e e e e e e okay um um Mary can you call the roll call please Miss Miss Kennedy miss you been adct yes yes Mr Mesmer yep M palala yes m w Mr Edwards the New Jersey open public Comm law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the bre Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administration office Bing board the official District website and channel BTV inent to the Asbury Park Press brick time Star Ledger in Municipal clerk's office I we'll need a motion in a second Mr Edwards will read um okay go ahead a motion a second please motion Nicole second Fran um whereas The Brick Township Board of Education has been for been formed pursuant to applicable New Jersey statutes and whereas the board is charged with the responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the law and the rules of the state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools and public school property of the Brick Township School District and whereas section seven of the old public meeting act permits the exclusion of the public for a meeting of the board in certain circumstances and whereas the board has determined that circumstances exists for such an executive session whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper now therefore be resolved by the board on June 18th 2024 that the board shall exclude from the discussion of an action on the executive session here and set forth the session will be approxim 15 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports it is anticipated at this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when it is deemed to be in the public interest to do so and the need for confidentiality is no longer required by the board did we vote motion to missert yes Miss Kennedy Miss G Benedictus yes misson yes m Mesmer Yesa yes I know Ali [Music] is e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right Motion in a second we're going to need a motion in a second to return uh to the um uh general meeting motion bran second Aly Mary Miss cber yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Benedict yes Miss yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss pakala yes I'd like to introduce the flag salute um where is it there it is up there and and a moment of silence please flag United States America stands indivisible and justice for all please be seated [Music] often it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education acts with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Board of Ed committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full Board of Education it is placed on the agenda for Action at a public meeting board of education members are given advanced notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary some matters could be presented to the board of education for discussion and vote at the meeting uh we have um April and May approval of minutes um can I get a motion for approval of minutes please motion Nicole second Fran Mary Miss debert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss aanon yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes um tonight we're going to have facilities and finance reports um Mr Edwards are you uh ready sure thank you uh finance committee met on June 7th at 11:30 a.m. Mr Mesmer Miss WRA Miss picala Dr farell myself first item of discussion was the 2024 2025 budget in which Dr far discuss various options in regard to the budget modifications now allowed under assembly Bill a 4161 signed in the signed by the governor into law uh second item of business was the community solar and building performance I informed the committee that dco energy has completed the review of the utility bill data and is now working on the projections for the HVAC projects uh Brick Township facilities I Shar with the committee that uh the township is looking at a pro piece of property right by Warren Wolf uh for potential building space uh Summerfest Fall Fest informed the committee of the township has once again requested use of buses for Summerfest and fallfest it's on this evening's agenda for approval that's [Laughter] great C capital reserve transfer um that's great reviewed with the committee that the um revenue and expense Surplus projections utilized could transfer money to capital reserve in order to provide the local share for the formating schools midstreams osbornville Warren Wolf and Herbertsville to complete the HVAC project so that those buildings will also have air conditioning in the future uh that's also on this evenings agenda for approval Property and Casualty Insurance I informed the committee that the premiums for Property and Casualty came in lower than budgeted and the prior year that's on this evening's agenda for approval social media litigation I share with the committee the retainer agreement from the attorney in regards of joining the class action lawsuit against the social media companies uh committee conferred that should be placed on the agenda that's on for this evening e ESS addendum I shared the committee that the addendum from ESS that raises the rates to comply with minimum wage would be on the agenda uh room occy I shared with the committee that the at the last board meeting there was many dis many questions about how many people could fit into a classroom um indicated that it varies by the age of the building and the size of the room but for the most part um it's 20 net square feet per person which for a regular siiz classroom would equate to about 45 people state aid litigation uh we discussed with the committee the ongoing state aid litigation uh the cost of that litigation is very minimal we spent about $100 last year that's our share of it for the 23 24 so we're the committee concurred that we're going to continue on being part of that litigation medical stop loss insurance I review with the committee the premium renewals and uh the recommendation by the broker to go with a $350,000 attachment point uh the premium is about $116,000 greater than what was budgeted committee concurred that that should be moved forward with to the board shared service agreements with brick soccer and brick American baseball informed the committee that the board attorney made some minor adjustments to the agreements and so therefore they need to be put back on the agenda for board approval which they're on tonight cost recovery fees I informed the committee that the fees will will be raised by $5 to meet increases in wages and utility expenses is also on this evening's agenda electric School Bus Grant I informed the committee that the district was was awarded a $5 million EPA grant for 25 school buses uh which includes the infrastructure work and the school bus themselves I indicated I would be attending a meeting last Thursday which I did in regards to proceeding with next steps uh local re local Recreation Improvement Grant I informed the committee that the district was awarded a $68,000 grant for uh food court improvements in the mall area at Brick Township High School rfps uh financial advisor I informed the committee that the RFP opening date is June 13th and there would be a recommendation on the agenda for this evening which there is legal council informed the committee that we reviewed the responses and Montenegro has the best response at a price of $145 an hour and therefore the firm will be placed on the agenda for approval this evening School physician uh inform the committee that the RFP opening date was June 13th and that we would replace we would replace a recommendation on the agenda which there is health insurance broker informed the committee that the RFP for competitive contract was opening on June 12th and that we'd be sending it to the committee for scoring after receiving him and that the report would be available 48 hours prior to the board meeting Health Center Services I inform the committee that this RFP is for a competitive contract I indicate the responses are due June 12th and that we also would be sending the uh full report to the board 48 hours prior to the board meeting new advertising accounts inform the committee that Shore District advertising has brought forth three new accounts uh Jersey miks my guy plumbing and adamston V Veterinary Clinic parental Transportation contracts I inform the board of the parental Transportation contracts that will be on the fhd Architects Miss gardi from spel Architects Mr Williams from spel Architects and Mr y from Neta Architects Lake Rivier Middle School air conditioning Mr yor informed the committee that the closeout are submitted and under final review and the pay pay apps have been drafted veterans more Middle School boiler replacement air conditioning Mr y informed the committee that we're awaiting JC jcpnl Transformer fulfillment uh as I if I can supplement this for the board we have received some information from jcpnl in regards to some of these Transformers unfortunately Veterans Memorial Middle School they're telling us is uh expected arrival date in their yard on September 12th which means that that project will not happen this summer it's going to have to happen in the summer of 25 because we can't do the so all the as uh you know Dr frown I discussed today all of the work there is done all the units are in place the you know piping is all completed it's just a matter of doing that electrical Transformer upgrade in order to power up the units uh and it requires a four to six week shutdown of the power to the building so we can't do that in September obviously we get kids coming to school so we'll have to do that the following summer uh Emma Havens air conditioning uh Mr for committee waiting for jcpnl we also just heard from them about Emma Havens that Transformer was delivered to their yard today they expect to have it out to us within the week so that project will take place this summer and be ready for September uh veterans Mo Elementary School uh we're waiting for J cnl's confirmation on the transforming lifting schedule we're still waiting on that they tell us it's going to be done within the week so that project should be fully commenced this summer drump Point Elementary School boiler replacement air conditioning again waiting on JC pel again that Transformer was delivered to their yard today uh they say they'll have it out to us within a week so that also should take place this summer leans Mill El Elementary School air conditioning um that project uh the building shut down for 68 weeks at this point Transformers is on site work is commencing so that should be ready for September uh midstreams air conditioning osbornville air conditioning warm Wolf air conditioning Herbertsville air conditioning as I mentioned during the finance committee uh we've been holding back on these projects depending local share we do seem to have the money now via um revenue and expense surpluses at the end of the year that we're going to transfer to capital reserve we'll show the school Development Authority that we have our local share they'll release the rod grants at that point for the 40% funding from the state and we'll be able to proceed with Neta and spel hopefully at the July agenda to move those projects for summer of 25 so that September of 25 um you know if all goes well we hope right then we would have every building in the in the district to air condition at that point uh osbornville kitchen Edition Mr Williams from speed will inform the committee that we have a meeting schedule for June 24th to look at the bid package that's going to go out in September for that kitchen Brick Township High School kitchen HVAC uh Mr Williams from spel informed the committee that the sealed drawings were sent on June 12th and that Miss Borio is going to bring them over to the township for permitting which will then allow that work to proceed this summer Drum Point Elementary School kitchen HVAC Mr picoro informed the committee that the commissioning and testing has been completed and uh that's project is all wrapped up parking lot assessment I informed the committee the district receiv received the rised report from Remington um I did send that out to all of you so uh it's a report for our future consideration in regards to maintaining the parking lot and infrastructure of the district midstreams kitchen uh Mr the we have a planning board schedule for July which we have to get approval on before going out to bid so Mr y informed the committee that after the July planning board meeting we be putting out the bids in early August uh we are planning on doing that work since it's it's going to be done in two phases there'll be an addition put on at the building as one phase and then in the second phase where is when we'll do the renovations to the existing kitchen converting it to the new kitchen so that work will take place during the school year so that is still on schedule for September of 2025 completion Brick Township High School long jump Mr pror informed the committee that the there was a minor transfer in the amount of $995 that needed to be made to support the increase uh however that's going to be work that will commence this summer SDA emergent needs Grant projects Mr poror informed the committee that the project POS have been issued for the work identified at Brick Memorial High School Veterans Memorial Middle School replacement units uh were found to be serviceable so that work is going to be done in-house by HVAC team so instead we're going to use those Monies to support work at Brick Township High School transportation building statement of assurance on concerning lead drink lead and drinking water Mr Borio completed the report and the testing and that's the certification needs board approval that the work was done so that's on this evening's agenda and finally again the local Recreation Improvement Grant uh informed the committee that we received the 68,000 for the improvements for the outdoor mall at Brick Township High School and uh it's going to be an expansion of the food court seating and shade areas and Mr poror informed the committee that that will be done this summer and again next meeting July 9th 230 thank you Mr Edwards so I'll make a quick comment uh Mr Edwards just on the finance committee uh report so I know the one you know big thing that we're discussing is the new bill that just got released um I forget the letters in it um a 4161 about raising the tax levy so the board is not voting on that this