hello and welcome to the Monday April 29th 2024 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting in accordance with the state Sunshine Law of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsboro Township Board of Education was provided on April 25th 2024 to the Hillsboro Beacon and the carer News Mr eer can we please take rooll Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here miss Craig here miss Lanning beer here Mr Lee Miss nurse M stats here Mr hio here and Mr Marine here we have a quorum I take a motion to move into executive session whereas the open public meetings act chapter 231 of laws 1975 provide that a public body May exclude the public from the portion of that meeting which the public poy discusses certain matters which are which for which confidentiality is required is permitted in section 7B of the ACT resolved by the Board of Education of the township of hillsbor on the county of Somerset state of New Jersey as follows the matter to be discussed is a hip appeal to the matter is discussed an executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists can I get a motion a second so move all in favor I all right we'll be back shortly hello and welcome back to the Monday April 29th 2024 Hillsboro Township Board of Education meeting we are now back from executive session uh Mr eard if we can please take role Mr Davis here Miss Jackson here M Craig here miss Lenny beer here Mr Lee here miss nurse here miss stats here here Mr Hill here and Mr Mur here we have a quarum stand for The Pledge Allegiance Pledge Allegiance States I'd like to acknowledge the corresponden is listed and we will move to the public hearing on the 2024 2025 budget thank you Mr President uh so we are here tonight for the 2024 2025 final budget and uh I will put an aster and a caveat next to that and that'll become clear as as I go through today's uh today's presentation uh Mr eord and I are going to tag team on this a little bit going back and forth and uh Mr record I will kick it over to you for slide number two so here's an overview of the proposed final 2024 25 budget there are no changes to the overall totals as compared to the tenative budget the changes are just between expenditure lines and will be reviewed a little later in the presentation our general fund is increasing by just over 2.9 Million which is despite our state aid reduction of 2.7 million the reason for this is the 2 the 2% tax levy increase as well as the $777,000 health benefit waiver that were're taking this year as well as the fact that we've budgeted an additional 300 3.25 million out of our capital reserve to fund the one-time capital projects the grants and entitlement portion of the budget is comprised of federal state and local grants and donations which is increasing by $43,000 the final portion of our budget is our debt service which is the principal and interest payments for the bonds that were issued for the 2019 referendum other information on this slide is the State a cuts which have been for each of the last two school years as well as our cumulative cut since the onset of S2 which is just over 7 million Mr V go back to you for the next slide yes I did want to point out where we are in this part of the budget cycle um typically at this time of the year the final budget is the just that the final budget uh it's put forth in front of the Board of Education it is voted on and then it moves into play for next year um but I do have this on the slide behind me you can see current legislative efforts I do want to point out we have assemblyman Fryman in the audience and um he's done a lot of work for us I've been in constant communication with assemblyman Fryman and what I do want to say and thank assemblyman Fryman for is you told me very specific things and you told me you would get them done by a certain date and as a member of the assembly the assembly you got those done on the timeline that you exactly told me now that's only onethird of our legislative body in the state of New Jersey we also have to wait for the Senate and the governor but let me talk to you about What legislation where it's leaning and and what is taking place and what is pending so there is legislation out there again these W pass the assembly about extending the budgetary timeline it is not currently law right now so it seems a little silly that at the final budget presentation I'm talking about extending the budgetary timeline but that may be an option that this board of education very much has right in front of it uh also what passed the assembly is a return of two-thirds of the state aid cut as a one-time return so to be clear this wouldn't be going back into our Baseline of annual state aid but two-thirds is approximately $1.7 million uh that would might be getting back from the state um going into next budget year uh that we would be able to use and that if we do get that money I've spoken to every member of of the Board of Education that my recommendation is to put that $1.7 million towards Staffing uh because you're going to hear some staffing Cuts later on as part of this quote unquote final budget also what is out there is the ability of boards of Education to go through 2% tax levy cap in order to recoup previous amounts of state aid loss uh not just this past year but for previous years under S2 and if that becomes law uh that is something that I'm going to recommend to the board for consideration um and that would be going back into our estate Aid Baseline so that would be money that we would be getting back each and every year again I wanted to point out that all of this has passed the uh the New Jersey State Assembly as as assemblyman Fryman told me at the last board meeting that he came to that it would be done and and it was uh so I appreciate your efforts there it is my opinion based upon what I'm seeing that this is more likely to happen than not but since it has not happened yet um I still have to do what is done according to code and statute I don't have any get out of jail free card that I can just ignore certain laws if I want to I hope that some laws change and we'll be able to extend it so I am going to be presenting a budget to you today that has approximately $2.5 million worth of cuts that I have discussed with the board that I'm going to discuss with the public in broader uh terms and broader details but if this legislation does pass the Senate does get signed by the governor we will have the opportunity to review this again very strange Hillsboro I know for me in my final budget presentation to be saying this might not be the final budget we're in unprecedented times here in the state of New Jersey when it comes to State funding but that's the truth we're probably going to be looking at this again so the worst case scenario if none of that becomes a law um again if if I'm a betting man I'm putting money on that we putting money on that we're going