e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e have a roll call Mr Donnie Miss quack here miss melli here Mr mmud here miss Broan here please join me in a flag salute and pledge alleg [Music] pursuant to the requirements of the open public meetings act advance notice has been given to the Star Ledger the record and the clerk of the village of Bridgewood in addition notices were posted in the office of the board secretary and in all school buildings so good evening and we have a treat tonight I understand student presentation that's right we we have I have a motion to amend the agenda before we start um I would like to add a public comments section after uh six after presentations for Budget presentation because in the way the agenda is currently designed we don't have any public input between the presentation and when we vote don't see anybody here so we may not have anybody so it may be a quick uh like 10sec agenda item but I would still like to give an opportunity so I have a motion to amend the agenda to add public comments after presentations for Budget are you um suggesting we add another one or just move the comments to after the budget presentation um add a presentation add a comment add a comment just for Budget okay second yeah yes yes Miss quar yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes motion passes thank you for that sah okay so now um we'll go to our student presentation yes we have a we're going to be graced by performance by a string quartet from Haw Elementary School and introducing them is our principle of Haw Mrs Shaun stoval hello good evening we are so excited to be here the Haw string Ensemble has a wonderful series of pieces and exercises prepared for your pleasure this evening um our students meet weekly for group lessons and of course they practice the rest of the week at home um our students will perform under the direction of our wonderful strings teacher Ms Alina Lee and our students that are performing this evening are Sienna Choy Ena Kate JN Mina Lee and Misha faer thank you ladies good evening good evening my name is Ena Kate and I play the violin we are the h string Ensemble we are in the fifth grade and we take part in the instrumental music program at our school we have prepared four short pieces to play today my name is Misha and I play the viola we will be starting with the one octave G Major scale first playing together then again starting at different times playing scales help us warm up our fingers and to play better in tune also when we are not playing all at the same time in unison it develops our ears to listen better to ourselves and others e e my name is Sienna and I play the violin next we will be playing our first set of two pieces both of which are part of our Winter concert we will start with O to Joy from be betoven Beethoven's Ninth symphany um followed by an arrangement of Canon and D by packo Bell which is a famous tune which you may recognize in this Arrangement this the piece is played as a round with everyone playing the same part starting at different times [Music] e e [Music] [Music] e for for e hi my name is Mina Lee and I I play the violin what we love about the instrumental music class program in fifth grade is that we get to have more performance opportunities next be playing final piece which is a French piece titled can can from often batch oranus in the Underworld all right all right thank you again Sienna Hina Kate Mina and Misha really appreciate your performance that was wonderful thank you so much for being here today thank you Miss stoel for being here give them all one more round of applause please um we next we have a retirement recognition but unfortunately uh Mrs picula was not able to attend today so we're going to move to this point in time if I made to with the parents are here I think they would like to oh I'm sorry yes I'm sorry uh I'm sorry our our HS our Halls quartet can we do a picture real quick that would be great yeah voice to save you Mrs thank you so much talented children nice e e all right next have I'd like to invite our student representative from Ridgewood High School Miss Sarah bronstein to give the uh student representative report yeah um to begin the rhs French Club went to the 2024 Monclair State University um French Festival the French Exchange program for the 2024 to 2025 year has officially been announced there was a student interest meeting on March 15th in school and another one this coming Wednesday on Zoom for any parents interested in signing up their children a trip to the GL apos was announced for students and parents for the 2024 to 2025 school year and there was also a summer trip planned for Bali to work on the coral reef for the world challenge ngj GPA took place on the 11th to the 14th this is Statewide testing for juniors as a good indicator of how Richwood students are doing in comparison to other New Jersey schools DEA went to States in Atlantic City and had an amazing time and also came back winning some amazing Awards 30 students qualified to go to ICDC in California project interact as boys has much going on they successfully helped Michael Aaron Flicker and his team with super science Saturday they helped students set up their events as well work the exhibits with the kids and helped clean up they will also work the monthly rotary drive on the 23rd and plan on volunteering at Easter in the park on the 30th and looking even more ahead at the daffodil Festival on the on April 21st Spanish Honor Society is also super busy they just finished up their book drive with the Patterson Boys and Girls Club and also participated in the pulsera project this project entails selling bracelets to raise money to send Guatemalan students to high school the psychology Club had their own Dr Alvarez and Mr Phil come in to talk about Mental Health Resources in the school and what they do to help students this will help prepare the members for Mental Health Awareness Month in May uh green Club also has a lot going on with um Earth Day coming up next month they're working on a tree planting video on Stevens to attain a grant um they are also working on a native species uh Native species project project they're reasoning they're raising trout and they plan to soon release them back into the wild for sustainability they say they are working on their respective presentations to get students in all of the Ridgewood Community to improve sustainability efforts the sophomore parent meeting met on the 7th with Mrs yon and Mr Bailey there were over 200 parents in attendance for the virtual meeting the talk about scheduling the college admissions process and upcoming events for the sophore class and the senior class is awaiting on their final College decisions and getting ready or already have made their decisions as for sports seeing as it just started there's not much but spring Sports started up last Thursday the 14th there was a very successful Nationals meet for Ridgewood in the boys distance me uh medley Ridgewood placed sixth in the nation the girl shuttle hurdle relay team also got sixth in the nation both attaining all- Americans and the girls forb got uh placed ninth in the nation and finally trouts for flag was March 7th 8th and 11th and a happy Easter to all that are celebrating coming up thank you so much Miss bronstein always so much happening at the high school no thanks for that um we'll open for uh comments from the public I there's nobody in our audience tonight that I see um's on the side right nobody's on the side and let's see if there any we will be having um a another public an extra public comment period after the budget presentation for anybody who had some any questions on the budget um as uh presented tonight I don't see any public comment at this point so I'll close and we'll move on with the agenda so uh Dr Schwarz you presentation on the tenative budget 2425 budget the um just in way of explanation this is a preliminary budget that goes to the county um so just to put it in perspective yes so the tenative budget is due to the county by uh Wednesday March 20th they will have an opportunity to review it um they have maybe 70 districts however in Bergen County so it takes them a little while to get through the materials um there will be um an electronic submission sent to them a lot of backup materials uh they will go through that if they have questions they will contact me if they need clarification or if we need to adjust something we will do so then they will give me a final authorization to publish the advertised budget which will be in the newspaper at least four days in advance of our final budget hearing on April 29th great thanks and just also um all the board members were able to um meet with you to go through the budget um yes absolutely I extended everybody in invitation um and we spent many many hours going over all the information anybody wanted happy to do it I'm glad uh people had good questions so thank you that was very helpful thanks well miss Scott I have a question um in the past we used to have um a mailer a small one that would go out to every household in Ridgewood for those who may not um be able to watch this it was a quick snapshot of a summary we still going to do that this year I do think that people found it helpful I've never done that in the past because um the budget isn't voted on by the public um I don't I don't know if we had any I didn't have any plans to do anything like that um I don't know about Dr schwar well I think we need to have a finance committee meeting shortly soon anyway so maybe maybe we could have a conversation there um because I think we want to be careful about what we just put in in that it's not the the budget figures aren't final until they're voted on finally so if we can have a quick meeting about that I think that would be that' be helpful yeah and I I have samples from prior year so I can bring it to just show that this is at least what we all every household had received um okay great thanks so um should I begin yes please thanks everyone for being here with us tonight uh this is the 2425 preliminary budget review this is uh basically our presentation of the preliminary budget uh to the Board of Education so for those from the public who are joining us for the first time um who are joining us tonight maybe you're familiar maybe not um essentially there are two main uh phases in terms of a public public moments for the budget and they are the preliminary budget which is where we set the expenditures and the Appropriations and revenues for the 2425 school year um and we and then that that also set and then in that process we also make a recommendation the board to set the tax levy so that's the significance of this meeting and the final budget hearing um if there are recommended changes to the budget we can we can make those changes at that meeting um otherwise that would be a meeting where we would clarify uh give greater Clarity of regarding our analysis and the overall impact of the budget um so I want to begin by thanking Miss cot who had quite a bit of uphill work to do to get us oriented with respect to this budget um we've had some changes in the business office in the last few years and and particularly last year's uh budget process um suffered some some disruptions um which kind of which put us set us all to kind of go into this year with a little bit of opacity I guess more than a little bit of opacity regarding um what our budget Trends had been in totality so I think we've uh I've had a chance to review some of the details of her work and I think that she's done a very thorough job in going through the lines I and also uh recalibrating uh the way that our accounts are used within our district software so that they're easier to use in the future and I think moving forward we're going to have a much easier time conducting analyses on the budget and and I think that our budget right now is based on very real analysis so thank you Miss cot uh miss cot's going to present a good portion of this presentation but I'm going to give you all a little kickoff um I just thank Miss cop but I also want to thank the rest of the team uh this was very much a team effort so all the schools and the school leadership uh all of our different departments uh we they spent hours and hours um preparing their budgets and then meeting with Miss cot and myself and and and others to really go through line by line the requests that they had getting to a place where we felt like we were budgeting what we needed but not but not really anymore and uh so as a result of that uh we were able to produce a budget that stays at the 2% tax levy uh Target that the board had set um but it and we'll talk about what the ramifications of that how we did that despite the fact that um all of our cost drivers are going up at a rate much higher than 2% um and we'll talk a little bit about where we're going but again want to thank everyone that had been involved in this Mr fredman was really centrally involved in a lot of our decision- making um and um well we'll get into some more of those details in the presentation so for starters uh we obviously have our Board of Education here and I want to thank the board members for their individual time they all met with Miss cot individually to really have an opportunity to understand ask their questions and and and have develop a strong understanding of the allocations and also the projections for Revenue um but I want to clarify first our presentation objectives uh so despite inflationary costs we wanted to maintain all current RPS programs and prioritize important capital projects as well as some ongoing curricular improvements while remaining within the 2% tax levy cap so in this presentation we'll analyze and address prior your Surplus balance we know that uh certainly last year we had a rather significant Surplus and we expect to have some Surplus this year as well but we'll talk about what that looks like moving forward we don't expect to see those surpluses in the future we also but we wanted to propose a balanced final budget for the 2425 school year obviously it has to be balanced for us to recommend it and to approve it we also are going to talk about Revenue changes and specifically within those and then also the cost drivers and then an overview of the budget impact on the community so I'm going to turn it over to uh Miss cot who can talk a little bit about the process that she used to arrive where we are today thank you Mark so I did Begin by analyzing uh quite heavily the 2022 2023 audit uh and that was really my starting point for all of this um it came to my attention of course that we had generated quite a bit of surplus and I wanted to identify the accounts where that Surplus was being generated so instead in of merely adding a percentage on top of existing account balances and then continuing to generate that Surplus I wanted to find uh where that Surplus was and absorb that Surplus into this budget meaning um although costs are rising there are certain account lines that I was able to keep flat or actually reduce because I am anticipating using that Surplus that we keep generating and as to some of the larger cost drivers just to hit that point um there's some basics in every budget in every District salaries of course this is a negotiation year for our teacher and secretarial Union that adds a little bit of complexity to the projections health benefits has been have been rising precipitously over the past several years we have been advised to anticipate an increase from anywhere between 9 and 12% for the 2425 school year special education costs continue to rise there is no cap on outof District tuition and more students have been in need of special services post pandemic Transportation costs have also increased at least 11% in the past two years and then the cost of Public Utilities gas electric have all increased more than 2% in the the past several years as well as the price for many Goods that we use daytoday paper cleaning products um Outsource vendors such as plumbers or Tree Service um Tree Service uh uh businesses are all rising at greater than than 2% we I spent a great deal of time um with uh the groups I we met with 21 separate what I call Budget managers those are your uh department heads your principles uh we held individual meetings in December and January where we went line by line over their uh proposed budgets as well as two years of historical data we refined and augmented some of that information internally and as information became available from our service professionals and vendor Partners um the data was then discussed with the finance committee and we arrive at the budget that you'll see this evening um and what I like to say that uh every school district's budget is a spending plan and it gives you guidance on what your coming Year's priorities are uh when we start this in October of 2023 we actually need to project everything that's going to happen through the 2425 school year and anticipate where we're going to end up on June 30th of 2025 which is no small feat and we use our best e efforts to