get meeting started roll call please Dr calino here Mr do here Mrs Fano here Mr Grow Mr Palama here Mr Peto here Mr raport here miss zuer here Dr Mo here miss F here Mr Sun United States ofer [Music] stand the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the M Township Board of Education provided a public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location that was posted at the Montville Township minicipal building all monville public schools the monville public library the monville Township Board of Education administrative office building the district website and advertised in the Daily Record the monville tap in and the which are both the board's official newspapers on January 28th 2024 High School record report um so we're going to do past present and future format for um starting off with the past so the mths had incoming student orientation which was on Wednesday February 7th at 700 p.m. incoming students and their parents got a first glimpse into high school life and the Bren and varied programs that mths has to offer three students created pieces of artwork that were selected to be exhibited at the prestigious fresh perspectives installation at the more Museum in Morristown New Jersey judges selected only 50 pieces from more than 250 submitted MTS senior Victoria Zine needle felting entitled sunrise on helica along with Junior Nicole SWS charcoal drwing called crumble and Junior Julia gella's self-portrait in sunlight done an acrylic paint off cvas for each exhibit exhibited on February 15th the Chinese Honor Society hosted a Chinese New Year Festival celebration for the year of the dragon from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. in the cafeteria the Dr the Year of the Dragon was celebrated with the Dragon Dance as well as ribbon dance and a fan dance singing instrumental performances a Han Fu demonstration and more students shared Hands-On cultural activities such as Chopstick games pingpong spinning handkerchiefs shuttlecock games origami dragon ribbon lessons Rubik's Cube games strategies the pinch pot game and hand food demonstration the SEC attended a student leadership conference at Madison High School they had an opportunity to hear from Mr James stroker who spoke about what it meant to be a leader Mr Connelly's international business practice firm classes competed in a business plan plan competition held by the virtual Enterprises program the charge County team played second overall and will advance the national competition in April and the Invision team plays fifth overall the MTS forensic team competed this past weekend at Harvard recently senior's Ryan son of Roby Advanced to become National Merit finalist this distinction places them in a group of 15,000 students representing less than 1% of the US High School graduating seniors a Holocaust Survivors visiting mths Holocaust and genocide students tomorrow in the auditorium he will share a story as a young boy living in Nazi Germany a select few students will also get to have lunch with him and ask more questions since they were finalists in his poster contest okay moving on to some things going on in sports we have girls basketball is entering the state tournament as the 13th seed and they hold a record of 10 to 13 they will play riverdell Regional High School away on Thursday the boys basketball team ended their season last week with a Tide record of 12 and 12 they did not have any graduating seniors on the team so we look forward to seeing them all again next season the team also ends their season with a ties record of 10- 10 their season ended last week in the state tournament but the players had many great individual career accomplishments oen continues their winning streak at 22 consecutive wins and an undefeated record they play Bergen cath tomorrow for the semi-final round for the state tournament the boys wrestling team ended their season last week losing in the state finals against M Valley they finished with the record of 18 and8 senior lucilo was named the district Champion six was placed in the top three and will also be moving on regionals the girls and boys swim teams had their most successful season in years and secured more wins this season that the past 10 seasons which is an amazing accomplishment they ended their season at the end of January and the boys ended with the record of three and seven while the girls ended five and six and then finally track and field continues as six athletes move on and compete at the group two championships met in the Armory Junior Runner Alex P mths on the map as if you the middle games two weeks ago now moving on to some things happening in the future we have the MTS musical which is going to be running from February 29th to March 3rd the tickets went on sale February 5th and the play this year is focus FDA will be having their annual state leadership conference trip to Harris in Atlantic City from March 11th to March 13th Key Club will be have in their annual volleyball marathon on March 8th signups for this open on February 14th and this year's theme is around the world where each team will aieve one pun to represent on March 18th a group of MTS students will be spending the day at hildale to teach the students there about financial literacy and then finally the annual K Feld trip to Philadelphia will be on Thursday March 21st thank you very much congratulations um super rep we have a pack house you know that's uh not for us so must be something else going on uh Mrs do you want to come up or all right so we have I'll just let you do the introductions all right great good evening good evening everyone um my name is Jo SAR I'm the principal as most of you know it's so nice to see so many parents here y on we have our fourth and fifth grade chorus um directed by Mr brand y good evening and thank you for having us uh I am Brandon peral and these are select fourth and fifth grade course members uh they'll be performing for you tonight America arranged by [Music] Sally [Music] my country a sweet land of liy of the [Music] I where my of [Music] [Music] from America I take of America land of liberty hear me as I [Music] sing I am always bu briide as I Ro this country from each and every [Music] [Music] let the liberty and I sing I am [Music] country thank you so mind stand one two [Music] three beautiful you [Music] guys I to the they wanted to say something to us before we go second it was a great performance we're so proud of all of you a couple of meetings might even been the last meeting we had the opportunity to see the Lazar uh chorus and for those who didn't get a chance to see it that was an exceptional performance when I say exceptional I just mean that Middle School courses just shouldn't be that good it's something special so I really hope that all of you especially the fifth graders will stick with it and when you get to Lazar join that course also because it's an exceptional experience and you won't regret it it's a it's a Once a lifetime experience I just can't say that strongly and I think that at the same meeting I mentioned the reason we have such a good program here is because it start in the elementary school schools and you've done a wonderful job the kids are great I mean this is why m is well known for it outstanding new school in the high school as well as star but thank you all for the performance thank you for the [Applause] [Music] kind for a wonderful performance we really thank you thank you to all the parents for everything you're doing to help us support us and to bring your students out tonight really appreciate Georgie that was great I love your [Music] hair [Music] today [Music] [Music] [Music] so each quarter we bring up a representative B SCH so we from one extreme to the other Mr n is going to talk about the academics here at the high [Music] school evening um I won't be [Music] S ton Stars Nom uh tonight STS we by members of one of five different categories and the winners were selected by the administrative Committee in addition to the recognition of these wonderful students Sunrise sh generously donates $1,000 in the class of 2024 please join me and Cong graduate each of Our Stars this evening in the field of academics congratulations to Rachel p teachers phenomenal her show similar sentiments Rach was one of the most thoughtful reflective and dedicated students that they ever had the pleasure to teach Rachel has demonstrated the passion for Learning and the desire for growth is demon that by an increasingly challenging course each of last four years for example Rachel took just three honors level classes during the freshman year before one year later by junior year was three Lev classes and is Tak four this year not including our brand new science