okay I call this meeting to order the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accord ordance with the provisions of the act the East stford board of education has caused notice of this meeting by having the date time and place thereof provided to the record and the South bergenite newspapers to have published and posted in the vestibule of the burrow Hall and Public Library copies of agendas are available 48 hours prior to said meetings in the board of education office and are posted on the east Rutherford school website www w. erboe.net please stand for the flag salute and remain standing for a moment of silence in honor of the members of our Police Department fire department and First Responders 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 roll call Mr B and Miss carusa are absent Miss kie here miss Mana here Mr segalini here miss shamley here and miss laruso here uh fire exits are to out to your left and to the front of the room uh Mr verrai School business administrators report thank you Madame President I'm going to review the addendum itance PF 3A the approval of District facility this is for the principales round table on March 8th from 11:30 to 3M at all three of our schools pf4 a is the approval of contingency allowances this is in reference to the boiler replacement project at McKenzie it is now done it is completed and we're very satisfied with the work completed by the vendor uh f1a is the second bills list for February 2024 f10a and f11a are in reference to the rod grant that we were awarded so the one rod grant for they were both roof projects the McKenzie Elementary School the total project cost was $52,750 and the state will allocate $ 28,2 188 and then the other project is another roof project which is the fa Middle School annex total cost of the project is $165,100 in which the state will uh award us $66,500 what we're doing tonight is that we are going to authorize the execution and the delivery of the grant agreement for these two projects and the last addendum item is the approval of extraordinary services for the 2324 school year this is in reference to home instruction for a maximum of 10 hours effective February 2nd of this year until March 31st with Bergen County Special Services unless anybody has any questions so the total Al our burden on the roofs is what like about $400,000 or 410 I have the number right here 411,000 492 and the SDA or the state will give us $274,200 and thank you both of you for answering the questions on the bills list no a problem you're welcome and he understands the that's the rod grant that we applied for that we received yeah yeah I know but I know there's a divvy of the burden I want to make sure that the Public's aware of the exact amount that we for both any other questions no thank you Mr verace you're welcome Madam president um Mr Jan CASRO before you do yours can we let I forgot about our student council absolutely miss Mr Mr tanel here Mr tenell can you introduce our students please good evening on behalf of the National Junior Honor Society we are here tonight to deliver our East Rutherford school district school reports I have Miss Hannah alac who will deliver the reports for fa school and McKenzie school and Mr kavish ganger who will report on Lincoln's school this is the report for fa the student council and their advisers Mr Cito and miss Muse but visited the Community Food Bank of New Jersey the students donated over 300 pounds of food that was collected during the homelessness and hunger awareness drive at F school after that the students engaged in two hours of community service by bagging over 600 bags of pasta and boxing it for families in need the students were then invited into a food and security presentation and learn valuable insight into the varied economic and social conditions of New Jersey families F school's 85th annual spelling be recently took place in our school gymnasium congratulations to our spelling be Champion seventh grader Charlotte Leonard and our runner up sixth grader Braden Rosa keep on spelling f f School National Junior Honors Society and Mr tanell have planned several spirit days for this month the students and staff have been showing off their spirit days Spirit during days such as favorite musical group day tourist Tuesday College attire day and pajama day and Valentine's colors day to name just a few F School band and choir members will be performing at the Civic Center on February 27th thank you to Mr and Mrs schart for all that you do congratulations to coach babini and the F School boys basketball team for a great season of games we are so proud of you cast rewards day was celebrated today on February 15th students enjoyed the afternoon filled with food and activities to celebrate their accomplishments over now this is a report from Mackenzie here are some highlights of recent and upcoming activities at MacKenzie School Dr Martin Luther King Jr activities and celebration within all classrooms super B Drive donations for local food pantry and can for for food for canned food items thank you to all families that donated and participated celebration for Black History Month lessons and activities were implemented for all enjoyed for all grade levels I'm sorry celebrating Global Day of Play McKenzie students and staff love the day and all enjoyed honoring President's Day President's Day educational activities will take place during the week of February 19th Wildcat workout days February 21st is the next Wildcat workout day Wildcat of the month recognition and Roar assembly to highlight positive student behavior and citizenship 100th day of school celebration and activities February 9th kindergarten students were asked to dress up as if they were 100 years old and wiser MacKenzie School is excited to announce that our prek registration begins on March 1st to March 28th all of the information will be posted on our websites and is expected to be sent to All parents at the end of the week first grade classes continued to go to the east Rutherford Memorial Library for a class trip and to get their library card thank you to miss Maria Russo for your collaboration with McKenzie school this is the monthly report for Lincoln Martin Luther King Jr day was January 15th and content was embedded throughout the instructional day to celebrate the life and contributions of Dr King Jr February is a black history month and programming is infused with resources to celebrate hisorical figures events and achievements achievements of the black community Miss Maser and the social studies Department are collaborating on a series of quilts to demonstrate their experiences that will be displayed throughout the building February 2nd was National School wear red day and Lincoln School helped support the cause sponsored by the American Heart Association to raise awareness of to the importance of CPR in care and emergency situations Global School play day 2024 was held on February 7th to great success for our second straight year our students engage in an entire day of unstructured but supervised play as a way to Foster creative thinking collaboration and growth student Reflections were collected to memorize the day in collaboration with the erpd the lead program has begun for the 23 24 school year law enforcement law enforcement against drugs is a partnership designed to raise awareness to the importance of a drug-free lifestyle while also building Community Partnerships with our local police department thank you to our Board of Education members and Mr J CASRO for having us each month we enjoy delivering the report for our schools and we're looking forward to bringing you next month's highlights thank you Mr Tel thanks WC Cas okay okay Mr Jean CASRO with the superintendent report sure thank you madam president so at McKenzie school we have 383 students up eight students fou School 234 up two students Lincoln School 158 up three so a total of 760 students in District our fire drills for the month of February have been completed we're just waiting for Lincoln School to finalize their fire drill by the end of the month we have two HIV investigations to discuss in executive session um underneath the referendum we are in our final stages of completing our uh information we're currently working with doco um to finalize um all of their um reports uh underneath the qac review I am proud to announce um that we went through our extensive USAC review um and I do want to share with you the board um as well as the public just some information on that even though it is not official yet so again I sent an email out to The District staff dear staff I'm delighted to announce that the recent qac review conducted by the county office has yield exceptionally positive outcomes for the east Rutherford school district it is with great pride and gratitude that I inform you that our District's performance has been met with approval accommodations with the county officials her tireless dedication and commitment and Relentless pursuit of Excellence has played an instrumental role in ensuring the success of our qac review from exemplary efforts from our esteemed teachers to invaluable contributions of our support staff from mute guidance provided of our District administration and to meticulous care and upkeep offered by our custodial and maintenance teams every individual within our district has contributed to this achievement moreover I must extend my deepest appreciation to the members of this board of education your St your steadfast support strategic vision and advocacy for our students and staff have been fundamental in navigating the complexity of a qac review process and ensuring that our District's continues progress and success while we await the official notification of our qex status from the commissioner of Education in the near future let us take a moment to celebrate the collective Triumph it is an attestment to the power of collaboration resilience I shared purpose that defines our district and school Community as we move forward let us remain steadfast in our commitment to providing the highest quality education and support to our students fostering a nurturing and inclusive environment and advancing the mission and vision of the East Rutherford school district once again I extend my heartfelt appreciation to each and every one of our District staff for their outstanding contributions and dedication together we have demonstrate with true success and teamwork of Excellence really is also next on the agenda uh technology so our information security program plan the district continues to uh to proactively evaluate all appropriate district and um Technologies to ensure the safety and security of our data system vulnerability tests and scans for any type of uh Cyber attack uh that are common e- rate purchasing distri discussions for the 24 24 2425 school year are underway to to support technology infrastructure across the district um Irina will'll be talking a little bit more next month so you have a report to work on so I promise you that uh budget development for the 24-25 school year is is underway I want to personally and publicly thank Mr verrai for spearheading this as we move through very difficult and busy time between now and March 20th um the district continues to evaluate various technology plans to set uh to support productivity if efficiency and instruction within the district as well as support our special education programs uh let's see underne special education business total of 137 students up two students in District we have 120 students down three and out of District we are up by one so we have seven out of District students so uh student the assistant superintendent of student uh services and curriculum attended some information on webinars I know some of our teachers here would know about this um there have been some revised special education monitoring that's taking place there are two tiers of monitoring tier one and tier two tier one this type of monitoring is conducted remotely where districts are required to upload specific documentation throughout a portal and Home Room tier two these are inperson monitoring sessions um