e e e e order Mr Alro pres miss calone here Mr dasta miss coffinger here Mr Lombardi Mr lunam here Miss Ryan vice president done here president Gomez here standing for the pledge of Alle to the flag of the United States of America and to the repblic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all board statements in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the New Milford board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by by having the day time in place there are in the record New Milford Public Library New Milford burough Hall and the main office of all new Milford Public Schools the board announces that under its long-standing policy it will not discuss in public any comments made by members of the public concerning individual staff members at this time please be advised that all telephones and electronic devices are to be turned off meetings on the board are open to the public and all members of the community shall be feel free to participate before coming to the board the chain of command should be followed there are two portions of the meeting reserved for comments from the public the first at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only and the second at the end of the meeting for other items issues raised by the public may or may not be responded to by the board but all comments will be considered the board requests that all members of the public be mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking due to confidentiality and legal rights afforded by the state of New Jersey members of the public are asked to not speak negatively or in a derogatory manner about any employee of the board or students Committee of the whole I seek a motion to approve minutes for February 20th work February 20th close February 21st regular and February 21st close I see a second call done all in favor I oppose I for all those no I can hear you there for the last meeting okay okay thank you okay student board representative Fort McKenzie hello everyone I hope everyone's having a nice March so far so I'm happy to report that our student council is busy planning for our spring spirit week we're working on creating fun themes for every day and one of our favorites is famous Duo day some examples of famous Duos could be SpongeBob and Patrick or Batman and Robin so students can pick a friend and their favorite du to dress up as the full list of of spirit days will be announced very shortly we're also working hard on coming up with awesome games and activities for our annual spring Olympics we're excited to keep working on Spring Olympics as the end of the year gets closer and closer and in other great news tickets are officially on sale for the spring musical Beauty and the Beast at nmhs musical.com students can get tickets for just $10 and adult tickets $20 so be sure to get tickets for our amazing show thank you guys and I hope everyone has a great rest in March thank you any questions from McKenzie comments okay thank you you know you don't have to day I know you're busy thank [Music] you bye the little dog too okay presentation our annual District audit for 2022 2023 here Gary FY you have the the a share with all the electonic okay um so this is the district auditor for this year presenting the 2223 audit thank you good evening everybody um as Stephanie mentioned we have completed the 2 um and just to give you a brief overview financially um the district continues to improve um with your yearend reserves and surplus at the end of June 23 uh the district actually had .8 million in reserves and surplus half of that is tied up uh in capital reserve and maintenance Reserve um so at the end of uh June you actually had about $4.7 million in capital reserve now of that one almost 1 million was used during the 2324 school year the current year budget so you still have over $3.7 million of available for 2425 as well as other projects uh that you may be undertaking between now and the end of June uh so well below the maximum you're allowed to have um I think your maximum is maybe 50 $60 million uh so you're obviously well below uh maintenance Reserve was about $650,000 and the emergency Reserve uh was just over 400,000 um your unassigned Surplus was 1.6 million it did decrease from last the prior year 2.2 and the main reason behind that uh for the two years during the pandemic the department of Ed actually allowed districts to maintain a higher unassigned Surplus which was equivalent to about 4% of your expenditures that was a 2-year window prior to that you were only able to have 2% of expenditures plus year and this year for this audit you had to go back down to 2% so that level was driven only because of the formula that the department of Ed mandated um but again as I mentioned I think financially the district is continuing to be in excellent condition uh actually the Surplus was about 1.8 and reserves was 1.8 greater than the prior year we had uh I think six SED recommendations that were included as um in the management report a couple of them are repeats and what we plan on doing next week actually is having somebody here to work with Stephanie and her uh department just so those items can be addressed and corrected prior to the end of the school year uh nothing significant uh matter of just adjusting some of the bank reconciliations reporting of the food Serv service account um none of the recommendations are material we did have some compliance matters that we did meet and discuss at length with the business office uh so a couple of those again we will try to address next week uh couple dealt with Grant reporting Grant accounting and compliance matters are very important um as you have employees funded by grants certain record keeping has to be maintained on file um as well as the Appropriations have to match the various Grant Awards and they those grants do get modified so we will make sure that the grant um allotments is actually what's act in recorded in the budget reports um if there are questions from the board I'd be you know happy to entertain any questions on whether it's the audit recommendations or the financial condition um any of these recommendations they have any have any Financial impact on you know on the budget or anything in within the district meaning like did there was something that was overseen that nothing that would be material the