for joining us for our regular portion of the the meeting this evening at this time I'd like to ask you all to please rise for the flag salute allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all this past week we lost one of our employees Mrs Pamela lellan a beloved Spanish teacher who served our district for the past 18 years Mrs lellan believed in helping every student especially those who struggled in her class and often went above and beyond to help guide and nurture she was loved by all who knew her including myself as one of my daughters was lucky enough to have her as a teacher she will be greatly missed at this time I would like to ask for a moment of silence for Mrs lellan May her Legacy live on thank you I have no board president report so I will move on to our student Representatives report hi guys how are you good first I just want to start off with saying that before our spring break the high schoolers had a combination of spotland Olympics and the spring pep rally to represent our spring Sports and it it showed a combination of Games music and as well as showcasing the spring Sports and the captains and leading into their new and upcoming Seasons going into spring sports for girls lacrosse girls sophomores MADD parisher scored her reach her 100th career career goal and sophomore Brook Todd also reached her 100th ground ball and just today we had our our goalie Junior goalie Christina azimoff scoring her 100th career save and tomorrow we have our senior night for our girls as well ocean boys lacrosse also has a record of seven to five and with a start to the five to one record into the short conference led by led by coach Mr Ryan so hopefully boys will have a good good season so far especially coming into schore tournament and finally the ocean girls track had won their rocket relays on April 6 and alongside captains Mackenzie bags and Danny Toler so overall everyone all sports are doing good and hopefully are leading into a rest good rest of the season uh one final sport baseball is off to an 8- six record right now although That's not including the results from tonight's game which I don't know so hopefully nine and six they also have a six and four record in the shore conference and I believe they have the short Conference tournament coming up soon so hopefully the seating for that will be good and then going into the senior activities that are being held the uh senior prom bids are now being sold which should be a great night for them also Mr Spartan is occurring May 23rd which if you don't know what that is it's essentially senior boys competing and uh showing off their personalities and talents sometimes so that's always a fun night they're also planning their senior set right now and um that's all they have right now so um I'm glad to see Miss Hannah giving so many opportunities to the seniors as they're leaving high school soon uh also Junior Prom bids are now on sale which I believe the theme is a night in Paris so I'm hoping personally to see some good food DEA currently has nine students competing at Nationals in Anaheim which is it's a great accomplishment to reach that point because I believe they needed to move on through two different rounds of competitions so it shows their business skills also they should be having fun in the heat right now as we're sitting here in the fog and cold TSA which is our tech club also attended and competed at the TSA state conference at TCNJ which is an opportunity for them to compete in an activity of their choice which range from children's stories to coding to engineering or architecture activities and it's a great opportunity for them to match up against different schools throughout the state and see where they where they stand and also just Express their passion for technology and then the coffee house was held last week week which is an opportunity for our students to portray their artistic talents and to just Express themselves which is always great for them similarly vpa attended the teen Arts Festival which is similar to the state conference but it's essentially a bunch of talented teenagers New Jersey expressing and showcasing their artistic talents and accomplishments and I believe we had things that range from photography to our band performed to theater to 2D or 3D art so great representation of our art program there and then finally The Varsity Club fashion show occurred which had a bunch of Raffles and sponsorships included and it was just a great opportunity for our Varsity Club to Showcase their fashion skills and their uh school spirit great thank you both great report as always um okay we will now move on to our superintendent report Miss Welden yes thank you okay I have two recognitions this evening I'd like to ask the high school principal and our athletic director to come on up to to assist with these recognitions first I'd like I'd like to introduce coach Mike laser he is our girls basketball coach he has been named the 2024 New Jersey basketball coaches association Coach of the Year coach laser has been coaching at Ocean for the past 11 years 10 as Varsity head coach he is a two-time b Central Division champion the 20 223 team and the 2324 team and the championship last year was the first girls basketball championship in the past 26 years in Ocean join me in congratulating Co hey Kelly can I can I say something Kelly Kelly can I say something go right ahead so first of off I want to congratulate you coach um my daughter Ally uh was on uh coach's first team first time as a varsity head coach so for two years she uh played for uh for Coach laser and uh she just had a great time a great experience and uh fortunately they won a lot more games so then they lost which was H which was very positive but she learned a ton had a great time and always has the Fondest Memories of uh playing for you coach so congratulations congratulations Co together let's do one yeah let's do separate thank you thank you very much thank you very much thank congratulations you so much thank for your Comm does that conclude your report you have more I have one more awesome next I'd like to bring up Mrs Lisa Hannah Lisa Hannah is the recipient of the mammoth University Roberts charitable Foundation outstanding teacher award Lisa was nominated by one of our alumni Ethan walk for this award supported by her principal Mrs kazuba and we are so proud that she was the recipient of this award congratulations congratulations Mrs Hannah well deserved uh Miss paramas if I may yes you mayc me I'll wait till she finishes Mrs Hannah as a fellow recipient of that award it really is a moving ceremony at woodro Wilson Hall Mammoth University and you deserve the recognition for your dedication to education it is a wonderful evening and I congratulate you thank you I just have a few other quick things just to um announce to everyone next week is Teacher Appreciation Week and specifically May 8th is National School nurses day so uh we appreciate our teachers all the time but I want to make sure that they know and that our community knows about this special week so thank you that concludes my report thank you for announcing that um okay with that we will will move on to our school business administrator's report Mr Hastings thank you madam president miss Conway oh thank you very efficient uh tonight we have the presentation of the budget for the 2025 school year uh as you may recall back in March the board approved the tenative budget uh for the 25 school year um that budget was then sent off to the county business administrator County Superintendent for review uh they went through the budget uh got back to us with some questions some comments that we incorporated into the budget uh it didn't really impact the numbers but was more administrative in nature in terms of the corrections that we made uh and t uh we're required uh to present to the public and to the board the final budget uh presentation for the uh 2425 school year uh Miss Conway if you could skip ahead uh so we're going to break down the presentation into two or three uh areas uh the first thing we want to do is go through a lot of the accomplishments that we've just heard about uh that take place here at Ocean Township and make Ocean Township Schools a great place to be uh we will then talk about uh the budget process and and how the state views that that process we'll touch a little bit on the formula uh we'll go through some of that uh quickly as we've covered that in the past and I don't want to bore you with a lot of those details uh of of the state funding formula and then we'll talk about the budget itself uh some of the losses that we've incurred in terms of State funding and and how those losses are impacting us uh over the past several years and going forward uh so with that if we go to the next slide one of the things that is always uh top of mind for the district for the board is communication with our families uh over the past several years uh We've continued with our remind communication tools uh we have code read to communicate with parents uh we look at some multi-lingual uh products that we can utilize uh to provide access for All Families uh we've used as you've seen here our Spartan partners and learning uh program and uh through grant funding we've been able to uh utilize some Outreach coordinators again to uh make all feel included and to create an inclusive uh environment next slide uh we'd like to touch again on on some important programs in the district uh and on the next slide uh we want to talk about our Spartan schools uh our three Spartan schools which were incorporated or founded uh back in about 2017 uh we currently have our business and finance school with 147 students participating we have our Visual and Performing Arts School with 109 uh students participating and our technology school with 62 students participating uh that's about 318 if not exactly 38 students uh and that's up about 4% from last year's enrollment uh and as of today we've got 92 new applications uh for participants for the 2025 school year uh this past year we've been awarded the uh silver award silver level award for AP honor rooll and the next slide and the AP access award uh these awards are recognizing uh positive student results in our AP courses uh while also broadening access to all students to participate and have the opportunity to uh uh be in these classes these classes uh provide students with college credit and also helps with college readiness for those moving on to uh higher education uh as we discussed our Visual and Performing Arts is is a strong program I think if you've been uh in the meetings in the past month or two we've heard a lot about uh the uh drama presentations at both the intermediate school and the high school a lot of good things said about Mean Girls and the performance put on by our students uh I know board members received emails from folks uh who used to be ocean residents and and had seen the the program and and took the time to say how wonderful it was and I think it also um shows the support of this board and and the district uh in terms of Arts educ uh and recognizing the importance of of not just the basic academics of science math