here Mr Sherman here Mrs Kaden here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay there was no executive session this evening we are going we've flipped things uh in order to be able to have um to ask questions excuse me during the um the presentation so first uh can I get a motion to enter Committee of the whole so moved and second second all in favor so first things first sadly uh anyone that was coming specifically for the accordion Club performance will need to make sure that they come back next month uh because that is when that performance will be taking place we are looking forward to it Miss Angeles who runs the club is also getting lessons and I believe will be performing as well oh not performing as well but also taking lessons just to be in it with the kids so we thank her for for that um so we are going to move on to our only presentation of the night uh which is the budget presentation and Dr McDow and Miss Coleman will present C for okay so good evening everyone um we are going to stand off to the side as a general habit I don't like to stand with my back uh to the audience uh and so welcome welc thank you all for being here and so the uh the theme moving into 2425 is shifting from recovery to rigor and so for the last three years we've been heavily focused on academic recovery trying to come back from the pandemic better than we were moving into the pandemic um but it's now time for us to move and aggressively shift into a new Direction based on what we've learned over the last three years and so we do believe that this is appropriate and so we all want to make sure that we're grounded in our mission and our vision as well as our values and so uh we continue to use these as our our guiding star and as our guiding principles and everything that we do and so what is the budget Challenge and so we want to move away from inuendo and we want to move away from some of the uh uh information that has gone back and forth over the last several months and so we've talked about both publicly and in small groups that the fiscal cliff was coming so we've known for about three years that the fiscal cliff was coming and I am uh not proud to say that we have reached the cliff and so when we think about what is the budget challenge Collingswood is not immune to the budget challenge that we're seeing across the country and specifically across uh many districts in New Jersey and so we have what's called a structural budget deficit what that means is that the cost to educate our students the cost to provide services significantly exceeds the amount of Revenue new dollars that comes in year over-year and it becomes more and more difficult each and every year hence the reason why uh since March we've been asking for the community to partner with us to regressively advocate for a fairer funding formula at the state level with the current funding formula expiring this year and so while the state is contemplating a new funding formula that prioritizes the needs of students across every school community in New Jersey uh we need your voice to help put the necessary pressure on the state legislators as well as the governor's office in order to put a better foot forward to fund education in our communities and if they're not going to do that provide each locality the flexibility to go to their community and ask for what they need and so we looked at the last two years and so if you look here uh on your far left hand side that accounts for uh millions of dollars and then underneath our uh Academic Year 23 24 and then 2425 and so the costs the increase in cost last year was $3.4 Million doing what we had done nothing new the actual revenues that were generated was $1.6 Million creating a deficit and so we had a significant hurdle that we needed to overcome last year fortunately we were able to significantly scale back in administrative cost we were able to leverage Grant dollars and we were able to Simply through attrition and retirements we were able to minimize the disruptive impact uh of a reduction in force without layoffs move us to 2425 the increase in cost is $4 million so four million doll to provide the current level of service to our students not adding new items actual revenues this year is 1.2 million and so let's unpack what's contributing to this increased cost the driving factors are Transportation uh special education services not to demonize special education services but as we uncover and determine what students need those Serv cost resources when we also talk about our commitment to our employees the average uh uh increase year-over-year for employees rightfully earned is more than the average of what we're able to increase in terms of local revenue and so what that means is is that at the local level we're able to ask for a maximum of 2% of the local fair share not 2% of your total budget 2% of the local fair share which comes through homeowner property tax this is significantly below the 7% increase in transportation that is dictated by the state the increases in health care costs the increases in outof District tuition for students that have greater needs than what we have the capacity to service General expenses and so on and so on and so bethan is going to share a little bit more about how we came to these numbers but we just wanted to make sure that we're illustrating what is our challenge we will never be in a a position where we will come to you and say that students aren't worth it we will also never come to you and say that staff needs staff salary staff increases are not worth it you'll never hear us say that what you're going to hear us talk about is how do we facilitate to the highest degree possible all of these needs all of these challenges with the resources that we have at our disposal hence the reason why we're going to continue to ask for the community to partner with us and districts across the state to really put the appropriate amount of pressure on the state to do a better job and to create a fairer and more Equitable funding uh system for students for teachers for the community for taxpayers and the like and so I'm going to shift over uh to bethanne who's going to talk about the actual budget and the impact I'll go through this that's right um so we started the budget process we usually start in the fall no surprise to anybody um but we had the administrators put their school budgets together well in advance knowing that this was going to be a bad year um and then when we did get the state aid what we did is um Dr mcdal and I went line by line uh through the budget several times anything that could be funded with expiring federal funds is we're funding with expiring federal funds meaning curriculum supplies instructional supplies Chromebooks things that are not people um but there one like the onstop purchase that we could use up the federal funds legally and correctly ly but that would save some money in next year's budget so of those costs about 1.3 million we were able to reallocate to Grants to spend down the federal funds that are expiring in the fall um and to ensure that the curriculum leaders um in the district had what they needed um for their schools for next year um this is just our projected enrollment um we are hoping to open three new preschool classrooms that's why you see an addition of 50 children in preschool overall the district seeing growth of about 72 um children throughout the district and um just a little caveat on enrollment enrollment should have an effect on your state aid and I say should when you have a large enrollment increase the state does give you what's called an enrollment adjustment but 72 children on a population of about 2500 isn't large enough um to generate additional funds to the district um I think every child any additional child should generate additional funds to the district so this is an argument I make um at my uh County meetings continually but um it wasn't enough to generate an adjustment that we could use in this year's budget um overall this is a picture of our district Revenue last year we had budgeted fund balance which is basically excess Surplus that I didn't spend in the previous year of about 1.1 million I didn't generate anything last year usually I try to generate about a million dollars every year to bring forward into the budget um to be used as a source of Revenue so before we even started we had a shortfall of that million because when the Auditors came out they confirmed what I already knew that our costs were through the roof we were paying for what we were mandated to pay for um which is a good thing but we did not generate any excess short plus to help us in future budget years so we were starting with zero which was basically a 1.1 million shortfall um local tax levy um is 48.5% % of the budget um you can see down below State a is about 28.521220 that's okay there is going to be a part of the budget where we have public comment sorry I heard somebody I thought it was like Fred talking to me in the back I'm like what um this is just a little pie chart just so you can see so about 50% of the District budget is made up of local taxes that we generate here from the local taxpayers of Collingswood um we can only increase that 48% by 2% so to say you increase your your overall budget by 2% we could really only increase our overall budget by just under 1% District expenditures um we're still spending 64% on instruction 16% on student services um student services that number has gone up since previous years um again the cost of Transportation um is exorbitant in the state and what they are charging for us to transport our our children to the programs that they require um is absurd um for lack of a better word the state uh limited our tax levy increased by 2% but they published the CPI that busing companies could increase their busing contracts that was published at 5.85% so the state you know they different silos don't communicate with each other so I'm already obligated to increase certain lines of my budget well above CPI well above what I'm allowed to generate and then our ad administrative costs um staying at about 9% and again here shows a pi breakdown just so you see that a majority of our um no surprised anyone a majority of our expenditures does go to instruction and student services and then the year-over-year comparison um this year we did generate a small healthc care adjustment thank god um so the um increase will be at 3% but that's the most we're allowed to ask so on a $39 million budget um the tax levy increases $593,000 um so the average house will see an increase of $135 $135.99 so it's important it's important to make the the the numbers uh real and so we want to move into what are our priorities and so at the onset of this presentation we talked about the support for a rigorous learning environment and so being able to provide high quality engaging and differentiated instruction adjusting our multi-tier system of support these are the most intensive supports to the students of greatest need support the expansion of our professional learning communities uh in in in different ways in addition to uh taking a look at the effectiveness and the quality of professional development while also mandating or while also addressing the mandated shifts in curriculum specifically in liter as well as mathematics reinforcing our student support model which includes academics School culture and mental health and then ultimately how do we continue to build capacity to begin moving and shifting into becoming more inclusive in our classrooms and so these are the Investments and so one of the uh pieces uh of community feedback that was pretty loud and pretty clear uh this current year was the uh removal of early dismissal as the option needed in order to provide uh collaborative planning time in PLC and so the calendar that was approved eliminated all uh non-contractual early dismissal days in order to deliver on that promise uh to families and uh the investments will also include new school schedules elementary middle and high school that includes protected teacher planning time during the school day without the need for early dismissals learning acceleration will continue to be invested in to provide uh targeted small group instruction to students mtss for levels tier 2 and tier three which are the most intensive supports will be provided to select students in need we will continue to maintain a highquality special education special services department uh we currently support roughly 360 students um with our child study team Services uh in addition to curricular tools we will be updating the curriculum platform to one that is more educator friendly and we will also be looking at all of the resources aligned with the new standards and literacy as well as mathematics we will be shifting our administrative culture from evaluation to instructional coaching with observations and feedback in addition to making sure that we continue with our investments in the foundational Equity work we will be extending that to instructional assistance and all new faculty and staff coming on this school year in addition to uh what is also included on our uh agenda this evening an updated code of conduct while also expanding access to restorative justice training as well as placing greater emphasis on positive behavior supports in addition to leveraging the expertise between our elementary and secondary Equity councils we believe that this type of change really needs to manifest on campus and then permeate out and so we will be supporting our elementary and secondary Equity councils with with additional training and support and also uh giving them more opportunities uh for more site-based leadership in addition uh last year we made a good faith effort to uh move to a fairer and more Equitable pay scale for our instructional assistance last year was part one and this year was delivering on that complete promise of part two and so we will be uh making a substantial investment to improve our instructional assistance compensation in so District priority number two supporting our infrastructure first and foremost making sure that there's is appropriate workspace for all of our faculty and staff recapturing educational space in schools improving Safety Services and support also looking at our annual facility updates uh based on our long range facility plan as well as planning for future facility needs updates to our technology services and support uh and then improving communication across the district and so what do those Investments look like addressing our classroom space concern and so what was referenced earlier is the addition of uh high quality Early Childhood preschool seats um we will also uh be very much engaged in community engagement over the next six months with our Allin for Collingswood uh referendum planning and discussion uh we will continue to focus on the ongoing projects articulated in our long range facilities plan um we're also based on feedback from our community we're placing great emphasis on safe routes to schools but we're not waiting until September of 2027 to begin that discussion those discussions have already begun um because we want to make sure that every child within our community has a safe route to school and there are things that we can do right now which includes making updates to our biking policy uh adding uh uh the opportunity for um partnership with other groups uh to help us with traffic studies looking at uh uh uh traffic flow but also looking at what we can do uh in partnership with the bureau with the state and with the county uh in order to to uh address some of the traffic concerns that we have as our children walk to school uh technology uh Services student and staff uh device replenishment we are a onet to1 Computing environment and this demands that we continue to move out uh broke in or for non-functional uh equipment and and replenish that year-over-year and so we're making those Investments we'll also be updating our Chromebook policy as well as the deployment policy uh in addition to making strategic changes to our technology Services team to be able to streamline customer service and shorten the window in response time in addition to making sure that we crank up our cyber security protocols and our uh faculty staff and student data Protections in addition to uh cranking up our community our communication support media Outlet engagement website development as well as social media support and so I'm going to let I'm going to uh tag back in bethanne to talk about what are all of the cost-saving measures that we use uh in order to make sure that every possible dollar uh reaches our students all right so uh no surprise to anybody here the last couple years we've uh Dr principado has done a phenomenal job of getting um a bunch of Grants so we can a lot of our one-time expenditures um we could put through the grant so it doesn't affect local taxpayers we're members of the uh school's Health Insurance Fund and the bur Burlington County Joint Insurance Fund um last year part of the $ 1.1 million that we were able to put towards a budget as excess Surplus about half of that came as a result of the refund F from both of these joint Insurance funds to date neither Insurance Fund has um declared a a dividend um and most likely will not do it until the summer so I didn't have anything to declare to put on the budget at this time but usually we do see some money come back into the district um because we are co-owners of the fund um utilities we apply we are in the ases uh program for utility Consortium we do every Co-op Under the Sun for all of our purchases um it goes without saying that we do the most shared services I think if not Camden County probably South Jersey at this particular Point um we do a lot obviously with um Oakland School District but we do a lot with neighboring school districts that don't have um a full maintenance team um and a full technology team so we are able to Outsource our people and it does bring in a little bit of income into the district it brings about anywhere from 50 to 60,000 that I bring in the into the um District budget every year as income so it is a small little source of income but it's also a source of Pride um for this District um we use C Camy County Ed Services Commission um for TR Transportation um burough of Oakland comes and does our trash at about $110,000 less than we were paying previously um when we had to Outsource it and then um just by H offering high quality preschool um and addressing all of our student needs and we're share we share a lot with Oakland with regards to our preschool our preschool development our preschool training Mental Health Services were able to help both districts um all of the children within the Two Towns um with the same budget draw so and I'm assuming a pdf version of this presentation will be on the website this is how you can kind of help us um once we get through the budget season we're going to crank up our uh advocacy I've already volunteered as tribute to many state senators um to speak in Trenton um on behalf of the suburban school districts that are kind of getting strangled in the middle um you know we need we also need State funding you know we also provide services and we are also worthy um so hopefully you feel the same way and please um help me um help me help cing wood and help me get this in front of the lawmakers it's kind of died down a little bit um but he does have to pass his budget by June 30th so I think the louder we are I don't think we should go away just because his budget's going to be passed on June 30th I think we need to stay very vocal and very much in the front in the front of this um so we don't have another budget year that's as bad as this one and that's it okay so we we went into uh Committee of the whole prior to the presentation so that to allow the board to um be able to ask some questions uh about the presentation um and the effects or the impacts that