anticipate what we're going to need to do in that 16 18 or 20 month period um so tonight as I mentioned you'll vote on the uh preliminary budget it will be submitted to the county office by March 20th and then we will have our final budget presentation that will be presented to the public and the board will vote on on Monday April 29th so just generally speaking there has been a downward Trend in enrollment and I think that trend is expected to continue um there are some variances in the numbers that we see here um there are numbers that are maintained by the superintendent's office but there's also the Assa number and the Assa number tends to run a little bit smaller than um the the numbers that are um housed here that we we anticipate the ASA software sometimes assigns a waiting average to certain numbers you can end up with half a student we don't have that happening this year but I have seen that happen in the past so we are anticipating a downward Trend the 2425 projection of 5532 is actually an increase of 70 staff sorry 70 students over this year's Assa number so even though you see the 2324 number that we're prod we're producing here is of 5580 the asss is smaller so but the downward Trend will continue I would like to delve deeper into the enrollment Trends uh when when time permits after this budget is passed um and and to look at some of those variances that we're seeing about the what's produced in the Assa and what we're maintaining here to ensure that we're capturing every student uh as these numbers do not the numbers that you're looking at here but the Assa numbers that are struck on October 15th do affect State a numbers so as a general overview and I'm going to welcome uh Mr Freeman to fill in uh anything that would help the presentation here we wanted to just highlight a few uh just a few key features of what we're focusing on with respect to progress with uh in curriculum so in any budget year regardless of how uh what our what our um what our Revenue levels are it's really critically important that we are always focusing on maintaining and developing our curriculum um and and supporting high quality instruction and high quality assessment so we We are continuing curriculum development processes and program evaluation processes we're also aligning our professional development to advance District goals and curricular initiatives so there are a variety of uh examples that we have on Deck so for example we have specific science of reading initiatives and the K K5 Ela curriculum we're also investing in our K5 math uh math manipulative support so that we are continually enriching our environment we also have a K5 social studies initiative and we are going to be and we're in the process U we'll be continuing to reevaluate um the uh conduct a reevaluation of our district gifted and talented programming Mr Freeman do you want to add anything to that now I would say those are the key takeaways and highlights but also for people to understand that that comes with professional development to support the teachers and any successful implementation or change it's a living change so you're G you know you look at this over a year so this is one snapshot of the initiatives and what it's going to take to move them forward next year and then the year after we would continue to move them forward but these are the main goals yeah and I would also say just remind everyone that we are going to be having a state of the schools address in May where we're going to be reporting out on a much deeper analysis um even from what we've done in the past with our njsla scores SAT scores um and student surveys as well so that information will really help help us to really be able to articulate clearly um where we are and where we want to go and then how our initiatives aligned to those things we're also it is March so we need to set a budget but we're still in the process of planning all the professional development activities for next year there's much many great things underway but uh as the months go by we'll have greater and greater Clarity um and then actually I'm GNA ask uh Mr Mr F Freeman to talk about some of these great programs um I had a chance to sit in uh on some conversation around uh these new these new courses um but I know this is something that Mr Freeman and his team of Supervisors have been working on really well so I'd love to invite him to to share some of them sure I'm I'm sorry you're leaving the high school because we have some exciting things that are coming next year yeah um you know just the addition of um you know AP offerings at the high school also the cyber security class engineering the Epic program is continuing a new P offering in African-American studies um is potentially going to be offered real estate economics and politics ASL ASL is growing I'm I'm excited about it you know the reports coming out um or it's it's a very very successful program um and then fashion design too I I do want to um to let people know that as we plan these courses enrollment will drive um what courses how many sections but these are the new off offerings they come from uh student and staff input where uh where people are showing interest so we're trying to provide that Middle School the math applications 8 course um we've talked about before at this table to add a little um a little extra ump to the math program pop dance Legends is um is a new addition at at the middle school level increasing the dance offerings in the elective cycle and then Middle School 101 Middle School 101's a transitions course um what do I mean when I say transitions I mean um that we don't we expect people to become secondary students but we don't often explain to them what it means to be a secondary student what middle school 101 does is it walks you through the difference between Elementary life and secondary life and hold your hand a little bit um teaches you how to ask questions teaches you how to navigate um a new Social and emotional um meu to to say um and everything that it takes to be a successful Middle School student it houses it in an actual course so you can walk through with an educator um and set you up for Success so Ms 101 will be a course that every student is uh takes beginning next year in the elective cycle sorry thank you Mr Freeman and I'll turn it back to miss cot okay the total proposed school budget for the 2024 2025 school year is $138,500 this includes capital projects that I'm going to discuss a little bit later on and this slide provides a detailed representation of costs as they're submitted in the department of education budget software it'll also be many of the lines that you'll see in the advertised budget and I'm going to go through a few of these just to elucidate what is inside each of these categories for regular program instruction coming in at almost $39 million this includes the salaries of regular education teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade substitutes instructional staff travel purchase services such as linkit learning a toz brain pop and many many more as well as all General instructional supplies the special education instruction line of 12.23 five million includes salaries for teachers and parap Professionals in classrooms like lldd emotional regulation impairment multiple disabilities resource room and preschool disabilities the number also includes special ated home instruction related services and supplies basic skills uh coming in at 779 th000 includes teacher salaries and supplies similarly bilingual at 600 8,000 includes teacher salaries and supplies extra and co-curricular activities includes amounts alloted for activities and Club stiens related memberships registrations purchase services and supplies school sponsored Athletics includes coaches and trainers the cost of officials equipment uniform reconditioning of equipment memberships and registration summer school if all schedules scheduled courses run the cost of SC summer school is anticip anticipated to be roughly $100,000 out of District tuition uh at 9.1 million includes public and private special education out of District tuition as offset by anticipated ID funds as well as tuition to Bergen County Technical Schools Health Services of 1,178 th000 includes nurses salaries substitutes the nursing needed during the extended school year the school physician and General Health supplies speech occupational therapy physical therapy and related Services include salaries for those named positions as well as outside purchase services such as translation services ABA Services consultations and all related supplies you would find Bergen County Special Services here on this line other support services for special education include salaries for special education par professionals any substitutes that might be needed onetoone nursing services and other purchase services such as New Jersey Coalition for inclusive education can be found here guidance Services include salaries for guidance staff and secretarial staff travel related supplies including testing materials hired speakers memberships and registrations child study team include salary for CST secretaries ltc's psychologists social workers case manager travel IEP software psychiatric and other student evaluations and supplies including testing materials Improvement of instruction development at $1.8 million includes salaries for Department supervisors and their secretaries related supplies memberships and travel educational media and Library Services include salaries for librarians and media Specialists instructional technology and clerical assistants as well as our technology coordinator it also includes the cost for circulation software online subscriptions books magazines newspapers as well as general supplies instructional staff training at nearly $500,000 includes purchased professional development teacher orientation training workshops and presenters OU of District staff travel and registration to attend PD as well professional development supplies General Administration includes the salaries of the superintendent the assistant superintendent their secretaries The Treasure of school monies the public relations for the board attorney and special education councel Architects telephone and internet cost postage legal bids and newspaper ads superintendent board memberships registrations and travel and general office supplies school administration includes the salary for all principes assistant principes directors and their secretaries postage professional memberships travel and office supplies business and HR and other services include the salaries of the ba and business office staff as well as a Human Resources Director and HR staff accounting and Personnel software payroll processing software professional memberships registration and travel and all office supplies including things like check stock 1099 forms envelopes Etc administrative technology includes some technology staff salaries technology office supplies internet service costs districtwide it security and software such as Gaggle and staff travel required maintenance for facilities includes the salaries for the b& manager the in-house maintenance staff and any related overtime aramark's maintenance staff is located here building maintenance services such as plumbers electricians roofers hbac Generator Service Pest Control Fire Security Alarms elevator maintenance state inspections and state registrations C custodial services and upkeep of grounds at 9.3 million includes all of arar's custodial and ground staff any necessary overtime the work order software waste disposal Water and Sewer Property and Casualty Insurance natural gas electricity and custodial and ground supplies security includes the salary for the dedicated security specialist outsourced purchase Professional Security Services for sporting and other events and security supplies you will also find the cost of the school resource officer here transportation services coming at 5.77 million include salaries for transportation staff Aid in lie of Transportation payments regular education Transportation special education Transportation Athletics and co-curricular transp portation parts and servicing for the three small District buses and other General supplies employee benefits at nearly 17.4 million include the board share of dcrp that is the state defined contribution retirement plan uh Social Security Medicare hers which is the uncertificated staff's pension system Unemployment Insurance Group life and long-term disability payments medical prescription and dental premiums net of contribution tuition reimbursement cash incentives for benefit waivers and sick day payouts for retirees as well as fees for FSA and Cobra Administration the capital reserve line interest and assessment for SDA funds includes those three proposed capital projects having a local share of roughly $6.8 million the SDA a annual assessment of $ 42,8 37 and this is a state mandated assessment for all districts that have participated in a school Development Authority project in the past the value May differ uh but the assessment um is is universal and there's a small increase to reserves included here we have to allocate a small amount uh on this line anticipated cost for Community School this year $1.38 million state and federal funds are anticipated federal aid such as title money Ida basic non-public Aid and note that this year the covid f as of uh the 2425 budget there will be no more Co funds those are completely removed from the budgeting process debt repayment the dis District issued or refinance Bonds in 2011 and 2016 those bonds areaid with principal and interest um payments made each year that comes to 3145 million next slide please this is a visual visual repes representation uh demonstrating that salaries and all of the employee benefits compromise uh comprise I'm sorry just over 73% of your total budget and this is not uncommon um most districts run anywhere between 70 and 80% of their entire budget is made up of salary and employee benefits next slide please in every balanced budget revenues must match expenditures you will see that our anticipated revenues are also 138 m564 and2 um the sources of revenue in any school district are limited the local tax levy is the primary source of funding in Ridgewood representing just about 78% of the entire op operating budget um thank you the other 22% of revenues come from about a dozen other sources and I'll go through the pie chart with you uh state aid and grants of 7, 329,000 represented by the red slice of pie make up the largest source of non-t taxpayer revenue and this includes an additional $55,200 in state aid that the district received this year a one-time use of capital reserve funds in the amount of 6.84 million as seen by the orange slice will pay for the district share of the Three Rod Grant eligible capital projects the yellow slice represents miscellaneous income rents and interest which together are anticipated at 3.28 uh million doll and include facilities use Student Activities fees anticipated Insurance dividends and interest earned at the bank we are also budgeting an anticipated $3 million in extraordinary Aid as shown by the green slice of pie extraordinary Aid assist districts with special education students that have high educational costs the pinkish slice of Pi shows the next highest source of Revenue which is the use of our own fund balance in the amount of $2.6 million the dark blue slice represents tuition uh incoming tuition from other districts and individuals and uh is projected to be $254 million the next highest source of Revenue is anticipated Federal and local funds in the amount of $2.45 million this includes uh such things as title and Ida money which fund Federal initiatives for improving basic programs supporting the development of teacher and principles supporting English language Learners and providing funding toward special education Support Services similar to last year's budget we are supporting this budget by withdrawing $1.5 million from maintenance reserve for C current maintenance expense and are withdrawing $500,000 of emergency Reserve to offset the increase in health care costs this is shown by the purple slice of pie and then lastly the district also receives Debt Service Aid of roughly $135,000 and has Debt Service fund balance it must utilize in this year in the amount of $459,000 next slide please the district will be bidding out three capital projects in 2425 all three have been awarded Rod grants for which the state will cover up to 40% of the total expenses the district is withdrawing from Capital reserves it's anticipated local share of approximately $ 6.84 million use of capital reserve has no impact on the tax levy the capital reserve account is where money is set aside specifically to support the district's long range f uh facilities plan the proposed projects are upgrading HVAC mechanical systems at Glenn Ridge and the high school next please so where does that put us financially the 2% tax levy increase over the 2023 2024 budget is $2,644 40 the district was entitled to a health