good evening call to order this meeting of the saber board of education for November 21st I ask you all to please rise pled 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 with liberty and justice for all Mr Callahan here Mr Esposito here Mr Fernandez Mrs napalitano here Mrs pone here miss pylo here Mr Smith here Mr Walsh here and Mr and Mrs Bloom here miss Hill will you summarize executive session for us please yes the board discussed personnel incl ining but not limited to agenda items matters falling under attorney client privilege grievance 2023-24 colon1 and student matters and correspondence uh there is one letter that was provided to the board from Tara olero thank you okay we need now a motion to approve the minutes from the last meeting October 17 so Mo second you Mr Callahan yes Mr pazo uh Mrs napalitano yes Mrs pone yes Miss pyck yes Mr Smith yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs Bloom yes okay student we move to our Representatives uh Sean from the high school good evening board here are the events that have been happening at swmhs over the past weeks AP art history students traveled to the Metropolitan Museum of Art last Friday the students were able to examine artworks from their curriculum as well as studying supplementary material the academic competition team in their first ever event placed 15th out of 32 teams last weekend at the Manasquan high school competition s swmhs jior Marissa Mandela was recently recognized as a 2024 National Merit Scholarship program recipient for her outstanding PSAT results winter sports began their trial yesterday after school good luck to any new or returning athletes during the preseason and congratulations to the girls cross country team for clinching the GMC gold division championship and to the girls soccer team for winning the GMC white division championship currently there are a few upcoming events on our immediate agenda yet the student council wishes to extend heartfelt wishes to all students and their families for a fall break filled with compassion and warmth outstanding Middle School Ashton can I can we ask questions oh Sean did you participate in the uh academic competition I did not no did you speak to any of the kids that did I did yes do you know how what what did it involve uh what was the format uh the format is it's kind of like a collaborative test okay spanning multi-disciplines so literature Science History Etc you can really be tested on anything it's a very interesting very interesting F and that's that was our first competition and we did better than and half the other schools first competition ever the team was just established this year yes that's excellent and you had some exciting news too I did last weekend I went to a program in Austin for civics unplugged we were competing to solve issues in Rapid urbanization uh we did it in transportation we reorganized the transit system with the help of a local city council member and we implemented some cultural aspects to their transit in both buses and trains Mrs Bloom I'd like to make a motion to adopt Sean that's fantastic buddy that's amazing appreciate it that's awesome bu approval thank you go ahead good evening Board of Education members and administrators my name is Ashen fondel SMS student council Board of Education representative student council hosted a Veterans Day presentation thank you to everyone who came out to support this yearly presentation student council will be hosting the anything goes assembly tomorrow this rewarded assembly cons consist of fun events such as relay races digging for gummy worms and whipped cream as well as an animal run we are looking for an exciting day tomorrow community community service is having a fun pasta fundraiser until mid December they wrote letters to Veterans Day veterans for Veterans Day they are currently doing a food drive along with student council finally they are doing a CAA court appointed special Advocates gift collection the class Council started the positive impact bracelets together and choose kindness each week a student and teacher are recognized while they received a bracelet over the morning announcements now on to the sville Middle School athletics the boys basketball team Tri outs have wrapped up and their season will begin soon the girls basketball team Tri out started this week for the 23 24 season the wrestling team will start practice next week after school the cheerleading team held tryouts this week they're ready to kick off their 23 24 season with basketball games and competitions thank you very much and have a great Thanksgiving break excellent job Ash thank you Ash may I ask a question you may Ashton I hear there's a rumor about an eighth grade trip do you know anything about that um not really actually oh you haven't heard that yet okay I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised and and happy too when you hear about it but uh I know that Mr nurger has been working closely with the student council about some doing something for our eighth graders great great job buddy thank you okay um board president's comments uh I just wanted to reiterate something that I did after we originally uh pledged before our uh Clos session that we recently lost the colleague uh Phyllis ilens who was a guidance counselor in our district recently pass uh losing her long battle with breast cancer so in case anybody out there need phis I just wanted to let you know that we didn't forget to remember her okay Danielle vice president comment yeah so excited I on here uh for some District highlights uh so Sean already mentioned but congratulations to the swmhs girls cross country team for winning the greater middle SE conference goal division congratulations to SW MHS senior Jonathan mgal who was recently selected to be on the national Leo Club program advisory panel for the Constitutional area congratulations to the swmhs marching band and colored guard for yet another wonderful season in which they won first place at the South planfield High School competition while also taking second place at both the woodb high school and Arthur L Johnson High School competitions congratulations to swmhs freshman tennis star marami n Saad for being named to the greater middle sex conference all-white division team for her singles tennis play this season commendations and congratulations uh to SW MHS Junior Marissa Mandola who recently earned a perfect score on the PSAT so lots of good stuff and I know we have more more Awards to give out tonight so congrat I didn't even have perfect attendance I just learned what PSAT stood for oh okay Dr lbby we now move to presentations yes we are thrilled tonight to make some great presentations for some amazing student athletes and to assist me I'm going to ask Mrs pyck to join me up front as well as coach McGary from the GMC white division championship girls soccer team [Applause] can I try them face them um thank you girls for coming we've had a long couple roads for the last couple years and to our seniors which we have our banquet next week um but it's been a long road you've been dedicated to us from the start we've had a couple years you never gave up and because of you you've left this Legacy for the future years to come so I want to commend you guys for that for sticking with us sticking with this program you've now made saral bomber soccer girl soccer back on the map people want to be here so thank you guys and great season girls best record [Applause] yet regular season undefeated correct with a couple of ties undefeated yes which is the best record I think in school history uh well since I've been around but yes but yes a very long time maybe since I've been born I don't know Seasons I don't know but that's [Applause] [Music] amazing and this year we had the most consecutive wins had undefeated Seasons up to that part but the most consecutive wins that we've had in my coaching career too so and some very thrilling games a couple of those games oh yes uh what was it 17 seconds left I was like I'm getting too old for this guys the gray hairs are from you but they did a great job they fought till the end we've had some we had some tough games towards the end but they never gave up and they deserved every second of it great job girls and thank you to the parents because they wouldn't be here without you so that starts from you guys sure do you want to say the name me you can say them if you want to whatever you want me to do all right all righty uh Vanessa Aban Ayanna Ames St Briana m pona congratulations Katherine [Applause] Barbosa congratulations Karina cardoso good job Isabelle de oliviera Jaylen Evans Gabriela Gonzalez y gutterz Emma HMO Amelia kowak svi cukr Lissa Marley Samantha Marley Abigail Mayer Jordan mzor shria [Applause] meta Isabella O'Brien Kayla Pell J [Applause] Rog mallerie Sierra Leila Stevenson moral Aken Efron Jasmine Awad Anna V and then I think there Zara Ben hack should be in here and Zara Zar here you can take pleas want through all the um yeah that's me and the best assistant coach around Alison ricko and Marcus Ivy our JB coach who couldn't be here so congratulations to everyone I just want to say special congratulations I know I've been watching some of you guys play since you were small a lot of hot shots in the room right sh shria and JJ um so congratulations good job girls [Applause] is no he never picture no finishing my [Applause] [Music] call really