evening um we still need to deliberate and decide on coming together and deciding what is fair that the entire board agrees with that we will vote on to move forward with and those discussions Dr frell just started so I could just add to that I we just brought it up in the finance committee there's a small window with this bill from the governor and we're not even at the stage uh to put a recommendation of any kind on the board but we obviously would look to get to that in the next few weeks right get to that stage because we have a small window to get through through July to have that voted on um and I think that's a good thing right so um but we are working on that and I think it's better if we end up having just a meeting dedicated for that anyway um so that's where we're at right now we have there's nothing more than that I just kind of explained the bill and laid out what the options are at least according to the bill and it's been really no further than that at that point yeah one of the big things is we wanted to hear from the public first as well um which I know was one of the things that came up during the budget process itself um just to have full transparency you know factor in everyone's opinion in the matter um come together as a board and try to make the the right decision for the district okay thank you am I on now I'm on uh this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each part participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee and or students uh does anybody have a public comment on agenda items only go ahead Vic Finelli I only have four questions uh on operations item number 12 if I understand that correctly we're paying parents to take their own children to Special Needs school which is in eaten town and each one of the contracts were pay in $222,400 which to me seems like a lot of money that's why I'm asking the question I mean Eaton Town is about 20 miles up the parkway get on at 85 get off at 105 you're at eaten toown there so my question is twofold number one is this for a regular uh 180 day school year or is it for a full year you know 12 months and number two how do you come up with that amount of money because if it's 180 day school year you're paying somebody $124 to make two trips a day back and forth to eaten town which seems to me like a lot of money but I don't know number 25 under operations I bring this up every year and I hope you don't take personal offense you're paying $145 an hour for attorney fees that's regular attorney fees not all the special things 1,860 hours divide that by 12 months it comes out to 21 [Music] hours a week not a month a week have you ever discussed hiring your own attorney full-time because you're paying $157,000 a year to have somebody 21 hours a week you could probably add in 40,000 benefits and have somebody full-time you ever discuss it look at it as an option number 58 somebody tell me what so social media litigation means and number 12 in HR just my own curiosity I'm being nosy you got 32 changes for um custodial people which probably is half the custodial people in the district because you only have 86 people custodial and maintenance alog together so is that a voluntary change or is that something you're doing to save money that's it thank you unless you want my comments on the ref on on on changing the budget cap to 99.9% the next that's the second one that's a second all right thank you very much operations uh well number 12 on the parents Transportation special needs students I'll kick it off to Mr Edwards first and then Mrs gringer can add uh if it's a a 10mon school year 180 days or Does it include extended school year and how do we come up with the pricing I know if we can afford a contractor cheaper than that obviously we can but you can add to that Mr Edwards I just I just want to clarify I want to know how you come up with that number I'm I'm not interested in whether it's cheaper than you can do it or not but because if you were doing it it would be times two it' be $44,000 two people the the number is given to us by the New Jersey Department of Education so we don't come up with number that's the number that is the maximum number that is able to be paid out in Parental contracts you have no say in the matter at all we can pay less we can't pay more yeah but how how did you come up so you you gave them the maximum is that what you're saying because when we put those two routes out the bid the one route came in at $68,000 for a year and the other one came in at 63 oh so it's cheaper to give the parent a 224 okay there's no way unless you want to do it for 20 I'm no if I was going to do it i' would do it for Less 448 because people it's not 180 days in school year as well so it's 210 days there's no way that you can do it internally not for that price no okay just on the um operates 25 on the attorney first of all I don't know of any districts that have a full-time attorney in their district and I don't know by Statute or reg if you could hire an attorney directly in the school district many districts like our size of I said before have many different types of attorneys right like Personnel and uh labor and special services and a general board attorney like Mr mono um I don't think a school district because it's not a certified position can do that can they as a full-time employee they they can it's it's not common but but if you want to give me the same deal that they have over in Lakewood I'll take it and find it I don't want I don't want to give you anything that goes on in L but my my thought process would be are we thinking out of the box I mean is is it benefit should we at least talk about it and look at it and say maybe we can do it uh Lakewood is uh that's lakewood's going to end up in court over that one believe me go on operations 58 um the social media litigation I'll let Mr Edwards add is a class action suit that doesn't cost us anything I think it's where districts are getting together and suing like Facebook some social media companies based on kids and things that are happening and you want to add to that or you covered it yeah I mean as you probably saw in the news yesterday the Surgeon General came out with report that social media is uh you know they they want to put a warning label on it that it's not good for kids lead NE affec yeah so um there's a litigation that was started in California by a bunch of California districts that now is a class action lawsuit that's opened up uh to all districts across the country we jumped we're jumping on board it's uh similar to the one we did with the jeel if you remember we we Jo we joined the class action lawsuit for the jewel uh and we received money out of that when the you know you can't if you're not part of the class action lawsuit if there is a settlement and this and you're not part of it you don't get money so you have to join it in order to get any type of money out of it okay but there's nothing specific going on here now that we class action it's class action class action National class action National lawsuit okay cuz I was wondering why out of all the attorney things that listed it didn't list hours and it didn't list there's no cost right now we're just we just signed on board with many other districts Across the Nation well what if if if the attorney has to do something who's paying for it they do doesn't it it's part of that it's a contingent fee so they're they track all their time and their hours and then when there's a settlement they it's according to settlement agreement they get a third up to a certain amount and then it declines as it goes up okay I can always go for things that don't cost us anything last one H I got the last one HR so and um Mr Edwards and Mr ker come but what happens is we're civil service for non-certified positions and every year with our civil service they have what's called picks so that's where people volunteer and pick into a position they want into a pool and get changed in position do you want to go into any detail on that Bas Dr farell basically said it the right way there's a selection process for their positions for the following year and uh based on um their selection process they're volunteering or requesting to be transferred into those spots and this ref represents the people that have switched to a different position so the answer to my question was is this this his voluntary yes this is what theun the people are requesting it correct okay some people get changed because they don't request it though that's involuntary right okay so some of it's voluntary some of it's involuntary or it's all it's all voluntary on this one it's based on a seniority process oh okay thank you thank you Mr Finelli would anybody else like to comment on agenda items only hello Mr Reed good evening I guess they covered my name so that's taken care of um my questions are about the uh board secretary's report some of the items that are on there um the the biggest increase in the uh elephant in the room for next year's budget is healthc care costs so according to the board secretary's reports back in April I mean August of 23 uh there's there's a line item on the board secretary's report that covers instruction okay this is uh on page six I believe and it covers um General current expenses it covers regular programs special education programs basic skills and remedial instruction bilingual education and school sponsored uh extracurricular activities and school sponsored Athletics so this pretty much includes the instructional part of the budget so in August that uh that amount was uh $ 58.6 million uh in Appropriations so let's assume the budget was about that that's what you appropriated in April uh the April report that we just got it went uh actually down to 57.7 million okay so about the same number for General instruction according to the same time frame August the uh Appropriations for the healthc care was $28 million and now on the April report it's $31 million so the um as a percentage of the instruction the health care costs went from 48% in August to 54% in April so so this this is a 6% increase $3 million so uh I know there was a big change with chapter 44 and having read through that um it's pretty complicated about how it's paid for so my ma major question is when you show the health care costs uh is this net of the employee contributions because there's several ways that the employees can make contributions either according to chapter 44 either as a percentage of their salary or a percentage of the premiums so if it's a percentage of the premiums as the premiums go up for the plans they would be tagging along with that with their contributions if it's a percentage of their salaries the salaries don't increase as much as these health care costs are going up so uh that's my first question is it net of employee contributions and what are the the contributions how do they figure that out from the employees I know there's a lot of different units and there's four or five different plans but but as we uh go forward trying to come up with a reasonable budget you know one of the things that gets put through the year and we don't know what it's really going to be and we don't know what our state contribution is going to be for uh their uh cost going into next year but the the other part of that is the workers comp I know every year uh Jim's been Bud budgeting a million eight for workers comp and then at the end of the year um there's money that's encumbered but not spent so then I notice on uh in the board secretary's report it we've got all these liabilities for uh bkr oh ibnr which is incurred but not reported so how could be still be liable I thought the state regulation was at two years so we're liable if somebody got injured six years ago and didn't report it now what's our policy as far as reporting an injury that happens to an employee in the district okay so those are my questions thank you Mr Reed um so first of all we we've been speaking about healthc care the last few months because it's a large increase of healthare some things have happened over the last few years with litigation that allowed employees to maybe opt into the health benefits plan and the projection of what employees would go in was greater than anticipated I think and I'm not sure if the statute chain where it's just a percentage still of salary only you you can add the contribution we still have chapter 78 in District um for certain plans which is a percentage of Premium but then we also have chapter 44 which is for the Educator's Health Plan and that's a percentage of salary and that's a percentage of salary for the Educators Health Plan the new plan that many employees did opt into the health care cost if you saw on our budget when we adopted our budget recently was tremendously increased even for next year and left us in alerts this year that AE up into our Surplus right to pay that this year um with that the the workman's comp just so we know even if we have a policy and Jim canis you know policy doesn't supersede state or federal law we're self-insured on workers comp no I understand that but if there's a federal statute I don't know on the statute of limitations when you can report something I don't know it would be Statewide so workers comp so I think I think the terminology may be confusing incurred but not reported so incurred but not reported the not reported side is the cost side so in other words incurred but not reported mean the accident happened let's say it happened for argument sake because we have claims that go all the way back I know of claims that are still open from 2006 under our old premium insured policy so if the accident happened but the cost hasn't been incurred yet the actuary determines what that projection is going to be for what that cost to be incurred might be in the future and you have to reserve that on your balance sheet as an expense in the year that it happened as a liability right right so incurred but not reported means the cost hasn't been reported reported the accident was incurred but the cost hasn't been reported okay I understand that but my understanding is when we went to self-insured on workers comp all the prior claims when we left that plan sponsored by the they stay with the school boards associ but they still report them to us to tell us what they are but we we're not responsible for paying those resp