design research although Rachel 4 plus GPA is impressive her true goal is the master review content and collaboration of PE to accomplish the latter goal Rachel is involved in several extra activities as editor and chief of podian rual the dedicated team carefully revises and edits staff articles to maintain high quality content Rachel also serves as the Secretary of mths pe's leaders and this yourself imentor providing support to students throughout the year as mainly every class lastly as the family member and president of project smile Rachel initially the chapter to bring joy to Pediatric Hospital States through successful fundraisers Rachel was able to purchase stories for children in hospitals based on Hospital wish lists and often personally makes Hospital business spr days of pediatric patients Rachel received acceptance letters to many top universities and still decided on where to attend school in the fall plans to pursue a career in pediatric occupational therapy congratulations [Applause] in the field of Athletics congratulations to Alexis Ry [Applause] as one of the only female students to ever participate on our Varsity ice hock team Alexis seemingly makes history and adds to her impressive way of accomplishments each time she hits the X for example Alexis is a two-time recipient of the doc cross Defensive Player of the Year Board and winner of the 2023 shed P Alexis also received an NC ssih Vision on Di menion and earn spot on the allar team additionally just a few weeks ago Alexus reported her 1000 sa which is a remarkable milestone for high school hockey from monville only two other students have achieved the statistic in our history in club hockey Alexis started recognition as an Atlantic girls Hockey Federation Allstar in 2023 through New Jersey Bandits 19 18am and achieved District Champion status in 2022 with the New Jersey for uh 16 Alexis was also selected for the aaha girls District C in 2023 Alexis's talents extend to flag cball where she earned B divisional reward and was LE for the second team offense as a running back in the New Jersey high school girls FL beyond the r at field Alex eared the Excellence Award of Visual Arts for Jun year and is taking a rigorous course CAD this year including two AP classes is still deciding on which universities to attending the fall the P Maj of architecture and aspires to continue their ice career at again [Applause] congratulations the field of the artarts congratulations to Joseph Oso for the past four years Jo's B our state incredible performances fueled by an unmatched passion and love for the artist currently playing the role of renom fo's Joe's dedication to our theater program culminating leadership roles as the choir president and president of the long F Joe's leadership in these roles highlight his commitment to fostering a Artic Community within our school additionally Joe is an inductee into the tri and music Honor Society coreography for the nths AIC gr impulse uh Joe also mened his musical talents to prent outside mths for example Joe is the second ranked 10er one in the prestigious New Jersey all state courts Joe is also actively engaged in supporting all community service volunteering at the Mayo Performing Arts compy which brings musical C to hospitals nursing homes fundraisers and other events more loly Joe getes back to our community Through reach and works to support income students to Joe is also inducted into the National Honor Society maintain the 4.1 plus GPA dur junor Joe has still decided which college to attend the fall but has auditioned over 15 programs in pursuit of a Bachelor of Fine Arts music F again congratulations [Applause] in the field of community service congratulations to [Applause] auro [Applause] aa's service to our local community extensive for the past several years she's been a valuable member of Pathways peer mentors reach Ed rocks and conversations to m in these clubs AA supports a wide range of people elderly adults with demena children with disabilities pure struggling with mental health and the underprivileged Ava is most known for her incredible work to cre the chapter of best buddies of Ms the best buddies program Fosters inclusion and acceptance of a population and A's leadership and as chapter president has L us some exceptional lasting relationships in The Bu aa's kindness compassion for others and evenness to help has also led to some other positive changes for example AA was at the Forefront of an initiative to organize an assembly introducing the lighthouse colum Columbia Lighthouse project on student mental health and suicide here internship aw with leaders of this project including the director of stany Parker to assist the campaigns to support G able Works to make the lives of those who struggle arounder better and there is no greater service than to put the needs of others over your own in addition to the time she spends volunteering a offer you TS through the Italian a society and National a society additionally AA is the leader on the Varity M team role model in the classroom proudly maintaining a 4.4 question AA just learned that she uh was offered acceptance into the top schools and still wai inside she to attend receiving a generous scholarship one of them uh she does ADV to major in Psychology in Fall congratulations in the field of leadership congratulations to L more stands as the exemp student who takes pride of these multifaceted leadership rols across various groups of organizations as the New Jersey fbl state Leed Master he represents over 7,000 members revitalizing the chapter website and coordinating Statewide conferences and workshops his dedication is further evident as the president of the mon Township high schools F chap where he needs a sizable membership and community service guest people events and comp Endeavors a has red notable personal achievements including second place nationally and the E business competitive and first place at the state level as vice president of forensics he not only leads a team of instructors but has also achieved mical success in debates qualifying for National tournaments and earing High placement and numerous competitions the Rob's leadership extends the computer where he organizes beats in various opportunities urging earning prestigious Awards such as the payback scholarship challenge winner and cyber start National scol as the captain of Mt just LS AR has led his team to Regional victories state championships and World Championship qualifications his commitment to community service is also reflected in his role as team monitor for SE National contributing over 100 hours of commun service and environmental additionally Rob is the captain of the junior vars tennis team active member of reach induct the Spanish armor Society National armor society and his recently you heard tonight selected as a National Merit Scholarship finalist solidifying his status as an upstanding student Rob has still decided which university attend in the fall but PL to in computer science and again congratulations to a and to all [Applause] cic [Music] p [Applause] thank you for coming out tonight you're welcome to stay and join us we're going to have our audit report and we to rest of board meeting but if some you have some school work to do tonight we [Music] understand these board meetings are are just wonderful uh opportunities for us to just showcase wonderful work that our students are doing and it's just great to get just a little smattering of what's going on every day in our school so we really appreciate the teachers as well as the students coming out tonight and of course the parents support uh so that's a lot of the good news and we're going to continue with the good news I want to thank um the business office for doing such a wonderful job with our uh budget over the past several years and this L want to introduce our guest speaker tonight um just as a background at the end of each year all of these great things that occur with the kids are basically boiled down into dollars and cents and then reported as part of a annual comprehensive financial report that document tells the story and numbers of all the different things that went on during the school year to the kids to staff to everything that went on and so at the end of that we have the our auditors the district Auditors from lunch C Higgins to come in and do an audit of that comprehensive annual financial report and I'd like to introduce Rob hay who's going to do a presentation on that report and the outcome of the audit y facts to follow after that but everyone heard the audit and they uh can't um so as said this is a pre presentation on your 2223 annual audit so this was for your fisc year end June 30th 23 uh it's