good evening it's on your place can we please start by uh saying pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to theic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all ad of noce of this meeting anybody hear me adequate notice of this meeting was advertised par press and the beacon on January 1st 20124 as revised and advertised June 19th of 2024 by posting notice in the forer post office and loal harbor post office by filing a copy notice with the Lacy Township Clerk as required by the public meeting act roll call please Mr Bell here Mrs armado here Mr conned here Mrs Walker Mr con uh Mr armado here Mrs Claus here and Mr Peters present we have a quum so we are going to uh skip resolution number five uh we uh don't need to do that resolution tonight okay welcome um I'm going to be brief today I just wanted to point out the um few slides about the budget are scrolling behind me uh the budget is unchanged from the tentative budget that we presented on June 11th once again I want to thank this board and the administration for the hard work uh by far one of the most difficult budgets we've ever had to put together um I think that what was very helpful uh was the fact that we were able to have five budget workshops where the board was able to have open discussion and dialogue about the budget publicly uh those took place on Wednesday January 17th Tuesday February 13th Tuesday March 19th Tuesday April 23rd and Tuesday May 7th um and that was one of the uh board goals that we've had for the past two years so I'm happy to see say that we met that goal and then on a separate note uh we had two beautiful graduations the past 2 days uh once again congratulations to the class of 2024 and to the Future class of 2028 who were promoted this past Wednesday we had great weather we warm uh but congratulations to all of them and their families so uh next we're going to move into public comment um before I read this notice I'm going to ask I'm sure there's a lot of you that want to speak at the microphone that were courteous we keep it to five minutes you'll get one time to speak at the end of five minutes the time or go off going I have to have a seat and I'll go to the next person and I'll bring people back as we go an audience member wishing to make a comment will raise his or her hand when called upon and state their name address and affiliation and attention to make a statement comments will be addressed to the board president comments will be made at one at a time comments will be limited to 5 minutes no audience member shall be recognized twice until all have commented and wish to be recognized the portion of this meeting is for public comments only will be no questions answered the purpose of this board meeting is to perform our business in public everyone is entitled to a public comment if there is a question for the board there's established chain of command follow would anyone like to speak under public comment yes if you're a student I just ask you to say that you're a student and not your name and address please thank you is the timer started it's okay good evening Board of Education I'm a student of lacy Township High School and I've been working tiously throughout these circumstances I've created petitions went to the state house for over 6 hours and I've been at almost every board meeting if I wasn't here I was working I stand before you today to urge you to please vote Yes for the budget yes yes raising the taxes isn't the best but it is our best option if you're here for the kids then you know the best option for us this will help us tremendously get through the rest of our high school careers please vote Yes not only for my future but for my brothers who just graduated the eighth grade and for all the students in our district we need your help and we urge you to vote Yes lastly I'd just like to thank Dr Pereira my mom Mrs Edgeworth Logan and many of my other friends that have also worked non-stop with me thank you so much thank you [Music] [Applause] thas good evening uh my name is Matthew homberg I'm a taxpayer who lives in forkin river on Pine Forest Lane I'm a lacy Township Middle School teacher a proud member of the Lacy Township Education Association and I am more than a test scorer my speech tonight as it was last week is meant to educate those who oppose the adoption of tonight's pending resolutions through facts and data the enemy of hyperbole I also here to appeal to you the Board of Education to do what may not be the popular thing but in my opinion is the necessary thing whatever your reason for sitting at that table you are it you are the decision makers you're um you're you have an obligation to the students of lacy Township as well as your faculty and staff who are directly affected by the decisions you will make tonight achievement is defined by Mariam Webster as the act of a achieving something a result gained by effort a great or heroic deed and lastly the quality and quantity of a student's work such as using standardized tests to measure achievement notice how the last thing mentioned was standardized testing that is verbatim not an alteration made by me the last two things I last two evenings I had the pleasure of sitting with our Board of Education members District administrators building administrators and colleagues as we promoted our eighth graders up to the high school and we said farewell to our seniors now proud Lacy graduates each ceremony included speeches about the accomplishments and achievements of the former eighth graders and former seniors things mentioned included arts and sports accolades Scholastic achievements such as our Math League students uh concerts drama club Productions and how the school Community came together to mourn the death of six of our students and lift each other lift each other up achievement sometimes looks like children having to grow up too quickly to process death while trying to press on and be the best students and humans they can be but yes let's talk more about test scores I am a child of the 80s and '90s way before no child Left Behind started the standardized testing movement at best we took the California achievement test I was a poor student and an awful test taker but it did not and does not define me I stand before you today with a bachelor and master's degree and I am currently pursuing a doctor of music education degree we should extend the same Grace to this generation of students that was extended to me and not let a standardized test score Define them or our schools they are more than just a test score we are currently faced with a decision with no great outcome which was not caused by me my colleagues this Administration the board of of Education or the taxpayers of lacy Township no the decision to continuously take away state aid lies directly on the shoulders of our governor and our lawmakers we still don't know why they funded our school district so unfairly and we certainly did not ask our legislators to put the burden on our local taxpayers but this is the solution they gave us notice how this has nothing to do with student achievement some people like to stand here and conflate this issue with their perceived lack of student achievement however these are mutually exclusive things and should be treated as such it does not stand the reason that removing more money from our schools will somehow make them better and achieve more but I can tell you that losing more faculty in programs for our students will have the opposite effect I have taught in Lacy school since 2004 it's always been a unique source of Pride that we get the job done of providing quality education to our students at much less of a cost than other districts just like ours how does that happen well over the last 20 years the average tax increase including the proposed 9.9% comes to 3.6% Yes you heard that correctly over 20 years our tax have increased an average of 3.6% I distinctly remember years when the budget was voted on by the town and the budget failed with a 0% increase I also remember a year where we followed a 0% increase with a negative percent increase I watch my colleagues who are band directors around the state including many in Ocean County run their High School band programs off of double or more budgeted money several years we received obsolete equipment color guard uniforms and flags from neighboring school districts who needed to get rid of it to make room for the thousands of dollars worth of new equipment uniforms and flags that they got like the Grateful Young sibling we gleefully accepted their hand-me-down so our children could look and be successful for 18 years I was a member of an Air Force National Guard band much of the equipment that resides in the middle school and high school band rooms was obsolete equipment that the Air Force was discarding or from Air Force bands that were decommissioned some of my colleagues and I even went so far as to drive to Massachusetts to rent a U-Haul and pack it full of equipment from one of those decommission bands our elementary teachers never got much of a classroom budget in the good years but now fall somewhere between somewhere under $300 per teacher to buy the supplies they need to educate their students we all have purchased items for our classrooms and relied on our wonderful parent teacher organizations as well as the parents themselves to help buy basic supplies additionally all nine of our music teachers buy music out of our own Pockets each year to provide the experience our musicians deserve so now Board of Education members it is your turn a vote Yes saves much needed jobs and programs for another year it reduces class sizes to increase Student Success and it reduces the burden on the staff that remain faithful to this town this district and our students a vote no obviously saves the taxpayers money but triggers catastrophic consequences the iron here is that I'm standing for you asking you to raise my taxes because as the saying goes a rising tide lifts all boats please vote Yes on this budget anyone else public comment I see you ma'am I'll grab you now next I've already picked her I'm sorry good evening Lisa Edgeworth 49 Hilltop Drive lenoa I wanted to address a couple things this evening first by putting on my glasses first I wanted to address something that was said the other day about um us younger people seeing seab breze as a cash cow um that's not true I don't know where that phrase came from we don't see seab breze as a cash cow when we all purchased our homes every one of us we knew the tax percent when we purchased that we we were buying into with the value of our individual homes if you feel your rate is inflated or too high or too low your issue is with the the township not the school board everyone's taxes are going up the same percent depending on the value of the home you chose to purchase that's why your taxes might increase more dollar-wise than another it's a terrible situation that should have been taken care of way before now and this needs to be taken care of and taken up with Trenton our fight is just beginning this is not the end we need everyone in this lecture hall and reaching far out into Lacy to work together to fix our funding and budget issues secondly the board members that are voting today your vote should be a resounding yes when you were elected to the board we voted for you to take care of our children you have a long you had a long time to figure out another way and at this juncture there is no other option A yes vote is for our children a no vote is against equality education for every child a yes vote is for the future of not only Lacy but the future of our country our children deserve a quality education thank you [Applause] oh Elizabeth Elizabeth Henwood Lake barnegate Drive lenoa Harbor I watched the uh June 11th meeting online and I heard Mrs uh Walker or Miss Mrs Downing used to be Downing state that um she's 74 years old she lives in a very small home with two bedrooms She works part-time just to bring in extra money she took an oath 30 years ago to protect the children and she'll be damned if this is not if this doesn't go through so when I heard that I thought let me just check this because my mom is also a senior she's 89 years old she lives on $11,000 a year and yes Kim she has the Frozen taxes but she still has to come up with the $88,000 up front before they get the refund so you can do the math on that so I looked up Mrs downing's information because it's public information online and as of December 2021 her pension is $9,000 a month no less okay maybe it's more by now and common sense I'm assuming she gets Social Security that may be about 4,000 a month so that's $133,000 a month okay my mom is living on 11,000 a year I also have I have a neighbor who is paying $1,700 or was because he's dead now $1,700 a month in health insurance he had cancer he worked up until the end and he was bent over whatever condition he had with his spine he couldn't stand straight he did Plumbing work he missed his cancer treatments because each treatment cost him $700 every time he went to the oncologist he wouldn't go to the hospital toward the end he was in very bad condition he wouldn't go because he didn't want to lose his house or his truck his house is vacant his truck is sitting in front he's dead all the people in this room need to Count Their Blessings you have excellent benefits excellent salaries when you add in all your benefits your stiens your days off your longevity bonuses and everything else there's people in this community suffering a vote no is not against the children the schools will remain open no matter what they'll get educated no matter what at some point no has to be no the board has to not approve contracts that are unsustainable these contract track s cannnot be paid off forever you can't allow sick time to a crew with no cap that ended 25 years ago in private in private sector and then get a giant check when you leave the system that doesn't happen in the private sector so I'm just saying count your blessings you cannot keep taking money from people that don't have it the kids they're important but they're feeling more like a cash cow thank you thank you for your com can I just remind everyone to please not speak or whisper when someone else is talking because it does Echo and Amplified down here and it's very difficult for the board to hear the person speaking you might be whispering to the person next to you but it's Amplified among the room and then gets directed down here it's very difficult to hear thank you never the best hello my name is Daniel and as of yesterday evening I am a former student of lacy [Applause] Township as a student I have seen the highs and lows of my peers I know that some on and offboard may see my work words as ostentatious for I plan on leaving for a college out of state and I do not own property the tax increase doesn't affect me however its aftermath does affect my friends and my family both my blood and those I call brother and sister I have seen the effects that good staff and programs have on these children firsthand and I can assure you it is imperative to these kids growth they want no one wants a tax increase but the students and the teachers in front of you are worth every single penny and sometimes the right decision doesn't sometimes the right decision is not always the easy one some speak before and after myself that of their disdain for the increase and some can't or won't so I ask not just the board but