e e e e e e e e all right go ahead thank you good afternoon we have a special public hearing tonight April 25th at 7 p.m.' like to have a call to order for our budget hearing of watchong Bureau of education on April 25th at 7: p.m. May please all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance Ali to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mrs Johnson may I have a roll call please Mrs aaro here Mrs Amadeo here Mr fras here here Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr Ang Gracia here Mrs jet here Mrs Santos here thank you okay this time we're going to have a presentation of the 2024 2025 budget Dr Glazer miss Karen Bishop Johnson and Mr Turner from Summit Management if you can please all present the budget to us be our [Music] pleasure I just want to know if that's on okay as long as that's on always on right hi everybody thank you all for coming tonight to hear um the presentation on the recommended final budget for the 2425 school year um we are going to go through each aspect um Ernie you're going to kick us off right yes Ernie's gonna kick us off talking about the budget [Music] we need to use theic okay very good uh good evening um last August I raised the alarm uh since then I've stood before the board in the community in October January and February in October this board of education voted to reapproved budget uh this had to be done because it was short a significant amount of money as I said then this was a result of many years of very strict monetary control this was not taking advantage of available available tax revenues to address the rising cost of running the district most recently federals and state grants provided as a result of the pandemic private donations and bond interest was used to fill the gaps these monies are no longer available additionally as we had shortfalls all available revenues were used such as extraordinary Aid and we had to create a 5-year lease purchase for technology that was not originally included in the budget what you will hear tonight sounds like a big increase all at once it didn't have to be that way over time there was the opportunity to spread the increase over several years but it wasn't done now we have come to a point where the fiscal needs of the school district have accumulated to the point where there is no other option available than to have this type of increase wung is not alone in facing this situation many districts are facing the same situation Karen has been here two months Julia has been here over six months and with them Comes A New Perspective on the reality of the fiscal situation of the district this is just a start to building a financial Foundation that will be sustainable we have been in crisis is mode now we want to stabilize the budget so that we can turn our attention towards enhancing the educational environment for all our students that's good good yeah next no it'll be me I was gonna say I'll go so I will say um and you've seen this slide also in March some of you may have seen um or heard some of this this during our March meeting or at the um burough council meeting but for the benefit of those who are hearing the presentation for the first time or hearing the budget recommendations for the first time just bear with us please we're we're trying um to make sure everybody has the same information Ain you can move on we always start with the vision of the district it represents the collective hopes and dreams that I think we all have um what the whole Learning Community believes is possible for our students and for Education here in um wung burrow Erin keep going um we also have talked about the budget flow process how we go through to make sure that what we're recommending is aligned with the needs of the district the expectations of the community um as well as what the community can um balance financially we've talked a little bit about um when Karen came we've had meetings with the teachers principles um the board lots of the board and I'll talk more about that we were able to um unanimously approve our tenative budget back in March the executive County Superintendent did um approve that budget which allowed us to go forward um with creating the amount for the tax levy and getting information on our ratables we'll also talk about that again this evening um and then that brings us to um tonight um with our board adoption um this slide is yes how we've gotten here tonight but to Ernie's Point since March we have continued to meet with the board to review the recommended budget hours thank you all we have continued to respond to questions we've presented at the burough Council um and to the community our presentations and all that supporting documentation is posted on the district website it's also posted on the burrow website um and in the local press in addition we've advertised the userfriendly budget in the Press um Aaron looking for Aaron yeah can you reach out to beis please and see if uh we have a candle or some matches being lit somewhere please um our budget timeline so it's been I'm going to keep going till he tells me otherwise but it's um been an unusual year for budget development typically the budget calendar is developed in June at the Board of Education Retreat and the budget process begins in July with the expense side built for February awaiting development of the revenue side in March as you know um this year when interim superintendent Dr Roar and Patty Rogers open the budget they discovered significant shortfalls um as Ernie just mentioned requiring the 2324 budget to be reopt and the approval of additional Appropriations and revenues Patty got a really good start identifying issues um that affected the development of this 2425 budget um and then with her resignation in November and Karen starting in January our timeline was shrunk to to a very small place um I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Karen I know she hates it for the amount of work that she's put in to learn the district to really do a deep dive and understand everything um that we are presenting and recommending tonight I think I called Aaron away so I don't know if we can go to the next slide Happ there we go um and here we are at April 25th tonight tonight presenting the final recommendation for Budget approval and then um that userfriendly budget as I said posted on the district website it is already advertised uh Ernie I think it's you again as most of you know when Dr Glazer joined the district in September she she was alerted by interim superintendent Dr Roar and then business administrat Patty Rogers that the district was facing a budget crisis Patty and I completed an in-depth review and a number of issues were uncovered that had been years in the making at the October Board of Education meeting I shared this information in detail the presentation and video is available for review on the district website but the Board of Education was required to reopen and reapproved current budget and reallocate appr Appropriations in all available revenues this was a one-time solution to get us through the year when Karen started in January she took on the arduous task of reviewing each line of the budget every expenditure and all revenues so that we could B begin to create a framework for financial and operational stability that would be sustainable the budget as recommended reflects the first steps in creating a sound Financial Foundation I just so I want to just talk to you quickly about the uh how we collect the data for the expenditures mainly we're looking at salary projections and employee benefits tuition for out a district Replacements and transportation those are our very biggest cost drivers so that's where we start when we're looking to prepare this budget we look at the enrollment as it is today and what we think it'll be next year we look at our debt service because we have that referendum as you know we work with leadership we build the requests and then we put together a priority list of what we think we had to do first second third and fourth okay you can hang out to it so um Aaron next slide please next thanks so the board's role in the budget process um we wanted to make sure we repeated this slide so everybody was um clear how much time effort work review involv ment um that this volunteer group of people has put in to getting us to this point the hours um that you have put in to understanding this to asking questions to getting clarification have have been tremendous and and I know that I'm grateful I'll speak for Karen that when we didn't know an answer you challenged us right so that we all have been able to understand this final budget um in a very deep and meaningful way the um thought and purpose that you put into this has been tremendous and again this final budget represents all of our best efforts um to prioritizing um restoring staff and programming and to be able to improve and enhance curriculum instruction and assessment Aon slide so the objectives of this budget are always uh to support the teaching and learning in accordance with the district Vision another objective is to maintain the current class size also to restore fundamental positions and programs that were cut from previous budgets and this year as you all have heard funded through the grants that interest in the private donations that have now run out we always always seek to budget efficiently and we constantly seek to reduce expenditures we do that in our business office by by getting multiple quotes by making sure all the invoices that we do get are appropriate that the work is done that the items are delivered that the items are in the proper condition we do this on a daily basis every day there you go oops okay I did this one both and it's earning oh no wait yeah no you had decisions okay the key decisions that we had to make in order to do this were we said we were going to maintain those current class sizes we were also going to maintain the current Staffing levels we wanted to maintain the current level of program in and we wanted to maintain the transportation the clubs and the sports that we do have now we want to expand professional learning and collaboration initiatives while prioritizing curriculum instruction and assessment to improve our academic outcomes we