[Music] puru to the open public meeting act chapter 231 the public laws of 1975 this meeting with notied to the as par press on July 8th 2024 has been duly advertised in the ad press issue of July 12th 2024 all Municipal Clerks of the townships the burs within the fre Regional Faceook district has been duly notified and the requirements that this posting was met on July 8th 2024 please stand and join me in pray I to of the United States of America and to the rep for stands one nation indivisible and jce for all Mr you have any changes to our agenda tonight uh yes Mr President uh in addition to the items that were noted on the agenda that was pre-printed Prior uh to the meeting foro executive session where did add and discuss uh the following additional items uh for exception number three uh the board discuss uh an HIV appeal uh and the student dis report uh for exception number uh seven uh report did not discuss uh the paving project but did discuss a shared services agreement uh with Marboro Township and for exception number eight uh the board discussed uh personel issues as noted on the agenda but did not discuss the disciplinary matter for professional staff okay and just pres just one more item just just to note um officially uh that uh on effective uh July 8th uh we received a letter of resignation uh from Mr py who was resigning uh from his uh seat on the board uh sure all the rest of the members will thank Mr frezy for his his his service here um under law the board has 65 days uh to fill that vacancy that would take us to September 11th uh presently uh the board has a board meeting already scheduled uh for August 29th uh so the board will be advertising the vacancy uh and soliciting uh interested applications uh from members of how Township uh who may be interested uh and the cut off uh for resumés will be noted in the advertisement but uh will be uh Friday August 16th thank you I have a motion to approve the minutes of the June 17th 2024 regular board meeting motion second M cob C any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call please Mr ASA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs cello yes Mrs hegley obain I was not here Mrs Lavin yes Miss maob yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes motion carries just a note Communications are on file with the board secretar office we are now going to have our super report thank you Mr berno good evening everyone um on June 20th uh we graduated uh 2,559 students uh from the Freehold Regional High School District um and each year we're required um to report out on our students and number of graduates and number of students that um were denied graduation um but our graduates uh for the class of 2024 are attending some of the best colleges and universities they're pursuing trades and apprenticeships they're joining the mammoth County Police Academy and many uh that we saw evidence that our graduations enlisting in the military we are so extremely proud of our graduates uh we wish them all the best in their future endeavors um you know for this particular class um which I said was 200 uh 2,559 graduates there were 21 students um that did not get their diploma in June um most of those students are working through the summer um and we hope that they will um you know be August graduates We are continuing to monitor them through our guidance offices um but um you know for the entire District uh we wish you know all of our graduates um much success in their Endeavors um also I wanted uh to share with the board and the public um in the freeold Regional High School District um even last school year we were uh really working with students to curtail the use of cell phones um you know like everyone um many of us have it right in our hand are right by our side um you know really almost addicted to these phones and and students are always finding their way um you know even if there's just a small lapse of time this is where they Retreat to it's been an increased distraction for our students in our school um in many times it is disrupting The Learning in the classroom um it interferes with that instruction student learning and we have seen and research says that it negatively impacts students mental health um I want to take a step next school year um and this is really in an effort to achieve the highest academic outcomes for our students that they all have a sense of belonging and community and can are connected to each other not just to this um that we are going to reinforce and and really uh set some very strong expectations um as we move into September that students are not going to be able to have their cell phone you know Insight in during classroom time they will need to be off and put away um this is something uh we have discussed and shared with um our Teachers Association the F we have been working closely with our building principles and administrators um it's an extra step that we really want to take in educating our students but our primary focus when they are in our classes we want them successfully engaged in the instruction that's going on in the classroom and we want to take out that distraction um you know from the process uh we will be communicating this through the summer um it'll be in my communication as well as uh from our building principles um to our parents and we will be clearly communicating our expectations for our students um our parents and our staff um so um just wanted to convey that to our board and you know to the public um also this evening we have a couple of other um more formal presentations um the um State Testing report um it's an annual assessment report um it's for the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment uh students took this test during this past school year the 23 24 school year and there's assessment that our multilingual students take um it's called the access test um so this evening we are going to be uh presenting that report uh Dr Huff um is our director of curriculum and instruction um and um you know when we review those scores um and it's an area um that's been a focus um for uh myself and our administrators uh is in the area of mathematics um so we did see a slight increase in mathematics I want that to be um you know even higher over time and uh putting a lot of measures in place in our schools to ensure we have the necessary uh supports um you know this is a district our scores you know far exceed um the state average um in ela and also in mathematics um so um I see Dr Huff has that up um and to present and um I know she has a lot of ideas uh in working with the cni team and the building principles and administrators and our supervisors um to ensure um that you know our curriculum is implemented and taught in all of our classrooms but we also have the necessary supports in place for our students to achieve at the highest level and uh this Administration is really what we are about is students growing and being able to see that demonstrated growth during their four years of high school with us um so thank you Dr Huff for putting that together and presenting this evening thank you good evening everybody good evening so as Dr Hazel said um we're going to review our data uh from the NJ GPA uh as well as the access for L's um test so just to start as a overview the njpa or the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment is the state standardized test that 11th grade students take to meet the graduation requirements the njpa consists of two 90minut units one in English language arts Ela and the other in mathematics it's designed to um evaluate students ability to think critically to solve problems and to use information to solve problems it is an important assessment it helps us to navigate some of our instructional goals um but it's also important to realize that we use these assessments to evaluate uh useful information about our students uh and their progress in ela M but the state Jersey does also allow for us to use alternative measures to assess students progress and that data is important as well these can include the PSAT the SAT the act or the acup students can also retake the NJ GPA if necessary um or they can complete a portfolio there's several Pathways where they can show proficiency and where we can utilize this data to improve our instruction and to make sure that students have a pathway to graduation as you can see from our scores we have a lot to be proud of in terms of the positives in our data for example overall as you can see the district is well above the state average on the NJ GPA for both Ela and math uh and we did show gains in mathematics from last year's assessments as well which is with progress but our overall goal really is for continued Improvement and to make sure that all of our students are successful and have access to our academic programs so we also want to make sure that we keep our sites on all of our students and provide supports where necessary for example if students in our subgroups um who maybe were not proficient the first time around we make sure that we offer multiple supports um that might include tutoring it might uh offering them to take the assessment again uh we might give them um extra uh instruction in the summer um or alternate Pathways to demonstrate their proficiency and most importantly to improve their learning for two seconds can you go back to the slide before this one sure thanks I like this slide too because I think what it does is it shows our great progress um okay the other assessment as Dr Hazel said is the um access for else this is an assessment that is for um English language Learners and multilingual Learners um and it's taken annually by students who qualify um for the district's multilingual program this test and the purpose of the test is to test students overall language Proficiency in Reading Writing listening and speaking if students receive a 4.5 or higher they can be exited from