e this public meeting of the board of education is now open would you please stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic which stand Nation indivisible andice for all okay roll call Yolanda Lopez present joal truart absent Jean buoy present Addie Daniels Lane present Austin Edwards present Denise Johnson present Sasa mat jeie weam present Larry trailer present Harmony Anderson pres we have a quorum the New Jersey Sunshine Law the New Jersey public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted on on the rules of this act the trend board of education has caused notice of this meeting by publicizing the date time and place therefore posted on the web page the times and the Star Ledger formal action will take place at this meeting all students will graduate with a vision for their future motivated to learn continually and prepared to succeed in their choice of college or career is our mission statement I would like to have a motion to adopt the agenda with two addendums one to the finance and Facilities with a resolution to authorize the district to enter into a co-op pricing agreement with Mercer County Special Services with a another resolution to approve two teachers to complete the njaa teacher leader Academy program resolution to approve approve anou with New Jersey um Eda and SDA for the transfer of the battle monument property and a resolution to approve a settlement in the matter of DB so moved I I'm not done yet I'm sorry I'd also like to uh place an addendum to the human resources agenda and it is new highers Trans first retirement sement appointments and uh that's basically it I i' also like to pull I'd like to pull from the HR agenda the following items a new hire for MC a or CM a transfer for KJ and a reassignment transfer for SS if I could have that motion now moved second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Joel truart absent Jean buoy yes Denise Johnson yes Austin Edwards yes Jeanie weum yes Addie Daniels Lane yes Sasa Manana yes Larry trailer yes motion passed superintendent happy happy Springtime everyone um I know that you would prefer to be outside in 80° weather that's where I'd like to be I don't know if I can get you out of here any quicker but uh we can certainly try um just want to welcome you this evening and I see that we have a number of uh interesting and exciting opportunities today to visit with students in our district and families and parents and everyone included so I just want to make a few statements and then we'll get right into the agenda I know that uh last week and this week if I'm not mistaken one of my colleagues was sharing uh their reports I know if you don't know the individual school reports came out uh early April for each uh of course we've done our data reports uh academic data reports and we understand that we have challenges and those that we work on every day but the individual score reports came on which allow s those outside of here and those inside here to make judgments about our schools and our people uh and so if you have had a chance I know some of you frequent the Trenton orbit um of the 30 worst schools in New Jersey we just happen to have a few on there uh and I stand as the proud superintendent where I don't know where there is a worst school in Trenton I am very excited to be here here I think what we do is hard work uh our people are amazing the students are outstanding and we're going to continue to do that work um the reports mention that they get information from English language arts math graduation rate chronic absenteeism and uh if I had time couple of days I could probably share with you the number of things we're doing to address all of those in fact if you go back to any board meetings you will likely hear me mention some of the comments made about my Superstars at uh Jefferson not individually but about the school uh when we first opened and so I'm proud tonight because they're here to dispel the worst school myths about what students can be and what they can do uh and we will continue that work I'm so proud of our teachers this team of people and throughout our districts who show up every day in spite of what's reported because anybody can write a report uh so can I uh so I just want to make sure you know that when you put your children with us uh every resource that we have will be used to educate them uh but we're also going to build strong foundations for them uh and sometimes until the foundation's built no different than a house can't put the roof on it and so we're building that Foundation every day we will continue every day and before you know it we will have young superstars uh implementing Apple edu go Jefferson right go Jefferson um the other announcement so please as you read those things uh the only thing I talk about sometimes and I probably shouldn't go here but when we respond uh and you have every right freedom of the press freedom of speech one thing that I do uh and I make my statements no different than I'm making them here the board doesn't know where I'm going with this um but the one thing I choose not to do is to put my people uh and I think think about my own family I think about this family I don't put your pain out in public so when we're writing and making statements about what you believe is fact here it's hurtful to other people we line up students every day there is no shortage and we are increasing people are coming here our challenge is how do we continue to serve and serve better so I ask you to please when you respond or when you read Get the facts we've been out in 10 spaces this year in person for those of you who've been there sharing the work that we actually do in the way that it's done they're called Community conversations we decided that so we had an opportunity for people to see feel touch ask even dispute if you'd like to so those are places where we want to have those conversations we can't have them on social media because that's way too big for me to have to answer all the untruth many times that's there so I am so proud of our students our teachers our staff and the parents who come every day to Dr drop their children off on what they consider not the worst space uh in New Jersey uh and then there's a second report out on uh chronic absenteeism and we've done a mountain of work we probably have the most robust structure in place to address chronic absenteeism we have not seen anyone doing it this way in the state and I can share more detail about that and we have so we're trying to get students to school you can't be educated if you don't come it's just that simple so I need your help everyone sitting in the room uh the other announcement is NJ SL SLS and SLA testing starts today uh I've talked about this in many circles it's our job to encourage students to do their best go to bed on time and get some sleep I know there's research about starting later I'm going to publish more research about going to bed sooner to to contest that and I know that's a chore in itself for parents and anyone who don't have young children now I am happy I'm not doing this now uh so uh we want to encourage our students to do their best and as I've been telling principls and vice principls uh let them know it's their Super Bowl it's their opportunity to get opportunities to open access when you score well and you do your very best your very best then opportunities are there waiting on you um and so thank you for all that you do and Trenton uh just want to say the first thing we're going to share with you is about March Madness March Madness was an attendance competition when we talk about chronic absenteeism we well when we we don't talk about it we do are trying to do something about it and that's to get students and schools and everyone excited and to incentivize young people to come to school the only thing we don't do is personally bring them ourselves we're in schools we're with principles and Mrs Grant is going to share with you an awesome opportunity that we had this year for our students and uh schools to comp Pete and March Madness uh similar to the basketball season March Madness so Mrs Grant all right good evening everyone evening so our attendance office we're excited to present to you um an activity that we did this spring to try to continue to reduce chronic absenteeism um we've been doing a lot of work around student absences I first want to just give a recognition to my team the school Support Office uh we have three School support managers which are Mr teren Stokes Miss Neptune and Mr MCC and we have nine attendance officers that are also broken down by grade level those attendance officers are on the ground they are knocking on doors they do home visits they do phone calls um you name it they are there they are reaching out to families as many times as they need to and documenting the Outreach efforts that we are doing uh to try to encourage students and families to come to school March Madness attendance Edition this is when we had schools compete by grade level brackets to reduce chronic ABS absences so what you see on this wall um are our brackets K3 intermediate and the 712 all of the schools started out they were ranked by their chronic absenteeism rate in the month of February and then in the month of March just like with basketball season they went head-to-head each week and when I tell you we had some flags on the play we had some redos that we needed to do we had a whole bunch of stuff going on because schools got very serious and the competition was a really healthy competition um our slogan that we were encouraging that we continue to encourage is every day on time and because I have a group of people I'm GNA need you all to repeat after me all right ready every day every day on time on time every day every day on time on time Toto to nmo to to nmo every day on time we want to announce our winners for March Madness our school winners will get a school trip for the entire School [Applause] but if your child is not in the winning school then you don't get to go not this year in addition we are having an award ceremony and during the award ceremony we are giving and raffling out prizes to those students who have had perfect attendance I'm not going to tell you what those prizes are but there's a lot of good prizes that students love to play I'll just say it that way so I'm going to announce our cas three winner and we're going to have our attendance officer come on down our March Madness attendance Edition K3 School winner is [Music] [Applause] Harrison Harrison school come on down come on down in school come on up come on up and collect your [Music] [Laughter] [Applause] check so just so you know Harrison School sent us pictures that they had every day students with signs encouraging and reminding students to come to school every day yes [Applause] all right and this is one of their attendance officers Mr Joseph wardy who is here also a Tren High [Applause] graduate and I see another one of the K3 attendance officers Miss jaari Woodson come on up this is your group [Applause] all right thank you all you can have a seat all [Applause] right for our intermediate league W this was a fight to the Finish I will tell you this was a fight to the Finish I felt like I needed to have people walk me to my car each night cuz intermediate was not playing but the winners of the intermediate league for March Madness is Parker intermediate scho and bringing their check is our attendance officer Miss Kenisha funz and just so if you read each of the check is made out to the school uh with Mr Earl's signature but the but the worth of good attendance is priceless so that's what you see in the money and this is a school trip the schools have already given me their transportation forms because we told them we will walk it through the process they don't have to walk it through but we want to thank Parker intermediate and all of your hard work did for our secondary group this school led the way the whole time from the February seatings and straight through March Madness almost until the very end the very end they got a little bit of competition from daylight Twilight but in the end the inter the secondary 712 bracket winners for March Madness dun Middle School and we have miss noie our attendance officer who's coming up to bring them their check wow we've already went to done to give them out their prizes and one of the greatest things was after we gave out the prizes at the awards program students kept coming to the office and saying hold on a minute hold on but I do have perfect attendance and M M on before we left was announcing to the students coming to school every day is different from coming to school and going to class every day just because you're in school doesn't mean you have perfect attendance unless you're in class so we are very excited thank you so much dun middle school and [Applause] congratulations we're going to continue our um conversation about absences and students absences and how we reduce it what we do want to ask is for every single parent this is going to be our new slogan instead of where is your it's 10 o'clock where is your children our new slogan is it is nine o' is your child in bed yet thank [Applause] you so at this time um yeah we have our uh superstars from Jefferson led by Miss Mrs Ram Tran soon to be the other doctor Dr Ram Tran [Applause] congratulations so um Mr Brooks vice principal good to see you uh and we have I've had the pleasure of being in uh Jefferson often to see the work of these two teachers and other teachers I don't know if other teachers are here but I'm is it Miss Longo Miss Longo and Mr Porche our superstars with our Superstars so I'm going to turn the program over to them and they're going to share what they do with our new Apple edu initiative led by Miss um uh Evette Rey there in the back uh just more good work that we're hoping to do in the district long term so I turn it over yes it's Ram Tran Dr Ram TR [Applause] all right good evening everyone um today our students are going to be showcasing what they have been doing in class we started with Apple education in September rolling it out and so um it has really enhanced learning and teaching because now we are finding that we are Bridging the students world with traditional teaching and making it more fun and engaging and it's bringing the joy back to learning so um what you're going to see is various activities that they've been doing in class um I have a student leadership team who um interviewed their colleagues and well their peers and they