Dr genovas Mr Kia here Dr Lon here Dr Lou Dr Resnik Mr slotman Miss Williams gallano Dr Wilson here the new jerse the open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with provisions of the act the hopel Valley Regional Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the H Valley News and the times on January 4th 2024 this meeting notice is also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon bios the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the meeting is being recorded for the purpose of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on YouTube buldog TV and the school district website www.org members of the public who intend to participate in any public comment we do ask that you sign in prior to speaking this will assist us with our record keeping okay I need a first and a second to approve the minutes of the April 29th I'm sorry the March 18th meeting all in favor any um oppos or obtaining like to move on to our student representative now for a report now that we're almost through with April we have started the fourth marking period strong and many classes have started preparing for finals and AP exams the high school had many event these past weeks um the Performing Arts Academy recital was last Thursday where the upper classman in the academy performed their phenomenal pieces the boys lacrosse team hosted the annual First Responders game last Friday where they celebrated our local police EMTs and firefighters the yes Club hosted a series of lunch and learn events celebrating green week where several speakers were invited to share their stories um our students provided service to the community in a variety of ways including the HB track gives back day of service and our best buddies Club participation in the Friendship walk at DC and finally we have many upcoming class specific events including Junior Prom sophomore Night Out senior prom and Senior Awards night thank you thank you Miss to anyone from the board have any questions seeing none we thank you Miss je for your time this evening and as always you're welcome to stay but understand if you need to go have a great evening I'm gonna hold my um presidential report and um pass on to I'm sorry pass Dr we going to acknowledge our good evening Dr tce president Williams gallano members of the board and esteemed colleagues tonight is truly one of the highlights of the year for the district and the Board of Education each year the governor's educator of the Year program honors teachers and Educational Service professionals throughout the state whose contributions to their students are exceptional staff members were nominated by their peers parents and students a committee from each of the six schools consisting of an administrator staff members and a parent representative use the following criteria to select their recipient exceptional instructional techniques Superior ability to inspire students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn respect and admiration of students parents and colleagues and the ability to Foster excellence in education as evidenced by ongoing contributions to the Improvement of student achievement and the learning environment so at this time we're going to ask each of our building principes to come and introduce their honores we'll begin with Miss Melissa Lori from tolgate grammar [Applause] school hi good evening um I am honored to announce Miss Kim Drew as the togate educator of the Year miss Drew has been with the district for 20 years coming to HRC in 2003 Miss Drew has spent a majority of her career at togate teaching first grade but has been doing a fantastic job in her current position with our second grade students the love and energy that Miss Drew brings to the classroom every day is felt by each and everyone of her students two of M Drew students shared that they love how M Drew is always sming and she gives the best hugs a parent said it best when they shared whether a child is struggling or excelling in their instruction Kim knows exactly how to handle the situation and is always in control she is always patient and considerate and her students reap the benefits of her wisdom and compassion outside of the classroom Miss Drews is an active member of the togate committee Gator group planning and she also serves on faculty Council in addition she is a very active participant in the school spirit committee ensuring that work is enjoyable experience for all of her colleagues join me and congratulating Miss Kim Drews next up Miss Jane Freddy from Stony Brook Elementary [Applause] School good evening Dr tce president ciani Williams poal Valley administrators members of the board and community members they say a good education can change anyone but a good teacher can change everything and nothing can be more true of Regina brunetti we all know that being an Elementary School teacher especially in the primary grade means having an endless toolbox of strategies for almost every part of the day and she has just that she is committed to building a strong classroom community that lays the foundation for Reading Writing and math in fact she's been committed to seal long before those letters were even a thing in the educational community over the past few years especially during the pandemic our world has become challenging for everyone but especially a child as one nomination stated through the pandemic year she demonstrated a passion for peace connection and community and taught our children strategies for navigating this challenging and volatile world but she made the transition to online learning with professionalism and diligence Miss bernetti has been dedicated to the Stony Brook Community since September of 2002 she started as a spectrum teacher and then became part of the first grade team the following year she's a pillar of our school since the opening of it she is dedicated to the of our students helping them understand and appreciate and build a more peaceful world as another nomination stated Miss bernetti is an empathetic teacher who cares about the families and children she works with the rhythms of her classroom are thoughtfully created to build a community among her students and support her character growth is seamlessly woven into each element if every teacher was like Miss bernetti there actually would be No Child Left Behind they would all be kind confident Learners who believe in their ability to achieve greatness as part of the community they belong to she's a treasur you rarely find and I'm lucky to know her Miss bernetti does build a beautiful community of Learners and one of my favorite parts of being part of her community as every time I see one of her students in the hallway they end our conversation with have a peaceful day so please join me in congratulating Regina beretti [Applause] next we have Scott bratel from Hopewell Elementary [Applause] School good evening Dr tce president Williams gallano members of the Board of Education as well as the Hope Valley Community I have the pleasure of informing you that Miss Wendy Heiser has been recognized as the governor's educator of the year for hell elementary school as you know at Hope Elementary School our model our motto this year is the Hope well way and I can't speak uh enough about how much Wendy on a daily basis models the hope well way um not only will you find her outside of the classroom um digging in the forging forest for green week uh or on one of the various committees that maybe Dr pitus or Miss dinardo is um gearing up for just the hopo Valley Regional School District in general but miss Heiser is just a rock in first grade um anytime as a principal I need any help down on the primary grade levels uh there's no one else that I'm going to turn to except Miss Heiser um she has been outstanding in my my time as the Director of stem um switching actually both programs that we were uh modeling at the time um and willing to jump on board and do both of that some of the recommendations uh that were submitted as far as for her nomination I I'll go on with Miss Heiser goes above and beyond to ensure her students succeed she takes a personal interest in each student's growth and development tailing her teaching to meet the diverse need needs of this classroom this dedication results in not only academic success but certainly the nurturing and confident of responsible individuals at Hope Elementary School um while uh Miss Heiser we we kit around because she is a New York Sports Fan um we do share a I love for uh Penn State football um but Wendy um like I said before and as your as I see your students every morning um we can't thank you enough for everything you do at Hope B thank [Applause] you and now Mr J Billy from bar Tavern Elementary School [Applause] good evening board members and administrators and Community um today I'm H Bear Tavern is honored to present Mrs Mandy Perez as our Governor's educator of the Year Mrs Perez is a remarkable educator who exemplifies what this award is about she's a role model to staff and students and continues to grow in her craft while continuing to impact the lives of hundreds of students over the years Mrs Perez's classroom is a nurturing and inspiring environment where her students Thrive she is loving kind and passionate and patient with every student she encounters her ability to connect with them with the students on a personal level not only enhances their academic performance but also Fosters a sense of belonging and self-worth she's truly dedicated to Student Success over the years Mrs pres has been in hbsd she has has mentored many teachers in her grade level and continues to collaborate and cooperate with all staff whom she works with she is also a parent in our school which gives her a very unique perspective that enables her to connect with the families on a different level at from our School Mrs Perez is a welcome Presence at school and community events as she can contributes to the Hope Valley Regional School District at a bigger level congratulations to Mrs Mandy Perez thank you for all you do to make Bear Tavern a very special place you've made a [Applause] difference next we'll hear from Mr Chris Turnbull from timberlan middle school all right good evening everyone Dr Williams gallano Dr trce Board of Education and everyone hello and welcome it's such a special night and congratulations to all of our honores tonight and and it's so wonderful for us as principles to celebrate our schools but when we take that step back and look at the entire District as a whole we're so fortunate and we really appreciate everything that you do to make it special but tonight it's my honor and my pleasure to announce Miss Katie schoolie as the 2023 24 Timberlane Middle School educator of the Year miss schooly is an educational jack of all trades working with our most involved students as well as providing support in our most challenging academic classes she spends the majority of her time working in our pal practical academic learning class but she's worked in general education inclusion classes at the middle school level in special classes at the elementary level and has been in instrumental in assisting the entire district with assistive technology needs she can truly do it all she's even a certified behavioral therapist which helps me every once in a while but what makes Miss schoolie special is not just what she does and what she has done but it's the way that she does it she has an immediate and a lasting impact on everyone she works with including me the minute you meet miss schoolie you know that she is is a problem solver a team player and she has a creativity and a drive that always makes things better when you go through our hallways you'll see students who were non-verbal just a few months ago and all of a sudden they're giving you fist bumps they're appropriately greeting you and and it's really nice because it warms your heart but when you think of everything that went into it it's absolutely miraculous but she's involved in so many facets of our school it's astounding she started the Caris Club after school she sits on the diversity equity and inclusion committee and she's helped to start the coffee Cabana and snack delivery programs at timberling which also brightened my day but she helps her pal students to change schedule displays around the entire school so everybody knows what day it is we have our letter day system but in addition to everything listed she's the co-creator of the poof club and that stands for the power of one friend and what Miss schie has accomplished is one of the most beautiful things that I have seen in all my years as an educator she made it cool for our middle school students to be thoughtful inclusive and kind and created a culture where eighth graders from all different backgrounds and ability levels love to spend time plays play games with and help our pal students when nominating Miss schoie for this award one parent said the growth witnessed academically and socially along with all of the skills developed from sixth grade to today is remarkable Miss schooly's understanding of our son encouragement thought ful expectations and commitment to positivity make every day in her classroom truly EXT extraordinary now in eth grade he navigates TMS school with Independence attends other classes and participates on sports teams dur due to her encouragement and you can do it attitude he loves school and he goes to school every day with excitement Middle School years are difficult but through this experience through his experiences in Miss schooly's class he just feels welcomed and a part of the whole TMS community and it reflects in his happiness her cooworker and partner teacher said that Miss schoolly makes me want to be better a better teacher every day and makes me believe that