this um Year's budget cycle will have on our community so I'm going to turn it over to board members uh to get that started I just had a couple clarifying questions because I don't know if I was reading the slides correctly um was that 23 24 was $3.4 Million that was more than the 2223 cycle and was the $4 million this year over the 2223 or 3 24 23 24 okay yeah so before we even started looking at additional budget reductions we had already reallocated about 1.3 million of onetime cost in the budget that we were able to either uh buy now or use out of the expiring funds for the from the federal government and really one more thing followup I think you talked about it briefly but if there's any can you explain to everybody what that 3.4 million and 4 million like where are a lot of those costs coming from I know Transportation went up can you give us some like concrete examples of what we're facing I'm going to get on my soap box now a lot of the costs that are in this budget um there's not a lot of discretionary things in this budget just about everything this budget is mandated by someone somewhere what made this budget year so challenging was um Parkview has new ownership as we all know and um they are going through the process of um evicting families for non-payment but what happens in a town that has apartment complexes is that when a family is um evicted and the child is in our school district we're still fiscally responsible for them for one full year so right now I'm tracking about 16 children so we're fiscally responsible re wherever they wind up they can come back to Collingswood or they can we can opt to pay tuition but that's a cost that was not in last year's budget so so um the cost for that tuition is in this budget special ed services um The increased salaries for the AIDS all of that um is in the budget and all of it worthy right so it's really hard when you go line by line through this budget and it's nobody wants to be in this position believe me and it's been a lot of sleepless nights with Fred and I but it's kind of like there's some things I just like Charter Schools I'm just a mandated to pay the state just Coes in and charges me they tell me how much is going to come out of my budget for Charter School and we really don't have a say in any of that so that's is that did you say that's for one year so next year may be a little better because you're statutorily mandated to pay for these children for one year one year unless they move again and then we're responsible again or the possibly we do have some people that skip around so unless they get a a permanent residence in another place then no but if they move around then yeah it's the last place of permanent residence that will be tagged with um paying the tuition and transportation so there's just some costs that are new to the budget and just some that they're fixed but the costs are just outgrowing my ability to to raise taxes that's the structural problem can oh go ahead sorry I was going to say Can you um can both of you talk to us a little bit about um I know we have a special meeting on May 7th to discuss uh or to to vote uh more about the Personnel or approved Personnel I should say um but that's you know Personnel is a huge part of our budget um a very important part of our budget and I know is on the minds and hearts of all of us and and most likely everyone listening as well so can you just talk to us a little bit about um what we can expect there what we can talk about right now so yes so in in in terms of the the details I can talk about process and so the process was uh looking at looking at um the number of reductions that we were uh anticipating just based on the math and this was an estimate and so those numbers have been shared with uh all of oured educator uh our Education Association leadership teams and so then the next part of that process is sitting down with school leaders and then looking at what's the impact and how do we maintain a continuity of service across all schools given um the fiscal challenges that we face and these are all tough choices and so I don't want us to be disillusioned in any measure uh these are not decisions that we want to make these are decisions that we are forced to make at this particular Moment In Time and so uh collecting the information from our school leaders uh who have been um deliberating and then going back to our association leadership teams um And discussing what the impact will be and who will be impacted and so in a reduction in force um there are uh outcomes and then there are unintended outcomes and one of the unintended outcomes is that in general uh the individuals that are uh uh most most affected are also uh the least impactful on the budget uh because they are generally your um non-tenured uh lower on the salary scaled employees which then requires a deeper level of reduction and so uh we want to make sure that we are not uh damaging our schools ability to provide a continuity of service on every campus in our efforts and so we know that we have uh we still have some work to do and so we will have a a much better sense of of who is impacted uh within the next 24 to 48 hours and then we'll be working collaboratively with our association leadership uh to talk about process U of notification um and then uh our goal is to make sure that all of these details are worked out uh ready for the May 7th uh appointments uh so that uh contracts can be issued to uh all staff uh before the May 15th deadline so to clarify what you're saying is you still don't know what the impact is going to be on things like programming class sizes you know even without those specific conversations with leadership um can you tell us um just just in terms of the dollars what kind of impact that's going to have on you know class sizes and programming and things like that we're not we're not there yet so is this going to be will we be voting on those specific questions or being informed of those specific questions on May 7th or will those conversations already have happened by May 7th I try to answer tonight you're approving the final budget so the dollar amount is the dollar amount as far as next week um we have a statutory obligation to notify all staff by May 15th so um next week we'll be approving the Staffing throughout the entire School District next Tuesday so you're asking if there's going to be a meeting of the board between now and then I'm just trying to I want to understand your question so I answer it quickly oh absolutely no I so I just so are we going to be made aware of these because you you you say that there's going to be collaboration between yourselves and um building leadership and uh Union leadership and things like that so is our board members going to be made aware of those discussions and the results of those discussions before we are asked to vote on something on May 7th is my question so let me make sure I'm providing Clarity and so um those the movement that will will take place no that's that won't that won't be something that would be voted on the board is voting on the actual dollars and in terms of the who the what the where um the process is really driven by our uh by the collective bargaining agreements and so the impact on programming um we won't we will not be in a position to give a uh complete detailed summary of all programmatic uh impact uh just based on the timeline we will be able to provide that by the next full board meeting publicly and so there's still lots of details and so we're looking at there's one part there's the Personnel challenges that we have and then there's the actual impact once we've identified personnel um and so that's kind of our our our process uh what I will say is that the state um the uh uh preliminary budget has already been approved by the state and so what we're looking at is the final approval to come from the board in terms of the dollars received and the dollars um going out uh and then the uh budget impact um we we're going to need a little bit more time in order to discuss that I had a question uh bethan this this might be more for you um in terms of I listening to your presentation and I apologize I didn't see that ahead of time so I'm just trying to follow through with what you said uh that $1.3 million in Grants were reallocated can you help the public understand how grant money gets reallocated because I have a very limited understanding of grants in terms of like when you submit a grant you have to be from what I understand really specific about what you're sending that money to or what you're spending that money on so how are we reallocating that money and the part two of that question and this might be something for you Fred is um are we looking at given that that money has been reallocated you know from Grants um or to Grants or whatever um are we looking at an additional $1.3 million next year that we're going to be finding ourselves in a more of a crisis so the grants weren't reallocated it was costs that were identified by all the building administrators when they worked on their budgets of things that they want wanted um that we couldn't pay for next year's budget right so we probably in the last few months um you've been seeing a lot of amendments to the essr grants um that we've been putting on the agenda we've been amending the grants so that we can include these costs so things like curriculum supplies we at we probably about $160 $170,000 worth of curriculum items that were identified most notably um at the at the high school level um we able to pay out of the expiring Esra grants this way like um the Spanish program has what the they need you know everybody has what they need for next school year because there's some things that we just have to purchase right for the in for instruction so um we we do that with the hope of every $100,000 I can reallocate I'm saving a person um so we went line by line um we were able to we had some SDA um funds from the state that we received late last year that some of the project that Keith um the our former buildings grants director he had next next year's budget I cut out and I used those SDA funds um for those purposes so anything that we were able to say it's a one-time purchase let's put it to this grant that's what we did so I didn't reallocate the grant itself I just moved the expenditure because it's a one-time thing have we how in this budget have we spent down all of that all of those user funds that we needed to we're getting close we have until um I think everything has to be committed Ed by August with September final report deadline um but yeah Karen principa is working on that diligently to make sure that um we're spending everything down that's why I keep amending the grants like crazy because if it's something that can I can put in a grant um like one of the things we were talking about was the SLO last month the SLO was in the budget I took it out of the budget and it's now in the Federal grant that we got um for the FED for Safety and Security so the SL is not in the general fund budget it's Grant funded now things like like that like if I could take it out I did okay so to follow up are we going to do you suspect that we're going to find ourselves in a bigger hole next year that's hard to predict um I wish I had a crystal ball um I never would have predicted that when they came up with the funding formula that we have now that it was going to be so poor um because we fared very well in the beginning of it right we were a Suburban District we were doing everything we were supposed to be doing yay but they just flat funded us for three years and with the demands and the costs and and the needs we just can't we can't keep we can't keep doing this um so I have no idea what the new funding formul is going to look like um I had volunteered numerous times to speak um nobody's called me back by the way but I will continue to to speak so I honestly don't know what the funding formula is going to look like but I don't know what the things I reallocated are one-time things so I don't know what additional onetime things are going to pop up next year that we might need like is it is it going to be a textbook series or software that's hard it's hard to predict so this year we had a very clear list from um the schools as to things that they wanted and or needed for their programs that we were very a very easily able to peel off and um apply to a grant that was expiring okay I appreciate you clarifying that um I have one other real quick thing you mentioned something about District we have a District bus for class trips can you tell me more about that not CL trips it's the 18 to 21 year old program it's the vation yeah okay um I had a followup question about the grants because I know um in some of our grants like the SLO for instance um uh I know a portion of I believe um the assistant superintendent of curriculums salary is is being paid through some of the grants so for those that we're using for those purposes is your hope because we know we need those people um we also know we needed the the onetime purchases as well is the hope that what you just said about that the funding formula um they slowly begin to write the ship a little bit so therefore while yes we are funding some of these people through grants for now it's better than laying off a teacher or or someone else in this meantime hoping that that budget writes itself a bit I don't know if I that made enough sense it does it's hard I I like to plan but the the the state is so bipolar and what they say and then what they actually do that it makes it really hard um but yeah I would like to think that you know the new assistant superintendent she's not in the budget because she is being paid out of different grants um when those grants expire yeah she's going to have to be brought into the general fund I don't know we might get new grants I mean we're always we're constantly applying for new grants right because that's the only place I can get money right now um but yeah I would like to plan for the future as much as I possibly can but the state's not making it very easy um bethanne uh could you talk a little bit about I know some of our neighbors had experienced significant Cuts uh pal Meer and ramed and they were able to get these reversed uh through different appeals processes can you just talk a little bit about what we did to understand where our numbers came from from the state to understand why we were we received the amount that we did sure and I see Joan from the retrospect here so I'm put it really big so what I did is I reached out to the ba in ramed um who I'm friendly with and he said he had done an oah request to the apartment of Treasury to get um so in the state funding formula they treasury provides to the Department of Ed um the income of each town and that's based on everybody's New Jersey state tax return right so you would assume it's just an upload and not somebody doing this but I'm beginning to think it's somebody doing this um and then the same thing with the ratables right it's supposed to be an upload he did an Oprah request because he couldn't believe that the income in renamed went up so much that it cost the school district to lose millions of dollars so lo and behold their income numbers were completely wrong same thing with Palmyra so I sent an Oprah request and I sent I downloaded the Oprah request I literally s all the Bas in cam County um and lo and behold I got ours back and for collinswood and Oakland they're both wrong but they're not wrong like a sizable amount Collingswood I think was like 70,000 and Oakland was off like 40,000 but my argument which I sent to the state was if it's wrong for Palmyra and ramid and Collingswood Oak Glenn my assumption is it's wrong for just about everybody and the state should rerun the formula for all 600 plus school districts the answer I'm getting is well there will be winners and losers well you know like cuz they're going to have to reallocate state aid again right so they were doing it like on a case-by Case basis now they're not taking any more appeals so I reiterated it with so every year when I get my state aid so I can talk to my community and to have faith in the numbers I'm being given I'm going to have to do an Oprah request to assume that what Trenton is sending me is correct and I never never got a reply so I'm assuming that's the answer um but so I'm just telling all the baas in cam County and it wasn't like a lot but my point is it's wrong so when you've got people that are trying to do the best they can for their communities and we're literally pinching our pennies together you better be right is my point and so um I I intend to continue to to push so um could you speak a little bit um I know and U Fred I don't know if this is for you or bethan um the presentation focused a lot on on rigor um which is obviously is very important however with proposed staff reductions can you just speak a little bit about um how we can maintain rigor while also uh facing these uh challenges of Staffing particularly when we are still hurting from last year with the amount of staff reductions we had so first I think that it's making sure that um we prioritize instruction but also making sure that we are dispelling um the myths or the old addage uh that we continue to hear um oh we have to do more with less wrong we have to do less with less and so when we have less resources we have to get very specific and tailored in our approach and that has to manifest at the local school level and so one of the strategies uh that we're going to be employing in order to support this is making sure that every school schedule protects teacher time so that they can look at data they can make instructional and informed decisions they can look at resources they can collaborate with their colleagues Educators need time in order to do their work and they shouldn't have to stay after school in order to do that we also want to make sure that we are providing uh data tools resources uh to them so that they're not having to go and search for the information which then occupies uh even more of their time we also want to make sure that we're moving away from cycles of evaluation and then really drilling down and making sure that our administrative teams and every building and all of our supervisors are really walking alongside our Educators in order to make sure that instructional Improvement is the area of focus we're not ignoring social emotional learning we're not ignoring uh School culture but there are two sides of the same coin and so culture is important but rigor and relevance and high expectations is equally important and so we want to make sure that we're changing the narrative and flipping that balance in addition to making sure that the curricular tools um are appropriate uh and useful to our Educators so that they're not having to continue to curate additional resources and so the more operational minutia we can remove from the plates of our Educators the more they can focus on the the kids in this community and so when we talk about rigor rigor is not a uh a a destination it's a continual Pursuit how do we make sure that the cognitive load or the level LEL of academic weight and work um is shared equally between the students and the staff and so that's that's what we're going to be shifting uh in this new iteration well absolutely I I agree that these are all important but if we if we physically have less people and you know the the same consistency of student enrollment you know how how are we I would just like to hear how we're how we're going to um bridge bridge that Gap you know because that's that's going to be a challenge specifically with numbers of reductions that we're looking at I mean I I believe I've answered the question I mean the the what's the what's the alternative to not have a rigorous environment and so I would think that um at the end of the day uh building internal capacity uh for our Educators to do their