English but also reaching out to the Arts programs and and honoring those as well again as was just mentioned uh Athletics another important part of our uh School Community um second year in a row our lady Spartans won the Central Jersey group three divisional title if we go to our next slide our first year uh with the Esports program and our Esports team won the street fighter state championship at the Garden State Esports winter championships uh and again that's a first year program and we've had tremendous interest and success uh with that program this year uh the district also has been looking at uh mental health supports and investing and increasing ing uh mental health supports for our students and our staff uh we've been able to utilize a lot of grant funding to support those programs uh to keep them moving forward to increase awareness uh and and to um make it front of mind for people to be able to come forward and address those sorts of issues with us and to allow us to assist them in moving through difficult times not to be left out we have certainly lots of activities going on with our preschool and elementary schools uh we have uh as was just mentioned that our last meeting our Autism Awareness Month uh we've had spelling bees we have lots of preschool activities going on we've got a bro growing preschool uh Community um and there's lots of of activity and successes going on at our elementary levels a lot of the uh things that we've talked about and a lot of things on this slide uh social emotional learning coach Equity coach uh high impact tutoring uh have all been implemented over the past several years and have been the result in part of significant grant funding uh provided to the district so as part of uh the pandemic uh districts across the state receive three different levels of funding uh sometimes referred to as Sesser funding Sr one Sr 2 sr3 and sometimes as New Jersey cares which was the first uh trunch of funds that we received as a grant uh that was about $460,000 that was provided to the district and the purpose of that was to help the district uh and districts across the state uh get ready for remote learning and to provide those remote learning uh technology tools uh to Pro to uh provide that uh in terms of effective uh educational standards um we also utiliz those funds uh for the return to school so a lot of those funds were spent on um sanitizing on HVAC improvements on things to make schools safe for all of us to come back and be back in session uh the second trunch of money or sr2 or sometimes called Chrissa uh we received 1.6 million doll and again as we talk about the purpose of those funds uh the state moved the federal government moved the uh the um allowable activities for those funds to learning acceleration to mental health uh and and again getting us caught up and and allowing us to spend funds on increasing the intensity of education and learning uh the final trunch or sr3 or ARP was about $3.7 million uh and again that was broken out with uh specific allotments for different areas uh uh we had an allotment for coaching uh for summer programs uh for after school programs and again for mental health uh initiatives um so in total the district received almost $6 million over the course of two to three years uh to utilize those funds uh to um help us get through that pandemic and to uh utilize uh different uh programs different activities to get our students back in school and back on the learning pathway U unfortunately uh those funds have all now expired so each of those tranches was good for about two years so we had one year to implement those programs and another year to spend them and liquidate those funds and get those funds out the door so we've now reached the point where $6 Million worth of grant funding is no longer available to us uh and with that comes a number of high quality programs of of um terrific initiatives that we've looked at uh that we've implemented uh that that uh now have to be funded in different ways so we have to look for alternative ways to fund those programs we have to evaluate those programs and prioritize them and and determine you know what's been effective what hasn't been effective and move forward in a logical sense uh to uh continue those things uh I want to now just sort of touch on the basics and again at the tend of budget adoption we touched on some of these in terms of our budgeting process um when we look at budgeting we look at sort of three uh sides of the triangle we look at Appropriations or costs uh we look at our educational goals and we look at fiscal responsibility so uh we primarily look at the needs and try to develop a budget that serves the needs of students uh at the same time we need to meet State and mandates uh and we have a responsibility to the community to uh provide that at an affordable price when we talk about the state and how the funding comes to us uh we're talking about the school funding Reform Act uh the school funding Reform Act was put in place in 2008 um it looks at basically a model school and develops a cost per pupil for that model School um they look at elementary as the basis uh and then use weighted averages for middle and high school uh assuming that those are a little bit more costly to run uh they then add weighted factors for special education populations for at risk populations multilingual Learners and a geographic cost adjustment so they look at the enrollment uh they use this sort of Base cost per student come up with the multiplication and come up with what they feel is the appropriate amount of money that we should be spending or any District in New Jersey should be spending um on on their uh annual budget and again that's based on a Model we talk about the components of the aid and and what impacts the aid uh we look at enrollment and enrollment increases and decreases uh increases uh provide more funding to us uh decreases uh less funding uh we look at local fair share local fair share or property taxes um the local fair share property taxes that the state looks at is our property value and then they also look at what they call District income with that they uh apply factors again to those numbers and come up with what they feel is the district's fair share uh for providing uh for the education of our students um there's also looking at what the spending level currently is versus what they've come up uh in terms of an adequacy budget and then there's adjustment Aid in the uh formula the adjustment Aid is what um we'll touch on in the next slide actually um if you can go Miss Conway uh which brings us to the S2 um bill that was passed several years ago that I'm sure you've heard about it talks about the loss or the pullback of funding from the state um the hold harmless Aid or adjustment Aid was put in place back in 2008 when they first passed the school uh funding Reform Act and that was to guarantee districts that the following year after this was implemented they would not fall off a fiscal cliff so uh the state sort of guaranteed uh to districts that don't worry we won't give you less than what we were currently giving you so you don't have to worry about this formula being put in place and all of a sudden facing a dramatic drop off in in state funding uh that went on for several years it was supposed to Sunset but it didn't uh and then in 2018 the legislature passed the S2 Bill uh which went over six years uh to begin clawing back that money and looking at what local fair share was what districts were actually collecting in terms of local fair share and to begin to pull back the state aid um that they felt was an overfunding uh of of districts when we talk about that Aid and what our budget is made up of we look at one bucket that is the state aid and that's uh being reduced we look at the local Levy or our property values uh and what we collect from the township and we look at savings uh from prior budget years um in the past the district has been able to save funds and roll those forward to fund the coming years but as the state has begun to pull back that state aid uh you know it's been harder and harder to maintain that savings uh and harder and harder to roll those things forward so it puts the uh District in a difficult position where we have to then start looking at how we're going to make up these differences uh and how we're going to maintain staff maintain our educational Integrity uh while still losing Aid as an example uh since 2020 the district has lost about $2.5 million uh for 2025 the district was basically flat budgeted we did receive about 23,000 in additional special ed Aid uh but if you look at flat budgeting or flat Aid that's basically a loss uh because you do have contractual increases in costs we have inflation uh and other things where prices are rising and they're still giv us the same money as the previous year so we can view that really as a loss and again on the next slide graphically we're looking at the um the same same data points uh just in the bar chart to show the trend down from our high in 2019 of of almost $8 million down to uh five million uh for 2025 so miss Conway if you could put these into sort of a two- slide format these next two slides uh um sort of feed off of each other and they're difficult slides to discuss and and to see because uh this brings to reality uh for us uh and for all districts uh the impact of lost aid of reduced aid from the state um we try very hard to look at positions and look at Staffing and look at program and look at the Su success of programs to look at our spending levels on supplies and on other areas uh the last thing we want to look at is Staffing uh we value our staff highly um we recognize the important contribution that all staff makes to the success of our students uh but we have a uh fiscal problem where if we can't maintain funding we have to look at how we're going to cut back how we're going to make things work with less money um we have three different areas here with Staffing reductions with capital and technology and with Grant funded positions uh and and we look at those in terms of of where we can um cut back and where we can make sensible adjustments to the Staffing levels uh within the budget confines that we have we start on the right with grf funded positions as we sort of just discussed our grants uh have been reduced significantly uh based on on our covid uh funding that's gone away there was significant funds in the covid money for mental health supports and that's now gone away so the question for the district is how do we replace uh those those um functions those duties how do we go out and and look for additional grants or how do we reshuffle the fiscal deck to fund those programs uh and move them forward and maintain them um similarly we look at our Capital our technology area and you know with aging buildings and with aging infrastructure how do we maintain how do we improve how do we keep up with the technological changes that are necessary uh to provide again the best education possible for our students how do we provide our staff with the tools that they need uh to move the district forward and to move our students forward uh and again