talked about how they would like to see more kindness so then the student came up with a kindness kickoff campaign and we're going to feature that and you're going to see various ways that they're changing the teaching in the classroom where they're digging deeper they're acting out various um screens and scripts in their classroom utilizing the green screen and apple um programs so without further Ado I give you the Jefferson [Applause] [Music] Jaguars I'm of course I show kindness by respectful care for I'm a Jeff Jaguar of course I show kindness by thinking of other before I do something I'm a Jeffers [Music] drag I'm a Jefferson Jaguar of course I show kindness by paying others compliments of course I show kindness by the I'm a Jefferson Jaguar of course I can show [Music] kindness I'm a jeon ja of course I show wear in a world where we could be anything of I can music so beautiful when you keep weak well I'm not really up with the whole weeping part just teach her how to play music so well that you nod your head to the be great idea and so the gods created her first moral Zeus immediately arranged for her to marry a Craftsman named epeus because that's how the king the gods wrote in these in those days he also decided to play a little trip on the W the government can help Americans get healthc care in other ways because of Obamacare Medicaid has expanded to not just help pregnant women children the elderly and people with disability but also ones that struggle financially if your income is low Medicaid will cover you and pay majority of your premium if not [Music] all great job your name is Jay [Music] know we got can't afford that [Music] well are see [Music] to buy a book that cost $13 how much money does Lucy have left after show you so me and ma we're using our we're using the numbers that we found and what we read and we we circled $15 helping her dad shovel and we circled made another $26 babysitting and there go oh there it goes [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so this was created by our students every single video you saw in there were created by students because we're getting them to that um place where they're learning to create and apply what they're learning in the classroom um our students are prepared for you to come down and they can teach you something real fast I know when you have like 10 minutes so come on down they'll show you how to translate how to take a regular text use your iPhone translate a book how to take your picture and turn it into a sticker and put it in a story how to fly a drone [Applause] we for spe [Music] e and right now one the student is live have you live on the screen [Music] [Music] [Music] w e girl no [Music] what happened somebody [Music] all right you good all right and so you must have seen my um friend Aaliyah going around taking pictures and just like that she was able to generate a movie documenting everything that was going on since this meeting started go hit it Aaliyah [Music] you got it all inside you feel to [Music] be you you make you got it all inside of you feel to be true [Music] all right thank you guys [Applause] [Music] she is there thank you so much much Jefferson um Team students teachers administrators and the whole staff um if you walk into Jefferson it feels like that the kids are always working always exploring so we're excited about the work we're going to see in District in the future from that group of students and many others too um at this time we have our uh annual budget presentation uh to share the budget the district's 2425 budget so I'm going to turn the program over to Miss Howard our business [Music] administrator good evening everyone I feel like I don't have to give a presentation because I feel like they've given a presentation um but I'm really excited to see that our money is going to our students and it's being purpose correctly and we had a lot of fun I was in a few pictures so I really like that a lot but um as we embark on our next budget which is 2425 I would like to first thank our board members because I believe we are one of the few districts that have not laid off any staff for financial reasons for about in about five years so give yourself a hand for that because what we do is we build our budget on our mission statement I won't read it again because our board president did read it on our mission statement and on our district priorities it's very important that we understand what our priorities are because we are in year four of our fiveyear plan so there's student achievement there is partner parent Community Partnership developing the whole child staff development and wellbeing and facilities and infrastructure and this was a part of our infrastructure for technology so we can see that we're moving in the right direction okay so next I would like to talk about our enrollment and this is very important because we are a prek through 12th grade district even though our little babies our three and four year olds are in the community we still are PK to uh 12th grade district we are a type two district with a a factoring Group which is the lowest in the social and economic standards our enrollment which is 14,000 that's on Roll that's how many students we educate in Triton Public Schools even though you see 21,000 on total enrollment 6,000 of those students are either educated in charter schools our preschool providers out of district schools we educate 14,000 so that very important because our total enrollment is 21 but we educate 14,000 students and we're paid for 17,000 students the budget process is really a long long process I know it appears that it was a few days but it's from July through March which is when our budgets are due to the county office for approval and then we come to our public hearing which is before you the board members to approve the targeted areas are classroom instruction which is very important curricular and staff development which is go for guidance counseling and support Athletics and clubs parent and Community engagement access to technology and quality programs and Facilities Management our budget goals which are consistent year after year is focused on ensuring every possible dollar is invested in our student diverse needs Empower staff members to grow through focused professional development thoughtful realignment and reallocation of resources continue focus on security building infrastructure and continue to identify efficiencies that's very important also I keep going the wrong way okay the budget calendar right now I want you to focus on the 29th which is our public hearing prior two years ago we had a board and school estimate meeting but we're no longer type one so we're at April 29th which is our public Hearing in the past our public hearing which was our Bose meeting was in March as you see there's a long list of players that is involved in putting together a student based budget it's not me in the business office putting the budget together we have everyone involved you as board members set the parameters the superintendent sets our priorities our principles School leadership team members put their budgets together and we come together and they defend their budgets so it's a long process but we believe we have a very good product we will have sha Mitchell who is the assistant business administrator and controller to go over all of our revenues our expenditures and our grant funding if there are any questions we can answer your questions and pause or we can wait till the end of our presentation Miss Mitch thanks Shane good evening board members superintendent community staff and students as Jane mentioned I'm Sean Mitchell I'm the assistant business administrator here at the Trenton Board of Education and I also want to uh point out that I am also a former student um and raised here in Trenton and educated here so I got to do a good job tonight okay so we're g to start by going over uh State a and a two-year comparison as you can see uh here our total State a I'm going to go straight to the bottom uh for the current school year is $340 million anticipated for 2425 were at $381 million for a difference of $40 million approximately 12% every category is pretty much consistent with no changes over year in terms of special education Aid extraordinary Aid Transportation Aid security and adjustment Aid our Equalization Aid is a is where the changes uh took place and Equalization is pretty much a wealth equalized uh formula that the state utilizes to ensure that we have a thorough and efficient education for all students this sheet here gives you a historical view of our tax levy for the last 10 years prior to to 2016 um our tax levy was stagnant at $21.1 million we weren't increasing the tax levy but over the last nine years beginning in 2017 there's been a consistent commitment from the city uh to fund us with a 2% increase uh each year so if you take you down to 2025 compared to 2016 we're almost at a $4 million increase uh that the city has uh committed to uh that tax levy increase so that's 2% there this sheet here gives you our overall budget i' like to go to the bottom line to give you the basis of everything and then go up in terms of the details so our total budget for the current 2324 school year is 471 million projected for next year 54 million basically a half a billion dollar budget is what we're working with here the difference is 33 million about a 7% increase now we're going to go through the basis the excess fund balance um our Auditors presented on that a few months ago from last year which is our current year your excess fund balance is generated in the previous uh School cycle So currently we're utilizing 4.3 in this year's budget and next year we'll be utilizing $42 million which is something that is typically not sustainable you typically use those for onetime type of uh expenditures which we'll go over when we get to the expenditure column so that's a 886 per difference your adjustment for prior incumbrances are basically purchases at the end of the year that are not complete that roll over to the next year so as you can see in 2324 we had 6.8 million in orders that are being facilitated this year 2425 has zero it won't be zero but you don't determine that number until the conclusion of this year when once we've had our audit our total tax levy is what we discussed in the previous slide a 2% increase our Medicaid semi uh that's pretty consistent the state pretty much lets us know that's a predetermined number so it's anticipating a 7% increase there miscellaneous revenues you know that amount doesn't look like miscellaneous but when you look at it overall in terms of the um the overall budget it's not that significant but that's typically our e rate and other items uh maybe refunds from a previous year that we take on revenue for the current year or rentals sometimes we rent space and so forth but those are like I said minimal um our state aid is the same number from the previous page so as you can see a significant portion of our total revenue is from state aid our total operating budget from all of those items from excess fund balance total tax levy Medicaid miscellaneous in state our overall operating budget is 450 million and our grants are 54 million now I want to point out here our grants are 93 million in the current year next year 54 million and one may say why is it going down so much 39 million well we had uh funds from covid s funds that are sunsetting and will not be carried over so that's why you see the significant um items there and also carry over from other grants so now we're going to go into the detail on the grants not to bore you to death because it's a lot of them here and we can see them on the sheet but a signific ific um portion of that 54 million that 54 million I'm going to show you the total at the bottom here and go back is 38 million is in preschool Aid and that's preschool Aid as well as carryover we've received an additional about $1 million in preschool funding um title one is a significant item there as you can see that's a reduction and most of the items you'll see in 2324 include carryover from the previous year anticipated for 2425 you don't aren't anticipating your carryover or to have carryover so that's where you see most of your uh decreases title two funding professional development title three an immigrant 684 title four 460,000 again most of these will not have carryover you have your AR Ida preschool and basic those will be sunsetting we will not have that funding for 2425 Ida again we have carryover in the current year next year that's just next year's award you have Perkins your vocational Grant your entitlements your restricted entitlements in that number is mostly your school-based Youth Services program at the high school your local grants um those are typically grants that sometimes the schools may get uh small grants from different uh Community Based uh Partners as well as New Jersey school Insurance Group we they're a consistent partner for safety for safety Grant that's almost $100,000 annually uh a non-public stem Grant and scholarship fund Revenue this page is primarily a list of grants that we currently have mostly due to Esser that we will not have in the next year so this is pretty much where most of your declines or your reductions are coming from so the revenue here this is just a PRI chart to just kind of give you a broad view of how much comes from each Revenue Source um so from state aid it's about 76% so if we were to break this down into a dollar 76 cent of that dollar of every dollar we get comes from this from State a 11 cents or 11% is coming from Grants which are our federal grants our Title One our Ida the ones that we spoke about in the previous slide our excess fund balance is 8% because it's significant for 2425 and 42 million um the rest of these you can see they're mostly at zeros because of the percentage of our overall budget um the total total tax levy is 5% so about five cents of every dollar we get comes from the city of Trenton to uh support our schools so now we're on to expenditures essentially with fund based accounting your Revenue has to equal your expenditures so here we have school-based budgets which is our fund 15 we have 25 schools and everything that's attributable directly to those School budgets are 166 th not thousand 166 million I'm sorry up from 157 million in the current year about 8.5 million of the additional Aid is going directly to our schools our our Charter Schools you're going to see is significant so as we talk