##VIDEO ID:ncaYvo-uuNU## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e our August 19th meeting please stand for the flag salute [Music] un States [Music] trusty daro here trusty M here trusty Muniz here trusty Pacho here vice president dtis here uh president benini here the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend meetings of this board of education except where specifically Exempted by law at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education has cause notice of this meeting to be published by having same advertis in available times also notice of this meeting has been mailed to the members of the Board of Education the burough clerk all elementary schools the middle school the high school Hornblower Early Childhood Center and posted on the district website also this meeting is being televised via the district social media pages very good thank you and could you have a motion to approve the minutes from July 15th both closed session and open session so moved and a second all those in favor I okay have no one opposed all right and let's go right to our um our student representative is here this evening candy dong and I'm sure she has a wonderful update for us for this coming coming school year so welcome to our meeting and we'd love to hear from you good evening everyone as a representative of our student government organization I candy dong feel incredibly honored to take on this position I am thrilled to support our fellow students as as well as learn more about the issues within the school town concerns new policies and more Additionally the voice of our students is of great importance and we need views to Aid in development of our school Community I am here to hopefully serve as an advantage to the board of education and its decision-making role regarding educational plans and programs most of all I am dedicated not only dedicated to taking on this position carefully but also dedicated to helping the school Community run more efficiently and smoothly I look forward to developing Solutions not problems to build progress in our school thank you thank you all right terrific I hope everyone is having a great summer out there um getting ready to start the school year so we would like to hear from our interim superintendent Nicholas Pareto if you'd like to give us a report on how things are going for the opening of school thank you madam president just a couple reminders of course that uh August the 26 Monday there's going to be a new teacher orientation which is going to pretty much take up the entire day which is going to be held at the central office uh staff will be reporting on the 93 September the 3 and students will be reporting on September 5th which is a full day um I did have an opportunity to take a tour on August the 13th along with Mr paldino or ba and along with Mr welding the assistant chief of buildings and grounds and I must say I like to really commend the custodial and maintenance staff for doing a good job with the work that has been done in getting the schools ready to open in September there's quite a bit of work that's been going on uh in these buildings as you know some that quite old but yet the work is is really topnotch uh the floors are spotless they're keeping them shining and I tell you they're doing an excellent job in doing the work um also I'd like to report that I met with Mrs Nicole shacklin director of curriculum instruction Elementary education uh we're looking she's going to be meeting with the elementary principles because we're looking to try to put in a support period which is where teachers can make instructional decisions based on data to provide additional support to our students we're working very hard to concentrate on the curriculum uh trying to get more data benchmarks standards which we been working very hard to see some improvement in our in those areas of our curriculum so pretty excited about getting started with that I'm meeting with her actually tomorrow along with one of the elementary uh curriculum supervisors so hopefully we we're going in the right direction and we'll see what happens as we move forward and that's my report very good thank you very much um report from our business administrator Matthew Paladino just a couple of points uh to make um Mr perado is absolutely correct we had a nice tour of the buildings um they're at the point where they're just about ready for the start of school in a couple of weeks uh Mr Teta Mr welling's uh staff are doing an outstanding job uh give them a lot of Praise um as the men and women on the castolan on the maintenance St have do every uh summer in uh getting the buildings ready for when the kids come in September um there's that and then uh there's resolution just for everybody's edification on the agenda to switch the district uh out of the state health benefits plan uh into a private provider with Etna uh we've met with all the union leadership gain their support we're working with the Bea uh to get a list of all their their doctors that might not be covered so that the transition on November 1st if if the board approves the the move tonight um is a seamless as possible uh come November 2nd uh uh hopefully this will be an initiative to save the district uh a little bit of money as the projections coming from the state for January 1 are not the most pleasing uh we're looking at anywhere uh if we stay with the