all right welcome to the workshop portion of our meeting this evening and I will begin with a very brief president report um to our board um you should have received an email regarding the 8th grade dialogue program that is happening on March 12th over at the Intermediate School despite some attempts to ask this event to be moved due to conflicting due to it conflicting with our meeting night is still being held we do have one of our students being honored and I was wondering if any board member would like to go and represent the board and support our student Gilman thank you Gilman ra you willing to go I I thank you for that yes that's great okay wonderful so we can uh respond that we will have representation there um and also the Ocean Township High School alumni and athletic Hall of Fame will be held on Friday March 8th at 5:00 pm in the cafeteria if you haven't responded yet I urge you to do so it's a great night it's a wonderful event honoring so many well-deserving alumni and athletes so Rusty and the athletic department doing an amazing job so if you haven't responded and you'd like to go please do so do we respond sorry do we respond oh sorry you can respond directly to the athletic department okay all right great everyone should have received their um invitation yes okay all right that concludes my report and we will move on to um the superintendent report great thank you uh good evening everyone we have been celebrating Black History Month in our schools this month and this past Friday we were lucky enough to have a visit from lieutenant governor tahisha way she came to wanasa school where she read to our first graders uh we were uh very excited to to host her in our schools and we have a number of other activities happening have been happening all month long and we'll continue with a few ass assemblies that we have to finish out February we also have closed out our preschool Lottery we um are getting ready for the actual lottery drawing which is this coming Monday uh that will be held here in this room Monday at 10 a and you can either come on in person or you can watch online we have um received we had 59 seats at otes with 41 applications we had 36 seats at Wanamassa with 56 applications Wayside had 67 slots and we had 79 applications so all together there are 18 open seats in O we need 20 we have 20 people uh extra applications at wanasa and 12 extra at Wayside which Nets to 14 extra applications and open seats in District however we have 17 open spots at acelero Learning Center who is our partner provider which leaves us with a seat for everyone eventually but it will take a little time to just work out the lotteries and go through the home schools which is what we do um and you know based on these numbers we'll take a closer look at at Rooms and opportunities to perhaps find some space although it is getting pretty tight we will we will look again to see if there's any way to balance out out where we seem to be having uh you know additional applications at w mass and Wayside and try to make uh seats available in everyone's home school so um but we are excited that in the end there should be a seat for everyone once we are able to to work work through it all maybe not in your home school but there should be a seat for everyone with three additional seats wonderful okay just a couple other quick things we have uh in my February communication out to families we did update our Mental Health Resources on our website so that's live now you can see that on our website also we just have kicked off with the town the celebration of ocean Township's 175th birthday so we will be looking for ways to collaborate and for our students to work on celebrating that 175th birthday all year long and um there are a number of school events coming but we usually have a student report in our regular meeting so I will hold off if they don't report out on that I will and finally I would like to just um acknowledge that uh head football coach Don Klein has uh decided to move on and to go back home to his his home school where he will become the head football coach at Shore Regional but he did spend 17 years here and did uh gave quite a contribution to our football program helping uh our boys not only on the fields but in life and uh we really will miss him and I thank him for his service here in Ocean okay that concludes my report thank you uh School business administrators report thank you madam president uh I'd like to highlight just three items that are on our agenda uh and then introduce our auditor who will uh present the uh school year 2022 2023 report that's required by regulation to be presented to the board uh but in terms of agenda items I want to highlight we did receive from the SDA a final approval letter for the rod or regular operating District district grants that we had applied for uh those grants were for a new roof on our Ocean Township Elementary School and for the replacement of the older Roofing sections of the Wayside School uh the rod grants pay for 40% of that project cost and you'll notice uh right after that resolution or item on our agenda there's a withdrawal from our capital reserve that's to pay for the remaining 60% uh cost of the projects uh those uh we're hoping to get done over the summer so that we start off the new school year with new roofs on those buildings uh we also were uh notified that the governor for the third year I believe it is now has set aside money for emergent and capital maintenance projects uh the governor sets aside a certain portion of money to allocate to districts to utilize for uh those types of projects uh the district was awarded $79,000 uh in in that uh Grant uh and we are applying for uh that money to use for replacement of interior doors in some of the buildings uh two exterior doors at two of our schools and to also replace some overflow tanks in the boiler system at the high school uh and then finally I just want to note that uh a third source of income or Revenue that we received uh in supplemental Aid uh for this year uh which was allocated to uh social emotional learning or mental health issues uh we did go out to competitive contract for that uh so you'll see the awarding to uh 360 smarter self on the recommendation uh on the agenda uh to award that contract uh so they can begin a services for our students um with that uh as I mentioned earlier Mr Paul Kua who's a partner of will cotson company uh our audit firm is here to present to the board the results of his audit uh of the uh June fiscal year ending June 30th 2023 uh his team was in District in the late summer and fall to review uh our accounting ledgers and and financial transactions and uh uh you'll see that uh in the regular meeting we have an agenda item to approve that have the board accept that audit as well as a corrective action plan on two items the two items was a uh monthly signature issue on just signing payrolls at the end of each month that we need to do and we've already corrected uh as well as uh resolving a uh unaccounted for balance in one of our uh agency accounts that uh as as well has been resolved and accounted for so with that I'll turn it over to Mr Kua and uh and his report okay good evening everyone uh I'm really surprised that so many people turned out there go over to work this evening expect this crowd we're all here for your audit very excited about it uh last year if you remember last year I was year probably in April to go over the audit this year the state came out with the financial information on the retiree health benefits a little bit sooner so we were able to meet the deadline of this year and happy to say that uh we're talking about a little bit more relevant information than we did in the past pass uh I also want to thank Mr Hastings and Mr Cass and the staff for assisting me in the preparation of the annual audit it's a lot of work that goes into this report the report as you know is the large report is 145 pages long and every year it gets longer and longer um just to say the long large report is the annual comprehensive financial report this report has information about the district as far as the a section which is I call Super General accepted County principles it has information as debt outstanding the the fixed assets of the district it has compensated absences it has the pension liability it has the revenues and expenditures for the medical and the state tpaf pension plan which the state funds so that information is included in the a section is probably a little bit more detailed than you want to see the most important section in this report is the C-section which shows the budgetary actual and uh revenues and expenditures for the year versus the budget and then it shows V favorable and V and unfavorable variances these uh variances represent the amount that goes into your fund balance at the end of the year the favorable ones go in and the unfavorable ones come out so this year we had a very good year our fund balance increased our reserves increased and that's all shown on on the last page of C1 one which is the recapitulation of fund balance I'm not going to go over numbers I'm not going to talk about 145 pages of this report but I'm just going to tell you that's something that before you do the budget you should look at uh another important item and you have no control over this is what a number called excess Surplus that is the number that is above the what the state allows you to keep in your Surplus the state allows you to keep 2% of your adjusted expenditures in Surplus the amount that's above that is required to be given back to to the taxpayers the amount that was generated for the 23 report goes back to the taxpayers in 2425 so just be aware of that um that number we have no control over but it's good to maintain it because if you drop one year then you're going to have a big deficit to make up in the next fortunately we uh we increased it this year also this report the main thing I have to say about this report is my opinion on this report that's really what we're here to express and expressing an OP opinion that the financial statements are in accordance with General accepted County principles they have been audited in accordance with government auditing standards and General accepted auditing standards and the state auditing standards and that's the opinion your opinion is an unmodified opinion it's the cleanest opinion you can get so that's all in this report to the smaller report is the orders management report on administrative findings Financial compliance performance this report has the comments and recommendations in it that we recommended to two the recommendations are basically internal control recommendations I just wanted to tighten up a little things on payroll um also in here in this report is the the uh enrollment report and also the excess Surplus calculation which I mentioned before so if you want to see how it's calculated you can go page 11 to take a look at it um that's pretty much the whole report I don't know if you have any comments or questions that you want to go over this evening I'll be glad to miss Gilman I have a question on one of the pages you made note of how our district has changed because of increased summer rentals and the real estate market was made note of but then in the report it said enrollment is expected to plateau and Be steady over the next several years how did you come to that statement I think you're reading the introductory section are you reading the beginning of the report because that is something that's not generated by me that's generated by the district and the administration so okay yeah so those numbers about our summer rentals versus the uh the year round rentals that comes from our the introductory section comes from you actually the whole report is your report I only express an opinion on this report even though I'm in integrally part part of the preparation of it okay thank you anyone else Mr Weinstein yeah so just in summary the bottom line is you think we're financially running the or the organizations running well and running as as you would hope it would run yes we're we're a good good Financial condition yes great thanks okay anyone else okay thank you Mr kuer for thank you for having me appreciate it thank you thank you okay have a good night you too what's up all right with that we will move on to our action items Mr mcarthy thank you madam president I'd like to present items 6.1 and 6.2 for discussion okay anyone any questions comments okay Personnel we did that we'll do it in the regular thank you Miss McGovern financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein thank you uh Madam president um so we have um how many we have here we have 17 items um what we're going to do is uh is I'm going to ask anybody if they want to have any discussion around the 17 items we're not going to vote on these items right here but we're gonna have discussion around any of the 17 except for um I want to give uh Jeff a chance to talk about um the budget and the budget update and then on um number 815 we're going to have a separate discussion led by uh um uh superintendent welen on the um on the JD Sports Academy rental request so first other than the uh budget review by Jeff and number 15 does anybody have anything they want to ask or talk about anybody anybody oh yeah I'm Sorry Miss Gilman thank you Mr Weinstein M Gilman 817 the donation of the two electric guitars by the Liam family in memory of their daughter Alison who was my student