for us as a board and as

[42:46] a school district and admin team to think about the importance of making sure we

[42:51] know who's coming to school in September.

[42:52] But we need to know that so we can plan early in the summer.

[42:56] Mm-hmm.

[42:56] I know there's a lot of communication going out. It's overload.

[43:00] I have three kids in three different schools. I get it. Sometimes it's really hard.

[43:04] But I think just for the sake of the really difficult challenge of, A, getting

[43:08] everyone registered, that's a lot of children to be registered, but also then the

[43:12] adjustment of where they're going to school and the class sizes and an extra chair

[43:16] and an extra desk. So I just wanted to bring that awareness to everyone.

[43:21] Okay.

[43:21] And hopefully we can be a little bit more proactive in that moving forward.

[43:25] Yes. Thank you for that, Nita. Ronnie, did you want to say something?

[43:30] No, I'm good.

[43:30] Oh, okay. Yes, Betsy.

[43:37] First of all, I want to wish all the parents, staff, and leadership from the

[43:42] district a very,

[43:47] how would I say, a successful school year filled with a lot of

[43:53] good moments. There's always going to be challenging moments, but those

[43:59] good moments here and there are what hold us through.

[44:04] But last week, we did bring up the start of the new school year,

[44:09] individuals preparing

[44:13] for this school year, and one of the things that came up that there was some

[44:17] questions about was transportation and some of the changes that we have seen this

[44:22] year or put in place. Dr. Beniquit, can you give us an update?

[44:27] I know any initiative runs into its challenges, but I know

[44:33] that you were working with your team to make sure that we improve the bond.

[44:39] So yes, we had to work out some things, especially with UCVTS, in

[44:45] the beginning, was the biggest issue.

[44:48] But we made some adjustments. Some of our issues were our athletes were getting

[44:54] back to the high school

[44:56] too late, in a sense. So we've switched up the way we do our routes into dropping

[45:01] them off first. That was one of the biggest things.

[45:06] There was an issue that we had to correct with one area of town that kids weren't

[45:12] identified originally on the first few days

[45:17] as having transportation, even though there was a bus assigned to that area.

[45:21] That was rectified. So I think we're still

[45:24] getting some parents' appeal

[45:27] ... that either they

[45:30] didn't have transportation, and they would like us to consider it, and we're going

[45:33] through it individually. If we can provide a bus, we're also going through

[45:39] with parents, explaining what subscription busing is, if there's seats available.

[45:44] So we're still working through some individual requests with transportation as well

[45:49] as still, if there's space now that we definitely have all our numbers.

[45:55] If we could still grant requests to change schools and the parent still wants it,

[45:59] we're individually going-- There's a couple there as well.

[46:03] Madam President, I have one more. Another thing that came up was

[46:09] when some of our children from the town attend out-of-district

[46:15] schools and communication. And I know that you mentioned last week as well that

[46:20] that is an area that you're

[46:23] rebuilding in Genesis. Can you elaborate on that as well?

[46:27] So yes. We want to make sure we could identify every student, even if they're not

[46:32] coming to one of our schools. So for example, our pre-K centers in town.

[46:37] We're identifying and creating all those schools, all the different

[46:44] facilities that our kids are at. It'll all lead into one pre-K three number,

[46:51] but then we could communicate with each facility in our-

[46:55] Parent square

[46:58] ... parent square, as well as all our out-of-district.

[47:00] So if you're a student that is full-time UCBTS, we're going to have a school just

[47:05] built that we know all our UCBTS full-time people.

[47:08] The part-time ones are already on our books, because they're coming half day.

[47:13] And then we're going to do the same for out-of-district schools and charter

[47:16] schools.

[47:17] That's wonderful. So moving forward, all parents from our town

[47:23] will receive notifications.

[47:25] Yes. And it's also important because as we've been doing a lot better of a job of

[47:30] making sure we're check and verifying residency.

[47:34] Mm-hmm.

[47:34] It'll allow us to make sure we account for everyone re-registering.

[47:38] If you're in a charter school, because we're paying in a sense, not the parent,

[47:44] but we're paying the school on behalf of that student, that we want to make sure

[47:48] they're still union residents. Because we might be getting billed.

[47:51] It's a way for us to check the out-of-district school to make sure we have 400 kids

[47:56] at this facility, and they're billing us for 400.

[47:59] Right. Absolutely. And can you just talk about the number of requests that have

[48:04] been honored? I think Marissa alluded to that at the board meeting, but I think

[48:08] it's important for the public to know that as parents were making requests, we were

[48:12] definitely trying to do our due diligence with meeting them and honor them to the

[48:17] best of our ability. So that number was what again?

[48:19] I

[48:21] don't remember the exact number, but I know we were able to accommodate 50%.

[48:25] Mm-hmm.

[48:26] Or it might've been slightly above 50%.

[48:28] Mm-hmm.

[48:28] We really looked at everything individually. Obviously, based on space.

[48:34] You saw our numbers in the elementary school, where a lot of them came from.

[48:37] We just accommodated a middle school request today.

[48:41] So we're still, again, as they still come in, we're still going to individually

[48:46] look at it. But the one thing I want to, and I think it goes to what one of our

[48:50] board members said about making sure we're setting up our schools for success.

[48:54] Mm-hmm.

[48:54] We reflected on this process even though I think it was done at a high level,

[48:59] diligent, individualized, really took into everyone's concerns.

[49:04] It also put a strain on our district because so many requests came late.

[49:08] Mm-hmm.

[49:08] So we're going to do it next year where we open up a period of time, four weeks,

[49:13] starting sometime probably in May.

[49:15] Mm-hmm.

[49:15] And allow four weeks to

[49:18] someone to put in a request to transfer.

[49:20] Mm-hmm.

[49:20] And this way, we could really get hard numbers on where our schools are at to know

[49:24] for hiring if we need to, again, hire another teacher.

[49:28] We'll be able to do it with months in advance compared to now,

[49:33] between all the late enrollments-

[49:34] Mm-hmm

[49:35] ... and the requests, it's very hard to manage everything successfully.

[49:39] Okay. And my last thing, and I believe it was board member Faria who brought it up

[49:44] around the after-school and before-care programs were full.

[49:49] And I know that some of them had a waiting list, and I know we had a couple of

[49:52] different people reach out to try to partner to offer services.

[49:56] Do we have an update for that, Dr. Rodriguez?

[50:01] Good evening.

[50:02] So yes, at the beginning of the year, when we opened up our preschool center at

[50:08] Franklin, we had the YMCA, and there was a delay because the YMCA already did

[50:14] have the site approved, but they needed to get some extra spaces approved.

[50:19] So in the meantime, while we were waiting for the licensure people from the State

[50:22] Department, we were only allowed to take up to 60 students at first.

[50:27] So now that the licensure people came in, approved other spaces, we're good to go.

[50:32] Most of those students are off the waiting list, and we've been able to solve it.

[50:36] But some parents were unable to plan for

[50:40] before-school care at the beginning of the year, but we've reached out to them.

[50:44] The YMCA is very helpful as well. They reached out to parents, and if there are any

[50:49] parents that believe that they're still on the waiting list or don't have access to

[50:54] before care, especially at the pre-K, but anywhere from our K five schools, please

[50:59] just reach out to me by email, drjrodrigues@tops.org,

[51:05] and we can get you right in. But yes, there was a delay, but it's been taken care

[51:09] of.