the program but their continued progress is still our responsibility and we do continue to monitor students to make sure if they need supports moving forward that we can provide that there are six achievement levels that get measured by the access for El's test and all of these achievement levels provide information on the multilingual students continued language acquisition the first one is entering emerging developing expanding bridging and reaching because this test is given annually it allows us to monitor students growth over time and then provide supports as needed moving forward to ensure their continued growth and that's how this data is utilized by the district multilingual Learners come into the district and our schools sometimes at varying levels of language proficiency so we utilize this assessment as well to see where the students are and to make sure that we place them appropriately so that we can provide appropriate instruction and make sure that all of the students improve we did see some um big gains in students uh achievement on the access test this year um and that is a good sign we do you know need to continue to provide professional development and increased instruction for our L's and additional supports which we do including in the summer um but our goal always is for students to show continual Improvement this slide shows our multilingual Learners at grade level and what we want to see over time is that their linguistic abilities and achievement increase the access for L's assessment allows us to monitor that over their time and High School um and that way we can make sure that they have the proper level of instruction and it allows for the teachers and the students and the parents and administrators to look at that data and see where we can provide additional supports uh and where we can um make sure that students get the instruction that they need to show Improvement as well and this is something that we share with them so that they know that there what areas they can work on as well when you consider the data that the district has for testing whether it's the ngj GPA or the access for L's it's really about using that information to make improvements to do interventions where needed um and that's basically the district goal we're committed to continual Improvement and so when we look at these scores we don't just say you know how many students pass that's important but we also say where's our areas of strength where's our areas for growth and then we put in intervention strategies where are needed for example we work to identify students who need additional academic supports in ela and math uh we provide multiple meanss of support for students including tutoring and summer programs for those who qualify and then the administrators supervisors and teachers work collaboratively through professional development to ensure that our instruction is targeted to where students need additional learning and where we can address the areas of need this process of using data for instructional purposes um allows us to continually prepare our students for College and Career After High School and that is our ultimate go thank you I have one question yes what goes in portfolio if the student fails what are some of the things go there that's a great question so when students take the NJ GPA we can see where the student was deficient so the portfolio consists of doing tasks in mathematics or Ela that would enable them to work on areas maybe that where they showed they needed additional support or remediation and then those tasks that they do along with the teacher you're both allowing them to show their proficiency and remediate at the same time but in an area where you know based on their scores where they you know I don't want to say we're weak but yeah but where they can you know Target that instruction because we don't they they're showing some proficiency on the test if you don't meet the cut score obviously you're not proficient but they do show some proficiency what you what we use that dataor and what the portfolio does is it allows you to Target the areas where they still need a little more remediation they get that add an instruction they do the tasks and then that gets sent to the state to prove their proficiency thank you you're welcome thank you thank you Dr Huff and you know um as it pertains to that state assessment uh students take that assessment in the spring of grade 11 um if they don't make proficiency there is another opportunity in the fall of their senior year um uh but what's most most important for us is is growth and you know during a critical time period ensuring that we have uh Jump Start programs after school tutoring and support programs for our students to be able to get the extra assistance they need to be able to um meet that test uh with success first in their junior year but if not in their senior year um also I know um in our multilingual program uh right now we have extensive professional development uh for our ESL teachers uh that's something we're taking great pride in uh because we've had uh a real influx of U multilingual Learners um you know in our program um these past few years uh so very challenging work we have about 260 um and you know probably about 15 years ago it was about a hundred right so this has more than doubled um and you know um you know languages and you know representation from so many more different countries um still predominantly um you know Spanish speaking students uh is the uh predominant language in the multilingual program um but really um we're really putting a much closer eye to see what else we can do to help support the students to our next presentation um we have um the 2324 uh this is the student safety data systems report used to be the electronic violence and vandalism uh report uh Mr Mendes is going to be reporting on phase two which is the second half of the school year from January to June and again I'm very proud of um you know the data uh we saw you know going from phase two in the 2223 school year to phase two in the 2324 school year a real significant drop in major incidents um in our buildings um and that really is a testament and a credit to our hardworking building principles and administrators who are really setting expectations and conditions um know in our schools uh for student behavior and I think when this gets presented tonight um really uh I applaud all the administrators um and our students um for uh really rising to the occasion and and seeking out you know an alternative means or seeing a counselor rather than acting out um you know in an inappropriate um way so um excited to hear uh this report tonight Mr Mendes and the of of supporting the building principles and the administrators on many of these areas thank you Dr Hazel um you know as Dr Hazel said every year school districts have to report out two phases um all the violence vandalism harassment intimidation and bullying and substance abuse uh that happens in the school building and you know as Dr Hazel stated when I present the numbers for phase two this year as compared to phase two last year uh it's most almost all of our numbers have gone down and some have gone down significantly so it is definitely a tribute to our students our staff and our administrators in our building so the first the first area is violence V vandalism and substance abuse so I'm going to go over each line and then compare it to phase two of the previous school year 2223 so this year our violence acts which would be like fights we had 21 in phase two and last year in this phase we had 44 so almost in half uh our vandalism we had two last year in this phase we had six our weapons we had one this year um and by the way this goes for all six schools all 10,200 high schoolers high schoolers um so these numbers are very small um our weapons last year at this time was four our substance abuse uh these are students under the influence this year in Phase 2 was 38 last year was 64 so again a substantial decrease our harassment intimidation and bullying confirmed cases in phase two this year we had 26 last year we had 42 are HIV alleged these are investigations that are conducted and they're not confirmed for what one reason or another this year we had 23 uh in this phase last year we had 33 in this phase overall our HIV numbers are down 23 total for the for the year as compared to last year which is a a big tribute to our schools our next category is you know it breaks down each one of these so this is the violence category that had 21 um you know we had four simple assaults which last year we had six two uh sexual contact contacts last year we had zero so that went up a little bit um sexual assaults we had none uh same as last year our threats we had seven last year we had 14 so that's cut in half our fights we had eight last year we had 24 at this time so substantial decrease our vandalism and our weapons so vandalism damaged the property we had one last year we had zero false public alarm this year we had zero last year we had one our thefts we had one this year and five last year and our trespassing we had zero both years our weapons this year we had one and last year we had three at this time so again a nice decrease okay our substance abuse numbers so this year we had 18 uh confirmed sorry 18 confirmed substance use last year we had 30 at this time so again a substantial decrease we had 23 possessions this year last year we had 43 again another substantial decrease our sale SL distribution this year we had two last year we had none um anyone that refused to take a medical exam who was perceived to be under the influence this year we had one and last year we had two and then anyone in possession of drug paraphernalia this year we have one student and last year we had seven students seven so these are the type of illegal drugs used by the students that were caught Under the Influence so