[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] che che che two [Music] meeting we ran the audio to the other submixer [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e e I calling me into order please rise salute the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the repu yeah we did we public meeting law and has been duly advertised in the newspaper as an official meeting roll call Mrs Gardella present Mr McCarron present Mrs barokas present Dr Osman present Mrs Rivera present Mrs Cass present Mr F Mar present I need a motion for approval of the agenda with addendums motion second discussion roll call Mrs Gardella yes Mr McCarron yes Mrs baroas yes Dr Osman yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr P yes I now turn the meeting over to miss prilly for her superintendent report thank you Mr pom Mar good evening everyone I'd like to start off this evening with yes thank you thank you am I back okay thank you can everyone hear me now yeah okay great so I wanted to point out specifically if the board wants to turn around and see that we have finally in District received our two electric garbage trucks four years in the making that's fantastic always man yes no more Waste Management correct um so we were very pleased to see that um and I just wanted to start off with some some nice news for all of us so as you can imagine it's a very busy time right now working through the many changes that are occurring in this District not a typical summer at all but I do want to highlight some of the things that are happening for our students this summer we do have our extended school year program currently running our staff are busy working with some of our students uh this summer to work on strengthening their academic skills and their social emotional skills and those uh classes are happening on a regular basis this summer over at Elms and Memorial we also have some of our high school students attending a njpa summer uh 24 tutoring program to assist them in strengthening skills to pass the New Jersey graduation proficient assessment we were able to use some some money for that and we also have some of our camps that are self- sustaining running on tuition for um child care we have our child care programs we have some students um in that program who are taking some trips and having some fun during the school during the summer and some of our other uh summer camps that are running similar to um we have Digital Media Academy Academy Camp running in fact yesterday at Liberty I saw some students filming um I was a little in their way I had to move out of their way and they were all engaged in doing some wonderful uh filming activities so it is definitely a busy time for students still and some of our staff members too as well as our administrative team we are very busy um in fact this week is the week that we work with our full administrative team we come together to review data set goals and plan for September as you can imagine there's extra challenges on that this year but our entire admin admin team comes together does brainstorming and preparing so it's been a busy summer thus far um in regards to to that information and working with our data that we've been working with the admin team on this week we do have a presentation tonight we are required to present our uh multiple language Learners access scores and also our graduation proficiency scores so tonight I'm going to turn this over first to Dr godleski assistant superintendent to share that data with the public in the board Dr godleski that was kind of a long walk okay thank you Miss Peril so this evening I have a number of data points to share with all of you the first one is the New Jersey GPA results uh the New Jersey GPA is a gradu graduation proficiency assessment it's a requirement of the State uh that they require that all 11th grade students show proficiency of being graduation ready and this this test assess whether students are graduation ready in English language arts and Mathematics uh graduation Readiness is reported separately on each of these subject areas and the um the assessment is actually aligned to 10th grade standards so students take the assessment in 11th grade but it is based on 10th grade standards and content and Mathematics is aligned to Algebra 1 and geometry again courses taken generally in 9th and 10th grade on May 3rd the state um adopted the proficiency level cut score so it's 750 and also a menu of alternative assessments and aligned cut scores so the goal is students take the NJ GPA and pass in the event that they do not they can retake parts of it or also meet the requirement through a menu of substitute compens tests PSAT sat act or acup plac or as a last resort they can also complete and submit a portfolio for review so I'll give you a moment to look at this chart uh this chart shows the data for graduation ready students in our district the state percentage of graduation ready students the percentage at Jackson Liberty High School and Jackson Memorial High School and looking at this data you see it's 2122 2223 and of course the current year 2324 I think it's important to note sometimes when we look at data we look at um Apples to Apples students growing their third grade test results with their fourth grade proficiency results these are different groups of children these are different cohorts um Jackson School District 77% were graduation ready for the past year the state average was 81.6 Jackson Liberty was 76.7 and Jackson Memorial with 78% and this is in the area of English language arts okay the right column shows the performance again from last year to this year again separate cohorts of children but still important data to consider looking at the mathematics outcomes again the chart is the same 51% of our students districtwide were graduation ready based on this assessment the state average was 54.7% Jackson Liberty High School at 36% graduation ready and Jackson Memorial High School at 61% and the change from the previous years in the right column it's also important that we take a look at subgroups to see what our subgroups and how they're performing against the um all student average so if you take a look at this bar graph you'll see that all students are compared to Hispanic Latino subgroup Asian African-American white economically disadvantaged special education and multilingual Learners uh subgroups that have an end size or a sample size too small to report or else it would be self-identifying are removed from this graph and this is a reporting of our subgroups for mathematics for those same subgroups one of the reasons it's really important to look at this data to analyze it for subgroups to really dive deep is to have a response it's it's one thing to collect data but it's it's really the goal is to utilize it to ensure that our students show growth and capacity as they work their way through school so in a response to this data some of it which is is troubling to us as to increase our number of students who are graduation ready when they take this assess we have some plans set up for mathematics to improve there which uh one of which is an implementation of a new mathematics resources in grades 6 through 12 uh these resources are rigorous highly engaging and differentiated and differentiated means that um children are met where they are at the at the standard they can accomplish and are are growing from there the six to eight resource is called Ed gems and algebra geometry and algebra two for the high school is savis and Visions we also are engaging in math specific professional development working with two experts in the field Dr Milo from Rowan University and Paul ramini from Penn State University we're also engaging in edgems training not just getting the new resource but getting high quality professional development to ensure that it's implemented with Fidelity as well as PD in saice and in Vision training again to make sure that we don't just have the new sources but they're implemented the way they're intended to be we also as Mrs Peril pointed out have begun an N uh New Jersey GPA summer 2024 tutoring program that's been going on for the past couple of weeks at Jackson Memorial High School we have nearly a 100 students participating in that by targeting these students and giving them the extra help and targeted assistance they need over the summer to uh then retest at the end of this program hopefully to pass the end J GPA uh we also have created a course for the fall semester in high school for students in danger of not being deemed graduation ready uh and again targeting um targeting their abilities and providing assistance to show competency in the key areas we are implementing linkit benchmarks for mathematics uh linkit is a platform that we use it's a data warehouse but it also has its own assessments and what's great about the link assessments is that they're all align to the New Jersey student learning standards so once a teacher has assigned and assessed their student using this Benchmark they then can gather all the data look at their class as a snapshot utilize this data to create groups that are differentiated so again meeting students where they are and pulling them into small groups remediating any gaps and instruction and proficiency and last increasing the utilization of common lunch for extra help in responding to our language arts data we also have some steps uh we again professional development building the capacity and improving pedagogy is is you know the part of every teacher's career we're all lifetime Learners lifelong Learners uh and meeting the needs of our multilingual Learners in the classroom is uh part of our professional development plan increased focus on non-fiction reading in social studies and science classrooms not just our uh English teachers teach the ELA standards it's our subject based teachers as well especially for non-fiction the use of data to create a differentiated learning approach uh not all of our students are are coming to us with the exact same set of skills so understanding and working with the students in front of us and giving them what they need is critical to Improvement and the use ofl ISL is a differentiated and adaptive platform uh that provides support when students are missing skills or have gaps in some of their understanding uh and it adapts to their level and it's a great resource for teachers we've been using it in the uh Elementary and Middle grades and now bringing it to the ninth grade to provide a skill-based practice and instruction and again to support the teachers by giving them another tool I already mentioned the NJ GPA summer program so that's not just solely for mathematics it's for English language arts as well so that's happening uh and again the link at benchmarks that mentioned in math standards based assessment that provide Rich data points uh for teachers to use to tailor instruction and meet the needs of their students and again the last uh increased utilization of common lunch for extra help our next steps uh the student scores are currently in Genesis so you can access them through the parent portal if you wish the detailed student reports will be sent home with seniors in September students who did not qualify as graduation ready will then have opportunities for additional assessments and Pathways to fulfilling the graduation requirement some of those students are already engaged in one of those Pathways in the summer program I'm going to roll right into our access results access is assessing comprehension and communication in English state to state that's what access stands for and the students that take this test are all of our multilingual learners MLS were uh English language Learners last year they changed the acronyms so just so if you're wondering what mLs are it's it's an elll uh which replaced ESL so understand these are students that do not speak English as a native as their native language and do not have academic Proficiency in English this test is administered kindergarten through grade 12 anyone who's been identified as a multilingual learner it's given annually to monitor students progress in learning academic English academic English is different than just conversational English scores reflect proficiency the lowest level being level one which is entering to level six which is reaching it's anchored in the weda English language development standards and weda is from the University of Wisconsin Madison it's a robust platform that provides proven tools research based practices and support to help Educators as well as multilingual Learners succeed this assessment measures the four language domains listening speaking reading and writing and Educators can use these results along with the weer resources from that platform I just described to make decisions about students English academic language and facilitate this development to be successful in school students are tested in in four domains but they'll get one score it's called a composite score and that's made up of oral language from the speaking section literacy from the reading and writing section and comprehension which is from the listening section and as I said students are rated entering emerging developing expanding bridging and reaching and while scores can be compared across domains they shouldn't be compared across grades because as kids get older and move into higher grades the content becomes more rigorous so you really should only be comparing across domains within a grade an oral proficiency just as a reminder takes three to five years to develop an academic English proficiency can take four to seven years so when you think about the students time in school four to seven years is a significant amount of time to get to that English profic proficiency to do well academically and I'll give you