that becomes a priority uh list uh priority exercise of where are we what is that list of things that needs to be done what can we push out further in terms of of Technology uh can we keep those Chromebooks for an extra year or two years uh we battle the lifespan of Chromebooks and and sort of that fixed thing that uh is built in with with the software and the the performance of Chromebooks and know that after a certain period of time those are no longer supported and we have no choice but to replace those but can we push that technology out can we forgo something today and extend the life of what we have um you know in place right now if I could just jump in as well um in addition to everything that Mr Hastings said about reviewing taking inventory of what we have what the requests are what we need um we think long and hard about how we can deliver programs to the same level or as close to the same level as we have without negatively impacting our current staff who have come to work every day and delivered a very positive service for our students and so we try to meld those two things together delivering the best possible program for our students while maintaining our staff um it is it is none of these decisions are easy and none of them are entered into lightly um and in making those decisions we do try to maintain our staff and so then therefore we make reductions to positions first where there are retirements and resignations and then work with existing staff with the certifications that they have to try and redesign programs and try to offer what students have always uh been offered perhaps slightly different perhaps enhanced um perhaps by other staff members but um those decisions take time they are well thought out um but none of them are easy these two slides represent many needs of the district um that we just were not able to make happen this year with our budget and our situation our financial situation um but I did want everyone to know that we prioritize those two things and that's why you may question some decisions over some others I wanted you to understand the thought behind the process thank you um if we look at that second slide Staffing requests unable to be fun um so building the budget is obviously a process it's a long process um you know this is a process that started back uh at the end of the summer the beginning of the Fall um you know we've had numerous meetings with administrators with principles supervisors department heads we've asked them you know what are your needs what do you need to be successful what do you need for your staff to be successful what can we provide to you through this budget to ensure that we're maintaining and moving forward uh with with the educational offerings for our students um you can see on that second slide there's various uh requests that were made uh that that unfortunately we just can't fund um we again go back to our staff and we say to our administrators to our supervisors uh please take a second look at your budget are there supplies in there that you no longer use are there programs that that we're paying for that are not successful or that were not utilizing are there things in there that we're just ordering again because we ordered it last year and the year before so we're just going to again move forward with that same order uh and and not actually think it through we're in a situation where we need to account for for all the dollars and we have as you can see needs uh that are being presented to us uh to continue to ensure successful a successful environment for our staff and for our students uh and again uh to their credit um the administrators the the various folks that helped us put this budget together went through those budgets and came back with reductions um uh where they found um you know money available um but again given the limited resources that we have uh you know tough decisions have to be made and and as Miss Welden said you know we we try to minimize the impact on staff by looking at retirements and and resignations and and looking at those those positions and those classes and and and what can we do to um absorb those and and still maintain the existing staff next slide please so what is our 2025 budget so the resolution on our agenda tonight reflect uh the 2025 budget with an operating budget of 84 m815 uh that's for the operating budget so that's for the day-to-day activities that go on in the district uh we have grants and entitlements of $8.4 million uh a little over half of that is through our preschool program our Early Childhood Program uh and then we have repayment of debt so we have bonds that uh were issued back in 15 for construction and renovation projects uh so the district is paying those down and we'll be paying those down for the next 15 years uh so we're looking at 1.9 in debt repayment so we're looking at a total budget overall for 2025 of 95 million 85,681 on the next slide we can see where that money goes so if you look at our operating budget or the $84 million that we talked about um you can see that almost 80% of that is going to salaries and benefits and that's not atypical across the state um School budgets are 2/3 to 3/4 uh salary and benefits and that number is increasing because our benefits number across the state uh for Health Care is increasing as well uh we look at out of District placements that represents about five and a half percent of our U our operating budget utility is about 2 and a half% and then that leaves 12% to be spent on everything else what's the tax impact what's the tax impact to our our community so here we have the 2024 School tax and the 2025 proposed tax under this current budget uh We've listed off uh home values assessed values from 500,000 to a million dollars uh you can see there the 2024 and 20 25 um taxes uh for the average home in Ocean Township the average assessment is $847,500 to 7230 that's $161 a year or about $13 $135 a month uh so that is what we're proposing for the Budget moving forward uh and at this Point we'd be happy to take any questions from the board yes does does the board have any questions just just so the public knows the way we're going to handle questions this evening is we're going to take questions from the board members first and then we're gonna um you know if the if the public has any questions that they would like to have answered we would be happy to answer them here this evening in regards to the budget so does the board at this time have any questions for Mr Hastings or Miss welen no questions okay at this time is there anyone from the public that would like to ask a question just raise your hand no questions no no no we'll still go to that this is anything related to the budget and there will be a public comment section after this yes M Hayes Alex Hayes uh oakers Mr Hastings does this include the $400,000 for the stadium lights the stadium lights uh was a capital project that we discussed uh at the as you roughly remember at our tenative adoption uh the budget does not include Stadium lights as part of the project uh the district does have capital reserve account that could pay for stadium lights uh so if we were move forward with Stadium lights the funding excuse me potentially could come from capital reserve okay uh we turned down $250,000 by a private Camp who wanted to rent our facilities um I guess this question is from Mr Hastings or superintendent Welden would that $250,000 um could that pay for any of the staff reductions if we had a miracle Magic $250,000 could that pay for a new media Specialist or a math teacher or an English teacher it's hard to predict if it could pay for that for years Beyond this one but yes it would have helped this year um and in well I don't know what page slide it is I'm sorry reductions and cuts for 2425 under Grant funded programs you had the high impact tutoring in there so we just got that Grant and just started that program in January so does this mean that we are not going to have high impact tutoring for next year the grant ends this year however we have moved into the operating budget summer programs and after school programs because we prioritize those in the operating budget but high impact tutoring was for this school year and it ends this year that was Grant funded we we recognized a need an extreme need for what is it K through three kids to high impact tutoring was for grade three and but we couldn't find it anywhere in our budget to proceed for next year no that's not what I said we are we did budget for after school programs which is what high impact tutoring is that is in the operating budget during school too or before or whatever right okay so beyond the school day we are offering high impact tutoring this school year that is Grant funded next year it will be locally funded by the operating budget but the grant money does end this year so high impact tutoring will not end the state's grant called high impact tutoring ends this year that I again after school support for our students is in our budget we won't be calling it high impact tutoring that's the name of a state Grant okay it's also like a philosophy of high impact tutoring right like a similar philosophy will be applied next year that's what I meant um I don't see any supervisor or administrator uh pay reductions was that considered the administrator group is a negotiated contract and um I guess my last question is under staff reductions you have it's a little bit broad it just says staff reductions English math media Specialists and that's plural secretarial science and World Language um what grades what levels what schools when will we know a little bit more information on that the English position is at the high school the math position is at the high school the media specialist position is at Wanamassa Elementary School and the high school secretarial position is at otes science position is at the high school and the World Language position is from the intermediate school there are some internal trans transfers to fill those positions from within so although those are where the cuts are coming from that may not be exactly where the um the vacancy is felt it may be filled from within with transfers okay um and then I think my last question is I believe it was in January you had a rather extensive presentation on ESL and how our ESL needs continue to grow um it was a great presentation by our assistant um superintendent for curriculum and our world languages supervisor so Staffing requests unable to be funded you have here a sack counselor four ESL teachers and one ESL instructional coach won't that put us behind um some of the inroads that we've been trying to make we had 66 new multilingual Learners just this year come to our student uh to our student body how are we going to serve those students if we don't have enough ESL teachers we are going to serve those students with existing staff however as I said in the presentation it is very difficult to look at those two slides and make these decisions absolutely and everyone on the administrative team everyone up here would love to be able to fill every one of those positions we will have to do it for with the staff that we have