about 40 a $40 million increase you're talking about almost a $14 million reduction of that increase is going directly through Charters so about 25% our out of District tuition is actually reducing due to efficiencies and uh more programs within um the district and so there's breakage there so there's there's actually I don't want to say savings but it's a reduction in allocation of expenditures there your adult program is our essentially our Twilight program that increase is basically attributable to we had a um a settled contract recently and so stiens for that program will go up according to Bas based on that allocation uh central office I want to make sure we're clear central office looks like we got a $50 million increase that that's not $50 million of staff salaries that and that number for central office includes everything that's not school based that's not charter school that's not out of district and districtwide expenses below it are a lot of our benefits um and grants so basically everything is lumped into central office so you'll see buildings and grounds Transportation the curriculum Department every Department outside of that is in this number but a majority of that increase is due for our improvements within buildings and grounds okay so now the breakdown of the expenditures um Jane's going to do the dollar the breakdown for the dollar but if you want to look at it in this same sense 33 cents for every dollar is going directly to school base Charter Schools 14 cents of that dollar is going to Charter Schools out of District tuition is 6 cents adult program is insignificant so it's less than 0% central office is 34% and again central office at the bottom includes Athletics medical buildings and grounds Transportation bilingual special services and again with 100% supports if excluded central office would be 12% and school base would be 52% and I think that's a better way to look at it because in this scenario it looks like our schools only getting 33 cents but if you break down all those supports that are aligned in central office with transportation and so forth is closer to 52% which is where it should be because most of your funding should be there in support of our school-based programs districtwide is 3% again those are some of our other benefits um grants 11% and contribution to school-based budget is about 1 1% and I'm going to bring up Miss Howard to go over the expense breakdown thank you the expense breakdown for a dollar it's very interesting because if you look at everything we said we put in the budget and you look at our classroom instruction is 26 Cents right but if you look at undistributed expenses is 22 cents which means that what's in that category Charter Schools uh the district funding and anything that's not any students that are not educated in our district receive 22 cents so our dollar is really stretched between classroom instruction and sending it out of District we have Support Services which is 18 cents operational Plant Services which is um buildings and grounds special programs which is Grants capital outlay and co-curricular which is only 47 cents so this is very important important when you see how all those categories fit in and when you look at central office you see three million because really the superintendent's office business office HR our expenses are very minimum is the other things outside of that which is substitutes agency which is including uded in HR or things that's included in our budgets that make the budget appear to be much larger but we know that our funding funnels down to our students and it's very minimal in central office someone said we need more money okay thank you now we will have Dwayne Mosley come up and talk about all the wonderful Investments that we're going to put in our buildings I'm 15 cents your yeah talk about my 15 cents good evening m madame president board members superintendent uh certainly to the community our parents and students that are still here and and all of our trit colleagues uh my name is Dwayne Mosley I'm the facilities administrator uh head of our buildings and grounds department so I have the pleasure of uh giving you some updated I'm going backwards like s to provide you with some updates and and and certainly to give you information on how we we're spending our 15 cent throughout the district so uh what you have before you are our proposed projects for the 2425 school year which is actually a continuation of our previous year's projects so uh as I'm going down the list you'll hear some of these things that probably sound kind of repetitive from previous years uh which really is just increases of the percentages of work that's being done throughout the district as a whole our Robins Elementary School uh unfortunately the door uh are pretty much were built with the school itself uh they're outdated uh they no longer meet uh the fire code requirements nor do they meet the uh safety requirement for lockdown procedure so we're looking to replace close to 65 75 doors throughout the entire building and and certainly make the the building safe uh uh I'm excited about this year that we're we're finally going to uh install some new playgrounds across the district uh we we had some previous fund that unfortunately went away we now been able to uh utilize some of the the reserve Monies to come back and some of the schools that specifically on our elementary side uh will now have some playgrounds installed now what I will like to correct and and this is my fault because Robison School actually has a playground which we found out we can do some upgrades and bring it up to code so uh we're going to replace the Robison school with the PJ Hill school which certainly has a large uh lot area that would allow us to put in a playground our our continuation here's a prime example and and super excited about the exra money and all the fundings and grants that was provided to us I'd like to believe that the buildings and grounds and Facilities Department took full advantage of every grant that was issued out to the district that were related to construction and Facilities related um excuse me let me go back hit the button there uh oh we're moving here we are so uh what you have here with hedge PF uh will S Grant Rivera mcnight and Robison schools are actually a continuation which I'm super excited to be able to stand before you and say that the school district now has all of its educational spaces 100% with air conditioning as well as thank you thank you all of our administrative spaces and now we're moving into our second phase and and that is certainly something to applaud because I promise you uh there's a very low percentage of a school district out of the 600 and so OD dist districts throughout New Jersey that can say they're 100% with air conditioning all their educational spaces so um what you have here is a continuation we're we're probably closer to 50% now we're going into the auxiliary Spaces by auxiliary spaces I'm referring to your gymnasiums your auditoriums and your cafeterias or large Gathering spaces uh certainly we have a number of schools that are fully air conditioned facilities we're trying to go into now the schools that don't have those accommodations throughout the building so this is the next batch of schools that we're looking to go in and add uh air condition to those specific spaces uh with the buildings and grounds and Parker schools are going to get some Roofing uh sections that's going to be addressed much needed uh that's a continuation as well we probably are about 95% with uh all of our roofs within a 20year warranty currently uh throughout the district as a whole so that that's that's definitely a good achievement uh on our behalf because you know certainly if you're your outside is safe uh it helps keep the folks inside more safe as well the Franklin uh Harrison Parker and mcnight schools are the second I'm sorry third set of Bowlers that are having their uh bullers replacing their school we've completed eight schools over the course of the last two years uh these four schools will be done as of September of this year um as as actually as August 15th just passed we went into these schol and started the demolition of of the existing bowler systems so we're going to work throughout the summer to make sure that we're ready to meet the September 15th heating date to turn the uh to turn the new Bowers on the Tanga trit nth grade academy uh we're looking to start the second phase or actually it's a combination of second and third phases where there's an open gym space area which we actually utilize for temporary classrooms uh in temporary gym space while we were uh doing some of the uh covid and other Renovations in the first phase of the uh work so we're looking to now go into those areas in addition to the basement where I'm saying the third phase where we're looking to expand the cafeteria certainly to accommodate the population the growing population there uh in addition to add some additional classrooms much needed science labs and as well as administrative and restrooms throughout the building as a whole daylight Twilight uh super excited about the opportunity that we were able to acquire 40 spaces on the lot adjacent to the school there at 135 Handover which uh allow for our staff Def and take certainly takes a burden off of uh the superintendent leadership uh they were hearing a lot of our staff receiving constant tickets and cars being towed so that's definitely a positive for for the school as a whole uh the district is looking uh to possibly acquire the existing YWCA facility which is directly across the street from the school uh it's an existing it's a existing three-story facility uh just over 29 uh 29,000 square feet uh the building is has been vandalized throughout the entire facility however it does have has some existing spaces that certainly will accommodate the school existing gymnasium existing uh Auditorium space as well as office spaces throughout the facility uh we now have our Engineers that's going to hope get with the uh the realer to allow us in the building and take a more in depth look of some of the building systems and exactly what type of what type of condition those Building Systems are in uh right now we've kind of had a ballp part figures and and and the proposed costs that you see are all estimates uh so far all the numbers that have we have received we've been under the the YWCA was just an initial estimate that was provided uh I think with the more in- depth uh surveyed as we go through the building that number could possibly change the old Junior one which uh certainly is the Talk of the Town everybody's wondering if the building's going to be knocked down are we securing the building or we're going to build it back the building is going to be knocked down unfortunately there's a process there's a a public uh design and bidding process that has already taken place um with your approval tonight we're hoping that additional funding which will allow us to front the monies necessary to start the actual demolition all monies will be reimbursed back to the district by new uh njc New Jersey Insurance Group uh right now uh with the approval tonight we will be able to issue a notice to proceed we do have a contractor currently on board that's uh the successful contractor was uh I believe it's Pierce Pearson is the name of the company uh their bid came in at 1.7 million which certainly is under the estimated 8 million that was looking at the building uh we put an additional 10% conting conting the allowance on top of the 1.7 to allow for any unforeseen and certainly for I I allow me not to have to come back before you and ask for more money so uh right now I think we're at 1.97 somewhere in that range that's going to allow a purchase order to be issued the contractor hopefully will be mobilized on site no sooner no later than uh May 15th or so he's been allotted a two-month duration to have the building completely down and the lot cleared uh the finished product for the lot currently is going to be be a a uh a leveled surface with a a grass finish the Transportation uh I'm sorry Ziggler the existing Ziggler warehouse is at 621 Prospect Street uh for those who are more familiar with the areas right directly next to the I believe it's buds barbecue so um that's that was that was our our warehouse for years unfortunately the Fire Marshall had gone through the building and found it to be deemed unsafe we've uh have moved out of the building so the building has been dormant we've been renting a lot out to a trucking company so some type of Revenue has been coming in although we can't use the facility uh but just like the king there's concerns that you have a dormant building sitting around and uh we don't want any any any additional AC accidents or fires in the district so we are looking to demolish the entire facility unlike the Martin Lu the old Junior 1 Martin Luther King facility this this facility has a a large amount of a material in it and that material has to be abated prior to the building actually being demolished so this process unfortunately is going to be a little bit longer duration for taking the building down uh ultimately that lot will be utilized to create a Transportation uh complex which will allow us to uh consolidate our three busing sites or or bus storage sites and and make one large facility in addition to uh we're going to erect a prefabricated uh building which will allow for the transportation department and and basically becomes a hub as a whole we're also hoping that uh we will be able to create three Bays which will allow for if if you ever seen the buses hanging out of the building across the street because our 50 uh4 passenger buses don't actually fit in so we're going to create an actual garage that will allow the the mechanics to fully have uh full cover over their head be able to lift up the buses and get under and do what they need necessary to maintain those facilities so uh we're hoping and that that can be done and and possibly complete by next summer uh all of which right now came out of estimate uh$ 39 million one uh 150,000 so I believe that's the last slide yes thank [Applause] you so this concludes our presentation we're hoping that you understand that we really feel like you as board members and um staff put together a student-based budget but we have a lot of Investments that's included in this budget um as you look we have $40 million which was given to us from the state but we generated $42 million to help us