a moment to take a look at this chart because this is our access proficiency levels it's broken down by grade with the weeda levels 1 through six from entering to reaching and the bottom row has the number of students tested in that grade once students reach a composite score of 4.5 they are exited from from being identified as a multilingual learner so when you look at this chart and say oh we should have more in the sixth category we should have more in the five category understand when students reach that point they are exited from the program so that's why you wouldn't see a lot in those top two categories and again data is one piece but responding to the data and what are we doing to meet the needs of our multilingual Learners is an important aspect of analyzing data and the Jackson School District will continue to respond to the growing number of multilingual Learners in our schools by hiring ESL endorsed teachers creating responsive curriculum documents providing professional development to do better to better understand the weda can do descriptors uh these are descriptors that help teachers understand what language Learners can do at the various stages of English language development training staff on sheltered English instruction again these are best practices when teaching children to become uh proficient in English maintaining parent Liaisons in each building these are uh Liaisons that can communicate with our families that don't speak English and growing our parent engagement opportunities which would strengthen the hch school connection that's the end of my presentation if the board has any questions just had a quick question for you sure you said that that um you'll be better utilizing the common lunch uh how will you be better utilizing it are they going to have some sort of a benchmark if you didn't do something you're required to get some help like how are you using that better than we are today we actually had our administrative Retreat this week so we met with the principes at the high school we also had a meeting with a a core group of volunteers from the high school before the end of the school year on on how we can better utilize that time how we can ensure that students that are struggling are going in for that extra help um putting in some more accountability measures there so and we're also dividing the time but I don't want to go into too much detail because we need to give the principes time to create their plan and send it out to their staff as well um part of the action plan for the multilanguage Learners does that include class size is that into consideration as you know we're um working with these children so are children that are identified as multilingual World Learners they have a pullout ESL period and they're also supported in the class um does class size have an impact it does so they're they're not placed in smaller classes because they're identified as multilingual Learners um their pullout period might be smaller but honestly that depends on how many students are need that period can I just ask one followup I I don't think you answered my question um you don't have to go into detail I know that you don't want to do that but uh will there are you basically saying there will be some Benchmark and if a student doesn't meet that Benchmark then there's going to be a requirement that they get extra help during The Benchmark is how well you're doing in the class The Benchmark wouldn't be our standardized assessments the teachers are providing extra help in the content that they're teaching so if students are not doing well in their class the accountability are that the students must go in for extra help and that communication will go home to parents that students need to come in for that time did that did I answer it okay sorry so uh one thing that did stand out to me uh with the mathematic proficiency yeah uh Memorial showed 57% proficient and Liberty 42% proficient now I see the best practices that are pretty general for uh both high schools but what additional resources can we provide Liberty who seems to be struggling quite a good bit more than Memorial to help them at the very least catch up to where Memorial is with its Proficiency in mathematics so Liberty uh qualified for some targeted assistance funding uh title funding so their plan looks a little bit different than Memorial's plan who didn't qualify in all the same areas uh so some of that includes I believe a teacher leader model in that high school um which we'll be launching that plan hasn't been totally finalized for next year but it is differentiated between the high schools based on the needs and this data point is a pretty significant part of how those needs were measured does that mean that we qualified for additional Grant like funding for that which we may not have had prior that's correct thank you yeah that that is due um I believe at the end of this month so so you'll have more information at the August meeting about that so when the plan is finalized the board will see this plan and what additional resources are being allocated to to Liberty sure okay thank you anything else all right thank you so much have a great night thank you Dr godleski certainly uh we are spending a lot of time addressing how we can continue to improve and strengthen those scores so tonight I'm going to change topics tonight is the public hearing on the 2425 proposed budget as we had said at the tentative budget presentation this is not a budget we want to present this is not a budget we agree with but it is a budget that we need to balance in order to continue to operate pay staff and Order supplies and things things that this District needs to move forward for the 2425 school year these are painful Cuts ones that we have tried to avoid through advocating with all decision makers at the state level about the state aid Cuts being so drastic here in Jackson and having great effect on our schools we've worked so hard over the seven years to avoid affecting our students we've been creative we've sought out grants we've done everything we possibly can but at the 2425 budget cannot operate and balance without affecting students we'll continue to Advocate as I know others have and we appreciate all the advocating and education to our stakeholders about what's happening here including news12 who came to our meeting last month spent time here filming us and then also provided Mr pal Mar and myself the opportunity to record a question for there ask the government ask the governor segment the following day so we did uh record and it was shown and the response from the governor was that he would have the commissioner of Education reach out to us um and although I did not hear from the commissioner of Education Mr palmary did so I do want to turn it over to Mr palmary to share um the information in regards to his conversation with the commissioner thank you Miss Peril as Miss Peril mentioned I had the opportunity to participate in news1 12's ask Governor Murphy segment during this interview I voiced my concerns about the lack of funding for the Jackson School District and requested the governor restore the much needed funding during the News 12 segment the governor responded that while he did not have Jackson's data in front of him he would have the commissioner of Education Mr damer contact us true to his word the commissioner called me the next day and we had a pleasant conversation I provided him with an overview of the events related to S2 over the past seven years and how they have negatively impacted our district although he did not make any commitments he was understanding and we agreed to work together I also extended an invitation for him to visit our district to which he responded positively stating that he would take me up on the offer while the conversation was pleasant there was no solution to better our district we have we as a board recognize the need for further action we are committed to exhausting every resource and pursuing every opportunity for fair funding for our district and tonight in executive session the board authorized our board attorney to take appropriate legal action against the Department of Education in order to obtain funding and or state aid advance [Applause] and or state aid advance that is required for us to provide an efficient education we hope this can be avoided but we do not remain hopeful given the prior course of events thank you Mr Filly thank you Mr P with that I do need to present the proposed balance budget to the board so I'm going to go to the podium so as I just said this is not a budget that we are by any means excited about and it is very similar to the tenative budget that was presented at last month's meeting uh but it is a requirement that I presented to the board and to the public for comment and discussion so this evening I will give an overview of our budget challenges as I've done in the past we'll present the proposed budget discuss the impact and any changes that have occurred since the tenative budget we'll have a public hearing on the proposed budget and the Board of Education will vote on this proposed budget this evening so those those of you have been following us all along for year after year and in the last few months this is the slide that represents over the last seven years the reductions that we've had in state aid Cuts every year for seven years uh the 2425 was a 4.4 million but through some legislation we um gained back a few million dollars which was helpful of course but as you can see just we have worked in a cut model for seven years it's very difficult to operate a district um for students and provide them everything that we feel that they're entitled to when you're in a cut model every single year with Revenue being reduced we've reduced in every area possible curriculum activities Athletics uh facility improvements have been postponed and to date now sadly we've lost 242 positions across all departments that's a lot of people to lose and of course class sizes continue to grow you've seen this slide before too but just again to note uh the difficulty and the difficulty in what we have had to endure over these seven years you look at this if you call it the Biggest Loser chart in reduction of state aid you see Jackson in the top 10 year after year uh one of the very few districts that have been there year after year very difficult to manage a district that way so last month we showed a little timeline in history of the uh budget cuts or the budget I should say rather and the deficit that we've had uh been dealing with in this 2425 proposed budget and tenative budget so the original timeline for a budget and ATT tenative budget is March which is where we presented uh the 30 almost $31 million budget Gap that we were facing due to the lack of Revenue over the years um and expenses continuing to grow so we did have a $30 million gap and come May 7th um we took some action to reduce that a little bit more um and get it down to 26 for the proposed budget hearing and then we had some legislation that was passed in between having to get all of this out in which restored 45% of the original cuts of the $4.4 million and so now the cut was a $2.4 million so that help help us right when you look to the right there the budget deficit um it helped us and now we had a $24.6 million deficit still an incredible amount of money to have to close a budget for and again as presented last month we um got that down to if we took advantage of or if we implemented the other part of that legislation which was increasing a one-time increase to the taxpayer to 99.9% and we've had conversations about how um although that helps right it's not closing the full Gap and I think to do that all in one year to our taxpayers is very difficult um it was the board did vote that down and it was overruled and so we sit at an 8.1 million gap currently from the tenative budget so it's still the same I'm going to talk a little bit more about what just happened in July but there was a new line item added to the governor's budget for Jackson School Districts before it was finalized and that was $2.5 Million for Jackson and we talk a little bit more about that further in the presentation what has been happening this has been again the slide that we've presented over uh many presentations we've done but I think it's important for people who perhaps have not seen everything that we have been doing or have not been in the loop but we have been advocating we have worked hard to Advocate you all have worked hard to advoc vate our board has our Township um our Council um you know assemblyman SII everybody has worked hard and I'm so thankful for the collective efforts to Advocate and educate everybody about what's happening here but again we have been told that we in order to operate need to balance a budget it's in code we must balance the budget if we do not submit a balanced budget uh for the vote the district will not be permitted to operate in September therefore why I stand here tonight presenting a proposed Balan budget that has Unthinkable Cuts in it as we discussed at last month's meeting so some of those Unthinkable cuts that we do not agree with but are forced to make um are inclusive here of closing and preparing um closing Rosen hour and preparing it for sale and um I believe everybody has been informed about that and it's not something that we want to do but we need to do in order to move forward in creating a balanced budget this budget also has an additional 70 positions lost um although we have been able to have very few people actually lose their jobs due to the number of resignations and retirements that we have received people moving and transferring into those open positions if they have the appropriate certifications we've been able to narrow that list down to a