to get some money back um and I am going to use that money or recommend that that money go towards Staffing but as far as the 2.5 million if there's a doomsday scenario that it doesn't come through here are the big buckets uh where we're going to make up that money uh about 1.1 million is going to come from unfilled referendum positions that are going to remain unfilled about $470,000 will come from attrition of four positions of retiring staff members that will not be filled if that number seems high please keep in mind that is salary and benefit numbers too so the $470,000 includes four retiring staff members salary and benefits uh three it looks like would come from True Staffing Cuts uh $887,000 would come from extra Services provided by staff members such as some summer work cutbacks and before school library hours at the high school uh would be cut then we have a miscellaneous bucket about $394,000 would come from reallocating some uh things to Grants savings some switching to Chromebooks for staff uh the elimination of new instructional materials that we included in the budget not running a few Middle School and High School clubs removing new assemblies that were originally budgeted and other miscellaneous small projects that had been budgeted I did want to point out that it might seem contrary to say hey we're getting new Chromebooks but we're saving money um the main reason why is because where we are in the life of our technology for our staff uh we need to buy new batteries as they're not always holding their charges we would need to do certain repairs as well as upgrades so it is actually cheaper to buy new materials than to refurbish old ones that are on the way down and the biggest one that may impact the uh the community something that's been talked about in budget uh crises before is the elimination of Middle School sport Sports so here we are in the scenario where if that legislation does not come through uh we make some some real cuts um if the legislation comes through it's possible that none of these Cuts take place and we could be looking at a very different budget but statutorily I have to provide a balanced budget to this board I have provided a balanced budget to this board and these are the bigger buckets as to where things are coming from um I also want to thank too I see I have both uh Dr troli who is president of the hpsa Mr Good Hugh and his leadership team who have also been advocating with legislators and we've been talking about making sure that we also don't send uh the the township of Hillsboro into a panic I have a smile on my face I am leaning that we're going to be getting some money back and that we are going to be eventually putting this towards Staffing so this doesn't look good but I have a feeling on May 13th I may be telling you a couple of other things that being said part of our responsibilities and putting together a balanced budget is to tell you where the changes were from the tentative budget to the final budget traditionally typically ideally when we present a tenative budget there's very little change into the final budget because we got hit with such a big cut in such a short amount of time we just plug numbers into the first budget and now having had a few weeks to look at it what some Draconian Cuts might look like uh Mr record has then match that with the budgetary lines and he's going to take you through the next couple of slides thank you Mr vuli as he stated the next two slides just take us through exactly what the changes are within the the advertised budget lines uh as stated during the tenative budget and again by Mr vuli tonight we've just plugged numbers into the budget in some of the larger budget lines just to make it work for the tenative budget here we go through and actually make the adjustments that are needed to put the that Mr VY just outlined into the proper lines so you'll see that 1.3 million in line 3200 is being restored and that's the line which with in which the cuts were spread at the tenative budget the lines that that are being reduced now um line 17100 10,137 is being reduced due to co-curricular stiens line 1,7 sorry 17,600 $10,800 reduction to Athletics which is eliminating Middle School sports line 22620 a 9,550 reduction by elim eliminating unfilled supplemental atrisk program positions line 41660 $132,700 129,000 $129,500 reduction to the child study team by eliminating unfilled positions line 432000 a $396,500 a reduction of 3,300 by reducing extra hours in the media services and libraries line 453000 a red ruction of 4,600 by reducing administrative travel and supplies line 4,000 4720 a reduction of 3500 by reducing administrative travel line 51120 a reduction of $1,445 by reducing planned upgrades to our facilities line 5248 a reduction of $8,155 to student transportation this is attributed to eliminating Middle School athletic trips in line 71260 a reduction of $368,000 to employee benefit lines unfortunately we are once again sharing a budget where we have to focus on what is being cut instead of being able to highlight areas of improvement to our programs hopefully in upcoming budgets we can focus on areas of growth rather than Cuts Mr bupy I'll turn back to you yeah and and I want to I want to keep that positive attitude because one of the reasons I think everybody knows that I came back to Hillsboro it's my town and my kids go here one one still goes here pretty soon and I wanted to make sure that um you know we're building things back here and the slide behind me talks about the devastation that S2 has done to Hillsboro uh when you look at this um over the time since S2 has been implemented there's been a net of $106 million to Somerset County there's only one Township in red I know we've been through this before that's us in Hillsboro and we've been cut over $7 million if you get cut that much money if you get cut $2.7 million in one year there's no way that you can't touch that there's no easy cuts there's no good Cuts that's why I'm hopeful that when it comes to legislation uh we're going to get some money back and we're going to be able to restore those things but this is the reason why there's no way around a $7 million hole you have to make it up somewhere additionally I do want to remind the public that when uh my team got together and we were budgeting for this year we were anticipating about a $243,000 cut I thought it was aggressive when I told Mr Eckard and Miss Leever to hey you know bump up to 400,000 let's project a 64% bigger cut I think that's responsible budgeting nobody can predict a th% higher cuts um that's why we're in the position that we're in and a quick reminder too um why do we have these Financial shackles right now we can only raise 2% on approximately 85% of the entire budget uh inflation numbers are listed there that I went over during the tenative budget the Consumer Price Index I went over during the tentative