e e e to the district I'm just going to go over some things based upon what I was able to pull because you would not provide the documents that were necessary but just going back in unanticipated Surplus this is after all bills are paid this is the excess Revenue in 2122 you budgeted 2 8 million and the audit showed you at 11.2 million or $8.3 million more than you budgeted for 2223 5.8 was budgeted you had 8.7 or $2.8 million more for 22 or 2324 3 million and you're showing in your revised budget which we were able to pull 7.2 million or an additional 4.2 million do in unanticipated Surplus as we're going into next year on top of that the excess above the anti unanticipated Surplus is the budgeted fund balance for 2324 not audited you're expecting to carry in that account $1.5 million unrestricted miscellaneous Revenue you budgeted in 2223 600,000 and the audit shows 1.6 million extraordinary Aid is up actual revenues on this document a negative number is good in 2122 meaning if I give my my son $20 for gas and he doesn't spend 20 you get $2 back if you spent 18 here you your audited number for 2223 is showing $3 million more than the revenue thing and I would like to sit and talk because some of these Enterprise funds and capital projects which can be put off in the meantime total grants and entitlements 5.8 million and it showing that the audit shows you received 10.9 million or $5.1 million more state aid you lost 1.8 million 400,000 1.5 million for three straight years no riffs now this year you received not lost received another $1.6 million in state aid over last year or 3.79% more in state aid and just I heard the s funds are expiring I agree they need to be used by September 30th you still have 2.44 million which have not been earmarked as of last week when we pulled the data off of the federal website your enrollment is down 69 students in five years less than 1% so I encourage this board to open up the books sit down with the wtea the Washington Township support Association in njaa to find a solution rather than putting over a 100 people out of a job many of them who are Township residents and voters thank you any reason why we W [Music] give my question my question is is there any reason why did not provide that je no other than I only saw your request for the audit and the 2324 information so I can certainly get that to you we do you want to go one by one or do you want to go is that I mean like there's lzo no yes sir good evening my name is Lou Randazzo I'm a field representative from the New Jersey Education Association I represent 1300 of your employees here in your schools and I want to speak on uh letter L human resources in relationship to the cuts so at the last meeting I explained the procedures for if the cuts were done as a reduction in force or an RF riff uh what action the board could take the administration chose not to use that Avenue for the cuts which is fine not a criticism um they're non-renewals as the superintendent mentions and so uh what I'm going to explain to you now is the procedure by which especially based on information we just heard from Mr Yori about what we believe is not the same budget picture that was painted at in the former meetings uh your ability to take action on Personnel matters so at the last meeting uh April 30th we saw four board members uh vote no on the budget which I explained doesn't really change anything in terms of your statutory Authority but we appreciate as a gesture that you are against the cut so I want to thank those board members publicly tonight Mr Tomac thank you sir Miss Baker thank you we appreciate that vote Mr Serrano thank you sir when it comes to Personnel matters that lies in New Jersey statutes annotated njsa 18a title 18a chapter 27 section 4.1 if you were searching in Google njsa 18a colon 27- 4.1 this is something that for the board I've already sent to you uh in writing email uh on Friday May 3rd after the last meeting so you're invested that Authority it goes further in a case in 1997 um an Angelo Velasquez versus the Board of Education of Briel burough Briel is a small community in Monmouth County New Jersey uh the State Board of Education reaffirmed the decision of a New Jersey administrative law judge reaffirming that exact statute and your authority to take Personnel matters here's the quote from the alj that the department um affirmed this is a direct quote quote the statute the one I just mentioned as enacted does not effectuate an intent to remove District board consideration of Reemployment of an employee not recommended by the superintendent end quote put more plainly yes board members you are in power to take action and have the final word on Personnel matters of the district without the recommendation of the uh superintendent lastly that same uh Authority is vested to you in the school ethics act uh and this is part of the oath that you took of office right as board members which is codified in statute as well 18a 12- 24.1 there are 10 items there labeled a through J and the eighth item uh letter H reads dley uh this is a quote uh quote h i will vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of the chief administrative officer end quote so board members you are absolutely in powered to take Personnel matter votes and to override the superintendent's ruling so when you get to letter L on the agenda this evening in seemingly in a few minutes uh there of course it will be moved by the president as he moves the agenda as the chair and if there's a second in discussion we are asking for one Brave board member to say I want to override the superintendent's recommendation to not to non-renew all employees that received a non-renewal notice and to instead offer them re employment for continued employment right for the 24 25 school year that is absolutely within your rights that is what we're asking you to do this evening if you were to receive uh advice to the contrary in that comment as I imagine you probably will either from the solicitor or from someone in the administration I would encourage you to ask them what is the statutory Authority or basis for such a claim because there isn't one I just gave you your statutory Authority as defined in multiple places uh lastly if someone were to attempt to rule that out of order uh they cannot do that only one person this evening can rule an item as a motion as such uh for an amendment for letter L out of order that's the chair Mr Ross I imagine he probably won't do that based on his vote in the last meeting and he probably realizes in his former life as a superintendent that everything I've said is factually accurate this evening so board members um as Mr Yori said we know our members typically live in communities where they serve and uh in my experience that's roughly in the 1/3 to 1/4% 25 to 33% not the case in Township uh of the 1300 folks I mentioned at the onset whom I represent here in your schools 700 are your residents your neighbors registered voters and taxpayers so to cut them would be cutting your neighbors I appreciate the hard work and decisions you have to make as as I as I said at the last meeting I sit on a public body myself but you would not find me making such a vote so again board members I'm asking you as I my time expires an amendment to letter L on the agenda to reoffer employment to all non renewed employees for the 2425 school year thank you Angelo tusi tuso good evening I'm Angela ruso WT sspa president and a specialized assistant for those of you who may not know on Wednesday May 8th at 11: a.m. in the middle of our workday myself and 200 plus assistants received the following email from the desk of the Department of Human Resources as you are aware the district is finalizing budgetary plans for the 2024-25 school year as part of the process you will be receiving a non-renewal of employment letter today from our superintendent Dr hibs this letter is being sent to the assistant in all school buildings throughout the district please review this letter indicate that you received it with a signature and return it to the main office by Friday morning please know that you may be contacted in the near future regarding employment opportunities you are entitled to for the 2425 school year please speak to your wtssp paa representative if you have any questions thank you the letter from Dr Hibbs can be found in your mailbox the insensitivity shown by delivering this devastating information via email instead of in person is unconscionable this was a total failure of our district the horror story you hear about in the news with for-profit businesses not in schools with people who lovingly and compassionately work with our children this was one of the darkest days in my 30 plus years here in the Washington Township imagine receiving that 11: a.m. email without warning or any explanation the Panic that swept over the district was unfathomable I heard that this spare in every single assistant that I spoke to to say they were distraught would be an understatement how do I pay my bills now will I have the benefits taken away how will I put food on my table what will I do how will I live how will my students be without my support ironically this happened during Teacher Appreciation Week yes I know we are not teachers but just ask any teacher how valuable we are to them every assistant here in addition to worrying about themselves and their families were equally concerned about the welfare of their students that's who we are and this is not the township we all know and love the students I've worked with in my years here have become a part of my heart and just like family I've celebrated many of their Milestones big and small holidays birthdays graduations and other successes I love love them all as if they were my own as assistant we have direct contact with our students we literally hold their hands and we impact every child in the classroom classified or not to be clear all of these Cuts were made on the back of the assistant the lowest paid people in this District many already work multiple jobs to make ends meet because making $116,000 a year isn't enough for a single parent to support their family and yes some are worried sick about getting life-saving Medical Care like liver transplants without health insurance why Target this group just because you can is this board and administration too lazy or not creative enough to produce another solution take Cherry Hill for example when faced with a $6.9 million reduction in state aid one of the deepest cuts Statewide they were able to find a solution without cutting existing staff Cuts were made to athletic programs professional development classes purchases of equipment supplies technology and furniture and the elimination of vacant positions why are we not discussing other options like these was it really necessary to send out 200 plus non-renewals by email at 11:00 a.m. during the work day in the middle of teacher appreciation week [Applause] Kathleen Stevens Kathleen Stevens good evening my name is Kathleen Stevens and I have been a special education teacher in this District specifically at Burgess for the past 20 years 4 years I am here to discuss the missing group from contract renewals on the agenda our assistance in every type of classroom that I have taught in whether it's a resource room an inclusive General Ed classroom or my current self-contained MD classroom I have only been able to successfully do my job because I have had the support of our assistants by my side whether they are under the category of instructional special education assistant or specialized all of them have been there to help meet the many needs of our students we understand budget cuts are necessary we've seen and heard about the numbers what we do not understand is why this group was targeted in the way that it happened while the plan that you shared with us listed 55 support staff would be cut support staff is an umbrella group from multiple groups of people every single assistant in this District was given a non-renewal letter in the middle of their workday with our students in the middle of teacher appreciation week you're telling people that a job cannot be promised yet we have students with onetoone assistant in their IEPs if seniority lists were able to be established for teachers and other groups the same should have been done for our assistance we need them if we are truly doing what's best for kids we need the staff that have continued to work with us despite many contracts changing to 5.75 hours just shy of having benefits benefits that were originally told to us they would be offered to offset the pay that we all know and have agreed is nowhere near what it should be we need the staff that have dedicated their time to knowing how to best work with our kids our sub plans often say ask the assistants they know how to run our rooms we need the staff that help with everything from staying on task in a large class setting implementing Behavior strategies taking kids on breaks when needed so the teachers can keep teaching other students addressing their sensory needs feeding assistance toileting assistance providing supplemental instruction under the direction of teachers and so much more that I can't even listen list at all we need our staff they know our kids they love our kids and they are a crucial part of our school communities thank [Applause] you Melissa Shmo Melissa Shmo I'm sorry about that good evening Dr Hibbs and the board for those of you who don't know me my name is Melissa Shel and I have one of the multiple disability teachers at burches school I have been a teacher for 12 years have taught in this program for the last eight and am truly passionate about it I'm here to speak tonight in response to the reduction and force letters that were distributed to all assistants in the district on May 8th while each assistant in the district has an impact and is important I am concerned specifically about the specialized assistants that work in our self-contained classrooms as you know our district has struggled to fill positions this year and because of that the multiple disabilities program has had vacancies the entire year even dating back to previous years I am absolutely terrified of what a reduction in force is going to look like in a self-contained classroom that aren't fully staffed to begin with this year I have seen how vacancies in our program have had a direct impact on students success and I am heartbroken about it self-contained classrooms cannot function without assistance most importantly assistance are required to main maintain the safety of our students as our students May engage in alotment self-injurious Behavior aggression mouthing and more let me reiterate specialized assistants are absolutely essential in helping our students remain safe in school furthermore our students have significant needs and require assistance to complete their toileting routine reduce negative behaviors eat their snacks and lunch navigate the Halls communicate follow directions engage in social situations access the playground and even participate in specials our students require explicit and repeated instruction to learn skills that many typically developing students learn naturally and specialized assistance are the people that make that happen due to the individualized nature of that these skills must be taught without specialized assistance students will not make progress and won't gain the skills needed to become independent as they get older Dr Hibbs I know you sent a clarification email to the district letting assistants know that they would hopefully be informed of their job status by June 30th but besides the fact that this is an extraordinary amount of time to wait it is also unfortunately too late for the assistance that carry benefits from the district these assistants need to know that they have benefits starting July 1st which leaves them no choice but to start looking for another job self-contained classes have a hard enough time attracting quality candidates and now we are at risk of losing individuals who love their job who want to work in our programs and who possess the skills that fulfill the job requir IR Ms there are specific qualities that are needed to work successfully in self-contained classrooms and just having anybody isn't a safe or effective the students with the most significant needs who work the closest with specialized assistance should not be affected by this reduction in force this is not in the best interest of kids our kids deserve better I urge you not to take away the ESS essential assistance that are required to toilet feed take care of teach and maintain the safety of the amazing students in our multiple disabilities [Applause] program Lissa Fanning Lissa Fanning my name is Melissa MCN and I am the elementary vice president of the wtea this is my 25th year of teaching in Washington Township in my 25 years at heri I have worked for seven superintendents soon to be seven principles soon to be 10 supervisors over 75 different Board of Ed members and more than 10 board presidents these leaders have come and gone while teachers of my era that began with me in my building still remain loyal and committed and always accountable and we watch from afar as the high paid leaders come and go we watch them make the same mistakes we watch as the cycle continues and we lose more and more of once of what once made Washington Township great what I think some tend not to understand is that those of us doing the true work in the trenches the teachers AIDS custodians maintenance workers bus drivers kitchen staff secretaries we are the committed individuals who truly invest in our children invest in our schools and invest in one another the mistake our leaders make is that they fail to invest in us and their shortsightedness their shortsightedness continues to cost the district more money in the long run more time and energy trying to fix problems that we shouldn't have had in the first place and has lowered morale Beyond Comprehension and and while our leaders May highlight that we are saving money they are costing us so so much more slowly chipping away at the foundation soon we will be only a skeleton of what once was and those of us who have been here as long as I have can see that as clear as day if only someone ever asked for our input looked through our lens and truly listened maybe we wouldn't be making the same mistakes on repeat and if our if only our leaders were held as accountable as our teachers but sadly they repeatedly escaped being held accountable for their poor choices there is a saying people who feel appreciated will always do more than is expected but with the way things were done over the course of the past two weeks how can anyone feel appreciated or respected we watched why over hundreds of employees received non-renewal notices this week without any heads up or understanding of what was happening every single assistant in the district was sent an email at 11:00 on Wednesday stating that they were being non-renewed no one understood as it was believed we would be losing a set number not everyone staff members panicked people cried there were collections being taken to lesson the blow my phone blew up with people asking desperate questions that I couldn't answer like are they Outsourcing us and these assistants had to stay composed and work with young children believing they had been fired because the district wasn't considerate enough to send an email like this at the end of the day several hours later everyone received a clarification email from the superintendent with an explanation of why the district chose this path really no one thought that this would be a good idea to send this email out prior to sending out the non-renewal notices such a small preventative measure that would have saved so much disarray but that's part of the problem we are always building the plane as we are flying it these days and it's exactly why we are always chasing our tail it was also very upsetting to watch teachers be non-renewed on Teacher Appreciation Day mind you we could have riffed some of these staff but instead we left an unerasable mark on them that will likely disable them from future employment all because we didn't get our ducks in a row in time to figure out seniority an extra special treat was when computer teachers at the elementary level were told that their positions had been eliminated at 2:30 on Friday before Mother's Day weekend here's a great idea let's no longer teach computers at the elementary level in the technology age when we were about to embark on Google as a new plat platform in the fall who had this brilliant idea but didn't have the foresight to see the Colossal impact this will have on staff and students at the last meeting there was a question raised about replacing former administrator Katherine Ashbridge's director of special education position it was said we couldn't possibly put that extra responsibility and burden on our superintendent of special education and I hear statements like this all the time when it comes to our admin yet we just keep dumping more and more on on the plates of our staff every single day hey classroom teachers now you can teach computers too and by the way we're going to make a lucky three of you deans of students it's basically an administrative position but we're only going to pay you a teacher's salary hey custodians we'd like you to weed the grounds on top of trying to maintain the buildings that used to be that used to be double the amount of custodians hey assistants we would like to use we would like you to do the same job that you've been doing and do it just as as well but with half as many of you because well we just can't afford your minimum wage salary hey Elementary guidance counselors even though your younger students are struggling with mental health more than ever sadly we had to cut three of you so now the rest of you can pick up the slack two steps forward three steps back yet I don't see any administrative cuts on the agenda not one I believe there are supposed to be four if we're going to have three deans of students at the elementary level going between two buildings why wouldn't it be safe to say that we don't need six supervisors one in every building any longer couldn't we make do with three that alternate schools with the Deans on opposite days I'm beyond disappointed in what has transpired here almost go as far to say that I'm sickened just about every single decision that has been made in this terrible predicament is one that will directly affect children and I'm tired of everyone acting like this is happening everywhere because it's not not like this it's not my questions to you are who are the four administrators that are being cut and why aren't the salaries of the administrators on the board agenda like those of the teachers and why are we re why are we rehiring the the supervisor of Elementary computers when there's no more Elementary [Applause] computers hey Adriana chman cha Adriana cha cha go [Applause] once hi my name is Adrien cha I've been an Ela teacher in the district since 2006 and I am the wta's middle school vice president last week PTO volunteers across the district celebrated teacher appreciation week with breakfast Raffles and other treats throughout the week OB ms's principal and vice principal baked muffins brought us Donuts they stocked our faculty room with snacks and sodas and they wrote individual encouraging messages on each of our classroom whiteboards to boost our morale as we headed into appreciation week which is also ironically testing week for Middle Schools teachers were asked to come into the building earlier than usual to pick up our testing supplies make sure everything runs smoothly and we participated in Spirit Week Pajama Day blue day mismatch clothing day twin day and school spirit day wasn't it just a few board meetings ago that we were congrat congratulating all of our District's theater programs for their excellent drama performances obms students had a blast performing in the SpongeBob musical under the direction of a seconde Ela teacher and drama club club advisor on a Thursday before Ash Wednesday the district website featured pictures of staff and students celebrating the German tradition of waer fnat sorry I can't pronounce German which saw the halls of obms fielded with boys wearing neck ties and the girls playfully sniffing them away this funfield event was organized by obs's German teacher walk into obms and see our hallways covered with student paintings and display cases filled with student sculptures in addition to working full-time to support our art students one of ob's art teachers earned a master's degree this month she didn't have a Lunch Period this year that was her travel period because she also taught at Chestnut Ridge ob's only Ela interventionist also wore many hats this year she piloted she piloted the district linkit program and worked on committees to design grade level assessments using the linkit platform she was a BSI teacher she volunteered to Pilot a new program for potential program adoption she took over two 8th grade ELA classes midye hosted starbooks Cafe to inspire students to expand their reading pallets ran the sixth grade prep club for after school homework help and walked through the halls with her signature Wonder Woman Badges and accessories that matched her Wonderwoman room decor welcoming and empowering students this was her second year at obms she left a long-term tenure position in her previous District to teach in Township the township she calls her home with her own two children attending Township Schools these staff members and many more throughout the district were non-renewed last week I made the celebrations of teacher appreciation week Spirit Week State Testing and after weeks of stressful speculation teachers across the district were called into meetings one by one to receive their non-renewal notices the ambiguous wording of the non-renewal letters further added insult to injury quote regrettably I'm writing to inform you today to provide notification that due to economic reasons or other good cause we are not able to offer you employment contracts for the 2024 25 school year economic reasons or other good cause our amazing teachers and staff members deserve more than ambiguous form letters that may hinder their ability to find employment in other districts we are all speculating about program Cuts based on these staff Cuts we were told that tough decisions had to be made in this budget based on the positions that have been cut what student programs and curricular offerings will be impacted just two years ago each Middle School had a full-time librarian this year our librarian was shared between schools but last week Middle School librarian positions were cut our students need more access to library services to improve reading scores not less in 2016 