very small number of people still painful for anybody losing their job but the the other piece of this keep in mind we're over 200 and something positions we've left lost in this District that I just shared with you earlier the work does not go away we're saving programs for our students we're saving things for our students but the human capacity of this district has been so deflated and limited everybody is working above capacity it's very difficult to operate an organization that way with less and less people having to do more and more so again these these Cuts were also presented at the tenative budget with a couple of updates to some of the information one of them being the first bullet there we talked at the tenative budget about reducing High School athletics and reducing the budget what we have done here um is eliminate some of the assist coaches um positions that um for some of our Sports where we felt it was uh the numbers warranted it we could um still run the program safely with the number of coaches that were available for the you know and we were able to save all of our existing Sports programs that way um so again not greatly affecting and reducing programs for students but rather reducing by staff but again what does that do right more on the staff that remains um but we again our commitment is to our students to offer them as much as we possibly can the other things listed on here uh reductions of our department supplies those budgets have been significant significantly reduced some of them by 50% um we are reducing our substitutes and what we mean by that is by reducing the number of permanent building based substitutes it doesn't mean that we're not going to have class coverage it just means that instead of having permanent people in the building every day will'll be using a daily approach to putting substitutes um into the classrooms for um you know when when staff is out eliminating we said last last month eliminating all the late buses which is heartbreaking because that definitely decreases the amount of opportunities for kids to uh do things and activities and co-curriculars after school eliminating the Middle School Holding Center after school eliminating after school enrichment program reduce reductions of our budget event staff our homebound instruction and cuts to co-curriculars we also mentioned at the tenative budget and there will not be any significant Cuts there again we've tried to be creative and work with what we have and we are going to be using grant money to pay for three very large clubs um at at both of our high schools so that we can keep those clubs and have our kids participating and rather shifting some Grant money into that again it's it's figuring out what is the best way to use some of our grant money to sustain some of our programs but that then also although we're using grant money and shifting there that takes away something else that we were using in the grant money um but in this case we felt it was most important to keep those clubs and keep our students engaged in school so I mentioned that I would be speaking about the $2.5 million that was allotted to Jackson um in the governor's budget before it was finally approved we've also talked about the elimination of courtesy busing in the tenative budget um in order to close you know a gap we really need to look at what are those things that are required to do and not required to do and actually the department of Ed would say that to us as well so courtesy busing is cut in the budget but as you heard us say U Mr binsky and I present at the tenative budget hearing that but we are not comfortable with that because it's compromising the safety of our students we have very dangerous roads here in Jackson a lot of highspeed roads without the opportunity for students to uh walk to them and there's an example right to the side there in the gray box that demonstrates that so courtesy busing refers to students who live within a designated distance for elementary that's 2.5 miles um and for middle school that's two miles being transported so they live within that that they really technically don't qualify when you look at that but due to the roads we provide courtesy busing for those students and so for example I think swick's example here is if you know switlick right next door can you imagine students walking who live close to that home with in that mileage walking those roads and Crossing that major Street to get to switlick so that's an example of what courtesy busing is for those who have that question so again we are not comfortable with that um and so I think that we have been heard I think we were heard all of the advocating that was done um I think that our department of Ed and our legislators understood that as well and they worked hard um in before the governor's budget was approved to provide us the opportunity to have an additional $2.5 million now we don't have it yet um and it's not to be included in our budget but we know that it is coming and it will be treated as additional money when it comes in and it's used it's it's slotted for infrastructure uh money and we will move things around to pay for infrastructure um and fun things so that we can also provide this courtesy busing for the 2425 school year so everybody can take a breath and say okay my kids going to get to school safe and that's really important for all of us I know but with that that's a oneyear fix so we need to continually move forward and plan for the following year and we are currently working with our Township about the infrastructure talking about what we can do and work together so that for the 2526 school year we have a year to plan for that and it's not thrust Upon Us in this last minute trying to figure it out um so we will continue to work together collaboratively so that we can provide um safe safe um travel to and from school for our students so that's that's some good news right why is it necessary to close we got to celebrate some some things right thank you um so why is it necessary to sell Rosen hour we've talked about this the last meeting as well um because we need to close such a large gap we need to get a large um millions of dollars of money in Revenue to come in to do that and you know the two largest Parts in a budget are your your staff and your facilities and so rather than looking at reduction of another 200 employees um knowing that we could have some um significant amount of money come in through the sailing of that school not that we want to do it but we did talk about the importance of why we need to do that uh keep in mind I know we still have many many trailers with elementary students in in them um but we are going to um be moving the the students from from Rosen hour to um another Elementary School and you'll see that in the next slide so regarding the sale of that property again I just want to make sure I'm clear that it is not for sale yet um there is a long process in order to even begin to sell a school building that we're required to go through which involves um getting uh the department of aded approval to sell that uh to update our long range facility plan and to begin to get an assessment of that school a value of that school and then we get to the place where we can start to talk about offering an opportunity for somebody to purchase it so it takes a lot of steps to get there um in order to even start that but we again don't want to have students there and then midy year have to decide that when now we're moving them somewhere else so the next steps for Rosen hour are all the staff has been notified of their new assignments and some are going to Crawford Rodriguez school and some will be assigned to other schools based on the the students needs and the staff certifications and they have all been informed all of the K to5 Rosen hour students and families have been also notified that those students will be going to Crawford Rodriguez all of them um and you know I know it's it's not a pleasant thing to do at all it's not something we want to do but at least they're moving all together the K to5 students and that they will have a familiar face with Mr pakowski as the principal there as he was the longtime principal at Rosen hour Elementary School the preschool families are still waiting to be heard from we want to make sure that we are doing all of this absolutely in the best best ways that we can to have the least amount of impact so those families for the preschool assignments from Rosen hour will be notified really soon we're hoping within the week and then lastly as we had said last time we are going to begin planning getting a committee together to form um the opportunity to bring um people back to Rosen hour to celebrate their time and honor that significant adorable elementary school so more to come on that the next steps for the district um right now is a public hearing as we're doing right now the board voting tonight and if the board rejects that proposed budget the count it goes to the county office and the state monitor to step in to ensure a balanced budget is achieved for our district so that we can move forward um and begin to to plan the county office could approve the plan as proposed tonight or they can make adjustments to that before Monday July 22nd which is the last day for us to approve a budget for the 2425 school year remember all of those timelines shifted much later due to the legislation that was um passed in may we will continue to Advocate as you hear us always say we will continue to educate we'll continue to Advocate all decision makers because this is not this isn't just this year we we have to keep moving forward and we have to hopefully get through to people to understand that this can't continue here we have strong programs for kids but every year we see that getting less and less we have to continue advocating and educating I'm going to turn it to Mr binsky to share the budget information that we presented last time and what the proposed budget numbers are Mr binsky so the proposed numbers are uh identical to the ones that were presented the tenative budget as Miss prilly said the $2.5 million uh that was in the governor's budget uh we have not received that yet we anticipate receiving that at some point here in the next month when we do we will uh receive it and allocate it um so this budget is a balanced budget which means that the budgeted expenses matches the budgeted revenues and you're looking here at uh the revenue side and so a couple of points to make one is uh obviously the general fund tax levy increasing by 99.9% which was approved at the June board meeting via an override by this the fiscal monitor uh you'll also see here um the state aid loan that we received this year and that number is zero for 2024 2025 um and then the big difference um is the sunsetting of the ARP and Esser funding which falls under those federal and state programs so you see where uh in 23 24 we had 17.3 million dollar allocated for that in revenue and that drops down to 13.1 million so with that funding sunsetting uh that created an even bigger challenge for us this year that we've talked about at past presentations uh so the overall impact to the taxpayer on the next slide uh is the same one that we had presented last time this is on the averaged home assessed assessed home in Jackson which is $33,600 one year for the average homeowner uh and this is uh considering and including the impact of the 99.9% increase to the tax levy thank you Mr Pinsky so in closing obviously we've said this last time and I think this absolutely is how we have always operated here it's been difficult times for seven years um and we work hard together we pull together to protect our students experiences and education as we say from time to time they they're are number one priority always remain the number one priority and it's difficult times but we can get through it together by working together and I thank you all for all of the hard work that everybody in this community our board and like I said before um you know everybody in the community of Township our staff everybody working hard together to to get through these difficult times we have to we have to stay connected and and work on this together so with that I ask the board if there are any questions I have a question mhm um the slide where you said that obviously the sale of Rosen hour isn't happening at the moment and there's a process in place that um the New Jersey Department of Education is a part of what are some of the things we're going to anticipate like are they going to look at the fact that we have children in trailers and other buildings could they say that we have to use that revenue for specific items than what we anticipated to use them for like what are some of the things that we obviously we don't have the crystal ball or the answer and I understand that but that maybe from your experience or what you're preparing yourself for so we need to submit a letter of approval to close the school to the Department of Education um and in that letter we are commenting that we still have students and trailers so they will be informed the county is obviously very much in the loop uh the county business administrator um Mr binsky do you want to comment a little bit about that visit that we had so um all of the temporary Construction construction units which are the trailers are approved on an annual basis by the county office um it's a largely a paper process I mean our trailers uh by and large are from 1998 so this has been a temporary uh construction unit that has been uh approved on a on a annual basis for over 20 years she actually came out and visited and wanted to see the trailers herself um because we shouldn't be approving temporary construction uh units for that long of time without a definitive plan to not