there's no child that we can't teach she goes above and beyond always miss school is a bright light that illuminates our entire school and I'm extremely proud and excited to celebrate her as this year's timberlan Governor educator of the year and last but not least Miss Riley from Central High [Applause] School good even and congratulations to all of our recipients especially the outstanding Mrs Michelle Brennan who is the hbcs governor educator of the Year Mrs Brennan is an incredibly talented special education teacher who has been a member of the hbcs staff since 2015 during that time she has worked extensively with our academic Essentials program which is designed specifically to assist students with academic communication and Social Challenges to reach their highest possible level of achievement and Independence Mrs Brennan's connection with the academic essential students extends far beyond that of a typical educator as one of her colleagues stated she is their Mentor their adviser their guide caretaker friend therapist coach and boss but most importantly she is their teacher let's be honest she has one of the most unique job descriptions I have ever seen in what other job would you need to assist students making waffles at the quarterly wakeup waffle event Corral dozens of general education and special education students in a gym playing unified basketball dance at the senior prom try to anticipate the often unanticipated needs of her students all while delivering content in multiple subject areas at varying levels with patience with humor with kindness and with Grace Mrs Brennan's commitment to the academic Essentials program is evident both in and out of the classroom not only does she develop Innovative and creative lessons in every subject but she also co-advised the unified Club organizes class outings to various school events and serves as a staff representative to the strive PTO she was also instrumental in in the hbcs being named a unified Champion School this year and she participated in in the dancing there as well Mrs Brennan's support and advocacy for her students has no limits and it is truly a pleasure to recognize her as the hbcs governor's educator of the year [Applause] this evening we are also honoring three support staff professionals from Hopewell Valley for their hard work and dedication to the district eligible candidates included par professionals secretaries custodians maintenance workers bus drivers van attendants campus safety officers and the technology department a committee consisting of myself the director of facilities director of pupil Services director of transportation and other support professionals reviewed nominations and selected individuals based on the following criteria dedication to their job they are inspiring and they are making a difference in the lives of the staff parents and students with which they work I know he was excited to speak earlier so let's bring Dr burel back to the podium from Hell Elementary thank you again and good evening once again um again I have the pleasure of informing you that Miss Bonnie Brown has been recognized as a support staff professional of the Year Miss Brown has been at hopeall Valley Regional School District since 1999 she has supported various settings but most importantly the last 12 years in our preschool classroom which we like to call Peach Miss Brown as our Peach sometimes call her nurse Bonnie and she actually is a registered nurse by the way right um as you'll hear a little bit later uh but again I could go on and talk about how she differentiates on the spot with academic modifications or how she knows when offer verbal prompts or physical assistance but I choose to use one of her colleagues examples noted in her nomination since her number one job and our number one job as Educators is to keep our children safe especially our tiniest Learners whose parents are always the most nervous when dropping them off to school allowing those little hands to slip away to from their hands to a trusted adult so here we go we feel safe Knowing When Miss Bonnie is around she's always there to provide an ice pack from the freezer when a child falls down or a Band-Aid from my desk when a child scrapes their knee she gives hugs and TLC when our preschoolers are sad or afraid she is a counselor when a child misses their mommy or when the fire drill alarm is too loud because it is loud uh or an open arms and spacious lap that provides our children with comfort and a calm space to feel safe she loves each and every one of our students as if they were her very own grandchildren and the parents of the preschoolers know that they know their child is in good hands when Miss Bonnie is there and as a principal and a parent of three that is certainly all that anyone could ask for so again these are just some of the wonderful many attributes of nurse Bonnie that she's brought to not only our classrooms but hope Hope Elementary School and to top it off she might be nurse Bonnie but she's a huge Philadelphia sports fan all right so she's gonna be enjoying many Philly games as she retires unfortunately at the end of this year but once again nurse Bonnie thank you for everything they do for hopeall elementary [Applause] like to welcome back Miss Nicole G and Freddy from Stony Brook good evening again and it is my honor and privilege to introduce you to miss Courtney Leonard our support professional of the year at Stony Brook they say the way you see a child is the way you treat them the way you treat them is what they will become and M Leonard sees and treats all of our students as Superstars which is what they always rise to be Courtney has worked in a variety of classroom settings but regardless of where she is she makes a huge impact on her students joining the Stony Brook Community in 2007 Miss Leonard has worked with students with academic social emotional behavioral and medical challenges handling each child with a very individualized approach she is such an asset to the Sony Brook Community with a positive relationship with everyone she interacts with she has the ability to connect with even the most challenging students as one nomination stated her mindfulness and positive self talk strategies are effective Ive and extremely useful she's been a resource to just about every teacher in our school She's passionate about promoting self-awareness cultural awareness and academic success with all students she encounters our students and staff at Sony Brook are blessed to have her outside of our little Community she works as the program director of the before and after school programs and the summer enrichment each child value located in lawrenville where she plans activities for atrisk students before school including breakfast and after school it's a highly IMPACT program for many atris students and I know it's a dream of hers to bring it here at Hall Valley as one nomination stated Courtney is ex is contributing extensively to the social emotional wellbeing of the students clearing the pathway for learning her magical approach is making a difference in the students and the co-work in her coworkers live so please join me and thank you Miss Courtney letter [Applause] and finally Mr J Billy from Bear Tavern back again um I'm honored this evening and Bear Tavern is honored to present Mr Ronald B Canon as the hbsd Educational Service professional of the year Mr Buchanan serves as our school safety officer at bar Tavern he has exhibited a parallel dedication to ensuring the Safety and Security of those on our campus and throughout the district his presence and dedication to safety for all those at our school is exhibited daily by his ability to be everywhere and do anything that is necessary at our school Mr Mr panning is able to connect students and staff and balance his responsibility for safety um um and he continues to impress it and Amaze those around us he's invested in our school and our students at a level that is hard to find in most professionals he creates educational opportunities for our students but also connects with each student at individual level depending on the day you might find Mr duanan do any doing any number of things setting up taking down cones in the morning for arrival and departure or at the end of the day for arrival and departure moving signs walking the ground checking doors running safety drills or or talking to classrooms and students about safety helping parents bring supplies in and out of the building supporting students and staff at the playground or at outdoor areas but many of the things that you don't see uh are and sometimes might fall outside this realm of Safety and Security he's helping the custodians and teachers set up or straighten up classrooms for assemblies monitoring the lunchroom and playground picking up debris from storms walking the grounds picking up things that need to be cleaned helping students with their work in the classroom or in the hallway walking with students who need a break or just need to talk helping teachers set up for events refereeing soccer games on the playground or teaching soccer skills specifically support good sportsmanship and so many more things we are very lucky to have Mr and Mr Canon embodies the essence of specialism dedication passion he's leaving an indelible mark on our school and community and for that we are very grateful thank you [Applause] so congratulations to all of our honores this evening thank you for being here and thank you for all you do for our district we wouldn't be the same without you we would like to take a picture so if we could just take a few minute break and have all of our recipients meet outside we'd like to take a picture of everyone for e e like like e e that's be prob e okay welcome back everyone thank you for that little break in the moment I'm going to go ahead and turn things over to Dr tce for the superintendent report thank you hopefully I'm going to sit back my presentation here I'm G to quickly go through these slides have a very full agenda I want to to all our students um some of those things included um guest speakers from outside of our uh District um actually um brown girl green I think was zooming in from um another state I think California is where she is and uh she presented to our students um online but then she came physically to to the building to meet with high schoolers had lunch we had uh representatives from people from free and open space um oea the outdoor Equity Alliance um the um a lot of our Community Partners came out and helped plant things with our students pollinators to re reestablish some of our outdoor Gardens just a lot of interesting things going on we had bears in some of the schools so just a lot of exciting uh things going on and you'll note that Miss Murphy decided to come check out our uh the first lady decided to come check out our our stuff that was going on at hopeall elementary um she could have seen beautiful things at any of our schools but hope Well's schedule just aligned to her visit um and we were supposed to have the commissioner of education but he he couldn't make it he was he was quite busy but maybe he'll be able to join us in the future for for other things um so I just wanted to shout out and thank everyone they did a beautiful job um making sure that we had lots of activities for green week there you go um we also had our last meeting of the strategic planning work that we've done as a community these are the six areas that the community decided we needed to work on at this time I'm working with my leadership team to develop action steps that are in the spirit of all of these categories student learning and autonomy was number one getting our students to be more self-sufficient um lifelong Learners that are that have an intrinsic motivation to learn um so that's uh number one number two is fiscal responsibility and also taking care of our very aged uh facilities um and also capturing some of the green work that um our sustainability teams have been working on for years um there's a whole plan that will just be for that health and wellness for students staff and family members they want us to continue to do work with not just our students making sure our staff are are are mentally and physically getting the work that they need to know how to be healthy but also providing supports to the Greater Community communication um we heard loud and clear that we have a lot too much consolidate um we even had some folks offer services on how can we target communication so you kind of don't get lost in the many newsletters links postings that we have out there um how do we how do we uh make sure that we're get reaching you with our messages um they want us to form more Community Partnerships with businesses with organizations um continuing to do the great work that we do in that area and finally diversity equity and inclusion and the facilitator was quite disgusted that we had more than five but I told him we're hope well of course we're going to have more than five so continue to have uh specific goals around diversity equity and inclusion so the strategic planning page there's a link to this uh slide deck that will be you don't have to go to it right now um but I have the hot link here so when you can go back to the agenda you can reach uh you can see all of the information the discussion and the specifics about each one of these categories um May 20th we'll be presenting the action step plans uh the synapsis of what it looks like for the next five years and then each year we'll be working on ticking off some of these things and really have a focused um path moving forward but they really did validate a lot of the work that we're already doing um and also gave us some great ideas about how we can expand upon these things so