this so why would that show up on our books it doesn't it doesn't show up on our books I'm just telling you that I know we have Billy and I get them from New Jersey school Insurance Group claims that are open from 2006 that people are still being paid out on from workman's comp claims so there is no Ben unless I'm not aware of something there is no statute of limitations on when an accident can how long on for I might be able to to answer the question it's a little different than a regular personal injury case that has a hard twoyear statute so you get in a car accident you have two years from the date of the accident to file that's a hard date you have one case when it's over it's over and that's the end of it in workers comp you have two years from the date of the accident to file the petition that case runs its course gets paid however once that's concluded within two years of that date you can do what's called a reopener so if the injury progresses and they need to return for treatment you can reopen every two years which is probably why you have some that are go back as far as 2006 but that's we're not responsible for that no no okay I don't know that part so the other part of that's why it's hard years I understand uh so the other part of it is um what is the school policy for reporting because when we went to self-insured we made sure the policy for reporting at that time was two days so if you have an injury you're supposed to report it within two days yeah we're we're same day huh we're same day same day yeah you get H at work you got to report it that day okay so how does that relate to incurred but not reported for two years again I you're mixing up the terminology it's these are not what's you what you're seeing as the on the liability the not reported part is not claims that people haven't reported the claim itself it's that they haven't gone to the doctor that the cost of their claim has not been reported because it hasn't happened yet these are costs that are going to happen into the future that you're booking as a liability the actuary is making a determination on what the claim that was reported but the cost hasn't been incurred yet what the value of that is okay so when you the claim hasn't been reported these are all claims that have been reported right it's the cost hasn't been reported because we don't know what it is yet hasn't happened okay so when you uh when you go from the Appropriations item which starts at a million 8 in the beginning of the year and goes down to a million one and then you have an encumbrance which is still an unknown number that would be an area where you have been steadily reducing it each year so you start out with an appropriation around a million 8 and you lower to a million one which is in the last report so there's a saving there that is projected to come through the year correct and we get that from the actuary so the actuary gives us two reports a year I I know I know the actuary okay but as you're trying to find money for teachers so to keep the classroom sizes down this is one of the areas you can look to and and we do that so so the Board of Ed runs the district can I make my comments I I but we do that already okay so the Board of Ed runs the district if they want to lower that appropriation number dur before the year starts and use that for teachers that's an area where you can find some money and and we do do that Mr Reed we make projections all the time for next year's budget and I'm the one that's going to back and forth with Mr Ed Edwards to lower those projections so we can enumber more something clear I want to make sure the board understands something they said that is not Mr Reed's very was very involved in when we went to self-insured so he has a good handle on it but you as a board of education when we submit our budget to the county because we're self-insured we have to submit with our budget the actuary a certified actuary Report with that projection on what our workman's comp claims could be for the 2425 school year if the actuary comes up with a number of 1. and you guys say to me we don't want that we want it to be 1.1 the County's never going to approve that the county office won't approve that number the county office is going to say show us how you're getting to 1.1 how do you think prior M prior history to say that to be the case you can't just arbitrarily do that so what Mr re is saying now during the year this is why I saying we do this already is during the year now we get the actu report a second time in the middle of the year the actuary gives us the report right before the budget and they then project out for the remainder of this school year what it is we're going to spend so in this case 1.1 million is what they projected now we're going to spend that $700,000 that became available that $700,000 is in that Surplus utilization report I give you when I gave you the budget that shows you how much money we have to use in next year's fund balance which we're using $5.2 million so that $700,000 has been accounted for in next year's Surplus to support ongoing operations such as teachers so I I just want you to follow the ball all the way through and not look at it as one piece it's a it's a whole process and that's not that's no different for workman's comp and it is for medical prescription Dental all of them require actuary reports that have to that have to support the numbers that you're budgeting and the numbers that you're going to use for Surplus County Office requires it okay so I understand all that but the you you want to get approved by the county superintendent and so what's important is that you can hire the teachers for the year so the county superintendent knows the pressure we're under and if you have a prior history forget about the Auditors you have a prior history and enforcement of the one-day policy your workers comp claims are going to be lower so in the middle of the year when you lower your workers comp estimate you haven't hired the teachers in September for the classes that's my point excuse me Mr Mr Reed you've exceeded your time you're just going to wrap up now I want thank you Mr Reed I I want to add so everybody understands us though we do this every year in the budget cycle we take what we're not spending we encumber we put it in the Surplus and we project it for next year to pay teachers even if you took the 600,000 1.8 1.1 1.2 you're talking about five positions six positions for a full-time equivalent we cut in the budget that was approved at the 2.99% 52 positions and I also respectfully Mr Reed because you and I talk all the time and you got a great Finance mind the county superintendent does not a matter of fact the I'll say it this way because I don't want to talk about a single person the county superintendent's very tough with us when it comes to budget time and some of the districts that have been struggling with S2 they are they do work for the state Department of Education and they basically tell you no you got to make these cuts that projection is not and we do go back and argue that but I want I said this the last time I don't want people to think it's an either or cut here we cut over $4 million to cut 52 positions at FTE and we took 5.2 million in incumbered money and surplus to utilize to pay for the next year's budget we took everything we possibly could with the effect we have we do exactly what Mr Reed says we do go in there and we argue you know I I argue with Mr Edwards every year because he's probably a little too conservative maybe with the projections right and looks at the actuary numbers and the broker's numbers and I say well I we always bet on extraordinary Aid because I know someone that tells me extraordinary Aid that comes in a little higher for special ed so I always ask them to up that number in our budget projection so we can keep more staff so we do go through that process I want everybody to know we we do that process um very diligently I think because that's important uh for that but we're not talking about a few hundred, to say maybe five positions that really at the end of the day we and we've cut 350 positions over the last four years I mean that's Millions I think it's up to 27 million I don't think you're G to find that in encumbered accounts for bad projections thank you drers on Dr farell um does anybody else have another uh public comment on an agenda item see seeing none um Dr Anderson thank you Miss picala under curriculum instruction the superintendent recommends the board approv the following item number one can we have a motion in a second please motion Ally second Fran does anybody on the board have comment on this I would I would just like to say one thing um I'm a very proud member of the Green Team and all of our schools were represented at the green fair and if you haven't had an opportunity to go on our district website sitee and click on the brick Bridge summer edition you're missing something if you don't watch the video uh take an opportunity to um watch it it really summarizes how very very hard our volunteer teachers work and how excited our kids are and I don't confess uh that I don't always read the whole brick bridge but I I I did this month I'm I'm sorry Elise I'm sorry and um it was phenomenal you would be so proud of our district if you just viewed that video um Mary ready for a vote Yes Miss cert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss A around yes Miss picala yes Mr Edward would you introduce um the operations portion sure uh this evening superintendent recommends items 1 through 43 and items 45 through 58 thank you can I get a motion in a second on that please motion bran second Nicole is there any board comment on operations um I have one quick comment uh the only items on here that I really had an issue with an operations and I oh here it is is um number 30 and number 31 as a parent I have not been thrilled with Life Touch as our school photographer and for years have been asking for another option um so just would like to put that out there again thank you Mrs Kennedy 30 and 31 m picala can I just because I I know this has come up before so um we did do a comp itive contract for school photographer uh Miss mnam myself and uh the competitive Contracting committee last year with staff members we actually split the we split it into two for the first time making it a uh elementary middle and then high school that's why you see it on here as two um after responses came back from the you know various vendors uh this school photographer was the one who received the highest score out of all you know competitive contract is scoring uh we don't pay the school photographer so uh you know Miss mamar and I joke before I'd really like this to be off of the business office because we don't make any money off the school photographer uh it's you know the school photographer charges the parents directly and they pay it and it's a service that I understand is a you know decades long tradition of having school pictures taken in schools um however uh it's not something that the school district makes money off of but we did do a competitive contract of the folks that were on the committee this is this the vendor that came out with the highest score unfortunately when you do competitive Contracting it is a five-year thing right so that this is they they're in year two now out of five so they've got after this year three more to go um and uh the other the other school photographers that responded to our RFP Miss Mar if you want to add uh weren't to the caliber of this company so I don't know that we would have gotten a better service for the parents than we already got I know that I I'm in another school district for my children this vendor happens to be the photographer there I know we haven't always been thrilled with it either so I I I hear you but through the competitive Contracting process they were the one that came out the shiniest so all right I have a question on number 39 um for the sponsorships the business model of the Comm emissions 30% um when it said on renewal of business 30% again I just think that's a high amount for someone a high percentage for someone to get for sponsorships um I understand that it's money that just comes into the town and consider it free money but it's advertisement and uh 30% a big chunk m m you like can also respond to that one if you don't mind cu the again another competitive contract missan Ron this one was done I think last year as well um again fiveyear period you notice on their um on their response the competitive Contracting committee reviewed and scored those responses as well and this was the best response that we got the commission that was being paid out was the best Commission of the other respondents so you know I know it's um not idea I would have liked to have seen a lower number myself where we keep more of the money of course I believe more of it should go to us but they were the ones with the best response and that's why they're on again this year and uh they do have a five-year competitive contract with the board of education so this is a five-year contract not a onee so the way competitive Contracting works is um and Ben helped me here if I say it incorrectly it's a it covers a five it covers 51 year contracts am I saying that right Ben I think so yeah so so yeah there so at the end of the at the end of the four and a half year like we did now for the insurance broker for health benefits and the health center you then do a new competitive contract for a new 5 oneye cycle thank you so just curious on that point does that mean we have an out each year you do but you're out Mike and I'm going to look for Ben's help again here but your your out would be you're no longer going to do that because this vendor now holds the right to that for 5 years so you know if you're if you're not going to award it to them you would have to decide to say well then we're just not going to do it at all are we able to update the competitive Contracting process to maybe make it a two or threeyear agreement moving forward uh you can right Ben you can go three to anywhere between three to five years depending on the nature of the service you know so you can as just trying to think other ways a fiveyear commitment to anything is Big so typically competitive contracts are five years okay just because you're trying to lock