continue to have students in them so uh so I think it was a positive that she came out and wanted to see them herself um but it doesn't mean that we we we can't stop using them we we need them right now in terms of capacity I guess what I'm asking is like is there a chance that they're going to say hey your revenue from the sale of Rosen hour needs to be utilized for X Y and Z and not necessarily what you budgeted for or once we say that's what it's budgeted for those revenues will be budgeted for the programs the support staff the positions Etc uh I don't have an answer to that I don't know but um if I were to you know provide a guess I would say that I don't see them telling us how we should be spending that money I think it's more about that we have a balanced budget um but again we do have oversight right from the Department of Ed in our district right now so there can be those types of conversations that H can occur I will say with the the sale of Rosen hour keep in mind as I said that's a it's a lengthy process to even get to the point where it's up for sale there's a strong chance that we may not even have any revenue for the 2425 budget to put into that that budget so we we could run into the red if we don't sell it in time to close this year's budget out do you feel that the Department of Education will give us you know our administrative team enough time to determine what the next steps are knowing we're going to go into a 25 26 school year with a deficit to make changes in our district and not be so Hasty you know what I'm saying like do you feel that they're they're going to make us um you know how we waited a long time and at each board meeting you discussed the 20 I'm going to get myself confused 23 24 school year like before we could even talk about this school year we headed into so now we're not like planning for anything that we know is going to come you think that it'll be a little more quickly quick this time or maybe that's a question you know different for a different person or so I'll I'll start by saying all I can speak to is the experience we just went through and the experience that we went through for the 23 24 budget was having to provide the monthly cash flow updates to to the Department of Ed so they could monitor where we were with our budget and when we might anticipate going into a deficit um and we needed to provide a lot of back um backup data to some of those things I think that we're at a place now where that's on a routine basis um I would imagine that's still going to be requirement for us to do we just did submit another cash flow document to them so I would anticipate that would probably be the same process I don't know what I can't speak anymore to that I don't know what it would be for the following year if it's going to be just as Intense or not intense I think it's going to be dependent on on them Miss Peril prior to the uh State monitor our county superintendent and the Department of Education even uh approving this budget with the sale of rosenhauer had was it discussed before it went on the budget that this is a shortsighted fix that this is a onetime revenue boost that the next year we will not have a Rosen hour to sell and we'll still need to come up with that additional Revenue we still have 26 trailers full of students so does the shortterm outweigh the long term was that discussed with our our state Monitor and with the county and the Department of Education yes I can say that we in conversations and in meetings have made that clear to uh Miss Morris and to our County business administrator as well um and I most recently met with the new county interm superintendent and explain that to her as well and they were all still in agreeance that this school should go go up for sale for the uh sale of a one-time Revenue yeah thank you do you want okay so most of the items and how they're being cut or trying to bring money in they're all shortterm they're all short-term fixes they're all bandaids there's nothing that's really going to sustain for the long time you long term so the state and we heard this on your conversation with uh uh channel 12's uh questions to the governor we heard this where he said well some schools should be some districts should be closing schools and for various reasons right like they need to look at their budgets and do away with things but is the state giving any guidance to Administration on how to look at it long term because there is nothing here that is going to help you in the future you're going to be right back where we are moving forward everything that was presented is a Band-Aid so how is the state communicating what do they want schools to do ultimately or is that a question for Miss Morris I you know I I can't speak to what the state is is you know thinking that we should do other than you know have been communicated with that I need to close the budget Gap I have articulated since I started this position that these are all onetime fixes uh the $2.5 million that we just got we're appreciative of it 100% appreciative of it we are so pleased that we can restore courtesy busing for our students but again it's a one-time fix so the district itself needs to and I've spoken to the board a little bit about this andam in team this week we need to enter into some Str major strategic planning to really look at how we need to be able to really use all the resources we have to the most efficiency we can um to create every opportunity to sustain our district knowing that there are no other major Revenue sources coming our way I will say that what has been told to us um in many conversations is the district can go out to the voter for a special question to bring in more Revenue so um you know that's what we've been told and we all know what that means right that's the only only mechanism we have right now are special questions to bring in bring in more Revenue that way and um or through our tax levy and right now that will go back to a 2% cap for the following year so I'm not saying I agree with these things I'm just saying this is what has been told to us right and as a followup to that it's the 2% is the max that you're allowed to do otherwise it has to go out to a special question is is there a cap on how I mean how much does the state want the taxpayer how many special questions are you going to have like it doesn't seem sustainable at all I don't disagree um I'm I'm happy to hear that um we're using some of that $2.5 million for to restore courtesy busing I think that's very important um but the late busing we're not restoring the late busing with the courtesy because a lot of after school students stay for sports or extracurricular and parents work and that's their only way home are we able to also restore the late busing with the courtesy busing with that $2.5 million so at this moment no I we need to take a deeper look and see at what it can cover I will say as I've said always to the board in the community we don't stop just because this budget is is hit and we've cut some things we're always creative and looking at other ways that we can fund things so we are looking at the late bus um issue right now and brainstorm storming and looking at other sources of revenue um specifically grant money to see if we can fund some of it that way can I ask M Morris a question Y where where do we go from here where do you see how do you get our district out of not having proper funding how you vetoed everything we did last meeting so what's your plan for our budgets moving forward you're the one that has the say well as you know um a monitor myself was not appointed to your District until January so what I have spent um with the administration um these few months on is really getting to see a complete and have a complete review of the district itself I'm assigned here for anyone that doesn't know because when a district in New Jersey applies for a an advance on state aid otherwise known as a loan um the law requires that that state be assigned on monitor so that's basically the reason for coming um legislation is obviously ly the only way there are only two ways that I can see out um for the district and and I've talked we've talked about all of us in administrative meetings one would be a legislation that would be um dedicated to a district like Jackson that um obviously had problems as a result of uh the funding that has existed up to this point um the other is a tax increase now nobody no matter where you are I realize wants a tax increase but what's happened is that uh in the state of New Jersey there is and again this is for anyone that may not know um a term that's used uh referred to often in budgeting as the district's fair share uh what that means basically is that there has been in a formula imposed to determine um how much taxpayer money is available or should be available to finance and support the schools Jackson is under its fair share um close to I think it's 20 million uh 24 million uh Dan you you're you have a more accurate figure on this but I I think the last time we looked at it it was about 24 million but that's without this this new tax increase so that's probably a going to be a real possibility uh however going back to what um was said in order to do that right now under the law and the way the state laws uh are written you have to go to a public question that can't be something you know a board of education operates very differently than than a municipal government a m municipal government if it needs to raise uh funds it can Bond and that Bond decision can be simply a vote of the board at a meeting in the school area of funding uh everything has to go to the voter in the form of a of a resolution or a referendum so um having a special tax question to support for instance uh you're talking about the fact that these are are one-year fixes um if for example the question of courtesy busing comes up again next year uh that may have to go out as an individual question and people who want it and and want to see that it continued in the district will just have to support it um there there are only so many ways that any District not just Jackson but any District can bring money into um the revenue side of the budget this I said this from the beginning when I got here this is obviously not a spending issue as much as it is certainly uh a revenue issue and that makes it extremely difficult if if I had the absolute answer to your question in the form of a plan I would be very glad to share it with you but we we've been working hard to look at every aspect to try to see and it may require that the district you know goes to the Department of Education in in a in a formal way and says you know this is what we need to continue to operate because it's right now at a at a CR critical situation and not because there has been any uh misspending or anything like that it's on the Revenue side there's just not the revenue coming in that it that should be either through the funding that's been imposed nor uh the fair share amount of taxes that have been paid we we kind of have gone by taking a loan and went to the Department of Education saying we need money and it's gone on deaf ears and here we are so we're becoming a a people have to pay to send their kids to public schools here we're going to raise the taxes and keep raising the taxes it's not fair for the residents here in Jackson Who maybe can't afford to do that well let me just say it's it hasn't fallen on deaf ears you did get a loan for 23 24 when you said you needed it the administration went through a lot of support information but the District did hear you and they did give you the $7 million that uh was needed to uh you know finish out the 23 24 school year without going into deficit now whether or not that's something that's going to have to be done again this year uh or not I don't know but that certainly is open as always as an option and along with the individual question to the voters so it and and let me say one other thing the fact that um your board president had a discussion with the commissioner directly on the phone um the fact that you know as recently as yesterday I talked uh quite uh a long time with two assistant Commissioners in the finance department in Trenton um it's not going on deaf ears the problem is trying to find the the right solution that is both legal and appropriate to try and get Jackson out of this hole would it be appropriate Miss Morris for some of the ideas to be where a district like Jackson where maybe we're we see that we're always going to be in this kind of cut deficit model because of Revenue right and to increase the to the amounts that we're at is pretty you know it's in it's intimidating um could an idea of having the length of our budget set for multiple years you know what I'm saying so that we can then work on cutting that way I don't know if I'm making sense but you know basically how I see it is we're we have this budget we're going to head into a school year we're going to start a new budget there's going to be funding that comes to us we're gonna have to think about a special question we never get to really think about you know ways that we could best utilize all of our facilities and for our students and it would be nice if the time frame for the budget was more than 12 months um right now legally that's that is the time frame it's a suggestion certainly uh let me also add to that that I know that your superintendent uh has every intention of of uh addressing I hope I'm not speaking out of line here uh a strategic plan that will address more than one year of looking at your District I know she's already started to uh to work on that um that certainly what's needed um there are a number of things that have to be done along with that um a new demographic study is certainly a possibility that that has to