care cost adjustment in this budget of five $530,000 which it is opted not to utilize the district also has access to an existing $625,000 of banked cap banked cap is unused taxing Authority from a prior year the district has opted not to utilize any banked cap in this budget Bank cap remains available for use for three years from the year it is generated and then it is lost so without utilizing any of the other adjustments or banked cap the net change to the tax levy will be 2% for the average home having an assessed value of $710,000 this will equate to roughly an additional $216 per year or $18 per month or less than 60 cents per day to put it differently for each $100,000 of a set best value the tax impact is about $254 per month next slide thank you and we'll take questions does anyone have any questions what I think is a very quick question because I just didn't wasn't sure I understood um going back to the slide uh where we talked about the expenses um I thought I heard you say that Aram Mark's salaries were allocated to required maintenance and then again to custodial services so I I just didn't understand so I've broken up they have three components we have custodial maintenance and ground services with them I went through the contract I divided up which allocation should be in which category and for our purposes here because I simply didn't have enough lines custodial when you see it in the advertised budget and the final budget um is separate from grounds I just included them here for Simplicity sake I needed to know thank you so much you're welcome SAR um thank you um thank you uh everybody that was involved in pting this budget and thank you mcot for um presenting a more detailed budget than we are used to and and all the work that went behind um like for creating this and thank you for Patiently answering all the questions uh when you were creating it and I still have more questions so sorry about that um so if we can go back to the um slides uh I'm oh there are page numbers so the one that shows enrollment Trends enrollment yeah so mark on this one um if we are seeing enrollment decline um I think just a comment that I think uh one of the things that Dr Gorman was trying to do was trying to bring um uh foreign students or like tution paying students from other countries or he had some suggestions on that and he had he initiated that uh for some time like he was EXP exporing that idea that um adds some uh like awareness about other cultures and brings uh some money so maybe we can explore if our enrollments are going uh like trend is going low towards a lower number and I think elementary schools uh people have complained about the class sizes so not at the elementary level but at the rhs level high school level if we have that capacity that that's something that he was he was exploring so I just want wanted to bring that to your attention as in something that can be explored or from some other other districts depending on where we we can bring tution paying students yeah I've done some uh in the past I've done some looking into that I've spoken with some uh superintendents who have done some of that work and exploring that so um I'd love to learn a little bit more about that yeah maybe you can reach out to Dr Gorman and his understand his idea yeah I can reach out to Dr Gman figure out where where he left off um I would also say uh I we need to do some more analysis as to where we're experiencing this enrollment Trend and also especially this last drop so if you look at this slide I mean it's pretty clear that over time we have been experiencing an En an an enrollment decrease um it's hard to say I without doing a an updated demographic study or uh or even um or even really getting deep into what bands we're seeing this in um it's hard to really know exactly where we're going to feel this um so and and right now to be clear these these these projected numbers they do tend to come in a little bit low they're they're based on that so lot can change we're I feel like we're also in a time where so I don't want to make assumptions that just because we have fewer students that necessarily that that means that we necessarily need more I think we do need to think entrepreneurial as a district because the reality is that you know part of we didn't really talk about this in the budget presentation but going into future years uh we're we are we're not going to be able to maintain all of the the existing services and Staffing levels that we have while while staying at a 2% increase on the tax levy and we're not going to receive additional State funding this this year's increase was the last year that we we expect for some time so thinking entrepreneurially is is really something that I think the district has done I mean we do we do have a pretty good amount of out of District of paid parent tuition in the district so optimizing that would be really important as well but also really doing a room utilization analysis of all our facilities as well because I do know that in certain basis we are packed pretty tight so we want to make sure that we know what we're getting into but yeah no I'm I'm but I'm I'm very warmed to the idea of possibly um uh creating relationships where we we have the space especially at the secondary level to bring International students out of revenue for the district and an opportunity for there to be uh some some cultural uh increased cultural engagement right okay s then on the next slide um I just wanted to know a little bit more about the reevaluation of districts gifted and talented programming um is is that already planned uh for this school year 2425 uh or where are we going with that thank you for that question so uh so we we have a lot that we're trying to evaluate we're really trying to do everything at once which is not typically what you try to do in a in in in most contexts but there's a lot of things that really uh you we don't want to we don't want to tell any one uh anyone interest or any one area uh or any one group of students that we have to wait weight so we've not been able to do uh too much formal analysis uh but for as part of our inventorying of what we're doing we're observing that we we we we likely need to do more uh with respect to servicing our gifted and talented students so uh I don't want to I don't want to specify exactly what that is right now because we're in the process of anal analyzing it this spring um it might be something where the analysis continues into next year and then it's dealt with in the 25 26 budget but for the time being I just do want to be clear that this is an area that are gifted and talented Pop there's a law new law in New Jersey that's really clear about what our expectations are for being for for servicing gifted and talented students and um over the course of my career I've had an opportunity to do some deep dives into this space and um the reality is that uh really high quality gift and talented program serve us actually a pretty large segment of the population when done correctly um and they but they also really nurture uh some students who really frankly they the the um their intellect intellectual abilities develop in a way that is actually the term is actually asynchronously developing and that they develop uh intellectually more quickly than they mature so great acceleration isn't always the right solution which was kind of traditionally what used to be done those of you who remember Doogie Hower we try to avoid that because it's not necessarily good for kids but we do need to give those students uh opportunities but we also need to provide the kind of benefits that give gifted and talented programming gives to our to our our highest intellectual students with the highest uh intellectual and um gifted profile we really need to also make sure though that that that all students have some access to that kind of uh intellectually stimulating activity as well so uh so but I can't say concretely what that will look like at this juncture even just thought about it and acknowledging that we need to improve it on that area I think that will be very welcoming because uh there were a lot of parents that showed up earlier when the governor Murphy had uh implemented that law just I think that was pre-co and then after covid things uh died down but there was a lot of interest and uh so yeah in the community there is interest for that so it will be welcome um next slide s I'll just add in the finance committee meetings we had I mean that was a very key point that Dr Schwarz was bringing off right in the committee meeting yeah I think Community will will really welcome that thank you both next one next slide please so on this one I don't remember if we already introduced AP preal this year because I remember seeing somewhere AP preal in one of those uh um curriculum meetings or maybe I'm remembering from from last year so maybe we can double check that AP preal I I think that will be from next year so that may may be missing from the slide and we are introducing that unless next year you mean this fall right these are all for this fall so I think we'll start this fall unless we've already started that or or maybe if we dropped it then I would like to understand why yeah I'll check my notes I'll update that yeah I think there was somewhere I saw AP preal I'm vaguely remembering we had that conversation to yeah on the on the and then uh for all of these new courses and new classes are do we are we planning new hires or we'll be able to adjust all of these with the current exis stuff with existing staff okay perfect that's great thank you uh next slide um so on this one um I think Dr Schwartz you mentioned when you started the presentation that there were uh there was a lot of pre prep work that was done by Miss Scott and Miss Scott also mentioned that she started with the audit and real assign and based on what the Surplus was but also I just wanted to highlight the point that you also reallocated where the expenses were being counted for so if if anybody takes this slide from the budget presentation that goes out to the county or from our audit reports and tries to do a year-over-year comparison and that shows some line items that are less than pre prior year that may be uh misconception because we are not proposing any Cuts in any line items these are realignments so um how it it's basically realigned for for going forward so next year you'll probably see uh year-over-year comparison but this year if you're looking for year-over year comparison then you should be looking at the total budget not as specific line item because there was a lot of work that went into realignment of that and these line lines may not match uh so I wanted to highlight that fact then um for the total tution that for um outside uh the 9 million 9.1 million uh Dr Schwarz and Miss Scott whenever you have time next if you can dig into that more I think uh death number has been increasing uh at a much rapid speed so we may have to look at why uh because I remember a few years ago it was in $4 million range and now it's at 9 mill so that that will also impact our uh sustaining even if we start going like 4% we may not be able to sustain that so if if you can look at that uh where like what are the reasons for that and if we can do something there then for security is what are the other positions other than SRO because I think for SRO we only pay part of the SRO right we we don't pay 100% of that salary so that was in $50 $60,000 range and this is 384 so V pay 100,000 yeah okay I thought we we were we agreed to half of that right that is half oh that is half okay so that's 100,000 is goes towards s then what's other 287 we in-house security specialist Mike reny Mr ranky Right um this also includes um security cameras software supplies things of that nature would this be the security guards also at the high school yes everything everything's and any um additional security that's needed for athletic events and things of that nature would show up on this line some you know if they need to have a police presence at football games and things wouldn't that show up in the um School sponsored Athletics no I put this in the security line okay and um for Community School we are showing the expense that is 1383 million do we know the revenue line item for that so every both are anticipated correct so we're anticipating this expenditure in community school if not all the courses run of course that would not be the expenditure the um as as were many things difficult to try to um unearth um uh patterns and um the the calculations of certain things so what I saw was um and in the 2223 school year you took in revenues uh of I think it was $851,000 for um that's off the top of my head don't don't hold me that I can look it up um for Community School that was also anticipated for this year but I am seeing a trend toward there being a larger amount I'm not necessarily comfortable to say that they're going to cover all their costs I certainly hope so particularly now that I have um worked with them to break out budget lines more clearly so we can try to capture things um in a in a way that will be able to represent them to other people more clearly so I am anticipating less than this for their income at this point in time I certainly hope they make a lot more but right now um this all anticipated and this is just based on the trend that I'm seeing and current receipts so if you're anticipating income that is less than the expense then maybe uh I think when you initially started you talked about looking into mailing out U like a huge 50 60 page printed material to nearby towns and the postage costs and essentially we are advertising for other companies whether we are actually getting any revenue from some of those the tours and all of those so maybe we can look into those the um discussion that I had uh with the director is that they feel that that is an important component in getting the registrations that they do receive and I don't know uh you know I haven't been here long enough to tell you if that's you know six months almost seven months uh to tell you if that's true or not so I have to rely on the data that they're they're telling me um that they feel like that's an important component for bringing in with the revenues that they do have so I would hate to see that cut and then us not make you know I'd like to track a little more closely in the coming year now that we've straightened some things out and I know we had um some preliminary discussions about possibly making this an Enterprise account at some point but I would really like to see it run um from this point forward with the clean account numbers and really trying to keep good track of uh revenues and expenses so that I can come to you and say we are making money or we're not making money or we are able to take um the the revenue that's being generated and plug it back into you know new basketball backboards and sanding the floors and the gym and things like that so like that so so the feedback on this slide is two accounts line items the total tution for outside out of district and the community school I think for those these two if if more research can be done and more they can be looked into more detail uh with Mark and Julie and um another item that I wanted to point out on this one is if anybody uh who's listening and they look at the total budget because um in the past I've heard that uh comment that oh the school's budget increase from say 120,000 to 138,000 or 100 so that the total budget increase would be much more than 2% but there is one line item that is just one time here Capital reserves or or capital projects that's 6.8 million that may not be there next year so the overall budget is increasing budget impact is $6.8 close to $7 million because we are taking that money that we saved in last couple of years in our Capital reserves we are taking that from Capital reserves and allocating that towards the budget for this year and we will be doing some projects um right oh you did the same thing yeah so without that it's $131 million and then uh do we know for The Debt Service repayment uh do we know how much did we build to Village Council last year and how much are we going to build this year do we have the year-over year number on The Debt Service because because of the audit uh comment we did not um like the there was a a excess built prior year so last year we built less so was that over and this year we are going to build that whole 400,000 or no the 2425 we will also build less for using Okay fund balance of uh 459,000 this will be the last time we get to do that uh and then moving into 25 26 we'll revert back to the regular payment so they will not see an impact this year so next year when we revert back to regular our residents will see a smaller impact so we'll explain it next yes okay yes I will yeah we'll explain it next year then on the next slide I don't have any questions um I don't have any questions on sources of revenue um then Capital expenditures if you can go to yes this one so here I wanted to highlight one point that uh a