work um in the most streamlined way um is the is our course of action any other budget questions from the board I just had a quick question onor enrollment um I know you mentioned that we have an additional 72 kids coming in for PK which is awesome um and I think our Universal is 300 you said right a couple times 300 is our Universal pre that's our number um how closer we did that 300 I guess as my first question the second question is do we have any idea like if there are any students that are going to be leaving the district come June that's going to impact our potentially impact our numbers for now next year well the good news is the one thing Trenton doesn't do is so preschool is funded through a preschool Grant they don't take the money back if the kids don't show up so um so that's a good thing so we're still going to get the funding you know yeah exactly um with our three additional class rooms which is fantastic um as far as what the universe is going to be that changes literally every single year cuz all Trenton does is they look at I think it's grade one and then like they double it and they say that's how many preschool we think you're going to have it's really not very scientific but it does change every single year but I would put us at the high twos low threes because we've always kind of hovered right around there in terms of like enrollment for next year do we have any idea on how that's going to impact our numbers like regular enrollment I don't know I'll know better um it's hard to say I'll know better in September we start we start counting enrollment but usually um preschool and kindergarten enrollment that's being done right now and then usually we see a Mad Dash to the to enrollment in like August so September board meeting October board meeting um on Freds enrollments you'll you'll start to see kind of like what our actual numbers are looking like okay um thank you everyone for um we hope that some of that was a bit more clarifying for for everyone listening um we wanted to shift now um to the the other topic that we wanted to cover during Committee of the whole um while the board can't engage in public discussion about the racial bias incidents that um have occurred at the high school we believe that it is important that uh as a board we um discuss ask questions that are more aligned with our role in in the district which involve more systems and structures and policy um so we we wanted to take some time to to talk about that part of it um because that that is more of uh what we are we have control over and are able to focus on um so Dr McDow if you could talk to us a little bit about the the systems and structures that we first of all I wanted to start off by saying I don't think any of us up here are under the impression that these issues could be solved quickly um uh we've been doing this work uh for a long time now and to to dismantle uh structural racism in a school system is not something that can happen overnight and or even in a year um but if you could talk a bit about what systems we have been uh putting into place already um and what extra things we are we are looking to add to try to um to support that work as well as most important ly as we are trying to dismantle these systems how are we supporting the students that are currently in our schools being affected by these issues so kind of a two-pronged question for you okay um so first and foremost I'm going to paraphrase uh some of the information that we have shared because I think that it's extremely important uh for us to First acknowledge this is not exclusively a school district problem this is a community issue that we need to acknowledge we need to deal with uh acknowledgement is the first step to coming to uh uh to a solution and so uh for the first time um in in a significant period the buau the police department the Board of Education and the school district uh came together to really talk about this uh this core um institutional historical and multigenerational problem in Collingswood and so as Community leaders it is important that we acknowledge the hurt the pain and fear associated with the allegations but also recognize the impact that it has on our residents adults and children uh and so we also want to make sure that we are being crystal clear that there is a strong commitment to focus on first healing but also building off of uh work that we have done and will continue to do and invest in in order to create a more inclusive and understanding community and so this process is going to be long and arduous but it requires s honesty openness empathy and courage uh in order to make meaningful progress and so Collingswood just like many communities unfortunately are not immune to the harmful effects of structural racism we encourage parents community members to talk to their children their friends their neighbors about racism about biases in multiple forms and the profound effect that it has on all of us this is not a black and issue this is a community issue this is a national issue this is something that we're going to have to deal with as a civilized society and so in the up in the upcoming weeks we're going to make a few Investments but I want to talk very quickly about some of the things that we've done re we recognized that there were some systemic challenges last school year when students exercised their voice in peaceful protest over the disproportionality and the mistreatment uh that they uh uh uh reported happening as it relates with our code of conduct students were outside they were sharing their voice because there were no formal mechanisms last year for them to report uh incidents we immediately corrected that based on Direct feedback from community members as well as our students and then we brought in outside legal council in order to do the investigations that were submitted last school year and then we also surveyed faculty and staff in order to get a sense of the knowledge the beliefs um and systems of support in place so that we could begin making strategic Investments among faculty and staff and so that birthed a partnership with a toz uh Equity consulting which is a uh consulting firm uh housed with the cas Center at Rowan University and led by uh some of the uh professors that have been engaged in that important work for the last 25 to 30 years and we started looking at uh how do we begin to address meaningful change and we identified it starts with policy uh people and then practice and so at at first we had to go to the board because it starts at the top and so the board last school year developed and approved an anti-racism uh policy that becomes the foundational document for all of our future work that was approved last school year focused off of that work was the partnership with a toz equity Consulting because based on the survey data that we got from our faculty and staff there were resources there was learning that need to take place uh and we wanted to make sure that we were creating a space for folks to not ignore the tension but to uh productively learn grow have additional resources additional language and then have an opportunity to process with experts and so we were able to take 250 of our faculty and staff that were certificated through four uh modules or units of study in equity foundation and they had the opportunity to unpack with uh professionals that's the first step making sure that we have common language on all of our campuses about this important subject area often we don't know what we don't know and it's important for us to continue to learn so as an educational institution we all have to be Learners and so the next phase was to establish how are we going to continue building capacity on our campuses and so we first established a secondary Equity Council of Educators um to be able to lead this important work at the middle of the high school and then we added uh that next step of Elementary and so we know that meaningful change does not always happen from the top down but it happens from the middle out and so we know that we need to have Educators across every campus that are leading these really important discussions and helping us to make better decisions that affect each campus and so paired uh with that level of work we will continue with that work because we knew that we were not able to get to all of our faculty and all of our staff specifically our instructional assistance which accounts for roughly 120 Educators that work in and out of our schools and so we know that there are still uh groups of staff that need this critical work and this in its additional support and so we'll be making that available to folks we'll also be providing targeted professional development and ongoing support with opportunities for campus-based leadership with our Equity councils at the elementary and the secondary level um in addition to making restorative justice training available to more staff during their workday also looking at what additional bias training is available and making sure that we have a crystalle clear lens uh of what uh is and is not acceptable uh to be able to show dignity and respect to all of the members within our community paired with our partnership with the bureau um and the community in the upcoming weeks we know that it's important to provide additional resources and focus on deeper Community engagement and so we will be working with the uh New Jersey Division of civil rights in order to provide uh public organizing workshops in Collingswood to do a deep dive into anti-bias Topics in addition to making sure that we are developing practical strategies of the prevention of bias harassment and discrimination these will be hosted by The Bureau uh with sessions beginning on May 21st and uh at the senior community center and on June 4th at the Perkins Center for the Arts additionally um when you talk about restorative justice uh the first stage of restorative justice is um community building the second second stage is response to harm and so on May 16th at 7:00 uh the school district uh as well as the Collingswood Community Dei committee will host a panel discussion entitled amplifying black voices this will provide an opportunity to hear directly from Collingswood residents of color um and so moreover this continued collaboration will also include the development of a community website which we will be launching uh in the in the upcoming weeks early in May which will have additional resources upcoming and ongoing events and then updates about how we're going to cultivate a culture of inclusivity while we all work collaboratively as a as a community to combat structural racism um in addition to uh we are making available uh the New Jersey bias crimes hotline um we'll be posting all of that information as well in addition to how students um or parents can report harassment intimidation and bullying incidents on the homepage of our district website and so there are two areas where uh students have direct access uh to report um uh incidents uh one would be anything that they believe uh uh constitutes an affirmative action claim and then also uh any student that believes that they are experiencing um uh incident of harassment intimidation or bullying and so this is a long road we're talking about the long game we're not talking about silver bullets or quick wins or Simple Solutions we're talking about complex challenges within our community and we do not have all of the answers today um but we do believe that through Collective effort and shared responsibility we can dismantle the systemic barriers um to create a more Equitable system where all uh within our community have a sense of belonging um thank you for that can you um I thought I had remembered hearing this uh in a meeting or maybe a committee meeting that we had had is something one of the things that Dr Zion is going to to work with us that's the a toz coaching um is is a student voice piece to help Elevate um or give them a space to to kind of unpack these issues themselves so we started when we went down this road we knew that uh we needed a multi-tier multi CT approach uh to the dismantling of some of these systemic barriers to the the young people and community members and so we knew that we needed to start at the board level and so we brought in outside uh Consultants to provide targeted professional development to the board and we began engaging in this work at the board level parallel to that we've been having ongoing discussions and training at the district level among school and District administrators pair that with the professional development for the staff that also speaks to the people piece and so the board is responsible for the development of policy the district was responsible for the development of people but there was a group that was missing in a lot of that work and we want to make sure that we are addressing that and that's how do we bring students into the discussion and provide opportunities for students to lead uh on their campus specifically because they are the recipients of everything they were trying to put in place and so we will be leveraging our Partnerships with a toz we'll also be leveraging some of their Partnerships and our focus is how do we Elevate student voice so that students are able to dig deeper into these challenging topics and also be integral in the development of solutions that we will then also Implement on our campuses uh and so we'll be working with some of the student leadership groups on campus uh to begin that extremely important work uh in the near near future sorry sir you have to wait for public comment I'm sorry we just have a certain structure we have to follow that's all have a certain structure we have to follow for so the all public comment there's just a specific structure we have to follow so we have to have our conversation and then there's a section for public comment um so I'm I'm thinking back to uh I think before I uh first joined this board I had a chance of talking to um some School District Personnel who talked about how students um especially students of colover especially black students in the district have not in the past been very uh say active or involved in in a lot of uh outside of school like extracurricular type of activities and and the these District employees are saying hey that that's kind of a sign of disengagement and trying to figure out how to solve that and then looking at some of the news reports recently that were specifically citing student voices you know I felt uh when I was reading it I was hearing hey like these are students who are saying that they're not sure that their voices would be heard even if they spoke up right so again still that idea of you know of disengagement because you know potentially these students don't feel that they belong um I asked that because you know I wonder one we can have these student voice pieces which I think are really important but you know folks also need to feel as if if that piece is worth it right and I say folks I mean students I wonder like what is being done kind of in the in the interum to uh address this feeling of not not belonging that these students are are are bringing up I I mean one thing one question specifically for example with the uh Revelation about the white Student Union group at the high school I mean has there been assembly led by by staff and admin uh to address that with with the students you know things like that like what are some of the ways that that uh uh we've been working to help all students feel um valued and and and heard in the district so the high school will be working to be able to um address that core component um so I'm not making an excuse but I also need to to we need to put it in its um appropriate perspective and so for example starting tomorrow um students are engaged in state level testing and so uh we'll be moving uh there and so I think that uh there is not a an avoidance of the topic I do believe I've met with the uh leadership at both the middle school and the high school um they're looking for um the appropriateness and the timing to begin addressing some of these but they have already engaged some of the student leaders on campus we have several student groups that are currently operating on campus uh and now is is the time to be able to leverage student expertise uh and so I can share uh that the administration is is is looking at how do we more effectively partner so that we Elevate those voices I'm glad that you just said that because my my comment was just going to be I have an enormous amount of respect and uh faith in our district leadership in terms of the building admins and I I want to make sure that we are not stepping on their toes and and trying to solve this problem for them because I think they know what they're doing and I think a lot of the staff in the buildings know what they're doing I think we just need to make sure we're supporting them and guiding getting behind them and what they need I I'll just I do just want to comment to make sure that like um regardless in the end right our our focus should be on on making sure that that um all of our kids needs are are met right and so uh whatever we need to do I I think I'm in support of that oh I was just going to say I I have two questions and just kind of to piggyback on this comment I think it's well I do value the importance in reaching out to student leaders I do think that going back to what Roger's point about hearing from all students is incredibly important especially if we have an engagement issue and I know everyone is like fatigued from surveys but there are a number of services that South stury schools have used including sense of belonging surveys that can be distributed effectively if all students are in testing mode already I don't know why if they're already on laptops this is a great opportunity to collect data both anecdotal and quantitative and I I do believe that that our faculty and staff are doing an excellent job but I do believe that there is a massive problem with how some of these problems are being articulated and how those problems are being articulated to the top level if this is if this is where we are where there is a a um a group that is founded as a supremacist group then they think that there has to be a larger um catchall than just addressing student leaders and hearing from a white base of students and that was my first uh comment more than anything um I'm interested in what you said about these Equity councils I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit more about their how they're compos are they teachers are they staff um what kind of their function is do they have goals and how they are being mobilized especially right now because I do think that there is a sense of urgency at the second so we're not denying that there's a sense of urgency but I also need to make sure that we are tempering expectations and so uh the equity councils are going through uh targeted training um targeted support from the uh consultancy group uh they are in the process of establishing their goals um and so we should expect to receive those very very soon and so I think that um when challenges come we're looking for an immediate response um we've tried an immediate response and we have failed miserably year-over-year and so because it has often been reactive and so there is a Cadence to how change happens and we're trying to be mindful and so the professionals that we've brought in in order to help mentor and support staff are helping us think through that we're trying to escalate the timeline given this particular circumstance um but these are these are very complex issues and so I also want to make sure that I'm being um uh very clear and so the alleged group um no matter uh uh our personal opinions um we are a a place of of learning um and what we experience were um mistakes have been made uh by young people on campus and so but the level of organization that um some of our uh media Outlets have