budget and you've got these compet competing factors you've got costs going up and you're only allowed to raise so much money and then when you get money taken also out of your back back pocket it makes it even more difficult I know the town of Hillsboro and everybody sitting here understands those financial shackles but I just wanted to point it out again that that's why we're in the position that we're in there's not irresponsible budgeting going on here there's no sack of money under the table it's just numbers and variables and eventually they Collide and that puts you where we are and Mr record to the tax rate information thank you Mr Wii and here we just wanted to share again the tax the school tax impact on both Hillsboro and Millstone residents as a result of this budget which as I stated earlier includes a 2% increase to our general fund tax levy in addition to a health benefits cap waiver as you can see here even though we are increasing the tax levy by the maximum allowable the school the school tax rate for residents of both towns is actually decreasing the decrease is the result of an increase in ratables for Hillsboro of $746 million and of 3.75 million for Millstone for Hillsboro the 2024 School tax rate will be 13492 which is a decrease of 0415 when compared to the 23 School tax rate for Millstone the 2024's tax rate for schools will be 08608 which is a decrease of 0434 when compared to the 2023 School tax rate as I said before and as Mr vul said this this is the original the same slide you would have seen in our tenative budget presentation uh nothing has changed in on this slide from the original budget that we presented as far as next steps for the budget process after the board approves a budget tonight it will be submitted to the executive County Superintendent for his for the for their approval and the userfriendly budget will be generated and posted on the district website by the close of business on Wednesday May 1st we will continue to work with our legislator to legislature to advocate for short and long-term solutions for distri funding and if legislation is passed that allows us relief from the state aid cuts the board and administration will work to follow the process that is laid out and report that to the public that concludes our presentation yeah so the the beat here is stay tuned um the Senate Governor the assembly assembly's done uh there's other bills out there too uh but what I described earlier the assembly is done so it is really a stay tuned approach um if that's the budget that I have to put together it's it's there um we will be meeting with um you know our administrative team uh as well as I'll be speaking to Mr Goodhue over the next couple of weeks it is certainly my hope that the extension of The Bu the budgetary deadline and when we would have to notify staff members comes quickly because I want to make sure that people know Hillsboro is a place that you want to stay uh it's going to grow it's going to get better and it's going to get better because of all of our Collective efforts but in the end uh that is our budget final presentation final with a caveat final with an asterik um that I submit to you uh tonight all right right uh thank you Mr vpy we will now move on to public comment on the school budget uh public hearing on the 2024 2025 budget provides the opportunity for the public to comment on the proposed budget um before you state your comment you'll be asked to state your name and address there's a three-minute limit public comment good evening Henry goodu uh Hillsboro Education Association um you know prior to getting into a few comments about the budget itself I do want to uh reiterate Mr vp's comments about the collaboration that went into addressing this situation I've said it before I think think it's owed um recognition again that this is one of the first years where collaboratively everyone rode in the same direction uh working you know to work through legislative channels and various other ones to really address this problem and hopefully have some lasting effect moving forward obviously I would also like to thank assembly Fryman uh and his Partners in ld16 assembly woman Mel drulis who helped uh with much of this legislation and Senator uh Andrew Zer who's poised to help us move this through the Senate um so that hopefully the budget that was presented is you know the final one with the asterisk um because while I commend much of the work that went into this to make sure that the students are protected from this and that we're insulating staff from these continued cuts um the reduction of Middle School sports is something that I think is um an incredibly bitter pill at this point especially as students you know we're still re acclimating coming back to the normal life of things were two years out two years or so out from that and sports is one of the places where you know they learn good citizenship they learn the importance of being on a team of following rules of you know preparing themselves for the real world sometimes in ways that we can't offer in the classroom but I also recognize that we're at a point where we've cut to the Bone and there are no good choices there's nothing good left to decide in a situation like this after um the difficult years that our district has faced but there still are other choices to make and um I appreciate again that we're trying to insulate staff from that but I would urge the board that if this is the budget that we truly do have to move forward with and again I'm not prone to optimism as anyone who's watched a board meeting can tell you um but I do share Mr vp's uh you know enthusiasm and optimism that I do believe change is coming I believe that we have strong advocates in the legislature to help us but again if this is the budget that we have to go forward with I would urge the board to reconsider the cuts to Middle School sports um I don't know the perfect answer on where you find that money but I did see in the presentation that it is you know as far as a budget goes a relatively nominal amount um you know 120 $130,000 and I don't know you know there's no magic money for that but I do know that in non-instructional areas we do sometimes have administrative access and that there are places where we could look that has less impact on kids we could look to areas where we have more people supervising less people than our smallest elementary schools and we have to make tough choices and it's difficult because five years ago in this room and I'm this is not for any of you but five years ago in this room was when we started this process and the aspects of it if if you may um this was five years ago to the day was when we started cutting 56 jobs here and it was at this time in this meeting and that has had an absolutely detrimental effect to the students and it pains me to be here five years later and see another step that might have