e e e e e e e what's the card there that's right good did you get one of those no he didn't right forgot though yeah we we all read inass it don't matter get I get a huge thank you letter they were so proud of can I leave this right here so it's on camera the entire time all right call to order regular meeting March 14th meeting announcements thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have an advance to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the sparta board of education has caused notice of the time and date of this meeting to be published in the New Jersey Herald The Star Ledger tap into spa.net and the notice of the meeting has been posted on the town Sparta Township School District website all rise for pledge of allegiance flag United States of America indiv andice can we get a roll call M Kier here miss gagnan present Miss McMichael here Mr pesi miss cander here Dr Sano Mr wood here Mr Morris here at this time we're going to convenient to close session we will be hearing um interviews from insurance brokers and hearing a hiip appeal we'll be back sevenish and confidential legal and confidential legal matters motion to go into close session thank you all in favor a second second second thank e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e right sorry for our tardiness we're going to resume open session Joan can we get a roll call Miss khier here miss gagnan present Miss MCM here Mr pesi here miss cander here Dr Serrano here Mr wood here Mr Mars here okay we're going to start this evening with our presentations first one we're going to have is theater in our school's month you can step by the pod that's your yeah that's your slideshow you can uh the keyboard on sh use the arrows all right thank you so much um hello my name is theres joag I'm here to present uh for drama club in Sparta High School as well as spart um so recently our drama club has joined international thespian society and what this means is that this Society is dedicated to allowing students to have the opportunity to have Theater Arts education available to them and this includes the access to scholarships access to theater resources and programmingsoftware so our troop officers I am the marketing director um Paula aldz is our president Katie Sheeran is our vice president um Julian handz is our secretary and Isabella Churchwell is our historian so this year we participated in thespian festival and what this means is that 11 students were able to have feedback and have a chance to win honors Awards um through uh participation in um events uh they also participated in workshops uh which um were taught by professors and a professional theater artists as well um and for our goals for this program is we continue to grow this um until we achieve gold now amazingly this year we did win bronze honor troop uh through our previous um interactions with drama club and um as here um I was able to win a superior medal for theater marketing now um thespian Festival is not the only only um Festival we attended we also attended teen Arts which multiple students in drama club participated in I participated in a monologue and um several other students um saying at uh small theater groups um and now moving on to plays and Productions this uh year we presented A Midsummer Jersey written by Ken lugwig and everything you see on that slide um including the costuming including the sets were all done by students which shows student initiative um um this production was also directed by our lovely thespian troop adviser Allison susman so we have future plans for spring 1X um we um there's going to be two directors me being one of them and Shay Harrison and as you see at the bottom there will be a stage reading of our um scavengers written by Miles uh Williams which shows um a play a student playright and everything that is going to be presented in the future in these one will be produced by students so this only shows the importance of theater it shows student involvement it shows student Community it shows that students are able to gain confidence in Theater Arts through these uh programs now I'd like to talk about theater in our schools month which is sponsored by international thespian society which um promotes the value of theater education um uh nationally so our troop has decided to include the message you will be found which ensures that students have quality theater education as well as a sense of community and belonging through theater programs uh our future goals are to expand membership to build skills by offering workshops with professional guest artists and provide opportunities to foster a safe sense of uh community and develop um a theater program that can benefit students and Sparta residents as a whole here are social media links and um thank you for your time thank you our next presentation is Seal of biliteracy Dr [Applause] banon here thank you so much good evening um esteemed members of the Board of Education ladies and gentlemen and dear colleagues tonight we uh gather to celebrate an extraordinary achievement one that symbolizes dedication perseverance and the Relentless pursuit of Excellence I'm deeply honored to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the remarkable students of Sparta High School who have been awarded the prestigious sealed by Literacy By the state of New Jersey this recognition is not just a mere Accolade it's a testament to the incredible commitment and hard work that our students have invested in their linguistic Pursuits the Seal of by literacy stands as a benchmark of linguistic proficiency and a mark of Distinction that sets our students apart what makes this achievement even more remarkable is the increase in the number of students qualifying for the award this year it's a testament to the unwavering dedication of our students the tireless efforts of of our teachers and the unwavering support of our parents to our students I commend you for your commitment to mastering languages for embracing the richness of cultural diversity and for embodying the spirit of lifelong learning your achievement today not only reflects your linguistic proficiency but also Your Capacity to bridge cultures Foster understanding and Forge connections across borders to our parents I offer my sincere appreciation for your steadfast support your encouragement and your belief in the Limitless potential of your children your unwavering commitment to their education has laid the foundation for their success and to our teachers I extend my deepest gratitude for your unwavering dedication your passion for teaching and your Relentless pursuit of Excellence your guidance your mentorship and support Have Been instrumental in shaping the minds and hearts of our students empowering them to reach new Heights of academic and personal success as we celebrate this happy occasion let us not forget the profound imp impact that education has on shaping the future of our society let us continue to Champion the values of knowledge and let us Empower our students to become Global Citizens who embrace the world