also the area of focus happens to be IEP components IEP implementation evaluation process age6 age 16 trans transitions discipline and restraint and seclusion which is our Handle With Care that concludes my report on the next part I do want to invite Dr sorza and his team from beckon Regional High School a proud announcement for their upcoming Bond referendum on March 12th drza do I have that right March 12th drza actually sorry can I just make one comment if you don't mind president luro I just want to thank thank you Mr Jan CASRO thank M King Dobson the entire faculty and staff at our schools for you your tireless work through cusac I know it's been a lot of long hours I know it's been a lot of effort and it's been years in the making right the amount of board of EDS that have gone through and you the amount of people have come um on and off this board but you Sharon you've done a great job so we really appreciate all the hard work thank you I really appreciate that stop [Music] sharing and let's go here sh and there you give me a test Dr swza uh it's the right arrow I think on the should be right may have to come closer over here because I think the probe is here so see try that again so oh I can do it you want me to do it for sure I'll be your assistant don't [Laughter] worry I recommend using the mics at the at home fancy okay one second technical difficulties I do that scroll up and [Music] down yeah I see the green Dr SP are go ahead we're good now thank you very much and thank you all for uh having us here congratulations on your qack performance I know how difficult uh that is to go through every single year um most importantly I was extremely impressed with the two students that were here giving an update uh about the state of the district um also very appreciative of the PTA inviting us to their last meeting again very impressed with the turnout there um there seemed to be almost 80 members when we started the meeting off and um also heard all the administrators talking about all the wonderful things going on here in the district so kudos to superintendent Jean casbro as well as the entire board of education for um running what seems to be a very high functioning school district and then I get to steal all the students that come School District in a couple years um so the these Board of Education sessions this is now our uh fourth or fifth session depending on you know what formal or informal uh referenda information sessions we talk about we wanted to give courtesy sessions directly to the board of education but I see that we are live on TV here which is also pretty neat um ahead of the referendum U we also have Community sessions that are going on on in the community and we'll talk about that a little bit later on uh we realize that we don't have as much time as the full community session so we're going to kind of speed through this a little bit and then if trustees want to you know have some questions we had some questions the other day um at one of our other sessions that dialogue seems to flow a little bit better so you can just go to the next um slide go to the next one um so the the for the board members that uh don't know okay oh there you go okay sorry uh for the board uh trustees or the public that doesn't know beckon Regional High School did go out for a referendum two years ago um and what we did the past two years was um go through a very intense strategic review on um what we wanted to see and realize with a a second try at the referendum but this slide here uh believe it or not is one of the few slides that we took from the initial presentation two years ago because we wanted to make sure that the public and the board of educations and the community understood that the vision from the initial project stayed the same so you'll see here and it's a little bit blurry but you probably zoom in on it in some areas uh the beckon Vision continues to say stay the same which is to memorialize and celebrate the rich history the rich Wildcat history which started here um right right here in uh F school and continues on uh with beckton Regional High School uh we often say as a Science Guy myself one of my favorite quotes is if I have seen further than others it's because I stood on the shoulders of giants the individuals that built beckon Regional High Schools were Visionaries you have an oversized gymnasium you have an oversized Performing Arts Center and we even found out that there's wires that um are right at the end of the school where we're looking to expand the school because the indviduals that built it years ago built it for opportunities uh for growth so the I I talk fairly passionately passionately about the beckon Vision because it's not my vision it's not Jena's Vision it's not the architect's Vision it's not anybody in this room's Vision it's our vision as Community leaders to be able to have a voice for the voiceless when the individuals 55 years or so ago built beckton Regional High School there were so many obviously that w't born and so many that didn't have the opportunity to have a seat at the table but I believe personally that our students rely on us as the community leaders to be able to see further for them because this is a truly this is solely a benefit for the student current students and of course future students and residents that move into the community so celebrating and preserving beckon wildcat's Rich history another one uh important goal to provide an allinone comprehensive academic adaptive and Innovative experience for all current and future students there seems to be um something that happened along the line of traditional public schooling that got away from us and and you all know it as trustees and we know it as as um as high school and or as administrators it's this teaching and educating all students no matter what your ability or your disability is um and what we're running into today as public high as public school districts is the inability ility to be able to reach every single child no matter what background they come from no matter what ability they have and what we're doing to supplement that is we are sending them to other school districts um as individuals who study education for many many years that was never the plan that was never the plan to to send students separate siblings separate individuals and have students all over in different school districts but somehow that got away from us and the TR traditional public schooling hasn't been able to provide for every single child's wants and needs we want to bring that back and we know and understand that this is a Visionary approach because some may say well I don't understand you know the County Schools do X and the private special ed schools do why and and we appreciate what they're doing and do they're doing great things what we're saying is well why can't we do it and why we why can't we provide it to all taxpayers here in East Rutherford carlat and Maywood the next vision is to bring home not necessarily bring home all of our students but to bring home and keep home as many of our students as possible throughout the years um Mr Jean caser spoke about some of the added District placements that you have here in East Rutherford we have uh some at beckon carlat has some at the K through 8 Maywood has some as well our budget right now um is hovering well over $3 million in sending students out of District each year we do not pay for May W's high school at a district students Maywood sends another over $3.5 million in add a district students so between the two districts you may see a a number floating out there just high school students of over $6 million a year um I often you know I've been trying to give visuals for people just to Simply understand what these two complex business administrators sometimes drive us crazy with their numbers is the simple 2% cap right and you can use you know I don't I don't usually have a mic here but you could use your two hands this is the 2% cap my left hand and from my left hand to my right hand is all other rising cost right because there doesn't seem to be anything that is staying below 2% you have uh you have salaries that increase above 2% 3 four five 6% you have um Insurance costs that are increased I would say seven8 9% and you have transportation at a district that increases almost 10% so to be conservative we can say between my left hand and my right hand you have about a 6 to 8% differential in public school education cost but we cannot increase your tax levy above 2% that's state law and I don't see that changing anytime soon so this is a problem here because what we're doing and you know what I hear East Rutherford's doing and and beckton is building outstanding programs for all students but eventually we do have to look ahead a little bit and they usually say at least five years and in five years you're going to start to see that you know this problem here which is not in the hundreds of thousands it's in the millions need needs to be talked about or needs to be resolved rather than waiting than that five years we're presenting some fiscally responsible options now and the only way to realize because you know you have voices out there that say well just you know your teachers are making too much money why don't you cut some teachers or cut their salaries or your ad you have too many administrators they're making too much money cut cut the administrators cut their salaries or uh that's really all you hear right you don't really hear anything else so we say okay let let's agree to that let's cut some of these teachers you ready I'm going to cut the teachers and I'm going to cut some administrator salaries that's where I just moved because it's only a couple hundred thousand and then you're going to realize that you have to bring somebody back in those classrooms or in those spaces to do those jobs so there's nobody has given us a solution to close that Gap it's it's you know the fancy term they like to use is fiscal cliff we just like to use the gap between the 2% tax levy and um and our rising cost so we want to bring those students home from a moral and ethical perspective of keeping the human side but we also realize that out of this over six million doll if we were to and we actually already did um budget out five to 10 years if we were to just bring back a few hundred, a year which we know we could bring back almost double um of of those funds then we can spend th those monies and those funds for all students in the district including what we're uh we're planning to do here and then the last of course as we always do is to inspire a student body through state-of-the-art facilities and individual opportunities and skills that will enable them to build um transferable skills when they go into college career um College and Career After High School so you can click on the next slide um two years ago we went out for a $ 55.6 million project it was actually around 57 million and we we received a couple million with in state aid it was 990,000 square feet it had three floors it had a dining hall it had a lot of components that we thought would be best for our students um we unfortunately though the it didn't it did get voted down for many many different reasons and we had to go back to the drawing board and we did that and you'll see that in the next SL will talk a little bit about what we did the past two years um you can go to the next slide so Community feedback was critically important we spent two years um talking to many many different stakeholders um sent out surveys and we'll talk about that but one of the important things that we did besides our informal meetings and our medy meetings with our Architects our bond attorneys our financial advisers was meet with local stakeholders to try to get our finger on the pulse of what they felt because they are the sample size and the leaders of the community and we brought everybody together multiple times over multiple meetings and what we tried to do was come to consensus on what uh project we thought would be best for the community we talked about the original project we we brought a lot of different samples we brought