an a that's obviously required by the state we of all districts in the State uh there's two reports that are required to be filed with the state uh one is prepared by the district which is your annual comprehensive financial report includes all your financial statement your no disclosures required under generally accepted accounting principles and also in that report is our opinions our a opinions which is basically uh the end result of the the second uh report is what we call the AIT of management report that is discussing the results of the audit with any recommendations that would require corrective action as a result of our a procedures just to talk about the two reports a little bit in the comprehensive financial report like I said you receive three opinions from us all opinions one is on your financial statements on whether they're presented at any courts Which gener accounting principles uh second opinion is on your internal controls over your financial re that's more of a audit of your you know your day-to-day policies and procedures and how you arrive at your financial statement numbers uh third opinion is on your federal estate grant program so as you receive federal estate grants from all your different programs we're required to AIT specific programs to make sure you're in compliance with the requirements in all three opinions you receive what we call unmodified opinions basically the highest level of assurance we can give as ERS you basically start at that unmodified level and then if something happens during the a that would U have us reduce that level of insurance that would happen but in this instance you did so you have rece what we call three clean opinions or unmodified opinions on all three instances um talk about the numbers a little bit uh you end of the year uh your total fund balance which is really after all your revenues are collected from your budget and and your budget is spent you were down about $1.3 million from the previous year uh and that was really just the result of as the revenues and Appropriations are spent and you use some of the money to fund your budget that's really the end result at the end of the year but all in all have plenty of money left you have a capital reserve fund about 52 million left at the end of June the 23 of uncommitted funds that's really funds that are for future Capital purposes the board can choose to U withdraw that money during the year by board resolution for projects in the facilities plan for through your budget process to fund Capital Improvements of your facilities you also have about 1.8 million the maintenance Reserve every sing capital reserve is for maintenance of your buildings not so much Capital Improvement but maintenance of your existing facilities and again that money can be during the year by resolution or through your budget process and then what we call is your your end result is your Surplus balance your unassign fund balance about $2.6 million that's really your free and clear money moving forward into next year's budget cycle uh so as the 2425 budget commences that's the money you kind of have set aside Surplus moving into the next year um last year to give you comparison in the current year budget you're using about $1.7 million of your unsigned money to fund this year's budget so moving into next year you're you know you're ahead of where you are going into the next year so all all from a opinion standpoint I'm very positive receiving three unmodified opinions and your financials are pretty consistent with the previous year and I think uh in good standing we'll be F into your next year's budget uh just talk about the results of the audit this where really good news comes in and in your 's management report you receive no water recommendations from us that require corrective action uh so that's very positive prob if you look throughout the state there's not you know we represent probably about 80 or 90 School District not too many that go out with no other recommendations here tell you we go it you know here for several weeks and we're looking through through a lot of stuff so we look at different stuff every year uh but he really had nothing that you know we we have an exit conf at the end of the order with the administration go through some of the minor things we see that you know might be want to be corrected but there's nothing that Ro to the level what we call a water recation require any kind of water for Action uh so very POS AED on the opinion front of receiving no modified opinions your financial statements are are fairly stable and receiving no water recommendations is really about so I like to thank the team for all our help our audit process and be happy to take any questions to the board on a no questions Rob but I just wanted to as chair of Finance thank the te and her staff for year after year having positive audit reports always three good opinions always un modified um and I know that doesn't come [Music] easy any questions for the yeah I'll be the de down first of all thank you te and sorry but um is is there anywhere you know we're doing so good is it possible for us to improve anywhere yeah I like I said we we do have an exit conference you know with the administration that goes through you know pretty much every little thing we found that wouldn't necessarily water recommendation because water recommendation really results when you have a you know one of your numbers in your financial statements are misstated materially U or if you have some sort of um policy or procedure that's not being followed that you know would need to be corrected you didn't follow the statutory regulation that the state requires those would be the things that would require recommendation but yeah as we go through the order we do find things that we just you know recommend you know just through not the order but through conf say know we found this that or the other thing which is you know minor you want it but it's something you might want to correct for next year so it doesn't necessarily become recommendation in future so you know there are improvements that are made for the conference Administration but it's not something that and just as a summary of that so after we meet with Rob to go through that we then go back and analyze what caused the particular item that he's bringing up in order for us to adjust our procedures districtwide to address it so it doesn't come out the second time and I think pretty much you don't ask us two things two years in a row in the same thing we resolve right that's corre that's really one of our proc you know we'll go back last year s there obvious next year we'll also go back to okay what things we talk about last year we like to see improve you know if they do come up again we discuss it again you know those are cored for the next year next next year try to cover can't cover everything in one year you know we be here for 6 months do we want to cover every transaction that happens so every year we kind of focus on different are so you know the improvements are made through the confence that I think that when at first join the board we did have a few things that would come up on occasion but in recent years team has done an excellent job of taking what we have and working with him improving it and we come up clean every time really done a great job the office it's done a great job everyone in the office and superintendence past and present doing a good job too so we appreciate the relationship we have with you giving us advice along the way so we really love working with you as well um again I just want to thank Diane and team as well with everything they do to make this budget you know this is a $100 million budget and uh to be this clean every single year in and out uh just shows a lot of the work that everybody does uh to get this this way uh I've worked in several districts and I've never had such consistency with a clean AUD so that's a credit to everybody that works on that so I appreciate that and I appreciate all right um so if you ever wonder to know how many days left to in school go down in elementary school so we're about I think tomorrow 75 days of school left uh the students were uh celebrating the 100 days of school when I was there the other day so it was really interesting how they they count down the school year so it's amazing how fast it goes um just one quick thing about snow days the way we do announcements we we changed the way uh we do them now when we went to our new website so with that and the way we communicate to the staff and to the community uh we are now ADA Compliant and we also are now translating everything into 31 languages I believe so you don't get my personalized voice on these