remaining I'm sorry this is my last question um last year when we had a bunch of cuts it significantly raised the pupil per classroom percentage you know like uh say OTS had 16 kids per class and then the average this year became 23 I'm making that up but it was a significant jump do we it was it wasn't that jump though in many cases so just to a point of clarification was unique because they had a lower in in many cases our class sizes are below 23 and worked very hard to maintain that in this budget as well so what will the class size average increase I don't have the well I mean it depends from school to school so if you have a specific area you're concerned about I can get that information for you and get back to you but we the Elementary class sizes should not change most of these positions were secondary okay thanks Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue that has any budget questions yes Madam president Keith Chapman please go ahead please go ahead Mr Chapman hi Keith Chapman Oakhurst um how many administrators supervisors are being let go versus teachers and staff members because that's where your top of your salary guide is so how many of those will be let go because you know if we're decreasing enrollment over the years you're decreasing funds then less supervisors and administrators are needed we have made Cuts over the years but this year there are no cuts to the administrative team maybe that needs to be the case so that you can you know recover some of your staff members because losing a media Specialist or losing some science where we are needed you know but you're cutting from the wrong wrong wrong part thank you thank you Mr Chapman was there someone in the room whose hand I missed yes yeah um I just can clarify to learn that we're notating um The Librarian in the elementary school in L elementary school so I was just kind of can you clarify like is there any kind of replacement is there some sort of you know how are we stabing that's just sort of look like sort of from sure the library as it exists right now will remain open there will be no change to that space all of the students at wanasa elementary school will have Library as a special we are not replacing the library media specialist but we are filling the position from within with an elementary certified teacher um we are partnering that teacher with District Library uh library media Specialists as well to help support that teacher to deliver lessons on information literacy digital digital citizenship um and to to Hope and it is our hope that we'll be able to deliver as close to as possible the experience that students are having now we know without Mrs Walgren it will not be possible it will not be the exact same experience that our students are used to but we are going to work very hard to make sure that it is a um productive educationally sound experience where students can expand their knowledge of Library skills all right again I'm kind of thrown by it so will will it be always staffed in the library there will always somebody there yes and a and a trained person with children and and they interacting with the children yes okay thank you you're welcome yes teacher what what's subject area it's an elementary certified teacher who has an educational technology background and has a proven performance in uh successful teaching instructional strategies in many different settings so we believe that this staff member will do a wonderful job in this new role without getting into too much detail about any one specific staff member um please understand I'm being careful there to to one yes yes correct Mrs Hayes I'm just going to take whoever else is in the queue and then I'll come back to you um Mrs Conway there any any other questions in the queue yes um Madison Kenny um does have a a question it's not a budget question maybe it should be for first comments because it's a health policy question yeah that would probably be public comment at the end of the meeting there are no other virtual commenters then okay thank you very much um Mrs Hayes would you mind coming back to the microphone I should have asked you both to come to the microphone they couldn't hear you um uh sorry um how if we added up the um salaries that we're going to be leaving the staff reductions do we have a total price on that you know like what we're saving and I don't believe so in the staff reductions you're saying one high school teacher one math teacher one me two media Specialists one secretary one science I mean science teacher One World Language teacher what's the cost savings there you're probably looking at close close to a Million Dollar close to a million dollars okay well it's not just salary it's benefits as well I'm just curious how serious the board has taken into account when they're going over board dis uh budget discussions like this building that we're sitting in is a dump of a building but it's worth millions of dollars and yet this board continues to not sell this building or this land or section it off that might even be a statement but it is a question that in this budget wouldn't it be nice to save all these jobs bring more technology more jobs um the only thing I can say stadiums is we are in discussion you know with under the with the planning construction uh committee and we are looking at everything and nothing has been decided yet so it is an ongoing conversation but isn't it hard to try to sell to the public that you're getting rid of positions when you're sitting on a real estate gold mine for ex I mean last year somebody would have paid millions of dollars for this property but now we're make sure we're making the right decision for thect five six we're cutting at least seven jobs understood thank you thank you for your comments any other budget questions m tarica i just question about the sack counselor that's unable to be funded is does that have anything to do with the summer programs I know there's been a s counselor that's been during the summer and I just suppose we've going during no thank you Mr Dalton so I want to be clear with Miss Miss welden's comments earlier um and I'm trying to be careful how I say this with resignations retirements we were looking to do everything possible to maintain staff and not reduce staff and eliminate positions that would have put people out of work in the creativity with some of these Solutions is that a correct statement yes so we're also looking to maintain people's jobs in what you've done creatively here that is correct the other thing I would just like to comment on is I appreciate ideas from the public on selling something or a grant but we just saw the results of what grants that were great and great work was done but when they come to an end and we know our situation financially one time cost things so if we were to sell something that does not carry us out for the next 10 to 15 years and it's not like we can sit and bank that money because we responsibly would need to do other things with that money and so we need to be careful when we get into decisions that are onetime hits that would give us hope for a year and then we are back at this table the next year addressing that same question over again because you can't bank that money and just sit on it am I correct that is correct you can't just sit on 10 million and stretch it out over 10 years but then even then you'd be kicking the the the situation down the road we can't sit on that money for 10 years to continue to fund those salaries because it's a salary which is a recurring cost not a you know I am correct with that yes yes yes okayy uh Madam president I just I just would you know because I do believe that we serve the pleasure of this town I would like to make a comment regarding the things that we have done uh regarding our budget process that we have here um so this is my fortunately for me this is my third budget process that I participated in um and in the first one that I participated in this board were and the members that made up that board at the time identified that we were running into a bit of an issue with the S2 funding formula and and to to touch on what Mr doton was saying that that eventually we're going to have to start to balance this budget uh the actions that we took to respond to that are the following we sent a letter home to parents we asked that they would reach out to the representation in Trenton and bring up to them that the S2 funding formula is a flawed formula when it comes to funding our district that it doesn't consider the depreciation of assets that a district like Ocean Township which was as Mr Weinstein has said previously so eloquently an early adopter of Education uh now has to suffer from because our our school buildings are so old because all the things that we have are so old and and that that formula doesn't consider the costs that we have compared to other districts to rebuild that infrastructure that supports our education system the formula doesn't consider the needs of our special education students uh it also doesn't consider which was brought up today and is correct the the massive increase in our seal student population which is projected to make an exponential increase over the next few years and is is doubling okay that those are projections they could be incorrect so I do want to be clear to the public but that is the projection and it doesn't consider that to a to a degree that would help us regardless we created the legislative liaison committee and we we asked that our representation in Trenton would come and meet with us so that we could speak with them and make these issues known to them we continue to meet with them we met with them this year we brought these issues up to them we were in deep talks with our Senator and our Assembly women about the fact that they need to figure out the S2 funding formula so that we don't have these issues year after year as a district and and I've said this since my first budget process and I'm speaking individually and I hope that I am wrong about what I saying right now and I apologize for being the the bearer of bad news even in my own upcoming election year I think it's my responsibility to say this to the people of this town I think it's going to get worse before it gets gets better and that does scare me but I want you to be aware of that that we are going to come to a point where we have to continue to try to figure this out with our loss of funding and I don't say that to scare you I say that to prepare you and that this district is working very hard to try to figure out this problem that we have and I urge you again speaking myself to yourselves reach out to our representation in Trenton and to bring up to them that you believe that this is a flawed funding formula that we have and that it needs to get fixed immediately that's all I have to say Okay can I can I uh can I make um Miss Gilman I'm not a numbers person I'm a language person and so for me to hear about Library time changing it was definitely uh upsetting to me but I also am a realist and I know that while miss Walgren can never be replaced or our beloved Librarians any of them we have done everything to try to maintain the