want strategic stabilization of operations in the in on the office side for Staffing support services and purchase Services next next Daren okay got it just a little discussion about um the budget tax levy cap that school districts are forced to refer to when they're doing budget development from one year to the next that budget cap is at 2% uh and has been at 2% for a number of years but that 2% cap on a tax levy is not tied into any economic indicator it's an arbitrary number that was established years ago in order to try and maintain lower tax increases in communities but in this time and in this in this economic environment that we're in right now that 2% increase on the tax levy doesn't take into account inflations or increases in the cost of doing business so as a result the state of New Jersey allows for waivers on that 2% tax levy cap you can go beyond on that 2% tax levy uh should it be needed within your school district and in my experience in my knowledge of other school districts and the and the challenges that they're facing a number of them have had to take advantage of these waivers to go beyond the 2% tax levy cap and that's done through a number of different factors and one of them is is that the state of New Jersey currently in this budget allowed school districts to take take advantage of what's known as an enrollment cap increase on in uh on enrollment and enrollment adjustment and that figure was calculated by the state of New Jersey based on on calculations based on the figures of the Assa report which is the the student count and enrollment count that's done in October so Wong was available had available an increase in the tax levy based on that enrollment adjustment and that that amount was $436,500 increase there was also a healthc care adjustment because healthc care premiums tend to go up in in sometimes double digigit numbers and increases from one year to the next there's a calculation that's done in the budget uh program that allows for an adjustment to be able to absorb this large increase in health care premiums so wung was available for a health care adjustment in the amount of [Music] $75,400 tax levy cap are okay last year the Board of Education chose not to take the enrollment adjustment or Health Care adjustment uh that the increase last year was set at 2% um the money that was available and the tax adjustments that were available last year then become what's known as Bank cap and that bank cap is kept on on account basically for three years and after three years it expires but during that three years the board has the option uh and the availability of the money that's been calculated and accumulated as a result of these waivers to the 2% tax cap and it's kept on account for three years and can be used to help balance your budget uh going forward and and again in this year we uh Wong had to take advantage of being able to utilize some of this Bank cap some of these waivers in order to be able to bring the budget uh financially into balance okay all right and it's important to keep in mind a couple of other things and presentations that I had made previously concerning why the uh Financial stress has been put on the budget and there were a number of things that that occurred that that um um caused this to happen and one is is it's just the cost of doing business because of inflationary uh pressures because of contractual obligations because of mandatory expenses that the district must absorb into their budget but it was also due to the fact that for the past three prior years there was a number of uh grants that were available federal grants that were available that um were provided by federal government and in some cases the state government to address the uh covid Pandemic those grants are no longer available all right this was not something that uh was sustainable uh for longer than the term of the grant itself so these items all contributed to the fact that the stress was put on the budget for this year um and contributed to the financial stress that we have experienced thank you so this stri rep uh slide represents uh the uh calculation on the um general fund Revenue projections all right so you can see the local tax levy it's an increase of 12% which would generate a revenue of 14, 374,000 $143 there's local other local revenues of $477,000 there's budgeted fund balance from fiscal year 23 of $81,400 and then there's state aid there's Transportation Aid special education Aid security Aid and the projected extraordinary Aid all right for a total of 17,25 4,299 at this point I want to I just want to emphasize because I have mentioned this in the past uh in in discussions um about how our budget is put together but if you go back to the budgeted fund balance of $81,400 that amount is basically the prior Year's Surplus that was uh classified in the audit report as excess Surplus that excess Surplus must be budgeted as budgeted fund balance in subsequent um budget years so that 801,000 as Surplus that's now incorporated into the budget that is like a revenue for the district it's important for the district to maintain or keep as close as possible to that number in other words generating a surplus each year approximately in that amount so as not to realize in effect what would be a reduce in the revenue if that $81,000 suddenly became 500,000 in the subsequent year that's equivalent to a loss of a revenue of $300,000 all right and then you would have to make that up in some other way so this is a fine balance that has to be maintained in managing the budget is how the budgeted fund balance and how Surplus is generated in this in the school district if it's not done if that number was reduced significantly in some other way within your budget you would have to make up the difference between 81,000 and whatever that number comes in at at the end of the year so very very important to keep that in mind all right because that is the an effect a loss of a revenue if you can't maintain that number at that level next slide Aaron so this is a pie chart basically just showing you where the major expenditures are in 2425 obviously the largest one is regular instructional programs at 55 m87 th000 and that's followed by the special education program at 4 million2 and employee benefits at 3 million4 our operations of our buildings 1 million3 administrative costs 1 milon1 Transportation regular Transportation at 1 million one about rounded and then student services at a small amount student services is clubs Athletics and plan op operations also includes the salaries and the contracts and everything so these are our major drivers for 2425 and you can see where the biggest cost increase or the biggest costs are this is just basically also showing you our s our most um H you know our most significant increase is salaries and health benefits this contractual salary increase for all of our teaching staff is 2.8% this year we also have to increase the FICA taxes the esy our overtime cost our substitute cost and any other adjustment is in there followed by the benefits the benefits go with the person so every full-time employee is offered medical and prescription Dental workers compensation retirement and Social Security so those are that those total to a million1 together our student transportation I've budgeted up 5.8% this year that's the CPI that is what our transportation contracts allow them to charge us up to CPI not over so that is the most amount we'll pay there other fixed operating costs are almost $100,000 up and that is the property insurance because our property increased in value so our insurance went up here our outside purchase Services every time that we have somebody come in from the outside to work here for us in whatever capacity and all of our utilities gas electric water just like a house okay Aaron can you zoom in and make this bigger as how possible to basically Focus that's perfect maybe you you know we could left to right a little bit I wanted to show you this screen because in this is a per pupil analysis by municipality and this comes from the state of New Jersey and it's available on their the website that's referenced if you take a look at the bottom of the screen I wanted to show you where Wang was in relation to other districts in Somerset County and are you able to go to the top a little bit so they can see the heading so when you go over to the right a bit you'll see that in 23 in in 2122 and 22 23 keep go a little bit more Aon to the right okay that is our 2223 and at the column heading says budgeted per puple amount all of the districts you see on the left hand side that is their budgeted 2223 amount for us I was able to put in our actual because we have that in our budget software but everybody else's is budgeted that's why I did make it in red to note the difference but we spent 8,924 on each student here at school can you go a little to the right just so I can see what's out there okay this is basically showing you where the rankings are and if you go back to the left you can see where Wang is in Somerset County the school size is a little bit more to the left one more there you go oh a little more sorry thank you so it does show you there K to 12 districts versus K to8 and you can sort out that data if you know you had wanted to and just look at K to8 but Wang is there in um per P expenditures so we are obviously toward the lower end there in Sumer County and then there's some nearby counties if you wanted to compare okay that's it for me okay thank you so um we are proposing to use Bank cap on in addition to the other funds that are available to us we do have to use those other funds that enrollment adjustment Healthcare adjustment before we can access our bank cap as Ernie um shared with you that bank cap is collected almost like a savings account if we don't use it it disappears it doesn't get returned to the taxpayers it it just um evaporates and we only have 3 years to use it so I want to talk a little bit about that front when I talk about our plan in this budget so you understand that we're not looking just to get through this year to plan for next year we're looking at the following year as well so in this budget what we are hoping to restore and the reason that there are restores is because these items