the people of this room what precedent are you setting for these kids do you want to teach them to skap by in life and survive or do you want to teach them to live to live with life to its fullest and suck every meaningful ounce out of its bones I ask the board I plead with the board for the sake of these kids and their future vote yes thank you [Applause] hi my name is Marissa Maslin I live at maximum Drive in forkid River I decided to speak today because I am a teacher but I am also a parent and a taxpayer in Lacy Township before I share my opinion about the financial sacrifices that the state is forcing us to make I would like to share that as a teacher I am not just a test score as a self-contained special education teacher my students work hard to make incredible gains each and every day that most people would just expect to happen for example my entire class was able to successfully participate in their kindergarten awards ceremony with their typical peers on Tuesday and their parents were able to proudly watch people especially those with no educational background or experience who continue to reference State Testing and achievement scores are being disrespectful to not just the staff but also the students who are working hard to make various kinds of progress that are just as important as those test scores if not more I have a thick skin and I can ignore these criticisms because I know the hard work that they put in every day but my students and their families shouldn't have to my husband and I decided to move to Lacy's newlyweds because of the small town community feel we loved that people grew up in Lacy and stayed in Lacy and we wanted our children to have those same feelings as they got older as I stated I am a teacher here in Lacy my husband works in finance I also have a second job of course we would prefer our taxes didn't have to go up however we see the incredible need for this tax increase for the best interest of the future of our students and our community if this is not passed it is projected that we will lose an additional 50 staff members not counting the ones that have already lost their jobs that means over 1,000 students will be displaced will have to be crammed into other classrooms field trips and participating in extracurricular activities will be gone access to supplemental and engaging materials will be more limited our children deserve average class average size classes not low average they deserve to be involved in extracurricular activities and sports and go on field trips if we don't provide this now for our students it will affect our community we will be losing the pride our future Generations have in our town no one will want to stay here no one will want to move here no one will want to raise their families here and the community aspect in Ley that everyone loves and is talking about will change I understand the sacrifice and changes that people may have to make due to this increase because I am also one of those people but right now we need this fix there is no other option right now for the children of lacy Township for the 20242 school year our district did their best to fight and advocate for ourselves to the state and this was the only option that was given to move forward we need to keep fighting to get a better more permanent solution the employees and families of the lazy Township School District have already proved that they're willing to fight my only hope is that all of you on the board of education along with the taxpayers will not only support our schools and put the best interest of our students first this coming School year which is what everyone was elected to do and pass this vote but also continue this fight to the state because that would be a true Community effort thank you [Applause] walk sir I'm so sorry I just picked this lady here I'll grab you next afterwards okay you're going to make me walk all the way back no sir you're going to have a seat right behind you thank you so much I'm calling on people I'm trying to be as Fair as possible I'll let you go right away thank you so much off so I can see hello my name is Penny Burr I live on Brier Road in L NOA Harbor I am a teacher here in Lacy since 2002 I have three kids two graduated already and one is um in high school right now and I also am a graduate of lacy class of 1990 I know it's hard to believe and I I never wanted to speak at a board meeting but I had to over the last few people keep saying schools aren't the same it's not like when we were in school and what I keep thinking of that's a good thing because the world's not the same as when we were in school it's certainly not the same as 1990 and we need our kids to be able to keep up with the changing world and I did a little research never thought I would spend my first day of summer vacation researching um some things that have really impacted the financial burden or impact of our school budgets technology obviously has to be huge school safety was not a concern that we spent money on in 1990 emphasis on mental health and as we've seen is more and more important these years standardized testing access to learning I'm a special ed teacher many of my students would not have the opportunities for Education that they have now and and along with that opportunities for inclusion and again when I was in school we were memorizing regurgitating facts and that's not the emphasis on education any longer we're teaching our kids questioning analyzing and giving a student centered education which is more involved than it used to be and although we can't control many of these issues that I mentioned we can control how we approach them we now use research-based datadriven decisions that's our favorite word right data to combat these very complex issues some of the things that we need and have proven to help to combat these issues are highquality materials and curricul ulum again these all cost money competitive programs updated technology opportunities for our kids to collaborate and communicate to prepare them to enter the world that is completely different than 1990 one of my favorite sayings is that how are we preparing our kids for jobs that don't exist yet with the time these kindergarteners graduate how is the world changing and over and over in every single thing I read they actually called it the Silver Bullet to achievement is smaller class sizes and one of the ones that I read in US News and World Report from the 70s ' 80s 90s these studies that were done and it said that this is one of the fewest areas in education where there are large-scale randomized control trials which have proven over and over the impact and benefits of small class sizes they compared classes of 13 to 17 Kids versus 22 to 25 22 to 25 is the high that's a high class size right so when comparing the kids in smaller class sizes in kindergarten 1 2 and third students were between two to five months ahead of their peers in the larger classes by the end of the school year and what's really interesting is once the experiment ended students were returned to regular class sizes of 22 to 25 and those students that had that smaller class size in early Elementary continue to benefit by 8th grade many of those kids were a full year ahead of their peers so this impact lasts and lasts smaller class sizes also led to student outcomes in every way that could be measured including test scores so if you want to talk test scores and look at ways how can we boost our test scores small class sizes is the first um it also got me interested in looking at what the highest ranking schools in New Jersey and the country had in common and some of the things that what could we do right Family Support is the first thing that came up on every List family support and the value and attitude that families have towards education which includes the community and believe me our kids are listening so the way we talk about our schools and our teachers impacts their learning many of the schools have selective enrollment and or admissions testing which you can't compare um many come from affluent affluent areas um which besides the obvious more money often those parents are educated and support education which again is the same theme smaller smaller class sizes came up over and over student attendance teachers teaching fewer classes or subjects which is interesting because as we cut and cut and cut our plates are getting Fuller and Fuller um we have teachers getting pulled for their prep we get bigger class sizes and it all it definitely impacts thank [Applause] you please state your name and address sir thank you my name is an Aloo I live at 835 Tiller Drive in forkid River so I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt as to the inability to anticipate the issue that occurred with regard to state aid and put you in this predicament and leaves you no choice but to do what you're doing the real issue is now what what are you going to do to anticipate the same thing occurring next year what is going to happen to the taxpayer next year is it 9.9 on top of 9.9 on top of 9.9 where does it stop it's interesting you sit and let the teaching staff tell you how great you are and what you need to do you know that they know that that's not an issue the real issue is what are you going to do to change the situation so that it does doesn't happen again do we know do we have a clue do we have an answer can you tell me the 9.9 is this year because of the bill corre tell me what you're going to do to make sure that your expens assuming the state aid Remains the Same what are you going to do then do it again 9.9 so to answer your question 9.9 is because of the bill that the governor passed the 2% cap is reimplemented moving forward we all acknowledge what the Lacy schools have to continue the question will become how do you make them continue if you don't get the state aid next time like you didn't get it this time because the tax base will never be able to stay this year on top of year we keep fighting the fight against the state okay tell that to the woman whose mother is working okay thank you I by the way I'm 81 years old when I went to school I in grade school and in high school I had 35 kids in my class and that was not considered a big class thank you for your time sir next public comment yes were you above and beond her so you probably thought I was pointing to you so I'm sorry okay all right thank you please state your name and address sir Jim Hughes lugun Avenue foret River I had something longer written out but I'm going to shorten it because there's a lot of people here you have a 5 minute timing period sir so if you go over that 5 minute time period I'll stop you and then bring you back up that's okay uh the first thing I did want to mention quickly is uh about 10 years ago I was asked to uh career day for the middle school for I think a bunch of fifth graders who were full of questions and excitement about what's it like to be an electrician working on top of a 70 story building a lot of you know interest in it and stuff like that but now we're at a high school where these kids are going to be leaving soon and what are we doing to prepare them maybe we should have something like that with with people from the professional Fields medical corporate so on so forth give them a real idea what it's really like not just out of a textbook but what it's like to walk into a room with 50 electricians who are all now in charge of you and also your teachers and in turn I later became the teachers for my apprentices what happened with me was after about a few decades I ended up working after the months after 9/11 down by Ground Zero zero and my career shortly afterwards stopped suddenly so um I'm just curious you know like if you if there's a way to outreach to PE I would come in and talk to them if because you know when I was when I graduated high school Bergen County we had plenty of money for the budget everything else but we weren't really that prepared the kids who were going to college were fine but the rest of us were you know slubbing around thank you for that offer I appreciate it sir but anyways um I watched the the the June 11th meeting and I was really dis appointed to see you know there there is people who are speaking for us you know the the taxpayers I'm saying because I had to retire on half a pension I left 20 years early I didn't want to but I had to so there's other people who were struggling also so I'm just you know on behalf of the taxpayers we have a few voices but that June 11th meeting they were just shouted down and stamping on desks and stuff I mean I thought bullying wasn't supposed to be taught in schools but it seemed like the taxpayers were being bullied during that now what I wanted to say was when I went to high school I had history class too cuz one teacher who initiated the the the death banging and so on so forth brought up a history lesson about the Native Americans here years ago who by the way also were wiped out by a government who didn't care about them now my what I learned in history class was no taxation without representation where the founding fathers created this country on that on that principle of the people should not be taxed by a government unless they have a voice or a vote in that government and except for the exception of two board members which thank you Cheryl and Sal amardo for voting no on this because this is breaking the backs of people we must find another way to do this if listen if Little Johnny wants a new Mustang with a $60,000 performance package he might have to go with a Ford tourus for a while to get to work or school or whatever it is so what I'm trying to say is is you know we have to find another answer to this it's just a I mean I can't I don't know what I'm going to do I don't know what a lot of other people the woman with cancer every what are they going to do you know it's not fair to us it's also not fair to us that most of the people in this room are teachers everybody else who's paying the taxes are at work right now and when that was brought up by a woman who lived here 50 years in the last meeting the answer was well it's what if it's not fair to the night shift workers I don't know any night shift workers who have come up here so far or to the town meetings and said listen uh you know this is not fair to us I don't know if even one has but there have been quite a few who have come up here who said listen it's people are at work you know we feel outnumbered here you know everybody applauds and everything else it's nice and nobody's admonishing the teachers here they all do a great job but it's you know we need to do something else here like you know in an English class I was was T given the book Animal Farm by George Orwell probably banned now but in that book it said all animals are created equal except some animals are more equal than others and that's the way we feel as taxpayers we have no vote in this and it's not it's not right voting is a basic principle of this country so that's you know that's my reader digest version of what I really had to say but that's pretty much it all but and I thank you for your time thank for your comments [Applause] hi my name is Carrie Oar stuben a forkin river I grew up here Class of 84 um raise my family here I'm a teacher and a taxpayer and I also hate talking here so bear with me um first of all we do understand everybody's struggles we have plenty of our own financially I think almost all of us live payche paycheck to paycheck