[51:10] And then one other thing. One of our partners also is the Boys & Girls Club.

[51:15] Yes.

[51:15] So I met with them. They are requesting in a way for us to help them with

[51:21] transportation.

[51:22] Mm-hmm.

[51:22] But unfortunately, right now, we haven't been able to figure it out because our

[51:25] transportation is so tight.

[51:26] Mm-hmm.

[51:27] Where we consolidated, we just don't have the buses or the

[51:33] drivers to then do those runs as well. So we haven't figured out anything yet.

[51:37] Mm-hmm.

[51:37] We're going to keep working on it and see if there's anything.

[51:40] But that's another partner in town that would like to service more children.

[51:44] It's just getting the kids there is the issue.

[51:47] Okay. Thank you.

[51:49] Madam President?

[51:50] Yes, Ms. Linnie.

[51:50] Thank you. I just wanted to ask Dr. Rodriguez, talking about pre-K.

[51:55] I know there was a waiting list for pre-K four and pre-K three.

[51:58] Have any spaces opened up?

[52:04] Yes, we do have a waiting list. Some have.

[52:06] We're unable to provide preschool for all of our

[52:11] general education students at four years old at the time. Yeah.

[52:16] And three years old, same?

[52:18] As well. That's correct. Yeah, there is a waiting list, especially for our gen ed

[52:21] students. Our special ed students, there is no waiting list.

[52:24] Thank you.

[52:25] Mm-hmm.

[52:25] And my last thing, Dr. Rodriguez, if possible, can you check with the

[52:31] Boys & Girls Club? The YMCA, I should say.

[52:35] I believe when you're in the seventh grade, if it still exists, they give

[52:38] seventh-grade students a free membership, so that they're able to go to the Y for

[52:43] seventh-grade students. And I think that's something that the general population

[52:47] are not aware of, because I know a lot of people would love to have their kids be

[52:50] able to go to the Y to play basketball rather than be in the streets, or wanting to

[52:53] bike without a helmet, or anything of those natures.

[52:56] So I think if we can verify that and then put that on the website so parents know.

[53:01] Absolutely. Yep, you are correct. It's still ongoing for all seventh graders.

[53:04] It's free for the entire year, but we will put it out to the community as well.

[53:08] Okay. Thank you.

[53:09] Madam President?

[53:10] Yes.

[53:11] Hi. I just had one quick question for Dr. Beniquez and Dr. Rodriguez.

[53:15] Wanted to just confirm with parent access that it's available to our

[53:19] out-of-district population for them to stay in the community and be abreast of

[53:23] things that are going on in-district. And also, do we know what the usage is?

[53:27] A colleague and I were talking about the days when we had robocalls as a method of

[53:33] communication. But just wanted to just be clear that we have that and how is the

[53:38] usage with parent access and reaching out to our parent population and community?

[53:50] So yes, access to ParentSquare, our out-of-district families absolutely are able to

[53:57] be on it. They are on it. They do get communication through it.

[54:00] We also send out at the beginning of the year, we just sent it out to all of our

[54:04] out-of-district families to let them know that they do belong.

[54:08] We let them know what their home school is.

[54:10] Great.

[54:11] We recommend that they join the PTA of their home school.

[54:15] Wonderful.

[54:15] And we also let them know that they are absolutely--

[54:19] Please, not only are you able to, but please-

[54:22] Be a part of the community

[54:23] ... part of your community school

[54:26] feel. One of those

[55:32] I have a follow-up. That have signed up and have access, or do we

[55:37] have any quantitative data to tell us the usage?

[55:44] We have 100% contact ability throughout the district.

[55:48] Okay, good.

[55:49] Email, phone. If they shut it off on their end, they only want email, they'll get

[55:54] email. No text. That's up to them. We have 100% are able to be reached in the

[56:00] district.

[56:01] Nice.

[56:01] And there's certain level-

[56:02] So I have a follow-up

[56:03] ... of messages, like if it's at that level where we have to make it, it'll

[56:07] automatically go through even if they turned it off.

[56:09] Okay.

[56:10] Yeah.

[56:10] And let me ask you, you said three different mediums. Email?

[56:15] Email, phone, text.

[56:17] Okay.

[56:18] We can send alerts, like Emergency Alert or Smart Alert, and we have those-

[56:24] So when we speak to Dr. Vaniqua about the children that are out of district, will

[56:28] they now, because you're creating a school within a school, also have access to

[56:34] ParentSquare?

[56:35] They all do, yes.

[56:36] Okay. Wonderful.

[56:38] Right. So it's not that the families have downloaded the app, it's that the

[56:44] app that we have can contact them. So you don't need ParentSquare app on here for

[56:50] the ability of ParentSquare to contact you.

[56:52] Yeah, we know that.

[56:53] Right. So that's why we're able to contact everybody 100%.

[56:59] Okay.

[57:00] You're welcome. Anybody else before we move back to business?

[57:04] Great. Moving back to business.

[57:08] Next we have the Education and Student Discipline Committee Chair, Ms.

[57:10] Vernice, and Ms. Carbonell to present the resolutions that will be voted upon

[57:14] tonight.

[57:22] No, no, I got it. I got it.

[57:28] Madam President, is it okay with you if I call these en bloc?

[57:32] Absolutely.

[57:33] Thank you. Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Education

[57:37] and Student Discipline Committee presents the following resolutions for the board's

[57:41] consideration. E1 through

[57:48] E9.

[57:51] Is there a second?

[57:56] Second.

[57:56] Any discussion?

[57:59] Seeing none. The motion has been properly moved by Ms. Carbonell and second by Ms.

[58:03] Vernice. Can I have a roll call please, Ms. Cappiello?

[58:06] Ms. Carbonell?

[58:07] Yes.

[58:08] Mr. Cohan?

[58:08] Yes.

[58:09] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[58:10] Yes.

[58:11] Mrs. Faria?

[58:12] Yes.

[58:13] Mr. McDowell?

[58:14] Yes.

[58:14] Mrs. Vernice?

[58:15] Yes.

[58:16] Mr. Nastar?

[58:17] Yes.

[58:17] Ms. Santana?

[58:18] Yes.

[58:18] Mrs. Scott-Heden?

[58:19] Yes.

[58:22] Next we have the Fiscal and Planning Committee Chair, Mr. Cohan, Mr.

[58:25] McDowell, and Ms. Santana to present the resolutions that will be voted upon

[58:29] tonight.

[58:30] Thank you, Madam President. Upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of

[58:34] Schools, the Fiscal and Planning Committee presents the following resolutions for

[58:38] the board consideration. F1 and F2...

[58:43] I'm sorry, F3 through

[58:48] F14.

[58:51] Is there a second?

[58:52] Second.

[58:54] Madam President, the resolution F15 was approved at last week's work session, and

[59:00] these

[59:01] resolutions are the standard business items that occur virtually every month.

[59:07] Okay. Thank you so much, Vice President Cohan.

[59:10] So is there any discussions around the resolutions?

[59:14] No? Okay. Seeing none, the motion has been properly moved by Mr.

[59:18] Cohan and second by Chelsea Santana. Can I have a roll call please, Ms. Cappiello?

[59:22] Ms. Carbonell?

[59:26] Yes.

[59:27] Mr. Cohan?

[59:28] Yes.

[59:28] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[59:29] Yes.

[59:30] Mrs. Faria?

[59:31] Yes.

[59:31] Mr. McDowell?