she was a wonderful young lady and I'd like to thank the Liam family for donating the two electric guitars in memory of their daughter Alison thank you thank you for that comment anyone else any other I have a um I wanted I wanted to talk about that grant that we that we actually approved for the um social emotional um uh response system I was wondering maybe you just give me a little a little bit more color on what the grant was supposed to cover and um and because there was a discrepancy over the cost for the two things and kind of just your thoughts on it sure so we received uh $500,000 in mental health funding last year that the guidelines really are to use it on Mental Health we one of the things we wanted to do was uh this program that is more proactive it's an online program that is an AI and it's interactive with our students um check check daily check-ins weekly check-ins things like that and kind of set a tone in the communication with the student and that's what we went out for competitive contracts on what we got back was one that does that and one that is more of an alert system of risk that we can react to We already have something in place that that does that so that other um proposal wasn't really of interest to us even though it was lower clost it would be a duplicate cost in my opinion because we have something in place already that does that so the funding that we received can only be used for mental health funding um it's really supposed to be for one-time costs so um we had done some research on some applications that were out there and we felt like something that would do this interact with our students do do daily check-in uh help with positive influence in their lives could be you know something that we haven't tried in all of the different things that we are trying to meet the needs of our students every day and their different you know mental health concerns um can of a follow question how how is the success of the program going to be governed or or um determined so when we get to this next year we don't we we have to we can more information about what to continue or not yeah just to understand what are I think the fact that we're we're you know in the middle of the year we probably would need a full year of time to really look into that but I think you know with any of this we look at how many referrals are we receiving are we noticing any decline are we noticing improved outcomes in grades attendance discipline these are some of the data pieces that we would pull to indicate that we have a healthy student actively engaged in school in positive activities okay cool Miss is uh 360 smarter self only available to students or staff members as well I believe there is a staff option once we start rolling it out thank you you're welcome Mr schin Kelly how many uh companies responded to the RFP just these two just those two anyone else Mr T Rico thank you um Madam president I just wanted to ask how I I saw I read the whole thing about the TS how are they going to be graded evaluated and discussed with the student um well I think right now the administration is this is a a high school program so I'm looking back to Mrs kazuba because she'll be implementing it um I think sorry go ahead um so we're just getting started we can't start the implementation until after this and there's a lot of information that they ah of time so I have to go through that part with the company okay to really make a clear determination but I but I can do that later date we're really just getting started with the information have and just like just like any program we have another one that we rolled out earlier this year line wise we would you know we send out parent communication about what it is and that it's beginning and all of that information will be shared my other question is is that um up to the student to take this test or is it going to be implemented to all students it's not it's not mandatory it's not mandatory it's not mandatory and then I do have a couple more questions I'm sorry um one of the questions I had was is it going to be um focused on like our County resources because I saw that it was a New York company but the one that we're not accepting is Mammoth County company I can respond that some of the initial information they shared ahead of time and was about just that so we provide a lot of that information so when it does its responses that are AI generated they're connected to our resources so yes it even though it's New York company the information that our students get will be locally students and so if there's a suicidal CL I'm sorry student they would be geared towards our Mammoth County crisis unit not just given a broad suicide hotline number and that's suicidal would also come to us as okay but yes because that would be super great it would be important you know for our students to have our County resources thank you okay all right anyone else all right awesome all right um I think jef we'll have you do your part first correct yes that's that's fine you need somebody to present anything on the yes so we have some presentation some PowerPoint some PDFs I'll stand over here I guess so I can see it as well thank you Miss Conway go to the next slide so um as we all know the 2024 2025 budget Seas is upon us the governor gave his presentation today uh his his uh Speech uh for the budget for next year for schools uh and for the State uh after giving his um speech and and his presentation um the state is required after 48 hours to release state aid to us so we would expect Thursday to get information on what the proposed Aid will be uh for Ocean Township Schools as well as the rest of the districts across the state uh there was a late notice that went out uh that part of his speech he noted he was increasing fun funding for school districts by $95 million with another 125 going towards preschool uh so they're looking to close the gap in the funding formula uh you may have heard that they don't fully fund the formula in the past uh this is the governor's attempt to move us closer to full funding so uh we're going to start with just some Basics uh to go through with the board and and with those uh here and online and then we'll move to some Revenue estimates as well as uh capital and Technology requests from from the administrators in our district so uh purpose of school district budgeting basically to balance the educational needs and requirements of our students with the financial capacity of the district um we primarily are looking for a budget that number one serves the needs of the students uh that meets state and federal mandates and that is afford uh provided at an affordable price uh next slide please when we talk about the funding sources for our district and for districts across the state uh we sort of look at it as three uh buckets of of Revenue that's available to us one is state aid which I just mentioned and we'll get those numbers uh hopefully on Thursday and hopefully with some good news uh there's the local Levy or uh property taxes and taxes based on the assessments of the community and then our third bucket is operational savings and efficiencies uh and you can see we have a smaller Bluer bucket because based on our funding over the past several years uh we've lost funding and as we lose funding from the state it gets harder and harder to maintain a level of saving to support budgets going forward next please most of this or all this is based on the school funding Reform Act of 2008 uh or sfra as you may have heard uh the sfra uh replaced another funding model back in 2008 uh this model is based on establishing a Model Elementary School a to 5 and Staffing that appropriately uh and then costing out what the cost per student would be of that uh school without any additional needs so no special needs students no atrisk students uh no multilang uh multilingual uh language Learners uh and no cost adjustments based on geography or or income um so that's the base cost that they come up with in calculating what they say this model School uh would run at they then look at a middle school level and say it costs a little bit more to run a middle school and then yet a little bit more on top of that to run a high school so they waight those factors uh and it's actually 1.17 for the high school now uh in terms of how they calculate the cost per student student of those uh model schools uh they then uh will apply that to districts and then they'll also look at districts and look at special AED look at at risk um and at risk defined as free and reduced uh levels for for lunches and breakfast they'll look at the number of multilingual students in a district and they'll also look at the geographic uh cost adjustment uh which also includes uh compar of wage assessments based on County to County and then they take those numbers uh and apply it to our student counts and come up with what they think our budgets should be for for running the district next please uh the components and the amount of Aid we receive again are based on enrollment and enrollment increases Andor decreases uh it's based on what they call local fair share or for us our local taxes uh they look at our local taxes and they look at what they assess the township should pay versus what we are paying uh they look at a spending level so they determine based on their model what the district should be running at versus what we are and then they look at something called adjustment Aid or uh hold harmless Aid uh now the hold harmless Aid is a part of the formula that was put in back in 2008 uh back in 2008 as you can imagine when they were putting through this change districts were concerned about losing money under this new formula uh so when they constructed this they said for the next three years when this was passed we will assure districts that they will not receive any less Aid than what they had received in 2008 uh what happened however was that the three years turned into 10 years turned into 15 years uh so next slide please so back in 2018 the legislature passed a bill called the S2 bill which looked at that whole harmless Aid and said we now need to look at that and start to pull that back and look at districts that we consider overfunded and pull money back from them and reallocate those uh funds to districts that we think are underfunded so uh over the course of six years uh they've been clawing back those funds 2024 25 is the last year uh of that um take back if you will H and U you know again the legislature is looking at the formula again and deciding what if any changes they want to make to it to make it more Equitable uh to look at the waiting factors that they're using to see if those need to be adjusted adjustments for inflation and those sorts of things so uh for 2425 we don't expect much change in the formula but they are looking at it uh for the years following next slide please so if we look at uh the township of ocean and our aid over the past five years you can see uh that uh from 2019 to 2020 we lost almost $900,000 in Aid uh subsequent years 400 almost 700 460 and then last year we lost about 50,000 so over the past five years the district has lost about $2.5 million eight next please and again just a graphic representation so you can see the decline in Aid next slide please so if we look at the 2324 budget and what are the components of our budget it really breaks down into three areas one is our operating budget and those are funds that we Ed for the daily operations of of the district and for 24 which is this year it's $82 million uh we have grants and entitlements which we receive uh which are about 7.4 million as you can see about three and a half million of that is uh the preschool budget uh and the balance is um in the old nclb or Essa Aid idea Aid and and some non-public Aid as well um that number is also uh lower than it's been in the past years because our covid money or the NJ cares the Chrissa the ARP funds that we received over the past three years uh those have expired as well so going forward uh we carried into 24 I believe about $300,000 in ARP money uh but uh that money expires and has to be spent by September of 24 and we're on track to expend those funds as well but after that those funds have all been utilized and are not being renewed or available to the district next slide please and then just so you get an idea of where that 80 million goes uh as is typical across the state 2third to 3/4s of the operating budget goes to salary and benefits um we have about 5% going to out of District placements uh utilities is another area that people often ask about utilities represent about two and a half% of our budget and then that leaves about 12% of that $82 million for all the rest of our uh costs and expenses so uh again when we talk about salary and benefits when you hear about benefit it increases increases of 12% 15% uh that's really a significant impact on our budget in terms of of what we're expected to allocate funds for Miss Conway if you could bring up the revenue uh tab or Revenue PDF thank you so again this is the revenue side not the expense side uh but this is a comparison of this year versus next in in terms of what we anticipate to be available for revenues to run the district uh you're looking at a 2% which is the cap uh increase on the local Levy uh We've held these other uh areas uh consistent because we don't know what they're going to reflect however based on uh the past and and the trend we anticipate them being similar in in