with second jobs um there's lots of medical things I have dependents who are disabled and a lot of us do that and deal with that every day um and emotionally every one of us this year have been touched by some sort of tragedy that happened including our kids and because maybe we had 30 kids in a classroom but we were able to get to that 45 kids would we have been able to find the kids who really needed our love and attention at that time I don't know um as for all of the arguments about even what the last gentleman just said about the um voting we I remember when we used to vote for school budgets we can't do that anymore because the state government decided we couldn't do that that wasn't an us thing that was the state government saying there's a 2% tax increase every year that you're supposed to get to and that's it and that's where we left it um I think we're all playing a role in the situation that we're in the state definitely we don't have any transparency as far as I can tell we've never gotten any answers um they actually turned off their phones because we were calling them so we never really got anything from them as the state we the state I don't think recognizes our special education population we have gotten an excellent which is almost like we did too well we got an excellent reputation for dealing and helping special ed students get to where they need to be and to achieve what they need to to do to be successful and because of that we have a lot of people moving into town with those needs and and we love that but we're still only getting a small percentage of those children acknowledged by the state um and lastly the funding formula obviously needs to be reexamined and and fixed and corrected um now locally I I believe and you guys can tell me if I'm wrong because I tried to do my research but it was like liy split on my day off and I didn't get very far um but I believe there were three times in the past since the 2% cap that we didn't hit the 2% cap and we went under it below it and which was great for us as taxpayers but in retrospect it would almost be like if I were lending my friend money to pay the bills and then my friend thought well as long as she's paying me money I can go out and buy a new outfit or go out to dinner or take a vacation and I almost feel like maybe the state is looking at it that way like we saved our money before now it's time to pay the piper um I don't agree with it I don't like it but 7.9% above what we would have had to pay anyway at this point there is no other option not if we want to keep educating our children um and then I also just wanted to give a little reminder to everyone who is elected here I know how hard you all work we appreciate all that you do we totally respect your decisions and Everyone's entitled to their own opinion um but I just wanted to remind you as Mr holber mentioned you guys were elected to the board of education so you're representing the best interests of our students all of our students from our highest achieving to those who were gracious enough and and and determined enough to actually walk across not only the kindergarten graduation but I think we had a handful who made it through our Middle School graduation and then of course there's always those in the high school gr just walking across that stage is like something they thought they would never achieve their parents thought they would never achieve and and that really gets us okay anyway all right so please keep in mind that you guys were elected for our kids um and then the other things that I wanted to mention because a lot of people compare us to a business we're not a for-profit business there is no money to be made off of us our our profit is the future of our children and the children and their successes however big or small they may be so if you really thought about and and I know at the last budget meeting they showed how much money we have lost over the years and how much we are still doing and and raising these kids up and getting a future we would look like we were these amazing SP that's all right come back up [Applause] anyone else for public comment yes Mr S I might have to come up twice um Regina Des Senda Sunset dri Sunrise Beach um did all the board members receive and read my email from Wednesday I hope so and I hope that an apology that I requested from Mrs Miller is forthcoming yesterday I also sent a legal document from the commissioner of Education that you all need to read please I want to put out a few numbers since I did a bill review on Wednesday does any board member even know a ballpark figure on the monthly costs of District benefits my guess on that question is no so here you are the Horizon Medical for June was listed at $850,000 the total of those three benefits for one month added up to$ 1,198 1861 in District costs the teacher staff contribution for June was $23,750 the grand total paid out 1, 1, 142,5 se5 for one month's benefits cost this is a huge portion of the budget without any salaries that's something that needs the thinking cap on much tighter if anyone wants that last figure of teacher contribution you must request it from the business administration dat because it is not published anywhere on your agenda documentation I always asked for it it's a very heavyduty cost for benefits and a very nominal contribution from staff in my opinion and a full year is just astronomical and remember that doesn't include a penny of salaries there has to be some way to cut back this 99.9% property tax increase Band-Aid is not sustainable this tax increase is driving people out of this town and will lower home values I even got an email from someone who said they were definitely going to sell their house I'm beyond embarrassed that not one single one of you was able to gain control over the staff on June 11th it was truly shameful and that meeting is spreading all over town like wildfire on YouTube Mr Peters I have to tell you something yes indeed it is true I nominated you to fill a vacancy on the board some years back but I never told you why I nominated you because I knew you'd show up and that you do great job keeping the seat warm but as for your knowledge and training sorry you're getting a zero you do the bare minimum state required training I know you work but you have to try harder I'm not even sure you understand the training based on some of the questions you've asked over the years but you managed to become board president and bring some shame upon this District on June 11th that meeting on YouTube has over 600 views an all-time high all Forum was lost at that meeting the lack of respect for the public came shining through I don't give a hoot if you don't like what Mr bidnick says most of what he says is the cold hard truth that no one wants to hear but at least he has the guts and backbone to say it not like this spineless group in front of me Cheryl and S excluded Vanessa I am just so shocked at your move and retirement just absolutely shocked please understand your roles as board members and leave out the politics you are elected to represent 28,000 residents of this town not just your staff not just students in case anyone doesn't know Mr Peters Mrs Claus Mrs Walker and Mr conned are joined at the political hip and they control your school district Mr Bell and Mr and Mrs armado are not connected to the powers that be I'll end this now and I will wait for my second turn thank you thank you for your comment yes all right my name is tor freeday I live on brenwood Road in Fork River I'm here today as a parent a teacher a taxpaying resident and alumni of the Lisa Township School District first I would like to say my children my students and myself are more than test scores when it comes to achievement I am honored to witness the greatest achievements every day in my own self-contained special education classroom and there's no standardized test score to show these massive Milestones achievement is a non-verbal child using a form of communication it's a self-contained student joining their typical peers For Recess it's someone making eye contact following two-step directions walking in the hallway I could go on it's so much more than test scores so I hope our staff and students are never referred to as subar or low achieving again because I am proud every single day of my colleagues and my students and they are all worthy of a proper education and school as a parent to three children in this District I witness the dedication and hard work of our teachers and staff as a teacher here I feel the impact of budget constraints on a daily basis we are doing the best with what we have but the reality is that without adequate funding our ability to offer diverse and enriching programs is severely limited if this budget does not pass we are facing too many cuts to staff which will lead to outrageous class sizes less extracar activities for our children and so much more from what they have already been stripped of the district has fought and worked tirelessly with the state this is the only choice left as a resident I understand the concerns about increased taxes nothing has been easy financially for anyone my husband and I both work more in addition to our full-time jobs I work during the summer and my husband is a musician working nights and weekends Necessities have all increased by no choice of our own I understand this groceries gas bills just the general cost of living yet we move on we just complain because they're Necessities we tell ourselves we need them there's nothing we can do our schools are just as important they are just as necessary our schools our children our future is the most important thing right now the benefits of investing in our schools far outweigh the cost quality education attracts families boosts property values and creates a thriving Vibrant Community but in the end the children are who deserve it but finally as an alumni of this District I can personally attest to the life-changing power of a well-funded supportive school system my parents moved to Lacy nearly 40 years ago because of our school systems the education I received here laid the groundwork for my success and installed values that I carry with me to this day it is my hope that we can provide the same if not better opportunities for the Next Generation this is why I stayed in Lacy I strive to teach here and I'm proud to raise my three children here but they deserve more the proposed tax increase will ensure that our schools can maintain and provide the resources needed for Innovative and effective teaching it will allow us to keep our facilities safe and conducive to learning it will enable us to support students our district cannot afford to deny this budget we have already faced too many cuts and simply cannot afford more Board of Education I beg you to join me in supporting to approve the school budget today to come together to show that we value education that we believe in our children and that we are committed to building a smarter and stronger Community this is about our children our future and I hope you all see that [Applause] than you can speak mhm just the unic address man' that's all you need to do okay thank you hi um my name is Don Benta I'm a middle school teacher I've worked in the district for about 11 or 12 years and um you haven't seen me before because I don't often come to board meetings I was always told that the crazy people come to the board meetings I've been educating people for 27 years and um I just never thought of myself that I didn't wear the black shirt today um but I I am here of support I'm first standing up to talk to you to thank you for our benefits I am alive right now because of our benefits I was voted teacher the year last year for the middle school and I wasn't able to come to be honored and celebrated because I was fighting stage three cancer and I came back my last chemo treatment was on December 13th and I came back January 2nd because I value this school system so much and I love these students so much I was not again supposed to come last month I was student of uh teacher the I didn't even know what I was I had a video about me I was I was um Lacy teach employee of the month for the district one of two and again I'm I'm not one to be celebrated but I feel like we do need to remember that our students are important that's why we're all here and you're here as board members because you are representing the community and you are representing our students and we as teachers are here because we love our students we're not here this is not a classroom negotiation it's not a contract negotiation we are here because we care about our kids and the teachers that you have seen speaking are not ones that are on the line worrying about their jobs I'm not one that's on the line worrying about my job I'm here because I am so dedicated to the students in this District I have heard a lot of mention about um they said that the classroom achievement that the park score the njn njsla score was coming into play that's a snapshot that is a single snapshot of a student's educational achievement it takes three years of excellent teaching in order to make up for one year of not even bad teaching but if a parent gets divorced if a death in the family which we've had six deaths I believe in our district this year we have of if a a parent gets divorced there are so many things that affect student achievement on a njsla score but there are so many other ways that you can look at student achievement none of us want to harm our grandparents we love our grandparents none of us want our taxes to go up none of us want that but the government put us in a very bad place this is not your fault this is not any of the teachers faults this is not any of the community members faults but we're all fighting for our students and that's what I hope resonates with all of you today is that class size does matter and that having extracurricular activities do matter for both their social and their tional learning as well as their Educational Learning and I think that's all I have to say all right thank you [Applause] good afternoon my name is Linda Miller 1933 Glen Oak Drive foret River our country is in Peril it has been stated in order to keep our freedom we the people need to pay attention to what is happening in our own community so here I stand again as I stated at a previous meeting our community is only as good as its school system our school system continues to decline as I see it this 99.9% tax increase will not fix the school system this school system that is in peril will pull our community down with it every taxpayer is responsible for paying the majority of all the best benefits of each and every employee of the Lacy Township School District salary pensions and health insurance the njaa supports and contributes money for the election of our state Governor the employees of this school district are encouraged by their union representative to vote Democratic so stop blaming Governor Murphy hence for members of this board of education are pushing this 9.9 taxation onto to our community without a referendum please Recon consider your yes vote make it no for the sake of this town thank you any other public comments hi everybody John satell gotta raise it up there South Street lenoa Harbor and my children are more than just a test score first I want to congratulate all the students that graduated from the high school middle school and grammar schools across our district that should be