good evening everyone in accordance with the state Sunshine Law of New Jersey adequate notice of this meeting of the Hillsboro board Township Board of Education was provided on June 6 2024 to the Hillsboro Beacon and Courier News um we will call to order for this meeting on June 10th 2024 Mr Davis Miss Jackson here miss Craig here M laming beer here Mr Lee here M nurse here M stats here Mr heo here and Mr Marini we have thank you um I motion to move into executive session so move second okay whereas the open public meeting act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 provides that a public body May exclude the public from that portion of a meeting of which the public body discusses certain matters for which confidentiality is required as permitted in section 7B of the ACT resolved by the Board of Education of the township of Hillsboro in the county of somerson and state of New Jersey as follows one the matters to be discussed are a student disciplinary matter and a Personnel matter two the matters discussed in executive session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists and we will aim to be back here at 7:30 thank you hello and welcome back to the Monday June 10th 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 M Jackson here M Craig here M Lanning beer here Mr Lee here miss nurse here miss stats here Mr Hill here and Mr Marine here we have a quum let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the tri of the United States of America I'd like to acknowledge the correspondents as listed and we will move on to the board president's report and before I get to the uh meat of what I was going to speak about I would like to read a resolution honoring student representative Rio clean for service on the Hillsboro Board of Education whereas Rio kuchan has served with distinction on the Hillsboro Board of Education and whereas through their leadership the Hillsboro board of education has gained fresh insights into students concerns student priorities and what is on the mind of young people in the community and where as they have further contributed to the community by serving as a valuable spokesperson sharing the student perspective at board meetings and whereas Rio coin's exemplary commitment to fellow students and the school district has promoted clear communication between the Board District administration and the student body and whereas Rio Klean has maintained a professional decorum at board meetings shown respect to board members and strive to learn the proper etiquette of serving on a school board and whereas they have demonstrated a commitment to advancing the education of all students without neglecting their own responsibility to strive for success in the classroom now therefore be it resolved that the Hillsboro Board of Education recognizes Rio's dedication and commitment to advancing educational opportunity and open communication between the Board District administration and the student body and be it further resolved that members of the Hillsboro Board of Education extend their sincere appreciation to Rio for their dedicated service on the Hillsboro Board of Education and be it further resolved that the members of the Hillsboro Board of Education extend their best wishes to Rio and all of their future [Applause] endeavors do you want to make any comments yeah thank you so much it's been a great honor serving as this role I not only just gained so many experiences being in this role but I also was able to see how a board of education operates and I've made countless I've learned countless things and made countless memories just being part of here uh from all the all the Motions that were pass to everything that happened I'm truly grateful for for this role and I'll I'll make sure to use everything I've learned for the rest of my life thank you again [Applause] all right so before we move on to the recognition of retirees and the superintendent report uh I just want to make some comments as we move forward in today's meeting uh for those who are unaware it is our charge to review and potentially approve an updated budget for the district um you know B Board of Education members rarely agree unanimously on anything um but I think this board is not happy with the situation it was put it I think that's clearly uh obvious if you speak to the board members that the situation we were put in where we had to decide whether or not to increase the tax levy on the community without a vote of the public is something that um we did not want to do but in our role as board members it's something that we have to take into account and and make a decision on and I hopefully if we pass this uh updated budget today it shows our commitment to ensuring the long-term finan Financial stability of the district allows us to offer more programs or lower cost in certain instances uh to members of the community um I know there are certain items that are up for debate on whether they should or should not be included in the spend of that money um the final decisions around that will be made in future board meetings when we approve spend uh for those items I know there was some uh feedback that we should spend all of that money and restore all 51 positions that were lost in 2019 and while that does sound like a noble task you know if the state comes back and says we're cutting you 2 million again next year that's 20 teaching positions that we could lose so um superintendent vulpi will be presenting a budget that is balanced uh and that allows us to have some wiggle room between additional staff you know completing everything that was approved in the most recent referendum um not allowing any cuts to staff um that we could have had to do with this year's budget as it was but also gives us some areas you know around courtesy busing and uh the kindergarten full day kindergarten program that if we do run into a crunch we can make Cuts without having to cut staff again so no answer is perfect and I know board members are going to give their feelings as we go to board comment um but hopefully the community will be happy that we've done things that will improve the district potentially help support property values obviously school districts are a big part of that so uh there should be benefit to the entire Community here uh with the updated budget that we'll put forward so um I'm not going to dwell too long we will have comments from the board as we review uh the superintendent's presentation as it as it uh pertains to the budget and that concludes my report thank you Mr President as we get to the end of the school year it's always very Bittersweet while many of us are looking forward to summer vacation and the anticipation of what's next in a new coming year as we think about hiring new staff or new students coming into schools uh we lose some our brightest and best and today we are here to uh to recognize some of those retirees that I will speak about very briefly but there will also be a little narrative uh about them up on the board and uh president Marini is going to along with your principles uh be up there to congratulate you as well as give you a little token of our appreciation so uh principles I would ask all of you to join president Marini up there so that when your staff members come up that you are ready to receive them obviously in addition to the uh token of our appreciation there are some nice words that you can say in handshakes and and obviously be very appreciative I would like everybody's attention for the final slide of this as to how much incredible experience we are going to have walking out the door uh there are several people who are retiring who are not here uh so they will be come up on the screen momentarily but uh everybody who is here come up and you will get a chance to uh meet the board president be by your principal and most importantly thank you for everything that you have done for students over a long period of time you're not here to uh to take care of me take care of your principles or the board members are here to take care of kids and that's what you did for an extended period of time so thank you so much for that so we just want to welcome everybody here uh for the retirees for their dedication and commitment as I had mentioned and we will start with Hillsboro High School as you can see there's a whole slew of people this year who are retiring from Hillsboro High School uh but some of them right now are here in the audience and the first person that I want to call up to be congratulated is Christina Costa one of our school count has been a school counselor at Hillsboro High School for 22 years and is an educator for 33 years thank you so much for your service please can you stay up there can you stay can you stay up can you stay up to all the retirees nice picture and everything that' be great great we also have Mary DeSantis from the high [Applause] school and Mr Sanz is not just a longtime employee but a longtime resident of Hillsboro who like me also had her children attend our schools thank you so [Applause] much Taran Fato if you're reading the slides behind me we want to thank her for 42 impressive years at Hillsboro High [Applause] School Robin kimelman sorry I thought Robin is Robin here no my apologies that's our high school give our high school one more [Music] round at Hillsboro Middle School we had two retirees this year and is bronic here bronic I'm sorry bronic I I didn't see you back there and for those of you who don't know it's going to be a very tough retirement for us veronic for a long period of time has held two positions um and worked I don't know 16-hour days for a long period of time both as The Courier for the district and also for as a custodian at the middle school thank you so much [Applause] Bri at auton Road Intermediate School we have some retirees as well as you can see them listed behind me and the first retiree we would like to recognize is Marlo Bruce [Applause] Mara has been an advocate for students for a long period of time and has helped her with social helped them with social and emotional challenges and is really to be thanked for her work with [Applause] students from Amsterdam Elementary School we have three retirees for this year and today with us we have Lois MO [Applause] this year is the teacher of grade four it's going to leave a great hole as she has spent 29 years shaping the minds of Learners in elementary schools thank you so [Music] [Applause] much at Hillsboro Elementary School is Kirsten here yeah and Kirsten Goodwin I turned 50 I need glasses Carston for 36 years she has been an inspiration to the students all across the district in addition to her being uh a great employee I actually had the pleasure of working with her for many years and I've seen her around town a couple times I won't say where because I don't wanted to do that but it was out it's out at a nice establishment you know having food and drink and that kind of stuff but uh Kirsten we we really want to have you enjoy your retirement thank you so much now I know Dr Jenkins couldn't be here tonight uh but we did want to make sure that we recognize all of our retirees at Sunny me and I think we have multiple who were here this evening and I believe Mr rjin is going to congratulate them on behalf of Dr Jenkins and we first would like to uh congratulate Robin dein [Applause] centus as noted by Dr Jenkins Robin is one of a kind and has spent 38 years at what she considers to be her purpose and passion also from Sunday me Dawn Rens second grade teacher who has all of the qualities of compassionate dedicated and student centered educator thank you for your service at at woodfern elementary school there were two retirees this year oh there somebody um is it Kirsten I'm sorry I didn't have Kirsten please come on up car teacher of grade three and I'm sorry we didn't have your slide up there but we will make sure we get it up and put it on the website and we want to thank you for your service too and I apologize for that do we have anybody else here from Sunny meet tonight I will make sure that we have you up on the website tomorrow and from woodfern I believe we have one person here Mar and Donahue Maran has been an educator for 28 years in Hillsboro for 24 and 14 at woodfern and I'm sorry we uh about to really just double check this in the future make sure I believe we missed a couple people from Orton Road um and I apologize for that can we go back and um honor Karen Matthews [Applause] Karen is Karen is obviously the life of the party and probably was like that our entire time at auton Road school and Karen we will make sure that we have that up there for you and again my apologies too do we also have Marie mlin here as well R has been one of our lunch Shades and we could not do what we do on a daily basis without not only our certificated staff members in the classrooms but who's looking out for our kids in those unstructured times at sometimes the toughest parts of the day so thank you so much for [Applause] that okay again if there's anybody else please just let else want to retire I at Woods Road Elementary School we do have three retirees and we'll go back back to it Jean MCR Roth is here Jean's compassion for kids has shown for 22 years in Hillsboro and we thank you for your dedication to the [Music] students so in all of our retirees and this does even include a couple people that I missed and I promise you will be up on the website by tomorrow we are losing 707 years of kindness caring dedication to the students of Hillsboro Township Public Schools and I would submit as I've said several times that all of you standing there I don't care what your job position is teacher custodian lunch a you're an educator and you made a difference for students so thank you for that and often I gotta quote Mr Rogers I was an elementary school principal when you think you're at the end of something you're usually at the beginning of something else and I wish you nothing but the best of success again thank you for your dedication [Applause] public Mr President do you want to take a yeah five minute recess five minute recess e e e e only but we could fix the fix they don't understand milon schol [Music] 3 million 15 million3 that's but we do andbody [Music] this you do another one con that's [Music] [Applause] I [Laughter] know like I have kids I'm not like you pay I do I've never won kid [Music] I think now I'm GNA announce it yeah yeah yeah hello I'd like to thank everyone again thank all the retirees we are going to attempt to move forward with the meeting so if you can make your way to the exits or join us in the audience either is fine we'd like audience so that's preferred don't make me put on my judges gown to do the elementary school class no it has to go like this I'm not an elementary school teacher see see no five 4 [Music] three I did not think that was going to work all right let me know when we're live again all right we are back thank you for accommodating that break to celebrate the retirees every second worth it all right so we will continue with the superintendent report thank you I just want to congratulate again the re Diaries it is was a pleasure working with you and you still have a few more days so please keep coming to work for the next week uh part of my responsibility as president Marini had said is to present along with Mr eard the uh 2425 Revis tenative budget presentation so Mr ord's going to speak to a couple things then I'm going to speak to some larger things and then eventually