nature numbers so tuitions uh that we receive for students coming here that uh may be parent paid uh you can see is 50,000 we have fees or shared transportation of 100,000 we have rents and royalties through Camp David through our Chamber of Commerce and other facility uses of 262,000 we have interest income on funds that are uh put in investment um vehicles of 30,000 and then there's other restricted Reven Vues that we get uh based on recycling uh we use gov deals which is again on the agenda tonight to sell Surplus or or disposed of equipment uh we have rebates through our SK uh solar program and then sponsorships as well uh so from those local areas you're looking about $73 million uh for state aid we're anticipating 5.6 about uh the adjustment Aid which is the portion that the S2 bill is impacting looking at decrease there of $268,000 and again that's the last year of the S2 formula that's only an estimate and we're hoping on Thursday to get good news but but this is what we're being conservative with in terms of anticipating revenues uh and then we get U uh semi- revenue or or Medicaid reimbursement that's the special education uh Medicaid Initiative Program where they reimburse us for services for our special ed students uh for OT and PT costs for counseling costs things of that nature um so again the state looks at our track record and they ask us to budget about 90% of what they think we could hit for the year so again we're looking about $100,000 uh for this year we uh recovered 107,000 so again uh they ask us to haircut that number for the estimate for 25 uh and then as Mr Kuba mentioned we have the savings or or budgeted fund balance that moves forward from year to year uh of 4 million moving into the budget so from the revenue side we're anticipating about 83.7 million Conway if you could move to the capital uh so again uh and I didn't bring up the calendar because I don't think we need to hit that uh but um part of our process here is to reach out to our administrators uh and and talk about the budget and talk talk about expectations to get guidance from the board and guidance from the superintendent uh in terms of where we are and where we're moving forward uh these are items in discussing with Administration and with our buildings and grounds folks uh of items uh that are on the radar uh for us to look at to possibly Implement in the next year or coming years uh we've broken them down into sort of three priorities priority one priority two priority three priority ones we would hope to do next year uh if the budget allows us to and then twos and threes are are for future years so not necessarily the following year uh but for future years uh so uh can you go back please thank you uh so you can see uh things at the high school like flooring in the bathrooms we have the stadium lights there so the stadium lights are an item that we look at annually and hope to replace they are uh aging uh um so that's something we're concerned about we did put in for um a allocation of stabilization Aid uh to the state to um ask for them to help us replace those lights unfortunately we did receive notification uh that most of the requests we put in for stabilization Aid were denied so U stabilization is a pot of money that again has been around for about three years now uh districts who have lost money uh through state aid are uh eligible to apply for this Aid um I believe uh they set aside about $25 million this year for that pot of money and they receive requests to the tune of about 60 million so um and looking at our request we requested about $2.2 million and we got $177,000 so we got less than 1% of our request um so again those Stadium lights while we view as a need uh we'll have to re-evaluate going forward in terms of where that fits on our priority list and again as you go down we're looking at Jim bleachers at uh ocean Elementary we're looking at some uh fire alarm covers um again flooring you can go to the next page uh the other Priority One was again to uh replace a vehicle in our buildings and grounds Fleet so um those are the things we determined in talking with our buildings and ground supervisor and talking with the principles and other administrators that we felt level one priorities um the final thing you see there is Debt Service that's a non-negotiable uh the state requires that we pay that $60,000 uh in Debt Service uh they actually take it straight out of our Aid so we don't even see that money M Conway if you go to the technology slide so again in discussions with Administration um we've uh reviewed requests for technology if you look at this slide it looks a little light in terms of what we're asking for uh there's a number of camera systems that we have um that are new cameras so they're not necessarily Priority One because they're additional cameras uh any cameras that do go down we obviously replace immediately uh however requests for cameras in additional places will take Case by case and and address those as needed uh but the two main items we're looking at to do uh in the next year is to fix the PA systems at Ocean Elementary and at the uh Intermediate School uh those systems again um are the older systems where you could make all calls or you could page to individual classrooms uh some of those functions are becoming um or aging out in terms of the equipment um however we've installed phones in each classroom room so the ability for the system to Now call individual classrooms is not there anymore uh so really what we're looking at is a smaller system uh to correct sort of the all call so we could make a building wi call if necessary and again those functions are operational right now but it's getting to the point where it's just time to replace equipment so um again in looking at this it looks light however um in utilizing the funds we have had in the past year or two uh we did place in our IDF rooms which are sort of server rooms servers and routers in those rooms at our three elementaries and at the Intermediate School uh We've replaced the fifth grade and Ninth Grade Chromebooks and we'll continue to do that on a yearly basis so those are rotated through and those grade levels are receiving new machines so that is actually in our operating budget uh we're working on a radio repeater Improvement uh so that uh Communications uh between the buildings and ground staff and the custodial staff is improved uh and we also had two brand new highly successful Esports rooms installed at the beginning of this year which again were uh very successful the students were very excited about it and uh uh we uh won some accolades as well in the competition so that was a big Improvement as well so that's uh why this particular budget is a a little light moving forward but again in subsequent years we'll look at larger ticket items um to uh to add to our list so those are some of the areas that we're looking at um you know we're going to have a future meeting uh the tenative budget has to be adopted by March 20th uh and that's again the preliminary budget that we would put forward to the board to approve that we would submit to the county office the county office would then review it and and go over with myself and Mr Cass Corrections or questions they may have uh we have a meeting on the 12th so our meeting is set toh to adopt that tenative budget and then the final budget and the public hearing has to be uh conducted between April 24th and May 7th and again we have a meeting scheduled right now for April 30th so that would be our final budget that would include uh some changes to the tenative budget based on on what the funding is going to be and where we are so at this point I'd be happy to take any questions questions from the board Mr McCarthy easy questions thank you so much for going through all this I know it's not easy to do and uh we appreciate all the time that you put into all of this um I just want to confirm 268,000 is that what we're projecting that we're going to lose due to the S2 funding formula this year is that what I heard you say yes okay so that's our and this year was a little bit lighter right because of an increase in enrollment at the prek is that why yes okay so if we have a flat uh increase in enrollment and no increase and aid from the state we can pretty much assume that that's going to be the number that we have toce but again that's an estimate because we don't know based on they don't share the formula and all the inner workings of the formula you may have seen in in the news uh rck and Tom's River have talk to the state about the formula and the inner workings of it and limited success so is this board uh it's it's a a little bit of a mystery sometimes in terms of how those numbers are arrived at okay anyone else govern um I just have a question since we're talking technology I know that when we had our um our ell supervisor come a couple weeks ago they were talking about the translation devices that they are loving yep there weren't any requests for any more of them I think each so we did purchase a number of them with the funding we had at the time and those are being utilized but there does not seem to be at this point a need for additional units okay but again this is a budget so we set the budget today based on what we think we need today as you know there's a transfer report uh that you guys approve each year each month and and those transfers are to make adjustments to priorities and and needs as they come up so if a translator were to break or we needed to add one or two uh we would make the necessary adjustments in the budget to accommodate that M pus um Mr Weinstein um yeah I just want to add that uh I did meet with the technology team um both the academic side and the um instructional side about the infrastructure side and we kind of went through it and um you know we kind of went through all the things and all how all the bases are covered so everybody kind of felt like we were you know in a good spot where we were technology side infrastructure side and then the other thing I did ask the group to do is that you know we typically over the last couple of years have been able to get some kind of Grant or funding that can go to a capital project so I did ask them to be ready for what if we were able to get some kind of funding what that might go to um a couple years we've been asked for that and we've kind of raced around a little bit to try to figure it out so so I think uh Jeff's going to be meeting with everybody kind of say okay if we were to get some kind of funding to do some Capital expense what would we kind of put it towards so we had that discussion as well right and again that's part of our short-term and long-term planning uh process where you know we'll look at immediate needs and then future needs so miss Gilman um there's nothing about person in here does that come after yeah so that would be the last area we'd want to touch uh in terms of personnel I think um but I mean like requests for replacing things like Librarians right so part of the process and meeting with the administration was to have them look at all areas so uh along with capital and Technology we asked them to look at Personnel uh I don't think we're quite there yet in terms of where the budget is and where the dollars are falling with all the requests that we received which you know you add everything in it's sort of the wishlist uh number and then in terms of what we get uh in state aid in two days I think that'll guide us better in terms of where we are um where we might have a shortfall or we might be okay you know we'll have to wait and see what those numbers are and then make decisions going forward so it's more of an evaluable process thank you and you did a wonderful job very clear Mr Taro thank you for the report is wonderful I just have a question about the elevator for the 1.1 million yes so would that be bided out or 1.1 million and something we've already investigated we're turning people away I thought there's there's a room capacity is probably what's happening we these we're expecting well o' okay okay okay we you need to just we just need to calm it down um yeah understood we have however many seat about 22 seats here we can open up and then when the students come no nooo you can't this is not 2 if there's 22 people out there so if there's 22 people out there if there's 22 people out there they can come and don't know you turn oh they left or they're not SE the capacity for the room is 100 so Mike hang on hang on hang on hang on so Mike is responsible for determining how many people allowed in the room I'm assuming Mike has a c has a clicker he's determining that we reached our limit Mr that's really kind of that's really kind of that's it we're 100 people that's it do you wanna do you want to report and let us know let us know how many um PE how many people were turned away I'm sorry he couldn't hear hear you oh you couldn't hear me I couldn't hear you either how many people is there anyone outside at this point no there was maybe at the most 10 people I told them how to go online so they could zoom and they were perfectly fine that's wrong all right we appreciate that thank you thanks all right Mr Hastings yes so uh Mr terrio's question in terms of the elevator uh so there are a couple items on there that relate to this building and what the future is for this building uh we looked at uh the um skeleton of the building and sort of making the building tight and part of that was also ada8 compliance issues so uh as you