congratulated they say if you don't learn something new every day you're not doing it right and I as an IT admin administrator hold kind to those words every single day of my life where does that start that starts in every single hallway and every single room in this school district over the last couple months we've advocated spoken publicly we've had grassroot discussions and we went to Trenton with two students myself Mike Ryan of the LTE and Dr Pereira we sat there and we fought to try and get money back for this District what did we get back we got $1.4 million back from the state as you can see by the presentation that's going on up here um the state has pulled $14 million from our budget $14 million from our budget since 2018 okay how do you expect that money to be recovered and while we were out in Trenton and we asked senators in passing because some didn't want to hear what we had to say why why was that money taken away from us that money was taken away from us and given to other districts why nobody was able to give us a single answer this budget it's a temporary solution it is a solution to keep the doors open it is a solution to move forward but the job is absolutely not done yet advocacy is what's needed we as a community need to keep putting the pressure on Trenton to restore our funding and get that money that was taken away from us brought back to the township so we don't have to pay the additional taxes in future years we keep hearing everybody say what's going to happen in the future what's going to happen in the future we don't know what's going to happen in the future nobody knows I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow do you we don't know the only thing that we can do is we can sit here and we can advocate for this everybody that's not just parents that's everybody in the township this is our teachers our Board of Education should be advocating for everything that we need to do in order to not have this money taken away away from us so we can move forward the unfortunate thing is we're out of time the taxes have to be raised and it's unfortunate because of the money you could see up here that was taken away from us so what I say is that this needs to pass we need to continue to forward momentum to build this back build our money back so we can have that Lacy Pride to continue moving forward we've worked too damn hard and we've had too much time go by to say that we have to go back to the drawing board I keep hearing this over and over again we need to go back to the drawing board when when was that time that time has come and gone 6 months ago 10 months ago 12 months ago that would have been great but we are past the time the extension that was given to us and not just us this is other districts too the time has passed we don't have any more time so I'll leave you with this are our groundskeepers and maintenance workers in the district worth the increase yes are our transportation employees worth the increase yes are our Food Service employee workers worth the increase yes are student programs and activities and Sport programs worth the increase yes they are are our wonderful Educators and are worth the increase absolutely yes but most importantly the reason that we're all here and the reason why we are are at a Board of Education meeting board of education not a Township meeting Board of Education meeting is our are children in Lacy Township worth the tax increase absolutely yes so ladies and gentlemen the Lacy Township Board of Education you know what you need to do you need to do the right thing you need to do you need to vote how you have already committed to this budget yes [Applause] [Applause] [Music] um well spoken I actually enjoyed the last speaker um he's got a real good point my name is Carl I've lived in this town since 1972 when there was only 3,000 people here came from Middletown my parents were service people and I looked to go into service one day and then found out I had a eye impairment so I couldn't go but I went to Lacy here I went to little L NOA Harbor Mr Ellie is the principal Mrs Hogan special ed big help on me Mr Haynes big help on me so I got a big Association and appreciation oh please ignore my shirt I'm really purple I judge people on their merits and I make judgment calls according to that not because they belong to one party or the other I Monica deos good friend of mine she helped me tremendously after I graduated college left in a working field she uh ansbach I think was the teacher's name who doing a a a PhD study on those with dyslexia and how did they fend in life so she interviewed me and she did a bunch of tests and she says my God she says not only are you brilliant you're better than me I'm not trying to tout myself please excuse that so I was able to take my dyslexia turn into a good thing I was also in I graduate 84 from Lacy here my children also graduated from here I had children who were both homeschooled and went to school because I was very interested in their betterment I did not judge them or judge the teachers because you know they weren't doing an effective job with a particular student because everyone has a different way of teaching teaching I get that I'll get to my point in a moment I apologize I don't mean to run over but I think if you understand my frame of mind you'll understand better what I'm going to say so I was in cross country I was running 13 miles a day sometimes six to seven days a week and with Mr Morgan again many of you know or knew of him they all helped me they all helped me to realize that I had a lot of potential it's just I had a different way of thinking I just had to coer it and change it into something that was profitable and I don't mean necessarily monetarily and so I got that opportunity chance I'm very grateful to the school system very grateful to teachers the teachers are you're good teachers you are I know that I know you are but there are things because I'm dyslexic I see certain patterns and these patterns are getting on my nerves I worked on with do doe do to till 2016 when I my eyes went horribly bad on me up then I had a provinc in career I went from soter engineer ering I actually took computer classes up here I forget the teacher's name I know he was a football coach at that time and so I became a software engineer I learned the the trade then a little by little I worked my way towards management and I was no joke a manager who understood Geeks because I am one too so I suggest successfully navigated my career I worked very hard I worked on secret projects it's okay I tell you that technically I can't tell you which ones I worked with Groom Lake for a while I worked with um with various um Marines Army the only one I didn't work with with the coast guards I was moving my way up and then tragedy hit I lost over probably 50% of my salary in 2016 I'm not a lazy person I do work the best I can with my eyes part-time which is not enough I try my wife takes care of me two years ago I wanted to give up she stood by me and she brought me back to health pretty much conquered all my ailments I'm still working on my kidneys Mr not worried I'm am so sorry sir we have a five minute timer apologize no don't apologize if you could do me a great favor there's a seat directly behind Mr homber is going to assist you you come back up again I will hone right into it thank you so much here's something I've learned by working with the government sir what we have a 5 minute time limit you're at your 5 minutes if you just have a seat I'll bring you back up and you can finish oh yeah yeah yeah I'm sorry there's a seat right there that gentleman's going to help you get I'm sorry yeah my apolog I didn't notice five that's okay go that way might be easier sir right behind you I tend to get a little anyone else public comment you're up already correct go ahead [Music] sir good afternoon everybody uh Steve solder 402 Cranberry Court in lenoa Harbor um I'm back sorry um first of all this is awesome if you haven't looked around this room this is this is fantastic right this is a community that's involved each of us is here for a purpose we each have a reason and ltaa I stand behind you as a fellow educator not in this District I was where you are last year all right be strong hang in there okay I I my wife and I totally support you for what what's what's going on and what each of you is going through um but my purpose being here like I stated at the last special meeting is for the courtesy busing um if many of you and I know because I've I've received a couple comments on social media many people don't understand what's happening with courtesy busing um I took the time to go on this morning my high school graduated last night so I slept a little late this morning um and I was able to look at the last board meeting and I was able to find the rised courtesy busing walk zones that are set up for the township and I know this is small but you can go on and look on the board meeting the the board minutes from this past Monday I think it was okay and this is the revised walk zone for Lacy Township all right that means if you live on the dead end of Oxford Drive or if you live on the corner of forkid river uh Route 9 and leasy road all right or if you live way out behind the DPW W that whole area north is all walking there's no courtesy busing provided those students are expected to walk to school sir yes did you address us this thank you so much appreciate those students you know this you know it I hold up for you you can put it up there if you want it's up to you but like this is this is my purpose this is my wife's purpose this is what we're here for because I leave for work at 5:30 in in the morning she's an emergency room nurse she's gone by quarter to 6 my daughter is now going to be in the middle school and my son is now moving into the high school so both of them are going to be on their own to get out the door to get to school and also find a way home in the winter months when it's already getting dark at 3:30 4:00 4:15 all right and we have my wife and I have a very very big concern about my 11y old daughter walking on the streets by herself riding on the streets by herself with her bike all right I don't mean to scare anybody but all it takes is one white van to pull up alongside of her and I will never see her again all right this this is not a big issue I read in the last minutes that it was $260,000 that was eliminated because of courtesy busing $260,000 there has got to be hundreds of children that live in this area that are going to be responsible for walking and I know people say oh coordinate get together with friends and we talked about that but what if my daughter's ride to school is sick that day and her parents aren't going am I expecting her her friends parents to come pick up my daughter and take her to school no and if anybody has had the pleasure of waiting in the line of cars at the middle school all right all right it it it's now progressed out onto Lacy Road all right and for the life of me I don't understand why we don't have a police officer there all right controlling that intersection all right but it is ridiculous my son which is another issue I'm following up with my son has five tardies to school this past year every single one of them was because he was waiting in line in a car to get to school all right there's there's there there's I mean there's no reason why we don't have busing for every student in this town I understand the state says we don't have to I understand there's a 2 and a half mile radius whatever it is all right and I get that but we have an awesome transportation department in this District fantastic my daughter gets on the bus every morning and says hi Miss Michelle and she talking she loves being on the bus and I said why do you like being on the bus so much and she goes because I know when I get on the bus that Miss Michelle is taking me to school and she's safe and she feels happy on that bus now here's the thing we're talking a very small amount of money okay very small amount of money logistically this can happen the transportation department has been doing this for years courtesy busing has been offered for years far sir your time is up okay get me a number that's what I'm looking are you going to come back up sure and your name again I'm sorry Steve S trying to go in order thank you Mr thank you please anyone else for public comment anyone else my name is l c and my address is 19 Renee Court I am a parent of a student in Lacy Township um as Mrs edworth stated the higher the value the higher the taxes you just take one step forward to the microphone we're having a problem hearing thank you so much thank you you're welcome as Mrs Edgeworth stated the higher the value the higher the taxes this is everywhere not just in Lacy another man said that maybe Johnny should settle for the Ford and not the fancy car I'm not trying to pick on the seab breze community um I'm just going to use it as an example but how many decided to go with the larger m model how many decided that they needed the Loft so their grandchildren had more space when they visit the average size of a classroom is 800 square feet 40 children 20 squ ft per student that's 4T x 5 foot now adding classroom material and desks and everything else we need for the students to learn now let's take away your Loft in most of your rooms pit you're having a holiday with 40 family members in an 800t face with space with tables and chairs and a couch would it even be conducive to a conversation let alone learning I just lost my place I'm sorry now picture doing that 180 times a year we lost too many students this year how would your mental health be during those 180 days you were crammed into that room with your family think about Co everybody wanted to lose their mind and you had an entire house what if there was an emergency could it be guaranteed that everybody got out especially if that room was on the second floor here's a fact and I've brought it up on Facebook and I know everybody says we deserve to have our coffee but the average spent on coffee is $2,327 a year and you can make coffee at home we aren't qualified to teach our children at home the teachers are teachers are the most important profession in this world they are the ones we hand our children over to the most important part of our lives and they don't deserve to have benefits have none of the taxpayers that are complaining ever had children I'm sure most of you have and they were educated and who paid for their education the people in the town so it's only fair that our children deserve the same education or actually a better one because the world is different and unfortunately for them it's a harder one school is the best experience that they can have to prepare them to survive and for some it may be the only positive place they have especially the extracurricular activities and the teachers who run them and how many students spoke about how teachers actually stop them from taking their own life at one of the board meetings we need to fight and not just at board meetings and we shouldn't be fighting each other we should be fighting together fighting the governor because it will only benefit everyone but where is everybody that's going to fight with us like where are they everybody comes here everybody posts on Facebook and then where are they so I am urging you to vote Yes I'm a single mom I have two jobs everything I do is for my kids someone on Facebook said well how much