those long lasting ramifications so I urge the board to look to any area possible that does not have a direct impact on students or the the basic functionality of the district and see if there's any way if unfortunately that is what we have to do can we save educational positions can we save student clubs and can we save uh student Athletics thank you thank you for your comment all right seeing no others we will close public comment on the school budget and we'll move on to the action agenda for the budget he i' ask for the board's consideration for the following motions under the budget uh report actually after the budget reports after sorry and and I apologize is there any um board board members that would like to make comment before we move on to the action agenda my apologies anyone else want to go first I thought M nurse perhaps that no oh um so I thank Mr vuli Mr eard Miss Leever for the budget that they're presenting unfortunately for me I just I okay the 6.3 part where I think that's where the presentation as to what the cuts would be I cannot support that although I support all the other tax raising pieces of it because I do want to get the local tax levy up as much as possible so with respect to the healthcare waiver and um I think that was it um but I just with respect to the cuts that were made I I Just Disagree and I and I don't think that it's appropriate for me to elaborate further but I just wanted to say that on that 6.3 and I believe that if I vote no on that then I'm expressing my disagreement would that be a correct statement okay thank you yes it would I would just like it to be clear because there's so much information uh it is hopeful that we might see 2third of the cup return to us we would still be in the red relative to other districts that have gotten tens and tens of millions of dollars and the one point about which I am personally uncomfortable is the proposal that the board will be empowered to U single-handedly raise the tax rate without Community involvement for having an authority imputed to us that we don't have now and that could turn out to be a significant uh undertaking and I'm just personally uncomfortable with that and of course part of the objection is that well if if you ask ask the town to vote on a tax increase they'll say no and so what we've come up with here with the help of the legislature is a way to just cut the town out of the conversation and we're going to say well we know what's better and I think that's a road we should avoid thank you I understand exactly how you feel Mr Davis I just want to clarify for anybody at the board that that is not what we are doing tonight um that's something okay just wanted to make that very clear that that's not not Miss D I I agree with what Mr Davis said I mean we they just voted on a referendum you know they had that that opportunity to give their input and now they're going to be hit again without any any vote on it um that's a partial solution that the legislature came up with oh yeah sure you can do it but it's on your it's on your taxpayers um but regarding the budget um every component of our budget has value um and it's there's been difficult decision making um what I'm concerned with though is in my opinion uh there could be cuts that would uh affect students less or not at all even um and that's uh where I disagree about the budget that uh that there could be Cuts there could have been Cuts made elsewhere that would not affect students at all or affect them much less than what will be happening Miss nurse I started out and I think probably a couple board meetings ago was not in favor of the budget because of everything that we had to do but in working through with everybody and hearing everybody's thoughts and opinions this is not of anybody's fault that is sitting at this table unfortunately we have a broken system within our state there are no good choices left this I do think um with the collaboration of everybody is as much as I don't want to or don't like this I I will be voting yes to it because this is where we are unfortunately um and this is I think the best that we can do with the situation and that we can just hope for the people who are lobbying for us in at the state level that we do it for 12 months out of the year so we're not here again next year I think that would be very helpful um because I mean this is what it comes down to because of what's happening for the past five six years so Mr I just wanted to follow up on what Miss Nur said actually I'm I'm concerned actually that we will be back here next year because based on what the legislation is currently has passed the assembly it is not a permanent return of 2third it's a onee unless unless the assembly can and the Senate can then um give that money to us in perpetuity my concern is that the choices that made which and I understand right we have a disagreement as to how as to what the P you know what as Miss stat said they're all important programs we just have a disagreement and I just feel that if we're here again next year that um I would have chosen differently that's all okay seeing no other board members comments we'll move to the action agenda in the area of budget which we are discussing I'd ask for the board's consideration of the following motions starting at 6.3 approving the 20242 school budget approving the health benefits waiver approving the resolution for travel reimbursement expenses and maximum travel for 2425 approving the capital reserve withdrawal for the 2425 budget approving the maintenance Reserve withdrawal for the 2425 budget approving approving Professional Services maximum EXP expenditures for the 2425 budget and also approving a corrective action plan for semi can I get a motion in a second any additional discussion before we vote seeing none we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes M Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee Yes m Miss nurse yes Miss stats no M tro Yes except for no to 6.3 I'm sorry yeah no for uh 6.3 yes for everything else sorry and Mr Marini yes motion passes all right so now move on to uh committee reports and for that if we could start with HR the HR committee met last week on Wednesday we started the discussion with um some Personnel matters and then we moved on to job description revisions um that did not need to be approved but the um they wanted us to be on top of uh the status we talked talked about the status of the HR department and about the upcoming staff recognition on the 13th at our next uh board meeting and finally we had a chance to look at the budget proposal and discuss that proposal all right thank you um can we please move on to the education committee so we uh discussed math standards updates um and that with keeping in mind the full curriculum revision is scheduled for the 20242 school year we touched upon the English for concurrent enrollment um information it's um