messages and I'm sorry about that however uh it is so that we can uh communicate more effectively to our community and that was a conscious decision we made over this past year where we switched our communication systems so I just wanted to get better if you yeah if you want to change anything you have to just go into the system and uh you just click off a different box if you wanted in different language or something like that you do that personally if you were a parent to go in there and figure out how to get that information directly to you as you heard tonight The Morris Museum is exhibiting three works of art for our high school students uh only 50 of 20 uh only 50 of 250 pieces submitted were actually accepted so they have three of our works Mar that was quite an accomplishment uh on l31 on our agenda tonight you'll see that we are actually resending a one6 salary for a teacher who was going to be receiving the NJ GPA portfolio assessment that was going to be a class if needed but because all of our seniors have passed the state assessment for the graduation requirement that need is no longer uh warranted so we're resending that and that's really good news um I also have fear the twice a year we have to report out on the student safety data system and we have to tell you what's going on regarding incidents violence vandalism substance abuse weapons and so on HIV um there were 25 incidents in total five of them uh they were considered classified as violence we had two small pal fights but they weren't really fights that were scuffles but they have to be categorized that way we had five vandalism incidents this is only for the past 6 months the first half of the school year five vandalism incidents at the high school one substance abuse at the high school zero weapons and we had 14 confirmed cases of HIV harassment intimidation and bullying over the first 6 months there were 35 that were alleged and only 14 that were actually confirmed when they hit the definition two at the high school 11 at the middle school and one at William Mason uh the reason for Middle School being a little bit higher than the others is that's Middle School they are at that age when they're still trying to figure things out they say some inappropriate things all this is just unfortunate and it is just name calling and it's handled appropriately through uh uh you know working with the students counseling them through them and and and making sure they understand how their words and actions can hurt others but when you think about that we have 3500 students and 14 incidents in 6 months that just shows you the quality of what's going on in our school so we're very proud of those numbers uh and I just want to shed some light on something that we don't talk about too much these guys work behind the scenes the it the information technology department uh they undertook a very large project recently and they replaced our domain controllers which coincided with the new laptop devel deployment to our faculty and staff just to give us some perspective it's like replacing TI tires on the moving car these guys worked very late uh several nights and his servers are the most critical to operate for you know you understand the logistics and everything going on with our data and Technology ology but literally nothing else works in the district without the servers and everything up and running and much of the work was done without interruption to any of our users uh as part of this domain controller upgrade we were also able to upgrade the software running on them and all the blocked compromised passwords so we've added 85 million compromised passwords to block on that list and that brings the total database to over $ 800 million blocked passwords database things and things that we know about and that's just continually trying to keep our systems safe from any kind of hackers or out there or anything that's going on with that so you know you don't to think about it when everything's running great and all that kind of stuff but there's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes to keep our students as well as our staff and our district safe so a big U Round of Applause to all those guys in the IT department for everything they [Applause] do okay thank you all um we move on toate leison reports I would just point out the good news at our school today and seen we had a s in our agenda outlining additional great news from our school so facilities and finance Karen you have a report I had a report uh we met earlier um we're looking forward to starting discussion on the 225 budget um we going wait until we get our state [Music] mersey Joe be having a meeting on Wednesday February 28 okay uh Communications mport no report okay safety Christine no report h on New Jersy school boards Karen so the last few days of January um the officers of New Jersey school boards attended the national school boards association meeting we attended their equity and advocacy programs this with a on the hill where we visited um a number of our Representatives including congressman and Kim Congressman Josh goheer Congressman colog Congressman Tom Kane uh Senator coryer Congressman Bill Pas Congress cross congresswoman M Sher and these were selected based on the um uh board members and officers where they live basically that's how we decided that we would visit those representatives and we talked about a variety of things we shared some of our concerns and challenges which included uh the federal government to fully fund Ida which does not at this point uh issues and challenges andal Health uh Universal meals the teacher shortage were discussed they were quite receptive um to our concerns I just wanted to bring to the board's attention the BW that was signed uh just a few weeks ago it's s429 it uh allows districts to move back to ail election uh without requiring a budget vote is that something the board's interested in it's now possible that's it okay thank you uh Morris County School Board uh yeah Mar count has a hybrid meeting on February 8th and a lot of roundt discussions and after Karen us the information from the discussion of P programs but uh the Mars County uh School website has more resources from that meeting so any could make it to go and look at that and there's two more meetings this year Wednesday March 20th is at the County College of Mars is the UN heers award ceremony and May 2nd is a high for meeting uh celebrating County thank you Joe Morris County Educational Services uh we met last Fred we also had a rep presented to us as well as and for the awareness Council for the awareness Council met on February 4th they're working on Gathering resources for Recovery of services that will be posted on website as well as their Facebook page we also going to be getting anding [Music] that so Karen C Hill Joe here Val view is going to be on March 14th person virtually Char will be there hot lunch they to John William Mason um William Mason among other schools I believe will be getting Gaga and uh if they look forward to that [Music] Char on that that's you understand okay uh Lazar Christine um our next meeting will be on March 18th okay and then mft rep High School no report thank okay uh negotiations committees nte negotiating committee Karen um so I participated um virtually I was recovering from an illness um uh but uh it was a very positive meeting as usual um very friendly and respectful um it was very productive there was a lot of discussion on clarifying items on um proposals um and um also we were able to dispense with a couple of items um and we meet again next Tuesday look forward to attending that in person and although Charlie's not here uh that ntaa and NCSA will be Mee in a couple weeks I [Music] believe got okay good so for the NS SI we met on February 7th we had very positive as well [Music] proposals [Music] anyone okay we move on we will move on to the public first part public participation session these are for items on the agenda if you have comments or questions about items on the agenda the microphone your name [Music] and see none oh you got one June wty 11 Drive tomor just a clarification the Ida that you said what what is that um it's money provided by the federal government to help support uh extraordinary special education needs it should cover up to 40% but over the past number of years has only covered 13 to 14% of and then it is s 4209 and it's now L sign you exp sorry it would allow we are now a November election with no budget vote so it would allow School distri move to an April election with no thank you so much any other public okay then I'll close that move on ask for resolution on items i n second okay uh now any questions on the minutes SE [Music] J so