bank reconciliation adjustments are relatively minor so they will not have a any type of impact on budget development at all if I could a lot of the bank rest that it that's been a repeat for I think four years now um it goes back to the 1920 um school year and there was various different people in place and various bank accounts um and so transfers and so that's where we have money that we shouldn't um so it's just a matter of like cleaning it up but this is um sort of been a a long thing and we it's gotten better it's just not clear um so that's why they're going to come next week and help us just go through that because we can't we could do it but then we're T we're not doing like our day-to-day so it's it's a lot just for um really Kate and I to do ourselves so we appreciate the help that we're going to get and then the one recommendation if I can um and Gary knows it's coming um and actually there's a resolution on the agenda tonight as a result of it because I always thought that once the board approve participation in a co-op or state contract that they sort of allowed us to spend above the bid threshold um and since I do have the qpa certification that's $44,000 so we recently purchased air conditioners for Berkeley in excess of it but it was done under the um Ed data purchasing and so because you've already approved that twice once in June and once in January I thought that suffice it no longer does and so going forward on a lot of agendas you'll see purchase orders with full detail because it's a little gift to the auditor that they'll have lots of minutes to review um and hopefully that'll clear that recommendation we don't mind reading the minutes yeah so we we did um we're already correcting our our mistakes and have it on the agenda tonight thanks Gary thank you you're welcome you good night thank you okay okay I seek a motion to go into close it is hereby moved that the Board of Education adjourn into executive session in accordance with the provisions of Section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231 PL for the purpose of discussion and consideration of matters pertaining to the following subject Personnel the minutes of the executive session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists I seek a motion 70 seconded by Joe lunam all in favor oppos okay so we're going to come back to open but we just need to should we go should we let them stay there we'll go in the other and then when you come out you just get a motion to out of no we're not going either yeah it's just the [Music] board e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e is that a question AC superintendent of schools Report LA thank you good evening everyone um I would like to start with the status of recent budget developments we have finalized our preliminary budget but unfortunately are once again facing a reduction in state aid this marks the second consecutive year of cuts in our state aid funding despite these challenges our top priority Remains the well-being of our students and the Integrity of our educational programming to safeguard these priorities we have re-evaluated our budgetary allocations as a result I'm pleased to announce that despite the loss in state aid we have managed to avoid any reduction in staff our commitment to maintaining the quality of education and support for our students remains unwavering I commend Dr poar for her diligence in budget planning and fiscal responsibility ensuring resources are strategically allocated and aligned with District goals and priorities her dedication has been instrumental and and maintaining the Financial Health and stability of our district so thank you for your ongoing collaboration in this process I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all of those who contributed to the success of the second session of our elementary Parent Academy which centered around mathematics education including members of our faculty on tonight's agenda and also um including Miss Paul Castro and Miss ginley for their thoughtful planning of this uh presentation it was well attended we provided uh child care and dinner to families and um it was a really nice turnout so thank you all for your efforts I'm excited to announce that our next and final session of the elementary Parent Academy will Spotlight social emotional or seal and wellness social emotional learning and wellness this topic will take center stage on April 17th at 6:00 p.m. at Berkeley Street school please mark your calendars and save the date I'd like to extend a heartfelt thank you to the New Milford Education Foundation for their unwavering support your dedication and commitment to enhancing educational opportunities for our students are deeply appreciated I'm pleased to share that we're seeking approval this evening from the board for the donation of items listed on the agenda these items represent important resources that will positively impact thear learning experiences of our students I would also like to thank the New Milford wrestling Foundation New Milford recreation department and Shop Right for their generous donation of wrestling Maths for the high school your support will enhance the athletic experience of our students and contribute to the success of our wrestling program um profile of a graduate we had another presentation last evening I wanted to take a moment and follow up um on that presentation so I was made aware that the link for the virtual meeting was not functioning properly for many of those who tried or attempted to join please accept my sincerest apologies for any frustration that that might have caused to ensure um that everyone has an opportunity to fully participate and engage in this process we have two additional presentations this week uh including tomorrow's presentation Wednesday March 20th at 10:00 a.m. and Thursday evening March 21st at 700 p.m. uh these sessions will provide valuable insights into our vision for our students future success and the qualities that we aim to instill in them as they progress through our school district we are genuinely interested in um gaining as much feedback as we can and input from the public and the community and look forward to your presence at one of these upcoming meetings reminders will be shared prior to each presentation those will include links for your attendance okay on to