characterized um is simply not true and so I just want to make sure that uh we don't continue to fill in the blanks with our own um uh additives to this scenario um now we are not condoning um any level of behavior of this kind but I also need for us to be very mindful that uh we are a place of learning and young people will as they always have make mistakes and so we want to make sure that from a learning perspective uh we're not just uh addressing those who have done harm uh but but we also want to make sure that we're addressing those who have been the recipients of said harm and this is going to require a level of expertise that we do not currently have the internal capacity to do on our own and so we've brought in outside professionals and continue to bring in different partners uh in order to be able to address these very quickly uh but we don't have all of the answers today I just really want to stress that I just thinking about what you just said that I feel like as a district we have tended to focus more on those that have done harm and not those that were harmed and I think I really want us to as quickly and responsibly as possible ensure that we are meeting the needs of the students who have been harmed um because that is what I think we have failed miserably at year after year I'd also like to jump in and you know uh talking about the the alleged group and and so forth that is concerning right that that that group existed I think for me equally or even more concerning is is reports of of frankly casual racism right like uh comments made and passing uh throughout the day uh uh to students of color and you know I don't know that frankly I don't know that I have a a question for you more of just that for me that that seems just as if not even more concerning than you know one group right because I think a group it's easy to highlight and and say and then address the the basis basic level of of how we interact with each other though is I think much harder to address and and something that is going to take time and and I think this board is definitely um behind working ports I I completely agree and so I think that it's it's extremely important that um when students come to us and say that they are experiencing something I believe it's incumbent that we believe them um and so uh I think that but also we do our students are disservice by not including them in the development of solutions that affect their day-to-day and so for the the the record and and just to make sure that we are all crystal clear uh the types of behavior that has been alleged albe it casual or not is unacceptable behavior um in any measure and so we do not believe that discrimination bias disrespect or harassment of any kind is acceptable in our schools uh and so we're going to continue to root out uh those behaviors uh and then figure out what's the pathway forward uh specifically through the lens of the young people um who have been harmed so want to again just point out and thank uh thank you for for are leading this conversation it is an incredibly difficult topic but I think it's important that us at the board level are having this out in public and wrestling with just how difficult and complex this is and the the points that you've made about this not being short-term fixes um I think we've we've gotten some good presentations uh even just this year and in the past from school leaders about the um culture plans that are happening in buildings and I think a push to have more of the the direct work that we're seeing that is aligned to our push to be an anti-racist school district and how um they're taking that on in a building level um and how we can be using policy to help them to to do that uh I think that that's helpful for us at the board to understand what their goals are going into the year and then to help check on progress to make sure that we don't get to A Moment Like This Again in the spring where we're having to be reactive to this and then asking us having to ask questions about what's happening there and not being able to say here's what we know has been happening um to that point um also really appreciate the conversation we're all having um and I think in light of the idea of of really focusing on prevention and being proactive um another thing I think the board would very much be behind and maybe we'd like to hear a little bit more about is you know we know as you've said repeatedly and I think is is important to reiterate is that this is slow right slow work there are things that have to happen now but there's a lot more that's that's slow and so I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about your thinking around going a little further uh I don't know if it's up or Downstream but thinking about this work in elementary schools in our district Middle School most certainly um and just thinking about you know yes this is showing its face mostly in the high school but what can we be doing earlier on in students academic careers um in our district we're a small District right so how can we maybe put some systems into place uh that would get students talking about these issues earlier Kate can I jump on that real quick and say I think that um the ptas I've talked to a lot of the ptas in town and heard from them and we would be on board with helping with that as well so extremely important uh uh question and topic and I think that um having a conversation about about uh prevention without addressing some of the structural barriers that are preventing some of those authentic conversations to happen uh is part and parcel for and and I'm not giving a PSA I'm just referencing uh is part and parcel for some of the reasons behind the all-in for Collingswood and so when we talk about what are some of the structural barriers that are preventing young people from coming together in a meaningful way uh that really starts with the configuration of our schools one um opportunities for students to to come together in a constructive way too uh and then how do we appropriately make sure that every single campus mirrors the diversity within our school Community three and so when we talk about bringing young people together sooner rather than later yes starting to have these discussions when children are seven or eight is better than when they're 17 or 18 um there is a much uh higher degree of positive change that can come and so I I think that uh we will be taking our uh our schools and our ptas up on their offer uh to begin engaging in this important work um I would like to just give a quick shout out um we had challenges one of our elementary schools and the PTA uh was integral in engaging their specific School Community this year uh in some of those challenging conversations uh and so I think that we know that it can happen um um but it will require a a much greater degree of coordination um and attention in order for us to start having these discussions sooner rather than later um actually on that topic so uh something I was thinking of I appreciate that you know starting fall of 2027 the hope is to as you said to have the U elementary schools through the referendum mirror the diversity of our community as a board and um you know District leadership isn't that something that we can do now I mean do we have to wait till 2027 I know in years past there were uh moves at the board level to take a look at mapping in the town where students go we know that they don't always get to go to the school right around the corner because you know maybe it's full or you know there might be other considerations is that something in terms of helping our elementary schools to mirror some that diversity is that work that that as a board we can we can start doing now we can start doing the fall well so I I I think that it's it's not because if it were um we would have already done that and so I think that um when we look at the structural barriers that currently are preventing us from doing some of these things that's that's the reason why we're coming to the community with the a comprehensive proposal to begin addressing some of that important work and so I think that um the types of uh uh uh change that are needed really requires a degree of flexibility in facilities that we currently do not have and so hence the reason why we've been engaged in this topic of discussion within our community around Community investment um to begin moving in a direction that adds a layer of flexibility as it relates with the buildings um and then provides us opportunities to begin engaging in what it could look like in terms of how the uh uh schools mirror our community believe me I I understand that I'm I just remember when my kids were going to elementary school you know we were we were told that you know we're not guaranteed any one particular building and there needs to be some flexibility I just wondered if if in small incremental steps would it be possible to begin some of that work with the hopes that it could be a more um immersive process later after the uh the fac the facili um referendum is passed I think we've done that to to the extent that we can without um a a full upheaval um we have in when I started on the board the entire Park viw complex was sent to Sharp they were in fact one of the only um uh places on this side of the White Horse Pike that was sent to Sharp everyone else had been positioned to go to different schools for reasons that everyone can figure out on their own why it was only being sent to one school um in the the years since then we have switched things um so that not every there's four buildings there uh two of them are sent to zann because the walk is um much closer for them and I believe two are still to Sharp so that that is a fairly substantial population of people that are not now all being sent to the same school I would say beyond that I think we would I mean we could we could propose it I'm I think I'm not sure how happy the the town would be with us we did um to to be clear ahead uh to to be clear um all uh students at Park viw uh attend all Five Element schools yes yes I'm sorry and in in addition to that you know one of the structural pieces for example that that that drd I think is talking about is um for example e our English learner program right is currently uh at Garfield right and one of the pieces of having a bunch of different buildings is that um uh it takes up a lot of resources to staff a bunch of different buildings so if our El program is in one building that automatically uh uh creates an issue in terms of trying to balance percentages right so structurally there there's a lot of underlying uh facilities issues that need to be addressed in order for uh there to be a chance of of better balancing I think demographics in in the district just again uh the Ada stuff right like again if you can only send your uh students who need sorry CH is untied but if you only uh can send uh students who uh have accessibility issues to one building then again there's a a challenge to how to balance out demographics within the district um and so those are some of the structural pieces that yes we can try to address those but without actually addressing structural underlying issues we'll always be uh playing with the a stacked deck thank you for correcting me I I was thinking more when when for kindergarten enrollment with Parkview but you're absolutely right that they go they go to all FIV uh anyone else before you go ahead yeah um so back to the the um the recent instance so for me personally when when I heard about the the recent instance at the high school and also read some of the uh pieces reporting on on um specifically uh minority student experiences at the the high school I I'll be I'll be frank it it in the in the grand scheme of things like I realized that I was not initially shot because of my experience as a person of color growing up in America myself um but re realizing that that I wasn't initially shocked I then had this question which was were we as a district shocked right like is it was this the first that we have heard of these issues have these type of issues the whether it be potential for a group or um the daytoday uh uh uh microaggressions and racism that that might be happening between uh during student interactions for example um have those issues been elevated to the district by say the teachers and staff by the Admin by by students or or did this catch us off guard so the um activities or or lack thereof of um of the alleged student group um caught caught us caught us off guard that was not something that we had anticipated or planned for what I will say what was planned for was based on Direct feedback from the student leaders last year during the protests um were microaggressions disproportionate Behavior Uh inconsistencies in terms of the code of conduct um which then translated into the development of the uh uh Dei action items and the partners ship for foundational professional development and coaching with a toz equity uh the Equity Group uh based on uh those core pieces in addition to expanding uh with the equity councils and so a lot all of those core pieces originally uh manifested based on Direct feedback from roughly 21 students that were the spokespersons um for uh the protest last school year and so a lot of this work has been a continuation of that but then also uh going back to our school leaders and identifying where are the needs where what were the resources um in order to be able to begin addressing some of these core pieces and where is the flexibility for them to be able to do some of these things on campus um and then holding ourselves accountable for actually engaging in that work and so in terms of uh as a uh black man from the segreg South was I shocked no um was I disappointed that some of our uh students and some of the children in this community um were being harmed absolutely I'm a father of two uh small children my children are afro Latino which means they represent multiple cultures and so what I would say is is that uh any child in this community um that uh believes that they are not wanted or that uh can not be themselves regardless uh race color creed whatever um we have a problem that we need to deal with and so I think that part of our Collective responsibility is to identify what the issues are and then put meaningful long-term Solutions so that we're not caught in the Doom Loop of the start and stop and so one of the things I think that it's important for us to acknowledge is is that systemic racism in Collingswood is not a last year problem it's a 150e problem now we have made progress in the last 150 years we've made progress in the last 45 years uh especially given I had a conversation with one of the first black families to move into Collingswood last week as a result of this um they are going to be uh uh lending their expertise on the May 16th conversation um but to hear her experience uh from where we were 45 years ago would break your heart because that's not the place that we know and love today um but it didn't shock me then um the situations that have happened over the last several years since I have been here as superintendent albeit disappointing does not dissuade us from our mission which is to make sure that this is a fair and Equitable place where all young people feel that they can be successful in where they belong but it's A Hard Road and we're going to have flareups we're going to have uh uh uh uh setbacks uh and so when we make progress there is a um uh there's always a potential uh for um us to fall back into bad habits and what we're trying to do is we're trying to slowly move to a place where we don't continue to have the start and stops and we definitely don't sweep things under the rug and that has been our history oh I just want I just wanted to reiterate I'm and you kind of covered it I think that I think you made this point earlier this idea of this you know frustratingly slow process but in a spirit of being proactive rather than reactive is really important um and just to reiterate I I'd really I really am interested in this idea of the equity councils their composition and their goals and I feel like this is a great me teachers are boots on the ground um you know maybe to alleviate some of that urgency at the central admin office like I'd really like to see how you know how they can be mobilized to support our students at all grade levels um because I think going to Roger's point about it's not just one larger event but uh a cultural thing that needs to be addressed um so I just I I would hope to see some goals from them in the coming meetings so the configuration of the equity council's Elementary and secondary are uh school-based uh staff teachers administrators um instructional assistants um where wherever appropriate um our Educators um have an integral role in leading the change efforts on each of the campuses so this level of work is hard work but it's also heart work and it can't be mandated and so it has to be it has to manifest authentic authentically on campus and the individuals that are closest to the challenge are better position to identify the solutions and so yes Sarah we will be waiting for the goals the uh uh uh the objectives that they would like to accomplish uh through the equity councils um but it really is at the at the at the school-based level and then the responsibility of the school district is to make sure that the resources um and the flexibility is there for them to be able to do this important work can I end with or I don't know if end but uh one more question which is um what can what can we do as a board well I know the the code of conduct work is one of the big things um because I know that our District administration has also asked for for some more clarity and more um for their ability to be able to more consistently enforce it based on um on uh the reintroduction of of uh restorative practices and things like that and so so kind of aligning it more with the 2024 um uh way of thinking um is one piece of it um but Dr McDow I'll turn it over for to you for anything else one of the board's primary functions is to continue to communicate um our mission our vision and our values but also the the the the second piece is uh for us to aggressively tackle uh policy that leads to a better future um for the young people and the families that we serve and so the board um first started with the anti-racism policy uh code of conduct is next code of conduct begins to address disproportionality um code of conduct does not address the systemic cultural challenges on campus and so uh we're going to need to do much deeper dives into are there policies or practices that we need to dismantle that are preventing um folks from really being able to come together in a meaningful way uh and um and H and how do we do that in the best possible Manner and so we do have policies that talk about um equality in education we do have policies that talk about affirmative action I don't think that we can stop there and so I think that um this is the unfortunate beginning of a much longer conversation that includes policy practices and then more specifically resources at the school level because our Educators they can't do this work by themselves I actually think that's a great thing to to end on um just being mindful of time as well that um thank you to everyone for the conversation this hasn't been our first Committee of the whole discussion this topic and it absolutely won't be our last and I think that's one of the um the the important things that we as a board can do is ensure that um this is not swept under the rug this is not uh something that you know this an incident popped up and then we don't you know talk about these these systemic issues again um I don't think that's the way this board would function anyway um but um we have a lot of work to do and and more discussions to come um with that uh can I get a motion to to exit Committee of the whole so moved and a second second all