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Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=NAPhKPl5dA0

Part: 1

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Good evening, everyone. Please stand for the flag salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please be seated. In accordance with the open Public Meeting Act, NJSA 10:4-6, adequate notification of this meeting has been provided in compliance with PL 2025 C72. Notice was published on the district's website

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Under public notices posted in the Board of Education Administration Building and filed with the City Clerk to ensure accessibility, interpreter services are available upon request. Please submit your written request at least 48 hours prior notice to the board meeting to Brenda Perry Business office executive assistant at Brendaperry at Hackensackschools.org. I hereby call to order this special public meeting Wednesday, August 5th, 2026, in the Padovano Education Center at

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6.16 PM. Dr. Dennis, can you please do a roll call? Excuse me, Trustee Olson Balaputra. Present. Trustee Amahamsa. Trustee Carroll. Trustee Gilmore. Trustee Jones. Here. Vice President Martin. Here. President Harris. Present. I suggest a quorum, Madam President. Thank you. Okay, so good evening, everyone. So this evening we have

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Two big things on our agenda tonight. So we do have resolutions that we will be voting on later on this evening, but our first item is our board candidate interviews. As you have all noticed that we do have two open positions And we received five applications for our board vacancy At this moment, one withdrew, so we will be interviewing the 4 applicants. The interviews will be taking place in closed session this evening, so we will be going into executive session after executive session is over, then we will be appointing

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Those 2 individuals or those open positions. After that, we will have public comments. After public comments, then we'll go into our second executive session to discuss legal and personnel matters. All right, so be a result that the Hackasag Board of Education determines it necessary to meet an executive session on Wednesday, August 5th, 2026 to discuss legal and personnel matters and be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive, please?

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Motion by Trustee Amrahamsa and a second. Second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? All right, excellent. So just so the public knows, the video will still be rolling. We will be in executive session The public will now move into the hallway where we have chairs for you all, and we will call you in the order that we received your application.

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Welcome back, everyone. So we completed our board candidate interviews. First and foremost, I just want to thank our four candidates for coming out tonight. You are all truly amazing, very unique in your own ways I do encourage you all to stay involved in the community. You definitely have the qualities to bring to Hackensack. You do have the passion. Our community relations committee chair

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We'll also be looking for new participants to be a part of our community relations committee in December. So I highly encourage you to stay involved and please come to our meetings and be seen. I think it's very important for that. So our goal is to appoint the two vacant seats. and whoever is chosen, those individuals, if all goes well, will be sworn in at the August 19th meeting. So that is 2 weeks from now.

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So before we appoint anybody, I would like to just open up the floor for discussion or any comments that any board members have regarding the interviews. I won't call anybody out. I will let you guys. I just want to say, I think it was, I think everybody was excellent. Like it's not was an easy decision. I mean, it's really, I mean, everybody had a lot of good experience and kind of unique experiences as well and everybody seemed to be Caring about the community real is like really so I hope whoever is not in is Again, staying involved in some way. And I think I'm on a community relations committee as well. I think that's a

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It's a good way to still get yourself heard and get things done in town. So I just hats off to you guys, that's all. And just to echo one that says, you know Hackensack is my home. I was born and living here, so it just warms my heart to hear the passion for my city and for the kids especially, and for the community, especially time, you know, where we are reimagining the district. So it's a clean slate, and we are working diligently to ensure that our children still get the education that we all receive from this district. So, thank you.

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And I also just want to thank you all for coming in and interviewing. Just really impressive, all four of you. And it's really a I guess it's kind of a good problem to have that there are so many good qualified people who care about our schools. So please do stay connected. I will say one thing that stood out to me that I love to hear. Yes, you do serve the community, but you also need to know how to work as a team. And I think that's also just very important, especially being part of the board is

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You might all have your own vision and your own experiences, but we all have to find a way to work together. And I think that's also very important to note So, alright, so being that we don't have any more comments, I open the floor for any nominations or and this one is to fill in the seat for Trustee Shivani Pringle So do we have a motion? Madam President, if I could make a motion to nominate Mabel Bonilla.

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Just very impressed with the strong community ties and all the work with our students. I think that that's a great attribute to bring to the board. Okay, so we have a motion from Trustee Amrahamsa for Mabel Bonilla. Is there a second? Okay, so we have a second from Trustee Jones. All right, so at this time, Dr. Danieff, may you please roll call. All right, we have a motion. We have a motion to appoint Mabel Bonilla, board trustee, to fill the seat vacated by former trustee Pringle. I will now call the roll. Trustee Allen Volopotra.