[59:32] Yes.

[59:33] Mrs. Vernice?

[59:34] Yes.

[59:34] Mr. Nastar?

[59:35] Yes.

[59:36] Ms. Santana?

[59:37] Yes.

[59:37] Mrs. Scott-Heden?

[59:39] Yes. We have no grievance and negotiations updates from the other committees

[59:43] tonight. So with that being said, we will move to the Operations and Technology

[59:47] Committee Chair, Mr. Nastar and Ms.

[59:49] Faria, to present the resolutions that will be voted upon tonight.

[59:54] Upon the recommendations of the Superintendent of Schools, the Operations and

[59:57] Technology Committee presents the following resolutions for the board's

[1:00:00] consideration. O1, approval of security bills, we have none currently.

[1:00:05] O2, approve submission of application for use of Rapidan Park.

[1:00:08] O3 and O4 were approved at the previous work session meeting.

[1:00:12] O5, approve request to use Rapidan parking lot by the Township Recreation

[1:00:16] Department. And T1, approve recycling of equipment.

[1:00:22] Is there a second?

[1:00:23] Second.

[1:00:24] Is there any discussion?

[1:00:25] I have a little bit. It's just in light of recent events, for O5, when we do

[1:00:31] things like that-

[1:00:33] Speak into the mic

[1:00:33] ... You can't hear me?

[1:00:33] No, I can hear you, but I'm not sure-

[1:00:35] Oh, wow. I've never been accused of not being heard.

[1:00:38] So what I was saying is that in light of recent discussion, for O5,

[1:00:44] is that similar to what we were speaking about for whenever we have things like

[1:00:48] this nature, there's that insurance and then that other item that we spoke of?

[1:00:56] Mm-hmm.

[1:00:58] The school home.

[1:00:59] Yeah.

[1:00:59] Yes.

[1:00:59] So for all of that.

[1:01:00] Yes.

[1:01:00] Any time we do anything like this.

[1:01:02] Moving forward.

[1:01:02] Both of them are in.

[1:01:03] Yes.

[1:01:03] Okay.

[1:01:04] Yes.

[1:01:04] Thank you so much.

[1:01:05] You're welcome. Any other discussion?

[1:01:08] No.

[1:01:09] Okay. Seeing none, the motion has been properly moved by Ms.

[1:01:11] Faria and second by Mr. Nastar. Can I have a roll call please, Ms. Cappiello?

[1:01:15] Ms. Carbonell?

[1:01:18] Yes.

[1:01:19] Mr. Cohan?

[1:01:20] Yes.

[1:01:20] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[1:01:22] Yes.

[1:01:22] Mrs. Faria?

[1:01:23] Yes.

[1:01:24] Mr. McDowell?

[1:01:25] Yes.

[1:01:26] Mrs. Vernice?

[1:01:27] Yes.

[1:01:27] Mr. Nastar?

[1:01:28] Yes to everything except I have to abstain from O5.

[1:01:34] Ms. Santana?

[1:01:35] Yes.

[1:01:36] Mrs. Scott-Heden?

[1:01:37] Yes.

[1:01:39] Next we have the Personnel Committee Chair, Ms.

[1:01:41] Conte-Mackey, to present the following resolutions that will be voted upon tonight.

[1:01:45] Thank you, Madam President. Madam President, with your permission, can I move these

[1:01:49] en bloc?

[1:01:49] Absolutely.

[1:01:50] Thank you. Upon recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Personnel

[1:01:54] Committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration, P1A

[1:01:59] through P8.

[1:02:09] Is there a second?

[1:02:10] Second.

[1:02:11] Great. Is there any discussion?

[1:02:15] I have a question.

[1:02:16] Yes.

[1:02:17] On P5.

[1:02:24] Who was our Title IX coordinator previously?

[1:02:28] Or is this like a reappointment?

[1:02:33] Yes, it's always been by the athletic director.

[1:02:36] It's just I wanted to formally recognize it in some, I think just making things

[1:02:41] aware.

[1:02:42] Formal, mm-hmm.

[1:02:43] Yes.

[1:02:43] Okay. Thank you. Yeah, I had not seen that before, so mm-hmm.

[1:02:47] It's something that I felt was the right practice.

[1:02:49] Right.

[1:02:50] I think so. I like it. Thank you.

[1:02:53] Any other discussion? Thank you.

[1:02:56] Okay. Seeing none, the motion has been properly moved by Ms.

[1:02:59] Conte-Mackey and second by Mr. Nastar. Can I have a roll call please, Ms.

[1:03:02] Cappiello?

[1:03:04] Ms. Carbonell?

[1:03:06] Yes.

[1:03:07] Mr. Cohan?

[1:03:08] Yes.

[1:03:09] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[1:03:10] Yes.

[1:03:11] Mrs. Faria?

[1:03:13] Yes.

[1:03:14] Mr. McDowell?

[1:03:15] Yes.

[1:03:16] Mrs. Vernice?

[1:03:17] Abstain from P3B, and yes to everything else.

[1:03:21] Mr. Nastar?

[1:03:22] Yes.

[1:03:23] Ms. Santana?

[1:03:24] Yes.

[1:03:25] Mrs. Scott-Heden?

[1:03:25] Yes. We have no policies to present at this time, and we also have no

[1:03:31] residency to present tonight. So may I have a motion to approve the bill list?

[1:03:37] So moved.

[1:03:37] Second.

[1:03:39] Any discussions?

[1:03:42] Seeing none, the motion has been properly moved by Vice President Cohan and second

[1:03:46] by Chelsea Santana. Can I have a roll call please, Ms. Cappiello?

[1:03:49] Ms. Carbonell?

[1:03:52] Yes.

[1:03:52] Mr. Kohan?

[1:03:53] Yes.

[1:03:54] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[1:03:55] Yes.

[1:03:56] Mrs. Faria?

[1:03:59] Yes.

[1:04:00] Mr. McDowell?

[1:04:01] Yes.

[1:04:02] Mrs. Munisi?

[1:04:03] Yes.

[1:04:03] Mr. Nash?

[1:04:04] Yes.

[1:04:05] Ms. Santana?

[1:04:06] Yes.

[1:04:06] Mrs. Scott-Hayden?

[1:04:07] Yes, pay the bills.

[1:04:11] With that being said, we're moving into unfinished business.

[1:04:14] Board members, do we have any unfinished business?

[1:04:19] Ms. Faria.

[1:04:23] I shared at the last meeting, and I want to share again, that one of the

[1:04:27] opportunities I had was to attend the curriculum, the teaching and learning night

[1:04:32] here a couple of weeks ago. I also got the chance to attend the meet the admin

[1:04:37] at the high school before the start of school.

[1:04:41] And I want to really just say I appreciate both of those meetings for different

[1:04:46] reasons, but there was one common theme across both of those, and that was the

[1:04:52] success of our students is really a partnership between home and school.

[1:04:55] And I think that was a sentiment that was shared both at the high school in terms

[1:05:01] of need to get students to school on time, reinforce the expectations for school,

[1:05:07] the attendance, those kinds of things, but also for teaching and learning.

[1:05:10] That what was shared with us at that meeting is this is your right.

[1:05:15] This is the right your students have when they come and walk into our classrooms,

[1:05:18] and it was really laid out of this is what should happen when a student walks into

[1:05:21] the classroom. And there was really an invite of all the participants there that

[1:05:27] reach out and follow those proper channels if you feel like your child might not be

[1:05:31] getting something, because we're all coming from a place of wanting to see our

[1:05:34] children succeed, and that partnership is what gets us there.