extra are you donating to the schools if I had it I would I have paid for other kids to do things that couldn't afford it I've done it and I've gone without and I've eaten peanut butter during the day and I'm wearing the same clothes when I was a teacher years ago that I don't even really fit in anymore because the kids come first so I am virging urging you urging you to please vote Yes it's just it's a safety issue too I mean it's just it's too dangerous [Applause] anyone else public a comment Mr bck no it's okay I'm picking you it's my meeting thank you Richard bidnick uh Fork River good evening afternoon everybody couple questions people brought from the audience some of the teachers they don't even realize this um first of all the board can make the decision to have this go back to a public vote they decided to go with the 2% cap that is a decision that the the the school district can make okay another question is about what a board's responsibilities are fiduciary is number one policy and hiring a qualified superintendent so to go on with my comments simple knows for why 9.9% reason is illogical and everything with me is logic one it won't make anything better thinking logically why would anyone want to spend this amount of money knowing you're not going to get anything better logically it makes absolutely no sense number two a 9.9 tax increase will affect everyone one in this town in a negative way no one will escape it not the homeowners or the renters who will see and have already seen their estimated tax bills when estimated 20% of our households of lacy Township are now on food stamps this will only hurt the population even more it displays a low total lack of empathy for all those individuals who truly are living paycheck to paycheck which obviously are many so are you going to save a few jobs or a few individual health benefits and hurt everyone else in the town another illogical decision number three a 9.9 tax increase is just plain wrong considering that four people who sit on this board are making such a drastic decision for this entire town without voter approval sometimes you just because you could do something doesn't mean you should and this is one of those occasions to me if you're voting for this budget you are an enemy of the taxpayer m law at the last meeting you spoke and talked about the finance committee meetings and that you spent about an hour in the last one to discuss the budget it's abundantly clear that not much time has really been taken to look at the bigger picture and whatever full Alternatives could be achieved it might be easy for you Miss Claus to say we have to do this 9.9 increase because you are fortunate enough to have the ability to pay it may I suggest to you Miss Claus and to all of you in this town who are so willing to spend other people's money that you pay for the rest of us who either can't or don't want to it really is time for people like you Miss Claus to put up or shut up just do do do the other situation that is quite troubling is this the school board forced the masking of our children quarantining them and didn't seem to care what effects this would have on the children's education because they took an $8 million a from the state to do it I'm absolutely sure that when all the chips fall that if this board did not approve this budget and had to make the tough decisions that it would not be nearly as bad as what your kids were put through during covid to put it bluntly the patient is very sick and the treatment required is very harsh but it needs to survive this funding proposal increases like giving a terminal patient a cruel and painful slow death instead of the proper treatment it needs to Survive and Thrive and Dr Pereira you made a comment at the last board meeting stating that you would never ever take any advice or recommendations for me well that is apparently and abundantly clear from the mess this school district has become but hey can you honestly look yourself in the mirror and say that you're leaving this school district better off than when when you started as superintendent I think we all know that answer and it's a big fat no thank you very much thank you for your comments you have to wait everybody goes and then you go again okay thank you and what else that has not spoken yet under public comic go ahead please state your name and address I'm really nervous so you're okay take your time my name is Shan I live in loka Harbor I'm a taxpayer a teacher and most importantly a parent to three small children um my husband and I have been attending board meetings over the years and have witnessed many changes during that time the most important challenge being the reduction of funding and the resulting decrease in opportunities for our children and increase class sizes which we've already experienced um we've listened to comments from some community members who perhaps don't have a full picture of our schools or an understanding of the way Services have already changed for students due to the budget crisis I've heard community members say repeatedly that it's a failing District citing rankings and information that I'm not sure the speakers truly understand as a parent I have had a very different experience than these community members have declared um in the fall we will have two children enrolled at loka Harbor school we have seen firsthand how important good teachers and administrators are to our children's learning experience I'd like to point out that Dr Brewer who's here tonight um at loga Harbor School values a well-rounded education and has provided our daughter with opportunities to be involved in the school community Through proud paaw drama club and enrichment or GNC over the last two years additionally our daughter has scored in the top percentile on the nwaa which is a nationally normed test and her achievements bolstered by good teaching some of her teachers who are sitting up there um exceed nationally normed grade level Expectations by far she is not the only student who has had these opportunities or shown this academic potential when community members say that the district is failing and that the students don't deserve to be funded I have to wonder what information they're basing that misjudgment on especially if they are not parents of children who are enrolled my daughter and her peers who show great potential deserve every opportunity for an enriching education her friends who struggle and students with special needs deserve and require even more as parents we've also experienced the mil Pond school this year where only mandated opportunities were provided to our son he did not receive the level of educational opportunities that our daughter has at lenoa Harbor School despite losing all enriching lessons in art music and Technology he still managed to thrive because of the efforts of his tremendous classroom teacher who exceeded all of our expectations she simply was an amazing kindergarten teacher who managed a class of 23 diverse Learners alone every day all day and who despite the many challenges that group of kindergarteners faced still managed to p push our son to also achieve in the top percentiles on that nationally normed nwaa as well it is unreasonable and unreasonable burden that she faced this year and in my opinion an unsustainable workload moving forward I worry what my future kindergartner will face when she goes to milpond in a few years if funding isn't improved to provide more support in those classrooms for our youngest and most atrisk students I worry how my children at Lanoka will be impacted by in September by increased class sizes and decreased opportunities for learning because our children and the children of our neighbors deserve a complete education I'm asking the board to please approve the budget tonight thank you for your [Applause] coming okay so um I was really nervous today uh before I even start my speech I sorry my name is Mary joia cheda I am the ly Township Education Association president um but before I I do my speech I just want to say and I did this in my first go around I wasn't expecting to do it tonight but can I just have the employees that live in town stand up that's here tonight that pay taxes so and you guys can sit down thank you because I think the point was made so I just want to talk before I get into my speech about misinformation which I think a lot has always been misinformed and there's a couple of speakers that come out here and then they say things to their friends that you're spreading misinformation that is getting that is not getting across what everyone is trying to say um it's not just a few jobs that you're going to lose it's 50 so let's get the number right it's not a few a few is three um dues for our njaa do not go to endorse candidates those are that's money that people put in extra out of their own Pockets that meet and and as a committee and they decide and let me just tell you this ocean county is a republican County and our mayor is Republican so those little misinformation that you're putting out there is detrimental and that you're showing that misinformation is the only information that truly gets spread especially on social media [Applause] so so good afternoon back to the regular program my name is Mary joia cheda I'm the president of lacy Township Education Association and I am here to address the budget on behalf of the students and staff as I know many of you are concerned as well our district is facing a challenging situation that none of us wanted to be in we do not wake up and saying hey how can we how can we make this go any worse however we have an opportunity to recoup recoup lost taxes to support our school maintain class sizes under 40 retain essential staff and preserve programs passing this budget is crucial for the continued progress of our district as a whole while this may not align with our initial efforts and it does not it is the reality we are facing I urge the board to make necessary decisions to approve the budget even though it may not be the most ideal scenario and we understand that numerous staff students students and community members are directly depend directly on this budget as you saw as it affects most of you as it affects the people that are still too young to even know how it affects them although there may be an increase in taxes not passing the budget could lead to a decline in property values so once again one kind of hands out the other due to the state of our schools it is important to highlight that our current budget figures have remained stagnant since 2018 despite a constant loss of state aid over the past seven years amounting to about 14.2 million so let me just say that stagnant means it did not go it above we've had the same the same money that we've been using and since 2018 now those of you I'm saying everyone's cost of living has gone up we understand but our our board in the past seven years have kept the budget the same how many if you look in your at your own homes you have have been able to keep your budget the same in the past since 2018 there have been a loss of 130 staff members medical benefit reforms and freezes there have been sacrifices to as a staff to support this District yet we are still in this challenging position further Cuts would jeopardize the safety and education and I'm going to say that again because I this is a topic that we really are not we're forgetting about because it's not in front of us safety safety and education all of the individuals involved the only way to move towards I'll come [Applause] backk anyone else in a public comment you need to wait you went up already anybody else first time speaking public comment yes ma'am yes hi Beth chrisop Foley uh oala Lane I just like I sit here and I listen and I never come up to talk but I have to say misinformation so my daughter came through this school district she's a nurse practitioner she lives what a beautiful life and you have to say thank you you have to say thank you to the community to the to the teachers to the school to the board like my son came through he's 24 years old he's a air traffic controller he's working in cyber security like he's amazing he came through this school district I mean you're saying everything like they're not learning they're declining he's protecting your rights you can't get any better than that I mean I'm just so proud I'm proud to be a teacher here I'm a proud to be a part of the njaa I mean we we've negotiated budgets and every year Lacy was always like we want benefits we want to take care of our people we're not worried about our salaries and then all of a sudden like our salaries were like garbage we were like the least paid in Ocean County I'm not talking Bergen County I'm not talking like really low paid teachers so it you know then we started working toward gaining other other things like maybe having an equal salary in Ocean County I mean it's been I've been around a long time and it's been it's been ups and downs and I mean you you have to love this District love the community I I'm sorry that 9.9 is is a lot it's a lot of me I'm going to retire next year I mean I'm looking at at I have a nice lot I pay a lot of taxes I'm more than happy for those children that are coming through our district and I'm sorry and thank you for voting yes because we have no choice so thank you thank you coming one one more thing one more thing when the buzzer goes off we're supposed to to stop talking and people were so eloquent tonight and the reason why and we have apologized as a union that we didn't act so professionally it's very hard when mud is getting slung into your face time after time not to do something so did we bang when the buzzer went off and someone was so disrespectful that they didn't respect the board the buzzer and their time yeah we did and I apologized but I didn't hear an apology for the person that went over and that is constantly bashing us and you have your right to your opinion I just hope that you base it in fact from now on and you like logic thank you [Applause] following up on that I would just like to remind everyone that public comment is a chance to address the board not to speak to the room and I'm not singling you out because it's been it's become a pattern and there actually is a reason for it it's time for the board to hear comments from the public and speaking to the room tends to invite and it hasn't tonight so I'm not judging anything tonight but it tends to invite a back and forth among the room and that's really not the purpose of public comment so I just wanted to put that reminder out there thank you anyone else public comment yes ma'am just come down have a seat hi I'm Donna Neil from forkid River New Jersey I just want to say make a few comments one is a nation divided will fall a state divided will fall and a city divided will fall I see a lot of division in the world today and in this room and I think we really need to come together and find Solutions I'd like to say that speaking as a senior citizen in the district and someone that has cancer um I really can't afford a tax increase I understand why the kids need it and I would never say anything against it however I listened to the last two board meetings and there was a lot of haggling going on and comments were made about senior citizens not loving their kids that's not true the grandparents are the ones that are out there really picking kids up from school and helping their families and it's a this tax increase will be a hardship