it was the curriculum map and it's the first curricula in the scheduled 2324 uh revision the bulk of The Curriculum maps are anticipated around May 7th so we'll uh loop back around to that curriculum map as well uh a revision to uh an anatomy and physiology CP course um right now it's a full year course uh with routinely 12 to 150 students who request it um if we switch it to um sorry about that lost my place in its current configuration of teacher availability the high school would be able to offer one-ear long course for 25 to 30 students but a semester course we could open it up to 100 to 120 students so again it's splitting it from a full year to um two semesters we discussed the heger phonics bridge to Reading Program um and that it will um for K through two replace foundations because it's more aligned with the um pheic awareness instruction uh and we discussed book adoption review and we also discuss the potential potential budget cuts oh as well as sorry about that the Aris literacy grade book um currently reading and writing grade books are separate teachers um have requested combining both um as well as having one lesson plan uh to help streamline their work process thank you very much um if we can move on to the operations committee operations and finance basically we talked a lot about the budget uh Mr eer and the fever provided us with a much more detailed level review of specific areas that would have to be addressed and uh there was a lot of discussion about Alternatives and what we could do but you know Mr eer and Mr leer had done great job of presenting that to us we also talked about uh some contracts that were going out for bid that were necessary just for General operations that you have to do to keep going all of which are on the agenda tonight and um and we talked about the pending legislation as as we we had here before and various concerns were expressed but that's not tonight's business all right thank you very much uh and I will address the governance committee governance committee was very light as within rest of the Committees um obviously discussed the budget um and then the other item that we discussed was a slight modification to the final version of the Strategic plan which we will talk about tonight and that was it all right so with that we'll move on to the board's board president's report um so there a bit of a downer with the budget as we all as we all know um hopefully we'll have some um interesting uh information presented by our superintendent on the on the long-term plan for the district um I do want to thank uh the board members uh the ad Administration and some of our leaders throughout the district for spending a lot of time working on this now you might think we show up you know a couple of Mondays and maybe a Wednesday or Thursday for committee meetings once a month but I think I think we met for a long time on a Friday all day Saturday and an all day Sunday so giving up weekends and days all over the place to get this get this done um we worked with hiy who led the sessions over that time period very very very fruitful sessions and we're very happy to be able to present this to you so my introduction of your presentation is my presentation so we'll move on to that and I'm going to get there in just a second first a couple of other news and notes but then I will get to our strategic plan exciting stuff first of all really exciting how about a legal notice I have to read um in case you're wondering the bid for lease purchase financing of technology for the 2425 budget was opened on April 23rd the winning bid was from TD TD Bank and it includes two payment schedules first is a four-year schedule where we are financing a staff device refresh in the amount of $787,500 at an interest rate of 4.59% second is a five-year schedule we are financing exterior door monitoring Point installation and IP intercom upgrades at Amsterdam and Triangle Elementary Schools in the amount of $384,500 the closing for this lease is scheduled for May 15 2024 Mr record did I do okay with with the legal requirement you did yes okay thank you thank you now for some good news Dr troli who happens to be sitting here our Middle School principal shared that six students were nominated for recognition as part of the 32nd annual Paul Robison youth achievement awards presented by the Paul Robison Institute for ethics leadership and social social justice at rton Valley Community College on April 11th the awards were established in 1990 to honor outstanding African-American high school and middle school students from across Somerset and 100 counties who have excelled in the areas that Paul Robison gained prominence scholarship the Arts community services and Athletics the six students nominated from Hillsboro Middle School included neori to Skyler Haynes Nyla AIA amaning Mercy matumi Aiden Bailey and Ashley wac of those six two received special recognition congratulations to eighth grader Ashley wac recipient of the award for excellence in community service and to eighth grader n n sorry Nyla apia ammani recipient of the Paul Robison Renaissance award for youth achievement across all categories congratulations to all of our students and Dr troli and everybody else involved and special thanks hang on for the plus special thank to Miss Lisa grills white uh HMS Student Assistance counsel for all of her work as our liaison with rvcc and for supporting these individual students now you can give a little round of applause for really really do some outstanding work and we want to make sure we continue to highlight that and in fact next month we are going to be highlighting the outstanding work of some of our staff members but right now I'm really excited to highlight the outstanding work uh of our Board of Education in case you didn't know uh people of Hillsboro the Strategic plan with everything that has gone on over the past few years and covid and coming out of that a stre strategic plan here ended in June of 2022 so we've been a little bit rudderless we've been we've been um doing we need to do by good thoughts and good intents but without that guidepost and without that Northstar we're about to change that and the board did some very serious work uh over the time period that uh president Marini had said and put together what I'm about to show you behind me here some of the work that we put together is called the portrait of the Hillsboro learner and by the time that people are done in Hillsboro by students are done in Hillsboro what do we want that Hillsboro learner to look like when they have gone through the hill Boro Township Public Schools and I think the board did an excellent job of identifying some very important traits those include executive functioning skills including time management risk-taking regulation and being selfmotivated being a respectful and ethical member of society both interpersonally and digitally skilled