with Open Hearts and open minds congratulations once again to all the recipients of the seala by literacy your achievements Inspire us your dedic motivates us and your success fills us with pride may you continue to pursue your dreams with courage passion and determination knowing that the world is yours to conquer I'm now going to uh show the recipients and uh if you wouldn't mind as your name is read out if you and your parents would please stand for acknowledgement uh that would be fabulous thank you so in English an Kathleen who was an exchange student from Germany which is why it's English Dana Dunbar French congratulations Molly Engelhart French Katherine gains French Cassandra Loco French Aiden Mahoney French one or two of you might have been thinking that a couple of these names of are graduates that is the case uh but they still are being recognized this year by the state French kayathri nadaraja I hope I got that right Vaden Paul art French Christian Posado French Cassidy pry [Applause] French Nathaniel rogov French Katherine sheeren French Nicholas Georg in German Kylie Johnson German German Mason munier in Japanese Nina [Applause] neris Arthur doine in Portuguese Tagalog Alexis vilapando in Spanish Sophia caloro in Spanish Hector Cruz Spanish Sophia Davis Angelina farella in Spanish spish Edward Flanery also Spanish tag herbison Spanish Eva Hughes Spanish Julia money Spanish KY O'Brien Spanish Michaela Ricki Spanish Emily smyrnov Spanish Dean stas Spanish Juliet Sanchez [Applause] Spanish in Russian Ashton welber Anna yv in Russia a special mention to two of our students who won seala by literacy in two languages Matthew Vaso in German and in Portuguese in Polish Michelle kovic and Michelle also uh got the seal in Russian just to give you a quick overview you can see that we tested more languages this year we tested fewer students uh in terms of focusing our um efforts it meant that we spent um about a third of what we normally spend uh and you can see that our pass rate went from 8 to 29% and we have a 45% increase in passes which is the best ever results so in this regard the state of New Jersey um intimated in the last summer that we should be trying to encourage more languages in terms of uh students in our population getting the Seal of by literacy we uh were ahead of the game by about 6 months so that's why you can see that we test more languages and we're getting more Pass rates one of the things I want to mention to the parents particularly uh ran University and Kan University in New Jersey have just announced that the Seal of biliteracy will now equate to six credits in language which is uh a $2500 amount of saving for $19.90 of a test so to encourage uh and get the word out more about the the Seal of biliteracy the more and more uh uh colleges are providing this as a benefit so that you can see that you are saving uh six credits and you are uh managing to possibly be able to take other classes that you might not have had to uh if you were having to take your world language requirement so this is a new trend and it's something to encourage language acquisition so I just wanted to include that in my remarks to give you a sense of not only congratulations but about hopefully a saving uh of um of of credits and of money particularly um just as a final uh slide our uh World languages teachers and I wanted to make sure that um each and every one of them is Rec recognized for all the very hard work over the the year that they have put into encouraging and supporting our students uh uh receive the ca by literacy my my grateful thanks thank you thank you congratulations to all the students that were mentioned this evening next presentation is the tenative budget presentation we'll just pause for like two seconds see how that them I yeah 5 minutes or less Joan just kidding take your time know if uh you just want to take your time that's cool too two seconds very welcome me a time we try to go halfway in between our heights yeah I just want to mention before we start the presentation this is a tenative presentation we'll won't be Fielding any questions from the audience um the board can ask questions after uh so there um the audience have any questions they can be fielded next month uh if you can let Jenny know that when she comes back in that'd be appreciated she likes to ask questions you can begin yeah that's that's actually how is going to start the presentation was was just talking about the process a little bit uh important to note as Mr Morris just mentioned that this is the preliminary budget presentation so just to refresh everyone's memory about how this works um March is the month where we present the preliminary budget the purpose of the preliminary budget is to inform the board of what our budget is going to look like make sure the board is informed um the ultimate goal tonight is to have the board approve our budget the tentative budget the preliminary budget to submit to the county department of education that is due by March 20th that's why this that's why today's board meeting Falls earlier than most uh board meetings fall in the month because it has to be submitted to the county by March 20th so um that's why we're meeting tonight on March 14th what happens then is in that time um from the time that we submit it the county reviews it and the county ultimately and ideally approves it um and that that's the county saying that our our budget is acceptable it meets it meets everything that is statutory and financially acceptable uh then we come back in April this year it'll be April 25th the April 25th board meeting will be the actual budget hearing where uh the board um we will recommend the final budget to the board the board would hopefully ultimately approve that budget and uh that's a hearing and that's when questions can be asked from the public so tonight the questions will come from the board uh clarification they just need to know what they need to know to submit the preliminary budget to the uh to the county between March 14th and April 25th um if there's small revisions that need to be made within the budget that is allowed uh ultimately what we're what we're approving tonight is the overall number um but if we find at some point that we need to move $2,000 from this line into another line those those minor minor revisions are are allowed between now and uh April 25th before I go any further uh for the people at home I just want to make sure that you are aware that the budget presentation that we are about to see has just been posted online so you can go to our main website the district website sparta.org on the right hand column where it says uh District presentations it will be the first presentation link so this presentation you can follow along at home we receiv received feedback in the past recently that people at home um couldn't see the screen understandably and it was tough to follow presentations so what we're trying to do from this point forward as much as we can is presentations like this get them up on the website while we are presenting so folks can