for uh marijuana we had 17 and that includes you know traditional marijuana also marijuana Vapes marijuana oils we had 17 this year last year we had 27 at this time um prescription drugs we had one in this phase and we had zero in last year's phase alcohol we had one incident last year we had five incidents during this phase and then all the rests are zero and that is equivalent to what last year was they were all zero as well so here is just a breakdown again of the phase two harassment intimidation and bullying and the reason why I wanted to highlight that is because it is a substantial decrease from last year and our schools did a lot of work this year in educating our students um you know we've talked in the last phase we talked about the curriculum the pathways to respect that the schools were implementing in the schools and it's not only a tribute to our staff like Dr Hazel said it's also a tribute to our students we have a lot of student groups our peer leader uh peer leadership groups our lead for diversity groups they've helped out a tremendous amount in the buildings as well and these are just some of the things um that we have done in our buildings Dr Hazel if it's okay I'd like to go into the the hip scores the harassment intimidation bullying self assessment grates so another thing that school districts have to do every year is they have school safety teams that talk about Trends in harassment intimidation and bullying uh that consist of Staff parents students and they discuss different things going on and come up with different ideas to help each Community uh because even though we have six schools we one District or six different communities and what we'll work in one building may not necessarily work in another so each school has these um safety teams that they they meet with at the end of every year the the New Jersey Department of Education has us do a self assessment on eight different components of the anti-bully Bill of Rights Act okay the self assessment is done by the safety team reading through those eight components the highest score you can receive on the self assessment is a 78 I know a 78 looks low when we're talking about grades and everything like that but for here a 78 is the highest you can possibly get so as you can see the schools all the two um had a perfect score of a 78 the two that did in Freehold Township and the now in high school uh they gave themselves a two and one of the components of training for the school safety team and a two is uh meets all the requirements a three would be exceeds all requirements so they get a zero through three for each component under each element okay and it adds up to 70 well the highest score is 78 so these are the scores that will be input into the NJ doe site and then at the end of next school year the NJ Boe will publish these publicly and we'll put them on our website as well okay any questions I'm just amazed with eight bites out of six high schools 10,000 like eight bites yeah they did a great job they really did with their culture and climate in their buildings and like said I I think it's a tribute not only to staff but the students as well thank you sure thing have specifications or distribution of the report based on what type of uh no do you know I do not know that off the top of my head no give his office a call he'll get information yeah I can give you that breakdown I just that here we have it's just SC thank you Mr thank you Mr mes yeah and and each year is a different year but uh what always continues is is our education and um you know our work with students um in the buildings um because we want a place of respect and tolerance and want to work with students especially um that are in need of help but um it's primarily the education and the expectations that we set forth in our district um that helps us yield um these results and that work will continue um I think we're going to segue public hearing yes so we're um moving into um our budget uh public hearing um um and you know this has uh been a really challenging time um for our school districts and and many school districts uh across our state uh this is something that is typically uh Board hearing time is in the month of April and we are now here in July um looking at um you know an amended uh 2425 um school year budget um and tonight is our you know official public hearing on that amended budget um I have a couple of comments in regard to the budget as as we set the stage uh for the public hearing by Mr Boyce um the amendment reflects legislation passed just two months ago legislation that provides a narrow window of opportunity to districts like freeo Regional who have been devastated by state aid funding Cuts since the passage of the S2 bill in 2018 as many of you know S2 sought to shift State funding between school districts over a 7-year period based on certain wealth indicators Freehold Regional was on the wrong side of S2 this has really been echoed in our district uh for the past seven years this district has aggressively and relentlessly challenged S2 and despite victories to either minimize or defer State losses says the compounding impact of S2 has significantly damaged our financial footing and I don't say this lightly has put this District on a trajectory that poses a very real threat to the depth and breadth of the student opportunities that this community has come to expect I want to give you a sense of the magnitude of State funding lost under S2 the 2425 budget includes 30.6 million in state aid that's 40% 21 million less than the prs2 funding levels the cumulative loss in state aid over the S2 years it's a staggering 97.7 million in addition the district is slated to lose 10.8 million in the 25 26e school budget per the most recent state aid calculations so if that state aid formula was enacted we are set to lose 10.8 million in the 25 26 year budget Senate 3081 is in response to a well-known fatal flaw in the implementation of S2 in short state aid cuts under two were intended to offset increases in property taxes however due to a law capping capping property tax levy increases a 2% a law not considered in the design of the funding formula or S2 districts were not able to access tax revenues as S2 intended this legislation acknowledges that the 2% property tax levy cap has undermined the funding formula and allows districts to recover a portion of the taxes that should have been levied in Prior years according to the formula the budget that we're going to be presenting tonight reflects an additional 10, 175,000 in property taxes bringing the total tax levy increase which is inclusive of the original 2% to 88.7% while this is by no means a comprehensive solution to our financial position it is potentially a meaningful step in the right direction to put context this District under S2 had to abolish 115 positions over the S two years if this bu budget passes tonight this Administration is prepared to hire 12 teachers one nurse and six secretaries staff that were cut in this budget this is important for us to immediately prepare for the opening of school and also renate programs that were cut these efforts will continue with additional hires hopefully at future board meetings but it is important that we take this step tonight um in restoring some of the positions that we have lost over these S2 years our priorities are our instructional program the supports that we have for students and the the tremendous human capital that we have in the educators of this school district uh for our students um that's one piece um as well as also the maintenance of our facilities uh for our students in this District um so at this time um Mr Boyce um our business administrator and assistant superintendent is going to walk us through the amended uh school year 2425 school year budget thank you thank you uh and there are some really key elements that Dr Hazel just has touched on uh in her opening remarks uh as far as the context of school funding goes uh this piece of legislation and the very limited window uh that districts that are similarly positioned to Freehold Regional um have to to make a decision on on what direction they would want to go so just to expand on some of Dr Hazel's comments this this is how the the funding formula Works in a very straightforward way and it's it's not a complex formula conceptually um the state has an obligation under the State Constitution to provide author and efficient education to all students so in order to do that um back in 2008 they developed the the the funding for they called the um SF the school funding act um school funding Reform Act and this replaced uh a funding formula that was its predecessor which about 10 years previous replac a funding for so every decade every 10 to 20 years the state goes back and and looks at funding formulas for schools but here's how they go about it they first quantify how much should it cost a district to provide thorough and efficient education uh that's step one and then step two is how are we going to pay for it so step one they've developed a cost model right and they take each District's enrollment and push that through the cost model to come up with what they call an adequacy budget as in an adequate amount of money to provide a thorough and efficient education that adequacy budget is then and that that number is different for each School District because enrollment is diff different for each School District phase two of it how we going to pay for it the way it works is the local Community First to the extent that they're a and then state aid to make up the difference so that every District ends up at their adequacy receiving funding for for their adequacy budget now there are some tricky parts to this um and the one that uh this district and and other a handful of other districts have taken issue with uh and pushed on and even are in the middle of uh legal legal proceedings to get to the bottom