in a long-term rate so so I guess so my problem with this would be that um he's if if someone else was to get a sponsorship for something someone else for another department he would get 30% of that sponsorship no that's not the case he only gets paid on the short District advertising only gets paid on monies they bring to the district they don't get paid on other sponsorships just the sponsorships they bring so teams that get bring in sponsorships or other sponsorships in the town he he doesn't get money from he doesn't get any of that money no that's only it's only short District advertising only gets paid on money they bring to the district and are um we able to bring in other sponsors or be that we have this contract with him we can't do that only he can do it it would depend uh Miss so that within the competitive contract we gave them the rights to school grounds so advertising on school grounds is through Shore District advertising so it depends on what type of sponsorship you're talking about so essentially if if what you're saying he has the rights to that if someone was to be bring in a large sponsorship he would have rights to take the 30% again depends on what type of sponsorship you're talking about if it was going to be advertising on school grounds then yes like a big sign like I was telling you today big sign that they would have rights to that because they have the rights to school grounds and even if he didn't bring it in he would be entitled to 30% that's correct if it's on school grounds i' just like to reiterate um something Mr uh Edwards reported in our finance and our facilities um uh committee meetings um Brick Township Schools was um as he said awarded 665,000 for a project in the courtyard at Brick Township High School that will be completed this summer that's huge and I really want to give a lot of uh credit to our um building and grounds um director Mr uh peruo because he really like took this application and ran with it as many of our teachers do throughout the year and that's hugely appreciated by the Board of Education um Mary ready for a vote Miss seber yes Miss Kennedy I'm G to vote no for number 30 and number 31 and yes for everything else Miss D Benedictus yes to everything but no on 39 misson I'm G to abstain for number five schedule ID 21 3319 23361 operations number 36 no on 39 and yes on everything else Mr Mesmer yes on everything Miss picala yes on everything thank you keep turning my pages here I know um um Mr Kaiser can you please introduce the human resources portion yes thank you missa tonight uh under H uh Human Resources the superintendent is recommending items 1 through 59 for approval thank you um can I get a motion in a second on that from the board please motion goe motion Aly second Nicole um is there any board comment I umum I just want to comment on the fact that our summer esy program is very very good in this district and it's because of all the teachers that come out and for those of you who are uh coming back and for those of you who are accepting the challenge this year we are very grateful it is the best thing for our students um and Mary vote Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss aanon yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes M yes the district is pleased to announce our new athletic director assistant principal for Brick Memorial High School Mr Bri are you here you [Applause] are Thanks James R Westy please thank you Mr Paula the superintendent recommends under policy and planning one um may I have a motion in a second please motion Fran second Mike is there any board comment seeing none Mary Miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss R yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes this will be the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be done directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to 5 minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance promotion or disciplining of any specific specific or perspective or current employee and or student um who would like to step forward for uh public comment go ahead Mr Finelli thank you no it's all you want you to go okay number one um when you talk about the cap on right your medical expenses went up so did mine my flood insurance went up 15% a year two years in a row uh my my cable went up my telephone went up everything that I have went up the same amount as yours did right so when you're looking at moving the cap up to 99.9% and add that add on to what the township and all the other things that we tax the fire department everything else you're looking at about a 15% increase so my vote is no then now you can discuss whatever you want to discuss um I I I would like you to discuss one other thing if you can the new school bus Grant Mr Edwards mentioned that I'll say it again $ 5.18 million is a lot of money right so number one I'd like to know what that's going to do for the school district how it's going to benefit and whatnot and number two I'm just curious Jackson which is a big school district got $1 million and Tom's River which is a much bigger School District got 600,000 does somebody all of a sudden love us I mean does anybody know why we got so much money and I'm not looking to gift tose in the mouth just for an explanation number two I wanted to share information with you and and I'm going to ask you all the question but you probably won't answer it anyway how many of the people on the school board have actually read the task force on public school shortages in New Jersey which the governor put together a year ago I know I know Dr Farrell read it how many of you other people read it or saw it I did thank you you did okay well everybody should look at it and I'll give you just a little bit of information uh you form your own opinions it's 27 pages long but it's not real hard reading okay unfortunately the governor put it together and he put 25 members into the group which is about 13 more members than you need to be effective because anything more than 12 members on the committee you're not getting anything done right secondly very very heavy Union 14 of the 25 people were Union Representatives so the thing is flavored with unionism across the board and I give you an example on page 14 it comes flat out and says encourage your people to join the Union right not a good thing uh their main solution is to throw money at the problems and know by the way it's money that you don't have and I give you an example one of the recommendations there's two things that can happen you can get more people into the school into the schools to become teachers but you also have the problem of people leaving and a lot of them are leaving early the the front end is going to take you four or five years to get effective the back end you might be able to bring retired people back into the school district you and I both think no but one of the recommendations is well let's only give him a 4-day school 4 day a week's job at the same pay well now you it's going to cost you 20% to get somebody else to come over the fifth day unless their recommendation is going to be to go to a four a four day a week school program which I doubt that it is right and um so they throw money at everything everything that's in there is going to cost you as a school district more money that you don't have and they're also um they're using data from 2017 and 2018 like really is that the best you can do stuff that's 5 years old you really could get something a little more current and last but not least um one of the things they say is hire more minority teachers oh for you more is more do it okay but read the report it's it's quick reading but you need to understand what you're going to be up against in the future or what you're going to be up against now I mean it's reality and oh by the way it's not going to be fixed real quick you're going you're going to have to make decisions based on you can't get the people right and my last little comment was just to clear up something about the last meeting when I was up here fuming all right in case there was any misunderstanding what I was asking I was not asking for people on the school board to tell me how they were going to vote at that meeting all right I know you're not allowed to say how you're going to vote or answer the question until you do vote my question was specifically had to do with how those school board members voted last time that's all I was looking for was a definition of that so if anybody was confused on that I'm I'm sorry you can talk a little bit about the school buses thank you for com your comments comment at the end of all at the second like we've been doing it's summer summer everybody needs their biki body Mr Finelli are you going to respond to him now do we have anybody else for public comment please thank you Mr blim Uh Kevin bleam 478 Bist um also the Brick Township Education Association president uh first I just want to thank the board as always for your service to the community um it's you guys should be paid I think Mr Reed mentioned that at the last meeting I will say that every time because you are appreciated by our teachers thank you and Paris thank you also also would like to thank Dr farell and your cabinet and the board for recognizing our teachers at that last meeting uh our teachers of the year that was really really nice that was that made made them felt special and made made me Fel feel special and appreciated favor of yes yes and I know Dr F wanted to be there and he he couldn't but um all right so I'm obviously up here for um budget reasons I did not get up at the last two meetings uh for certain reasons because there is no right way um to make cuts when it comes down to that but some of those things really really hurt coming through and I just want to remind everybody that S2 is not our fault it's not the teacher fault it's not the board's fault it's not the administration's fault it's not the community's fault um we have been fighting in this for since 2019 since before even Dr F came along okay I brought something along with me as just as a little reminder okay we had these shirts if you guys remember okay we had board members we had Administration we had teachers going along okay so this has been an ongoing fight okay for years and I'm not going to tell you everything that every individual has done I think we we've known that we've also got NJ involved and then all of a sudden 4161 came out and I'm going to be totally honest with you I was like that's really not fair they're they're putting the burden on our own taxpayers when we should be getting that money funded to us okay so I said okay let's let's look at this um this is a good backup plan okay let's keep fighting we've been fighting none of us let down even the community members you you saw at the last budget meeting we were we were fighting the fight so thank you Mr Mesmer for actually bringing that up um because that's my ask I want to ask the board and administration to come up with some type of idea um I'm not saying to go to the max I we just need to bring these teachers back and it's not just for the teachers see we're not we're not the greedy Union teachers union we're here for the kids if we don't bring those teachers back we're going to have classroom sizes up into the 30s believe me I walk around those schools I see those Elementary School classes now they're packed they're packed our teachers are great they they are so empathetic they they are they just do the best they can with what little they have to do and we're not only talking about just class sizes there's a lot that goes into class sizes number one we got to look at safety number one okay that's that's one that's our priority you're putting almost 40 kids in the classroom and to be honest with you it's going to be more than 40 because you start off the school year let's say that Max class is what 38 okay from my experience every time from the first day to the last day of school my roster has grown because people move into the district and we're we're forgetting that somebody brought up at the me at one of the meetings about um fire hazards what about that look at the liability we're talking about attorney fees and and so forth just look at the expenses for that and the most important part that we're leaving out is the kids education that's the bottom line how can we educate our children with 40 close to 40 kids in those classrooms it's it's it's too much to ask for our teachers our teachers their anxiety level as is is off the charts um so we really need to look at it we have experts here Financial experts that will be able to look at something but we need to bring these children uh bring these teachers back to help these class sizes I know I'm at of time I have a lot more to say but that's that's it but thank you for the consideration do what you need to do set up your special meeting uh we support you 120% thank you thank you Mr blam on on a personal note I appreciate your appeal to level the playing field for our Brook students thank you very much does anybody else have a public comment please good evening my name is Kelly Bond and I'm a proud parent of osbornville elementary school um students and I'm addressing the board this evening to share my love for osbor Ville um the small community feel within a big town that is created there and my hopes for the future of our school back in November 2023 I wrote a letter to Dr frell and Miss magnam expressing my significant concerns about class size at that time I was purely talking about my own daughter's class but now I'm speaking to you for our entire Community because we truly are a family at osbornville in the letter I shared that I moved to this town in 2012 before I started a family I specifically chose where I live so I could be a member of osbornville my children benefited from Warren Wolf and have loved their time at osbornville and for that I am forever grateful I want to express my concern about increasing class sizes the amount of students in the class the cramped conditions their backpacks their um coats it makes it very difficult for the teachers to provide the type of instruction and the classroom environment required to practice what brick preaches student centered teacher Le the schools and the teachers within it are amazing what is happening in Brick is not their fault or the building