be able with the Investments that our buildings and grounds department is doing all of the other Investments we put in our staff and our students next year we won't have $42 million but but we're hoping that we can sustain this because the superintendent on leadership we talk a lot about sustainability we don't want to bring something in as Addie says stop and start stop and start so we're trying to continue with the good work with our academic Investments we put in 8.5 million we put another I don't even know the amount we put in technology and facility upgrades so we're hoping that everyone would be excited about this presentation and you can see from the numbers they're not just numbers it's our budget story and I hope you can see the story that we put together that concludes our presentation and we'll entertain your questions at this time so thank thank you um first I'd like to commend Sean for doing a great job in that presentation piece because one of the things that happens when you have a very complex budget like this explaining to the public what the different categories and what resides at those different item levels is a good thing so well done Sean yeah I I had one question um it's about the the $42 million so so um brother Dwayne used the term he called The Reserve money is that the bucket he was just talking about the the money that's in the back and can you explain what that term is because I'm sure I wasn't the only one who heard it yes the $42 million is excess Reserve it's not the reserves that we're using for buildings and grounds in our budget last year and in the agenda you had 10 10 million was put in maintenance reserve and another 10 million in capital reserve that is the reserve funding that we use for buildings and grounds we used to receive it from the city now we're type two so we have to put the money in the reserves the $ 42 million is money that either um different offices generate either with purposing the money correctly and we have carryover or we and as I smile um harass the bank and we receive a lot of additional funding for interest so we generate that funding okay great thank you that was very important for you to explain that because we talk about it all the time in committee but the public doesn't have access to those uh conversations so thank you any other questions um I do have one I just want to um well actually two questions so our 2% increase is literally just for let's say last for next year will be four not even half a million dollars right right it's 400 and something thousand that's the increase that we're receiving yes and and not even that because last year we received 485 so this year uh well actually for this year we've received 485 next year we'll receive 494 so that that's the the difference is the increase the 2% increase yes 2% increase and another question is do we receive the total amount from the city are we did we receive the full $24 million this year yes we did yes so there's nothing that's owed to us well they still owe May and June but we have two months left but we did but they've been giving everything yes okay they pay monthly thank you I have a question in regards to that what should the city be giving us based on the school funding formula what is that dollar amount well as far as the funding formula um our local fair share is about I believe 48 uh million but we receive 428, um because the formula is built on a certain amount that we should receive from the city but in our fairness they are on Municipal overload which is a Formula that you um they built in so they can only give us a certain portion so we do not receive what we should be receiving per the funding formula right per the funding formula but if it were not for that we would be receiving more monies yes and we probably could generate Less in our excess Surplus right yeah okay I'm just asking because I know it's hard for people when they receive their tax bills and it's blamed on the board of education no uh well uh historically that's where the money should be going to right yeah I just wanted to make that clear that most of our funding comes from the state and from Grants and other things and the city helps us where they can with minimal um yeah 5% 5% it was six last year out of a half a billion dollar budget yes right and and we're not asking for more and so for the public to know that if we were to request more than 2% we'd have to go out and have a referendum and vote for that correct right so people can know that okay thank absolutely any other question yeah um sorry that you don't have the presentation up anymore um you got the got the physical situation um on page five right that's how I had to referred to next uh you had a student breakdown of how many that are enrolled I think the numbers range from between 14k you said 21k and then you said something along the lines of seven yep could you could you explain that difference and how we get to 17K that's paid for sure um the way our funding works is as October 15th we have a number of students that we say are on roll as of October 15th that number is then counted and calculated by the state and that's where they come up with our funding for the next year which was the 2425 school year that was 17,777 students on rooll which means that students that we educate through um Regular Ed special ed uh bilingual that's on rooll an adult comes to 14,827 students but we also have 6,000 students out there which 3,000 is from Charter Schools 2,000 is from preschool and then we have out District which I believe is around 518 that comes to that $6,000 that we don't educate in District but we fund them we send the funding to the particular schools whether out of districts special education whether Charter Schools or whether we send choice or to uh preschool which went over the 38 million that was for um preschool okay thank you um oh I have plenty more a sec a um going back to page 16 uh you made mention and there were a few different categories that I think that are going to disappear next year uh under ARP Esser what is for the Public's sake what is ARP Sr and why is that going why those were gr funds I'm sorry those were Grant funds that were given as a result of covid so there was cares then there was eser 2 and then there was eser 3 and they were entitlements that were provided to districts but they had cut off times just like our federal grants in annually August 31st but some have carryover so s Sesser 3 was for that time period it's not it wasn't just for one year that was what we had left over to expend in this current year but it ends this year so we don't have it projected for next year because it won't be uh it won't be granted again gotta gotta and then last question um on page 19 and 20 uh there was a difference between this year and next year I think like the two notable categories were you explain central office why that is uh where all that uh the breakdown is but school-based and charter schools are like the two major increases can you explain those categories again okay so the charter schools um the 13 million we pretty much at budget time there are certain um worksheets that we actually get directly from the state um if we were to project it out we probably look at where we are now but at that time is when we find out um what's happening you know and meaning if there's some new Charter Schools coming on board I.E can I drop a name we have an additional Charter School mcon uh for some of us who are from Trenton um but educated in the public schools we knew back in the day mcon was a parochial school um as the arch dases changed closed schools it materialized to Trenton Catholic Academy over the last two years it went into private hands and without saying anything that I don't know but what it perceives to be is that that school is now as opposed to tuition it's now coming for tax dollars for students to fund that so essentially that's what it appears to me okay so I don't have the figure in front of me but when you look at 56 million to 70 million that's not all mcon but a significant amount of that is the new charter school which is referred to as mcon and is is that a onetime fee or is it something that oh it's going to be annual it's annual that means they're opening essentially they're open in a school that the taxpayers of the state and Trenton will be funneling uh resources from here to that charter school that's located in Hamilton so um so I have a question okay okay so okay so I have a question that's relative to to that and so um my my question is how is um how is it determined how much that we have to give um charter schools and what amount of say does a district having that process there the worksheet that comes from the state when we're building the budget it's a document that they list they list the school the enrollment and the amount of funding that we have to allocate for the school so the state determines how much we have to give them they yeah but also we we give them the way to breakdown works is they take the number of students and every per pupil is different because you know ours is 13 but they break it down and then they say 90% of that will go to the chars because we transport the students so we then have to bear all of the transportation for the students at the other 10% but 90% they keep now what as Sean stated we do projection every quarter so we know we should be getting money back quicker but they do it yearly so after they decide what kids decide to come back to us it's too late for us to recoup that funding after October 15th so it becomes a challenge when we don't know like Sean said we were not aware that we were bringing in a new charter school until we received our state aid that's when we were pretty much told that they were actually going to really um approve it so it appears that we have absolutely no say in the approval process for upcoming Charter Schools well what if I can what what happens is um Eddie you can appeal but as in Philly the district has say so in what Charter Schools come in in New Jersey the charter school office they're going to approve who they want to approve after the fact we can appeal it but what will happen now I do know and I don't want to um say too much and maybe um we can have our attorney check I do know with um the mcon it's certain districts that are fighting that particular uh school and um but we have the bulk of the kids are from Trenton so we're still looking at how we can you know help with that and see where we can maybe reduce some of our cost because to go from 56 to 70 million joke a lot and you know what happens with Charters they just expand so then the next year it'll be it'll go from elementary to middle you know to high so we're looking to see how we can cut those calls okay all right so I have a question about I have a question again along the same lines how did they project for this particular School mcon how did they project the amount of kids Trenton kids that would be sent to that school if it's located in Hamilton I understand and our kids are going to go there how did they project them what they look at is they open up like Charter Schools they have vouchers so they see which parents are choosing to go to the school then they look at the address and say okay 5% may be Hamilton uh 5% maybe lawrens and you know the school though this is a new yeah so they project how many because it's a projection so they'll say okay they're projecting that the bulk 80% or so 85% will be trening students in other do you know do off the top of your head do you know how many were projected was it 85 it was 200 well all together I don't know I think it was 200 and something but I can't what percentage what percentage but I know was a lot we received the bulk of the um the hits from the charart school it's open now they have kids there which is what they based numbers on right but now they're not public yeah but it's private that's not public so my other question Jane was about following up on Austin's comment about the Esser funds we um we definitely exhausted all those funds right we used them when we had them title two and title three yes okay good all right thank you we did right Mr are there any other questions or just a very good job oh I'm sorry one more um I just wanted to clarify the purchase of the Y if we were to purchase it is not 5,500 that's the Improvement the LLC that owns it which is Triton uh Triton Falls LLC they're asking for 1.8 for it the district uh has placed a based on the city's tax uh survey that was done as well as uh the district had a c are sent out as well we're offering 500,000 for the site okay but then it does need improvements so that's where the 5 million comes in yes okay um and what is the importance of us acquiring this fooding if we were able to acquire it okay well it would certainly expand in curriculum I don't know if the superintendent rather jump into for that okay I can um so educationally because we have a school there uh and as we grow we have to accommodate for students coming in at some point across well in that area we have uh what we uh call our daylight Twilight high school now uh and as we look to move students there and for that to become a second High School just like the high school at um Chambers is uh and an option we need the facilities to support students and families who want to go there so uh there are options and we looked in the city we've asked people on this panel and people out in that crowd do you know where there's land if there's land somewhere we want to find it because we're trying to figure out what to do to make sure the students there have a gym uh an auditorium uh for whatever purpose that building was built for back then it doesn't serve us as well now so it's appealing for that reason uh and we certainly are cautious about the cost and what's inside so that's why Mr Mosley is going to do a deeper dive but um educationally sound to have that space it gives we're tight there now with near 500 and I don't know 30 40 students Mr Williamson he tells me 800 every time so not I'm kidding it's not 800 but we're at a point where we're at capacity and then we're at capacity in a high school that was built for 1800 that opened with 21 uh as I said a few minutes ago we're not getting smaller and so we need to always think and project about space for kids 10 years from now when I'm gone or when they're gone or when you're gone and your kids are out what will the place look like so if we think about the he and now we won't hit our targets so that building is appealing for