[1:05:37] I think it was a beautifully attended meeting.

[1:05:39] We started with a couple chairs and actually had to get more because of how many

[1:05:42] people were here. And it was just a really nice approach to teaching the

[1:05:48] whole child, thinking about the classroom, the teacher development, the curriculum,

[1:05:53] and that approach of PD and coaching to make sure that we're helping

[1:05:59] our teachers get better at their practice so they can in turn support our students

[1:06:03] in learning and also then being able to have programs to support our parents to

[1:06:08] support the work at home as well. So just really wanted to acknowledge that.

[1:06:12] The other piece that I wanted to say, and I think Dr.

[1:06:15] Beniquay alluded to that before,

[1:06:19] my involvement with this school district as a parent started, I guess, 11

[1:06:25] years ago, and I think I got myself on a committee for fifth grade,

[1:06:30] Jefferson coming back and getting a K-5, and that's how I found myself on this

[1:06:34] board a couple of years later. But that's work that's been happening for many

[1:06:38] years. My first meeting with Dr. Beniquay, we talked about standards-based grading

[1:06:42] for the support of really helping kids and families understand what does an A mean

[1:06:47] in kindergarten, but rather, where's the student reading?

[1:06:50] What are they capable of doing? What's that next level?

[1:06:53] And one of mine is designated parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level.

[1:07:00] And I know that we have faced a lot of challenges.

[1:07:02] We faced a lot of-- and whenever we put something new together, there's growing

[1:07:08] pains. But I have to congratulate the entire team, the

[1:07:14] amount of work that was done. This September, we finally went to K-5 schools.

[1:07:19] We have standards-based report cards, and we will have our first designated evening

[1:07:23] parent-teacher conferences. Sometimes education has some slow movements, but this

[1:07:29] team has really been working-- The amount of work that was done over the summer is

[1:07:33] nothing short of a miracle. And so I just want to say thank you as a parent, as a

[1:07:37] board member, and as a community member.

[1:07:40] I think we're going to see great strides and great improvement in our district

[1:07:44] because of the work.

[1:07:45] Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ms. Faria. Vice President Cohen?

[1:07:50] Thank you, Madam President. I'd like to echo some of Ms.

[1:07:54] Faria's comments, especially regarding the presentation from the teaching and

[1:07:58] learning team on the instructional framework.

[1:08:03] I've dedicated an awful lot of my professional career to taking a look at the

[1:08:08] emerging research on effective instruction and what makes a difference in

[1:08:13] classrooms. And I complimented the teaching and learning team directly,

[1:08:19] but I'd like to just acknowledge that they finally found a way to synthesize much

[1:08:24] of that into a plan that's going to be implemented throughout the district

[1:08:30] with supports. I think that's the key factor here is that it's not just being

[1:08:35] announced as a plan and dropped on the desk of our teaching professionals, but

[1:08:40] there's a plan and a framework to make certain that they are supported, that they

[1:08:44] have the resources that they need.

[1:08:47] And I know that they'll come to us and ask for more resources as they need them,

[1:08:51] and I'd be eager to be able to support that.

[1:08:56] I just couldn't be happier with the progress that we've made, as Ms. Faria said.

[1:09:00] But I'd also like to just acknowledge that based on the reports we've received from

[1:09:04] the administration and what little I've been able to observe myself,

[1:09:09] despite all of the changes that we've made in this district, we had a very smooth

[1:09:14] opening. We're into our third week of school already, and things are moving

[1:09:20] along.

[1:09:21] And I believe that that's as a result of the commitment of our staff, not just from

[1:09:25] the planners at the central office, but the amazing work that was done by the

[1:09:31] custodial maintenance staff over the summer to move dozens of classrooms

[1:09:37] around the district. The resources and materials that our classroom teachers have

[1:09:41] used for years, they had to be moved to new buildings.

[1:09:45] The moving crew, the members of our staff who stepped forward to provide support to

[1:09:51] actually pack and move those boxes.

[1:09:54] And finally, the teachers, paraprofessional support staff, and administrators at

[1:09:59] the classroom and building level.

[1:10:02] They're the core of the district. They're the reason that we have to be up here and

[1:10:06] make certain we provide them with the tools they need to be able to do the great

[1:10:11] job to inspire and engage every student every day. Thank you.

[1:10:15] Thank you so much, Vice President Cohen. Anyone else under unfinished business?

[1:10:21] And thank you for sharing those sentiments, because I echo both of them

[1:10:24] wholeheartedly. Thank you so much.

[1:10:26] I don't need to repeat all of that, but I do thank both of my colleagues for

[1:10:29] bringing that to the forefront. We have no more unfinished business.

[1:10:32] We are now under new business. Chasity.

[1:10:36] New business. Thank you so much.

[1:10:38] I do want to welcome our-- It's called homeschool group?

[1:10:42] I want to say it correctly. The homeschool group. Thank you. So it's so funny.

[1:10:46] I feel that

[1:10:48] things always happen for a reason.

[1:10:49] I have a best friend that lives in Georgia, and we were just talking about she's

[1:10:53] homeschooling her grandchildren.

[1:10:55] And when they got to this part of it, her and I went back and forth because I'm not

[1:11:00] sure if it's allowed in Jersey. But here in New Jer-- I'm sorry, Georgia.

[1:11:05] But in New Jersey, it's 17 to register to vote, 18 to

[1:11:10] vote. So I would invite you guys always, as Union residents and just as

[1:11:16] residents of America, if you're in Jersey, it's 17 to register, 18 to actually

[1:11:20] vote. And with that said, I want to-- I don't know if this is exactly new business

[1:11:26] because I keep bringing it up. But we have EF Tours, right?

[1:11:29] We have one of our wonderful tour leaders, Ms. Hall. We also had Ms.

[1:11:34] Bridges last night

[1:11:36] do one of her new, I guess, interest sessions.

[1:11:40] And I'm going to talk about it also, but not loud like the e-bikes.

[1:11:46] I gifted my currently 19-year-old, at 16, a trip to

[1:11:52] Italy, Greece, and Turkey. I wish I had a mom that gifted that to me.

[1:11:55] And now my two younger girls in March are going to Paris and London with Ms.

[1:12:00] Bridges.

[1:12:02] A wonderful opportunity to be global citizens of the world, to get that

[1:12:08] traveling bug into our children, no matter where you are

[1:12:12] socioeconomically. I invite you to look at the program, reach out to the

[1:12:18] school if you have any questions, comments, and concerns.

[1:12:21] I am not proficient on it like Ms. Hall and Ms.

[1:12:23] Bridges, but there are scholarships for children that for whatever reason can't

[1:12:28] financially make the obligations.

[1:12:30] And for those that their parents can, there's payment plans.

[1:12:35] I started this because my daughter wanted a sweet 16, and I was like, "Sweet 16s

[1:12:39] are cool, but let's take it up a level, right?" So EF Tours,

[1:12:46] if you go on the Union High School website, I'm going with that there's something

[1:12:50] in there. But if not, call them. They're going to get upset at me, but I'll let the

[1:12:53] office know that it was my fault. A wonderful opportunity for our children.

[1:12:58] That's one. Secondly, something new to me.

[1:13:01] For so long, you guys heard football, then you heard wrestling.