were removed from the general budget they either were not funded they as Ernie said had been funded through grants or federal dollars bond interest or private funds right none of those um things covid funding bond interest all of that has been expended and at this time no private funds have been committed so it's up to us to bring things back into the budget right and when you see these restores you'll see um I'll start at the bottom believe it or not um esy is a mandated special educ program it's our extended school year program it was not budgeted for last year um that was part of reopening the budget in October to make sure that we could run that program we are a onetoone Chromebook um initiative district grades 2 through eight it's at the transition years that students get their Chromebook for four years 2 grade and fifth grade Ernie already shared with you on the October fin financial analysis again that was not budgeted for last year that was um what required us to go out for a lease we want to restore this into the budget we we don't want to be paying lease um and then jumping back up to the top Bay Berry's um PE position was lowered to uh 7 in the budget it was uh the remainder was paid through time sheets if we could not restore that position to the budget um looking at class sizes looking at um contractual teacher preps you might have had double gym periods you might have up to 40 kids in the gym at once which I don't think anybody wants or anybody thinks is a good idea same with our Bayberry school counselor limited to 0.5 in the general budget the remainder not even a full up to a full percent being paid by time sheets I I will say I spend a lot of time in the schools you all know that I I don't know what we would do if we didn't restore that position to full-time I really don't um Bayberry classroom teacher that was for class size reduction that position was paid with bond interest that money is not available any longer without restoring this position back to the budget again you're back to where you were with class size before you made that decision Bayberry has not had a librarian for four years in that beautiful Library by restoring um the Bayberry librarian position it also gives us some other opportunities we have um full-time librarian here at Valley View where as part of our referendum projects we are updating our um Library learning common space we have teachers who not only do gifted and talented through our St sore program but um steam teachers science technology education Arts right and Mathematics we have shared people throughout the district with restoring this Bayberry librarian position you now create a team of people a team who can collaborate who can look at curriculum vertically and horizontally K to 8 and prepare students for what comes next um in the general meeting and I hope some of you will stay and hear this if you're not able to watch it later um I'm going to highlight some of um the things we celebrate I do that every month and we have students who are representing the United States in robotics competition our fifth grade Valley View students but we also have our team of students going to Orlando in June for national competition we have our students who participate in the fintech program with Berkeley Heights so this is a a tremendous opportunity to be able to restore um and a missed opportunity previously I think um school resource officer this was the first year for that position it wasn't budgeted officer Pete's position was paid for through bond interest a a tremendous addition I have not had that position in other districts it has been a wonderful partnership with the police department and as you heard last month when officer Pete got um promoted we're proud of him still if you're listening officer Pete um we were able to have a new officer who's been in the the community for a number of years trained to take over his school resource officer officer Mike like I said you met him last month and if you're here in the regular meeting you'll see some pictures from the um Bay bear all school meeting where he was introduced to the students wouldn't want to lose that right we want to keep that restored to the budget professional learning big Topic at Bayberry and Valley View uh most of the professional learning over the last few years are IDE Consultants who are doing um uh instruction and coaching in personalized instruction problem-based learning have been paid for through grants conquer math which has proven to be um a wonderful program helping grade level teachers look at specific skills improve their depth of knowledge right wonderful we've had to limit that to new teachers to turn kinging those opportunities we have staff asking to pay their way if we can find a sub that's not okay we we want to be able to provide these opportunities for our staff as well as other individual opportunities um we have multilingual Learners we have you know special education opportunities that we want to be able to provide our staff to continue to grow their own practice because that's obviously the best way to impact our students curriculum rating is another area um wouldn't say it's been cut because the states had mandates for curriculum so we've been able to put teams together to write curriculum to meet those State mandates but we haven't been able to update our own District curriculum math English language arts Spanish right so in this budget we have restored um funds to allow those teams to do curriculum writing at Bayberry and at Valley View additionally um came to our attention with all of these updates the report cards were not updated so we did um put in an opportunity at Bayberry for those report cards to be re to grade level standards to provide opportunities for parents to have a better uh more clear picture of their students trajectory as they move up through um even prek but K four um all of these things I'm sure you thought it was going to be billions of dollars but all of these Restorations are $455,000 $45,988 because it's on the slide Aaron next these are the only additions we're recommending to this budget again I'm sure people assume that it's much greater similar to our um School counseling the social worker position is not full-time currently position is shared between both schools um this addition allows us to have a full-time social worker and even a shared social worker with more time time is is better than part-time shared um transportation coordinator consistent software we're going to have a lot more conversations about Transportation coming up as soon as we can get through this um we'll be doing a transportation town hall to talk about um all of the um input we've gotten this year to look at what we've done this year and what really needs to happen going forward one of the biggest things that's been identified is the disconnect right between um the high school who is doing the contract for transportation for the district um and us right we don't have the same software we don't have one person coordinating um the routes the student enrollments or dis enrollments the parent inquiries even the messaging so this addition allows us to have that single Transportation coordination um between the two districts as well as consistent software so we we don't have some of the major glitches that we started the school year with and hope to never have again and those additions as you can see are less than $100,000 so just for sake so everybody understands each percent of increase right to to that tax levy that equals that 12% each percent is equal to about $17 $30,000 so even if you did not choose to restore even if you did not choose to add to the um proposed recommended budget still would barely take away 2% you'd still be over 10% Erin could you just go to the next slide please the last thing um we have up here is what we wanted to maintain there were lots of recommendations early on of places where we could save money right Transportation was an obvious one sports do we need competitive Sports could we do inter murals how how much money would it save if we didn't do buses how about clubs we have a lot of clubs again when you look at what it costs to Main maintain our current level of sports our current level of clubs at Valley View and Bayberry and I will say bayberries are subsidized by the PTO it's $112,000 again not even 1% if you chose to um take away all of those maintained opportunities I will say and again you you've heard us talk about this a lot um speaking in all the schools talking to all of you many parents we will be engaging in a strategic plan process we will be bringing the whole Learning Community together having that opportunity to identify areas right of maybe concern interest things that the community would like to look at as a whole academics Transportation Sports whatever that is and through that strategic planning process you you find the will of the Community these are not decisions that individuals are going to make for the community Aaron next slide thank you so our total Bank cap request right the total of restorations additions and programs maintained $659,900 15,000 $1,687 that was not able to be funded in the general budget with the 2% increase in the waivers um together that makes our total Bank cap request for 2025 of $ 810,000 and fix everything the truth is um can't change and transform years in a couple months number one but number two when you use requests to use that bank cap it needs to be used by June 30th of that year we didn't think it was realistic even knowing that we're going to be looking um at textbooks at uh resources in English language arts and uh mathematics first um that we would be able to identify those resources pilot those opportunities train staff all in the same year so we made the decision to recommend not using all of it in one year having some next year to be able to continue the initiatives that um I think we all believe are important for enhancing those academics for enhancing um curriculum instruction and assessment in much deeper ways Karen I think you're up Karen yeah okay so we're back to the really fun screens of dollars um so I'm just to make sure that everybody knows in school budgeting the revenues have to equal the expenses they can't be off any dollar so