I thank the community for coming it was great conversation um and we couldn't have done that without your help so thank you um referendum webinar tonight we're going to be talking about the budget which is separate from the referendum I know there's a lots of questions out here about this so on May 16th I will have a virtual webinar for you it will there will be time for Q&A there will be other inperson options but with May being as jam-packed as it is um I'm doing it virtually so I can access as many people as possible um because I know you're all terribly uh busy running around this time of year and we're also going to record this so if you can't make it because you have prior um commitments we will record it um so I'm going to be sending out the the registration link for this and there's also going to be a landing page on our website just like we had for the strategic planning where all of these videos will be posted um frequently asked questions any questions that come up during the webinar or outside of the webinar and in visits that we have as we have visits going along between now and September so just Mark save the date and again if you can't make it don't worry I will record it for you and you can send me your questions along so we can try to cover those as well during that night so final finally I want to talk about kindergarten Paris because I know that there's been a lot of buzzing online um that started from an anonymous post right um we are not eliminating kindergarten Paras what I am doing is consolidating and I'll tell you what that means in a minute I'm not getting rid of kindergarten teachers I can't get rid of any kindergarten Paras that are aligned to IEPs we would never do that or behavioral needs of students because they're not all always linked to an IEP but if a student needs a one toone pair if a PA needs to be in a room because of the type of student populations we have then that's the case for example we have a Kindergarten class with only two students in it there are three adults in that room because that's what's needed for that particular room right so um we're not doing that our class size the largest class section and there's a couple of these there maybe there three sections with 22 kids in them most of the sections are 17 18 or 19 in class size we don't have any kindergarten classes above 22 somebody fact checked me and they were right we do have one fifth grade class in the whole District that's at 25 and that's going to happen that has always happened where we have an anomaly and a a class section kind of jumps up to a 20 and we just write it out for the course of the year because it is an anomaly you don't want to add a staff member that's anomaly for one year because that staff member is going to be here that's what usually happens historically right we keep them after we add them we don't ever take away um so those kindergarten Paras that are not aligned to I APS will be shared meaning there will not be a class without a par professional in it that's a kindergarten par what does that look like I've asked my principles that's why there isn't a big announcement to the community to look at their schedules it's a scheduling thing it's not budgetary it's not going to reduce your budget which I'll talk about in a minute I said look at the classrooms where you have three or four adults because there's an inclusion class there's an extra teacher there's one or two one toone parents that kindergarten par that's in that class can now be shared probably with another class that's similar because you don't need six or seven people in a class at 17 or 18 all day so can we schedule that person to be here in the morning when we're doing certain things things there in the afternoon be get creative with your scheduling because right now we are overstaffed with parot to the point where we're so bottom heavy with them in kindergarten Paris which no other school in the in the state of in the Mercer County area does because I've been surveying this for a while they do not add just an extra kindergarten par until they get to 25 or more students they still have IEP Paras and parents for need but they just don't add the bonus ER like we do so we would still be having that extra person but they would be shared between classrooms where they already have a good number of adults in the room so that will not change your experience for your students you will still have kindergarten Paras but I have to start to save money Bob's going to go into the budget here in a little bit and this is with every pair that we already have on staff it doesn't include any new ones we may add in the spring with IEP annual meetings or a student that comes in at the end of the year that needs a paa and that we're going to honor or a student has an emerging issue that happens at the beginning of the year or over the summer and we decide to add a par I promise you we will add them if a class hits 24 or 25 and we're not comfortable with that I'm going to add another Pera in a Kindergarten class that's too large for me I probably am going to have to end up splitting the section and adding a teacher because it's never going just usually one person it's a couple three and now I got to split the section that's why we have these 17s and 18s we enjoy a very small class size but that's what I have have to do to try to maintain our budget because we are going to grow here's the rest of it as a district we are very parah heavy we have a lot of parents we we use them we need them they're great people however when we go to our budget meeting with the county executive superintendent he questions US every year about the number we have because we are kind of high so I'm going to be challenging my my um my principles my child study team to make sure we are making we hiring people that we really need for students and that we're already always re-evaluating that because our goal if you go back to that strategic plan is to make sure students are autonomous at some point we have to make sure that kids can go into their backpack and organize it that they can tie their shoes that they can do all these things by the time they get to the middle school so we have to also start thinking about just because a student has a pair in kindergarten they don't necessarily need that same pair about seventh grade right we should hope that we're we're we you know we're taking those we're fading those pars when it's time and that we're reassigning them where we need them because what we ran into this year with all the extra pairs that really I I I would argue aren't necessary all the time to have all these extra pairs in the room when you have so many adults in our classroom supporting that kept us from hiring Paras that we needed for students that had emergent problems we couldn't even find enough Paras because they were already assigned in places where we probably probably could have sacrificed a little bit or tightened up our belt a little bit um so again um this is not going to vastly change your experience you're still going to see these caros in the room um at some point we may have to revisit this and go to like the other districts and say we're not doing it until we hit 25 we're not there yet at that point and before that point I'm going to be leaning on the community to say which is what other districts do we may need parents who are stayhome moms or dads that want to come in and be room parents and help out that's how other districts do that and that's something that also came up in the Strategic planning that you all want to have more access to the buildings like you used to in the past that's going to take some sacrifice on your part because you have to be fingerprinted and all the things to make sure that you're safe to be in our building but um we're going to have to start thinking creatively because we cannot keep doing what we've been doing and just throwing a a human add it and that's not always that's not always allowing us to maintain the programs that we would like to maintain so I just wanted to clear that up because all the folks that are here will still be here probably going to still bring in more but I'm just trying to keep the number down as best we can so we we stop digging that hole in the budget that we've been digging okay so the last on slide I think so again the final thing is um I appreciate I got a lot of emails finally after this was blown up online for a while um if there's ever any question about any of this please reach out because sometimes what well a lot of times what happens online is something is not factual or it's just partial information or it's just plain and accurate and it starts getting circulated and it starts to become truth because it's out there and people people are getting very upset about something that is it's probably not going to affect them in the way that they think so please reach out anytime you have a question um and um believe me now is not the time to get mad there will be plenty of opportunities in the future as we talk about this budget uh because we are going to have to have some real deep conversations about cutting and next year our poy will be saying I'm cutting some stuff that you really care about but I have to Tove other things that we really care about so we'll say more about that when we get into the budget well thank you thank you Dr T moving on so we come to the end of a long long road for you board members we started in July starting to talk about budget um we're here tonight for the final adoption um of our budget this is where we were first be September April okay just revisiting what um went into the board's decision making when we built the budget we wanted to reflect the mission statement that we have been using it was critical to maintain all of our services continue our Academic Program curriculum revisions again maintaining class sizes that that 18 to 23 level around our contract obligations that we have to all of the staff members continue to evaluate reflect our budget based upon what was going on in the district and again developing a budget that prepares us for that uncertain future that Dr trece just referred to um if you've been reading the papers around the state um listening to or going on new jersey.com a lot of districts were hit with unexpected budget cuts or uh state aid reductions this year some were received $8 million less $20 million less others received more a lot of it is being driven on the value and the wealth in your communities may seem unfair but that's the way they're doing doing it right now East Brunswick for example lost $8 million just because that the wealth in their Community the property values in their Community grew tremendously in that last calendar year they didn't expect to lose 8 million they expect to gain about a million and a half so they actually wind up cutting 51 positions I get nervous for us we have new developments coming in that will increase the value of our community so we need to start to look at our budgets going forward and that's what we tried to do this year we don't know what the future is going to hold regarding State a it's not a huge part of our budget but it is a part we need to be prepared going forward for that these were the main things that drove our budget in the past year inflation I I had a discussion with Mr res Mr Peters at the end of last budget cycle and I thought that we would be um in a down period of inflation I thought it would would reduce a little bit and it just hasn't um it continues to climb um our supply accounts have been drained somewhat due to increased costs those um the services that we're paying for have not come down and energy is energy all see the the gas is now Rising yet again approaching $4 a gallon in some places um again it's it's those kinds of things that that are driving our budget curriculum instruction we are con again we are in that mode of constantly redeveloping renewing our curricula both on our own and as mandates from the state of New Jersey I think what's the most recent one is this the uh Ela the language arts ones that are coming out that we have to implement by September so again things that we have to handle transportation is another huge one um that budget continues to grow this year the increase for uh contracted Transportation routes was six 5.81% almost 6% that is a state driven number state says this is what the contracts minimally can go up by the contractors you can say no they'll they will reject the contracts so we have to either go along with it or or go out the bid again and see um if they don't come in high but again dealing with that I was talking to Dr uh Trice and president gallano um the cost of a athletic bus run to take a team from Powell to West Windsor for a baseball game used to be about $250 to $300 a trip there's $725 a trip per bus per day we run five to eight buses per day including the weekend so we do them on the weekends ourself but again the increase in the cost of those things that's triple what it used to be uh you know preo Insurance obviously everybody sees that the medical insurance uh industry right now is skyrocketing with costs Property and Casualty Insurance costs have increased as well as workers comp our workers comp budget used to be somewhere in the area of 225,000 it's now over $750,000 for workers comp insurance that we must have okay so again another cost driver and remember we have a 2% Cap all these things are way way over 2% facility of Maintenance we have um Dr trce referenced our referendum we have a referendum coming up um it's more money than we ever thought we would have to ask we do as much as we can inhouse we have our our maintenance facility guys on our roofs in our crawl spaces fixing hbac equipment Roofing work these are projects that just are