noted there's an elevator we talked to the architect said what would it cost what's the best place Etc he gave us an estimated cost of 1.1 million which includes a little bit of a Lobby work as well to accommodate the elevator uh and then should the district decide to go forward with that project yes it would be bid okay thank you anyone else okay I just have a quick question um I know the the priority ones were light as you mentioned um and I know some of those may not even go through what are you allowed to tell us what the priority of the priorities are the priority of the priorities is to get as much done as possible and to look at our Reserve accounts look at our Capital res maintenance reserve and to look at the funding and and try to do as many of those as possible uh there is also a process that we go through we've just shut down the purchasing um function of the district in terms of buildings ordering more things uh the concept being we're now into March if folks were to start to order things now you know they wouldn't be received until April or May and how much student use would we get so we're looking at uh you know shutting that system off now we re evaluate account balances and where that money is today and then again look at those priorities so some of those cameras for example uh that might have been uh priority twos we could do today uh if as uh uh was mentioned earlier we need another translator we could reallocate some of those funds and again buy those translators so uh we're looking at what excesses we have now how those can be re uh reallocated in the budget uh to uh spend on other priorities great thank you so much we really appreciate your presentation thank you all right let us move on to I don't see the number right now oh 8.15 8.15 yes M okay yes 8.15 so I am going to give the board an update on the rental requests that we received I'll give you all the information um that we have collected as an Administration even up to today some updates um and uh then open it up for discussion okay I had put a fact sheet on the agenda when that went live so uh just so everyone could have some information about the renter JD Sports Academy LLC is requesting uh to host uh Camp Little Stars which is three to five year olds approximately 150 to 200 Campers at the original requests came for one amasa Elementary School 10 classrooms the gymnasium the allpurpose room and the playground for a span of time from June 6 to August 16th Camp hours would be 9 to 4 uh and uh in terms of Transportation the camp intended intends to use 20 passenger buses for arrival and dismissal and a larger bus to shuttle students between the requested wanasa school and deal school where they have their pools for a rental fee of $200,000 um and then just some uh information to go along with that the JD Sports Academy asked to rent wanasa elementary school so it may expand its camp that is currently operating out of the deal school that was the original request the request at w aasa school was for its preschool program known as Camp Little Stars this Camp did not request any other facility at the onset they were interested in wanasa school because of its proximity to the deal school we have been investigating the feasibility of this for months the Board of Education was informed that we were looking into this I believe in a November meeting perhaps October November during the investigative stage we spoke with the administration of deal school who gave a positive review of the program and the investment the company has made back into deal school over time in such ways as basketball courts pickle ball courts and and permanent pools at deal school in order to bring this to the Board of Education the administration needed to determine if our facilities could accommodate the request and if the amount of Revenue would make make the rental worthwhile for consideration site visits have taken place on multiple occasions we have visitors in our schools from time to time for many different reasons from academic purposes like guest speakers assemblies and guest readers to operational purposes such as Architects Engineers repairmen sales representatives and PD providers these visits are always prescheduled and our guests are escorted by our staff we have arrived at the point in the process where the Administration needs to provide the Board of Education with this update inform them of the possibility of a $200,000 Revenue source for the district and discuss what the next step should be in this matter over the last two weeks I have received numerous emails and phone calls from rasa residents in particular those who live adjacent to the school property these concerned citizens Express their strong objection to this to this as they believe the school ground should be left open for the neighborhood students during the summer they also Express great concern about the traffic increase to bendir Avenue and the surrounding areas of the school they believe that the playground should remain open and the street should be free from these additional buses coming in to that neighborhood I believe that the residents I spoke to have many valid points about the traffic concerns because of that I contacted the chief of police Santino who offered to have his tra Traffic Division look into this further for us I do not have an update on that at this point he did say it would take a a little bit of time um knowing all of this I have reached back out to JD Sports Academy to ask about considering a different District property they did get back to us late today to let us know that they would consider a different facility a few other questions that I have received that I would like to address just to clear up any miscon any Mis uh any confusion that may be out there at the onset this Camp never asked for a different facility that we previously denied it was rumored that the Wayside School principal denied this Camp was renting Wayside School that is not correct it is rumored that the wanasa principal sought out or encourage this rental agreement that is not correct all rental requests of this nature are handled by the central office administration deal school did not force this Camp to leave their school deal school is continuing its rental agreement with JD Sports Academy the request for one amasa school and now for another facility any other facility is to is so that this Camp May expand the camp has different tiers of enrollment the last tier of enrollment is open to anyone in the community community who wishes to to apply however I have heard from our community members who have tried to enroll that that enrollment is closed pools will not be installed at wanasa school or any other District facility no District program was being moved out of wanasa to make room for this Camp these are just some of the things that came to me and I'm trying to answer all those questions so everyone has the information every other school in our district houses a summer program we have had a rental agreement with Camp David for over 20 years we host the township recreational camp and we have our own District run academic programs at the elementary intermediate and high school level many of the classrooms throughout the district are packed up and cleared out to make room for those programs over the summer there were some questions about our use of facility policy 7510 and whether this rental request Falls within that policy just to be clear that policy guides how how the district must weigh competing requests for the same facility at this time there are no competing requests for our facilities I also received a number of questions about the contract or legal agreement for this rental we have not entered into official contract negotiations yet that's that's not true so you're not allowed to interrupt right there will be a time for public comment let me just make a comment will be a time for public com can I make a comment so the process that we're going to go through is Kelly's going to talk then as a board we're going to ask questions and Talk Amongst ourselves with you all here then we're going to finish the agenda and then there's going to be an open comment time once we finish the agenda and get to the open comment time then you're all privileged you all have the ability to go up go to the mic make a comment people on the zoom session can go make a comment so first Kelly's going to finish what she has to say then we're going to have a discussion here amongst ourselves we're going to finish the agenda and then we'll be opened comment thank you Mr thank you all for your patience thanks I apologize okay thank you y okay so if we were to enter into contract negotiations we would address items that have been brought up like custodial Services damages to the property criminal background checks for staff and a method for removal from the property should there be a breach of contract this is all of the information that Mr Hastings and I have gathered at this point for this discussion we need to now open it up to the board of education so that we may discuss it further and determine what we believe our next step should be um okay before before we open it up for discussion amongst the board I'm just gonna voice can you concern can you talk a little bit louder yes my concern and um my opinion I personally am not comfortable about wanasa and my my reason being is the traffic and the foot traffic issue we just don't know what's going to happen and what to expect that's my personal feeling um however I do not I don't want to lose the revenue piece to this so my question would be um is is there you know is there a way to perhaps look at another another place to house the um the camp I don't know if the board wants to talk about that um but I would like to hear all your opinions as well so just raise your hands Miss Gilman I have to agree with you M paramas first I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to write lengthy emails that were so well written and that outlined concerns that I certainly would have if I lived in the neighborhood on the other hand it's very hard to say no to $200,000 so I would like for our Administration to examine other possibilities so that the camp could be held in an area that's more conducive to traffic uh that we might be able to shuffle the students around if we're having work done on one of the buildings but I really don't think that wanasa is the place to house this Camp okay anyone else Mr Schneider um Kelly did you say that the deal school's still being used for the JD camp this is just spill over so they could expand it yes I'm I'm I live in wamas and I I too share the sentiments of both Denise and the Irene so that's where I stand okay anyone else Mr Weinstein yeah Kelly I was just wondering um um what you thought the process was to go through the feasibility I mean of using another place using another facility a different facility so I think we would have to um first start internally with our own staff and look at look at what we have going on in our own program see if there's any movement or opportunity there I think we'd have to talk to our director of facilities we'd have to talk about a cleaning plan at those schools um and then if we felt that we had a space in one of the schools that could possibly work then we would reach back out to to this renter and and discuss if it would work for what their needs are I'm not sure if we have anywhere else but I think we can we can certainly go back and take a look Madam president than M McGovern I'm sorry that's all right um I just want to first of all thank um you and Jeff and your team for providing this information for going over some these things to try and get um you know ahead of this I I can appreciate this room as many years ago I was here in your situation with about recess at wanasa school and being on that side I remember sitting there thinking these board members are going to do something that they don't have any idea what we know about and I can appreciate now being on this side that those board members that I were I literally called out a now council member saying that he was rolling his eyes as at us for what we were saying and I appreciate now being on this side of the table knowing that they did not have any of the information about the recess until they sat here at the table um the way that Board of Education Works very very different from from many boards that many of you may have be a part of or be you know on at a time is our meetings are held in public so we don't have meetings about these things until we sit here at the table in front of you so when we got the agenda that you all saw that was for February 13th that was a snow day that we canceled a meeting that was the first time we saw you know that the use was actually coming to the table it was never spoken about until this moment so I didn't know how I don't know how Mr you know Miss Gilman felt I didn't know how Mr Weinstein felt I didn't know how anyone sitting here felt about this use I knew how you all felt from the emails I knew how you all felt from the Facebook posts I we we see it we also cannot comment on it because our comments have to be made in public so I just want that to be very clear that that not hearing back from board members on Instagram on Facebook on through email is because we cannot speak to you outside of a public meeting so I just want you know that to be clear I do personally my my feeling on it is that I I can um appreciate a lot of the concerns um traffic