state health benefits program we're looking anywhere between a 15 and a 20% increase on the premiums um which is pretty much what we discussed in April and early May um when we were looking at uh approving the budget for the 2024 2025 school year um so this would be a win-win for everybody Not only would it save the district uh money on the premiums but it would save each of the staff members uh a little bit of money uh in their checks um as we all pay deductions towards our health benefits um so everybody would save a little bit there everybody's savings would be different based on a number of different factors but again win-win so just wanted to mention that uh to the board into the public and that's it very good thank you Mr Paladino and finally Mr Egan good evening um things are going well uh the first comment going to make is uh Pig bagging on uh what Matt Paladino said concerning about switching the health benefits uh I was part of the process I fully uh support the move move and one of my uh big concerns was to ensure or to make sure that the staff all all all staff members uh and we we were able to check it with the support of the Union uh to make sure that all the doctors in the etnet system uh uh those doctors are covered uh those employee doctors uh are covered by the new plan uh that and it will uh save a significant amount of money and and the employees also number two is uh uh I've been in contact with a not for-profit organization and and the purpose is to uh Target uh and and pay attention to those students that we have in the district that don't go on to college you know what what happens to them and what we're looking to do is is support and uh with this new program uh with their help is is to uh try and create Pathways for the students male and female to go into uh and and gain admittance to the labor market especially the unions uh this this company will come to the building they will talk to our students they they will talk about about welding Electrical Plumbing and and other um trades um all they're doing all that at no cost to the board or the public this is this is uh group is uh sponsored by the New Jersey Manufacturers that are located in the state and there's like almost 10,000 companies and they support this uh program and they're anxious to um uh have access to the students uh to allow them to see what other uh Avenues of employment they could have without going to college the um uh there were some students that just don't want to go to college as other students would like to go to college but their families can't afford it this gives them an opportunity to go into uh trade school and and uh just other opportunities for them um uh we will be uh talking and having these this company with their representatives come into the to the district probably starting um after school starts Maybe by October that's that's my target date um I just think it's an opportunity uh for the students of bille uh moving on from that the um I reviewed the agenda and uh all the uh I REM the agenda uh the treasur of school money reports um and I certify that there is enough funds uh are available to meet the district's Financial Obligations for the remainder of the school year thank you very much great thank you Mr Egan and um Mr Paladino has something to add yeah just two things I thought of real quick in regards to the health benefits just so the the public the board and any staff that's watching this is only the district moving out of the state health plan for health benefits only the district has a separate provider for a dental we're with Delta Dental and we have a separate provider for prescription coverage through benac card so just so everybody understands that we've received some questions over the past couple of weeks this is only the district moving out of the state health benefits plan uh to go with Etna as a private provider and then the other thing I wanted to to mention uh publicly I see him sitting all the way in the back and hiding he's congratulate Mr Mara who's now Dr Mara uh after receiving his Doctorate congratulations [Applause] March all right thank you very good all right let's have a motion to open public participation so moved second all right got all those people all right we'll call Michael Sheldon to the podium uh good evening everyone Michael Sheldon 47 Floyd Street um I have just a couple questions tonight they all deal with Section 12 of the agenda and Mr Paladino answered um a number of the questions I had about the uh move of the district out of the state health benefits program but I'll get to that in a moment firstly I'd like to ask about 12.45 and 12.46 which are essentially interconnected 1245 says you're going to uh appropriate $37,500 to Solutions architecture to to do the development of a bus terminal at 335 335 333 335 Ralph Street solution architecture by the way is the same company that was has been involved with the awaited for parking garage next to the middle school and then 1246 is um uh uh you're going to appropriate $453,000 to an engineering firm French and pello uh for Engineering Services related to the same bus terminal now when when the board moved in April of 2022 to acquire those two residential lots 333 335 Ralph Street since that time you you appropriated you you bought those properties for $550,000 uh all along the intimation has been that you would just pave those two properties