the adequate notice of this regular meeting as required by the open public meetings Act was provided by the posting mailing delivery and filing of the notice on January 12th 2024 this notice was on that date posted on the bulletin board in the township office sent to The Courier News and tap into Warren and filed with the Township Clerk of the township of Warren all in accordance with the requirement of the open public meetings act please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Mr Hegel I'll will now call the role Mr Desai M spom here miss Keller here Mr molfetta here mrto here Mr Tor here Mr Valentino here Mr Weinstein here Mrs on here we have perfect attendance whereas the open public meetings act njsa 104-1 permits the Board of Education to meet in close session to discuss certain matters now therefore be it resolved Board of Education adour to Cod session to discuss collected bargaining agreement Andor negotiations related to it matter involving the purchase Lees or acquisition in Real Property with public funds and specific perspective for current employees unless all who be adversely affected request to open session action will be taken on return to public session the length of the meeting is anticipated to be approximately 30 minutes be further resolved the minutes of this CL session be made public when the need of confidentiality no longer may I have a second second all in favor I opposed abstain we are now in executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e turn second all in favor I opposed abstain the board is now back in session resolve that the Board of Education approves the public and private session minutes of the March 18th 2024 board meeting second second all right I'll call the roll on the minutes mide yes Mrs fom yeah Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr Otto yes Mr tour yes Mr Valentino yes Mr Weinstein yes and Mrs Z yes all right passes 90 thank you correspondence and information thank you there is no correspondents to report there were a total of seven HIV investigations since our last meeting one at aot which was not confirmed one at Central which was not confirmed one at Woodland which was not confirmed and four at the middle school one of which was confirmed and on the suspension report there were two in school suspensions at Woodland and one at the middle school thank you Dr mingle good evening and welcome to the April 29th meeting of the Board of Education I hope that everyone enjoyed their spring break and celebrations of the many holidays that fall this time of year I would like to thank the Lions Club of Lauren for their gener generous donation of funds to support the llv classroom project at the middle school and which appears on tonight's agenda as item V5 I also want to take a moment to acknowledge that April is Autism Awareness Month this is a time when we can all commit to amplifying the voices of our autistic and neurodiverse neighbors friends and family members and in listening and learning about their experiences the Warren schools are committed to providing a safe nurturing yet challenging environment for all our students providing our students with an outstanding education that engages students and fosters academic Excellence healthy social and emotional development and a lifelong passion for learning could not happen without this being in shared commitment between the community as represented by this board and our teachers and support staff so it is with great appreciation that I announce that the Warren Township Education Association and the district have agreed on contract terms for the next four years beginning July 1 2024 the current teachers contract expires on June 30th through the time consuming but respectful and fair efforts of the board's negotiation team and the wta's negotiation team there will be no Gap as we move seamlessly into the next contract term I want to thank the board's team led by Miss Keller and consisting of Mr Weinstein and Mr tour and express our appreciation and thanks to the wta's negotiation team as well with that Miss Keller would you please read the resolution approving the conference resolved that the Board of Education approves the 2024 through 2028 wtaa Collective Agreement which was ratified by the wtea membership on April 29th 2023 may I have a second second Mr all right so this is on motion c19 ratifying the uh AG between the board and the wtea Mr deay yes M SP yes Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr Otto yes Mr tour yes Mr Valentino yes Mr Weinstein yes and Mrs Z yes we have an agreement no zero thank you superintendent remarks Dr M thank you Mrs Z congratulations to the board and to the wtaa on on the new Collective an agreement I have several comments on agenda items which I'll save for later but for now just a quick preview for our next meeting uh which is on Monday May 13 we will be celebrating our Governor's educator of the Year recipients that evening so all of our principles will be here to share what makes those individuals special to our organization and without giving you any other information I'll say there's also one additional uh national award presentation that will take place for one of our staff members at that meeting as well so uh we have invited all those teachers to be here and certainly invite the public to support us and support them in celebrating their accomplishments thank you Dr mingle we do not have a presentation or discussion on tonight's agenda so we will move directly to committee reports there is no committee report for curriculum technology committee so we have two reports for the finance operations and security committee the first one being the meeting of March 26 the finance committee met with all members present this was an open meeting for the purpose of the community coming to ask questions about the budget we