being number one I mean as it is when we dismissed during the school year vender Avenue has to go to a one way so there are C you know there are things like that and that's just dismissal um right you know I and I had said you know if if if this because not knowing the feeling of of what the board was going to be um but knowing that we do listen to our public um I did also my one of my concerns was if it was to be housed there that we would you know need to make sure that we had people that you know we knew if we could to a degree that were there to make sure it was cleaned up that everything was back to the way it was every day at 4:00 you know throughout the day so but um but my feeling is is that similar to you Denise that I do not I walking away from $200,000 is a lot in a tight budget every year um but I don't know that this is where I would want it to be um I also don't know that if the board that I want to put Kelly and Jeff and and Mrs leznik or Mrs you know POA or whoever else is going to be involved in in moving it to a different facility through that if we don't think that this board is going to even entertain the use of any of our other facilities so I don't so I don't know how we you know I know this is discussion there's no vote but um I don't know if if having people run around in circles to just come here next week and have a different group of parents possibly here and and different feelings I mean but you know the but also the um the traffic issue is is very um bendir Avenue is very particular to that building okay thank you I'm gonna take uh Mr dton okay so might maybe a little bit of History questions right um I'm just trying to understand scale with other things and reminders please um for our other schools first of all where isy slated to be housed are we not sure yet for this summer and what other summer project I thought there was a roofing project at one of the other elementary schools am I correct I'm just I need a a memory yes so um if we and what's the scale of our e y when we runy so uh it's not determined yet where it will be um it is about 110 students okay for scale and yes we have two Roofing projects scheduled for this summer at w Side school and otes okay o I thought that's what I remember but I wanted to be sure thank you um I do understand the traffic concern I'm formulating and listening okay Mr Schneider I I just one more question Kelly I didn't know if this is only limited to schools or they have ability to look at facilities that might be open within the town right the request came here for for the first request and the request that has been the entire time until late today has been for one aasa school but as I said I did reach out late last week to see if there was any opportunity for anywhere else um but but the request has always been for one aasa due to its prox it that's how we would get the revenue I don't know I can't say whether this uh Camp has investigated any other facilities that we don't manage right Mrs Dam yes um I just W to thank you for clarifying all of that I also want to thank everyone for coming and showing your support I think it's great what wanasa is doing when you guys are fighting for something you believe in so thank you for doing that um I just have to repeat what Amy said and Amy also thank you for clarifying our role as board members and how we need to you know act upon the public so I appreciate that as well but I am concerned I am a wanasa resident as well and I am very concerned about the traffic and when that's bringing I mean I walk my kid to school every day he uses that Park so I know that that means a lot to the kids and the parents of wanasa so it is taken very seriously so if we are able to look at another venue and make it work and have a picture perfect situation going on I think that would be wonderful but it does need to be taken into consideration thank you um excuse me because I'm getting over being sick so I apologize I don't sound the greatest so um I think one thing that's like really amazing is the uh the the Grassroots effort that the one aass of parents have put together and you all are very impressive in your ability to get together um I think that it's very fitting that tonight we had a budget presentation alongside of this and I'm very thankful that you all were able to see the amount of money that this school district has lost as of late and it's a massive amount of money right it was mentioned that it's near $2 million um and so I I put this out because I I also don't think that I like the idea of moving this to another school in our district it's not something that excites me I think that we're just going to end up just like uh Amy said with a new Angry group of parents in this building who were going to ask us not to put this in their neighborhood um but what I would put forward is that we are actively and aggressively looking for ways to generate revenue for this District okay and so uh in your ability to be so Grassroots and to move forward I ask that you kind of take that energy that you have over in your part of the town and you guys start to put it towards helping us to find ways to do this kind of stuff um and and keep putting it towards the positive and I I don't have an answer to that right now and I'm sorry for that uh I don't know what that is I don't know what you can do um but it has been impressive the amount of emails that we have gotten have been uh very intense but you know warranted and clearly you know I'm just so happy to see so many parents here at a Board of Education meeting um we don't normally get this kind of a turnout and even if it is for something like this it's okay because we're just happy to know that you all care um so I would just kind of put that problem statement out to this group and ask that you all get together and think about this because clearly that uh that school over there has a lot of you very very caring about this District right and I appreciate that a lot because I also care a lot about this district and you do have a beautiful thing over there in wanasa and I'm so proud of you all for trying to protect it uh and I ask you just continue to be here with us helping us to make sure that we do what is most important which is take care of all of the students of this District not just the ones in W Massa uh that's all I have to say Mr Weinstein yeah so um uh one is um thanks for everybody being here and I just kind of want to say just a couple of things you know I think the um you know I want to tell you at first blush right when you when we're learning about getting $200,000 which is not a capital expenditure something that actually goes into our um it goes into our jurisdiction of what we want to do with it right that translates into teachers instructional AIDS technology AIDS it goes into real staff situation right and so the things that when we're when we're cutting our budget you know sometimes cutting the budget actually relates to staff and reallocating staff and and projecting when people are going to retire and those kind of things so when we see $200,000 coming in this way it has a different kind of tone and it it rings differently to us than maybe some kind of grant that we're going to get or something like that because it does affect the people power that this district has and what's known for as loving and caring teachers and instructors right and we want to keep investing in that so I think that's what the that's what the big challenge is um one thing I do appreciate and you know I drove around the W Master School a number of times over the last couple of days and checking it out and it is situated in a much different place than the other schools are so I'm hoping that if we're able to find ourselves in a different place that the number of uh the number of families kind of affected by this is going to be a lot less and have a different tone to it than than maybe you all have right because um the artery that goes up and around the school is a major artery and and has some uh things kind of affected to that and then also by the way I didn't take I I personally didn't take lightly the fact that those school grounds are places that people ride their bikes play ball um you know uh throw water balloons at each other and all that kind of stuff right by the way don't get your kids to throw water balloons at each other just that was something I would have done when I was a kid so I just want to say that uh I do appreciate everybody coming out I think uh I do also want to thank Kelly and uh Jeff for really kind of giving us all the background all the context talking to the deal School kind of understanding what all those things were because it does you know there's a a bunch of things kind of coming together around this that we want to make sure we're doing the right thing um and I just want to just say from Amy's Viewpoint you know it is um it is fortunate and unfortunate that uh we didn't have our first meeting I think if we didn't have our first meeting not having our first meeting probably meant that all you were able to participate because you might have saw this a little last minute and would not have been able to participate and we would not have given gotten all the thoughtful letters that you sent so I think I think it's a little bit great that we did have this the uh the the the snow day not just for the kids but also for all of you to get your thoughts together and kind of rally yourselves into a spot that lets us appreciate and attach ourselves to what you're all feeling so I just wanted to thank you for that and thank the administration for all that okay thank you um M telerico thank you I would ALS also like to thank everyone for coming out tonight it's amazing to see all of you here I absolutely love that um as you may know I'm a therapist so I'm a very solution focused therapist and I would just really like to know what the camp needs in in another facility so that we can provide those accommodations and also find out what other facilities could accommodate um the camp and also where do we go from here because I I do hear everyone's concerns and I also share um the concerns from the public about traffic but also the concerns about the income loss so I do appreciate everyone you know that um Miss Welden uh is speaking with the camp people and I'm sure you know she will have many more conversations after tonight in hopes of maybe trying to find a solution but as far as um this problem right now with the wanasa school I'm hearing from the board that the consensus is that it should not be at the wanasa school that we should look for another spot am I correct and to see what happens with that and then we will revisit it if there is a spot or if there's not a spot then we will talk about it again is that correct am I correting what I'm saying yes okay so that is the direction we'd like to give you and um and I too thank you all for being here I really do appreciate the emails and I love this this passion that you have for our schools and um you are all very much so appreciated and I apologize if I cut anybody off but there is a process there is a procedure and we have to stick to it so with that um I believe that concludes Finance yes and I will move on to instruction and education Mrs Gilman yes uh 9.1 to 9.6 for discussion and we will do our voting regular session they will is at the end of meeting sir will meting almost there there is a process and a procedure go ahead Miss Gilman so 9.1 to 9.6 is up for discussion and we will uh vote in the regular session are there any questions or comments on the school calendar or PD or out of school suspension or School field trips any questions it is youth art just at the oh sorry go ahead well no go ahead you're probably G talk about the school calendar is up the um school calendar is up and one one major change that I just want to bring the board's attention to is that we are uh in this proposed calendar doing away with the June professional development day for staff and moving that to November we're attaching that the day before the new jerse the njaa teachers convention it is um it's a high absence day in our schools and we thought that that would be the least impact to learning but also a very nice time early in the year for our staff to get together and to work on meaningful professional development rather than at the end of the school year where we normally do it in the first week in June so um the rest of the the calendar sort of follows how it always has but that is the one major change I just wanted to bring your attention to that all right any questions questions from the board okay with that we will move on to negotiations is there anything you'd like to report um my only report for negotiations is that the TOA and um the Board of Ed did have our first meeting we will be having um subsequent meetings um in March and April and we're um moving along okay thank you planning construction no okay all right at this time I'd like to ask board if there's any old business is there any new business Mr McCarthy the legislative liaison committee is scheduled a meeting with our representation in Trenton to discuss things like the S2 funding formula in our loss of funding uh to discuss um the massive increase uh of Ells in our district and across the state uh and any other issues that you all would like us to bring to their attention um it is going to be sort of a meet and greet for our Assembly women because they're you know newly elected and this is their first time