[1:13:05] I have a freshman that plays volleyball.

[1:13:07] Mm-hmm.

[1:13:08] So our volley-- Look, I'm going to tell you something.

[1:13:10] When I go to these games, I'm really just learning the game.

[1:13:14] But my baby's so great. Our babies are so great at volleyball.

[1:13:19] Sometimes I see these girls on the other teams, and they look... Our girls do it.

[1:13:25] They get out there, and they really play.

[1:13:27] So I invite everyone to come out, not only watch...

[1:13:31] You can watch all sports, but please watch the volleyball, especially the freshman

[1:13:34] one. My baby's there. I'll be along there.

[1:13:36] Mm-hmm.

[1:13:36] It's been so much fun to learn about that.

[1:13:39] And then thirdly, I had the opportunity to go out to Friday

[1:13:44] Night Lights. Let me just tell you that it was on 9/11. I work in the city.

[1:13:48] I schlepped there all the way out. I was at the World Trade Center at like six in

[1:13:52] the morning, came back, and I had such a great time with my colleagues on the

[1:13:57] board. I wish it would've been a win.

[1:14:00] But I can tell you that

[1:14:03] I was so energized. We were so energized out there, just standing elbow to elbow

[1:14:09] in the stands, on the sidelines, cheering on the school, cheering on such great

[1:14:15] kids, with my alma mater, Elizabeth, the other one. But great times.

[1:14:21] I'm sure that my colleagues will also say a whole bunch of fun stuff about

[1:14:25] football. And this guy screams. He gets real loud on the sidelines.

[1:14:29] He gets passionate. Let me just tell you.

[1:14:31] I do.

[1:14:31] Yeah, he does. He did. I was like, "Wow." I thought I was loud.

[1:14:35] So that's my new business. Great times with EF Tours.

[1:14:39] Seriously, get out there, and

[1:14:42] I believe that the home school, you can definitely come along, right?

[1:14:45] If you home school, come along. They'll take you.

[1:14:49] Yeah.

[1:14:50] And they do a lot of them. So Italy, Greece, Turkey. From what Ms.

[1:14:54] Richards said, Dominican Republic.

[1:14:55] They've done Japan, Paris, London, all of that great stuff.

[1:14:59] Mm-hmm.

[1:15:00] Volleyball, it's my new thing. And go you.

[1:15:05] Mm-hmm. Nice. Thank you, Ms. Santana. Anybody else under new business? Ms.

[1:15:12] Carbonell.

[1:15:14] By the way, thank you for acknowledging our wonderful guests, and Madam President,

[1:15:19] you as well. It is an honor, it is a pleasure to have you here tonight.

[1:15:24] One thing that Ms. Santana brought up that I think we will be remiss if we do not

[1:15:28] acknowledge is that it's been

[1:15:31] 25 years since 9/11.

[1:15:33] Mm-hmm.

[1:15:34] And none of you,

[1:15:38] hopefully not-

[1:15:40] ... were alive when this occurred.

[1:15:42] But many of us on this stage and in the audience and probably listening tonight

[1:15:49] were, and it was something that changed the nation.

[1:15:54] Mm-hmm.

[1:15:56] I don't think we were ever the same since 9/11.

[1:15:59] And I think that if I asked every single person here tonight, they would know

[1:16:03] exactly where they were-

[1:16:04] Yep

[1:16:04] ... what they were doing.

[1:16:07] It was a scary time. So as I know that you are trying to give them these

[1:16:12] experiences as part of their civic awareness,

[1:16:18] please also incorporate lessons from 9/11,

[1:16:23] because it's important that we always, always remember.

[1:16:27] Mm-hmm.

[1:16:27] On a lighter note,

[1:16:31] tonight or today,

[1:16:34] we begin celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month.

[1:16:38] And as a Latina, I would also be remiss if I did not give a shout-out

[1:16:43] to the cultural tapestry that makes up Hispanics in the United

[1:16:49] States and around the world. So I encourage every guidance counselor,

[1:16:55] educator,

[1:16:58] parent, student to take a moment and just learn something about this beautiful

[1:17:04] culture that is really a mix of every single other culture,

[1:17:11] at least in my eyes.

[1:17:14] I am from African ancestry. I am Taina, and I am

[1:17:20] from Spanish heritage as well.

[1:17:23] So I do not deny it, and I celebrate every piece of me.

[1:17:28] Mm-hmm.

[1:17:28] And I encourage everybody to do the same.

[1:17:30] And if you're not Hispanic, don't worry about it. We like to party with everyone.

[1:17:36] And we will include you.

[1:17:37] That's right.

[1:17:38] But take a moment from September 15th through October 15th to just learn

[1:17:44] about this culture, and

[1:17:47] so that we can celebrate one another and the things we have in common. Thank you.

[1:17:51] Yes. Very nice, Ms. Carbonell. Anyone else under new business?

[1:17:56] It's, uh-

[1:17:56] Yes.

[1:17:58] I don't have it with me right now, but I think there was a letter that went out

[1:18:02] about the marching bands competing at the end of this month or next month.

[1:18:08] With Carlos.

[1:18:09] Next month.

[1:18:09] It's next month?

[1:18:10] I believe so, yes.

[1:18:11] Okay. Just want to make sure that if you are available, come out-

[1:18:14] Mm-hmm

[1:18:14] ... support our bands. They're in competition with other bands around the country,

[1:18:17] or at least around the state.

[1:18:19] Mm-hmm.

[1:18:19] And they did exceptionally well last year.

[1:18:21] So we want to make sure we got there and support them this year.

[1:18:25] Thank you, Ronnie. Anybody else under new business?

[1:18:30] All right, seeing none, we are going back to comments from the public.

[1:18:33] And if any of our young scholars out there have a question for us and you feel you

[1:18:38] want to come to the microphone, please fill out a card and come address us.

[1:18:41] We would love to hear from you if you have a question

[1:18:45] or a comment.

[1:18:48] So with that being said, I'm going to call Jill Hall.

[1:18:54] Where's she?

[1:18:59] Uh, hello. Jill Hall, 509 Whitewood Road. Uh, Dr. Acosta, you're absolutely right.

[1:19:03] The phone thing is going really well.

[1:19:06] I was a little bit guardedly pessimistic, but it's going well, and the kids are

[1:19:10] starting to recognize that they don't like it, but it's better for them.

[1:19:15] Mm-hmm.

[1:19:15] And they're starting to come forward with that.

[1:19:17] I also wanted to point out about the graduation rate, something that is also a

[1:19:21] factor. We had six students graduate from the Simon Youth Academy, which is a

[1:19:26] component of the UCBTS program.

[1:19:29] Mm-hmm.

[1:19:29] But you have to drop out of Union High School in order to go to that program.

[1:19:33] So it hurts our graduation rate. But those kids got the experience that they

[1:19:37] needed-

[1:19:38] Mm-hmm

[1:19:39] ... which is really important. But now why I'm here.

[1:19:42] So counselors at Union High School were recently told that they will be sharing

[1:19:46] office space with a vice principal.

[1:19:49] They're going to convert classrooms and put partitions up, and there'll be a vice

[1:19:52] principal with several of the counselors assigned to each administrator.

[1:19:58] This raises some grave concerns regarding student privacy and confidentiality.

[1:20:02] Sharing a workspace with an administrator creates a barrier of trust and the

[1:20:07] willingness for students to seek our services and support.