follow from home trying to make some uh some improvements with that so now we will get into the actual presentation the budget development highlights just going through um how this budget was developed and uh the highlights of what is in this budget uh just as we talked about last year this year was the same budgeting process uh known as zerob based budgeting whereas um when we go to Administration and we go into the building levels um we don't just simply roll over funds uh every Department every building their funding starts at zero and then they have to uh validate substantiate what is going into their budget rather than saying well you got x amount last year so you're going to get x amount plus 2,000 this year that's not how we budget that's not a responsible budget the way to responsibly budget is to you come to us tell us exactly what you need for your departments tell us exactly what you need for your students um tell us why you need it and we'll start building from there so we have uh implemented that in the past and we've done it once again this budget uh continues to fund maintain and improve the quality of our educational programs it is very important to note that in this budget there are no programs that are being cut um that's always one of our goals uh obviously you just heard the the World Language presentation we have great programs in our schools and uh our goal is always to make sure that we can continue to fund those programs and to fund them responsibly uh so there are no programs being cut all programs are being maintained within this budget that is uh a big highlight we continue in this budget to provide professional development opportunities to increase teacher expertise and efficacy um this budget includes technology infrastructure maintenance and upgrades uh there are some very uh Beyond essential things that need to take place as far as technology infrastructure goes uh in the upcoming school year uh so we need to make sure that we funded that essential technology infrastructure we continue to support the social emotional mental health of the sparta learn Community you have heard numerous times at these board meetings how great of uh social emotional mental health programs we have in our district and uh those are not slowing down they're only growing so uh we continue to fund those and support those and there is one Capital project in this budget uh well it's the same Capital project in two places so um it is the removal of underground oil storage tanks in uh at Sparta Middle School and at Mohawk Avenue School those are the two or one Capital project that that appears in this budget uh with the conversion to gas in those buildings that is uh required by law to then get the oil tanks out of the ground within a certain uh time frame so we have to be able to fund that and that is the loan Capital project that you will see in this budget going through the budgeting process um very similar to how we went through the budgeting process last year Administration engages staff to ascertain and justify resource need needs they build their budget books in their departments and in their buildings um Miss Black gives them criteria of what she needs um not what programs and and the details of what she needs but what she needs to see uh what categories and and such that she needs to see Hands them basically blank budget books and they get returned with the zero based budgeting with what they need uh those budget books Administration goes to their staff multiple meetings with Administration uh we spent a lot of time uh as a big administrative team talking about the budget and then misss black and I meet with individual admin teams on the building level and the supervisor level uh multiple times and of course we engage the finance committee throughout the process but also individual board members uh the the finance committee um is always in lock step with what we're doing uh being uh brought up to speed that is and then individual board members come in once the build the budget is built Ms Black invites board members to come me individually go through the budget line by line if that's if that's what the board member wants to feel comfortable in order to vote for the budget then that's what we do Administration Revisited staff scheduling class sizes and programming goals to determine the Staffing numbers Staffing is always a huge part of the budget as you know the preliminary budget is to be approved by the board then submitted to the county for doe approval that's what I spoke about before and the final budget hearing as I said before is to take place uh at the April 25th 2024 board meeting so before we get into the the numbers and really dive deep into the budget this is how we started the presentation last year this is how we'll start it again this year because as the taxpayers and people in the audience here in the board are watching this presentation one of the ultimate things that you're wondering is what does this mean for me what does this mean for my taxes what does this mean for the taxpayers so let's answer that question now so that while we are going through the budget you have that in the back of your mind and seeing how we arrived at these numbers um for the 202 the 2324 tax levy the year that we're living in uh the tax levy was 65 m953 this budget is proposed to increase the tax levy by 2% and that 2% is 1.3 million roughly which takes us to the 2425 School tax levy of 67,2 123,124 25 school year the average home average home is assessed at $372,500 and the school tax levy effect for 2425 on that average home is $156 57 per year or $135 per month that's what it means to the taxpayer we're going to get into much more detail about what how we arrived at these numbers but I like to get that out of the way first and keep that in the back of your mind this is just a look at our enrollment numbers over the past couple of years uh our enrollment has been increasing as you can see there's an increase of 4.4% in our enrollment over the past 5 years uh we are fortunate to be a growing Community here in Sparta um and one of the few growing communities still in uh in Sussex County so you can just see the enrollment Trend over the years just wanted to throw that in there because obviously enrollment is a a main uh component that drives the budget excuse me uh Miss Black will take the next two slides drink so the district has two two Reserve accounts uh maintenance reserve and capital reserve currently our capital reserve is at $1.2 million the maximum allowed is approximately $12 million for this District our maintenance Reserve is at $136,000 and we are um the maximum allowed is $3.5 million the next one oh I'm sorry just the arrow y okay so how did we we um make this budget balanced the revenue side of this budget is is comprised of the local tax levy at 2% there are also two allowance adjustments that did come through this year one was for healthc care allowance and also an enrollment allowance however we did not utilize it in the budget this year it is it then becomes banked cap and it can