did have a member of the community come and ask some really great questions um so I think that that we can call that a success but that was the only purpose of that meeting the finance committee also met on Monday April 15th with all members and the alternate present the meeting on the 15th of April consisted of briefly going back over the 2425 budget where Mr Hegel reported that the budget had been approved by the county office was set to be advertised on April 22nd and is tonight on the board's agenda for adoption as item B6 the committee then moved on to reviewing the 5-year Capital Improvement plan prioritization that is an ongoing process where the committee gave some feedback to the board's architect and the administration regarding priorities and the board will be meeting again this week on the 1 to further discuss the prioritization of the capital Improvement um projects um finally the grant funds for the SDA grant were approved and so the Warren middle school science lab upgrades are ready to move forward and that is all or the finance committee Personnel negotiations and Communications committee Miss Kelly we met on April 8th and reached an agreement on a contract between the wtea and Warren Township Board of Ed which we approved three ago I think um I'd like to thank the board's negotiation committee for their work on this and I'd also like to thank the WTA negotiations team under the leadership of Mrs Andrews and Mr Jones for their participation in the process thank you Miss Keller and there is no meeting to report on the ad hoc strategic planning committee so at this point we are moving to the final opportunity for public commentary regarding the budget um this is the 2425 budget we will have three opportunities tonight for the public to comment this first opportunity is exclusively regarding the 2425 budget so just as a reminder I ask that anyone interested in addressing the board on this topic only please raise their hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom each speaker is asked to limit their comments to three minutes please begin your comments by stating your name and address and by directing your comments to the presiding officer please know that the board welcomes and encourages input from the public most particularly on our budget um and so at this point looking to the room and see nobody in the room do we have anyone on Zoom that would like to be heard on the matter of the 2425 budget um hej Mr J hi sorry I couldn't hear if it was if this is the proper uh forum for my comments but I just wanted to say thank you to the uh wta's negotiating team um and all the wtea members for supporting US during the negotiations and I wanted to say thank you to the board's negotiating team for meeting us at the table with positivity and and with fairness um everyone is very excited about this contract so thank you guys for working with us on this thank you Mr Jones are there any other comments on Zoom regarding the Vil seen none motion to close public commentary on the 2425 budget second second all in favor opposed abstain this first opportunity for public commentary which was restricted to the 2425 budget has now closed we will now move on to our second opportunity for public commentary this is the second of three opportunities this evening um all of the um uh restrictions and and rules previously mentioned apply please raise your hand in Zoom um if you wish to address the board or in public this commentary opportunity is for items appearing on tonight's agenda you have anyone in the room seeing none do we have anyone on Zoom who would like to make a comment regarding tonight's agenda items only see none do I have a motion to close public commentary motion to close all in favor opposed abstained the second opportunity for public commentary has now Clos Dr mingle do you have any items relating to tonight's actions I do I have I have a few here I'll go in order that they're on the agenda so people can follow along easily item A3 the 2023 2024 revised calendar annually at the meeting that follows spring break the board adopts a revised calendar to reflect the actual last day of school based on the use of snow days as our Mount horb families know Mount horb was closed for one day when the rest of the district was open due to a building emergency so we now have a we have a staggered closure this year the actual calendar graphic will be up on the district website tomorrow and will be shared in the community briefing on Friday but just so everybody can mark their calendars the last day of school for all schools except mount horb for students would be on June 12th which is a Wednesday the last day of school for mount horb for students will be on June 13th which is a Thursday uh so that's one day earlier than scheduled for Mount horb and two days earlier for the other schools again that'll all be up on the website and communicated out by email by the end of the week the uh item B6 which is the budget adoption there are no changes from the tentative budget that was approved last month uh kudos to Mr Hegel and his team and Mrs an in the finance committee and the full board on a successful budget season and approval from the county office and being able to move forward the district uh that way I also want to bring everyone's attention to item B8 which is New Jersey qac performance Continuum placement this is the state's process for evaluating school districts it's essentially a thorough audit of all of our operations our student achievement outcomes and governance it's it's quite extensive the district was rated as highly performing in that qac process which is the highest rating you can get that's good for three years congratulations to everybody at the board our administrative staff and our teaching and instructional staff everybody involved in in making sure that we're