few years ago um the district was planning a referendum uh close like over $90 million it was ranging from talks were between 90 to 120 and out of that close to $40 million were for H AC and air quality upgrades so um from those close to $40 million projects we are doing close to $13 million projects we are proposing to do this year and uh just like a referendum where SDA was giving us 34% of the grant um I think last year Miss Brogan found out about this Rod Grant and we are going to get um oh it's 40% I I thought it was 34% that's debt so your debt service um Aid is 33% but for Rod grants it's 40% from the okay so it's even better so Debt Service would have been so referendum would have been 34 35% and here for Rod Grand which Miss broen identified last year we are getting 40% stage um share so you'll see that 6.8 million we are using from our savings from last couple of years uh and this will make a dent in that required referendum or hbsc projects that we were anticipating for close to $40 million so it's the same projects there's no new project here uh same projects are being done so when and if we have to go for that referendum we'll be going $13 million less and the next slide um I think uh Miss Scott already mentioned that we had an opportunity here to use close to a million dollars in healthcare adjustments or the bank cap which the board has decided not to use and uh it's a year-over-year impact for the total tax base which is 5.7 billion or 5.1 billion will be 2% and the uh for existing homeowners it will be slightly less than 2% because the tax base increased by 7 17 million so for an existing homeowner it will be little less than uh 2% thank you just um for clarity did it's not $30 million worth of projects it's about 11 almost 12 that's my acccident it's 13 13 oh excuse me okay but yes I think it was 11.4 or something roughly was yeah the estim the total were including what we have projected for this year and next no I'm just talking about the r GRS okay sorry I misunderstood that did you have yeah just uh first of all Miss cot thank you again for a great job I mean uh was detailed you ran through it with a lot of clarity and transparency so thank you for that definitely a huge huge Improvement uh thank you Dr Schwarz for overseeing the process um just a couple of quick ones I do want to highlight the call out from Mr Dan I mean U it is a very very tight budget but for me the Silver Lining is the capital uh amount right the 6.8 that we're able to chip away from that list of projects that we were going to go to referendum for few years ago so I consider that a big win for the the whole village really because we're we're taking those projects some of them we're starting them now we're getting the 40% and it's coming out of our normal operating funds if you will like not an additional work so that is definitely positive as you alluded to I think with all the operating expenses you've really re I just want to call out you know you've reallocated a lot of the excess Surplus that was on paper uh to cover our costs and I think for me the big impetus was that is for for many many years we haven't really added staff but last year we brought on about nine staff members and so when we still stayed within the 2% and so I think we're catching up now by reallocating that Surplus that was on paper to fund uh that uh so we can pay for it so that is a call out we should be all aware of and then just the biggest call out again I'll make this year if we go to uh slides the revenue slides um yes uh so on the right side right the withdrawal from maintenance reserves and emergency reserves this is just the second year that we're doing that right so we're taking essentially 1.5 from our maintenance reserve and 500,000 emergency reserves to fund our operations so it's only the second year we're doing that and that pool is just going to keep shrinking and shrinking and it's going to run out pretty soon I don't know if it's the next year or two or so but it's pretty pretty around the corner if you will so that is something we have to be aware of because we're gonna have to make up that Gap somewhere else that's it allk you so um everyone talks about wanting a zero base budget and you actually what really accomplished it this is a beat to doing the short compressed amount of time that you had and the level of clarity and understanding that you really built a bottoms up uh congratulations so I'm I'm very um it cannot be emphasized enough that it's really hard to do any historical um analysis because the Baseline this really should be considered the Bas Bine this year this budget uh having gone through and really made sure that all these account numbers are properly aligned so thank you um I wanted to I had a programming question and um then I had uh another question which is um I wanted to clarify maybe I missed it there was a lot of discussion about the math uh program sequencing as you go into the high school when are we what has been the final determination on that GE uh geometry and algebra and that sequencing I think we're still waiting for the just a final step in the process we've been evaluating it uh rather thoroughly so I would expect that we'd be able to give a give a commitment to that in the coming weeks oh wow and so whatever the final determination would be it would be implement the impact would be this fall of 2024 so we we want to be able to make an affirmative statement regarding what our math program will be and then a timeline accordingly so there is a strong argument for reverting back to the traditional model but rather than unilaterally forcing that that that kind of perspective we're we're really want to take into account uh our our professionals and their input and I understand that there's been there's been some there's been some engagement around this topic so we're waiting for Miss nembo to report back what her conversations have been with staff and where we ultimately stand considering that that last piece of input um so suffice to say that in the coming weeks we will be affirming our position moving into next year but if we do decide to move to the traditional track like if that is if we affirmatively believe that that is what is the right right move for us we are making this decision now so that way we can make that change for the coming year so um with that uh backdrop with that awareness of that um is it whatever the affirmative decision is um could we have a presentation on on that just you know just to what either way yeah no no we wouldn't go public with that determination until we at least met with the curriculum committee and then we want to make sure that we're educating the community as to what that decision is about I mean again the the I think part of my engagement with community members here I think part of what um leaves people frustrated both I've see this in every District I've worked in but I hear it here as well is when people feel like decisions are made they don't really understand why that decision is being made why that direction is being followed so uh so I think that uh we would like to we want to be we certainly want to be very transparent regarding where we are I think we have fleshed out a bit of the conversation I mean I think in the in the in our njsla presentation um there's a pretty good amount of conversation because we have to look at our very low geometry scores particularly but again we'll be very very clear regarding and again if the if the argument is that to to stay for for another year and re-evaluate geometry first then we'll make that clear too um but we'll we'll give some firm Direction in the coming coming weeks okay great um and uh there was um Mr Donnie pointed out about the enrollment numbers uh and I I know that it's trending downwards part of it was I think really precipitated by covid when there was a quite um uh and it's not just our district uh a fair number of of community members uh went from public to um Independent Schools that did offer um life you know Catholic schools for example really flourish during that time so I I I feel like um especially that and in conjunction with understanding that there's these parallel numbers that determine State a that a little bit lower um I I would just be a little bit see a little bit more data before we make um any dramatic uh changes yeah I think that's actually a good topic for the finance committee is to study that enrollment um I I part of my uh yeah part of my thinking and again is we always work from hypotheses right um we don't you know hous the housing market is very stagnant right now and without young families being able to buy in um I'm wondering if we seem to be seeing seem to be on a little bit on the low side for some of our enrollments for kindergarten next year and I'm wondering if we we are actually feeling this at the elementary level when I looked at it with my eyes it looked like some of that that lower enrollment seems to be at the elementary again we we will confirm all this we you know times are changing people are behaving differently I don't know that people are enrolling their kids as early as they have in the past I don't really you know the the generations that are that are the parents now are getting younger and younger and so they're they're different so we'll see but but those are numbers to watch could just be also if I have to guess about the data i' say rising cost of housing tet for younger families to in districts like ours and that's why we're seeing an the influx is lower than the outflux if that's a word yeah I'm sure but what be interesting is to compare it compare these numbers with other similar demographic districts in New Jersey or maybe even across the country see is this a national average concern is it a New Jersey concern are people leaving affluent neighborhoods in New Jersey I mean there's a lot of different areas we can go absolutely I think the only Silver Lining there is that we we don't get a lot of state aid or federal aid tied to the numbers so it's a good good thing for us yeah um and then um just to comment on that uh we have been really tapping into our Surplus and which which has which have been allocated to different Reserve accounts and we've used that to support this budget and it's un until you replenish it it is a diminishing res but it is uh operating the way reserves I I in my personal opinion the reserves are operating the way I would like to see it where it is supporting the budget um and it is really propping up quite a bit of some of these expenditures and especially with maintenance Reserve where it's built up to a very healthy number emergency now after this will be zero so when we when we determine before the fiscal year end of June 30th of this year what our Surplus will look like and how we allocate it we do need to be mindful of the importance of keeping some powder in these reserves because they will be tapped and they are very useful as we as demonstrated in this budget that's a comment thank you very much um just a few uh well thank you uh Mrs kot and uh Dr Schwarz um for the budget um you know the the looking at whether we should bring more students in the district is really an interesting topic because um if we're looking at the high school we were running um really large class sizes in in some of the areas and we also have a breath of horses similar to a small College um and many of our CL all of our classrooms are usually utilized uh throughout the day um and class sizes we didn't usually run a class unless there were at least 15 or more students registered and we didn't usually have too many issues um meeting them and going above so they just some historic thoughts on with the high school we had issues when we um had larger enrollment at the high school and now it is down a little bit when it was up at almost 1,800 now it's down at 17 something so um just a thought on that one um the um I'm I'm very pleased to hear a discussion and really a careful look at g&t um that's something that uh the board has been supportive of and um that would be a A plus I think to um to the district um when we finally figure out how that will um look the science of reading certainly um that's an enhancement um to our language arts and I thank you for that um I think that uh it is really important for the public to understand this realignment and budget lines um Mary and I had our meeting with Miss cot what we spend about three hours um almost going line by line uh trying to figure out what was the difference what what made those differences and that was enlightening um so um that I think is an important takeaway um for this um with I I guess I look at this budget and I'm I'm pleased it's 2% and um it it's it's you know there no cuts of and in this budget I do worry about the future so we're relying on uh $4.6 million coming into this budget from Surplus or or and reserves um which is a big number um and when we look at next year and if our state aid is flat um which it may be uh but you never know with the state because sometimes miracles happen um but if it is flat then you know where does that where is that money replenished from and and what happen so uh and the this Bank cap um the board has been hesitant in my years I think we voted to use Bank cap once and when the state aid came in later that year we didn't hear till I think it was June we decided not to use the bank cap and to give that additional money back to the public so um unusual step for the board but we've been hesitant and Resident to use any Bank cap um and it may be a different it may be a different um picture next year as or not maybe next year the year after um whether that comes into play the issue of course with bank capap is it's an ad additional burden on the taxpayer uh beyond the 2% um and and so that causes a lot of concern um I think when we look at our budget um so I think this is you know this sets a great year for next year and next year we'll deal with um a new budget but I do I do have concerns um as we go into uh next year's budgeting for the 2526 year so but thank you for this um and for the work on the rod grants um this is uh you know as I've said many times at the board table Ridge and Glenn um have a very Antiquated uh heating system one-of a kind really most um Architects or Engineers will tell you so um to make this Capital project and get this done in the next year will be I think a a real for the district and for those schools so thank you for that you're very welcome just one more question Mrs C I think Dr Schwarz you alluded to this in the beginning but I just want to confirm um so we talked about the recategorization of some of the line items right in different categories uh has that been uh codified I guess in the accounting software we use the right way so that way future tracking of our expenses is going to fall under this it yet we um I was waiting to uh pass this um the way the software works not to get to into the weeds but um account codes there's a mask that's assigned to different account codes we need to work with um it on changing the mask and with uh CSI on how we're going to do that and um so I'm working with someone in my office right now I have a rough up of what things should be and basically it ends with like XX meaning we this is what I know needs to happen and then we need to figure out what the mask is going to be at the end um I would think that by the end of May I hope to have this implemented um in the software and to have the um all the salary lines Tred up to their correct payroll accounts for July one um because those are very important components yeah I would just say that's super important I mean not urgent but super important because otherwise next year's uh categories might be oh no I I can't go through that again make sure same categor categorizations in the same yes no it will it will get done it will absolutely get done thank you okay so um are there any more comments questions okay so we're going to open for public comment um on the budget as presented um I don't see anyone in the audience um but there may be some online there is I see one hand but I the writing is so small I can't see so um whoever that is with their hand raised um we're public comment hi this is Laura McKenna um 861 Bingham Road just had a put in my two cents on a couple of of items um you noted that there was a slight decrease in our uh Young younger kids on the in the population in Bridgewood uh this is a trend that's happening Nationwide it is um more than just even you know parents who left during covid for private schools it's just a demographic shift that we're having in our country um with fewer fewer young people um and if you do a Google search uh just you know Google demographic changes in schools a 100 articles will show up um with AC you know noting this this trend throughout the country rural areas urban areas Suburban areas the numbers of kids in schools are going down and um you know I'm it's not going to be big numbers at first but you know as part of the long-term thinking about schools in Ridgewood you know maybe you know we have we're gonna have to