Integrity of a library program children checking out books children reading books children being exposed to different genres and learning about literacy in every way as a longtime teacher that was the most important thing for me to see children come into the high school School loving reading and so I I have to commend both Mr Hastings and uh Miss Welden for trying their utmost to not uh close down the library as in many districts is happening or one librarian for the entire District as the state requires only one librarian so change is not a pleasant thing for us especially when below things that are changing I would hope that our program will continue to morph into something that is very similar to what we already had and that we can supplement our children's love of reading by using our Public Library uh by continuing to train our staff and our teachers to incorporate reading into every single aspect every single subject area uh so I thank you Librarians for all that you do home in your pocket and everything that goes along with it and I hope that we will continue to maintain the Integrity of our library program Madam president just a point of clarification of my comments earlier I apologize I said that our seal population was doubling and I misspoke with the use of a three-letter acronym I apologize it's our elll population our English language Learners not oural population so elll doubling projected to double I apologize for misspeaking y do you mind go right ahead great thanks so um yeah I just want to um so um you know there's a lot of there's a lot that goes into coming up with this budget and a lot goes into principles and the superintendent and superintendent's opinion and how they feel like they want this District to go forward so um and you know these are you know my my uh my my parents were School principles the superintendents and all those kind of things and they and it's very hard I know for them personally to make these tough decisions because they're their colleagues for years and they're colleagues that they've known you know every day and they see every day so you know one thing that we have is we have a superintendent that's kind of grew up through the system who knows the staff knows that has has our our heart and soul kind of into this District um a seasoned group of uh principles and those kind of things and I think it's easy to to kind of point out why couldn't you do this why couldn't you do that and I think a lot of those why couldn't you have are kind of being considered already being thought about and being discussed and by the time it gets to us a lot of that vetting through went through it so I think it's I think you know these are hard things to do organizationally it's hard personally it's hard um you know we kind of recognize you know that you're changing you know even though we're going to have less people being let go people are going to be switching from jobs that they might not have really wanted to other positions these are tough things and I understand that and I think Miss Welden Miss Wen certainly understands that so I think you know we can't have it both ways we can't say you know what we're so happy we have this superintendent who grew up in this system knows this District so well and really has a heart and soul and pulse on what's going on here and then when we get to this spot we start throwing stones at it it's not a it's not it you can't have it both ways right at least that's my opinion so um I feel like we're in you know as a as an economy there's some tough times going on the district's going through some changes and so you know we have to kind of figure out how to make this work and do the best that we can with what we have because there is not an endless supply of money and and facilities for us to do what we have to do so I want to commend the team for kind of going through this and and going through that I know it always can be better right but sometimes it's a is as good as we can get it and so that's what I just wanted to to kind of say so I just want to give you that perspective okay right thank you thank you to the board for all of your comments I too wanted to thank Miss Welden and Mr Hastings as well as the administration the principles the supervisors and the teachers that were involved in this process it is a daunting task trying to put a budget together and we really do appreciate all the hard work that you put into uh into the process I also want to thank the board because I know we've been working on it as well for the past few months um it's not easy again it's a daunting task um but um all my my deepest sincere appreciation goes out to all involved so thank you again thank you for the presentation as well Mr Hastings thank you uh Mr Hastings does that conclude your report yes ma'am okay thank you all right with that um the F we're going to move on to public comment regarding agenda items the following are a series of motions to be read by the committee chairpersons all motions have been discussed at a recent public work session some motions have been approved at a public work session and the minutes for the approved items are posted on the district website at this point in the meeting we will now conduct the first of two public comment sessions the first session will be open for public comments on agenda items only and the second session will be at the end of the meeting and can be on any topic and I just wanted to remind everyone because I see a lot of new faces um we only take uh we we listen to comments we don't answer questions during the public comments sessions but um there is a business card that belongs to miss weldin I believe on that Podium and you're welcome to reach out to her via her email and if you're at home um please go on the website to get her email and please reach out with your question she will get back to you um and with that um is there anyone in the room that has any public comment yes please please come on up and just state your name for the record hello my name is Tara baskam Christensen um thank you all very much for your hard work supporting our kids I'm here tonight as an OTS graduate a college librarian and most important a wanasa parent I'm here to voice my concerns about the decision to eliminate the librarian position at wanasa elementary and replace it with an educational technology specialist one thing I learned growing up at home and in school at Ocean Township was just because a lot of people are doing it doesn't make it a good idea yes libraries and Librarians have often been on the chopping block lately however Studies have repeatedly shown when Librarians are cut student academic achievement goes down I'm here because I reject the decision to put W aasa children at a known disadvantage by having them be the only ones in Ocean to go through Elementary School without a librarian we are not willing to let our children be the experiment here when study after study has shown that they will be disadvantaged without a qualified librarian students and teachers who have access to school librarians have a decided advantage over those who do not that makes access to school librarians an educational Equity issue having a qualified librarian and support reported Library program has been shown to increase reading and math scores the librarian is critical and this is not just a correlation between poorer school districts cutting libraries while wealthier school districts are more likely to have robust libraries these studies correct for wealth disparities libraries are more than Story Time and checking out books library is a time when children can explore and learn about their interests not worrying about grading or only reading assigned material Librarians work with every student year after year on their reading and information literacy skills the professional expertise and guiding motivation of librarians is to build students literacy and lifelong learning skills in gathering interpreting and sharing information to quote school librarians are an integral part of making sure libraries are properly run and useful resources for students in fact it has been shown that well qualified Librarians have a positive effect on student achievement and test scores on any given day a librarian May be collaborating with teachers on lessons instructing students providing Technology support working with staff on professional development and much more the national Center for Education statistics and the fourth grade National assessment of educational progress actually documented a decline in reading scores when schools experience a loss of librarians research has consistently shown that school librarians have a positive long-term impact on students especially in environments where Librarians are valued districts that allow Librarians to lead where they are knowledgeable have turned out higher test scores and successfully met academic standards end quote while an educational technology specialist is a valuable educator they are not a sufficient substitute for a qualified librarian Ed Tech's focus is on using technology appropriately and effectively in the curriculum and classroom a librarian in an elementary school often uses technology as a tool but has a broader focus and expertise in advancing literacy and working with teachers to incorporate information resources again this sometimes includes technology as a tool in information research and instruction but also includes print materials as appropriate in an elementary school setting print resources are often more appropriate to our students it is unacceptable to me to cut such an important piece of our children's education School libraries and Librarians must be supported so they can do their important work in educating our children Librarians are highly trained and qualified in technology and when given the support and opportunities can work with teachers and edte to create valuable learning and creative exploration opportunities for students this cut will affect every single student at Wanamassa but it will disproportionately affect our most vulnerable students who rely on the school library for access to information this is a critical learning deficit that will follow our youngest Spartan Scholars from lamasa only as the only Elementary School to be without a librarian throughout their time at Ocean and Beyond we can do do better and we must I understand funding is down and very difficult choices need to be made however if educating our children is the top priority in Ocean Township Schools then those cuts need to be made elsewhere that is less essential the first line in the ocean District's Elementary School handbook is the Spartan Mission meeting the needs of all students with a proud tradition of academic Excellence if educating our children is the top priority and we want to maintain this proud tradition of academic Excellence then every School must have a qualified and supported librarian who is seen and treated as an essential piece of our children's education thank you for your time thank you for your comments are there any other public comments this Conway is there anyone in the queue no Madame President there are no virtual commenters