we uh opened our meeting at 6:45 and went into close now we are coming into our public session so at this time let's all rise for the flag salute I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for [Music] all Mr Langley could you read the mission statement for us tonight Shar the rivered school district is a partnership of students parents staff and community members we are dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their maximum academic potential while developing as responsible citizens who respect individuality our goals will be achieved because curriculum and instruction are aligned with the New Jersey student learning standards all decisions reflect the academic social OT emotional and physical needs of prek to sixth grade students cooperation and ongoing communication exist between the school district and the community and school administrators and the Board of Education work together to assess and adjust procedures in response to new mandates and the changing needs of the community thank you roll call please Miss Brown here miss [Music] Crespo M elisandro here Mr Cohen Mr Langley here Mr Sim here and Miss Kang here pursuant to the open public meetings act notice of this meeting its Daye time and place have been delivered to the post office the municipal building town news the record and posted on the district website at least 48 hours prior to the time of this meeting at this time we'll move on to special item a public comment on agenda items only so this portion is for public comments on agenda items only first and foremost please remember that we aim to maintain a level of decorum in our board meetings we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courteous and direct comments to the board president not individual board members and as per policy 11:20 a participant must be recognized by the residing officer and must preface comments by announcement of his or her name residence and group affiliation is applicable and to maintain fairness each speaker will have three minutes to speak so at this time I open it up for public comments on agenda the items [Music] only seeing that there are none we'll move on to special item B tonight we Vis Nano will present the preliminary budget for the 2024 2025 school year thank you so while we're putting it up I'll just let you know that while Governor Murphy did speak um yesterday he did share that they were going to fully fund the budget but what that means to us particularly in River Edge I'm not sure because sometimes you get and it's taken away too so there is also the chapter 4 for um complication that some from health benefits so sometimes you have to um go back and forth with the state in regards to that so um we'll see so this this is not a balanced budget right now this is a budget for conversation the finance committee did meet last evening to just go over it briefly um we'll look at the full gamut of what's involved in the budget process and then move forward from there um so this is the proposed budget for the 2420 2 school year go to the next one this is our mission statement the River Edge school district is a partnership of students parents staff and community members we're dedicated to providing a supportive environment in which all students can reach their maximum academic potential while developing as responsible citizens who respect individuality and this mission statement is in our Forefront in our budget process also the next slide tells us what a school budget is the school budget should reflect the district's educational priorities it's an action plan it's aligned with the Board of Ed goals the long range facilities plan and the technology plan it provides accountability to the taxpayers and it develops a framework for spending priorities it satisfies all state and federal mandates and it's NJ doe approval required and granted so the board will be voting on the preliminary budget before it's submitted to the county and then it will be approved by the county County and then there will be the final vote on May [Music] 1st the budget supports the continuation of many existing programs and services and additional [Music] supports our 2324 this is 2425 budget goals should be planning for contingencies continuing to improve the educational programs and opportunities and updating and maintaining our buildings needs to support support and enhance our educational [Music] needs the revenue side is made up from State local and other sources state aid the local tax levy there is a health care adjustment in this budget um for increased Health Care a budgeted fund balance that's money from prior year left over that we fund the New Year budget with um River Edge has historically budgeted the next year with $500,000 you'll see that in the the next slide other sources of tuition go back down again thank you other sources um we have tuition for out of District students and a preschool program we have a fee for being the Lea for region five which is a special education Consortium and we also host an after school program [Music] here there's a picture of our two Sr our S3 officers that's uh Keith and Doug which we're very proud that were added to the budget last year or for this school year and it will be continued for next year can you click on the revenue [Music] projection thank you so each of these lines shows um a comparison between the three years 22 23 23 24 and 2425 and then the percentage change the first line is state aid that remains flat right now until I get the numbers from um the governor um extraordinary Aid that's the amount of money we budget $130,000 it it could be more than that but we like to be safe and budget um the minimal amount uh the local tax levy so that shows two scenarios um that the board will be deciding one is to do a 2% tax cap which is what is allowable but this year because of the health care adjustment we're allowed to go to 2.8% which that number is the number underneath withdrawal from cap Reserve there is no withdrawal from cap Reserve