we have a retirement section L2 page n um we have Mary M who's going to be uh retiring she's a school psychologist and has been with the district since 1995 she has had the honor of sering serving in the montal Township School District with students at every grade level approximately 12 years ago Mary was asked to lead the team as the case manager when the structured integrated learning or the S program at desar middle school was initially developed her leadership expertise and professionalism has helped establish the S program of today we want to thank her for her service to the students and the fames and wish thank you questions on section L section M section n policy okay uh please Dr calino yes M zerman yes Mr do yes Mrs F yes Mr Pama yes Mr Peto yes Mr rapor obate L5 yes to everything else Dr M uh yes uh we have no additional Clos session so moving on to section old business and SE R new bus so the board asked me a little while ago to um do a post analysis after the referendum and I provided that with their information in memo format to actually two different memos last month and this month and then just to report out publicly a little bit of some of the options that we have moving forward and we started a little bit of discussion about that so uh when we voted in December for the referendum we had two questions uh 18.6% of the registered voters came out and voted for question number one 335 uh more votes were U against the actual question for question number one which was about 5% of the vote question two was a little was fewer votes uh that defeated that question uh looking back over the past 30 years we've had six referendums three of them have passed and three have not so we're we're batting 50% right there and then we've received feedback from the community from the board the board discussed this a little bit in December a little bit more since then and we GA feedback and we've shared it out with the board members so one question was if we went out for referendum again what would be the timeline so I just put it out there and actually we're at the same point that we were at last year so if we decided to go out for another referendum it would be pretty much the same type of phasing that we're looking at discussions would be going on now we'd have to talk to The Architects shortly if you decide to go out with the exact same questions so question two on the referendum which was about the safety and the hbac systems and you didn't modify anything of course that would then be Fast Track and you go a little quicker um but if you decided to just say add cafeterias or or modify it in some ways that might require a little bit more attention at the state level as well as with the Architects but uh so you be in the spring if you wanted to go out that you submit the proposals to the state You' be looking at a 3 to 6 month timeline again and um going out to the community you have three options you go out to vote in September November with be election or December I just put up there December just because of the timeline and kind of where we are right now but you do have the other two options as well uh with that said then you have to go out and inform the public again about your options which will bring you to you know up until December that vote and succeeded then you go into phase five which is you know completing some of the projects of the years shortly so that's roughly the timeline that you had to go out again right now so if you wanted to go out for question two exactly as it is or was back in December that was a $17 million total 5.8 of that was in state a and that will have the tax impact of $84 per household if you decide to add the caeras the cafeteras that was three of them at three of the elementary schools that would add another $10.8 million and uh uh and that's it there was no State associated with that um so the new Rend total would be about $28 million you probably get about $6.2 million in state aid and uh the tax impact on them just approximating right there will probably be about $140 per household so the third option so that option one option two and the third option is to accept the voter's decision what they decided upon back in December and start moving forward uh the business office and I have worked together with that line because we have not had any kind of resolution by the board so we moving forward with the defeated resolution so what what does that mean we have to address the small group instruction rooms and start putting in permanent walls we would have no classrooms in the hallways investigating locations of different different uh moving District programs around a little bit so we might have to consolidate some programs and maybe use them a little more efficiently and then we update our long range facilities plan the idea is that we did investigate we did look into trailers uh prior when we were doing the whole before went out the referendum and while we're at in the referendum also moving the 8th grade to the high school preschool programs to the high school those are the things we looked at all of them have you know pluses and minuses to them and we' discussed them in public before and nothing has really changed with the reasons why we would not or would do those and then the other thing is we talked about the campaign Trail there was we're going to have to increase class size as necessary as we see more SS moving in and that's the plan we're doing right now as we move forward also while we were out there informing the public people said okay what what would happen if get shut down well we informed everybody about that we told them that things would have to be postponed so for instance some of the um projects that we told you about was a high school or Auditorium Renovations would be postponed the renovations for the softball field the science at Lazar will be postponed hbaca upgrades as well as the security VES uh we'll still try to get to them but they are all going to be postponed and we'll have further discussions about that so just taking a look at the current capital reserves plan and building in some of the things I just mentioned I'm just trying to walk you through a draft version of what the next couple of years could look like this is all subject to change and we're going to be having more discussions about this but I just wanted to get it out there a little bit just say roughly our Capital reserves budget is around $10 million or a little less so you have $10 million to help address all the sit all the you know issues that we have to address here uh in in the district so at the high school we have to do some roof Replacements at Lazar we have to start beginning doing the hbac system so we start with the sixth grade Wing looking at the parking lot repairs at Cedar Hill and maybe add an in interior security Vestal EV valate you see that total comes out to $4.4 million 1.5 of that uh uh was part of the referendum as well as the security vesal at 137,000 the following year so that will be this summer uh next next year then we'll be looking into the high school electrical fire alarm system replacement of doors and hardw at the elementary schools in the middle school and then at Dale start looking at the security vestival and some other side uh repairs and that total come out to about $5 million 3 years from now we would have to then start committing more of our resources to finish off the hbac systems and upgrade the seventh and eighth grade Wings a total of 3 million and in 2027 maybe we'd be able to get to the auditorium and the softball relegations coming to 3.5 if you look at those totals you know you got 3 million 3 million 4 million5 million that adds up more than $10 million so each year as we are you know conserving some of our budget we try to put money ahead into the capital reserves to backfill some of the money we we're using so we have to keep on you know backfilling that still tackling these projects unfortunately looking at this Capital reserves plan it's a draft plan I have right now it really completes a lot of our Capital reserves and we start getting down to below1 million which is a little a little scary for a district this size so these are just things we have to be aware of again we're going to be looking at this as we move forward and we'll be talking about this openly and publicly in our maintenance reserves we're looking at $1.7 million in uh plans for this Summer that would be you know going over the roof ceiling uh that is actually coming out of the rodad grants that's money coming out for the state that will match money that we'll have to put in as well and we're looking at some pain the schools have not been painted interiorly we do the uh hallways but we don't do