that's actually where I was the last week [Applause] Sunday thank you okay Mrs Bloom and now we're also going to honor another group of very special student athletes and to assist us with that will be Mr Callahan and coach posa from the GMC old Division champion cross country team girls cross country [Applause] team good evening everyone um I just wanted to start I just wanted to start out by um thanking obviously all of our girls but but especially our seniors who've um built a helped us build a program uh that's continued success year after year uh this is our third straight undefeated regular season with cross country um our third straight divisional championship and every year we're like okay some seniors are leaving we're uh you know maybe not next year maybe not next year but these girls keep putting in everything they can recruiting friends bringing people out it's not uh a sport that's easy to recruit to when you tell a bunch of freshman kids oh we're going to go around three miles and that's all we do is run three miles and that's going to be fun uh so we've got a team of nine uh Nine Girls it takes seven to run a varsity race and as the season went on and we we hit injuries and stuff here and there every one of our nine girls had to step up and run varsity at some point this season so everyone from the the seniors who helped build this program to the freshmen who are keeping it going and uh going to continue that Legacy thank you girls for all your hard work I know it's uh it's a tough sport to do but you've uh what's that Sandy but you've uh you've done amazing these last few years so thank you one ran in the state championships uh yes we did so uh individually I meant to say that as well um we did have Crystal who um moved on crystal margato moved on from the sectional championships to the group championships that was the F she was the first runner for either the guys or the girls team to advance the group Championship since I believe 2017 uh which was tremendous and uh the girls as a whole missed by one Place moving on as a team in the group Championship which as far as I know has never happened so um tremendous all around also the girls don't know this yet because it was just announced uh the other night but uh of the nine girls on the team six made either all conference or all division team so Crystal marata uh Molly Logan made the All Conference Team all division team was Sandy Costa Julia kukas um Mo uh Morgan coun and Isabella colazo you want me to sure all right Isabella colazo is not here this evening Sandy Costa Julia klit Morgan [Applause] coun Angelia [Applause] lepri Molly Logan Crystal Margot Sarah Smith Di yua and just one more thing um I'm going to embarrass her one more time but I'm not going to say what or where because I got yelled at earlier when I ruined surprise but uh Crystal this evening uh has made a decision to sign she'll be running in college as well um I won't say where because I get yelled at when I blew it up to the team but congratulations [Applause] [Applause] Crystal parents you want to take pictures [Music] everybody congratulations [Applause] and they were named the respective divisions coach of the [Applause] year Danel [Music] have first school University of Chicago that's the what do you want to go into business uh probably political science go to law school afterwards there you go Mrs Bloom that concludes our report H my presentation that's awesome okay we're going to wait for the uh honored guests to clear the area before we proceed so that we can hear what's being said Sean wants to be a lawyer John Sean wants to be a lawyer all right I'll let you know my my son right that's good okay we will now proceed with the board discussions uh finance and infrastructure committee comments Mrs k um hi um we met on um November 14th to uh go over some of the things with the referendum um the first bid for age back at the high school and Truman um right now they're taking measurements to get that completed um we we have uh second bid Windows being um put in at Slover AR and middle school and Slover bathrooms and vules could you hear me now can you hear me yes um uh the wall partitions have been started um there are potential change orders and all the asbestos has been removed um Roofing at orith and Wilson ues Middle School and um seille uh the high school has begun or is complete um we have an electrical uh we talked about the electrical we have a schedule that hasn't been provided yet so we um issued a 7-Day notice to cure that um ues and uh Cil Middle School HVAC is scheduled to uh begin September 2020 um go out September 2023 um right now the bid documents are with the Office of the State Controller for review um the sixth bid which has not gone out yet um is Windows at ues at what is this ues um and uh High School this should be done by the end of November that's the actual bid going out the door and then we have a seventh bid which is also going to be going out um in we're anticipating December for the HVAC at the um remaining schools we have completed roofs and boilers um that's being with that's attached to our Isa pro project we have solar PPA update um work is being done and I think the work at the high school is all um actually in the hardware and all that no or that's still an that's still waiting and then we're also waiting for for some electrical to be done um there was a leak in or that was corrected um we're waiting for a fire alarm piece at Eisenhower the bus complex um we haven't received the signed contract uh we were waiting on the burrow at that time seille warma oral High School um the stadium refurbishes refurbish refurbishment has no updates we the stadium lighting it's going to change the lights they're actually going to be LED lights which are going to be brighter less expensive and um more you know better for us to be able to see um we have grand audio we're waiting on parts the theater also the audio is being upgraded we're waiting on parts on that for the finance ction Bond refunding we are still waiting on uh more advantageous interest rates right now is not a time to refinance and um the referendum draw down schedule the Investments of the funds and making sure that you know we're being good stewards of the money and gaining good interest as we should and that's it thank you m b okay um next is Personnel M pil the Personnel committee met earlier this evening uh we reviewed open positions both certificated and non-certificated staff uh we discussed the midyear job fair which is scheduled on January 11th from 5: to 8 and we talked about substitute bus drivers that's it okay thank you and now governance committee uh Mrs napatan so the governance committee met a few weeks ago and discussed polici asking are also asking you to approve our first in addition discuss the possible rision the first infraction consequence for in the student discipline code of conduct regulation the committee decided that a onep for infraction was for students finally thee of schol okay um Mr Fernandez is not here for student achievement Miss Hill do you want he's on virtually oh does he want to give his report Eric would you check no he can if he he want he has control skip them no all right okay we can hold it till next time and now the middle sex County School Board Association I have two pieces our next meeting will be on the 28th of November and it is being held at the Ross Street School in Woodridge so I hope that you will try and attend since it's fairly close the other issue is that the delegate assembly which is held on December the 2nd at Mercer County Community College uh normally the board president is the delegate but I will not be in state on that day so if any other member of the board would like to represent us at the delegate assembly let Miss Hill know and she will register you for that position so that you can be a voting member on that day and that's it okay uh educ Educational Services Commission Miss Napa Lan um we approve the new assessment team policy and regulan okay thank you okay um now we will open up for public on anything that is on the agenda tonight agenda items only okay seeing none we will proceed with the superintendent report Dr lavy take it away thank you Mrs Bloom so if I can bring our board memb attention to finance and infrastructure number 14 as well as numbers 18 and 19 which you can find on pages 3 through 5 we're asking to accept the 2024 New Jersey high impact tutor Grant in the amount of $230,000 Miss Bert Miss grman have been working very very hard with um our department supervisors on this grant uh that will provide an abundance of tutoring for our students in grades four and five as well as Middle School and High School we're also along with that we're asking you to approve a request for vendor proposals for a portion of this in accordance with Public Schools uh contract laws and to approve a contract with cdwg for tutoring software licensing for a software called goguardian tutoring and that's a program to provide tutoring services to students in grades 6 through 8 in Middle School in 9 through 12 at s War Memorial High School in the amount of $83,500 number 23 which you can find on page five we're asking you to approve an agreement for services with parent Square Incorporated in the amount of $325 1250 cents for the term of January 2024 through December 31st 2024 with a onetime onboarding cost of $3,150 this is a software that's