but I understand it so my question to you is like the gentleman said what are we going to do in the future maybe one of the recommendations would be to get teachers parents seniors and vets and the board together in groups to try to decide what we're going to do next year before next year comes I don't know if that's a solution it's a suggestion but we can't wait till the end of next year to come up against what we're coming up now and causing more division we want our students to excel we're very proud of them we're my granddaughter loves her school the teachers are wonderful but I have to say and being honest and I don't want to be discriminated against either that you understand my feelings too as a senior it is very difficult it's not just the 99.9% tax it's the other taxes that are going to be coming out also that we don't even know about yet it's the food price increase it's the gasoline increase it's the the electric increase it's the water bill increase it's not one thing it's a lot of different things and the seniors that live in this town really help out I believe and and are there any other senior citizens here that are having a hard time raise your hand so mostly teachers are here today and we love our teachers and has has nothing to do against the teachers but again let's start thinking of ways now in the beginning of September of ways maybe we can have Town fundraisers maybe there's other solutions that people as as as a group can discuss where we can start now in planning what we're going to do for our future and our children and our t and our seniors and our vets thank you thank you for your [Applause] comment hello I'm Kim Wyland uh Tahiti drive in for River um I wasn't planning on speaking today but I wanted to um say a little bit about um my situation my family situation so my husband and I both grew up in this town we both graduated from school here we went out got our college degrees and we came back to Lacy Township to raise our families my siblings did the same thing they went out and got their professional degrees and they came back to Lacy Township because of the community that we are my children are in the school right now and they love being in this this District they work really hard in school and they're fortunate enough to be able to take advantage of all of our extra curricular activities marching band being one of the one for my daughter and um the idea of losing our extracurricular activities and losing our teachers and increasing our our classroom size it's so disheartening and the idea that it's a one time at 99.9% increase and I realized that's a lot of money for some people but we all have budgets right our family budgets as best they can and this will be another increase in our budget but we're willing to do it because of the children and they deserve an equal education I'm I know that there probably were some blunders maybe by the Board of Education in the past but those those blunders should not our children should not bear those blunders on their education currently they did nothing wrong and they don't deserve to be in these you know overpopulated classes and not have a full rounded education like my husband and I did here in Lacy Township we we we got a wonderful education we were able to go on and become professionals and bring that education back to Lacy Township and that's what we were hoping for our children as well so I'm imploring you to please vote Yes on this budget so that my children can experience the wonderful education that I did and my husband did and my siblings did and that's why we came back here to Lacy Township and I'm and like I said no one wants to increase their taxes no one wants to add to their budget but this is really important for the future of the children in this Township these these children are grow going to grow up to be doctors and lawyers and nurses and take care of all of these all of us but if we don't give them the education that they deserve what's going to happen when they go home from school at 1:50 and parents don't get home until 5:00 6 o'clock because parents are working two jobs and now they're left to their own devices well we know what happens then right we can do the best that we possibly can to keep an eye on our kids but if you take away the things that they value like their extracurriculars and if they're being lost in their classroom they're not going to they're not going to want to go to school they're not going to want to take get this education and I'm just Loring you to please vote Yes so that our children can have this well-rounded education that they deserve thank you very much thank you for coming okay I'm going to circle back to the people that um have went already uh and hit that time limit Mr homberg all right so I went back and for back and forth and whether or not I was going to stand up here a second time um but I got a little nudge from Michelle to do so so I figured um might clear my conscience a little bit um I consider myself a man of faith I attend church because I want to every Sunday and every Sunday I listen to the sermon sometimes more than other Sundays and I try to figure out how it's applicable to my week and uh it's usually about loving people and accepting people doing the right thing that's basically what church boils down to um good Common Sense practice just for humans and um I did uh come to that meeting and speak but before I spoke I made some choices um that I would like to apologize for for myself um Mrs nimic was my principal for four years three years and She always reminded the kids to choose kind and I did not choose kind that night and so to Mr bidnick I went to apologize for my behavior in uh clapping over top of you and banging on the tables um I did so because you did not resp respect the time that doesn't matter all right we teach our kids it doesn't matter reason you just don't do it and um I didn't take my own daily advice my frustration with you grows we have difference of opinions but we have common interest too we have commonality on Lacy New Jersey uh Facebook group you were out in force with the troops um advocating for the town to do the right thing with Community Hall I wholeheartedly agree as a taxpayer in this town with no history going back decades but I believe that the right thing should be there there so we have some commonality not necessarily in this regard but I apologize to you for doing that while you were trying to exercise your constitutional right but I hope you understand why I didn't doesn't excuse my behavior so I apologize um so uh we share common interests okay um but I think now okay so we need to go to the point where we it's a call to action so you have a captive audience you are an organizer um so my call to action for you and anybody else who um um is would like to uh Run for the school board there's three requirements to run for the school board you must be a resident of this town you must be 18 years of age so yes you can be a high school senior and theoretically 18 years old beond the board by law and you have to speak English that's it and you just go in you get some signatures and you could run for the board um we could also use your help rallying the troops in Trenton where it matters because this this is an issue that we did not create Trenton created the issue and that's where we could use you while we're in the classroom we could use you rallying the troops like you did in front of Community Hall and and go there and meet with lawmakers and exercise your other right freedom of expression and assemble assembly um so I like some of the ideas that some people came up what are we going to do what are the next steps it's great question we're we're always just keeping our head above the water that it's hard to think what we're going to do when we reach the shore but I have some ideas and I've talked to some people in some prominent places Toms River schools I worked for Toms River schools before I came here I was there for one year uh Mr Raco was my superintendent for all of his flaws um he was aggressive in making sure that the burden was not on the taxpayers and for that reason they now have a bubble which if you drive past Super Avenue on the bubble they are constantly fill with school buses people in there running I don't know why people run actively but that's what they do they have a cafe cafe 1144 it's attached to this big complex down front street from the mall he bought the whole thing and he leases most of it to like Financial investors and he buil a cafe and you can go there and you can order a sandwich and a cup of coffee and it supports the the school district um he has uh an arena that used to be named after him but isn't so much any more and um and I went to see shows there and at one time when I was brand new to the area there was a Tom's River Arts Festival and I saw Maroon 5 for the first time when they were brand new there and I didn't like the concert but then I saw them in Vegas and I really did like the concert um but I saw the Mir first in Tom's River New Jersey and all these things now that doesn't exist anymore but he tried and um so we have that we send our students to the ice rink out of town to play hockey and we send our students to polls out of town to swim and we send we I attended with Michelle we went and saw an awesome show uh Billy Joel Elton John knockoff show it was most wonderful thing I could ever do and be home within 15 minutes down at the Performing Arts Center the stack the Stafford Township Ark Center and it costs money to make money but we can't keep doing what we're doing we can't keep saying I don't know we're going to do they didn't give us our taxes or please don't raise my taxes um we have to figure out how to form partnership uh they were going to build a brand new Township building in town and they're not anymore but maybe if we propose some sort of collaboration with the township where we could have something that these kids can do because once the beach shuts down and it's cold the time up yes sir thank [Music] you Mr Senza and again I appreciate your consiliary tone but I really got to ask please don't address the crowd address the board and specifically don't call out other people speak directly to other people the audience but Mr homberg was so funny he should do a comedy show we could make a lot of money with that Regina descends a Sunset Drive Sunrise Beach in case anyone noticed I'm wearing my team 147 shirt from the November 2019 election I think s noticed and that election was slightly controversial why because if team 147 had won that Bo election with me or already on the board the taxpayers would have had the majority vote of four and the powers that be were well aware of that I walked to 7,000 homes in this community that's summer and fall we the taxpayers came very close I never spelled it out for people because I was an existing board member and was limited by what I could say and do I was prosecuted for ethics charges because I failed to give a disclaimer that I was speaking as a private citizen when when I did a YouTube video promoting team 147 the week before the election and since I went to film it right after a school function I had also failed to remove my badge it was done in haste and I paid the price I did not try to appeal my violation Mr jodano on the other hand has run up thousands in bills trying to appeal his censure and findings of Ethics violation I'm working on adding up all the legal bills it's close to $200,000 but I wasn't able to finish that this afternoon I was hated and this board attempted to ous me and didn't give me one Fleet and didn't give one fleeting thought to the price the students would pay by the legal action they took against me worse yet it could have been done in public for free same as I did when a board member needed to be removed for extreme unexcused absence and I was able to do it off camera because in those days the agenda meetings were not filmed and all seven of us were together next point you are only board members in a legally constituted setting Mr Peters which is this meeting this room I understand you've been answering constituent emails who at the New Jersey Schoolboard Association said you could do that I'd really like to know I was taught not to answer constituent emails even though you just tried to be polite and say thank you for your comment emails are supposed to be directed to the superintendent for replies and answers not you that's why she gets paid the big bucks it's called acting alone and we're prohibited from that board members are volunteers not employees and you do not run the day-to-day operations you've also been micromanaging at times also discouraged and prohibited an ethic suit could be brought against you in a moment's notice but it won't be done by me other people watch these meetings did you really think I would just cry and resign when I got the charges I'm Italian Sicilian and I fight back so I C your sued we are still waiting 4 and A2 years for my final decision Mr razzy's final decision against Mr geodo and M Marcello's ethic suit against Mr jodano the wheels turned slowly and the price was very high pretty soon I'm going to start talking about stuff that only I know and some of it may be awful embarrassing thank you for allowing me to speak and think twice when you vote how many Lacy residents you're stabbing in the back it's criminal when you're doing this tax increase and 20% of lacy residents are on the the county SNAP program the voters better realize they need to make more careful choices in November please don't vote for existing board members key in your own name or better still get a petition and go on the ballot yourself only 10 signatures are needed and I'll notorized thank you thank you for your comment Mr Carl you're up next how your last name sir Warner sorry War good all right I apologize for last time I didn't realize it was rambling um but I do have some points I want to make out dealing with these Special Projects we always ran short of money trying to do them and when we dealt with the government we learned very quickly the easiest way to deal with them I'm sorry addressing you the easy way to deal with them was to make a matrix and spell out precisely what's going to be lost if a budget's not passed or we don't get received money from the government in this case from the state I hear a lot of words but they're vague oh safety for the students what do you mean explain it you don't get that oh equality education that's vague spell it out say this is what they're going to lose this is what they're going to gain if we had the budget if you're going to do this this is what we're going to sacrifice let them know that their heads are in The Noose and then we say we let you know you fail we're going to turn it around against you we know politicians are more interested in the image than they are about anything else let them know that they're going to hang if they don't do the right thing in my economics class I've learned you never never tax a population into Prosperity I know we've we're in a very tough situation here who has the money I I I understand a lot of people are saying oh I'm willing to pay I'm willing to pay but most of the time when I hear that's from a teacher are they I'm I'm going to ask you I respect all of you you going to get a raise to help pay for it I'm not that's that's the boat I'm in should there be a raise in the budget well if you've been waiting for what since 2018 am I correct 2018 was