be done by by the district um there are a number of things all these things take unfortunately take time um but your suggestion is a good and um I don't think you could just look at a onee from year to year anymore you're going to have to have a a broad plan that covers a number of years so that you know where you're going and I know your superintendent already has suggested that so M Morris can I just ask you um even if you look years in advance you're looking at data we right you had this is what your District should be getting right you said in your in your presentations we get a a we get a grid that shows what we should be getting versus what we are getting and we can see very clearly how we're not getting what we should be getting so if you're making a multi-year plan don't you need transparent data because if we're using the data that we're getting from the governor's office and then it's totally off by millions and millions of dollars how do you you make a plan ever if it's a short term one year two years three years because it's not transparent I don't know what you mean by not transparent uh I mean if I could just explain the grid so uh Dr oosman is think uh talking about the adequacy uh budget and how we're $24 million below adequate adequacy and when we get the state aid numbers like our transportation Aid which should be 7.2 million and it's only 66 $50,000 and it's only been that for the same seven years that that's the Gap she's talking about and yet we have no mechanism to go and seek to close the gap without as Mr Milly said putting a special question out um there's no Revenue opportunity for us to to close that Gap how do you budget I know it's I know that it's extremely difficult you're dealing with with um a formula that that uh comes directly from the Department of Education and is approved um you know year to year and I think that's that's another issue their budget is approved year to year and and the department and and the state itself uh isn't is not budgeting with numbers giving them out to districts for more than than one year so you know I don't have the ability myself to change that the only thing I can do as the monitor here is communicate that as being one of the problems to the powers that B that have to to take a look at this it you know there is nobody I can tell you this much because I would not be a part of it there's nobody sitting in the Department of Education that wants to see these problems in Jackson or any other school I mean that's not that's not what they're in there for but so when you if you just accept that you I'm not here as an enemy I I am here and and can be of great help to the district I if if there's a a way of me being able to communicate your needs to you know to uh the people that need to hear it as opposed to not having somebody at all doing that um so in that respect not because it's me personally but having a monitor is a good thing here in in being able to understand your problems and communicate them to the people that need to hear them and um that's one of the things that I have been attempting to do um uh that's all I can say about it if I could change a formula I would but not even the legislature I don't think has has even um done that I know the sun setting of S2 is is this year I believe or NE this coming year and it something is going to have to replace that I would assume so that's the time maybe some of these things can be corrected I I just like to comment on that for a second Miss Morris so um I was at a meeting where I did hear um some word through the commissioner's office that they they do recognize that there have been some some school districts and and some um yeah some school districts that have been affected greatly and that they are they do have a committee that they put together that will be reviewing the formula and looking to make some not great overhauls to the formula but to make some tweaks to the places in the formula that makes sense so that the some of these districts that as2 districts that have like Jackson who have been significantly um hurt by this perhaps will not be in the future um so that was promising to hear but again you know been through this for seven years there's no promise there and there's no indication of it being fixed but at least was nice to hear that there was some recognition to the fact that there were some places that perhaps um this this was not the best formula for that District or some things need to change slightly for that District as I've said from the onset the differentiation we you know to have every single District you know go through the the formula with whatever that may be um and not necessarily understand some of the uniqueness to some of the districts and I have presented from the onset of this since I've started as a superintendent there's unique circumstances in Jackson that I don't think were considered in that formula and I would also like to say that I do believe that things that I have said to Miss Morris have been communicated to the Department of ed through her so I guess just to sum it up for everybody because we had a lot of discussion how I see it um um the Department of Education has reduced our state aid by about $23 million the Department of Education then sends out a report an adequacy report that says hey Jackson You're $23 million underfunded Miss Morris has it said several times uh and I appreciate this that we do not have a a spending problem um we have a revenue problem we have a revenue problem that's essentially caused by the the state of New Jersey and then I Miss Morris did just say that Jackson has to find a legal way out of this hole well the state put us in this hole legally and then fourth I heard Jackson has to pay its fair share well we pay over $68 million in income tax that money is supposed to be repurposed to the school district we're only getting 23 million of that the other 45 million is being repurposed to other districts so we are paying our fair share so to tell us to raise our taxes 9.9% and even more to following year to pay our fair share when we already paying it is absurd and that's Trenton government thank you any other questions okay thank you I turn it back to you Mr P thank you all right I need a motion to open public forum on the 2024 2025 budget only motion this public forum will be for questions on the budget only I heard a motion please sign in and state your name and whether or not you are a Jackson resident each person is allowed a maximum of five minutes to speak no person may speak more than once on the topic until all others have been heard we good uh John spalt off to Ruby Court I am a Jackson resident proud parent of three kidss who have spent the last 17 years in these Great Schools um we did fly right under the radar last year my girls got their license just in time to not lose out on transportation to swim with that said the girls swim team barely could compete because of so many kids that could not make it to the practices at the Ocean County wi because there was no bus and we broke the law and allow her allowed her to drive extra friends in the car to get there when we're communicating what the issue is we do have a spending problem and we don't talk about it enough because it's an uncomfortable proc talk but if we look at line 1100 27503 a and lo payments 2021 1.3 million 2122 2.6 million 2223 2.2 million that seems odd to me but 23 24 4.4 million projected for 2425 $6.5 million that's what needs to be communicated to Trenton we are in a unique situation this is a unique situation us and many of our surrounding towns that are in the same spot it's not anybody's fault it's the way the law is set up the new number $1,177 for A and L payments for those of you that aren't aware that's for non-public students to get busing what are we doing what are our costs for non-public out of District special education these are the things that need to be communicated to Trenton that are not typical of man alipin where I spent many of years um but this is some that's what we have to talk about 4 million or $6.5 million that we're spending to bus when we're sitting here talking about taking away after school busing for our public school students it's great that you can save that two and a that you got that 2 and a half million and you can do the the busing the infrastructure is never going to be in place next year to do the sidewalks and do all that other stuff we're going to be having this conversation again next year the change for Jackson needs to come thank you for being here assemblyman it needs to come at Trenton and it needs to come with these towns that have a high number of non-public students no offense to the non-public students they're entitled to what they're entitled to but you tell me that $6.5 million on that prese presentation right now wouldn't have helped a whole bunch right um you look at our bilingual salaries talk about we definitely have to do a demographic study our demographics have changed our bilingual salaries from 2021 where they were 390 are now almost a million dollars right it's changed we've watched it change it's great it's wonderful it's provided diversity and everything in our district that we didn't have before but it's a cost that is a expense that is a spending issue that is not a revenue issue we need the revenue to fix that expense we need the revenue to fix the the non-public Transportation piece we do have a spending issue it's what we're spending money on that we're required to spend money on that we have zero control over so hopefully that's been the conversation and that's what needs to change for us and all of our other towns that are threatening lawsuits we're all in the same boat right now I think that's all I had thank you thank you for your hard work we appreciate it uh this is also comments about the budget yeah just thumbs up real quick okay good because you just said comment but questions anyways one so I'm back again Jackson resident Isaac ellner one one statement really popped out for me from Miss Morris is that we are getting our fair share no we are not if that if that was the case they wouldn't be wearing shirts saying that the funding formula failed Jackson have have you even listened to us the last couple of months we've basically been telling you that we we're doing fine it's just that the state's cutting the funding by so much we literally can't operate without that funding and with the closure of Rosen hour the sale might not even be done during the school year we might we might still be in the red there might be that gaping hole where the funding just doesn't exist even though that it was you know approved because this schools basically being sold that's that's a whole even afterwards what what's going to happen if the state with this new formula that could be coming S2 the sequel maybe what exactly was going to happen then we might still be in a hole because it might be minor tweaks just a minor patch update as the steam users would say what happens if it's still going to cut our funding each year going forward for the next who knows how long what will we have to keep closing schools because that's not a viable option at what point do we just overcrowd these schools past the legal limit and o just says Hey sucks but you can't have these students going to your schools anymore we know you're cutting because you know the hunding's gone but there's just a limit to how many students you can cram into one school if if we're going to be forced to be cutting stuff like who knows what school could be cut next if we keep losing money there literally will be no space for these students to go cuz we're already losing rows an hour and hey what if in the future we get our funding back and we need more space we'd just have to build a completely new school because we were forced to cut one because the state is incompetent and we just can't get funding it's entirely a ridiculous situation I should not be here fighting for the district because of something the state is it's it's out of their control and of course it's a revenue issue but how's a school supposed to make Revenue the job is literally a public service you're teaching the future without the school there is literally no future it's ridiculous in short I'll probably come up later depending on how this vote goes please just listen to them this budget could  them for the next 10 years or even more it's it's just really bad if if if if you basically just let this budget pass essentially it could be a de spiral thank [Applause] you Deb Jones Jackson a apparently I'm his Cleanup Crew cuz here we are again so and again I'm glad you're here fighting for the town my first couple comments are to Miss Morris first I do have respect for your job and what you're here to do but it's still it hurts to know that we're even in the position where we need you and that's not personal but we only need the advance in the state Aid the loan because of the horrendous cuts that the state has forced on our district so that's a little sad that we have to endure that and you know maybe the state can help us get out of this hole by giving us the funding that we deserve that we put in as taxpayers which has been said many times but you know I don't think our governor right now is taking our kids and our taxpayers as a priority and unfortunately you're the face that represents him right now and I do think that that's sad and I really I do feel bad for you as far as our school district our Board of Ed our administrators the first thing I'd like to say is thank you for making our students a priority the government isn't but you are and the fact that so much work went into putting all of our Rosen hour kids under one building Under One Roof speaks volumes to me our kids are a family and now they will be part of a larger family but they