okay thank you Miss P did I miss somebody okay sorry come on up um I want to thank the board for allowing sorry could you just state your name okay my name is Julia Highland I'm a junior at OTS thank you I want to thank the board for allowing me to speak I attended wanasa Elementary School and Miss Walgren was My Librarian she fostered a love for reading for so many of her students and it is my understanding that the board intends to replace her with a non- librarian a an elementary school needs a professional who will work directly with students to Foster that love of reading and to find genres that they truly enjoy I urge the board to appreciate the role of a librarian and replace Miss Walgren with an appropriate personnel thank Youk thank you good evening uh my name is Sam Parker I am a wanasa parent I am also on the board for the mammoth County library system so as you can imagine I really value Librarians especially at the elementary level I also value each and every one of you because I know that you have our kids best interest I know this is a tough decision um I would implore you to potentially seek out other Solutions in the sense of I hear what you're saying in regards to having a teacher take over the librarian situation but I agree with the previous parent who spoke about the importance of a librarian at the elementary school level what I would suggest is perhaps if we are reconfiguring the district maybe there is somebody from the high school level that could serve as a teacher in that position while a certified librarian is in the elementary school this is a time when our most vulnerable students um really seek out adults and the safety of a librarian I know that I did as a student I know that I wouldn't be where I am without our public library and with our public education and as well as our Librarians within our Public School Systems um it's a a a value that I think is intrinsic to the education of our students and I really would implore you to perhaps seek go a little bit further I I hear you've done a lot of your due diligence I think with the parents that are behind me and the community members we all would seek that you go just a little bit further thank you thank you Mrs P good evening um Donna Emer I'm the high school librarian and I have been in the district for 15 years uh as a librarian at the high school for 10 the middle school for five and I taught English for 10 years in uh Brick Township Schools I want to thank you first of all before I did want to talk a little bit about literacy tonight I love um but I do want to thank the board and the administration because you have supported us all these years and uh it's not been easy I imagine it's happening all over the state we are lucky I talked to Librarians outside of ocean who say to me I can't believe you hung on this long um I think about was it about 15 even more years ago when technology was really starting in schools everybody was buying desktops and they got rid of the libraries called the media centers or got rid of the books even we're lucky to not have done that so I do want to thank you for that um there are 1.4 million students in public schools in New Jersey and there are only 1100 certified school librarians which that's ratio is a little bit off um our only hope right now and it's not sufficient right now but I believe there is a bill put forth by the advocacy group from n jel that they're trying to do a ratio kind of requirement so that if there are 300 students within a school there must be a certified librarian that's not happening right now it is our hope so perhaps encouraging to write to um Senators but um I wanted to talk a little bit about just technology um because it it will be and edtech the high school will be in pretty good shape we have an English former English teacher and Mr Houston will be coming up I don't know if I'm allowed to be speaking about this but um it's going to be certainly difficult for them but um it it's going to be fine in that respect that they're knowledge because it does go beyond just handing out books um I I don't mean to disparage technology any of you watch 60 Minutes on Sunday to see Chris malikowski with boy is that impress impressive do are you guys familiar with graduate of ocean High School um I imagine that he read books I pictured him as a Sci-Fi reader actually he is owner of uh and founder of Nvidia and um what did they quote his company one of the four companies that have made over a trillion dollars this year and so um I I like I said I don't want to disparage technology there's a book that I give to my my vocational students it's called shop class as soulcraft and while this is not analogous to having a real library media specialist with children the concept is that we are getting away because of Technology our our connection to making things to creating things in this world and I see that if somebody is going to come in and I don't believe this will be Miss welin has assured us that professional development things will be there's no one like Miss Walgren she's the consumate elementary librarian but um to have a child those of you that are parents you took a child on your lap and you read from a young age to see children laying out around a library to not watch a video of a book being shown but to have them turning the pages to have them follow along with the words to share and um I hope that that is not lost so I had the pleasure this year of mentoring Miss Anne Hanley one of my good friends and an excellent English teacher a freshman English teacher she just completed her uh certificate for school library media specialist and um she has this really great lesson that she does with the Freshman it's about the importance of reading and I wanted to just share a few of those things with you students who read even five minutes a day improve their standardized test scores by 50% they score 20% 20 points higher on IQ reading for as little as six minutes reduces stress by 60% people who read before bed sleep better you guys remember that one teenagers need that one reading may help Alzheimer's that one I really took to heart as I retire let me tell you um people who read live longer three hours a week equals 23 more years on uh 23 more months on your life there's a link between reading and wealth Mark hugan claims he reads more than three hours a day I don't know how he does that but he does Bill Gates reads 50 books a year um and probably the most important thing is that there is an increase in empathy in people who read and Lord knows we need that more than ever in this world um and I'll just leave you with this quote that I have I have a poster on my library door it's um by Ray Bradberry from his book Fahrenheit 451 Miss Gilman what does 451 stand for do you remember the temperature that books burn the temperature in which paper burns and he says that um you don't have to burn books to destroy a cult a culture but you just have to get people to stop reading them so let's hope for that public law to come through and um hope for the best thank you thank you all right good evening uh Kathy Hackler way side as a national board certified School library media specialist a member of the New Jersey Association of school librarians and a 20 year old 20 year 20y old wish library media specialist at Wayside I feel I have to speak out not only for my profession but for the students we teach I also speak out to honor the Spartan Legacy of those Librarians who came before us here and on Whose shoulders We Stand Ellen Gulick Phyllis F Joyce windberry Joe Mahoney Kathy young Eileen mccab Diane Johnson and others when I first heard the news that Miss Walgren was not being replaced by a certified School library media specialist I like the rest of us was devastated as I wrote about it tears were streaming down my face as it as I felt as if it was my own library that was being changed because there are currently so many unknowns about this plan to replace a certified library media specialist position with an edtech position we've all gone to what we are afraid will be missing and what our students will lose gaining a love of reading through our read alouds and story times author and illustrator studies puppet shows book talks author visits or coordinating our book break program which our pta's help fund either helping with or Running book fairs poetry po poem in your pocket reinforcing things taught in the classro such as authors illustrators genres fiction non-fiction and so much more we teach Internet safety material evaluation online catalog usage coding and about other resources and databases such as Mac and Via PebbleGo and brain pop we do make maker space and stem activities we read reviews read books support the curriculum collaborate with teachers keep our collection current help students find a just right book run special events support things such as special months and times kindness and empathy initiatives week of respect anti-bullying black history women's hisory history aapi and Hispanic History students with various and different abilities seal and Equity we show students books that act as mirrors where they can see themselves books that act as Windows where students can see those different from themselves and books that are like sliding doors to bring people together in closing I believe it would have been beneficial to have consulted with the Librarians if you wanted more Tech in the library why didn't you see if we already did it or if we could do it maybe we could have worked something out together where the Library part of the job wasn't left out School library media Specialists today can do both long-term studies at Rucker show that schools with full-time School library media Specialists have students who do better academically other recent studies show that too much Tech is not healthy it's telling that the CEOs of some of the largest tech companies limit their own children's involvement in it meaningful connections and creativity are what our children lose when we let technology rule our lives and they gain empathy a sense of wonder an ability to travel to other places and make new friends when they have a book in their hands thank you thank you Mrs I'm lauan Walgren I live in Wall Township and I'm proud to be the school library media specialist at wanam Masa Elementary School what I never want it to be is the last one there that is a very sad Spartan Legacy my decision to retire is Bittersweet I struggled with it because I love my profession my students the staff and our precious school but the prospect of embarking on a new chapter of Life intrigues me and I know we are not promised an infinite amount of time so my hope my goal was to Mentor the next librarian and pay forward the mentorship provided by the librarian who preceded me my fear was that the district would not allow that to happen that they would see my retirement and that of Miss Emer at the high school as an opportunity to follow the disturbing trend of eliminating library media Specialists somehow in the many lean years of reduced state aid Ocean Township managed to maintain the high standard of a certified library media specialist in every school building we didn't