in favor uh so we went through all of our presentations we're on Section Five which is I which is future dates and miscellaneous information just wanted to draw your attention to the May 7th special board meeting at 6:30 back here there are a variety of um Awards nights and concerts and PTA events so so please keep all of those in mind um section six routine board business I I need a motion to approve the minutes of the March 19th 2024 regular board meeting the March 26th special board meeting the April 9th 2024 and the April 19th 2024 special referendum meetings motion to approve all of those meetings and second second uh roll call all all in favor um we are going to move uh Trey's uh student report presentation from section nine up so that he can um tell us what the students have been up to before we move on to public comment well the uh the winter sports season has concluded and the spring season is also wrapping up around this time among our spring sports teams this year was the new addition of a trial girls flag football team which has in its short life already gotten a couple of wins uh the spring theatrical events have also concluded with two shows of for Brad by night in which students perform songs from various musicals and a cabar style on the subject of the Arts the district will host its annual art Awards this May 16th to honor the artistic achievements of our students the American leg of the German exchange program wrapped up in May and what we hope was a culturally educational enriching time for our German guests who will themselves host some host some of our students this Jun our secondary language C uh our secondary campus language programs recently honored High achieving upper classmen by inducting them into their respective honor societies at the same event our teachers highlighted the seniors who were certified by literate and English English and Spanish and will therefore have the Seal of by literacy on their diplomas thank you very much um and that is an incredible achievement for those students um okay uh moving on to section 7 this is our first opportunity for public comment the purpose for this public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda additional more General comments may be made later in the meeting the public is reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through appropriate staff members and administrators the intent of public comment is to give the community the opportunity to provide feedback to the board we will be actively listening and taking notes so that we can take all that is being said into consideration if appropriate clarifying comments may be made at the end of the public comment section for more detailed responses to concerns communication may go out later in the week by the appropriate staff members or administrators or be discussed by the board during future committee meetings members of the public are welcomed to speak and expected to do so with the utmost sensitivity to everyone in attendance In fairness to all who wish to speak there is a strict 3 minute time limit that uh Miss Coleman is getting her uh timer ready for we will let you know when there's about 30 seconds left please remember to state your name and address for the record can you hear me is it on okay my name is Kevin Jones I'm a 17-year-old student here at kwood high school the president of the black student Union and the political action committee shair for the NAACP cam County East youth Council for those of you who don't know what the NAACP is it stands for the National Association for the advancement of color people greetings to the members of school board and superintendent to the superintendent and Schoolboard president I POS these questions are you going to communicate to the public the current amount and future for Dei initiatives with Kong High School the specific amount for this year or next year should be communicated to the public it should be also be known that will be communicated to the public and when the funding will go into effect who are the students representative on the Schoolboard di committee how does one get nominated when will the members of the school board and the superintendent meet with students at congresswood high school when will be able to hear our voices heard at a scheduled meeting to discuss our concerns the point of the statement tonight is students are most impacted our input should be valued the most on behalf of the black student union NCP I would like to say when you guys I would like to reach um when you guys talked about student organizations the NAACP is an out out of school organization um we are the youth Council this is our president our membership chair and our um vice president I'm sorry as for I am the political action committee chair recently you guys you know saw the article and stuff it's very just heartbreaking as a black student union as a black student at kwood things are kind of I'm kind of immune to it it shouldn't be that way um it's very hard you know walking around school fearing for my safety never KN what could happen we this is the second time you know things the the same thing has happened again so when is the school board the president the the superintendent is going to step in to help to move us forward to have all students when does the diversity comes in when does black students have their representation as a black male living going to col with high school it's very hard dealing with stress my safety no diversity so I want each of you guys before you leave here tonight figure a way for the for you guys to improve to help us to move us forward to do everything you can just imagine if you were a black male or a black student going to collinswood how you guys would feel it hurts so as I close my room marks can you guys please please help us move forward thank [Applause] you you can all talk individually so Kevin already spoke but if you one of you wanted to speak you can oh you do you want to give us the questions is it so we we will find a time to to meet with you and get back to you we can't we're not doing the the back and forth right now but thank you and if you could email us the questions that would be even better thank you [Applause] hi everybody I'm Brenda Borowski I live on Harvard Avenue here in Collingswood um I'd like to thank the students who spoke before me and invite them to come to every Board of Education meeting please that was great okay so um I am here to speak to the issue of racism that was addressed in this meeting on April 9th the NJ pen news Outlet broke the story of students at this High School organizing a white Student Union this news drove an icy fear straight through my heart as I am sure that it did through the hearts of many parents of black children in the school district a white student union is the stuff of my actual nightmares I'm absolutely appalled I'm disgusted and since the story broke I felt a mixture of Rage disbelief and most often heartbreak first I'm heartbroken for the perpetrators the article reported that they first formed the group as an ironic response to the school's black student union obviously these white students have not been educated on the importance of black student unions and why black student unions exist BSU exist to comfort and nourish the black identity and give black students an opportunity to gather and celebrate celebrate Black Culture in a society that does not always Comfort nourish and celebrate Blackness someone failed to educate these students on the ways in which this country has oppressed black people for centuries and the very reason that BSU are necessary forming a group with the name white Student Union isn't ironic it's hateful and the adults around these white children have failed to educ educate them on racism most of all I'm heartbroken for the victims in this situation who are the students of color in Collingswood High School put simply they are in danger the perpetrators used racial slurs and threaten violence these acts are threats to mental and physical health and are not to be taken lightly this is the part of racism that I naively thought we had left behind us the part where racists say the racist words out loud I thought we had driven racist into the Shadows but no they are out loud and in the open possibly even immortalizing the white Student Union in the Collingswood High School yearbook yearbooks are places for jokes and a white student union is not a joke it is a racist attack our students of color are being actively traumatized and Collings old high school is unsafe I asking the Board of Education to apply apply pressure to the school system to address this situation I think I'm running out of time so I'm skipping ahead furthermore I urge the board to seek out any presence in the system of the sentiment that all lives matter because all lives cannot matter until black lives matter to suggest otherwise is like saying to a firefighter who is actively fighting a house fire wait all houses matter because no no they don't at that moment in time the burning house is the one that matters and when students in this District think that a white student union is ironic or a joke then the school system is on fire as James Baldwin wrote not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced thank you um hi my name is Megan desmat I live at 220 Woodland Terrace and my son George is a first grader at Tatum um and I also want to talk about the recent racist acts that have been happening at the high school but of course they've been ongoing um I do really appreciate the amount of time and and cander that this group spent talking about this but it is not enough um I personally don't have the grace and I don't think the black and brown students any of us in this town should have the grace to just excuse these as mistakes um our black and brown students don't have the luxury our high school is not a safe place for them and we need to do more um the fact that again the fact that a white supremacist hate group formed at our high school and a handful of students were maybe officially sanctioned and punished as being officially participating it but we all know we all were in high school those kinds of secrets are never Secrets other people knew and I'm not just talking about the students I'm talking about the adults in the building and outside of the building these kinds of things can't be secret we need to do more our school is not safe for black and brown students um and I know that it's not going to be a quick and simple fix um but I'm hearing again just what I have a first grader but what I'm hearing from my friends who have kids in the high school or what they're hearing from their friends this is what high school kids are telling their parents the perception in the high school from everybody I know who has students in the high school is that they got a slap on the wrist they're back at school they're participating in activities they're receiving awards they're making racist jokes again at school and it is not a safe environment for a black and brown students and we all and I am want to be part of the solution but we need every single person in this room in this town in all of our school buildings and in our community to do more thank [Applause] you Wayne Rossy 114 East Palmera um I've come to this uh board every single meeting for more than a year now uh calling for racial Justice and I am absolutely heartbroken to see in the news racial t at the high school uh literally to see my spouse on the news talking about uh this incident at the high school um I know that kids do not feel safe I believe that we are failing almost half of our high school students of color I feel we're also failing the white kids if this is going on I feel like there is there remains and this kind of thing happens when there is a culture of impunity around it if kids feel like they can say slurs if kids feel like they can start a white student union and these are kids who are celebrated that is a culture of impunity and that is a problem that needs to be rooted out we need everyone on this we need administrators teachers students and parents in on this and it needs to change now and yesterday uh no one should have a pass and no one should be allowed to opt out of this um we need to create a community that is going to embrace all of our students and accept diversity I'm glad to hear us talking about restorative justice I think that act of bringing students into a community and really trying to do the hard work of repairing the harms that are done has to be something that we do in this school I also think that students of color need people who in the staff who look like them and who they can trust I think we really need to rethink everything uh every teacher needs to be an administrator needs to be a model of active anti-racism and all of them should be able to speak openly about race and one of the ways of helping with that is things like Affinity groups to help uh hold people responsible um we need to make sure that we're uh acknowledging the harms of racism listening to students of color interrogating bias and changing how we approach discipline we need to be honest about what Collingswood is that severe racial inequalities exist in this community in our state and we have de facto reg residential segregation which impacts our schools we need to celebrate the good but also acknowledge that there's a lot of work to be done I do think that the students who were part of the white Student Union group need to be held accountable to a higher level then there needs to be reparative work done if we're talking about restorative justice Justice uh we need to be honest about racism being systemic we do not just blame a few students on this uh we need everyone to fix it there's currently an overwhelmingly White staff and I am not interested in them feeling white guilt I want them to act as anti-racists and do the hard work of building a culture where every student feels respected and appreciated I think your policies have meant well and they clearly haven't G far enough so thank you [Applause] hi um Alysa Hawkman I'm at two Lakeshore Drive um I have a kindergartener Maya in our school system um I wanted to say just to start out that she was actually taught the N year nword this year by a white classmate of hers so I wholeheartedly agree that this is a districtwide and a systemic issue that needs to be grappled with and everyone needs to own that as the reality um I appreciate the emphasis of supporting those who were harmed by racist experiences at the high school um and part of supporting those who experienced harm is seeing meaningful accountability and change I understand that the people who were in The White student group working with them we might want to emphasize learning from their actions but we also need to be looking at who is handling said learning adults in the school system who are unwilling to do meaningful work around racial Justice and Equity should not not be working with our children adults who supported the white student union or knew about it and did nothing should not be teaching our children I choose to live in I chose to live in Collingswood specifically because it's a vibrant and diverse Community more and more parents are waking up and recognizing that dismantling racism in our schools is non-negotiable and are going to be expecting that of our staff I recognize that adults and particularly white adults have a lot of learning to do and those who are open to that learning are not the necessarily the issue and can be an excellent model to our young people about change and growth growth I personally am a psychologist and in my field you are not allowed to practice if you willingly hold a bias towards a group of people that you're not working on because of the harm that you can cause the people you serve School staff has have as much if not more access to and impact on our children you talked about Staffing and budget issues are we looking at coaching out staff who are not willing or capable to serve our diverse children and not cause harm to them are we prioritizing that staff we hire going forward are genuinely invested in this work that is an essential part of long-term change in the systemic issues we are facing thank you Leah Foreman 501 South Vineyard Boulevard I want to Echo Brenda and thank the black students for coming to speak tonight I see you and we're listening please come to every board meeting uh with that I'll get started um last year after the student walkouts I sat down with Dr mcdal at a parent advisory council meeting we spoke extensively about what had happened at the high school and he had a definitive plan for next steps which involved a commitment to Dei and adult learning he acknowledged that this plan as he did tonight was not a quick fix and would take time because racial Justice is a marathon not a Sprint I asked Dr mcdal at that meeting what are you going to do to prevent the white people in the building from causing more harm to black and brown students while you implement your plan and begin Dei training here we are a year later and things not only remain unchanged but they're worse the black and brown students do not feel safe in the building and the only people to blame are the white people who are actively digging their heels in and not participating in the work of UN ing racism I hear white people saying well I'm not racist I love everyone I'm colorblind and I'm here to tell you that ideology is both flawed and dangerous it's not enough to say I am not racist you must also understand that the systems were built to serve us and only us if you are not actively participating in changing them you are causing harm the product of the environment we created at the high school is the white Student Union it's the the students who are actively using the n-word to bully their black and brown peers it's the teachers and staff who have modeled that behavior for them by disparaging black and brown students daily in their classrooms without repercussions this is what happens when you are in a position of power and let racism go unchecked and when white people get to prioritize their comfort over the lives of black and brown students at the January board meeting I watched openly bigoted staff and community members stand up and dispair Dr MCB Dow the one person who is actively trying to solve our biggest systemic issues through his leadership at that meeting I heard the head of the teachers union openly thank and I quote gave their full Union support to an openly bigoted board member I've heard that the staff at the high school deliberately misgender students I've heard that students who face suspension for creating the white Student Union are being given Awards and allowed to fully participate in the community again that is not accountability they cannot be allowed back into the community without actually learning about the harm they caused their peers and then making amends it's abundantly clear by the behavior of the Union leadership staff are being shielded from accountability that stops today if you cannot do the bare minimum and treat students like human beings you do not have a place here I don't want the district to provide cover to bigots anymore it's time the time for adult accountability is over and now it's time for action I'm no longer willing to sit by and allow this to continue I'm asking for sweeping accountability today thank you Miss [Applause] Foreman some QB members really bringing the heat uh Dr Mark brace off uh Garfield parent thank you Garfield um Professor education love this place love this community um I'm not going to go into all the reasons why we should do the change because I think people have really done that tonight already um I just want to sort of pull a tease out Dr mcdow's um comment about it needs to manifest the change needs to manifest from the schools um I I really truly believe that teachers and faculty are the stewards of the school um administrators go board