back the feedback from the middle school students and the parents and then we you know put pen to paper and started scaling back a little bit now with interesting about this stakeholder meeting which was comprised of over I would say 30 35 different stakeholders from the community meeting over multiple times is that um initially they said we don't want to change anything we we we we love it we love the stem component we love the the trades component we love the special ed component the gym the uh the building across the street and and we said okay we we may need to start as a board um taking a little control here because because we have to change something we can't go out well I guess you can go out with the same project but um you know we felt that initially the community spoke clearly about the large number even though it was split between the two communities and there was another Financial component um we felt that it was important for us to go out with a slightly different project and the survey results Mr G Casper if you want to scroll to the next Slide the survey results actually pushed us to design the new project and one of the components and we asked the community multiple questions um one of them that received almost a 90% um yes was does the community want to see any and all facilities upgrades in this project we did not have that in the original project so what that means is you know our building's pretty attractive but you know when you're going over 50 years old things start breaking down our bathrooms needed to be update need to be updated our gym floors is as best as gym floor that's bubbling bleachers are old in the gym uh our Performing Art Center very beautiful and large but the seating is old and torn up needs to be replaced the stage needs to be replaced and locker rooms need to be replaced now we all know you all went through a referendum you're still going through the construction now that that cost of just updating one bathroom can cost over $300,000 so that cost came out to about $6.6 million but more importantly we ask the community um what they wanted to see in the new project from you know and raing the different programs and the parents and the community um overwhelmingly chose stem as number one um right behind it and not too far behind the handson vocations And Trades which have been you know removed from public high schools throughout the years for many many different reasons the only real Hands-On program that we have um and some schools have is our culinary arts program which is why it's it's so popular and then we also have robotics programs that are going on as supplementary programs special education in this case came in uh third with community members understanding the importance of it and then Visual and Performing Arts came in fourth and the second Gym um came in fifth out of the five components that we asked about this not that it was um not important especially to the stakeholders that wanted it in there understanding you know an 850 student High School needs um a a second gym but when comparing it to Stan vocations trade special ed programs that came um in last um so that's H when we when we brought that back to the table we almost completely removed the second gym because we said folks we have to cut somewhere here so we have you know that but but I we were feeling the heat from the PE individuals in the room the leaders in the room was saying look we we we need it and I know we needed it and that's why you'll see how the financial structure was shaped with this new project oh can you just go back one second so this was another thing that we did not do so we admit that we made mistakes the first time right we didn't survey the middle school students now I'm going to just tell you honestly why we didn't survey the middle school students is we well we built programs um at the high school we've been doing it for years um and we're not totally on board with asking a 10 11 12 year old what they want to do the rest of their life we believe that high school is a place that students should explore many many different fields until they start becoming passionate about maybe one field actually that's what college is high school should mimic that and then middle school you should just start building some of the study skills and the core skills that you need to be successful in high school but the community said you know we still wanted to get good feedback from the middle school students and interestingly enough the Middle School students in fifth six in sixth seventh and eighth grade U mirrored their parents and their community members um overwhelmingly choosing fields in science technology engineering math the medical field and also vocations And Trades uh for the top three in health and medical Sciences architecture construction and then of course science technology engineering and Mathematics this was good information for us to say what we were building uh mirrored and and um echoed the sentiment of students and parents Mr G you're good I think it was the other way and then that takes us to our revised project scope so the original project was 990,000 square feet we had the only way to cut back the cost of the project was to cut back square footage um so the main building was cut down to 55,000 ft the Annex Building which is that white beautiful building across the street from us um the warehouse building that is staying the same that's still 11,000 square ft the gym is another 10,000 square feet so you're starting to get an idea of where we would be able to cut back so this is the scope of the revised project very creative um components of of getting everybody's feedback and allowing The Architects to do their creative genius we still have seven career trades uh which are the extremely large stem classrooms six Advanced Tech and steam classrooms this was a part that was uh extremely cut back it was the um 10 classrooms that we had originally cut to five classrooms so none of the stem or or trades or Hands-On programs were really cut we just kind of modified where we put those classes and no special ed components were cut from the first project compared to the second project um so the special ed the stem and the trades more or less stayed the same the trades came back a little bit for question one if we want the same exact uh trades um and Vocational component as the first project you'll see that's question number three new auxiliary gym is in here nurses Suite which would be part of the special ed component and then these facility upgrades were um some important parts that the that the community wanted that I was talking about earlier today so this is the scope of the new project here are some visuals to see what we are talking about uh the all the gray is the existing um uh aerial of beckton Regional High School the new addition the is in yellow there and you also see the rendering off to the left side that is question one so we broke up the project we went from 50 let's say 56 million to hovering around 42 million but then we added in the 6.6 million of current facility upgrades and that's where you're hearing this 49 just over 49 million option but some of our last meetings we still felt some hesitation with the $49 million option so we had to make a decision are we going back out because I I'll be honest when we were in the room with the community leaders we asked one question or multiple questions and the community leader said one question but then you know as things go on people feel a certain way they may feel a little bit different there's rumors flying all over the place so we said look we we don't want to go back out again without something here being uh with with with a high opportunity of success so we took the 49 million and we said what areas can we scale back what areas can we break apart and that's what we did here the new addition is the main building that includes the stem it includes the special ed and it includes a partial trades that is a 29 over $29 million option so if you think about the original project at over 55.6 57 depending on state aid to 29 that's nearly 50% reduction in square footage and 50% reduction in cost of the original project some people you know may say okay well cut it even more there's really not much room to cut here if you start cutting any more then it starts to defeat the purpose and the spirit of this project um because this is a new addition you're only getting 100,000 uh in debt service aid but this is if I were to say you know which which component is the most important part of the project it's this one right here not only because it has the stem the Hands-On trades but it has the full special ed component and remember what I said earlier the special ed component is the component where you're going to start to generate that Revenue back to the school district this the component that's going to close that gap between my left and right hand there's nothing else right now the state is not going to come up and say we're going to throw Millions at districts um the taxpayers are not going to say hey can you just increase my taxes 15% the only way to close that Gap and and possibly realize bringing that those funds back to district is with this creative project but also the human aspect of keeping uh keeping students home so that's a new addition Mr G you can go scroll to the next um here are just some renderings I'll put those up on the site what some stem Labs which you know here because you did some renov here would look like some uh they call them maker spaces but really these would be high impact vocational trades and advanced stem labs this is question two still uh no question two with the yellow being question one so the yellow was the uh highlighted yellow is what we just showed you question two is the purple the existing building is highlighted in purple because that includes the 6.6 million in renovations in the existing building the bathrooms the locker rooms the gym floor and then the new gym we put as question two so remember we almost took the new gym out um but because it's a uh it's it's attached to the new building but it is a separate area we were able to remove it from the um the overall project and put it as as its own question we combined the new gym and the existing Renovations as question two so you see question two as over 12 million is it 12.8 million because there's existing Renovations we do get back a little bit over 3 million from the state so you're looking at that question being at around $9 million now remember the 29 million is split accordingly between East Rutherford and carlat so question one if East Rutherford if East Rutherford resident says you know what I may not be able to deal with the 49 but I could deal with the 29 it's not even 29 it's 15 you know 14 to 15 million depending on you know what the percentage is so for 1415 million you're getting one of the most advanced stem in uh um institutions yes but also spaces in Bergen County and across the state you're getting one of the most advanced special ed high school facilities for a traditional public high school and you're getting um Advanced Construction Hands-On trades coming back to the high school that's just for the 14 million for East Rutherford if we were to talk municipality versus municip it um so that is question two and the new gym is a full-size regulation gym so it would meet code for um High School sports that would want to um that would want to compete in that gym and I don't know if you've been following because I can't even keep up our sports program has absolutely exploded um every single program at beckon has exploded over the past few years we have double trip triple digit numbers um in everything for example APS are going when from 14 a few years ago we'll have 36 advanced placement classes next year uh dual enrollment has increased by double I had six 15 students on stage for National Honor Society three years ago I had 72 just this past um year so it and then as I said Sports is also exploding so uh in many many different areas so we want to try to keep up with our kids that want to be involved next slide just another rendering