communicator and collaborator and a multi multifaceted thinker meaning analytical critical and creative and also to be adaptable resilient and persistent if we can produce students who can have all of those traits I think we're doing a tremendous job so that was step one step two it was time to come up with a new mission statement this took a lot longer than you would possibly think uh one of the things that I advise the board about a mission statement is I want it to be something that is memorable and something that when I speak to my staff and administrators that I can pull ideas out of here and include that in my communications embarrassingly right now I can't tell you word for word what our current missions statement is but if this becomes our new mission statement I'm going to have this one memorized and I'm already seeing what parts I'm going to pull out in my communications the mission statement we want for the Hillsboro Township Schools is that we are empowering all students to excel while finding purpose and joy in every aspect of their educational journey and uh again I think that is certainly a noble Mission and one that this board worked on for a good period of time after coming up with the mission we also needed some core values this is all done at the governance level high level stuff the core values that this board decided on was to act in the best interest of the student ensure a safe and secure learning environment where students feel protected both physically and emotionally Foster a culture of continual growth and Champion a culture of diverse perspectives and backgrounds that is what this board is identifying as core values for our school district once those core values have been identified the next step is to really start narrowing down this strategic plan and what are the big buckets the big buckets that we wanted to focus on in this strategic plan as identified by the board those three big buckets came down to Student Success a culture for Learning and facilities and resource management and then the last thing that a board has to do before it's kicked over to Administration and staff to to really do the implementing is to come up with the objectives this is the board's besides oversight this is the board's final part that they have to create when it comes to the Strategic plan and I don't like to be that person who always reads off the slides but I think it's important for me to to read these to you that the objectives that the board is looking for under Student Success is to promote academic achievement by making sure all students obtain proficiency and essential skills and content to ensure all students have opportunities to thrive personally and socially both in and out out of the classroom cultivate responsible digital citizenship among all students empowering them to engage positively ethically and safely in online communities and environments Empower all students to discover their unique strengths and unleash their potential to create a meaningful impact in their lives and their respective community and to establish effective stakeholder communication and channels and strategies to support Student Success Through collaboration engagement and shared responsibility some big but important objectives keep in mind this is a five-year strategic plan so it'll be one step at a time but in the big bucket of culture for learning the boards identified the following objectives to coordinate and strengthen prek prek through 12 mental health structural supports explore the feasibility of implementing full day kindergarten to recruit and retain high quality purpose-driven Educators build meaningful supportive and trusting stakeholder relationships explore our curricul offerings and Pathways to ensure we are optimizing student growth and development in preparing for post High School Success and career Readiness also evaluate our internal communication to optimize opportunities for increasing stakeholder awareness and understanding throughout the Learning Journey in the last big bucket a lot of what we talked about today had to do with budget which leads to facilities and Resource Management so the board identified four really big Topics in there number one is currently stands strengthen and enhance advocacy initiatives to address long-term budgetary challenges effectively and I did share with the board in brass tax that there were some um some debate in in a word uh in that one but remember you're not acting on this tonight this is just for for discussion uh investigate altern alternative funding models to drive towards a predictable and sustainable budget continually improve District operational efficiency and develop and Implement long-term facility and transportation Improvement plans including the feasibility and need for a new high school this is big work five years worth of big work and I'm really proud of the board members that I work with and my central administrative team who advis them in order to come up with these objectives The Next Step actually let me back that up the next step is going to be for some discussion some input from the board in the community and the board on May 13th is then going to to um make a motion to formally vote and adopt this as the beginning of the next strategic plan and then it's up to me to help lead the efforts to come up with uh action plans and ways to make sure that these objectives are uh implemented I just wanted to go back to that mission statement which I think is pretty powerful if this is adopted someday if this is adopted on May 13th not someday this is adopted on May 13th can totally see how I'll be communicating with staff and administration in the community pulling out words and phrases from this mission statement making sure that we are always F always focused on this Mission empowering all students to excel while finding purpose and joy in every aspect of their educational Journey so board members you created this very proud of the work there's some time here for you to discuss there's time for the community to give us feedback between now and May 13th but again the plan right now is for me to bring this back to you on on May 13th as a motion for you to formally adopt this as our the beginnings of our next strategic plan so that we can get to work on those objectives for you and uh Mr President that concludes my superintendent report all right thank you very much all right we will move on to our next item uh approval of minutes uh we'll take a motion to approve uh 10.1 motion to approve executive session minutes motion to approve public meeting minutes both for 4824 and motion to approve public meeting minutes 4:14 24 can I get a motion a second so move second all in favor I thank you we'll now move on to the first formal public comment session we very much welcome in from the public during board meetings will be 230 minute periods of time the meeting will be