members go but the truly tenure and faculty and teachers they stick around so it's really important uh that those people um those community members engage in the change and really really want to do the work so I have some questions for uh teacher leadership and of course the board and administration I've also um passed out some of those questions and there's two sets of standards in there that might be of support the first one is uh cultural responsive and sustaining educator competencies so that's the second one in which the Pennsylvania Department of Education is now adopted in which all teacher education programs teacher induction programs punishable uh um leadership programs they have to do and to learn how to be responsive to their students this is now required in Pennsylvania the first set of Standards is combating anti-black racism standards they are standards that are developed by a bunch of experts at Arcadia University in in terms of like what can a curriculum look like when it when it's responding to anti-racism okay here's my questions to teacher leadership what efforts have there been to include more non- eurocentric knowledge and values in the curriculum across most subjects if there have been efforts can all those outcomes be shared with the shared out with the community in a singular document for evaluation and assessment has there been ongoing professional learning experiences in dialogue about race and inclusion in the classroom and in the curriculum what has been those discreet topics if so where have teachers been asked to continuously reflect on systemic oppression can they Define it and the ways in which their own personal experiences relate and diverge from others how is that facilitated and when does it happen What history about the African-American civil rights movement post the assassination of Martin luk King Jr do student study what authors are taught in the core of the school's curriculum and how many of those are non Centric what knowledge do teachers have about cultures other than themselves can teachers Explain how and why white why a white student unit emerg in the history of how such belief and behaviors manifested and are maintained today in other words do they understand why the bad apples metaphor represents flawed analysis of the problem can they explain why all lives matters and is is an inappropriate response to Black lives matter do teachers know what microaggressions are do teachers know the difference between having a deficit perspective versus ASP perspective of students in their communities have students learn how to disrupt racially charged comments and behaviors of students and their colleagues do they know how to break white silence when racism emerges has the teacher Union Union released a statement regarding the most recently charged incident previous ones if so can they be rehar where do they stand on the development of a white Student Union where can Youth and adults have prolonged conversations about the school their aims and their ideas for school change how have their ideas been translated into action so thank Dr brass off cut you off thank [Applause] you hi I'm Rebecca finle 916 Park um I am not a parent of a high schooler I'm a parent of a second grader at Zayn North Elementary and I've already seen enough to know that we have to act there are black and brown children in this town who I have known since they were in preschool when this group of students entered Elementary School in Collingswood these kids who I knew to be bold and happy started to be exposed to racism one parent of a girl I knew to be extremely confident told me that her daughter had started telling her that she wished she had light skin so that she could fit in she felt left out being one of so few kids of color in her class another child I knew was teased multiple times for her natural hair and these were just the incidents that I heard about last Thursday evening at Zay North while the students watched a movie in the gym the PTA hosted breakout groups for parents to discuss the racism that Zay kids are experiencing and how we as parents can begin to address it not just as an emergency response but proactively the goal of this excellent initiative is for students to become upstanders to stand up to racism when they see it we can't prevent kids from encountering racist influences but we can teach our kids and ourselves to call it out and to become a barrier against white supremist culture thriving in our schools I've been thinking a lot about the preschool where I met these kids the majority of early education providers there and in this country are women of color I bring this up tonight to highlight that the environment that they provided for their students was safe and enriching something that this District needs to value and emulate we need to give these teachers and their skills the recognition the prioritization and very importantly the compensation they deserve I know that that Dr McDow is already working on this but we as a community need to create an environment that not only attracts and retains but values teachers of color this will require all of us to examine our personal bi to talk to our families and to demand change at our schools by calling out the racism that has been hurting our kids for far too long thank [Applause] you hi Holly capasso Harris 6 scarfield Avenue I have two kids at the high school um I wanted to thank Dr mcdal and this board because I've been watching you over the years provide thoughtful inclusive Progressive policies and that you've been championing and I've seen the backlash um I know it is much needed and it's not enough I've lived here for 20 years my kids have gone through the school system I know that although the incidents of racism that have occurred recently have been the most shocking there is racism and bias that's not new here we heard from many students last year that they don't feel welcome in the school they're treated differently in many ways we are seeing that play out now when there have been these shocking incidents of racism and not been taking seriously from where I sit it seems that the feelings of the white perpetrators are being prioritized over the safety and mental health of the black students at the school it seems to me that things are back to business as usual for these white students and that they are actually being celebrated and held up as leaders of the school these students are still competing in sports they're participating in extracurricular activities they're still receiving Awards it's unacceptable I'm here to ask for accountability and education I want both students and staff held accountable for their actions we've heard a lot about culture and climate these past few years and it is obvious that a big change is needed I'm asking you to keep pushing for that change please invest in Dei education and please hold accountable the staff who were not on board with working together to create a school district that works for all of our kids every kid in this district is my kid and right now we're failing them and we need to do better [Applause] um hi my name is Lori Burton I live at 315 Le Lane um I'm not a parent of a high schooler um an educator or de expert and I won't be nearly as eloquent as the brave students who spoke here this evening um but on this topic my children's elementary school thank you not nearly as tall as thank um but on this topic my children's elementary school Community is already tackling these incredibly heavy topics as we deal with incidents of racism rearing its ugly head and even our youngest classrooms based on the heartbreaking accounts from students of color it's clear that the culture at the high school is a crisis the environment is not safe for black and brown students and we cannot accept this status quo how can it be that there are students who feel they have no trusted adult to turn to that there's no hope for change we need to come together as a community to meet this Challenge from every angle from community and parent engagement conversations at home staff training restorative justice curriculum and student support the list is not short and the effort will not be small these issues have been going on for years and we need the entire School Community to be actively focused on anti-racism if we want to make meaningful progress as Dr McDow said none of us are immune to structural and systemic racism and I feel that this important work will not be accomplished by those who ignore tolerate at or excuse harmful racist Behavior who aren't willing to accept that there is a problem and name it who deflect responsibility without looking Inward and who get discouraged by the enormity of the work ahead and throw their hands up I'm encouraged to hear about the meaningful work that's already under way and I care deeply about doing my part I have great respect for the board and administration and I strongly urge you to continue to listen to students when they say that they don't feel safe or supported believe them when they describe racist harassment that occurs on a daily basis and largely without consequence then demand accountability and take bold action to remove the obstacles that stand in our way of creating a safe environment for all kids thank [Applause] you my name is steuart Campbell uh class of 98 23 Washington um I really want to thank you kids for coming out this issue was a big problem in the '90s and I wish that somebody had stood up I'm ashamed that I didn't so I just wanted to say the Prejudice has always been in this town it's right bubbling under the surface and although I've been confrontational with you guys at the referendum meetings I really want to applaud you because you're the first school board to even acknowledge that it exists um I'm hoping that you guys are also addressing the uh pretty much terrorizing of the Latino students the Asian students the LGBT students all the atrisk kids the girls who are being assaulted and nothing happens ever uh this is like a comprehensive issue that I know it's going to be slow but it's got to be addressed and I'm not well spoken so uh I noticed uh I don't know much about the budgeting but I noticed that on page 5 and 13 on line 29180 it says up to 17 families are going to be evicted from Parkview and I think that Parkview is the only assisted low-income housing in town other than Collingswood arms which is Rehabilitation um elderly it seems to me and I might be wrong that it unfairly affects the lowincome families and the Working Poor in town it seems like a loss of Revenue ultimately and I think it would make more sense to invest Less in some programs and invest more in affordable housing across the whole town and add Revenue that way and actually address the Dei issues in town the referendum integrates the school but the town stays segregated there's only one side of town that has low-income housing and it's scientifically proven when you have a mixed neighborhood people's Prejudice are lowered and it goes away and I don't know if this is an issue that I I don't know why it was listed in the budget uh if you guys are in control of that funding if the town is and I was wondering if like next time you guys could address like how that affects the budget who's in charge of that and what we can do to actually integrate the town you guys are doing it seems like a great plan in the school but then this hate group you can't address the parents who are teaching this thing to their children these families have been here since the 70s 80s 990s it's always the same thing so we're gonna as a community we're going to have to like change fundamentally [Applause] thanks this is low uh I'm Alexandra Guido 311 Lake View Drive my husband and I have two children in the collinswood school system we have a kindergarten student and we have a rising High School freshman I preface my comments by saying that my family has had experience with some Collingswood staff members who are actively committed toward creating an inclusive and anti-racist public school system and yet systematic racism persists I am proud to see our high school students here and I want them to see that their Community hears them and their community supports them I'm shocked the teachers union has not put out a statement in support of our students of color and a statement that condemns the white Student Union last year following the high school walkouts done by the students of color the community begged you to act the students told us of their experienced microaggressions and other acts of racism by staff members who are responsible for their care safety and education they played recordings and relayed conversations and in and incidents instigated by staff who were and some still are working within these buildings these children bravely stood up to tell their Collingswood family that they were not safe it was a sad and a brutal Reckoning for our community to understand that we had failed to cultivate a safe environment for our children of color and where are we now a year later a white Student Union ironic or not we have left our children in an environment overseen by some staff members who complain on the record about the required Dei training we've left our students in an environment where some staff widely and inappropriately complain to their students that the leader of our district is somehow untrustworthy and means to harm them we have left our children in an environment that we will no longer accept make no mistake whoever they are these staff do not belong in a place of Authority or responsibility for our children our problem is clearly systematic but it cannot and will not be undone as long as the district continues to protect Bad actors there will be time for reconciliation but the time now is for accountability and action we insist on a plan that determines where and when our children of color are not in safe spaces and specific actions to rectify that there is a reckoning that undeniably must happen and it is the district's responsibility to do so you must act these are our schools and our community and our children and we will accept nothing less than their [Applause] safety hi Kevin Walker 401 West Franklin Avenue I actually have a question about the uh budget uh presentation I know it's been a very challenging year for you I know there's been a substantial shortfall in state aid and as a result there's this huge gap in the budget as I understand it there's going to be a tax increase of approximately $135 per assessed average value and then I assume there's going to be reductions in staff is is that right how substantial uh are those reductions going to be I know you don't want to compromise instruction I know you don't want to compromise rigor but how many staff positions are we talking about what what are the subject matter that uh is being taught um and what's the process that is is uh being uh used to determine where those cuts are going to be made in other words how many people are we looking at and in what areas and and H how is how are those cuts being made is it going through the board is the board making that ultimate decision within the next week if we could just have a a general sense uh I'd appreciate it we're we're not going to respond right now we may respond at the end but we don't do a back and forth It's a budget presentation though at what point can can we ask questions about the presentation do I have to wait till the end to ask the same question so let me let me be let me be I'm just talking about General process I I don't want name names or anything I understand but in terms of the privacy and the protection of personnel issues we will not deliberate that publicly um what I can share with you is process and so in terms of process the deliberative process has been taking place since October we will be engaging with our association leaders this week in partnership with our school and building leaders which has been ongoing and because it affects people um the impact of said people will not be known by next week and so it was brought up in our uh Committee of the whole the impact we will uh hope to be able to encapsulate during the uh May board meeting with all of the details and programs that are affected okay thank you very much Zakia Vine uh 1102 Stokes and Benjamin number three um so I really just wanted to make a few comments so I'm the Zayn North PTA President also having to bring awareness to our community about racism from our youngest to our oldest students and so as I walk in through the world in my skin my initial reaction to what I'm hearing is silence to be silent is to be complicit and there's a lot of silence and so I am struggling on behalf of these students my children and even myself to wrap my head around what are we doing is this performative or are we going to act I would offer right having to listen to Rooms filled of parents they're asking me where are these resources coming from if not just my own lived experiences in others where are we what are we going to do what is the action going to look like to ask ptas to stand in the space is underwhelming at best it is on the backs of people who are hoping to do the best for their children and still not coming up fully so that when they get to high school they show up as upstanders and to get rid of this issue right I I sit in a lifetime of knowing the day I was called the nword and I'm wondering when is my child coming through the door with that experience so I can expect it that is what I understand today so I'm really asking for Action because the silence is deafening and enabling so please help us show up if you need folks to stand in the halls and call out what this is let me know where to sign up leverage the community that I hear today to start to help because to continue to hope it gets better is coming up short I feel like my theme when I come to this mic is shame on us but I have to repeat it shame on us because it's only a matter of the next grade I'm going to hope by this time this one comes in I won't be wondering what grade will he be in when he's called the nword thank [Applause] you hi uh my name is Caitlyn cely I am a former resident pres of Collingswood I grew up in the Collingswood school system uh I graduated from Collingswood in 2003 I am now currently the administrative assistant to the Middle School principal Dr Jack McMullen um and I am a cea member I am here this evening to represent a small contingent of uh the administrative assistance in our district um and I say Administrative Assistant purposely as our duties have shifted away from secretarial duut ities to those that are no longer defined in our contract description if I only did the things that were listed in my brief job description very little would get accomplished gone are the days when your main office lady was somebody's mom or grandom who wanted to work while her kids were at school or wanted to Pat her retirement for a little bit our position is now one of the most demanding in the district we are the first line of response we are the first to speak to a parent guardian or student or anyone who needs to get in touch with the school building we handle the safety of both students and staff we handle accounting we act as liaison to nursing the athletic department technology and so on I love my job I love the kids I love the admins I love the teachers I love my co-workers what I don't love is the perceived lack of respect or acknowledgement for what we do and continue to do there needs to be greater investment in your lowest level we are not included in any continuing education or training we offered to go to the training and we were told no we are rarely compensated for any duties that are done outside of our contracted hours which when broken down comes to barely above what a sub gets per day at the current Pace administrative assistance in the district will make under minimum wage in my own case my contracted hours are 7:30 to 3:30 on most days I arrive no later than 