of the method techology to uh measure a community's ability to pet or their local fair share because remember a community first state aid fills in the difference so the way that works is there are wealth indicators one is the fair market value of the properties in in the town um and the other is income for the most recent State um income tax returns and those two numbers are translated into ability to pay now that those variables that translate the wealth indicators into an ability to pay has what really has been the core of the issue for Freehold Regional because it's very volatile it's up down it's all over the place and it is also directly influences the amount of state aid that the district uh that the state would have to contribute to freeold Regional and each district for that matter but freeold Regional for us so as the local fair share goes up the amount to State contribution goes down but the the key metric so it's a it's a fairly straightforward approach there's some Nuance to the details of that um but I I agree with the bones of it and how they're going about it I just need think we need to be consistent predictable and fairly distribute state aid across all districts uh in the state so really the key metric there is adequacy budget um so that's the number that you know all districts would need to get to um and I want to look at that for field Regional in recent years so this is where we stand on on on where where we are in relation to our adequacy budget as you can see over these last two years we have fallen further and further and further below adequacy and one of the reasons for that is that the SF or funding formula if you will was not designed igned with entirely independent law capping increases on the property tax levy to 2% so where the state was taking funds away from Freehold Regional the design intent of the funding formula was that the the district would be back filling that with property taxes so that the two of them together reach the mark the adequacy budget Mark that that the formula intends to uh districts to to meet so this has been the trory we're are now some $19 million below adequacy and the the Strategic sacrifices that the district has made along the way over these 7s2 years um have been uh have have damaged the the structural Integrity of our financial position and they're running their course as we knew would run their course the whole way we did this alongside here advocacy um against S2 um and um you know trying to get to the bottom of the the calculation for the local fair share because we think that's really the core of the problem so we we've we've not had much luck although we were able to get some legislation passed that deferred the final two years of S2 which was the year we just finished and the year were just beginning deferred the state aid cuts that were due under the funding formula those two years amount to 10.8 million and that's what we are scheduled to be cut for the next budget we put together the 2526 budget so if nothing else changes we'll drop even further below similar to the trajectory that you see here so this legislation comes out and as Dr Hazel said it was in U May and districts that are in this position have until tomorrow to make a decision of whether or not they want to exceed the 2% cap on the property tax levy um and as Dr Hazel mentioned this legislation really acknowledges that those two things right the the funding formula and the 2% they're they're unrelated and the 2% capital capital of Levy really undermines the design intent of the funding formula so there was a measure I look back of several years and a measure of districts that can uh Levy tax that you know should has been levied along the way um uh and that's what's being considered here tonight but I also want to show um another another chart that you know with the low adequacy funding as expected we have below below typical spending all right so Freo Regional is highlighted there at the cost per pupil there is an audited numbers every school district is audited that feeds into the state they analyze it and group districts in a comparable way um so for us it's um the uh C or the 9 to 12 High School only districts which there are only 31 up in the state so of those 31 districts we are the lowest the average aage of 31 districts is 20,000 per people uh and you can see that we are considerably considerably lower than that we're 27% lower than that we're also the lowest spending District among the 50 districts in month County now that's interesting because the cost model that's part of the funding formula accounts for the difference in cost between a high school student and a middle school student and an elementary school school students so as you would expect a high school student is the most expensive so with only high school students you would anticipate that field Regional would be the highest spending District uh in the county but we're not we are the the lowest spending District among all school districts in M County so I I think what this is says and what I intended is to say to you is there's not much room to move within our budget and part of the decision that the board's considering here tonight takes that into account just not only for the year that we're just beginning here but for the years that follow um this decision will have an impact on that so let's touch base on local fair share take a moment to look at that chart so what you what you're seeing here is the red line which represents what the funding formula says the community should be paying in property taxes right so right now it's at 205 million our Levy at the 2% is 155 million so it's $50 million lower than the state's measure of what the community can afford now we take issue with that we have taken issue with that as I mentioned earlier that we're in a legal process to to get to the bottom of how exactly are you calculating that 205 million because we want to we want to understand it uh and potentially challenge it depending on what it is but we have not yet been able to get to the bottom of that now let's not from the state's perspective this is not this is as much of an art as it is a science right because those two wealth indicators um could be true if if you have five houses in a row all with the same value the affordability of property taxes is going to vary from household to household so there's an art to it um but yet there still should be a predictable and defendable process to determine what the community can afford in property taxes so we'll continue to pursue to get to the bottom of that because the this funding formula the SF is is continuing um until further notice there's no discussion of replacing it and developing a new one there is some discussion of revisiting it and tweaking it is the word that we've heard used which is not the magnitude that we needed tweet we need it changed I should say um we need it changed in a more significant way because as noted on the last slide as we fall further and further below adequacy um that is going to impact what this district is able to offer and we've we've we've made this case to a number of legislators um over these just two years that um you know the benefits of field Regional um being a regional district has some significant benefits first was the economy of scale which is part of the reason that our cost per people spending was so low um another another part of that is that with 10,000 high school students you have a critical mass of student interest to make a program viable right there's enough kids interested in order to make that something that we can offer and our range of of student opportunities with a dozen magnet programs I full range of Athletics at at multiple levels um you know I I would put this District up against any District in the state as far as uh as far as measuring student opportunities so we feel comfortable with that but what did this what the the what's being considered tonight is and what this legislation permits is okay districts we we acknowledge that you know that the 2% capital in the levy has prevented you from accessing your local fair share as was the design intent so in a limited way a portion of that you can access property taxes that should have been l in previous years so this is here's an important important point that I want you to understand is that although the opportunity to go above the 2% is very limited to this twomon window um the benefits of it um are sustained um beyond the year ahead of us so let me explain what I mean by that the increase in the levy becomes part of the tax levy base right so it's not a oneyear additional 10,175 in tax levy that becomes part of the base so that state is in play so from a property tax perspective I I think it's important that you understand that from a an operational P perspective that's important because it's not a spike in Revenue that then drops off the following year so there is certainly benefit to what we're doing in the year in front of us here uh but there's also a long-term benefit for the budget years that follow so this being $50 million below what the state says uh our local fair share is this moves us to being $40 million below what our local fair share is according to the state so I thought that was important to discuss tonight um with this um with uh uh accessing the legislation uh tonight with an additional tax levy of 10,175 that reduces our adequacy deficit by 53% so effectively cuts it in half uh you know this is one area where we have control over uh our decisions for our for this organization and this school Community um but there are areas that we do not have any control and that's where does this how does the funding formula change um what what will be our state aid in the future that has been incredibly unpredictable we find out in March of each year and then adopt the budget by at the end of April beginning of May um so but but the the the