outside of our control you can't continue to patch roots and Tinker with hbac systems that are 20 25 years old just can't do it special education we love our special education kids we have great programs inhouse you know credit to to miss berardo and what she's doing there's a cost to it and we're running higher than we've run in years past postco it is what it is it's a national Trend it's going on but it's a huge driver to our budget again special ed tuition costs by our outside providers increasing at 10% and greater and the thing with that is they give you a tuition and Paul it will say is come September they go oh you know that tuition we gave you wasn't high enough and they can just add to it so we're dealing with that Staffing we just talked about Pars in some ways but we are um constantly looking and having to add staff due to students that come in we may have a special education student comes in we need a staff member we may have additional students coming in in fourth grade for some reason at Bear Tavern there's an influx of students if we get above a certain level we have have to split the section and add another teacher happens all the time the cost of that Staffing is getting very high we no longer have been able to hire staff at level one we are now hiring staff members have the ability now to negotiate I've got a job here here and here who's going to pay me more money before they used to be I'm H so happy to have a job you know whatever you want to pay me is fine not so tech technology we've all seen how technology has influenced almost everything we do you can't even get a thermostat in your house anymore that's not have to be hooked to your wireless you know whatever happens to the old good old analog ones you just turn the dial but everything is technology now our technology staff is is extremely taxed with everything from the the projectors we have in here to the wireless and all of our believe it or not fired smoke detectors are all addressable so again adds a cost to it the anticipated growth in hopal Township we're starting to see those houses being built ground being broken and we are starting to see students in our schools um both at Stonybrook in the development that's on Bull Run Road and coming into Bear Tavern from those developments over near Scotch Road so it is a reality it's coming we need to get ready for that and again another concern for me is the use of surplus in our budget and what Surplus means is a non-recurring revenue it's a it's a wild card if we have savings that we generate at the end of each year we roll roll that into next year's budget or into our capital reserve to do other facilities M projects but our use of surplus in our budget is climate it's it's close to $4 million it's down a little from last year but still a little bit too high for my takes it means that if we don't generate Surplus and there's a hole in our budget we need to be careful with that and that's what what Dr was talking about in reducing and getting that level of surplus in our budget down so you must say what have you done we had uh we saw some questions coming through on um Facebook recently um where is the money going well the money is going to the things we just mentioned but we are doing something to be more cost effective we are a self-insured entity here which means that if we don't spend the money we a lot for health benefits we get to keep it it doesn't go to the carrier a lot of times you pay premium and whether you utilize that money or not they get to keep so that is something that over the of the last several years has saved us conservative estimate three and a half million dollars that we've been able to put back into the classroom again special education returning our students from out high cost out of District placements the stronger placement that we run on our own we feel very confident that the programs we run are equal to or better than what is out there we try to reduce staff when possible without affecting class size uh greatly to coincide with enrollment again in a period now of leveled off enrollment looking towards growing so what does that mean we may have to start to add some of that staff that we've held down for years they may start to creep back up we do have a school choice program it's our Performing Arts Academy where we bring in um 13 students from other districts in the state and they get money for that and somewhere in the area of $325,000 that helps to offset our own programs again techn we've done everything from moving away from higher cost Apple Computers the Google environment which a lot of the software is that know cost to the district and doing things with our servers and storage that has gotten us away from higher cost options but our technology continues to move in positive direction we do everything we can to purchasing groups joint purchasing with many districts in the state we are in a Consortium with over 500 school districts to purchase the joint purchase energy most of the supplies and equipment that we purchase are on state or national co-ops um that have been free- bid so we don't have to spend the time and the energy to do something that somebody else has already done and we have several different cops we can bounce off one another all in the effort of saving money same thing with Technical and Professional Services if we don't bid them ourselves we look for other groups who have already done this for us so we think and believe that we are getting the most bang for our Dollar by utilizing these types dep and again utilizing our facilities Department to do as many of The Replacements and inhouse work um as we can if you go out anybody knows that if you go out to a a contractor in the community um you may pay more than if you did it yourself it's the same basic philosophy that we have we have hired highly skilled individuals who can do that work and save us that money and actually we get a better return because they can work almost immediately instead of waiting for someone to come in and they we can't get there for two or three weeks okay so those are some of the things we've done to control costs again this list has come up there these are some of the things that we've identified as potential cost savings items these are things we don't want to do there are a lot of what makes 12 what it is our Comprehensive High School teaming at the middle school all of those things while common to some other schools are in some always nice to have a lot of districts have done away with teaming at the middle school they've done away with the Comprehensive High School they've done away with uh AP classes and they they've held the ones that have the most enrollment we have such a wide variety of courses of study that other schools it's yeah right yeah the discussion was whether or not we charge some athletic bees yeah we're not we're [Music] not thanks yeah for those of you who are watching online I'm just pointing out the very last Bullet at the very end there is an incomplete sentence we did not ever consider elimination of all athletic we consider U athletic keys and we're not recommending those but Athletics good catch on all right so again if doing those kinds of cuts again it hinders our ability to address our building repair it can the offerings that we have our co-curricular activities all those things that we hold and value in the district um those cuts would impact that that's again as we move forward you know our budget and again I started at 12 o'clock on our dial there with our Athletics and co-curricular department and wind it all the way around till a little after nine o'clock um that's where our money is going going to the staff and benefits of those who are educating your children children in the district the other areas are more entral service type things but all go into their education but direct you know direct pieces that go directly to the education is more than 75% of our budget and largely controlled there's not a whole lot we can do with those typ okay these are our Appropriations we're looking at around a 2% increase in total spending our operating expenses are up about 5% based upon largely all those drivers that we talked about savings comes in in our capital outlay budget we are doing less uh Capital outlay work this summer because we do are we are planning on a referendum and and we'll be tackling those things next summer these are where our revenues come from we are a tax levy heavy School District District um we'll talk about the percentages later but but that is increasing at 2.6% this year you can see we're using less fund balance happy happy that we're using less it's still quite High comparably I'd like to see that drop in as the progress but we are getting Less Federal Aid we are no longer a title one school district we have budgeted a mechanism to continue those programs in the budget next year and our state aid has increased but still it's it's less than 10% of our budget so while it helps to get that it's not a huge driver in where our dollars com you want to get yell that what title it one is for those who don't know it's it's the number you get the funds based on the number of students that you have identified that getting free and reduced lunch and our numbers weren't large enough this year for us to get those funds again it's not a large amount but we used it for um enrichment for our students um all students it doesn't have to just be title one we write the grant so that any student that is not um performing at grade level has access to these things um but we didn't get that money so we had to find in the budget where we were going to maintain that because we we care about that um other title funds that we are going to get probably a little less of title two and title four we use to do things like um the um the staff member that we have from workers is some of that was been Grant monies um bringing in guest speakers and other programs that support our students and professional development for our future so again going back to our Revenue slides 92% of the budget is funded by local local funds state funds 7% and the federal government gives about 1% again the idea U funds go special support our special ed program all the tuitions that we have and the titles there are not getting so again 92% of the budget is funded by local sources this is where we are for next year we have a 2.7% increase to our taxes and an overall tax levy increase of 2.6% again this is just that slide enumerating us Surplus we'd like to get that somewhere near the area of 2% 2 and a half million uh Surplus again the best use of surplus is nonrecurring expenses if we can apply it to projects and things that we aren't going to see year after year that's the best use of it we are using that money this year for recurring expenses so before we even start to build the budget next year got to find $4 million to plug the whole that's exactly what it means okay lastly um this is what the dollar amounts equal a 3 Cent increase to hopo burrow 5cent increase to hopo Township 10% for 10 cents the Pennington burrow for an overall amount for $100 of assess value about1 85180 and do 86 resp the number on the end is the average household what's it mean to the average household each of those Burrows the average hous is range from in all the Burrows the average is about 450,000 that brings us to the end um take questions from the board and to the public I was looking for the presentation there's the on that given as we building the budget just want to yeah this will be this presentation will be posted there and also on board docs anyone else question John I think I think we're on now you're we're on okay good I just I don't want anyone to in here and turn my mic on for me like for Alex um I just wanted to say on I know that we're bringing the stem facilitator POS stem facilitator positions back in the in the elementary level and I just want to commend you for that that you know we're aging out of Elementary on our side but I know hope well in particular that you know the position that we had in the past there was so meaningful to so many different students and families that just wanted to commend you all on that you know really really appreciate your work to bring that program back to the school district any um there is one one note about um so one of the things I think um I'll say to the board and then also to the community is that this list is going to ever change like we as a board challenge the school administration to continue to look at this list though there are no recommendations to take action on these I do want to convey to the community that these might be impacted with Nuance right so when we say eliminating all Paris that's actually not factually true but we challenged the administration to manage a very complex uh schedule um multiple buildings and while it's hard to articulate to the community all of those factors please note that this board isn't looking at this unilaterally right we never say go take that off or stop doing X or Y when we talk about the number of programs that we have the number of clubs we have the athletic um the different teams that we have we're always going to look at it holistically but then alra also try to add Nuance so that the budget can be impacted right so we understand what you value and I love that we had the Strategic sessions this year because it really helps inform what what you as a community think is important right um and we also know that the financial pressures in your household don't go away so we are acutely sensitive to all those things so I'm just um asking for you not Grace but if you hear any unilateral decisions out there in the general population please bring those to to us because that's never the case we would never just slash courtesy