going to replace School messenger it's for broadcast communication to the community however during our recent strategic action plan education Summit one of the parents spoke for many of the parents and said can we get a software system that will consolidate information for me meaning can I just get one email that lists all the information that I need to know about as as a parent for my students that are in this sport my students that are in this school this teacher and that teacher in this actual software will do that it will consolidate all communication for our parents it also will give our teachers an opportunity to communicate better and more directly with their parents replacing some of those things as um Class Dojo remind and so forth which we don't have a lot of control over this will allow those teachers to be able to communicate instantly with parents via that via this software rather than those other softwares that we really have no control over so we're really excited about this brand new software number 23 which you can find on page six we're asking you to approve a contract with swing education to provide Staffing for supplemental substitute teachers at the regularly approved District substitute rates plus an additional 30% administrative free fee in the amount not to succeed $38,000 as we all know not only is there a teacher shortage or an education staff shortage there is a substitute shortage and this will provide us an opportunity to fill more vacancies and have to be less reliant on teacher coverages when our teachers are absent so we're excited about that number 44 which you can find on the addendum we're asking you to accept the Middle grades career awareness exploration Grant in the amount of $73,500 Miss aola Miss Maharana have been working extremely hard with this program and I can't wait to see what they have planned for our students at the middle school this year with regard to Career exploration they normally go ahead and take trips have guest speakers with this money and they host a job fair or a community fair at the end of the year so real excited about that I believe this will be the last year for this grant correct miss gend and miss b y numbers 46 of 47 which you can find in the addendum we're asking you to approve uh the rescindment of the previously awarded bid for the site development for the new Transportation complex off a Cheesequake Road to the James uh R Incorporated service in the amount of 5,634 645 and to return those funds to capital reserve any questions on those items on finance infrastructure or anything else yeah did our title money go up or down year to year year over year our title like Title One title two title three Miss Gman or Miss Bert do you want to answer that I think that our title our title money went down slightly this year little bit decreased re is there a reason do they give a reason or so um depending on the title that you're speaking of so Title One is related to free and reduced lunch population and forms that are that are submitted title 3 is related to our ESL population it also is calculated in with funds that we use but we do carry over some funding from last year which I think is in the agenda okay can I interrupt you please um the audience is saying that they can't hear so could everybody just pull the microphone a little closer to their math when they're speaking I think anyone's okay Sor so never trouble hearing you Title One funding is determined by the amount of families that submit and are approved for free and reduced lunch title three is related to the enrollment of our ESL population or multilingual Learners um um and it does vary a little bit we did see a decrease this year from last year but the other variable that comes in is the usage of it so miss Burt and I have been working tirelessly to make sure that we use all of it so that we don't lose any for next year understood okay okay thank you any other questions or comments on finance and infrastructure seeing none I'll move to student achievement number three which you can find on pages 16 and 17 there is an abundance of revised curriculum guides that we need you to approve Miss Burns Miss Gman and our teachers have been very hard at work revising curriculum guides mostly due to the change in standards for English language arts and Mathematics also we have two very cool and exciting clubs that we are asking you to approve at the high school one is called Cafe but it really is an acarine that stands for cancer awareness fundraising events so what a great Club another one is the good beads Foundation Club two remarkable clubs that demonstrate the spirit of our students and we can't thank enough Miss cassella as well as Miss for being the advisers of these I think very cool clubs any questions on anything particularly these items on student achievement seeing that I'll move to governance number two which you can find on page 18 we're asking you to approve the appointment of Lori and de brazinski by the burrow of sville Mayor and Council to serve once again I think it's this is her fifth year as the trustee for the sville public library and we couldn't be more honored to have Loranne representing us she is a remarkable media specialist at our middle school and has served in this capacity with ex you know with um distinction since she's been appointed as the liaison or the trustee for the public school library number four which you can find on page 19 we're asking you to as Mr Nano said to abolish several Board of Education policies and regulations number five which you can find on page 19 we're asking you to approve new and revised Boe policies and regulations for a first reading we'll ask you to approve those for a second reading in December on December 19 number six we're asking you to approve the 2023 2027 Vision 2030 strategic action plan for a second reading and adoption this evening and then finally number seven we're uh we're asking you to uh the approval to deny grievance 2023 2024 number one increase workload any questions on any items on governance particularly those items moving on to personnel number one which you can pay find on page 19 we have one of those moments again where we have to say goodbye to a staff member a beloved staff member in this particular case we're asking you to accept the retirement of Suzanne Grover a third uh she's been a third and a second grade teacher at the Emma Arla school and that's effective October 1st 2024 Suzanne Grover has been part of the sville school district for the past 25 years she also served as a school representative to the sville Education Association at the AR School School throughout her time in seral she has taught both second and third grade students at the Emma Arla school during her time at ARA she has gone above and beyond for the students that walk into her classroom whether it was taking pictures for an end of the year school calendar or creating the most thoughtful Mother's Day bouquet for the students to bring home to their parents suzan is constantly connecting with families of her students not only when concerns arise but also to reach out and simply let families know know how well their children are doing on a daily basis in addition to always being there for her students she has been a wonderful friend and colleague to many many Suzanne has organized grade level gett togethers during the summer always has an open door for questions and comments and feedback and is always ready for a homemade treat for meeting days she has been there for colleagues throughout everything in difficult times she was always there to lend a helping hand from the loss of a family member to the birth of babies Suzanne has been an amazing shoulder to lean on no matter the reason through her help with curriculum math in particular along with her delicious potato salad which I got to try the difficult days become more bearable arith will not be the same when she retires but no one is most deserving of some sunshine down in Florida where she'll be relaxing by the pool with her dogs or spending time with her kids and baking some amazing using blueberry crumble she will be greatly missed leaving a void that will be hard to replace on behalf of the staff and students of the saille public schools and of course our Board of Education we wish Suzanne Grover nothing but the very best in her retirement and thank her for her impeccable service to our district and most importantly to the students that she has uh served so outstandingly numbers 14 and 16 as well as 38 and 39 which you can find on pages 25 through 27 in the addendum we're asking you to approve the appointment of new certificated and non-certificated staff for the school year number 17 and 18 as well as 40 through 41 which you can find on pages 27 and 28 and the addendum we're asking you to approve the transfer of non-certificated staff for this school year number 30 uh we didn't mention this but we are all we also asked you in finance and infrastructure to approve the 2023 2024 Perkins Grant so part of that Perkins grant funding goes to our Career and Technical education stien positions which we're also asking you to approve as number 30 which you can find on pages 32 and 33 and finally number 34 another cool program in our Middle School we're asking you to appoint staff members to supervise the 2023 2024 Saville Middle School Junior Honor Society after school homework help sessions which they