our district saw Middle School Ela class time slashed from 420 minutes per week to 300 and now we are down to 245 minutes of ela instruction per week in the middle schools 420 to 245 do our Ela scores justify now slashing student access to library Services too speaking of test scores they matter yes our students are more than a test score but they deserve rigor and Scaffolding to help them grow inflating grades is not how we address learning gaps I am suspicious I am suspicious of any conversations around inflating grades eliminating zeros allowing more redu and retakes in lie of funding programs and staff to help all students meet grade level expectations I'm wary of how these program and Staffing cuts are going to coincide with changes to student grading last week was teacher appreciation week thank you to the pto's and to the administrators who went above and beyond for us will this board do the [Applause] same Michelle Flanigan sh flanakin I work as a full-time specialized instructional assistant at Bunker Hill Middle School in the MD program as a specialized assistant um I work work with a amazing group of professionals who um who where we have different approaches different ideas and for all intents and purposes it um may seem that it would be difficult for us to all work together when we're coming from different perspectives and approaches but somehow it it does work and we come together because we all truly about the students that we work with and we find a way to use our different talents and we encourage each other um I bring um in addition to the um training that I've had through the district I also have um 10 years of experience um from bankr doing early intervention and even more experiences working um in my part-time job um through AR glou offering resit um to um families of people with special needs um working full-time allows us to um best serve the students in our program my experience tells me that the in between instructional times can be the most difficult of the day by working full-time I'm able to see the students come off the bus that's when we began our work they come off the bus we're encouraging them we're making sure they get where they go have what they need um sometimes that also um involves social stories and prepping for changes within the day we help the students organize the materials and get theirselves calm and ready for instruction using checklist when needed um we also assist in the actual instruction promoting Independence so that we help them grow and make gains not just stay or maintain but to move on WE participate in gym we cheer them on F do teamwork good sportsmanship and help them get along with each other social skills friendships then we're packing up for the day and many of us also stay to participate in the after school clubs as um as many of us do when we received the notice of nonrenewal we were at Jake's Place playground we were climbing through the equipment serving Pizza cheering the students on and pitching and Fielding Whiffle balls um then we received notice of non-renewal and as disheartening as that was we arrived we came back the next day and we were ready to serve our students that we love and yes of course working full-time um also provid us with Benefits that many of us need to provide for our families and I am thankful for all of the students we have and for the people that I work with Taran hamash hello everyone my name is Taran hom alash and I am one of the teachers of the multiple disabilities program at Bunker Hill I'm going on roughly my 17th year in teaching the program um we've gone through a lot of growing pen we started with um five students and and one instructional assistant um who had no experience but came in um as a mom and um gave her all every day learned while we went and used our intuition um and grew the program to now where there are um four specialized programs at Bunker Hill um I need to address the proposed cuts to the positions or hours and benefits of the power professionals as they are the backbone of our special education programs as a teacher I see the critical roles our powers play in the lives of our students students who need the most support and individualized instruction as a special education teacher I am tasked with differentiating instruction for all our students they have a variety of goals and learn in a variety of ways of our 16 students that we have in the MD program at Bunker Hill um I teach roughly six different reading levels um daily without the necessary ratio of instructional assistance to students this is virtually impossible our poers are the ones that are working directly with our students on their goals throughout the day providing the needed attention and support that can make all the difference in a child's education it is only POS it is impossible to do it without them and it's not only the students in specialized programs who will suffer many students across all grades and subjects require assistance whether it's for academic Behavioral or emotional support at Bunker Hill we're also fortunate to have several in school and after school programs that Foster inclusion in our school Community we rely on our power professionals to staff these programs ensuring that all the participants have the appropriate level of supervision and support this will be again impossible if if our staff is cut or have their hours reduced if the hours of our powers are reduced in turn affecting their benefits many of them will be forced to leave and find employment that offer benefits and a competitive wage many of our Paras have worked in the district for several years um my longest running assistant has been in the district for 26 years and she is one of the most most effective people I've ever met in my life we call her the Jedi because she can assist any student that you throw in front of her um and anyone that needs her and in turn students gravitate towards her because they need her thanks many have paid into and are vested in the pension system with plans of retiring from a job that they have seen as their calling I urge you to consider the impact of these proposed Cuts not just on our budget or even the people who have given their all day in and day out and as Michelle said from Bell to Bell for our children but think about the quality of Education that we provide in Washington Township I hope it stays the same we've always given our all I can't do it without them none of us can thank you Gina Ridge Gina Ridge good evening my name is Kevin Ridge my wife is actually Gina Ridge and I wanted to start off by saying I have four kids in the Washington Township Public Schools Noah Ridge Phoebe Ridge Grace Ridge and Reese Ridge and uh Reese Ridge is um needs the teachers assistance this is how she learns this is how she loves to go to school and why she goes to school without her teacher assistance like Miss Sherry um it's a hard day every day our teacher assistants are important for not only our students but for addressing the needs in the classroom these positions are necessary to ensure a healthy learning environment and experience they bring a resource and minimal cost our students my children have been able to thrive in an inclusive classroom and are learning not taking away their learning experience of the other students that may not need as much redirection the manner and way that this has happened is Thoughtless and ruthless my children have thrived in the school due to the additional support from the assistants in the classroom the assistants know how to work with the students in order to keep the learning happening they do this job because they love and care about our children it's not for the money my final statement is also what other options have been investigated as anyone going to the state legister for additional funding there always other options ra rather than letting the staff go thank you I appreciate [Applause] it Lauren and Roco Longo I'm got good hi I'm Lauren Longo I'm coming as a parent and also an educator um this is my son Rocco and his friend Brian they go to Whitman Elementary School um they came here instead of going to soccer and baseball because I think it's important for them to show support for their teachers um and the staff um I also wanted you to see the faces of the children that are being affected um I teach this is not easy standing up here I teach second grade in a different districts so I can speak personal accounts um how effective and valuable these assistants are I have three children in the district um at the middle school level and At Whitman um and the staff the admin rators are wonderful in Washington Township they are appre we appreciate them so thank you to all the staff um I just wanted to make a personal connection with Miss Sher H who works with is Reese coming over okay come on up rys um who works with Rocco and um his friends so I would like to acknowledge Miss Sherry H for her hard work and dedication to students at wom in elementary my son Roco has been working with Miss H for the past few years as he has an IEP and travels between classes with the students student she supports Rocco leans on Mrs Hy as his constant staff member to help guide him academically and emotionally he can be an anxious child and I've seen positive change in his mannerisms and feelings towards school and learning since Miss H has been in classrooms Rocco frequently includes Mrs H in stories about his day he often talks sorry about how she helps him and others Mrs H attends sporting events even at 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays in the rain and activities for the students at Whitman outside of her school hours watching the children's faces light up and hearing the excited sque s when they see her sitting in the stands is heartwarming warming and actually many staff members have showed up to the kids games many of them and Mr [Applause] Anderson um life is busy and she always goes above and beyond to make sure the students know how much she cares for them Roco even receives surprise cookie drops at our house being an identified student comes with many social social emotional and academic challenges it is a gift to have someone who understands what this specific group of students needs thank you thank you and is willing to accommodate to help them exceed their learning potential Mrs H does this by making strong personal connections that make the students feel safe and comfortable in their learning environment our family is beyond grateful to have Miss Sher and Rocco's school life I hope that she is able to continue this educational Journey moving forward through women with Roco and his friends thank you Morgan lman good evening my name is Morgan lman I'm a third grade teacher at woodwood elementary you likely don't remember but I spoke at the last board meeting regarding the budget I've since taken a lot of time to reflect and process what has happened in the last in the past two weeks the first thing that came to mind was morale because I see how this is affecting my colleagues and the students as I said two weeks ago the theme has been for the kids how is non-renewing every assistant cutting an entire related arts program and reducing the number of our teaching staff for the kids these Cuts have depleted whoa sorry these Cuts have depleted your staff's morale your staff are the only people getting cut that directly associate with your kids that you have been so focused on the next thought that came to mind was accountability where is the accountability many of the board members and administrators have been here for proceeding years and budgets how did no one else see this writing on the wall where is the accountability it's not our instructional AIDS the kindergarten teacher the school counselor that mismanaged the budget and made mistakes it was the board and our leaders I as a classroom teacher am held accountable to to follow the guidelines of my Administration and if I drop the ball I'm held accountable my sgo is impacted my data sheets could be questioned I could be placed on a cap but where is the accountability here my final thought related to answers the new board policy in which all public comment must be completed prior to the board's response results in our questions not being answered last meeting I asked who was aiding our children when they are in crisis the Elementary level has lost its floating counselor who has greatly benefited in supporting our students socially and emotionally the loss of that counselor creates a case load of one counselor to anywhere from 450 to 560 students one person to service that many children that's unacceptable I asked what is the expectation of your teachers when our class sizes increase as specialized programming loses numbers and assistance what is the plan to support the needs of our students our co-curricular bill is in excess of $1.2 million so as others asked why not cut co-curriculars or have play to pay sport pay to playay sports many other districts have policy in place Shaunie families pay $300 a year Kingsway families pay $100 a sport and alabon has a policy as well while this wouldn't solve all the problems it could help close the gap app which could save the assistance that are necessary to running our programs keep our class classes to a size that is manageable and meet the academic demands of our Administration it's time to switch the focus from sports are best for kids and clubs are best for kids to supporting your staff is best for kids mental academic success and their safety your teaching and instructional support staff are the ones who have direct contact with the students of your community and while it may be disappointing for a kid to lose the privilege such as a sport or a club the impact of being in a class size of 25 to 35 is greater being a parent who lost their job or their benefits is catastrophic to the board I urge you to begin to ask questions what has been cut in curriculum how is that going to impact our students Readiness for Assessments in higher education one thing we've been hearing is um one thing we've heard that's getting cut is the most successful and utilized online program First in Math discuss what the impact will be on test scores and we lose our intervention support and class sizes increase who is supporting your students social emotional and mental health because I know it's not my counselor when she has 560 students what is the plan moving forward why not consider pay to play or pay to participate how will we recover to make Washington Township Public School a desirable place for teachers and students in the future vote no to hiring administrators at the top of the scale that's one way we could save some money building leaon have you gone into your buildings to see how these cuts are going to directly affect the children of your District it's obvious that public perception is Big the website is getting updated we're expanding the grant funded prek Central looks wonderful what perception have you given your staff and the community with these decisions are you really for the kids I guess yes like that bag of Doritos the staff of this district is also [Applause] shrinking Angela pada Angelo [Applause] pada good evening good evening Dr hibs and the board um I have nothing written just going to speak from the heart um last week I sent an email to the board and Dr Hibbs with no response um my concern first of all is for the children um we keep saying we're doing what's best for the children this is not what's best I know for sure that the football Field's going to look good that I know we're spending $100,000 for Fields um I know that Dr hobes will get his $40,000 bonus next month but I have to tell you I have a friend I have a colleague that I work with that is having some serious issues medical issues and I wrote to the board last week and Dr hips stay that um it was a very serious problem that she has that she needs her health benefits I'm willing to give up my job for her to keep her health benefits I go to school every day and yes it's not for the money I could work a wah McDonald's I can make more money but what I do know is I love these kids and when you work with the same kids for a couple years they're they're so used to you they're so used to seeing you every day when you're absent if you take a personal day their day is affected and they need us so much and we have a young girl in our class that has made strides she's doing wonderful I love her so much I will not mention her name but but I will tell you this I I don't know how she'll be without us next year even if other people come in and take our place because she depends so much on us and see her growing academically socially um it's just it's absolutely wonderful to see that's why we do what we do we don't do it for the money we do it because we love the kids these kids become our kids if a a child doesn't have clothes or shoes we buy them that stuff we don't make a lot of money we do everything we can for these kids and I love them and I would just hope that you just really think you know I never see any administrators come in our building they don't know what we do on a daily basis they don't know what happens in our room that the simplest thing could make a child cry and we wipe those tears and we hold their hand and we do everything we can to make their day better but you guys don't know that you don't see what we do every day you sit in your offices and you think you know it all but you don't these kids are not putting put are not getting put first these kids I I think these kids are more important than a football field you know what I'm saying and I don't care how many banners you have hanging in the football field it's not about that it's about helping these children please if I ask anything of you is think of the children thank you Christina Hayden Christina Haiti okay good evening Dr hibs and Schoolboard and everyone in this room we are Washington Township [Applause] for me two well hold on two words come to mind when I think about my past year as a preschool teacher at grenlock Terrace Early Childhood Center fantastic assistance you guys are fantastic these awesome human beings are invaluable to every teacher to maintain a safe um an unbelievably supportive environment for our younger folks not that I'm saying I'm still not young so they are the backbone to all our teachers and support staff by supporting our classroom management and disciplines strategies and without their unconditional love and guidance our students will not be able to learn to reciprocate their love to learn and grow into the best of the best yes they help the children use the bathroom or when necessary change pull-ups and all the jazs that goes with it and let me tell you this is a daily occurrence yes they are serving them lunch and or healthy snacks and making sure with Incredible amounts of patience and kindness that being kind and respectful is everyone's job everyone's job and like that that's not enough for one superhuman being they become the masters of preparing the children for and supervising them during that time now I don't know about you folks but I remember the days of trying to accomplish that wonderful feat with my twin daughters and son and they are dealing with 9 to 15 students students at a time they're superheroes these individuals are superhumans who are entitled to know that they have job security because they work for Washington Township School District we as a community of families Educators administrators and School Board need to find a different road to readdress aligning the budget and I respectfully request that a task force be put together and align the budget that retains these individuals so we so we do keep the students at the heart of Excellence through Equity engagement and environment and I'm not done okay we have an we have an awesome principal of our grindl terce and behind a great school is an awesome principal and behind every great school our awesome assistants thank you for your time Maria Forte Forte hi um I just wanted to say before I start with mine I um love and support 100% the support staff um without them we would not be able to do anything in our classroom so thank you um I love you I have support staff in my classes thank you um so hello uh my name is Maria Forte I am an alumni from the class of 2017 uh my fiance and I recently purchased a house right around the corner of women Square um we wanted to raise a family in this this community um so that our children or future children could have the same opportunities that we both had specifically in music um with that being said I am also the fifth grade traveling band teacher here in Washington Township um I teach at five out of the six elementary schools in this District last Thursday I was told I was not being offered a contract for the 2024 2025 school year due to budget cuts and that's all that was stated um this has left me with a lot of emotions and even more questions and I wanted to share some of these with you tonight my initial reaction to finding out I would no longer be a teacher here was absolute devastation and heartbreak as an alumni I have a very strong um emotional attachment to this District this is where I grew up uh these schools and this band program helped me shap shape me into the person I am today uh my two biggest Inspirations to become a music teacher were my own teachers here in Washington Township in my senior year of high school I used to tell uh them that I was coming back and I was going to work with them someday and I was so excited to be a part of the music department again um I wanted to be music educator and Inspire students just like they inspired me I was a student in the Band program when the first major cut happened back in either 2011 or 2012 Orchestra went from starting in third grade to starting in fourth grade and band went from starting in fourth grade to starting in fifth um I was one of the last groups of students to have fourth grade ban in this district from that point on enrollment and ban and Orchestra was negatively impacted the preparedness levels compared to the districts that start these ensembles in elementary schools has been lower than before the major cut I personally saw the effects of this when I was in high school myself my first two years were very different than my last two years of high school numbers went down and the level of playing was lower we weren't bringing in as many new students and our performance quality suffered because half of these students in high school in the high school program no longer have fourth grade band this program still has has not recovered from that cut that happened over 10 years ago enrollment from the Bandon Orchestra is historically low and retention is even lower I personally have worked hard alongside the other band and Orchestra directors to try to rebuild the program from the bottom up as an alumni and now teacher it is heartbreaking to see the once thriving program recede my colleagues and I have been working long hours to ensure the success of the music department now I won't be able to help them rebuild and that which is something that means the absolute world to me um I'm not sure what the plan is for next year I've been hearing some things um such as they we're getting rid of fourth and fifth grade band and Orchestra all together and starting them in Middle School um another rumor I've been hearing is that the middle school band Orchestra directors will have to travel down to the elementary school this cannot be the solution this is not sustainable long term for the Educators that will have to do this um this is going to put more responsibilities and more work on the already overworked and underst staffed music department um I just want to say thank you to the music teachers who I have worked with over the past three years in this District thank you for your constant support and love I have absolutely loved working with you and I wish you nothing but the best for you and your programs um um to the board and the administration I really hope that you find a better solution than the ones that have been proposed and not just for my job and for the district for every staff member that you have cut for this year um the cuts that you've made not only to my program but to this district will have a detrimental effect on the students and the teachers thank you Nick Forte Nick same thing okay uh John Radcliffe good evening everyone uh before I read my speech I just want to say um how incredibly impressive it is to hear the teachers and the sports staff and how much uh the children mean to them I'm I'm very proud to be a member of this community um as I said my name is Nick Forte my wife and I have lived in Township since 2001 we raised two daughters in this community who both attended a school or he is one of them um when I think of our community there isn't anything uh that brings us together more than our children and how we celebrate them for my wife and I those examples are best found in the Arts I remember attending band Orchestra and chorus recital plays and musicals talent shows and walking through the Halls on parents nights admiring our children's artwork Friday Night Football games with marching band playing L to to show support and attending many marching band competitions for many children with a lack of self-confidence and developing social skills the Arts are their safe haven watching our children on stage displaying their hard work and talent while facing Their Fear performing in front of large audiences is their early initiation into adulthood I always left those events feeling a euphoric sense of Pride and admiration for the children as well as feeling connected to all their community members and attendance this budget has cut deeply into the Arts I make these assertions based on facts I've been able to piece together not because of Any formal plans that have been made available to the public that I'm aware of when you cut a 100 positions from a school district all areas will be adversly impacted it is unavoidable and my heart goes out to those impacted Dr Hibbs stated that programs that are being cut um Dr Hibbs stated that no programs are being cut and I will take that statement as a fact however when three grade school music positions were cut and my understanding is that the Chestnut Ridge Middle School orchestra teachers not being uh backfilled I have the following questions for the board have you seen the detailed plan on how those cuts will affect uh our curriculum why has that plan not been made available to the public lack of transparency is an incubator for rumors and speculations the board and Dr Hib stated that every that they did everything possible given the budget cuts while I acknowledge that the budget deficit is something real and likely insurmountable although after hearing the first Speaker I'm not sure about that anymore um did we actually try