busing without a massive conversation about how many buses do we really need how many kids are actually on those buses right so um I'm just advoc advocating for Grace with our administration because we are challenging them hard because we have a huge hurdle to go find $4 million and that's not an easy thing when we have the a district like ours with aging buildings and what Etc so um thank you for the administration for taking our dire to challenge our spending um and as a community please note that there is Nuance to every single change that is recommended um with high high sensitivity to the quality of education and the experience of our family and children so that's all right um with that said public com first okay at this time we are going to open for public comment um on the budget only thank you members of public are invited to address the board on the public comment um public comment for the budget only for a maximum of three minutes um during this portion of the meeting you asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the batter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration public comment is now open and just so people know I'm your friendly timekeeper you will have three minutes at two and a half minutes I will show you the yellow and then at three minutes I will show you the red good evening can everyone hear me awesome perfect hi my name is Jean Silva um I have one son in a Bear Tavern and one incoming a be Tavern starting next year my question I think is simple I don't think I'll need few minutes um I've looked up other school districts there's a like easy to find Budget that I can pull up to understand where costs are going I tried to look that up for our district this afternoon I wasn't able to find it get but like previous years I've been able to find like West Winds I looked up I could see like all previous years the reason I ask is budgets as ways as we've been talking about throughout the evening it's all about tradeoffs and constraints I completely understand that I'm asking up their Tavern the roof at the library has been leaking since spring break longer we wait the more expensive it's going to get and again I understand that we're trying to make tough decisions I think just like a publicly facing budget would really help understand in full transparency understand like if it that's not being fixed is the money being spent somewhere else and understand what's going on absolutely and if you could just write your name on the book there thank you thank you thank you guys hi I'm uh Katherine Fulmer Hogan and I'm a resident of hopal Township I just have a question about the courtesy busing if you could offer some clarification there about what specifically that is because I know there's hazardous busing there's courtesy busing and I just I know that that's right that's not happening right now but it's a consideration and I think it will be helpful to receive some clarification on what we Define as cesy bu anyone else okay um with that oh okay go ahead oh okay no no it's okay sorry didn't so my name is Marian Leos I live at 10 model Avenue in hopel burough um and Dr T I just like to thank you for your more nuanced discussion about the kindergarten power professionals I think you many of you may have figured out that it's a an issue that's near and dear to many of your parents of your youngest students um our par Professionals in fact my par professional is in this audience right now and um I think all of the parents class would yeah get all like this to think that the next year she might not be as embedded in the classroom as she is right now um I do understand that you need to bance B all your costs I mean that's kind of a terrifying thing to have to do to keep all of our wonderful programs running but I mean our kindergarten is it's a universal investment in all of our students every single one of our students they go through this and the incredible achievements of our high school students they have the roots in our elementary schools I I went to the yes presentation on the climate action plan and so many of those students like they came out of our elementary schools but I also want to go and say thank you for reinstating the stem facil Educators because so many of those students came from hopel elementary and they had worked with Helen so closely and you could see the direct impact that one educator made on so many students to give up so much free time to come up with that plan it was it was very meaningful um but I'm also one of the parents that went to the strategic planning meetings and I have a great interest in making sure our children spend more time Outdoors learning both in nature and about nature and I think we all know that getting kindergarteners outside is tricky you know even as we're trying to give them Independence you know there's there's jackets there's distractions and sometimes that extra adult body can be the thing that really helps get them out there um so just thank you for all the work that you're doing for our students and anyone else okay um we have a few uh responses we can give as well as some support with the website URL with the budget and we can also um work with our our tech department to add a button I know there's lots of buttons here but we probably can add a button there at the bottom somewhere budget no this website's not it's hard to navigate on the menu here to the menu this year right you're looking for this budget this is what West I mean this is so it's but yeah it has to go up after the public hearing actually can't go up before that because I have to hit a button and it releases that document that'll be up so the it's confusing the difference between curtesy busing and hazardous busing is when a student does not have safe passage under 2 and a half miles for secondary under two miles for K to8 if there is not safe Passage meaning there's no sidewalks um we provide transportation at no charge so we do that now courtesy busing is when there is safe passage within two and a half or two miles um we don't have to offer it we do offer it at a subsidized rate so that's what we do now that's when people pay for busing that's courtesy busing um and they're paying a portion of the cost we raised that a little bit the um Elementary School was always paying parents were paying more than the middle and high school we raised it so it was at parity I think we charged 500 right for a student um we pay more than that for a student the average cost of a seat on one of our buses is over $1,100 right and so part of the thing that we have to discuss as a district again um President William gallano brought this up the discussion we'll have before we go there is a lot of times when I'm in the Bus Loop watching buses in the morning and in the afternoon there are cars lined up causing a traffic jam picking up and dropping off and my buses are running empty because people want these seats but then they don't use them so having a real conversation about if you're driving do you really need the seat Well I might need the seat but then that could be like three less buses we have to contract at how much a bus the contract ,000 80,000 right we could save 880,000 if we from run less buses if we're not running full buses and that um gets worse as a year goes on when kids start participating in sports where the afternoon run is empty um so if we can think about if we're car pooling if we are dropping off and picking up because they have all their stuff we know how it is or they're late or all the things um but literally there's these buses are not running at capacity either so we can there's some tweaks we can make to save us from doing that um for the person that really does need to put their child on the bus and and use that courtesy busing so we'll have all those conversations we'll survey you um we'll try to make the tweaks before we make the Deep cuts um so that we don't have to make those and to be clear not running at full capacity could be five right so we're we're not even talking half capacity so um there is a conversation out there to look at how many students are on the bus and we're understanding what the real and we do um we do oversubscribe our buses to account for those who don't ride and they're yeah they're still running they're still running below cap yeah we can only do so much of that because if there is a true evacuation and we have to put kids on a bus we have to make sure we don't over surprise to the point where we can't accommodate that can I ask a question and just follow to that really quickly just to par professional piece just a just a question you know obviously we were just there with the first lady which was terrific and you know understanding as you're sort of implement and the principles are sort of implementing these these plans and their facilities you know will there be an opportunity maybe in the future that you might maybe there might be situations you know to revisit this sort of the new Staffing if you will to you know there there might be opportunities to revisit in the future I just you know thought I would raise that because as an example you know Hope Elementary mentioned that obviously near and dear to my heart as well and you know when you're out working with the pollinators as an example that's a long stretch and you know I don't think you want to have a whole kindergarten class perhaps by themselves so I just I just wanted to raise that see if there might be an opportunity and would take no I understand there would never and I forgot to answer Miss Leo's question um we again there will be no classroom without Paras and right now when you go into some of our kindergarten classes and a lot of classes at the elementary level you might go in and see more adults sometimes than kids as they're getting pulled out in those sorts of things when we have days like when the first lady comes or we're outside or we're doing those walks we make sure that we have enough people to cover those buildings we we have our Paras we have parent volunteers that come in on those days the administrators come in on those days um we make sure that we circle the wagons and that we have uh students covered believe me there's more than enough adults in these classrooms and they will continue to be um we just have to be a little bit smarter about it um adding the stem facilitators back and doing it with intention um and making sure that we have curriculum this consistent k to5 for every student every student didn't get to experience the S facilitators as they stood before and they weren't cons teaching a consistent um curriculum everywhere so I love that everyone loves Miss Coraline but I want that same conversation to be happening in each one of our schools and I want them to be teaching not just about sustainability and being green but what careers are out there technology this tea in is in there as well right um cross content talking about geography and how the way we impact the planet affect that in in the Earth all of those things are going to be part of the program now um food weight is a curriculum that we're going to be adopting as part of this program and it'll be happening through all the grades in addition to the science that's already teach taught in the classroom but there'll be a dedicated person with a dedicated curriculum and the facilitators that we did add uh for English language arts and math which I'll report out at the um end of the year have made great strides our test scores are we're going to see an improvement we've seen an improvement in student performance I can quantify how students are doing a math and language arts kto five right now I couldn't say that before so as I spend money because I can spend money here in this District I just want to make sure you're getting the most paying for your buck and I knew You' be mad at me but I knew I had to do this and I couldn't do all the things I needed to do so I had to take a pause make a sacrifice so I made sure that we did it right and with intention so just like I I'll revisit all of these things I'll revisit this as well but I think you're going to see that we're going to be fine with this one I I don't make knee-jerk decisions and I've been thinking about this for a while um I think you're going to see that you're fine go ahead Al so I had a couple pointed out the difference between courtesy anding I also wanted to ask you to am I correct that's not it's correct hazardous busing is not mandated it's recommended highly that if you have students walking down not but even and all of our routes are reviewed by local law enforcement was so um we knew about that roof it wasn't a surprise to us um that's why it was so uh the pictures that were circula that's why it was so carefully uh taped off and and and tarped uh so that nothing would get damaged in that facility um it took a while to find out where the leak was um anybody knows anything about roof work you can't find a leak when it's raining right and we had two full weeks of almost continuous rain while that roof was leaking so they couldn't our guys couldn't find it and two professional roofing contractors couldn't find the leak until it actually stopped raining um once it stopped raining we found the leak and we are working to repair it as we said to get a roofer on site it was beyond the scope of our guys it took a couple of weeks to get a roofer to come out because he was busy on some other jobs that he had so um we do everything we can in house to try to attack roofs um not a plug but that roof is on the list of things that we are going out to referendum um we will probably expect more leaks to happen as as rain happens it's just what happens to a 25y old group um but we knew about it and we were doing everything we can to address it in a timely fashion