out in Trenton uh on the assembly floor we're going to bring our our opinions on certain issues to them uh hear from them on what they think we can expect with budget season and everything like that uh it's going to be a zoom meeting it's going to be on I believe March 12th from 11: to 11:30 I'll I'll be sure to confirm that but um in accordance with our Charter for that committee I do ask that any of you up until within 24 hours of that meeting if you have anything in particular you would like us to ask of them or discuss with them uh please bring it to my attention so I can include it on our agenda thank you thank okay I will move on to uh new business I just want to mention one quick thing to the board and I think I'm going to bring it up again in regular meeting and that is I don't know what the temperature of the board is to have a March 5th meeting to maybe catch up a little bit with some budget stuff but I want you to think about it I will bring it up again under new business and we can talk about it then okay all right and with that I just want to read something before we take public comment this evening I would just like to state that out of respect to our children and their families who are coming to our regular meeting at 8:00 pm to be honored I will be stop stopping public comment at 7:5 to ensure that we are ready to go on time for a regular meeting we want to make sure that your comments are heard so you are welcome to stay through our short regular meeting where we will be happy to receive anyone who would like to make a comment at the end of that meeting thank you all so very much for your patience and for understanding and with that um I would like to bring up people for public comment so please raise your hand and I'll point to you if you're interested in coming up to me sir please also state your name and I believe there is a pad there for your email address thank you hi board Eric Santiago 924 Bender been a neighbor to wanasa school for almost 19 years now I want to thank the board for taking wanasa school off the table we have 300 38 some odd signatures that we canest the neighborhood and this is all adults supporting and then we've got our wanasa kids first because they saw their parents signing they wanted to be part of the board has done the right thing thank you thank you okay anyone else in the room that would like to speak so yes just state your name please my name's Dave yes thank you want to save some money cut theat my name my name's Dave Hulk I live at 905 in Lake in Avenue I've lived there for about 34 years quiet neighborhood I've loved it all along um and it has become more and more crowded with the traffic pattern changes it's already in my opinion getting more dangerous for the kids riding bicycle skateboarding and I think I'm happy you guys came to the decision you did because this would have been a complete nightmare as far as buses parents the whole thing going on and it would go up and down my street as well as bendir um the other thing though too we did not really hit on was the impact study for the police because you you're throwing around the number of $200,000 in Revenue but no one's considered the expense of what it's going to cost to police this neighborhood with these traffic concerns so I just wanted to bring that up and the other thing too Mr Hastings um the fund balance that's being regenerated how much is that being re how much every year about is being regenerated so being that we don't answer questions at the meetings anymore Mr Hastings will definitely get back to if you could just leave your um email address right on that pad there um he will get back to you do the comment sign yes yes thank you so much because I really don't think I'm happy you guys really came to the decision you did but I really don't think the numbers were were true you know in terms of what it was going to what the the revenue that you were expecting and what was really going to cost us so thank you so much much for your comments anyone else in the room how's it going everybody oh excuse me how's it going everybody Todd Hunley my wife and I Lauren we live at 920 Bender mirr this is our first night in our new home believe it or not it is directly across the street from the school now a lot of people are like complaining about a lot of things and I get it but I'm a policy guy right my dad's an attorney so I base everything on Law and are we allowed to do it so that's why I did take homage to that Kelly because I think the 7510 use school I mean that's your policy right so we can interpretate however we want but I think it's a good one because when this like I think I'm louder than this mic right yeah what is this so when when we're evaluating stuff like this it's for the community right and that's that's my major argument and that was the argument I don't know if I have Council let's say my dad in my year telling me this is probably what you should go to the board with it makes sense that if we're going to rent something out we're going to have a tiered system like this and it's going to be based upon the community now when we're evaluating a camp like this one I would just like to see a show hands is anybody sending their kid to said Camp no so I would say it's not for the community now I wish them success and I get our struggle too with money with Kelly and I talk about this for I mean thank you for taking the time because I know I ramble and I must have done like three laps around the uh around my house I probably saw Jeff case in the place you know looking looking at the playground I was in camouflage yeah exactly um but yeah I mean these These are these are good if if you meet these requirements that's good but it it's I'm glad that you guys saw it and you see that it's not for residents right we we have I mean it's not taboo to say we have a a different a change going on in town right we have people moving in and they're renting for the summer okay you know there's nothing wrong with saying that and I I rent my house in the summer Amy saw me I think when I was moving out you know and it's just like it it's just it's just is what it is my the people who rent my house in the summer are great I love them you know and I do everything anything for them they know that but um you know when you when you have such a great impact and I think the most like the thing that really kind of I was like yeah I care about this guys but I mean yeah they're not going to listen to you talk about traffic and stuff you have to have some sort of policy that's why I said like this should be followed whenever we're considering anything but yeah when you look at this it's like you wouldn't you wouldn't choose to put a school in this neighborhood or anything so when you're saying like oh we're going to have an LLC and I know we're saying no but it is the worst spot to put it you wouldn't choose to put a school there you wouldn't definitely choose to put a new business there so that's when people were like oh we do Camp David it's like yeah Camp David's in an area of town where it doesn't impact anybody I'm sure nobody even knows it goes on I would when I back out of my driveway and all these buses are coming down and I'm like what the heck you know and I gotta go 15 minutes to wall to roolling Hills to drop my three daughters off oh which I forgot to mention I have three daughters and one m so I mean that's about it we we had some other stuff I had a different if you flip this over this was you guys voted for it this is the Doom and Gloom page but we're turning this back over all right guys we're gonna go you know I I really this is awesome this is why this is this is why I moved here these people like and and you can't choose your neighbors these are great neighbors and uh I see you guys every day outside of school I love you all and uh I don't know that's it my email only question is there anyone else in the room actually we're kind of cutting it a little close but you are all welcome to stay for the regular meeting because it is 7:55 so I would I would like to could you both would you mind staying till the regular meeting and go to public comment at that point all right thank you so much um and the reason being is we have children that are waiting to be honored this evening and I know that they have to go home and go to bed so with that um I'd like to ask the board for a motion to adjourn oh second John John and thank you meeting --------- good evening everyone thank you all for being here um and at home if you're zooming in thank you for uh for joining us this evening at this time I'd like to ask you all to please stand for the flag Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay Mr Hastings can you please call the role Mr doton present Mr Dam here M Gilman here Mr McCarthy here Mr McGovern here Mr Schneider here Mr Tarico here Mr Weinstein here Mrs paramas here thank you okay uh president's report I have none this evening so we will move on to the student Representatives report welcome thanks for being here thank you you're having us hi everybody so I'm going to start with um some sports going on at the school so girls basketball is in the second round of their state tournament tonight and Senior Eli Clark scored her 10,000th Point recently um boys wrestling um we have a few state qualifiers James finina Dominic vck and Michael paneris and they're competing in Atlantic City this weekend um hockey in the state SE semi-finals tonight versus Mana Squan our Esports street fighting team won state champions the state championship and um our senior Frank mccan plays second in the 400 meter D Dash at the state championships and has advanced to the meat of Champions wonderful and then in news going on and more school related things uh the student council hosted a successful town hall meeting where they invited the class officers from our school to come with Mrs hegerman and essentially voice their opinions and their ideas on ways that the school could be changed or improved and that was very good that was very successful in addressing some of the problems that we've been been facing the Spanish club and The Italian Club have both been very active recently during Valentine's Day the Spanish club sold roses that you could send to students yourself and The Italian Club sold canoli grams that you could send to other students so both great ways that you could show your love for other people and then the Spanish club is going to Philadelphia on March 13th to see Juanes and concert and visit the Magic Gardens so that'll be a very fun opportunity for them the tech school is attending Ruckers engineering day also on March 13th which will be an opport for them to essentially talk to some some Professional Engineers and then talk to some people in the Ruckers engineering program and learn more about that and just learn more about what it means to be an engineer which is a good opportunity for our tech school members to have and then on February 20th the senior class hosted a volleyball tournament where all grades anyone of any grade could make their own team and compete for a $100 Buffalo Wild Wings gift card and there was a great turnout in that and it was a lot of fun wow I wish I got a canoli thank you so much sounds like there's some really great stuff going on thank you all right with that we will move on to the superintendent report okay just a few other school events that I'd like to announce on March 7th we'll be hosting the districtwide art show at the Ocean Township Library it begins at 6:30 and it goes to 8:00 pm it's an opportunity to come out to our Township library and see all of the artwork of our students in all of our schools also the Tois drama club performance of Mean Girls Junior is March 7th and 8th at 700 p.m. and on March 9th at 2:00 p.m. and our OTS spring musical of Mean Girls is March 14th through the 16th 7 PM uh a 7 PM start on those dates so I encourage the board members and also members of our community to come out to our schools to see our art show and our and our uh theater performances they are always a great a hit for sure okay so just a few events now I'd like to get to uh my favorite part of the night where we get to honor many of our staff and students for their achievements over the last few months um and first I'd like to start with one of our dance and physical education teachers who has been named the 2024 dance education teacher of the year by the New Jersey Association for health physical education Recreation and dance Mrs Dawn Schultz please come on up and Denver with certificate Mrs Schultz work teaches dance at both the high school and the intermediate school and we thank her for her commitment and dedication to the art of dance and to all of our young Spartan dancers as they pursue their dreams in dance thank you so much Mr we're not GNA see a number ADV number something okay next I would like to recognize the 2022 2023 Sam Pebbles club members I'd ask Mr Amato to come on up and the advisers I Believe Miss Gasser is here please come on up this fine group of students has won for their Sam Pebbles magazine they have earned excellent ranking in the National Council of teachers of English 202 recognizing excellence in art and literary magazines annual School Magazine contest I'm going to call each student up I see you're coming up but please let me call out your names Addison bowling Vivian deia Amelia Amalia Jacob Charlie Johnson Kevin Kelly Margaret Kelly Lucy McDaniel Austin Zone cash perza Arisha Islam Samantha pagnon Everly