of what the gym would look like we can put this up um and we actually maybe we can talk a little bit about that what goes up and what um doesn't for other you know various different reasons um just some pictures of our these are our current bathrooms current locker rooms current Performing Art Center for a fairly young High School building um you know the bathrooms and some of the other areas I have no idea you know they they were definitely Visionaries I do have no idea where that teal color came from um but you've guys have been in our performance Art Center we're performing susal to musical this spring come visit again definitely needs uh some upgrading there and the good thing about this and jenel say it as well our business administrator is these things need to be updated within the next five 10 years the board trustees and the business administrator superintendent know that money comes through capital reserve so if question two is passed that $6.6 million that you would generate through capital reserve throughout the years no longer has to be used on capital projects so that 6.6 million goes back into the budget and can be used for other things so when people ask how are you going to fund the extra teachers how are you going to fund some of the extra programs how you going to sustain those programs if question two passes you will not only have revenue from question one coming in remember when I talked about the special ed and then I I can talk a little bit later about the Maywood contribution you will also have the um additional Revenue that you don't have to spend on capital projects as we uh as we realize that through the capital projects that'll be completed within this referendum and then we have question three question three is that building when you're driving on Patterson Avenue that um white Warehouse building um that would be renovated to be a full um trades uh vocational And Trades program if you could go to the next slide that's a little rendering of what it would look like and then inside we visited uh various different uh schools one um Essex campus Academy in Newark which was A180 million um stem program that I believe uh the car Rabino um was was uh was a member of or was the were the Architects for and this is a little rendering of what it looked like uh these would these would include some of the major trades and Hands-On programs that students may want want to go into but it will also include instructional space for those students uh if they want to learn about those different trades an opportunity for what's called an 18 to 21 year old program so we not only have to educate students uh with disabilities up until they graduate high school but there are some students that we have to educate until they're 21 years old that costs 65 to 70,000 a student with transportation we have a decent amount that we educate till they're 21 years old we want to keep those students home if we can I won't get into all the details but you just think about night school think about all the other opportunities that we can have with this building as well the three projects together total 49.3 million so those are all the three areas visually of what you would uh you would see and I believe now this takes me to the tax impact um and I'll bring up our business administrator Miss Khan to talk a little bit about the estimated tax impact you could go right to the next slide thank you thank you Dr sporza um okay so tax impact um for question number one question number one is the heart of the project on this referendum um it has a tax impact um actually has a price tag of 29.4 million like Dr fora mentioned before um and the tax impact the average the annual average tax impact for question number one is $12 a month or three C for every $100 of assess valuation so what does this mean this means that you don't look at the market value of your home when you make this calculation you look at your your um your statement that you get from your tax assessor and you look at what your property is assessed at and you take for every hundred $ that your properties assessed that you apply the three cents to it and that for the average home I think we calculated based on a a home priced at about $450,000 it would be about $12 a month okay next slide please question number two so a good reminder that I like to make every time I I make this presentation is that for questions number two and three to be able to pass we must first pass question number one so question number one is the heart of the project and all the other stuff is the icing on the cake that we may choose to select for our district referendum so what is question number two about like Dr Spa mentioned before is the new gymnasium we're gonna we're planning to make safety and facility improvements that's the Improvement of our bathrooms our our um our locer rooms our performing Art Center at a price tag of about $1.7 million what I like about this question is the fact that it gives us the um the ability to collect $9.5 million plus from the state of New Jersey as a school aid because these are Renovations that are made to the school so the price T of 12.7 million gets reduced to 9.5 after we apply the state aid that we would receive as a result of passing question number two okay next slide um the question number three is the expansion of the trades and Vocational program that's the building that is located across the street from beckon Regional and that's priced at $7 million for a tax impact of sorry I can't see the the bottom was it $3 $3 per month and it's about a penny for every $100 of assess valuation if we can go back to question number two because I forgot to mention I think the tax impact for the average price of a home in each of the towns is about $6 a month for this question okay if we can just next slide please next slide okay so I'm going to turn it back to Dr Forza who's going to talk about the the taxes that are paid or applied to each municipality for school taxes so I just want to talk quickly about this because this is one of the rumors that are going around it went around the first time it's going around again um is how much does carlat East ruford bwood pay we know Maywood is a send Reed District so they have a tuition with beckton Regional High School they had tuitions with other school districts and some people like to extrapolate numbers and then manipulate the numbers and what we personally say um put fear into some others as to um how to vote or or why they should or shouldn't vote uh based on these uh these hypothetical numbers or really what I'm just going to say candidly are fictitious numbers and I've warned those individuals not to use you know numbers especially if you're in a position of authority that aren't real um these are some of the uh uh we wanted to de buunk some of those myths so let's talk quickly about on average how much Carl that East Rutherford and Maywood pays in school taxes so you have your school taxes uh Carl said I believe is in the average of 7500 per year out of the 7500 they pay about $3,100 in school taxes East Rutherford you pay a little bit more you pay about 4200 in your K through 12 school taxes Maywood is actually paying the most in school taxes so and then now let's look at the High School portion because we are a Regional High School so we don't get all those all those funds we don't get all the school taxes we only get a portion and some of the numbers that are put out there they start to break it down per pupil and the problem with that is we are not a per pupil District that is not how the law was written when the two municipality decided to join the two districts for example if East Rutherford sends 800 students to beckon or if they send one student to beckon their tax levy remains exactly the same um often use your house for this example your house is assessed at a certain value you pay taxes based on the assessed value of your home whether there's 20 individuals living in your home or one individual living in your home you pay those same that that same amount of money the the what what made it um attract RVE to some individuals that like to play with the numbers for whatever beer tactic that they're trying to use is that Maywood pays a contribution that is a per pupil based on a tuition uh send Reed contract but even with that send Reed contract you can see they're paying the most out of the three municipalities when it comes to um their High School tax levy we don't get all of maywood's 2000 we only get about half of that their other the other half goes to their added District cost now what Maywood said is if you have an opportunity to keep kids home we will give you that option they don't want to send their kids at a district just like you know nobody else does they are willing to adjust their tuition contract and give that to us but this is pretty eye openening here um because out of the funds that are paid because the high schools often you know um I guess the focal point of the community which it should be and um gets a lot of ATT attention but only about on average $1,000 in carlet is going to beckon Regional High School only 1,500 is going um from East Rutherford to beckon Regional High School and Maywood total 2,000 um is going through all their 9 through 12 so these are the real numbers based on I think this is 2022 or 2023 assessed um valuation um not any other numbers that you may be hearing out there um these are the exact there's nobody paying $25,000 per pupil or or per per household right this is what you need to look at is what am I paying for my house to send for beckon Regional High School and on average anise Rutherford is $1,500 that's those are real numbers um thank you you can go to next slide important Note S I don't know if you want to talk quickly about uh something that we are finding um in the past couple of weeks not many people don't know about you want me to just jump in it you want okay so um one of the important um items that we realized the past couple weeks that we've been talking about you've been hearing about it more and more is the senior citizen uh New Jersey senior citizen property tax reimbursement program or freeze um we um have talked to a few senior citizens who said that they haven't heard about this or maybe they don't know how to navigate it um so we are looking to possibly reach out to the seniors and host a session at beckon re um only be only for the moral reason not even for the referendum but of course that would be beneficial depending on what how they want to decide to vote is that any senior and they just increased it above the age of 65 that has a household income of 163,000 or lower or less um is eligible to apply for the New Jersey senior freeze property tax reimbursement program that does not take away any funds from the municip IP ality the municipality still receives the same amount of funds um but it does freeze their taxes uh for the which I would assume would be the foreseeable future so um this eliminates you know any uh any trepidation from Seniors on you know whether or not they're they're on fixed incomes um they will will see a property tax freeze if they were to apply for this program so if you compare it to the referendum then that means if they were to vote in favor the referendum they would their taxes would not their taxes would increase but they would they would stay the same as they were prior to the referendum a very very important program whether the referendum goes through or not I do feel we have an obligation to make this available to our seniors and we've been shocked the past couple meetings that we've had whether it be board meetings or other meetings that you know when senior when seniors are coming to the podium and saying we're on fixed income you can't do this and we present this they're like no we know nothing about about it is there any way we can get some information so I think it's our moral obligation maybe collectively to see if we get this information out to them um so thank you I I know this has been a long time this is the referendum timeline if all goes well the addition would be occupied by September 2026 and I would