are providing on an as needed basis to students that are are in need of such you can find that on page 35 any questions on Personnel how close are we to getting uh a teacher for uh our rltc excuse me can't speak here I was going to say the a I was I'm not even going there Senior Aerospace instructor Aerospace yeah um I would like to tell you that we're close Mr Esposito but we're not the Air Force does understand there are many many districts not only in New Jersey but across the country that are in the the same situation I know you asked this question during last meeting we came very close to hiring right a person but unfortunately because all of our all these districts are looking for someone they engage districts in you know leveraging to try to get more money and so forth and uh we we did lose out to that person to another District however our search continues with the Air Force it's a very unique search process you can't you can't search it you know through an ad in the paper you have to search it through their search engine where they'll find you a retired Air Force officer to teach that particular class but I will give commendations out to Sergeant Nolton Master Sergeant Nolton who's done a tremendous job of holding the program together particularly all of our leadership courses and community service that our students in that program perform however uh we desperately need a sassy and we'll continue our efforts to try to find one is there a possibility that they'll give us uh another year due to the circumstances it's not yeah they've already indicated to us that du to we they have to technically put us on probation MH which we are on but due to the circumstances which they are very much aware of um they are giving us a great deal of latitude that's great okay thank you that concludes my report Mrs Bloom okay questions from anybody um can I just ask everybody to turn to page 16 and look at number 43 70 War Memorial High School arts and theater students and six teachers will be going to the teen Arts Festival at middlex County College on Wednesday March 13th 2024 and I am very proud and honored to say that they have asked me to give a workshop so I hope some of our kids will sign up for my workshop I will be teaching the class for the teen Arts F very nice well let's hope there's not like a a problem like we have with staff development day here where everybody Under the Sun wanted to be in your class and there were a lot of disappointed people when they didn't get in that class Miss B and I had to deal with I have a list and the kids come in and then when I don't call their name they just stand there and I say I don't have enough supplies so you have to leave and nobody leaves so I always bring extra with but we are incredibly proud of all of our students that participate in all of the Arts yes ab and are amazing teachers that are not only incredibly proficient and competent in teaching the Arts but go out of their way to encourage more and more students to participate in them and I will say this and Mrs S is probably listening our most popular classes at the high school are by far our Visual and Performing Arts classes thank you Dr okay now we need to oh goodness gracious okay we need a motion to approve the agenda items so move second okay Miss H Mr Callahan yes Mr Esposito yes Mr Fernandez I can't hear him if he's talking um Mrs napalitano yes Mrs babone yes Miss pylo yes Mr Smith yes Mr Walsh yes and Mrs Bloom I believe I have to abstain on the governance um the grievance piece otherwise yes anything else okay so Mr cang you want to amend yours to obstain amend as well okay okay okay at this time we will open to public participation for any items at all anyone who wishes to speak please come to the microphone state your name and address for our records tell that three minutes and we will be limiting to three minutes to speak any questions Mrs Bloom questions uh any questions that you have will be noted by the superintendent and answered at the end of your statement the end of the the end of the statements I your pardon thank you very much Mrs Ploom members of the Court my name is Jim Robinson I live in Parlin I've exchanged a number of emails with the board and with Dr lbby concerning the proposed bus depot at at several areas um and that's what I want to talk about tonight I want to see where we are with citing that I understand we have a or that there exists a memo of of understanding that states that everything is subject to the negotiation and execution of written leases for the Board of Education and bural properties and subject to New Jersey Department of Education approval a condition of even filing for Department of Education approval is a planning board recommendation which should have occurred nine months ago in which for Sound Land Use reasons the planning board recommended against citing the Depot on Cheesequake Road as a former planning board chair I commend the current planning board for taking their job seriously and coming to that to decision so I'm going to assume Cheesequake Road is off the table for now or forever and focus on other locations I I hope that you understand the futility of that site and they going to move on I've recommended a number of other locations that were in non-residential areas including another DuPont site by the first aid Squad The Main Street Extension by the police department and most recently Club 35 I thought that it might be good if a site at the entrance of town went from being busted to housing buses and I think that that ought to be considered and I think that the owners um would look favorably on that on February of 2022 Dr Labby wrote to me that all feasible locations are under consideration so the questions that I'd like to pose that you can answer later or whenever is correct me if I'm wrong but it was in 2017 six years ago that the board decided to bring busing inhouse with an out of suitable place to house those buses is that correct that's my first question I know you awarded a $5.6 million bid for development to in inel I think is their name for construction and another close to half million dollars for design are there other costs associated with this project and is the total that you were willing to spend or planning to spend on Cheesequake Road $9.5 million now I don't want to add fuel to the fire but for comparison sake I'm just going to note that the Quick Check Plaza at 811 Main Street is 26,000 Square F feet on less than four Acres 14 it has 14 paying tenants and parking for 150 cars it's for sale at $7.8 million and if that 9.5 figure that I got from board documents is correct that's $1.8 million less than your proposed Cheesequake Road Depot is and that's something to think about I think my other question is are there any other sites being considered for lease or for purchase and if there are what are they and lastly I want to address the possibility of litigation was that discussed in close session I'd like to know that and when I first heard about Mr Mr Robinson your time is done your three minutes are up I'll come back then okay just one time each one time one time yep you get one time you get one time one I'll address this in another way then unless somebody else wants to give me their time can't do that we got your questions and we'll make sure we do our best to answer next just name and address for the record please thank you Kelly wank Mueller 84 Pine Tree Drive so I'm also here about the Laurel Park um bus toot issue I'm going to read so this is not going to be very eloquent I want to get my three minutes in uh it's not just about the inconvenience of the traffic but the safety hazard that it will pose in our neighborhood uh the traffic on Cheesequake it will cause a cut through from Cheesequake when regular drivers regular commuters um in in our town do not want to wait to uh get behind a bus pulling in or out of the depot they're going to cut through our neighborhood um where our kids are walking to and from bus stops and the high school some of you know my son Brian Brian was already hit by a car in Laurel Park on September 6 6th this is what it looks like when one of our kids gets hit by a car in our neighborhood uh he suffered head and facial trauma but it could have been much worse so we're very grateful for uh the outcome with Brian we have a lot of young families in our neighborhood uh some of them with special needs kids as Brian is and as you know um special needs kids kids with autism and multiple disabilities pose um you know things that are unpredictable um no matter what safety precautions we take um we understand that the drivers in our town is not the board of education's problem but we are asking for you to uh lessen the probability of an accident and reconsider the location of the depot um that we do understand is greatly needed thank you thank you Nicholas manenti 101 kendle drive I'm also going to be reading um I'm here to speak against the location of the school bus depot not the school bus depot itself no one's objecting to the creation of a school bus depot we're objecting to the location of this Depot on Cheesequake Road property owned by The Bureau the burrow that was meant to be open space Dr Labby and board members pone and uh Smith were at the planning board meeting on October 18th when residents of Laurel Park spoke against the location of this Depot it apparently did no good because Dr Labby in a recent