will all still be together and have that confidence and with most of the staff that they're so used to I I just I don't know where we go from here like he said this year it's Rosen hour what happens next year we're in the same situation we only have so many schools are are kids coming in yet Rosen hour might have had less student population but all of our other schools are busting at the seams and now they're going to be busting more by adding them what do we do then we have six now we have five elementary schools going into two middle schools two middle schools going into two high schools we have nowhere else to cut something has to be done and I get that you the voice of our town right now I'm asking you to with every bit of desperation I have throw yourself on them to tell Murphy that we need the help that we deserve we pay into it we're not asking for anything that we shouldn't be getting I am a little sick at the idea that we even have to go for a loan or funding when we've already paid into it the taxpayers in this town work very hard it's very hard to swallow a pill of our taxes are going to go up for our school district do I know they have to yes but again I'm going to say I'm going to be worked out of this town just because I simply won't be able to afford to live in it anymore and that's not fair thank you for all that you do John Mars I was uh I was here a couple of meetings ago and I was talking about suing the stat so I'm glad something's moving forward on that um but I looked up a little bit of history on that so this is kind of like the Abbott School District right we're we're to be suing to become one of them or whatever get our fair share and whatnot but I looked up the timeline of that that AB school stuff started in the 1980s it didn't get ratified until 1995 or something like that so we're talking about 15 years of arguing to get you know certain districts a lot more money than they should what kind of timeline are we looking at I mean is this something that's going to take a decade to actually have something realistically done to the district I don't know that's directed to the lawyers or whatever but I'll have you finish your comment we'll we'll answer at the end for you so you have the whole you absorb your whole five minutes if you first um my other question this would be towards the superintendent so we talked about we're losing the after school busing and whatever else but what other direct impacts are we talking about um to our classes more specifically like class sizes and stuff now that we're losing all this money on this budget that we all know is not realistic um you know our my my daughter's teacher is in the back already and we had you know 25 something kids to a class and and I know on one of the last slides we were talking about 30 40 kids to a class how is that possible and is that really is that realistically something that's going to happen or is that just like a nice talking point that gets people riled up but is it realistic or not because if we're really talking about 40 kids to a classroom I don't even know why we're here you know I know I used to be in government on one of the Committees and whatnot and I know there's like protocols on things that you have to do but at the same time if we know something isn't right then why are we doing it you know I I'm sick and tired of hearing Miss Palmer or um whoever you know saying no well this is the process this is the process we have to do this we have to do that that's BS you know if the process is wrong don't do it I'm not going to say I'm going to blame anyone this but the extreme example of Hitler and all that right when people were going around killing people and you knew it wasn't right somebody should have done something and that's kind of the same case here obviously to less of an extreme if we know it's not right don't do it if if it's we have to vote on this even though if we don't like it we have to vote on it then don't vote on it simple as that I'm going to bet you in government when it comes down to it there's probably something that says you know if they vote no well she can overrule you well what happens if you don't vote that's going to throw the red flags it's going to pull the the thing out nobody's going to know what to do at that point um and then you know same thing too it's just it's ridiculous it it shouldn't be we shouldn't be voting on it and it should just be basically shut down as it was because it's just it's not it's not possible I don't even know why we're here arguing about this um that's what I got to say thank you we will answer questions at the end we'll have everyone speak and then we'll get back to any qu out you know questions that need to be answer hello my name is Julian Manion 19 years old I graduated in 2023 I uh first came across S2 and how drastic it was in this situation to our district in March I was writing a paper in college about it it's just ridiculous that we're looking for a solution there's no solution because there's no metric there's no answer to where money's coming from where money's going we just got $2.5 million out of nowhere from the state so they can just pick and choose when we can get our money and when we can't I think we're looking at S2 changing next year no one knows what's going to happen maybe we'll get the money that we need maybe we'll get less like who who actually knows the answer but raising taxes to 99.9% it it makes no sense we put up a special question last fall it got rejected Let's uh raise the 4 million where's that $4 million going to go it's going to go nowhere because we can't even close a budget that is $30 million so we're just going to burn money because that money is not going to generate enough to fix the problems let's add 20 staff positions that was on the special question well it got rejected and now look how many teachers and staff is getting cut 70 positions so what was the point of that anyway cuz it wasn't going to help us right now and now we're going to put up a new one we're going to put up the 99.9% and it's only a tempor it's it's not going to fix the situation raising taxes is not going to fix it we need we need the government the board's here we need to keep fighting we need to make a statement I think it's great that we can come out and voice our opinion and our opinion needs to be heard I uh I had class in a trailer these I just learned today these trailers are from 1998 we're going to close roseen hour because now let's just cram more students into a classroom it makes no sense at all and Miss Morris I I understand your job here you you're here because we needed a loan to help fix the previous school year and we're going to be in the same boat now we're going to be in the same boat next year I just say listen to our board and make the decision I don't know what the consequences if you follow the board's decision I don't know what your boss will say to that but I think if you follow your heart you follow what the people this town represents what we need in Jackson is help right now from the state I think if you follow what we need we're begging for help I think we could be heard and I think the state can maybe help us it's all I have to say I I really hope that this situation turns around because it's it's just it's it's like I can't believe this is reality in this situation here in Jackson you know the whole Ocean County seems like many schools are facing this problem and we all need to work together all the schools need to come together that are struggling and we need to fix this thank you [Applause] uh good evening um I would like to read my statement into the public record so I don't want to miss what I want to say and what I want to share it is very disheartening what we all had to hear uh about the situation going on with their Jackson schools tonight my name is Nino barelli I'm honored to serve our fellow residents as their councilman on the Jackson Township Council the mayor and Council supports the hardworking efforts of all of you on the board of education and our superintendent pilly and Jackson's own assemblyman Alex siwicki um we support parental rights um as an elected official in Jackson a concerned resident and a grandparent of two children in the Jackson Township Public Schools uh I'm asking the state of New Jersey to advocate for Jackson students and taxpayers with everybody paying almost more for everything Jackson residents cannot afford to pay for a huge increase of taxes because of a problem the state created and because they are not adequately providing Aid to our Public Schools as been said we don't have a spending problem in Jackson we have a revenue problem because of the state the district has lost as we've heard $22.4 million in state aid over the past seven years and um they've already made many Cuts as we've seen it was presented here tonight and are unable to maintain uh our school buildings the subject matters uh kids learn today from their teachers and coaches on the sports teams they play on stay with them for a lifetime they need them the governor Murphy and Democrat control State Legislature and State Board of Education our kids education should be a bipartisan issue and priority stop defunding our schools in Jackson fairly and equitably return State aour Town's Public Schools as we heard from Board of Ed education president jeppi P Mar say we pay more in to Trenton than what we get back the school funding formula really needs to change the 2025 elections can't come soon enough thank you for your time everybody for your public service and for advocating for every child in her town and their safety and well-being have a good evening thank [Applause] you hi Elanor hannam um I'm a public school teacher special education teacher in Middle sex County I'm a lifelong resident of Jackson Township um an Alum of Memorial All My Children went here I have three grandchildren at Johnson currently my mother was a teacher at Rosen hour it is unfathomable to me that we would consider or being forced by the state to sell a school when we are educating our children in 26 trailers at the same time this state has not taken into consideration the transportation of the busing in 100 square mile Township it takes over 20 minutes to get from one border to the other border I know this cuz I lived out that way so that gas that time all of that is taken into consider consideration another thing that has not been taken into consideration is the fact that Jackson Township over the past few years has approved probably 3,000 housing units so we're going to sell a school and bring in thousands of more children over the next five years where are we educating them where are we going to educ we're going to put in more tra and we talk about the social emotional well-being of our children where I teach these kids do have courtesy busing they do have after school busing and some of my students because I'm a high school teacher they'll walk home if they they miss it and and I'll ask them is it a long walk they benefit because they do not live I mean because they do live in close proximity to the high school Jackson Township is 100 square miles so now you are taking these children many of which that are suffering from mental illnesses these days and their Outlet are their Sports now you take away the Afterschool ability and you are now creating a larger problem these kids for their mental wellbeing need these Outlets especially if you if you look at the society today what is happening thank [Applause] you um board um Miss uh pal Mar uh I'll be very brief um I'm basically exceptionally concerned about the uh increase in taxes I think that's that's utterly absurd um the board voted against it m Morris somehow overturned it that's grossly Beyond her Authority there there's nothing in the statute that possibly permits her to do that I urge this board to reject this budget um and I wish you the best of luck in the suit against the state I'm sorry sir can you just state your name for public record your name Robert barasa and I am a Jackson are there any additional questions or comments on the budget only see you no one come forward I need a motion to close public forum motion all in favor at this time we're going to review our standing committee's report oh I'm sorry let me yes we have a couple of uh respond responding we would like to do miss prilly would you like to to touch on the class I guess sizes and some things thank you uh I'll start with the class sizes so we we obviously are seeing continued increase in class sizes right now I'm estimating for our class sizes at the elementary level to be anywhere from 25 at at the lower end and 27 at the high end we work we try really hard to keep our uh youngest grades to lowest numbers possible um but we will see some class class sizes of 25 to 27 at the elementary level at the middle school level we'll see class sizes uh between 28 and 30 30 plus you know maybe 32 and then on an average at the high school you're looking at definitely 30 to 35 students and again I'm just going to repeat what I believe everybody understands already what research shows and demonstrates is smaller class sizes better achievement and better connections for kids these are high numbers I'm going to ask um the board attorney to address the timeline of um this the lawsuit sure so the gentleman who spoke earlier is absolutely correct that litigation is a long and arduous process I think you're right the Abbott Burke litigation probably took 10 15 20 years uh the good news is that there is a process in the law by which um uh a petitioner or a plaintiff can seek what's called emergent relief and that's where you're getting into court or before an administrative law judge on a a very expedited basis to get the relief that you're seeking of course certain very stringent criteria have to