and use them as bus storage but now um lo and behold there there's this discussion about a bus terminal and and you're going to spend nearly half a million dollars for Engineering Services mind you when um I was on the board and several of you were still on the board with me at the time the clar field project the engineering cost for claran field was only about 300,000 so you're doing a a bus terminal for just the initial upfront engineering costs are nearly half a million dollars and a bus terminal I what is can you someone elaborate exactly what you plan to do with a bus terminal I mean a bus terminal sounds like you're going to be competing with the Port Authority or or Penn Station why do we need a bus terminal could are there plans in existence right now uh or is this just you know wishful thinking on your part but you know keep in mind you still are obligated to produce the parking garage next to the middle school you know you bonded for almost $12 million or the town hall bonded on your behalf for $12 million you're millions of dollars short in being able to being able to produce any parking garage so I'd like a few words if you will about what you're planning to do with this parking course and in regard to the health benefits thing I said Mr Paladino answered most of my questions but along the way he said that uh moving to Etna is going to be a win-win for the staff and the budget but uh since health benefits represent the second biggest part of the budget it's about $20 million if I remember correctly are spent by providing staff with healthare benefits if you don't have to deal with a 10 15% increase through the state are is there any discussion about refunding a little bit to the taxpayers so that it's a win win win and that bevel taxpayers see a little bit of savings in the process can you try to wrap it up please I'd appreciate some answers to my questions if you will thank you so in The Honorable words of Dr TOMCO through the chair Mr Sheldon I'm glad you go to Garfield I'm glad you stayed here in bille tonight listen I I know Dr Toco will send a note saying that he missed you tonight um in regard I'll start with your second one first um unfortunately that you know having come to these meetings for a long time that's not that's not the way it works um it you don't get a refund back like it's the IRS doing your taxes uh hopefully next year when we do 2025 2026 budget uh the money that we save uh any potential savings that we have in moving out of the State Health Plan uh to Etna will either benefit the board and the the district and other areas of the budget or will help with a a lesser um tax increase no tax I I I can't make that but you won't see any out of that until we come to next year's budget uh in regards to 1245 and 46 it's a bus depot we've been saying this for uh a number of months now uh pretty much it's where the buses are going to go The Architects and the engineers have it listed differently than we do we're not Building New York Transit New Jersey Transit and you know we're not going to be driving in the Time Square but what we're going to do is the we're looking to rip up the the grass that's there uh the soil will most likely have to be tested that's underneath it um and then have drainage put in and then we'll put down a parking lot which is what we've talked about uh since we bought the double lot uh I don't know six months a year ago I've lost track whatever it is it's a bus lot the goal in buying that double lot uh that we all discussed at the time was to move the buses out of St Peters into our own area and that's still what the goal is to do um if the board moves forward tonight that's it don't take the terminology and and twist and turn it it's still a bus depot it's going to have about 15 to 20 spots somewhere in that neighborhood to park all of our buses um somebody had asked me on the board if the the electric buses if we ever get them do end up going there they will go down by School number nine because that's where the the electric Chargers were uh outfitted the original time when I got the buses it's a sore subject but it's a it's a it's a dust it's a Depot it's just someplace to park the buses that's our own lot we're not we're not going to have New Jersey transit driving through here and and none of that no no no no no stop no it's just a parking lot the house will stay Transportation will go in there uh Mrs Bard Basco will move her office the bus drivers the bus AIDS will we'll use the house as an office uh when they're not running errands and whatnot but that's all it is thank you Mr Paladino and Ruben Rodriguez Ruben Rodriguez CED Hill Avenue um good evening how you doing um there's a lot of money on this one there's a lot of money on these I just have a question like uh so I don't even know how to ask this face painting $1,100 on face painting don't we have like artists in the school that can do face painting for volunteer hours don't you have like a cosmetology program it just seems like little tiny things that you guys just spend money on that $1,100 for face painting is unreal and then I guess my biggest question that I'm really up here for is 1111 um approved the Belleville Middle School um approved the handbook is that the Middle School handbook I I noticed something on the uh something on there about uniforms that you're not allowed to wear Crocs anymore and you're announcing this two