the board is going to be speaking about some things as well so uh Mr eard I will kick it over to you to start actually think you're no I'm okay I'll go first so why are we revisiting our budget um as I've been reporting out and you may have seen me either in the patch or on tap Hillsboro or on um Spotlight News New Jersey or on New Jersey news12 or across social media I've been advocating for a long period of time that there is unfair funding in the state and that schools districts like Hillsboro needed options there are 140 school districts who were in the city situation that we were in and the state legislation in the assembly uh in the Senate and then signed by the governor last month gave local Boards of Education options and we are here tonight to discuss one of those options or some of those options so the timeline has been extended normally budgets are done by this point all the way through July 19th we have to have our uh public hearing no later than then and we have currently have that scheduled for July 15 tonight is a presentation of the tenative revised budget and also as part of that we're receiving 45% of the state aid cut which is $1.2 million uh will be awarded to us as stabilized Aid this is a one-time award as opposed to regular state aid so if this is us as for recurring costs we would need to cut that amount next year so Boards of Education now have the opportunity to exceed the 2% tax levy cap to recoup the amount of state aid lost between fiscal year 2021 and 2025 those are the years of S2 where we had lost money and that would become part of our permanent tax levy base giving us some Financial stability so I'm about to go into this into detail to the Board of Education as to why this is an option for consideration and what we could potentially do with those funds now Mr eard I think I'm kicking it over your way for thank you Mr V yes here's an overview of the proposed revised tenative 2024 25 budget the general fund budget is 148 mil3 67,5 the grants and entitlements budget is 1,968 185 and The Debt Service budget is 2,187 n50 our general fund is increasing by just over 9.8 million the reason for this is the 2% tax levy increase which is the normal tax levy increase allowable each year a $777,000 waiver for health benefit costs 5.7 million for the uh restoration of some of the state aid cuts which is through the tax levy and a onetime $1.2 million state aid restoration Grant there's also a 3.2 3.25 million budgeted from our capital reserve account to be used for one-time projects and the $500,000 budgeted withdrawal from a maintenance Reserve account which is to use to offset the cost of Maintenance throughout the district the grants and entitlements portion of the budget is comprised of federal state and local grants and donations which is increasing the by $43,000 and the final portion of the budget is The Debt Service which is the principal interest payments for the bonds that were issued for the 2019 referendum the grants and entitlements and Debt Service amounts have not changed since the April budget hearing Mr VY I'll turn it back to you okay so presented for the board's consideration and also for the public why does the board need to consider going beyond the 2% cap to make up for cumulative state aid losses again this is some things that I've testified along with with other members including Mr Good Hugh to both the Senate and the assembly I've been on the news I've been on TV I've been in social media so a lot of these reasons are already known and I've made it very public uh where I stand on this but even in our most recent survey there were still some additional questions uh that went out there from the public so I wanted to make that sure so why do we need to consider this I have brought up this uh slide before about our financial shackles and what can we actually do uh but the one thing that I added here is in yellow behind me because in some of the um uh survey results people were like what about all of this money that you're getting from all the new construction in town that is a false statement there is new construction in town the board of education does not get one dime more a hard 2% cap is a hard 2% cap the only way we could get more from more Construction in town would be to exceed that 2% cap what more construction does in town with a 2% cap is it more evenly distributes that tax burden across the people who have moved in town so if you think that the board of education is getting more money because of more Construction in town we are not additionally with all the other Financial Shackles on me that I have presented at other uh uh budget presentations that's one of the reasons why it needs to be considered one thing that I got a couple emails about was that I just need to budget better I'm a superintendent and I need to budget better to be able to prepare for this so I want to remind people as to what we were told by all indications we were getting a $253,000 cut in state aid I told Mr eer I said budget for a $400,000 cut budget for a cut 60% higher than we are anticipating I think that's pretty conservatively aggressive budgeting upping it by 60% in the end we got a cut 1,000% larger than we thought we we're going to get by all indications and I don't know any household or any organization that can somehow budget and prepare for a th% cut it's not something that is sustainable so I do feel that we budgeted responsibly coming into this budget season so a couple of options that we have I did mention that we are going to apply for and pretty much automatically receive $1.2 million from a stabilization aid grant the word Grant implies that it's a one-year use of money it does not go back into our state aid Baseline it is not something that we would have again next year what I made a commitment to in my budgets was a commitment to staff and Staffing so what will I do with this $1.2 million for one year if we get it if the board takes no further action I will make sure that we fill all of the build burrow back positions that were approved by the taxpayers in November and I will save one person's job who would have to be cut that'll be $1.1 million in referendum positions and about $100,000 with salaries and benefits for that person no one would end up losing their job and we would be able to follow through on what we said to the taxpayers let me make it clear that utilizes the full 1.2 million that's it it's gone and it's a one-year use of money so if the board CH had chose chooses not to go past the 2% cap we'll be in the position couple months earlier next year of needing to cut this $1.2 million and as superintendent please tell me how do I recruit and retain staff for these positions if it's known that I'm going to cut these positions in a year very difficult if the board decides to go beyond the 2% cap then we can use this one-time funding uh for capital projects or other things that wouldn't have uh cost be recurring cost year-over-year so that's what we will do if we stay at the 2% cap that means what is still cut I got that 1.2 million back I promised I would take care of Staff because they're the ones who make the most integral changes and of the most pivotal PE people in front of our children that means other things still have to go so you saw we had some retirees there's $625,000 in positions from the people who were standing here and some who weren't here that just aren't going to be filled so some people aren't losing their jobs but some people who walked out the door aren't going to have their jobs refilled $887,000 will come from extra services that staff members provide such as summer work and before school library hours at the high school like we are ready to go on day one kids have their devices you know we dot eyes we cross tees some schools start handing out their devices when school starts and it takes a week that's not who we are in Hillsboro that's who we may have to be $160,000 in new instructional supplies and materials that were originally budgeted and could not be reallocated to Grants I was very happy that Dr phry found about $100,000 that could be reallocated to about $100,000 right to Grants but not everything could I want to give my teachers materials updated materials those are not in the budget as of right now $188,000 from some small projects and $141,000 will still come from the elimination of Middle School sports in certain Hillsboro High School and Hillsboro Middle School clubs so that's what I have if we don't go beyond the 2% cap and it's a reason why that we have to consider it I've lived in Hillsboro since 1999 less than some of you probably more than some of you as well and I need you to think about you know your property taxes nobody likes property taxes going up but how do you feel about your property values and when it comes down to your property values the biggest thing about property values is the health of your school system it's the truth unless you're right on the beach that usually helps too and we have to look at who are we competing against when it comes to our property values we're not competing against MAA in the north we're not competing against Cape May in the South if someone wants to move in this area who are we competing against we are competing against other towns in Somerset County so it's very important for us to look at how are we doing compared to Somerset County you've seen this chart for me before except instead of putting it in alphabetical order I put it in descending numerical order of state aid received by Somerset County Boards of Education since 20221 with North planfield at the top receiving an extra $41 million Bound Brook beneath that and you can count down there and see the numbers two school districts we normally are compared to Bridgewater right up up the road getting 4.6 million extra Montgomery right down the road another 4 million extra and Hillsboro losing $7 million whose school districts are improving whose uh areas are more desirable to move into when your areas are more desirable to live move into what happens to property values keep that in mind in my survey too one of the things that came out that frequent does when it comes down to budget crunch time is cut administration too got too much Administration I put this out over social media and I've also been on TV speaking about this as well Hillsboro the title right there spends the least in the county per pupil for Administrator salary and benefits overall administrative costs and has the worst student to administrator ratio when it comes to Administrator salary and benefits we are hundreds of dollars per pupil behind Manville who's also close to the bottom when it comes to overall costs it's the same we are last again and it's almost embarrassing our ratio when you compare us to other like schools like if we had mentioned you know Bridgewater or Montgomery right down the road Montgomery has 127 kids for every administrator we have 223 Bridgewater if you look at them I'm missing them on the slide right here two above even though they're close to the bottom 184 per administ ministrator we have 223 have you ever wondered why an administrator hasn't gotten back to you hasn't been in the hallway when something has happened why curriculum's not being updated it's because they're stretched as thin as they possibly can be if you doubt any of the facts that I'm spewing to you there's a fact check Link at the bottom you can check it out all for yourself when it comes to instructional supplies and materials that I'm able to give my teachers we again aren't close to the bottom we are at the bottom we only spend $127 per pupil for instructional materials every year Miss nurse I don't mean to put you on the spot but I know you teach in Bridgewater and if you look at Bridgewaters numbers there Bridgewater spends $447 on instructional supplies per student it's almost a different quality of Education I said one of the reasons why I came back here is because I believe we have the best staff and the best teachers and the best custodians I I did my journey I left Hillsboro I went to Princeton I went to mortown we are where we are outperforming where we should be because of the people that we have here and it's time that I gave them something in order to do the work better when it comes to staff member salaries and benefits we are fifth from the bottom in the county so we're not out over there high overpaying everybody and we're only ahead of two typical school districts the other two District schools that we're ahead of our charter schools so we are fif from the bottom when it comes to taking care of our teachers with their salaries and benefits again this is all fact checkable so overall when you look at the per pupil costs in the county take a look at that list start at the top the per pupil costs and eventually you find us the only School District we spend more on than per pupil is boundbrook and the two charter schools in town where do we perform we perform up at the top of the county in a lot of areas we don't perform down at the bottom imagine what we could do if we were properly funded imagine so the takeaway that I want you to have from that is that in Somerset County Somerset County we're the only School District who has seen state aid cuts for years we're the only ones the only ones and we are consistently at the bottom of the county in budgeting and spending consistently those are all verifiable facts that anybody who outset can go online and check it's not an opinion this year also the board engaged in the strategic planning process uh the board of education for a variety of reasons which I don't need to go into was a little bit rudderless I would say a strategic plan is your Rudder that keeps you focused and moving in the right direction and I was so proud of the work that this board did with Divergent opinions and coming up with strategic plan objectives um and my administrative team are going to start working on that and hopefully Implement that um with in in the following year focusing on Student Success culture for Learning and facilities and resource management and as we engage in the strategic planning process we had focus groups with hundreds of community members we sent out a survey that 1,00 community members responded we asked them a whole variety of questions including hey if some of this stuff is going to cost you more are you willing to pay for it and we got results where people had said yeah if some of this is going to cost more money we'd be willing to pay for it so when the legislation changed last month uh our governance committee asked me hey Mike I know I know we already kind of surveyed people through strategic planning but can we ask again because this is a heavy lift that we're asking and I know that but it's for Hillsboro so we asked a questions again we got more people who responded we had 2500 people who had responded and I really want to thank the township committee for helping me get this survey out again it was also put out on social media in a variety of different ways 83% of the respondents said they want something more out of this budget and there were 177% said don't add anything to the tax levy keep it as it is but 83% of 2500 respondents wanted something more and they wanted it in the areas that not only came up during strategic planning but that the governance committee also asked me about so we've kind of done our due diligence there and in checking the pulse of the community too and tough thing about it is we've been thrown a lifeline and as