follow the misguided Trend to reduce Librarians to the bare minimum allowable or to eliminate educational technology coaches as other districts have Ocean Township seemed to understand the great value of both Librarians and edtech coaches they are not interchangeable they are not each of their roles is important to the success and growth of our children and there is so much we could do if we work together our school library media Specialists provide guidance in digital citizenship Online safety and information literacy pairing stories with online sources lets us facilitate important discussions and extend learning we curate you don't have tissues do you it's okay that's what sleeves are for right that's what my kids tell me in the library we curate resources and develop programs designed thank you to support social and emotional learning mental health and Equity education we curate book collections that enable our students to see themselves reflected in literature to gain insights into other perspectives and find the commonality so necessary in our divided Society we respond to changing enrollments on a dime finding literature to engage our multilingual students one of my little ones just told me a couple weeks ago she's um from a Spanish-speaking family and she said thank you because I gave her books that her mommy can read to her because Mommy only reads in Spanish Mommy can't take her to the library so Li the public library isn't always an option for our little ones but our school library always is and we Librarians we also understand the benefits of reading Just For Pleasure enhanced literacy skills improved Focus stress reduction and so much more so we search for those books that will make our students laugh out loud gasp in suspense or Escape into Fantastical worlds we offer guidance yet encourage students self- selection of reading materials and support their choices our library programs and collections reflect the differences in our student demographics we have different schools with different student bodies and that is why we need a library media specialist in every building no child and no school should be left behind in wanasa I knew many students lacked confidence in Reading aloud I also knew we had many dog loving families in our community so when I read about a therapy dog reading program I had an aha moment I researched the benefits that therapy dogs have on children's reading outcomes I located therapy dog teams in our area and I introduced the activity 19 years later it's still one of our most popular programs 12 years ago when I felt like my disabilities awareness lessons needed context I partnered with the guidance counselor and school psychologist to create immersive experiences we do more than just read about disabilities we allow children to walk in the shoes of those differently abled encouraging them to reflect on their experiences brainstorm ways to respectfully show empathy and ways to adjust everyday activities to be more inclusive of everyone during the pandemic years our students were struggling with feelings of isolation and uncertainty as we focused on ways to combat learning loss I researched ways to build back social skills resilience and optimism I structured Library activities to include puppets and readers theater which brought Whimsy to reading and Drew in even our reluctant readers because who doesn't love to be silly with a puppet I included challenging jigsaw puzzles that required teamwork and focus and perseverance chess games you should hear them try to teach each other how to move those chest pieces using the resources that I provide for them as well coding activities C CS even a relaxing Beach Corner in which students can sit and read under a palm tree I Enlisted the help of our edtech coach to bring monthly Zoom stories to our classrooms to connect our kids even during the pandemic when we had to stay so far apart with the collaboration of our wonderful staff who read with me on camera and who encourage their students to participate we find connection but fun and inspiration through literature in each of our schools there are so many Beautiful Stories I'm sharing only a few of my own but our students are enriched by the magic found in a library run by a certified library media specialist please don't deny the children in wanasa this privilege I know my narrative doesn't matter in your decision I am retiring but I fear this trend will not end with my job in my school and I always encourage my students to find their voices and to stand up for those things they hold dear like one of my students tonight just did whatever the outcome I am and will always be proud to advocate for the students and the librarians I thank you all for your time and your attention thank you Mrs Walgren is there any other public comment okay at this time we will move on to our action items Mr McCarthy move to approve item 5.1 do I have a second second the approval of 5.1 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes M McGovern yes Mr Schneider Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mr Paramus yes motion carries thank you Personnel Miss McGovern move to approve items 6.1 through 6.7 may I have a second second for all items 6.1 to 67 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes motions carry thank you m McGovern financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein thank you madam president Madam president I'd like to move to approve um 7.1 to 7.16 second all item 7.1 to 716 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs McGovern yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes all items Carrie thank you Mr Weinstein instruction education and Student Activities Miss Gilman certainly Madame President move to approve items 8.1 to 8.4 second items 8.1 to 8.4 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mrs McGovern yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs Paramus yes all items carry okay thank you very much M Steelman um now i' I'd like to ask the board if they have any old business McCarthy uh one item for old business just for the board to be aware of we are going to begin the superintendent evaluation process so in the next meeting I will outline uh all the needs and requirements of that and I will be in contact with Mrs Welden this week just to confirm the first part of this process um if anyone has any questions about that you can direct that to me uh what we're going to do with that process if anybody has any input right now that they'd like to to to bring up that that's also available um but just be prepared that we we intend to conclude that process ahead of schedule hopefully by June 15th is the goal okay so we'll be working backwards from that date uh looking to confirm that those are my my direct orders from the president of the board okay so that's what we're going to shoot for and and that gives us time in case we have to add anything to that that we'll complete it by June 30th at the latest okay thank you Mr McCarthy anyone else have any old business any new business from the board okay at this time we will take public comment on any item anyone in the room have public comment on any item we just we are the library team in Ocean Township m is Mike he wasn't able to join us tonight but miss Walen I'm sorry could you just step a little closer to the thank you we all wanted to come together we actually planned to do this back in February when we started working on our poem in your pocket activity 10 years ago our wonderful Library team longed to find a way to bring our school together thanks to the suggestion from a school librarian in Pennsylvania we developed the poem iny pocket Community event Our Hope was to allow students to strengthen public speaking skills and confidence showcase Ocean Township students in an engaging light support our local businesses and unite our schools in literacy even the two-year pandemic Hiatus couldn't dampen enthusiasm from our families or business partners we just had our eighth annual home inyour pocket weekend event and from what we have seen in pictures and heard from our students and their families it was very very successful once again we'd like to thank the following businesses for participating in poem in your pocket antonos Broad Street doco Greek guys Green Leaf Pet Resort greens Natural Foods hogo International bites Jersey miks Mammoth Clubhouse Deli Norman's Hallmark Ocean Township Public Library Peele prap Porter The Prince and the popper Rizzo's Pizza cicos Short Cake Supply Shore Music Sky Zone trampoline park sweet and Joe turning point and what about a bagel thank you thank you is there any other public comment in the room Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue yes Madam president our first commenter is Madison Kenny Batali thank you please go ahead hi yes can you hear me yes hi um first I would just like to say thank you to everyone who spoke tonight regarding the wanasa library issue especially Lori Walgren um I had the pleasure of work working side by side with her this year at the book fair and it will be a huge loss to this town with her leaving no one will be able to replace her um my first comment is regarding Library uh not specifically the librarian position but it was brought to my attention this year that the preschoolers do not have specific routine Library time and I was wondering if that could potentially be re-evaluated I don't understand why they're in the wanasa school but they don't have Library time I heard it was possibly regarding that they were funded differently but again if the library is there and the books I think that that should maybe be addressed they're young they should be reading as much as possible okay thank you um and I have one other comment that another policy that I would like uh potentially to be looked at for re-evaluation it's the covid policies um multiple times my children and many children that I know in town have been sent home by the school nurses or covering substitute nurses for temperatures of a 100 um we were informed that the policy changed from 101 to 100 during covid but we're not in covid anymore so I think that that really needs to be readdressed children shouldn't be sent home and then saying they need to stay home for an additional 24 hours the following day when they're not sick um I was a school nurse I am a nurse I think that that really needs to be addressed and to be consistent with the American Pediatric Association guidelines thank you m Kenny um Miss uh Welden will reach out to you via email if that's okay thank you very much you is there anyone else in the queue Miss Conway yes Madam president Keith Chapman please go ahead hello Q Chapman from Oakhurst um you know I find it very ironic that we're laying off reading math science teachers media specialist librarian when our School's test scores are nothing to jump up and down about and that includes reading math and science my two kids have been in in the school district for a number of years my child children have always come home with library books home your pocket activities and various other activities where're our technology is like they said replacing everything someday Ocean's libraries