this year we are doing a project which will be voted on we're doing our boilers and a roof replacement through SDA funding this year but it won't be part of the budget process it's going to be approved this evening budgeted fund balance that's money from the prior year budget you can see that that was drastically reduced the year be we usually use 500,000 but the year before we had we were allowable 4% so we took that and put it into our budget for last year we're back down to 2% um that was only during covid that it went up to the 4% revenue from other sources is our tuition from our building bridges program um that's for out of District students so we are very fortunate here in Riveredge because we have a program that we can educate many of our special ed students here um but we can also if we have room offset that with costs from out of District students so that's what that number is there there's tuition for the integrated preschool interest for cap reserve the region five fee you can see is $1,566 that's the fee um on the revenue side that Riveredge gets for the work that it does to assist Region 5 by being their laa and the after school program fees of $35,000 so the bottom shows you the total revenue so there was two choices there one total revenue as it stands now before we have the state aid with and without the health care adjustment go the next one thank you um go back and do the expenditure tab thank you so these are the proposed expend expenditure categories you can see that some have gone up some have gone down um we've tried to pull as much as we could um to keep things on the flatter side but the overall total can you go down can you scroll up a little bit is a little bit more there you go um is 3.77% so so with a 2% cap obviously some of these lines are going to have to be reduced um to make the numbers uh balance so that's something that we're working on um we're making some choices and looking at our program and we'll make a decision once we have the true state aid numbers and see um if we can if we can balance it then or you know what things we might have to cut back on any questions from board memb so you mentioned about chapter 44 and can you explain more about what is chapter 44 and how does it affect our budget so chapter 44 um is the program that it's a a law that says and it was put into effect I believe three years ago um that if there's any health care savings um you have to reduce the tax levy and give it back to the taxpayers chapter 44 um is also highly debated because the numbers that they use and the system for collecting the information so they the state may feel that you saved money because of chapter 44 because of the New Jersey Educators plan um but you may have they may the person may have not chosen the cheaper plan it may be a new person that came in and the other plan wasn't available to them or it may be somebody that was um family member and their children aged out so the net effect was not because of chapter 44 savings the net effect was because people had different plans so each year many of the districts um in the last three years have been hit with this and we have been asked to reduce our tax levy because of that but the chapter 44 um formula is faulty it's been opra and we're trying as an association all School business officials to look at this and many districts have challenged it successfully so that's the condensed version of chapter 44 so I'm hopeful that if we write are able to write a challenge that it will be upheld and we'll be able to show that we really didn't have a savings if that's what the formula shows thank you that's allowable so that doesn't have to go to a vote go yeah you're allowed to go because because it is an allowable adjustment there's um cap Reserve which we used last year um Bank cap excuse me that we used last year so it is allowable to go to the 2.8% and keep some of the programs that may otherwise be eliminated uh when do you expect to have the actual State a numbers so it was supposed to be by March 3D they're closing down the software they load everything in so um within the next couple days I'm assuming so by the next meeting we should have real numbers um by our finance meet we're having a committee meeting on Monday and I believe we'll have the [Music] numbers any other questions from [Music] for thank you thank you we will move on to the report starting with our Acting Superintendent Miss Bernardo good evening as you are aware today is my last day as the Acting Superintendent of the River Edge Public School District I would like to thank the board of education for the opportunity to serve this outstanding School community over the past two and a half months in that short time I have started to build relationships with students staff and the community this district has amazing students very bright staff and a dedicated community base my journey as an educational leader has been shaped by the short time I have spent as the Acting Superintendent this evening Dr Murphy a long time well-respected colleague will be as appointed as the interim superintendent I am sure he will continue to move the district forward while the board conducts its search for the next superintendent of schools some important important items to note on February 9th we celebrated the 75th birthday of Cherry Hill school with the opening of a time capsule that the students and staff at Cherry Hill made back in 1999 staff from the 1998 1999 school year came back for the celebration there were about 20 previous staff members in attendance the staff know not only got to see each other some former students who are current teachers and administrators they got to see items that they placed in the Time Capsule over 25 years ago the afternoon provided for much excitement and was live streamed to Roosevelt so all students in the district could see the event the Rivage Cultural Arts Center held its 17th annual Young artist exhibition um for several weeks in February many pieces featured were created