whatever you think you can bring in is what you are saying you're going to spend you can do it one of two ways you can say this is what I can get and therefore we will spend only this much or you can do kind of like what Julie's explaining Dr Glazer is saying here's what we really want we we want to bring back these programs we want to maintain these programs and we have a a small addition So to that end we need 14,374 th000 of tax levy to do that we know we'll get about $252,000 for pre- to we know we have a referendum here that money is shown as a revenue although cannot be used for this general fund but that's a million too we get state revenue we use every bit of that every year that um is a million 690 that's there's your general fund balance that's where we get to you know we get to count that as a revenue we have interest on our bank accounts interest has been good lately so we continually move move uh into the highest interest rate accounts we can get we have federal aid we have some miscellaneous income from renting and um technology fees and that totals our resources at 18,720 502 that's all of our Revenue that's all we predict that we can get these are the Oh Aaron thank you these are the expenses so there is a lot of detail in these lines and I didn't want to bore everybody because they'd be sleeping if I tried to tell you what was in everyone but the userfriendly budget has all this detail it has been posted in the newspaper and will be available on our website if the budget passes tomorrow in these lines you can see what you know where the costs are this is a budget this is what we believe is what we're going to need for next year the total operating expenses is18 million 72052 it has to match the revenue dollar for dooll this is another uh slide from um New Jersey Department of Education or even um I have the uh website down there if you wanted to take a look at where you can get that Aaron can you zoom in just a bit I just again want you to see where wat young is when you look at Wang burrow in Somerset County it shows the average taxes paid on the average property this is for 2023 so the average uh taxes the average house value last year was 8291 and the taxes are 16,36 and you can see and if you go onto these websites you'll see pages and pages of data but when you look going across to the right you see that a little more to the right you'll see that our school and the and the uh joint you know the the high school The Joint budget our total school levy for 2023 was 20, 878 that's a rate of 1.37 if you look back a little bit toward the left and you look at the average property values and you look at other towns in Somerset County and outside of the county you can see that once again our rate is lower than others although 1.03 7 doesn't look that much different than let's say 1.43 it is a substantial difference to us and it's partly why we are struggling so Aaron could you go back a little bit to the left so you you know these screens are available to you and of course the website is also accessible but you can see where we are in Somerset County and then against other counties and I'm think I'm ready for the next screen one more to the right can you go to the right one screen ah there you go okay so in the end and the reason why to wrap up this budget and this is our pretty much our last screen this screen is going to show you the tax impact I did it two different ways 2324 compared to 2425 without the referendum Deb service and then the next the bottom is with The Debt Service the without The Debt Service you can see in 2425 that the tax levy of 14, 37443 is what you saw on the other slides it is what we need to balance our budget to make our revenues equal our expenses that's that number if you look at 23 to 20 24 versus 24 to 25 you can see that the tax rate per $100 is really not up that much it was 0636 and now it's going to 0.666 that is at a rate per $100 which is a little bit you know kind of hard when you're looking at a house so looking a little more to the right you see that last year that average house was 82,000 and this year the average house is $856,000 the values went up on that property therefore the taxes will go up on that property also the estimated School tax and again I'm still looking at the without Debt Service so that you can see that $14 million number but the estimated School tax in 2324 was $5,095 and this year predicted for the school year would be $573 32 so that is going up $65.79 I but I am showing you on the F the the bottom two lines the with Debt Service because you really are paying for the referendum also and I don't want this to be misleading and you know I have it there cuz I want you to see the 14,374 number that we we've asked for but really we also have the referendum that you're that is currently in your taxes so when you look at those numbers going across the same way I just explained the tax there the tax goes up $ 63785 that is the increase over the 12 months starting on July 1 of 2024 through the June 30th 2025 so we do our tax increase on a school year the township pays its tax on a calendar year I'll show you that on the next screen but this is the school year impact is truly what our how we are raising your taxes the $637 185 I did put a calculation on the bottom there that says if you own an average watch on home of 850 $ 6,136 which is the 2024 valued house that tax of $ 5,957 is the which causes the increase of $638 over the school year is $53 a month which is really less than $2 a day if you look at the blue sentence there if you want to you can take the value of your home and if you multiply it by that number 0.0075 that will give you your individual increase not your not your total tax your increase so a $400,000 home we'll see a $298 increase and a $1 million home will see a $745 increase that doesn't mean total that being said and trying to explain that this is the school year year tax impact the next slide shows the calendar year tax impact this is what you would see in 2024 so that from January 1st of 2024 to December 31st of 2024 it is $467 128 increase because we're running on a different year so by the time you get to December of this year you will have have paid $467 more in taxes than you did last year calendar-wise it's a bit disingenuous for me to talk to you about calendar year tax impact because we're our tax increase is hitting a different time period but out of your pocket what you will feel is $467 this year and then we come around to next year and from January to June you get the other piece of the increase and then we start again with the new budget for July 1st you can see that the ratables in the town are up substantially the homes increased substantially and therefore the taxes will increase on that also but our increase our ask is causing your taxes for this calendar year to go up by $467 that is that is the case and the next slide is basically the and we do thank you for your continued support and of the education of our children you know Dr Glazer is uh it's her main goal in life to have the best budget she can have and the best education she can have so we thank you very much for your time sorry and thank you and Ernie I'm sure you're saying thank you too got to go next thank you so much for all the work you've guys have put into this uh Karen Bishop Johnson and Dr Glazer and Mr Turner I uh I know there's been quite a bit of work involved here for sure and we appreciate it okay so now we're going to move on to um comments from the public on 2024 2025 budget items we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited Ed to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items is now the second opportunity for the public comments is towards the end of the meeting total allotted time for the comments is 30 minutes before you make your comments please state your name and Municipality of residents in the event it appears that the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit each statement made by the participant to 3 minutes duration our public forums are not structured as question and answer sessions but rather are offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comments New Jersey statutes do not permit board to discuss Personnel of hiring in public sessions names of students should not be used members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public um so if anyone has any comments at this time sign please sign in before you make your comments thank you hi good evening Dora Santos value you Middle School teacher here for 23 years I'm here on behalf of our Union president um Stacy and bimo she's not able to be here regretfully so she asked that I speak on her behalfs so the letter that I'm reading is in her words okay all right um I've been teaching in the district for over 20 years and I also currently serve as the president of the Wang Teachers Association I'm writing to express my strong support for the proposed education budget for for the upcoming year as a dedicated teacher with many years of experience in the classroom as well as a number of years serving as Union president have worked alongside numerous administrators and watched many budget presentations what I will say is that in the very short time Dr Glazer has made it a point to get to know what the issues are within our schools and has been working with the teachers and staff to prioritize rebuilding the foundation of our education system this is why I firmly agree with Dr Glazer's main goals reflected in the proposed budget which are maintaining appropriate size class class sizes extracurricular opportunities as well as restoring critical eliminated positions within our schools position restoration is necessary to further student development particularly in certain areas such as physical education library and social emotional development unfortunately over the years these key positions have been completely cut out or severely impacted in order to continue to meet the necessary number of weekly minutes as required for PE by the state as well as maintain appr appropriate safety for our students so that the classes aren combined Bayberry must retain the current amount of full-time PE teachers further Bayberry has been without a librarian for a number of years leaving little