that reason and it's not to appealing for all the reasons that we've raised in our meetings we're very concerned about is it $5 million or is it $50 million to restore it so we need to know that I think our team is going to do that so we're uh better prepared thank you we appreciate your [Applause] work here with um Austin good evening everyone um presenting on the HR report uh we met last week and uh went over various uh positions that are being uh created and opportunities uh in the district uh some of them that I wanted to specifically highlight uh we have various uh opportunities for special education teachers to come into the district uh PA professional uh uh uh education and specifically uh bilingual uh teachers that'll be uh added to the roster so there will be uh opportunities for everyone to be a part of uh some of this uh growth that we have uh we have a plethora of new hires that are coming in from uh uh various uh backgrounds uh some like I said before a pair of professionals School psychologists counselors um bus drivers custodians right anything across the board that helps out um our kids and our district um other than that the thing I want to highlight I can't find it anywhere here but any who I did the math earlier right so we had a a few people that were actually retiring from the district I think it was close to 10 of them and uh Lally just doing some of the math uh on iPhone calculator right uh on average they're retiring with 2 years of service to the district all right and I want to highlight that because this is an amazing place to work we have a variety of different opportunities no matter your background no matter your education Lev level you can come in we can train you up to uh uh rise in the ranks and you can graduate with or retire with some tier one well I don't know if it exists anymore but that tier one pension all right that real good stuff all right it's a really great opportunity so again I highlight um and ask everyone please be a part of the growth that we're doing here in the Trenton district thank you jeie thank you okay I'm sorry forgive me I was was not aware that um Denise would be doing policy Denise okay so the policy meeting uh committee met uh last week and uh during our meeting we discussed the uh policy and regul regulation audit conducted by the board's vendor Strauss Esme uh so the members of this committee we are finding out that as soon as we review and the board approves policies new ones have to be reviewed so it's an ongoing process for us so we we're at that point again where we're looking at uh looking at uh reviewing policies and regulations um we're also discussing a timeline for addressing the findings and updating the identified policies um we're looking at policy 7510 which is use of facilities we want to address any concerns about the requirements for Community organizations who are looking at using our facilities to serve our students and the last thing we discussed during our policy meeting was that the committee uh discussed a non-affiliated employe employe policy and discuss the timeline to have that adopted at the June board meeting that's the end of the uh policy meeting [Music] okay thank you so we met uh the finance and operations committee met on Wednesday morning and uh um before I start with the report I'd like to give a shout out to um my colleague Sasa for a recommendation that she made um with the agreement with the Eda and the njsda to allow us to um have the decision making and exactly which property is going to be used um as we look to build in the future um I think it's important for the district to be in control of all property and you on all money right yeah so so it's really important so I wanted to give Sasa great eye because we all went through that um that agreement and just for you to catch that is a big deal so thanks um on Wednesday we discussed the secretary's report the treasurer's report um the bill list 11,843 52 in bills were paid last month that's a big number um and and our bills by law must be paid in 30 days so so that's a really important number and so as you hear people who who might say well I didn't get paid on time that's because they didn't follow the process for getting paid there must be a purchase order issued so that we can pay against I just want to go on the record because you know the the district does business with vendors and so we need to in advance tell people how to get your money um and then lastly um we had uh one donation from ETS and Zeta via sari $22,000 to Joyce Kilmer Intermediate School and in donations for teacher supplies so thank you very much for your generosity and then and then I'll close on this note um the uh budget presentation was long it will be posted on the website along with the appropriate budget required by law please study it and please share it because people need to know the the city only gives a very small portion of our overall half a billion dollar budget it's important that that the taxpayer know where their money is going right thank you good evening the facilities committee met on April 24th and uh Dwayne Mosley pretty much went over everything that we discussed um the one thing is this starting of the demolition of Junior 1 which it's going to be interesting to see what it looks like over there without that building I have a feeling it's going to be awfully bright um he went over the capital maintenance projects and we also discussed the uh finishing up and the final inspections of trailers over it nth grade academy hopefully everything passes and we can start moving students into the facilities and they can start utilizing them um we also discussed uh purchase the why and uh why and how it will benefit uh daylight Twilight and that's pretty much it that's all I've got thanks okay so um good evening the um curriculum committee met on um Thursday April the 25th and at that time we reviewed the curriculum agenda and we also received updates on um pilot programming that was taking place and also uh the fact that differentiated coaching has been part of that um pilot programming uh process uh we also looked at certain things that um were highlighted in terms of the agenda uh summer program for sports and academics um is list listed on the agenda there are opportunities or increasing opportunities for dual enrollment in uh higher education levels um including opportunities for um ESL dual enrollment programming so that again college credit can be obtained by our high school students we also took a look at um staff travel that's going to be used of course to support professional development uh we also briefly discussed an early um screening tool is going to be used for preschool students and we reviewed um developments in Middle School social studies as well as in US history and uh world history uh in terms of um special education uh we had a healthy discussion about a a short-term waiver that was being asked for to allow students to receive um short-term um placements and uh that waiver was relative to uh class sizes but again uh a healthy discussion and again it's a shortterm and a temporary fix that will hopefully benefit our students in the short term um also we discussed the um extended school year program or esy the fact is that the application process is underway uh and so certainly um we know that opportunities exist for our students to get extra support during the summer those who are in need in terms of special education um our supervisors actually shared some information regarding secondary um language arts and uh coaching during the pilot program and how that's actually being um implemented we also had a brief discussion about a live tutoring um program that all of our students have access to from grades I think it's three and up and it's available in um various uh languages uh English Spanish and um Haitian Creo and so our students now have access to this uh live tutoring that they can um again benefit from if they're having issues with a particular um subject um we also talked about um the fact that there's going to be um followup in terms of the um pilot programs and that those programs will be expanding to um the high school and other levels so that is the report um in terms of the curriculum committee um I'll ask superintendent um right before you came in man we were talking about the HM H uh hmh pilot program and the growth that we saw in El yeah I don't remember the exact details but we saw as we have with some of our assessments connected to linkit which is align with njsls we we're seeing our students uh make substantial gains or good gains uh and we're desperate to see how we can transfer that learning to the actual test um because we know that our students are learning so we're looking at the testing environment never talked about that at the board meeting but what they presented was the pilot program and the cohort of students who had gone through the process and then been assessed had shown steady growth uh academically uh achieving and meeting the standards so we're excited about that it just helps us to know are we in the right ballpark uh the teachers seem to be on board uh with the program so we'll be looking to see if it's a program that will expand uh in District so and without the actual name of it um sitting here I won't uh make a mess but I can get that information out to the public I just wanted to mention because it really was exciting to me to see that there was this uh over 50% of our students were performing below the low scores and um when they were tested in September October and at this point it showed it it reduced like 50% of that number which shows that for example there were there were no students performing above average and we had a 5% increase in that area where students they're like literally going up in numbers in as far as their achievement is concerned and and the reason I'm bringing it up to very honest to be very honest with you is because I was um we all here have been very upset with the articles that come out ranking our schools and saying that uh seven five to seven of those schools uh the worst 30 schools in New Jersey are all in Trenton but I just want to say that really in all honesty the comparison cannot be made they're comparing comparing I'm sorry us to to districts that have um a different lifestyle a different a different reality from our students and over here in Trenton we keep seeing our numbers if you saw the numbers of students we have students that have just come into district and that that were limited in their education and we helping them to um achieve what they should be achieving for their age and their grade so um a lot of these well-to-do districts do not have as many immigrant children coming in do not have as many um children suffering in their neighborhoods from all these different um violence and and and things that curring in the home and it's just it's just not comparable and I want people to know that and we're going to be addressing that later on I know superintendent is working on something but it had to be said we have students that are extremely bright we have students that are are struggling but the potential is there and with our teachers and everything that we can do to provide resources with they are learning they are actually improving it's just that it's not showing in some of the test course and even then last year it might have been a small increment but we had an incremental growth and that's what I want people to understand that we did not go to the bottom overnight and we will not get to the top overnight we're still struggling but we are working and we are seeing a difference so um I know it's not a conversation that people like to listen to and may not agree with but that is our reality and I am not ashamed of it I am proud of our children and I hope you are too um so enough said going on to New or Old business um I will now bring the responses to last month's concerns we had ofilia aderly say that they have experienced uh traffic and safety issues in the area where she lives because there is no Transportation available to students and um I guess she's speaking about the parents dropping off their kids she would like to know the board can try to help alleviate and address the issues of the community and and she suggested that possibly we could allow the parents to park in the playground area for drop offs and Pickups or consider busting the students in we Al also had Lorraine Calhoun state that she has several people in the community contact her in regards to traffic congestion at hashpath Williams and she wanted to know if busting the students to the school would be considered she also inquired about Emergency Services being provided due to the congestion in response uh the district let them know that all students who are remote with two miles Elementary and two and a half miles secondary they are transported to and from school and our suggestion is to reach out to the city of Trenton specifically to the police department because they're the ones that hire the crossing guards and hopefully they would hire more crossing guards and have more police officers there to alleviate the park issues and the congestion that do arise in in those areas uh second concern came from Michael Ingram he shared some of the CH challenges that the security officers are facing which has been affecting morale within them he mentioned discrepancies in Pay PTO times and is used and mentioned the lack of pay for um school breaks or during school breaks he um he said he hasn't received any support or guidance from the union and feels it is important because it jeopardizes the stability of the team the district response as we stated last month that the employee uh needs to reach out to his employer motivated for the guidance and the clarity that he needs in concerning the paychecks and leave time third concern came from um our parent Mrs jisa hurang and she mentioned uh that there was constant bullying to the students in the schools and the need for translation in schools and at the board meetings so that parents can also communicate their concerns she said that parents are afraid of speaking up because they get laughed at when they do not know how to speak the English language Pro perfectly she wants to know if there is a way to inform parents possibly by text about the opportunities for their children to be able to fill out fast per forms for College in response the district takes all forms of harassment and intimidation and bullying seriously all incidents of harassment