weeks before the beginning of school when parents have already done their back to school shopping and now is that Crocs specific to Crocs croc style shoes is it any kind of trademark Croc on it or is it like like specific is that something that you all have read in the past you know whenever you got this and went over it and actually read that and said oh we're going to ban Crocs like it's not very specific so it's just a it's just something that your principles and your teachers are going to have to deal with that's a huge waste of time um and then 1112 approve the Diversity Health and Wellness manual when you click on it the health and wellness manual doesn't come up so you have to search for it luckily I did um and I just want to know before you guys vote for this before you all of you vote for this have each one of you read this health diversity manual for cover to cover have you guys actually spent the time before you actually make a vote on on this tonight and can you all look me in the eye and say yes you've read it please let me know how many pages you are before you vote for it and let me know that you you did the research on all of these claims in this health and diversity manual I would love to know that you've done all the claims and you know that everything in this manual are true and you're probably scrambling looking it up to see how many pages it are it's 39 just in case you needed to know um so that's all I just want to make sure that you guys are going over this and please $1,100 for for face painting I guess my biggest question on all of these agenda items is does somebody like actually all of these little things bid out like gates for dumpsters is that bid out or do we just bid out to a company and that's it we just accept the quote that they're given us um so I guess that's my my my question really is are all of these little things bided out or do you bid out the company $1,100 for face painting seems unreal uh my daughter is a makeup artist for her dance company and she'll be happy to do it for volunteer hours um and please please let me know about 1112 and and the Crocs also because that seems a little specific uh just ratification on the Crocs that's being pulled okay okay thank you all right if we have a motion to close public participation so moved second to say all those in favor I used to say that all those in favor I any opposed no we're going to move along and we're going to go through these agenda items these recommendations by our superintendent okay so a motion for Resolutions recommendation for Resolutions on Personnel items 9.1 to item 9.79 do we have a motion so moved and a second second second Mr Paladino please call the role yes is there any discussion hearing done trusty daro yes trusty msia yes trusty Muniz trusty Pacho yes uh vice president dtis yes and president benini yes all right and recomend recommendations for Resolutions on curriculum and instruction item 10.1 to 10.2 motion so moved and second okay and is there any discussion on the curriculum and instruction okay then hearing none Mr Paladino trusty daro yes uh trusty msia yes trusty munise yes trusty PCO yes uh vice president dtis yes and president benini yes okay and the next one is where we're going to pull item 11.6 so recommendations on resolution board action and board policy 11.1 to 11.24 but we're pulling 11.6 correct and is there any discussion uh yeah I wanted to see if uh for 1124 the renaming did you ask for the wait didn't ask for the motion do the motion first sorry motion second second okay now discussion so on 11:24 I just wanted to before we vote on this I just wanted to highlight it a little bit and see if we can uh um speak on on on the person that we're renaming the um um Sergeant Fred Stockholm if uh if it was possible for Mr palino to read uh the information on this gentleman are we on 11:24 MH for the renaming I was I was hoping Mr palino could read know some of the information that he shared with us on on this gentem before we vote on it because I wanted just to highlight him and why we're voting him in no no no I don't want to pull it I want to explanation I want to highlight this gentleman so I want to be able to just just read a little bit of a bio that we have on him if we could have it read out loud if Mr Mr Matt you want to do the honor since you sound so great sure just for everybody's edification as we discussed in committee a couple of years ago uh the superintendent Dr TOMCO had started um was in discussions with the board on on some renaming of some of the sites uh started that with uh the Early Childhood Center which ended up being named Hornblower Early Childhood Center after a b resident that foot in the Revolutionary War um continued that with 487 Greylock in naming that after Mr Willet if memory serves me correct he fought uh for the Tuskegee Airman in World War II was also a bille resident uh 499 for whatever reason uh didn't follow suit so I had brought it up to the board during committee during the week um that we've done it with Hornblower did it with the the other house uh would you guys be interested in continuing the uniformity of some of the sites in the district so I reached out to Mr Peron of the Belleville Historic Society he recommended um hold on one second sergeant United States Marine Court Gunnery Sergeant Fred Stockholm uh who fought during World War I he was a medal Honor recipient uh