opportunity for students to utilize Bay Berry's beautiful Library as intended gaining back this important position would Foster continued Equity of access and information literacy to our students youngest to our District's youngest students excuse me finally I cannot stress enough the importance of a full-time guidance counselor and social worker at Bayberry our students are dealing with varying social emotional issues that are becoming too demanding of solely the classroom teacher in addition many young students require necessary behavioral support as well as strategies to help regulate their emotions these counseling interventions are pivotal not only to the students emotional and social health but for the con continuity and structure of the general classroom and other students Beyond The crucial need for position restoration the staff continues to benefit from professional learning learning opportunities in order to keep our students competitive challenged and prepare for further learning opportunities continuing to take advantage of these learning opportunities is important to the staff's growth and development as Educators furthermore there's always a continued need to review certain practices and propose beneficial suggestions in the interest of the students for example Bay Berry's report cards are in need of numerous revisions in order to better reflect the best feedback for our families and to address appropriate communication of student progress investing in education is crucial for the success of our students and the future of our community stabilizing our District's Foundation its staff and its building blocks is of the highest priority and will yield the best results for student growth and achievement with the proposed budget we will be able to provide our students with the resources and staff they need to thrive academically socially and emotionally I believe that a well-funded education system is essential for attracting and retaining talented Educators Administration and employees by providing competitive salaries and opportunities for growth we can ensure that our schools are staffed with dedicated professionals who are committed to the success of each and every student I urge you to approve the proposed budget our students deserve the best POS possible learning environment and adequate funding is the obvious foundation for their success thank you all for your time and education their time and dedication to education and sincerely Miss Stacy and bimbo fourth grade teacher in WBA president thank you thank you [Applause] any other comments thanks for your time Cindy Degan I teach fourth grade at Bayberry Elementary the last thing I ever want to do again is to teach 28 students in a classroom our sizes when you want to talk Shenanigans you see plenty of it when you have 28 students in front of you number one the restoration page is my focus counselor we need a full-time counselor I know that Mrs mimbo just said all these things but holy moly it is worth repeating we need a full-time counselor we have children in such need of counseling services and there are only so many of us to go around and we need a full-time counselor in order to help them things happened over the last few years and we are not not able to cater to every one of their needs we need the support of a school counselor double Gym classes no not a good idea when we have friends that perhaps have behavioral challenges and you have 40 students in one gym at one time not our best use of the physical education teachers we need two full time who am I missing that is what I feel the most strongly about I appreciate your time I will sign in thank you thank [Applause] you hey everybody uh Rich desiano uh live at 44 Gard in town um been a been a resident for about 11 years um I've said this before so I'm a little bit of a broken record but I'm a child of two Educators I work in education technology I have a kindergardener with the most best teacher in the world back there Mrs Miller um who didn't teach me grammar obviously um um I just wanted to say thank you to the board and the administration for putting together a budget and a plan that gets us back to uh Financial stability um and I wanted to say that from from pretty much the message that myself my wife wanted to convey is we didn't come to Wang to pay low taxes we came to Watchung for the community and for the exceptional educational opportunities that I would love to see my daughter get and so thank you for doing the job that you guys are doing to put this together but also more importantly to enable our teachers to well our teachers and all the staff to uh do what they can do for our children that's thank you anyone else hello hopefully it's okay for me I don't live in watchong but I work here uh Denise vickner principal of Bayberry I know Mrs and bimbo and Miss Degan and um Mr desano said it all wonderfully I just want to just say one basic statement I support everything in this budget we worked on it um for a long time prioritize everything um just on behalf of Mrs kid Mrs doota and myself please support this budget so that we can support our teachers by providing them with the tools Resources Staffing professional development that they need to do their job as effectively as they want to it's so so important um we hope that you will support this budget I also want to just put in a plug for my counselor as well I say my counselor because she is like my right-hand man um I can't do my job if she's not there the teachers can't do their job either um but it's not only just counseling um that alone is a full-time job she also is a 504 coordinator and an anti-bullying specialist you put those three things on one plate and it's more than a full-time job it's so important um again I support all the other Staffing additions too I Need My Librarian I need my PE teacher but um the social emotional piece is just so important right now so please support the budget thank you thank you anyone else okay seeing that there are no more comments from the public we're going to move on to the adoption of 2024 2025 budget U Mo can you please move adoptions of the budget make a motion to move the adoption of the 2024 2025 budget resolve that the Wong borrow Board of Education adopt the 2024 2025 budget as approved by the executive county superintendent of schools in accordance with the statute statutory deadline to make sure uh sorry to make all necessary adjustments to the budget budget to comply with state regulations uh one adjust for enrollment uh $463,500 oh sorry $436,500 $ 5,845 now therefore be it resolved that the Wong Board of Education includes in the tentative budget the adjustment for increased cost of health benefits in the amount of $75,400 th000 sorry $810,000 now therefore be it resolved that the watching Board of Education includes in the tentative budget the adjustment for banked cap in the amount of $810,000 $874 in accordance with the njac 6A colon 23A d10.3 B the district has fully exhausted all eligible statutory spending Authority the adjustment will be used to restore staff programming technology and to enhance curriculum and instruction the watchong Board of Education will complete the use of these funds by June 30th 2025 and and acknowledges that it cannot be deferred or incrementally completed over a longer period of time number four authorization travel um and related expense reimbursement for the 2024 2025 school year whereas the watchong Board of Education recognizes School staff and board members will incur travel expenses related to and within the scope of their current responsibilities and for travel that promotes the delivery of instruction or furthers the efficient operation of the school district and whereas NJ C 8 a23 b-11 uh requires board members to receive approval of these expenses by a majority of the full voting membership of the board and staff members to receive prior approval of the of these expenses by the superintendent of schools and a majority of the full voting membership of the board and whereas a board of education May establish for regular District P sorry for regular District business travel only an annual school year threshold of $150 per staff member where prior board approval shall not shall not be required unless this annual threshold for staff members exceeded in a given school year uh which is July 1st through June 20th and June 30th sorry and whereas travel and related expenses not inm compliant with njac 88 23b d1.1 but deemed by the Board of Education to be necessary and unavoidable as noted on the board or as noted on the approved Board of Education out of District travel and reimbursement forms now therefore be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent the Board of Education authorizes all travel not in compliance with njac 823b d1.1 as being necessary and unavoidable as noted on the approved Board of Education out of District travel and reimbursement forms and therefore be it further resolved the Board of Education approved travel and related expense reimbursements in accordance with NJ c8a col 23b 1.2b to a maximum expenditure of $225,000 for all staff and board members second thank you second any discussion [Music] um yeah I wanted to discuss a little something I just wanted to thank the administration um for their efforts and detail and Clarity on this budget um I've been on this board this is my sixth year and in the past we would definitely have additional committee meetings for the operations committee and we would answer emails from fellow board members but I have to say that you guys went well way and Beyond what I have experienced on this board um so I just wanted to thank you for that and I appreciate it because you guys offered additional sessions for every board member um and made yourselves available for all of us to you know ask our questions offer comments you know just try to understand and everything so um I appreciate that um especially with what has happened last year um and I also just wanted to make clear to my fellow board members that none of us are conflicted in this vote and we've been provided way more information than probably a board would ever get on this budget so I wouldn't expect any of our fellow my fellow Bo board members to feel that it would be