administrator Mrs vs wonderful my words are spoken from the heart as an ad as an educator and an administrator myself I do understand budget constraints and the need for you to look at the district as a whole however as a parent I have a decision to make do I move from the home that I bought hoping my children would grow up there do I send them to another school where they're out of the community in which they love or do I try to elicit change by speaking to all of you who were voted into your seat because you promised to benefit our kids I'm choosing to speak to you in the hopes that you agree with my position in prioritizing class size having 76 fourth graders split into two sections next year is unreasonable and will result in little academic gain by no fault of the teacher imagine behaviorally managing and teaching 38 children in a cramped classroom where they're confined to their desks because there's no room for movement or center-based instruction Although our fourth grade at osbornville is the most impacted all of our other grade levels are not far behind osbornville is a family a family I feel I must come here today to defend and to fight for the Excellence and education that we're trying to achieve there I understand there may be a vote in the future to increase taxes to BRD Bridge the budget Gap I am begging you to vote for this and to save our teachers adding teachers back to the budget will positively impact the academic programs our children receive the teachers ability to differentiate instruction managing classrooms which will in turn decrease discipline referrals and special education referrals this um increase in our education will increase our property tax or property values all these benefits um are necessary for our students most importantly that's what we're here for I also understand that some members of the board may be worried that if they vote for a tax increase they may not get voted back onto the board next November but I urge you to consider the parents who will be watching to see who votes in support of our children's education I would argue that those who vote no to support our students will receive a no vote come election time from the parents who share my sentiments a tax increase is worth the value of our children education so again please save our teachers their worth and what they provide to our students is immeasurable my intent is not adversarial in nature I am hoping we can join forces to get osbornville and ol of brick the extra teachers that they require we have the room to add the extra SE sections and I am hopeful that the funds needed can be recouped thank you for listening and considering my perspective thank you thank you very much I I'd just like to say thank you very much for your advocacy for your children only you can do that thank you is there any other public comment once hi it's Orca I'm the principal of Brook Memorial High School and I just you know that's a tough act to follow but everything that she said that's what I say um absolutely sorry I don't know your name but that was uh well well spoken and uh from the heart and uh you know couldn't be more spoton I just want to throw in the fact from a secondary level it's not just about the elementary class sizes although that is super super important I have Elementary uh age children as well uh I personally live in Tom's River so we're going through the same thing but my parents and my sister live in bricks so I'm not just speaking from a uh an outside perspective um from the high school standpoint we are losing program after program after program we are barely a comprehensive High School uh on both sides of town anymore uh AP classes are are dwindling elective classes are dwindling and it's all because of the trickle down effect because of of the budget constraints that we in and that just goes down to the middle school and down to thee Elementary School and everybody suffers we I am a a president of our BT ASA our administrative Association and to Echo Mr bleen sentiments we are 100% in support of getting everything and everybody back that we can it's in your hands and we know that you are the right people to make this decision we know that we have a super supportive Central administrative staff that does everything that they can I I joke with Dr farell he used to use the line you know we we we are what was the line that you used to use I used to get mad at you all the time we do so much with so little you know enough of that that's embarrassing that's embarrassing and it's not it's not it's not because of any decisions that that that we have made in this room it's because what has been given down to us and we have an opportunity now to kind of get some back and and I just want to let you know from a from a somebody who's been a brick student a brick teacher a brick coach and now a brick administrator uh we are in full support of doing everything we can to write this ship and get it back to where we go imagine what we could do with the resources that we deserve you know as great as we are right now it could be that much greater and our people our kids our community they deserve that so thank you very much thank you Mr saluca um any other public comment okay see one hand the back thank you Mr re okay um I agree with the fact that S2 is a problem and we don't know what funds will be available for the school district for next year I hope you have a seat on the uh determination committee shall we call it that yeah they didn't start that yet yes okay so when you increase the class sizes you also make it more difficult for the teachers so what teachers want to come to this district and work with 35 students in the class so that's a big mistake uh I agree with the idea to reduce class sizes it's necessity uh the question question I have is last year you had 10 million in reserve between the Appropriations and the budget so the budget was $10 million higher than the reserve so I'm wondering in the budget you have proposed right now how much is in reserve so the issue of collecting the taxpayers money and then having money in reserve goes against the concept of managing to a budget so if you prioritize the reserve over hiring the teachers that's the wrong set of priorities in my opinion so what happens even with your family budgets any budget that you have to manage when it comes down to you need to cut something you cut the lowest priority items in your budget and you keep the highest priority so what you have here is the highest priority is keeping the teachers so the idea of having a reserve and I hope you'll answer that question so we all can hear it uh before I leave here uh but the the other part of this to just provide some whose fault is this this go starts with the governor okay so here's the here's the history I've got more people here than I've ever had so I can explain this when they passed the state income tax in 1976 all that money from the state income tax goes into a fund called the property tax relief fund and that fund is currently $20 billion 20 billion with a B yes a lot of people don't know this but that's where they get money for school aid and they also have a general fund that's $32 billion in this year's budget so what happens is the governor makes the budget when he prepares the budget he decides which item are paid out of the property tax relief fund and which items are paid out of the general fund and that is a subjective decision that doesn't always go in favor of school districts okay so it's an arbitrary allocation of the5 billion from the property tax relief fund and A7 billion from the general fund so this is where the governor is so key and so not this year but next year you'll have a chance to uh make them uh make that your priority if you're interested in school districts properly being funded so probably the most egregious example of how they have taken this property tax relief fund and they're not using it for property tax relief is that they spend more money from the property tax relief fund for drug treatment programs for prisoners in the jails in Hudson Union essics and Bergen County they spend more money for that than they do for the veterans property tax deduction okay so the veterans property tax deduction was started back in 1947 right after the second world war and it was $50 initially and then they increased it in 1999 to $250 they haven't had a increase since then so so why would property tax relief money be going to drug treatment programs rather than general fund money so if the the if the legislature decides that's a priority take it out of the general fund not the property tax relief fund so this all goes back to paying attention to where the money's going uh out of the property tax relief fund and uh I'm running out of time but that's uh I wonder if I could get an answer to my question about the reserve I'm going to answer everybody okay thank you is anybody else um interested in coming to the microphone please Anthony hipsley I'm a parent of uh two children at osbornville proud parent of osbornville I'll be brief I mean it was said very eloquently earlier but just wanted to be clear that what we're hearing about projected class sizes for next year is utterly unacceptable a total failure of leadership at the district level I know the state is a real big problem but failure of leadership I really came out tonight to respectfully implore you to come together make the right decisions and figure this out a lifetime in education tells you third and fourth graders we can't have class sizes above 30 3540 it's insane and it just can't happen so I know you can hear the frustration in my voice I really wanted to just resp respectfully implore you to come together make the right decision and get this figured out this cannot be the way forward and I know that you are frustrated like we are frustrated but it can't happen we're paying attention we're watching and I just want to throw that out there right I really appreciate Dr Farrell's leadership of the district through difficult times it hasn't been an easy last four or five years now we have these budget cuts on top of all of this and again I know that there's a lot to balance in the course of managing a district this size the middle schools the elementary schools the high schools and a lot of moving Parts but again we can't have class sizes north of 30 in the K through five schools it's just frankly unacceptable so it needed to be said and you know again I appreciate the work that you do but please come together and make the right decision okay thanks anybody else come on up Rob McCutchen uh 76 West Granada also a proud parent of osbornville children I appreciate the other parents coming out and showing support for you know a mighty little school that uh that that's uh headed down the wrong path as as as many other uh schools are in in the district oh I I like a lot of other people benefited from from not seeing taxes go up for for a little while and I think a lot of people have run on that and it's become uh you know I I think the longer that's gone on the harder it is to to to deviate from that and I I I think time's up I I think we need to open up the purse uh a lot of educated people uh here have have made uh pretty pretty uh compelling arguments about what's wrong with S2 but it doesn't seem to me like anybody in this room has any any impact over changing any of that stuff the gentleman in the back you know great points but by the time anybody goes through that that web of of information he said my kids will be out of high school and and and there'll be a whole SE different set of problems on our hands so I I I don't see that as a a reasonable short-term solution I think the uh points that the gentleman did make is our teachers don't make a lot of money and who it's a longer term problem that nobody wants to work in this district and we're going to continue to have an exodus uh of teachers while we continue to have an influx of of uh of of Housing and and future students that are going in already uh crowded crowded rooms this gentleman you know asked you to read a report that says 25 educated individuals can't get anything done what what do you think a a classroom with 45 eight-year-olds what do you think gets done there all right not not a whole hell of a lot so need need need need to need to be courageous and and break from the the trend that we've been on and and uh you know 9.9 might might be a little bit too rich it can't be zero we we we got to do something so please appreciate your time appreciate the the parents that came out thank you we love to hear from you would anybody else like to come up hi my name is Lori Cotman I live on Jerome Street in um my children attended vets Elementary School vets Middle School Brook Memorial High School um I have a career in the insurance industry I understand a lot of the risk management things that you've been talking about and I decided around my 308th birthday that I could not continue to do that and I needed to be an educator I went back to school reinvented myself and I have been teaching here in Bricktown for a little bit over 20 years I'm very proud of that I teach at Lanes Mill Elementary School so I wanted to speak up for one of the other elementary schools that I'm sure there are many parents and teachers here from all of our elementary schools to say that that problem is not unique to osbornville Lanes Mill is also a family we uh pour our hearts and souls into teaching those children I had 29 children in my classroom this year I will tell you that there were many times where I tripped over feet backpacks all kinds of things it was extremely crowded in that classroom uh the 45 student number I would like to see that report uh I think that's we're we're we're not looking at all of the different uh classroom sizes that we have when we take that average um and I think we really need to look at that closely I feel that many times it's it's very unsafe uh in an event of emergency to try to keep those children safe which is on top of teaching them to be good human beings to be responsible citizens to follow that curriculum and I am a curriculum Guru I make sure I hit those um those curriculum points every single year I have to keep them safe this is a world that we live in um and I have to teach them to be responsible citizens in this world that we live in and it is very hard to make sure that