from Belleville New Jersey uh he died in the line of action in France June 8th 1918 uh he was pousy awarded the Medal of Honor uh what else can I say in here there a number of things he was a career Marine uh died a true Hero's death as I mentioned came to Belleville as a child after living in Irvington in North Newark uh his mom di died when he was young uh his father ended up uh orphaning him as a young child uh he he was a parisher of St Peter's um his burial site grave was moved to St p theaters uh there's actually a monument there [Music] um uh I mean about it I think Soup To Nuts um that was it pretty much what was recommended thank thank you another cool thing about it is that um he was also um one of the USS destroyers was named after uh um was named after him so the Navy has honored him as well so I thought it was um a great opportunity for us to just um highlight him out of just voting and getting this Ruth so thank you I think it's really thank you L vice president dtis did you have yes it's not so much discussion as much as um just a comment the um 1112 the Diversity Health and Wellness manual I just want to explain my vote because it was just highlighted um I did not have a chance to read through it yet so I'm going to be voting no on that just because I didn't have a chance to read it which um I just wanted to state that thank you health and do we want to pull 1111 all right and we're going to add we're going to pull 11.11 the Middle School dress code as well so that they can review that so that's 11.6 and 11. 11 we're pulling 11.6 11.11 okay all right any other discussions can we can can we go ahead and pull 1112 as well since yes I was giving everybody go ahead and give everybody a little bit more time we're going to pull 11.2 and which number is the beginners 11.4 all right so we're pulling 11.4 oh yeah 11.6 11.11 and 11.12 uh except for the 11.12 yes over Crocs except for 11.12 all right so any other discussions hearing no done Mr Paladino okay so just so the board secretary has this correct we're voting on 111 to 113 115 117 to 1110 11113 through 1124 do I have that correct correct yes okay trusty daro yes trusty msia yes trusty munise yes trusty Pacho yes vice president dtis yes and president benam yes all right and recommendations for purchasing and business services items 12.1 to 1277 is there a motion to approve so moved second okay any discussion uh yes I would just like to talk about 1245 and 46 it's not saying how I'm going to vote in this necessarily but um it is a very high ticket item and it's obviously one of the biggest things on the agenda one of the biggest dollar amounts on the agenda that we could see uh I have to really view that in the long term as well just to see what it's going to give us in the long term uh and weigh that out uh into any decision decision I make tonight as well uh but it is something that I just want to like say that it's one of the line items that obviously captured a lot of the B the the Board of Education up here is attention we you know there's a lot of discussion going on about it and I believe Mr Sheldon also brought that up tonight as well uh but it's definitely a high a Hightech item that we want to like uh just have to like weigh that against long term of what we plans for this District are going to be just so this any votes here I think is is is really uh just a challenge in a lot of cases that's all okay anyone else hearing none Mr Paladino please call the role trusty Darrow yes trusty massagi yes yes tressy munise yes tressy Pacho yes vice president dtis yes to all with the exception of 1245 and 1246 that's no and president benam yes okay moving on to finance is there a motion to approve items 13.1 to 13.6 so moved second is there any discussion on the finance okay Mr Paladino please call the rooll trusty Darrow yes trusty msia yes trusty munis yes trusty Pacho yes vice president dtis yes president benam yes all right and a motion to open citizen participation motion second second okay all those in favor okay Mr Michael Sheldon uh good evening again um I thank you for Mr paldino for answering the questions I had about the so-called parking um Depot or uh bus terminal at 333 335 Ralph Street uh the $43,750 for Engineering Services I hope that also includes Paving and construction cost that there isn't going to be a separate bill for several hundred, do to lay down to dig up put drainage and to put asphalt over the the the one lot because that would really be outrageous as I said earlier the total engineering costs for the claran field project were under $300,000 so while while you're paying uh almost a half a million dollars to basically pave one little lot uh doesn't make any sense at all uh just to follow up on what Mr Rodriguez said about the $1,100 for face painting obviously there are many many items little Rinky Dink items in these agendas um that um are questionable seem they seem to be uh involved with jacked up charges um mostly from vendors who don't have to go through any bidding process uh in the case in point is this Lev $0000 for face painting uh when I saw this I you immediately asked you know what gives there unless you you're bringing in um the makeup artist who makes uh Donald Trump look only 78 but uh you know that's beside the point uh I I know that uh because this you're you're a government entity vendors look at you and salivate and say oh you got you