by our River Edge students applications continue to be accepted for the integrated prek 3 and four-year-old classes kindergarten registration also remains open lastly I'm pleased to share um that we will have the second read of the volunteer policy and regulation this evening in the near future Administration will share the policy and procedures which will allow us to move forward with utilizing Volunteers in our buildings for specific programs such as PTO lunch thank you you any questions from board members a comment I just want to thank you for all that you've done for your time here and um see you as a reminder Miss Bernardo will remain at region five um I actually had a question about the prekay registration I know that um there was there a lottery that was held or did we not fill the lottery did not have to be held because all of the spaces were not full so it will remain open until such time that all of the spaces are full okay thank you any other questions or comments I want to say I so that thank you for uh stepping up uh to take the U obviously additional responsibility and uh you know I mean the this is second time we kind of you kind of rescued us from uh such situation and really appreciate your uh effort thank you thank you s u moving on to the principal report Mrs Heitman is here tonight thank you for being [Music] here hello everyone glad I'm back in the RO rotation here so higher here can everybody hear me yeah I'm just gonna hold it is that okay so I'm also GNA mention um on February 9th we had the 75th birthday of Cherry Hill and our time capsule reveal it was very very exciting I started in 2001 so I was not here in 1999 however um it was great to see former staff members everyone was excited to be back we had some musical performances from our our students I read a letter from Mrs steinbauer who um was the superintendent at the time when I started and she talked you know it was to all of us about the Time Capsule um what we're doing we're going to celebrate the H 100th birthday um in 2049 so the St students of this year and the staff will be adding things to the Time Capsule and it won't be open till 2049 so it's kind of exciting um the the kids love the Time Capsule what's in it what's in it so um it was kind of neat so I also want to thank the PTO for having a successful fundraiser they had bags and brunch on February 4th uh thanks to all that attended uh the principals have been have met with the teachers for their midyear sgos um student growth objectives and we discussed um how the progress was going with the students in the areas of ela and math uh both schools had their performances for the third grade dance and the fourth grade theater we are very happy to say that our verata security system was used for all attendees so in my school I can say I had over 200 guests and everyone used that verata security with the help of our um you know Tech um group we did have some people that didn't have their cell phones but then we they got them um so it's just like a practice that everybody has to get involved in um today we had a PTO sponsored enrichment program called First Peoples from the Museum of Indian culture so we thank the PTO for that coming up in March uh Mrs haers is having two math evenings that's G both one at Roosevelt and one at um Cherry Hill you will hear more information uh I am also going to piggyback on kindergarten registration has been open and um for the entire District so at this time we have some totally finished registrations and some that are open that people still need a couple of um you know more documents but at this time for the district we have 96 kindergarten registrations [Music] for for February so that's that's a good thing also uh thanks to Mrs reneer our librarian we're celebrating read Across America for the week of um March 4th through 8th there are theme days and choice of books to read students and teachers can just click on the icon to read the book and students can enjoy these books at home as well they can just they don't have to go out and buy the books or take them out from the library they'll be right there and it's for the whole District so we're happy about that conference letters will be going out soon um so that parents can schedule their um conferences and parent teacher conferences are March 26th and March 28th and both of those days are 12:45 dismissals and finally we also want to thank Mrs Bernardo for your tireless efforts um and all you've done while you you were here in River Edge we definitely will miss you and on the other end of that we want to welcome Dr Murphy I hope you enjoy River Ed it's a great place and that's all I have thank you Miss Hitman any questions or comments from board members thank you uh moving on to board secretary report Miss npal Tano um thank you I'd also like to say thank you to miss Bernardo for um the time we've spent together here but we spend a lot of time together anyhow between with region five but I did enjoy um our experiences together here um a couple items on this agenda um item A4 is to approve the special education initiative or semi which were eligible for because we have under 44 students that's part of the budget process too that that has to be checked off so that's um a resolution that's done each year and voted on by the board um item C1 is to accept and award the boiler bids which were done under the SDA Grant and awarded to the lowest bidder which is CJ vanderbach who um will be doing the work after the award and that's all I have any questions or comments from board [Music] members moving on to the president's report um I do want to reiterate um thank you to miss Bernardo um you jumped into this rule um with a mindset of just helping one another and I remember you had um said whatever we need and so I I think you really appreciate just uh for the last two and a half months I me it's very challenging to do both roles two very demanding roles um and you know looking back we've accomplished a lot and so we just you um and