open public comment where members of the public are invited to comment which they may do if they attending in person during the first public comment period members of the public are they comment about items that are list on tonight's agenda before the board votes during the second public comment period members of the public May comment on any school or School District issue a member of the public Fields may be of concern to the resident of the school district as for V 0167 before you st your comment you ask provide your name and address there's a three minute limit on public comment please understand that a public forms not structur as question session but rather offer as opportuni to share your thoughts with the board in instance with the board believ there's a misunderstanding or in accuracy the president board president or superintendent will address the comment there may be times when a member of the public makes a comment or ask question about personel hiring decisions kindly note the open public meetings Act and the priv rights of public employees that compes there and to uppr the board to discuss Personnel issues in public session so any action item any action agenda comments okay seeing none we will close that if there's any comments from the board before we move to the action agenda okay seeing none we'll move to the action agenda thank you Mr President I would ask for the board's consideration of the following motions in the area of Education approving professional travel related expenses affirming the superintendent's HIV determination for the attached cases approving a revised curriculum approving a revised course anatomy and physiology CP approving a new reading program hegerty phonics bridge to reading approving book adoptions approving summer credit advancement for program staff approving summer school staff approving revised family math and family science sessions approving field trip destinations approving an overnight trip approving a teacher candidate placement between Ryder University and our school district approving the continued long-term suspension of students and Mr Walk on for resolution resolve to affirm this be 12.14 resolve to affirm uh hipc case hb- ARS 20232 24-10 can I get a motion in second so moved second second any discussion by the board before we vote Mr H I just have a question that I neglected to ask earlier because I just realized it um with respect to the phonic program which sounds amazing um how what funding will be used to pay for this was it for the phonic program right the heg Dr how are we paying for the phonic program yeah that's through eser funds through the learning acceleration funds got thank you very much y any other board member comments or questions before we take roll all right seea we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson I am a yes with one exception on 12.6 um I am a no for dear Martin for grading okay thank you thank you M Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss St I'm yes for everything except for um the the added one the 12.14 that's a no to no okay thank you and Mr Marini uh yes motion passes and I apologize I miss Trio thank you um Yes except for um abstain on 12.14 thank you okay motion passes thank you in the area of Human Resources I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following following motions retirements and resignations leaves of absence appointments change in employment status coaches Mentor AP Proctors student teacher Sixth and seven period coverage extra coverage a stien payment and extended school year program staff can I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion by the board before we take roll see none we'll move the role Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss lenning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Mr H yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes thank you in the area of operations I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions monthly financials line item transfers financial status monthly bills a proposal from generation service for Led Stadium lighting a motion to award the bid for the Hillsboro High School fire shutter replacement aing a bid for Waste Disposal approving resolution appointing sedexo as the district's Food Services management company for the 2425 school year approving The Proposal from virtue Academy approving an agreement with gagle approving a proposal from safe Fleet approving a propos approving Professional Services agreement with learnwell for 2425 motion to renew proposal for health and dental benefits from Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield motion to renew proposal for vision benefits from vssp Vision Care and a motion to approve the disposal and sale of obsolete equipment can I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion Miss nurse just something I feel like the need to point out because I saw it and was going back and forth a little bit to find more information but uh 14.7 the waste disposal I don't know if anybody noticed but for next year the bid has a $2 increase and then the following year it has a $6,000 increase and then the third year it has an $18,000 increase and that to me seems a bit like price gouging I will be voting no I I know our hands are tied with the bids that we have and and I'm learning about the process I don't like the process um but you know if I have to sit with a pile of garbage a month I guess I will in case we have a possibility of getting bids that seem a little bit more in line um we're already in a budget crisis and I don't understand why it's $226,000 more for two years so just wanted to point it out but thank you any others okay seeing none we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes Miss Craig yes Miss Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes with the exception of 4 point 14.7 is a no Miss stats yes Mr H yes and Mr Marini uh yes except for 14.7 I will abstain but not for I have a family member that works for the company so yes governance all right so we will move on to the last public comment period uh for the meeting we very much welcome in from the public during board means be 230 minut periods of time public comment which members of the public are invited the comment which they may do if they're attending in person during the second public comment period members of the public may come on any school or School District issue that a member of the public feels may be have concerned the residence of the school district as bial 0167 before your com ask to provide your name and address Li public comment please understand that are public forms do not structured as question answer sessions but rather offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board in board believes there's a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment times member the public or makes a comment or ask a question about personel