is what kind of child you all right let's do it you ready we're all ready I like to call to order the regular meeting of the bota board of education for Tuesday April 30th 2024 please stand for the flag uned States America good evening everyone the New Jersey open public meeting law meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice often to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which any business affect their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the bota board of education has caused notice to this of this meeting to be published by having the daytime in place thereof posted in the bota burough Hall communicated by a letter to the record filed with the clerk of the Bureau of bagota and posted on the bota board of education website or F Mr Sal absent Mr salus absent Mr Alvarez present Mr Chavez present Mrs Cruz present Mr Navaro present Mrs olivo present Mr record present Mr Miranda presid we have the qu also uh I'm sorry for the record Mrs Al Cal had an emergency under their legal matters and Mrs Alvarez was out for educational purposes uh also president superintendent Damen Kennedy board attorney Thomas coin School business administrative board secretary eron eel assistant board secretary Elizabeth Ruiz and those student representative tonight um I like a motion to open the floor to Citizens on agenda items only do we have a motion motion Mr Chavis for a motion do we have a second Alvarez Mr Alvarez for a second any board discussion all in favor any oppos if there's any member who would like to address the to address us on agenda items only I'm still getting used to is it the name or the address or none no address oh just your name please state your name you have five minutes any member like to come up we have anyone in the public I mean online all right I'm going take a motion to close citizens comments on agenda items only do I have a motion Alvarez thank you Mr Alvarez do I have a second Chavez Mr Chavis any board discussion all in favor I any opposed okay we're moving on to section 31 of the agenda superintendent report Mr Kennedy you have the floor good evening first I am pulling agenda item 8.22 I want to meet with the finance committee before before we vote on this but we will address this again in May so again 8.22 just to do our due diligence before voting last night was our co- Elementary concert and it was a huge success even though we moved it earlier to April hoping to beat the heat the one day of the year that it was over 80 degrees it hit us like literally today is 50 um but shout out to all bans there was not a lot of complaining it was hot the gym was packed families had a great time the kids were great and at the end of the day it was really great to see all our third fourth fifth graders in District in one building uh performing for our parents and families and communi so great job by everyone I am looking forward to watching that event in a new air conditioned High School auditorium one day so that will be uh yes you I think we'll appreciate a little bit more in the future reminder that Thursday night is our open house at the high school uh this will be from 5: to 700 p.m. uh this is open to any families in the district or any Community member that like to come out and see the high school a lot of people do not know a lot of the great things that go on in our high school so we want to give our current seventh grade and families uh a chance to get an up close look but also anyone in the community or Elementary School come on out it should be a great night uh now I'm going to present the budget what I'm going going to ask if anyone has a chair there if you would like just to sit in front of the podium so you can have a clear view of the screen it'll make it a lot easier and I'll set we hope you enjoy the budget I get to presenter screen I just want to get to the presenter hold on one second let me do what I want all right there we go so I guess we got to add a line item to the budget for improvement no I gota put my notes up now I got all right now we're good all right all right good evening this is the 2024 2025 budget presentation tonight is April 30th 2024 I am Mr Kennedy urfo is our business administrator board president is Mr Frank Miranda vice president miss BC rucket trusties Adrien alcalde idali Alvarez Robert Alvarez Jose Chavez Susan Cruz Marco Navaro and Trina olivo with Mr Miranda Mrs rucket Mr Alvarez and Mr shavez serving on the finance committee so on behalf of the school district I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the board of education and the community for your support and passing of the March 23 referendum your vote in favor of these important project demonstrates a shared commitment to enhancing our schools and ensuring high quality education for our students we are excited about the upcoming Renovations and upgrades which will not only improve our facilities but also create a more conducive learning environment for our students your trust and investment in our schools are truly appreciated and we look forward to seeing these projects come to life for the benefit of our entire community so each year we have budget drivers what helps us create a budget and these also include staffing needs curriculum requirements Capital maintenance Capital Improvements salaries and benefits special education costs student IEPs and legal mandates unfunded mandates and security maintaining our school system our district is committed to enhancing intervention services through RTI using data data from Universal screeners and diagnostic assessments teachers can refer students for additional support we imp employ three main Universal screeners math reading and mental health reading proficiency by third grade is emphasized for its impact on lifelong success with interventions and strong instruction crucial for all students likewise mastering math concepts early is a key as struggles in early grades can lead to long-term difficulties particularly in algebra every student wellness and discipline are also prioritized with mental health support provided by counselors social workers School psychologists including interm support from our fdu graduate students each School in the district has an inter interd disciplinarian team led by the principle to implement response to interventions also known as RTI these teams meet after each Benchmark screening to analyze data data determine eligibility recom recommend follow-up assessments and suggest interventions monthly meetings review progress monitoring with some students needing more frequent monitoring interventions are tailored to students conducted by classroom or intervention teachers the principal holds a final meeting at the end of the year to review the program funding for intervention services comes from ARP and Title One with title 1A supporting future RTI Services a lot of these programs that we put in place these last couple years was use with our covid money that we got that was support students because we're seeing success