[1:20:11] This is especially true for some of our most vulnerable students, who do not wish

[1:20:15] to run into their vice principal when they are seeking mental health support.

[1:20:19] Right.

[1:20:19] Counselors repeatedly emphasize their responsibility to maintain confidentiality.

[1:20:24] But having an administrator within eyesight and earshot-

[1:20:28] Mm-hmm

[1:20:28] ... seems to contradict that point.

[1:20:29] Mm-hmm.

[1:20:30] In addition, separating the counseling department minimizes opportunities for us to

[1:20:35] collaborate and communicate with one another.

[1:20:38] Being a few steps apart helps us to ask questions of one another, seek consultation

[1:20:42] when it is appropriate.

[1:20:44] Also, when a parent comes in for a conference, security will now have to walk the

[1:20:48] parent to whatever corner of the building is housing that VP if it's an

[1:20:52] administrative conference, or counselor if it's a counseling meeting.

[1:20:56] And this will tie up security when their services are always needed somewhere else

[1:21:00] throughout the building.

[1:21:00] Mm-hmm.

[1:21:02] The New Jersey School Counselor Association and the National ASCA, American School

[1:21:07] Counselor Association, standards state that counselors must provide an atmosphere

[1:21:12] of trust and protect confidential information.

[1:21:15] If a student is discussing a sensitive matter such as substance use, mental health

[1:21:19] struggles, or an unsafe home environment, and another staff member or student can

[1:21:25] hear them through a thin wall or in a shared room-

[1:21:28] Mm

[1:21:28] ... the counselor is in violation of maintaining a secure environment.

[1:21:32] And under FERPA, a counselor's personal sole possession notes are kept private only

[1:21:38] if they are never shared or visible to others.

[1:21:41] In an open or shared office space, keeping physical or digital notes completely

[1:21:45] secure from the eyes of unauthorized school staff or other students becomes very

[1:21:50] difficult, making us vulnerable to liability.

[1:21:53] Mm-hmm.

[1:21:54] I respectfully request that the board take a deeper look at this decision to ensure

[1:21:58] that students' rights to privacy and confidentiality will remain protected.

[1:22:02] Thank you.

[1:22:02] Thank you so much for that, Ms. Hall.

[1:22:03] I'm going to have the superintendent address that, and thank you for bringing that

[1:22:05] to our attention.

[1:22:07] So I want to definitely confirm what you're saying as far as the privacy and stuff.

[1:22:12] So if-

[1:22:13] In the future, I could already think of some schools that, in a sense, the

[1:22:19] administrators and school counselors are in the same office, in different offices.

[1:22:23] So the privacy will definitely be there.

[1:22:26] For example, Kalani Middle School has two administrators offices and two counseling

[1:22:32] offices right there. We are trying to see about managing students in

[1:22:38] a more proactive way and create teams in a sense.

[1:22:43] But it'll definitely include the separation for the privacy to

[1:22:49] make sure counselors have that space where children feel

[1:22:53] safe, and they can trust in their counselor and what they're doing.

[1:22:57] So it might not even be in the same office when I say that, but-

[1:23:01] I see teams, I don't know about the whole school

[1:23:03] ... Right. So again, without doing construction, I don't see how the high school

[1:23:07] could really... Well, I haven't been made that aware yet.

[1:23:13] I know it's a concept out there. I do believe in having our administrators

[1:23:17] throughout the building,

[1:23:19] where they could just walk out their office and easily monitor what's going on,

[1:23:23] instead of all coming from one location. But there's also research behind that.

[1:23:28] But it will also include what you're talking about, and again, we'll make sure that

[1:23:34] we could have teams i- in our buildings, but it could be a counseling team with

[1:23:38] CSD, school counselors, same entities where an administrator's not far from there.

[1:23:43] Mm-hmm.

[1:23:44] That's who their team levels are. Or it might just be administrators have offices

[1:23:49] in the building. We're not there yet, but it is something we're looking to do to

[1:23:52] help with the management of some of our buildings.

[1:23:59] Next, we have Virginia Jeffries.

[1:24:12] Virginia Jeffries, 236 Brighton Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey.

[1:24:17] Good evening board members, staff, and members of the public in attendance

[1:24:20] physically and virtually. Topics, Marisa McKenzie, board member Chastity Santana,

[1:24:26] Superintendent Beniqua, and the New Jersey Commissioner of Education.

[1:24:31] Marisa McKenzie. More than two years ago, Marisa McKenzie filed two similar

[1:24:35] complaints against me, which this board was well aware of.

[1:24:40] 000730, this complaint was immediately dismissed.

[1:24:45] 00748, this complaint was dismissed in May of this year, as she did not come to

[1:24:51] the trial requiring her appearance. Marisa McKenzie lied to the court.

[1:24:56] She told the court that I was harassing her on social media.

[1:24:59] Upon demanding proof of such, her response was that other people-

[1:25:04] You have to speak here

[1:25:04] ... was harassing her. Perjury.

[1:25:05] Oh, thank you. Wrong button.

[1:25:08] Marisa McKenzie-

[1:25:08] Excuse me. We can stop the clock.

[1:25:12] Point of order.

[1:25:12] We can stop the clock.

[1:25:15] I just want to explain one thing.

[1:25:17] Yeah.

[1:25:18] The board is always interested in hearing what you have to say.

[1:25:21] When we're talking about third parties, the board cannot do anything

[1:25:27] about if that party believes that their reputation is being tarnished in any way,

[1:25:34] that they could have some kind of response to it, a legal

[1:25:40] response, et cetera. This board is not going to. This board welcomes your comments.

[1:25:45] I just think it's important for you and the public to understand that if we're

[1:25:50] talking about rather serious accusations that could impact somebody's

[1:25:55] reputation, that one does so in public at their peril of that person coming

[1:26:01] back to protect their reputation. I just wanted to say that.

[1:26:04] I am speaking-

[1:26:05] And I'm not asking you to stop, I'm just telling you and the community that.

[1:26:09] So I must inform you that this is a court matter that involves

[1:26:16] an incident that happened on Board of Education property.

[1:26:18] I just want to-

[1:26:19] And so-

[1:26:22] And that shouldn't take their time away.

[1:26:25] Yeah. There's a point of order. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay? So I'm reclaiming my time.

[1:26:31] I hope that-

[1:26:34] Okay. Okay,

[1:26:36] Ms. Jeffries, you're reclaiming your time. Okay. Marisa McKenzie lied to the court.

[1:26:39] She told the court that I was harassing her on social media.

[1:26:41] Upon demanding proof of such, her response was that other people were harassing

[1:26:45] her. Perjury. Marisa McKenzie was given opportunities to withdraw her complaint.

[1:26:51] She would not do so. Marisa McKenzie used her children to bolster her complaint,

[1:26:55] implied and stated to the prosecutor that her children were in danger from me.

[1:27:00] Marisa McKenzie made demands to bar me from coming to any of this Board of

[1:27:05] Education meetings permanently.

[1:27:09] She communicated with board member Chastity Santana about these two complaints.

[1:27:14] Board member Chastity Santana. Previously, she was the board president from 2024 to

[1:27:19] 2025. She was never on the witness list for the complaints filed by Marisa

[1:27:23] McKenzie. She had communications with Marisa McKenzie discussing the complaints.

[1:27:29] She had communications with numerous people discussing the complaints.