710 in order to organize for the day do SUB coverage and make changes that need to happen in the schedule the students enter the building at 7:50 do you imagine if I arrived at 7:30 and attempted to complete sub coverage for multiple teachers while attending to phone calls daily morning activities in less than 20 minutes my question is similar to the one that's been asked before how do you intend to retain staff for this position how are you going to make this a desirable position again I enjoy being at work I enjoy being busy I enjoy the different aspects but I also need to be able to help support my family we're aware of the budget thank you [Applause] Mrs gret and klei 920 Grand Avenue uh I have a eighth grader uh and a senior and a graduate um speaking to some of the budget concerns um I did notice that uh Miss Coleman's salary and uh Dr mcdow's salary were in in the paperwork that we received um they're substantial compared to some of the other people's salaries um I also Googled uh can't find much um I mean we know that Dr McDow was in the 193 and now is going to 200,000 um Miss col Ms Coleman was uh 161 in 2020 and is now going to 192 now in 2024 so that's a $30,000 increase in four years which is I would think jaw-dropping in education um while we are hearing that other staff are barely going to be making minimum wage um let me tell you those folks are who see your kids when you know when they're sick when they forgot stuff when they don't feel good when they're scared that's who they go to but if you don't want to train them and they're willing to be trained what are we doing seriously um again I you know in some uh sports franchises your high players they sometimes take a take a lower salary that year to make things work so you can trust the process go forward I don't know if that's on the table I under I don't really understand all the information about the salaries I don't know if those other stiens are included in that large amount or if they are an addition to the large amount of the base salary I don't know can you speak to that is your base salary your entire salary or are speak back to you right now you can you can make your com how you ever find that out okay so you won't even tell us that okay um I'm just wondering since the salary is close to uh $17,000 a year if you could take take a little less for those people so I just need to I'm no different are you on a different topic I'm on a different comment um yeah that that needs to be addressed um so talking about administrator salaries is red herring what we he what we what we heard from our superintendent today is that we have a structural deficit and that we need to engage the state us fighting each other over administrative salaries is is not a smart move so secondly let's say we took $30,000 away from this man what is that really going to buy you all right it's not it's not an appropriate comment thank you seeing that no one else is coming up to the microphone thank you for everyone um who took the time to speak to us today just to reiterate um because I think there was some some confusion public comment is just that it's time for comment um we we don't engage in a back and forth if you have a question that you would like to be answered as we've mentioned before um reaching out to us through email uh would be the best way to to get that specific response um okay oh Maran are you okay oops hi uh sorry I um I don't have prepared comments I really just wanted to make a statement um and support of the students who are just leaving now um just to let them know that um I as a parent of black children um stand with them and I know uh our group embracing race the conversation stands with them along with many other people in the community so I just wanted to get that on the record so thank [Applause] you oh so I oh I'm Adrian Earl um I'm a resident my kids go to Sharp and I work at the middle school um and I didn't prepare because I didn't see um anyway I didn't know everything that was going to be on the agenda um so when I'm not prepared I probably won't do a good job but I guess I wanted to speak to you all as board members are my neighbors um so you and the community out there um regarding the recent incidents at the high school which as staff members like we're actually not privy to much because of students personal information um just so that we're clear on that but just more from a community level um just to Advocate to my neighbors here for us to really speak to each other and not just the people who agree with you which I think it's very easy for us to all do that like our people who we're friends with um and we kind of have common ideals but I do think this this actually also have grown up here um this is a larger issue in our community because I think we have more diversity than a lot of our neighboring towns and then especially when the three Towns come together um that brings more diversity which can bring um you know a need for more understanding of each other and I'm rambling but just if we all as neighbors can try to make an effort to really talk to each other um um I think that will help us to do better for our kids as well um you know I'm part of the equity committee at the secondary level um that was a really great experience um from the early October when we met and then being in here with a huge group of Staff members from all over the district for the second phase um and I I'm going to run out of time um and just but as staff members I agree it's so important for us to be a major part of that but just also as like parents and community members it's so important for us to engage because our students are hearing a lot at home and that's the first place where they're getting their ideals um and their values from and that's really challenging for a kid to think outside of what they're getting from their first early experiences at home um but not impossible cuz I'm I know my own parents did that um but just okay back to my point of us speaking directly to each other um rather just than just in our groups where we know we already agree with and challenging ourselves to like listen to others who we know might not agree with us initially um so that we can better understand each other I think would help with not just our schools and our students here but our community and to like move forward and keep that going in the future someone's timing me right like I can't believe I haven't run out of time yet okay I think I'm [Applause] done hi my name is Morgan Lair I live on 4019 woodlon Avenue I have two uh twins in SE they're seven years old at second grade at Tatum um I just wanted to um remind um some of our members um that we used to have an Equity Committee in Collingwood Miss Kaden you were a big part of that we met at our own time it was made of teachers um community members board members and we gave up our own time and we made a lot of really great improvements I think and we were really starting to pick up steam the pandemic hit and that definitely slowed things down but even despite that the teachers continue to meet we had talked of doing a curriculum rehaul looking at our read alouds what read alouds are we putting in front of our young students how do we diversify them we talked about the problems that we are talking about now bringing services to all instead of just only to one classroom and we still continue meet through through the pandemic and then in 2021 when our new administrator took over for some reason the equity committee was dismantled and I agree with everything you are saying this is slow important work but I some I'm am saddened to think of what could have or how far along we could be had that Equity committee not been dismantled at that time thank [Applause] you hi my name is Lucille D young and I live at 550 Grand Avenue in Collingswood sorry about that um I don't have a a prepared statement I'm actually asking a question that somebody else had recently asked me um since the evictions are actually so much part of the budget um why are we considering renting space from them for the prek um in a place where they they're kicking kids out and that's it thanks okay thank you everyone uh for taking the time to um make your voices heard uh we're going to move on to Section 8 which is our annual appointments and approvals uh Miss Coleman you are up all right I'll be as quick as possible um I did not take classes in speed reading but here we go um 8.01 is the annual approval of our architect of record Garrison Architects 8.02 is the listing um of our point appointments of our auditor um our uh School doctor our medical examiner and our board attorney um 8.03 excuse me um H it's just approving a our uh rope broker of record for health insurance for participation in uh the school's Health Insurance Fund 8.04 is appro approving a broker of record for all other lines of insurance um that were mandated to have 8.05 is a listing of our official Banks 8.06 is a listing of our uh official newspapers 8.07 is a listing of um the signature authorizations for all the bank accounts and yes we have to do this stuff every single year people so I apologize 8.08 is approving me as a qualified purchasing agent on behalf of the district um and that sets the bid amount um at $40,000 8.09 um is um authorizing uh me to make purchases of CDs and Bank notes for investment purposes as uh if we have the cash 8.10 is just authorizing um myself to transfer uh wires um 8.11 it's just approving me to pay um invoices um in between board meetings um should that happen and it's usually with the utilities like Comcast and PS and and then I bring it to the board at the next uh board meeting 8.12 is uh establishing our petty cash fund fund and then that those funds are redeposited um into the bank account at the end of each school year 8.13 is um establishing me as the district's custodian of records and my assistant Steve as the alternate custodian of records and if you're wondering what that is we handle all the oah requests um 8.14 um is approving um John Longo the our new director of supervisor buildings and grounds as a District's asbest management officer safety and health designate integrated Pest Management coordinator chemical hygiene officer and ASB bestus hazardous emergency response coordinator congratulations John um 8.15 um is approving myself and John Longo and Steve Burns as the right to know and poosha officers on behalf of the district 8.16 is approving me as the public agency compliance officer 8.17 is approving Dr Karen princip principado as the compliance action officer for the for affirmative action 8.18 is approving um Kim henck is a compliance action officer um for 504s 8.19 is approving Omni group as our thirdparty administrators for our staff's 4 3B tax shelter plan 8.20 is approving Maria tessing as our homeless leaon for the district 8.21 is approving me as the issuing officer for the working papers in the school district um 8.22 is approving Windor y yam Yamamoto as the title n coord coordinator 8.23 um we're approving the School Safety and Security plan and then that also includes our Emergency Operations plan Crisis Prevention and response procedures and our Emergency Management plan 8.24 is approving Joe gersick as our district school safety specialist 8.25 is approving Dr White House as our Americans with Disability Act officer 8.26 is just um authorizing you know that we approve and collect and maintain student records and accordance with um New Jersey Law 8.27 is a listing of all of our special ed program offerings for the 2425 school year 8.28 is um approving the Twilight alternative program 8.29 is approving the educator practice rubrics um the Charlotte Danielson framework as listed .30 is approving our annual enrollment and the njsiaa that's the New Jersey state inter Scholastic Athletic Association 8.31 is our annual adoption of all our board policies and bylaws um and they're all on the website 8.32 is setting our substitute pay rates as listed 8.33 is approving um rates for athletic staff um athletic event staff excuse me for the 2425 school year and that is it thank you uh motion to approve um items 8.01 to 8.33 so moved and a second second questions or comments from board members roll call please okay Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sharon Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mrs Kate yes uh section nine is the superintendence report Dr mcdal will present uh section 9.01 is the district enrollment report uh May uh excuse me March of 20123 uh numbers were 2264 March of 2024 is 2254 with the report attached 9.02 3 and four are the school safety uh drill suspension and anti-bullying report uh and just want to share just a few uh comments not already articulated um and so first and foremost I would like to publicly uh congratulate uh Collinwood High School senior Zion Herring on receiving the gates scholarship uh the gates scholarship is a highly selective the gates uh scholarship is a highly selective scholarship awarded to exceptional student Leaders with the intent of helping them realize their maximum potential by covering the full cost of the attendance of their undergraduate education out of over over 53,000 applications Zion was one of 750 scholarship recipients across the country scholar uh ship recipients were selected by the following criteria an outstanding academic record in high school in the top 10% of his or her graduating class demonstrated leadership ability and exceptional personal uh success skills we' like to uh thank all of the uh High School faculty and staff that supported Zion uh uh and his family along away um I reached out to his family and we are extremely proud of you Zion uh we'd also like to acknowledge uh last week we part we had a district-wide participation in the autism acceptance walk and so in honor of national autism acceptance month 620 colinwood students K through 12 including our 18 to 21 program celebrated neurodiversity understanding and inclusion um on April 23rd in night Park and so the um uh music was played you know students uh and staff they came out representing their different communities all to be able to celebrate and we'd like to publicly acknowledge and thank uh zann North uh teacher Miss Kelly Curley for collaborating with the special education parent advisory group cpag uh this serves as a community building opportunity to be able to spread messages of acceptance inclusion and connection and so I just wanted to share uh Miss Curly's uh uh statement she says that our differences are not viewed as negative or deficit they are what make us who we are and my ultimate message for today is to show kindness by accepting and including everyone uh and so for more information about autism advocacy and inclusion please visit the autistic self- advocacy Network website uh and we will be posting that information uh later uh this week uh we'd also just like to just to give a shout out to um the tremendous efforts of all of our Collinwood students participating in Odyssey of the mind and so Odyssey of the mind is an international program designed to help students at all learning levels grow as individuals and team members and to be able to use natural creativity to become problem solvers and so we are proud to share that several Collingswood teams are going to the World Championship in Ames Iowa to Iowa State after a successful run at the state championship there nine Collingswood local teams competed three were crowned New Jersey state champions two received third place finishes and four were invited to the World Finals on May 21st through the 24th congratulations to all of the students coaches and volunteers uh we're extremely proud of you and we're cheering you on and uh that concludes the superintendent report thank you Dr McDow uh section 10 we already had so we're skipping to section 11 the business administrator board secretary report Miss Coleman will present again all righty um in item 11.01 is a listing of the March monthly budget transfers 11.02 is your uh board secretary's report treasurer's report um all the financial statements 11.03 is your Student Activity um March uh report 11.04 is your February and March Food Service financial statements 11.05 is the listing of all the purchase orders that have been issued excuse me for the month of April and 11.06 is a listing of the warrants that will be paid uh pending approval tonight they'll be to pay tomorrow morning thank you Miss Coleman moving on to section 12 the buildings grounds and finance committee Mr Craig will present thank you the finance buildings and grounds committee reviews all financial statements purchase orders and warrants on a monthly basis committee also reviews and approves all contracts with outside service providers and oversees all maintenance and capital Improvement projects districtwide uh seeking approval to the following items 122 to 129 is the board secretary's report as it was presented uh 1210 is approval of the final budget that was app that was presented today um 1211 is approval of bond Council Services uh 1212 is insurance cover for our geese chasing dog uh 1213 is the neutr serve RFP response which would be a five-year agreement uh we'd be entering back in with neutr serve uh 1214 to 1218 are service contracts on an as needed basis uh 1219 acceptance of the grant for the mental health services um 1220 RFP for mental health services for secondary students um sorry and with 1219 that's approval of just over $60,000 it's year 104 um uh the RFP for mental health services um is to we currently partner with virtuala for our elementary students this would uh give us providers for our older students after school uh 1221 is acceptance of the AP African-American studies Grant um which will provide training and resources for teachers so that we can offer the AP African-American studies in our High School uh 1222 uh is Alliance Therapy dog services approval for any therapy dog services provided in schools uh 1223 approval of a memorial bench uh remembering uh Lisa Maron uh 1224 to 1229 are various use of facility requests and we are seeking approval from from items 122 to 1229 all right um I will take over from Mrs Kaden um could I have a motion so mooved and a second any questions for Mr Craig um yes item 12.12 does that go beyond the go the um Goose chasing dog the appointment of this entity say that again the insurance uh bethanne that we said was just coverage that we had to coverage for the goose chasing dog yes they there are they are our consultant for all lines but we pay hardenberg directly for our little doggy yes thank you for the clarification any other questions or comments from board members yes um I I just wanted to make sure that I understand because um I I don't I'm just trying to wrap my head around this because I'm I know that this year we're doing things a little differently um Personnel issues are next Week Tonight is the um the budget uh vote so I just want to make sure I understand what I'm voting for so voting to adopt the final budget which has been approved by the county and by the state but with that final number we still do not yet know and that will be seed for a week from now how this dollar amount will impact um Staffing programming because those decisions have not yet been made correct thank you oh I'd like to make a comment on the on the budget and specifically some of the discussion about the budget um I want to specifically speak about the continued attacks on um the the compensation that our superintendent is receiving I'm going to speak on that because as my experience as a person of color I've had to had the feeling of having to justify my worth and belonging spaces often I feel like that is what is H has happened consistently with Dr McDow prior to Dr maddow's current contract being public somehow those negotiated contract terms were leaked publicly online as a way to discuss whether or not his salary was appropriate these are actions taken specifically that I believe are taken specifically