article threatened to sue the council if they should honor the request of the Laurel Park residents and resend the location board member you encouraged us to go before the council we did the council showed sympathy toward us and now they're threatened with suits 7 Acres of woods over 400 more trees cut down in an area where a couple of thousand trees were just recently cut down last year to make way for that uh complex that's there noise from the buses for the residents of Kendall Drive right now we can hear we've been for years we've been here in the pistol range the police pistol range that's way far away from us we're hearing it clearer now that those trees for the warehouses have been cut down we're going to hear these buses everybody who lives on Kendall facing the woods are going to hear these buses 6:00 every morning and 4:00 every afternoon and various times in between traffic on ernston road is backed up now at different times of the day the addition of 72 school buses I believe that's the number number when you get your additional six to make it the maximum to do 100% self-reliant the facility can hold 85 buses not counting the private vehicles of the drivers the staff or coming and going from a central location will cause more backup on ernston road and an increased number of drivers cutting through Laurel Park Kendall Drive and Pine Tree Drive are used as a cut through now traffic congestion will be even worse with these vehicles coming and going from the same place right now I believe your school buses go back and forth from three four different locations well now there'll be one central location that all these buses will be going up ernston Road bord town and back down Cheesequake somebody getting frustrated makes it to Locust Lane is going to make the right and go down Kendall Drive if not one of your drivers a motorist will do it the motorists are doing it now it'll be tenfold on November 1st the planning board unanimously voted against the proposed School Board bus depot and sent that recommendation to the Department of Education I saw no representation from this board at that meeting I was at that meeting Dr Labby mentioned that one-third of the cost is making the access road uh to bring in the utilities and to accommodate the DPW the city's part of this plan it doesn't look like that's happening now because the city seems to be backing away so I really can't imagine them putting the DPW there that's saving $3.1 million a thirdd of the project please commit to finding another location work with the town thank you very much thank you hi good evening my name is John McGee I live on 161 Kendall Drive I live on on the corner of Cheesequake and Kendall every day there's almost an accident there every day now excuse me I know I spoke to some other members that are sitting here tonight they see me at the planning board the tractor trailers now already cutting through and I'll say again what I said Mr Smith I recently retired so I'm home every day you have tractor trailers coming down Kendall Drive now practically turning on my grass and driveway just to make the turn this morning couldn't even get out again so the tractor trailers that are going to come future to in the future because of the Arsenal Warehouse that was put up there's almost room for 100 down there right between the school buses when it's dark in the morning like right now Daylight Savings Time one of your drivers come out tractor trailer driver ain't paying attention they're going to hit besid not not even that the pedestrians the buses are going to cut through cuz they're doing it now all the little mini buses from the the Learning Center they fly through there now it's it's literally a mad house driving through there and like I said I understand you need a bus depot but you can't tell me there ain't nowhere else in this Township nowhere else you got it mooved from salova you're moving it from the D from the school because of all the diesel fumes and stuff like that you ordered to so what makes us from Laural Park any different you move it you're just moving it from somewhere to somewhere it needs to go in a commercial area not a residential area so there has to be a solution here because what's going to happen it's going to go there yay we won and then somebody gets killed and then somebody's going to go oh wow maybe we shouldn't have done that is that what it's going to take sobody to be killed you know nobody wants to hear that you got a train cross in there too I've seen train hit a car I worked for New York City transit for 34 years on the train trains I've seen it the other day if there was a train coming nobody was moving cuz there was two tractor trailers stuck on boarding town that could not make the turn even with the cops there because of all the construction right now so when you get all of this traffic and people last time somebody said oh they're not going to cut through they do it now you if you did a traffic study you'd have somebody sitting there noticing that all these trucks are cutting through so now when you have the trucks cutting through you have the school buses in the morning kids walking on the street not to mention parents driving their kids to the bus stops what's going to happen litigation you're going to go back to that word again you know it's really something you guys really need to think about you know but honestly I feel like I'm just being looked at like we'll let them all speak we'll do what we got to do we'll try to litigate it or we'll try to do what we want to do and if we get it we're just putting it there does anybody else live around it does anybody else live around that area you know I'm there 32 years now and I'm telling you in the last 10 years it is getting worse and worse and worse and I understand progress people you want to move people you want people in a town I understand that more Revenue more things for the town but there has to be a better area for this place to go I'm I'm telling you it's not it's not good thank you for your comments thank you very much anyone else Evelyn Smith 124 kendle Drive oh now you're looking over here I've noticed Mr Ley that you you uh have not been looking at any of the speakers while we they were up here speaking you have been had your head turned that direction not paying attention to what we're saying if you could direct your comments to the chair please thank you anyway um okay uh well no matter who I direct them towards he should still be watching okay he should be paying attention not looking over at you guys anyway do you realize how long 72 buses is I'll tell you it's over a half a mile you're talking about a half a mile of buses all coming out at the same time now if that doesn't stop the traffic if that doesn't bollock up anything then uh that would be a miracle and I I hate to think that maybe you know they'd put a cop there and let all half mile plus buses out while everyone else is being held up from being able to go to work or to their school I mean I drove my son to the uh um V votch okay I would be sitting in that traffic trying to get my son to the votex so what do I do leave a half hour early so that he can get there and sit around for another half hour because I couldn't get past these buses okay once it goes to 85 buses you're talking 23 of a mile okay you're talking more than half a mile of constant buses and they're not going to be Miss leaving at different times they're all going to be going the same time because all of the schools you the elementary schools start at the same time so the buses have got to come out and go for that time there is other places um where they can go now we know that the 35 Club 35 is available um Step Back From the microphone a little bit I'm sorry okay um and uh that's you know one um possibility uh now I I believe I heard that um you are resining the contract for your uh um architect if that's the case I hope that means that you're serious and are not going to put it on that property right by my house okay thank you for your comments anyone else I was a teacher but you don't have to raise your hand you could just come up to the microphone Robert Mitchell 89 Candle Drive okay like to start with a question are different locations now presently being considered and looked at you know that you have a group of residents here that are against the project the planning board's against the project I can't speak for the bureau counsel okay we have a situation that is not only one traffic where a location has been done without the pr Pro proper traffic studies things were submitted without going to the planning board first we have a safety issue of our children we have a mother I can't believe she's not Furious and she's downplaying a head trauma to her son this is what happens I can tell you as a resident of Kendall Drive it is a major cut through I almost get run over walking out to my vehicle I have had my mirror clipped off my vehicle three times in the last 10 years of course under the deductible just something you got to pay when you live on kendle drive it's part of our tax bill when you got to replace your mirrors also environmentally 400 trees down to put in this project they actually suck up our carbon dioxide so what do we want to do take 400 trees down and put in a bus depot that'll emit more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere then who knows how many trees it would take to uh remove that the