our best to at least raise awareness board members did you organize a Grassroots communication campaign for the purpose of raising awareness especially the pul moror our district Senate rep since he was a former mayor of this Township and possibly still a resident did you reach out to Congressman Norcross while he is our federal representative in Congress he and his family have deep connections throughout all of New Jersey and politics is all about who you know we have 40,000 citizens in our town and even one half of 1% would reach out to our elected officials offals that would be 200 calls to their offices there is a bill that was approved today in the Senate Bill a41 61 that permits certain school districts to exceed the 2% annual tax levy increase to help fund School budgeting shortfalls were you aware of that did you look into that that's something that can help solve our problems and in looking at the list of personnel who are being renewed it does not seem that the pain of the job cuts are being shared evenly across the staff and administrative positions board members only four of you voted no on the budget did you consider everyone voting no I thought that was an option that was presented last time and having the county make the ultimate decision it would have shown solidarity with the hund people of our fellow CI communities members that are losing their jobs [Applause] studies show that the time students are engaged in learning tasks is associated with higher academic achievement with less teachers and support staff the remaining staff will have to pick up that slack how can you possibly do more or even deliver current services with less people you probably can't and therefore our children will be negatively impacted we call ourselves a Premier Community I have to seriously question that my taxes have increased every year and now I'm paying $155,000 in taxes teachers and staffs are being cut on staffs that were already stretched before you don't have to take my word for it simply look us up on the New Jersey school report card site run by our state government here are two SE two simple metrics out of thousands that you could pull down from the website I looked at a few of of our neighboring districts haddenfield Cherry Hill clear viiew kingway we rank last in both math and reading SAT scores for the last two years I'm calling on the school board to create publish and then measure against in set of a set of key performance indicators or kpis this is how successful businesses and public entities operate it would be a set of standards that would clearly Define the expected outcome from our school district and our students performances they should be simple and measurable no more just blindly assuming everything is fine I'm not sure if we can recover from losing 100 people but let's start by holding ourselves the board and the superintendent accountable going forward Raymond w Jr Raymond w Jr Raymond was than my name is Raymond was but I am well known as Mr was as a building sub at Bunker Hill Middle School and I'm a proud member of the Washington Township community but most importantly the graduating class of 2016 here at Washington Township Public Schools I am very honored to be here tonight in front of all these amazing people here tonight and most importantly I want to thank our teachers for their hard work that they're putting in towards the end of the year but most importantly shout out to Bunker Hill for putting on such an amazing perfect timing for our testing making sure everything was smoothly everything was going well so thank you guys you did fantastic on that [Applause] truly So within our colleagues within our community we're getting cut however most importantly truly seeing our power professionals our instructional AIDS but most importantly we're missing is our cafeteria assistants that are missing in this discussion um our bathroom monitors that are getting cut and so forth and getting these letters and so forth which is very disappointing to see because they are a function to our school system here and they make things smoother going through any changes that go on throughout the day in our schools and I can tell you the benefits that when I was here at the school those people actually helped me when I was a student here and so forth and it truly was amazing to know that they're still striving and they're doing their but with the stuff that's happening it's disappointing and disgusting and it's I don't know what else to tell you that's it's disappointing but seeing the amount of work they put into our district is impeccable and if we lose these people it'll become a huge problem within our district for future academic years within our district through our classroom size and most importantly disciplinary actions of our students if they anything happens we're going to be having a lot more discipline and how we're going to handle it throughout it and it will becoming overwhelming for our teachers to do it with a daily function but seeing the function of of Washington Township School District again mentioning Bunker Hill the amount of work that we put in and making impact for our students truly is being shown and I truly see it and everything else and as a community member it really strives and and honestly as an Alum from there I can tell you from 12 years ago since I was a student there it is still striving and thriving as the best as we can so thank you to those who work there to the amazing s faculty and administrators but however seeing the actions and the division of our board and taking on the major blow of the r morale of our community we we are all disappointed and tonight we are not Township and moving forward we need to hold you guys accountable each and every single one of you regardless of what actions you do or what motions or what votes you do we see them we view them and if we have to we will vote you off one by one it doesn't matter how hard it gets we are the voice of this community and you know that and we're the paying tax dollars and so forth and it doesn't matter who or what you are or what you represent for yeah you may have your identities but just remember we are the bigger voice in this and we will make change if we have to John Radcliffe John Radcliffe all right I love to hear myself talk but I'll talk quick all right good evening my name is John rackliff I am a New Jersey educator and I've been one for the past 10 years both part-time and full-time the last time that I was in front of the Board of Ed in Washington Township was 2014 when I was being recognized for music achievement by the school district uh today I return is an alumni a sibling of two graduates and the fiance of a soon toe ex Township employee as the Survivor of budget cuts in my own District I understand firsthand the emotion and tough position that this put all districts in and for that and that alone you have my sympathy however that is where that line ends and instead I express disappointment as a resident by posing the question how dare you how dare you handle this matter in the way that you have because disappointed is not a strong enough word to describe the reaction to the decisions made and the lack of clarity and communication for those that work and support this district for a district that claims to be Excellence through Equity engagement and environment your poor communication to this town and to this staff members is astoundingly insulting and has promoted an undesirable location for a once Premier Community for a district that has always prided itself on teaching with pride you truly recognized and honored them by waiting until Teacher Appreciation Week to fire a 100 of [Applause] them 100 staff members many of whom still have no explanation to why it was them that were chosen uh to wait until one month before the end of the school year is also insulting and shows how the district sees their teachers an indisposable number on a computer and now many teachers that aren't cut will have to pick up the slack and work the job of two to three with no compensation recognition support or Choice everyone knows that cuts had to be made but waiting this long is unheard of and begs the question how long have we known when the budget was presented in April it was a concrete number of Staff listed so this tells me one you've known who was being fired for 3 weeks and didn't tell anybody and or have the respect to tell anyone or you didn't know and you and you have no idea who was going to get cut and you just blindly voted yes anyway and I don't know which one's worse uh everyone knows that the Arts are always one of the first things to get cut and there's still no explanation for why my fiance was one of them especially after this year started promoting a vpa Academy my fiance is a three-year employee in this district and nobody has jumped more through more who GRS in her position single-handedly prepared and informed six schools of fifth graders for a district band night when she was never asked to uh it was mentioned that there would be no cuts to programs but how is that possible when the only teacher that teaches Elementary band has been let go there are now four Elementary band teachers left in this school district how are you going to effectively run an academy uh with only four teachers without getting worn out or having an effect student education as a music teacher this is a situation that just doesn't help recruitment and in no way helps the numbers for your Academy there have been no answers that have been given uh to the affected or accountability from anybody uh as I believe that the decision wasn't yours based on your faces tonight uh it begs the question who chose to fire her and the other hund staff members in the district and why do the taxpayers not know why certain programs are being cut at all as a returning resident the the tacha Board of Ed has become my favorite bi-weekly Prime Time drama that I get to subscribe to with my taxes I thought everybody would appreciate that uh I know more about the secret Board of Ed meeting than I do for why my fiance is getting fired from her alumnist District I have more information on the unethical and unprofessional email threads than I have for how I'm going to pay my mortgage come September or how my fiance is going to afford health insurance for her life-threatening medical condition 10 years ago uh before being recognized by the W of Ed 10 years later I'm embarrassed by the public state of our district uh and embarrassed to call myself an alumni my fiance is an All-Star uh with glowing recommendations in the classroom uh while collaborating with six bosses in six different School environments uh there will be a district that will value her and what she brings to the table uh and what she does for her students and with respect Dr hips you stated that nobody wants to have my job right now I can think of 200 that do heading into the year of your wedding we're getting married this year uh is supposed to be the most exciting time in a couple's life uh but I appreciate you pulling the rug out from under us and all of our planning uh and not providing a 100 families with plans so that they could plan for the future with all these Cuts I've seen it there are there were jobs available a month ago there are no jobs on March 13th we as residents are responsible for taking steps to ensure the best environment for our students to learn and prosper and that cannot happen under the current District leadership and I implore everybody to think about that in November because we don't want apologies we want answers thank you Jim LP Jim alpino Jim Al Jim Arpino good evening uh my name is Jim Arpino I live in Wason Township I am here representing a special interest group and that's my children can you stop that clock so I can adjust the mic I want my five minutes I'm representing a special interest group I'm representing my kids and I have to say after what I'm hearing you know I thought you guys were really messed up watching meetings and reading this email crap that's going around when I sit here tonight as a taxpayer as a parent and find out that your staff who have affected my kids' life found out via email at 11 :30 in the morning they're losing their job let me tell you man if all of you and I know some of you vote against this um if these unions don't take it V of no confidence in you from my house I will tell you right now I have no confidence in you my wife has no confidence in you and the children my children that you're supposed to be in charge of educating and leading this District they have no confidence in you so with that being said I before you T night as a parent of a high school student and a middle school student my family has lived in this town for almost 18 years and could not be more happier with our experience in this school district our happiness comes from the countless teachers AIDS and coaches that have selflessly went above and beyond for our children from my heart I can honestly say and this is for you all not for you guys um I can honestly say that my children would not be where they are if it wasn't for you all without the care and guidance that they have received from your staff again they wouldn't be where they are this is not only limited to my children but all the children in this school district I wish that I could sit here and speak about all of your staff but unfortunately you have chosen to limit the time in which we as parents and residents can question you in a public form over the DraStic and incomprehensible cuts that you are making that will undoubtedly have a negative impact on the education of the children children in this school district I feel your decision to make these Cuts has been rushed it has definitely lacked transparency and gives the appearance that there is a level of politics at play your pres your your budget presentation was vague and only seemed to point out certain items as cost drivers mainly the amount of money for contractual raises I see that as a direct shot at the teachers and support staff that are on the front line with our children to you Dr hibs to you talk about leadership and how this affects you as a parent I got to be honest with you I'm not losing any sleep over how this affects you you took the job that's what it is we don't need I don't need to hear about your uh Lincoln and Gettysburg moment your salary could have been in there because as taxpayers we pay that as the budget instead you guys opted to exclude administrative salaries and get R of your staff I feel that you have put a bullseye on your unionized staff as one of the main cost drivers that resulted in the budget cuts again the streeks of Politics As especially at a time when local state and National politicians are pedling unfunded unfounded truths and misrepresented bias about these teachers I understand that the board is not partisan if I actually believe if I could tell myself that other politicians or political groups in this Township had not had input on this budget or the decision to not send it to the taxpayers so we could decide in the form of a referendum if I believe that in my heart I'd also believe that I could go to a $100,000 gym on an island in the middle of Lake candle but I don't have to go to Lake candle for that because as far as much as we're going to sit here and talk about budget cuts I just come to my high school you guys just did it speaking of Jims that immediately brings to the topic of priorities you're were the Board of Education let me put emphasis on the word education in all of your bios you list your education and accomplishments you speak of all you were going to do for Education I'm here tonight because of my education we're all here because of our education unless I'm missing something you don't speak at all of extracurricular activities or Sports in your bios yet when it comes to Cuts you were cutting from education I can understand the realities of budgets and funding shortfalls however I don't understand how you can make cuts to staff while funding improvements to the field area as I found that uh a few days before I found out about these Cuts because of course parents are last to know when it comes to something important in this District um I sat through the football meeting and I was proud to hear about $100,000 gy I was proud to hear about new bleachers on the field all this then I hear three days later we're Ling off staff when I said that to my my freshman son remember that meeting the other night we giving all stuff the the football program he said yeah I said you know liting off uh 35 teachers and 55 staffs his response is how stupid is that [Applause] so now you're going to fund apparently new home bleachers a Press Box um we're getting a new entrance to the stadium that's exciting um and we're going to do the reevaluation of at least one field you know I like coach shatsman is not a shot at him he's a great man and he gets me fired up about how he's going to lead my child however one of the big things he point out that there's an eagles uh seven on seven football tournament and they're actually moving it from the NFL facility to our facility here in Washington Township that's great I love hearing that you're you're laying off teachers you're cutting support staff how can you sit up there as elected officials man so I could tell uh easily that the focus here is on things other than actually educating our kids you've sent a clear message to the community parents your staff that all of you said in your meet the board because I had to go back and watch all your meetings about morale and most importantly the students that education in this District it's not the priority it is not the priority if it's not are sports and extracurricular activities important definitely however they should not come at the cost of our children's education again it's about priorities and what you all have chosen as leaders all of you you will all leave a legacy as it stands tonight your legacy will be cuts to the education of our children before I get to my questions which I'm not going to have time you want to answer them anyway I have to ask at what point did you realize that you were going to cut the $3,500 line item for food at board meetings further while you were enjoying your meals did any of you stop to think about the teachers and support staff who are taking money out of their own Pockets to provide food and snacks for their students when they have nothing to eat you got a decision to make and um again I know you're in a tough spot and I can appreciate that but to hear that you did all you can do you did not you could have easily went to the taxpayers with a referendum you could have let the community decide of what level of cuts we will accept for this education two I'm a parent my kids are in sports I paid for sports all the the time out in the community I will pay for my kids sports I will pay for their clubs further my education got me to a point financially where I will sit here tonight and pay for another kid who can't afford it I'd like to know if the leader of this District Dr Hibbs if you're willing to stand with your people and the children that you're trusted to educate and take a pay cut yourself thank you Amira Blackwell Amir Blackwell good evening my name is Amir and I am a sixth grade student at bun Hill I live in Washington Township and I came here tonight to speak about the teachers and AIDS getting laid off I think it's important to hear about students perspective one reason I think teachers should not be getting laid off is because it can cause increased class sizes increased class sizes can cause stress to students and impact their learning capability class sizes are chaotic enough with just a couple of students adding more kids can cause a lot of stress to students and the teachers in multiple studies has shown increased class SI sizes can cause lower test scores and distractions Studies have also shown that an an aid addition to the teachers have helped students focus more in my school I have two classes with two teachers I believe having two teachers can really help my learning and other students class another reason having teachers can have a negtive negative impact is because when I don't understand a question in our and our teachers are still there to help us to support us too but even if you have problems at home they are still there and in English and language arts and social studies teachers may not wake up with no food on the table teachers may not wake up with no money to pay for the bills I know that much about budgeting but I certainly know that this is not a good choice for me and others I read this speech and hope that you will make the right decisions to not only for me and my education but for all of Washington Township thank you for letting me speak at this meeting again my name is Amir and [Applause] Christine Arpino Christine Arpino good evening my name is Christine Arpino and I reside in Washington Township I come before you tonight as a parent to share my personal experience in this district and to express my concerns regarding the budget for 2024 2025 our experience began almost 10 years ago let me start by saying nobody fights harder than a parent who has to get their child diagnosed and nobody works harder than these Educators and AIDS to implement that IEP our experience 10 years ago was filled with countless doctor's appointments and Specialty Care appointments searching for answers in 2017 we knew we had to make a drastic change for our child Ray Anderson stand up he was the first person we met right here he was the first person we met he welcomed our family into the district and has since always made sure to check on all of us but especially the kids it was the following teachers that are responsible for implementing and the support staff of the IEP and supporting our other child who is not who does not have an IEP but benefited directly from the services in an inclusion classroom because she was one of the lucky ones they got picked to be in there Mr Bowman Miss Pomano Miss curado Mrs Kade Mrs Stevens miss chimento miss perosi miss Patty who worked at Kids Choice and was an aid she had to work two jobs to support her family Mrs phones Miss Campbell Miss Bennett miss nasaka this was just the beginning of our journey and then we were led to Middle School Mr diso Dr Mel stand up miss dukov you you are responsible for making my child a writer both of them both of my children have you ever seen a staff member stay on Zoom till 5:00 at night to make sure because your child it wasn't safe for them to go back to the classroom 5:00 at night Miss duas Mrs rack colen mcnight was our case manager at Bunker Hill she prepared all of us every single one of us in our family for what was to come in high school I was relieved to know that Ray Anderson was going to be my child's principal [Applause] it takes a strong partnership to see a child be successful that partnership is because of all of these people here tonight the Educators the support staff and the parents these are just some of the experiences that I've had over the years since 2017 and heard visit to my house gifts left for my child how can we better help your child late night phone calls emails text messages to ask if my child is okay your child is falling behind the scariest email any parent wants to hear what can I do from the teachers what can I do to help your child so I ask you this are our teachers really the problem or are they the solution [Applause] how will you prevent this from affecting our classrooms because I don't see it that it being possible and before the decision was made to lay off staff did anyone visit these classrooms meet with the teachers and support staff that are directly affected by this decision why not ask the people that do the work every single day what they think and for their input thank you [Applause] Ariana Arpino is that [Applause] good evening I'm Elana and I live in Washington Township I'm a sixth grade student in Bunker Hill Middle School I came here to speak because I think it is important to hear a student's perspective in teachers and AIDS getting laid off first I don't think teachers should be getting laid off because that could easily cause an increase in class sizes classes are chaotic enough with just around 20 students adding more students and shoving a bunch of kids in class rooms is going to impact students education Studies have shown that reduced class sizes improve student achievement and has a positive impact on test scores further Studies have shown that adding an aid in classrooms in addition to the teacher results in a positive impact on student achievement I however as a student who is in the classroom do not need studies to tell me that because I experience it every day as a student I have classes with both one teacher and two teachers in the class with two teachers I feel as though I have a better learning experience and think I able to concentrate more I been very fortunate in my time at Bunker Hill and before that Whitman Elementary to have great teachers even on days when I didn't want to go to school I always knew that my teachers were happy and welcoming me as a student as you and you as adults on the board of education know that when you have an increased workload or feel overwhelmed by school work or responsibilities we are not always at our best eliminating teachers and support staff Personnel is going to increase the responsibilities of other teachers and support staff personel just like me when I have a lot of school work to do and feel overwhelmed the teacher and support staff Personnel will feel that too this will directly impact the students in the schools my opinion is supported by facts found in a 2018 study that focused on the relationship between morale and job satisfaction the teachers of teachers in elementary and secondary schools the study found the job satisfaction and morale directly relate to teaching quality in schools I'd like to also about my brother who was a freshman in high school and my cousin who was a fifth grader in the district both of them have benefited greatly from the special ed teachers and support staff without the education help and care that they experienced they would be struggling in school as I st in the beginning I wanted to speak here tonight to give the perspective of a student regarding teachers and AIDS getting laid off when I decided I wanted to speak at this meeting my parents encouraged me to advocate for what I feel is right my dad told me that in in this speech I had to research information that supports my opinions on the negative impact of the layoff of teachers and support staff my parents have taught me how important education is and it is my hope that the decisions you make does not only hurt my education but the education of all students in Washington Township as a sixth grader in Washington Township I certainly don't