be satisfied um but we wouldn't take this litigation down the the slow road we would we would proceed on an emergent basis and I don't want to divulge too much more about our legal strategy but we're very mindful of the concerns that you raised thank you standing committees we have buildings and grounds chairperson Mr McCarron please report yes uh some Capital improving projects districtwide Elms room 225 new HVAC compressor was installed Liberty c121 uh new HVAC compressor was installed gets generator repaired that operates lift station during power outages Liberty the heat exchanger replace for the auxiliary gym Memorial Clayton SE Wing preschool project is in process gets gymnasium floor the resurf uh resurface the entire floor repair and paint all new graphics Memorial Transportation the paving project was completed and rtk do inspections Rulo and Jew julette Associates has updated our districtwide SDS files with the D and and we're in compliance thank you Mr McCarron we now have transportation chairperson Miss orus um the transportation committee did meet um as Miss perelli had mentioned uh obviously you can see courtesy busting will be uh returning and also we are meeting we are working with the I'm sorry oh sure no problem my husband said that too um so we did meet with the uh the township and the transportation board um as you could see Miss permil had mentioned that courtesy busing will be returning with the funds that we received from the state and we are also working with the township moving forward for the 20125 26 school year to look at the infrastructure the roads and the townships to see what we would look at moving forward and we met um like I said the the committee and also with our uh Township represent atives thank you m barois we will now uh I need a motion for approval of policy second reading motion second discussion roll call M Gardella yes Mr McCarron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr Osman yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr P yes I need a motion for approval of the minutes the Clos session meeting June 26 2024 and the official board meeting June 26 2024 business meeting motion discussion roll call Mrs Gardella yes Mr McCarron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr Osman yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr P yes I need a motion for approval of the bill list motion second discussion roll call M M Cardella yes Mr McCaron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr osbin yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass Mr P yes I need a motion for approval of treasurers and board secretaries reports motion second discussion roll call Mrs Gardella Mr McCarron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr Osman yes Mrs River yes Mrs Cass yes do Mr P Mar yes I need a motion to open a public forum on agenda items only we will hold another public forum in this meeting for any topic this public forum will be for questions on the agenda only motion second please sign in and state your name and whether or not you are a Jackson resident each person is allowed a maximum of 5 minutes to speak no person may speak more than once on the topic until until all others have been heard this is going to be on agenda items only you we'll have any topic you want the next any topic any topic will be next this is agenda items only what we just approved I'll save it for that it's see no one come forward I need a motion to close public forum motion all in favor I I I need a motion to move Finance motion second discussion roll call Mrs Gardella no to finance number four and yes to everything else Mr McCarron I'll be voting no to finance number four and yes to everything else Mrs baroas I'll be voting no to item number four and yes to everything else Dr Osman no to item number four yes to everything else Mrs Rivera no to number four yes to everything else Mrs Cass no to number four yes to everything else Mr Tri P mar Just to be clear Finance number four for everyone here tonight is the budget and the 99.9% tax increase as you can see your board has voted unanimously no no I vote no number four and yes to everything [Applause] else I would like to inform the board that I will have to take this under due consideration and report back to the board uh sometime probably within the next 48 hours I need a motion to move facilities motion Mrs Gardella yes Mr McCarron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr Osman yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr P yes I need a motion to move programs motion question yes I have a question regarding item number seven uh the Board of Education approved submission of a language instruction educational program which states throughout it that class size impacts the learning of all students and are you know if the budget does move forward the class sizes for our local Education Agency will be 30 to 40 students is that a concern for that application number seven yeah unless it changed on page five right program number seven yep okay I just wanted to check make sure okay number seven okay so you're asking will class size have an issue on that plan yeah on that application the state application States from the state that class side significantly impacts the students that we're giving this program to so I'm asking are we concerned with putting this forward now not knowing Miss Morris is going you know what I'm saying like we our class size is are going to be 30 to 40 of course we have concern absolutely yes it's hypocritical say that again I said that application and our discussion today is hypocritical gotcha yeah okay not Mr gella yes Mr McCaron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr osbin yes Mrs Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr Tri P Mar yes motion I need a motion to move students I'm sorry motion discussion so I do have a question with both students and next Personnel a lot of this is tied to the budget passing if we're going to transfer all these teachers if we're going to move all these Rosen hour students we voted no to this budget Miss Morris is going to take additional time to review her stance on this budget how can we vote for students and person tonight if we're not sure if Miss Morris is going to veto our facilities our finance vote how could we confidently vote on this because it might change if if Miss Morris agrees with us on on finance I mean that that's a good question to direct to Miss Morris obviously um currently the board does not have a budget for next year because you unanimously voted it down so you raised an excellent point about how we can vote for all the resolutions that follow at this point given the lack of a a budget so at this point legally what do we do um Miss Morris where are we to go with this Miss Morris if you haven't made a decision on finance the board voted down this budget we're going into no budget for the school year of 2425 I don't feel confident as your board president to vote for students and allow it to be voted in staff when we notify staff of the transfer but we're not sure now if they're going to be transfer that these students are not going to be en Rosen hour because uh it's all tied to it I I don't see why you cannot approve um the recommendation from your superintendent based on contingent upon the decision of the of the budget the budget the contingent on the budget failing contingent on on the outcome of the budget yes well the outcome of the budget currently is it's failed correct I mean you didn't overrule it either way you put you could state it the other way you could put it on my whatever it is U contingent upon my decision if you want to restate it a different way whatever I mean you can't you can't I don't think you can take the a chance of waiting until August to make all those decisions if it's I'd like to defer to to to council should we vote should we abstain uh you know maybe we need have another discussion and closed session under attorney client privilege given the predicament that we're in right now so my recommendation is let's go into Clos session for about 15 minutes under attorney client privilege and um discuss our legal options yeah I need a motion to go into a 15minute attorney client privilege uh exec session please motion all in favor we'll be back in 15 minutes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] I know it's our anniversary dinner I'll be there in a couple minutes I'll text you when I'm in the car Bye Mom see you later don't text and drive I know [Music] [Music] okay I I'm sorry I didn't see you you didn't stop I know but my girlfriend she's mad at me I I had to text her when is my first day of school he's only seven I know but I was looking down at my phone I I can't stop [Music] I'm sorry a [Music] hey everybody this is Dr Adam Chrisman and this is my buddy Buster do you love animals look at to start an exciting career and just 3 months you can become a veterinary assistant Ocean County College's Department of continuing and professional education can put you on the fast track to specialized Career Training veterinary assistants are an integral part on your Animal healthc Care team working under the supervision of a veterinarian or a vet technician you'll give assistance to the animals they treat through classroom and clinical instruction occ's veterinary assistant program covers animal Nursing Pharmacy radiology and laboratory procedures Surgical and Recovery Room assistance emergency response and much more graduates receive an Ocean County College certificate of completion and are eligible to sit for the national veterinary assistant exam for information or to register call continuing and professional education at 732 25549 my friend Buster and I hope to see you at Ocean County College join me Terry Bradshaw as I explore all that's new and exciting about the USA and Canada and what people are doing in order to make a difference it's an easy way to see what's happening across your own country welcome to today in America [Music] the Northeast has played a dominant role in American history and continues to be a major Powerhouse today join me as we journey to one destination among the original 13 colonies situated about halfway between New York City and Philadelphia Jackson Township New Jersey is one of America's best places to live work and to play established in 1844 the town was named after President Andrew Jackson its primary economic driver at the time was Agriculture and while Some Farms still exist Jackson Township has transitioned from a rural to a developing Community its population is more than doubled since 1980 and today Jackson Township is home to around 58,000 residents known by many as the gateway to the Jersey Shore it's the largest Township in Ocean County and the third largest in the state it spans over 100 square miles 8,500 Acres of which are considered developable land all of this room to grow makes Jackson Township a place flourishing with development opportunity and that's exactly what township leaders and others in the community are working to achieve the collaborative effort goes back to our working with the New Jersey State Department of uh Community Affairs along with the New Jersey Institute technology uh College of architecture who helped us design and Market this strategic plan so we can attract new business businesses actually people have come to Jackson for you know not only careers but to live and work here with the substantial increase in population Jackson Township leaders say their residents could use more big business in town providing the services residents now have to seek outside Uptown Jackson Township leaders also say they would like to increase development to provide local employment opportunities and to shift the rable base from residential to commercial the Township's strong population and it's already huge attractor Six Flags Great Adventure are working in its favor one of the first pieces to the Township's master plan is the development of a lodging and entertainment venue the Department of Community Affairs and the New Jersey Institute of Technology College of architecture and design are key parts of the project right now all that Jackson Township needs is a hotel developer to come in sees this opportunity the New Jersey business Action Center is poised to develop a package of incentives for a developer that comes to the state so we're optimistically looking forward to seeing this development become a reality the lodging facility will be the first of its kind at any Six Flags property we're very excited about having the lodging and entertainment complex at Six Flags Great Adventure the reason being is currently almost all of our guests when they come to visit the park can't stay because isn't much a accomodation in the area and so this actually going to give us the opportunity for them to enjoy the entire complex both the water park and the theme park on a visit extend the weekend or come actually down and spend their vacations here we're actually looking forward to that in addition to the opportunities for commercial development Jackson Township's residential sector has room to accommodate an additional 5600 housing units Mitch Lee of Lee realy has plans to build, 1500 Mitch Le has been working very closely with the mayor and the township of Jackson to design a vision uh a vision of a dream Village a place where people can uh work live play have fun these current and future development plans are designed to make the quality of life for Jackson residents that much greater the township already boasts year round recreational opportunities including two golf courses Campground Resorts and 10 playgrounds and park facilities it features an excellent Public School scho system with a nationally recognized High School ban a low crime rate premium outlet shopping