with these programs it became a priority to the district to now fold them into our general budget investing in our our schools and our projects so the district is integrating a secondary full diverse load balance internet circuit to enhan internet access and has implemented a multi-layered cyber security approach so that's the it terms that those two guys back there know exactly what I'm talking about but at the end of the day the district is adding backup internet connections to make sure the internet stays strong even if it one fails we are also using several layers of protection to keep our computers and data safe from cyber attacks our technology department consists of 2.5 technology speciales and a tech director who supports four schools and the Boe offices they use it pro TV for continuous training and provide comprehensive of support through an online ticketing system capital projects for 2425 includ include replacing the main Insurance hallway floor at Lilian mste Elementary School replacing a hot water heater at eroy Bix Bixby and installing Security vestibules in all school buildings the district will also continue to replace old smartboards in schools annually and also maintain our Chromebook one:1 initiative building professionalism the district designed professional development to address a range of needs including learning gaps in Reading Writing and math as well as specific program implementations PD is provided for new staff and to deepen teacher knowledge and specific content areas of skill the d The District faces its PD planning on Research evidence-based PR programs and strategies regularly reviewing academic research to ensure effectiveness of the PD key areas of the focus for professional development include Reading Writing math mental health interventions social emotionally learning multilanguage scaffolds and support and Next Generation science standards planning for the future we will continue to lease from St Joseph's to house our middle school students and we're always looking for new uh opportunities where we could house more students we're working with PR professionals to put the referendum into action bathroom upgrades at Bixby and high school have been awarded with construction beginning this summer CTE building bid has been awarded construction has already started with the aestus abatement we have a meeting next week with those professionals to get that off the ground fields are out to bid this summer they will be working on them hopefully in May early June we are next up in our referendum is planning for the Bixby gym the High School auditorium the high school media center and electrical upgrades we're looking to create Revenue in District our 18 to 21 year old program we've had a bunch of districts come out and see it has been a huge success this year we have a district already coming on Monday would like to send us a student next year also our CTE program might be a source of Revenue in the future we're going to continue expanding technology cap abilities and resources our safety measures our onetoone Chromebook initiative and ensuring equity and inclusivity throughout the district for all students Ela and math show an overall Improvement but special education and grade 7even through n math students are plateauing a concern of these grades lead to Algebra 1 changes include adjusting math instruction length and adding a math lab for eth grade differentiation focuses shifting to a proactive identification and tutoring for grades 8 and N science SJ sjla scores are challenging we are shifting to the Next Generation science standard with framework with teacher training and open science said for Middle School to improve graduation rate and reduce chronic absenteeism our district has implemented several ever based evidence-based interventions these include the check and connect mentoring program at the high school level we are seeing right now when our adults work more closely with our students who are struggling and meet with them weekly students that were on the verge of dropping out and failing out of school are making honor role they are getting to school every day so we want to continue improving that we will look to expand that using title 4 funding another intervention is the attendance nudge which has improved schoolwide attendance the district pilot this nudge at the elementary level with success and plans continue it in all schools next year Additionally the district provides expanded summer instruction after school tutoring using ARP funds with plans to transfer to title one after ARP funding ends these interventions aim to support struggling students across all grade levels so this is another thing that we did in the past we've used Title One money to help pay for the title one teachers really doing us a disservice because at the end of the day it only paid for the teachers after we saw what we were doing with the uh art money from covid offering free summer school free tutoring after school we now AFF folded those title one teachers into our general budget again and now we can use all our Title One funding to support students who really need it so the budget itself comparison from last year to this year the local tax levy will re remain the same so that means there will be a zero tax increase for this budget um what really helped us this year is that we were one of the districts you see a lot of districts complaining about losing funding but Goa has always been underfunded for many years the last couple years we've gotten probably close to $10 million as a r yeah I can say our budget increased $1 million for last five years yeah so in the last five years our our our uh state aid has incre increased by $10 million we could do a lot with $10 million so this year's operating budget will be 33,2 30,000 we will have another 3.4 million in Grants this is our pre School Grants and some other grants that we receive which we will go over at the end of this but this is our total revenue sources for for all aspects of the money in District pie chart talking about that state aid makes up 47% of our budget with local tax levy being about 41% board uh appropriation so there's only a couple of big changes uh one of those big changes you'll see at the 82% that is the RTI that's the rti in Bas basic skills teachers that we folded back into our general budget the other thing that was a big Riser was our um our extraordinary aid for our Paris that are added District students that's all IEP based and we have to that's mandated by I APS if an added District student is required an aid or any type of um nurse busing we have to that's where you're seeing that uh major jump there for the most part though we did a good job of keeping everything the same another pie chart is breaking down the Appropriations instruction 25% special education 18% tuition %. so our budget summary salary increases 3.2 2% for the Bea for the administrators for central office and for our M maintenance and castal workers the board has done a tremendous job