all the closets and bathrooms and all the different classrooms uh every couple of years so there are a bad need for that kind of repair parking lot extension and Val things like that so that we come out to 1.7 next year 2025 we'll be looking at some more permanent small gr construction dividers again doing some more paint That's 1.2 million that will come out of Maintenance Reserves so what does that leave us with that leaves us with the future and I just left it open-ended like that but we still haven't addressed the three other security industries and the hbac upgrades that we talked about that were part of the referendum that still leaves us with 12 million uh dollars worth of projects that we still have to attend to after the four or five years of what I just brought up here and we would have to just start addressing that in year five to year 10 and that's excluding any other types of things that may pop up so it's a pretty good plan as we move forward uh accepting the will of the voters right now and we move forward but uh you know as things pop up we have to change things around a little bit and and see what we're going forward and um so next steps we going to be just we have to start prioritizing our Capital Improvements over the next couple of years create a new 5e L range facility plan and discuss with the board how best we want to move forward thank you thank you um did you just elaborate on theing the needs changing and involving needs of our student population and why it's to break up the classrooms and how that's the number of classrooms Andes and also the changing nature of uh student population that we have to deal yeah so uh as we were sharing uh informing the public when we were out there talking all stuff we're getting you know there are changes in our population we needed more small grou construction we talked about that for special ed needs we have uh English English language Learners we have more students that are coming in that uh English is a secondary or third language uh to their vocabulary so with like just for instance last year alone we had 75 English language Learners right now we're over 110 and that number is going to Contin to grow as more and more students are moving into our district we have the apartments that have gone online now and we're going seeing more people moving in this summer and we believe some of the housing is going to start moving with interest rates going down we're going to see more and more people uh moving into the district um so those are just some of our needs special ed needs again we're consolidating some more the programs and maybe some of the elementary schools to make better use of some of our buildings that we exist and as I said before we taking the classrooms that we had in the out of the hallway moving into the classroom which that pushes you know I have move up the enrollment of the other classrooms because that means we took away the classroom where those students would have any questions I guess comparing this referendum to the last one the last one passed pretty easily because we were getting 40% State we basically got $17 Million worth of stuff of $10 million now this referendum is considerably less and if I'm not mistaken I think what we were told is that the thing is that if it's new construction we don't get the state aid but it is repair or an upgrade to Old construction we do okay so let me ask you this out of all the projects on your wish list regardless of whether or not they in the last referendum which of those projects would qualify for the 40% we have a list of that right so that uh just showing you um so the the one column on the right there you will see you see the hbac systems they were receiving money um and the auditorium get some money but that was not part of our referendum and hbac again The Replacements for the door I'm sorry the uh the security vest hold would have gotten some money that's it we might get a little bit money for the electrical firearm system and the I'm just saying can we put together see what a package looks like if you take all the projects that we think are eligible for a substantial amount of state I'm not talking about 10% it's 40% or close to it the types of types of things where we could you know spend $6 to get $10 worth of stuff and maybe that might be something to look forward to if you want to go again right so if you're looking at question two that was 17 million we were get $5.8 million in state aid if we took a look at some of the projects you just mentioned you know if it wouldn't go up that significant me you get another million yeah just the hbac it said $16 million we got 5.5 State just that's not 40% just right those are the numbers that we shared along the way right the state is not going to give us to 40% you know exactly you calculate everything out the the state does it's hard to figure out exactly how the state calculates everything but um so the number doesn't come out as high as you think so I that's why I was just saying that maybe you might get one more million dollar if you add some of these other things see I would just be looking for list to say here are the projects where we get might be easier s tax yeah we can put it together but you know the 17 million as we showed you and we went out the question two was the bulk of it so we can put it together for you it's not going to increase that much but we can get that for you question two did fail unfortunately it wased down but it is something to example $928,000 total 73,000 State a that's not even close to 40% but the H might the [Music] a right but you just quickly adding some of these things up you I'll say it's just $4 million there you know 40% probably less than 40% but you know4 million discuss so um what I'm understanding is that basically you're proceeding with the knowledge that the referendum did you presented two potential Alternatives uh aside from just proceeding as it is in P one is to go potentially out for a referendum I guess according to the December timeline where we just go for the questions that we're questioned to the other is a new kind of hybrid question if you will which is question to what the cafeteria um that's correct correct and then uh Mr is just saying one more option a different yes so um I agree with what Joe is saying I feel like I felt very strongly that this should go out we had this knowledge and the administration recommended that their best course of action was that we try to go for a referendum because they thought that would be the best way to address all these issues that they see coming down the P the community had the opportunity to be educated about it it had the opportunity to vote on both questions and both questions fail I do think that thank goodness we have a very responsible wonderful Administration who was prepared for any eventuality and is moving forward I think we might not like all the decisions that have to be made as a result I think that there's going to be some tough choices and I think you know we'll see what happens over the next few years I heard that a lot in the feedback that I people seem to say they'd like to see how this really all plays out and so forth I I I think that the administration proceeding as they said they have been and and trying to um address all these eventualities concerns they have right now would be my um thought as to how we should proceive and keep looking for potential ways to maybe get state aid or like investigating way that we could think of a referendum in the future because I certainly think we're going to have to go back out eventually my thinking right now would be that we shouldn't do it right now that we should do a little more research do a little bit more seeing what happens and um and seeing where we end up but I think we're not far away from doing it I just don't think we should do it this year thank thank Dave um I totally accept the ref of decision by voters and um one of the things that I learned was we and our Administration really educated the public I mean you all were working 247 and the voters for whatever reason they had voted it down and we have to respect that and I love the path that the administration was taken by um increasing the size and I heard that from parents that that was fine with them and then of course we would need more resources for the kids but it es and flows the population mville it always has and so taxes are important to folks and they don't want to be taxed that a m bill so voting the vote against it was um an eye opener for some of us but we have to do what the will of the people want I believe so not only do I not see it us going out for a referendum in this year but I don't see us going out after it in the next couple