legislation that was recently passed uh does permit us to take action within the area that we do have some control and it's a strategic decision um this was a fully considered decision of different um variations of how we might want to put this legislation in play um but we felt that this was the reasonable appropriate place to land uh but acknowledging that it's an increase in the tax levy and that's certainly something that's going to be felt by our community members we'll talk about tax rate impact in a moment so for the year the current year the the next logical question is how do you plan to use it um and as Dr Hazel mentioned earlier there are um a dozen teaching staff members uh that will be rehired uh for the upcoming year we lost 39 positions in this budget as originally constructed under the 2% cap um so that's that's important there's also instructional support both at the district level and at the building level um funding for student programs uh and also curriculum development and teacher training at the district level there's also the reinstatement of uh the ray program which is our Twilight education program which to a segment of our student population very important to them um because it's really their their opportunity to um to get their their high school education so that was cut in the original budget that was proposed at the 2% so we propos reinstating that uh there's also enhanced facility U security measures that's in terms of our emergency lockdown notification system also in improvements to our vestibules right so building out the man traps locked some second sets of doors those practices where we haven't not been able to to do that in recent years um because of as two cuts and and limited funding uh also address targeted facility needs now these are things that uh are larger ticket things HVAC repairs uh across the district um also door exterior door Replacements as needed there's sidewalks that need to be redone uh uh steps outdoor steps that need to be done um there's also some bleachers that are not operating as they they should there's a number of things and and and the one larger one on there is um our portion of of state grants that we got to do um hbac uh work throughout the district so there's seven 60% is the district share 40% is on the state so there's $700,000 in there in the facilities and for that but all of these things are things that if not for S2 would have already been done by now all right but but when you're educational institution and funding is cut of course you're going to preserve the core purpose of the organization which is the educational comp component and some of these other things have have been delayed um and we can address some of the more urgent areas now um also uh to reinforce the structural Integrity of the budget there was um various pieces of equipment technology infrastructure some buildings and grounds equipment that we were going a 5year lease purchase right which just breaks up the payment into 5 years we we're proposing to outright purchase that which provides relief in the subsequent four years budget because I don't have those lease payments in there reduce appropriation risk um there as I mentioned along the way the the decisions that we've made under the S2 years uh one of those decisions is to take on increased risk increased budget risk so so our Appropriations are getting Tighter and Tighter and Tighter and there's you know there are unfor Dynamic organization of course they're going to be unforeseeable cost so this is to bring back 50% of the additional risk that we assumed for the year under the original budget design and also uh return Surplus so the the budget under the 2% includes included $2 million of additional Surplus which is effectively borrowing from from the future year to support the current year um so we're going to return half of that as well so all of these are um this is the use of the 10 mil 175 but and this is the year ahead of us benefit but as I mentioned earlier there's there's benefit longterm just structurally um our financial foing as Dr Hazel mentions um that's also a benefit of this which is accessing property taxes that should have been levied according to the state over the past several years so property tax rates impact so um the tax rate is only uh one component of the calculation of what it means to property owners and their actual property tax bills um there are other variables what have the values of the communities how's that changed over time and you can see that four up and four four down F Regional overlays eight municipalities and the the single tax levy of the district each year is allocated to the eight municipalities and it's state imposed formula of how that's done so um that's why it's not all the same and tax rates not every Community is at the same percentage of assessed value so there are other pieces to that what I would suggest for you as an individual home owners is to is to understand this tax rate and then look at your own tax bill and talk to your Municipal assessor if you have uh questions about your assessment uh but the re Regional component of your tax bill here are the changes um that you can expect um for this revised budget so in summary um you know the the the benefits of this legislation is to preserve student opportunities long term right by reinforcing this the our our structural budget position uh it also reduces our adequacy deficit by uh just over half um and it moves us from um $50 million below our local fair share right the measure of what property taxes should be stes measure to $40 million below that number um so all of this why while we continuously advocate for changes in S2 and I think that for the 2425 years the seventh and final year of S2 so I think the U the state is is is looking to to make some adjustments to that we would like a seat at that table um and and we're hoping that it's a meaningful adjustments to really stabilize funding for districts like Freo Regional so Bo um I'll open up to any questions for you um about this legislation or what's being proposed here tonight yeah if I could Mr Bruno the the board works extensively to get our fair share of taxes and it went to urban areas as opposed to per taxpayer payments we did everything we could and yet we were cut short the way I looked at it and Steph particularly one step Member but the outside and I agreed with him I said you know what what we are we are not getting uh we're not paying you guys at the rate of inflation and it's not their fault it's not their fault that the inflation rate is where it is and one thing that you said that was very convincing Mr Bruno was that what is there other than the school district you know there are a lot of good things in this area but I personally came out to Colts Neck because of the quality of the education if we lose that we're in big trouble so you know sometimes you have to pay the ransom note and having kids walk to school is not the way to do that it's dangerous it's not right cutting staff members is not right in my opinion we cut enough and I think our backs are against the wall at this point so thank you that's how I feel um I want to thank the finance committee and course Mr Boyce Dr Hazel and your staff um I had my house built 18 19 years ago next week and um the reason why my partner and I moved to how was it's the schools um everybody looks at schools when we buy them home especially today C they cost so much um now that I'm alone in my partner past um I can put as much money as I want to try to fix my house up but it doesn't matter if your schools are not good you're not selling your house right I don't care if it's in Barbor or how Township um we got to keep our schools up it's amazing what we've done I've been on the board now for nine years it's amazing what we gave with S2 um keep our schools proceed we the Regional School District you see what it cost per student $188,000 cost per student that's like amazing incredible so um I'm voting for it tonight um my home's important I'm not selling yet and um every realtive that I speak to say you're going to be okay because your schools are great and you're a Regional School District and you're K AG so um so that's what I'm going to do and I just think it's important to keep the staff that we have keep the programs that we have and it drives me crazy when I hear people say oh let's just do play a pay that's an extra tax on people like one neighbor has four kids at all different high schools on original and they play different sports that's an extra P for them to pay for the Kids Place Sports I'm not for that I wouldn't vote for that and that's one of the reasons why this is so important for us to do so anybody else like to have a comment not hearing any discussion Mr voice I you actually you know what what I'll say something no um so basically what I think every taxpayer in this District needs to know particularly in malor cuz on the malor rep really comes down to the fact that was exemplified before about our spending is lower than any in Mammoth County and I could being on the finance committee for many years I could vouch for the fact that Mr Boyce and Dr Hazel literally watch out for every single dollar that this District spends okay so and I've said this for many years that in the business office here the taxpayers could sleep at night knowing that keeping cost as low as humanly possible by having a but having a strong education system is Paramount and the people that work in this Administration consistently do it year after year and I also want to state that I do know how it is when you're on a fixed income I mean my mother lives in maloro her only income coming in is social security so believe me I know what it's all about in terms of every single tax dollar so I do feel good about Dr Hazel and Mr boy so your the taxpayers in Malboro should rest easy in that respect but bringing something else into