of making our our salary guide competitive we are not losing many teachers because of salary um which is a great thing a lot of districts are not fully staffed even at this time we have been fully staffed all year we added new positions and we kept them because that that's coming coming out of the art money and covid money but again these were all very important to us we want to do our best to keep them those three BSI teachers we as we also added a new fourth grade teacher at steam because enrollment continues to rise a new high school vice principal A Student Assistance coordinator Sac supervisor this is a person that deals with a little mental health but also any students with substance abuses we also added a supervisor of vocational education and special projects overseeing the CTE program so that we get that up and running projected benefits increas is 13.5% over this year's cost we will continue to implement the district's one to1 Chromebook initiative and also 15% replenishment also 10 new Mac computers for videography class districtwide educational software two gigabytes of dedicated internet with one gigabyte backup for all buildings cyber security and data backup curriculum writing and development new Ela and math standards are extended after school tutoring summer program tutoring new textbooks mental health program school-based mental health Grant class three officers for each building for school days and events we will continue the Middle School lease and our EIP project and we already talked about the capital projects with the upcoming school year but I did forget to mention the cops grant that we got which is going to uh improve our lockdown system more cameras more two-way radios more door replacement so the referendum tax so we had two questions question one which we said would be a 0% tax increase because we were coming off the books of our last referendum question two was going to be about a $15 tax increase per month for the average assessed home the referendum tax so what we were able to do as a district we were able to put the referendum money into a New Jersey arm which provides local governments in New Jersey with Investment Management Services for capital reserve capital reserve and general operating funds the board voted in June of 2023 to invest the referendum capital in New Jersey arm that investment has generated close to $1 million for this year those gains can only be used and spent with specific guidelines according to law but as a thank you one of the things we can do is we can help use that to offset referendum costs so as a thank you to the community for passing the referendum we are going to pay the first installment of the referendum tax for the community with these New Jersey arm gains so this will be truly a 0% tax increase so thank you say it again I say it one more time this will so a taxpayer who owns a home in bagot for the 2425 school year will pay zero more dollars per year for their taxes for the school thank you sir so something that we have to talk about that we don't talk about enough our district ACC compliments for the past year as we celebrate another successful year in our district we want to take a moment to recognize the invaluable support of our Board of Education led by board president Frank Miranda and vice president BC rucket the board's dedication and commitment to our students staff and Community Have Been instrumental in our accomplishments let's look at some of these accomplishments this year as a community we be offering free summer meals for all bota children we have offered virtual parent workshops we had a Bixby playground opening we have just celebrated five years of free free freek k schooling for bota students we started a re-registration process to make sure that everyone that wants to come to bot lives in pagota I do take it as a compliment when we do find people here that they beg to to stay they beg to stay sometimes we had a great great Community Forum recently that we will be using to help for our next big grant that we hope we be pushing out very soon we have open houses in the high school and the middle school coming up high school this week Middle School in May education and programs our school-based mental health Grant we are we are working with fdu and we are now getting free school psychologists in our buildings through a special Grant with fdu we installed the Bixby playground we started our own 18 to 21 year old program truly successful many districts have come to see see it and they are uh talking to us about taking their students in the future the new offices in the Step Building and the pre- offices that is attached to that 18 to 21 year old program a new student assistance counselor hydroponic G we are producing our own food and giving it to the cafeteria and we are selling it to our students we have strawberries going now we've done great we've done grape tomatoes a lot of lettuce we have a lot of lettuce but the students are working on it and they're enjoying it and they're learning about it and it's all great stuff um like we said the fdu we have an fdu stem program we have students graad gradua in from classes there Computing and security enrichment outre outreach program technical enrichment and outreach program we had a bunch of high school students do that on Saturdays for free Bergen Academy's engineering partnership with our middle school students they're going to the stem lab over in uh Bergen Tech uh a couple times a month uh our middle school students check and connect mentors we have recently started with our multilanguage Learners where we have teach teachers who are reaching out to parents and helping them assimilate into bota to make sure they understand that everything that they need and help them understand what they are going through because our students are here and we get to be with them every day they're learning as they go but the parents are also learning as they go each year we have four or five students graduate with their associates degree from Bergen Community College those credits are much cheaper at the time they do it here and they do carry over to colleges saving a ton of money we have internship program each year Law Offices hospitals uh I think last year we had someone in uh go uh gimr's office all right and that's just to name a few students come in they put what they want we do our best to help them find that projects referendum planning we already talked about navigated Fields with the burrow Bix be and high school bathrooms bid awarded construction begins this summer fields out to big construction begins this summer CTE project started phase two planning now which we talked about earlier Steen repointing last year Bixby floor replacement Vape detectors installed in every high school and middle school this year's grants alone we got the cops Grant awarded for almost $500,000 for districtwide security improvements high impact tutoring grant for our third and fourth grade students $76,000 the hydroponic Grant $5,000 the healthy