tonight we'll be approving Dr Murphy to fill in as the interim until find the permanent superintendent so Dr mury uh we welcome you to the district um and just an update on the superintendent search um the board has set up a calendar for our timeline and then our advertisement so those two things will be um published well not the the calendar we're aiming to put on the website as a timeline for the community to see what our timeline looks like the ad will be placed in various professional websites um and and the website will have a link our website will have a link to show um updates for where we are in our process um along with uh getting input from our community in the future um uh through via surveys and inperson uh sessions that our consultant will have with our community um so please be on the look out for that um any comments or questions for me uh moving on to committee reports uh Mr Sim will be reporting on personnel and management committee meeting yeah there was held on uh January 299th 100 p.m for 75 minutes uh members attended Miss Bernardo Miss Napolitano Miss Ken Mr Coen and myself the issues discussed uh was a calendar 2425 on the calendar 2023 2024 academic calendar M Fardo reviewed the adjustments made based on feedback including cond condensing some professional development days and incorporating important cultural religious observance days for students the goal was balancing Learning Time step planning needs and awareness of community diversity after consultation with the Fishers Association she presented a finalized 18787 Day schedule for approval uh second item the post approval of a per professional you hire process to address a prior certification tracking issue a formal hiring process was implemented requiring administrators to verify candidate qualifications like certification statute people recommending new sta this Google form approach ensur credential credentials are validated on the front end and uh that's one of administrative contract with administrative contracts expiring preliminary NE negotiations began discussions will continue with the admin Union prior to pring formal agreements next one is a administrator observation and professional developments the Acting Superintendent is discovered upon arrival that principles and vice prin assistant principles lack the required de Merit observation scores the December state report likely left these scores as well additionally principals assistant principal and directors currently left professional development plans for this year observations for principls and assistant principles using the state rubric for numeric scoring are needed by year end for State reporting compliance and to avoid negative impacts on next year's QX scores there is also an uncertified teacher issue affecting this the administrator plans to initiate observation and PDP process to address these gaps but is first making leadership aware next item was prek teachers from cherro school to Roosevelt in terms of Reason reconfiguration imp impacts with a plan Pur immediate space limitations must be addressed specifically the pekk program likely need to need to shift locations to open needed classrooms Pro and C moving PR to rosille world is debated factoring teacher feedback room Readiness and student mix the committee requested additional data on potential prek and kindergarten enrollment to inform projections before making a final decision and the other Vision as required State reporting uh was discussed draft job descriptions and policies around volunteers and crisis response were revaled the goal being properly documenting rules and preparedness key issues covering uh tied back to imminent decisions facing the district in terms of scheduling hiring contract TR and managing existing space challenges while some items were resolve further analysis was requested for large scale impacts on enrollment and classroom availability the committee focused on Gathering the necessary information to make inform the choices on on beh of behalf of the schools and Community do you have anything else to add any questions or comments from board [Music] members um just I wasn't clear on the the move of prek so it sounded like you're waiting for additional information and then you're going to decide you're waiting for additional enrollment numbers and then you're going to decide or has it already been decided uh we have to new spr it it's been resolved at this point um it's been resolved there's no need to move anyone okay so there will be no move correct okay thank you other questions or comments um moving on to motions to be acted upon um can I get a motion for A1 through four so move second any questions or comments roll call please m brown yes M Mr delandro yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss Ken yes can I get a motion for B1 move to approve B1 as stated any questions or comments roll call please Miss Brown yes Mr elisandro yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes uh can I get a motion for C1 Mo to approve C1 as stated second any questions or comments call please Miss Brown yes M Sandra yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes can I get a motion for D1 through five I move to approve items D1 through five as stated second any questions or comment roll call please Miss Brown yes Mr Alesandra yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and M Kang yes uh motion for E1 I move be resol that the river Board of Education here in refer to as the board appoints dror Matthew J Murphy here in after to refer to as Dr Murphy as the interim superintendent of schools for the River School District effective on or about February 29 2024 and expiring in accordance with the terms of the employment agreement between the board and the Dr [Music] Murphy he further resoled that the employment agreement has been submitted to and approved by the the interim executive County Superintendent according to standard adopted by the commissioner of Education puruan to njsa 1887 AJ B further resol