everyone is being kind everyone is being respectful and that no matter what could happen on any moment on any day that I have those children safe and I am supervising them and I am treating them like I would treat my own two children um with love respect kindness and most of all giving them the education that they deserve 29 children was difficult I can't even imagine what it's going to be like next year I think I'm projected to have 36 I teach third grade they are eight years old they they need love they need attention they need um you to be present for them to I if I said it once I said it a hundred a thousand times last year there are 29 of you and there are one of me please you have to wait your turn I promise I will get to you it breaks your heart this is my second career I came into this because I love kids I pay a lot of tax money here in Bricktown it's not going to get cheaper if we put this off for another year two years three years and hope for a miracle we H somebody has to step up and say now is the time we all know that this there's inflation it's going to cost twice as much five years from now to do what we should have done today the time is now my kids have graduated and I'm willing to pay what it takes to bring these schools back to what they were when my children graduated 12 and 14 years ago the programs we are cutting are programs that I had in 1980 and 81 in high school that are gone how are we building our future if we are deleting all of these programs for the children that are and there's a million more things out there that they have to learn than we ever thought about you know the internet so please I implore you for Lan Mill for vets Elementary School for midstreams for drump point for Emma Havens and osbornville please do what needs to be done now there's not going to we may not get another chance to do the right thing and I personally when I ready to retire hope my house is worth what I paid for it and I don't want to see my property values go down I don't want to see education in this town go down and I want these kids to get what they deserve and I agree student centered teacher-led let me do both please thank [Applause] you anybody else go ahead please thank you my name is Anita O'Neal I live on Tall Oaks Drive and I couldn't let Miss Cotman be the only Lanes Mill um teacherparent um to step up I have two at Lan's mail and um full disclosure I also sit on the PTA board so I think somebody last month wanted to know where the PTA is well we spent 247 trying to figure out how fund the teachers on the back end or parents with school supplies so we are everpresent um we are happy to do whatever we can to help you to get the word out what you need um I know there was a statement about only so many people went to Trenton we can't all do it but I don't think you should think that just because we're not physically in this room because people don't come to our PTA meetings either if it makes you feel any better um but we can't be there but we do send letters and we do send emails and we do make phone calls so you're not in this alone but in terms of class sizes my son um this year because I'm not going to get through this I'm sorry because of an amazing teacher he had suggested to us that he get tested for dyslexia he survived from going from C's in the first grading period to A's in the last grading period because of her because she called it out and at our expense we went and we had him tested and we're having him tutored cuz don't expect you to tutor him for what he needs you are so far beyond being able to help him and I don't blame you for that it's just the reality but to take him from a class of 26 with an amazing teacher I'm not saying our fifth grade teachers are not but to go into fifth grade and put him in 35 where he also has anxiety issues he won't survive and you made the comment about looking outside I am looking outside I am also considering what is the emotional impact on him to take him out of a school where all of his friends are and put him in Allenwood and I will pay out of town tuition because those class sizes aren't 36 they're not 38 and when we talk about teacher impact they impact them every day Mrs Cotman was also my son's teacher and she impacted him and I have one at vetal who's going to be really disappoint appointed about the air conditioning let me tell you but you also made the comment these classrooms can hold 48 that's 48 people that's not 48 people with a desk I've been in our classrooms at Le's Mill it is awful I am I fear every day I walk into that school that students will literally die if there is a fire not if somebody gets in and shoots them for a fire because they will trip over each other on the way out if you strip the rooms down to the bare minimum and put 40 desks in a room in a teacher's desk that's what that's what a safe room would look like as a parent and that's just not acceptable I have high taxes I live on a nice piece of property and I am willing to pay what we have to pay to get our Educators back in the classroom I pulled my kids out of brick once and I put them back in and I don't want to have be forced to do it again and I don't want to do it to my kids but this has to to change and it has to stop our Educators at leans Mill are amazing they give their blood they give their time they make the phone calls at night I get phone calls before school started to find out about my kids what do I need to know before your child comes into my class I was amazed I was amazed a teacher took the time from her summer to find out about my kids what do I need to know there always a phone call a text an email away and they give everything and it's about time that this community gives something back to them thank you do we have somebody else that would like to come and speak passionately about their child I just before um the superintendent responds I just like to ask you know not everybody gets up to talk and this is a lovely crowd and the board is thrilled that you're here if you're a parent here advocating for your child would you please stand up thank you if you are an educator here advocating for your students would you please stand up thank you m very much I just wanted to do that before anybody left because it's so important to acknowledge the people who show up it's so important to acknowledge the people who feel passionately about improving the circumstances for our students thank thank you very much Dr Farrell um we've been in the habit the last few months kind of summarizing after the end of the seven the second public comments us uh first of all I am so sorry I missed the last board meeting many of you know my life's an open book I went through a major major medical uh crisis I joke as Mark Twain said rumors of my death were greatly exaggerated I am on the menend I don't have any tubes in me anymore um though I would like to keep this weight off if I can but I am starting uh that's why there's no cookies I'm trying to get healthier I congratulated all the teachers year I contacted them I did watch it watched it afterwards um that is my favorite uh board meeting Mr blim so uh I am sorry I missed it um um it was the first board meeting I missed in almost 13 years as a superintendent so um uh kind of surreal but it does make you put things in perspective effective as a human being and I encourage all of you that's why I love you're talking for your kids and and feeling so passionate about that because it does put things in perspective for me um so I wanted to say that couple house cleaning issues and I want to get to the the budget guy um Mr Finelli I will put this in the packet I think I put it in a packet almost a year ago this report on the teacher shortage from the task force is actually from February 2023 with data from like 2018 I was there down Atlantic City at the na uh the state superintendent conference where they reported out on it uh I agree with you some of the things um the remediations and the recommendations whether it's alternate route and eliminating certain criteria um there is the frontend side which is teacher Preparatory programs at colleges which are being reduced years ago many of our public state colleges and universities were the ones preparing teachers because teachers weren't making the high salar so they were going to State schools which were a little cheaper in tuition uh they weren't going to go to an expensive private school and come out and make a low salary right um even Trenton state or TCNJ is looking at reducing that almost completely many schools are reduced that so on the front end we're having less people we're having more and more um teachers and public Educators leave the public education field for the private sector I think of my daughter who was a finance major in college who worked for Paramount and you know she gets to work at home two days commute to the city and those are things teachers cannot uh do and they talk about this in and I will put it in the packet for everybody it's kind of outdated a little bit um the information but the fact is there's a teacher shortage right nationally and statewise and we have done a great job here and I don't think it's us I actually think the teachers and Educators many of them live in the community um our staff retention is very good uh Miss Mack kind of slipped me a note before she was looking at numbers you know staff retention is really high here um you know unfortun we're losing staff by attrition and because of our budget wow and they're easily finding jobs because of the teacher shortage uh somewhere else and many times for for more money uh in the doctoral class I actually teach from Mammoth University last night one of the presentations from a group was on the teacher shortage and they talked about how many times now not only the mental health of employees but you see this in the private sector about the mental Wellness of the employees and what are the benefits on that side whether it's Fridays remotes and things they're doing uh to you know the the whole entire Workforce has shifted uh there's been a huge paradigm shift in many Industries and whether you're in education or not we've all seen that and more and more employers have to do more to retain uh employees and it's not always the financial I agree it's not always just throwing money out a problem but there are other what I call psychological perks and benefits that we could do a better job in will put that uh in the packet I want to congratulate uh Mr Edwards and his team uh actually the late uh Dr Morris helped too as well uh we did get a $5 million grant for elect electric buses where Tom's River which is larger than us Jackson is not but Tom Zer is larger than us and Jackson got a lot less uh Mr Edwards uh submitted that Grant with the team $5 million for electric uh buses uh was in that uh I think it's going to take a while to we kind of implement that that Grant but that does help us tremendously because we had a lot of buses we would have to go out for uh to purchase and then over the next few years uh did you want to add anything to that I want to congratulate thank you for that it's not it can't take us a while it has to be done by September so there you go and I know there's a grand R out so uh it's uh you know so I know someone I think it was Mr Finelli asked earlier about the how do we get 5 million and the other districts get a smaller number um we applied for the maximum that you could get we've done that by the way every single time we've applied because this is not the first time we've put in that application um I'm I'm only speculating I don't know this for sure but I think other districts had done the same thing they put in for the maximums and because they weren't getting the maximum figured maybe scaling it back a little bit would help them get something rather than nothing we kept our foot on the pedal and went for the maximum and they awarded the maximum and I know those other districts are now uh you know the one District reached out to me and said I can't believe it yeah you know you guys actually got 5 million where we thought we were not you know weren't going to get anything so uh great job we on the and I mean we have gone out and asked for 27 million in stabilization and we have been bold um I I to add what Mr saruca said I kept saying we do more with less and you're right and I I'm embarrassed at the other thing I'm embarrassed at is the state has been contact acting us telling us that brick schools is the Exemplar going through this S2 you know we're in so much better shape than say Tom drier Jackson Lacy and I don't want to hear that as well when we've cut 350 positions I want to give you a little history like Mr Reid did too and then answer some of the questions like Surplus and some other things um so since I've been here in four years many of you are coming to meetings for first time but I I I to my very first year I was so proud of the fact I said that we lost three bodies at the end of the day meaning we cut 50 jobs now when I first got here we started our self-insured the wellness center this was prior to to Tom Farrell so I had nothing to do with it um and we created our new prek with Herbertsville right well the prek saved 25 of those positions because of prek search which we get 83% or 83 cents on the dollar to to fund that from the state P Grant and the self-insured and the wellness center uh saved us some money at the end of the day due to retirements we lost like three bodies the my first year and I was like wow what I thought I was coming into this you know I said wow what a coup three bodies I think they all found jobs we actually a year later hired one of them back uh as a teacher but please don't forget and the bodies are important right because it gives The Human Side to this whole budget thing and class sizes are utmost important which I'll get to which we've been talking about but at the end of the day outside of the bodies and class class sizes right we're cutting positions even if you say ah this one kept their job and so because this one retired and moved them our high schools I've said are not comprehensive educational institutions anymore there's only no electives in programming uh we really are at the bare Bon so even though we want to get bodies back which is important there are positions too that we got to stop looking at and saying we could do it out