Zimmerman Addison Paulson Addison dilia and David fera congratulations to these students ACH gonna take a picture maybe you should move that Podium Vivian Mrs McGovern would you like to move that Podium deah sorry you're all gonna together if there's parents that want to take this picture the wall don't worry about it yeah take your your time all right congratulations amazing job was that heav okay and next finally we're going to recognize our spelling be winners I'd like to bring up Mrs Shapiro Mr Schwarz our supervisors and all of the principles who had spelling bees in their schools if you could come on up the spelling bees were held across the district in January and early February we're going to start with our fourth grade spelling be Champions first and if there are any teachers here too to support the students please come on up as well we'd like to include you Mrs Francisco please come forward okay at wanasa Elementary School please welcome Matthew Rizzo spelling be champion at yep stay up we'll take some pictures in a minute at Ocean Township Elementary School we have our winner Truman Scott and at Wayside Elementary School are champ Brian wter right can we get pictures in front of the Marquee again so cute parents yep go ahead good job guys congratulations boys and now we're going to recognize our Intermediate School we have our first second and third place winners with us this evening so beginning in third place I'd like to welcome miles wner seventh grader congratulations in second place we have Matthew Williams and our first place spelling be champ at toys is Arisha Islam congratulations to all of you and we could take a few pictures over in front of the Spartan sign and the next step for all of these finalists is they will move on to the Regional Championship r first round is an online test that they will take at school our supervisors will will facilitate that online test for them and if they finish in the top 15 they will be invited to the regional competition which takes place at the vogle at basy Center for the Arts in Red Bank on Monday March 20th We wish all of our spelling be Champs the best of luck in the next rounds congratulations to you all we're so proud of you this is I love this kind of stuff this is awesome thank you that conclude your report yes okay um I would like to just mention to the parents that are here with their with their children you're more than welcome to stay for our regular meeting but we understand if you have other things that you want to do so this is your time to to split if if that's the case or you're welcome to stay thank you congratulations everyone again and those who are in the back are welcome to come to the front there's some seats up here thank you have a good night congratulations thank you can you just say like P like P1 I was gonna say there's plenty ofing in the front sure that young lady gets out I than okay we're gonna continue with our regular meeting at this time everyone could just quiet down please thank you uh we will move on to our school business administrator's report I have nothing to at this point Thank you thank you Mr Hastings all right at this time we're going to move on to a 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 public 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 a reminder that there is a five minute um time limit would anyone from the public like to comment on any agenda item at this time anything that is on the agenda if it's not on the agenda if it has to do with any other topic you can come at the SEC come in at the second it is not okay no one in the room Mrs Conway oh Mrs Hayes hi I thought it was said that you guys were actually answering questions that today so I had extra questions prepared Alex Hayes from Oakhurst um the student council I saw holding its first town hall meeting wondering if um we can get more information about you know some of the current School issues that they talked about um that was mentioned um earlier um at the last you talked about the technology meeting earlier and it's on the agenda um and at the last meeting Jeff mentioned he had met with the technology meeting committee I'm sorry um that's never been done before so I was wondering um as a committee of the whole how that's allowed um the calendar I think kids will be very excited to see that it's almost a week and a half or more for Christmas holiday um holiday break um but I can't believe that in 2024 we are not giving off juneth Friday June 21st should be a day off it's a Federal holiday in the United States governor Phil Murphy signed a law before the feds and juneth is an official state h holiday and a public holiday and we should be off by the way I am wearing my Black History Month shirt I know U Miss Gilman says that that's a political shirt but I hope you all don't mind me wearing this shirt today um it would be nice if the school district made um an online Declaration of Black History Month support I have not seen one post yet which is kind of upsetting um there's been a lot of sports there's been a lot of other things but there has not been one Black History Month post on our town website uh School District's website trust me I checked before I came here um and I have other information or other questions afterwards but let me just look real quick because I'm sure I have a few more minutes um I'm also wondering why the town or the school district attorney wasn't here I would think on an appointment night like this that we would have the attorney um I have some questions that I'll just direct to Jeff in an email afterwards about some of the things that are on our bills um and I guess the last other question or comment I wanted to say is I'll save it till the end because that was the previous meeting okay thank you um Miss Conway anyone in the queue yes Madam president um our first commenter is anali Nal boxy and I'm sorry if I mispronounce thank you please go ahead um can you hear me yes yes thank you so much for taking my question um this is Angelie baxi at 3 Ascot Drive in um in the Wayside section um I just had a question about the calendar um and I I was waiting with baited breath for it myself and um I I just had a couple questions on it on whether one is it completely finalized um and then secondly um whether there was any thought put into in future years maybe having a survey with parents and faculty members and students to see whether there would be other holidays that would be considered um you know that that may be observed by other you know people in the district um and then they maybe those can be rolled into the calendar as well I don't know something that we could look at um and then the last thing was um I guess it's just a question about um almost like how the calendar gets developed like how do you decide um you know what days to give off like for the whole winter break because I was looking at it I was like oh man those kids are not going to want to go back Thursday Friday of the first week of January and probably the teachers don't either so is there like how do you come up with the calendar thinking okay we'll we'll have them go back on this Thursday but then we'll give them some other day off at another time like how does that work thank you for your questions um unfortunately we we don't answer questions at board meetings but um if you would not mind emailing Miss Welden or giving her a call tomorrow I'm sure she would be happy to oh sure oh sure thank you so much thank you is there anyone else Miss Conway no madame president that was the only commenter okay thank you so much all right at this time we will move on to the action items Mr McCarthy move to approve items 5.1 and 5.2 do I have a second second items 5.1 and 5.2 mron yes Mrs Dam yes Mr skilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Mr McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes m t Rico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs par yes motions Carri thank you Personnel Mrs M yes I move to Mo move to approve items 6.1 through 6.10 May I please have a second second questions or comments item 6.1 to 610 Mr doton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes to all recuse from 6.9 thank you m McCarthy yes Mr MC yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Tarico yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs parl yes wellam carry thank you financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein thank you Madame President um I'd like to move for approval um 7.1 through 7.19 second questions or comments ments all items 7.1 to 719 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes and again thank you to the Lineum family for the donation of instruments Mr McCarthy uh yes to 7.1 through 7.13 are acces from 7.14 due to a conflict of interest yes to 7.15 through 7.19 thank you Mr mover yes Mr Schneider yes I have uh I'll set a private meeting with you Jeff for educational purposes on 7.3 but I I approved that great thank you uh Mrs talo yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs parl yes all items carry thank you very much instruction education and Student Activities Mrs Gilman yes Madam president affirm 8.1 and 8.2 and move to approve 8.3 through 8.7 second questions or comments Mr Dalton uh yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman uh yes to all but recuse from the wrestling meeting and the making Student Connection wrestling trip trips sorry 8.6 thank you Mr McCarthy yes Mrs mcguy yes Mr Schneider yes Mrs Taro yes Mr Weinstein yes Mr par yes all items Carrie thank you Mrs Gilman at this time of the meeting at this point of the meeting I'd like to ask the board if there's any old business old business um new business I will bring up what I mentioned at uh the last new business which was um perhaps having a meeting on March the 5th to catch up a little bit on budget and anything else that we fell behind I don't know how the board feels Mr Weinstein well I so I guess I want to ask Kelly and Jeff is it is it better to do it on the fifth or the 19th if we're going to try to figure out like do you think you'll be in better shape on the fifth or it's well 19th it has to be submitted on the 20th yeah so what so do you think the extra meeting is um something you need and ready for I think the fifth gives us more time to discuss but um yield to Mr Hastings yes I would agree that the 19th might be too late uh because if we're going to make changes and not to submit on the 20th that could be difficult um it's it's the board's um pleasure and and the level of comfort that they have with the information they have today um in terms of of whether they'd like to meet again go ahead I personally would like to have it on the uh fifth I don't I think that there's probably going to be some staffing discussions right that you're going to want to have and we didn't really drill down into any of the line items um because of the way we were kind of set up today so we didn't really kind of go over each line item and kind of discuss it so I think it would be good for us to have that opportunity anyone else I agree M Stam yeah I think it's a good idea okay yeah Mr McCarthy yes I think we should favor of it yes I think it would be great I just I have to personally check on something and I would get back to you okay that would be fine Tarico would you be I can't make it you can't make it no Mr Schneider early is better I can make it okay all right so maybe there's one that can't Mr D pretty sure I can I'm not able to is not able do we have a quorum at that point I am so one two three yeah you do yes you have six you feel better having an extra meeting to catch up on budget Mr Hastings I should actually be asking you as well yeah I think I think it would be beneficial both to the board members all right let's let's see if we can if it's all right with everybody I think we're going to add it okay is your preferred time um well Mr Schneider said that ear the better me earlier in the calendar better but uh okay earlier in the calendar okay yeah I you have I think 6:30 and yeah 6:30 and 7 the usual that would be best and I would say um for those that can't make it that maybe they can um zoom in Zoom we Zoom to um maybe set up a zoom with Jeff or Kelly to have a conversation also recording right it is but if they have their own question May a good okay we will be having a meeting then on March the 5th is there any other new business yeah all right at this point in the meeting we're gonna go back to public comment on any item so would anyone in the room step up to the podium please thank you hello my name is g d I'm at 45 wico Drive In wanasa I'm a lifelong resident of 58 years my children are third generation of one AAS okay I want first of all I'd like to thank all the board members for the time and that you put in volunteering and I know you're faced with every very hard decisions at times and hopefully the one tonight's not going to be hard for you um I'm here to express my opposition to a summer camp at the one Massa School my property 181 ft of it is uh right up to the property line of the school which is an inch off the property line of wanasa school with the adj adjacent homes within inches and up to 10 feet of the property line this would be a direct impact on the neighborhood the quality of life and the hardest impacted would be the little ones that we that call one a mass of their home this facility is used all summer long for local neighborhood kids they learn to ride bikes rollerblade play kickball basketball meet up