be used over the next three years that amounted to $393,000 state aid did increase for this District by $625,000 we are also using budgeted fund balance of $1.2 million uh we did not do a withdrawal from maintenance Reserve uh grants did go up as far as pea Esa and Ida and also miscellaneous Revenue which is our facility use and also um the the four board donations that's that compris that you notice that that number has gone down and it's because we are not charging for preschool tuition now since we are part of the preschool expansion program yeah just to reiterate what Miss Black said if you recall last year the tax levy was above 2% so uh and the way we were able to get above 2% last year as as was explained was to utilize Bank cap the enrollment allowance the healthcare allowance uh that's how we again able to go above the 2% um this year we were eligible to go above the 2% uh with the 300 93,000 $393,000 uh but we did not we did not touch that we did not so we wanted to uh do everything that we could uh to stay within the 2% tax levy um and we'll show a trend of uh tax levies over the past couple of years too um but we want to stay within that 2% we wanted to do everything we could to balance a budget with just that 2% tax levy without dipping into or accessing a bank cap as we did last year and we were able to do that so those were the revenues this is just another way to look at the revenues where does our Revenue come from where do we get the money that we can spend in our school district the revenues um you saw it on the previous slide uh but the bulk of how we uh get our money to fund the district is from the local tax levy um State that's 86% of of how we fund the that's 86% of our Revenue State a is also a big part uh state aid varies as you know uh one of the key components to state aid is student enrollment so as you see our student enrollment going up that helps us with st with uh with state aid so it's always a positive positive for many reasons that our enrollment is going up and then you see the rest of of how uh what this shapes out to be again these are the numbers from the previous slide this is just what it looks like on a pie chart just to give you a different visual the expenses so we talked about the revenue side got to talk about the expenses side we talked we talk about this every year about how the costs the expenses in our district uh how they go up and how much they go up by um so for the 2425 school year um salaries are increasing the contractual increase is 2.8% which equates to approximately $1.2 million that's an increase of what we have to pay for next year the health benefits line is set to increase uh 700 50,000 the general liability insurance is projected to increase 20% Which means $240,000 the pur contribution is uh projected to increase 17.61% which equates to $250,000 special education costs going up uh projected to go up 3% another $250,000 and Transportation uh is the CPI is 5.81% and that is projected to go up 500 $1,000 so when we have a tax levy that as you saw what that tax levy was going to get us that only gets us a portion of what everything else that is going up and we have to figure out how to balance the budget with just that increase in tax levy but with all these other increases and again this is the uh expenditures and the expenditures compared to last year so we just talked about numbers and how they were going up these are the actual numbers um total numbers uh not the previous slide was just a number increase this is the total numbers of what you're seeing 23 24 the year that we're living in compared to 24 25 how much it went up MoneyWise and what that percent change looks like and as you can see again it's just another visual for you to see what we needed to account for in this budget with all of those increases and again only being allotted the 2% tax levy excuse me as promised here is the uh the school tax levy uh since 2010 Ms Black was able to research the uh the history the trends of our tax levy since the year 2010 and as you can see it varies it depends on state aid it depends on um a a multitude of factors and uh from 2010 again you can see there's a few years that were above the 2% 2% is the uh um about the norm of what you see sometimes it's above that um one time it was actually below that but that's where we are projected for the fiscal year 25 next school year right at that 2% and that's it uh again this is the preliminary budget the board has uh been kept in the loop as to what exactly is in this budget much more time and much more uh budget lines being looked at than what we just looked at these are the big picture items just to recap everything but our job was to along with the admin team was to build the budget build a responsible budget to make sure that we continue to educate our students at a high level and still be responsible to the taxpayer with the 2% tax levy uh we feel that this is a very good budget we feel that we were able to do that achieve both of those goals and um showed the board over the past couple of weeks how exactly we plan on doing that and tonight we're just asking for you to approve the preliminary budget to get it over to the county and let the county give it a review but if again if there's minor tweaks in the interim we can always look at it any questions from the board so I have a few questions and a few comments um one I want to thank Joanne for um allowing us to come into your office and spending many hours together um to go over quite a few pages um some of the things that I want to explain in terms of why I do plan to support this tonight number one I think it's great that the administrative team teams were able to address our overloads which was something that I had mentioned a few months back uh before I was serving on this board as an area of concern um working with the administrative team you were able to reduce overloads by $123,000 and I think that's pretty significant when you think of um and also pretty Innovative when you think of the way we were able to accomplish that so I just want to give credit where it's due there um I know Wendy has reported out that the curriculum committee was uh working on for a while the subscriptions um and purchases that were in in place for the months during covid um which we've kind of parred back as a result of no longer needing all of those um so another great area um a lot of the um camera purchases other things that are more rooted in security I feel like um are necessary for our district a few things that I do want to mention uh I think it's important that we consider we have Lo it was about $200,000 this year in extra expenses due to Charter placements and I think it's really important that we're trying to work collaboratively to figure out why it is that we're losing those students in some cases of course it's unavoidable um but in others when people are citing issues like climate and culture as the reason for their departure I think that there are ways that we can be proactive in preventing that um I also want to work collectively um with Dr