because we saved so- and so's job now I've been talking about this for four years because each year I've said the next year would be worse second year we got Esser money so I want to contribute out now when we got Esser money we got $9 million so Mr Reed knows now we had a requirement of put a minimum of 20% in the classroom in discussion with Mr Edwards and myself being a finance kind of guy the worst thing I thought we could do is put more than 20% in the classroom because those Sr funds dried up like we saw for this coming budget cycle where other local districts I don't want to name put 50 60% of the Esser funds into teacher positions that they're hitting the fiscal cliff they got to cut those jobs 14 of our 52 positions that we are not renewing you know that aren't in our budget really are coming from the lack of the Esser funds coming so we said and this is budgeting 101 take one-time Revenue sources like got and put it to onetime expenses so we only put the minimum 20% into the teacher salaries right so we wouldn't hit that fiscal clip but the majority we put into the HVAC jobs which we said we needed to do we were one of the few districts without HVAC during Co so we put it into Capital Improvements utilize Surplus from our own local fair share and surplus to balance off the difference got Rod grants and we're able to do HVAC which of course they're all scheduled to be done but we're waiting on jcpnl and product and as my wife would tell you they're not done yet at Drum Point gym and other are is but that was all budgeted so that we wouldn't hit another fiscal cliff and have 80 more positions to hit with Esser and I said after Esser I said when Esser dries up we're going to be in a worse position the following year year three we cut some positions and we felt it a little bit uh last year was my fourth budget cycle we cut a few more positions we had more retirements than we had this year we we didn't feel as far as bodies but I kept saying every year to this audience it's going to get worse before it gets better now I did write a white paper I did testify in front of the Senate over the last two years I am promised a seat on this committee that they're going to change the funding for him next year but we cannot rely on that that's a pipe dream right now this year's budget is going to happen and we approved the budget at 2.99% the new bill a 4161 uh was recently approved by the state leg I think the governor signed it in the middle after our May meeting and there's a small window actually I think you you can have a t a new tenative budget hearing on it like after June something June 15 and then you got to have the tenative and then the actual budget adoption before like July something but you have a small window yes the governor I I called him a lot of different names but this I'll say the state department of Ed and the state government are cowards in the sense they put it on local elected officials but the fact is that's our only remediation right now and a lot of you said we got to do something I I really feel that now you don't have to go to the 9.9 and it's actually 9.9 minus the 2.99 we already went the difference is 6.91 and um you know the Board of Ed and and us we we have to come up with some kind of solution uh to put back teachers and look at class sizes the last two years class sizes have always been number one we did not start the school year with 31 or more the last two budget Cycles I said when we did this budget cycle I can't say that anymore unfortunately that's just where it became you know um where it came to where we're starting the budget cycle would I want to say 10 section maybe 12 sections over 31 some as high as 38 uh with this existing budget that we adopted that has always been the number one priority I know people could say you know and I was in school when I was in school we had 50 students but there's many of studies matter of fact the state has a statute for which districts and I've said this numerous times districts that are considered Title One districts meaning more than 60% I think of your of your entire District 40% that is considered Title One students now we have many Title One schools but we're not considered a title one District many Title One schools the state has a law that if you are a title on District you cannot have class sizes in grades one through five because kindergarten has to be 25 my wife reminds me all the time grades 1 through five cannot have class sizes over 23 now I have Title One schools few of them four of them that I have class sizes over 23 because we're not considered a district so if class sizes are important and studies show that why can we have class sizes of 31 plus and the state has not changed that statute and I wrote that in my white paper that's just illogical so class sizes are very important with the increase of disciplinary and hibs and the teacher shortage and teacher attrition that is the number one thing so the fact that it matter is when you come down to the day when you look at your budget right everybody knows 80% of our budgets pretty much salary and benefits of Staff the majority of which are certified teachers that's just the biggest chunk of the budget that we do uh those salary and benefits and when it comes down to it that's the only thing that gives and we need to put some of those positions back and I've shared that as a professional educator you know I share my recommendation and my and my professional recommendation at the end of the day the board and us we have to have these in-depth discussions and look at Community input because the board are elected officials for that and our finance committee started that last week just started it uh on this because like I said we have such a a small window so Surplus Mr Reed spoke about we told you at this budget we got a waiver from the county to go below the 2% right Mr Edwards to 1 and a half% is it 1.37 so the state requires not municipalities I don't want to get into our own but municipalities can have over you know they can have whatever they want in Surplus we are required a certain amount to keep in Surplus we got a waiver to reduce that Surplus down to 1.3% we're utilizing what's called fund balance existing budgets into the budget to fund Staffing positions we do that every year matter of fact I hear from Mr Edwards this is not a safe amount to keep we got to get more and we got to replenish that after a year we got a waiver for 099 to add to the 2% because of the health benefits increase percentage so we've gone I I I know the state keep selling we done a good job but you know kudos to Mr Edwards the finance committee we have done what we had to do but the fact that it matters we did get a little bit of a life raft now and we have to have serious discussions and look about it now just so the public knows what it will look like with anything's happened it looks like we'll have some kind of special meeting and it will just be that it'll be like another budget hearing whatever and we are going to be exact you know we we cut 52 positions with the budget the way it's existing 34.5 I think were teachers in a sense we Lo out because they're all non-tenured meaning we protected our tenured and more experienced teachers but those are teachers that are easily finding jobs right now because we're hearing it those teachers that weren't renewed tonight our hope is to renew some of them you know when we adopt or amend a budget a little bit we could get some back but many of them could find other jobs and even if they do that doesn't fix the class size right because we still got to increase so many sections at minimum to get that class size and I want you to understand this this is compounded so if you're a math person or a finance person it's compounded when we take our tax levy of 123 million and we go up 2% per year which is a cap that's it and we have an opportunity to kind of increase that tax levy we're going to get 2% on that addition which may fund us next year even if we got to go back to 2% or the funding formula doesn't change fund us another six positions at that five6 700,000 uh Mr Reed was talking about about it in the that we could save so it's compounded exponentially so I don't think there's another life draft coming for this budget cycle there's some talk out there I'm optimistic that's why we have a little window maybe things will happen I know my colleague in Tom's Rivers optimistic something may happen great if it does but it's highly unlikely I don't know if the funding formula will be changed next year I'm hoping that it is and it benefits us um things could happen elections and the department of people could change it we could in two years let's say get an influx of some State funding which would be great the other thing we need to know is we we worked hard on a strategic plan that has some grandiose goals and I know Mr felia said sometimes hey you know why even put these goals down you're not going to be able to do you just don't have the money to do it but the truth is we would love to start implementing some of those goals we have an updated curriculum I heard someone talk about in years because we talked about the priority uh Mr Reed the priority is this St and I turn around to Dr Anderson and I said we're going to have to hold off on that again because I don't want to cut people because when your Capital expenditures which are in Surplus are already allocated to Mr Reed's question right they're already allocated you can't transfer them from that budget cycle to the to the another area like the classroom for example if HVAC was budgeted Capital improvement from two years ago and we're waiting to do that job we got to keep that money ready right to finish that job but we have exhausted everything we possibly could I'm telling you down to the penny yeah maybe we missed one or two here but to get back 52 positions plus we're talking millions of dollars so I wanted to give everybody the history um because I am proud of what we've done but we can do more we can do more um and it's got to be a collaborative approach from this board of bed because this is a thankless job I do get paid um they do not and they're up here and they represent many different constituent groups right not only parents and teachers and and business owners and community members but taxpayers too they represent a mria so I I also want you to put yourselves in their shoes too because this is tough for them as well um because there it's not a black and white thing and I've heard people say that you know it's ah got to go out 9.9 I gotta do it's not that easy we got to look what's right for us and what we want to do and I promise you those discussions are going to happen I'm sure we'll end up having a meeting that will clarify everything for people may not be as much as we all want or as or maybe it's not as less as we all want I don't know what that could be I don't know what the board is going to do because we haven't had an open discussion with the whole board because we haven't had a quorum even till tonight and it just went through finance committee so I wanted to give that I have some notes um so it's not 9.9 either Thor it's it's anywhere between so I know no but it's not 9.9 um I I had the Surplus I think I answered from Mr Reid and as far as actual dollars and details Mr Reid we could get that to you exact you can look at the budgets what we've exhausted in Surplus what our balance is what the percentage is and the county superintendent has to approve that when it's below 2% we're working with the town actually to sell a piece of property which we discussed here at a board meeting a few months ago that wouldn't happen till next January but that we're hoping would replenish the Surplus for the following year to get it back to the to the 2% um so we've exhausted a lot of things at the end of the day someone also said you know nothing's really changing well the truth is nothing's really changing I've gotten a lot of lip service from Senators legislators um local legislators everybody yeah we want to help we want to help we want to help nothing has happened at the end of the day we have to help ourselves you know um and this is an opport opportunity as many of you said so I wanted to share all that I hope I answered questions on the second public comment I love that everybody uh did come out here I think that's important for board members as they've always asked uh to see that because we wanted to see you know what it is um and I assure you when we look at putting things back this isn't going to be a I shouldn't say this but I'm going to say we shouldn't be um like a local inner city district and say yeah we're going to budget 55,000 for an end ofe party I think someone I think people have seen that I think it was uh we won't be doing we will tell you exactly the positions we cut right that's a fact that has happened uh a district that gets like almost a billion dollars uh we don't have that luxury we will show you if if we're putting back you know 40 positions we will show you where they're going and what they are exactly and what the FTE costs and those were positions cut so I wanted to share all that I'm grateful to be back I so love this District all of you and all these board members uh everybody's been so kind when I've been kind of home on the men so I want to thank all of you this team to my right uh really picked up the slack uh when I was in the hospital for almost two weeks and uh I'm grateful and thankful for everybody here uh for the support so thank you you must be exhausted this is late for me um at this time I'd like to offer the board members an opportunity to make some comments on Mr mesar would you like to begin please sure so as the chair of the finance committee I just kind of want to make it clear as my thought process on the matter and how you know we're going through different options um saving the teachers is my number one priority so that's factored into every decision um I also do not believe what the state's doing is fair I think it's ridiculous throwing it on the board of education to determine how much the taxpayers need to make up for their lack of funding our district I think it's ridiculous um so I just wanted to kind of like Dr frell said uh there's no need to go to the max okay we can get the teachers back we can get program s back at a lot less looking at the budget