know Deep Pockets and uh you'll never really scrutinize these details and they'll they'll charge you whatever they can get away with I have some personal experience in this area my I have a relative who's an eye surgeon and for many years I've been voluntarily taking care of much of his his uh diagnostic equipment in particular a machine called an optical coherence tomography machine it uses lasers to image the back of the eye well a few years ago the machine stopped working and he called the manufacturer and said you know what would it cost to uh have one of your guys teexs come in and repair it and uh he was told well well upfront it's a $2,000 service fee and then we charge $500 an hour for labor plus parts so he asked me could you take a look at this machine before I make that call or agree and I did I opened it up and you know I have my degrees in theoretical physics from Stevens Institute and uh lo and behold I quickly discovered that the problem was a fuse 75 cents to repair the machine instead of my my relative spending 3, ,000 or $4,000 to have the same thing serviced so you need to scrutinize some of these bills a little more closely before you just say yes to them um the last thing I want to say tonight is um I've been in touch with uh Miss Bennett Mei and Miss dtis um regarding the uh Washington Avenue streetscape project I'm sure everyone's aware what's going on now Washington Avenue and the the uh horrible impact it's having on uh that section of Washington Avenue eventually that project in very short order it's going to move north along Washington Avenue and engulf the middle school and so um I reached out to the do and they gave me site plans and I shared them with everybody I posted them publicly so everyone now knows exactly what the state is planning to do Washington Avenue by the way you're not aware is a State Road State controls that uh and I've encouraged uh the uh woman who is in charge of this area the dot Meredith Hammonds to come to Belleville to have a question and answer information session to finally you know be to be able to answer all the questions and concerns that we have and she agreed sensibly to do that but um what I'm hoping is that the board collectively will extend the invitation to miss Hammonds and her staff have them come here properly advertised that I I would imagine it's going to be standing room only here because this project not only impacts Belleville residents but all of our surrounding communities eventually it's going to also uh affect directly affect Nutley and their Elementary School school on the corner of Park in Washington so the sooner you can do this I hope you you know all agree that uh if if the dot is willing to come here you're more than willing to host them have them come here be accountable let them explain exactly what they're planning to do what the timetable is and ese especially since board will be hosting this what extra contingencies are they going to offer to deal with the impact that this project is going to have on the middle school they're saying that this project from start to finish could run as long as three years all right so um when they show up with those barricades and do to the Middle School area what they've done South on Washington Avenue all hell's going to break loose what are the parents going to do when they're so accustomed to being able to drop off their kids and pick them up along Washington so please give this Fair consideration if you guys can quickly move to have this this meeting on the part of the dot I think it would be uh appreciated by everybody thank you yes thank you Mr selum we we received your correspondence and I don't know Mr Paladino if you want to give an update on that sure two just two comments if you will number one uh yes thank you uh I did after Mrs Bennett meany um forwarded me your email I did reach out to miss Hammond uh at the moment waiting for a response uh but we'll try to do our best to work with them to set something up for everybody as that's in the best interest of not only the district the board but also the community um so we're in the process as soon as I hear from her I'll let the board know and then we'll let you know as well what's how far we are and where we're at with making some some arrangements and then just the other thing I think you know having been here coming to meetings for eight years the purchasing gets scrutinized pretty good here um before it gets to the board and the board does a very good job of scrutinizing and asking questions on everything that's there um and I think uh I I I hope the board feels that over the time that we've all been together past boards current boards and future boards however long I'm here um that when they do ask questions in regards to purchasing they they they're satisfied and they're they're pleased with the response that uh that um that I give them in regards to how we're procuring uh things for the district for the betterment of the kids the staff and the community thank you very much uh and next I I hope I say this name right it's aaro is it lady lady good evening lady aaro 57 Fairway AV um during the beginning of this month my husband along with our two kids went to the indoor training facility to use used the golf simulator for the first time since it was built no fee free for residents this is the slogan of the Ender training facility however my husband got a call