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Yes. Trustee Yamahamza. Yes Trustee Gilmour. Yes. Trustee Jones. Yes Vice President Martin. President Harris. Yes. Motion carried. Welcome, Ms. Bonilla. Congratulations. Okay, now at this time, I will entertain motions for the position, for the vacant position from Trustee Mark Stein. Do I have a motion? I would like to make a motion to nominate Vicki

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A second denomination. Okay, so we have a first from Trustee Gilmore, a second from Trustee Austin Balaputra Dr. Dennis, can you please the roll call? All right, we have a motion to appoint Vicki Farhi, board trustee, to fill the seat vacated by former Trustee Stein. Trustee Austin Balaputra. Yes. Trustee Yamahanza. Yes. Trustee Gilmore. Yes, Trustee Jones. Vice President Martin.

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President Harris. Yes. Welcome, Ms. Farney. Congratulations. All right, so as I have stated before, I still encourage you to apply. Please stay active within the community. We do look forward to seeing you all. You have amazing, amazing qualities. And again, congratulations to Mabel Bonilla and Vicki Farhi. Dr. Dennis will be in touch with you in regards to what the next steps are so that

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We can get you sworn in at the August 19th meeting. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you all. All right, so at this time, we are going to… oh, does anyone have any comments? Anything else? We're good. Okay. excellent. All right. So we're going to move to public comment, public participation shall be governed by board policy 0 1 6 7 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name

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municipality of residence and group affiliation, if applicable. Each statement made by participant during the first public comment period shall be limited to a 3-minute duration. All statements, questions, or inquiries shall be directed to the presiding officer, and any questions or inquiries Directed by a participant to another board member shall be redirected to the presiding officer who shall determine if such statement, question, or inquiry shall be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the board or by the individual board member. At this time, board public comments will be open to anyone in person

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Is there anyone in person that would like to speak You can step up. Yep, to the mic. And just state your name, please. Vicki Farhi. I just want to thank you all for the honor that you have just given me. I am so appreciative. and so honored, and so looking forward to being part of the team. But I also want to thank Alan and Jason, because we were having some great conversations, and I was learning about their commitment, and I'm really looking forward to doing some stuff with you.

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So anyway, thank you. Thank you. And Is there anyone else in person that would like to speak? At this time, the public comment section in person is Is there anyone online that would like to speak?

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All right Seeing that there are none, the public comment section is now closed. We're going to now move on to our second executive session part of this evening. Where Madam President, did you want to take a little recess before you do the To have a little refreshment before you. Absolutely, yes. Thank you so much for that. Let's take a brief recess and we go into executive session, we'll take a just a brief recess. There are refreshments out here for the public, and we will be back in, I would give it 10 minutes.

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Okay. Thank you.

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Part be it resolved that the Hackasag Board of Education determines it necessary to meet an executive session on Wednesday, August 5, 2026, to discuss legal and personal matters, and be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists Can I have a motion to go into their second executive session? Okay, motion by Vice President Martin and a second. Second by Trustee Gilmore. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? All right, folks, it is

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734 PM. We do have a busy agenda for our executive session. But if you can give us at least an hour. And we'll come back to vote on our resolutions. Thank you. Alright thanks. Okay, and we are back. Can I have a motion to go back to the public, please? I'll make a motion. Motion by Vice President Martin and a second. I'll second. Second by Trustee Armahemsa. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions?

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All right, thank you. It is 9:48 PM. Welcome back, folks, and we are going to move into our business personnel and facilities resolution. They are all together as one And I'm going to have Trustee Amrahamsa take on those resolutions. Thank you, Madam President. Before I offer the items for consideration, I would like to make a motion to table personnel item a one number

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Okay, excellent. So we have a motion to table from Trustee Amrahamsa. Is there a second? Second by Trustee Jones. Dr. Dennis, can you please do a roll call? And it's got all been done in one shot. Trustee Alton Bellaputra. Yes. Trustee Yamahamsa. Yes. Trustee Gilmore. Trustee Jones, Vice President Martin. Yes. President Harris. Yes. So tabled. Thank you. Thank you. And now I'd like to offer resolutions for personnel items A1 through A3, business items D1 and facilities items E1.

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Okay, excellent. So we have a motion from Trustee Amahemsa. Do I have a second? Second by Trustee Gilmore, Dr. Tennessey, please do a roll call. Alright, we have a motion and a second on resolutions A1, number 2, A2, A3, D1, and E1. Trustee Allston-Bellapora. Yes. Trustee Amarhamsa? Yes. Trustee Gilmore. Trustee Jones. Vice President Martin, President Harris. Yes. Motion so carried. Thank you. Okay.