think about you know how that's going to impact the schools um I love the idea of having more tuition um students come into Ridgewood I mean we have such an amazing schools and programs it can you know we can attract both students you know foreign students how you know highflying students in other towns who need greater challenge you can also be um looking at bringing in um low needs special ed kids without behavioral problems um that has been a business model for a long time for um several school districts in Bergen County uh including creskill Northern Valley and Riverdale and I just know from being in the in you know amongst the special ed World um that the way the parents parents actually shop can shop for schools if their current District can't provide their students the right uh program and of course you know great teachers you know is a key factor but when parents are walking around they're also looking at the physical space that the students are in so if we have you know invest um a little money in some of the physical spaces that um um you know house our autism and learning language and learning development classes we could probably bringing in be bringing in some pretty big money um and um just two items in the new news today that were you know big issues in the education World um one is the New York Times had yet another article on learning loss from covid and there was also another article um in the hecken jur report which I'll would be happy to share with you that found that a quarter of only a quarter of federally funded Education Innovations benefited students so um knowing in choosing Innovative programs wisely is also super important part of the budgetary process so I'll share this article with you guys they had the author provided a list of the various um Innovative programs that were working and were effective and you know provided school districts with some bang for their bu and that's it for me thank you thank you I'm not seeing any other hands raised at this point we'll have another public comment uh at the uh towards the end of the meeting all right I will close public comment and um you know that was an interesting comment uh from Mrs Kenna um there was just a podcast from The New York Times on um the late Millennials the people born late in the millennial years um who are now in their early 30s having fewer children or not having children and and waiting and they are presuming waiting longer to have children so there's that always um also playing into um some of what's happen with this population so um just was an interesting podcast about that I think that was Dr McKenna I think she was me I think she's a Dr McKenna oh thanks okay um did you have any more uh a report Dr schores yeah brief report and again just to thank Dr McKenna for for joining us um really appreciate all those comments uh she throws me a lot of articles too and I was actually just reading the uh the U the report I think it was 26% of programs actually that were funded by Esser actually had some sort of positive impact for kids so thank you for sharing um we please continue to share um and appreciate your sentiments about um uh your insights and your sentiments about tuition students as well um as far as a superintendent report I really just uh we've been talking a lot about what's been going on um I also try to keep everyone a breast that my superintendent coffees I think I've shared that before so if you missed the last superintendent coffee um we did report out we gave us like a kind of a a brief overview of the the fields athletic fields thought exchange that we gave at the board meeting um and uh and then we moved to uh introducing a new thought exchange on dress code uh there was a um proposed dress code at uh GW uh a couple weeks ago and the response was uh pretty starkly polarized uh so being that the it was proving the concept of a new dress code was proving to be divisive in the community we decided to press pause and do a little uh do a little work to understand what the community sentiments are around the possibility of a dress code and or well I mean the truth is we have a dress code in place at the district level um it hasn't necessarily been implemented or clarified or enforced and so um some staff members had expressed some concern around not knowing exactly what their process would be with respect to expectations for student dress so uh we opened up the thought exchange um and I've had a chance to peek in and we it it's really interesting conversation uh we have some we have a it's too early for me to uh share any conclusions about how it's worked out it's only been open for uh the weekend effectively but I would encourage everyone uh to go on the website and access the thought exchange and contribute your thoughts and rate the thoughts of others quick reminder uh and I know we're all new to the thought exchange experience but remember you don't have to add a thought every time you go into thought exchange you get prompted to do so but there's no need to you know once it's open for a while there's probably plenty of thoughts out there so if you I mean feel free to write whatever you want but um but it's the ratings of the thoughts that actually are the the the the magic to thought exchange so sharing your reacting to other people's thoughts really is a powerful tool for us and already right now it's getting we're getting some really interesting insights I love the fact too that it's primary source information meaning that I like to read the actual thoughts that people write down and I know that some people have expressed online some frustration that like they can't respond to other people's thoughts or they they they only have so many characters but that's very much what the design is all about you know I know I trust me I know that people in our community like to write very long emails I have really come to understand that um despite my urging it back to school nights to please be concise uh but nevertheless uh it's it's for sometimes to really make your your your concern bite-sized because then the way the the way that the algorithm works is if you can if you can do one thought at a time then the ratings of those thoughts are really clean sort of like a survey item you don't want to try to you don't want to do like a as they call it a double double barrel question where you ask basically two things within one survey item because you don't know what the person is necessarily responding to when they respond so if you can keep the thoughts simple simple and you can provide uh plenty of ratings and we'll be able to draw some really great insights uh regarding our community we also tried something new this time um we thought exchange uh has given us uh some beta access to some some actually I guess it's not beta access it's just free access promotional access to some new features that they have one of which is embedded survey questions so we wanted to see how that went but I I did I am aware that there was some confusion around that people thought they were taking a survey but then they're being asked to write a thought and they're being asked to rate and then they got lost somewhere in the mix because they thought it was a survey and then it was something that they didn't quite expect so I apologize if that created some confusion um good to know that that that we might want to keep our survey questions separate from our thought exchange prompts um but suffice to say that uh if if if take nothing else away please know that we take your thoughts and your ratings and thought exchange seriously so please do participate in that um I want to wish everyone a safe and Refreshing Spring Break um it's really I think it's I think it's needed uh for talking to talking to folks I think that just this is that time of year when we've been grinding for a while and I think especially with the with the nice we kind of emerging I know it's not going to be too nice this week but hopefully next week we'll have some nice weather and people can get a chance our students especially and our faculty can get a chance to kind of refresh and then I wanted to wish a blessed season for any for all those who are observing any of the high holy days that take place in this year um uh and then just last as a matter order as an just order of business um I understand that uh item D under Finance um there's a desire with a finance committee to discuss that before it comes up we had a bunch of finance committee meetings but we didn't have one this week to talk about other things we talked primarily about the budget so uh that doesn't have to go up today so I'd like to kindly withdraw that recommendation all right consent items regular and routine issues um attendance and Conference I'll move attendance at conference second oh I'm sorry Miss broen I need a clarification I said D under uh finance and it's not under it's D under other it's D under resolutions and motions not included in the consent agenda so I just want to clarify that for the public record Miss quack did you second yes okay thank you any any questions on that okay Mr donning yes Miss quack yes Miss mcau yes m Mr mmud yes M Broan yes B Administration second I'll move it okay Mr Donnie um yes but I'll abstain from B1 Miss quar yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes and that that included the school calendar for 2025 26 school year um in our the um this is oh I gu say was for Christine but the blast that goes out tomorrow that will have a link so people can see this calendar right great oh okay great thanks on the yeah thanks for that reminder Miss Broan because I had my notes but I didn't realize that calendar was part of B oh um I have a comment on school calendar if we can update it to include summer school time and the blackout period time so we we thank you for that recommendation so yeah we would need to update it prospectively because it's I guess we we don't the blackout period is set differently at different times from year to year so as so we we looked at we looked at meeting your because you rais we talked about that in our meeting um and then as far as summer school is concerned I think we just need to have a follow-up meeting about what that actually means because there are so many different summer school programs that I don't want to create confusion so if we follow up and we don't have those dates yet either but if but what we might want to do is from time to time update the calendar to clarify especially as the summer comes we could do we could release an updated version of the calendar as well so that way it's truly it reflects items yeah even if we cannot project a year in advance I I don't think those dates are out for this summer year summer school for July so the sooner those dates are available the better because Summer travel becomes expensive and I myself have gone through that then when I'm planning summer travel and if I don't know when the summer classes are yes I think it's a great Ed great Qui committee topic and we can also work with the high school make sure we get that clear okay so is it um basically the the high school summer school not because our our preschool runs sometimes four weeks and other right it's high school mostly because High School some students do take those classes for credit yeah so they can't really miss it um like the band students and others they take their finance class in summer and then some students they they take the finance class in summer to qualify for DEA right so there are some classes that they have to take it or or for a makeup if they did not pass the class so uh knowing when that summer classes will happen and the blackout period can help planning summer travel and the blackout period depends upon when uh just before the fall Sports yeah so generally our current practice is we we identify the dates but then we wait to release that until the whole schedule is finalized yeah so by the time when we when we release those dates at that time we are ready to take registrations but my hope is that when we are planning that the dates are finalized much earlier so if we can at least release the dates then people can plan their travel time right so if it's not on the calendar at least I make sure that we broadcast those dates right or somewhere on that calendar page on the website uhuh I would like to actually comment that on uh for 2026 it's it the school year ends rather late June 25th um that's uh uh you know that's really late that's uh I I this has been an ongoing not ongoing it depend I just feel uh I'm just a little concerned that it's heading so much into uh summer some of these summer programs um start earlier uh so uh you don't want students to be boxed out of um a a lot of potential opportunities in the summer um this is not for now but this has been um talked about on and off through the years which is could there be a thought where we could start the school year before Labor Day I I this also goes negotiations there's a lot of um uh issues because Sports starts if before Labor Day uh starting after Labor Day is very much a New Jersey um philosophy tied to shore vacation Shore Homes but for the rest uh of the country they do start earlier in the in the summer uh and for as I'm looking at the schedule I just find I just want to note that for June 2026 the school year ends rather late just a week before July 4th weekend so our goal has always been um to try to end by the 22nd um so graduation is the 24th on this calendar so it's two days later than you know sort of the goal but then when you look at the ingredients that make up the calendar and this has um uh this calendar has a rather um Long December uh break so um going to the to the 3 of January which is is unusual and um so it's you know it's close to it's a longer break than than normal the other is that um all of the uh religious holidays um that we have are all present on this calendar uh which because I did U mention the same thing that later start but um let let's see how this plays out in our community but it's um it it it this was a a tough calendar when I looked at it um in terms of how the days laid out um and also getting your professional development days in and all those things yeah just I just you know um summer programming um summer programs start earlier than this so that's uh you know you don't want to have students not be able to participate in coveted programs because their school ends right in week two or week one of the sum of opportunities that yeah certainly um a curriculum and instruction um and I just um would ask um there on three if um Dr Schwarz could you just give a little explanation because in reading that so much thanks for the opportunity yeah and we can in the future add additional lines to clarify but this comes across like reads like we're just ending a program right it's being replaced with another section of integrated preschool which basically is the same level of service for the same number of students the difference is that because it'll be integrated it'll it we can have a higher class size and we'll fill that fill those fill the classes with general education preschool students so it's a more diverse learning environment for our for our students who receive special services um but there's there's actually no reduction so it it does seem like we're just ending a service but what we're we're replacing it with a better one right and and um from what I can hear our this would be our reach program um has been highly successful yeah for our three and four year olds a gened and special education students uh together really creating that least restrictive environment uh for these students so yeah thank you so much I well said so Dr schz on that point would we would we see a new resolution later on to add that program or a resolution is not needed when it's added like I I don't see a resolution worded as replace yeah I understand your concern there umang on one second let me just ch this [Music] note um I'll have to Circle back on that this might have been the last the last of these programs and that's why on an elimination okay but I I'll confirm that with you and on the uh curriculum instruction to uh the professional development session with natal Wexler um I'm excited about that uh that she's coming to the district and talking to our staff and there will be a Q&A opportunity um my only input it it's too late like we we have to try to expedite these things uh especially with the focus nationalwide focus in our district focus on that like we have this 60 Minute Professional Service development in October or there was another one that we did last time we approved at the last meeting for September so these are very welcoming ch um seminars and workshops but if we can expedite any work that we are doing on science of reading I think that will help this when I looked at the background information this was kept at 125 participants is this going is it's mostly for elementary school yeah yeah so it'll be it'll be and then some supervisors if they yeah the admin team and all the teachers that would be working with the LA science this is on