know everything about budgets and taxes but I do know that laying off teachers and AIDS is the wrong choice thank you for allowing me to speak tonight and I hope the decisions you make will be the right thing to do for the students of Washington Township School District Rob scar Rob Scardino Rob scardo wtea Executive Vice President last meeting I came to you asking you about due diligence tonight I come to speak to you about priorities priorities that affect our students our staff and priorities that will affect the education and livelihoods of many tonight in the balance you weigh the careers and livelihoods of around a 100 District employees their amilies and most importantly the students whose lives they touch each and every day tonight you will vote upon these dedicated staff members that help not only to educate our children but those that provide an ear when it's needed a shoulder to cry on clothing for those in need as well as food so those students don't go hungry while at school that is our priority as teachers counselors media Specialists assistants and this goes on and on our priority as employees of Washington Township Public Schools is to the students of Washington Township for we are Township I realize that a budget crisis such as ours makes decisions of the board of board in administration difficult I've been in your shoes however our our our priorities focused on saving every position that has an impact on our students education have we truly done all that we could do understand that there will be a savings when we switch to the M from the Microsoft platform to the Google platform and that there are advantages to this change however and and correct me if I'm wrong I I don't want to put out bad information if my calculations are correct as I had to do individual research I couldn't find a specific line item in the budget to to uh leas purchase each device is approximately $20 per month with an annual cost of $240 per device if the district in its four-year plan were to move these devices for just a quarter of the student body in 2024 2025 school year that would cost roughly around $450,000 just for the first year if this is correct or at least in the ballpark what will the district savings be in this first year of transition will there be Savings in this first year of transition if there's a cost to the the district rather than a savings in this first year could we not defer the purchase of these devices for a year to save positions we must remember that technology is merely a tool it is not a teacher or is not a classroom assistant and therefore technology should not be prior prioritized as highly as these mentors for our students furthermore the Board of Education and administration are seeking to create three new positions called dean of students are these pseudo administrative positions truly a priority while the deletion of Staff creates larger class sizes and diminish program Integrity could we not hold off on these positions until we are more financially stable rather than make them a priority now having been a board member in my community I realized the decisions you must make are not easy I'm sure you spent many hours working on the budget but have we truly prioritized our staff of Washington Township Public Schools and the impact this will have on the success of the students in our schools thank you Alissa cah man good evening my name is Melissa Callahan and I teach history at the high school so my question is really regarding the high school schedule when we initially implemented the pride schedule at the high school it quickly became painfully obvious that the previous administration had grossly underestimated the number of additional faculty and support staff that would be needed to ensure both the safety of our students as well as the quality of Education that we could provide to them every year since we have had to sign a memoranda of agreement to accommodate the additional classes and duties that the pride schedule necessitates so my question tonight is what steps have the board and the presid Administration taken to ensure that we will be able to maintain the pride schedule without further sacrificing the safety of our students or the quality of the education that we provide to them uh when the once the number of faculty and support staff is dramatically reduced thank you Jerry terach Jerry terashi I'm the president of the wtea as I sit here each and every week and I listen to all the profound statements I had to go through my notes and cross out so much so I'm going to try to do this as quickly as possible recognizing we have some very distinguished guests who are still waiting to speak I actually contemplated demonstrating the impact that these Cuts have had on our people so I actually put together a list of the names of all those who have lost their jobs and or their benefits then I thought maybe we should all hear the names of their spouses maybe the names of their children who will be drastically harmed by these decisions then I realized I only have five minutes so I came to the conclusion that I should simply address some major points first as you already heard heard from Mr Scardino technology is a very valuable tool but technology does not teach our kids technology doesn't Comfort our kids when they're hurting yes they don't even get hugs from computers hugs that are given to them by our support staff and by our regular teaching staff so why even look at improving or adding to the technology when you're looking at cutting teachers and AIDS makes no sense Sports our Sports programs are important I've been a part of the sports programs not only here but in my previous District Mr Mr Ross you and I go back many many moons Mr Ross was partially responsible for bringing me here years ago I know his entire family I loved his entire family did we always agree no but I remember Mr Ross when you were a lion now you appear more like a lamb why not at least investigate the possibility of pay to play we did it years ago yeah I'm a coach and I'm saying it I know that parents even myself when my kids were younger the these parents pay hundreds of dollars for things like travel teams professional trainers camps clinics so pay to play seems a reasonable request you know virtually every meeting I attend committee meetings I hear things like Studies have shown well let me tell you a study that is very relevant especially when you talk about what's happening to our music program the study is that children who are exposed to music at a very early age academically will prosper far far more than the kids who are [Applause] not bottom line we understand that there needs to be cuts on occasion but the cuts that we're experiencing right now are at the people or with the people who can least afford it so I want to do one real quick thing just kind of like I did last week I want to do an audience participation it might help because we all been sitting for like hours and hours would all the people who have been affected and will be affected by this budget please stand now don't sit quite yet I want you all to look around the room look who isn't standing I don't see a whole lot of administrator standing up front and obviously nobody up on the stage are standing not yet but they will be impacted if this budget remains as is thank you Melissa MCN oh I'm sorry a lot of being arle technology hold on a second I have a board member wants to speak not M's not working my mic working there we go on the technology side andine and ER correct me I'm wrong but we are going to realize a year one savings if we didn't do that and didn't have the year one savings there'd be even more Cuts correct yes so can you guys hear me um and I I'm going to try to answer what I can later on I've been taking a lot of notes um so when you look at the savings first off it it's important to understand the difference between I'm sorry guys I know you're just hanging there give me one sec um it's important to understand the difference between the local budget and the lease so for our lease we don't we don't put people into our lease we put things like technology into the lease so what we did was is that for the year one and year two the savings is approximately $355,500 for for years three and four it's 63684 for for year one that savings is already accounted for so the the amount of money we had to cut would have gone to $7 million plus plus that have we not have done that so it's it was anything that we could have done to lessen the amount that was in red that's exactly what we did is it okay for me to start okay I just want to mention um I'm not Melissa MCN she's wonderful but our names sound alike um my name is Lissa Fanning I'm the school counselor for herel elementary and I am joined by the dedicated wonderful school counselors from our six elementary schools I wonder I wonder if we could collaborate to brainstorm possible solutions for where to save and what to cut like providing a survey for staff who work directly with students to PLL what would be devastating to lose what difficult sacrifices would be recommended and to receive creative ideas for financial savings before making your final decisions the idea of payto playay for sports has been suggested which sounds reasonable and comparable to the payto playay for band and Orchestra to help with Equity we could Institute fundraising and also charge admission for all athletic home games and concerts and use those funds as scholarships for eligible students who could not otherwise afford the costs of extracurricular activities the amount and type of screen time that has become acceptable in our society is having a seriously deleterious effect with the increase in students difficulty regulating their anxiety and anger difficulties with social skills with focusing with coping with feeling bored with instruction that isn't as fast-paced as social media and YouTube this is true for all ages including adults but it is especially true for young children's neurological development to decrease screen time for our youngest Learners let's survey the K2 teachers on ending funding to keep up the onetoone technology Initiative for grades K to2 and instead retain the existing iPads to be housed only in the classroom and utilized only for brief activities during centers and to help provide small group instruction before and periodically after purchasing curriculum could we survey all teachers involved for recommendations and feedback on the curriculum such as grades 3 to five Wht and wisdom for example and make decisions with transparency based on the consensus of those teachers using it would it be more cost effective for our most skills skilled teachers to create our own curriculum for future savings have we looked to see if there are grants for switching to LED lighting to help lower Electric costs have we or will we apply for the epa's clean School Bus program that provides funding to replace existing school buses with zero and low emission models before the July 24th deadline to save on upkeep and fuel costs the social and emotional needs of our students have changed dramatically since the pandemic when students are struggling with social and emotional needs their concentration and learning are negatively impacted did I wonder how you decided which positions to cut or how much data you reviewed to gain insight into what each role entails in supporting teachers and students sometimes I think people assume that Elementary School students are so young that they don't really need have much of a need for school counselors parents if an elementary school counselor has ever made the difference in your child's life or their educ a I encourage you to share that as a parent here myself I am grateful that Mrs kopka was available when my daughter needed her support although although we were not asked for data I am happy to provide you with immediate specific data regarding the school counseling services at my school at hille data that supports an overwhelming need for more Elementary counselors not less we would need to add to add three more elementary school counselors to meet the recommendation for 250 students to one school counselor ratio that is presently found in our middle schools and high school but since instead three elementary school counselors are being cut next year elementary schools will have over double the recommended ratio since adding kindergarten can harfield presently actually has 567 students if elementary school counselors lose our part-time clerical assistance we will have even less time for Direct Services in a time when we need more social and emotional support than ever for students elementary school counselors will be far less accessible to them if raising state test scores is your priority a strong social emotional foundation in the youngest grades will support that goal I understand that Staffing cuts are not avoidable however since two minds are better than one I hope you will give our community the opportunity to unite together with pride for Solutions because at the end of the day all of this is all about doing what is best for our children thank you for listening Heather with Heather withcraft Heather withcraft he hi I'm Heather witcraft I'm a resident and voter of Washington Township I'm also the parent of an elementary student Middle School chorus student High School orchestra student and a recent 2021 graduate um I am also a power professional in another school district so I work with special needs students and understand firsthand how valuable access to such a staff member is to the students that they serve one question that I share with many parents is will my child be denied an IEP due to the cuts or pushed to no longer qualify for supports will you what will you do when the support sta finds other employment instead of waiting to see who is rehired how is dropping computer classes going to prepare our kids for a competitive world will extra supports be made available when the children of the laid off support of the laid off staff students in our schools are now strugling in their studies possibly hungry and riddled with depression and anxiety because of what their families are now dealing with will esy be canceled if you can't get the support staff who were issued non-renewals don't apply what is the total dollar amount of the non-renewed staff salary how much would you raise by charging the 1300 student athletes maybe a $100 each saving a saving a little room for maybe the low-income students that still participate and how will cuts to the Arts affect scheduling for our students and the morale and mental health for the kids who live and breathe for the home that they found in the Arts thank you Deanna Preston Deanna Preston good evening my name is Dina Preston first and foremost Dr Hibbs I would really appreciate and I'm sure everybody here would appreciate if you would stop acting like you actually do care because if you did care you wouldn't have let these people know uh during teacher appreciation week that they would might might probably no longer have jobs that is such a slap in the face um to the people who support and who are the backbone and who are the people who deal with these children every single day and to say you care you don't care one question I have is you keep talking about technology and how important technology is but how can technology be important when you're cutting Compu computer classes that makes absolute zero sense um you are also oh and I wanted to know also where are these three deans of students coming from who are they and I'm curious as to what their relationship is to you um and I also am curious as to all of these cuts that are being made you say that everybody is equally being cut across the board but over 100 people are being fired and only nine maybe nine are Administration um again the people you're firing are the ones who keep this community running and keep these children educated so you're basically just cutting the legs off of your own District that's right um another thing I want to ask is how is this meeting format even ethical I know you know a few things about ethics right Dr hibs all the questions that are being asked should be answered as asked not pick and choose at the end which ones you feel are easiest to answer for yourself the tough questions are the ones that you need to be answering um and uh I don't even work for the district I actually work with ESS I was going to apply for the district because when I first started here the women that I work with absolutely took me under their wing taught me everything they knew that I needed to succeed and to make the lives of the children children every day easier and I thank God for them every single day and these are the people that you're firing are the ones who trained me who don't even work for the district on how to deal with and how to take care of these children um and I was going to apply but I don't think I ever will especially not with this board um and you know you keep saying how you know you can't sleep at night and everything you know you're so upset because of the choices you have to make well maybe it'll make you sleep at night better when you take your salary and you put it into the budget and make some Cuts there and maybe you could save a few of these jobs thank you Kelly Bor Borio all right my name is Kelly estoya uh I want to tell you a little bit about myself my family and I moved to Township from Pine Hill about two years ago I have an eighth grader at Orchard Valley Middle School a fourth grader at Bells I am also an educator I've been an educator for 25 years the last 15 of which have been as a reading specialist in various middle schools I have my master's degree in reading reading education and possess four teaching certificates one of which is a reading specialist certificate when I moved here I worked in two middle schools in Egg Harbor Township and I had a one-hour commute to and from work I served as chair of the inrs committee I work closely with child study team to remediate reading issues screen incoming students I work with first year teachers and help them Implement a variety of whole school reading incentives and curriculum changes as well as working one-on-one with students I had tenure was well respected well established and well paid however as a mother the 1-hour commute proved to be an issue several times especially because my daughter has a peanut allergy it particularly was an issue when my only sibling my sister died very suddenly and it took me an hour to get to her after she passed away her two young adult children who had already lost their father moved in with me and now I am the only parent that they have left Orchard Valley was I was advertising the need for an Ela interventionist I interviewed and was eventually hired and made the choice to give up all that I establish in EDG Harbor Township including a pay cut and start over again at Orchard Valley the 10-minute commute and being in my daughter's school was worth the gamble however I never really was able to do the job of an interventionist to the best of my abilities because I had to teach several classes last year I taught four tier three classes this year I'm teaching one tier three class and this year I'm also teaching several eighth grade classes when asked to take on the extra classes I didn't blink I simply adjusted I also jumped into the ELA Department this year with both feet served on the linkid assessment committee the four essential studies pilot team the quch selection committee the pacing guide team and I run the fourth grade sixth grade prep club and piloted a new Ela program unfortunately in September I also lost my father and my mother's dementia has since gotten so bad I had to place her an assisted living I do have to say my administrators falber Mr Z and Miss Barnett were amazingly supportive through that ordeal I'm very vested in this community my two kids attend Township Schools my niece and nephew go to Gloucester County College my mother now lives an All-American assisted living on Green Tree Road I love my job and my position at orer Valley most of all I love running into my students in the wild I loved one day when I had a really hard time with my mom and went to McDonald's and six boys who were having lunch ran up to the window to say hello to me in the Drive-Thru it really made my day I love when they ride their bikes by my house and wave I love driving down the street and having students wave to me as I go by in case you didn't know it takes a very special person to teach Middle School these kids are sometimes the hardest to love but I love every last one of them and they know it I'm known in the school from my signature love of Wonder Woman I reference it every chance I get and it really makes the kids love coming to my class which is not that easy to do in middle school but that's over because you're looking at the face of one of the 36 teachers that had to be eliminated because of this new budget I received my non-renewal letter last week during teacher appreciation week I'm now T tasked with the Journey of finding a new job when I left tenure behind to be here unless finding a way to provide for the four children in my care as well as my my mother's expenses these were not 36 nameless faces these were mother daughters Sons fathers that are now out of work we have stories and bills and families to feed some more than others I don't envy the position that you're in Dr hibs your words at the last meeting repeatedly were that you wanted to do what was best for students so I asked these questions first why at the last meeting when teachers gathered here to ask you not to pass this budget and lose jobs did you approve the hiring of a reading specialist from outside of this District when I a certified reading specialist was not renewed how were the tiered students tiered support students in OJ Varley going to be serviced when no reading specialist is in the building how is it possible that I'm no longer employed this year when I was doing the job of two people I fear for the future readers that are not going to be receiving Services now that a certified reading specialist with 25 years experience has been removed from their building as well as their librarian secondly I hope that before any other teacher from outside this District is hired you look closely at the staff that you let go and make sure they're not missing on a chance to continue their employment that reading specialist position should have been offered to me but most of all I want to put a face to the 36 teachers and 100 employees who put their all into this district and now now be on the unemployment line and wondering how they're going to feed their families thank you Kevin mcir it's me I'll be right back good time hi um so I am not a great public speaker but um I I did feel I needed to speak um especially since somebody last summer said even though the bulldozer may be coming for you you don't have to make it easy for them so um you'll probably get to know my name because I'm not going to make the next couple years um easy for you if you if this stuff continues so I've only been here since May that's a phrase that we've heard a lot this past year I also have only been here since May May of 1980 I went through burch's school ovms and wths I came back to teach special education in Township both of my parents were assistants at the high school my dad after he retired became a lab monitor my mom started here in 1994 and was a hall monitor that eventually became a one toone assistant in the special ed program worked full-time was able to have benefits she worked as an ABA therapist after school and every summer in the esy program we're MTO Mars we do what's needed for the good of the kids in the school District my dad worked up until almost the day he died once he was diagnosed with cancer he needed my mom's benefits in order to get the best care he could get so thank God that my mom was the one one of the few AIDs that actually was able to have benefits sadly she had to work while I took care of my dad on hospice because she had to be able to afford his funeral for those that don't know AIDS don't get paid much but she did it and she continued to come she continued to come here every day until she thankfully retired 2 years ago so she is not going to be affected by all of the decimation that is coming to this town my town our town however many are people that I have known since childhood since Nursery School at St John's who do nothing but wake up every day to make it better for those that need help I have worked esy several years I've worked worked in the MD class and I depend on the AIDS to get the job done that needs to be done a lot of them are sitting in that row right there we have students with a range of needs from behavioral to Medical to physical to educational without the AIDS that were in my room I would not have known the quirks the de-escalations the interest what I needed to revise what I needed to do to reach the kids so that all of my students were getting access to an education without the AIDS that were in my room I would not have survived and kids would not have learned to those AIDs that worked with me I am eternally grateful and I apologize to you on behalf of the people on that stage last week was teacher appreciation week which this District my district our district decided was the appropriate time to cut 36 teachers I know that my building principles didn't have a say in this and they were just doing what they were told to do but one would think that last week wasn't the best time to do it but don't worry after three teachers in my hallway were cut we did get an email that um sheet cake was available so it makes me question where people on the stage stand with the idea of what's best for kids because according to the New Jersey state code of ethics for school members labeled 18a col 12- 24.1 Parts BC and H they don't a simple Google search would tell you a lot about the people on that stage it would also bring about a lot of questions about hiring practices I'm also an adviser for interact at the high school a community service club that has over 450 members in it it's a co-curricular position that was taken away from me last year along with hundreds of other co-curricular advisers I see on the district website that it's already starting to happen again so I anticipate I'll lose my uh after school job again doesn't happen to coaches just us advisers but that's a story for another day I worked for free over the summer setting things up so that my club could be set up for Success since our first event was before school even started interact has donated over a quarter of a million dollars to ALS research $15,000 to Pediatric cancer research we dances for special needs Community we hold blood drives with the American cross we shop for families that are in need during the holidays we put