appropriate to abstain from this vote today because I think that has happened frequently in the past uh when there could be a vote such as this and I I just wouldn't expect there's really no reason so I just wanted to put that out there if anybody wants to discuss that with me that's fine um but I just wanted to put that out there before we voted on this topic um I'd like to uh just say uh to hear dory's words um you know it's a a bit surprising because there was uh three years with her as the board president that we weren't allowed to speak to the superintendent or ba directly with uh our questions because of how she had orchestrated uh that board governance but I do want to thank the administration um that we're working with now for the uh the time that they've taken and uh the care that they've taken to present this information uh that is why I I wanted to support their efforts for the vote during the tenative budget presentation um since that time I there have been additional uh questions I really began asking my questions uh back when we had the auditor make a presentation to and uh at that time the first presentation uh it was confirmed that um we didn't have a deficit um that the changes that we made to the line items were considered housekeeping um that's commonly done and uh so I thought that that um brought uh the auditor's opinion helped to frame uh what position we were in as a district at that time it was only a couple few months ago and we had uh at that time still $1.4 million that was not expended or encumbered and I just want to say that the the public always has access to these same Financial reports that we do uh there's the secretary's report uh page four each time each month we get an update and we've um we've been able to see what are um even looking at the the loss of Revenue uh from federal funds the the dollars that um we have listed as restore uh the bond interest that was used uh at the recommendation of the previous administration uh and with Ernie Turner also guiding our uh our Administration our operations committee last year when we only raised the 2% uh that was also working with uh Ernie Turner and the administration at that time and so I think that when uh my hopes for building the budget would be based on um what our expenditures are looking ATC or what the expenditures that we can see because um you know we we hear often that you know the budget is a guess and you're you're making your best guess for what the coming year will hold and um that's to be expected but uh a lot of what we're talking about here is um not looking at the expenditures it's looking at last year's budget and the increases that we want to make for the coming year so I think that that's just one of the differences and and how we um how we're looking at this um and I uh I support the objectives that are in the budget and I think that we can accomplish those objectives for a a a smaller increase than the 12% um we've spent to as of the end of March uh not quite $1 million there is another 4 million that's uh encumbered expected to be spent so we're look between 15 million 15.2 million we're asking for 17.2 million in this new budget and we're only adding $90,000 worth of new additions to the budget so I think that we could meet our objectives for a a smaller increase I have concerns about with all the discussion we've had uh how little we have had about uh the affordability to the community and um the uh the I think that um this is is too large an increase for this year especially because we do have all of our uh options whether we use U Bank cap this year or next year uh there's no penalty if and uh so I think that we could have a smaller increase this year and then uh still have that available next year and for that reason I'll be voting no on this budget thank you I have I have something else to say um I just wanted to say that I do believe in the recommendations of the business administrator the superintendent principles and teachers I feel like they have put an extreme amount of time um into carefully crafting this budget um that gives our district a more financial stabilized approach um to our budget and I support our schools and staff and all the children who attend our schools which is why I'm voting yes on this budget tonight and I fully understand that this budget allows us to keep everything we have um set some things right and to create a more financially stable District moving forward and from what I understand no board member has asked to cut anything from this budget or provide any ways as to how things could be done um cheaper and I guess how could they so whoever would sit here and say that kids don't need busing or technology or after school activities or that staff doesn't need professional development or curriculum development I I mean I wouldn't know why you would be sitting here to begin with so this budget doesn't build anything in our district it just provides us with the beginning of that stability and I don't understand how any board member can sit here tonight and not support a financially sound budget by voting no I'd like to just address the the number Anthony that you mentioned the 15.2 million I think that's the number you said that we're spending this year uh right now we've spent just under 11 million so far this year uhhuh but we have a uh currently about 15.2 million shown uh on our secretary's report yeah right but does that include the teacher salary that's being paid for out of bond interest does that include the amount of money that's being funded right now through covid grants yes it does yes so what do we have left like all these other costs in here right that's being included in the numbers that you're restoring right it's it's and I understand the question I I and that's why I wanted to confirm uh from earlier you know months ago up until our most recent committee meeting and and Karen did confirm that that that page four of that report is capturing all of our expenditures so whether it's funded this year by a bond interest or whether it's a a federal uh program that's not going to be there next year um that doesn't change that these are these are our expenditures for this year and the encumbrances that we expect to have from now till June 30th and that's that's coming in uh it was 500,000 uh less even two months ago but the encumbrances and expenditures have been added to since then so that's coming in at about 50 .2 million we're asking for 17.2 million and we're only adding $90,000 worth of new programming and so I just want to you know uh in case it's misconstrued after dory's second round of comments that um I am not uh suggesting that any of those things not be supported and that because we're we're doing it now and we're only adding 990,000 of new so uh the restore has been referred to restore to the budget and I understand that but we're covering all those things um on and it's all on this in this uh secretary's report from what I've been able to confirm but there have been no suggestions for what to cut and where to reduce this budget right I I like I said I I don't uh and I don't think board members really um are according to our training are are the ones to be going into individual line items and and saying this and that is something with that but we can look at the reports and see where there are certain uh lines that have uh more available balance as you know that hasn't been expended or encumbered but uh I think that um it's it cap it's captured in here what we're what we're spending and uh so I think that um we should be looking at that especially with a an increase of this size which is I unheard of for our district and I think um you know I I really haven't seen this throughout the state of an increase of of this size so it makes me uh consider that maybe uh we have two years to use this Bank app other districts might uh go out for a referendum to not for capital projects but to support their their operating budget and um that's always been a possibility also but um I did ask in one of the meetings after Ernie Turner's presentation because it it did seem like some new information regarding well these adjustments and things that uh one Ernie had said we had maybe left millions of dollars on the table over the years and um I would like to see I I requested and in that meeting if we could see um a list of that the the years that there were these adjustments uh that weren't taken I I haven't seen that but uh most of my questions were answered and I I do appreciate that okay I think there's also increases in transportation teachers salary I think they laid out pretty clearly where all the money is going and I personally like they're the trained professionals who look at these bills every day who negot you know know what the contracts say and I think to suggest that we keep everything in the budget but not provide the money that they are estimating it to cost would put us exactly where we were last year Well I and no one's suggesting no increase I'm it's my my um proposal would be that we have less of an increase this year and then we have that availability um for next year but no one would I I don't think I've heard anyone uh suggest there would be no increase this year it's just the but you're suggesting that we keep everything proposed but just cut down the number that we're saying it might cost to something below what has been suggested by the professionals as that program requiring which would result in programs being under budgeted and create another budget crisis when and what they're telling us it costs comes to fruition again I I um asked some of these questions to our auditor uh it it was not presented as a crisis and uh I'm talking about October but our auditor deals with the past I'm not talking about the audit right mrr I don't I don't really understand why you keep bringing it up I mean she came back to us she did a clarification of her presentation so I'm I'm not sure what why you keep Clinging On to the auditor it's not clinging when it's about the past the auditor sees what we've already done they're trying to predict the future right so what what's your point hey guys so another thing I want to chime in on too is Mr Turner do you have any comments to make because these folks wrote down made some notes