definitely lean on East Rutherford to give me some tips when it comes to construction and making sure that the dates and the calendars are all worked out uh but the the first shovel would go in ground um in about year so students um that would come into beckon in 2026 would realize all four years of of the new addition and all the new programs and then of course uh um there would be some students that would receive one year two years three years depending where they lie in the uh referendum timeline so I think there's a couple more slides and then we'll just wrap this up the deadline to register to vote is the 20th uh what we found with the first project was access and and and information for parents and for community members and you you might have read some some recent press on that we believe that people should have an opportunity to hear the information and hear the facts that is what we believe are fundamental values that we as Americans live by is give the people the information give them the Forum and let them decide whether or not they want to vote up down or don't vote at all access to information we found was a big problem the first time around and you know be being a Regional High School we appreciate any opportunities that we have to present to your constituents here in the K through 8 districts because we don't have access to them and the ability for you to give them the information we're not saying vote Yes or vote no we're just saying give them the information to make it a fair opportunity to get a good representation of what the community wants and we heard a lot we spoke about it with the stakeholders is that a lot of K througha parents just simply didn't know about it um so we we're we're trying everything in our power just to make them um know about it so the deadline is the 20th yeah it's okay next slide that's it no you can skip the next slide that's an old information session our next official information session um is the 22nd that's in person at beckton Regional High School um got some good tips from I believe Giovani gave me this one which is bring all the Professionals in the room and let uh let the public go to the different professionals to ask them questions so that if somebody doesn't want to talk to me they can go to The Architects they can go to the bond attorney they can go to the finance advisors we are going to do a short presentation maybe a tour but that's February 22nd we're looking to possibly add a senior citizen Saturday morning with coffee and donuts to take them through the senior tax freeze and then um we are um in talks about adding some additional dates um for early March so any questions we're on Instagram um we have a special email designed for the referendum Communications at beckon hs.org our website is up with some information um we we're on Twitter as well and um we hope you you know spread the word and go out to vote uh March 12 and we'll open up the floor for questions now if there's any questions I'll open up to any questions board members yeah Dario uh that was rude uh not for me first of all thank you for the presentation I I was at the uh virtually at the first presentation as well I appreciate all the work you're doing to get the word out um just to so I've heard and I'm sure a lot of us have heard about the per pupil right so I it's my understanding that also part of the discrepancy is that we don't pay for the special that out of district for Maywood right and so that that be the the the tuition that they pay plus the out of District tuition that's what really closes the Gap is that correct that's correct so we do not pay for maywood's at a district cost um that's why you see their ta their High School tax levy is more than Carl said in East brother firsts y um so there if if we were to pay for that full cost then of course you would get you would see all those funds that's where the Gap is there and then the other question is so for the trades I know we we've talked during meetings and um are there certifications or are there plans to apprenticeship programs or what are the plans really for you know the functional aspect of the trades program so the Hands-On trades programs are uh going to be scaffolded and they're going to grow with the different programs that we have in the district they could be uh joined with different programs that we have but the answer to your question is are there going to be certain certifications the answer is yes right now we only have one we have a culinary program that you can be certified once you graduate um we want to start small with certain programs and then seeing the student interest we would add to those different Hands-On vocational programs as we go along and depending on student interest they can continue in the program and receive the full course let's say if it's an electrician's program or they can just dabble in different programs and learn learn different kinds so that's one thing we want to to differentiate ourselves from the tech schools and from some of the um vocational schools at the county well first of all we want to offer it to all 850 students and we know that the ability to get in you either have to meet a very high academic standard or you have to have an IEP that's the only way you'll get in to the tech schools or the trade schools um I don't think they were originally designed like that but that's that is what it is we want to offer that opportunity to every single kid and if you enter beckon you're going to have a freshman seminar course where you could taste a little bit of everything and then you can can either continue to do that throughout your high school career or you can say you know what I really fell in love with this engineering program or this robotics program um and I'm GNA continue that throughout my high school career Y and then one last question sorry everyone um so you mentioned that two and three are contingent on one is three also contingent on two no so the O the question that needs to pass is uh question one in order for two or three or three okay perfect thank you thank you both thank you again thank you very much just th those I'm sorry no just just any of the parents that are home if they have any questions because we don't have the chat feature here it's important to look what's on the screen right now if you have any questions to contact Dr spores and his team if there's any questions about the referendum Thursday come next Thursday correct next Thursday at 6:30 thank you okay uh H hi oh sorry oh go ahead um with the trade schools um are you looking to moving forward open that up to other towns and other districts if as like almost like another Revenue Source um without scaring people right because sometimes uh when you see further than others um it it you I realized during the first time it's not me it's just us right um You it gets complex and it gets um uh complex is the word we're able to talk because I've been infected now almost 11 years and I'm able to see things that you you take these intellectual risks of building building programs and I remember last year when I spoke at the graduation I spoke to the third graders of when I started those high school graduates were third graders right and that's what I want parents at the grade schools to realize is even me my my oldest daughter is in third grade and I know I'm digressing a little bit but if we don't start planning for her High her high school now then she's not going to receive and then I have another daughter and another son they're not going to receive the things that takes years to plan um so with respect to your question would we open up to other high schools or would we open up spots potentially um I think the sky is the limit uh with this now they would never though take a spot of a beckon Regional student which is great because the spots at the county levels and at the special ed schools are limited what we're saying is we're going to build something ourselves here we don't have to go out and if there's any other any extra spots then maybe we can open it up I would say that would probably though be if all three questions went through right so question one would be just enough for our 850 900 students um all three questions you would have opportunities to grow and that's you know that's that uh Visionary look to what else can be offered when you're expanding your campus thank you can I just ask one quick question across East the ver and Carl that how many students do we currently have out of District like roughly so roughly out of District right now we're looking well over a 100 okay yeah well over 100 and then East uh Maywood is is another uh 50 60 70 Maywood has 420 students we only get 315 so just think about that for a second so they don't want to send their kids other places they still Maywood still has you know a track uh a record of sending a lot of kids to private schools we've got a lot of those students back um I I want to say one important thing if this goes through the tuition contract for Maywood it will be adjusted based on whatever we decide to negotiate right now that is set until 2030 they are willing to adjust their tuition to give us more per pupil um they do pay send receive per pupil if this uh goes through because they realize the obviously they realize the benefits from it thank you good question anybody else okay now I will open it to the public on referendum questions only uh thank you as the oldest person in the room I forgot what I was goingon to ask um okay uh Dr SZ thanks again for the look it so don't worry about thank you um I happened to be president of the seniors by I was at the meeting one day and they they looked at me and uh I'm nowhere near a tax freeze or anything yet uh my mother was a senior citizen I'm not a senior citizen that's I don't consider myself one if we can go back to um the $55 million uh I'm sorry the 55,000 square feet the that included the the gym but then it was on the on the next slide as well um if you go back a little bit more a little bit more a little bit more okay uh that one now that one from what I understood when you were doing the presentation it includes the annex but then the annex was part of question two or three sorry what you see here is the scope of the total revised project so this in this here is question one the gym and the facilities upgrades is question two okay and the Annex Building yeah yeah wherever it is there there it is building is building is question three our architect uh valdemar wants to jump I'm going to correct that because the 55.8 that's the question number one and the gy because the question number one it's 47.2 and the gy is 8600 so the 5058 that's first question and a second question so what we did what we should probably question and the second question and the Annex Building it's 11,000 which is separate from the first number I I could see how it get confusing what we did with this slide was the total project it's everything together what it look like but I could see the confusion so what we'll do is we'll split that up on the uh on any future sides um I I just want to um go over what I've heard going around town I understand that Maywood would contribute up to $20 million that was a number that I saw in writing towards this referendum okay thank you for clarifying that I understand they'll they'll pay a little more tuition per student to offset the cost that's correct will that bring down the average cost per household no no so that's already factored into the chart that very good question um for those of us that are new to this referendum um or the first one one of we we try to dispel a lot of the rumors one of the rumors which I guess was a rumor and a possibility although a very rare possibility is we can't vote on this because what if Maywood leaves they're just going to leave us hanging now the the if it's it's uh difficult to understand what it takes to leave a district right it took them 10 years and and and uh very strict legal requirements for them to be able to leave hackin sack um but I understand that a um a an a rumor like that what it could do the anxiety that it could um uh do for residence so what we