a few hours after leaving the facility making him aware that moving forward there will be a fee to use the golf simulator for $35 per hour despite the time they come in and I say despite the time they come in because they went during an open gym where facilities are typically free for residents um may I suggest having the golf simulator also free to Residence during the open gym as what's being done for the batting cages uh for those who don't know the batting cages have a fee for Club teams but it's free for anyone during open gym there's plenty of free and accessible facilities for other sports in this Town there's two brand new fields in Belleville Park a fairly new field and track in the high school right on top of the older field in the municipal Stadium there's a field in school 8 that that's just the name of you and for some reason you decide to start charging for the only golf facility that the town offers not to be confused with the first tea in jaliman since that place is not affiliated with the town I know this because my son had been attending classes there there since they opened in June 2022 it was never free which is understandable since they are not through the town uh so you can only imagine the excitement my son felt when he found out that there's an accessible golf simulator that's being offered by Belleville I wouldn't be here asking questions if the golf simulator fee is for non-residents that haven't contributed in the building of the facility but no residents are being charged despite already paying property taxes that made possible the indoor training facility including its equipment Staffing and the annual lease payments because asking residents and stakeholders to pay to use something their taxes have already paid for is completely unacceptable thank you thank you okay all right thank you um and next is Sean empowers is it sen sen empow okay good evening I'm senaro 72 Fairway Avenue I am just concerned about my about the bus uh bus uh service for middle school because my grandson is 1.7 miles away from middle school in the past I have four children that takes the bus service to Middle School from where I live from where we live and it's just a few steps away from my house so why is that when did you change the the distance that uh my grandson now cannot take the bus going to middle school because if you say that there are 35 buses is the 35 buses is a is there a one ratio of one bus driver to a 35 so why can't we service most students going to school because it's very difficult for the parents par to go out of their way to drop off especially if they have other children so I hope that he can Avail the bus service going to school thank you [Music] all right do you want to excuse me at the end of the the meeting yeah before the before you leave would you be able to just come back up here and we'll explain to you a little give you a little bit of background of of how this all came to be um so before you before you leave um we'd like to to just explain how that whole process works it was about 3 four years ago that that was um a change that was implemented based on the state's guidelines so what we're doing what we're doing is we're following the state's guidelines so we'd love to just talk to you a little bit about that before you leave so um just hang out a little bit after and we'll talk about it okay and we have your address do you want to just yes it is for everyone correct so yeah we'll sit down with you before we leave and and explain to you how how it all works all right just um at the end of the meeting just come and see Mr Paladino give him your phone number so that he can reach you yeah yeah yeah so the state regulations are anybody over two miles gets busted if your home is under two miles then they they they don't have to be bust by the district I don't know how long ago your your grandchildren or your child might have been busted if but we made the change got to be about three or four years ago to follow the state regulations because the district wasn't following the regulations of the state which is anybody over two miles is bust anybody under two miles is not bust I would just add that it's consistent with the not only state state law but the board policy um also is consistent with stay law okay thank you um and Ruben Rodriguez the best I don't get what they say uh Ruben Rodriguez CED the Hill Avenue um I'm also curious about the golf thing because my girls have been taking up the going to the open gym they've been using a lot and by the way Alex is a great guy and the guy that runs that's the guy that runs the uh the facility he is awesome he's very helpful he's an incredible employee and should get more um recognition I remembered what I wanted to ask when when I came up here first time and I totally forgot which is not like me how many TVs did we just buy for $62,000 that was one of my questions okay cool and then I don't know if I brought this up last month but I don't know if it was last month or this month but uh president Ben amini congratulations on getting that almost million dollars $900,000 for the um the thing we did when we walked around and everywhere um my huge concern is that any freshman in in the district are probably going to be out of the schools by the time New Jersey bureaucracy actually spends that money to do any construction and then it's just going to be more construction that's