the professional development day that that here right all right so um I move C would someone like to Second it I'll second yeah Mr Donnie yes and I'll abstain from C1 Miss quar yes Miss mcau yes Mr mammu yes Miss Broan yes okay now brings us to Human Resources I move Human Resources a second I just would like to note we have some retirements um we have three uh we already knew um our speech language specialists at uh Ridgewood High School and GW um Wendy um Pula is that I'm not sure how to pronounce that but I think that was it ridicul um and then uh science uh at Ridgewood High School um mark C and at Willard um our administrative assistant to the principal Monica Bosler after 22 years so we thank them for their service and recognize them and I suspect they will be here hopefully at some point at the board's room are there any questions on uh Human Resources go ahead then I guess Mr Donnie yes Miss quack Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Broan yes Miss Broan I have a I got a received an answer H to Mr Donnie's question before um so the reason that we will not see a a u resolution to add an integrated preschool session is that it's it's technically an it's a u is a general education section with inclusion so it's not required uh for the for uh by the Department of Education to be uh memorialized with a resolution thank you sure okay we now have Finance I'll move Finance second um just um we have many donations on our agenda tonight so um a thank you to Ridgewood High School boys lacrosse for 3 88 to be used to purchase varsity and freshman boys lacrosse uniforms Ridgewood High School boys lacrosse $436 to be used to purchase varsity and freshman boys lacrosse uniforms so we thank them for that uh Ridgewood High School uh Student Activity account for $3,900 um and there's change to be used to pay for two chaperons for the trip to uh barbate Spain uh learning Services home and School Association $63 to be used to enhance Ridgewood unified program that may have been uh the proceeds from uh the the sale that they had at at the special needs um Wizards um rally oh good yeah um educational Leadership Foundation of New Jersey $2500 to be used to enhance the applied engineering invent team program at Ridgewood High School again Ridgewood High School lacrosse $1,623 to be used to pay for the extra costs of a charter charter bus for the boys lacrosse team Federated home and school for $2,750 to be used to pay a $250 stifen to each of the 2,000 2324 teacher recognition honies to purchase classroom supplies uh ha's home and School Association $800 to be used to pay for field trips that support curriculum at ha Elementary School Somerville home and School Association $ 6,395 which is a gift in kind of furniture and supplies to enhance summer Bill classrooms and Ridgewood High School student activity fund um activity account 5,12 $268 to be used to pay for the ski club chaperon so thank you very much for all of those donations um are there any questions on finance okay set to go Mr Donnie yes and congratulations to the HS environmental club and uh for attaining the Sustainable New Jersey grant for 20 dos I hope you bring that back to the green team right Miss qua yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss bran yes so we're going to resolutions and motions not included on the consent agenda remember this is where we are pulling d uh for further review from the finance committee otherwise um here we'll you'll see the um approvals for the SDA grants so that we can move ahead um with those uh with the work that we've talked about for our Capo projects this year and just for clarification the HVAC system for the high school is really for the um maker space area uh it's not for the whole high school it's just for that is a smaller s small yeah are there any any questions on that on on any of these resolutions can we go ahead and do them as a group okay um okay I I can make a motion to move resolutions and motions not included in consent agenda a b c e through and N so no D with the exception of d a second Mr Donnie yes Miss quack yes Miss MC yes Mr mmud yes Miss Brogan yes I move the bills for approval I'll second Mr Donnie yes Miss Clark yes Miss mcau yes Mr mammood yes Miss Broan yes okay board member announcements I just um just want to give a shout out to the uh Ridgewood High School new players um I was thoroughly entertained at Shrek The Musical um so the the new players were great on stage um our Orchestra pit was phenomenal and director Kelly van uh did a great job um in her production of Shrek the Musical and Gary Fink as the uh conductor for the musicians it was really a treat um and I understand it was sold out all of the performances were sold out and I think I heard that there was one ticket Maybe available on Sunday for it so um oh actually um I did want to make a comment if I may um I wanted to thank um mmud for inviting um the Board of Ed Village Council and everybody to uh break the fast uh we were all there it was incredibly moving um uh your wife spoke so eloquently and she brought tears to my eyes and a lot of people's eyes and it was a very unifying moment for the community in this very holy uh event so thank you for um inviting us in the Ridgewood Muslim Society certainly was um just a followup on the uh November election um uh last week you you saw that U Miss cot submitted to the clerk for Bergen County elections that ridgwood would have have two three-year term seats open for the election and one one-year term seat on the ballot for November for the November 5th election so that should really um tie that up uh and I don't think there's any I'll check with um uh the lawyer but um I don't think there's anything else we have to do at this point uh and I saw that you said if they had any questions to certainly contact you yeah um just a reminder that this week uh the movie the movie angst which is an independent film will be presented at GW um on this Wednesday March 20th at 7 o'clock uh followed by a panel discussion and Q&A with our staff angst is a film based education program designed to raise awareness around anxiety with an emphasis on Youth and families the uh film includes interviews with um children teens experts and parents uh the goal of the film is to help people identify and understand the symptoms of anxiety and encouraging them to reach out for help um and then it will be repeated uh on April 5th at 11 o'clock here at the Ed Center in this room so um it's um this um will be we had this movie back I think it was in 2018 um and a great turnout um now we have a new group of parents in and it's a good reminder so I do hope that parents will come out um to see this it's really an excellent movie also on Wednesday March 20th which is this coming Wednesday is the youth um in celebration of Youth art month there's a reception here at the Ed center from 6:30 to 8 and we're surrounded and in the uh in the entry way a wonderful artwork from our students so um do come out and see that um it's really a joy every march to be surrounded with such a wonderful artwork and such from such talented students and then just um an update uh you know that we've been um advocates for uh legislation that would hopefully um reach uh or or help to um solve the problem of teacher shortage and I I thought this was um a pretty good article uh from Spotlight New Jersey um New Jersey Spotlight on some of the legislation that is happening um in Trenton to take a look at how we might how might be solutions to it I'm not sure that they will work but we'll see and if they'll get passed that will be the next um but just a thought on that one um on the uh board committee reports uh curriculum Mary yes so um we had a very full curriculum uh committee meeting uh I think it was last week um and uh we talked about uh the middle schools um have gotten together under Mr fredman's Direction and are putting together a middle school program of studies so that we've got consistent course offerings and descriptions among both middle schools and they're going to be um providing actually a pamphlet to incom middle school students and their families which I think is going to be very very helpful um there was we also met again with uh Dr Matthews about um the continuing work she's doing on the science of reading and she really took us through the definition of the science of reading the pillars and the the different um I can't think of the word exactly but what makes up the science of reading and how that's go how that is um going to be explicitly taught in our schools she's been doing incredible she's been doing a very very deep dive and so I think uh we certainly look forward to her presentation here on that um and we you know had some other conversations regarding the calendar and the thought exchange with the dress code um and also discussed um you know maybe uh codifying processes to make sure that when kids are assigned to houses in the middle schools into classes that that's done equitably at all times um so that was our curriculum committee meeting and it's not on here but I also have a report from cpeg which I can do whenever you want me to but let me just go right into it now I'll go right into it now um so uh cpeg is continuing their good work there is another sensory dinner uh scheduled at McMurphy's uh next Monday uh March 25th so registration is online for that uh they have their coffee chat this coming Wednesday 3:20 um which they do via Zoom which is I think a lot lot of parents are finding very helpful um and then the next formal cpeg meeting is going to be on uh April 11th and there's actually going to be a presentation then on literacy structured literacy and things like that for those families and also I just wanted to give a shout out to the new players as well because um cpag is continuing with their Outreach and what they did was they had um cpag families were able to attend a dress rehearsal of Shrek and it was very well attended really appreciated and it was also became a teaching moment because Kristen plumbley who is the one of the cpag Reps at the high school actually addressed the cast the families and everyone to talk about you know the challenges that these families have in something um which a lot of us take for granted which is going to see a High School Musical production so um it was another great success they're you know they're just continuing their great work so thank you thank you well um I had a question uh you just Js on my memory about the uh Middle School um curriculum guide that is is being worked on um in the program objectives for the budget there was a middle school 101 course that will be added for this coming fall is that you said it's for every student Middle School is really geared more for the incoming middle school students because so the middle school yeah whoops and it's for everybody didn't go on yeah it it's uh it's geared for the incoming students and it'll be um a quarter okay so it's not a full year course it'll be part of Rich can we uh I don't know if we have this I don't think we do but I wonder if we do a high school 101 for eighth graders well that could be coming next I I would love to have something like that very valuable like because that's a very big shift yeah even bigger impact on kids and their long-term college readiness Etc but if they have a preview kind of what to expect yeah I going from middle school to high school yeah I I think that's a good idea I mean I like to think about it in Transitions and uh you know we go through these transitions in life we do too as adults right and if you're not taught how to go through them we make assumptions in schools that you know how to be a sixth grader but why would you know or you know how to be a ninth grader the high schools are very different it should be very different the middle school is very different it should be very different so I think that's something worth exploring um freshman Focus begins you know um right away as they get there but it doesn't it's not that transition not in eighth grade it's you know but they do spend a lot of time on that transition but I I I think these are Big transitions you know from elementary to middle and then um middle to high school so uh to to do some prep work with eth graders makes sense yeah um so Finance I I don't know who would like to report um I'll do a report I mean essentially it was a summary of what you saw today so yeah so that's it that was the meeting that was that's easy and you've got your work cut out for you going forward right y s Rob and I had facilities um s s Rob please uh you know add if anything sure um so the we met on March 5th and discussed uh basically what we discussed are the the rod grants and moving forward uh with Glen and ridge uh hbac our um new architect um was in attendance and um had already been to the school to take a look at the challenge if you will and he um had some more work to do and will be coming back to facilities to report will he come back to facilities to report or report to you I I wasn't sure the next steps but yeah we would plan a facility's meeting for April we given all the work that we have right now we'd invite him again and uh and he's he's a someone we talk to a lot lately yeah yeah on speed dial right um and then we talked about the high school HVAC for the maker space um and um how that might be designed and he had ideas and there was there's some followup needed on that um we um talked a little bit about um setting a date to develop a scope of the work for a field uh feasibility study what's that timeline how is that going to progress um no specifics on that yet but just um just beginning to talk about it also um we did reference but didn't go into any detail on the water filtration um system or or really um uh an adjustment to um the water filters maybe one in each school um B fillers so that will come in further discussions uh um as we move forward I guess with uh this year's um budget and I think we have a we have a meeting I think this Wednesday with constituents about feasibility study right are you uh we'll follow up on that because you're supposed to be there so okay uh so it's Architects and some community members around uh a feasibility study for the fields yeah you're supposed to be on at some sorry that you're not right now yeah I don't know if you are available on Wednesday but I believe it's just confirm let's continue and I'll confirm um was there anything else um yes the only other thing um I think I remember uh is uh I learned that the orchard remediation project is not yet closed uh we received a letter that that project is not closed yet that's uh so a lot of work was done on that but I think it still needs to be closed so um yes so with the state or with the environmental specialist they still have to uh like get the final paper work to say okay that project is done and then um the school and the village uh both received a letter I don't know the the authority who sent that letter but that any I think it's a d d that if there are any Wells at Orchard School that water is not safe to drink but we don't have any Wells there so we we know that underground that it's not safe so that's why we put a cap on uh soil on like 18 Ines of soil on top of that uh field so we can play there and we are not drinking water from there so it doesn't affect us but that's a letter that we received that that's suspected area nobody should be drilling a well there and uh taking out water from there but the project is not yet closed and I think facilities needs to continue to work on making sure that the project gets Clos for some reason it always seems to take so long for these uh for the D um closing of projects I'm not really sure why but was the paperwork just not submitted because we have received invoices and paid um I don't think it's anything that I think it's that maybe it's the forms have not all been but who submits it shouldn't it be um we have we have a farm that regularly checks the soil and we also had we we hired somebody I think and then there was a uh our attorneys were talking to them two years ago I don't know what happened we're talking about orchard right now yeah we have a designated licensed professional who is our who is our key contact to advise us regarding what we can or can't do at Orchard um so that so when our was it our last was it facilities mean we talked about that we did but this is about closing out the the D work that we did in 19 so I we need to do a little homework on what what's the issue I don't know Le wasn't very specific on that that yeah so that's our new Architects they looked into the Orchard and they identified they when they looked into the database they said oh your project was done but it's not closed so there are some steps or some forms that are not yet complete so they will advise us uh so can that argue our new one complete the paperwork or do we have to go back to L or whoever they they as of the last meeting they said we looked into this because they were looking at the inventory and they said you have basically as part of onboarding they were I think looking at all of