because our superintendent is black and yet even today we're being asked whether or not our superintendent should be paid his wages for for for the work he's doing or not when we look at beyond that point the superintendent's contract has to be approved by the county superintendent so what we're saying is that we have a contract here that is approved by outside entities and somehow it's inappropriate a a contract where the the raise that he received was in line with County average average but let's look at the specific terms of that contract so for next year Dr dolls uh a salary is $27,000 that's all inclusive I was able to find two other contracts online Haden fields and Haden townships for haddenfield next year the superintendent there base salary is $210,000 he also receives a $5,000 increment because he's a superintendent of a district that has a high school so that's $215,000 Dr mcdal salary is allinclusive which means any increment is included in his current salary understand that there's also an increment for being the superintendent of a second School District which Dr mow is that increment is $15,000 that increment is not part of the uh the contract because Dr Mall's salary is all inclusive $27,000 for next year in Haden Township oh sorry let me finish with henfield the superintendent Hatfield has an opportunity to earn a 15% bonus per year that's equivalent of of next year $31,000 additionally when we talk about had in Township that the superintendent next year his base salary is $25,000 with a $5,000 High School increment making it 20 $210,000 so both of those salaries Bas base plus increments are more than our current superintendent are making wait let's take that another level which is to understand that our current superintendent is a superintendent of two school districts which means that Oakland pays for 12% of his salary which means that to Kingswood his salary what we owe for his salary is $182,000 so when we go out and say that our superintendent salary is is what's hurting our budget we're paying less for our superintendent much less for our superintendent because the fact that he is the superintendent for two districts we're paying much less for him than other uh surrounding districts are for their superintendent I feel compelled to speak because for for years now I've had to sit and listen to folks without hard numbers or evidence question the worth of our superintendent and I can't help but think that that has something to do with race from my own experience as a person of color growing up in this [Applause] country when our the budget issues that we face right now are are real we need to figure out how to make sure that we can continue to pay our teachers what they're worth and we are able to meet the needs of our students we need to do so with a firm belief that everyone here is working together to address these needs and and continued disingenous attacks on on school Personnel will not help it it will not help we have to face this issue together you know one of the things that we we also hear often times is Administrative costs administrative cost administrative costs are huge in our district we saw in the pie chart 9% that's the administrative cost for our district how does that rank all this information is public by the way how does that rank that means that our per pupil administrative cost is less than hanfield is less than Udan is less than Han Heights is less in Pine Hillboro is less in hand Township less than clemon Boro is less than Sterling High School District per District or sorry per student cost administrative cost is less than all of those districts and yet we continue to hear this this this idea that money has been mismanaged or that we have a bloated Administration we will not be able to address these issues by ignoring the real structural issues of our our budget we have to go into this with clear eyes with with an eye towards truth or else we're just going to run in circles eating our own tail and never actually be able to address any of these these issues long monologue I felt compelled just to say that that's my piece on the budget thank you Roger any other questions or comments from board members before we vote roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya Yes except for 1210 I'm going to abstain Mrs mulski Yes except for item 12.10 where I abstain Mrs Seltzer yes M Sharon Celia yes Mr Sherman yes Mrs Caden yes section 13 the curriculum committee Mr Chu will present the curriculum committee oversees and approves the district curriculum and assessment of programs as well as field trips home instruction co-curricular programs in the school calendar uh for our agenda uh uh today 13.02 13.03 and 13.04 uh we have field trips for elementary school middle school and high school up for approval uh agenda item 13.05 is uh home instruction out of District uh um uh item for for uh two students uh 13.06 uh is a uh request to uh Grant um continuation uh through the end of the school year for a uh student that moved out of uh District uh post um April uh this is in uh alignment with our policy uh 511 uh 12 sorry 13.07 is the 2024 Project Graduation uh run by the high school PTA uh 13.08 is the 2024 Thomas sharp School summer uh bridge program uh and that is I think uh linked to 13.09 which is the time of sharp School summer multi lingual Learners uh program um and then uh 13.10 is the 2024 summer enrichment program uh band camp uh so that's I guess a summer Marching Band program for grades uh 7 through 12 uh so for today I'm seeking approval of items 13.02 through 13.10 thank you motion to approve set items so moved and a second second questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Selzer yes Mrs Shar and Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mrs Kaden yes moving moving on to section 14 the Personnel committee Miss Sheridan Celia will present the Personnel committee reviews all recommendations for teaching and staff employment considers co-curricular employment and considers all professional development opportunities for staff members uh item 14.02 is the resending of a contract um items 14.03 to 14.06 of resignations items 14.07 through 14.11 are various um leaves of absence uh 14.12 is the appointment of a speech language specialist uh at 14.3 it's the appointment of the new director and supervisor of buildings and grounds John Longo congratulations to Mr Longo who is a Collingswood employee um 14.4 is the appointment of Al herd who is a former director of the a supervisor of buildings and grounds to Mentor Mr Longo as he you know BR brings himself up to the position especially as we're entering into a very busy time of year with the buildings and grounds because we have graduation and all these other events um the appointment of a 10-month secretary is at item 14.15 14.16 through 14.18 are the appointments of substitutes and replacement teachers item 14.19 is the appointment of PLC leaders item 14.12 is athletic event Personnel appointment 14.21 student teaching stien um item 14.2 22 is the appointment of a lacrosse and assistant lacrosse coach item 14.23 are a listing of five new substitute custodians item 1424 is a su sharp summer program staff appointments 14.25 summer enrichment and band camp bless you 14.26 is the appointment of a social work intern 14.27 a student intern and practicum placements um Miss Earl she's still here is going to be mentoring that person um 14.28 substitutes and tutors 14.29 uh the recognition of retiring faculty and staff for the past year and the 1430 is the travel expense form approval and this evening I am seeking approval of items 14.02 through 1430 you everyone uh motion to approve set items so move and a second questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes M sherid and Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mrs Kaden yes uh moving on to section 15 the culture climate and policy committee Miss Seltzer will present the culture climate and policy committee reviews all updates and changes of District policies and regul ulations uh there are some policies up for first reading tonight um guidance counseling bilingual education code of ethics safe roots to schools sportsmanship student code of conduct um and Equitable education opportunity um there okay yeah and uh there should also be the the um where is it is safe roots to schools the biking policy isn't that yes it is 554 yeah it's there um so most of these are are fairly boiler Point changes but I did want to highlight 5514 um which was I think originally called the student use of vehicles policy which is why I got tripped up there um we did make a change to that policy which is that um starting in Fall 2024 right so that's important to note not changing right away but changing fall 24 um students from third grade on will be able to bite to school um um and we are working on putting infrastructure into place for that to be a reality starting in the fall um and working with safe roots to schools uh to do that um the second policy I wanted to highlight was 5600 which is the student code of conduct and I wanted to just make sure that I was distinguishing between the policy which is what we're um putting up for first read tonight and the regulation which will come later and the regulation is really what happens when the policy hits the ground um and for that we will need the input of many more different um stakeholders and uh that will be in process for a roll out in in Fall 24 um there are also some policies 153 for up for a second reading um and 1504 are polic policies that are being abolished so I'm asking for approval of items 15.02% that was just a mistake in the the agenda so motion to approve items 15.2 to 15.05 four I did it wrong again uh second sorry second it's late questions or comments from board members I do I just want to um ask a question about the regulation in terms of that uh code of conduct policy do we expect that to happen before it gets rolled out in September is that something that we're going to be reaching out of it this summer to the administrators and you know all the stakeholders yeah my understanding is that that that is the the plan and the goal and we wouldn't want to roll out the student code of conduct without I'm not sure we could without the the new regulation I would hope not okay any other questions or comments from board members roll call please Mr Chu yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs sherid and Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mrs kadon yes uh before I move on to section 6 I was on a rooll with with the agenda I just wanted to acknowledge Dr McDow had a child care issue that he had to take care of and he wanted to apologize for leaving early in the meeting but didn't want to interrupt the Personnel reading uh section 16 miscellaneous um 16.01 is the hi report from the previous month um so and that that's all that's on the agenda so we're looking to uh approve item 16.01 motion to approve that item so moved and a second questions or comments from board members was that updated at all before tonight's meeting uh so this is from the previous month and there actually was none okay um any other questions or comments roll call please Mr CH yes Mr Craig yes Mrs Maya yes Mrs molski yes Mrs Seltzer yes Mrs Sheron Celia yes Mrs Sherman yes Mrs Gaden yes and that leads us to section 17 which is our SE opportunity for public comment this section is for more General comments um I think most people were here but just in case the public is reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through appropriate staff members and administrators and I just want to make it clear that this is uh a time where we are listening um and taking notes but we are not responding back and forth um so In fairness to all who wish to speak there is a strict three minute time limit Miss Coleman will be timing per person and please remember to state your name and address for the record con gretan Ki 920 Grant Avenue Collingswood um you know this wasn't going to be a back and forth I was told that I legitimately had questions I haven't seen anything before today about the salaries for Miss Coleman or Dr mcdal so I wasn't online I wasn't researching I don't know of any leaked information so these were my first time seeing this it was a question that came up I asked a question I feel absolutely attacked by the board member stating that I am racist for asking a question this is an open question Forum right now we are allowed to ask you as board members in a public position questions if we are now going to be lamb basted for asking questions I don't know if that's creating an open fostering relationship for our community and really my question was more about M Coleman's salary than Dr mcdow's that being said uh I have emailed with you Mrs Kaden and Dr McDow and Miss Coleman about the lack of directory for staff on the web page the last board meeting here I was told that everyone would look into it and you had no idea that there wasn't one on the web page I've asked repeatedly throughout many emails as you said to ask an email for a question question to be answered I've gotten no response for any such thing other than it's a fishing issue and we can't have that information out there there's no phone number or address for any Elementary School there's no guidance link I found the the child study team link I asked you for actual direct links Miss Coleman you didn't give me any what's going on why can't you put it out there I want to thank staff in an email I want to praise them I want to ask questions for my eighth grader who has learning disabilities going forward to ask to get involved to ask people who are are are involved in in clubs that kind of thing why can't we have that information even behind Genesis if we're worried about that I want to know who's in charge of what Club I understand now that you've got an issue because you're going to be juggling staff but it seems that for the past couple months that information hasn't been available either for current staff to be asked or praised I want to know why it's not on the website why is there no phone number why is there no building administrators listed just even their names so we can figure out we know the secret Collingswood first initial last name at calls whatever but if we don't know their first name how can we contact them if we don't know how to spell their last name how do we contact them and so the administrative assistance of those buildings are being pummeled to give out emails or phone numbers thank you Miss KY Wayne Rossy 14 East Palmer AV um I want to say I I actually felt that uh Mr Jew's comments were uh long overdue and that the I I don't think that the specific question was intended as that that but that there has been um that this has been something that's been uh a current that's been happening in um in board meetings since the board chose to hire a black superintendent and I I do think that it's a problem um I mainly came up to talk about um that um just so terribly disappointed in the state uh and how it's really just given us the um short end of the stick as far as budget and I'm very hopeful that we can with the referendum you know that this will give us sort of the freedom if we get it to uh move some money around and I I think it's so important that we get this because the honest truth is that the state has said it's basically not not supporting our schools and we need to do everything we can to support them uh so I think that this is just such an important issue uh right now because I I just feel completely like we're being abandoned when you know every school has pressing every school district I know has pressing needs and to sit there and and cut rather than giving Aid when when budgets are crisis uh is insulting so I I um sympathize with the earlier budget presentation and I I sympathize that it's some of the decisions will be very hard but I hope that the referendum will at least let us choose to invest in our schools in our community thank you Leah Foreman 501 South Vineyard Boulevard let's do this um I want to thank Mr Chu for saying what he said and um calling that out I felt similarly and so thank you for acknowledging that I hope that white people in this room can start to listen to the things that people said and reflect on them before coming back up to get upset about things so that said I also think that the referendum is an opportunity for us to invest in our our schools and I'm excited about that opportunity I do think the state is hanging us out to dry and I am excited to get back into that presentation and click on those links and do all the advocacy because I think everyone who's working for the district deserves to be paid fairly and no one's salary should be in question and that goes from the administrative assistance to the top you all deserve more money and as tirelessly as I advocate for our black students I will tirelessly advocate for the state to give us more money so you all can be paid a fair living wage um and that has nothing to do with the people sitting in those seats who are also tirelessly advocating for you all to get a fair living wage and they we shouldn't be fighting with each other about that we should be looking up not down um and I hope that people hear that and can see that thank you Alexandra Guido 311 Lake View Drive um I again would like to thank Mr Chu for calling out something that um any of us who have been following the board minutes the board meetings we've been here we've watched it have long seen um people mistreating um Dr McDowell and so I thank you very much for speaking up and putting that on the record um I also want to thank the board for their work of putting together the referendum that I hope and that I hope our community will see the good in and show up behind I see equity for our children I see nothing but good for our teachers and having grade level uh part ERS in um having less work for our our Specialists who have to travel between schools the ability to give more services to students who need them the ability to share Services um it's something that I wish for all of our children I wish for our teachers and um I just thank you for putting that together and I look forward to it passing unrelated to that uh Maryann degenhart 644 Stokes I actually just want to Echo what um Gretchen talked about because I had some frustration trying to reach teachers and I sent an email to an administrator just because I happen to remember her name and how to spell it um to reach out to one of the high school teachers so I do hope that's something that the whoever it is can straighten out hi uh Cara boiler uh 90th Summerfield Avenue um this isn't going to be as maybe thoughtful as some of the other uh people that came up tonight um but I just uh took on a role as the CHS uh PTA president um hopefully working with Mr Newman to kind of continue the work that the board has started and the superintendent has started um and I also had um I wondered um as we're talking about things and as we're talking about the referendum and how we can um immediately impact the Collingswood Community if there's a way that we can um more largely think about the sending districts and how we can maybe start to include those students earlier in some of our activities um that we have throughout the school system um if it's possible because I feel like um at least for um Woodland and Oak Oakland even comes in earlier than Woodland students and so when they're coming at a at the age of 14 or 15 into the high school that might be a very hard environment to adjust and adapt and if we can reach those students sooner I would love it time's up but I'm I'm done that was it so as we're talking about it that was kind of a larger thought that I had thanks [Applause] uh so moving on to section 18 um motion to adjourn this evening uh is there a motion to adjourn this evening sorry guys second second all in favor thank you everyone for taking the time tonight did my best