did was we removed them from the equation the numbers that you see here are the numbers whether Maywood Le leaves or or stays and maywood's not leaving um but those are those are the numbers there so any added cost that Maywood would would uh uh we would generate from Maywood would be additional revenue for all students um and and the budget and you know anything else that we would need to realize with that gap between the 2% and any inflation cost over the years okay so there there upping their contribution per student would not affect what the business administrator the amounts or it would not affect it um again I believe I read that in the sber and I maybe it was the the reporter that wrote it wrong or but again thank you for clarifying that the other question is uh did you already purchase the annex that's another thing floating around it's it's in its final um it's under it's under contract and in its final stages of uh closing closing out the purchase we had to we have to meet some requirements which we're working on right now yes okay so what was the final cost of that building if you final cost will be 1.1 million okay and that you use Capital Improvement money to buy it and be you'll reimburse it you replenish it with the referendum um that we won't replenish with the referendum okay so um so we we had enough in capital to purchase that out so the actual building is already yours is already any any construction any construction or uh renovation of it so if question three does not go through then the board will have to decide what they want to do with the property but one of the important things years go when the property went up for sale in the board realized that the district is continuing to expand it's one of the only areas um around beckon Regional High School that we would be able to acquire um and we wanted to the board wanted to determine the destiny of that site we didn't want a plan you know a developer to come in and build a a 10-story building and drown out beckon and bring more traffic than we need to for Patterson Avenue there so we will deter the board will and the community will DET determine the destiny of that site we have a plan for it but if that plan doesn't go through then the board will be able to you know decide what it wants to do with that uh with that site now and for forever you know as long as beckon is around yeah you can always lease it out not sell it and this way it's your always yours if you want to expand in three or four years right that's a great point you don't have a choice there's not a lot of property around we won't be um in any rush to remove the tenants uh we can continue to collect any revenue from those tenants until we decide what we want to do okay um the parking where where is the staff and gonna Park while during construction so um you may not be able to see it but if you go back a little bit to one of the renderings one of the big questions was um from the first time around was and maybe yeah that one's fine the other one was fine was the um the additional parking you can use this one you can really use anyone so one thing that we did this summer we didn't Market it as much as we probably should have but we spent um a decent amount of money adding about 50 I think it was 50 or 55 parking spots and we probably should Market this a little bit more right so we we added 55 spots because that was one of the um um um hesitations with the first referendum is you're building is building but you're not adding spots so we added 55 spots here valdemar just jump in I believe there's about 15 or 18 on the side here and then another TW another 16 um on top so you're looking at 5060 70 80 90 90 extra parking spots that we've at that we would add uh once this uh entire project goes through the mall management has been very very uh accommodating to us as well because they realize how much business they're getting you know with our with the added students and they've been very very generous we haven't really um you know there stud some students park there every once in a while but any added um programs or or individuals that renting the high school you know that exceeds a thousand we could always you know uh Park in the in the area but we added over 80 spots or once this goes through it will be over 80 spots good to hear and I'm sure the local businesses will appreciate the construction workers too um how are you going to get to from the main campus to the annx are you g to make a Cornelius Street are you going to ask the town to make Cornelius Street a resident only um during school days or you going to build a tunnel or fly over no uh I'm scared to say I'm scared to say the the b word um I'm not I'm not I'm not saying it although we are building those to The Next Century but um the it's actually if you were to and if you're around tomorrow when just walk it it's it's about five steps right across the street um there is an entrance to the Annex Building here so you don't have to walk to the main um the you know Patterson Avenue to get into the building the garage will still be there to get in big trucks or get in big material but there will be an entrance that goes from where the students would walk where the buses would drop off there is an indentation you asked about Bus drop off there will be an indentation for buses there but that is probably uh I don't know about what the width of a that road there that's 10 feet yeah 20 20 feet um and we will not be asking the town unless they offer it but we will not be asking the town to close that to close the street during school I I mean there's there's residential there so yeah yeah no the reason being that like it would it would force everyone to go on to hackin saac Street and it just backs it up a lot um I know they gave you about eight spots uh I don't think we would be a to anyway because we have a parking lot um here an administrative parking lot right the the closest crosswalk is parallel to patteron and if they put another one you know with the lights and whatever uh to go to the door you just mentioned okay um I just want to say uh thank you for reminding us about the senior tax Frees I am well aware of it we we preach it all the time like the gospel at the senior meetings I help the seniors get it I know they upped it from $996,000 to1 50 per household 163 163 this year so if you don't qualify and you're making 163 as a senior God bless you you know um it really is so uh I have a lot of seniors that had that problem when it was 90 and I just want to let you know the seniors are open-minded they have grandchildren they're going to come through the elementary school they're going to come through the high school they really you know they're set for life I mean their husbands if they're widows their husbands or vice versa their spouse left them in really good shape I think they're all about you know sometimes um we get a bad rap we yet I think a lot of them are well off enough to um to be Visionaries like you said yourself uh and uh Mr G um you know they want to leave the town better than they found it so yeah that's that's exactly what I mean this is not for you this is not for me this is not for anybody here yeah um it's great to hear uh if if we if we don't do these things for the kids that don't have a voice then who will right we're the board administrators the benefit is is is those individuals so we appreciate that and if if we can contribute in any way uh I know my parents would not be able to navigate a computer let alone write a letter in English um so miss Khan is the same thing so in order for my parents to be able to qualify for that which they would they would need individuals like us to sit down and help them navigate at it but that's whether somebody uh is is uh you know speaks the English language well or not it's just the technology and the the platforms get a little bit difficult so if we can help with our National Honor Society students and just have a fun Saturday morning we'll reach out to you and see if you think that'll be a good idea it's a very simple step you lock it in one year I don't know if you know how it works okay SE senior tax frees is the year you turn 65 you lock in how much taxes you made how much taxes you paid you paid $8,000 you own a one family house multif family houses you only get 50% back or the portion of the multif family house that you actually occupy you lock them in at $8,000 you're like I'm in in 2024 let's say you turned 65 or you were disabled taxes can go to $14,000 you'll get that $66,000 back now if the taxes dip they go to 79,000 7,950 you're not going to get a a refund or rebate that year but that's pretty much how it works it's pretty simple oh yeah it's the first year is the hardest you lock it in and then they send you a pre-printed form for the rest of your life with the amount that you froze in and it's the tax assessor takes it from there certify the taxes that you pay yes and then you send that to the state and then you do but the pre after you do it the first year the amount whatever the taxes were like I said there were $7,950 that amount is yours for that amount is yours forever yeah all right thank you any other questions seeing none I close uh the open public comments um thank you Dr sza and your team for coming Dr for being at our board meetings are televised so this will be on YouTube and the entire process will stay in archives on our website so people can just keep revisiting it if they missed the meeting yeah thank you thank you all thank you I up okay so at this time GNA have Mr Jean CASRO finish his superintendence report thank you just have a couple of things on adendum items if you just look at those real quick just to go over I did not go over with the board which you received so under six uh two I'm sorry s6a um underneath the approval for bus evacuation drills so uh what we're doing is the Once of September we're amending just to make sure that they have the um correct criteria in it which is the date the time the route and of course the principal bus driver that was involved so that's going to be 26a which is one from September with reports to follow um as well as s7a which is the current one that we just just had yesterday uh which files in suit with the requirements um that are in code 6A 27- 111.2 uh the next one is under curriculum 2A which is rivell high school which is a varsity debate team our debate team with u Mr maak is going to be meeting with beckon Regional High School going over to give a little flavor of debate team which is great opportunity for our Wildcats uh let's see under Personnel items p4a um we have the New Jersey Ed Summit that's the AI uh we're hoping to get a little bit more guidance and policies and regulations so uh Mr valard and I will be attending that training the other ones before you is community based instruction series is is a um a virtual they don't have to leave campus but it is a virtual uh program uh for the following staff members that are there and then we have two staff members on the P4 A10 and P4 a11 that's the climate resiliency that's the seal social emotional learning um that is a requirement that we send staff members um for those initiatives that we have uh PSA uh P I'm sorry p hold on PSA PSA PSA p5a thank you I got PSA on my mind goodness gracious yes uh so P5 a is the uh retirement notification of Miss Nancy mckinty with regret uh we wish her well in her retirement and that's all I have oh wait sorry one more thing one more thing um trusty uh shemy you had asked for the comparison for the fill rates so I said I have that for you yes and was I didn't you say l Oh I thought you did okay I'm b in a thousand today all right it's great I ask a lot of questions trying to take it off of you exactly so sure there you go so what we did was we looked back at the fill rate um being at the board had um allowed me to make the decision of going forward with increasing our sub rates because we were having a very difficult time filling Subs so um the report in front which says the pink coding uh is 2022 23 school year so if you look at that you look at the second sheet I gave you the individual fill rates per day