intimidation and bullying should be reported to school Personnel the district continues to search for an appropriate translation service and will update the community when we may have an effective provider and for any and all information that deals with post secondary outcomes including financial aid forms please reach out to the cence counselor in your student school and that is all for concerns from last month at this time we will go on to public participation and before we call anyone up I would like to read our disclaimer or our advisory for all public comments the Trenton Public School District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings this public comment period is your time to be heard on any school or School District issue that a member of the public may feel is of concern to the residents of the school district each person who signed up in advance to comment will have five minutes you will be notified when your five minutes are up actually you will be notified at the four minute uh period to to let you know that you have 1 minute left you cannot yield your time to another person when it is your turn to speak please address all of your comments to the board president please conduct yourself in a respectful and courteous manner for anyone whose comments or actions either harass intimidate or threaten and the safety of any person we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your common time also if you curse use vulgar language or make personal attacks we will provide you again with a warning or and your comment time comments that adhere to these guidelines will not be interrupted if you have have any questions we ask that you please ask those questions during your five minute comment period after the public comment period is closed the board superintendent or design will address your questions to the extent provided by the law we also ask that members of the public not interrupt the speaker during their public comments at this time we have um Miss Jasmine Ali Gonzalez please come up okay there it is good good evening good afternoon board president superintendent and board members first thank you all for your job that you're doing um I come before you wearing several hats after I watched the presentation and heard some of the reports so I'm going to ask yield to that at the end but my purpose for coming here this evening is um just to speak as a resident an educator a community organizer and also a member of city council a proud graduate of Trenton Central High School um a person who attended all Trent Public Schools I come before you today um to share some of my uh suggestion that some of the community members would like to see happen in the city of Trenton at Trenton Central High School um in particular we are coming coming before you today I have with me um a couple hundreds about 450 signatures also some letters of support in the renaming of the athletic complex after Miss Sharon Grady as most of us know Miss Sharon Grady just retired here after 52 years of dedicating her life to the youth here in the city of Trenton she has made an impact and imprint in most of our lives and when I say our lives I speak on multiple Generations as as as well as people from all walks of life um in the room we have some some people who have signed up to speak in support of this and others who were unable to do so but they are in the room um if everyone could just show of hands or even stand up if you are here in support of it thank you so much even if you didn't sign up and you would like to see that happen thank you um for many years as some of us know we're not taught our history here in the city of Trenton not just in Trenton but in general nationally and we we were often taught to honor those who don't look like us so we we are coming here before you to say that someone as deserving as Mrs Grady who has not only serviced us for 52 years she's coached she's LED some of our team to um seven nine championships for track track and field not to mention all the wins they had at the pen reles the county sectionals and all of the wins that she has accomplished as a coach she not only became a coach she didn't stop there she became an administrator as some of you have been her colleague also and saw the instrumental um the instrumental things that she has done in designing um all of the details with the athletic complex the way that she ran it she made history as the first African-American woman to become an athletic director she is not only the first African-American direct African American woman director here in the city of Trenton um but she's also one of the only African American people that was an athletic director in the state of New Jersey sitting at the table trying to make sure that our students had what we needed before she actually was retired she made sure that our students had everything that they could that they needed to compete with some of these students in the suburbs as we kind of just mentioned with some of our charter schools so not only is it uh fitting for her but I think it's welld deserved I don't know if there's a process for this um however some of us wanted to come together just to express our suggestion in the renaming and we are here as a community to help create a process for this or help you all decide if yes or no we're not expecting an answer this evening however we wanted to come forth to say that we thought that she was very deserving of that Accolade we often tend to uh wait till someone passes away before we acknowledge them or give them the recognition that they deserve and this is the time that we want to do it thank you while she is still living while she is still here while our kids can see the person that comes in and out of that building um as she continues to do do so um I want to Sidetrack I don't know who I can lead this with but I don't know if it's the board president I I'll leave it to you at the end but I did want to speak on something before I step away from the microphone and that was um in regards to the the charter school that I just heard about I'm glad I was in the meeting but if we can appeal that if we can do anything to help support that um I would like to see that done also [Applause] um as we have some of our band members here who are in need of resources and just to see that increase in the budget to go to someone else isn't fair so I just want to say that um so whatever we can do to to Rally around that for the appeal process I don't know what that process looks like but just know that we are here to also support that um and also just as far as I heard some about the funding and how much money the city is giving I do know that the city is working really really hard as a new Council body now this is the council head um we have been trying to really sell a lot of our abandoned homes to put them back on a tax roow so we can generate more revenue and that way you have you have two Educators who are now on the city council board so we will be advocating for more money to come to the board of education and just last but not least um I love the tutoring the live tutoring I I just heard that for the first time so I'm I'm glad I heard that but I also wanted to say as now the educator hat is on um I currently use Jam board for my students and I saw that it is going to be um ending in October so if you know you do time is up okay but if you do want consider that please Jam board is very effective in my classroom thank you you thank you next up we have another collaborator and um stakeholder from the city um from the organization Hill the city uh Stacy heading would you please [Applause] come good evening everyone to the board to our just wanted to get this together first I want to just thank you for allowing us to have this time to speak and talk about a lady who was well deserving um I am part of Hill the city and um went to Trenton Central High School myself on class of 88 I'm also was the homecoming King for 88 I hold on to that very I do like that was a beautiful time right there so hey when miss when Miss Grady was there and very instrumental in all of our lives from from 88 and before until this day and so one of the things we think about Hill the city we'd like to celebrate the accomplishments of Tren Community leaders parents students and others who make important contributions to the capitol city and then this month I mean in March for women's history month we recognize Sharon Grady a woman who has dedicated many years of service to um Trenton Central High School students and the education community in Trenton um when we're doing research before we put Billboards up we start to learn a lot about people and Miss grv wasn't just um a beautiful person and um and held her age gracefully but when I got to look at all of her accomplishments it really blew the whole committee mind think about it 52 years stayed right here in this District teaching there's many things that she's seen there's many things that she's accomplished then on top of that then I'm looking as a Delta 50 years plus as a Delta 38 years yes 38 years as a a cheerleading coach as a coach nine championships as an assistant coach um for the track team and when you look at her when we put that billboard up we one of these young people from all over Trenton and especially the nth grade academy where it was by so they could just see her accomplishments in the consistency of being here some people are here some people leave some people come back and that's fine and I get that but I'm talking about 15 years of being here and now it allow her to be the first black African woman athletic director and that is something just to know her and to be a part of that and she's so humble and so giving and so before I close I do want to say as the athletic director she was part of the planning committee for high school and athletic complex and designed the new Tornado Alley and was a part of what she did in the 2014 as they celebrated the closing two doors to prepare for the building of the new school with a farewell to Tren high school basketball game and cheerly the performance that was held and recognized for Sharon Grady for her years at TR Central High School over 200 cheer leaders from the 70th to 2008 were there to perform the honor but that's what she produces this lady is a lady of of of Class A Lady of Excellence who never in our in our eyes have done wrong and always encouraged us and when we did a press release on her in closing I definitely want to say this is what she said and I can see this as a plaque or somewhere up TR high for our young people because we asked her we said looking back what what has it meant for you to be here at Tre hi and she says I hope that the young people whose lives I have touched will exercise sound judgment and true loyalty as they continue on the path to success and they will remember me with pride and honor and that is what Miss Grady always thinking about others and working well um with the community she helped us bring we bought a play Black Angels over Tuskegee Hill the city that's what started Hill the city um we bought play about the history for the kids and she was instrumental in that and worked with the worked with me in the community to make sure that we were able to bring this play to this to Trenton Central High School and it was a it was a wonderful play and she made sure all the kids were a part of it and was able to see this play so just thank you for listening we appreciate you thank you next Ludy [Applause] Austin good evening um and thank you for taking the time to hear me as an alumni of Jefferson Elementary School here in Trenton Junior one in Trenton and also Trenton High I'm writing to express my wholeheart support for the proposed renaming of Trenton Central High School Athletic Complex to Sharon Grady Athletic Complex as a native of Trenton born and raised in this vibrant City and having served honorably as a police officer I believe that recognize an individual who have made a significant impact on our community is crucial having closely observed Sharon Grady's unwavering dedication to our students both past and present I am confident that she exemplifies the Valu and spirits of deserving this honor Sharon's Kate is her heart and she genuinly genuinely cares about the well-being and making of the true Beacon hope for so many in the community and if I can just share a personal story with you um I entered the military uh while in Tren High a senior in 2003 my youngest Twins were born and at the same time I received orders to deploy to Iraq not knowing what my future was going to look like I asked my uncle to become the father of my or Godfather of my children and we had that ceremony at Grace Cathedral Church while in Iraq season news that my uncle was killed in a freak accident working here in the city many thought that it was me that was killed in combat my little cousin was a student athlete it was comforting to know that Miss Grady deployed all the student athletes and many students and they showed up in bus loads not only to support me but to support my family I came home for leave and I had to return back to Iraq and I found solace in knowing that I once now had another family there which was missg Grady yeah my daughter my excuse me my little cousin janica went on to graduate from Trenton high and when she graduated from college Miss Grady was there she went on to law school and when she graduated from Law School Miss Grady was there when my daughter excuse me call my daughter she was my little cousin my little cousin passed the bar and she was sworn in Miss Grady was there via Zoom she has been there since then not too long ago I lost another uncle and my little cousin had to return home she looked across the street after school and she was like wow look at Tren High look at my alala and she wanted to get in there you know who she called she called Miss Grady and that goes beyond education so we can show our students that were here on display tonight that there is hope and one day this can become you miss gr is a shining example and I would love to see see this com to fruition thank you [Applause] next we have an please forgive me if I mispronounce your last name Tyrone OA oasia I'm sorry oasia Tyrone oasia okay next Louise mcken [Applause] good evening everyone thank you for your time tonight to be able to speak my name is Louis MC I'm the CEO of the Capital Area YMCA a proud trit High graduate and I am here to speak on behalf of renaming the athletic complex after Sharon Grady I'm going just tell a bit of