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We like to say anything. Congratulations. We would like to highlight and congratulate Donna Petron Wall. Yes, yes. I wanted to just congratulate Donna Petron Wall on being appointed as elementary school principal and being part of the team officially. I just wanted to read a little bit about Donna Petra Moore

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Mrs. Petron Wall is an experienced educational leader with a strong commitment to fostering academic excellence, supporting student well-being, and building collaborative school communities. And throughout her career, she has focused on strengthening instructional practices promoting equitable learning opportunities and creating learning environments where every student can succeed. In January of this year, Ms. Petron Wall joined the Jackson Avenue school community as an acting principal, and in this role, she partnered with students, staff, families, and the community to cultivate a welcoming, supportive

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And high achieving school culture centered on student success. She collaborated with district coaches to provide professional learning for teachers, paraeducators, and support staff focused on effective instructional practices Before joining Jackson Avenue School, she was… she served as director of the Early Childhood Then there she provided instructional leadership I'm not going to read the whole bio, but she… and then Ms. Petram will serve as assistant principal at Nellie K. Parker for 5 years. In that role, she coordinated academic intervention services, promoted a positive school climate

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across her career, she's just been dedicated to the Hackensack Public School System And we are just happy that she is officially an elementary school principal for Hackensack Public School And, no, she's currently In line for a PhD at Montclair State University with a concentration in teacher education and teacher development. And we are happy that Donna Petron Wall has been appointed to this position.

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Congratulations. Okay, before we move on to board comments Oh, got it. I should know better right now. Before we move on to board comments. Ms. Andrea Oldsparchment, if you can just reassure the public, especially because we just tabled an item, in terms of our special services department and who they can reach out to, and just what's currently happening at the moment.

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Thank you, President Harris. The special education department will still be covered. As you see on the agenda, we have our athletic director, who is also will serve in the special education department with any transitional needs. We also have our supervisor who will still functioning as the supervisor of special services You can reach out to both of them with any concerns. Rest assured that we are still moving forward with all of the things that we have to do to be prepared for this upcoming school year. To our parents

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Just rest assured that we will be addressing the needs. There's not a void in the special services department. Thank you. All right, so we're going to move on to board comments and I'll start over here. Trustee also. Oh, okay. Thank you for that. Can I have a motion to extend the meeting past 10 o'clock, please? I'll offer. Okay, a motion from Trustee Armahemsa and a second. I'll second. Second by Trustee Austin Balapucha. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed

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Any abstention? Thank you. Okay. And that was 9:54 PM. Close call. Yes, I still think we will be done by 10 might be done. All right. Let's see only board comment is congratulations to Donna Petron Wall. I've learned a great deal from her, been on a lot of her workshops. I've learned a lot from her as teacher and as a as a leader. So thrilled that she's in this position. All right, excellent. Trustee Jones. congratulate Donna as well. And I had a beautiful personnel we had the opportunity to sit in on some of the interviews and you know first of all, hats off to the administrators. It was really a thorough

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interviewing process. Some of the board members have to sit asylum partners, and it was like You guys were under a lot of pressure. So I saw you in action too, so I was able to see it, but it was a very thorough process, and it was like, look, you got 20 minutes to put together a presentation, you gotta do it in front of us right now, and it was… and then we just sat there and waited, and it was… and again, I was able to Fortunate to see her, but just seeing the process, it's so, really, it's a shout out to yourself, but also shout out to the resources for how they selected because it was really, really thorough. And so like you had to be really, really good to get that position. So congratulations.

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All right, Trustee Gilmore. Again, I want to congratulate Ms. Donna Petron Wall on your new assignment. I know you will do well. And I also want to congratulate the newly appointed, trustees. Vicki Farhill Barhi, and Mabel Bonilla. Just want to congratulate them and welcome and welcome them to the team and you know, looking forward to to the great work we'll do and the rest of the candidates that did not

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You know, get appointed tonight, we encourage them to stay connected to the district because they were wonderful as well, and we think they have a lot to add to the district. That's it. Good night. Yeah, I just want to echo my congratulations to Ms. Petron wall. We're excited, very excited to have you in this role. And also again echoing trustee Gilmore's comments, congratulations to our newest trustees who will get to see on on the August 19th meeting

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Congratulations, Ms. Bonilla and Ms. Barhi. And thank you all very much, and have a great night. Thank you, Vice President Martin. I also would like to congratulate you, Donna I was also at the interview. Yes, they were tough and I felt the way the process was very fair. And Well thought out. So The committee that put it together, you did a good job. And to all the candidates that came before us

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They were all good. They're all good. We can't take them all. But yeah, unfortunately, we can't and we had to be one. And Donna, you're the one and we know you do a good job. The two of the candidates, congratulations and the ones that came out as well for the interview. Stay in touch and we look up to working with you guys and our committee, community committee

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That's it. Thank you. Excellent. All right, so we had a very eventful special meeting tonight. But it was a good problem to have. A lot of good things came out of it. Congratulations, Donna put your wall again. Congratulations to our new board members who will be filling in the 2 seats. Come August 19th. I look forward to working with you. And again, as what everyone else has said To those 2 candidates who did not make it. Please stay in touch. Continue to reach out to the community in various ways through the CRC or anything else that's going on in our schools.

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And with that, I look forward to our August 19th meeting. And that will be at the High School Media Center. All right. So can I have a motion to adjourn our meeting? I'll move. Motion by Trustee Austin-Balapuchar and a second. Second by Trustee Gilmore. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? And it is 9:58 PM. Have a good night, everyone. Thank you for joining us.