hiring decisions kindly note the open public meetings act in the Privacy rights of public employees in Cass there and do not the board discuss Personnel issues in public session hello my name is Lea gabra bis I live in Hillsboro I wasn't going to talk but um in following up with Mrs Dar said I'm curious just to see to know to learn how bids work I was just going to send an email afterwards but um so I see that for 14.7 I think it was 14.6 you only had one bid and I looked at the 14.7 I think it goes up like 10% and then 11% I called my provider just to find out like oh did were you contacted did you know about this and it just talked to him for a little bit but you know there might be rising costs you don't there's um I think he might have mentioned possibly Fuel and and other costs and things like that so you know it' be good to just find out you know if you're wondering why it might go up this much they might be hedging in case you know cost go up for them or something of that nature um second I know that there's been discussion about the 2% cap I'm not sure if everyone fully understands that but as I've mentioned in the past and I wrote to the board before I thought it would be good to find out if you could work with the township just to see when the new market rate homes are coming into uh like you know into effect when are they rolling out just so that we would have a good idea of when to expect that more money um that we again cannot tap into because of this archaic 2% thank you thank you for your comment any other members of the public wish to okay seeing none we will close public comment and I will open up to the board if they'd like to make any comment it was mentioned that uh for a couple of these bids there proposals there was only one bid and in the future I'd like to look into what we can do if there's anything we can do differently how do we Market our B whatever the case talking to the microphone yeah I I think it's a standard process we had a couple people that pulled the requirements but never responded so we can't make people respond to the bids there's only one response it's unfortunate because nothing to compare against no negotiating power at that point stats uh I just wanted to let you know that I attended burrow talks um at the high school on April 12th that's like Ted Talks where the student um gave speeches and um they were wonderful very inspirational I I was inspired by what they said and just this past Friday I was here to watch the uh auton school kids um perform uh Goldilocks on trial it was hilarious and they were excellent especially with comedy you have to be very good with timing and pacing and they really nailed it and uh it was very enjoyable thank you you so in terms of what's happening at the high school I just wanted to highlight the spirit night that happened last Friday it was really an amazing event where all four grades within the high school got to get together and engage in various events such as the spirit night dances and more fun events such as like tug OFW and uh not only that but just the overall culture in general we had the murals that several students uh coll cated in painting which is which they look amazing within the high school and also the um Spirit Night t-shirts and also the class videos which were really fun to watch and overall it was just a really good way to bring the school uh together and to unite into one thing awesome thank you Mr I was just thinking about the Strategic plan again because I think by our calendar I'm not sure that we will meet in committees before the next board meeting could be wrong so as um we were presenting it today I just had a couple of thoughts I thought we you know obviously I'm patting ourselves on the back but I thought we did a good job on this but as it was um being presented a couple thoughts came up and the first was in The Portrait of the Hillsboro learner I feel like it was it's very it's really good but it's missing the word kind I don't know like I feel like kindness is an important attribute of any citizen of Our Town and Country and so I would like to see that added to it some somehow because all of the and I was thinking in this in the second part which is respectful and ethical member of society I feel like also kind encompasses a lot so just as a as a proposal like I said it just kind of thought about it as it was going through and then the second um thought that I had was with respect to the mission statement which I do like um but I was would propose that we consider instead of the word joy that it says that while finding purpose and meaning in every aspect of their educational journey and the reason for that is I think Joy is is a wonderful word and it's very aspirational and it's a very positive word but sometimes school you know what I'm going to use chemistry again chemistry can be very challenging there might not be a lot of joy in there but maybe there's meaning that we could find in it as to why we need to study this hard science so it was just like a proposal to think about perhaps um swapping out joy for a meeting or I mean I like it the way it is but it's just having a proposal because I know that the next time we meet we may not have had an opportunity to discuss as a group thank you if I if I can just clarify before any other com comments just uh I think the only committee right now I looked at the schedule quickly I think right operations does not meet before but all the other committees HR education governance they will all meet before the next meeting so you'll have that opportunity to to to speak governance was originally the 15th we didn't switch it yet I have right now I have governance on the eth in my calendar because I think elen couldn't move that right you were the 15th that's why we governance on the E mine said we had that I'll look again but we said because we were going to do HR and the ad hoc committee after it because governance and Mr you said that you we might have to reschedule the 15th that may just not have been taken effect on the calendar invite maybe but I do remember that conversation I yeah yeah okay and Jean I just wanted to say though like I I do remember and I like the word kind I think that's great we did have that discussion of Joy versus meaning while we were as as a whole um and I I believe there were a lot of reasons for keeping Joy but you know I know it can be Revisited but I believe that we had that as part of our discussion when we were wrapping up and we as a whole decided to stick with joy okay any other comments before um I would second meaning I I think originally the word I I would prefer the word meeting I think uh I agree with okay we could take that offline before the next meeting and in the Committees we have okay all right um seeing no other comments I'll take a mo motion to adjourn so nobody we can stay H second all right second second okay all in favor I thank you