it and being a malor resident it is amazing what the state government in Malboro in in Trenton is doing to Malboro because not only if you saw the chart up there about the massive tax increase that the formula is imposing on Malboro but also in Malboro and my fellow board members here we also have the state mandating all these massive housing developments in Malboro so on a day-to-day basis we have traffic getting worse and it's just time after time baloro and the other towns in this District are constantly beat up on by Trenton um and it's just really exasperating as a regular middle class person trying to live their life in peace and Tranquility so thank you that's my speech for tonight thank you I'm sorry Bobby if you didn't want to hear I represent FAL Township and I am on a I'm retired so I'm on a fixed income and I look at the overall picture of what's best for the community and I just feel that what's best for the students and students have been cut short by the state and I can't sit here and not do what's best for the students and as much as I know my taxes are going to go up and I might have to make sacrifices someplace else I just think that my purpose being here is for the students and I just feel that this budget and this opportunity for us to help give a little bit back and get some teachers back is what I really feel I need to do in order to support the students in this District thank you Mrs any other board members we're going to go to public anybody Mr Brun before we get to the public just to just clarify because I know we have some folks that are new that we've not seen at meetings in the past just how the board handles public comment uh under the board's bylaws uh public each person wish to speak uh please just step up to the podium uh please give your name your address uh and the board ask that you limit your comments to minutes uh the question and answer is not it's not a question and answer not a back and forth uh usually if you do have questions please State all of your questions uh then when your time is over the board May respond at the end uh to all the questions that were opposed uh so I just wanted to just explain kind of how the board has handled public comment for a long time because I do see some new faces here tonight uh with that uh we have one person who want we have to this is public budget only yes yeah so if you'd like to come up and just on the budg the budget we we will have public comment on any other topic a little later this is this is this is a statuto required oh come on up that's budget that's budget hi everyone my name is Dr rure live in marber when against Drive um can we pull out the chart again that shows the distribution of the tax increase for different towns just want to make sure I understand and everyone understands the rate that marber communi is being great increase so from what I understand some townships actually had their taxes reduced it's a good question question and there is an answer okay so let's see cold snack -06 so that the cold snack actually cold snack sounds are being like 6% less next year because I mean their houses are like million plus let's see English T minus 4.7% farming Dale will increase um I'm just want to give you a little bit of understanding of how this works if the levy remained the same right so no increase no decrease if it were the same year-over-year you would still see movement in all of the municipalities and the reason for that is that the district's tax levy is allocated uh among the eight municipalities that it overlays based on a couple variables one is the property values and the other is the number of students that you have in high school versus elementary school so with those numbers changing every year there's going to be shifts and always have been shifts um in the percentage share is the actual name which is each municipality's portion of the tax levy so this there are a number of things that go into moving moving this one way or another um and as I said if the levy were exactly the same you would still see movement up and down okay but Marble Community I think is being the most so the reason why so can you tell why Mar's high so I I mean a part of it is going to be just the the shift in the the variables that allocate the tax levy as I I said before the there are a number of things it's a state imposed formula that divides up the levy um the percentage share formula um and it takes into considerations those things that I mentioned earlier so you know marro or any other theirs would just be scaled a little bit less at a 2% than than what's reflected here under what's being proposed I hope that helps no it helps I just just think that like you know I mean Bas you know people who spoken defense this tax why do not live in Mar and so I understand also have to do with your home assessment of your home right sure so my home is worth is assess forth certain out so my tax know what my tax where do you live sorry how so my my home is it really depends on your home and your assessment of your value of your home that's part of the point though so so you know so any were there any other question no okay thank you anybody in the public would like to speak on the um budget Mr I may ask question um so these percentages and how much each of the eight towns takes that is determined by the state correct the allocation of the levy is determined by the state yes how it impacts the tax rate is really a a function of where the property values are in that particular municipality right so it's it's the state that's in M CH I'm sorry I'm just confirming that it's the state that is saying maloro is paying the most is the way that formula works for this year yes just confirming thank you Mr mov it's a statutory it is a statutory formula that that has been in place for over 30 years thank you thank you okay we're going to now take I have have a motion to approve the 2024 2025 annual school budget motion hyley second any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call Mr aceta yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs cello yes Mrs Higley yes yes Mrs Lavin yes Miss mob yes Mr Messinger no Mr BR now yes motion pass motion passes okay so board reports we have two board reports tonight and we're going to start with our poliy um the policy committee met on Monday July 15th we discussed and reviewed several policies and regulations for abolishment and revision for first read the board member number and Term Policy is revised the edit update procedure fulfilling a board vacancy the curriculum content policy has been revised to remove this referencing numerous New Jersey state learning standards the njsls this list did not include all the standards and syn njsls as standards are continually changing it is appropriate to remove reference to specific njsls standards the physical examination policy and regulations are revised the New Jersey Department of Health updated their guidance for tuberculosis testing in New Jersey schools the update Limits TV screening in New Jersey schools for teachers and other employees and other student and those students who are at the highest risk for teach the infection the attendance regulation is revised on January 16th 2024 legislation was enacted to permit New Jersey public school students from grade 6 through 12 one state excused absence each school year to attend a Civic event the student suicide prevention policy is revised several State statutes were updated with new training requirements for additional staff members to be trained to warn and protect when they have information that a student intends to harm themselves the student discipline code of conduct regulation is revised to reflect updated discipline guidelines pertaining to cell phone usage the emergency and crisis situation policy is revised to include the requirement that School Safety and Security plans address the unique needs of students with disabilities during fire drills school security drills and emergency situations the Firearms are we we policy and regulations are revised to provide some additional details including the administrative code regarding student possession and or use of firearms and weapons on school grounds the volunteer athletic coaches and co-curricular activity advisor assistance policy is re revised to reflect updated NJ dooh guidelines on tuberculosis testing and that's it aot thank you we have if feels like our policy like last months ago um um now we're going to do Finance Mr from okay back on July 10th we had our meeting there were basically three topics that we discussed the first one was with respect to the paving that was done last summer at Malboro high school as everyone knows um the paving was not up to the standards uh that we required so a resolution to that problem is still in debate um we've mapped out what we can deal with and what's not acceptable uh and when this eventually gets fixed it's actually going to be next summer um and this was a contract for $1.2 million so this is negotiations are still ongoing but we do expect it to be uh a resolution to this issues expected by the end of this year uh very busy summer and building in grounds uh Colt neck tracks going to be laid on August first and it should be ready for fall Sports it's not a full reconstruction and it should actually be completed by August 15th uh summer cleanings going on every classroom's getting cleaned from ceiling to floor there's inspections going on left and right with respect to fire suppression air quality and the fire alarms uh gym floors a very fine screening and varnisher being applied in Township and Al and in malaro uh we have a new generator being installed at Malboro uh this year it's going to impact the main office the phones and the computers they're going to be on a generator of power is lost uh I believe earlier uh Mr Boyce mentioned earlier about grants and we did get $280,000 Grant from the state for HVAC