and nearby Access to topnotch Health Care Facilities now is probably the most exciting time in Jackson's history with everything we have to offer to families businesses looking to relocate or start a new business a premier destination now for vacations families are going to love it here live work and play I couldn't think of a better place [Music] I wa here by the Cur when my old friend H hoping for bottles and C to F my car plastic right cardboard a delight when you recycle you're doing your part surround up all you can to help your fellow man keep the planet healthy wherever you roll you're not acting alone the Earth is your home yeah yeah when you recycle you're your home you have the power to Save a Life Cardiac Arrest isn't rare but surviving it is over 300,000 people suffer from Sudden Cardiac Arrest every year about 8% survive and it's not only the elderly that can experience these life-altering events the number one killer of young athletes is sudden Cardiac Arrest because a young athlete dies from cardiac incident once every 3 days in the United States about 80% of cardiac arrests that occur are outside of a hospital about 89% of those victims don't survive because people around them don't know how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation it's very simple you can help save a [Music] life the American Heart Association changes protocol for the public the hands only CPR which means when a witness Cardiac Arrest occurs a bystander like you can call 911 and begin external chest compressions immediately by pushing hard and fast in the center of the chest while awaiting arrival of the First Responders it's very straightforward your immediate action can help save a life learn hands only [Music] CPR hello I'm Hunter Foster I'm at Jackson Memorial High School and we just gave a master class for uh the incredible clue which they are performing here at the school and it's going to be November 16th 17th and 18th come check it out you're not going to be disappointed these actors are great you're going to have a lot of fun it's really funny come see clue [Applause] [Music] girl is so PE I wonder if she's feeling well isn't this amaz stay back stay back help somebody help [Music] in a wrestling match nobody bites like [Music] a our our [Music] our let the world be done with me [Applause] [Music] far from Fool's made of wax I'll get down to BR tax and relax human again oh [Music] S as old beauty and the [Music] meeting is back in order Mr binsky can you please roll call Mrs cordella present Mr McCarron present Mrs barokas present Dr Osman pres Mrs Rivera present Mrs Cass present Mr pmer present okay so we feel confident that we can move forward with students however with the uncertainty of the budget uh Miss Peril uh has decided and she will speak on this to uh administratively remove Personnel from this agenda we will have a special meeting next Wednesday at 5:00 p.m. here in Memorial at the auditorium uh to address Personnel once we get the conclusion of what's happening with Finance so Mr Milly okay thank you so I am administratively removing the Personnel items from tonight's agenda as Mr pomari just described thank you thank you thank you mril so once again we can move forward with the vote for students um Finance may have to be slightly Revisited next week as well depending on what Miss Morris uh decides I need a motion to move students motion second discussion roll call M Gardella yes Mr McCarron yes Mrs barokas yes Dr Osman yes Mr Rivera yes Mrs Cass yes Mr P yes I need a motion to open public forum on any topic pertaining to the Board of Education motion second please sign in and state your name and whether or not you are a Jackson resident each person is allowed a maximum of five minutes to speak no person may speak more than once on the topic until all others have been heard Isaac ellner Jackson resident still um was not expecting to basically be in limbo about the results of the vote but really the only concern now is that you're going to be voting on students even though we still do not know if Rosen hour is closing because effectively it's just in limbo now it's open or closed it could be either I don't know by probably like the next 48 hours we'll see I don't know why you're going to move ahead with voting for students and effectively moving them to Crawford if if she does say no and we don't have a budget Rosen hour is still there so it's effectively closed but not so I I don't know the logic behind voting for students and not staff if we have no idea what's going on yeah that's mostly it more confusion on why students first that why thanks what hi Aon Matthew dois 88 th Bridge resident of Jackson my question is to the attorney where you're stating that a meeting will be held next Wednesday excuse me the Board of Education doesn't operate under the Sunshine Law where notice has to be posted 10 days prior to the meeting and without a 48 hour with the 48 hour ruling from the state monitor that puts us past that Wednesday date this if I'm understanding your question Cor correctly the board is subject to the open public meetings act the board has to advertise a special meeting which this would be 48 hours in advance of the meeting next Wednesday so we believe we have sufficient time to advertise a meeting for next Wednesday but isn't the requirement for advertisement 10 days prior no it's 48 Hours okay that's all my question hi Kathy G Gregorio uh Jackson resident I had two questions I'm not sure for the board or also for Miss Morris um Miss Morris mentioned about the this being a revenue problem with being us not paying our fair share so my question is has the state given specific numbers of what dollar amount per 100 assessed for a town citizen anywhere in the state of New Jersey that is considered their fair share in order to meet those budgets like if we're not doing enough then has the state said well this is what you should be doing um and my other question is if we are relying on money from the sale of roseen hour to make our budgetary needs that we have this dollar amount in mind wouldn't buyers knowing that we are desperate for this dollar amount treat this like fire sale and we're we'll give you this number of dollar like I I didn't know how that actually worked or how that what amount we were selling it for how that number came about and then what happens if we don't get it thank you Kathy tapiro Jackson resident um just a quick question is um how will the public be informed of M Mars's decision and what happens if the budget doesn't go forward what is the next step for the district because I believe the superintendent said we can't operate without a budget um and then the last thing is just in all of this as it moves forward with the state and with whatever decision M moris makes and whatever comes after that um I would just like everyone to remember that the kids need stability at some point this has to end at some point whether that's the kids who are moving from roseen hour and making a new home at Crawford or it's the band that's practicing twice a week right now based on or it's sports team that's elected captains not knowing if they're going to be able to go to games at some point for the kids sake whatever process is happening has to stop and the kids need stability for this coming year and hopefully the years after that thank [Applause] you Deb Jones Jackson um I would like to thank you for not placing your vote yet and it's my sincere hope that over the next 48 hours you really can dig deep into your heart and put yourselves in the position that we're in and see how we feel but I do want to I know I come up here and I say things that I have to say but I also think that I also need to say thank you seeing no one come forward I need a motion to close public forum motion all in favor at this time I'll turn it over to miss Peril I know there was some great questions I'm sure she could shed some light on some of them thank you Mr P Mar I'll start with a question about voting on students so it's the actual items on the agenda that is taking place for vote none of which is related to anything that having to do with the students at Rosen hour there are other items there about placement for students at a district um going on trips trip approvals there so there's nothing that would take effect based on the budget vote for that so we want to make sure that those students still have the opportunity to do those things so guess you want tell also no no Ros and our students are not postponed that movement is still that's still happening yes thank you uh in regards to the local fair share and does that calculate that is part of the very convoluted formula um that I don't know is absolutely easy to um figure out so Mr B do you want to share a little bit more detail about that so the the two big numbers are the equalized valuation of the properties in town and the other one is the the income of the residents in town so those are the two big metrics that the state utilizes nothing of which has anything to do with what we do here at the school district um so when Miss Mars mentions the local fair share that's that's what they're talking about so the questions in regards to the selling the selling of roseen hour and the dollar number um so we obviously needed to make some very quick decisions about what to assess that at we haven't as Mr binsky mentioned earlier we have not done a formal assessment you need time to do that appraisal thank you appraisal to do that uh so we will go through that process but for now in the budget is the $7 million um price tag for that based on a quick search of what we've seen some elementary schools go for as well as what we felt um would be a semi-realistic number but again not an expert in that area but looking to be able to close the gap in the budget what happens if we don't get that well as I said earlier there's no in no indication that we'll be able to even sell it that quickly we're going to run into a deficit we're going to run into the red during the school year um and that's what we have been articulating to our County um offices and to the Department of Education that it's it's not a good plan we know it's not a good plan but in order to close an $18 million gap that's the choice that that we needed to make um the next steps in regards to hearing the final decision of of Miss Morris is as we do for every thing that has um happens related to the budget we will email out to our families and our community about her decision um and we will also be informing the community of the special meeting so that will be communicated uh just want to make sure I don't miss anything I think I I got everything thank you Miss pril yep we will now go to board comments starting with Mr McCarron just want to thank everybody for coming out tonight and I just wanted to thank our administrative team for all your hard work that you're putting into making all these last minute changes thank you thanks for coming out obviously it's a frustrating situation we're trying to do the best that we can we'll keep fighting for you um you know it it possibly could be a good sign that we didn't get overturned immediately so let's see what happens I thank everyone for coming out and viewing our meeting live stream I want to thank you everyone for your input and comments we should not be closing any school buildings when we have 30 classrooms and trailers this should be considered and rectified everyone have a safe and wonderful evening I wanted to also thank the residents and our administrative team for doing a nice job of articulating the needs of Jackson and I appreciate Miss Morris taking a little extra time to consider what you heard tonight and hopefully together uh we can all come up with a game plan for Jackson moving forward that's a little more stable and allows us to make less haste decisions um that benefit our students and that's really the game plan is the students and thank you for recognizing that and thank you again for everybody coming out tonight um thank you for everyone who came out tonight thank you to those that are watching on TV um thank you to our Administration for working tirelessly for our children for working so many hours over and beyond their normal time to work on this and uh thank you Miss Mor for taking some more time to make a final decision uh for the Jackson School District in our children have a good night everyone um I just want to Echo everyone else's sentiments just of course thanking our administrative team and Mrs Morris for um really hearing all of our comments um I know you have a tough decision as do we um and I guess we'll be back here next Wednesday thank you I'd like to thank our residents you're advocating is being heard I'd like to thank Miss prilly and the entire administrative staff I'd like to thank our teachers and everyone working in our schools uh I know this has been a frustrating time uh but we're going to continue to Advocate we're going to continue to make sure that our students get the education that they deserve that they've always had here in Jackson I want to thank this board you guys pull me up when I'm down and you keep me front and center so thank you and I want to thank Miss Morris because I think you taken this time to think about this I know you were a superintendent and an educator for most of your life and I know you know what's right and I know you're in a hard spot and you wear many hats and I know what you see here you understand the need and I hope that you take this time to go back as you said to the Department of Ed and say hey we can't do this to Jackson this is too great of a town to do this to and I hope for some positive um resolutions to this by next Wednesday so once again to everybody thank you and have a great night I need a motion to adjourn motion by acclamation I [Music]