um it just wasn't getting done because of the of the weather at that point but we are aware of 98% of all the things that are going wrong our staff is highly um efficient at letting us know when there's a problem which is a good thing um and we do the best we can get things fixed as as quickly as we can um with the money that we have you know I would love to replace that roof now but it's several million dollars to replace that roof so at this point patches are going to have to do until we hopefully um get funds inh house to repair it permanently and that's one of many leaks we have going on in the district now um that one the other one that's big that I'm worried about is happening in our brand new blackbox theater um we've had whole classrooms that have lost libraries and things like that because know the water comes through um we desperately need to replace all these roofs but we're quickly patching as quickly as we can when we finally find where the water's coming from that's a fun uh job um to patch it but patch is not going to keep doing it it's going to continue to be a problem especially when it's leaking over valuable items um our pack is another place for it Le um so we we have to really and fix it and I'm going to sound like broken but but uh when uh it's on it's on even closer I believe okay so so it sound like a broken record because Mark is not here but when we started talking about the r when you didn't build that was the reason the fin facility committee then went back to the administration and said let shot we're going to referendum anyway let's start addressing problem it became pretty clear to us that in the regular budget with the limited FX fund that we have uh Capital Improvement funds that we have the only thing we can do is try and play Play Walk and Roll and Chase off they up right we don't want to do that it's much more expensive it's disruptive we want to try and address at least the known issues before they show up but we cannot do that out of okay we've c yeah um anything else before okay I need a first and second to approve the um budget motion Mr kadia yes Dr Liston yes Dr Lou Dr Resnik yes Mr slotman yes Dr Wilson yes Dr geneves yes M Williams Gallo yes right um we we uh implement the budget we get prepared to start purchasing out of EX Year's budget we have to um certify the result to the three municipalities and they sign off on the um what called an a4f tax sheet and once the tax sheets are signed they go to the county office for the preparation of school t no it's not me it's not Al I was like right at the mic but I didn't have it on okay we are going to go back and pick up the open public comment on any topic um members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality and in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is research by the district public comment on any matter is now open okay seeing no public oh got gotcha sorry sorry oh you don't need courage my name is my name is Brian Kavanaugh uh and I live at to cacan uh in hope well Township um regarding the comment about um trying to move some certain on on from par professionals and having them grow um this is a very frustrating comment to me personally um for the last over two years I've been trying to be very proactive in getting my son direct instruction um for organization knowing that that was going to be a personal issue of it um I've hit brick walls with some of the invent solutions that I've that I've created and tried to implement um staff members are sometimes reluctant because he seeing multiple teachers and each staff member has their own organization system which then they want to put on him rather than working with the one that he wants to try um I've been promised direct instruction as part of tms's pack program and core literacy program as far as I understand he has received none at least he's not communicated any of that to me for me to be able to present that to you um I will also say that many of the teachers use encourse differently some of them struggle with using it at all some of them use it over overly so often he thinks he's missing assignments that that he's not actually missing and some of some of them are not putting assignments up in a timely manner and so we find out a about a multi-day assignment on the day before it's due because they don't want to see it in their in their input I also have been made to understand by several staff members that it's hard to be consistent because of all the changes that have been made on which online platforms to use so it's frustrating for them to host things online and why change to encour when it's been changed so many times I will also say um encourse itself changes very frequently I often try to help him and I can tell you sometimes it displays the grades in the same page that the assignments are there sometimes it doesn't sometimes those displays are in letters sometimes they're in numbers and that changes quite frequently so it is really distressing to be told grow up when we try as parents to do so many things that it keep being met with silence or apathy or we can't do that and I'm probably I'm not speaking well because I'm upset and I don't mean those three words but it's really hard to hear that when we're trying and it's not and it's hard to get equal meet equal a met back guess is what I not saying that well I'm sorry thank you good evening Kate ham hopeful Township um just a couple of things that I wanted to draw your attention for next year I love that you invite all of the governor teacher of the year recipients and the support staff my plea to you would be next year when you're holding that recognition as well as the final budget presentation to select a larger venue many of these individuals wish to have their family and friends come and see them receive such accolades yet we're limited to the maybe 25 seats that are located in here so in preparation for next year I'd like you to think about maybe being at the community room at higho anything else okay see none um um one Mr Kavanagh I'm so sorry that the frustration level and I think there's there's levels to this that I can't talk about in the general public that's um the answer is not is not always grow up and some kids need support as long as they need it and we're here to provide that um but I'm going to pass it off to our director of special services to talk a little bit more about that yeah and Brian I you know I take everything that you say very seriously and um I think um you know when I wear my special ed hat and lens I'm looking at that trajectory for our children and you know for me personally because I've seen children go through the system and now are adults doing many wonderful things ultimate goal is to get them to that Independence being able to self- Advocate being able to manage their exective functioning issues and I in speaking with you and several others I do see that that is something that we need to to work through um and since our conversation a couple days ago you know Mr NM our supervisor at the secondary level special education and Dr Hoffman and I have been having some pretty thoughtful discussions and we're hoping to unpack that and see what we can do so that this frustration isn't help by our family um but also managing that support they get older again managing the support providing it but also giving them the tool set so that they can do this independently eventually and and experience that success but again I do take everything you say very seriously and and we are going to work through that and I'll probably be engaging you and several others and some further discussions about especially the executive functioning P of supporting our kids at the secondary level thanks I'd like to make a comment um I would also um really encourage us to see what we can do about some of the consistency across teachers because I do think that is a a challenge um you know having been through the district with three children um I think sometimes when you struggle with executive function and the teachers aren't all using the system in the same way and you don't know where to look for those things it just compounds that so it might be a training issue or you know whatever it might be to help teachers be able to use encour in the most productive way or something outside of encour in the case where it's just not being man you know that can it can be in encour but there's other or manual ways that might work for students as well so that's something we need to work as well when I was talking about the layers that we need to support you with um the the um final thing was a venue and yes we will definitely consider that because I'm noticing we are bursting at the seams we have an issue with um audio in there but we're just going to have to work through it I think because it is it is tight in here right with that a public comment is now closed and we've already uh old business and now I would like to take a person second motion second all in favor I any opposed or abstaining agenda items are passed uh we'll move on to our committee update so starting with Finance so um so for the previous board meeting that he made op for that in the current one uh We've um talked about the roof leag in Bear Tavern uh we have another roof leag at high school which I think you've mentioned um multiple clogs in um in in in in the plumbing at be Tavern at Stony broke I think in other places with issues clearing those clogs that I'm not even going to attempt to describe uh shot of valves breaking AC multiple schools um there's a big wheel on the roof of Sony broke that has something to do with air conditioning that needs to be replaced which to seems to have had one thankfully for so hopefully that was working today because I know my AC in the house was not not pleasant um we've got uh uh generators in togate that need repl U repairs um Tom mentioned the old tackle rest has to be abandoned at this point um the referred solution that we have is to um if the referendum is passed by the community as part of addressing various other issues at togate will have into um a faculty all the bathroom there it's just not well probably anything it's not uh there was a fun water leak under one of the modular buildings in be Tavern which was able to cat water all of our system otherwise that would probably done undetected for very uh carbon monoxide detectors um I think FKS many folks will probably know that after about seven years they all start keeping in in your houses currently they're all keeping all across uh uh I get which school Sor I didn't take notes but every single one of them is be repl because the older models had about a seveny year lifespan set that the newer ones are are our 10year lifespan yeah and they're not cheap they're not cheap they're all hardwired together so speaking from experience in my house and extrapolating out to a school building yes yeah yes yes I know um we have continuing delays with the uh my notes say Stony Brook but it's the hopeful Elementary Chiller installation um I don't know Bob if you have an update but we were discussing the fact that the delays have are now have now crossed into an reasonable territory and what options we well we put the contractor on notice and they are it's not actually it's the it's the sub that's the problem and this um we put the contractor on notice and he's going to be attempting to charge the subcontractor for the Portables um but we do have have uh temporary air conditioning in those classrooms um that's up in the same thing we had in the fall so those build right now our Target installation date is is uh the first week of May next week first week yeah we're hoping it's delivered next week yeah um some good news we finally have new water service in the admin building so all the rest froms are back to operational uh in insurance has requested in the way that insurance companies request or I should say in The Godfather way of requesting that we need new sidewalks all around the administration building so that's going to be for there is TMS super work mold was found in the world pool room at the high school where in the right in the sports training room uh hennington borrow is iring metering upgrades at electrical no water water water meters uh we need a new fence for part of the high school uh territory and then there are some concrete steps that need replacement schol that's something we're TR um and tons of roofing issues not a complete list I was trying to capture things there's a bunch of other minor things that um I didn't capture from th again the reason why we do this with the committee and for the rest of the you know the community and the board is that there are constant things the the referendum is the big items these are the things the nagging things that are constantly looking and hitting up one offs off there's like another clog in a bathroom at togate there's clog here there's a leak so we're chasing seeing those things but I wanted to I felt like this was a good yeah um the bottom line is um most of these we are going to to address the exceptions are permanent solution to the roofing issues uh we're obviously going to patch where the leaks are uh some of the concrete work there's about $888,000 that um is uh expecting to have various grants cover and the rest is about $340,000 and that's coming out called the general good news is the fence is done at the high school and it looks really good the other the other you know thing that I try to get out to folks who are in our buildings and we've talked to our our staff um principles is a lot of the the clogs can be avoided um we have things going down the toilets that really shouldn't be going down um and that's what's caus the CLS in these old sewers So lately kids have been getting creative with and by