years unless it's an emergency type of situation so those are just my FS just I appreciate your comments just want to remind people just you said emergency just it always takes two plus years meaning 3 years so just keep that in mind emergencies are three years away so when you have the emergency it takes three years to build you have to you have to go out with the referendum and you have to get Contract you have to build and it is definitely 3 years and by then that kind of a situation can be very critical and know we talking three plus kids in a classroom no teacher wants to handle that um it's unfortunate but anyway I'm sorry we have any question comment over hereen um you know my perspective is um what is is and what will be will happen regardless of any reasons why the referendum fa it faed and I feel strongly that we should not go out for any referendum until we have an opportunity to SI through and figure things out and that means that class sizes get increased that means that there are trailers that's what we have to do we have to have our students and I know that our Administration will be very creative in providing the space needed and St necess um so a couple things first um could you elaborate on the ideas investing thank you for br questions um the second bll grade to mths um I don't remember hearing a discussion about that particular pros and cons since there was nothing in the referendum that would help laar how would moving 8th grade to mths and helpful just so I can understand the thinking and the issues and problems were considering that iose so so one of the ideas was if you take the fifth grade and you move it up to laar you have fifth sixth and seventh grade middle school and then you take the eighth grade and move to the high school and you have eth 12th grade um so that would help you because the high school is decreasing and then youd add 200 more kids up there so You' have a schools to say of about 12200 students there uh what the high school it would be pushing the limit a high school limit if you had 1,00 students there the problem is when you have the eighth grade the eighth graders are just like a better term just call them Standalone okay when you have the ninth to 12th graders they can integrate they can take art together they can take classes together eighth graders are different they have a different curriculum the high school students have uh graduation requirements and things like that so I I would actually have to have almost like a wing or even bigger than a wing of to be able to house all these eighth graders to be on to themselves uh because they don't get it simulated what you could do then not opposing this but it just you move the eighth graders up what you could do then you'd have to maybe reduce 9th 10th 11th 12th grade teachers increase the class size there to create more room for the eighth graders to actually fit into the high school so you're now taking the problem of growing the class size of the elementary school and just moving to the high school and just pushing those numbers up to higher numbers uh to fit that does that kind of make sense so just mve the problem the beginning to the end maybe high school students could handle it better high school kids and you have a little more flexibility but they would require you know a lot of Staffing discussions and a lot of you know formulating where the high school more okay um throughout the capital plan um I would like to make a suggestion that the term security vle bestle be changed to security enhancement I just want to make sure that the Administration has the flexibility to uh make change of security enhancements anywhere in the building that's going to be extremely beneficial have the greatest impact for the particular School rather than Focus solely on the V this spitballing top of the head what if there's an exterior door for a boiler room that needs to be replaced and and that me that has a greater impact on invest I make sure that you guys have the flexibility to go ahead and do that U and may the security postpone for extra few months or whatever budget is is maintain um and then just to uh to care what what the rest of the board has been saying um we did go out for the vote on the referendum uh the residents have in their opinion so I think we we need to respect that opinion and at this point uh we do need to see how things play out and I understand that we do have a two to threee lead time if anything does change but one of the drivers was whole new construction that's happening in town so let's see what impact that's having to our various schools and so that we could we could do go out for referend in two or years appropriate we have a better idea of the impact and where colge be best so I would encourage or suggest postone for refer until we have more information about what's happening right now and how things yes I I have a couple comments um I think we're making we're combining two issues into one here that are separate and distinct from each other one is the space issue for the students which I agree the town voted we shouldn't go out on that issue for a couple years the other is what might qu out is not paying you know 100 cents on a dollar for Capal improvements is something we can do you a separate part from solving our spatial issue and I over the last month or so stold everyone I do listen to me and I've had a resounding 100% yes I would vote for that these are people that voted no for both questions um and I I you my group of people is parents the kids in the school that I'm asking these questions to mainly but I think we'd have a vastly different result uh if we just went out for either it was question to alone or something like Mike suggested we just package everything that we can get a deal on because I think the people in mobille and just like in 2017 or 2018 they they go to yes CU they like a good deal and when you're not paying 100% of the dollar think that's powerful and and also not getting into the triple digits on the tax increase annually is a factor that um go in favor of that so I think going after for something small no new new construction but stick to the renovations and then kind of doesn't follow would the auditorium Renovations qualify for the subsidy it would that's something that you lump that and there get 40% that that that would be what I would suggest I'm going to ask just to clarify a few things with the percentages so the question about 40% um you actually didn't get 40% last time the way that the calculation reads is it's 40% a should when we advertised the information it really wasn't 40% and the reason is this because it is 40% of the lower of the two numbers which when it all comes out and you do the whole calculation it actually comes out to be 34% and if you recall both uh the Bond Council and the finance people talked about the fact that it wasn't really 40% it really was 34 and 34 is the highest you get now that being said when they actually do the aid calculation it's on the interest end principle of the debt and when you can add in interest impact it does push that 34 number up a little bit higher but you never actually get to 40% so that's just the clarification on 40 versus what you're really going and the bond Council and the finance team was saying at the time is that we wanted to present the most conservative information when we did the presentations for the public so we used the 34% number lowering it understanding that we were going to have this other calculation that was going to be done in the future but this was the most conservative position to present off so that was the question regarding the security doors to the boiler actually that aspect of uh doors windows Hardware perimeter type of things with security is already being addressed as we are addressing the doors and hardware somewhere those pages um so actually that's already being considered it's just being considered in another part thank somewhere there thank you thank you thank you okay well there are no other discussion one one other time one more time if if we did go out for something you know limited you know it it frees up our entire capital reserve budget now that we have to do some of these other projects and we can keep our schools you know top match and and in great shape for years to come I think it gives our Administration so much more flexibility um going forward thank you something else just saying hi okay uh one more Mike okay then we move on uh okay is the uh the 34% um we talk about the referendum how much money from uh went the referend but you said something which I might catch for any project doesn't have to be refer any project that you submit you get State a to you're doing the security