Beck and Miss Rossy to figure out if there's ways that we can perhaps uh initiate some sort of a protocol when someone's ready to leave our district do we have a survey in place do we have a phone call process that takes place an interview process to try to figure out why it is and see if there's areas where we can improve and maybe if it's a simple phone call that can avoid the loss um so some those are some of the areas that I do want us to work on um I look forward to working with Joan especially in terms of Grants I feel like there's a lot of opportunity for us I know you're working diligently to explore those um particularly when it comes to Transportation I know that we're seeing a sizable increase something like 8 88.4% and I know we're actively exploring grant opportunities for transportation um and hopefully that'll help relieve some of the issues um one last thing that I do want to make sure mention uh I do understand that we have cut something like 10% off of the general departments we've asked each department to kind of par back about 10% yeah each yes um and those that could did and those that couldn't did not which is um acceptable however knowing that we also did this last year I just want to make sure that we're really mindful that we're not making this a recurring theme especially if we are um granted it's a much more um it's a much healthier uh number compared to the 5.8% I still want to make sure that we're not asking departments to cut what they need um although I'm certainly happy to know that no programs are being cut um and we're still going to be able to provide everything we need so um yeah I I plan to support it and I especially thank Joan for her time oh one other thing I wanted to mention I did another look and it looks like the 150,000 that we had projected for legal expenses is now set to 175 so I want to thank you for that um because I know I was a little bit concerned about that initial number only because of um our history the actual audited amount for the last year uh we had budgeted 150,000 it ended up being over 220,000 so I just want to make sure that we're being realistic um and I look forward to really holding to that 175 as much as we possibly can thank you thank you kayn anybody else great thank you thank you okay moving on can I get a motion to approve the minutes motion thanks Craig second second thank you all favor I I ready yes now the superintendent report now that I'm warmed up uh a little shorter this month because of the uh the small Gap in between the the two board meetings a quick turnaround between the between the two board meetings but a couple of items of note um first I want to talk about the upcoming solar eclipse and how we're going to handle that as a school district I know it's been a topic around uh the local area the region really uh as I'm sure you know there will be a full solar eclipse taking place on April 8th our region is fortunate enough to be able to experience this rare occurrence I wanted to provide the community with an update pertaining to how our schools will be taking advantage of this opportunity while ensuring the safety of our students as our elementary students will be on their buses when the eclipse reaches its peak in the coming in the coming in the coming weeks leading up to spring break our elementary principles will make sure our students understand the possible dangers that exist from staring directly at the Sun during an eclipse they will also be sending a letter home to parents informing them that their students have been taught about this danger and asking for the parents help in reiterating the importance of not staring directly at the Sun during the eclipse additionally we are in the process of purchasing special sunglasses designed to protect our students eyes when worn during the eclipse the glasses will be purchased with the proper certification and brand recommended by the American astronomy Society those glasses will be distributed to all students all elementary students as we dismissed them on April 8th again the elementary students being the main concern here because they will be on the bus on their buses uh during that time also our Middle School is hosting a solar eclipse viewing party where safety glasses refreshments and t-shirts will be provided to all students who register retirements on this evening's agenda you will see some noteworthy long-standing staff members who have submitted their retirements I would like to draw attention to these retired this evening they are Margaret incantalupo math computer science teacher at Sparta High School she has served our district for 26 years Andrew Lowry English teacher at Sparta High School Mr Lowry has served our district for 31 and a half years Susan soy sixth grade math teacher Sparta Middle School Miss soy has served our district for 25 years and Susan Tessier kindergarten teacher Alpine Elementary School Miss Tessier has served our district for 24 years thank you to all of those teachers for their service to our students and District uh uh going back to some World language recognition last Sunday M Wessel attended the German Christmas Market giving back event at the susex county fairgrounds where she was also a guest speaker representing the Sparta High School German program our German students and Miss Wessel have been performing authentic German Christmas songs at the German market for the past 21 years the German Christmas Market awarded us a very generous Grant of $5,000 which will enable us to award scholarships to our graduating German [Applause] students n Sparta Middle School robotics team 153d won the design award which according to Vex recognizes A team's ability to document and explain their engineering design process via an engineering notebook and Team interview as a result team 153d will represent Sparta Middle School robotics at the VEX IQ world championships in Dallas Texas in May where they will compete against students from over 50 countries around the world this is Sparta Middle School's second trip to the world championship and as many years of competition congratulations to [Applause] them and M Rossy planned to come tonight she's running uh late her uh her son had her his basketball banquet so she went to uh make sure she attended his basketball banquet uh but she did give me some notes uh for herself so I'm reading on behalf of M Rossy here the teacher climate and culture Innovation grant program we recently submitted an application for the grant with the NJ dooe the grant is intended to address one of the key recommendations from the task force on public school staff shortages in New Jersey reclaiming teacher time through the investigation and implementation of policies and procedures which reduce administrative paperwork and other tasks that pull teachers away from classroom instruction this is a competitive Grant opportunity with only 30 anticipated Awards we hope to be considered in order to be able to pursue this important work and we've already discard uh started that discussion with the uh Union leadership hoping to get that