on a water safety program for the entire Kindergarten class we've taken care of f amilies in this District that are in need whether it be paying their electric bill to keep the lights on or even paying their rent so that kids have a roof over their heads last weekend we held our annual Festival of Fringe which is a day of fun for individuals and families with special needs it's a completely free event and we get help from the wtea under PTO thank you not to mention the over 100 student volunteers that we had we were even on Action News did you see it thank you thank you I want to personally thank all of the people on stage that reached out and said what a great job the kids did because they really did and they deserve to be thanked Eddie um thank you for all of your support with the program because you did an amazing job I didn't hear from anybody else so I can't tell you how many people came up to me with tears in their eyes and thanked me for having an event where their children were treated with respect dignity and as individuals the same respect and dignity that they get from their AIDS who this board has decided to do away with again is that what's best for kids according to your code of ethics Part B I will make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children and will seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children regardless of their ability race Creed sex or social standing it's not you you didn't meet your code of ethics in the past the saying was bring me things to cut not people where do the people on stage stand on this what options were presented we've talked a lot about pay to play we talked about cutting freshman's Sports aren't um supervisors certified teachers could they have picked up a class and just for good measure um we spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the gym upgrade that the majority of students will never use so and we couldn't buy a kid a basketball net that asked for it back in October I think according to part C and D of your code of ethics you were supposed to discuss plans with those affected but I'm not sure who you talked to that would agree with your Cuts you're also supposed to see to it that your schools are well-run after a year where there was a fight in the high school with multiple teacher injuries cutting people that are posted in the hallways is the way to go what are class sizes going to be next year I already have a class of over 25 and you just cut three teachers in my hallway then they all had master's degrees are larger class sizes going to contribute to learning gains the people that you're cutting are not line items on a budget they are people they have families they want what is best for your children they know your children they have degrees experience and evaluations that demonstrate their Mastery in content they deserve better than what was handed to them last week and our children deserve better than a decimated school [Applause] system okay this next speaker goes by 06275 yeah for those of you that are confused that's my employee number because we've all become a number I didn't give my name we are aware and we've heard it numerous times it's teacher appreciation week when the most horrendous and hideous Cuts were made however are you all aware that it's also mental health awareness month okay I'm not so sure what we have to do in our classroom is what you all have to adhere to but that's okay I want to go through the assistance list before I read what I wrote just to be clear the assistance and who that includes teachers AIDS Library AIDS specialized and non-specialized special ed AIDS bus AIDS which I think the last meeting you talked about partnering with other districts and joining buses I with nobody on there that's going to be safe nurses AIDS clerical AIDS cafeteria and playground AIDS are we practicing saying to first second and third graders honey don't go near the street Hall monitors I'm just confused I thought safety was a priority for this sport event as well as education doesn't seem like you're cut would say that uh what's best for kids is taking away the people that work with them yeah that makes sense I'm going to spare you the number because I don't know how accurate is on the amount of administrative salaries that's not being touched because I don't like speaking without having facts so I'm going to leave that number probably for the next meeting tonight I'm speaking to express my deep concern and sadness regarding the recent staff Cuts I left here as a student in 1989 knowing I wanted to come back to Township to teach and make the same difference in my students lives that my teachers did for me as a 27-year veteran special education teacher a member of this community and a stakeholder in education of our children I cannot overstate the gravity of the situation at hand not only did I represent the members who were non-renewed I sat in that office and I consoled them and I celed them as they cried in overwhelming sadness and fear 27 years that was the worst day of probably my life as an educator in this District I had no words for these people some of them are the only Breadwinner in their families who provide the food and the medical coverage that their family needs we are not a number although we really are we are not a business we are people with lives and responsibilities and some with significant medical needs and now have no idea where to turn it is alarming to witness decisions being made that directly impact the quality of Education our students receive staff Cuts not only jeopardize the welfare of Educators but undermine the essential support system that our students rely on for guidance mentorship and academic Excellence not to mention some buildings weren't even given the respect to a face-to-face meeting in one Elementary School the letter was put in their mailbox and in another they were the secretary was told give these out one of our members was told to give non-renewals to other WTA members that is disgraceful when you have your cabinet meetings do you decide because the inconsistencies is disgraceful that that is how people were told that in itself I don't know how you look at yourself I implore this board of education and the superintendent to reconsider this course of action and explore alternative solutions that prioritize the wellbeing of both staff and students why are some of the following options not being considered pay to play we had a parent in this town actually offer it that is amazing put middle school and freshman Athletics on hold a year or two I understand it's not a popular choice but some of these programs are grossly under enrolled that requires a coach and a bus driver but we still pay and often other schools don't even offer the competitors at these levels we are a town and drenched in Parks and Recreation programs aaou opportunities these young aspiring athletes will have those opportunities when they get to the high school many years ago my my daughter was on the receiving end of such cuts and we hated it but we survived and she was able to join the high school team when it was her time to do so our educators are the backbone of our educational system and any decision that compromises their livelihoods will inevitably have detrimental effects on the entire learning eni environment furthermore I urge transparency and accountability in the decision-making process the community deserves to be informed about the true ramifications behind the cuts and the repercussions that may have on the educational experience of our children as concerned citizens parents and advocates for Quality education we demand that our voices be heard and that meaningful steps be taken to mitigate the adverse effects on these staff Cuts our children deserve nothing less than the best possible education and it is incumbent upon us to ensure that their future is not only future is not compromised by the short-sided budgetary decisions I urge all of you on stage to address these concerns and work towards a solution that upholds the integrity and the Excellence of our educational system which doesn't include capital projects and unnecessary additions to the [Applause] school Ray sibo Ray sibo speak this one hello word of Education I'm here to support the hardworking dedicated teachers and teacher assistants who are worrying about losing their jobs these individuals generally care about the students want them to receive the best education so they can have a successful career one thing I've noticed is that the superintendent always reminds everyone that he has been here only one year but never mentions how he hired a director of human resources for $155,000 which is $6,000 more than the previous director of 30 years explain that one one idea would be to reduce the salary the $215,000 salary of the superintendent and resend his over $30,000 Merit raise that he does not deserve the reduction in staff needs to start at the very top and not the lower paid workers I'm respectfully requesting that the Board of Education reinstate all the these excellent employees thank [Applause] you you Mar Harris Melendez hi hi my name is jamaris Melendez my son is reys rosado he's eight years old in Mrs Perkins class at Thomas Jefferson elementary school and I am here to ask you to reconsider this decision and see what you can do to cut anywhere else but the class attendance they are instrumental to this population of children's development my child included reys today at 3:00 decided he wasn't going to get on the bus today and proceeded to run across the street and if it wasn't for Deana who is not going to be applying because of these decisions that you've taken upon yourself to make without letting parents like us know for example something could have happened to my son something we could not come back from um having about 10 years of HR experience I can't tell you how disappointing it is to hear from the staff that they were notified via email now that was a poor decision one that you're not going to come back from there's many Avenues of communication that you could have utilized to inform these people so that it wouldn't be as detrimental um bring down their morale the way that it has that will cost you so much more um to bring that back up not easy to do I know because I've been in healthcare for 20 years and this is what I do every day I round on patients and ask them to please rate US favorably if they've had a positive experience um and so that our healthare professionals can feel good about doing what they do and the same you'll have to do for these people here you're going to have to encourage people to do more for them because their morale is so low I I can't tell you how much I rely on the classroom attendance dayto day um especially on Mondays and Fridays my hardest day because you know or maybe you don't know because you don't have a child with special needs um like my son reys who is 8 years old and recently stopped using pull-ups and if it wasn't for the help that I get from these women as well as Mrs Perkins my son would still be in pull-ups because I go to work and work three 12-hour shifts and I'm exhausted and give up when they don't I need them and and I need you to take their positions seriously and maybe look at what else you can cut to possibly boost their pay because no one can live in this town with that little bit of money I know for a fact I'm not from here I ended up here I'm from Massachusetts and after Reese's father passed away this past December if it wasn't for the classroom attendance I don't know what I would have done I'm going to tell you because he is non-compliant barely and now he's reading that's not just Mrs Perkins that's not just Mrs Perkins because you know what these classroom attendants work a lot harder than she does you can ask her directly she will tell you okay and I I just am so disappointed that I even learned about this only four days ago because believe you me had I had more notice than what I have now um I would have come deep with a bunch of virtual nurses who are also you know members of this community you know because they also have children with needs or they see what I go through with my own child and what I've learned is often if you can't relate then it doesn't become as important to you and I know this I know this for a fact because Reese is my fourth child and the only child that I've ever had to deal with with special needs so I encourage you to please reconsider I don't know what HR professional would put the cart before the horse and send out an email midday during you know teacher appreciation week or mental health awareness like there's other times and somebody should have really considered that because maybe another decision could have been made unsend maybe you know I I I just really really need these people to have their jobs so that my child can continue to thrive in this community and everyone else's children please Giana melham hi my name is Gian melhorn I am currently a senior at the high school and with that I'm a student so I don't know as much as you know a lot of the other people who have spoken how much they know but what I do know is that you're not going to have a room of easily over a hundred people at 9:00 at night when we've been here all day if there isn't something wrong you're talking about about you're not willing to cut Student Activities but you're cutting the teachers who are running them so I'm a little confused about how that works um there is an adviser for drama club who was cut who is in charge of an entire Branch um njdfl we were state champions last year and quite frankly we wouldn't be where we are without her so you are still impacting our extracurriculars even if it isn't by Direct defunding them so that is a whole confusion um another thing that I do know is that I have a parent that is support staff in the district for elementary school she is a one-on-one Aid um and I know that she she loves her job and sitting here and like seeing everybody's faces I know that you're all here because you love your job you aren't here for the money um I had the privilege of going to bring your child to workday this year and seeing what happens in the schools and I can tell you that they're underst staffed if anything already I'm seeing students struggle firsthand in these schools and cutting the staff that are there to help them definitely isn't what's best for the students coming from a student um I I Walk The Halls and I see kids who are struggling already and feel like they don't have anyone to talk to and a lot of times they confide in the bathroom monitors they confide in the assistants they confide in the people that aren't running the classroom and by removing them you're removing support for students because at the end of the day these people are who elected you to be on the board so for you to for you to turn around and then remove jobs from the people that put you in this position I I don't understand the logic there but again I'm a student so I must not know much another thing that I saw on bring your child to work day is that there are many uncertified staff doing the jobs of certified staff there are so many people putting in the time and effort to learn especially one-on-one AIDS and AIDS in the classrooms they're putting in time to learn their students when the school can't fund proper training for them so again maybe I don't know much but what I do know is that denovi is there and I don't see any Cuts there even though we have staff doing the same [Applause] job another thing I know is that as a high schooler I'm a senior I've been through it everything we do is on the computer um we've had a couple people talk about how that's not probably the right way to go already but that's besides my point removing computers from elementary school is one of the most shocking things that I learned today because that's what set us up to know how to use what we're what we're learning with how to use word and how to use PowerPoint and things like that by removing that you're setting sending kids into middle school with with little to no idea what what to expect and if you're expecting teachers to teach kids formatting and Word and Excel in their class time I mean we're barely meeting the curriculum as is in some of my classes already and with the minute I have left I just would like to remind board that that you're dealing with human beings um I as a student shouldn't be seeing the behind the scenes work but what you are all doing is affecting everybody it is affecting the students youve had sixth graders come up and talk it's AFF ing sixth graders the fact that they know something is wrong that's crazy that's crazy I mean you're dealing with human lives and I understand you're all human too and people make mistakes but I think that this is the time to own up to that mistake and and fix it thank you k chalis p Tois okay that was an excellent pronunciation of my last name most people can't get that one right all right give me one second to pull up my notes my phone was dying and I didn't want to lose it all right so good evening everyone my name is Patty sucis um I have held many different roles at the high school for the past 24 years I was part of the high school when we were at our highest enrollment in around 20052 2006 when we had about 3,100 students one of my positions included being the technology trainer at the high school I was also here in 2010 when we had major budget cuts and there were actually 43 teacher positions cut at the time including one of those positions was my training position my building principal Ro fararo told me that when face with major Cuts she had to eliminate my position in order to avoid increasing class sizes I 100% agreed with her decision and I went back to teaching um five math classes I am speaking here tonight to ask you to go back and look at this budget because every cut I have heard so far directly impacts students in the classroom as April SP spoke earlier I like to speak numbers so I'm only going to speak to numbers that I accurately know when I was the technology trainer I was in charge of giving professional development to every Department my own Department had 39 Math teachers in the department our student population went from about 3,100 and we're now currently around 2200 so if you do the math that means that we had a decrease of about 33% in the student bodies after two math positions were eliminated at the high school through these budget cuts we're going to be down to just 19 Math teachers in a tested subject area that's about a 50% decrease in the staff those numbers just don't add up to a certified math teacher the high school will will not be able to safely function next year with all of these Cuts our administration had a lot of trouble this year getting proper coverage for duties like cafeteria Duty studies Halls Hall Duty monitoring different things how are they going to get these areas covered after all of these teacher elimination positions if you also deplete our support staff from the cafeterias from the library AIDS from the lab monitors we will not be able able to safely monitor our students it is just not physically possible when we talk about increased class sizes how much bigger are these classes going to get because not only have I taught here forever but my children are in the district as well and my daughter who is currently in fourth grade in one of our elementary schools already has 209 students in her classroom how much bigger are we going to get and that's with students moving in and out of her classroom all year there's probably been about a total of 33 students in and out of that classroom Mr Sano you mentioned in a previous meeting that the board was presented with a couple different options to look at for budget cuts I find it very hard to believe that there were multiple options and this is the best one thank you Sean Spiller good evening and uh thank you for allowing uh me to be with you tonight my name is Sean Spiller I am the President of the New Jersey education Association I'm joined by our secretary treasurer ped Robertson and we represent over 200,000 Public School Employees throughout the state and I have to tell you as we were talking about this and coming to the meeting tonight we were asking ourselves as we came in tonight why that was the question because we find ourselves often visiting schools throughout this state traveling throughout this nation talking about the great things that we see the great things that we do here in New Jersey the reason why we have the number one schools in the nation and at the core of every single one of those conversations the answer is always the same the answer is always simple it's because of the people it's because of the students it's because of the parents it's because of the teachers the support staff the administration the board all of the people who make our schools great that's the answer why we have the best schools in the nation so we stand here tonight asking why why are we talking about eliminating teachers when you hear the impact on class sizes why are we talking about eliminating staff when you know it will be eliminating Arts that so many of our students rely on to thrive and grow why are we talking about eliminating so many of those individuals who spend the most time with our kids those one-on-one conversations that they have teaching them about life as much as they're teaching them about being responsible growing students why are we having all of those conversations when there are other options you've heard from others speak tonight about other areas in the budget that we could look at other options we could consider and explore some of them tough choices yes but options nonetheless that don't have the devastating impact that these Cuts will have so I say to you why why not look out at these individuals tonight and say We'll reconsider why not look at every single one of these Educators and quite frankly say we're sorry we're sorry for not recognizing that you are the individuals who often times spend more time with your students than your own children these are the individuals who spend time in hours grading and going to extracurricular activities and making those phone calls to parents doing all of those things taking time away from their own families and responsibilities so why not say to them we're sorry because instead of giving you pink slips on teacher appreciation week we should have been saying thank you thank you thank you for the work you do each and every day so I say this to you this is the most important question why not reconsider why not undo these drastic Cuts why not say to this community we get it we understand at our core that when anyone stands stands up and says will these Cuts impact anyone in this room you understand that it will impact every single person in this room and in this community everyone needs to stand everyone needs to understand the impact will affect them because harm to any single one of our students is harmful to all of us in this community so I ask you this please reconsider please show your support and please say we understand that even now you can reverse course and you can do the right thing why not thank you very [Applause] much Claire mclin Claire [Applause] mclin Claire mlin oh April Ren what April sorry I I really injured my need today um and I didn't want to get out and put up another card okay so one thing I want I want to say before I get into some of the goals that I want to talk about is um I don't why I talked about this last year there's a difference between non-renewal and a riff and when you put a non-renewal on someone's record that's saying that they were not a good employee why did you make these non-renewals instead of riffs we went into this last year um you it still doesn't and I'm speaking to I'm speaking the doctor hibs when with everything I'm saying most of what I'm saying because what everyone up here needs to understand or the board members is that he works for you and if this was a company and your CEO who's your only employee that you can hire had a massive budget deficit needed to let go a large portion of your staff um and and a lot of other things that have happened countless things that have happened you know you would probably fire that person so as the board your goal your job is to look at the district goals and the board goals not the superintendence Merit goals and when you look at the district goals the first one is elevating academic Excellence I'm not going to they actually are what should be running up on these screens not a ticking clock but it should be your goals because it's very easy to turn to your Chief academic officer and say we don't want to do that because that's not Mission critical that's not something that that you know applies to the mission of the district and the goals of the district so the district goals are elevating academic Excellence Safety and Security fostering well-being professional development technology and retention are at the bottom um but but the retention goal is we will place strong emphasis on the retention of current staff and the recruitment of new staff so again as a board think of yourself as a board not people who respond to you know a guy that gets up to the microphone can't even brush his hair and sends email out to 50 people by the way you all should ask Ron to take you off his emails like I did then you won't even have to read them anymore um your board goals are create and maintain a safe and healthy environment for student staff and visitors your goals as a board we recognize that a safe learning environment is Paramount to the educational process and well-being of our students Monitor and maintain Safety and Security protocols Yad yada ensure Administration number two establishes and maintains fiscal responsibility within our school district by optimizing budget allocation reducing unnecessary expenditures we have a lot of that and enhancing Financial transparency transparency ultimately ensuring sustainable Financial Health for the benefit of students and community and number three third board goal recruit retain develop and Empower employees who embody the core values of the Washington Township School District the last goal which this is something that Mrs suis and um Mrs renetti mentioned has to do with data support staff and administration in their efforts regarding analysis of data including but not limited to all the different data that you could have along with the implementation of programs and plans to identify achievement gaps and increase academic achievement my understanding is that at the high school um this week again totally toned deaf doing this this week but that's because you have a superintendent that's underprepared for this job and you have an HR Director that's underprepared for this job so these are just rookie mistakes but um to English teachers why why were