things stoed animals yes they found a Beanie Baby in in this St um uh so in more fun things we had Doug P who is the president of H Valley ymp um they uh provide after care activities at all of our elementary school and I I don't want to mess up his last um he came in and he provided an overview of the early morning and after school programs that the YMCA provides um there were a number of areas uh that we received feedback from the community and the board members during the last meeting we provided that feedback to him um and he did say that he was going to go and look into all of those issues and uh he provided a detail deck it's uh it's posted now in B it's posted on Bardock but I think we were hoping to find a way to have it uh I can put it in the public like we'll we post it in in the public area of the bo and and that has a much more detailed overview of the my those who interested and that's it for the finance and Facilities committee I don't think we have any thing that's not on the consent agenda oh no there's an exception of the yeah can I add something real quick um I think you highlighted this Alex but I just wanted to point it out again um you sort of went through the laundry list of problems that we're experiencing and I think one of the things that Bob mentioned during the budget presentation I just want to highlight it is that many many of these are being dealt with by our internal staff and that's just huge cost-saving to us so we're lucky that we have such a talented staff internal to the district um that is creative um and can manage many of these issues because I I do think it saves us a lot of money yeah I think that's a good point off the long list that I've read the roofing and the major age back work hopeful Elementary I think they the only on that we're not doing ourselves other question have you the answer or just them over it was good notes thank you good job speaking into your mic um need to have a motion to accept the donation motion second and this is um donation on boys cross uniforms um so all in favor I I any opposed or abstaining donation accepted all right for personnel um we will need a roll call oh wait I was I was mention one more thing um Mark is not here but he did volunteer to burn down some of the dead trees personally no okay yeah not no there was discussion about control burns for the dead trees and I thought that was not a serious comment for those of you watching I think it might have been serious but we're good okay moving on to Personnel um we need them first and second to um review and then we'll have a roll call vote at the end joh will be um going over the major highlights so first and second please so move your update John it's totally on I know it is the button right everybody um and and our illustrious chair Mr Peters is now with us so thankfully giving my first ever committee report here with the uh Valley Regional Board of Education so excited to be here I will try to be as brief as possible uh you'll see a few different items on the agenda today uh some personal appointments I want to flag a few retirements in particular Ina Bales a German teacher at the high school who has done the district since 20 2001 23 years Deb Conrad who's a preschool teacher at Stonybrook who's been with the district since 2007 Scott Han the head custodian at tolgate who's been with the district since 2008 and Jane castner who is a bus driver who's been with the district since 2010 and you'll see a number of other you know normal HR procedures voluntary transfers and other items as well on your agenda a couple other updates for you is that we continue to work on the supervisor of counseling job description to make it more relevant focus oncl and a few other issues and we expect that to to be available for your approval next month and also we did of course uh recognize our governor Educators and the our staff support Professionals of the Year earlier so we're very excited about that and you know congratulations to all of them and then the last thing I wanted to mention was we have two search committees that are actively in process we'll say and uh for the supervisor roles for ELA as well as counseling and we also expect to have those to be concluded by next month with some approvals there in and I believe that's everything thank you thank you right with that said um need a roll call V thank you Dr Liston yes Dr Lou Dr res Dr Wilson yes Dr genovas yes Mr Kia yes and Miss Williams gallion yes I moving on to at that's the culprit yeah so we discussed a a number of items at the last uh um education committee the first one was um Miss Ruth Delino from merca Council asked for approval of uh student survey a couple of years ago there was a quite extensive student survey looking at a number of issues including um students mental health and LGBT groups um among other issues and the purpose of the survey was that this fiscal year is really to help um identify Trends and see if there are gaps that we can help to close um and our District staff will have the opportunity to shape the questions and also work with the staff to see what what kind of categories of um survey that we want to add in the questions um and the board provided feedback on really leveraging the survey results to see how we can um help the the kids in our district um another item that was discussed was uh Mr George uh nitam and Miss Beth Hoffman came to talk about this special ad uh program offerings and and they provided a very nice overview um we learned about the um special ad offerings from preschool um the elementary schools the secondary education including both middle school and high schools um we learned about the philosophy of the program set up the different approaches uh for example at the elementary schools um they just celebrate the disability awareness month and also talked about two autism classrooms at the secondary education special at program level they introduced the fa uh facilitate model and also what kind of inclass resources are provided and also their practice to um to um Implement Community Based learning and work-based learning um another agenda item was um Miss Amy Basin came to um talk about the book uh rationale approval of a new book um all my rage was discussed for High School summer reading um and there was no issue with that and um again um Mr Steve wilin came to discuss the uh changes to the middle school math Pathways um that was that topic was elaborately discussed in the past and Mr wilin working with his team have come up with some recommended changes um for example the um the prerequisite of 95% for students to move to to um um next level um a more advanced math class has been uh reduced to 90% And also um they implemented 87% um to qualify waiver uh with this type of adjustments there will be more students moving to advanced math classes in our districts uh including algebra and geometry at a later stage um the board provided some additional feedback for example to look at the alignment between the test and instruction and track students who are at very various um levels of math courses and how see how well they are doing and also um information was discussed about students being at um uh at the grade level or below or above like what that means in the context of our district and how to communicate that information back to the parents for improvement and awareness purposes um and and last Dr Vicki uh pites discussed the review of um uh timbering Middle School student survey so the eighth graders will be identified to survey about the master schedule um and questions will be asked for example which schedule they like better whether the traditional schedule um they had in sixth grade or the rotate and drop schedule and this is really to um help us gather uh input from our students and see how we can best uh um refine our schedule um anything additional from the committee I was just going to add um two quick things one was um I just want to express my appreciation to um The English Department for being proactive with adding a book like all my RAID um our district is home to an increasingly diverse and population there's an increasing population specifically of South Asian students so to have you know our students see themselves in a book that's telling the story of P family I think that's a great step forward um I also do just want to commend um drit and Mr wiing for adjusting the mtic placement um I think by lowering that that score to 90% and adding a qualified waiver 7% it's just allowing more students to have the opportunity to take those advanced level math classes and it changes our our previous almost rigid structure that not only put a lot of pressure on students but in a way limited them from being able to pursue some of those higher level math classes that we saw so just want to express my appreciation and to my fellow board members who have been bringing up those issues in years prior and I want to also add um I really appreciate the addition of the uh facilitated position at the secondary um it's a great move forward to support students who might not need an inclusive classroom but might need other supports so I really appreciate the addition of that position I just had a follow-up question for you Lydia so you had mentioned in the beginning I think it was the first survey you were talking about a student survey related to student mental health can you I I missed just like who's condu do that survey and where is it coming from you share a bit more um it's Comm um oh it's it's um for Mercer County uh Mercer Council yeah um and so they are doing kind of like a follow-up study to uh when we had done the search Institute survey I can't I think it was last year or the year before um and so just some of the the trends that they had identified in the search Institute they're going to expand on those Trends and and get a a broader understanding or more a more specific understanding of some of the the topics that were they noticed and these are members of uh these members sit on the um Municipal alliance with Heidi Kami and all of us and so when they got the search Institute uh findings which the municipal Alliance supports and and pays for um they noticed that we had populations of students that were showing they were having higher frequencies of um at at risk behaviors they were taking and so they want to try to isolate those populations and look at through an additional survey and again we'll communicate this to parents and we'll share the survey questions with you as well and and you will give your permission for them to to participate in this um as in all surveys um but we're looking to see if there's any gaps in how we're servicing those students and one group in particular that we were concerned about is the lgbtq population they seem to have the fewest number of positive assets that we would like them to have out of the groups and the most at risk behavior so we just want to make sure that we're not missing anyone but it could be a larger survey of any questions we'd like so as you're if you if you're thinking of something bored um you want to get that to um the education program committee we can make sure as we're honing those questions we include them yeah that's really helpful thank you I think uh one of the things I always think about with these surveys is like what's in it for us right like it needs to be useful to us if they're surveying our students and it sounds like it will be um but I do think you know having just come out of the Strategic plan planning sessions really thinking about are there things that were lifted up in those sessions that we need to learn more about to inform the action plan that's going to come out of those goals and objectives and whether we could potentially leverage this opportunity for you know a free survey and data analysis to be able to inform that plan so thank you appreciate the context and just in terms of timing the survey wouldn't take place until the the following school year so you know to add like we would have to just amend our action plan to include some of things that we found great thank you all right um go ahead and move on to community relations uh we had essentially addressed essentially three different things one is was the idea of getting ourselves out there to to listen to the community in better fashion um the other one was we're talking about the referendum and tomorrow we'll have a little discussion with the senior citizens ofwell Valley and sort of elucidate all them and the third was uh was talking about some of the network networking we might be able to do with the community to support some of the emotional social emotional problems that we've been experiencing uh I think there's a lot of of ways that we can Empower kids to to to confront and understand their own problems and and need to work on that and and we talked a little bit about green reduction and and making sure that that didn't interfere with a lot of what's going on I think you did a wonderful job recapping right yeah so um we did not have a regular meeting with seal um we really looked to support our teachers and our students and our Administration um with the tragic loss of one of our students and so we really took that time to review what we were doing the supports we had in place um and I know Dr th just attended a dramatic law seminar and like the yes I I um um okay so many of you know we did have a dramatic loss um right as we were going into Spring Break um and we were lucky enough that to have uh strong protocols in place that that um our um principal Riley Miss Smith Mr dardo they really circle the wagons and made sure that we put in place an action plan that we have for traumatic loss um we think TLC it's an organization that comes out and supports Us in the in these times of need