Grant update on the climate survey the parent culture and climate survey has been shared through email by District correspondence and school-based communication if you have not already done so please check your email to complete this survey of your earliest convenience in order for survey results to be populated by school we must obtain additional submissions for Reliable and valid reporting so far the minimum number of responses has not been met so if you have not submitted it yet please submit and lastly star scores star assessments are used as a universal screening tool within the district approxim approximately three to four times per year star is a tool that has been used along with multiple measures to make determinations about student support services and programming needs star scores have always been available to parents and Guardians by contacting building Administration by the end of next week All Families will have access to their student star scores in the Genesis Parent Portal more information will be shared on how to access this information and what it means and that is the superintendent report thank you moving on to board president report um as I'm pretty sure everyone has uh heard um we have an empty board seat over there um it's unfortunate Miss lonsky had to step down and resign from her seat she uh had a move at a district which disqualifies her from sitting as a board member uh like I said it's unfortunate she'll be missed we wish her the best in her next District I'm sure she'll be at this mic in front of us here regularly as usual but that's that um we did post for the the open seat anyone who is interested you can submit your application by mail to the board office by March 22nd we have a tentative date very tentative no time set yet for April 11th to hold interviews um like I said anyone interested apply that's it can I get a motion to approve the H report motion thanks Craig second thank you discussion Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes you have any Communications Joan anybody none okay delegate leaz on reports no okay good public comment number one public comments are invited on all matters pertaining only to action items at this time please State the action item number as well as your name municipality and group of affiliation if appropriate for the record each participant will receive 3 minutes to speak once you have you're allotted 3 minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again until public comment number two all statements should be directed to me as presiding officer the board or Administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of public participation Jenny Derek's tap into Sparta as usually I have a couple of questions about the policies uh so 15.21 is the agenda item policy 9191 um it's the uh idea about the booster club and the 501c3 and the insurance um it seems and maybe I just don't understand it but it looks like the way it's written booster clubs or pto's are required to get their own 501c3 approvals make own applications for 5013c status and send that information to the district years ago we had worked really hard to get the PTO and any other student organizations that would be appropriate for this to be qualified for the Spartan booster club status in other words you paid a few I don't know it's 225 or $30 or whatever the administrative cost was you provide the information the the organization would provide the information the officers and the fund you know revenues and expenditures at the beginning or by whatever date the district needs it and they would then fall within the 501c3 status of the umbrella booster club but it seems like this new policy is reverting back to the old way where you we're asking the P maybe I don't understand it but it looks like the pto's are being asked once again to go and have to fund their own 5013 3C status they have already I would think the PTO would have their own 501c3 no it used to be like 10 years ago they had their own but then it got changed we were able to and I know because I was part of it able to make it so that the pto's and any other student organization whether it's the theater booster club the ski club whoever would qualify for for the Spartan Club not just the sports but the any organization so that the money that was raised by these organizations that support our students don't have to spend a significant amount of time and money on Audits and and act um all of the costs that are associated with getting that 501c3 and the insurance which is not a small number either so that was how it in years ago organizations had to get their own and then we we were able to say no we'll let everybody come in as long as you give us the filing information and take advantage of the smaller number the cost for these groups but it seems like this policy is reverting back to the old way where each group was responsible for themselves the pto's at least so I'm I'm just bringing that to your attention and hope that that will be REM remedied um 5.9 translation services what is this did we not have this before how often we need a translator um is this for parents coming in that need help with students is this for students um and then just a quick thing 15.17 the but baseball coach is a volunteer do we have a full-time baseball coach because I know slobo retired Frank is a part-time and then we have this guy tagged as a but we do have a real fulltime okay thank you thank you anybody else motion to close public comment number one oh sorry motion thanks second thank you all in favor I I thank you yeah so just to go back to the 9191 uh that policy was created in 1999 it was revised in 2021 what you're referring to is not part of the revision so whatever was in place I was just looking at all the red text yeah but if you look at the current policy um that was not part of the revision so what uh we we'll look into it and and we can we can table it tonight uh to look into it some more but that specific uh component of the policy was not part of this revision if you look at the current policy on the website know years all right we'll look into it and then um the translation services yes that's what it is for it is for uh a go between between um parents when when they're calling on the phone or when they're coming in for meetings uh at at times we need translation services we need our staff to help us with that and um they should be compensated to do so so that's U uh becoming more of a need in our district and uh that's what we are that's what we're doing it was there more to it there go ahead yeah oh yeah and in addition to that um for counseling services if we need to interact with families in a way that is you know more intensive and um requires additional support to be able to provide servicing sure okay moving on to personnel and policy I'm going to make a motion to [Music] table just item 15.21 the whole thing is just 9191 just yeah 91 91 second second second Wendy discussion no okay take a roll call on thatan Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes sorry Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes okay now can I get a motion for 15.1 15. 