a a different story because what you said uh Stacy was so great that she wanted to be remember with honor and respect because that's what she deserves Miss Grady is the epitome epitome of a woman with class who pours into each person's that comes into her atmosphere and I call it that atmosphere because if you know Miss Grady she carries that with her and as a proud Tren High graduate years later I worked in the district still work in the district of course with um being at the YCA but I worked in the after school business and in 2007 and8 the board gutted Sports it was nothing we didn't have after school sports in middle school and uh boys and girls club myself Reggie Coleman came together and we made a league we made a league for flag football soccer and basketball just with after school teams for the middle schools when it was the four middle schools and fast forward very next year I brought after school to Triton High we had 576 kids enrolled in Triton High and that was because as humble as I could because Miss Grady is just so awesome I said Miss Grady would you be my sight coordinator me her former student now hiring her and she said of course if it's for these kids I'm do everything I could and she took that program over and then in that crumbling school now if any of us remember Trent high was a crumbling School 2008 nine and by 10 it was you know it was basically going to be condemned Miss Grady was in that school every night with those kids because of course she was doing track she was doing everything and she did my after school program that forever forever miss Grady wal forever forever being hearts of not only myself but you see all these people here and there so many thousands thousands over those 52 years that she did the same thing for and so as a Tren High graduate I couldn't tell you who the athletic complex was named after on the football field I don't know who that person is either because the history is not taught of who was the person who have their name on the field or in the gym but miss Grady 52 years of service anybody in this city of Trenton know who she [Music] is everybody know who she is if you've come through this district and so it's only befitting that you really give it some consideration to name it after her after all the accolades everyone else said about being the first African-American female director I mean athletic director in the state of New Jersey and all the accolades that she had over time as a born and B born and raised person that saw Miss Grady and that you can touch she she definitely has become somebody I miror because I my MTO is I'm the CEO CEO you can touch because I'm here in the community and I just want to give you all hope because I went to Junior 3 and they used to call us jungle 3 it was in on on the front page of the newspaper and some of you are nodding your heads cuz I remember and you all remember too they had us in a bus with animals and called us jungle three be encouraged because these students are great these students are wise Trenton makes and the world takes honor Miss Grady please honor Miss Grady she deserves it thank you for your time thank you thank you very much at this time we have shade Carmichael [Applause] good afternoon esteem members of the board uh my name is Daryl weits um I stand before you as the co-president of the F5 alumni band Association uh our nonprofit I'm sorry I'm sorry what was your name Daryl weights okay and Sh Michael okay I'm sorry it's just that we I will let it pass right now okay but whoever signs up is the person that needs to speak but for today it's something special it's not a a common concern so I'm going to um okay but just one one person can speak okay well thank you everyone and forgive us for that mishap uh for today well good afternoon esteemed members of the board my name is shade carmichel and I stand before you as the secretary and board member of F5 alumni my ban Association and proud graduate of Trent Central High School our nonprofit Association supports Trent Central High School Marching bin today we all have come before you alumni students parents and other supporters with a pressing concern regarding the treatment and support of our marching B members staff and volunteers within the high school from the lack of adequate practice space to discriminatory practices such as CL cling bathrooms during brand practice while other extracurricular activities and sports are provided with access the obstacles our band students encounter are significant and unjust I am joined by one of the esteemed leaders of the marching band who will share his firsthand experiences shedding light on the impact these issues have on our students I would like to introduce Mr Thomas hedge Jr lastly the F5 alumni ban Association is asking to become certified and we would like to be told the proper procedures to be such and I also support renaming of the Trenton Central High School Athletic Complex after Mrs Sharon Grady [Applause] Thomas t tusting uh hello good uh good afternoon everyone I'm Thomas T Jr uh a senior at trans Central High School and drum major of the marching band I've been a part of the band since 2019 I've created bonds with coaches and members of the band that are stronger than some of the bonds with my actual family and with that being said I think it's time for the board to hear my voice because clearly the voices of my mentors and coaches have seemed to leave your ears as soon as their problems were presented the band has been the soul of the community for years whether that's with the pep rallies parades and even back to school extravagan of what happens in the parking lot right outside these doors but in return the band is met with disrespect band members have had incidents where members had to wait outside the school in a freezing cold and were denied access to wait inside the building with the athletes who had just finished their own practice there have also been incidents where the band was told to leave certain areas of the school property for no reason which in return prevented the ban from preparing for homecoming one of the biggest events of the new year for TR High there had been e there have even been cases where the students have to witness Tren high security and other staff members blatantly disrespect the coaches and some other disrespect has also been directed towards the students the security guards have even gotten so petty to the point that I was told I couldn't even bounce a tennis ball uh on a brick wall outside the building very Petty uh the band has faced more discrimination than I can even list with list within the time span of this meeting so I just ask that the Trenton Board of Education the school district whose policy is to put children's children first will realize that they've been put an entire community of children lasts because of their interest in wanting to be a part of one of the programs that bring true happiness in this depressed Community thank you okay and lastly we have uh Mrs jarisa ran oh no okay hi to everyone good evening um I just want to open up with saying that last Bo meeting I spoke in Spanish and the board attorney um started laughing we're laughing all the time I was my five minutes of speaking Spanish um that's fine you actually made me thinking that made me think that I wasn't doing things right so I went to talk to Mr with Mr stocks and I had the same same uh Vibe so I reach out to the um Department of Education so I finally got the right answer to my issue when my daughter was um harassed I'm sorry could we please have silence in the auditori so we can listen to the person commenting now thank you so when my daughter was harassed threatened and um a week later she was attacked by two students which um the students were everything in a because of a Mexican student um when I reported nobody told me that I had to fill out the hip um I did tell Mrs Bea so M Bea were supposed to notify the principle immediately then she had two days to notif five um in writing in to the principal the principal was was supposed to contact every single parent of the students involved it didn't happen so um the following day after those I don't want to read it I have it right here but I just don't want to read it um since she didn't do that on December 7 my daughter was attacked on December 8th we did spoke with Mr stock he said that nothing was going to happen that it was just gross BS and you already know this I I've been saying it for so so long it's just that I didn't hav been writing uh the procedures how what Miss Bea was supposed to do so there's um steps to do this and I'm at the step that I have to file a a complaint and which I'm going to do next we week it's just that things were not went right it's not because of the board members I mean I've been mad honestly I've been mad but it's just miss Bea who didn't follow the steps to protect my daughter and her friend so I've been saying yeah my daughter was attacked it's been a long long way a long path she's fine the other girl is fine too but the aggressors have um charges we went we had court they had court actually so it's nobody went here they didn't win they were so stupid to do the things to harass to threaten and sadly but truly you know they had to pay for it but it's not it's not fair it's not fair for nobody so my I'm asking I'm actually asking the superintendent please advise your staff to follow the directions of the law the law is there New Jersey the New Jersey state has laws to protect the children that are being bullied and when I called um high school after everything passed they said no it was it is just a quote of conduct it's not a quote of conduct it's not by Behavior it was harassment it was threatened and she was attacked and we have videos we have everything and I'm pretty sure that a lot of children are going through this and it's not fair for nobody it doesn't matter your uh skin color your race my daughter we are from Guatemala she born here one of the girls are is from Mexico well they born here their parents are from Mexico the other one is um Dominican Dominican the other one I believe is gualan and Puerto Rican so my daughter was covered by the seven um uh by the seven categories of um protected by bullying which is race we're from different countries even though they born here parents are from different countries she's white the other girls are white but they're they're different my daughter is taller so there there was bullying it was bullying so um I'm just your time is up thank you so much and last Sita Duncan good evening um quick question did you fix the website because we tried to sign up on Friday and we were blocked from signing up we tried you sign up today and there is an issue with the security measure that you have on the website I had to actually send a text message and a screenshot so there may have been people here that would like to have spoken tonight but were unable to sign up electronically because it was messed up Friday as well as today so if you can get the technology committee on that that would be great and um I just stood up here to say to the board because we have been going to these Labor Management collaborative workshops and doing great work and as much as we have shown oursel as an association to be collaborative there are unfortunately some members on the central leadership team that do not display the same characteristics that you board members and uh superintendent Earl um state so I will say this one last time before I start saying names on people you cannot make decisions about people's livelihoods and then when you get called and questioned about it instead of going to try to find the real facts you say that's what it is it will be on the agenda on Monday when you erroneously told somebody they would not have a job and sent that person in a state of panic shock crying hysterically when I told you there was this different information and I will also say in the contract there's a collaborative Clause that means we're supposed to go to policy meetings as the union we're supposed to go to curricul meetings as the union we're supposed to go to Staffing meetings as the union if you took that part seriously half of these things would not transpire it is always okay to Leia let me call such and such and I'll call you back too many backdoor conversations and not enough people coming to the table because as we know people lie sugarcoat the truth and make it seem good for what they want to this member of the central lead leadership team this is the second time I've had to come to the podium to speak about him it is unfortunate I don't know what else can be done other than start blatantly playing conversations saying names and or I don't want to say because people can change and or while they're still here because I have not seen it my colleagues on the leadership team with me have not seen it and people are still being harmed I have spoken to several people who have said such and such is a nice guy give such and such a chance oh my gosh ex that and it's very frustrating it's very rude it's dis missive is condescending and it is not in the spirit of collaboration word on the street is the union is is different the union is walking talking and speaking and moving differently well if we have shown you who we are and you continue to not change or evolve we still have a coffin in the basement at 4:15 Chamber Street we still have umbrellas and Napoleon outfits and I don't know how much more collaborative and or transparent I can be when members of the central leadership team act like they are here and the work workers are here when if it wasn't for the workers that are here you wouldn't be able to be here because we are the bulk of the district so I am asking once again if this is not your true purpose to have a collaborative relationship with the union and your people on the leadership team do not want to get on board please let us know so that we can adjust and act accordingly and finally because I'm not sure if you know this but there was something that went out against the Char school I'm sure both Hamilton and Trenton will be appealing it but I think it's crazy that nobody knew about this Charter School application and everybody's acting like it's a surprise and everybody's not acting like 90% of the money doesn't go to the charter schools and that's why we laid off people three times in the past and so I I just just also want to say I I just also want to say is while we are against the charter school I don't want Trenton to be the scapegoat