that the board approves uh the employment agreement with Dr Murphy for the position of interim superintendent of the schools for the for foregoing period of appointment which employment agreement is provided to board members under separate cover he further resoled that the board hereby authorize the board president and the bu administrator board secretary to execute on behalf of the board the emplo employment agreement by and between the board and Dr Mori second any questions a comment roll call please Miss Brown yes Mr alesandro yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss K yes wel um motion for E2 I can just move it move to approve E2 is state it second any questions comments roll call please miss pram yes Mr delandro yes Mr yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes motion for E3 to 10 move to approve B3 through 10 as stated second any questions or comments V call please Miss Brown yes Mr alesandro yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes Miss K yes can I get a motion for G1 through three move to approve G1 through3 is stated second any questions or comments call please Miss Brown yes M delandra yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes um is there any old or new business that the board wishes to bring up got a question about um the application for either being a temp sorry substitute teacher or a power or a Lun I've had several people in the community ask and inquire where they go so I direct them to go to the website but they're saying that they're not hearing back from anyone that they're submitting but they're not getting any response so is there a response time or a standard practice like do we respond to every application that comes in or because it just sounds it's if we're we are saying that we don't have enough and there's an interest but we're not answering them I think there seems to be yeah that's that's a really good question and um certainly they should be um we can have them look into it to make sure that someone's getting notified because those are postings that stay live so they might not go in Daily or weekly to check we need to make sure someone's getting notified that an application came through so it's something that the board office can certainly look into for the future and who could uh a Community member reach out to to see if an application um the board office Wendy [Music] P any other older new business of the board um at this time we will enter our second public comment time again as a reminder um please remember to uh that we aim to maintain a level decorum in our board meetings and we expect everyone to be kind and model the type of behavior that we are teaching our students each speaker should be courtious and direct comments to the board president and not individual board members and as per policy 11:20 a participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of his or her name residence and group affiliation if appable and to maintain fairness each speaker will have three minutes to speak and we also request that comments related to individual student matters be directed to the tal teacher princi princial or superintendent not all issues especially ones involving individual children can be addressed publicly in board meetings and if an matter needs to be addressed further the superintendent will follow up with you after the meeting so at this time I open it up to the public we good good afternoon oh good evening Hernan green one 99 bogert road Madame President I have no uh questions or challenges I just I wanted to stand up and welcome our new uh interim superintendent on behalf of the parents we look forward to working with you thank you that's all thank [Music] you yeah yeah that's perfect Dr Murphy [Music] yes good evening everyone and thank you thank you first of all I want to thank the River Edge Board of Education for putting your trust and faith in me I want to thank Lisa who's been a good friend and colleague for many years I look forward to working with her um a little bit about myself I'm here with my beautiful wife over there Megan of 26 years she wanted to make sure I signed the contract because I've been retired for the past year and I think I'm annoying her uh so she wanted to make sure I sign at Lan before I leave we have two beautiful children we are empty nesters which is more of the reason she needs me out of the house but more importantly I've spent 34 years in public education all here in Bergen County as a teacher principal assistant superintendent superintendent and I want you to know that I not only love public education I respect public education and I respect the staff the parents and most of all the students and I pledge to you that I will work my hardest to earn the respect that you deserve from your superintendent so thank you very much for giving me the opportunity you but I like Stephanie Hartman 144 um Monroe Avenue um I again want to um commend and reiterate the board to taking the process along the way rather than rushing into a new decision um of a more permanent entry theater appointing your acting and now the interim and um I've known Dr Murphy in many capaces for probably a decade and I think it's really exciting for the community um to have such a wonderful educator ASO um spoke about but also for the board in the district to utilize all that knowledge while um while Dr Murphy's here to maybe even just think about um what kind of new leader can bring forward all of the ideas um that you're doing so as you're forming your um your plan and as you're forming sort of that job description I I hope you'll utilize um uh M Dr Murphy and his expert on what kind of qualities can bring forward the kind of education that you're looking for for the community so thank you [Music] everyone uh can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting move towards Z second roll call please yes Mr alisandra yes Mr Langley yes Mr sim yes and Miss Kang yes thank you everyone for being here tonight we'll be back on March 13th