sound I live right to the woods we hear we hear the noises already that there has to be a better location this Board needs to look at these different locations you have to hear the resonance that are speaking here I know there's people upset here that think you're just letting us all take or three minutes and speaking and letting what we're saying go in one ear and out the other my question another one are you actually listening to us do you hear what we are saying because we don't want to come out and waste our time we sat here you started a meeting 15 minutes late you kept a hundred people waiting when this gentleman wants to have an intelligent and speak intelligently about this you want to cut them off at 3 minutes I believe that we're allowed to speak in this country and shouldn't be denied time and when somebody said that they would give him their time and you for you to say that that is not permitted this is not seem right in the United States of America in the burough of Saro thank [Applause] you anyone else would like to speak sorry Jim you said we don't have to raise our hands we can come up Mrs Bloom may I speak again on another topic Jim respectfully we appreciate what you said I'm asking I'm asking you're you're not being recognized you know I'm asking no Jim the president recognizes Jim come on you're a reasonable guy please you know respect I would like to speak on another matter respect respect the process please we have a process in place it's designed to make sure as many of your neighbors can be heard as possible oh I'll wait till others can speak Jim we if you want me to sit down and let others speak I'll be H Mrs Bloom would you recognize me to speak on another matter Jim please don't please don't shout at me Mr Bush please don't shout at me Mrs Bloom I'm gonna give you one more opportunity please this necessary would you please recognize me Jim you're taking this to an unnecessary place we want to hear from everyone in this room this I'll step aside this is our this is our chair meeting you're a reasonable excuse me sir this is a this is a meeting that we're having a Board of Education meeting we want to hear from every one of you who wants to speak we want to give everybody an opportunity by giving three minutes to each person that gives as many opportunities to everyone here who wants to speak as possible that's more than reasonable that's more than fair and we want to make sure that we do that so those of you who want to speak this microphone is for you for three minutes and that's fair for everyone so so so that's what we're going to do you could speak one time you you could say what's on your mind it could be about this topic could be about other topics that's up to you but at the end of the day this board is going to be fair to everyone and that's what we're going to do and that's what our pil that's what our policy says and we're going to stick to it thank you is there anybody in this room back here objects to that speaking sir sir please sit down thank you next speaker please Donal lowski 120 Kendall Drive none of you live in that neighborhood do you have you we have no sidewalk so our kids are are have to walk in the street to get there these cars come through there the speed limit is 25 they're doing at least 40 and they drive right down the middle of the road you're going to have those trucks coming through because they're not going to be able to make the turn onto bord toown Avenue they have to go on to Bard toown because they can't go into Oldbridge so we're going to have the truck traffic the people that work there the school buses the people that drive the school buses what is wrong with this you can't you you're just dumping stuff on us because you don't want to deal with the fact that you picked a wrong spot it's just like ridiculous you know it's like why don't we put where do you guys live you don't you have any open space by you let's do it there I hear the police firing range all night long all day long my dog is scared to death from the pops now we're going to hear buses starting up at first thing in the morning and all day long this is you're just being ridiculous you're not listening to what we have to say and what do we have to do wait till November and just vote the whole bunch of you right out because you you're just not listening to what the people want and I'm sick of it you're just I just can't even there's no words to describe how annoyed because I'm pretty sure probably everybody sitting out here now probably lives in Laurel Park and besides you got your a good trucks aren't your fault but I've had things the wires ripped off my house four times because people cutting through that don't belong there and I'm tired of it took me five minutes to get out of my driveway the other night and you haven't even built anything yet so I you know it's like I would like to leave my house on time too once in a while so that's all I can't I'm just too mad to even keep going hello joyn Ryan 129 Kendall Drive um I just want to know if you spoke to the Department of Environmental Protection Christine marola she's in charge of she's the supervisor for the land where you want to build there are pipes back there from the D they regularly monitor that land because the the the water underneath is polluted okay so I think what's Happening Here possibly is due diligence wasn't done before picking this spot um it's an EPA and a D Spot now they did do some mitigation that is true but they cannot clean up the water underneath so it's piped out to a a plant where it's uh they try to clean it or just keep it away from the land and now on top of it you should really speak to Christine marola because is the supervisor and can give you more information um furthermore you're cutting down over 400 trees possibly on land that is D land I mean it's not even about me it's not about me I can sell my house you I can right it's about making a big mistake because you can't admit that you made a mistake in choosing that land I mean you've got de pipes back there you still got copper uh copper dust from DuPont and and and copper I don't know what you call them plates right okay so why would you pick land like that it doesn't make for children to be on I I imagine you know they get off the buses there I'm not sure uh for employees of the Board of Ed to be there it it just doesn't that land is under litigation right now you can speak to Christine marola there lawsuits against it and uh via dupon so it just seems to not make a lot of sense to do this in that spot um it's up to you when you leave this room you can't say anything now I know it and you know it I work for the border of in New York City retired teacher I know you can't say anything but when you leave here you can say something okay and you can think about it and you can realize that compounding a mistake because you don't want to admit you made a mistake is more of a mistake thank you thank you anyone else hi my name is Carol Angley I live at 27 Ash Terrace I've been living there since May 1954 except for two years when I first got married one thing that was mentioned to me that hasn't been mentioned when they start building all this dust all this pollution is going to be kicked up into the air where is it GNA go it just doesn't make any sense to me it it sounds I understand the need for the buses I understand the safety of our children is important but it sounds to me like they went went and had got the buses and then said oh well now where are we going to put them it's backwards to me we need to consider everything and this is just not the right place there's plenty of Industrial and Commercial areas in this in this town where we can put this without it affecting where people live and their lives we're still going to affect children who live there they're going to have to breathe this in are we going to have more people getting cancer then are we going to have a cancer cluster as a result do we really need this so that's something I think we should keep in mind what are we going to kick up when we start building not to mention the noise that's going to happen from the building and that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you for your comments else seeing none Mrs Bloom if everyone else has spoken may I please address the board on another matter we said before we start a public comment that we were going to hear from as many people as possible for three minutes everyone has spoken the answer is no the answer is no I'm going to suggest to you that this kind of arrogance is the reason we are in the situation we are in and the taxpayers are paying for it this kind of arrogance Jim we have to follow policy and procedure you know that as well as anybody and we're going to now do our best very very best if we can to answer as many of the questions that were raised as possible okay that's that's what our intention has been once public comment was over so we're going to do that and we're going to turn if I can turn over to Dr Labby and if there's stuff that you need me to address from a legal perspective I'm happy to do that as well she I think she has to close public first okay yeah seeing no one else hi uh my name is Benjamin tang and my son is a uh student at SMS uh recently he was restricted from uh riding his bus to his mother's home which currently he lives in two homes Right comes from a divorce family and um you know it's posed some