some good news it's been a busy month in um I would say all of our schools and the district as a whole Elementary so March has been and continues to be a funfilled month of learning for all at our elementary schools on March 8th Berkeley and Gibbs hosted their annual read Across America event event which was a great success thank you to all of our distinguished guest readers and members of our Board of Education who were able to join us and share their love of reading on this special day on March 14th Elementary School celebrated Pi Day many of our students dressed and joined in the celebration um dressing as Albert Einstein to celebrate the special event throughout the day students enjoyed working on many different math activities and playing Math Games March mathness is in uh full effect and is well underway with different classes making the leader board each week on March 14th Gibbs also celebrated their kids heart challenge Jump Rope for Heart Day students jumped rope in groups of five within their respective grade levels it was a heart healthy fun day for all earlier in the month Gibbs welcomed the author Jason Patterson to their school he spoke to all students about the graphic novel process um aligning with our professional development in writing workshop and also shared how he creates and further develops the characters in his stories author Jason Patterson signed copies of the book for our students special thanks to the Gibbs PTO for sponsoring this great event on March 17th students and staff at Berkeley competed to see which class would earn the most points by wearing green as you might imagine there were many leprechauns and fairies at school that day the day and did spectacularly with an upset to their usual Champion mysterious ending there Spen this week Berkeley welcome back science explorers this is one of those programs that we have talked about I think a few times um at previous board meetings that is Title One Grant funded students and teachers took part in an assembly yesterday and will be conducting with great enthusiasm and joy handson science experiment align to our curriculum all week this grant funded opportunity continues to provide our students outstanding science learning opportunity in a fun and interactive way we're very excited that our eth graders at David E Owens Middle School recently volunteered at the local Applebee's raising funds for end of Year celebrations the recent Deo production of Shrek Jr was amazing um I actually had the pleasure of attending it was they did an outstanding job with their performance many thanks to miss haer thour and her team who facilitated the event giving our students an unforgettable experience and when I was watching them perform I could see them um in a few years in their roles on on the high school stage incredible Rising sixth grade parent night was a great success with upwards of 80 families in attendance all attendees appear appeared appreciative to initiate a relationship of growth as their students transition into the middle years of education congratulations to Eli neart for finishing second place in the Bergen County Spelling Bay uh students from all over Bergen County participate in this Belling Bay the deom school Community is very proud of Eli's efforts and accomplishments cud kudos to you Eli um congratulations to our new Milford High School February students of the month Joseph marcario grade 12 Ryan Moore grade 11 Moses Duce grade 10 and Bradley diamore grade n today was the first presentation of New Milford High School Safety ambassadors program safety ambassadors offered interventions and skits on how to be safe at parks and and in the home to our second grade students at both Berkeley and Gibbs New Milford was chosen to participate in this program through the Robert Johnson University Hospital a special thanks to Mrs dacker for coordinating this program and offering students this opportunity New Milford High School recently celebrated their first member show to honor our art center community including students members Affiliates faculty volunteers staff and board at the art center of Northern New Jersey special thanks to Mrs fenia for all of her efforts congratulations to the following students for their participation in the 2024 High School sales challenge at the Russ Berry Institute for professional sales at William Patterson University Alexandra Aria Mato surich Christian d o noio special thanks to Mrs Taylor for making this all possible kudos to the related arts department for all of her all of the wonderful recent events at new mord high school their calendar has been jam-packed uh these events include empty blls fundraiser spring musical alumni fundraiser um the annual benefit concert and related arts craft there a very special shout out to all members of our recent set Bild the musical would not be possible without your contributions and ongoing support we're very fortunate to have some such an involved and generous community and staff to support our efforts to impact the lives of our students um there's also a lot happening in athletics the winter season produced several Great accomplishments congratulations to coach grth on leading the boys basketball team to its first League Championship since 2014 and for being named league coach of the year congratulations coach gr the cheerleading team secured its third state championship ship in championship in four years Devin Ryan secured a medal for the second consecutive year in State wrestl Line fiana aent tum Moi qualified for the state meet of Champions in girls track 27 honores receive recognition in the all League County and state levels Jaden kenwell achieved the njic highing and Series in bowling and um we'd also like to extend another thank you to the New Milford Education Foundation for the new school school new scoreboard which will be in the um name gym we also have many appointment dates coming up so please mark your calendars uh project UniFi will host Banyan school on March 27th at 10:00 a.m. in the High School main gym if you hav't an opportunity these are um very well attended games and um Feelgood experience es for all attendance it's one of our favorite games to watch our annual pediatric cancer softball classic will take place on Saturday April 20th at DAV ens Middle School our baseball team will be playing at Boulder Stadium on