it question or whatever um oh okay well you you need to budget to incre I understand things are costing more I understand that but I I think there needs to be a real we we in the industry learned that we had to be very strategic we had to start early we don't think tactically oh let's do it tomorrow because Wednesday we're going to need it and today's and tomorrow's Tuesday no you got to plan years ahead and start pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing that's what I don't see happening here and it's very important and if you're really really serious about this budget increase please don't take me wrong here why don't you guys sacrifice some of your salaries we don't for that they don't get a salary at all nothing all volunteers sir it's against the law thank you then volunteer your time your efforts volunteer with ferocity against the government the the the state government to get money here because they're always going to look for the weakest link and they're going to push you down you got to work together in solidarity not everyone had their own little routine you got to work it now I'm sorry I'm not trying to make any enemies but there's the only way we're going to solve this because we solve it this time around and I believe taxation without representation is not a good idea ask the people and let the people know what's up I know you try I realize I realize I know some of us aren't so bright I understand that but I'm I'm asking you please please make it a strategic effort not a tactical effort I feel like everything's tactical all right that's all thank you sir just be careful Mr Homer's going to help [Applause] you Mr soer oh I'm sorry thank you go ahead thank you for being on hi again as I stated previously I'm also a student of lacy Township High School um I don't want to sound um disrespectful or rude at all um I understand everybody's opin opinions everybody's entitled to their own opinion and I completely understand that but I just want to let you guys know that we are your future we're your future we're students but we're your future we your future electricians doctors teachers lawyers Etc and I know I know this is a difficult decision to make and I'm only 16 yes I understand that but I'm aware about money I'm self-aware about everything I know what's happening like I know money is tight for some of us okay I understand that um but some things we just we just need to push through I understand it's difficult but we just this I'm up here pleading for a second time I've been begging at almost every single board meeting I went to the State House basically begging I sat in a wooden chair for over six hours with my friend and that hurt yes and I was hungry it ran out of food but um I sat there pleading and I'm pleading again today because I'm I'm tired I'm exhausted I just I need I need everybody in this room especially the board to know that I'm I'm tired I'm exhausted of hearing the same things over and over again I'm I'm tired I know you guys work extremely hard day and night all I understand you guys are amazing um but I beg of you to please say yes I we are your future please invest in your future thank you thank you for your [Applause] com you know what I'm going to let go my last five minutes and I'm going to leave at exactly what she said because I think she summed it up perfectly okay thank you Mary Joe she's here [Music] that would have been embarrassing um so thank you for letting me get back up um the only way to move towards a better situation is by seizing the opportunity before us while this may not be our preferred course of action it is the right decision for our students it is our responsibility to prioritize their well-being I sincerely thank you for your time and attention to this matter I also extend my gratitude to all those who have taken the time to write letters send emails make calls and attend meetings and advocate for Lacy Township in Trenton especially since January so thank you for your continued support and dedication to our school community and to whatever brings us [Applause] next okay wish to spoke I'm closing public comment did you run out of time yeah you were okay goad you're welcome okay sometimes when I speak it might sound like I'm very frustrated and I am because I've been at this for a very long time a lot of you don't know the slightest thing about my professional background my life background how diverse it has been I actually ran a unionized institution I understand how these unions work I had to deal with them um to me personally they are a real challenge for any organization who has to deal with them it's just a matter of a fact so on another notion as I said at one of the other meetings yes he did I love it thank you God um so anyway um we have order please while he speaking it sounds like it's just a duck work yeah the okay thank you sorry okay um we have order please yeah please thank you so anyway I asked this at the meeting that I was rudely disrupted at by the teachers union uh this actually stopped started way before I went over my time and I went over my time because two individuals before I spoke actually were given more time and if you're going to do that for one person you have to do it for everyone sorry to say it seems biased and discriminatory because certain people don't want to hear the message of maybe other people and other opinions but this I have to ask the teachers union okay a lot of you live in this town please just direct the no yes and you are asking all of us taxpayers all of us to sacrifice but I haven't heard anything I know you haven't sacrificed anything you haven't come to the board and you haven't said okay we'll take back no raises this year because we understand we don't want to hurt the senior citizens in our town the people who maybe can't afford to live here okay you talk about empathy this is a good opportunity Unity for your union to actually come back to our community and say we really do care about our community not only about our own little world that we live in and yes you sp you know the meeting's 4:00 so it's filled with the teachers union and um you know so you can come up here and you could speak and speak and speak and there's not enough people who are working who could come here and be able to speak and I beseech you quite frankly it works both ways you know what your union should get together and come together and make a proposal to this school board about what you are willing to give back and at least go halfway so we only have to have a 5% increase that is my recommendation I'm sure you would get so much more support from our community if you did that so on another note I just want to finish off with a couple of things because I've been at this for a long time and I've recommended a lot of things some of the stuff were brought up tonight one was by Mrs Neil when she said you know about having a committee uh of citizens for the budget one of the proposals that I had when I actually had three candidates who were running in 2019 which Regina was part of as as part of our team was to have a Citizens committee on the budget I actually gave this information to the board I think it was last year of the Year again again did they ever ever act on it no they didn't okay also I recommended that they give the vote back to the public so we could vote on the budget have they ever done it no they haven't done it so if I'm frustrated I have a really good reason to be frustrated and there are people here too who say Oh Mr bidik you know you should run for office you know what my power is in my voice and you can't speak as freely as I do when you are a politician no one can muzzle me and it does take a lot of Courage I hope that there are actually young people in our community who whether you agree with me or not can realize it takes a lot of Courage I have fought not only here with the township committee yes I was one of the people who stopped that $100 million Municipal complex which would have raised our property taxes by 2.6 million a year under the town's budget yes I fought it yes I knew about it where were all of you exactly where were you do I get a thank you from any of you for probably saving you 20,000 or $25,000 in future taxes no nothing yes I am involved in Saving property of historic significance because I believe in history I'm I'm a very well-educated person two master's degrees have run several nonprofit institutions four government institutions I was the youngest person in this country to be appointed as state librarian when I was 29 years old of Rhode Island yes I know nothing according to a lot of you people I have been involved in education my whole life I'm a classically trained pianist I even in two documentary films I have lectured all over the world what do you know about me well I'm telling you a little bit about me I demand respect by people who think that they know but they don't thank you very much thank you for your time going to move on to board comment start Mr conedy please we've been talking about this since January February one thing that all of us up here uh agree on to assume nobody want wants to do this nobody um as taxpayer again I don't um I'm in favorite for the children and the children alone um that's all I have thank [Applause] you Mr thank you I think you already know my vote um I said it the last time we we U voted on this tentatively and I'm confused I'm confused why my note vote means I don't care about our students teachers and administrators it bothers me I too am the beneficiary of having three children graduate from this school three of them they're all doing amazing right and one at Coastal Carolina one who went to St John's University one who's at OCC right now and they're doing phenomenal because of this school body this school district okay my youngest went up to the eth grade here and he made a choice to go to private school and he's in all aror classes now and that's because of this school district he was educated properly he knows how to add properly he knows how to divide properly he knows how to research he knows how to analyze you know to do all those things and that's because it is School District so to say that my no vote means I don't care I find that offensive I find it offensive because I do care because I did put kids through the school district and I do pay my taxes while another kid is at another school I'm not complaining about it what I'm complaining about is how does it fix the problem I had a teacher just before come up here and say that the school sizes are going up and it'll prevent kids from analyzing researching and all that stuff I grew up in a world where there's 35 Kids and More in my classroom I'm 60 years old today and I know how to analyze and I know how to research and I know how to make sound decisions and I know how to stand up for myself I think what's missing is the discipline in the classroom to make sure that our kids do what they're supposed to do and not fight back as much as they do my voting on a budget that raises taxes 9.9% while knowing we're are going to be $7 million in the whole next year doesn't make sense to me I want to open the doors next year and that's what 99.9% means it means that we get to put the key in the door we get to turn on the lights and we get to go like this and hope that we fight for another year just doesn't make sense and I'm going to say it again I did not call Trenton and email Trenton to beg for a tax increase I called Trenton and I emailed Trenton because I wanted money back because there is money to get back that's the fight I want to be in that's the fight I want to be in okay I don't want to be in a fight to say it's okay to raise taxes I'm I'm a republican not a rhino okay I believe in the nucleus at a home I believe in mom and dad I believe in all these things that may not be popular today but that's my belief and I have that right to fight for it as an elected official but I'm going to elected official for everyone in this community and not just the school community so my obligation my responsibility as I always hold it high and first and foremost to our teachers and students but guess what there are retired people that look at me and ask for help too there's nothing wrong with that that's my responsibility I know I took this job I know why I wanted to be elected I ran three times I ran three times to sit in this seat my first year I was in this seat they didn't allow me to be on any any committee because I fought against your child's well-being when during covid I said I don't want to wear a mask okay that's why I didn't get elected to I didn't get put on any committees my second year I got put on a couple of bogus committees this year I'm on some committees that make sense all right I'm on finance committee I I I I did not sit in finance and say I'm okay with 99.9% I'm I'm I'm like that's what they're giving us it is what it is right but please my no vote doesn't mean I don't care about you people that educate our children that's just wrong and that's ignorance and that's just like a little kid jumping up and down give me what I want or I'm going home and that's not fair because my job as an elected official is to make the right financial decisions for everyone in this community whether they teach here or not whether they grew up here or not and whether they lived here for their whole life or not it's for everyone so I like this school I love this town I've been committed to this town I've ran the Basketball Association here okay for many years okay free never took a penny for it I've volunteered my time I've taught CCD I read at church I do whatever I got to do to be involved in this Community because long time ago my father said to me if you want to have a big mouth you better have something to stand on and that means you better be involved in the community and that's why I elect I I ran for this seat and that's why I think I deserve the right to speak as a board member today it may not be the the opinion of everybody sitting on this desce but I hope it's a respected opinion and not that anyone finds personal I too am a father I too am a husband I have five people in my home that I'm responsible for I have to make financial decisions that are right for them just like you have to make financial decisions that are right for you I'm not not I am not ashamed as I sh a couple weeks ago that I am unemployed right now but I don't care I don't use that as an excuse we fight forward we come together as a family we do what we have to do as a family I heard someone mention peanut butter and jelly here look at my pantry it's filled with it we love it too all right there's nothing to be ashamed about taking back a little bit there's nothing to shame be ashamed about be unemployed it's what you do while you're down on your knees and you have to go forward and I'm getting up every day and I go forward finding a job today is a full-time job you know that it's a full-time job and guess what I'm not young anymore either so I'm not exactly the the the prototypical candidate when it comes to jobs but I fight and I move on you know why cuz I have the support of a community I have the support of a family I have the support of friends and that's what we should be doing today so if I don't agree with you doesn't make me a bad guy if I don't agree with you doesn't mean I want you to lose your job if I don't agree with you it doesn't mean I don't want you to get a raise it just means I don't believe in the same thing as you