repairs uh there was issues in art rooms so we had to bring in a plumber to put in new drains there because clay has built up through the years and then in freeh hall Township new PA system will be installed by Christmas and then to just wrap it up at Malboro hives graduation the mayor announced that uh the town was going to put in artificial turf and lights at the football field so we just briefly discussed the logistics of how that's going to proceed uh over time and that was basically it so now we're going to public verication I have a clarification uh Mr messenger there's no cost to the residents of maror correct with that field that is correct um there is we are not going to spend one penny on on this when it's constructed but we are responsible for the maintenance of it and we did spend a lot of our time talking about uh how it is going to be maintained and we are certainly going to keep an Eagle Eye on this field to make sure the maintenance costs are as little as possible thank you Mr Boyce are there any changes to the agenda I do have a few um in the back of the room there should be an them this color um I'll I'll just move through it to give you a sense of it there's an additional name on G1 uh as well as G2 uh G3 approval of appointments there are additional stat staff members added these are all existing resolutions um with modifications to them um there's also on G5 uh an additional item on uh approval of honoraria um as as well as G6 and g12 so G is the Personnel section so those are all um addendum to existing resolutions on the Personnel section in addition to that on G7 which is approval of leaves of absences um there's a correction um the the the name uh Stephanie hey um the spelling of that is to be corrected and um Dr shark's the last name Ha Y is that correct or no the Stephanie part inad okay so Stephanie s f a n i e um so those two things and then in addition to that uh this is a new resolution uh under j8 hi appeal the resolution reads a motion to deny the hip appeals in connection with reports number ft- 23-24 d43 and one final item that included on the pre printed agenda is K3 um Mr Bruno i' would like to remove K3 from consideration so the vote will be absent K3 those are the changes to the agenda thank you is there anyone out here would like public participation time on any topic on any topic yes sure I distrib some I'll take for okay oh always see there different ones each yeah I mean some duplicates okay no problem I just go pass along so good evening everyone dear board members and Community I'm here today to address a deeply troubling incident that took place during the recent Manalapan High School graduation ceremony a student chose to wear sto depicting a Hamas paraglider along side a Palestinian flag a symbol associated with genocide just like swasa with murder with rape with beheading hatred and anti-Semitism this act was not just a display of insensitivity and an offensive sign as stated by the principle in his email but a clear endorsement of ideologies that promote harm hate violence and discrimination against the Jewish Community following this incident we received an email from the principal emphasizing the school's commitment to inclusivity and diversity however the response failed to explicitly denounce the anti-semitic nature of the incident or condemn the students's actions instead it seemed to divert attention with generic statements on diversity it's crucial to distinguish between diversity which celebrates differences in the positive manner and actions that propagate hate and violence imagine if someone celebrated the atrocities of 9911 under the guise of diversity you don't need to imagine right would we accept such justification the same standard must apply here this incident cannot be brushed aside or diluted with vague assurances the student involved was educated at Manalapan High School for 4 years and his actions reflect a failure in the school's duty to educate against hate and anti-Semitism it's concerning that the school's response focused more on distancing itself from the student rather than addressing the underlying issue of of anti-Semitism within its walls claiming that the student doesn't represent the views of the school is insufficient the school must take responsibility for the values it instills in its students and its environment that Fosters moreover the lack of a clear plan to prevent future incidents is struggling there were evidently warning signs such as student previous dissemination of Hamas propaganda this raises questions about the school's vigilance and responsiveness to such behaviors moving forward it's imperative that manal on all high schools within threee old school Regional District take decisive action this includes a public statement unequivocally condemning the schools the students actions and affirming its commitment to combating anti-Semitism the school should also engage a proactive education education initiatives to ensure that all students understand the consequences of hate speech and discriminatory Behavior additionally as a student prepares to attend brers University it's essential that the university be made aware of this incident ignoring or downplaying such Behavior allows it to perpetuate potentially impacting others in university community in conclusion Manalapan and all of D high schools must demonstrate leadership by actively addressing and rectifying this incident our educational institutions must be safe havens where all students feel respected and valued only through consistent and Vigilant efforts can we Foster a community that truly embodies inclusivity and tolerance and diversity thank you for your attention and commitment to ensuring a better future for students thank you thank you now thank you so much um for being here this evening and um you know exactly what you said this is a district and a school that strongly condemned hate speech um and offensive imagery um there are procedures and expectations that are set forth for all of our students um you know this was you know this happened despite multiple measures um that Manalapan High School as well as our other high schools put in place to ensure like nothing like this would ever happen um this particular case this student took it upon themselves um there are multiple checkpoints um you know in the school before students even enter that field um that manalan high school the principal the administration and all of the staff that work there to ensure that nothing like this would ever happen in our buildings how you know he was actually able to put that on I don't know but this is we do not accept we condone any of this we do not um and we do we have educational programs in place for our students um you know we take pride in the rich diversity that we have here in this school district to be able to celebrate each other um and you know on behalf of the district and I know our board I mean we sincerely apologize we we take you know uh go at Great Lengths to ensure that we have dignified um programs these are celebratory events for our for all of our students for their families for their friends extended families coming together to celebrate this milestone in our students lives and um you know it was it was taken away from many people on that day because of that um but you know it does not represent the values of this District or the school in any way shape or form and um I know our school had a lot of measures you know in place and you know this this unfortunate you know and situation happened and I know our principal and myself included um you know were addressing you know everybody coming forth but I want to thank you for having the C tonight uh it's only 9 months ago um and people have forgotten some so um I appreciate that you came and had the co to get up there and um can't speak for what young people why young people do things um but thank you for educating all of us and reminding us of the horror of that day Mrs Bruno yes I also have a statement Mrs Bruno is aalan rep I'm aalan rep and I also have statement prepared for last month and I wish to bring up the situation that presented itself to our district at the man Alin High School graduation um on Thursday June 20th without permission and unb benounced to any staff member one of our graduates were custom graduation stall that with an image that seemed to reference and support the Hamas terror attack against Israel that took place in October of last year I am deeply disappointed in this action and disgusted that someone chose to introduce and divisiveness into our graduation ceremony as a manalan representative I wanted to tell the public that this is no way shape or form represents the citizens of manalan going forward I will I will work with our superintendent to make sure an incident of this nature will never occur again if I can add to that please please I have for you um I was the first one to get these documents I have pages one and then it skips to five you have over here oh you guys have make sure you have them I'd like to assemble all of those and then distributed to all the board members so it's in one Coes of if we can do that those copies let me give this to thank you Mr Bruno I also want to just take a minut minute to correct something I said earlier when referring to the dendon um I I said that all of these were additions to existing resolutions um except for g12 U that is not an existing resolution it's a brand new one it's the approval of reappointments for the 2024 2025 school year so I just wanted to not that well well if I make a m feel correct we'll catch okay all right right yes reference to what we just discussed with that issue of graduation right right um you want to go up to the podium now your name my name is r and I live inant so what I found the most shocking of this whole incident was the principal's letter there was not even a hint of we condemned this none of that it was