impact to us as a family because having to try to figure out our schedules and our work schedules to try to take him to school and bring him to school um bring him home from school has been an issue so you know I I've brought this up a couple times you know through email but I just wanted to present it to the board and see if I could get some support here because essentially um it's hurting us and it's hurting him um you know I I don't see how uh a lot of people could say they're in the same circumstances so I would say it's probably a Mye percentage that they're in the position that I'm in but uh you know we come from a divorced family both homes are in the district so I own both homes I pay for both homes so you shouldn't entitle him to at least to be able to get a ride to his mother's home you know and not have us to have to worry so you know I just wanted to bring that up and see if that was a possibility to review that that's all thank you okay anybody else time hi um my name is Martin rice 27 Buttonwood drive and on Buttonwood drive there already is a cancer cluster including myself I'm a cancer survivor and this would make things that much worse I mean they talk about environment we need trees we need this we need that but they're chopping down trees like crazy all over the place now they want to shut down more trees and you're talking about 70 80 buses which are probably diesel am I correct there will be diesel yeah hello will we'll answer those questions if you're asking that question I'll answer that question when you're done okay and Diesel of course creates even more pollution than even regular gasoline cars or for buses so every day that those fumes are going to come right into our town that's a small area I don't know if you guys ever seen it and uh that's that's going to be a disaster and you know people are going to get sick kids are going to get hit by by I don't know what by the buses maybe I don't know uh it's just it's not a good situation my opinion I mean you don't agree okay also we're the taxpayers of the of the town we pay a school tax so we should have a say on where things go there's PL like like somebody else said there's plenty of industrial tracks all over the town that can be utilized for something like that I'm not saying don't you don't do the buses I'm saying do it where there's no you know no no private houses no no indivi you know people are going to get hurt by it and that would be fine and that's it for me thank you thank you for your comments anybody else re Gates 38 Elm terrce poo New Jersey Laurel Park I was today I was walking my dog up Kendall Drive I had to scream at three school buses driving up Kendall Drive one bus driver actually turned around and looked at me and said like why are you screaming at me you're going 35 mes an hour in a 25 M hour Zone you have cars parked on the street on both sides how much room do we have there's not enough of room to fit buses on top of all the cars that are cutting through the buses from the lifelong Learning Center the trucks that are going to we're going to have 700 trucks going up and down che's Quake road because they didn't build the country road that they were supposed to build this is insanity this is in our backyard I've lived here for 32 years I don't want to get sick and die from cancer or have breathing problems this has to stop this has to be another place where you can put this buz de about I cry every day thinking about what is Going H what is happening to my neighborhood it's going to be destroyed today I went down the park we have construction people working to make the road wider now because the truck drivers didn't build that extension now they have to build the road wider so these trucks can turn onto barding Town Road this is insanity this has to stop find another place I'm begging you my house is going to be worth nothing who's going to want to live in our neighborhood nobody I know I wouldn't please help us and stop this thank you thank you for your comments anyone else okay seeing none I will close public you can answer questions please thank you Mrs Bloom uh first of all I I want to acknowledge Mrs wank Mueller and just to let Mrs wank Mueller know that you know we all love Brian and we are all so very grateful and blessed that um Brian's okay and if you could do us a favor and let him know his friends are we asking about them I will because we miss him very much me particularly I will thank you um so beginning I'll go in chronological order with the questions in 2017 did the district decide to purchase Vehicles rather than go ahead and continue to use vendors yes with our 2017 to 2021 strategic action plan in which the entire Community par participated in we made that decision if you want to look on our website you'll see the Strategic action plan we had many many issues with busing make an example of it we had at least two incidences where we had buses that were 3 hours late we had the police had to track down the bus in order to find the driver and take the driver to the school we had other incidents very similar to that we had another incident where a parent got so upset at a bus because of the fact that the bus was late that it it tried to attack the bus driver pulled the bus over and tried to attack the bus driver at that point we decided you know what we believe that our drivers can do a much better job than the vendors that we were using and we were also getting price gout by those vendors so that's the time where we made that commitment we're going to start purchasing our own buses and do it ourselves and since then I have to tell you this as we've incrementally made these changes our problems incrementally decreased because our drivers were driving our buses and they are the people that we want doing the most important job in terms of safety with our most precious commodity our students any more costs associated to the bids were there any more costs associated to the bid no the bid was what the bid was I believe it's 5 million 5.6 million and that was just for the site development of the complex that's what the bid was there are no other costs associated outside of that what will the total cost of the complex be I don't know that the only way I would know that is if we go out to bid for the structure that we would put on the area that we develop you know the site that we developed once we developed the site then we would go out to bid for the structure you would add the two together and then you would get your total cost are any other sites in consideration I think at this point and I'll skip down to uh someone asked did we resend the contract with the architect no what was on the addendum this evening was we rescinded the bid so that $5.6 million bid that was awarded to the company to go ahead and develop the site we rescinded that as such I'll go back to the question about are any other sites in consideration if this site is no longer going to be a possibility at some point for us yes all Sites all consideration is back on the board and to tell you the truth I'm not sure why we would go ahead and Trust the burrow for land we would probably look back at our own land that we have ourselves so we have Land by the cover school that if this does not work out we will be considering once again we have Land by The Truman school which we will consider very strongly as well we also have land behind the Eisenhower school which we will consider and finally there is a portion of land at the high school where our current garage is that we will also consider building our complex in so yes if this site does not work out and it is our hope that it will we will go ahead and we will consider other sites was litigation discussed in closed session I'm not permitted to discuss matters in closed session if it were discussed in Clos session it would be under attorney client privilege therefore I would not be able to discuss it did we resend the contract of The Architects I answered that it was the rescindment of the bids are you listening to us yes every single one of us is listening to you did we speak with the do with the D when we were in the process of writing up our land lease agreement just as many of you would do if you were purchasing a new home you have to do a title search or in this case a deed search within the deed search it clearly indicates that remediation did take place and that we are permitted to use that land because of that furthermore we have email communication with Dupont telling us that the land is not contaminated or not contaminated enough for us to not build on it we can build on it they even asked us at certain points they have wells that they're monitoring they wanted to make sure that the well that they were using were not in that lot of land and they were not so Dupont told us you can go ahead and do what you need to do on that land why did you select the land to be quite honest with you we didn't and I said this during the planning board meeting and I'm I'm I'm sure that a lot of people don't want to believe that and all I ask you to do is go to our April 2022 joint March March March 7th March 7th joint Board of Education and burough council meeting I asked you to do that watch the tape this process started because we were going to build the complex on our own property by the cover school we mutually agreed to have a joint meeting to discuss it prior to the Joint meeting the Burl Council provided us