meals incentive Grant $150,000 the school-based mental health Grant $227,000 the electric school bus is delivered and will be out very shortly that's just this year that's from July to now the grants that were awarded to us Awards and accomplishment but go to school district awarded for outstanding financial reporting for six years in a row because of our ba the the referendum money making money zero tax impact four out of the last five years and we've successfully negotiated contracts with administrators and board office with no one complaining so I think at the end of the day we we have a lot going on and we look forward to the future we are confident that with the support of our Board of Education we will continue achieve great things for our students and community so when we say these accomplishments this is this these are not my accomplishments this is our bot Administration team this is our board we all have to work together to make these things happen if I'm rowing one way and the board's rowing another way and the the administrators are not rowing at all we're not going anywhere so it's been it's been really great and I and I hear it from others superintendence that they know all the good things that we've been doing and that we are really getting a lot done so I I continue to look forward to the progress that we make and again when we sit down and write these things me and Mr Chang sometimes we're like wow I didn't remember that we did that and we're like wow and then Earth even came to me he goes oh you forgot to add this and we're like oh okay so again it's really a team effort it's it's it's it's a lot of people working together all our Administration Team all of Board office our board secretaries everyone does a great job so again I think it's a congratulations to the district and a thank you to the community uh for trusting in us to to push this referendum along and we haven't seen a lot but in the next six to nine months you're going to see a lot of stuff so we're excited for the future if there are any questions we will open it to the to public we have to open it I'll some statement out we do have to open it to the public um if you have any questions I'll continuity have a motion to open up to the public on the budget motion it's a hearing of public motion so motion any discussion all in favor any oppos any member of the public state your name feel free absolutely please um coner um 184 West Park Place right next to the field first of all I just want to say thank you um my son's a runner so I really appreciate you guys passing the Middle School track because he loves it and and you know he do he's um did the cross country in in fall but there was no Middle School track and um we got our first meet this Thursday so I just want to say thank you for that you know because it's a long year when you have a kid that just loves to run so thank you for passing that um and since I live right next to the field I know you said the it's going to start in summer but I was just curious so once they actually start do we have like a timeline is it is it going to take a year for that to be completed or is it going to be like four months I'm just curious to know because you know you know having a runner that is going to be the best thing so um we're out to bid right now so when a bid is finally awarded we will have have true timelines our hope is September October I mean what we've been watching though things change but we will have a true timeline uh but definitely for track season next year I imagine there will be a field yet yeah so cross country might be iffy but definitely probably by uh spring to be exact there's two things we're waiting on the bid is out now just to give you an idea uh the PO transparency the bid came over our uh I guess wishful thinking or desire so we went back U hence while all of this is working uh we did some value engineering with our Architects to pull out things that we can do directly that would be very cost efficient in comparison to the bid tied up together so uh between that and then the D permit which we recently about a month ago got it submitted it's good we just have to make sure now that whoever sees it however many people see it so we've always said 90 days after its submission okay so we have to wait on both of those things so I mean I know it's a big project so yeah yeah we're banking on July June July and they said it would take about October that's what I'm October but you know oh yeah yeah you know what cont construction is but I mean it'll be done like for next school year that's what I'm saying so we're not we're not looking I mean I know it's like blot so I know things take time but thank you so much and thanks again for the for the track I appreciate it welome uh you can hear me right first of all to go after that beautiful presentation it's hard that was an awesome presentation Mr Kennedy and great job you guys have done there you got a lot to be proud of a lot of stuff done um going on that s that um was just before me football's I'm a football team football's gonna be ready right the fields are gonna be ready for football do we have plan B yes there there will be there is a plan B that we already started discussing so we're looking into that again I think once the bid's awarded we will have a true indication we're looking at how we can manipulate the schedule maybe get more home games at the tail end of the season so as soon as we get that bid in and we have that first meeting and D approval we'll we'll know exactly how long it is because the football field is the priority the baseball field can can wait so that's where we want all our eggs well did you trve with the county because the county has that field and power park there was I think it was Leon or something like that for a while they used it okay very cool thank you um so just a couple of questions for the record um so how many students do we have now a little over 1300 a little over 1300 1300 and nowadays how how much are we pay for student now tuition huh our our tuition rate with this budget like like around 19,000 19,000 I remember what I said up there is like 12 so it's gone up quite a bit 12,000 for right now about 19 it's like 19 um the budget calculat is per the grades and per the programs I'm just giving in an average average right yeah in the advertised budget uh you can see all those details actually cool very good thanks um and my my last question is because I know this is a big thing when I was here and I think that we've have probably have a lot more the number of the percentage of special needs students that are out of going out of District because that's where your budget is choking I'm sure so how much percentage and again this is all just for the record but how much percentage or numbers do you have for out of you know District students for special needs would you say you do you want to hear about the enrollment out of District yes the budget percentage it's right here out of District specialed so we have we have about