English teachers let go that's a tested subject why was a math teacher moved to the middle school that's a tested subject why was a third English teacher moved to on budsman it's a tested subject how did you make these decisions so this type of stuff you know I feel like your jobs up there that things that you do for a living you're not Educators I mean some of you were but you're not Educators um and it's and you don't have to be your your job isn't to administrate the schools your job isn't to know all of these personal stories but when you get to this point where you're listening to these personal stories because of decisions that have been made by the employee that you employ that is your business um to attend to and the last thing I want to say is um take a look at those superintendent goals because the superintendent goals are all things um that relate to technology like some people were mentioning and none of them that I can see really have to do with academics so again $40,000 isn't really going to save the entire budget but when you're looking at the things that are important that match the goals of the district I just don't feel like everybody has you know that 10,000 foot view of what your role is as a board you know so no one is really to blame up here um except for one person and sadly it's just because you hired someone that's not qualified for the position so that's all want to say about that thank you Julie Julie would you fill out a card so we have a record of it Sierra let me see badia how I do with that one good evening to the board and everyone who's here tonight um I'm speaking as a special education parent with a daughter in high school so the interesting part about the special needs program is that the students are affected both in the class and outside of the class as oppos as with regards to their um assistive staff the staff that assists our kids in the room are also many of the staff that take their time to assist our students so that they can participate in after school activities in addition things such as CBI trips and valuable activities that help them with daily living and self-care tasks are all things that our assistance staff are needed and present for in addition to the unfathomable idea of limiting staff in the ASD and MD classrooms our children need assistance to attend the various events that they should be able to attend such as peer Outreach interact Club the Festival of friends which we just had um school dances proms field trips Etc them not being able to have the necessary help to attend these functions that every child should have the opportunity to attend during their high school or their school experience is not Equity making it harder for them to be actively part of the student body can be seen as discriminatory with regards to any plans um for outsourced assistant Staffing there are concerns about the training and skill levels of out Source staff a reduction in skilled familiar staff will inhibit the daily classroom needs and most certainly affect an already shaky extracurricular schedule for our kids these changes and disruptions in routine can cause Outburst panicking and regression in behaviors because of the unfamiliar people who could possibly be in the classrooms we talk a lot about transitions in the special education department this is not a transition this is ripping the rug out from under our kids many of our students have come to know love and work with the assistants in their classrooms for many years these things will cause clinically proven poor outcomes in our children at very crucial times in their lives when my daughter entered the district after years at an out outof District placement I was promised an amazing IND District program with evidence-based instruction and a program that was thoughtfully planned so that its special education students would flourish and Thrive as a caveat to that I have asked for the uh Special Olympics opportunity for my child since she was in seventh grade when she started here she will be a senior at the high school next year and we are just getting a unified program which is still on expectedly Shaky Ground staff has been secured for the upcoming school year based on implementations of the IEPs however will that staff be be those that the kids have come to know and who have come to know them who will be taking the time to learn and understand the needs of our kids adequate employment is not your kindness to these staff members please don't insult them by keeping them in and giving them mediocre benefits and pay remember these are human beings with dignity and they don't deserve to be minimalized like this give them the same respect that you would appreciate yourselves our staff love these kids as if they are their own if you think their positions aren't important you are really saying that you think our children aren't important finally I see signs all around this Township that say drive as if your kids live here so I implore you to make decisions as if your kids go to school here thank you Dana sales kosia hope I pronounced that one Dana okay well I'm having a tough time reading this phonetically but here it goes Dana salesia okay how' I do with that one all right so I wasn't planning on coming up because I was one of the clerical assistants so I'm literally like the bottom of everybody's pay here but tonight I went to go watch the fifth grade um kickball crazy absolutely loved it I had no plans on coming here all the teachers there your staff there I'm sure they all volunteered because you can't afford to pay them to be there to help all the fifth graders commencing their end of the elementary level what it got to me when I got in the car and I started talking to my husband and he heard me say that Mrs McGuckin's job was pretty pretty much Rift he started crying in the backseat an 11-year-old think about your kids that you're affecting by taking away this anything that they're doing extra these kids don't all aren't all blessed to have all these extra things at home the fact that Mrs Mulan is the only teacher that stuck out in his mind he cried in the backseat go to the schools talk to the kids see what matters to them because what they need are our staff there to stand there next to them and hold them and hug them instead of just saying sorry we don't have the money for you I'm in nobody in the district I'm talking as a parent as well but I'm also talking as a clerical assistant every year since I've started eight years ago I volunteer to work at graduation not because I like to be there and I love being outside no I do it so that I can see all of the special ed kids who made it to senior year graduate I was at my daughter's college graduation on Wednesday when I got my riff letter so I got to finally see my daughter graduate because the class of 2020 had nothing because of Co I got to see my daughter graduate from Temple within an hour though I had 14 text messages on my phone Dane did you get the email yeah I got the email that I'm losing my job on her graduation day so thank you very much for that but now I cried more because thinking I'm not going to get to see the kids that are Juniors graduate next year because they become such a part of my life as a clerical assistant I went to Junior Prom I don't remember seeing any of you guys there but I went to Junior Prom to be with the kids to make sure that they were covered I go to graduation I go to after school I activities with him unpaid I don't ask for any of it in return but I do I have never seen any of your faces there and it's kind of sad that my job's gone because I'm I'm nobody to you guys and that's fine whatever 42 years old I don't need to be somebody to you I just know my kids I'm somebody to them and they're somebody to me I stood in that that stage last year Dr hibs you were right there when my one of my students didn't have a Captain G because his mom missed the deadline to order it first thing I did went and got my money and I came down here and PID for that kid C me gwn not because I wanted the money back I don't need anybody's recognition I can't picture one of my kids not having their C and gwn on graduation day and this is the things that I want you to stop when you look and you see oh okay Dana is number seven on the rift lift get rid of her just remember what you're getting rid of because you're probably not going to get another staff member to come in and do what we do every day for the amount of money we're getting PE that's it Jennifer Lynn Hardison hi um I don't I'm just gonna talk because I'm bad at writing stuff really bad at it but I'm a single mom I work two jobs I need to work two jobs it's not you know I want to I need to okay it's not a choice that I have to make it's just something that I need to do I'm the only person the only adult at my house and my son needs he needs things things that I unfortunately I can't always afford to get him and every now and then his teachers will help me get those things like he needed he wanted to go to this junior prom I didn't have the money to take him I didn't they actually paid for it because I didn't have it and it's not fair like I worked two jobs and I still couldn't afford to pay for his ticket it's $80 ticket and I couldn't afford that okay and I'm also going to school to become a teacher um right like what and I realized this is my gift I didn't ask for this gift it was given to me I have more patience with children than I do with adults I will put up with a child's temper tantrum over an adult's temper tantum that's the gift I was given and for me not to be able to use my gift now I got to work customer service I don't like people I'm sorry I don't like people I can't go back toomer customer service I refuse to I don't want to I don't I want to be a teacher I want to teach kids I want to be in their life I only have one kid there's no I'm not there's no one lining up wanting to have more kids with me at this point there isn't so at least I can give love that I gave to my son to other kids and that is that's what I want to do there's nothing else I can't I wake up every morning I get and I go to work I get hit I get scratched I get bit I get kicked I get I was even called like annoying to one kid actually call me annoying and I just looked in him I was like okay well yeah I am being annoying because I want you to do what I want you to do not what you want to do so just let me have it I don't ask for much in this world I don't ask for much but let me have the one thing that I want to do is teach okay love both my jobs I work at Kids Choice and I said to myself if I was going to work two jobs the least I could do they both have to work with kids and I don't want to come home screaming and hollering yelling because I hate my jobs because I'm working with the c with the public and I don't want to and I want my son to also understand that yes you will have to work two jobs sometimes but at least enjoy the jobs that you have enjoy them like I do so please I just want to keep my job and I just want to do the best that I can be I want to be the best and I know that I am the best it's been proven that I'm the best so let me be the best thank you Michelle Caso Michelle Caso Caso C ASO coling [Applause] Clement so my name is Colleen Clement and I know intentions of speaking to here tonight and I apologize in advance if I become emotional I I'm a special education teacher here at the high school and a parent of three extraordinary children that attend our Public Schools I stand before you to share my personal experience my daughter recently became classified roughly a month ago and like a parent who spoke prior unless you have gone through this process you will never understand the toll this takes on you and your family our journey has just begun and I cannot imagine that Journey without the village I know I will need that Village consists of the general education teachers special education teachers and the vital support staff all of which are considered teachers in my home and in my classes notice that list did not consist of an app because apps cannot even compare to what a human body and relationship provides to these kids and I'm my kids the ones that I teach and the ones that I'm a parent to if you take away these jobs now and cut the teachers and incre increase class sizes I cannot help but to worry what lies ahead use the analogy of a house you can build a house abruptly but if you do not lay the foundation what happens that house will fall is that what you think of our children whom you say you are doing all this for so they crumble in years to come with no Foundation that is what will happen and again that Foundation is provided by the teachers and the support staff that's all that I have Sandy Rudy good evening board my name is Michael casso I am an 1112 custodian kind of debated about coming up here because not sure if I'm going to be part of that cut I'm sure coming up here to speak up I probably will be whether it's this year or next year I've only been employed for three years here sorry I'm out of breath I was doing my area I had to come running Dr hibs I understand you've been here for about a year you inherited this mess get that that's not easy not easy at all I know it goes to say I've also been here 30 years now living here coach played football for him I sustained an injury one time man helped me to the hospital stay by my bed all night thanks coach it's teachers like him that make a difference not just him but all of you the unsung heroes and it's hard to see all of them go also chairman of health and safety overloading those classrooms it's not safe so you're going to cut 150 teachers for that reason it's not a smart idea again I'm sure being up here is not best for my career advancement but I have to speak out we all cannot be intimidated because that's how it kind of feels everybody's been scared to speak up everybody's seen it and it's sad to all of us and our families galdi I've known you for quite some time been fun cleaning your office and I just really want you guys to put in Focus everything of Township everything we it's just TWP together with pride if this continues it won't stand for that anymore we will show the rest of the community going outward into the state that it's not together with pride no more which is what coach always instilled in US instead I'll be together we're pathetic and that's not a good sign Dr hibs again you came in here this year and you guys are taking a lot of heat whether you voted yes or no two weeks ago last week I just really want you to think about that nine people nine of you that's it can affect an entire Community somebody had alluded to it before that you will get voted on voted off we'll be here till the day we die majority of you won't you guys will be elected off as somebody said there was 10 other board members several other superintendents and when you guys do not if when you do and your term is up we will all still be be here and you won't if you don't study history you're doomed to repeat it you all should have studied the history of Washington Township along with its loyalty it's Integrity just so many small little words that can make the biggest difference I get it we're just numbers I'm just a lonely custodian clean out trash cans but I do a good job for some of your classes sometimes I might take a shortcut or two now again I don't know if USA support staff are going to be on that I also know our contract is next year did a lot of talking my dad sat on a a board as well for 40 years I know some people here are not for unions but he was and I get it and Dr hibs all of you really still taking heat I appreciate you guys listening to it all but I feel as if the support staff who does make it through this year into next year's contract are we just going to be begging for our jobs is that what it's going to come down to come April 1st of 2025 is this where we're going to be again begging why don't we try to be preventative instead of being um reactive again it's been one year for you doctor I get it but many of you have known for a very long time that this was coming down the pipeline I'm not asking you to be mind readers are magicians if so we'd all be millionaires but you just have to do what's right at the end of the day yall say it's hard to sleep at night making those decisions and I don't want to be repetitive to everybody else now I have to go to sleep hoping tonight that I can for speaking out because are you guys really Educators or Intimidators what is your goal as a baseball team or a football team A Five-Year Plan what is your fiveyear plan thank [Applause] you good evening hi I'm Sandy ready I'm the health assistant at TJ and I want to let you know that last time we were in this same fine Auditorium I made this statement that I was worried that we weren't going to have coverage because our nurse left well I want to tell you we got coverage thanks to the people in the front seat here we did get coverage we do have nursing available at TJ but I also want to tell you this every year the one office that I know sees every student in the entire building is the nurse's office we do health screening so we physically are looking at and interacting with every child that comes through that door and as tradition our fifth graders on their last day they do a parade around the school and let me tell you the amount of tears from Mostly the girls and but the teachers as they walk around and we clap for them because they're great and they've seen it and they've gone through it and they're going to middle school and they are so excited and we are crying and they are crying and it's just a big boohoo Fest but that kind of bonding with students and staff and it's not just teachers it's it's the custodians it's the Lunch Ladies it's everybody they love the the the atmosphere that they're in that we have given to them and they're apprehensive about going on and we say to them it's going to be better in Middle School just wait you'll be able to do this you'll be able to do that and it's going to be better I don't know if I can say that to my fifth graders this year there's a lot that I always took for granted just as a parent who wasn't very involved in in this part of of education and then when I got into the school district I realized there was so much more going on I mean even the nurse's office when I was hired in the nurse's office I thought we just did boo boos and Ice I was wrong we do much more than that and the assistants in the health office who were also part of this little happy riff day um we need to be there our nurses are amazing but they cannot do their jobs without us if you are at TJ and you haven't called your kid out and you get a phone call that's me I say hey you know you're you didn't send your kid to school I'm responsible for that I do that I triage boo boos I do Band-Aids I do ice I am responsible for working with the fire department and the police department every year and for the past four years at the holidays my school stepped up my teachers my Paras my clerical and was able to fund Christmas for 88 families who needed it at TJ alone so it's not just the teaching part that we all love a lot for a lot of us it's the extracurriculars it's the little faces it's the hugs it's the banter we have when the everyday kid who's still trying to get out of math comes down today and he's got a headache and tomorrow he's got a backache and the next day you make up things and we get along and they look at me now and I some I just go no no you you just no you can't but they're great kids and I would do anything for any single one of them and for the past five years since I've been at TJ I've had the privilege to watch five groups of fifth graders go on and it's the best feeling in the whole whole wide world when they walked in our doors five year ago five years ago none of them could read a lot none of them could write their name they're leaving our building knowing how to write their signature knowing how to navigate things in life and it's not all education although that's a big part of it the curriculum a lot of it is just they've learned life lessons and those things aren't in the curriculum those things can't be taught on a thought out spread out schedule those are the things that happen during the day when you have a teachable moment and we as the whole body of this particular riff club we do teach a lot more than most people think they do that we do but know that I value each and every one of you each and every one of you have made a difference and my kids didn't even go here but thank you thank you for listening thank you for the attention it's nice to speak and have someone have eye contact to you not to see the top of your head thank you I hope you do the right choice I hope you make the right choice Chrissy Kar good evening board members um I hope you've all got a pen and paper um I know that you don't answer questions when asked so I would like a written reply at some point in time so my address is 796 Richmond Drive cille New Jersey 08081 I'm here as a resident an employee and a voter um I'd like to thank employee 006 for for her for highlighting the fact that some teachers were so badly disrespected that they have their non-renewal letters put in their mailboxes just for everyone's information every single one of our 260 assistants had their notices put in their mailboxes every single one uh I guess I guess we can class ourselves almost like doctors and nurses the doctors are the people that come in they know you know they help diagnose same as a teacher does they help discover what a child knows and doesn't know and the assistants come in and do all the bits that the doctors don't do right we change diapers we help children eat their breakfast we help them read we teach them things so a hospital can't run without the doctors and nurses and a school can't run without their teachers and assistance so we need to keep them so if you had a $9.6 million mismanagement of funding what happened how did it happen will you receive your $440,000 bonus if this doesn't pass Mr hips are we able to sue the board for such heinous mismanagement of funds do we have anyone with their hands on the purse strings or does it just I mean I have you know I'm support staff I don't earn a lot of money your $40,000 is almost twice my annual salary just so you know okay it's not a bonus that's how much I earn which board members have actually been in the classroom okay has anybody seen the amazing job our staff do every day they seen our teachers working have they seen what our assistants do to help your children as well as our own children our grandchildren succeed in this school district have you actually seen what they do have you been into every Department Dr hips I believe you've in the year that you've been here you've never been down at Transportation yet have you managed to stop by and see a school boss or talk to any of the staff down there I don't believe you've set foot in the building that's a little you know unsettling so my presumption is at the end of all this that you will rehire these assistants back you'll suddenly have an epiphany and hire them all back but they won't be eligible for benefits I kind of figure I kind of think that you're going to reduce their hours so they don't get benefits and that's where you're going to see it savings but you've hired them all back they've all got the jobs back it's just that those that have currently have benefits won't have them in the future and I also presume that next year 90 90 days before our contract Runs Out you'll notify our food service department or transportation department that you're also Outsourcing them okay because I've done a little bit of research little bit been on the internet now and again and um I believe that's that's kind of your legacy Dr hibs I I kind of believe that you know I've been talking to some parents in marbor I believe that's where you used to work or somewhere near there um and I was told you decimated the staff there but I'm it's just what I've been told so it's heay so please don't you know I could be wrong I apologize if it's not factual um so the 9.5 million you say you'll be sa you will save by uh these employees being sacked uh this is the same $9.5 million that's not going to be reinvested into our community it's the $9.5 million not being spent in our local businesses it's the $9.5 million that be no longer available to our assistants and and some of our teachers so next year when we don't have a $9.5 million deficit because we've covered it this year with firing a lot of our staff um our you know our 260 teacher uh support staff and 55 teachers will still not have a job possibly and not have health care or a pension so where do we go where do we go from here because it you know these are the lives of the people that work in this district and Dr hibs I you know I you're you're a newish resident but we are Township you're not okay doing this to our our our our residents you'll never be Township because this is what we don't do this in Township we look after each other we're a family okay so I hope we wrote all those down because I really would like an answer I've been up here many times over the years and spoken and Been Told that you know you don't answer people back but nobody gets an answer from you nobody gets an email nobody gets a thank you for your speaking at the board meeting I I I listen to your questions and these are the answers nothing so really we should be facing that way because it's exactly the same as talking to the wall because we don't get an answer from that either so at some point in time I would like you to take some time and have the decency to reply Li to the people that come up here and speak to you so that they have some answers instead of coming up again and again and again and having not one single reply that's very disrespectful not as disrespectful as putting n in your notices in night mailboxes but it's it's close so you know let's let's let's think about things guys okay so um I work you know worked in this district for a long time I'm very proud member as a WTS s sbaa I'm a very proud NGA member in fact I'm president of the county losta county okay so I love my job I love my union and I love the people that I work with and I love the people that I serve and I love the children so you really need to think what you're doing up here because you were decimating this this district and I'm really ashamed to say that you're here I'm sorry I know you're my employer but gez okay Jacqueline Lopez Jacqueline Lopez good evening my name is Jacqueline Lopez and I'm here as a resident and a mother of a child with special needs I have four kids in the district one is a senior here in Washington Township I have two in Whitman and one in TJ my son is in the Spectrum and he has behaviors uh he's non- complying his AIDS are here they help them every day