so I just want to make that clear as the board we're looking at the different options um that we have opportunity here I do agree that we do have to do something uh with the with the opportunity uh but again I kind of unhappy with how the state's handling the situation but I think as a board we're going to make the right decision for the district [Applause] Mrs is Diana R first I want to say I graduated from osbornville and all the schools in brick um very close to my heart this town grew up in this town um not concerned if I'm going to get voted in again because I'm in for another two years and so were my colleagues here but I am concerned about class sizes because I have three grandchildren in the schools I am concerned about the teachers that were laid off three of us voted no to the budget for that reason to open up eyes and have people see what's going on in our district at the same token to put a burden of 99.9% on taxpayers and people that I know because I work for the town who are losing their homes because they can't afford them is hard on me but we do have to do something to save our teachers we do have to make sure that our class sizes are okay because in those classes there's behaviors there's many different languages and you are our heroes for teaching these students because I know you love them because I have a granddaughter who's a teacher and uh she actually teaches in Newark and uh the difficult she she didn't go to the party um they received funding that's ridiculous and the only reason why we're not receiving the funding is because they feel we get we should raise the taxes once we raise the taxes in Brick we'll get more money that's kind of sad because brick does pay their fair share there is 10 billion dollar in the state house that can go to us that can help us but this group is a team we all work together and we hear what you're saying we want all the teachers we also want the custodians because custodians we've lost a lot of custodians we've lost a lot of uh of other things other than just the teachers we need it all back we need to make it heal um but yet we keep getting more we students okay where are we going to house these students our class sizes are going to be huge no matter what no matter what I mean I know that you feel there's a couple of rooms in Osborne all the schools don't have that same amount so the classes are going to Big we have to work on that and we are working as a team to try and make it because um I'm not worried about being voted in I'm worried about our students I worried about our students getting a proper education so they don't become delinquents so they don't get in trouble so they have an education they have somewhere to go um and I think we're going to do that I don't think we need to go as high as everybody thinks I think if we look we're going to find where we can do it at an evening Keel and um I want all our teachers back want our classrooms back to the size as they were but I'm going to tell you they're not going to be the size as they were because we have to keep taking in students and yeah I I I don't know what else to say but we will help you we that's why we're here and again we don't get paid enough ran thank you Mrs de Benedictus so one of I know it's my personal favorite and I'm sure everybody else is here one of my favorite little it's supposed to be one of our duties but it is such an honor is to do all the graduations and we just got to do all the graduations we got to hand those students who have busted their booties and and done all the tests and crams and whatever and and so that they could have a better future and we need to make sure that we still can have those those students in this District who can go to hardwood who can go to Boston University who can attain their their dreams and we have to have teachers we have to have those people who are not only educating but are their cheerleaders who are telling them that they can they just got to work hard and we know that it's because of all of you teachers that those students are able to live their dreams to do what they feel they're called to do and it's because you guys have all done what you felt you were called to do and thank you thank you I I have two students in the district I have a rising fourth grader so I understand um it's not easy and the class sizes are just they're not going to allow these kids to reach their potential and We Know It And we are going to do everything all of us are going to do everything that we can so that we can have teachers we can have the custodians we can have all the things back because as I've said numerous times and as Mr saluca said some of those students yes they go to school but they go maybe because they love an activity they love a sport that is what gets them there and that is what keeps them there and that those coaches those Club Runners whatever you call them they're the people who make sure that they are held to task every single person in that school is so important and I know that our state is not helping us but unfortunately we will do what we can and we will make sure that that funding is [Music] adequate sorry right no it's over there um sorry my turn yes Mrs Kennedy okay sorry you didn't say my name um I just want to thank everybody for coming um I was up until recently that Mom on that side of the table um it's sometimes it's a long daunting night and you're tired and you work the whole day and you got to find the kids rides to go places but it means so much to be here to know what's going on to to be the voice to let the board up here know what you guys are thinking and where you stand with things it's it's really very important so thank you so much for coming um it's important that you go back to your friends and your neighbors that were not able to come tonight or maybe weren't able to tune in to YouTube let them know what you've heard what you've learned share your knowledge a little bit about um what's going on and what the board has said and what we have in front of us as far as the tax increase and and if you research us too so that you really understand what that is and what that's done to our district it's important to to be the leader of the group and go back to your friends and and just let everybody know truly what is going on because everybody can very easily get up here and say it's the admin's fault it's the teacher's fault it's the board of education's fault but but it's the state's fault so it's important that you help us spread that word so that your friends can all really understand truly what's happening um I just want to say congratulations to the class of 2024 um the fifth graders that moved on to Middle School the middle schoolers that were promoted into the high school and the high schoolers that graduated I think it's totally cool that brick only graduates their High School um even though I have an eighth grader who promoted to high school um a lot of neighboring towns don't get it they think that you graduate from all these different grades it's really neat and it makes it really special for the kids that are graduating from high school and it's really um like Fran said it is the best part of this job is that we get to go and celebrate with these students and all of their accomplishment ments it really is amazing um quick shout outs I just like to do miss Panka miss kuster m Miss Marvin Mr fallet Miss Riley Miss Dunn Mr Clancy Mr Brunner Miss T Mr Carr Mr gansky at vets middle school thank you all so much for everything that you did for my Charlotte this year um she is a superstar and it is all in part for you um because of you and I appreciate you miss sh Mrs St Mr Nagel Mrs Mrs Fitzgerald and Dr Fitzgerald Miss cardi Miss Lup Mr Sako the Sako sacko the history teacher um Mr Sara back there you killed it at graduation um and your administrative team thank you so much to the staff of brick memorial um that's all I have to say please come back next month please I'm I'm looking at all of you I see you all come next month thank you goodbye Mr cber the perks of going last is you can Echo everybody else's sentiments in this room honestly first and foremost you have a wonderful board up here um I am privileged to sit next to all of them and work with them on a daily basis and I promise you you teachers are a forerunner I probably spoke about most of you today and I could pinpoint a bunch of you in the room that have impacted our journey through the school district I have two special education kiddos um that hasn't been the easiest ride um but I spoke about a lot of you today in my work I do work in insurance as well um I don't recommend it um I do work in insurance but I did speak about a lot of you today and and why we seek changes and importance do it I I didn't have much to talk about tonight but you guys I I don't even know how to thank half of you for everything that you do um I I have watched you bend over backwards I have been on the receiving end of those phone calls where the teachers call and ask what can we do I've been on 11 pm phone calls with you teachers trying to decide like what is the right way to approach you know how do you figure out a child I have a very difficult nine-year-old um um that it took a while to but because of all of you he's stepping into fourth grade and has excelled in ways that I can't even imagine the eighth grader they're sitting in the back they deal with her on a daily basis but um I I can't thank all of them there's it takes so much effort and I've had so much experience from different ends too like it hasn't just been a one-on-one teacher it it's been a collaborative effort from art and drama and um prior teachers kindergarten teachers Preschool teachers like it's been I know what you guys put into what you do and you have my support a th% you are always at my mind my Forefront in every one of my decisions here because without you I mean you could get corny and saying our children are the future I'm not going to saying I don't have a voice but they ultimately are so if we fail them now you know what are we looking at in the future remember they're going to be taking care of us so I mean I don't have high hopes for my kids taking care of me but I don't have much to say I really didn't so it it sounds Cloud valuted but it's I appreciate and respect all of you I respect you dipping into your own Pockets to get what you need um I'm always willing to support and do anything be creative I haven't been invited to that Harry Potter club yet and I'm still waiting if we're on like year number three at at this point that I wanted to be invited to this if you need me to run it I will gladly do it I hope that's not against anything thank you thank you for coming thank you for advocating for your students for each other students for each other um I promise you we will do well by you um and I know it's July and August we'll see some of you guys in the summer program but come visit we we appreciate you being here thank you Nicole [Applause] I also got to um for the ninth time uh celebrate graduations and promotion ceremonies in the district and I have to say um I I see the teachers at the green fair I see the teachers at back to school night and art programs and music programs and everything and you know we couldn't do without you this year at the graduation ceremony I was particularly touched that every principal in the middle school and the high school called out our teachers of the year and our support people of the year and the entire Stadium uh clap for them because that's such a special recognition because you're all great so who's going to be the greatest you know you have to take turns doing that so I just wanted to say to our admin ad ministrators teachers our guides people that all work work in the uh background to make these graduations such a beautiful experience for our students thank you very much um the uh one thing I'd like to talk about um when when I was a kid I like to read and my father was always handing me a book and one year I remember I was in 8th grade he gave me a book and the title of book was why not the best it was a political book as he would always hand me one but the theme I always remembered through um high school and college I think what Mr salca said and what Dr f is never going to say again um are are important to our students um the leadership that you all show um our students I'm going to say it have been short changed long enough so have you Educators so have you support people um so I just think we should really reflect on giving our kids the best opportunity we can and um and that's going to take a little money and um I'm just so in favor of giving you every tool you need uh I I was a teacher for a long time I used to stop once a week at the dollar store and spend $85 and it all went back into my classroom and uh maybe every other week um I don't think I could afford every week but I just like to say that um you you've done more than should be reasonably expected of you and I appreciate you all coming out here tonight and I really hope you come out and um to our budget meeting and support what um we can do for your students and I hear you I heard every single one of you tonight especially you Mr blim thank you have a good night everybody I'd just like to say that the calendar shows us Mrs picala before we go to the calendar May I oh go Miss oh yes Miss thank you so with everyone here and uh it's a very fortunate opportunity to to take advantage of and since Dr frell spoke so eloquently this evening uh I'd like to take this opportunity to congratulate him he is the Ocean County Superintendent of the year thank you just was announced today and I said Thank you Mrs P didn't need to be at at this meeting but that cats out of that all right our calendar shows us that um we will be closed for Independence Day on July 4th and 5th what is this June 21st for juneth that's the district is closed oh that day not juneth okay I get it all right July 16th we're going to have our next regular board meeting right here you don't need to bring your own chair we'll we'll set up some more next time and um I'd just like to have a motion and a second for the meeting to conclude please motion Fran second alley Mary please miss Sebert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss D Benedictus yes Miss a yes Mr Mesmer yes Miss picala yes thank you for coming everybody thank you e