doing what we're supposed to be doing day in and day out item C2 this is really for the board members we have our first employment of a wtea eligible individual for next school year right now it says TBD for a salary so I'm going to tell you the salary so that when you when you make a motion and second and vote on it it's it's with the salary that's in the contract that you just approved in in the negotiations that salary is 8825 8812 that way we don't have to come back and do a second motion somewhere in the future and then finally I just want to address items C 17 and 18 which is the creation and abolishment of positions this happens every year at the April Mee at the second April meeting when there are two or the one April meeting when there's one and this is to align our position control roster with what's in the budget and what we anticipate for the next year so you'll see that as of right now there's a net decrease in all likelihood by the time we get to the first day of school that will be eliminated through monthly additions of Staff as we get more kindergarten registrants or other people moving in but as of right now that reflects our staffing needs for next year and it will fluctuate as we move forward I think that's it for me on business okay thank you do thank you Dr mingle does any board member have any item on the agenda they wish to pull for discussion or separate vote see none Miss Kell motion to approve items for board consideration A1 through A6 B1 through B15 C1 C2 as modified and C3 C motion I'll call the rooll Mr say yes M white bom yeah Miss Keller yes Mr Metta yes Mr RTO yes Mr Tor yes Mr Valentino yes Mr Weinstein yes Mrs S yes all motions passed zero we have no unfinished business on tonight's agenda moving on to new business which is listed as the Wong Hills shared services regionalization feasibility study at the April 9th meeting of the Watchung Hills Regional High School Board of Education it was announced that after many years of effort the high school and its co- applicant the Wang burough Board of Education had secured funding from the state for a shared service regionalization study shortly before this announcement the Warren board received and accepted an invitation to attend a meeting on April 23rd regarding the process and timeline for the study I attended the meeting with Natalie fik bound who has accepted the role of our board's representative Lia Zone to that steering committee and with that Miss fight them yes so um it was requested that a statement be provided by the members of committee so I'm going to read that now with full funding from the state of New Jersey a highly experienced Rowan University team led by former Warren Township Board of Education member Kathleen Hela will be conducting a shared services regionalization study covering the WatchOn Hills Regional Watchung burough Warren Township Long Hill Township and Green Brook Township school districts the Wang Hills Regional and Wang Bureau School applied for and received a grant under the state's School re regionalization efficiency program which funds the cost of the study at no cost to school districts or property taxpayers the study will be conducted over the next year with input from an advisory committee that includes representatives from all five School boards along with school administrators and Municipal officials this study will analyze educational programs for students from preschool through High School within the five districts including curriculum coordination special special education programming and transportation costs it will provide a demographic analysis of future enrollment for the five district forecast state aid based on those enrollment projections and evaluate future budget challenges based on this analysis the study will provide recommendations for educational enhancements and any potential cost savings through various options ranging from the expansion of shared services in specific areas to full free K12 regionalization members of the school boards met last week to hear from the Roman School regionalization Institute team on the methodology involved in the study and it was agreed that transparency with the community and opportunities for feedback throughout the process will be important there will be ongoing opportunities for Community involvement throughout the study process beginning with informational Zoom session with with an informational zo session on Monday May 20th at 700 p.m. a meeting reporting will be posted on District websites following the session registration information will be forthcoming um I'd also like to add just to clarify that the purpose of the grant is to conduct a feasibility study to explore whether regionalization would benefit the community I also want to add that all recommendations will be subject to review and Analysis of the board and that regionalization can only happen upon a public vote of support thank you Miss now does any board member have want to have a conversation about this okay seeing none that's the end of new business moving on to the last opportunity for public commentary this is the third opportunity for public commentary and it is open to any topic you wish to raise to the board's attention again I ask that you raise your hand or use the raise your hand feature on Zoom remember that comments are limited to 3 minutes and please state your name and address before beginning looking first to the room moving on to zoom is there anyone in our Zoom waiting room that or Zoom audience that would like to speak on any topic please use the raion Lage see none motion oppose second anyone second second all in favor I opposed abstain the last opportunity for public commentary for this board meeting has been closed do I have a motion Miss motion to adjourn second all in favor opposed abstained this board meeting has ended thank you