because now that it's creeping into the suburbs now everybody's outraged now everybody wants to get on board and try to use us to fight their fight where were the people when we had five schools in our district before this one came up in Hamilton so I just want to be very clear yes we are against it but you're not going to use us to fight your battles to keep the little black kids are trting outside of the suburbs when you didn't care when they were infiltrate in us in our budget peace have a great night thank you before um we motion to vote on the agenda it I'm opening the table for the board members to be able to have their comments at this period um can I show you okay one moment one moment I'm going to look at what he has but I do have here that people did sign up this morning to speak and they spoke um if you signed up hold on hold on guys please okay please thank you just give me a second to read this hold on okay Tron they want to know what's going on public schools thank you for allowing speak a minute thank you very much thank you okay one person from this group one person you can stand up with him but just one person is going to speak and for one minute they can stand up solidarity but just one person is going to speak please yes uh thank you so much uh as as as Mr R speaks uh we us as as a community do not want this of course their a Char private school to to move forward with the state basically bullying us and to have our money and F tax funer money go straight to that school without any of us are approval or anything listen if you literally Google the most segregated schools in each state it's and if you Lally Google that it's our our state we cannot and it's not by accident listen we need to continue to provide as much funding to our public schools because it's our future and most importantly we need everyone on not most of you all of you on the board to please appeal you guys have the power to do this so please appeal this decision and we have your back we continue to have your back so thank you so much thank you thank you you thank you and you'll have to forgive us but we need to maintain a certain degree of um organization here of the district right um it was highlighted in the budget earlier uh some of the conversations around charter schools and the exploding cost that's going to be there um and I know a lot of families in Trenton um you know both choose private in charter schools but we have to be able to say to ourselves that our district our public school is a great choice for our children as well like in other districts right you see like the Windor Lawrence Robinsville right you know public school is a great choice and I know that we have the same opportunities here like week after not week month after month we have a bunch of uh school like Jefferson was here just displaying like drone technology uh get a chance to speak to Parker all the time like the kids out there um our kids at our high School daylight Twilight and our um Central High are going to IVs HBCU every year right we have great options here with our Public Schools so you know just moving forward I think it's something that we need to really highlight and focus on the fact that uh you know some of these costs really can come back into our public schools and use uh use to uh essentially get our kids to uh the level that we see in neighboring jurisdictions right um um so yeah let's just make sure that we take some of that money and make sure it's distributed across the board Public School included um okay if it's okay so yeah I certainly just want to go back to um um thank and acknowledge the uh Jefferson uh staff and students um you know that just shows you the investment and this is the return on the investment that in terms of we're seeing it the children you saw their excitement and demonstrating their projects and so on and so forth so it's just good for us to see that particular and we know that there was a big investment in terms of the Apple products the eye the eye products Apple products and to see it in practice was awesome so certainly want to you know certainly salute that and hope that we continue to support that particular uh partnership um on another note this discussion about Charter Schools I I think that this is very interesting that you know you can be a Catholic School one minute and then the next minute you're a charter school right and so um I I have some concerns about that and certainly about that whole process which seemed to have been a little secretive for some and on the on the face of others right and so uh certainly whatever it is that we can uh do to keep the funding inside the district uh and again we know that these are our students but we provide opportunities for them and probably probably a better opportunity than they would have going there as a charter school all right but again um I think that we have to take a stance and do whatever whatever it is that we can as a board and as a district to keep the funds within the district and also to to expose those parents to the opportunities that um our district can provide their particular children so I just wanted to um you know to to say that particular piece because I think it's very very important that we um take a stand right and you know it's interesting too and I'm finished um I'm not advocating one way or the other but uh you know the funny thing is Miss Grady was my was my teacher right and so um it's just it's just interesting that that I retired before her and she was my teacher and so certainly um that goes back to say that Miss Grady has been around for quite a bit and uh certainly when she was my teacher uh she was someone that we looked up to because she was not that far in age from us uh we were 17 and she was about 22 or 23 right and so she gave us um a role model to look up to she had this giant afro and this was in the70s right in the 70s and it was just a new experience for us to experience that youth and she came from a um HBCU in the South and she brought a I couldn't remember which school Wiston Salem thank you but she brought a different um exposure to us uh who basically we lived in Trenton right and so for the most part I visited uh states in the South uh having come from the south myself but I never lived there I lived here but she brought a different um spirit and a different Persona to us and so so certainly uh you know as I said I felt and and I've lived through the great experience and I just needed to say that period oh I'm sorry can I add just one thing I'm so I so now I've been sitting here holding my tongue right um when I got on the school board in 2016 it was Sharon Grady who welcomed me to the school board and and and so her contribution to the students you know when you hear these sto wories right um um uh I think it's commendable to say the least and and so to be able to see her get her flowers while she lives is a big deal I'm just I'm just going on the record with my feelings because she was so open and warm and accepting to me um as I came here and we've come a long way since 2016 and her continued commitment to the children in the district in particular 52 years is a long time that's a long time Addie told me she was her teacher I was like oh my God but anyway could I just also just say one more thing we should acknowledge our student representative Harmony who's here with us this evening thank you so much for being here for getting a taste of what it's like to be a board member and sit up here and hear the concerns of the community I hope that when you graduate you take this experience with you and you continue to show leadership wherever it is that you decide to go okay thank you as a student from this District I graduated in 1988 along with Stacy Hing I remember him from high school um this District continues to amaze me I am so proud to be a board member uh here and serving the children and families and I'm using my language as a social worker Children and Families uh Jane your presentation today was phenomenal phen I I never understood the gravity the the what it takes to run this District I never understood that looking on the outside so I appreciate the position from which I sit and I'm I don't want to be political but I have to just say this and I know people turn away um when I mentioned this so I'm not making an excuse for um the level of a of performance within the district but just know that persons of African descent we are struggling we are struggling and by God's grace this D this district is providing to us an opportunity to excel had it not been for my teachers and my coaches where would I be I thank this District wholeheartedly thank this district and I did not mean to get emotional but I just I love it here I I love this city I'm I'm moved here by choice I I left I I went to school and I came back because I saw because I saw a need here and when I was asked to sit on this board despite all of the other volunteer opportunities I'm that I'm you know engaged in I I said I'm going to to do it and it takes work to sit up here it really does it takes work so I just want to thank the superintendent his leadership team the teachers in this District the guidance counselors the coaches the staff everyone that works to ensure that our children get what they need to excel in this world and believe me I mean this this is we all know this is a difficult world to live in as a person of African descent it's difficult so I just want to thank the district and I I feel privileged to be associated with this District that's it yes I would like to add on to that um one of the things that really struck a chord with with me um through this meeting was the understanding that our history is so important and so many people so many young students growing up in the system see names on names on schools names on walls but they don't know who those people are and how much of an impact they made on every single one of us and the thousands of people who still live and and belong along in the city and Miss Grady has been a pillar and for me what's been exciting was I actually was there when they revealed the billboard right in front of the ninth grid Academy honoring her and showing not just you know that that this was someone who committed 52 years to the district but talking about the accomplishments talkinging about the impact so that every day those students going back and forth to school see that and can see themselves in that um it's so important for us to do a better job as a community as a city and as a district to highlight those stories to highlight the everyday people who make that impact because we talk about it often about how it takes a village to and to you know make an impact to uplift to inspire people to be something especially when it comes to these children you know it goes as far as the security guards to the custodians to the teachers to the after school coordinators any single person has an impact and can touch that student in a way that goes beyond just you know what we teach in the classroom so it's so important to highlight that and I'm super excited with what has already been done with honoring hch petch Williams for the Ann univ this year getting the placard in front of the school and us moving forward to see how we can do that for Miss Grady um as a district the other thing this is uh for me my first uh budget presentation so I thank you Miss Howard and the budget department or the business department for really going in depth and providing the the full understanding to not just me but the community um I feel very proud of the budget you presented and how it aligns with our court values our strategic plan and making sure that we're putting um our money where our values are when it comes to uplifting the whole child creating opportunities for for our Young making sure our buildings and facility is up to dat and I'm super excited to see what we do next year as we continue on this path one thing also that really struck a court with me in the presentation tonight was um our agenda tonight is uh grants because I saw how much we lost in eser funding for this year and I was so excited to see that we have a job description for a grant manager because grants are really important especially for for a lot of the programming and opportunities that we have um in in the district and as we continue to incorporate technology and and opportunities for young people to see job opportunities we really need to really hammer down on any grants that are available to us so I'm super excited to see that position get filled and I'm super excited to see how that impacts our money as we expand to uh serve the students in this District so if I could just add one one other thing um in terms of um talking about the naming of schools PJ Hill Elementary School was named after Patton J Hill he was still alive at the time the school was named for him and so it was um his while he was he was older but he actually he made time for that school he came in and had an opportunity to connect with the kids of that school and it was so important some of that history is lost now but the fact that he was a person living walking into the school that was named for him I believe he was the first black principal um here in the city and so again with that opportunity for him to come and visit and be known this is the person that that school is named after and he came and he was saluted at uh several uh programs that they had at the school and he would make like monthly visits to the school and so on and so forth so again it was a different experience and again uh you know that was before we we kind of changed our rules but again that experience I think was profound for the students who uh were there at that particular time and I think one of our principles was actually one of those students um one of our current principles uh TOA stard Wilson was one of those students when the school opened and PJ hill was still alive so there's a a lot of history that does kind of get lost in the translation but I think somewhere we need to record all that because again it makes a difference in terms of your identity and how you think about certain things just need to throw that in if there no other comments or questions on the consent agenda I please have a motion so moved second roll call Yolanda Lopez yes Joe truart absent Jean buoy yes Denise John Johnson Austin Edwards yes Genie weam yes yes Sasa mat yes Larry trailer yes there being no new businessman have a motion to adjourn so mooved second all in favor I anyone against okay you did