do that doesn't make his enemies so as we vote tonight and you don't get the vote you want from some of us sitting here D don't boo us don't hiss us we don't boo you and hiss you when you come up here and talk so you know give us the same common courtesy that you want from us sitting here at this days it's a lot of money to ask for a lot of people and I know it's probably going to pass tonight but again I ask you and I and I I'll say it again just because I said no doesn't mean I don't care because I do care all you got to do is look at my record since I moved into this town I've been involved I put my face forward I've taken the hits and I kept moving forward so thank you for your time good luck to whatever happens tonight Mr [Applause] Bell I've never had an Applause and my name was just mentioned right it is a tough tough situation um I remember my dad telling me a story that my grandfather had a fit when G gas went to 30 cents a gallon anybody here would like to see gas at 30 cents a gallon yeah um increase is always going to happen uh I've been in Lacy 24 years I believe that education begins in the home um and I believe it begins with the man um it's not something that we should just pass off to the wives uh yes moms are better at it uh but the men should be leading it so I made a decision in 2003 to take my oldest and put him in a private school where I could control what he believed what he was taught and I took care of him had to pay for that my out of my own pocket while paying taxes to my town to educate the children at Lacy Township I've kind of looked at it this way that's my scholarship fund from my local community um this year and I think this is already clear um I'll be just adding a little bit more to the scholarship fund out of my pocket uh for the Lacy Township community um there's a lot of different views a lot of different opinions a lot of different thoughts we even had it identified tonight that there's a lot of misinformation um and I I have it comes down to this for me I have to decide number one what I'm willing to do and number two what I think is best to do even if I don't like it I don't want to pay more taxes uh but I think in this scenario uh it's the best thing to do I do like the question what are we doing going forward I think there's a lot of things we can change I think there's things we can adjust I think I'd like to get to the place where we don't even care if the state ever sends us any more money that's a big deal um but the reality is we're going to have to make some changes we're going to have to do some things and uh I would encourage this go see what goes on in the classrooms go see what the teachers do go see how the teachers treat the children um I was in a classroom not too long ago and there was a young girl who was wanting to ask a question and she was trying to get it out and I saw a teacher just approach her and say it's okay just take it slow uh and the whole class just sat there anticipating while she got out her question um and I thought in that moment it's worth supporting this uh because these are the kind of teachers and these are the kind of kids nobody laughed at her nobody pointed their finger they just sat there and waited for her to get out her question um it comes down to individual for me uh I'm a pastor people are my thing budgets are not um but the reality is lazies has been putting out some awesome people for Generations if it costs us a little more to do that at this point I'm okay with it that's all I [Applause] have Mr M hi everyone um so I prepared a statement so I didn't go off on a tangent as a dedicated member of this board I must express my strong opposition to the proposed tax increase from 2% to 99.9% this nearly 10% hike is a short-term fix for this year's budget only that will place an undue financial burden on our taxpayers while still leaving our district and a $7 million deficit for the next fiscal year this approach is neither sustainable or responsible next year we'll be sitting here again asking for either more taxpayer money or possibly reducing staff increased class sizes are never desirable and I remember when I was running when I sat with um some teachers and I I agree class smaller class size is absolutely the best unfortunately we're not in that situation right now um however the concerns raised about dramatically larger class sizes I heard numbers up to 65 if this budget does not pass or unfounded there are specific square footage regulations for each classroom I think someone said 800 but I think it's about 700t that's what I was told per room so there there are specific square footage regulations for each classroom that can't be surpassed making some numbers being thrown around unrealistic and unattainable our board president has stated every possible Avenue has been exhausted but I disagree it seems this board has taken the path of least resistance by placing the burden on taxpayers and instilling fear rather than finding Solutions what if the governor didn't approve the 99.9% increase we would most definitely would be sitting here and we would found a way to keep our schools thriving and we would have made it work we would not have closed our doors this year we are we all understand that um failing our children is not an option and as s mentioned we have four children so we all understand that failing our children is not an option and our primary duty is to ensure their education but it's not to impose excessive taxation on our neighbors families and small businesses last meeting Mr Peter suggested that the district only taking 2% or less in previous years was almost like a favor to the the community in reality it was simply adherence to the 2% tax cap as those that vote Yes today are proof that if we didn't have the cap more money would always be taken if passports have been nepped at financial management it's our responsibility to rectify it we must work together and stop spending money we do not have by increasing taxes 9.9% now we're merely kicking the can down the road instead of addressing issues head on and becoming a financially sound District we need need to demonstrate fiscal responsibility and explore alternative Solutions with or without the tax increase our school district will continue to educate our children our doors will never shut and our district will survive our job is to make our district fiscally sound to stop surviving we need to start thriving and this tax increase is not going to have us Thrive it's just providing us another year it's another Band-Aid we owe it to our community to manage our finances responsibly without resorting to excessive taxation that burdens our families you know I know some people say it's only a coffee it's only this no it's it's maybe someone's electric bill it's someone's gas bill it's someone's food for the night it's someone's medical bill someone going to the doctor so all everyone is in a different financial situation and what the government has done once again has just turned us against each other and it's sad our board commitment must be Sustainable Solutions not short-term fixes because claiming it's only for this year is unfounded especially when our district will have $7 million deficit next year uh everyone's talking you talked about your your father or your grandma my grandma told me years ago when they when they built the the parkway it was only going to be for one year once the roads were paid for there' be no more taxes there there'd be no more tolls I don't even know what we pay for tolls now because we have easy pass but I know they're really high because about $200 gets taken out every month out of my bank account so when people tell you it's only for one year never believe that the state once again divided us next year we're going to be sitting here again looking at you telling you we don't have the money maybe raising your taxes again or laying off teachers again this is a one-year bandaid I do not want anyone to lose their jobs I do not want larger class sizes but the 9.9% is going to take care of this year but your taxes are never going to come down they're only going to continue to increase and that's all I have to say and and again my vote no does not mean I do not care about the teachers nor that I don't care about the students because I love this town I have a business in this town and we've been here about 18 years and I don't plan on going anywhere so thank you Mr Walker oh sorry um just mine's going to be very brief um I just want to um say that our students in Lacy Township the school district has always in my opinion been a great school district has a changed somewhat maybe but Society is sure it's changed look at our own board meetings how they've changed over time our students deserve not only a good education but in that good education I believe that includes activities Sports things that keep our students involved and active so they stay out of trouble so they're in school making friends having good mental um Health with their friends so I am voting for my vote's going to be yes because I just feel we owe it to our students and that's all I have to say Yes um first I'd like to address Steve we did talk about um the busing situation in finance but it was only two days after our meeting so we open the conversation uh we're going to do it again the next Finance meeting so we are talking about it um but it will be a significant cost to us um so but we'll get you the numbers okay yeah I just wanted you to know we it wasn't ignored um Mr bidnick I I'm not I don't really understand why um you and Mr Senza who she left would call out individual board members um to either intimidate or embarrass about any situation that they're in we should be working together as a community I take your emails very seriously when they come um I try to investigate every question that you have um but I just don't think it's called for and it's it's just unappropriate to bring up Financial things it's just not right um I don't vote on what I have um I govern the best I can for what the people in our town need so I just want you to know that um I don't think it's I don't think it's right and I hope you don't do it again because it's I think a little embarrassing for not me but for you and Miss desena she said there's plenty more to come so I don't know whatever so during our last board meeting we were asked by a few board members to reconsider the yes vote so I thought about it and recognize that their concerns were valid I also recognize that by not capturing the $4.2 million we would never be able to do what we were elected to do and that is to provide a thorough and efficient education as board members we walk a fine line when making decisions for our taxpayers we work hard in our finance meeting to cut any and all NE unnecessary bills this year we have cut $6.5 million Al loone so to think we are not being fiscally responsible is dead wrong with those cuts we have cut an additional 35 Staff members courtesy busing cut significant amounts to Athletics and extracurricular activities slashing building funds for maintaining our aging buildings and unfortunately we had to cut a significant amount to our educational budget we are not overspending some may think this is a Band-Aid I do not I think it's a stepping stone in the right Direction Mr armado last meeting you brought up how impressive Ridgewood High School was in Bergen County yes I am sure it is very impressive they have beautiful maintained schools and Fields but what more what's more impressive is they have a student teacher ratio of 13 to one will we have a 40 to one after tonight I hope not they also receive the same amount of state aid that we do $7 million but what do they have that we don't have money they just approved their budget for $138 million Lacy is 71 I'm going to repeat that they approved $138 million we have 71 they pay almost double through taxes in 2018 we received 21 million in state aid with the 2% cap put in place today we are down to 7 million maintaining our 7 $71 million budget I think the cuts think about all the cuts that were made over the years in 2015 our school ranking was 180 today it's 329 do you know what that other school is they're ranked 21 so funding makes a difference 100% makes a difference you have to recognize there is a direct correlation between funding and ranking the decrease in ranking started when the S2 began and no vote would cut an additional 40 to 50 staff members on top of the 35 we cut this year reducing are full-time Paris to part-time cut all extracurricular activities and more we are not asking to use this money for frivolous things we are advocating for the parents who do not want their child in a classroom size of 40 to 45 students it's not fair and we all know they will not learn many kids will be left behind this money will also be used for maintaining our special needs students consistency with our special needs students a group who needs the most most indiv individual attention it will be used for repairing not replacing falling roofs HVAC units and our aging buildings again it's our duty as the Lacy Township Board of Education members to advocate for the students while being mindful to the taxpayers wearing two hats one for the taxpayers and one for the students this increase will satisfy both increasing home values directly correlates with providing our students with an excellent education our ranking will continue to decline if this is not passed I urge everyone to reconsider their vote if they're a no and vote yes thank you so I had the opportunity the last uh two nights to uh give a speech at graduation to both the middle school and high school I had the opportunity to shake hands to give out diplomas for the middle school students and uh made an air contact with a bunch of them I just said there's no possible way I can do it there's no possible way I can vote no um knowing that um you know the situation that would be in financially if if we did not pass this budget tonight um I Mr s you left early and I know you watched the meeting so I'm hope you're listening to me because I love to I just can't stand they up there take shots at you and we can't take them back so but I'm not taking a shot back I'm just stipulating something um you mentioned that 20% of lacy taxpayers AR Mr bedick can you hear me okay hi okay so um uh I understand that um she mentioned that 20% students are on food stamps can you imagine if this budget did not pass tonight would it be like for that 20% of the students that couldn't afford to play sports that couldn't afford to play that would have to pay to play couldn't afford um music and band and whatnot afterwards it is much cheaper to educate than pay for them to be incriminated right so um it's just to the point where I just can't imagine these kids getting home at 150 and nothing to do nothing to do whatsoever whether it's band whether it's R Class whether it's football whether it's baseball soccer travel uh g&t classes I mean what whatever it is um so uh I'm going to be a 100% yes that being said I would like to um ask for a motion to adopt the 2024 2025 school year budget do I have a motion please move second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado no Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado no Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes motion has been moved [Music] [Applause] can I please have a motion for adjournment second roll call please good night all in favor have a good night folks thank you