our this Rood Village as in different databases and they identified that this was not closed proactively so that's something they brought it to our attention so they will advise us what's the next step I think was I think it's the person did they um environmental work I can't remember their initials but it was a grou yeah um on Communications uh uh Muhammad and I sit on the communications committee and um exciting things are happening um the website redesign um so that website content has been migrated to the news site but it's it's you know it's it's being made right now it's being populated and we should see that new um website go live in late June no sense in in doing it now and you know confusing everybody so we'll you know do it in June have training to be able to uh um uh to um put information onto the website so um I think that's pretty exciting um just to add there Sheila it's not just a new web design it's like underlying migrating all the underlying data sources databases uh and TR them up to become more modern so it's a big project big project yeah all the Google all the individual Google sites are going to be coming uh onto that website so it's a it has been a huge project uh so would um some of I think somebody um had mentioned it before in terms of the archival data what happens are we going to be seeing down a slim version I mean we have archived minutes and archived agendas that go back um quite a bit and um they are on there if you look on the page and you go to the bottom of the page there's a link to to Prior one so it seems to me that it's um is it January or is it is it this school Year's um board meetings video and agenda minutes and video uh but if you go down to the bottom of the page you'll see a link and so um that the archived um board minutes um agenda and U agenda board minutes and video so on a table it's it's really well organized so um my um uh preference if possible would be to keep as much of that information as possible so as we open if we we as we transition to this new website when it goes live whatever information we have if that could be migrated to the new one or you're shaking your head so what what what's the expectation are we looking at archival data that will go back just one year two year three years or not okay so so this is the for the recording I probably couldn't hear Miss corus but miss corus was that's okay but miss corus was just expressing some concerns about ADA compliance as we migrate over so I think it's something that we all need to discuss and really understand why I think we all all need to kind of really wrap her heads around this a little bit better so I think that's an open item that we need to pursue and discuss but also just to to to recho what she said uh for those on the phone is by law we have to have three years there uh but we would like to have more is our sentiment somewhere potentially between five and seven years on the website and just a reminder uh that's just what's linked on the website but what lives in our databases is a lot longer right so that's not getting deleted it's just what's available on the website potentially would be 5 to seven years and I know it is all housed with the business office but I will tell you that there's a movement from a statutory perspective where Oprah is being um subscri you know circumscribed in many many ways so the notion that someone could just do an Oprah request and get some information going back past seven years you know that that is being challenged as we speak and it is being debated so to the extent that we can still be public and open and accessible for as long as we can that would be the my personal preference absolutely and there's also we've also had a conversation too about if there's if there's some some uh we don't necessarily want to make people fill out a complete Oprah process you know there's other there could be other be if there's if people looking for information that's older we could have a simpler process that doesn't necessitate a formal legal notice and um to short on that same topic of agendas and minutes um already on our current website if we go back a few years down and if you try to look at linked presentations board presentations um they are they cannot be found because of the broken links or the presentations are in a different folder so earlier we only used to link the presentations in the agenda or and those when those were available when those present minutes were individual monthly minutes but once they com were combined into the annual early minutes and if you try to click on those presentations they are those links are broken and I see that problem uh becoming more uh prevalent or exaggerating because of how we are now linking everything in the agenda so our policies or even the appointments so when we are we have these the appointments in today's agenda we have a spreadsheet linked from there um those links may not work on the website because those are if we are archiving minutes in agenda on the website that should not be dependent on Google Drive I think those need to be part of the website where a folder on the website where they are being stored and they should be stored there and linked from there so agenda and minutes should ideally it I can understand if they are linked at the time of agenda preparation because they are still in flux but by the time it's minutes those minutes all the attachments for the minutes should be on the website not on Google Drive ID static not live yeah static so they cannot be changed yeah I agree let me let me uh let me take a look at what how it's coming out on the on the on the community side yeah PDFs is usually the the standard that we would use um you know just if those PDFs are owned by a person who created that and then shared and then when that person leaves or no agreed what I'm saying so this is so right now our our we're using a Google doc to develop the agenda there's no this isn't a platform this isn't software so um so there's a lot so there's a lot of work that goes in the creation and the maintenance of the document but typically a board like a board management platform which is what I'm familiar with would would automatically would have all the same links the links the one that we used to my prior District the links would go to like a Amazon web server somewhere for the for those but when you generated the minutes and also when you generated the agenda uh it had a feature where just with a click it would generate the entire packet together so all the PDFs and all the documents uh would be would would just would would would come out for both the agenda and then of course it for the minutes it would produce them all as well that way you're not dependent on those links to be able to access those documents so it's sound in perpetuity yeah so minute agenda I'm I'm still okay because agenda we are is still being worked on but once we vote on stuff and then minutes I think that ownership cannot be with individuals for those documents because anybody can delete them if if they are owners and if the link breaks then we're not compliant with our with our with our uh with our recordkeeping that we need to do okay so we um need to add that maybe to communication and take a look at that we have uh in the past we have debated whether or not to do one of those platforms like board or something like that so maybe maybe we need to revisit that in order to be um if that's you know we we did this internally um as a costs saer many years ago but maybe is we've outgrown it um on the state of schools as you know uh there's um Dr Schwarz has asked for uh data to make you know to make the presentation so there'll be a survey out to students uh to parents and to staff and that will be happening um in the next um I guess in April uh in preparation for the for the May uh uh superintendent um state of uh school report and um see I think that was it we did talk a little bit about the the agenda but we can go into that angst and like so that was um Communications any other reports um on on fields is are there been some discussion on a master Library all right okay yes we did have um a Fields meeting and there was an up there was no update on shedler we had a discussion uh just not a short we had a discussion on the um on the village side they are going to qu a referendum on some lights and some um I think it was $700,000 for lights uh and um something else for hle and then we did have a discussion on Master Library um and it was was uh it it was still the same in terms of um a learning process uh you know in terms of the adoption by The Village Council by the various end users um and it is a is a booking system for not just the fields but for all of our square footage G it includes parking classrooms this space so um the conversation really centered around fields and as usual there was not as usual there was this desire to have it be really live and be enduser friendly where if you see a field that's vacant you would be able to check the master library and say oh you know someone release the field and that's really not what Master Library it is not meant for the end user for the player it is really meant for it's a it's a executive I think of it bit more of an executive reservation system that also houses uh uh security because then you know who should bew at any given time should an emergency arise and you don't double book anything and it also keeps the district I'm talking from the board of evide the district aware of um who is being used and usage that we can maintain the fields properly we have had instances in the past where uh a field is uh you know is empty so suddenly all these people come in and just spontaneously use the field um or and or uh you will have uh boosters just once it happened only once where the booster club they really do supplement the maintenance of our Fields no question um unfortunately there was one instance a few years ago where they hired um I think it was a fertilizing crew I can't remember what activity they were do in the field but we had no awareness of it at the district level because it wasn't we didn't have that Master library that feature at that point so we were we we went back and forth of what it's designed for and to really educate the the the populist who's really going to be using it which is really at the coaching at the sports lead level not at the end user level it's not going to give you parking information it's not going to tell you that a Fu this fre and so maybe if uh soccer isn't using it lacrosse could use it jump in it's that's not that it's not an app for that kind of endus um so we had a discussion on that again uh and um we had uh an update on uh a situation that there was a public comment about some uh lacrosse um walls that went into a neighbor's yard uh by Stevenson so that some information was shared that talked about the appre uh approaches and the remediation that the district head down and it was not uh a formal rhs lacrosse Falls that have been um you know that was creating uh the unfortunate situation where it's going and into a neighbor's yard it was really unsanctioned play like free play which is still also valuable but it wasn't um it it we we're trying so there was that kind of conversation so there'll be another meeting um next Tuesday 7 amm on Zoom or webinar I'm not sure but it'll be a hybrid format is there any talk of of not having it at 7 o'clock in the morning anymore actually so yes I so I did ask if we could if you know if not 7 am. could we alternate 7 AM 7 p.m. but it it was strongly the the feedback was if you do it in the evenings for the different sports leagues that's game nights so it really would not have been compatible with with the um various activities so 7 A.M was really the only time that would work where people would be free before we embark on different schedules for the day so it still will be 7 a.m. so on the master Library um currently where was was that being maintained by bord ofed uh Personnel so we each have our separate applications B ofet start first because we had a legacy application that was going to to be defunct so we very quickly uh had to switch to this other platform which is Master Library um because I forget what our old platform was but they were it was going to be Legacy they were not going to support it yes yes so we we don't so we don't so Village Council they we are ahead of the curve in terms of implementation and usage uh Village Council The Village fields are being managed by their own Master library application okay and So eventually the goal I'm not sure where we are would be ideally at some point where the community could H look at one master Library instead of having a One login for the village fields and One login for the Boe field because for most people they were not going to know this one is Bo and this one's Village Council we're not there yet the integration when we discussed it very early on when Village Council expressed an interest in taking on their own Master library account and then maybe down the road merging it the issue is that we have different permitting processes different classifications so you would think that they're similar but there there's it's not seamless so we need to have a really you know broad discussion on um what's nonprofit the designations the insurance requirements Etc um so it was not so easy so we're not we're not there yet people with that so if I could just add to that a little bit not as Fields but um I'm the representative right for the parks and wreck so I was at a parks and wreck meeting um a couple weeks ago and um I heard a lot of frustrations about master library and about field assignments and field usage and um I was presented with a copy of um it was it's the field use policy right which I had not seen um and uh it was described as sacent right this is something that was negotiated years ago um I think they might have you know sealed it with blood or something like that but I'm being a little factious but it's a it's a serious document and I think some of the concern that was raised was that um however however fields are being uh and I think this is across the board right Village and bordered because we're separate enemies um things are just not going in compliance with that underlying document and there is an enormous amount of confusion in the public about uh and when when they say public they say everyone from the little kids to the coaches to you know the the wck Waves by the adults so I think that as that discussion cons continues it fields that needs to be part of it that document and needs to be looked at does it need to be Revisited I don't know and like you said it's not seamless so what does that document address what doesn't it address how have our needs and requirements changed and let's put it all together um but I think that that's something that we have to do sooner rather than later because the frustration is is mounting is what I'm hearing and I know you're hearing it at 7 AM you heard it at 7 am I was literally there that night at 7 pm at the stable and um nobody was spent they kept going so I heard all about it yeah so with the field usage um uh policy during the course of this past year there was a subcommittee that did have revisions but we had to take a pause on it because um some of it had to do with lighting policy then we started talking about the the fees and where who decides on the fees like where does that decision point Come uh so there is a you know there's an awareness that this needs to be updated um there had been some work but to date it has not gone beyond really I had a very rough draft of some of that but we hadn't really disseminated within the committee gotten everyone's input but there are some people that are certainly aware of that and and it's also has the field usage policy has to take into account that the number of um of of requests have really increased you know it's not like our Fields have number of fields have exist the we have um more uh you know adult um Sports uh activities going on we're more we're more active which is great uh but that's it it's just really really um when that document was first created it probably didn't contemplate this level of of interested and requests so yeah it's it's didn't contemplate for example women's flag football right where our team the rhs team right wins championships as being invited everywhere and honored by the Jets and that they weren't in existence years ago um you know along those lines if I can just segue kind of quickly to um the changing needs I think that when the finance committee can uh takes takes that deep dive into the the declining enrollment um I I think it would might be a good idea if you bring facilities in at some point to look at you know we have declining enrollment where that declining enrollment is but also you know like Dr Shore said a utilization analysis is to you know you might have fewer kids but you might have more use you know in certain kindergarten classes on certain Fields I I kind of feel that all of this is part of a much bigger picture which is going to dug tail