all about diversity so when you read something like that what that means is like a justification of what this student did glorifying murder as a type of diversity so diversity should never include um the glorification of so why was that not included in the letter is what I want to know why was that what you just said here why was that not put in the letter and sent out to everybody who was impacted okay I'm going to move along yes and you're done okay not back and forth is there more that's why that's all I'm saying so the words anti-Semitism weren't even in the letter like the incident was not identified for what it was nor was it condemned thank [Music] you okay so we're going to take um personel negotiations um G1 through g12 and I have a motion to approve G1 through g12 second Mr cello second was m m any discussion board not he any discussion V call please Mr ACA I'm sorry to say it again G1 to g12 oh yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capello yes Mrs hgy yes but I abstain on G6 to Michael bone and Matthew Bon and on G7 to Matthew h Mrs Lavin yes M mob yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes pass may I have a m to take programmed operations building transportation and physical plant H1 iy Bruno sound like Mrs burner down there um any discussion board not hearing any discussion roll call please Mr ACA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capell yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes M MAV yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes would like to take educational programs and administration J1 through K5 just noting again K3 is not being so it's J1 through K5 no K3 with the addition of j18 J that I previously right j8 okay now I have a motion to approve motion Mr second and Mrs Bruno a question sure just could you just reiterate why we're taking of course um so K3 uh was an abolishment of the board's policy on uh conducting uh remote meetings uh during a a declared emergency uh the board's uh policy uh provider had recommended uh the abolishment of policy because the regulations that the Department of Community Affairs adopted uh have expired however the revisions to the open public meetings act that allow a board to meet remotely during a public health emergency or any declared emergency are still in place so the legislation is very it was not meant to be a covid only remedy so if the governor declares an emergency as a result of a a storm a flooding uh or any any other act um the board would have the ability to meet remotely under the legislation so long as it has a policy so uh the recommendation is for the board to leave the policy in place God forbid we ever need to use it again thank okay so want do that again you're good we have a motion second just a question by I need a second we have it we have it okay we did this discussion already heard that any other discussion no roll call Mr ACA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs C yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes M mov yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes just want to thank um Dr shark the administrators um supervisors uh really outstanding work the past few weeks in preparation for this board meeting um and with the passing of this budget uh we are able to bring back like I said before six secretaries nurse and 12 additional teachers to the district two per school um six um Math teachers um again a concerted effort as we continue to work and support our students um in those classrooms and um four five English teachers and a science teacher so every building will be getting two additional teachers um and this was just a really great effort um the past couple weeks to be prepared so that our building principles and administrators can successfully work through the master schedules to be able to build these classes um and in those classes you know we'll have you know reduction of class size uh and really focused uh a little bit more uh for the students who need uh support uh especially in the area of mathematics so thank you um to Dr Sharp and and the schools um also this evening um on this agenda uh we have uh two new hes um in the buildings and grounds Department uh who will be taking the helm September 1st um I think this board all knows uh they know these gentlemen very well uh but Pat lavenus has really been a dedicated uh employee uh with the freeh hole Regional High School District since 2007 and he will be retiring September 1 um so we're are very sad to see him leave we have worked so close closely together uh through the years and and with Mr Boyce's office um come to the office and uh it was a department that had you know four positions uh we're actually uh now going to have a director and assistant director and a supervisor uh so moving from four to three um so you know these are really you know critical and essential appointments uh especially at this juncture in time because during the past 7 years we've had some areas within our facilities um that haven't been able to get the attention and the enhancements that they need um so um I know uh we have our work cut out for us and these projects you know were deferred so we'll be doing a lot of work kind of assessing and prioritizing our needs and making decisions for improvements in our facilities um but you know I first want to introduce uh to the board and to the public um Matthew Verdon if you could please stand he joined free hole Regional High School District in February of 2012 really started in the district I didn't even know this till I was getting all the the information from Dr shark's office but started um as a a substitute a custodian to building supervisor and most recently as the district supervisor of buildings and grounds you've worked in every aspect of the buildings and grounds departments you can see issues a great perspective um and um you know you've held that position I think as District supervisor since 2018 working side by side um with Pat lavenus to ensure that our district is maintained in the best possible condition for our staff and students um over the years you have shown to be Dependable hardworking and um those who work with you uh describe him as having the unique Comin combination of qualities including dedication professionalism attention to detail um that are required to enhance the facilities and the programs of the free hole Regional High School District um I so pleased to recommend Mr heroni to the position of director of buildings and grounds starting September 1st congratulations second in command will be um Michael vone he joined the freeold Regional High School District in April of 2012 prior to coming the freeold Regional High School District was a general contractor in his own business um like Mr Veron um Mr vone also started with us as a substitute custodian uh from there he worked his way to night custodian to maintenance to building supervisor and most recently the district supervisor of buildings and grounds you've worked closely also with u Mr leness monitoring the work of all the contractors to ensure compliance with all plans and specifications um and have expertise um in many of those areas uh in your present role uh supervising custodial and maintenance staff in all of our buildings you have a comprehensive knowledge of all the systems required to operate and maintain our facilities and grounds uh really happy to have you on board as our assistant director of buildings and grounds starting on September [Applause] 1st Dr heel so um I've had the privilege of working with Pat L gravitus for well over a decade Pat's that been the director of facilities and there he has high expectations and um his hiring philosophy is hire people whose expectations of themselves are higher than his expectations of them we've worked with these two gentlemen for many years now they certainly have that quality to them uh and uh Pat and I feel that the department is in very good hands going forward with uh Matt and Mike at the home and so we appreciate that congratulations I will miss you that miss you pat pat I want I want to say one thing about Pat with graus he has put up with me for how many years and he was a weightlifting champion and I'm still able body so I got to tell you that's an accomplishment God bless you p and everything yep see you mytle Beach just want to also introduce uh two members I see in the audience um Daniel Francisco the mayor of English toown but we've had a lot of conversations with we appreciate you being here lot of Education here tonight lot of information um and also Ida West Jones um who we've had the pleasure she's in a new position right now she's the educational liaison for Naval uh weapons station Earl and will be supporting all of the students um who some live on the base some live off the base uh but military families um primarily most of the students attend Colt sck High School um but I know um you know we had a meeting with Dr Howell and myself um and Dr donu and um you know we just think it's absolutely terrific that you're going to be you know partnering with us to help support the students you know as they transition um to the high schools in our district so thank you for being here thank you for being anything you need from the educ Al let me know thank you okay um do we have any old Business board members any old business I just have to say um before we wrap up tonight um I'm gonna miss Mr paresi um my partner in crime pal um we're sorry to see him go um he kept me up to date on everything they went on in how Township because I'm so bad I really don't even know I'm not really Bally involved there but I just live there but um so he used to keep me up to town on what's go down to town so I miss him and um I thank him for his years of service any other old business any new business no business may I have a motion I make a motion to adour okay and there a second down there you get those all allk