vegetable or just Reserve would you also apply for State a it only applies [Music] to two question applies of the state offers a grant that includes them so the rod grants that we've been talking about that was a grant State offered to us and they said as part of the deal we'll we'll uh produce 40% and youu 60 except for those events where the state decides to offer that kind of deal as part of Grant the only other way you can tap into that 40% is if you go okay well I think the general mood of here is not to go for another referendum at least in the near near future we can look into other options I think now be and for are going to be trying their best to figure out where put students and address the current space issues that we're having and anticipate to have um I just add on a lighter note some of you have gotten a Wood School about Across America we some of us go there every year to across our streets in the classrooms March 7 look forward to it and with that I will ask is are there any other public comments s next have [Music] I okay please M uh it's that time with here again um uh and Relay for Life is looking for the Board of Education to reup our uh our commitment so um I'm going to sign this up and we can talk about contribs some time just to let you know we [Music] don't okay every it yes absolutely and it's a wonderful organization and I whole heart support we will now move to our second public participation session um anyone with a comment come on up uh give your name address and your views on schools everyone good evening my name is Lauren Mar I live at 121 H Mountain I have two children in the school system um my daughter is fourth grader at wont and my son is a 10th grader at the high school uh in addition to being mother two students in our district I'm also local psych therapist and the founder of therapy center our office is in another in short and my staff and I have worked with thousands of children and teens and their families in M surrounding towns for over 12 years as most of us are aware there is a mental health crisis our children and teams I have been passionate about understanding the research regarding the impact of smartphones and social media on the psychological social and emotional development of our children teams and I've presented hundreds of programs on this topic for parents and students at schools in New Jersey smartphones you know what they look like have become deeply ingrained in our lives they are designed with the most modern technology and the most advaned persuasive Behavioral Science that creates a product and apps designed to engage the user as long as possible we all experience The Addictive qualities of smartphones they are in essence distraction devices and who are our most vulnerable use of all our children and our teens last May the US Surgeon General issued an advisory about the effects of social media youth on Mental Health I've heard stories from students and faculty that highlight these concerns for example at the high school students walk in the halls in between classes not making eye contact with their peers why they're looking down at theirs during the few minutes at the end of a class before the Bell Rings the room is not buzzing with chatter why they're on their phones at lunchtime the high schooler who was hoping to make a new friend is unsuccessful at engaging peers in conversation why their arew families a recent study called the worldwide increase in adolescent loneliness concluded that over 30% of teens report high levels of loneliness at school allowing our high school students to have smartphones during their school day interferes with their ability to focus on academics and greatly hinders their social and emotional development I'm here today to propose an evaluation of the smartone policies in our district I'm encouraging the continued enforcement of students having no access to Smartphones at the elementary and middle school levels and I am proposing the Montville Township High School adopt a phonefree policy there are now many districts across our country who are starting to adopt phone free policies at the high school level a Philadelphia High School principal reports kids are now paying attention and they're also interacting in ways they had before we have a beautiful Courtyard that using before we had the home fre policy now we're using it an English teacher in New York City High School said it's a game changer it's night and day I see kids faces again in many districts where surveys have been conducted the majority of parents support a phone policy there's a myth that having phones in schools is good for student safety in fact it's the opposite many long Enforcement Officers say that having cell phones can hinder safety because it distracts students who should be focused on the instructions from the adults in their IM environment an article by Leading social psychologist and researcher Jonathan G has the following headline get phones out of schools now they impede learning stunt relationships and lesson I propose introducing the idea of a phone free high school during the remainder of this current school year by implementing some phonefree dayses so that students can become familiar with the concept I proposed starting the new school year in September with a new phone free policy this would require a small investment in phone lockers or a product like Yonder which are lockable pouches controlled by the school administration these have been successfully implemented at thousands of schools globally with phenomenal results a superintendent in Western Massachusetts said the teachers are also thrilled quote the feedback has been unbelievable they were like this has changed the culture of our school and my classroom especially and almost thank you concluding let's not let Ral Township fall behind the research supports it and our own common sense as parents tells us this is the right approach I would be happy to make myself available as a resource to help support an initiative towards pal free high school I truly believe that implementing this policy is essential to providing an environment where our students can Thrive I believe it can positively impact our students academic success Aid in their social skill development and improve their Mental Health thank you so much for your time and I I have two eight cells um thank you for coming out and thank you for your uh fight against this issue so uh mental health is one of our District's uh initiatives it has been for the past several years and this year has been different we have Team mental health we've been educating our parents as called the students of mental health initiatives and we're starting a new initiative with the high school with therapy THS coming into the school helping with anxiety a lot of things like that we do have a board uh policy committee that's going to be meeting next month within the next two weeks so you've said your piece and you all heard that and we'll be talking about this a little bit more and then so I appreciate your time thank you so much thank you thank you uh I I just have I just wanted to share some information on uh a simple Gad called flip block I don't know if it's ever seen the commercials or not but there's safety devices that can be placed on doors that whatever the impact it will not take the door out it will not open the door it is Ada inest approve of fire code if you want to write this down it's Flip Flip L which is f l i l SL Pages SL school safety school- safety-test um there's a there's a gentleman um a retired police Ser Park who um sells these products I'm not quite sure how much they are um Joe Joe and I we're going to try to set up a meeting with him to see what other devices he has that are simple and safety devices that maybe um while you're working at the financial part maybe this could be a simple solution to some of the doorways at in the various schools um just another comment that um this last uh campaign season I I think I hit about a thousand doors across the board Democrats Republicans Independence and a lot of people were very concerned that the safety question was number two and I think that really um Turned a lot of people off to the entire budget that safety was number two not number one thank you okay um Scott are you coming up I am you are welcome sir Scott RI oxbury resident High School history teacher Association president thank Dr Corman for that slide presentation thank board the discussion that follow when will you be able to post that presentation to the district website yeah tomorrow tomorrow right great thank you okay are there any other comments or questions the public seeing none as for motion closed thank you good night [Music] everyone than