they work hard out of their little bit of money that they get paid they buy things for the kids in the classroom so they can have fun and they can learn uh the nurse thank you you must know marel pizaro cuz he gets Ms in school too um I've been here 3 years I moved here three years years ago my son was in a private school he was getting all the stuff that he needs when I first moved here to Washington Township and I signed up my son in school they told me Washington Town was the great town where my son can learn and he will have all the things that he needs and which is true in some parts you know thanks to the AIDS and the teachers that make the effort and um I work as an a myself with kids in the Spectrum and at first when I first moved here I underestimated teachers and staff I used to thank that they get paid they need to do what they need to do and let them deal with my son and his behavior the biting the kicking the pinching the Tantrums but then when I got into my job and I learned that they're not getting paid what they're supposed to be getting paid and then out of the little bit of money that they have they have to to buy things for the kids is just not fair so I'm here because as a parent it's sad to know that my son soon will be going to Bunker Hill and I don't even know if he's going to have the support that he needs these people here every day they help my son and I love them and they know that they know that I love them right girls I love my girls they very supportive with the kids and I'm pretty sure any other a here too love their kid and what they say here and they stand here when they said oh we here because we love the kids that is true cuz they don't get paid enough to take all that that they take with their children and I'm thankful and I'm grateful for you girls and thank you everybody for coming over here to support the A's the teachers my daughter cried today when she told me cuz my daughters do get extra help with Ela and math they cried to me when they came and told me that their stuff their teachers that's teaching them to get to the level where they need to be they're terminated and that's not fair to them at all why if we have money for war we need to have money for school simple as that cuz if you can reach whoever you need to reach the governor the president we need to get this money we need to invest in our children cuz this is the the future and we need it thank you Eileen Healey Eileen Hy hi my name is eileene Healey um I grew up in Washington Township I started kindergarten Here at Bell School in 1969 um I no longer live in the community I live in swedsboro Woolwich and my CH children also went to the Kings Way District which was the fastest growing District on the East Coast for a number of years we were tremendously underfunded um and we managed to work through budgets even though we never got St state aid to support the number of students that we had in our districts we are also a High um special ed District people come to our district because our special of our special ed programs so it costs a lot more to educate our students yet even though we were tremendously underfunded we balanced our budget and guess what we didn't cut jobs we cut curriculum student we wrote new curriculum we had pay to play I I shared this with you at the last board meeting um students shared materials um Sports maintenance and Fields we that was not a priority we had our track for so many years potholes our kids couldn't run on the track every meat was away and guess what we were state champions still um [Applause] I had three children as a parent I didn't mind paying for everything because I knew that we had supports in our buildings we had staff in our buildings um I knew we were working through things we were we were we were making smart choices and I know it's not easy um we made our school safe I'm listening to your staff to parents to students who know right now your schools don't sound too safe and if schools aren't safe can students learn it's clear to everyone in the audience in the community that Washington Township has not done its due diligence your priorities are off after listening to Mr y I would be very upset as a board member as a community member because it sounds like you may have been misled about funds if there's someone that you want to work with it's Mr ority he has a way of finding money where money can't be found you have not thought out of the B box you have not brought the community together you have not advocated to the state if you if you are really in a shortfall there's a lot of districts who didn't get money you got money more money from the state as an educator for 37 years I have little trust and respect when staff and support staff who have daily contact with students are being let go they are the lowest paid as well when only the lowest paid some of who have been made to work part-time and now have no health benefits yet the supers bonus is still on the table hold on it's hard for me to believe that you really understand the impact please stand with your staff when I see see that super salary is being cut his health care being cut or maybe being taken away made to work part-time affecting his pension being made to work two jobs like so many of your employees the super doing the jobs of the support staff and teachers that you're releasing maybe then I'll believe that Dr Hibbs you really feel it if students are your top priority don't cut the jobs of the staff who touch the lives of these students daily keep your school safe so children can learn if student learning and your test scores are important Sports putting more money into sports fields and wait rooms won't help you need staff if you've learned nothing from the pandemic we didn't need buildings we didn't need books we didn't need Fields what you needed were your staff 30 years in education supers come and go I can't tell you how many supers I've had in my life it's the staff they're going to make the difference they're truly invested they're going to be here years after Dr hibs is gone I want to say thank you to the four board members who voted to look more deeply into the budget I'm going to ask all of the board members today to don't hurt the students students by decimating your staff do as Mr Yi said and take action is it budget item L Mr Yi is it budget item yeah item L I want to see who is going to step up thank you Grady Frasier good evening uh just want to put it out there I'm not very good at public speaking so this is like first for me uh uh if you don't know me my name is Grady Frasier I am a senior at this high school so in about a month I will no longer be attending here and call myself an alumni uh I would I'd like to start off saying I've been very affected by this music program I'm currently in Orchestra jazz bands marching bands and concert bands uh I would like to say that there's one one teacher that stands out his name is Mr Spencer he has been through so much if you were to I guess fire some more teachers in this music department he will most likely be the one that has to go and take their job he can't go through that anymore I've seen it personally it's not good I've seen it with Mr appello when he had to go Mr Spencer had to take all the responsibilities of that it's very difficult here I'd also like to say my mom works for this district and she's a lunch Aid uh cafeteria and playground Aid uh she only works here for about two and a half hours and I don't know why she's being cut she works for minimum wage I don't know how you don't have the money to pay them uh while I staying here I saying I'm a senior high school I also work at Kids Choice so I get to see what it's like for the elementary school kids she also works at Kids Choice with me I've seen the impact it led on them I've seen these kids talk about why their teachers are getting fired they don't know why they need you to tell them why and I want to say I've never seen any of you before just saying not in the school I just learned you were the superintendent like two hours ago [Applause] uh okay a big motto I go with in band that I hear almost every day is be better than you were yesterday I want to know what is making this school better by firing all these support staff and teachers like I I need to hear an answer sometime and I'd like it to be soon because something I learned about in this school is three big words in our history is called We the People and if you don't do anything soon we are the people that will make the stand and make sure you will see the effects of what happens I would also like to say proudly say I graduated from the IP program and I would not have been able to do it without all the support staff behind me and I can currently say I definitely have learned a lot through all the support staff with the IP I would not have been able to be where I am currently without it uh I'd like to thank Mr Mack over here who has done a lot for me for teaching me about all this he's one of the reasons why I'm actually standing here right now he's made me more confident with how I [Applause] speak I've also been in the business programs I'm currently in accounting and Business Administration Management I don't know why we need to spend more money on the Google program saying when we get older and graduate we need to learn how to use Microsoft stuff they have classes teaching you how to use Microsoft Excel not anything with Google and with that why are we getting rid of computer classes if these kids need to learn how to uh need to learn to use Google if I didn't have computer class I wouldn't have known how to do it I'm not very techsavvy myself uh I'd like to see any of you try teaching a course to elementary school kids about computers we very much need them thank [Applause] you I have a motion to close to the public second second all those in favor I okay committee reports motion it's 11:00 we got to vote to extend the meeting all right we need a 11 o'clock we need to vote to extend the meeting so have a motion can have a roll call to extend the meeting do one of us have to make the motion somebody has to make a motion make a motion to extend the meeting past 11 o'clock second all those in favor got take aoll call it needs to be two3 I need a roll call uh Janine okay Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs Chilla G Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Tomac yes Mr Ross Yes okay well okay I'm going to address what I can address I try to take a lot of notes I do listen I definitely do not live in Township that definitely does not mean that I don't care about what happens here I understand that there's a lot of emotion in the room and that there are very hard decisions sadly my my seat comes with those decisions and I understand it affects real people that doesn't mean that I don't care I can't talk about anything HR related um at all so when we talk about the cuts they to all areas all areas literally in the listen we're not going to do that okay we're not we just we just can't do that we can't do that piece they are they literally go across administrators counselors um we didn't touch nurses um we honestly didn't touch custodial or maintenance um of people in the buildings but virtually every subject area and every level received a reduction the part that the part that I I'd ask you to understand is that let's assume that I we could just wave it away right we would we can't it's $7 million and I know you don't want to hear anything about time frame so I will just say that the budget that we were confronted we had to deal with that's what we had to do period and we took no joy in it we did not want to cut anyone at all and and I understand that I'm the person that will take your shots I will take your shots I get it so my job is to is to try to bring us through this and and survive and I understand that we affect real people we did not Target any one specific set of employees we will be compliant with student IEPs so very clearly people have the people have the impression that we're we're cutting all our special education AIDS let me be very clear we are not doing that we absolutely will be compliant we had to make Cuts we had to make Cuts uh to staff that will not affect programs things might look a little different but we are doing everything in our power to keep all of the programs that we had the concept of the Esser funds we absolutely do not have $2.4 million left over an Esser we literally have I think just a few hundred thousand and a lot of it is in areas that you can't transfer the way that Esser worked there was several rounds of funding and you can't transfer in between lines we do not have extra money just sitting there where I could save people that is absolutely false we also have to be really careful uh about using the Surplus because that will only mean if we take that will only mean we have to cut more the following year I say that correctly okay the the exercise a vacant position or things those are those have been long done long done school districts hide money in vacant positions we don't have that if I cut all the vacant positions next year then we're out of compliance so we we took it back to Center on what we thought made sense every line we looked at every line we looked at in this budget um the concept of politics being involved they are absolutely not there was no political forces that that swayed anyone in here you know and and on a in an equal fashion we hire people that are capable and qualified to do a job that is what we do here and I I challenge anyone who wants to come and have a conversation with me respectfully about any hire that I've made and I can tell you the why of it I'm happy to you can reach out to me at ehhs at wtps.org I stand behind all of our hires it was actually one of the questions the board asked me in my interview process is that would I look at our hiring practices bleachers gyms they're they're they're easy things to Target but they're One-Shot infusions the the bleachers were in last year's Bud budget they don't even it doesn't even affect it I couldn't even even if we cancel the bleachers right now it would that money would only pass through to a capital reserve account which can't be used to save staff so we did look at all of those areas and and Sean you spoke really well you know talking about the why and I I respect everybody in this room I respect you for standing up the the why is because we were $7 million plus in the red it was not a $9.6 million mismanagement that makes it sound like we didn't we did things um that were either unethical or illegal with funds which we absolutely did not do I came in and we had to do a job and that's what we had to do and very respectfully if I would have cut a that that person would be upset if it wasn't a and it was a different person that person would be upset if we take that out of Staff there's no way to cut it even if I cut every administrator we have and then every extracurricular sport we have you still don't have anywhere near enough money to cover this on an annual basis um the concept of a referendum came up by the time that we knew this referendums were not possible referendum take referendum take a lot of planning and I don't even Adam I don't yeah it's it's it's not it referendum are for things not for not for people so if I wanted to put a roof on The Birches that's where you would go after a referendum now in the in the budget we do have we have very few capital projects just so you know what we did was is that we are really only putting about a million dollars or we're set to put I guess about a million dollars into into capital reserve this year which for a district of our size is absolutely alarming so for anyone that thinks there's this extra pot of money that we're hiding for a rainy day or that we're actually trying to hide it so that we can have extra things it's just simply not the case and if you want to see that on an annual basis you can see how much money we put into the capital reserve account which is all of the leftover money that we have it's the only Reserve account we use correct so every year that is what's left over and and right now what do we have approximately in there so we're um around three million right now so $3 million for a district at our size I could probably pave the high school right now and it would probably cost $3 million so when you talk about next steps we're in a spot that we have to think about next steps and if we don't take steps to actually to to look at things like the capital reserve account then what we will be doing is going to the community to to pay for everything that was outside of the budget we won't be able to do roofs on our own or Paving or concrete or any of those things but we are we are not we are not putting away enough for a district of our size I I think I already discussed the concept of the lease you can't we can't save people from the lease if I could I would in a heartbeat we we did everything in our power to save as many people as possible and I understand completely why staff are frustrated about the non-renewals we simply and and and we simply were not in a spot to have all of the moving Parts sought out that's not negligence or us not doing our job it is just the process that school districts have to go through sometimes to make sure that we get it right um I'm not aware of anything with the pride schedule that was brought to me I totally agree that technology is absolutely just a tool I do not think technology should ever replace a teacher you will never hear me say so you will never point to anything where I say differently I think technology should be used with purpose and I think that our kids are growing up in a digital age I think that there's lots of things about technology that are really bad right now I think social media is horrible for our children and I think screen time at certain ages is not is not where we need to be but I'll I'll never say that technology is more important than any person ever any person any of our any of our incredible employees uh the board did talk about charging money for um for sports it was not decided to go that route for a few reasons um last last time we did that I think we saw I was told we saw participation I was not here but participation really went down and if we looked at it we have to take a lot of things into account including our kids that are free and reduced lunch and we questioned about we we just question that that move at this moment knowing that it would really only benefit anywhere from 50 to $100,000 per year and and whether or not we would actually negatively affect our children LED lighting we we absolutely have try to address through an energy audit which will hopefully gain us millions of dollars worth of free things but again that that won't be able to be used to save staff because the things in our district eventually will fail and we don't have the Surplus right now to address them electric buses we honestly have not gone after and sought hard for not only infrastructure we just we didn't have the capability of doing that and housing them at the moment um you know it it's consistently come up that we don't recognize the value of our staff I understand where we are that's not true we had to we had to make hard decisions no no child will ever be dep denied an IEP at all ever in this district and again all our children that have things in their IEPs will be honored computer standards will be placed into other content areas um there's a there's it's it happens in in school districts esy is absolutely not cancelled um there was a comment about the Deans of students we talked we talked a lot this year about the behaviors we see in Township which are were considerable for some of our kids and we had to make a plan to address address some of those behaviors so that we could Absol actually help the learning environment but there was a comment about you know I'm going to hire people that are connected to me listen I hire people that I I think are the best and the brightest uh if anybody again has a question on that I'll hang around and we can talk about it but that that job is not even posted I don't have any idea of anybody that that actually would apply for that job I have nobody in mind I did not solicit people for for that position um there was a comment I'm going right in order there was a comment about my school ethics you can Google that I had a person write a whole lot of lies about me um which I don't I don't wish on anyone I stood up for myself and said I was innocent you can Google all the findings I'm sure some of you have and read it and you can see there are people that lied on the witness stand and were actually um and discredited themselves and and and quite frankly our profession um we we did I the next question was about pay to play in Middle School sports we we decided not to go that route um Sean I think I addressed the concept of the why here and it's really the $7 million it's really the only reason that was it had to be some form of Staff we couldn't figure out enough things to cut for that um we decided to go the route of non-renewals because that was the advice of our attorney to be to be quite honest um I mean this isn't the person that actually did it so Adam what would you like me to say I don't need you to say anything yeah okay um the fact that you know listen and I get emotions to say that you know people aren't qualified for jobs it's just kind of a silly statement um we hire people that are qualified and we are navigating a very difficult situation um as far as any previous decimation of a school district I I would encourage you to dig a Little Deeper on that um perhaps even call the superintendent and ask if I decimated the school district honestly I think any school district that I've been to I've tried to make better I try to Value people um I honestly we're we're we're going through a very hard time right now but I did not decimate Marboro I made it better in a lot of ways um I talked about all of all the special education students that will have the support they need I do completely agree that the $9 million loss that we've had over the past um or since about the 15 16 school year is unacceptable and all they did was they took from districts that had and they gave it to districts who have not and they they label us underfunded and the reality is we're all underfunded so you know all of us even the overfunded that they call us we still underfunded and and the reality is is that this year you want to know why it's because this is the year where it all came to a head and we don't have enough other things to cut where it didn't matter that's it that's what it came down to and um we're happy to get you the budget and you know we're happy to to have a side conversation with you sir but you know for anyone that's walking away thinking that we have you know all this money stashed away that we could just mysteriously put into saving $9 million it is Absol absolutely not true correct ma'am correct it's it's untrue it's untrue it's just blatantly false somebody asked about the1 point about6 million we got extra this year that went directly to offset the the cuts that we had it it without that we would have been cutting about 1 point I think it was 1.5 N5 right million dollarss more Mr President no sir okay all right committee reports HR committee Mrs Baker yes uh working um okay the committee the HR committee met on May 6th president was uh Eric hibs Sean swey Ralph Ross Steve Serano myself Carol Chiller was absent uh we went over uh items related to Personnel agenda items anything else that's it okay business committee Mr La Liberty yep all right we met on May the 8th for two hours board members attending was myself Mr Ross Miss Bloom um Mr Tomac wasn't there uh Dr hibs and Janine wector were there uh we talked through a couple things uh health insurance renewals we talked through um where we were in the timeline with that and um that everything should be coming into effect for July 1st uh we talked through a update on the rod grants which to remind everybody the rod Grant is the grant that the district applied for to get uh 40% match essentially uh uh helping us with some capital projects so we put forth items that we would want to be funded with the rod Grant so we pay 60% and the state gives us 40% um our packages got approved which means we are now in a position where we can move forward with awarding the contracts for doing some of that work will include uh Birches in TJ's roofs and OV and Gren loocks Windows uh there'll be more come with that but uh was great that we got that package approved uh we talked through ESS renewal and the preschool provider contracts those are um businesses in in town and surrounding areas that meet the criteria that we can leverage for uh preschool um talk through upcoming purchase items and then we did talk through the um the budget Community task force so last meeting if you all remember uh we made a motion and the board approved empowering the business committee to put forth a task force to include community members in looking out um at ways we could save the district money uh or the ways that we could increase revenues to the district and include community members in that uh process I drafted a uh procedure on that which we discussed in the business committee and we got some feedback on ideas like additional criteria to put in there of things we'd be looking for um that's been sent out to all the committee members now for feedback so all board members should have that um I think Lori sent that out to yall if you could take a look and get me your feedback I'd like to get that draft updated also did talk to school boards Connie had recommended I reach out to somebody at school boards um in the area of ba with school boards uh he provided some feedback and um of some things to consider like maybe having a PTA rep or re reaching out to some Community uh groups for involvement so I'll be incorporating that feedback as well in the next version so yeah if you all could take a look and get uh Lori your feedback I hope to get that finalized and out soon so we can move forward with that process in June and that's it thank you policy and IA committee were cancelled reported the superintendent as for a motion to approve the Hib report to the board pursuant to policy 5512 of the superintendent so moved second Mrs Bloom yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Tomac yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross yes thank you instructional Affairs no items policy uh ask for a motion to approve policy items number 1 to8 so move second discussion roll call Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr tomz yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr Ross Yes Student Activities Communications no items at this time Human Resources ask for a motion to approve items number one to 48 so moved second