what we're going to be down to a little book or something handout we still got to keep that in in in town and you allowing this to go just goes right back to your state assessment scores there nothing to jump up and down and maybe if the our Board of Ed is approving all this then during the next election that's where the town has to speak up again thank you have a good night thank you Mr Chapman anyone else in the queue no Madame President there are no further commenters thank you Mr Conway um at this time I'd like to ask the board for a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second have a second I got it okay meetings adjourned thank you all for coming --------- everyone welcome to the workshop portion of our meeting tonight I am going to skip over the president's report and go to superintendent's report okay I will save my report for downstairs I know we'll have some student Representatives tonight and a few different recognitions um when we have our 8 o'clock meeting okay thank you School business administrator report Mr hting thank you m president try and keep it brief well you guys gave me all this extra time so I'd just like to uh remind the board and remind the community uh that this summer the USDA is sponsoring continuation of the EBT program um EBT program uh is a federal program that helps families buy food for school age kids over the summer uh families will receive $120 card for each child to buy groceries over the summer um this is a federal program uh an email went out by a Genesis uh to all our families uh advising them of the program and I think we've attached a flyer um the uh email had a link to our website into an application area uh there were three letters that went out basically the first letter went out to all our free and reduced families that said you automatically qualify uh so you don't need need to do anything uh there was a letter that went out to all our paid families that said if you feel like you could be eligible for this program please log into the site and fill out the forms and and see if we can get you qualified to receive these cards and then the third which is a little trickier is that we have a group of uh free and reduced families that don't qualify under our federal program but the state of New Jersey uh added some funding to the budget to help qualify at a higher level a higher income level so those families because this is a federal program would have to go in and and fill out the U application to see if uh they could U be eligible to receive these cards so again the uh documentation went out by email so our families should look for those emails um they can go on to our website they can go on to the school sites and look under food service and the links are at the bottom of screen um and then they can take a look at that information they can reach out to us for any guidance they may need or any help or assistance and filling out the forms um we would encourage them that if they have any change of address uh since since the fall you have not notified the schools or notified us that they do so because what's going to happen is we're going to take all our free and reduced students and upload them to the state system and then the state from there takes over so that they'll uh send out the cards they'll do replacement cards they'll fund the cards and do all that part so basically the school district is making our families aware of these programs and then once uh the applications come in we're going to upload the data to the state and from there then the state takes over and sends out the cards so again we just encourage people to look for those emails or go onto our website and check that out and and you know take advantage of this program that's available to us great thank you is this the first summer the program is running no so this was a program that was uh was called PT so pandemic so during the pandemic this program was funded and they've extended it now to a post-pandemic so if I could ask um how do families pick up the food do they go to the school to get it or no it would be a card a debit card style uh and they could go to a shop right you know whatever food St that honors those cards and use that card to purchase okay very good even an around here any just that in my brain is is there anything else okay thank you all right we will move on to action items Cory move to approve item 5.1 we not approving discuss I have a regular meeting up my apologies that's okay any questions on 5.1 from anybody here1 wrong one that the the date for uh the sep of recognition I think is still May 8th in in the minutes okay but it has been changed to May 7th I about that change yes I put but it wouldn't change the minutes because that's what it was then so it would just need to be announced I would think that it's May 7 all right okay we will move on to Personnel no we won't well just discuss we discussed we'll do it downstairs all right financial management Mr Weinstein yeah um for 8.1 to 8.8 we like to have a discussion Jeff do you want to talk about anything in next section just a BD yes right just those small items um so we do have our budget adoption on the agenda this evening it's similar uh in that the same resolutions are on there from our tenative adoption which was about a month ago um we'll have a presentation once we get down and go through the presidents and the superintendent comments and some other uh acknowledgements that we have planned for this evening uh we'll go through that um and we'll take questions on on those uh items um the uh lunch program to renew sedexo is on there and I just like to clarify that I think there was a conversation at our last meeting uh about student prices and student pricing and the increase uh that was perceived uh but just to clarify the prices listed in the resolution are the prices that sedexo charges the district it's not the price that we charge our students so when you calculate the 1% increase based on CPI that sedexa was charging us it's 1% higher than last year's charge to the district so to clarify at this point we are not changing the L lunch prices to the student for next year unless we have a discussion to do so right so that'll be on a future agenda where we review pricing uh for student lunches um Can can you make sure can you make sure you say this in um the regular meeting sure okay thanks yeah reiterate I think it would be a good thing to reiterate good [Music] work because everybody did leave with the impression because we weren't discussing it right can I ask follow question um so in that we're reiterating this and in that the lunch pricing is not on our agenda right now to discuss um which I think the feeling of the board is probably I shouldn't say that my feeling is that if we can keep them where they are it would be the best case scenario we don't know that yet because we have to look at it but the question is um do we know did we budget so far that this 1 1% increase we can we'll will'll be able to be absorb by the district if we don't want to raise prices or we don't know that yet because you have to look at all that right so so next is renewing have a break even for the Food Service program so they're guaranteeing that we will not lose money in that program okay so we will be able to cover the costs of the program okay thank you anything else okay thank you anybody have any other questions Finance all right we'll go on to instruction yes Madam president discussion for items 9.1 to 9.3 any questions comments have school professional development for our staff and school field Church anything to add anybody have any questions discuss no okay wow we are in Old business is there any old business govern um I just wanted to mention um to everybody that you know we have been having negotiation meetings um and we are meeting again this Thursday um the art team and and the toa's team and then we have another meeting set up for May 30th so I just wanted the public to be aware that the conversation is still going on and we will you know continue to do the par s okay anybody else any other old business any new business on the board on the new business is is everything okay with the um with the trip the kids took yes yeah I I did send a yes okay and having a good time and as well good okay anyone else all right at this time we will um go to public comment and Mrs Conway can you hear me yes I can Madame President good evening uh there are no virtual commenters at this time okay is there anyone downstairs that has a public comment we have one did they say yes he said yeah we have one okay all right go right ahead hi uh Alex Hayes from Oak curst good evening um I didn't know if this was going to be the part where you guys are actually gonna be answering questions because you said you would be answering questions today or if that was only going to be the regular meeting are you able to qualif um explain that Mrs Hayes we're going to be answering questions during the budget portion of the um of the meeting downstairs when we come downstairs okay that figures okay um so I just wanted to start off I'm sure there will be most uh there will be other people talking about the proposal to eliminate a media specialist so I'll let those fine people who are here talk about that later it's ridiculous that we're even thinking of getting rid of a librarian or a media specialist but I also want to point out that in the previous budget present ations this board did not put staff reductions on any of the paperwork until now so to have staff reductions in English math media Specialists and I see that's plural secretarial science and World Language this is incredibly awful for our district and then to see Staffing requests unable to be funded elementary teacher sack counselor ESL teachers an ESL instructional coach again that is crazy that a district facing the problems we are facing in academics scores and other things is even considering cutting staff so I hope to hear more information later on I also would like to commend the amazing staff at otes since the State Testing results came out otes blew everyone's expectations um I hope you all saw this they used to have like a 25% rating a couple years ago and right now OT is at 84 with Wana Massa at 92 wayside at 71 and the high school and intermediate is not so great at 31 to 38 or so so kudos to whatever has been going on at OT hope will look at that at Great length and try to replicate it because it's working out um that's probably all I have right now um hopefully other people will speak out in opposition to some of these staff reductions I would also like to close by say yes at the last meeting we did leave by saying that the student prices were going to be going up but it would have been really nice if you could have responded to us and had told us that the STA student prices weren't going going up because then we wouldn't have had as Jeff said that impression thanks okay thank you for your comments is there anyone else downstairs that would like to make a comment I don't believe so okay thank you all right everyone at this time I'd like a motion to adjourn the work May I please have a second second all right we see you all down the stairs