April 23rd at 700 p.m. our second annual Recreation senior softball and baseball night will be scheduled in May dates TBD the athletic dinner will take place on June 3rd at mos in Hawthorne beginning at 600 p.m. the annual golf outing will take place on June 24th location um TV day and finally coach Allison dhy will be honored at the centry club luncheon on May 19th for the bcwca service recognition award congratulations coach D from the office of Dr Pro and special services the next two weeks are very exciting for the Department of special services on Thursday March 21st we recognize Down syndrome awareness day and everyone is encouraged to wear crazy socks the following week we will acknowledge autism acceptance daily announcements will be made in each School building and everyone is encouraged to wear blue on Thursday March 28th our middle and high school students and wings Academy clients created pins to sell to to raise acceptance and awareness overall we sold 180 pins throughout the District Preschool classes had a fun but chilly day playing soccer and working on skills the PTO arranged for soccer shots to come and work with the preschoolers recently finally follow the following staff members received a special education shoutout to recognize all that they do for our students with unique learning needs Valerie failed Berkeley instructional assistant uh Deborah herst who is a faculty member at David E middle school and Moren Westervelt who is a faculty member at Wings Academy thank you all for your commitment and dedication to our students sat testing on March 9th was successful marking the first time the SATs were administered digitally Additionally the njpa testing for all 11th graders took place last week and was also successful and um students used Chromebooks for testing Administration finally as we approach spring recess I want to extend form wishes to our whole school Community to our students faculty staff and parents I hope you all enjoy a restful um spring break filled with lots of fun we will be closed on beginning Friday March 29th through Friday April 5th and we'll come together once again on Monday April 8th enjoy and that concludes my report for this evening thank you any questions or comments okay assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction so it was three pages and I said one and a half page here and one and a half page there and that made up for all I do not have an additional report to oh great okay thank you is there reports def to the Chart good evening I have very brief um just some agenda items f23 24202 through uh f23 [Music] 24206 is all related to the preliminary budget that will be submitted to the county office tomorrow I just want to I don't know if the board is aware but when um I first came to the district there was Zero money in capital reserve and you've now since deposited um over 4 million if we do get um the high school roof and GI roof as well as the high school HB the withdrawal of capital reserve that's going into the 2425 budget is 3,523 th10 which is significant um but I'm confident in the work that you guys have been doing that you'll be able to replenish that um quickly but and I do think that that's good work because long term we're um sealing in our facilities and we're not going to be chasing leaks um it's also part of the long range facility plan and on the list of projects that the district has to do um and we are getting funding through the rod grants um to offset the other portion the entire project is a little over $5 million um the other budget item the other agenda item is f 23 24111 oh no 211 um which is the approval of Tom tonian and that's a renewal for the Food Services contract they've been doing our food services um and so that is just so they can continue to do our food service operation for the 2425 school year and then f23 24213 is the resolution that I was referring to um when Gary was doing his audit and so that you can expect to see several of those moving forward um resolutions that look like that and that concludes my report any questions okay any meetings on board committee reports no it's um I have two things um fin May met we did get a significant presentation from uh Dr and um adoption and and really a good explanation of the things that we have in the budget things that we you know needed to cut things that we didn't need to cut um and really the financial health of the district um one of the things being that Transportation costs um have been affected by the fact that we we've been able to hire um additional bus drivers um um so kudos to everybody in the administration um for getting that done and then the other thing is just an njsba uh note um just wanted to point out Amaya Brothers was honored as an unsung hero at the njsba unsung heroes uh G I was able to go last year um when they honored Maria prediger and I know it's a fantastic um event from all uh all things that I've heard about Amaya she's a fantastic basketball player I probably can still beat her I'm not going to you know um a fantastic athlete so congratulations to her and really she's my understanding is it's just an exemp exemplary person and and a great um representative of our district thank you Nicole um yeah I just want to just review Miss oo that actually took a lot of my thunder com through all the winter no it's fine it's fine so um in the winter Recaps we met with Mr RI last night so the board i s I shared this with everybody last night just an outline of what we discussed um just a couple other things I think we're going to try to honor the winter athletes yes we're going to try to set a date for that um we're just trying to finalize find out which meeting would work best want to go the other thing that U Mr mentioned was the TK classic which is going to which will be April 6th and that's through Facebook there 30 teams throughout the county and the money collected through that is donated back to graduating seniors at scholarship across Bergen County um also just doesn't because it's on the agenda under f23 d2499 regarding the flag football just to give the board an update if you can get a chance to read my notes um Mr relli went with a couple of the girls on media day and they received the check for $2,000 from the Jets so that offset the cost for flight football and currently there's anywhere from 28 to 29 girls