discussion a discussion we on discussion yes discussion okay yeah I got comment um I'm going to address several items under L I want to start with I I need to ask the attorney this on um number 12 re appointment of non-unit non-tenured certified administrators can you take a look at that and let me know so I can vote properly if all three of those positions are all positions that can get tenure was a question again what was that again the question is if item l12 under human resources which reads reappointment of non-unit non-tenured certified administrators the question is if those administrators are eligible for tenure and I'm looking at the agenda which does not give me any um information other than reappointment of non-unit non- tenard certified administrator so I'm unable to weigh in right now seeing as though um would would I be able to give you the titles I'm looking at the titles now to the extent that these administrators are working under a certificate then my um position would be they're tenable unless they're when you say certificate what do you mean certificated staff members you're talking about individuals who um are likely certificated um and I'd also have to see the job descriptions for each of those positions in order to give you you know definitive answer I'm I'm kind of on the spot right now had I had this information before I could have looked into for yeah I'm sorry about that um so what I'm saying is voting yes for it if if the if the position is not tenable doesn't mean anything at this point I don't know how long these individuals have been working here to the extent that any of them would be working for four years plus one day well then that would be tenure okay okay so that I I don't think that's the case so I you answered my question for now um under number 13 I noticed on the list of individuals there were two names of employees that uh put in uh their um notice for retirement so that means they won't be here in 2425 yet their names are listed to renew them for 2425 maybe Dr hibs can can address that I I would their names I'm just going to caution you to the extent that you're talking about any specific individuals uh you I don't know if those individuals were issued rice notices and if they were I don't know if those individuals requested that the discussion occur uh in closed session or in public session so okay the the question isn't isn't based on an individual name it's just the the concept if if if a person any person put in for retirement would we would we be offering them an employment in 2425 typically the process is when someone submits a letter of retirement uh goes on a board agenda for the board to to vote on typically it's an acceptance because we don't have indentured servitude in our country so you can't force somebody to work here uh so if they put in for their retirement the the idea is we would accept their retirement and they would not be offered another position um you know whether or not that's occurred here I I don't I simply don't know yeah I I can address it t a bit further Adam so anyone that that has retired but it's past June 30 they they have to the retirement is passed this year so it's not till next year where they're retiring so they have to be on the renewal list even though they're retiring and we have I mean any I mean in just be careful because if we're talking about an individual I'm going to strongly caution the board not to do so okay okay that answered my question thank you uh number 15 um on job descriptions uh the for me uh one of the job descriptions I'm going to be voting no on and that's the Dina students uh in light of the the kind of cuts that are happening right now uh that's going to be my position uh number 40 uh I'm going to be voting no based on uh experience and salary and uh number 14 I'd like to make a motion to amend l14 under Personnel to override the superintendent's recommendation for all non-renewals and to offer [Applause] continued and to offer and to offer continued Reemployment to all employees who received a nonrenewal notice for the 2425 school year at the current state status quo number of hours worked in 2324 that's a motion if if I can uh there's a motion on the floor there's currently a motion that's pending to the extent that any board members wish to entertain Miss Baker's um motion certainly they can do so but I will strongly caution you uh in that the superintendent is the only person that can make a recommendation for a hire if the superintendent has not made a recommendation for a hire the board members risk an Ethics violation only the superintendent can make a recommendation as to who should be hired I'm under the impression that the chair could override that first we need a second before we have discuss you you have a pending motion you have a pending motion to approve a uh consent items l 1 through 48 so let's handle that unless whoever made that motion would like to withdraw that motion uh so that another different motion can be made well the motion is to amend 14 so I you made your you made your motion during a question and discussion section after a second was made on a different motion what so there's a motion open right now right now we have we have a motion open for one through 50 or whatever so we have to we have to close out this motion first and then 114 we just what would we do put 14 on a side then okay this would be a lot cleaner if whoever made the motion withdraws the motion and then we have a discussion about what you want to do who made the motion you got do you have who made the motion yes Scott made the motion Mr Liberty draw motion want to do all this other stuff apparently she made a motion on top motion Scott okay Mr Li Liberty is not going to withdraw his motion it's his motion what was his motion oh his motion is just on L to approve all items L1 through 48 about the second redraws withdrawals list uh who second who second Dave you R thr a second what's that can you withdraw a second well I want to know how we can handle this number 14 hold on a minute we have to vote on that separately then Connie wait hold on a minute Scott made the made the motion Dave second it Scott's not willing to withdraw his motion but Dave can withdraw his second I would imagine and then we'll withw second then it don't pass I agree with you Mr Ross Dave I'll withdraw my second is it hang on yes for a second do I have a second for Scott Mr La Liberty motion second question discussion all right discussion Connie I have an item for discussion go ahead we get the retirements out of the way so uh we got um couple retirements here we got Diana Bud uh retiring 25 years of service thank you Diana Ellen Ellen Gallagher 25 years of service elementary teacher William grutzmacher 25 years of security and Dawn Johnson 22 years of service reading specialist 97 years thank you discuss I have some discussion too for l um I have a lot of things I have to abstain from um just so they're all I'm conflicted my wife's a teacher so all the stuff that I abstain from on here is just uh to avoid a conflict it's a lot Lorie good luck I have a question for the solicitor so the motion that I that I made there's no way that motion can come forward once we vote on this would would L4 have to go down in order to do another motion okay how would that work all right so right now we have a essentially a motion for items 1 through 48 to the extent that there's going to be a roll call on it board members can abstain from certain items they can decide to vote for certain items they could vote yes to all they could vote no to all based upon what happens then uh Mrs Baker we would then have a you know perhaps a subsequent motion and vote on on certain items but um because there's a pending motion that motion needs to be dealt with now because it's on the table okay so so just so I understand you correct correctly as a board member you'd have to vote no for everything for it for to go back no you can vote or can you vote no for individual you can vote no on individual items you can vote Yes on individual items you can not vote no on everything you can vote Yes on everything okay thank you so just I have a question for the attorney if we vote no on the items of reappointment of the staff what happens technically well it depends on the type of staff that we're talking about if we're talking about tenured staff your vote uh let's say there was a no on the reappointment of staff I would say that that has essentially little effect because the individuals have tenure anyway so they're getting a contract essentially no matter what um for the individuals that if any of these individuals are not tenured um and you vote no on their reappointment they technically would not be reappointed so we'd have a whole bunch of people not reappointed if you vote no on the item of Reemployment correct right make sure everybody understands that with the exception of those who have tenure because they are automatically essentially continue to be employed until there's either termination um by way of tenure charges retirement or resignation so my point is tenured individuals even if you voted no to reappoint them technically by Statute they'd be entitled to their position any other discussion roll call this is a roll call I was just going to ask what happened to Connie's motion is that something that we have to go over in executive no it was never a thing no it's just the timing was was um off okay all right thank you so we're roll calling on human resources we had a motion because Mr Lindsay second okay okay so we need a roll call so now it's a roll call on all items items L1 through 48 again board members you can vote to abstain on certain items you can vote Yes on certain items you can vote no on certain items you could vote Yes on everything you can vote no on everything I hope I made myself clear under Robert's Rules you can well no that's not the way that we've done it here I'm not going to engage sir thank youbody thank you I'm going to start roll call Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano no to 15b the dean of students and no to number 40 and I will abstain from 14 Mr Tomac yes to everything else sorry um so I'm going to abstain from L1 uh initials JW L4 CT L7 ra under principal JS under executive assistant principal assistant principal's AC km GM GP DS directors CK SG GG JG uh L9 JH l11 and 12 the whole thing um I think that's it and I'm GNA abstain from 14 yes everything else no's the directors hold on let me go crw back up uh director CK SG GG and JG it's just and no 40 I missed an hour Mrs Baker abstain to 14 uh 15 no to Dena students 40 no yes to arrest Mrs bloom for number three I abstain from KH for number 15 no for the dean of students I think we should put that on hold for now number 40 it's not the person but I'm saying no because of the salary and I abstain on number 14 and the rest I vote Yes on Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Ross abstain on 14 no to 40 and no to the dean of students on 15 moving on to finance you do you don't say that again Janine take I mean yeah we don't have Miss chillan we don't have Miss Deo here everybody else is called for so what does that mean which resoled V we right no but now they're just they're they're just in limbo what happens now 14 15 and 40 did not pass all right so you guys could hear all that right all right so number 14 which was the Reemployment of the support staff did not pass did not pass um what was the the next one 15 15 number number 15 is the job description for the de of student did not pass and number 40 was um the appointment of our person to lead buildings and grounds that did not pass Adam what does that mean it literally means that you don't have those people employed to the extent that any b& you don't have the b& after June 30th y um the the job descriptions are not those jobs don't yep and then what was the other issue it was the all the support staff not rehired all of them yeah they voted not good job how many people are out of jobs now motions so just just just so everybody I had no idea this was going to happen so let's let's just explain it real quickly this means at as of June 30 I'm just going in in the order that was in my brain we have no one to lead buildings and grounds the job description is the job description and any staff member listed in number is it 15 what is that in 14 any staff member listed in 14 does not have a [Applause] job can can change they want I got I got a question for the solicitor hold on a minute hold on a minute hold on Connie you want to make that a motion again well I have a question for the solicitor you're saying that motion is an Ethics violation no that's not what I was saying I was saying to the extent that you're going to hire somebody who the superintendent did not recommend you cannot hire someone that the superintendent didn't recommend to the extent we're talking about item 14 on the agenda that is essentially the superintendent's recommendation to re-employ support staff that motion did not pass you can change your votes this evening or the next board meeting if you'd like um at this point the super intendent I'm sure still recommends the Reemployment of support staff so to the extent that the board wants to um vote again on that item or any board members want to change their vote they certainly can do that and and and just so just so you guys understand that's our job coaches our job coach and monitors our high school students assistant workers our Technology support Specialists our child care workers all of our maintenance Personnel all of our custodial Personnel all of uh our Cooks our assisant Cooks our cashiers our food service workers our secondary Force bus drivers our bus drivers our transportation assistance vehicle security maintenance and vehicle mechanic along with all of our security Personnel okay I I don't think that's what the board meant when they voted no I think we need to re Connie you want to reiterate what can can we possibly I think we just need to revote on it you you want me to repeat the motion that I I was I brought up before can we get the support staff hired back first I know what the board wants no no no we know what we want Scott can we revote we want to rehire the people who are being laid off can we revote on then then we'll decide can we have a board member please make make a motion I make approve item 14 on the L Human Resources agenda I make a motion that we approve 14 on the human resources second questions discussion who who second it please second discussion who talk I believe it was Mr Li Liberty that seconded did you second Mr Serrano and Mr Li Liberty both said second at the same time all right I have a discussion I don't I don't so we essentially have to vote Yes right if you want to have the support staff reemployed employment offered to the support staff listed there right everybody list here in this motion of 14 there's a list of support staff there this is yes is to extend employment to them correct correct but but it doesn't include people those terms it doesn't include doesn't include the people who got who the superintendent did not recommend who the superintendent did not recommend right so how do we include that first do this motion because that's a different motion and a different issue okay I'm told that that's a different motion we'll we'll will vote to approve these people that the superintendent recommends and then we will deal with another motion to reinstate people that he didn't recommend is that right if you want to do that it's an Ethics violation but I want to do it if it's I can do that I don't want to leave these people hanging the the opposite is more liabilities for this board of education that's not something I think motion we have 14 still on the table is item 14 there was a motion in a second so you have to have can we vote on this now and then if we want to bring this back up next week we can bring that back up right what's that can we bring it up next week There's a motion in a second right now on the floor to rehire all right there's a motion in a second on the floor to rehire number 14 number 14 so can I have a roll call on that I have a roll call that we can do Mrs Baker yes yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Tomac yes Mr Ross Yes before we do the next motion I would like to give the board advice executive yeah I know you're not going to like this but the attorney has asked us to go into executive session to in school it's for your own benefit it's for your own benefit trust me so we have a motion to go into executive session so move have a second second have a roll call that Mrs Bloom yes we want to make sure we get this right Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Tomac yes Mrs Baker yes okay the board will be going Mrs Baker yes thank you Mr Ross yes thank you the board will be going into close session for approximately 15 minutes to receive attorney client advice e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for e call me a lamb I turn I turn that whole football program around he's he's all right he's hurt a little bit he had a lot of health problems you know I certainly will yeah okay okay is there anyone who wants to make a motion we to go back in public have motion to go back in public second second all those in favor I I all right do we have any motions motion the meeting make a motion end the meeting um we do that there's a motion so you got to go through the motion it's be ask if there's a second have a second to end the meeting no there was a motion to end the meeting do I have a second no seconds okay any other motions any other motions uh I how do I do this I got to make a motion to revote on l40 uh you you want to you want to make a motion to approve l40 is that right David yes sir is there a second second discussion roll call Mrs Baker no Mrs Bloom yes Mrs Chilla yes Mr Mayo is not here Mr Li Liberty yes again Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano no Mr Tomac yes Mr Ross no okay any other motions any other motions I wanted to make a motion to vote on item l15 15b l15 job descriptions yeah motion of job descriptions I don't have anything in front me second do I have a second Scott discussion roll call chill yes Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano no to 15b yes to 15a Mr Tomac yes speaker yes to 15a no to 15b this blo yes Mr Ross Yes a 15 no two yes no 15 a yes 15b no down any other motions did that did that pass yes yeah that passed yes was it 54 44 V for l40 was 5 five yes is for wait did you say five yes 53 53 I think it was fixed 14 was fixed before by executive 14 was passed 14 14 we voted on before we left executive correct I think so yes we voted on 14 before we before we left to go to Executive what was the what was the was UN it was seven yes yes everybody everybody fixed toloy reemployed all the long list that we read that weed right sorry the the the question is did we already vote on item 14 when we unemployed all of our employees we did that before we went into executive that was the question that we were struggling with in the moment I a so the vote was to reappoint all the uh support staff that you recommended yes so we item one two four five six seven item number sorry 14 was the Reemployment of support staff all those ones from WT sspa that were listed in item 14 that I read initially that vote went down and then we fixed that vote it passed passed thought we had all those exensions last time that was the initial was it not yeah it was the that was that was when we we were voted on the consent agenda all together so and then secondly before we we had another motion that then put fourth the opposite which was to revote on number 14 which passed seven affirmative no abstentions no Nays correct it's all good we're all good M we got to vote on m m what was your suggest motion before you on session they would let you do so we got to vote on M Ralph uh M1 we need a uh need a motion on that a motion on M1 okay hold on uh vote motion for for finance facilities so moved second second roll call Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mr Tomac yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss Chilla yes Mr Ross Yes okay call education new items negotiation no items uh new business any new business okay open to the public on any maners they don't need a card just good good evening again Lan dazel from the New Jersey Education Association I represent 1300 of your employees board policy 0164 conduct of board meeting Robert's Rules of Order shall govern the board of education so it's incredibly irresponsible sir to say we're not that's not how we do it here I have not criticized any administrators at my meeting on the 30th or this evening in public or privately but that is wildly irresponsible that's number one number two it is absolutely in in order to a amend a motion on the floor so you know that the motion to amend was in order it it requires a second and all Personnel matters require a full major a majority vote of the full board uh in the affirmative five votes regardless of the number of people that are here so I'm going to restate uh my comments earlier about five hours ago this evening and say that uh yes once again as I've told the board in writing on Friday May 3rd you have the ultimate Personnel authority to vote on matters of personnel njsa 18a call 27-41 one and the due process that exists there is for a due process hearing we call Donson Hearing in New Jersey we could get to that in the future for 100 some folks uh and you are empowered after those end to make a motion to reoffer employment to not rehire people as was incorrectly stated by the solicitor here but to continue their employment to reoffer them employment to override the superintendent's ruling so I don't know if we're going to do that or not you can still do that this evening after public comments are done in a moment that decision was reaffirmed by an administrative law judge again 1997 case Angel Velasquez versus the Board of Briel in Monmouth County explicitly again a quote the statute as enacted does not effectuate an intent to remove the District Board of Ed education consideration of re-employment of an employee not recommended by the superintendent end quote so you are empowered again to override the superintendent's vote for non-renewals so I'm going to comp rep you again board members after public comments closed a minute here asking someone which is in order to make a motion to override the superintendance recommendation and to reoffer employment uh that that is absolutely in order it any ethics charge could be filed of course with the school ethics commission but I seriously doubt that that would have any Merit because such a motion is in order as it is part of members due process rights as we also see in a Donson hearing that is the ask again I would say if you get any contrary advice ask for the statutory basis because there is none I'm just repeating my comments of earlier on the mistakes made in public session we reserve All rights can I uh just answer that we're we're told that we can't if the superintendent recommends that we can't we can't recommend we can only recommend with the superintendent that's F just expain false stat I'm trying to follow I'm trying to follow the attorney the attorney's advice let's go back into executive session board list listen you guys want you guys want them to take action and I need to give them legal advice I have a motion to go back into the executive session have a second yeah we got hold on a minute we got a motion have a second didn't close public second by Sean was there all in favor to go back third executive there from the solic you're going to have to come back in yeah I have a motion to go in executive session I have a second you don't have to se second all I'm going to say is that there needs to be a roll call vote here informal on who supports the superintendent because the reality is how you vote tonight we not going to do that is going to well the reality is how everybody votes up here tonight especially these younger folks who may want to run for a political office later local state whatever how you vote tonight is going to follow you your entire political career because the first time you stand up and say you support education a videotape of this meeting is going to come up so think about that for a second if this happens tonight my children are dependent on their classroom AIDS are in an Autism classroom I'm GNA have to sell my house and move to a district that cares because I can't have AIDS rotating in and out of the classroom that don't know my children it can't happen their IEP meeting says one18 fine oneon-one a somebody who knows their disability and can help them day to day they can't have a random person paired up with them every single day which is what will happen if this happens right well no and that's the thing you guys can't relate and I get that and I get that you can't relate you don't understand but that's the reality of the situation is that people are going to have to move property values are going to tank because this is a dis when this is done even if you tried to fix it next year all these seasoned AIDS the people who've been here forever are going to be gone and you're not going to be able to rebuild this okay and and it's true let me let me say this there are some of us who want to vote in a way be supportive okay but we're under the advice of the attorney the attorney's asked us to go into executive session so might be getting some bad advice too I mean just he's the attorney and he's the one that we have maybe he need a new attorney all right I have a motion to go in executive session I have a second have a second Sean Sean second we never open never open I thought we did I have a motion to close to the public so moved second have a second second all those in favor I oppos okay have a motion to go in we got a motion to go in executive session that move second I just need five minutes with theard all those in favor post e e [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh my we just have to sit I we just have to sit really do have to wait for Connie to come where's Connie now we're going to open session again okay no news is good news under the advice of the attorney you have to turn turn your mic I said no news is good news under the advice of the attorney we're going to sit on this um we'll have our budget ready for Mr Yori is he still here we will have that ready for you tomorrow Janine we'll have that ready for you tomorrow today Tuesday today and you can scrutinize it and then we will U meet next week we're trying to find a way to help everyone so just bear with us anything else board members so we'll have that for you today sometime and then we'll make a decision next week I'd like to make a motion to close the meeting have a second second all those in favor good everybody oh thank you for