I have some stuff I'd like to say from the heart as well I haven't written anything down or rehearsed anything but but uh is there anything you'd like to add to this because you're the man with the numbers please do yes I believe there's a there's a couple of items that need to be clarified here uh one is is is that if you remember when the budget was reworked back in October and all there was a gap of over a million dollars in the budget that had to be fixed with one-time fixes those one-time fixes do not exist anymore going forward those one-time fixes of a million dollar now have to be raised in some other way that has an effect on the increase of your tax levy that's to just keep you on level ground that's not an increase that's making up for a hole that was built all right it's filling in that hole is what it's doing all right and then in addition to that I had mentioned before before when we were talking about the revenues Mr Agassi you brought this up at the last meeting uh when we passed the tenative budget if you remember the budgeted fund balance which is a revenue on the on the side of the revenue side of the budget is $81,000 all right if you do not generate Surplus this year at least in the amount of $ 81,000 for every dollar less than that that's a reduction of a revenue you're sliding backwards again you're going to be right back to where you started from before that's the last thing you want to do and that's my opinion all right I think that's part of what got you into into a difficulty to begin with you don't want to do that you have to generate a surplus of 800,000 this year and I think that's the number that you saw on the on the board secretary's report if I'm not mistaken that's what you have to generate if you don't then this time next year you're going to have to make up the difference between the 81,000 and whatever the Surplus comes in at if it comes in at 300,000 you have to make up half a million dollars somehow someway so if you don't have the tax increase this year you're going to have the tax increase next year it doesn't make sense all right so those are the two main factors that need to be addressed here I personally don't want to see the district start sliding backwards again all right this budget as painful as it is is correcting a lot of mistakes that had happened in the past before all right and should not be continued going forward okay thank you thank you I'd also like to make a comment too I really don't go into the past except to learn how I'm going to live the future um so I have no interest in discussing the things that I've seen in the past um this board is not going to argue in front of the commities in front of the community this board is going to come to an agreement and we're going to deliver the messages to you that you need need to hear uh transparency is key and I live by that um I didn't write anything down this is Straight From the Heart um I appreciate the gentleman that came up and said that he has children and Bayberry because when I moved here in 2017 I was quite busy with them being little and I didn't quite make the time to come here and actually see what was going on as a community Through the board and when I see now as the board president what these folks go through I have to say I I don't even know how to think thank them because the amount of work that the principals the administrative staff and everyone uh teachers um everyone that's involved puts into this I I just I can't thank you enough I really can't and the board members too so I I don't choose to talk about what others have done in the past um I would love to be able to have all of these members come to me first and then I can potentially take a few things off of these folks plate but it's really hard because at the end of the day I think everyone needs to know this is a volunteer position we all have families at home some of us have very extenuating circumstances I've shared some of those with the community uh during my first time that I spoke I usually like to let everyone else talk all of this is coming from my head you know I and believe me there was so many thoughts going through I wanted to let everyone speak first but um you know I really want to thank everyone in the school systems and the board members for everything they're doing and and um I really want to say forget about the past let's move forward let's all come into agreement I've met every single one of you regardless of what I've heard from anyone and some of you have a reason for me being here and I truly truly appreciate every single one of you guys and I really appreciate everything you guys did with this budget and I I really trust you guys you guys are great you guys are the numbers people and that's why we hired you we hired you to be here and do your job and I'm very happy with that and that's how I run my businesses and my life I trust my wife to on the fort at home I trust my my pastor to teach me God and here here we are so thank you folks for uh coming here and becoming involved in this community because I wasn't doing that and doing that is super important because you really start to hear what's going on and it makes a big difference so that's where I'm at all right folks any other comments from the board no okay great seeing that we have no other comments can I have a roll call please miss Karen Bish Johnson we supposed to vote we suppos to Santos yes Mrs jwet uh I'd like to say something before I vote can I do that not allowed it's just a roll call Mrs I'm sorry it's just a roll call at this moment discussion yeah I asked if any other board members had comments at this moment it's a roll call this is the vote Yes ma'am I wanted to say something before I tell you my the roll that's over ma'am allow to do that anymore that was during board member comments okay then it's no okay thank you Mr angaria no Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs agly Aro yes Mr fras yes Mr Gonzalez absolutely yes motion passes [Applause] okay there's a lot to cover here okay may um we have a u motion to adjourn this meeting we need to closing this so moved moved so a second second any discussion all in favor say I I I okay this meeting has adjourned I don't have the time now we're 8:38 we're now going to start our uh public session um Miss uh Karen Bishop Johnson may I please have a motion I mean I'm sorry can I please have a roll call uh yes um this agly Arrow here Mrs Amadeo here Mr fr here Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr Ang Gracia here Mrs jet here Mrs Santos here great now we will administer an oath of our office for our newly appointed board member the administration of oath of office of the newly appointed board member of the Board of Education the board secretary secretary sorry uh Mrs Karen Bish Johnson will you administer the oath of office repeat after me I I Jennifer vinca Jennifer vinc Co do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will that I will bear true faith that bear to Faith and allegiance to the same and allegiance to the same and to the governments established and to the governments established in the United States and this state in the United States and this state under the authority of the people under the authority of the people so help me God so help me God I I Jennifer vinces Kua Jennifer vinces Kua do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications that I possess the qualifications ations prescribed by law prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education for the office of member of the Board of Education that I am not disqualified as a voter that I'm not disqualified as a voter pursuant to rs19 4-1 puring of rs- 1941 4-1 4-1 nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime nor disqualified by conviction of crime or offense listed in or offense listed in njs njs 18a 18a 12-1 12-1 and that I will faithfully and that I will faithfully impartially impartially and justly perform and justly perform all the duties of that office all the duties of that office according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me God so help me God thank you congratulations congratulations much [Music] okay okay great it's fine welcome aboard thank you for that warm welcome okay at this time can I have a motion to go into executive second and to Executive session so moved second is there any uh discussion all in favor okay uh we're going into executive session uh to the open public meetings act permits of the Board of Education to meet in Clos session to discuss certain matters now there therefore be it a matter rendering confidential by federal and state law student matters and pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation Andor matters of attorney climent privilege thank you all for being here all of the people who took the time to come thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e um can I have a motion to come out of executive session you did you did that okay okay so at this moment we're going to move on to superintendent remarks any announcements from our superintendent but since um Mrs vickner stayed and I know that there's a a big school report why don't you come on up and start us off Mrs vickner thank you so I'm here to give the principal report for Bayberry in Valley View I just want to start off by thanking the PTO for their generous donation to fund all of our field trips second grade has already visited The Morris Museum and other grades have exciting and educational trips planned in the next couple of months April was a month of Celebration and inclusivity in the district our students and staff came together to honor autism acceptance month with a series of spirit days and engaging classroom activities reaffirming our commitment to a diverse and inclusive community the day before we left for spring break Valley views students engaged in activities for our annual day of giving student students projects and donations include greeting cards and kindness boxes for the Wang Public Library necklaces for Veterans for the lion VA Medical Center pearler bead coasters for the Bright View Assisted Living Center kindness posters for our local police department rescue squad fire department and burrow Hall window suncatchers for the mcau hall healthc Care Center