I want to say just about 40 students out a district um we have kept a lot of programs in District we created a new 18 to 21 year old program a new Middle School autism program where we have students are lower llds and our upper llds so we have brought quite a bit uh programs back that we have been bringing students back with our Wellness Center we were able to bring more students back because we had that um mental health piece also helping so we have made it a priority to only send districts out that we truly cannot house in District because of extreme conditions if that's what's best for that student all right than you I'll I'm sor yeah Mr can said uh we have 20 students sending to the other district 14 at least private school placements and we have also uh Bergen academies tack those locational schools around 14 so more than 40 kids we are sending out and and those 14 that are going to vocation Schools are they at the same no they they to Turbo the paral location so is that at the same rate at 19,000 oh no that a lot more uh those academ is actually around 10,000 only 10,000 the special ed programs are the expens with the transportation we can say around $8,000 each kids and some some programs are more expensive like almost $100,000 right and they and they can go to even past 18 right yeah both I think it's about and half million people take specials out of your 33 milon glass but I think just give or take you know there's obvious special instructions there's special but it's somewhere in that two and a half Millions okay well thank you and again see you all great job 3.2 million so it's a 7% of our budg no is out yeah so all special all of six and a good evening Lisa um first of all I want to commend every one of you this is absolutely outstanding outstanding from when I left it was it was great we were getting improvements but over the past few years what you guys guys have all done is it's breathtaking just to watch this and you've taken care of every little aspect between the students the teachers um the buildings and grounds the learning it it's just simply I'm really impressed um I want to thank the board I want to thank Mr Kennedy um Lizzy big part you helped too but the big part Earth yes when we hired you I knew we hired a gem and let me tell you you are amazing amazing everything is listed you have everything to the dollar and that's commendable um I also want to give a shout out to Mr Shen um to get over a million dollars in Grants in a year you don't see that you don't that at all so again I commend him you guys doing your little it you seem secure hopefully we could follow what you're doing and again zero tax increase I will report that on Thursday and I kind of wish more people would sign on I know because it's a little upsetting that people do not realize how much is being done in the school and how much is available so if there's any way we could try to get this out to the public more I think we should I'm sure you're going to do a newsletter or whatever but everybody needs to see what's going on and what what has been added and the grants tax tax no taxes so again thank you very much thank you thank you thank you Lisa Susan Harper on Susan Harper can you hear me Susan yep can you hear me you have your hand risen can you hear me yes okay sorry about that okay first of all I Echo what Lisa said congratulations and all your accomplishments it's uh it's great to see such progress it's great to see the team workor and it's great to see how everything um has been moving along I know how hard you all work and we appreciate it on behalf of the community and on behalf of the parents and the students um I do want to make a comment just concerning the recreational Fields um while I appreciate the fact that there's no tax implication everything is not just only about taxes okay and only about money as you all know just by your own accomplishments um even though there's zero tax impact there will be impact in other ways there's going to be greater amounts of pollution uh there's going to be likely a greater impact to individuals Health that's around the park um I know that some individuals have talked about family members having asthma um and with the um increase in the roads the trucks the Hack and Sack area um the cement factory um part of the reason why I always speak up about these large canopy trees is because the fact that they protect people um and they protect um and they also you know just help in terms of enhancing um our our community as well I know that um Mr Miranda had talked about value adjustment architect um and um I think that if anything they should be taking into consideration on how to conserve some of these larger trees as much as possible in your plans I think it's really it's a shame and it send a very bad message to the students to um to potentially cut down every single large tree and um and I don't feel that the community knows that in full and while I again I applaud you for all your tremendous work and effort I think that that's something that's really important for a park thank you thank you Mrs Harper anyone else two we have two questions carel Cara Bernie hi yeah hi hello hi um just on the re-registration I was just wondering what percentage of people responding to that um and how that is going and not enough so as of right now I think this morning we had close to 500 people uh register so we're sending out reminders Robo calls will be going out so you know I think we're we're making it pretty clear if they're not re-registered by a certain time they will be receiving transfer cards so we've sent we've sent um certified mail emails reminder emails reminder phone calls videos um I think it's just important for everyone to do their best to get out there and do it if they have any questions or problems they can contact Bella in central office but I I just think it's a matter of time before I think our due date is in May May 30th May 30th so again I've been in Mota 15 years usually people wait till the last minute to to respond to school things we ask them to buy tickets they show up at the door so we're we're we're going to keep pushing at 500 it's not a bad number right now we can push to 700 by the end of next week and we're more than halfway there so we're going to keep pushing that's all we can do okay thank you thank you anyone else there's just a a uh question online about teacher aids we will be meeting with teacher aids um in the next month to review uh what teacher aids uh will be seeing in the future so that's where we're at with teacher rats but that that has been spoken about and we will be meeting with them because that's through a contract within uh third party so moving forward for the record if you ask the question anonymously it isn't fair to residents of bagoda to State their name and then you want to ask a question Anon anonymously as a president of the board I'm going to reject those questions it just isn't fair it isn't it's just not even common practice anyone else no motion to close motion