but if you look at the second sheet in that pack it you'll see the percentile but I summarized everything for you in this document here right so the pink column will give you the monthly fill rate so in September you're at a 49% fill rate over the month from September December we don't have enough past February otherwise I would I can still run this to you so at the June board meeting I can give you an update on this so you can see in the month of September with the increase that the board decided to move forward with a 61% increase percentage change fill rate October 74% November 93% so it's an upward trajectory so you can see December we doubled the amount and then January 153% we're increasing the fill rate so it was a significant increase so it was a great decision on the board to increase that um but also do understand that the the the percent the amount of staff members that are also absent has increased as well right so there's the direct correlation of the number of teachers that are out and versus the number of Phil so that's but you have that's why I gave you the individual days in like almost like a calendar format so it's easy to read you know so if you do have any questions on this after looking over I just gave it to you tonight so if you have any questions for the next board meeting just let me know and then I'll I'll every month I could add the next fill for you so February March April all the way through Mr Sig does anybody have any questions I have a question yes uh no actually it's not a qu it's more of thank you for this I I I asked actually Mr Varon asked months or a year ago about this just to make sure kind of the question's always been is Kelly Services working and then we almost a year ago maybe eight months ago or so we made the decision okay it's the the price right the corre the rate we do we said let's try that first just so other board members don't we said we'll try that first see if the fill rate increases before we re-evaluate Kelly so I mean it's it' be good to have the I don't think this needs to be a thing you do every month to be honest with you I think so maybe the end of the year yeah at the end of the year maybe but this is sufficient evidence I don't want you spend time on this fi a lot of on your plate but the year yeah the year-over-year increase is pretty significant price and I mean I don't know our comparison to other districts but I imagine you know 70% 80 you know that that seeing that fi rate is pretty great so we we're not having teachers having to cover for other classrooms right we're not so we have a little bit of continuity so thank you for no problem and just another thing too as we build the 24 25 school year Mr vachi and I have been working with this uh to increase the number the dollar amount um we when we build a budget especially in this area we look at Trends so back when I first started was nine years ago we were funding substitute service about $135,000 for a given school year then it started trending upward to about2 $15,000 and then right before covid it went down and we were budgeting so it was around $175 to 155 um and right now it's like real tight so most likely if we look at the current Trend we're probably going to have to budget anywhere from 200 to $225,000 for substitute service throughout school year and that includes nursing Paras um teaching staff so just to keep that in mind keep that number tucked away as once we present to the board the preliminary budget you'll see that line item there and then just fire away any questions that you have but just keep that tucked away that that's a a good number to think about um mam president just one other thing we were talking that I need the board to make a decision tonight on the preschool preschool tuition so I you sent that out Mr V Ry to the staff to the yes I have to thank my colleagues who did respond to me for those who do charge um full day and half day so I did share with everyone uh on the um all the board members as you can see we do charge the lowest the next lowest full day is rochell Park and then you you you could just see then I believe em then was Saddlebrook and then you had Emerson obviously different parts of the county are going to charge a little bit more but I think a good compar is rochell Park the arcade District just like us and they are charging more than what we are charging right now if we were to increase this by the 10% we said I've received information we have about 25 students who pay tuition we're looking at an extra 12,500 in Revenue which will certainly help us for the 2425 budget $125,000 right 12,000 no 12,500 if we increase it by 10% which would bring it to 5500 we have 25 paying based on the numbers we have right now so just any questions yeah um so this would I mean it we call we call re I always feel Revenue it's not right because we we we're paying the teachers for the that are in there right we're paying like the C I imagine the costs have also gone up so have we done a calculation of kind of yes see you know the the funds in versus the expenses you know yes well I I looked at that earlier today today we've budgeted without health benefits between just salaries alone is almost 200 around $245,000 and we're only bringing in about maybe 100,000 less than that and that's not including supplies That's not including um health benefits for our teachers owers in there so so just to piggyback on what um Mr brochi saying is that we how do you have a district we without preschool right this is the way we're moving um if we don't bring in revenue and it's not like we're making money right we're not in the field of making money but realistically we have to bring Revenue in to offset the costs and we have to stay within the 2% tax Lev right which is about 354,000 roughly for the new year give our take give her take um so keeping that in mind you know when we have an opportunity to do this you know it would help now um Dr King Dobson and I are currently in the process of filling out the grant preschool Grant um which could bring in significant money to the district which will help offset the cost so one of the roles after qac that was the biggest thing for us right so now the Kack is gone um we can now focus on this grant writing and then reach out to the local preschools which I've reached out to prior to this um to see if there is because there is no other room but room at their facility um to do this and this this Grant and correct me if I'm wrong um Mr BR that it could be used for salaries and Ben you know benefit all that stuff that we could really Ranch out to because there was a cry out honestly God from parents like oh my goodness Mr G why don't we have the room why can't we I don't want to send my child a daycare i' rather go to preschool three and four year olds you know so the the want is there the demand is there it's just the resources that this board has always been board previous I know this board has been very supportive of the children so it's just we're trying so I want parents to know that we are trying we want to see we're in the process of filling out this grant so once believe me once I know you will know and believe me the parents will know and if I could piggy bank this is not a grant considered Aid once you are awarded this this does not go away but you do need to meet stent guidelines you have to meet certain goals but it is well worth it my old District be were awarded and we thought it was a grant and they said no this is eight this is permanent you get it as long as you stay within you meet the parameters of the of the preschool expansion Aid you will continue to get this so it's not a grant that it's you get it and then it goes away it's there so go ahead I was gonna ask if anybody had any other questions yes um so it I know we are now talking about anticipating but say we receive this grant will we offer relief to the parents that are paying like what what does that from a practical standpoint what does it look like we we get the Grant and it's s it but right that would be get the parents would not pay it it would be free free it is free yes uh I know some of the town uh bota has it all states park has it Little Ferry has it once you are awarded this any parent any family that pays tuition no longer pays because that money is now subsidized by the aid coming from the state right and that was and that was also something that we were looking at if you remember some of the past board members that have been with me we were looking at possibility of some land right near McKenzie school um that could potentially go for sale because it's really important to be a Visionary right and look at this and I know the the onset of a cost to taxpayers is very concerning right as a board where we have to try to make sure taxes stay low however when you look at that and not that we're not in the business to make money but when we have grants like this that we could have an expansion explosion of an expansion like this that meets the needs of our parents that are begging for this I mean I feel so bad that there's a waiting list every year 30 30 to 35 parents we send away you know and it's just awful that we have to do this but this is a way to to meet the need of the district so you'll definitely be informed as we move through that's all I have M as I promis this time plus these are mostly like upper Bergen County Schools did the lower Bergen County Schools not get back to us with uh un unfortunately those are the responses that I did receive okay yeah but I know off the top of my head I know off the top of my head Little Ferry Pates Park and Bot they they do have it I was gonna say my question was allloy basically they have that Grant then that really doesn't I know that little fer was charging about the same that what we're charging currently right now until they received the a they they qualified for it so this extension to the amount of money could be shortlived keep that in perspective that your decision may not be that would are we applying for the grant for the 2425 school year okay thank okay any other questions no yeah I was gonna say we are not no we are now if if Mr Gan CASRO is done with his report yeah is it in the here or the W the Pres I know we okay so at this time I will open to the hearing of the citizens opening public comments on any agenda or non-agenda item items state your name address uh for the record address the board president each person wishing to speak will have five minutes each anyone wishing to speak will be given the opportunity to do so seeing none I will close the hearing of the citizens uh correspondance to the members of the board none uh option of Prior board meeting minutes upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves the following meeting minutes January 3rd 2024 the reorg public session meeting minutes January 3rd 2024 reorg executive session meeting minutes January 11th 2024 work session meeting minutes January 11th 2024 work executive session me meeting minutes January 18th 2024 public session meeting minutes January 18th 2024 public executive session meeting minutes motion so moved second can I ask a quick question though I don't know if we got clarification at the last meeting so on the meeting minutes where it has our votes it's listed as abstained do we have to list a separate column if it was a refusal versus an abstention yeah it should be reflected as if it's a refusal it should be reflected so should we not vote on them tonight so we can fix those no you can vote on how many are there I don't I'd have to go back and look couple a handful I think you do put like an like I was just looking at it you do put an R oh is that what the r is yeah inste a I think what they were asking for Tom was if we can have a separate column next to obstain to have req you put R under the obain you're fine okay I didn't realize that was what the r was for okay yeah you're welcome I try Okay uh Mr Banker is absent and Miss kuso is absent Miss KY yes Miss Mena yes Miss shimley yes Mr seini uh yes to all but the 11 and Miss laruso yes all right moving on to the superintendent resolutions upon the recommendation of the