president Marini said it's not the one we want but it's the one we have what do I think should happen I think the state should give us our money should give it back to us that's not happening that's how it should happen and if I'm in the picture behind me and I'm drowning and somebody is throwing me a life preserver I'm not going to say I don't like the orange one can can you go back and and throw me a blue life preserver because I prefer that it should happen that I'm grabbing on to that I'm taking advantage of of whatever is right there in order to do it and some of you also know this about me um but many of you probably don't uh it's in my nature I'm I'm a wrestler I grew up being a wrestler I I had a good amount of success in wrestling I also became a high school wrestling coach for a long period of time and gosh was that a rewarding experience especially when I had state champ and accolades and things like that it's it's a lot of fun uh but I also remember the tough times and I can't tell you how many times one of my wrestlers if you don't know the concept of wrestling you try to pin the guy put him on his back and get his shoulders down and pin the match is over and there were plenty of times that my wrestlers got turned on their back and I could clearly see that their shoulders weren't touching the mat for the pin but the referee blew the whistle and slapped the mat and my rest wrers would come off to me complaining coach my shoulders weren't down I wasn't pinned my answer to them was we on your back but yeah I was on my back my answer back was don't put yourself in a compromising position and then blame somebody else when they make a bad call get off your back and then you won't get pinned and that's where we are right now we're on our back and we can complain about the state and we can complain about politicians but I've heard from Republicans and from Democrats both saying this isn't going to be solved anytime soon we're going to wait for the next Governor to come in and then when the next Governor comes in maybe he gets it done in a year and then all of a sudden we're very much down the road so I'm asking the the board in Hillsboro it's time to get off of our back let's not get pinned and blame other people for making a bad call and it is a bad call so the essential question that we have to ask is what do we want to accomplish and how do we do that what are we here to do I know what you hired me to do you hired me to run a school district to the best of my capabilities and this is a tool that I have in front of me and I'm recommending it like Mr Marini said even if I don't like it I know have that tool in front of me I now have that life preserver I now I'm ready to get off of my back so right now what you're deciding is the 2425 budget it's going to impact the 2526 budget and then who know knows what's going on in 2627 and I put these three years up here because it's it's kind of interesting and coincidental not only will we be halfway into our strategic plan and what do you want to accomplish that's also the end of my contract and I want to deliver something here in Hillsboro uh before the board the community makes it makes a decision about me you know do I want to be here to just dismantle the district over a couple years yeah we'll cut this job this year we'll raise this class size this year we'll get rid of that and we'll keep on chugging along and hopefully my staff members stay and hopefully new staff members want to come here and cross your fingers we're a proud Community do we want to build it back so knowing that we can't fix everything from five years of state aid Cuts in one year after all of our committee meeting discussions and all the information that I've shared with the board the TV shows I've been on the social media all that presented for the board's consideration is a budget that does incorporate the 5.7 million into the tax levy whatever the board decides we're going to end up acting accordingly now the board's job um is to decide on the number on what they want to do and administration's job is to once that number is set figure out okay what do we want to do with it and I in the spirit of transparency want to show the board as well as the community that if the board goes to this level what I'm going to do with it obviously these things still have to come in front of the board for approval but I don't want you just randomly giving $5.7 million and oh it's it's a bonus for the superintendent and there's new furniture coming all no I want to show you exactly what my plan is to do with it so what would this additional money be used for if we were to do it step one permanently restore all cuts from the April public hearing all of it that's 11 staff positions from the build burrow back referendum that touch all of our schools that's five staff positions from these retirees that weren't going to be refilled so that's 16 certificated staff teaching positions that's new instructional materials that I had to cut and that's the restoration of all extracurriculars including the middle school and high school clubs as well as Middle School sports so everything that you heard me cut in April everything is going to be put back in what are other things we've lost over time and what are some other needs that we weren't able to do because of S2 that we now have the opportunity to do one thing that we've heard about is courtesy busing how that was eliminated as a budgetary concern and that has led to some safety issues for students and inconvenience for parents I want to look at being able to put that back in however I do want to just let the community know and I did highlight this behind me uh this obviously wouldn't be ready for the start of the school year because we have to start getting bus routes out now so this is something that hopefully by the cold weather months we would be able to bring up an in I want to add two position positions at our high school that are desperately needed uh one is an additional building monitor um we have one over there now and we have my supervisor who needs to attend the entire District I don't think it's unreasonable to have in a school of 2400 students two people with their eyes on Safety and Security at all times I want to restore an administrator that was cut at the high school high school vice principal again 2400 students four people in charge of uh discipline and being in charge of a grade level is not that extravagant we want to get a district centralized registar we don't have anybody who's in charge specifically of registering students right now so if you come in the summer good luck because at our elementary schools we don't have any 12 month staff hopefully you come in in a day when we happen to have a couple of hours for people and since we don't have 12 month staff and then um people come to register in late August we try to get as many people as we can in but that's one of the reasons why we can't get people on buses because we don't have people year round to be doing that or and we also want to be looking at redistricting elementary schools this year and we could even add some things like some Communications to this because I know that's been a consideration of board members as well we're also setting aside money for the construction for full day kindergarten full day kindergarten is something that I believe in both educationally but there's also pragmatic reasons behind this decision we are one of nine school districts nine left in the state that do not have full day kindergarten there are hundreds I anybody Jerry you know how many districts there are in the state uh 542 542 okay not all of them necessarily have kindergarten but let's say that it's you know 100 of them don't have kindergarten because they're a different kind of operating District we are one of nine that does not have it yet it does hurt us a little bit in state aid it hurts us with early intervention with kids and we have to plan for it because I firmly believe that at some point the state of New Jersey is going to mandate full day kindergarten and if you don't plan you plan to fail what would happen if the governor or somebody mandates this and we don't have construction going on and we haven't set resources aside I'll tell you how I how I'll I'll get full day kindergart in because there's only one way to do it raise all the other Elementary class sizes to 303 too like other school districts have had you open up rooms and then you put teachers in there that's not beneficial for kids but it it checks the box on a mandate so let's plan before this happens in a couple of years and then we have to do that since that's onetime spending for construction because kindergarten in case you don't know we have to have like certain toilet seats for them we can't have them climbing up to go to the bathrooms we have to do all these accommodations in the room that's one time spending then that money could be used to hire kindergarten staff the board in its consideration for what citizens may have to go through if taxes are raised has very wisely I believe suspended payto playay policy for 2425 and has also updated the policy potentially for 2526 pay to play is when you are paying about $100 per sport at the high school $50 for clubs uh in order to do that so if you have a two kids who are in three Sports 600 bucks right there we're suspending that policy because if we're asking the people to pay more we want to be able to also give something back there at the high school we also need to have some construction that takes place for safer transitions for students between classes we have dangerous bleachers that need repair and we also have some reing security efforts in the district you may remember me reporting to the board several months ago that we were able to procure a grant to rekey um our schools and we're going to be looking at Aon Road school and sunny me school to start that project uh you know so we have better security and and more loc one single locus of control for that and we want to be able to do some of that so the board tonight I just want to make it very clear to the public isn't voting on my ideas but what I've heard from people when it comes to education is you know there's a lack of transparency we don't know what you're going to do about X Y and Z well you know know what I'm going to do now this would still require in a lot of circumstances for the board to pass votes on certain things but there's no black hole for the money you don't not knowing where it's going it's all it's all laid out right here this would be my plan of things to bring forward to the board and I'm very proud that to say that most of this has come from feedback from the community Through the surveys through conversations that I've had with staff members on the ground through conversations with my administrative team and through many conversations at both committee levels and and correspondents with the board as Mr Marini said getting everybody on board with everything is impossible I could probably ask people here what colors my tie and get 17 different answers rather than just one what I think I've done is I've taken in the needs of the community um as well as the staff as well as the students and tried to funnel them in one area and that's kind of what you want a superintendent to do and I'll kick it back over to Mr eer to briefly discuss the tax impact thank you Mr vuli so here I will share with the tax would share the school tax impact on Hillsboro and Millstone residents as a result of the budget which includes a 2% increase to our general fund tax levy the health benefits cap waiver the 5.7 million in additional taxes and the state aid cut restoration waiver of 1.2 million as you can see here even though this budget proposes to increase the tax levy by the maximum allowable the 2024 tax rate for residents of both towns is actually decreasing when compared to the 2023 tax rate the decrease is the is the result of an increase in ratables for Hillsboro of 746 million and of 3.75 million for milstone for Hillsboro the 2024 School tax rate will be 13833 which is a decrease of 0.0074 when compared to the 2023 School tax rate for this year the assessment for the average home in Hillsboro is 54 $ 7,355 and a house assessed this value will pay $757 in school taxes for 2024 for comparison sake in Montgomery a home assessed at $57,000 will pay $1,863 in school taxes for 2024 this marks the sixth consecutive year where School tax rate for Hillsboro has decreased in Millstone the 2024 School tax rate will be 8835 which is a decrease of 0207 when compared to the 2023 School tax rate for this year the assessment for the average mstone Millstone home is $396,500 one in 2024 school taxes this is the fifth consecutive year where the school tax rate for Millstone has decreased again even though we are increasing the total dollar amount for the school tax levy the actual School tax rate is decreasing to determine the impact on your school taxes for 2024 you need to multiply your 2024 assessed value by the appropriate tax rate for either Hill Hillsboro OR Millstone and divide that by 100 so the next slide after the board approves a budget tonight it will be submitted to the executive County Superintendent we will continue to accept public input and the board will continue discussions and committee meetings once the county approves the budget submission the revised advertised budget will be generated and published in advance of the public hearing which is scheduled to be held on July 15th and Mr V that concludes the presentation unless you have some yeah I want to I want to thank everybody for their attention and I know there's going to be further discussion but I just want to I want to get go back to that one picture that that I put up there I really feel as if this uh board and school district has to grab that life uh preserver that we have to as I said get off our back and and take control of what we can take control of I don't believe Superman is coming to fix hillsb and uh as the mayor who came to the um senior Awards the other night said the one thing he likes best about being mayor is telling it like it is and that's what I'm coming out to and I'm telling it like it is people who are going to help us are the people sitting right here right now um and I appreciate you uh allowing me some time and Mr President I kick it back to you all right thank you very much so this is agenda item 141 uh on the action agenda but given that that'll be a little bit of time from now I can open it up to the board if any board members want to make comments now or you can hold off for the discussion for the action agenda I open it now as a courtesy if anybody wants to add any comments well I'll comment if I may go ahead jumping the gun a little bit as has been said it's it's a troubling State of Affairs uh the the ball has been badly missed at the state level uh funding has been cut significantly uh it it always puzzled me if we look at the towns in Somerset County why are other towns receiving funds and only hillsborrow is being cut uh Montgomery and Bridgewater are considered to be affluent towns or well-run towns and yet they're receiving more and more financial aid what's going on here and uh one of the slides that you brought up did give a brief comparison of Montgomery to Hillsboro and we don't want to be governed by what people do up the road but there's a significant difference in what's happening Montgomery in terms of school taxes versus Hillsboro and one of the