to close Al Mr alare second miss olivo all in any discussion all in favor all right any opposed all right so before we move on Kennedy you're good good you need more water I'm done that was one amazing budget presentation uh we promoted the budget presentation uh we tried to get as many people I you know I figured that when the referendum was happening or when things people want to you know complain they come in droves but when there's good news and we're giv back we only get a handful so I want to thank councilwoman Carpenter for asking all the right questions because I think sometimes I can roll my dice I bet you there's board members I don't know that answer U and neither does the public right because and I know who does right I know who our negotiation is I know who's involved and who's not unfortunately I can't put that out there but but it's a real thing this is a thankless job uh it is a thankless job and I got to tell you I got real cheerful as we're going through the accomplishments because I actually uh get Kennedy and urant to constantly update us on the accomplishments because there's so many happening and if I told you what's happened over the last eight years and over the last four years and I and before I lose this train of thought I want to give you Kudos Lisa Kohl's because you were here prior and you did with your board make an attempt to go forward and we just had building blocks and we kept going with that momentum so it doesn't it didn't just happen over four years that I've been here or there some of us has been here five for others it happened over a course of time and period and those who think that it happens overnight shame right uh I wish we could do it that fast I will say this fanan you've done an amazing job you answer every question that I ask I bother you enough and I challenge you enough um and you always have the the right thing to say doesn't he he's always and when he doesn't know he goes back and and it's sometimes I can get frustrated because I want to hear something else and he tells you the why he's telling you this and then we find ways and we find very positive ways to move forward Lizzy every document I mean there wouldn't be of excellent financial reporting out of Veron if Lizzie wasn't constantly texting us and she doesn't text one person she texts the entire finance committee like who's coming to sign and that's what I'm going to leave with this it is a true team effort because on that committee would be Chavez and I know it just like this Alvarez BC and she texts us for and there's never been a moment where somebody if I say hey I'm in Chicago and BC is in Boston Rob says I'll stop in or Rob is out Atlantic City Jose is somewhere else BC stops in and it happens within two hours within two hours she has who's coming and sometimes I'm just flying down the girl Avenue not speeding just heading somewhere and I remember she just sent the text and it's 8:45 and I pull in and she's like I thought BC was coming I said I was just here give me the documents let's go over this so and isn't that so I mean it is truly a team effort um on policy we have Susan who's constantly on our education Trina and you guys are just on it you're on it and and it takes it takes a group of people right to to really make this work the way it's working uh and Mr Kennedy I will say this in all of your accomplishments that we've had you know yes we're talking about Fields yes we're referring to the education of our kids yes we're talking about we have a great uh administrator uh Finance uh clerical assistant uh superintendent but but prior to that you got to motivate your staff and because if teachers walk out on us you have nothing you have nothing you have no boss for it you have no board it's just nothing and we have been able and I want to give a shout out to our finance and our negotiation teams who BC heads um and I've been in those and I'd rather be quiet sometimes because I get a little flustered about where we need to be how we need to say save money and BC jumps out of the zoom meetings and says well we got to calm down we got to be in their shoes when you bring your teachers up to par with programs and raises and your administrators and your staff and your secretaries who are the the the bottom point you know they're the they're the sole roots of the foundation you know you bring them up to par with other districts and it's harder for people to poach and I'm sure they're going to try to poach our superintendent with all these beautiful accomplishments I'm just happy he said that he wants to continue to see us grow I like the word continue because that gives me some sort of hope that we're going to be but you know today in education what I'm learning coming from a business work and it's happening in the business sector people are just walking off of jobs with the hope and then they go to the other side they realize it's not as green as where they were so what we're doing here is fertilizing our entire community you know fertilizing our schools so that people grow Greener they stick here they stay here and they're happy where they're at and I only say this because parents have often come up to us criticize what we're doing criticize our administrators and definitely always criticize our teachers this is not an easy job anymore I just had a conversation with some of my board members about uniform policies and tress codes matter me in this I'm more of a Streamliner so if you gave me one color I'm happy just gray all the way and I'm happy but our board members have differ of opinions and I respect that and they respect what I have to say and we get to a common Level Playing Field where everybody's happy but often we criticize the amount of work teachers have to do and it's a lot it's a lot and how they stay after hours today we had uh a a great opportunity to open up and I want to thank councilwoman carp for showing up um we had an opportunity to open up um like a ribbon cutting for Trinity School where we installed a new playground um and I know he said so many great things I don't even know if you included him I know there was so many right but the truth is we were able to attend and and there's are beautiful things when you see kids and then you have someone like kathle Molina one of our um uh staff at ministrators right Early Childhood supervisor lovely person and you know she makes it a point to invite us and to to motivate us so when you're in the same motion motivation transpires the spark hits I'm I I've been playing basketball with teachers lately and dodgeballs and you can feel it because trust me if they didn't like us you could feel that too right and and and there like I said there's a lot of sh Mattis that he said she said out there but the truth is we're flourishing we're flourishing as a community it's simply because there's no divide here there is no politicism up here and there's none of that garbage that's happening in our country uh we're focus on the fundamental principles of education of people of emotions