28 excluding 9191 motion second second thank you discussion it's annoying Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes yeah can you please outside doors he can stop oh you're good you're good it's fine thanks moving on to curriculum and instruction can I get a motion to move 16.1 to 16.6 motion thank you second second you discussion roll callman Miss khier yes Miss gagn yes Miss mcel yes Mr pesi yes to everything but 16.5 which I abstained from Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes okay moving right along the finance motion to move 17 .1 to 17.6 motion thank you second second thank you discussion thank you Joan Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss seander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Morris yes motion move operations 18.1 m thank you second second discussion Joan Miss khier yes Miss gagan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi yes Miss seander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr mors yes moving on 19.1 Old business I have none I don't believe anybody have any old business no new business anyone have new business kind of have a couple things kind of old kind of new um I didn't give a report out for um delegate liaison but we did just approve yet another Grant through um Sparta Education Foundation so they are still hard at work um a large grant that was um given to the Sparta Middle School so um like I said they are still hard at work they just had their wine uh tasting event maybe a week or so ago that was super successful um another update too it was last meeting uh Miss Rossy was talking about the high impact tutoring Grant which um gave the option uh for tutoring from grades 6 through 12 that email was sent out to everyone in the district and it has gotten positive feedback the children can choose to have a chat or video conference live person help them work through their math problems um so great feedback there I hope if you need that sort of help or student does they take advantage of that um especially in the older grades kids are learning different ways than parents but that is um ongoing and like I said positive feedback for that and then uh one more thing um for student council let me just find it real quick there is a charity concert at the high school on Friday March 22nd at 700 p.m. uh there's a $10 entry and the proceeds benefit the sparta food pantry um so I believe that's being put on by the student council typically one of the students would give that update but since they're not here I wanted to make sure that everybody was aware of that event again Friday March 22nd at 700 p.m. at the Sparta High School thank you moving along to public comment number two the board uses second public comment period to invite comments on all matters pertaining to the school District please state your name municipality and group affiliation if appropriate for the board for the record each participation participant will receive three minutes to to speak once you've had your allotted three minutes to speak you will not be permitted to speak again all statements should be pres uh directed to me as presiding officer the board or Administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of public participation I already signed the sheet so don't worry good evening my name is Angela Delia and I am the very proud president of the sparta Education Association it's only been a few weeks since my last report but there is certainly no shortage of good news to share with the board in the community last week we celebrated the love of reading week in our schools many Educators and school community members participated in the festivities including guest and mystery readers both Alpine and Mohawk app Librarians Taran Daris and Heather Freda organized author visits at Alpine Amy Dolan was recognized by 106.3 the bear as teacher of the month she was interviewed on the radio and we were all very excited and proud of her Helen Morgan school really gave back this month students in Mrs Miller and Mrs Pino's classes were so inspired by the seal kindness lesson they that they organized a fundraiser at the 80s dance and raised $100 for soothing PA organization and during read Across America celebrations the HMS Community collected books for a good cause a Livingston fifth grader uh recently created a free lending library at at the airport her goal is to provide books for kids and get them off their devices when they're at the airport HMS students and their families generously donated over 300 books to the cause at SMS we have the highly competitive student faculty basketball game coming up on March Mar 21st and in partnership with St Elizabeth's Miss Hoffman through her work with the culture and climate team and two of her students were an integral part of a major seal project entitled engaging and empowering the voices of all of all students the product of their work is not only being shared with SMS Community but now will be part of a presentation that will be shared across the us at the high school we have two birth announcements congratulations to Tom denunzio and as he and his family welcomed baby Lily and to haly Anderson and her family with the arrival of baby Lucy Dr ganzi presented at both the NJ U music educators conference and at Messiah College and right now the entire music department is currently in Orlando Florida and their teachers have arranged for students to play and record in the Disney Studios Mr featherman and the academic bull earned Champion status when they reigned victorious in the county competition beating Pope John in the final round Mrs ch Mr Anderson and Mr Merill and their Deca students once again have successfully competed at the state level and many have advanced to the National level of competition that will take place next month spring Sports have begun and many new and amazing things will be happening in all of our buildings and I look forward to sharing more great news next month thank you thank [Applause] you Autumn Court Sparta as I indicated last time the chess coach here in Sparta Thomas Murray is verbally abusive to Children last time I mentioned complaints that had been shared with me by other people other Sparta residents on Facebook one woman indicated that he yelled at her son in front of her and grabbed him by the collar that she complained and had a meeting with the principal and superintendent but that he got away with it with his behavior another woman indicated that her friend had a horrible experience with him and that it wasn't the child's fault another woman indicated that her son had a similar experience as my son and that the coach was the reason her son quit and her younger son didn't participate in the chess club she further indicated that he has a tendency to choose favorites and ostracize those he doesn't care for and make unacceptable comments unacceptable comments to Children another indicated that they heard Rumblings about how he talks to children and that they had reported him at