explanations that uh I have heard as to why Hillsboro finds themselves in this home is that we've been kind of under taxing now that's from the state's point for many many many years so it's as though there's this hole that someone thinks that we haven't been filling with our fair share and so it's catchup what makes me uncomfortable in this situation even if that's accurate or even if that's uh you know the if the data supports that traditionally questions that have to do with taxes and tax increases have always been resolved by referendum and I know we've said well we've asked the community to provide input there are surveys there's social media and so on U but there's nothing like a referendum for definitively answering a question but we are where we are right now and I think it's pretty clear you know here's this one comparison to Montgomery Bridgewater there are similar comparisons to be made U and given the cuts that we're experiencing some kind of increase in in the tax levy really would seem to be not only unavoidable but prudent I still have some questions uh Mr be in your presentation here but my chief hesitation has to do with all day kindergarten and not that I I oppose or I'm against all day kindergarten as a matter of principle but for a line item of that magnitude it it it almost constitutes a change in program a change in philosophy and I again think that something of that magnitude should be addressed by referendum so oddly enough I would say I do favor the tax increase because of school supplies and education materials and school sports and go down the list uh but as a line [Music] item I still have hesitancy about approving such a big line item like the investment for all day kindergarten which is forever There's No Going Back back from there without the town having a chance to participate in that call in a more official way than than a Facebook survey or something so I'm just raising those concerns uh I also am not comfortable just as a board member with the state legislature punting and in doing us with the authority to raise taxes uh without a referendum I can see the Prudence in doing that I'm saying here I think we have to do that but again that it feels like an end run it it feels like a presto changjo and I'm not comfortable with that yeah I can address just a couple of things that you had said obviously anything you know tonight you're really approving a number and we can have further conversations about what that is used for you're not approving necessarily everything that I put up there because a lot of those numbers are just estimates too and in a quick amount of time but what I can assure you Joel and I think we know each other enough now that you at least trust me it might might be a good word the the ball dropping of the state of showing up every spring and saying oh isn't this horrible is not going to be dropped by me um I know that this isn't this is a solution this is not a good or the best solution and my ADV my advocacy work is going to continue to try to make sure that fair funding for Hillsboro happens in the future because the real unknown here is that both Republicans and Democrats have told me we're not gonna have this fixed by next year right but the state funding formula is over so what happens and everybody's kind of like I know what I think should happen if the formula is done like our state aid should be flat because there's no formula but I don't really know and that's going to be my concern that I continue to follow through on this so this is I believe an important step but it's not the end of my work and that's the only thing I wanted to assure you thank you that's it thank you Mr Davis do anyone else make a comment now miss stats well Mr Davis made some great points um I can't speak as fluidly in in an EXT extemporaneous way as as Mr Davis can so I did prepare something um what makes me a little more comfortable accepting you know going above the 2% cap is the fact that our uh School tax rate has gone down for the past several years um but I do acknowledge that property taxes uh have still gone up because of uh some property reassessments increasing um but and this is you know we definitely need to provide for our student needs so I I am in favor of it um and I'm and I support most of the proposed additions um especially those that replace items and positions that were have been eliminated over the years um and there's nothing that any of us will propose that is bad I mean they're they're all wonderful things that we we can argue are are good for the district um but I do um I I I think the full day kindergart is a commendable goal but um and it may be a mandate in the future but I think we have serious issues that need to be addressed now um and my priority is what is best for students um in 2019 we lost 51 staff positions and lots of other brutal things that happened like you know uh courtesy busing was removed and uh the pay to play along with uh other problems um and and we also uh there's been a slow erosion of uh Staffing and other resources before 2019 and and since 2019 um anyway of those 51 staff positions 20 of them were 29 of them were teaching positions uh like I said we lost uh number of them before 2019 and some since then and there were respondents to the recent survey that they indicated that uh increasing instructional staff in areas of student need is the top priority prity that's also my top prior priority as well because that helps students directly related to that many classes in grades 7 through 12 are quite large some are 30 or more compounding that is the fact that the elimination of some levels have resulted in a wider range of student abilities in a majority of classes in grades 6 through 12 the referendum did replace some of the eliminated teaching positions from past years but not all of them Elementary class sizes are also quite high in 2019 seven Elementary classroom teaching positions were eliminated and two Elementary classroom teaching positions were eliminated since then none of those have been replaced the proposed budget cuts in April included cutting 11 11 teaching and counseling positions that were part of the referendum five teaching and counseling positions from attrition and another another teaching position in those proposed budget additions those position in these proposed additions these those positions are reinstated but no additional teaching positions were added so there has been no increase to the instructional staff in areas of student need even though as I said that was a top priority from the survey and some of the $3 million in construction for full dayk will be used to modify existing classrooms as as Mr vpy said to accommodate the needs of kindergarteners with bathrooms and all that um and the it's going to be using existing space existing um some of our elementary schools are tight with space right now to have full Decay we would have to more than double the number of kindergarten classrooms to accommodate students attending full versus half day in addition to now including students who are getting full dayk Elsewhere for instance last year's May enrollment of half and full dayk together was 309 this year's May enrollment of first grade is 420 that's an increase of 111 you know the the the students who had gone elsewhere are now coming to here for for first grade I don't see how this plan is feasible without creating additional space unless we increase class sizes even more at the very least that would preclude the possible addition of much needed Elementary teaching positions because there will be no space to accommodate them and you know I was a high school teacher but I really think you know having you smaller class sizes is so important at the elementary level um because that's when we're they're young and uh we can really uh get them on the road to a good educational experience I grateful to the teachers a students and parents who have worked hard to fill in some of the gaps for the sake of the students but large class sizes as well as a wider range of abilities have an insidiously negative effect on students regardless of instructional strategies and everyone's best efforts and expertise it's death by a thousand little cuts and I've since found out I think that's similar to some Taylor Swift song so but that's a saying that's been around for a while I taught high school math for 32 years I had experience with large and small classes regardless of my efforts and applied strategies the students in the larger classes did not get what they deserved and needed so I repeat to provide what is best for our students we should increase instructional staff in areas of student need thank you Miss stats does anyone else want to make any comments before we move forward no please go ahead you okay um I didn't prepare anything I knew that I was going to speak because I agree with what everybody's saying our state did not do its due diligence and they haven't for the past several years um we are digging ourselves out of a hole because nobody else will do the proper thing and I've addressed it in the past couple of meetings when we've had State Advocates who are sitting in seats in the government come and have for the second year in a row given us um a one-time gesture of funds um I talked to Mr VY about my feelings about that and you know I understand that I should not uh bite the hand that feeds me but those are low expectations for our Trends and I think you know when I thought about the referendum before I was on the board for kindergarten full day and that what it was tied to and I didn't understand it the way it has been as much as it has been presented in clearcut numbers of what the state has done you know to think that one school district gets $41 million just makes no sense to have anybody with a deficit there should be nobody in red you know give them 32$ 33 million and keep us at zero so unfortunately this is what happen so I will definitely be voting yes on this budget um because my role here is to do what's best for the district um and thinking of the community but this is what we need for kids I was not going to talk about the kindergarten extended day sorry it's the kindergarten full day um but just in hearing everybody else's thoughts as a primary teacher elementary teacher um who has a reading specialist certificate and has worked with struggling students there is research that usually can be spun either way I have seen no research that has ever contradicted the importance of early intervention um we have not been able to discuss full day kindergarten I know before my time it was discussed and tried to be there for a referendum but things have changed in what our needs are from 2019 2020 to where they are now um and I had a good conversation with Mr BBY earlier today because I believe in that we need to have not as many kids sitting in study halls at the high school and we need to offer more electives and you know along with early intervention our primary schools or elementary schools shouldn't have more than 23 24 at the most in our classes I believe in all of that but if we really want to align students to have the most success possible it really needs to start in kindergarten so I will definitely support that and I'm look forward to conversations you know right now it's just about getting this budget passed and you know it is an uncomfortable situation that I you know we just asked for money for money from the public and they were gracious enough to vote our referendum and you know we were all so proud and excited and then this happened and put us back at you know zero because I think we had the referendum for 2.8 and I I mean maybe we're $100,000 ahead but you know that's about it so um as unfortunate as is I will definitely be supporting this budget and everything on it thank you Miss nurse Miss tro and the M Landing beer you want to go first okay um thank you um I do I'm not good at speaking off the cuff so I wrote down my thoughts um I think I tend to be a quieter one up here on the days but um tonight's vote in terms of uh the budget seems to me to be one of the most important decisions I've made so far um so I wanted to explain kind of where I was coming from with my vote um as has been mentioned many times tonight our school district has suffered unsustainable losses year after year as the state has continually cut Hillsboro's school funding in the wake of a global pandemic on top of these funding Cuts our district has struggled year after year to do more with less our teachers not only have had to navigate their jobs with fewer supplies but in many cases have seen their class sizes increase creating pressure to reach more students with fewer resources all the while managing the long-term ramifications that the covid-19 pandemic has had on all of us I do want to commend the district both staff and administration on their efforts to continue to provide our students with a quality education we truly do have wonderful people educating our children but we as a district have reached a point where Creative Solutions to budget shortfalls and doing more with less is no longer possible the recent legislation passed in Trenton has provided provided us an opportunity to recover from our losses in state aid and position ourselves to be in a place where we can look to strengthen our quality qualy quality education giving our teachers and our students the financial support that is truly needed by voting yes tonight to go beyond the 2% tax cap we are making an investment in our future and there is no other choice in my mind we owe it to the hardworking Educators in this town and we owe it to our children thank you thank you missing beer Mr Hill [Music] so I appre I appreciate hearing everybody's points of view and I've talked to many of you in the days leading up to this so for me it's a balance between student needs and fiscal responsibility and while I had advocated all along to have you know anyway to have our budget to to allow our district to go above 2% cap along the way that wasn't the case and so when we were offered this opportunity I was it was not a great solution but I was like okay this is this is um something I have to do it's $5.7 million above the 2% from back in April it was tough but for the students so it was like for me that was balancing putting student needs and comparing caring into to fiscal responsibility student needed one on that one but then miss stats actually as she explained all the cuts that were from 2019 2020 and I actually Mr vulp you were here for part of that um but miss stats and I were the only ones on the board at that time and the $5 million or five point whatever million dollars in cuts which was 57 positions in 51 full-time employees was was devastating at the time it was I mean we had a packed house here and for me to see a budget that is showing us three million dollars going to f day kindergarten but not bringing back those positions and I've said this and it's a terrible thing to say because I don't believe it but it really feels like if we don't restore those positions that those cuts appears to be like they were Justified I mean I don't believe it it's but it seems that if we're if we have an extra $3 million and we're thinking that a new program full day kindergarten is more important than the programs that were cut I don't know what other conclusion I can draw from that and so that's where I struggle because I want to raise I don't want to but I I think it's important we need to stabilize our district