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Summit City School District board meeting, Sep 10, 2026

1 h 37 min

This board doesn’t post agenda times. Click a board member to jump to where they first speak; we list only members whose voice our check named. Video length 1 h 37 min.

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What happened

What happened at this meeting

Summit school board reviews goals for second year of strategic plan 57:44

  • The meeting opened with recognitions of newly hired staff, employees reaching 25 years of service and newly tenured staff. 22:08
  • A district staff member presented the board goals, saying the district was entering year 2 of its 5-year strategic plan. 57:44
  • Committee reports covered proposed changes to midterm and final exam weighting at Summit High and ongoing roofing and masonry work. 1:18:38
  • The board approved minutes and agenda sections by roll call, then voted to move into executive session to discuss negotiations. 1:32:09
Item by item (15)
  1. Opening and roll call 20:35
    • Eileen Kelly called the meeting to order and led the flag salute. 20:35
    • A staff member read the open public meetings notice and called the roll. 21:10
    • The staff member announced a quorum. ~21:54
  2. Staff recognitions 21:55
    • A staff member introduced newly hired staff who had been approved at the board's August meeting. 22:08
    • The staff member presented the 25 Years of Service Award and said 7 employees reached the milestone over the last year. 24:01
    • Eileen Kelly presented certificates of tenure to newly tenured staff, and a staff member said the group included 40 newly tenured teachers. 43:11
  3. Review of board goals 57:44
    • A staff member said the district was entering year 2 of its 5-year strategic plan, with goals in safety and wellness, teaching and learning, leadership and governance, community and culture, and finance and facilities. 58:10
    • The staff member said goal language stays the same for 5 years while objectives change annually, and that critical thinking work would expand to K-5 mathematics this year. 58:10
    • The staff member said progress would be tracked with a mid-year and end-of-year review. 1:00:25
  4. President's and superintendent's remarks 1:04:43
    • Eileen Kelly noted the approaching 25th anniversary of September 11th and welcomed students, families and staff to the school year. 1:04:43
    • The superintendent reported a successful opening day and said back-to-school nights begin this week. 1:07:34
    • The superintendent said high school administration and community members would gather at 7 AM at the weeping cherry tree outside the media center for a rededication marking 25 years since the attack. 1:10:08
  5. HIB investigations 1:10:35
    • A motion was made to approve the HIB investigations for the period. 1:10:35
  6. Student representative report 1:11:16
    • A student representative reported that students must keep phones and smartwatches in their bags all day under new cell phone restrictions following New Jersey's bell-to-bell ban. 1:11:23
    • The student representative said the first pep rally will be October 5th, followed by a spirit week. 1:12:49
  7. Agenda additions 1:13:18
    • A staff member added a finance item for a service agreement with Atlantic Health Systems Pediatric Assessment Center to provide school clearance assessments at $250 per assessment. 1:13:30
    • Personnel additions included a play-by-play announcer for home football games at $200 per game, up to $1,400 total for 7 games, and changes to staff full-time equivalency schedules. 1:14:44
  8. Education and Student Activities Committee report 1:16:11
    • Mark Gundersen said the administration surveyed approximately 400 alumni, current students and parents, and that their feedback was mixed. 1:16:23
    • Mark Gundersen reported that student and parent access to grades in Genesis will be unavailable during the instructional school day and will reopen after school. 1:16:23
    • Mark Gundersen reported that the administration's proposal reduces the weighting of both the midterm and final exam from 10% to 7.5% of the final course grade, with the quarterly marking period increasing from 20% to 21.25%. 1:19:04
  9. Operations Committee report 1:22:02
    • J. Carlos Mahecha reported the committee supported further development of an approach to the middle school coping stones that reduces the preliminary estimate from approximately $1.2 million to $800,000. 1:22:39
    • J. Carlos Mahecha said current spending on the 4-school roof grant program is approximately $9.2 million compared with the original $12.6 million estimate. 1:23:02
    • J. Carlos Mahecha said the fiscal 2027⁠-⁠2028 budget process will begin in October using a zero-based approach. 1:23:40
  10. Policy Committee report 1:24:46
    • The report said the committee recommended reinstating Bylaw 0131, first readings of several policies and abolishing R2200 and R2411. 1:25:08
    • The Policy Committee report said the revision to Policy 1643, Family Leave, reduces the required employment period from 12 months to 3 months and the required base hours from 1,000 to 250. 1:25:23
    • The report said the committee made no recommendation on non-registered students taking AP exams at Summit High School. 1:29:12
  11. Other committee reports 1:30:10
    • Walidah Justice said the Communications Committee did not meet this month. 1:30:15
    • Eileen Kelly said the board would hold an executive session at the end of the meeting to discuss matters related to negotiations. 1:30:19
  12. Public comment 1:30:19
    • A staff member read the public comment rules, including a limit of 3 minutes or less. 1:30:43
    • Eileen Kelly asked for comments on agenda and non-agenda items, then asked for a motion to close public comment. 1:31:16
  13. Minutes and agenda section approvals 1:31:59
    • The board took roll call votes on the minutes, curriculum and instruction items A through D, and finance items A through M, including the agenda addition. 1:31:59
    • The board also voted on school board operations items and personnel items A through Z, including the addendum items. 1:33:25
    • The minutes and the curriculum and instruction items carried. 1:32:09
  14. Policies and regulations 1:34:30
    • A motion was made on the first and second readings of the policies listed on the agenda. 1:34:31
    • The motion carried. ~1:35:03
  15. Executive session 1:35:06
    • The board moved into executive session at 7:15. 1:35:37

Written by software from the meeting's transcript and checked sentence by sentence against it.

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Video: posted by the district as “BOE Public Meeting: September 10, 2026”