[1:27:33] She even came to a court appearance where she sat with Marisa, conversed

[1:27:36] extensively with her, and left in the company of Marisa McKenzie.

[1:27:41] Superintendent Beniqua. He has lied to the community and property owners in regard

[1:27:45] to Franklin Elementary. The board has not challenged this, rather the board fully

[1:27:50] supports this lie. There has not been a plan submitted to the NJDOE nor the

[1:27:54] Commissioner of Education to renovate Franklin Elementary to be a pre-K/K school.

[1:28:00] The NJDOE approval of the LRFP of June 26th, 2026

[1:28:05] through 2031 never has plans to convert Franklin Elementary.

[1:28:10] The superintendent is required to present to the Board of Education and the public

[1:28:15] the current LRFP of June 2026 at a public meeting done by resolution.

[1:28:21] There is no current state authorization for the conversion of Franklin Elementary,

[1:28:26] therefore, there's no state funding to pay for any of these renovations.

[1:28:31] Without the proper request from the superintendent, the property owners will have

[1:28:34] to pay for any and all work done as this approved LRFP in current 2026- Excuse

[1:28:40] me. Excuse me.

[1:28:44] Your time has expired. Thank you.

[1:28:48] Thank you.

[1:28:51] No. Your time is up, Ms. Jeffries. Thank you so much.

[1:28:55] I don't know if all your comments, did you just want that on the record?

[1:28:58] Because I wasn't sure why we were hearing about a whole court case, but thank you

[1:29:01] for that. Nothing? Okay. Your time is up, but I'm going to move to...

[1:29:07] We have students in the audience who have cards in to speak, and I want to make

[1:29:10] sure that we allow them the time to speak so they can get home, so that they can go

[1:29:14] to bed at a proper time. Thank you. Our next person, Ms.

[1:29:19] Barnswallow, I'm going to put you after. I think it's Avalon Schwarbacher.

[1:29:24] I hope I've said your name right, sweetheart, because I was looking at it and I

[1:29:27] don't want to mess it up, and if I said it wrong, please correct me.

[1:29:30] No, that was pretty close to my name.

[1:29:32] Okay.

[1:29:32] Yeah. Good evening, board members. My name is Avalon Schwarbacher.

[1:29:37] I live at 79 Evergreen Parkway in Union.

[1:29:43] Oh. No, you have to give your-

[1:29:45] I'm sorry.

[1:29:46] Not your address. We're sorry. We should've told you that. Sorry.

[1:29:49] Sorry.

[1:29:51] I just wanted to bring up the Rapcan tennis... Oh, sorry.

[1:29:55] As a member of the Union High School girls tennis varsity team, I've noticed that

[1:29:59] the Rapcan courts, which were recently damaged by a storm, have had slow progress

[1:30:05] on being repaired. My questions are, when will we be able to have

[1:30:11] the courts fully repaired, and also,

[1:30:15] sorry, so that we can hold our games and be able to continue practice?

[1:30:19] Because currently varsity has practice on JB Courts, which affects the time we get

[1:30:24] to practice, the time we are allowed to practice, and can also affect our varsity

[1:30:28] games and JB games as well.

[1:30:31] Okay, thank you.

[1:30:35] Noted, and we will look into that. Thank you so much.

[1:30:38] Okay, thank you.

[1:30:39] And thank you for being brave enough to come to the microphone and ask your

[1:30:41] question.

[1:30:42] Okay.

[1:30:42] We appreciate that.

[1:30:44] The next person I have, now if I said your name wrong, because it looks like it's

[1:30:47] running together, Dani

[1:30:51] Passanelli?

[1:30:54] Is it Dani or-

[1:30:55] Dani.

[1:30:55] I'm sorry. Dani? It is Dani. Okay.

[1:30:57] It's Dani, yeah.

[1:30:59] Am I allowed to ask a question and then give a response?

[1:31:02] Depends on if we can legally respond in public, or we have an answer for it.

[1:31:06] Okay.

[1:31:08] I was wondering, because my kids are new to Hannah Caldwell School.

[1:31:13] They were previously at Connecticut Farms, but then we were impacted by the

[1:31:18] rezoning, and now that's where we are.

[1:31:22] But I was curious about the

[1:31:24] ... playground that is now being converted.

[1:31:27] Is that something that is the responsibility of the school to

[1:31:33] take care of, or is that Board of Education property and project?

[1:31:38] I'm not sure who's handling it.

[1:31:41] I'm assuming you're talking about the one that when you're up walking up towards

[1:31:45] the front-

[1:31:46] Yes

[1:31:46] ... had been ripped up?

[1:31:47] Yes.

[1:31:47] Yeah. So it was at a point that it was

[1:31:51] not usable. So there is plans in the future. Obviously, we've got to fund it.

[1:31:55] We're looking for grants. But we did tear it up so Mr.

[1:31:58] Shaw, who wanted it torn up, as the principal, can end up using it in a

[1:32:04] way for outside area-

[1:32:06] Okay

[1:32:06] ... but not necessarily yet a playground.

[1:32:09] Okay.

[1:32:09] So, we've obtained grants over the last few years for playgrounds.

[1:32:14] Okay.

[1:32:14] And we're working on trying to get another one for that building.

[1:32:18] Otherwise, we'll try to come up with some budget, build it into the budget for next

[1:32:22] year. But it was something after the budget was approved-

[1:32:27] Okay

[1:32:28] ... the following year.

[1:32:30] I'd like to give a little bit of a reason why I'm asking about this.

[1:32:36] When my son started Connecticut Farms, he was a first grader.

[1:32:42] He, in pre-K four and in kindergarten, had made friends with different kids who

[1:32:47] ended up bullying him. So they started out as friends, and then they were either

[1:32:52] physically violent towards him or...

[1:32:54] And it wasn't here in Union Public Schools or anything like that, so they were

[1:32:58] physically violent or teasing him or things like that.

[1:33:01] So when he started first grade at Connecticut Farms, he was painfully shy.

[1:33:08] There was no playground facility.

[1:33:10] It was a big parking lot where the kids were playing, and as a very nosy,

[1:33:18] maybe paranoid, worried about my son kind of parent, I did,

[1:33:24] in the first couple of weeks of school, take a look and see what my son was doing

[1:33:28] outside in the parking lot, and he was wandering.

[1:33:31] He was not playing with any of the other kids.

[1:33:35] He was by himself, kind of just trying to kill time it looked like.

[1:33:40] So that was pretty upsetting to me to watch that he wasn't interacting with other

[1:33:45] kids, making friends. There were no adults there who were trying to help him

[1:33:51] facilitate that.

[1:33:54] So I personally think that a playground there would've helped as an icebreaker for

[1:34:00] him to

[1:34:02] find something fun to do, maybe run into other kids in his class, create a game or

[1:34:07] whatever.

[1:34:09] So luckily, now that he's in third grade, and he's past all that

[1:34:15] bullying stuff, he's much more well adjusted now at Hannah Caldwell.

[1:34:19] But I do still feel for other parents who might be in our situation,

[1:34:25] who might have a kid that's not really very outgoing, and a playground or some kind

[1:34:31] of facility where they don't have to invent games.

[1:34:34] I don't know that a playground is in and of itself essential, but maybe there are

[1:34:40] other activities that,

[1:34:43] plants or

[1:34:46] other kinds of facilities are maybe a lot more cost-effective, because I know that

[1:34:50] budgeting is a concern, that we could

[1:34:53] implement there, so that way it's not on maybe two teachers who are there

[1:34:58] supervising 100 kids to try to figure out what to do with them.