and how we need to nurture the future we're working with down the hill with our board with our our Mayors and councils we're working with them we they're working with us I mean just a few minutes ago I was asked did the agreement finally everything we talked about is it on paper and down the hill that is the first time in my history in bota as elected officials on both sides where I've had anyone with a a real good interest or heartfelt interest is saying let's get this done let's get these feels done let's move this motion that's well oil machine and I I wanted to close it up at this you know I do thank our teachers I do thank our administrators I I thank the board I really do thank you because you're phenomenal for those who know who you are and who you were involved which is 95% of you I'm just saying thank you thank you thank you because sometimes I sit back and I say could I have done this because I get really upset quickly when I don't think see things working quick enough right so yeah I'm I pound yes I'm I'm I'm a thinker let's go forward why are we talking about this if it could be done if we can afford it and we're not going to go broke two years from now it could be done and it's an accomplishment and the board you really really good at staying true to that you're focused and I want to thank you please don't deviate from that Focus I I know the chatter I hear it I often you know I've learned almost like it's almost be it's better to be hid behind the curtains because people just come at you so I do want to thank you um and and I do you know Rob I don't want to put you on blast but boto was able to sell a house for $900,000 people some people could criticize it some people think they're very happy but I want to put something in perspective the American dream as they call it which is almost unattainable today wherever it was standard was you buy a home you know and you that was sort of your investment if you ask Bitcoin people they tell you never buy a home it's a money pit and and it sure is but there's something that comes with the emotion and success to be able to raise children in a house in your own backyard and in a community environment not a city environment the parks which we're obviously giving you now the you know just all of this comes together but no one ever takes in consideration that you've been paying tax for 30 years of your loan and almost always at the age of at the 35th year your kids are in college or adults they're married and you tend to want to now sell your home and and some people sell it for but most people sell their homes and they go onto an apartment or senior citizen home the truth of the matter is all that money you invested it wasn't just what you bought your house for but everything you put back in the tax base everything you put there you then get to sell your house so I put a story before this a meeting open I purchased the house for $180,000 on oaka prior to that the person that purchased it for 400 and change so they were they had taken out two mortgages on it so you could just imagine right I recall my neighbor buying a house for 380,000 same house and in 2008 she was crying because I bought my house for 180 right so would she have sold her house she would have gotten 200 the thing is that people lost money and that was a sad moment because that was their American Dream today I understand the market is wild I get it it will settle but if you're at any point able to sell your house for three times the value you invested your money in the right place so the argument is Bod has finally become the right place to the people who put in the work 40 50 60 30 years ago let's not take that dream and hope away because if you're going to discredit I understand there's fear of displac Andy I I get it I know it's hard no one's here is building sky scrapers that's not the goal in boto the goal is to have the best school district we can put forward I know the council's working the best roads the best firehouses the best services that you could possibly give residents and by way of blue ribbons and all the services we give in a school district we become that much more valuable so I want to leave it you know those successes are amazing um and I owe it to everyone here you've made my life abundantly easier to be be able to make decisions and work because you can imagine going to a place and no one's supporting you and I want to thank the parents and the community because I know you support us I know you support me I see it in your smiles I see it in your hell I see it and I and this and everyone gets that here no one ever has we could never say oh those parents we say look they have concerns and we try to address them so I want to thank the community as a whole this is good news this is how we gave back a lot of people simply just don't give it back we're sitting here saying this year we could do it let's do it because we never know what the future looks like and I just heard someone beside me say wow you're doing 0% when towns are raising like crazy this four years in a row we have a 0% tax increase it means that we're doing the right thing we're putting the money in the right places and we're not being over gouging we're not we're not looking to overspend we're just putting the money with kids deserve so four years in a row that's that's a testament to the previous those who were here and Fon and everyone else so thank you for that all right I'm GNA move on to oh no we closed that I did close it then I went into yep moving on to 31 uh I'm sorry 51 resolution policy section 41 43 41 oh sorry I circled this the wrong way 43 moving on to resolution approval of March 12 2024 work Action meeting minutes and March 19th open regular meeting minutes do I have a motion to approve olivo olivo do I have a second second Mrs rucket any board discussion all in faor oh noan yeah Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes on 41 I will abstain on 4 two as I was not here thank you Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navar yes M Oliva the same um yes on four uh yes on um on 4 One I wasn't here for 4 two thank you Mr record yes Mr Manda yes motion Carrie moving on to resolution 51 on the policy section is there a motion to move 51 motion Mrs rucket do I have a second second Mr Chavis any board discussion peran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs Oliva yes Mrs reord yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried thank you moving on to resolution uh 612 education section of the agenda approval items of 61 through 611 do I have a motion moves 612 motion Cruz Mrs Cruz do I have a second Chavez Chavez any board discussion Heron Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs R yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving on to 613 resolution of also in the education section which is approval of the Hib actions and decisions do I have a motion to move 6113 motion Mrs rocket do I have a second Mrs olivo any board discussion peran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr naar yes he said yes yeah Mr soliva Mrs record yes yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried does a count for that she was during right you see if it's not fun doesn't count all right so serious in these board meetings uh moving on moving on to 714 resolution Personnel section I'm sorry uh which is the approval of agenda items 71 through 713 do I have a motion to move 714 motion Cruz Mrs Cruz for a motion do I have a second Chavez Mr Chavez any board discussion Aran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs Oliver yes Mrs record yes Mr Manda oh I'm sorry yes motion perod before you move forward I want to um personally say thank you to Mr englas for all of his service and the progress achieved in inside Bigby school um he will be sorely missed completely y absolutely we almost wanted to say no yeah want to say no to that one uh he runs a tight ship he runs a TI ship it's it's it's sad nevertheless it's hard shoes to sell um he he runs a tight ship he has a beautiful school it's nice and colorful it's actually very warming not that any other school is not but you know it's a small it feels like a smaller school and and it sure runs really nicely so it's it's good it's a fun place to be in uh moving on to A7 I'm sorry 7:15 Personnel section which is the approval of the appointment of a custodian SE do I have a motion to move 7:15 motion thank you Chavez do I have a second Alvarez Mr Alvarez any board discussion roll call Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs solivo yes Mrs Rec yes Mr Miranda Mr Miranda yes motion Carri I was getting legal advice um so the number is going to jange all right 817 Finance section obviously Round of Applause to you guys motion motion move 81 through 816 motion thank you so motion chabas to move 8817 do I have a second oh Leo any board discussion roll call Aran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs Oliva yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried we are pulling 822 so 82 8 it would be 822 now which should be moving resolutions 822 also in the finance section hold on which one did you pull so it's 821 right so it's 8 821 you still can say 823 okay all right so do 823 18 through 21 okay also Finance section which is approve agenda items 821 through 8 I'm sorry 88 through 821 and 23 and 8 and 823 so do I have a motion to move 823 motion Chavez do I have a second Alvarez Alvarez any board discussion heran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs olivo yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion carried moving to 93 buildings and ground approval agenda items 9 1- 92 do I have a motion olivo motion olivo to move 93 do I have a second second Mrs rocket any board discussion Oran Mr Alvarez yes Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs Olo yes Mrs ret yes Mr Miranda yes motion Carri for the next one Mr Alvarez recuse yourself and it's on 101 moving on the addendum section of the approval of details statement of contract cost submission do I have a motion to approve 101 motion Mr Chavez second Mrs rucket for a second any board discussion roll callon so Mr alz Iain recuse recuse thank you Mr Chavez yes Mrs Cruz yes Mr Navaro yes Mrs solivo yes Mrs record yes Mr Ronda yes for the record m Mr Alvarez recused moving on to 111 committee reports do we have any committee reports I think we did that right yeah yeah the Kennedy do it for us thank you K can't follow that anymore you have a motion to move old business new business we have lots of new business right uh moving the floor to hearing of the public do I have a motion to move to hearing of the public olivo olivo Chavez for a second any board discussion all in favor any opposed is there any member of the public please state your name um while it's on my mind the sign by the bank maybe we could start figuring out you guys have a portion of that and we do right um we only we post something there only if we post something there we send it to the clerk right the clerk so we have big events we send some there but it's not something that um we post on often all right I didn't know who who had control of what okay it's it's the buau has complete control of it and we have to send a request if we want something on there okay all right thank you I'm Cony Carpenter again it's great meeting and I hate to make this the end but I re a call today that this is oneita faers who sat where you sat for four terms has passed want you to say could hear you you crack your voice I know um it's just very sad she was a hardworking uh woman who was so pro-education and so strong and she was such a pleasure to work with um she was the teacher herself um was a wonderful wonderful woman so bring face tonight thank you can we stand up and take a moment of silence think it's appropriate okay thank you thank you for bringing that to our attention I think we have Susan Harper yep Susan Harper welcome Susan thank you again um and Miss Carpenter my condolences to you it not only sounds like Miss sers was a wonderful public servant and Lead but also a good friend of yours so my condolences um so I just wanted to just um come back to the um some of the comments that were made just concerning real estate um and that uh the board is giving us a park um so um the board is not giving us a park we have a public taxpayer Park and Sherry was able to sell to sell her house um and everyone else you know within the town with the current Park that we have um large trees increase the value of homes this is a very very well documented okay look it up go to Ridgewood go to Glenrock and everybody could just see for themselves large trees increase values of homes so if you're concerned or you want to tout additional increases in real estate um that should be also considered as well within your plans of what was called value adjustment architecture thank you anyone else we are doubling the amount of trees right just want to make sure that so maybe in another 30 years yeah oh just making sure um I guess we weren't clear though we're following the auber's recommendation Absolut okay um anyone else anyone else no so do I have a motion to close hearing of the citizen motion a public hearing motion Chavez Alvarez Alvarez uh any discussion I don't want you guys down I still want you to leave un happppy no is that fair enough all right do I have a motion to adjourn this meeting Mo I want to thank you all for coming for being physically present present it takes a time and for those Carell and kathle Marina and Rachel carlto Susan Harper uh someone in go and anet ramz thank you for showing up time and time again you tend to be the people to show up to these meetings the persons and we really appreciate that because like you know we're volunteering just like you all volunteer at some point in time in your lives in in this town so thank you thank you thank you and have a good evening good evening good evening oh do I have a motion to adjourn Chavez do have a second Alvarez all in favor thank you very much good night