but to have $3 million go to a new program that didn't exist before just I I really I so I can't I can't vote Yes for that like I just feel like then drop it by $3 million but I don't I don't want to do that I really think our our base budget needs to be the $5.7 million bring back those positions reduce class sizes because when I I went back to my notes and um the notes from actually I pulled it off the website this the staff Cuts Like where they were in the elementary school the sum of the full-time employees 15 in the high school was 10 the middle school was six Aris was 5 and a half I mean these are that was the increase in class sizes that is just I I think it's it's like that what did you say Miss SS like the death by a Thousand Cuts it's like it just happens and it's we kind of just get used to it so for me I was really surprised to to see that a new program was going to be added okay so that was number one number two was respect to the long-term plan and I know Mr VY you said that the board's role is to to you know pass the the number I was comfortable with the number but given where it's going to be spent I'm not comfortable with that and I think I'm going to be voting no on that but more so I want the board to think about the long range plan because we talked about like their speculation as to why Hillsboro keeps getting cut well njsb ba has done like they we had um it's like the school funding for Reform Act Right and they explain like where the components are and I don't claim to understand all of it but Mo but there's a there's a formula in here that talks about Equalization Aid equals adequacy budget minus local share and that's like fancy like complicated words but the important thing is that our local share keeps increasing and the reason Montgomery I believe is getting more money is because when I moved here like 20 years ago they actually I believe their budget their local taxes paid about 90% of their school district um budget and the state kicked in the rest well they were paying more than their fair share back then so my con my biggest concern is that next year the state is is going to and I don't understand what you meant about like this formula is not going to be run the formula is going to be run every year now so every year they're going to calculate a new local share a new new Equalization Aid and if our local share keeps going up then our state aid is going to go down and yeah okay so so my concern is like if we put $3 million into F day kindergarten and we lose more money then what do we do with f day kindergarten are we then going to say well we already sunk the cost into construction so we have to continue with FY kindergarten and then we increase class sizes so that's that's where like I I can't believe I'm saying this because I was actually one of the ones who really want like I was we the back in 20 I think it was 2019 I don't remember exactly we went to the delegate assembly of school boards and we asked the the state to or njsba to to do exactly well it's not quite exactly because we asked them to do it year-over-year like so basically if we lost whatever we lost that year we could go above the cap so they didn't quite they gave us the orange life preserver not the blue one right so I so I get it so I was like I decided I was like on board to to go the 5.7 but to to have it be fly kindergarten and not the teaching staff that we lost just doesn't sit right with me so thank you and um you know board members can speak all they want I just want to say too what we're talking about too is we're talking about adding permanent funds to our tax levy so we one of my slides talked about we've been cut for five years as much as everybody wants all of this stuff done uh in one year we're going to have this year over year over year and we can slowly put back what was taken away I would love to say I'm a magician and I can deliver all things to all people all at once I can't do that it is my intent if you remember for those of you who are on the board from my 100 day report if you do remember that 80% of my 100 day report was about Staffing um I just can't put it all back right away and I would caution the board about going going full-fledged into all Staffing in year one and I'll tell you why it's for one of the reasons M tro just brought up what if the state comes back and says hey we're getting cut and we put everything into recurring expenses if we put some things into construction and move forward and we get cut we could say oops we got to stop the construction if we put it on to staff and our concern is that the state's going to take more away we're going to be backing that perpetual you get hired in Hillsboro you get non-renewed in Hillsboro you get hired in Hillsboro you get Cut in Hillsboro and I want us to get out of that routine where we can't recruit or retain staff I want us on a sustainable path moving forward I want everything that you guys want I just can't do it all in one year okay so you can fight it out I just want to reiterate something because I I've heard it said a couple of times here I think uh if we approve this proposed budget tonight and even if there's even if the final budget is approved in July with these numbers it remains true that not a dollar would be spent on some of these categories without explicit board approval at the time if you're specifically talking about because I know You' mentioned full day kindergarten what it be my intent is that if the board pass this and then assuming that on July 15th everybody's still thinking the same thing that uh we're going to pass it on July 15th I would probably at that time end up bringing something to you from our um Architects about what potential costs might be to start looking into the renovation of classrooms they they wouldn't have cost at that time but they would give us a plan for what it would be that would be something for the board to vote upon if the board voted no and I would advise you against that for what I said but the board would have to vote on that and if the bo board voted no and I can't move forward with my Architects then I'm back to square one and we committee okay well if the board's not moving forward with this what are we doing with this money I still think the best use of it is to go in that direction but to your point Mr Davis there would be something to vote on front of you and the board would have to vote on that and then would give me even if it's a 54 vote the board then speaks in one voice whether it's 54 6390 and one voice telling me what to do and it would give me a green light on that or it would give me a big stop sign and and even at that point if the architect is approved and there's an expense for the actual work to be done and that needs to be approved and if we hire staff for that that has to be approved and all these things go through board approval so this is not cart blanch to say we've now approved everything and it's there um we still need to go through our paces proced yes my my main point in laying out where I think this money should be spent is again for what communities have clamored for that there's a lack of transparency that hey if we approve this we don't know what you're spending it on well no you do know what I want to spend it on now you can disagree but nobody's going to be able to say that that I wasn't transparent and I didn't want the board corre voting on anything not understanding what my thinking was Mr you well then I guess with respect to this if you're talking about one-time costs then what I don't understand is why wouldn't we keep the money in cap Reserve it's like $3.2 million and use do kind of like a half half so like keep more money in cap Reserve like say half like 1.5 million from cap Reserve to do the shutter doors and all those things higher Staff reduce class sizes and then down the road if we want full day kindergarten we use our cap reserve and then that way we would actually have another year or two to know what our state because we're all projecting right now we have no idea what state aid looks like next year and to me that seems like a more um like conservative approach to our budget see like that I could get behind because it would be going to the 5.7 million increasing our instructional staffs so that means you're reducing class size and then full day kindergart is not off the table it just gets pushed down and you're using our cap Reserve in the future to do that onetime cost knowing what your state aidid's going to look like in the future so appreciate that we do have committee meetings obviously before the July uh board will finalize the vote on this so we can continue to have those discussions on the the finalization of those numbers I think tonight will at least be the first vote moving forward on what was presented hand up first so I uh I'm glad that basically So today we're just going to be voting on the big chunk of money right or or in certain categories right you have you have in the um agenda you will see that there are numbers there that you are voting on that you are not voting on my presentation my pres my presentation is to show yourself and the public hey if you're going to this number what is the superintendent plan to do with this money and I've just tried to outline that for you and and to your point and I agree with that I I appreciate your own transparency also uh you know the fact that the the cuts that have since been rescinded you know what they were on you they you know they they were cutting um almost all you know almost all the Staffing positions were teachers um and I appreciate all that transparency um and uh so I'm and and I guess one good thing about going beyond the 2% cap at least that is more sustainable because it's you know added to the tax levy base Etc as opposed to these one right shot big check things that we get M STS you know I know that earlier I said that I don't you know we're in a different place than we were in 2019 or but if you remember part of the budget crisis crises for schools was not only the cuts but it was also the state coming in and wiping everybody's capital reserve that where you could only leave a million or two million dollars in there and any surplus was taken back by the state so I would never try to dump too much in there because you know these are you know times where we can't predict we're we're predicting the worst because that's what we've lived for six or seven years um so with this you know again like everybody said do we need the money or not is this is this qu this is the question that we need to answer we will be talking about it you know further down the road but I think the decision is for tonight do we need this money to be able to be successful as a district okay so I'm going to close this for now we'll come back to it on the action agenda we a second an opportunity to speak but I just want to say like listen I've seen a lot of boards in different communities and there's a lot of rubber stamping coming on I think and I've had conversations with some of the folks that didn't speak today at this point um there's a lot of care and I'm very proud to be on this board with this group because different opinions but there's a there's a strong desire for for positive results so thank you guys and we'll continue all right yes we will now move on to more fun stuff like committee reports so um do we have education Jackson yeah um I'll make this quick um we discussed revised curriculum which we'll see later on in the agenda uh the language instruction educational program three-year plan and revised course proposals the TCNJ dual enrollment U mathematics course sequence at HMS um a survey budget update and and we uh didn't have time to touch on the District calendars okay thank you uh do we have operations yet we did that right okay and I can cover uh HR um Miss nurse uh was not able to join so I chaired in her absence um couple things were covered uh first uh two job descriptions were reviewed and approved by the committee um basically uh Mr puko shared his plans to restructure the titles of positions the human resource department we had some discussion there um there was agreement on the action item side uh we reviewed sub rates trying to ensure that we're um a place that people want to be and that we're not missing out on good Subs by having rates below our neighboring districts um and the discussion was uh primarily to remove the incremental daily rate and just start at that rate which was competitive uh with local districts and I think we also talked about not only Subs but also I think lunch AIDS custodians Secretary of clerical um bring those rates in line with the with the township so that we could share resources if needed for those fill in positions um we did speak about a one- day one day rate for HHS coverage uh due to graduation um interim recom uh recommendations for interm supervisor for observations was discussed and agreed to uh and then we obviously went into because we all talk about it uh the budget and got some feedback and discussions there and then we reviewed District calendars and I think we didn't really get too super far there um but we're running out of time for religious holidays so with our calendar we have a a start date that's limiting in how we built it in the past and we have an end date that is also a barrier we have to squeeze all of these days in uh and be mindful and there's also discussion about you know calling the religious holidays what they are and not spring day one spring day three fall day one so we may in the future actually call out what the holiday is for so people are very clear in the calendar um and that was discussed in that as well uh on the governance committee I think there was a simpler conversation so it was the budget and District calendars again so more of the same the oh and the adoc if you want to cover the ad so in the ad hoc committee for activities fees met on May 29th and I know it was part of the budget presentation there was discussion with um the proposed budget what to do about activities fees um there were some people on the committee who thought it would be um we might be able to remove the policy all together or reduce it um and then there were others who took a more conservative approach again just because of the unknown of you know we don't want we those people didn't want to take something um to help their community and then have to put it right back again the following year if we were in the same situation so we had a compromise that everybody liked which was to you know if the budget does pass that we will suspend the policy for a year however you know the our work this year you know involved you know hearing what a lot of our community members had to say who wrote or or spoke um about the fees so we do have I believe it's in for the first reading tonight we do have recommended policy changes in regards to activity fees based on the community's input and our committee discussions there are three specifically one will be that the policy does will revive to read that there will be no charge for Honor societies um a second revision would be that we will collect activities fee for clubs after the first meeting if students decide to join so they have that one meeting to go to find out some information and make a decision following that one meeting and finally the last revision that is in for the first reading is for Unified sports um instead of paying per season that will run because of the cost that looked similar to track we will