[1:35:03] Okay.

[1:35:03] So I just, I hope there's something useful we can do with that space. Thank you.

[1:35:08] Thank you. Thank you so much.

[1:35:09] So, and if you want to share with Mr.

[1:35:13] Shaw any vision you might have for that space-

[1:35:16] Sure

[1:35:16] ... please do so.

[1:35:18] We are going to recreate it, but in the meantime, there is other space at Hannah

[1:35:22] Caldwell the kids are using.

[1:35:25] Thank you. And next we have Kathleen Bruns-Myers.

[1:35:33] Telling her I used to sit and watch my kids in the back too. Okay.

[1:35:39] Good evening everybody. Kathleen Bruns-Myers, Cranford, New Jersey, and during the

[1:35:43] day, still Livingston Elementary School.

[1:35:47] As most of you know, the last seven years I participated as an educator in the

[1:35:53] pre-K four program at Livingston. Loved every minute of it.

[1:35:58] I'm a little sad that I'm not still with them, but I'm really happy at my new home.

[1:36:04] Because I did kindergarten the year before I went to pre-K, and now I'm back to

[1:36:08] kindergarten. Took me a while, obviously, to play well with others.

[1:36:12] So, I just have to say a few things. Number one, I don't think you could've picked

[1:36:17] a better principal for a pre-K center than who you did.

[1:36:22] She is the epitome of sensitivity, love, caring.

[1:36:27] Doesn't matter if they're three, four or 19, she's fabulous, but she loves the

[1:36:31] little ones. And I have to say that that is a sad thing that I'm not with her too.

[1:36:35] Not that I don't love my principal. He's doing a great job too.

[1:36:40] Parents at my school are commenting about the time drop off, the time pickup.

[1:36:46] It's the same time. There is an extra time in the morning that they could go and

[1:36:51] have breakfast, but if they don't want to have to pay for them to have breakfast,

[1:36:54] they're trying to get them to the schools, and pickup is really hard.

[1:36:58] Even if it was staggered 10, 15 minutes to get from one side of town by Franklin to

[1:37:04] get over to Washington or Livingston, it's just not cutting it.

[1:37:08] So I don't know what your plan is. I don't know if you're thinking of trying to

[1:37:11] shift things, but I've asked any parent who has said something to me to please

[1:37:16] email you, Dr. Pancuesta. Whether they do or not, I don't know, but that's been my

[1:37:20] answer.

[1:37:21] Mm-hmm.

[1:37:22] Want me to keep going?

[1:37:23] Sure. Go ahead.

[1:37:23] Okay.

[1:37:25] I do have to say, too, in pre-K, we didn't do report cards.

[1:37:31] We did family conference forms, which were based on the objectives and the

[1:37:35] dimensions of the New Jersey standards for P3 and P4 students.

[1:37:41] So I'm really excited because I'm kind of used to that type of, not say grading,

[1:37:47] but evaluations-

[1:37:48] Mm-hmm

[1:37:48] ... that now I'm in kindergarten, that we're switching.

[1:37:51] It's just going to take me a while to learn how to do that in kindergarten, and I

[1:37:54] feel like a lot of my colleagues feel the same, so at least feel like I'm not in

[1:37:58] the own boat on that one. So we'll figure it out, and we know that you're going to

[1:38:02] help us out to learn that.

[1:38:05] I want to thank all my fellow staff members, all the teachers, the assistants, the

[1:38:09] staff members, the custodians, the maintenance department, the principals, the

[1:38:13] administrators, the board of ed. Everybody has worked so hard to get this school

[1:38:19] year up and running, and I can only say it is off to a speeding start.

[1:38:24] I've seen some of you around. It's been crazy awesome, and it's wonderful.

[1:38:30] Many of us are with new teaching teams and new grade levels in new buildings, and I

[1:38:35] just have to say, anyone who I've talked to, whether it's my building or another

[1:38:39] building, my friends, my colleagues, every single new teaching team has been so

[1:38:45] open and welcoming and inviting that I have to give a huge kudo and shout-out to

[1:38:50] everybody in this district because it's great to come in and feel like you're not

[1:38:54] the outsider. I'm going fast. Don't look at your clock.

[1:38:57] Taking a few notes.

[1:38:59] Sorry. I'm going. Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba.

[1:39:02] Everyone I talked to has had almost the same expression as me.

[1:39:06] While they've been in bed at 9:00 or 8:00 o'clock, and I've been in my classroom

[1:39:09] still trying to get it together since I moved.

[1:39:11] But everyone is exhausted and exhilarated for an awesome year.

[1:39:17] Yeah.

[1:39:17] Livingston School is going to be 100 years old next year.

[1:39:21] Wow.

[1:39:21] So we started talking about it last year.

[1:39:22] Another thing that I'm happy about to still be there.

[1:39:24] Thank you.

[1:39:26] Okay.

[1:39:27] Aw. You want to email us, Ms. Bruns? Please do.

[1:39:29] I know, but it's exciting for the neighborhood to hear. 100 years old.

[1:39:33] Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Bruns-Myers.

[1:39:34] Getting ready for a celebration.

[1:39:35] Yes.

[1:39:37] Sure.

[1:39:38] So as just a quick follow-up to the pre-K.

[1:39:42] One thing that a lot of people don't realize is it was the same starting time last

[1:39:46] year and the year before and the year before.

[1:39:48] There was a lot of parents that had to go from other areas of town to Hannah

[1:39:53] Caldwell because they were the ones that had six or eight classes of pre-K, I think

[1:39:57] it was. So because not every school had enough pre-K for their-- Like

[1:40:03] Washington, I think, had one. Livingston had two.

[1:40:06] People did have to travel across town to if they wanted pre-K.

[1:40:11] I know it's, again, a concern. That's why we opened up our buildings early to drop

[1:40:15] off. We're still strategizing to see if there's anything more we could do.

[1:40:20] But, I think a lot of people don't realize it might be their first time in pre-K,

[1:40:25] don't realize we didn't change the start times from the previous years, and didn't

[1:40:30] realize that they might not get their local school, and they had to go across town

[1:40:33] anyway if they wanted it. And so I think it's also educating everyone to say, "Yes,

[1:40:39] we're at one facility, but not much else changed."

[1:40:47] Thank you, Dr. Benquista. With that, the board will be going back into

[1:40:53] executive session, and actions may be taken.

[1:40:59] Move to executive session.

[1:41:00] Second.

[1:41:02] Any discussion? Seeing none. Can I have a roll call please, Ms. Scaviello?

[1:41:07] Ms. Carbonell?

[1:41:08] Yes.

[1:41:08] Mr. Regan?

[1:41:10] Yes.

[1:41:11] Mrs. Conte-Mackey?

[1:41:12] Yes.

[1:41:12] Mrs. Faria?

[1:41:13] Yes.

[1:41:14] Mr. McDowell?

[1:41:15] Yes.

[1:41:15] Mrs. Minisi?

[1:41:16] Yes.

[1:41:16] Mr. Massa? Mr. Massa?

[1:41:20] Yes.

[1:41:20] Ms. Santana?

[1:41:21] Yes.

[1:41:21] Mr. Scarpino?

[1:41:22] Yes.

Township of Union Board of Education Meeting September 15, 2026

Transcript