superintendant the board hereby approves motions S1 through S5 S1 one approval of fire and emergency drill report S2 approval of enrollment report S3 approval of harassment intimidation and bullying monthly report S4 resolution affirming uh the superintendent decision relating to an alleged harassment intimidation and bullying incident S5 resolution affirming the superintendent's decision relating to an alleged harassment intimidation and bullying incident I do have a question we didn't go over those did did we doing SEC so we're gonna table S4 and S5 oh no that's S4 and S5 is from last month yeah that's last month but I do have something Madam president so there is a typo and I just noticed so um you'll be approving tonight on the Lincoln school which I will change there are number of alleged at Lincoln School will be two and one confirmed oh yeah yeah and the in S3 S3 so let the record reflect S3 approval of a harassment intimidation and bullying monthly report number of alleged under the Lincoln School two number of one in a number of verified incidents one because that's that's what we'll be voting on uh so moved on yeah okay Mr banker and Miss Caruso are absent Miss colie yes Miss meta yes Miss shamley yes Mr seini yes and Miss laruso yes does sorry does Irena have to abstain on the one from December S4 uh yes okay yeah yeah yeah because we talked about it in January yep yeah thank you correct yeah yep thank you Jones curriculum committee Miss sh thank you Madame President on the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion C1 C1 approval of student field trips and transportation requests for 2023 2024 school year as before you second roll call Mr banker and Miss Caruso are absent Miss KY yes Miss Mana yes Miss shamley yes Mr segalini yes and Miss laruso yes thank you Miss shy uh Personnel committee Mr segalini thank you madam president upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions P1 through P4 P1 approved the Kelly education substitute list list P2 Personnel actions P3 leave of absence P4 approval of travel expenditures as before you so moved second call Mr B and Miss Caruso are absent Miss KY yes Miss Mena Miss shamley yes Mr sealin and Miss laruso yes that ends my report Madam president thank you physical facilities Mr seini thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions pf1 to pf3 pf1 approval monthly facilities calendar for February 2024 pf2 approval to amend resolution pf4 a.2 as approved that the 1019 2023 Board of Ed meeting for district use of facilities application pf3 approval of District use of facility ities as before you second roll call Mr B Miss Kus are absent Miss colie yes to all but I'm going to from pf3 pf3 point1 okay thank you Miss Mana so yes but I am recusing myself from pf3 and I pf1 as well p F3 oh we don't .1 hold on we need pf1 and pf3 we may need to table pf31 then because right we only have we don't have an we don't have an absolute majority three yeah so should we table this wait are we they inv yes board member yeah ditto a yes so these are these are OD for Mar 27 right they need because they start March third March 4th they're not right no time number is yeah but we' still we'd still have the two you have three tonight but we need absolute majority foures yeah we need four that's here but we have three thought like that are here you know what I mean doesn't the okay that's fair so then we actually need to table PF you don't have a problem with pf1 right nope just 3.1 just 3.1 okay I think we said once it was appr though we can approve the calendar you can approve with the on it because the the application itself has been yes yeah you're you're just appr you can yeah Miss men it's just a calendar no you don't have to just pf3 point we're going to table that so we are going to table pf3 am I correct corre and same thing is going to come up in the addendum there's an addendum for a facilities application for baseball no that is because there was one extra day so they actually did put an application they forgot the one day they were instructed okay they were approved there was an additional day and the procedure we've set in place is that they need to so I could approve that administrative the next board meeting you just ratify both of those because yeah when we get there okay yeah let's lean on okay on Miss shley yes yes Miss laruso yes okay that ends my report M president yes we we are tbling pf3 yeah yeah way to have involv spous good it's good it's a good thing it's a good thing it's not a bad thing yeah I just want to point out boards we're just like whatever I listen I always when I was on the soccer board I always recused myself from any anything socer uh Community Relations Committee Miss colie recation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motion cr1 approve school calendar for the 245 school year roll call second roll call Mr B and Miss carusa are absent Miss colie yes Miss Mana yes Miss shamley yes and I would just like to say thank thank you it's finally set up with my district so I'm a all the same time since oh you're welcome thank you very it was me personally so you're welcome Mr seini yes M larusa yes that concludes my report thank you well well well uh technology committee nothing to report but you will in the future all right well well well finance committee Mr s thank you Madame President upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions F1 through F9 F1 approval of the bills list number one for February 2024 F2 approval of the January 2024 payroll F3 approval of the Financial reports for January 2024 F4 approval of the transfers for month of January 2024 F5 outstanding checks write off for 2022 2023 F6 approval of outof District tuition contract for the 2023 2024 school year F7 approval to amend resolution f103 as approved at the 817 2023 Board of Ed meeting for Extraordinary services for the 2023 2024 School Year f8 resolution appointing the fund Commission to the Bergen Municipal Employee benefits fund BME F9 approval to amend resolution f104 as approved at the 87 2023 Board of Ed meeting for Extraordinary services for the 2023 2024 school year as before you second roll call before the roll call um signally your questions that you had in the bills list and everything everything answered for you yes sorry thank you to both you and Alex uh for answering all the questions to the bills list and also for sending the financial reports I reviewed everything looks good you're welcome Mr B and Miss Kus are absent Miss KY yes Miss Mana yes Miss shimley yes Mr sagini yes and miss laruso and that ends my last report for you miss Luso thank you um we'll do the addendum items what Miss Mena would you like to do the addendum items sure did except which one what I don't get to do those two pf3 a all right so just pf3 a three though I think I don't three yeah point two is is different yeah yeah we're T yeah yeah oh yeah hasn't right but we have to do everything but you're going to be pf3 a.2 we're do it's the it's the principal Round Table the pf3 a.3 is should be page 54 Miss Mana yes yes there are you're 54 out of 67 on the bottom right corner oh wait I do we do yep 5467 yes what a yes P 3.2 okay upon the recommendation of the superintendent the board hereby approves motions s6a s7a c1a p4a PF p5a pf3 a pf4 a f1a f10a f11a f12a and pf3 a.2 s6a approval to amend resolution S1 School Bus emergency evacuation drill report for the 2023 to 2024 school year as approved at the September 28th 23 Board of Education meeting s7a approval of the school bus emergency evacuation drill report for the 2023 to 2024 school year c1a approval of student field trip requests for 2023 to 2024 PF sorry p4a approval of travel expenditures p5a acceptance of retirement notification Nancy mcy pf4 a approval of contingency allowances f1a approval of bills list number two for February 2024 f9a approval of extraordinary services for the 2023 to 2024 school year f10a approv authorizing execution and delivery of Grant agreement for school facilities project McKenzie Elementary School roof replacement f111a approval authorizing execution and delivery of Grant agreement for school facilities project F Middle School annex roof replacement and f12a approval of extraordinary services for 2023 to 2024 school year and pf3 a.2 District use of facilities second roll call Mr B Miss Kuser abson Miss colie yes Miss Mena miss shamley Mr segalini yes and Miss laruso yes any old business any new business just real quick uh Strauss asked alert 232 as 19 new policies and regulations that'll be for first read in March second read in April happy reading we have to do the preschool now or we do that when we come out wel on when we okay yeah do now Tom yeah we take any other action going taking another action but you guys should do that one now forch to increase 24 don't Fe into feed him do it what he's being fresh over there no I just asked was fin for curriculum at 13 okay we have a walk on item uh f13a upon the recommendation of the superintendent the East shuford Board of Education uh hereby uh increases the preschool tuition for the 2024 2025 school year by 20 by 10% not 20 by 10% um for in District and outof District students so moved second second okay roll call oh sorry Mr banker and Miss Kus are absent Miss colie yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes and Miss Luso yes reflect that it's been open there's nobody here and it's been closed so we didn't forget to do it so that's um let's see uh at this time we're going to going to adjourn to Executive session resolved that in accordance with Section 8 of the open public meeting act chapter 231 the board has the authority to adjourn to close session to discuss matters pertaining to legal Personnel negotiations attorney client privilege and or student matters said matters will be made available Upon A determination by the board that the disclosure of the minutes will not DET detrimentally affect any right or interest of the board the board expects to return to the business portion of the meeting and approximately I would do an underestimate it because if we come back early then that's the problem uh one hour and action may be taken when we return yes and we're going in you resolution has all the possibilities we're going in on Personnel matters I'll give you an update on the contract negotiations with custodians there's uh potential litigation uh attorney client advice on on that um I think that's that covers it oh and Hib stuff yeah I I have a a motion to return to the regular order of business so move second all in favor I I any all right we have four resolutions um we're going to vote on them individually um the board members all have uh the appropriate names uh that apply to each resolution uh the board members have those in front of them and uh the resolutions are each uh approving the termination of employment of employees names who are on file in the superintendent's office and the the board members have notes in front of them uh refelting who each resolution is is regarding so uh I'd first ask someone to move uh P6 dealing uh again with a resolution approving termination of employment of of an employee whose name is on file in the superintendence office if I get a motion on that one so moved second no we need a roll call on that okay Mr B and Miss Caruso are absent Miss colie yes Miss Mana yes Mr seini yes Miss shamley yes and Miss laruso yes okay and uh the next one is resolution p7 approving the termination of employment of a employee whose identity is on file in the super office so moved second okay Mr B Miss Kuser abson Miss KY yes Miss Mena yes Mr segalini yes Miss shimley yes Miss larusa yes next is p8 uh resolution approving termination of employment of employees names on file in the superintendent's office so moved second Mr B and Miss carusa are absent Miss KY yes Miss Mena Mr segalini yes Miss shamley yes Miss Luso yes and finally P9 resolution approving determination of employment of an employees names on file in the superintendent's office so moved second Mr Banker Miss Kuser abson Miss collee yes Miss Mana seini yes Miss shamley yes Miss Luso yes can I have a motion to adjourn moved second