run it just like track um and the bands do which is it's $100 um for one or more Unified sports so it will be a onetime fee um regardless if participants participate in one season or all three seasons and that really only matters if we don't suspend the policy well it's going to be in there but in general if we agree to the suspension that'll be suspended for a year and then if it got play put in place next year those changes would go into effect with the UN suspension is that a word I'm gonna Board of bet I need to get that right okay all right any questionsa I had a question on the HR minutes that I looked at I didn't see the interim supervisor on the agenda tonight is that forthcoming we're not actually hiring anybody right now we're putting on a rate and potentially as needed for next year so we actually don't have any dates on there right now we are not hiring someone if we do rather than go in a circle we have the rate and a person approv when we need but then we would approve that correct the actual hiring yes okay all right we will move on to um comments from the board in public uh public input on the reorganization acttion agenda which includes budget comments as well because that is an action agenda item um we very much welcome in from the public dur board meetings will be 2 30 minute periods of time then the meeting will be open public comment members of the public are invited to comment which I may do if they're attending in person dur first public comment period members of the public May comment about items that are listed on tonight's agenda before the board votes during the second public com period members of the public May comment on any school or School District issue that a member of the public may feel may feel feels may be of concern to the residence of the school district as 0167 before you say your comment you ask provide your name and address there's a three limit on public comment please understand that our public forms not structured as question answer sessions rather offer his opportunity to share your thoughts the board inance where the board believes misunderstanding or in accuracy the board president or superintendent will address the comment the May times a member of the public makes a comment ask a question about personal hiring decisions Kind De public me act priv rights of public employees comes therein you not the board to discuss personal issues in public session good evening Thomas Zell nine up R shanet court so I just first want to say uh uh to Mr veli thank you for what has been said at the deis by others transparency I don't agree with what's been laid out quite frankly um let me step back and say first start by saying um I don't think that the state legislature or the governor should be given any kind of Praise whatsoever um since 2018 this current governor has put us in this position and unfortunately the state legislature as uh Mr Davis stated punted the ball back to you all I don't think we should exceed the 2% cap um for the simple fact that you have residents here um and yes I'm a product of the school district um I had a great education but I truly believe that you are not you not you guys specifically but just generally speaking the taxpayers of this state of this community can only take so much um and I think by exceeding that 2% cap you're going to one might say oh it's only a handful of dollars whatnot but you know every little bit adds up and so I think that we need to be we need to understand that there are people on fixed incomes um and those who are older who no longer have kids in the district who will not benefit from what it is that you're speaking of who also have skin in the game who are paying out the nose in property taxes and who will eventually say I'm gon to get up and leave I'm G to move and then what happens you're going to shrink your tax base eventually because you're going to force people out and I understand that's not necessarily you guys's fault but I also think we we need to do a better job as a community and as a state to to um scream holy hell to our state legislature specifically because each Governor is going to change but and as well as state legislators but we need to scream holy hell that it is not right that Hillsboro has been singled out year after year and we've lost all this money and yet we seem to we seem to be happy which I am not we seem to be happy that we say oh yes this 45% you know uh restoration great okay well that's a one-time what I consider gimmick it's a one-time gimmic plus this 5.7 million you're going to increase the Baseline so taxes will continue to go up and also my concern is that whether we agree with all the programs that are set out in what you and what You' like to see Mr vulpi or not how is it sustainable we don't know that we don't know whether whether we agree whether the board agrees to what you've proposed or what you would like to see happen or changes are made up to the 15th uh we don't know if that's sustainable or not and that's a big concern as well um long term thank you very much thank you for your comment good evening Amy Salinger haa uh Treasurer and teacher at auton Road Intermediate School I'm speaking in regards to the budget line item for tonight I want to first thank everyone who has contributed to getting us to this place tonight um where we have the opportunity to repair a lot of the damages from the past since the massive cuts that started back in 2010 um this district has struggled to try to restore us to where we are the amount of programming cut from the students along with the impact of increased class sizes has been challenging to say the least in more recent years the residents of Hillsboro have shown that they want what's best for our students by supporting two different referendums the support of the Hillsboro Community in returning this type of funding has allowed us to restore some of the Lost positions add new positions including security for our schools and install some much needed infrastructure work work these are all wins but S2 kept causing damage and you did the best you could with what you were given and now at the hard work of our community our superintendent and the board the haa and our legislators we have the opportunity to get out from under some of these effects we have the opportunity to repair some of the damage do we know for sure what next year will bring maybe not but we know that by saying yes tonight and passing this we will be in a much better place next year than we have been for the last several years imagine a Hillsboro Township School District that is fully saff and able to provide the most robust education possible for all students like someone had mentioned more electives at the high school that's definitely a place where where we're lacking in comparison to some of our neighboring districts voting yes tonight helps us achieve this Vision this board has the opportunity to correct course for the students of Hillsboro Township Public Schools this board by voting yes will not only help the current students enrolled but future generations of Hillsboro students this board can undo so much damage let that be your legacy thank you thank you for your comment good evening Henry good you Hillsboro Education Association excuse me um I would like to First extend uh my congratulations to all the retirees and thank you for recognizing them tonight you know seeing that there's over seven centuries of experience and you think about what that gave to these schools right and and to sit in the presence of that I think while it's unfortunate that we're looking at that proud history and then contemplating what our future is I think that it's a stark contrast and perhaps an appropriate one because we have to look at who we are and where we're going and we're looking at 700 years worth of dedication and experience and wondering you know to to superintendent vul's point of can I recruit and retain the best we're seeing the best lead right we're seeing the best walk out and rightfully so they've put in 40 plus years in some instances but can we bring the best back if we're a district that is constantly in flux and we're a district that's constantly in chaos right and you heard my colleague speak about Legacy and that's their legacy they left that Legacy behind they left a legacy that future Educators can build on and as a board this is your opportunity to establish what your legacy will be I think Miss lenning beer put it perfectly that there is probably no vote that any of you will take that is more important and more pivotal and more deciding than the vote you will take tonight whatever decision you make on every budget and every expenditure forward is going to be influenced by this positive or negative and we have to consider what that Legacy is because at its core the definition of legacy is what you pass on right and we saw what those retirees passed on we know what they've passed on we see their students their students come back and become teachers in the these districts which is amazing in this District rather and the question is what will the board pass on what decisions will we make tonight that allows us to pass something on will it be a district we're proud of or will it be one that's constantly on the verge of chaos and financial collapse right we can't keep sticking our finger in the dam and we've talked about this you've all talked about it you've advocated for it all of you and you've done a lot of work for that and I commend it and so has our members in our association so is our community thousands of people in our community sent letters asking for this bill to be passed thousands of them responded to the survey and 83% of them said yes do this do something right we've heard from the community and is it perfect absolutely not but we are not in the business of perfect we are in the business of people specifically students and we have to do what we can to give them what they need in this moment and this is what we have been given right and we can make it a blue or a red issue but the reality of it is is that school funding is purple because both everywhere has contributed in some way right the funding formula started with a Democratic governor was made worse by a republican one and here we are right everyone has some ownership in this and at the end of the day it's left to us to decide what to do with it and we have the ability to make that choice so I urge you not to make this a blue or red issue but recognize it as a cardinal and gold issue this is a Hillsboro issue and you are in position to make a decision tonight that will impact countless students lives and I hope that your legacy will be a positive one I appreciate your time thank you thank you for your [Music] comment hello hello Leisa Gaber bis live in Hillsboro um I wanted to also thank you for all of your hard work on that you've done for reaching out to the community and asking questions um first I wanted to just mention a few things for 11.2 I think this is the time I could mention that um for the official newspapers I know that you have listed the Hillsboro vacan and the corer news but usually when I ask people what newspapers do you look at they they mentioned the patch so I was wondering if you could consider adding the patch to that list um regarding healthy school hours I'm very thankful that you thought it was a priority to add it to the survey um and just wanted to add a reminder that it doesn't cost money to necessarily look at what you need to do in order to change the school start times and um also just last thing just wanted to point out that unlike the township the school district is not given the opportunity to raise additional property taxes um when new ratables are added as Mr VY pointed out if you look at their budget they do have a line item where they could do that but the school district does not I've talked to some people who are very anti raising taxes and they would be willing to add a percentage of the new uh taxes of the new ratables especially the new homes that we're building market rate ones um so anyway I can thank you for your time thank you for your comment okay seeing no others uh before we move to the action agenda any board comment okay thank you Mr President under the midyear reorganization meeting items I present for the board's consideration designation of signatories designation of official newspapers designation of depositories for school funds board Auditors architect of record School Physicians board attorney Insurance Brokers of record School warrants board policies job descriptions school district curricula field trip destinations strong plus model for evaluations njsiaa Skyland conference membership affirmative action Title 9 coordinator Section 504 officer the aison for homeless students board secretary attendance officer public agency compliance officer purchases from State contract vendors advertising bids for goods and services and Cooperative purchasing can I get a motion and second so move second any discussion the stat well I have a question about uh 11.12 about the school district curricula um ined the education committee it's also on the agenda that we are going to have uh dual enrollment with TCNJ but in maybe it's because it's you know hasn't been approved yet but in the curricula here it only mentions rvcc with the dual enrollment is it necessary that we add the dual enrollment with GC for for what you're about to prove that's for already existing curricula has been previously approved anything new uh will require separate motions which you'll find on later okay thank you Mr Davis I like the idea of adding the patch to the official notification list now being that that's not a hard copy newspaper would that meet the criteria for public notification Mr record do you know if since it's not a newspaper if it counts as a newspaper I mean it wouldn't really matter if were adding it as an additional if we're replacing one then it would matter okay but just add it yeah you could just be added I think by I think by motion it could be it could then be added if you want a motion to add that you could make that motion be seconded yes I'd like to move that we add the patch to the list of official newspapers uh give have a second so moved all right sorry so moved do you have a discussion coming well if it's online isn't there also tap into it's free right I mean I don't know if it's free for us to do idea if it's fre advertising I doubt that's we can notify that notify what's that we can notify we can't guarantee that they're going to post it because they made charge for it but we can notify them so here's a question in the Hillsboro Beacon which I didn't even know is a print edition anymore we pay for that yes we pay for that and the Cur news for our legal ads okay I haven't seen I'm sorry but I think I don't even know if the beacon is still I used to get it and I can't get it at my house anymore I've given them money and it's like they don't I mean I sto giving them money but I'm surprised that they exist I have the so so we could take this off at a committee meeting and review and see where it's delivered sure I I don't think there's any harm in Mr record and I doing our due diligence if we wanted to approve what's on the board agenda tonight and then just give us some more time uh to look into it and then it can be approved on a future uh agenda since I don't know those the only thing I would need to do is to remove that motion so my suggestion is let's approve it as is we'll come back and