with eight different locations across cille for us to select we came up with a I think three to four and every one that we came up with they said no you can't use it no you can't use that one no you can't use that one either to the point which and watch the tape I said how do you give us options and then say no you can't use those those options and just before we all threw our hands up Dan Frankle the former business administrator for the burrow looked at the mayor and said wait a minute I have an idea for a location he told us the location I immediately responded with wait a minute you're going to have us cut down all those trees to build this complex there yes I said well we can't afford that we weren't planning on cutting down trees we can't afford that we will pay for the cutting down of the trees and the removal of the stumps was what was said next to us the next question I asked was well what about the remediation of the land and Mr Franco looked at Mr Cornell who is the engineer and he said I don't believe that land needs to be remediated does it and the engineer said no it doesn't again this is not fiction I ask you to look at that video tape are the buses diesel the majority of our 54 seat buses are diesel all of our Mini buses are gasoline over the past two years which I believe is about 10 buses they are now gasoline buses in the future wherever we end up constructing our complex we are going to put infrastructure in so that eventually hopefully when the buses come down to reasonable cost we'll have electric buses and I believe those were all the questions that were asked I just I'm going to reiterate takes a second for this thing to turn on sorry but I just going to reiterate an important point that Dr Labby made um and you know without getting into too much detail about what happened in executive session because it is protected by the attorney clim privilege but you know I was at that meeting and it's available on you don't have to make an oppr request for it it's available on the website for the buau you can find all their Council meetings actually was a is it on the board of EDS it's actually on the board board of education's website so you can go there or you go to YouTube and get it but it was on March 7 2022 was a joint meeting these are really rare to have a joint meeting with two public entities we did it and it was an actual you know as opposed to two parties in a contract discussion you know where you you know one party brings a lawsuit against the other and it's questionable to a finder of fact as to like exactly what happened and one party says this happened the other party says this this happened this is all open this was in public just like this there's just more people here because the council was here as well and so you really can see the process and you can see how this happened again this started with a concept of Slover the community around Slover came out very upset similar to some of the comments that we heard tonight we listen to those as well and uh we were looking for other Alternatives and the buau offered us this alternative they gave us this idea they told us this was a good idea and then beyond the meeting where you saw the negotiation take place in public on March 7th which any of you are free to on your own time to watch we then agreed with the buros attorney and in my office to negotiate a memorandum of understanding which was referred to at one point tonight that was negotiated and we had a partner in the buau not just any partner your municipality your buau government and we came to an understanding and we RI on that understanding we even worked with them along the way very collaborative very collaboratively and then we heard about the planning board meeting which some of you were apparently at and I can see why some of you are upset you've expressed that tonight we've all heard you but this has been quite a process and there's a lot more to this story it's just important I think for everyone to understand that and I think it's important just to be able to get a a wider glimpse of how we got here uh and so when the when when the board of education is considering legal action it's doing so in a in a much broader context we came to sir please sit down I I'm uncomfortable saying okay that's fine I just want to make sure you're not gonna say anything thank you so so the all the concept here is that we as a board of education relied on a partner we relied on a promise because it was a contract we continue to work along the way expend quite a bit of taxpayer dollars that should have been spent on students if it over half a million dollars to the plan yeah yeah exactly it's your money it's it's everyone in this room who lives in Saville's money as taxpayer and excuse me I'll just say this and and the board and the board and the board is in a very difficult position we're not asking you for we're not asking for you to empathize we're just trying to explain the the gro the broader context and so what's happened now is we're stuck because it's pretty well understood that a bus depot needs to be built but our partner turns out is no longer willing to partner with us and our our we are in a position where we have to make some very difficult choices so that's where the B that's where the board of education is and they're trying to figure out what those next steps are so again we can't we we had the public comment already but comments from the floor but but we but just just suffice it to understand that there have been plenty of meetings that have taken place tonight is one obviously we talked about March of 2022 and there were a series of meetings in the winter please don't quote me on dates but where we talked about Slover as a possibility where the Slover Community was saying you know similar things to what was said tonight with respect to their Community um and so this has been this has been coming on for this has been coming on for a while and and it's been going on going back to probably the winter of 2021-22 um leading into that meeting on March March of 22 but no more please and I I everybody here respects that you all want to say something but you've spoke but you've spoken already after after the meeting if you want to approach if you want to approach some of us after the meeting you're free to do that but the but the meeting portion of public comment is over okay com you can see him answer question that's all I want to assure everyone here we did we did our best go ahead what was the question you asked sir I I was looking for a confirmation on whether or not the reduction of one3 of the project would bring the price down by $3.16 million If you eliminate the the road the access road and the utilities that you would have to bring forward for the DPW I was looking for like some sort of confirmation on that whether or not I was correct I can't give you an exact confirmation on that but what I can do is stand by what I said during that planning board meeting which was onethird of the cost for the that that bid to just develop the site was due to Bringing Utilities in and then not only bringing them into our site but bringing them to the back of the property so that it could be hooked up by the DPW plant if they were to construct it as well as building an access road to that so if they're out of the equation that would reduce the need for that and that that that that sounds logical but in in some cases it's not it's all based upon the bid that we get but you're what you're saying right now is logical based upon what I just said however we've learned in this business when when you go out for bid it's it's not always logical the bids are based on the specs you reduce the specs they are but they're also based upon the market Dr lbby okay can't sorry okay ladies and gentlemen I want to assure you that every person on this board hears everything that you say we all live in this town we all pay taxes our children live here our grandchildren live here and I myself lost my daughter to breast cancer in this town so please don't say that we don't hear you because we do Mrs Bloom respectfully one of my questions was not answered sir please when the meeting is over you can ask another question if you like send an email please send an Mr Robins come on you know I as a question that was not answered Dr lby right I'll tell you what my question was that was not and I'll read it I read it and it was this is the total you were willing to spend on road $9.5 million that's not what you said you said is the total going to be and I my response to that was I can't tell you what the total is going to be because we didn't go out for the total project we went out to bid for the site development will to that was my question were we willing to spend $9 million what we are willing to do what is to build a complex so we were willing to spend the five $5.6 million for the site development when we go out to bid for the complex we would then have to consider those bids that we get I understand that but all I I just want to I asked a question it's a yes or no question and and and what I'm trying to tell you is to spend and what I'm trying to tell you is I can't answer that question because I need I need to get that bid information want the same courtesy the other gentl you got the same courtesy thank you you got the same we have a motion to adjourn do I have a second second all in favor I opposed meeting is adjourned