with friends play on the swings Etc the use of one Master school for a summer camp is not an inherently beneficial use for our community this would be a major disruption to the neighborhood and sets a very poor example to our kids they would be getting kicked out of their school playground for the summer as if they don't make a difference which they do with increased traffic by 100% okay this will be dangerous for our neighborhood and keep in mind 80% of one of Massa students during the school year are Walkers okay they don't take a bus so with the increased bus and vehicle vehicle traffic by non-ocean bus drivers keep in mind and non-ocean residents picking up and dropping off this will cause a hazardous zone for our neighborhood kids they will be forced to ride their bikes and play in the streets with 100% increase in bus and car traffic from what I read the camp will also transport kids back and forth for the use of deal school for the pools that which will cause more traffic throughout the day not only drop off and pickup okay now with the $200,000 the camp is offering to pay for one M of school I hear everybody up here and I heard a lot of statements about hey you know it's hard to turn away 200,000 um you know we use it for various things but the bottom line is if you want to really break it down it breaks down to a $150 per month per household okay that's $19 a year okay per household that you're going to try to save them taes sadly the parents of one a master the kids have to come up here and fight and defend them from being sold out for a150 a month that's basically what you're looking to do with our kids to sell them out for $150 a month for $200,000 in Revenue which is definitely very sad we shouldn't even be having this conversation up here okay so lastly we talk about where can we put this Camp there's other locations we we could possibly go to I have the answer for you right now right here you have 11 acres behind you right here so why not have it here on your own facility okay for 15 years I've been coming to board meetings hearing about what are we going to do with this building and the property are we going to sell it are we going to lease it out what are we going to do with it your answer is right here in front of you rent it out to the camp you got 11 acres back here and yes they're not going to use the building because you guys occupy the building for the summer right no problem this is a for-profit organization this is not a nonprofit or a 501c they can pay for trailers to be brought in and they can have classrooms in the trailers just like they do throughout the country and other schools very simple answer okay so with all that said I my recommendation to the board in the administ ation is to strongly reject the idea of a summer camp at onea school let's keep our Spartan Legacy alive and let's make sure our onea school kids are cared for in a proper manner thank you thank you Mr delomo is there anyone else that would like to make a statement yes I'll come back so Eric Santiago 924 bendir Mr Vice President you told me to come here with an idea to save you money there's $60,000 on a budget line item for a digital display for wanasa have the parents been asked about this is this for the front of the of the property that's my question yeah you can save that you can save that because part of the character wmasa school is that old board that's there and the PTA putting up the signs of the kids making up FL putting up flowers and that's what we want to keep thank you thank you Mr s anyone else former PTA President we just need for you to speak into the microphone so the people at home could hear you not for here former PTA president at wanasa and my group raised the funds to put that sign up thank you Miss Kusa anyone else in the room like to make a public comment Miss Hayes oh is there someone else whose hand I missed Miss Hayes I never signed I never very start don't okay the light um Alex Hayes Oak curst um I did want to address uh how some of the Schoolboard members said they're sorry they couldn't speak to some of the parents um because there really is no policy that says Schoolboard members cannot speak to parents you're advised not to and you need to watch what you say but you are not prohibited from talking or speaking uh or commenting to Citizens online or in person um uh I hope people who come out here tonight I applaud you're getting together I think that's awesome I hope you also come for whenever there's the next release of test results and other happy news um good and bad news um I'm wondering if we can have a March 5th meeting if that's enough legal time um spending $1 million possibly on an elevator for this non-ada compliant dump of a building is a waste of money um regarding the camp let me just say a few things let me start off by saying I'm not a fan of any religious Camp any religious group renting our facilities in general no churches no camps nothing where they have religious teach teachings because I believe we need to have a separation of church in state um even on weekends and Summers um I do have a problem with camps renting our facilities for one certain age group and then sliding in some cribs and having a toddler room for the summer which other camps have done I think next week what you're doing is kicking the can I think you're going to see Wayside parents up here you're not going to see otes because there's no possible way another Camp can fit in otes um if we do not have space for 200 or we can't find the place that's acceptable to the camp then what you all legally cannot say no correct me if I'm wrong to an active request per according to the New Jersey law against discrimination um and that's what gives me pause here um you know some people are voicing complaints online that this is a religious or a religion-based camp and that we're selling out our kids I think we need to be careful um because I don't think our district needs to open ourselves up to any lawsuits in 2019 when I had objections about a church coming to the high school whose Pastor was making uh in the 90s some anti-lgbtq comments in the past the former superintendent said you can't pick and choose and I'm quoting directly if you're allowing some groups in then you need to allow other groups no matter what their belief would be you either allow groups to rent in the district or you do not and we allow this school district to be rented out to camps so um the former School business administrator Ken jenon also in that same um meeting by the way said by law we cannot discriminate and say anybody can't come in we have to allow a group that applies by P by board policy it's to any religious group any camp and we don't decide if we don't like certain teachings um also what worries me is the money I don't want to see a camp at any school trust me but I'm here from another perspective and um what is it Devil's Advocate I guess um the $200,000 is a vital source of income to our district that is what was said this summer by the teachers union when speaking of camp David it has given over a million dollars to our coffers over um the last four years and that is money our district desperately needs says our board I mean our Union president teachers union president um you know 200 Grand could be four teachers at $54,000 a year starting salary I don't see how you can legally say no if a camp wants to rent our facilities so I'm worried if you're kicking it down from one building to a next I think you're giving the impression that you're going to Nix a camp all together and I don't believe you legally can do that um and I I I would like you you know I don't have to read the law against discrimination um but there's a fairly long thing if I'm wrong I would love somebody to correct me case La says you can also the policy has to meet the requir defitely okay yes um I think saying no would open us to litigation um because that has been threatened before so and I don't think the quality of life argument which some people might say is in the um law against discrimination as a pass I don't think that would fly thank you thank you anyone else okay oh sorry no come on up and just St your name Josh Hall uh 921 raymir Avenue for I want to thank the board you guys have been awesome you a few of you answer some my calls I've been in some of your offices for an extended period of time and you've all been great uh also say I don't think you've ever said no to any religion so I don't know what they were talking about I don't think anyone has a problem with the religious connotation of whoever goes in there you right um it doesn't matter um that's kind of ridiculous it's it's really about that school is not set up to run a summer camp that operates as a business there's just not enough room for it I don't know whoever she's talking if she's ever walked kids to that school in the morning um I don't think she probably has because she probably would been hit by a car at least once or twice like most of us it's it's a nightmare out there the cops do the best they can that's with one or two buses in the morning um we've all seen the facts about how many buses there will be um Mr D seems like a great guy I saw his you know his website all the information on there he seems very passionate about it about the kids there I only hope he could be just as passionate about the kids in our neighborhood because that is their Hub it's where they go it's where they meet after school uh are I friends that taught their kids had a rollerblade over there in the summertime who knew people W still be rollerblading in 2024 but they are uh you know we teach our kids how to ride the bike in the parking lot collecting signatures this week I can't tell you how many parents told me that you know their kids that are older than mine you know they run out the door screaming we're meeting our friends that want to Mass to school it's it's a hub of the neighborhood it really is and Mr D you may not have realized that and that's that's fine right like sometimes we think we have a good idea and it just might not be a good idea so I could personally say I hope you voluntarily withdraw this I mean hearing all this I can't say I really can't see how you wouldn't and there's no way of knowing all this right if you don't live here and that's really all I want to say so thank you all thank you Mr Hall is there anyone else that would like to make a public comment hello uh James H 902 inter Len Avenue my property is directly next to W of mastera school it's right by the parking lot and it's also right by the uh kickball field as well um so I just wanted to come up and object to the theory that there's no um change to quality of life I work from home I work from home five days a week I have two children and you know there there will be space taken away from them in the summer and there's also safety aspects so I just wanted to share strong very strong objection to saying there's no change to quality of life if this were to happen thank you very much thank you anyone else in the room would like to make a public comment Hi Megan Mueller 41 wipco Drive in W Massa um I debated whether or not to come up since the discussion from the previous meeting but I figured why not put it on record um but first I want to thank you guys for I think getting it right um but I'm going to read what I wrote anyway um just to kind of put it out there um I am a licensed clinical social worker here in uh New Jersey I'm a school social worker in a neighboring Town um so I'm going with the S approach and I loved all the mental health talk I heard tonight from the board um and I love the direction the district is going with that because our kids need it so desperately in a postco world it's really really sad what we see on the daily um with that being said the CDC um states that kids ages 8 to 18 spend over an average of 7.5 hours in front of a screen every single day that adds up to 114 days a year um the CDC recommends that kids get 60 Minutes of physical ex exercise a day and I know the Township Board of Ed agrees with this quest for wellness I have been a parent representative on the district's wellness and Equity committee um and in that committee we spend a lot of time reviewing our students and reviewing how to help them better their Wellness Journey wanasa school is in fact such a crucial place and a piece of the social emotional well-being of our wanasa kids I'm so passionate about that it is a diamond in the rough I ask you drive by if you haven't please see what goes on there on the daily the kids are playing they're getting fresh air they're hanging with friends they're playing games they're using sidewalk chalk um they are doing what we're trying to teach them to do um we can't take this opportunity away from them it's so important as the responsible adults making these important decisions for our smart Legacy children please please please don't take this Safe Community Hub away from our kids renting out wanasa school is just not an option it is not inh inherently beneficial to our children one M of kids must be first thank you thank you miss m thank you very much is there anyone else in the room that would like to comment okay Miss Conway is there anyone in the queue no Madame President there are no comments okay thank you um I just want to thank you all once again for being here we do appreciate you being here um and with that I'd like to ask the board for a motion to adjourn second uh second okay meeting is adjourned thank you drive home safe