Mohawk Avenue and that there's a of a group of moms in Mohawk Avenue um agreeing that his behavior is inappropriate another mom indicated that her daughter had an issue with him but that she didn't report it because her sons wanted to continue chess club another said well I can promise you you're not alone in your concerns my oldest and his friends still make fun of all the outof pocket comments that were made I'm surprised he's still in his role another person private messaged me and said I need to ask are we talking about Tom Murray is he the chess coach I don't even know why he's allowed around children another person said this post does not surprise me one bit given remarks to me from him regarding something else I spoke up about and another one said then the school needs to listen the excuse of not being able to do anything is as a volunteer is BS is there it's their responsibility to keep them safe physically and mentally while in the building I get everyone's together and go down there another one said that he's a patron at St meritz and that he's so nasty to the servers there that the manager read him the riot act that if he didn't change his attitude that no one would serve him and additionally that he called somebody there stupid your excuse over and over again that he's a volunteer and you can do nothing is absolutely ridiculous just because you want to say it over and over again doesn't make it true it's never going to make it true you have a responsibility to keep our children safe in school before school and after school you can do anything you want with the the volunteers that come in before and after school you can stop program you can tell him he can't come here anymore you can do anything you can tell him have your program somewhere else the parents in this District give uh assurances they're given assurances knowing that it's at the school they think oh it's going to be okay it's at the school nobody understands what what and who you have at the school doing your volunteer programs because if I did I certainly would not have had my son there if I knew about all these complaints about his behavior going back 14 years I would have never subjected my son to anywhere near him say much more being at a chess club with him unattended for an hour 30 minutes a a week you need to do something because the fact that you're saying he's a volunteer is completely bogus thank you hi Jenny DS again um just there are going to be some questions about the budget I know I will talk with Joanne about them but just so you have a heads up uh will the retirements be replaced what is the breakage that you're going to realize from that what contributed to the 55% increase in state grants uh state and federal grants um and then Sor aside from that do we have a plan to do board and District goals this year we haven't had them in a while and do we have an update on the uh referendum where are we with that thank you okay motion to close number two thank you one second second thank you all in favor I hi hi yeah no moving on to the go to the order um I just want to touch on uh the love of reading I did participate in the love of reading um I went to Alpine twice uh Mr Remis gave me a beautiful picture book not a lot of words so was very thankful of that uh it was a good time to see all the kids and some of my kids old teachers to talk to them so it was a great time thank you for doing it I know the majority of us did it who were able to attend and so we appreciate it I have nothing else did you get a card H you get a oh I got a card must have been fun to be with your peer right here for Miss Klein there you go I I would just like to point out that many board members and myself and the administration read to uh elementary schools too but we did not receive a card I got a I don't know if the police a picture of everything but well when you're good you're good what you I have a few ITB sorry I have a few items as well um to mimic what Kurt said uh thank you to Mr Amos there was a really Nifty video you were in that we were all in that so um I just want to acknowledge one uh I most I misspoke slightly last meeting when we were discussing the transgender policy um concerns that I still have uh I had mentioned that the maintenance Reserve was over $400,000 and that was based on our audit presentation from January so that updated number is actually more like $136,000 so I just wanted to clarify that so that there's not uh misinformation circulating on account of something that I said um I also want to thank um Miss nag for bringing theater in our schools month to our attention that was not something I was aware of at all um and if there's anything that we can do as a board or in collaboration with Administration to uh bring that bronze honor troop to Gold uh we'd be happy to support um and that is all I have I was not able to attend the to attend this week's meeting with Town Council um but there we are still in correspondence with them and will be reporting out as we can if I could just add because I did not I neglected to put in my superintendent report um in the spirit of theater in our school's month um just want to point out how great The Wizard of Oz was how much my family and I thoroughly enjoyed thoroughly thoroughly enjoyed the play uh the musical and uh thank you to M Delia and and everybody that worked so hard on that it was uh it was really great so Clos do attorney CL privileg discuss the rfps anybody else and one I'm so sorry one more thing to answer the only question I think I'm allowed to answer um Chad actually did bring up setting district and board goals and that's something that we look forward to working with him to do so yes we're going to get that committee it's an ad hoc committee and I addressed that with him be after the budget is complete and we that's going to be uh Chad's project okay if there's nothing else we are going to convene back into Clos session to discuss legal matters and continue discussion on the rfps that we had interviews for uh when we come out action may be taken and we'll be back I'm going to be bold and say 30 minutes doubtful but I'm going to say 30 minutes bold indeed motion go to close session motion second second thank all in favor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e welcome back everybody Joan can we get a roll call please miss Kier here miss gagnan present Sorry Miss McMichael here Mr Mars here Mr pesi here M seander here Dr Serrano here Mr would here okay could I get a mo can I get a motion to move the following resolution the Board of Education appoints the Integrity Consulting Group as the broker of record for the employee of health benefits for the term of July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025 mot motion thank you second second second discussion good roll call Joanne Miss Kier yes Miss gagnan yes Miss McMichael yes Mr pesi I'm going to abstain just because I wasn't able to make the presentation Miss cander yes Dr Serrano yes Mr wood yes Mr Mars yes okay any motion to adjourn motion motion thank you second all in favor I what