if we need to add those two we can add those two okay so I will withdraw the motion okay all right any other questions on this action agenda okay so we'll move to roll Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes M Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes M stats yes Mr H yes and Mr Marine yes motion passes and really quickly We'll add that to the operations agenda any area education I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions we skip the approval of minutes we skip we did Skip minutes we did Skip minutes okay you want minutes yes we moved right to the to that all right uh motion to approve executive session minutes 5132 24 motion to approve regular meeting minutes 5132 24 can I get a motion the second so moved second any discussion all in favor I back to 12 so my apologies for that long long list of meeting I skipped over that so in the area of Education I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions professional travel related expenses confirming the superintendent harassment intimidation and bullying determinations approving revised curriculum approving the language instruction educational program revised course proposals for dual enrollment purposes memorandum of understanding between Hillsboro Township Public Schools and TCNJ for the purpose of dual enrollment approving staff for the 2024 MLL summer program approving staff for the summer model testing approving acceptance of the teacher climate and culture Innovation grants approving stiens associated with the teacher climate and culture grants approving staff for multilingual Learners wraparound program improving stiens for participants in the um and the PLC improving the articulation agreement between the College of New Jersey and the Hillsboro Township School District for the professional development school network approving overnight trips approving curriculum writing common assessment development for English language arts improving curriculum writing Common Assessment development for mathematics improving revised list of concurrent enrollment courses and stiens for 23 24 and approving the continued long-term suspension of two students can I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion Miss DS this is regarding the dual enrollment um we did discuss this in education committee um but and I like how um TCNJ will accommodate more offerings for dual enrollment than rvcc does but the cost for the students for TCNJ to uh participate in dual enrollment is 550 whereas at rvcc it has been 250 so I I'm wondering if at least for the courses that they uh that are available at rvcc with dual enrollment if we can maintain that and then the remaining courses be available uh for dual enrollment at TCNJ do do you want you have any thoughts on that Kim ask Dr Bel to address it yeah I I thought I had replied via email but um I have to speak with Mrs poval and she was out today so I don't know the logistics right so yeah she was out today I didn't have an opportunity connect with her yeah we can look into that so um should we should we table this or you don't want to approve tcj at all well I mean if we but we'd be approving it for all of the courses and I want to approve some of those courses for t for rvcc instead the ones that are currently available for dual enrollment rvcc I want that to continue so so does would voting yes here restrict us from also offering those from rbcc okay well Mrs paval is shaking her head that it doesn't restrict us so we could be offering at both so then the students would choose okay great okay so thank you uh Miss Treo I wanted to just comment on item 12.14 which was the overnight trips now that the school year is almost over and on the one hand I'm happy to see that these trips are in the summer so outside of school on on the other hand the cost is really expensive so it's like $610 for the dance team and $1,200 for the fbaa team and I feel that this is kind of a continuation of like my comments earlier in the year about certain overnight trips for students at the high school level that are quite expensive and I think ex excludes certain students who might not be able to afford it number one and number two that happened during the school year so that they're missing instruction they're missing um yeah they're missing instruction it's close to exam time so I just I'm not against these overnight trips but I just wish that we could as a board discuss what the board's philosophy is on student trips like could there be a trip a a trip that's closer rather than Disney World which is very expensive was $1,700 so thank you on a related note it was uh Miss Landing beer and I were at the uh Middle School HSA meeting and and there was some concern about uh the a pretty significant increase in the cost for their uh eighth grade trip to Hershey Park and uh I guess Gettysburg right um you know enough to maybe that's um and there was a significant decrease in the number of students who who attended the trip this year compared to years past so I think this is worth investigating and And discussing agreed thank you Miss nurse I'm sorry can going back to the Partnerships is it's it's a long meeting um is there a way to make sure that we modify the agenda or something to ensure that RVC is going to be put on there or not like I don't want us to miss a window I don't want us this will need to be in the next committee meetings already we yeah we already have already agreement with rbcc okay so what was the concern before just that that it continues that we're not eliminating the option isn't bumping out rbcc is that the case no so because they're both on they're both options correct okay thank you thanks thought that's what it was but then I was confused by the conversation a lively group tonight all right uh stats so we do have a a an agreement I I don't recall being here with rvcc I we discussed it with being I think for a film course and I think english four and not just that I don't remember film course in English wait isn't that like on the agenda tonight is that AP courses I I thought there was I saw some names like um for that dual enrollment hang on 11. what I think it was under Human Resources 112 we got human resources what's the question at the at the days at this time I don't know what we're looking for no I I think we just want to make sure that oh here I rbcc did not get lost in the shuffle somewhere so in 12.17 there's motion to approve concurrent enrollments is that but that was 23 24 for the site thens is that what we're [Music] talking but that was for this school year for 12.5 12.5 Revis course proposal for dual enrollment s 125 yes so what I'm saying is that we also had 12.17 that has the revised list of concurrent enrollment courses with people that's just that's for this current year right right oh so you're saying that it's going to I think we see it going forward 11 was it 11.12 under District curricula it is labeled 2425 like if you look under grades 9 to 12 I see it under English English four for both honors and CP it does say rvcc concurrent enrollment uh M thry pointed out one for math I think it is here yes TC concurrent yeah but it doesn't mention tcj I guess there's a separate one for TC andj because we didn't vote on tcj yet right we haven't had tcj yet I see a paragraph here that says my recommendation is to keep current enrollment in English 4 and advanced video and film with rvcc and move all AP courses to TCNJ for 2425 just sound I mean especially when you compare it to 11.12 there seems to be a contradiction there because it 1112 it doesn't include uh Beyond just those two courses for our rvcc all the ones that we have traditionally been uh having dual enrollment rvcc is still there for 2425 and for 12 four and 125 it's there's a huge increase beyond what we now do with do enrollment with uh rvcc because uh dcj um is more open to accommodating more courses just to re reiterate what I was saying before is I'm okay with that but I'd like to still keep what our current dual enrollment courses are at rvcc because of the cost savings for our students Joel you were seeing that under 12.6 what you just read under 12.5 under administrative content there's a revised course proposals memo and at the end of that memo I read that closing paragraph there's more there that I didn't read go other agenda items in the meantime so I think this is would need more conversation so can we approve it as is and look to make an amend amended one at the next meeting with some further discussion feel like we're saying that a lot recently I'm sorry like I I feel like why I mean if we don't need to rush this and it could be cleaned up by July and it's not going to harm anybody can we just clean it up you hold on it so you want to hold on 125 well there right now we already approved 11 there are some reasons stated in this memo for changing the nature of the relationship that may be more than what we want to get into here at the at the day because it's part of a memo to Dr feltre from Cindy p so there's a conversation going on there about why this change is being recommended and I think that it would behoove us out of respect for the member participants in this conversation to give it a minute to air through and find out why this change is being recommended well pa at the next Education meeting so in moving forward if we would like to take it off of the agenda somebody we need to make a motion to I move to take table 12.5 until we can make sure that we are aligned and know exactly what we would like in terms of the concurring classes okay do I have a second second any further discussion I'm sorry just to be clear a cross reference oh I'm sorry is this going to be a cross reference of the multiple agenda items then to bring it all in sync because we need to have a full discussion at Ed committee because I think I've heard several different things and I don't have a complete understanding of what exactly is being looked for so if I don't have a complete understanding of what's being looked for it needs further discussion sure and but I think you pointed out uh 11 I can't remember the number yeah 11 11.12 had a lot of course offerings with had rbcc listed there okay whereas the recommendation in the revised course proposal membo said to stick with only two or three classes at rbcc and and move the rest to TCNJ and the ask was to have both offered so there was a cost savings opportunity for students if they chose to go through rvcc okay so I think we need to table that and have the conversation understand why that recommendation was put in place there may have been a reason for that that we want to entertain but for now we can table yeah I that I get I just was getting um I was getting a little confused with the cross reference to section 11 so that's why we already approved 11 so that's in place we want to make the amendment we can talk about 12 and then put it back on the agenda for the next meeting the the reference was because there were a lot more courses that had rvcc under it like the math course and everything so so we were confirming and then changing which gotus that would be I mean it would be great if we were able to offer students the choice you know as what they want their transcripts to look like okay all right so we need to take a roll to table 125 so take roll Mr Davis so what do we vote Yes with table yes with table yes with table 12.5 you say no I'm voting no okay M Jackson yes M Craig yes Miss L beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes M stats yes Mr Hill no no and Mr Marini yes motion passes so now we'll take a role on on the total agenda minus 12.5 Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson yes M Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Mr triio Yes except I'm going to vote no on 12.1 the um trip to Dallas Texas the trip to Connecticut and the trip to Missouri Kansas City Missouri and Mr Mar yes motion passes thank you in the area of Human Resources I'd ask for the board's consideration to approve the following motions authorizing the superintendent to affirm appointments of non-administrative personnel during the summer months approving the suspension of a district employee approving the retirements and resignations appointments for 2425 reappointments for 2425 change in employment status transfers and assignment changes for 2425 approving leaves of absence uh motion to revise an unaffiliated administrator salary motion to approve Administrator salary change approving substitutes approving a mentor TurnKey trainers student teacher placements sixth and seventh period coverage extra coverage esy program staff District summer work hours Transportation summer work CST summer Work summer athletic Camp 2024 fall athletic coaches for 2425 and settlement agreement with the hea can I get a motion in second so moved second any discussion Miss DS uh regarding uh 13.4 um I'm not too I'm not agreeable to uh having Peggy Valente be the interm supervisor for evaluations through June of of 2025 I I could I would agree to it through November because there will be an a supervisor out on leave until then but as written um I am against approving uh Peggy Valente for that yeah maybe we should I should have written this differently we're not hiring somebody for the full year the intent of this was to just set a rate and we've used her in the past to approve her as needed um but I see how you're looking at that that looks like we're hiring her for the full year if uh we wanted to pull it and have further discussion we could because it's not my intent to try to sneak in an administrative hire here it was for basically substitute interim purposes but if the board wants to pull it that's fine and it does say as needed I think that's and I would be bringing the need to the board for for further approval but if it makes anybody uncomfortable to put that on right now it's no big deal to take it off I I would like to take it off because that was actually what I was looking for I couldn't find it but thanks for pointing it out it's fine there there needs to be a motion to take it off so move did I make the motion she made the motion made motion oh second any discussion before we roll um just a brief one and I think this is to miss nurse um because I see a lot of resignations on the agenda so I was just wondering if oper sorry HR committee could maybe discuss the um update on the exit surveys on the what exit surveys as um staff for leaving there was a discussion before about um having an I can answer that yeah we can do that Mr puko has all of those uh information ready to go he also has data for the past three years as far as people have left the districts and reasons why and he's sitting in the audience and I appreciate you having all that information Mr Fuko and we'll talk about it in July oh nice thank you okay all right so we'll then take rooll on the motion to remove uh Peggy vti the last yes Mr Davis no M Jackson no M Craig no M Ling beer no Mr Lee no Miss nurse no Miss stats yes Mr tro wait so voting Yes means we're removing it yes no motion fails so we will move to then a roll on the agenda as stated and individuals can vote no to that line item if they so choose for the record Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes Miss Craig yes M Ling beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes Miss stats yes Mr Hill Yes except for the um Miss veny and Mr Mary yes motion passes okay in the area of operations I'd ask for the board's consideration of the following motions approving