nicely into our next strategic plan and that's really what I was thinking about when I was thinking about the budget because we have okay what we got through this year right we're already worried about next year and we have a lot we want to do so um I would just ask that as you're taking a look at those things in finance maybe you'll group in facilities at some point and uh you know take that into consideration I think that um part of the idea of if we go forward with a feasibility study and of of our facilities it's more than HVAC uh you know it's more than Windows it's it's what's being utilized what's needed um what what is what is our curriculum driving us and I I agree that this is all uh good for the uh strategic plan you know as we move forward what really are we looking to do and as part of that um optimization SL utilization um analysis you know I heart back to being you know if we're going to do that kind of real exhaustive research looking at um uh Glenn school and you know this comes back and forth you know the fact that it used to be a neighborhood School given some of the you know now that we're going to look at demographic data does it make sense to what it should it be should can it be reverted or what are the benefits pros and cons of having a neighborhood school do demographic support it um and and then pulling some of those programs to more the Genet space dispersed across the district um versus all being housed at Glenn so um look for uh is are there any other um committee reports or anything else okay oh actually I did have a question um this has been um so policy committee we met this kind of goes into discussion but I wasn't sure the status of the policy committee because I know we've been waiting for legal guidance in terms of I uh whether you given some of your constraints for the for this current year only I I'm not sure where we are so as far as I know um and Chile you'll correct me but we we've submitted a request for an advisory opinion from the ethics board um with regard to know what I can and can't do okay taking into account um any potential conflicts where it's not clear um it's usually a twoe turnaround is what they say it's been with them for about a week so we may have another week or so and we can maybe hope for an answer okay um my understanding is that I'm good to go on anything that's not a conflict um for example I had no problem I was happy to say that I could vote on those three policies tonight because I'm you know they're not a concern so the other work that we've been doing I'm I'm happy to continue as long as um you know you guys are okay with that and and if not then you know you can resign me okay great so um I know that there were two of I have uh there was a two policies that have been discussed but it was not a full board at that time I know we have to send it to St Esme so I'll I'll send it to you what we had discussed with with the changes to with you as well with with was both uh the legal services and also um rotation and what that would look like were you there I forget I think we were yeah yeah last meeting have you have you sent it to Strauss Esme no I have it I I have it to no oh no because yeah no I haven't I've done nothing since then because I I wasn't yeah no so I I did look at um about 52 different districts and and none have wording than what we currently have um which I thought was interesting even the districts you know you said you weren't quite sure but I I took a look at those districts and oh yeah because as it was mentioned um they do follow it because they can um uh it's it's a it's a uh unspoken yet enforced uh uh principle that they have been able to work out but I'm not you know everybody they've been able to work out they've been able to adhere to and honor and respect that rotation policy oh oh but not not to the extent that you had suggested yes to the extent that suggested really but I don't think there was any alternate proposed if that extent is the problem is there was there an alternative proposal yeah I think the you know it was like the idea of rotation had Merit but then the question is if if this wording was um not to any particular you know any anyone's liking then we're certainly as a policy committee we're certainly open to Alternatives but to say you you like one thing and not propose something I'm I'm just trying to move this forward move policies forward right or or to leave it as is would be the other option if there was it's well actually so so you're not in of Chang yeah yeah so that's can't say that you know you're in favor of it and not you like it philosophically I don't think I ever said I was in favor yeah okay so you're not in favor okay no so it's not about the extent it's about not in favor of rotation yeah so miss in favor no it it's about the current policy yeah so she's not in favor of change she likes the current policy it's fine that's fine um well you you were going to follow through on on whether that goes to Strauss Esme to um our attorney right so just to be clear stra esma is a consulting firm um they are not uh they not necessarily a a a comp they don't have any statutory uh Powers they are Consulting form which we and many many school districts uh pay for um they will certainly you know provide guidance they have updated guidance I know there's some school districts down south that are saying that St ASM is um have been have provided flawed advice so I just give that it's a Consulting service and not be all and at all number one um number two um yes we'll certainly bring bring it out to the lawyers um lawyers are in the position of making sure that we don't uh we try we try we they give guidance in terms of compliance uh and we have there's been history where we have not followed that guidance because it's a legal advisory you know ultimately we as a board have to decide so that those but we'll certainly definitely follow up with those two entities and the uh for the legal services one um again that's a mandated POS uh that's a mandated policy I did see some additional work wording in some districts where um it continues with the wording that um if a legal services is warranted you know it would be um sent to the lawyer but then it's followed with a sentence that says something to the effect of though the um if Legal Services aren't really required and the answers could be found in District then there would be a you know requirement to find the answer for uh to whatever that question was so that was some interesting wording in a couple of right I think that we discussed that at the last meeting so if if anybody from the administration or or the board president wants to take the legal liability to provide a written guidance I fine with that so if I have a request for guidance I'm just looking for somebody to respond back with the guidance right and in most like likely scenario nobody would want to own that guidance unless it's it's part of the statute part of existing written bylaw it's already written then you can forward that hey this is where it is but if it's a open to um opinion then somebody has to opine on it and I the best person would be our attorney to opine on that and a lot when we are talking about uh what's other districts are doing in New Jersey New Jersey does a lot of things differently and those are being challenged and one of uh that the how our election system works is was being challenged in the federal court all day today and things are now moving so this whole concept of one person or a group of people controlling uh a lot of things New Jersey is slowly changing and it will eventually change it may not happen now but it eventually I I don't I'm not look to prolong the discussion if we don't need to do that at this moment but I'm not necessarily sure what that has to do with the policies that are in front of us and I'm not trying to be I I think you know as I remember leaving it the conversation last time is the first was whether not we can put forth a policy that um either allows anyone of anyone on the board of ed to directly go to the attorney right or whether or not through uh that's exactly what I thought was proposed no it was proposed through superintendent or the board president not both it was proposed that any board member can request a legal opinion through the superintendent or the board president yeah I think well okay I I had thought that it was broader than that and I thought that that's the policy that we had and and I thought the question was whatever that question is if it's mandated to be written that way then that's the well okay so do we know that for a fact either we check it with Strauss Esme or we check it with Matt he's the one who can tell us the lawyer will just give he gives advice and the board we've had a few cases where we've gotten advice and we've just done our own thing well and that's and that's fine but I would like to be clear on whether it's advice or whether or not he says here's what the law says well that's that's an interpretation of the law which is not you can do it this way I recommend you don't as D you're not allowed to do it so right the board has a lot so the board this is a bylaw this is not uh a this is a bylaw which is how the board determines we're going to govern ourselves so there's a little bit Nuance there versus a regulation or a policy this is a bylaw that we're talking about to the extent that you have some boards where for example the superintendent doesn't even get to access the board attorney they have to go get approval from the from the board so it's it's a that's an it's extreme case but that's a example of a bylaw that exists in New Jersey not far from here so bylaws have a lot more latitude because it's what we determined okay it is marked M on the uh it is marked mandated legal it's certainly mandated but what it looks like mandated to have a policy mandated to have a policy doesn't tell you what the every word of so so I would like I would personally like our attorney to tell us what that interpretation is is it mandated to say what it says or is it mandated to have a policy that then you can say whatever you want again those are two very different things yeah no it's mandated to have a policy okay the second one not the first the second one so I would just want that confirmed by this okay oh this is a perfect example so you have a question which is um is is a is is this policy required as specifically written by Ridgewood as we currently have or is it just mandated with some policy and I'm telling you yes it's option to but you disagree well tell Will based on what like it's I I I've had a lot no that's how I like Bas what can I so Mary there's you have a question and you want the attorney to answer that question right and that's exactly what we are trying to say that if you have a question you should be able to get an answer from the attorney that's what we are trying ISC 100% that is what is in the policy the language that was put forth at the last meeting was that any one of us could go directly to the attorney while copying everybody else that was what yes that was that was what was there and I wasn't clear that that that suggestion had been retracted if that suggestion has been retracted we're talking about something but here's so this is a perfect example so you you I I so one of the things that came up was there's a lot of uh you need to have there was a little bit of of one of the sub points you can't ask the legal uh question that could be easily answered by somebody else with X Y and Z knowledge whatever have you so you asked a question I answered it you don't you don't you would like to not to be answered by me you'd like it to be answered by the attorney so with respect though I don't mean that I don't want it answered by you but I don't know what the basis for that which is just the way I am I need to know like what you're on so I've been trained I that's it's what I I'm happy to give you some yeah I want the basis and and then maybe I would think differently I don't know so so in this case I've given you my experience and from my knowledge and you're like nope I really want it from the board attorney so in the current version you would not be able to this will end right here and then you courses no it wouldn't end right now so so tell me because in the new in the thing that we're propos but then you would have to make the request to actually how would you do that because you know you're not able to access the board attorney directly no I'm not so I would say to the board president this is policy committee or the superintendent and I would like to know whether or not we can make we can make this policy change or whether or not as written that's what's mandated by the statute very simple question now but but I have to tell you that before you even get to that point and and this is where I defer to all of you because I am new to this but if we have a situation in policy committee and you and I talked about this where you and I are the two people on policy committee and we don't agree right so we we don't have a situation where we can honestly say policy committee is recommending this okay but doesn't matter you want to put something forth and it needs to be that's fine I would still say before I cast my vote I would like it to go through the attorney I would like all these things to go through the proper channels so that if we're voting on something and potentially implementing it that it's correct right so right so that that's just the basis policy procedure right and I think we agree and I said this before I think every one of us has the exact same right to ask a question to the board so very so if we if you look at rewind and last meeting when we discussed this and we worked on the language that's the language we worked on at the last meeting as a so when policy committee cannot agree then it becomes a Comm but we haven't met as a policy committee and I thought we were going to get I thought you were taking notes and I was going to take a look at that that hasn't happened right so if you look at but if you go back and look at our discussion we kind of created a draft and that draft basically talks about that exact same same thing that if any board member has a question they can reach out to either superintendent or the board President right and then ask for a written opinion and if they already have something they are willing to provide that in uh in writing then basically a written opinion is re is if it's asked for that should be provided that's all we are asking for and the current policy does not guarantee that because I have asked for a few things and I never received a response on those so I'm just looking for that if I'm asking a question I should be able to get an answer no one should be a gatekeeper yeah because I I need I need an answer for doing some work and I I should be provided that opportunity okay well I guess we'll leave it policy uh committee hands and um you're going to provide whatever that new language was and if the policy committee cannot agree then we'll meet as committee of the whole here and discuss it again at the next Meely that's abely okay um can we move to acceptance of minutes none oh there are none great um just reminder about your SE the board self- evaluation the goal was hopefully to have I have not done it yet but I plan to do it this week uh by beginning of April so please um log on to your um New Jersey school boards and um and submit um open for public comment if there are any comments it seems we have a hand is that Lori Weber that's Lori Weber yep thank you thank you Miss Brogan and good evening to the board Lori Weber 235 South Irving Street um I admit I'm doing a little multitasking but I found that um last comment that last discussion was kind interesting and um Miss maau I have some experience with this because I don't have the I often find myself wondering whether some of these things that the board does or the policies that are in place are based in in law or are up to the discretion of the board and um for what it's worth and you're way ahead of me because you actually did go to law school and I certainly didn't but when I'm in doubt I'll just take a key phrase or portion of that and just put it right in Google and all and if there is a statute it's going to come right up and a lot of the there are a lot of cases where that that is exactly what happens so I don't know if that you find that helpful at all but um I think it is possible to check some of these things without going directly to the attorney um I do it all the time so uh I I hope you might find that helpful and if not that's okay to thank you and good night thank you I don't see any other hands up and we have no one in the audience so I will close public comment and um we have no executive session and our next meeting will be Monday April 8th and followed by Monday April 29th which is our public uh meeting and final budget adoption both at 7 o'clock here at the Ed Center um and so I move to adjourn the meeting all in favor have a good night and and a wonderful um spring break if you're doing something special