not going to really alleviate the biggest issue um which I know I have and my kids aren't even in school 3 anymore but School 3 is next week is or two weeks is going to be a nightmare with Washington Avenue by the time it moves down past the draan which it's going to move down which by the way they're moving very fast so let's give them a little you know shout out they are moving very fast down Jan but school's going to open and that's going to be down on the other side of geran when it's down on the other side of geran that detour is going to come up right on Union Avenue right right outside school 3 somebody is going to get hurt it's not if somebody gets hurt it's when somebody is going to get hurt every one of you that has been there at that time in the morning knows somebody's going to get hurt we've had kids get bumped by cars there before it's a nightmare that it's it's just not going to be good and I've been asking about this for about I don't know four years how are we going to alleviate well no not four years that was Co about 3 years how are we going to alleviate the issue with the double triple quadruple and and when I say quadruple parking I'm not I'm not making this up you have people people parking on the yellow line letting their kids out of the car so I really really um as far as the th the million dollars we got uh president meeting I hope that like um like Mr Sheldon talked about I hope there is some type of open Forum figuring out where that money is going to get spent because I know everybody's going to be fighting over it um but again that's more for walkways that's not going to when I when I asked online the number one people PE the number one reason people drop their kids off by car is it's not because it's the the the crosswalks are crooked or the trees are too low the number one reason is because they want to because I want to I want to take that extra minute to sleep and feed my kid and drop my kid off by car so I really please I'm begging you avoid the area if you're driving there but it's going to be a nightmare in about two weeks on was on Union Avenue and jaman between Union J between jaman and division is good going to be a nightmare I don't know if you could stagger in times I you know I don't know if you can have automat no don't allow parents in the backyard anything you could do but something has to be done because it's going to be a nightmare and somebody is going to get hurt please listen to me if you're watching don't drive your kids's going to get hurt please so thank you very much thank you Mr Rodriguez so I I can give you a little information the the township was awarded a couple of things um at the beginning of the year the township we also wrote for and received the federal Safe Streets for all Grant and it's to develop a safety action plan which will include a lot of community input and looking at the whole town um but that's strictly to develop the plan or some of the changes or things that you would like to see um and and look at roadways and begin a campaign and do all of those things so that's the federal Safe Streets for all we were one of the few communities that got that these grants are very competitive so we were pretty excited and the grant agreement should be coming in soon then we were just received the yes the New Jersey safe routs to school Grant the township also received a couple of Safe Streets to Transit grants phases one two and three and that was to get people safe safely to the train station in Silver Lake um the safe routs to school Grant is specific to like you said um sidewalks to fix broken sidewalks to paint crosswalks and to develop School traffic signage um and the way we have that Grant spread out because it is under a million dollars and as you could see with costs uh a million dollars can go very quickly but we wanted to make sure that every school got something so we looked at making sure the immediate school areas had new sidewalks the correct Ada curves uh and school's own signage and then bleed out from that into what would be the corridor streets where kids or families would normally walk to school um and yes you'll be hearing more about that so just wanted to let everybody know that there were quite a few grants that have been lined up uh to do a couple of different things I think vice president dtis wanted to add something yes thank you um I just wanted to take a quick minute to highlight the golf simulator the training facility comment I think that so many people are so quick to go on social media and Bash what we do up here but we don't know there's a problem unless you tell us so we want everyone to come to the meetings we want to know when there's a problem so I just wanted you to know that we appreciate you coming here taking your time and talking to us about that that it's very important to us so thank you okay what uh did you want to go ahead it was 7 DVS and she knew that because she asked the question because we pick everything apart all right thank you um so we have a motion to close public participation so moved very good and we're gonna just say to everybody have a great summer um we we know that it's everybody's very busy uh we know that the staff here is very busy and we're getting ready for the start of school and we will see you for the next meeting in September so do we have a motion to close so our meeting and all those in favor I very good