the revised 2425 tenative budget as stated uh accepting the fiscal year 25 stabilized bu school budget aid grant award approving the health benefits waiver approving the state aid cut restoration waiver approving the resolution for travel reimbursement expenses and maximum travel for 2425 approving Professional Services maximum expenditures for 2425 capital reserve withdrawals for 2425 maintenance Reserve withdrawal for 2425 approving a corrective action plan for semi monthly bills monthly financial statement financial status line item transfers Capital maintenance Reserve transfer 2425 Debt Service lease payment schedule special education tuition contract with the UCC for the 2425 school year approving agreement with Catholic Charities for before and school after care for the 2425 school year Professional Services for nursing and therapy services for the 2425 school year improving Transportation agreement for 24-25 with Del Valley Regional High School approving 2425 Transportation Route renewals of Monto Transit 2425 Transportation Route Ren route renewals with first students 2425 Transportation brute renewals with Frank vek Inc resolution for bathroom waivers for 2425 approving HVAC rooftop unit replacement and condenser repiping for Hillsboro High School approving the proposal for the purchase of literacy materials authorizing the cancellation of stale outstanding checks approving disposal and sale of obsolete equipment approving out of District placements for 2324 and approving out of District placements for school year 2425 that's it that's it all right we'll take a motion a second so moved second any discussion okay Miss Jackson so this is um packed so the first 14.1 is the actual budget yes okay correct 14 Clarity yeah again back to 14.1 so what we are voting on is to approve raising that money correct if you look if it makes you feel better if any board members open up the public content on 14.1 and uh Mr recer you can just double check that that is verifiable right there uh for everybody that is what you are voting on not not necessarily my presentation that's correct good any other questions it's also 14.4 it's 141 through 14 through 149 are all the budget resolutions they're all related to the budget in case you didn't hear that everything from 14 yeah most of the more ones that have been approved already at the previous budget hearing um the only ones that are new the ones for the additional taxes the one for the acceptance of the state grant for the 45% so which numbers I'm sorry can we just one through four for the for so I think what Miss Jackson is asking is with respect to this new legislation the additions are 14.1 because that includes the the the 5.7 million addition from the April 29th budget that's 14.1 14 two is that the for that's the 45% so that's a yes that's just a gift and then 14.3 we approved back in April 29th so that's if you voted yes it's a yes and then 14.4 is that new legislation that goes above the cap that goes above the cap so if you were going to vote no that would be 14.1 and 14.4 I believe that is correct thank you all right thank you no I appreciate that all right so I do have a comment and as I said it pains me to say this and I know we're not we're not voting on F day kindergarten but to have F day kindergarten be the the top thing in there it just makes me feel like I can't support this budget at this time and so I just I wish there was another way because I do think that we need the $3 million but I know that my fellow board members are um they're going to vote Yes so I'll just keep it anyway I go last but we are just voting I mean I know this is proposed uh specifics which I I agree in the spirit of transparency even if I don't necessarily agree with the specifics but we are just we are voting on these big chunks we're not voting on the actual content on what they're going to be spent on so I'm going to clarify make sure it's very clear we are voting on the budget which has these chunks in there so some monies that are dedicated to Capital spends some that are to recurring Revenue if we want to change that in the future Capital to Capital is easy if we want to change Capital to recurring that require requires County board approval but generally speaking we can change all of this with the proper approvals but it does put things into buckets of spend yeah but we're not we're not voting specifically for no those things have individual votes correct we could all vote Yes and then all vote no on everything related to kindergarten that could happen but we still have the money aligned and in the budget if that were the case that never happened I mean like in my experience whatever the tentative is that we set always and that happened in 2019 when we were told that we would have opportunities to change what was actually cut in the budget and that didn't happen so it's the perogative of the board though so the board is account that okay all right so we will then move to rooll Mr Davis yes Miss Jackson Yes except for 14.1 and 14.4 Miss Craig yes Miss Ling beer yes Mr Lee Yes m nurse yes M stats yes Mr heio Yes except for 14.1 14.4 and 14.7 and Mr Marini yes motion passes thank you we still got more to do it took you a while but you stuck around congratulations for staying to this meeting ones had in the area of policy I would ask the board's consideration to approve the following motions uh the policy reviewed by the ad hoc committee for first reading and the motion to suspend policy 2436 activity participation fee for the 2425 school year can I get a motion and second so move second any discussion question the uh motion to suspend the activity fee is that premature relative to the implementing of the budget well two things um that was what Miss nurse was talking about earlier from her ad hoc committee and if you in in my budget presentation that is accounted for in my budget presentation the the loss of this revenue for one year and if we were to vote this down in the next meeting God forbid we could then reinstate the policy um thank you yes all right stats um regarding 15.1 with the uh I I um I like how uh there was a sort of a compromise I guess for the unified team members um because before this year they weren't paying anything uh this year they were paying $100 uh for each time I guess but I would like to propose that they pay almost almost like how uh the clubs are that they pay a $50 one-time fee um for many reasons uh one of which is the the time that is spent on it is almost equivalent to a club so just just a proposal if you want to take that back to we can take that for a second reading that's feedback I think just um we did talk about that in the committee um however you know we are it is an athletic program and we know we were hopes that we did not want to discriminate in any way for um that that what is considered an athlete we have our athletes they pay a fee we wanted to keep that pretty much standard throughout the whole program for all of our athletic programs so that definitely was something we were looking at the time and everything and so although we we understand that there is less time involved that is what how we came up with something that's running similar to track but our athletes are our athletes um and we wanted to make sure there was no disparity within the athletic programs okay all right uh seeing no other hands raised we'll move to ro Mr Davis yes M Jackson yes M Craig yes M Lanning beer yes Mr Lee yes Miss nurse yes M stats yes Mr he yes and Mr Marini yes motion passes will now move on to the public comment period the second one we very much welcome them the public during board meetings there'll be two 30 minute periods of time me public comment members of the public are invited the comment which may do if they're attending in person during the second public comment period there we go members of the public May comment on any school school district issue the member of the public may feel to be a concern of the district as per bylaw 0167 before you state your comy be asked to provide name address a three Lim on public comment please understand that public forms not structured as question answer session but rather offers opportunity to share your thoughts with the board in the belief there a misunderstanding or inaccuracy the board president are super intend will address the comment many times a member of the public makes a comment or as a question about personel hiring decisions the employ Mee ACT public employees incom their end the board discuss personal issues in public session okay seeing none we will close public comment we will open up to the board for any final comments before we move back into exec r r Rio yes so just to provide one last update on the end of year events uh at the high school so of course as the school Year's ending the atmosphere has been pretty positive we had the senior picnic uh last Friday which was very enjoyable for all the seniors from sounding each other's yearbook to signing the Big H at the front of the high school it was very it was a very fun activity and overall the um the events that have been happening are just yearbook distribution and of course final exams are coming up and in relation to final exams I want to reflect upon what I brought up in the beginning of the school year I brought up some concerns regarding the bathroom rules and the final exam rules and we have gone the ball rolling uh with respect to that I believe there have been some changes I'm not exactly sure with the final exam policy or final exam rule at the school and I know for a fact that there have been changes with the bathrooms as well so that's definitely a positive start and of course as the years go by there will be more uh optimistic changes and yeah just I wanted to give update on that and the final year activities yeah thank you and thank you again for your service to the board thank you R can I can I say a couple things to you that just reminded me of some things are unified athletes too and this isn't about policy or what's being charged uh they are real athletes I like you said that our our unified track team um and I'll do a sports update for the whole year and next meeting finished second in the state in the unified program so I was very proud of them and also our uh I want to s a special thanks our congrat gratulations to our girls track team who are The Undefeated and Undisputed group four Champions it's always nice when you bring home a group title so I just wanted to um say those quick little things and we'll have a sports update for the entire year at our board meeting in July Miss nurse not sure if this is the right time to do it or wait until executive session but I know you weren't there when uh Mr vpu talked about one of the things in executive session not having seeing time constraints and I'm not sure since it's so late if we're most effective going back into executive committee at this point we have to to meet the requirements or we need to schedule a second separate meeting there was conversation I we maybe we can discuss it in executive session so we can move in and if we choose to end okay stats I just wanted to uh talk about I went to the well I attended the virtual a triangle HSA meeting and um as with most of our hsas they do so much work on behalf of the students and staff I mean they they do a lot for a staff appreciation week and they do a lot of fundraisers um uh they have a yearbook book fair so many other events for the sake of our students and um also May 15th um Marquee Awards uh which um honor excellence in musical theater in high schools in Middle sex and Somerset counties uh were presented and our uh Hillsboro High Schools um something rotten uh got four awards for best student Orchestra best choreography best supporting actress Sam soyel and best direction under Ms Malone so congratulations to them thank you for the update m l beer um I just wanted to quickly report um I was able to visit the uh Middle School HSA uh meeting along with Miss stats um I appreciated being able to to go and and and listen in and uh uh you know take on that perspective um they discussed all of their year end um activities tying up um I know they mentioned there were some uh committee positions uh committee chair positions still open um that they were hoping to fill before the fall um there was discussion on how to um you know draw in new members for uh the school year moving on um there was uh reflection a little bit on um the eighth grade Hershey trip and um what sorts of um feedback they could get um moving forward from uh the parents of those who just recently went um and uh they were already discussing dates for open house and uh back to school nights for the fall that just made me realize how um you know as parents we we are always looking forward uh and Dr troli is always looking forward to um a new year even though we haven't even finished this one um again I want to uh thank them for allowing us to be there and I really liked the opportunity the push to to have us go and I hope we can continue to do that next year thank you much Miss Jackson um myself and Miss stats attended the robo Raiders award ceremony it's lots of fun lots of humor um so congratulations and job well done and myself and when I showed up Mr Davis was there we also attended the woodfern HSA and uh I love woodfern it's where my kids went and uh it was like going home again so it was very heartwarming and um the the parents there mostly moms and Mr uh Mr uh carrian so um but they're they're a great team they really are compassionate as well um and excited about uh giving their fourth graders a send off thank you all so much for engaging with our hsas it's important work it's appreciated and I'll add in um we were at the senior Awards and so impressive um how many seniors and the amount of money of uh tuition that they were given as as Awards I think there were there was a there was a particular point I think was air was it Air Force there was two Army West Point West Point that how rare it is to have two from the same school it's I think they have to be nominated by a congressman or something to that effect and the fact that we had two Fem male um West Point attendees and he he joked about how yes even though they're female they have to learn how to box and uh do all the fun stuff that everyone else has to do there but yeah it was very exciting and um super proud of all all the individuals there at that event and that was I think Miss Jackson M stats was anybody I think you guys were there it was it was great all right any other comments from board members right seeing none we'll close board comment we will take a motion to move into executive session who knows how long that'll last whereas the open public meetings act chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 that a public body May exclude the public portion that meeting which the public body discusses certain matters which confidential required as permitted in section 7B of the ACT resolve by the Board of Education and Township of Hillsboro the county of suers State New Jersey as follows the matter to be discussed are the superintendent evaluation um and the matters be in session shall be disclosed to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists we will not be taking any action we will be closing the meeting from executive session so from a public perspective the meeting and as soon as people take a motion and say I so can I get a motion a second second all in favor I thank you see you next time