signed up um he doesn't have this he wasn't 100% sure about when the first game is but they will be it during the evening just he said possibly April 15th um but they'll be the evening to kind of coordinate everyone's schedules and I think you know if anybody has any questions regarding put on the Note they can reach out okay anyone else any correspondence no this evening okay I seek a motion to open to the public for items on the agenda as outlined in New Milford Board of Education bylaw 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited three minutes need a second charl C all in favor oppos any comment from the public regarding the agenda okay I seek a motion to close to Tony seconded by Joe all in favor I oppose okay board action I seek a motion for VA 23- 2437 73 74 75 I need a second Stephanie Coffer all in favor oppos educational programs and curriculum committee Stephanie Cofer uh thanks the following I made a motion to seek approval for C 23- 24.7 and3 second Nicole D all in favor I oppos okay Personnel recommendations having the recommendation of the superintendent I seek a motion for p 23- 2446 6984 8791 939 three tce twice uh 012 yeah no it's a resent or rision yeah that's the same one yeah but one of them is being revised and the other one is being reced 10213 10415 10617 10819 110112 11314 201 15 any second Jo bro call Mr Al BR yes Miss Cal yes Miss coffinger yes Mr Luna yes Miss Ryan Yes vice president D yes president G yes okay finance and Facilities committee Cheryl um all right before I start I just wanted to point out a couple things on the agenda uh for f 23- 24186 that's awesome if that that wrestling mask to Pal Park um again thank you to the new mil Education Foundation for their endless donations to the school uh we can do a lot of things that we do without them uh something close to my heart it's FL football for girls that's all 7199 and then um 202 obviously is budget so there's a a lot of things oh and of course uh Point 208 is the approval to accept the donation of wrestling M um the Milford uh wrestling foundation and the rest Department CH so um those are some great items on the agenda so um I seek a I seek a motion to approve f23 24175 176 177178 179 80. 18182 1831 18485 186 uh 8788 1891 90.1 91921 93194 95961 97981 992020 1 22232 42052 6207 28209 210 211 212 and 213 any the second Tony Alro all in favor oppose any old business Jo just have a quick question regarding uh last meeting uh with the the whole thing of historic Cemetery or not Cemetery thank you did we did we go and follow up with that and resend an application or find out what was missing or what have you I know I was looking into it I'm trying to gather all like to find out the last communication that was made I did have contact with um peny Grant on the council I prent will be reaching back out um once I have a little bit more so we're kind we're working on that thank you anyone else Tony just a a comment M oasa had mentioned about the uh Performing Arts I was able to attend the alumni night um last Friday the Middle School performed the high school performed magnificently uh Mr pre was magnificent his performance as well um what what really struck me we had about nine or eight or nine alumni um and going back at least 10 years and each one was very emphatic in you know being honored to be there being thrilled to be there once the light was shined upon them um it was like it went back 10 years and their performances were great as role models to our kids because each person was completely professional and I think our kids in the audience were actually Amazed by them I know my daughter sees yourself being one of them but the fact they took took their time out to throw themselves out there and do that for the benefit of our children was amazing so I appreciate the opportunity thank you anyone else any new business page I I don't know it's new but it's just a question so um in the past if they always have McKenzie here but in the past me the the other the middle school and the elementary schools came and they get their presentation know their student council or their student board or whatever they had done that so um I was just wondering if we might it might be a little too late in the year I don't know if they can pull it together but I know that that had yeah it's always it's always um been the favor by many to have our students present it's something that I had talked about even highlighting our programming K12 it's very important to get our kids up here um Dr coer and I have been looking at the remaining board dates and um I know that there may some shifts in the calendar yeah that was actually that we're we so once everything is is finalized um we can certainly look to do that anyone else okay open to the public I seek a motion as outlined in the new mford board of education bylaw 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to 3 minutes need a second second CER all in favor oppos any comments from the public no I know Matt do you want to say anything uh yeah just briefly good to see everyone again uh to everybody um just for anyone who wasn't aware I have to compliment the municipal Alliance many Who members are here um M CER Mr Luna M Ryan did another fantastic job in organizing presenting another Black Balloon day to remember those we've lost through addiction it's a powerful program and it makes it makes a difference and it makes a great impact on our community so thank you for the work that all of you do uh we also this year uh for the second year in a row about a week ago had our second annual Crescent Moonlighting uh and recognition of Ramadan which was also very well attended and a very nice program as well and I personally would like to thank the board and the district for the invitation just to read to our students re Across America in honor Dr s say thank you it was a it was a great time a lot of fun so thank you they love it well so did I I think I enjoy more than my so good thank everybody thank you may I seek a motion to close the public okay tryan second and five Stephanie coffinger all in favor oppos okay any board member request for additional information okay I seek a motion to close Okay I by P Ryan all in favor iose okay next meeting is Tuesday April 23rd okay so we are going into close sorry let me read that I see to go into close r all in favor oppose