also air dogs we had all of our pups here our counselors uh came in um we were able to open schools I said it on a webinar today just to kind of make sure that we were doing the right thing and it just um validated everything that we did um it's unfortunate that we've had this this sort of practice in the past pth um I would like to get it down to zero where we don't have these things happen um but we did the best we could in a in a very bad situation and I want to thank the community who's also circled the wagons to support uh in this time of need for the family um it's just never easy to do this but again I want to thank my team um for really being strong through this and and um the families for supporting um um the family that that lost their their daughter we were unfortunately not um the only one they were um I just had dinner with Miss Baker just to kind of catch up um she runs air dogs for us we had five in that two week span five losses five traumatic losses um so it's it's really a tough time and hopefully we can do better some of that was accidents but um at least three of those were um students Dying by Suicide um so we have to continue to do this work and as you said when we do this survey we need to be thinking about um you know kind of what's in it for us what kind of questions do we need to be asking so we can start teasing this out in merer County mer in Mercer County not in us not us but in Mercer County we had five it was Lawrence us Stuart um and then there were two others I don't remember they were I just wanted to make sure clear yes merer County thank you for that so this this is H this is a the survey is something that we can have uh input into is that what I understand are are we doing the kinds of research when I I've on whenever I've done a survey I've I've had I've had extensive research in terms of the different constructs that I want to get get into the survey are we doing that kind of research right now or or are we are we having are we building the the sort of the evidence we need in order to to create the the pieces of the survey the the questions or whatever on the Sur they will be certainly giving you given us the opportunity to build those questions and you will Al you will see the survey so we'll definitely be leaning on you for some of your expertise for that um but yeah they haven't built it yet they think they've given us samples though that are are they is that attached to the um edcom notes so if we could add those so that we you could take a look Dr Wilson thank you we appreciate it okay all right um thank you all I'll I'll I'll make this comment you're going to attach it to the ATC though um I'll so my observation was those are example questions so it's a pretty exhaustive place and it's a little bit all over the place so one of the things we talked about in that is making sure as we build our surve we are very out what the objectives are that we're trying to get those objectives as you look at the list of questions I think it's very good list as long as you're thinking about it as a like a super set of question is there some kind of organization to these questions I mean there categories or or conf but again that was for another District in the county so ours might have the same headings but be different question thank for that okay um yes I will give the Hol um so policy committee met on April 12th um we do have a lot on the table we have five policies up for first reading and five sets of policies and regulation reading tonight um but before I jump in I the policy committee did spend a decent amount of the meeting discussing the district's rules around mobile phone use in schools and I heard that Dr Wilson brought this up as well so it sounds like you spoke about it in community relations too um so I just wanted to provide a really brief summary of that conversation so in the strategic planning sessions um screen time the use of social media were raised by the community as major topics of concern and we also know that the scientific research is really increasingly showing the harmful effects of social media and screen time on adolescence mental health and their academic achievement so um the school district does have rules around um restricting mobile phone use in schools um but there's currently some concerns that have been raised about just how effective they are um so as a Next Step we're in inviting a representative from The District's digital Wellness committee to share more hopefully at the May policy committee meeting um just about the research in this area and also what other District's policies around this look like um so we hope to continue this conversation with the board so I'll stop there because it looks like we might have a question uh I guess more of comment me least couple of conversations that I was part of it was was time and the use of devices by students but also model that's consist I want to make sure that we address the totality that issue any other comments from policy Committee just on that topic okay okay good um so first reading so can I have a motion in a second to move policies uh 560 student discipline code of conduct 2411 guidance and School counseling 5842 equal access of student organizations 5752 marital status and pregnancy and 2416 programs for pregnant pupils for first reading so moved okay great um so the first policy that you'll see here um 5 00 the student discipline code of conduct relates to the school's code of conduct which establishes the standards policies and procedures around student behavioral expectations um so the board last revised this policy guide in 2012 um but as many of you will remember we discussed and revised the accompanying regulation in September 2023 um so we're recommending just a couple minor revisions to policy guide 5600 um so if you're following along in the first paragraph we've added language clarifying that the purpose of our student code of conduct is really to help Foster the health safety and social and emotional wellbe of students um on page one the policy states that the code of conduct should be applied equitably across all students and we just revised this language to ensure that all the protected categories that are outlined in state code are covered um we've updated the policy to include language in the state code which indicates that the Board of Education can deny participation in certain extracurricular activities for a violation of the code of conduct and then we've updated the name of the uh student safety incident Reporting System uh and then last you'll see several updates to Administrative Code citations any questions about this one or comment okay all right so moving on to the second one is 2411 guidance and School counseling um so this policy requires the school district to offer a counseling program to students that includes career research and exploration academic planning and personal development uh we last updated this in June 2018 um so just drawing your attention to page one here so the board has four choices that you'll see on this page um and this is really about how we want to implement counseling so you can see that it can be conducted entirely by teaching staff members who are certified as guidance Personnel include the services of teaching staff members certified as guidance personnel and other designated teaching staff be the responsibility of the classroom teacher who can draw on the services of specialized staff or involve the coordinated efforts of all teaching staff under the leadership of certified counseling staff um so the committee is recommending option four which aligns with our current practice in the district and then here we also have additional minor revisions providing uh just more detail to ensure that students Equitable access to adequate counseling that's that's free from bias and you'll see that this focuses on the career opportunities that are shared with students as well as the tests and materialized that are utilized as part of uh counseling services questions or comments on that one okay um so next we have policy 5842 which is equal access of student organizations so this policy provides for student organizations access to school facilities and also makes clear that access uh won't be denied on the basis of one of the protected categories that are specified in state code like gender race or disability um or the content of the speech at the meeting for the First Amendment uh so you'll see that there's just been minor updates to the state code citations um the list of protected categories has been removed and sites back to the state code um I think the bigger revisions here can be found on pages one and two so there's language indicating that no employee of the district can promote lead or participate in the student group meetings that has been removed from this policy um but now in the highlighted language on page two it states that the school district staff's involvement in student organizations shall be in accordance with the governing principles of the First Amendment and this is really in response to uh Kennedy versus I'm going to say this wrong for Merton School District decision um which uh was a recent Supreme Court decision that came through okay so any other any questions comment on those okay so then we have two more that are up for first reading um so these last two policies up for first reading were required to review as part of the statement of assurances related to our comprehensive Equity plan um both of these policies pertain to pregnant and parenting students um so for policy 5752 marital status and pregnancy um this policy essentially says that the board and the district won't discriminate against any student based on marital status pregnancy or Parenthood and that students have equal access to our District's educational co-curricular and athletic programs um this was last revised in 2009 um and we're just REM recommending small edits here to include gender neutral language and then the second one is is similar and ensures that no student will be denied an educational program because of pregnancy child birth pregnancy Rel Rel ated disability or Parenthood also revised in 2009 um so here again we included gender neutral language um and then we made sure that uh the policy does state that a student who's physically unable to attend regular classes can be assigned to an alternate instructional program and we just made clear that this should be done with the consent of the student and their caregiver so that's it for the policies up for first reading do my policy committee colleagues have anything to add that I I just think it's it's important as we go through some of these more archaically phas policies that we continue to ensure that we gender neutral language rather than okay so can I please have a motion in a second to move policy and regulation o sorry you already have the motion second cover oh for second read okay no just first you did motion second first read we should vote on that okay okay do you want yeah yeah we'll do the first reading first so all all in favor all in favor any oppos are abstaining all right vote Carries On First reading now second now we're good on second reading let's move the two and three at the same time because then you both need roll call we'll do the second reading and abolishment sure same move okay all good um okay so can I please have a motion in a second to move policy and regulation 164 2.01 s leave policy and regulation 3212 and 4212 attendance policy 5750 Equitable Educational Opportunity policy and regulation 2260 equity in school and classroom pack practices for second reading and policy and regulation 44326 leave for abolishment all right just one more time for you Alex motion second good okay so I I'm not going to go into these detail because we discussed them at length uh in the March full board meeting and we did receive no revisions or concerns from the the board so I'll just remind folks that the new policy and regulation around sick leave and the revised policy and regulations around attendance are primarily to put us in compliance with the new law that was signed into place in July 2023 uh that addresses s leave requirements among School District employees um and then the second set of policies and regulations are required for the Department of Education comprehensive okay Dr Resnik Mr Mr slotman Dr Wilson yes Dr jovas yes Mr kapadia yes Dr lison yes Dr Lou and Miss Williams SC yes no okay okay and we need to have a first and second on May calendar then we'll second okay okay we start with uh seal since it's already on the calendar for May 9th does that still work May 9th at 10 o'cl for you folks at 10 o' is there a group that D that backs up against that okay we have Personnel May 20th um I was going to do policy 13th work at five o'clock May 13th Finance facility May 13 Monday five uh never a quick turn around pocy community relations congratulations advance advance congratulations [Music] relations community [Laughter] relations what about the I mean at 10:30 how about like 9:30 9:30 all right all in favor anybody the whole calendar but abstaining oros orain thank you um okay Calendar's pass new business for anyone okay seeing none we'll go into our final public comment members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments Board of Education May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also to take the matter up at Future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration public comment is now open okay seeing no comments public comment is now closed um with that I need a first and second to move into executive session for the evening to discuss um Anda so moved second all in favor I any opposed or abstaining okay thank you community for joining us this evening appreciate it for