reusable grocery bags for Brandy Wine living at Mountain Ridge dog toys for puppies to the planfield Humane Society letters to active duty soldiers through operation gratitude and Free Rice which donates rice through the UN world food program boy they were busy on April 8th students were given eclipse glasses so they could safely View this historic Wonder in the skies it was a lot of fun our entire staff participated in our spring professional development day on April 10th teachers learned about our new safety notification and emergency messaging system analyz student growth data collaborated on their professional development plans and received training on project-based learning to maximize student engagement and learning project-based learning incorporates complex higher order thinking in real world scenario students explore content by answering open-ended questions and problem solving with their peers Believe It or Not marking period 4 began at Valley View on April 10th report cards for the third marking period were made available to parents via Genesis on Friday April 19th anyone having difficulty viewing their child's report card is encouraged to contact the main office for assistance the PTO book book fair was held at Bayberry on April 18th and 19th and at Valley View on April 15th and 16th thank you to the PTO and all of the parent volunteers that made this a success on April 18th our community outreach Club hosted a spring senior lunch in at Valley View in add in addition to having lunch in our library with club members our local seniors enjoyed performances by some of our chorus and band students played games and completed a craft our third graders at Bayberry had a spectacular concert on April 24th where they sang and performed a variety of songs on their recorders thank you to Mrs Riley for her hard work and dedication to the music program on April 17th some of our young thespians visited Broadway where they attended a workshop led by Broadway actors from the musical Wicked had a quick lunch and then enjoyed the full musical the students were very excited to learn a full number and then see it performed on stage by the cast thank you to everyone that donated to the PTO book drive at Bayberry and thank you for the PTO for um organizing that the teachers are very excited to add to their classroom libraries finally I would like to introduce um Miss laming who is a third grade teacher she will speak today about some of the recent events with the Early Access Club um way back in 2021 when I first started here we partnered with the wung rotary to create the early act club for all third graders so since then since then the early act Club is has been engaging in a variety of service learning projects that benefit their school their community and the world and it's been very successful so she's going to share um some of the things that she's been working on recently okay awesome thank you you on I'm really excited I know I got to see this already but as a rotarian I'm very excited I'll start it aarin can you put that slideshow up yeah penny wars it's right there Hi everyone um so it's kind of funny because my numbers aren't as big as the ones we were just discussing um but the big project we do every year is called penny wars um it's an annual um fundraiser and we participated in it and carried it through the whole month of March this year which was really fun so Aaron you could click so penny wars raised over $3,500 in the month of March um the way it works is all of the grade levels compete against each other to raise money for the school so early act Club our mission is to do different projects throughout the year to benefit the world the community and the school so this is the big one for the school school every year so essentially students bring in money and some of the money is creates positive points some creates negative points and they work against each other to compete as grade levels and then there are three prizes that they can win first second and third place so it's a really really really fun event that all of the students all of the staff really love to do we um also do Spirit Fridays so we all wear our color so it really engages everyone and and brings us all together and for a greater cause um Aaron so our winners were announced at the end of right before spring break actually and first place was first grade actually they were able to participate in a game party that was hosted by the PTO volunteers this past Monday they loved that so thank you PTO second place was fourth grade they had a movie party last week with popcorn and second graders won third place and they will plan a spirit week for the end of of the school year for the whole school to enjoy so those are really exciting prizes that my third graders um in early act Club came up with they always get a little upset when they don't pleas but we always talk about the bigger you know message at hand and they're very Hands-On as you'll see in the next slide these are some photos I snapped um these students give up their recess time all the time but especially during penny wars um my local Chase branch in Summit also helps me me out um so all of the the help that goes into this it's beyond um just the parents and the families at home who are helping the students bring in that money and earn that money which I I love it's you know do a little extra chore and you can earn that money to bring it in and they're able to see where that actually goes with penny wars as you'll see on the next slide um well the next couple slides I should say so just an overall thank you to everyone especially if um your family's particip ated it it takes a lot but it's it's definitely worth it Ain so the students wanted the money for Penny Wars to give Bayberry what we call a facelift um just make it a little more inviting so we focused on the central location so on the left you'll see a new welcome mat which is I love it it's nice and green it has our logo and all the kids Denise was saying that when we put it out after spring break when they came in off the bus they were all walking around it they like didn't know if they should step on it um so everyone loves that and in the APR we were able to hang some really nice banners um they were actually a an addition from special te's of Berkeley Heights I've worked with them in the past so they were able to give us a discount on those um and the students before school during their recess they made paper chains to kind of decorate around it so we've talked about how raising money is great to benefit benefit you know our school but how can we do that in a cost effective way as well um in addition to what you see here Erin um we also replaced the posters that were all around the APR so these are just I wish I had what used to be there but these are way more kid-friendly um they the kids came up with little puns related to food and again these were printed by Specialties so those look awesome it just livens up the space just these small additions and the final thing that the money is going towards is all of these wall decals that will be put in central locations around the building they actually just delivered yesterday so we are going to wait to install them until all of our construction is finished to make sure you know they stay nice but we're really excited because it you know we have really thought out what they are where they'll go um even like the little fish you'll see those will be on Lower walls for the preschoolers and the kindergarteners to engage with um nice reminders for even the staff room and the copy room because our teachers you know would like a live into space as well um so thank you and um we have many more projects to come in addition to this one but we always like to share the news of Penny Wars thank you so much I know how much work it is and the kids loved it and the mat is pretty cool I stepped around it too I'm not going to lie I did too thank you truly for organizing it's great I just want to add thank you as well to miss laming and all of her hard work um with the students she works really hard to make sure the students have so much of a say and what goes on so thank you again thank you thank you you done too Miss vickner oh well wait one second Aaron will you run that video please Ain are we still live did you uh oh yes we're still live thank you okay so if you could run that video that would be great that's why I said are you staying just a quick uh sound check um Aaron the microphone is red the camera microphone just in case okay [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] see I want to wish you hello Barry Elementary oh elma's so happy to see all of you oh Elma wanted to wish you a happy autism acceptance week yay elone loves all of you see you later is this everybody at the bab berry Elementary School yes it is I just want to send my my love and and a kisss m and a big hug to all of you I am so proud of you take care Amigos  I think it's recording oh hello to all my friends at my favorite Elementary School Barberry Elementary do you know why it's my favorite because your school starts with the letter b be is my favorite you know I hope you all have a beautiful [Applause] [Music] day hi it's Rudy from Sesame Street I just wanted to say hi to everybody at Bayberry School hi hooray for autism acceptance and hooray to you bye-bye hi I think it's going am I hi babber it's me Abby kabby you know your your fairy the fairy that's in your corner see I'm in the corner I just want to say that this is such a magical time for all of us you know why because well we get to share our hearts and we get to just Embrace who we are with the love enjoy anyway I just wanted to say hey bberry and let you know that I celebrate all the time the light that is inside of us and it's in the heart so I hope you have a magical day you know it's really fun whenever I get in the corner playing that I did not know you were going to do that but it was lovely I just want to also thank Mrs Kell so Mrs Krell is one of our teachers at Bayberry her sister is a writer at Sesame Street so she reached out to her for that video um her name is Mrs Ferraro I believe um and she also donated 50 books from Sesame Street about Julia which is a character that has autism on Sesame Street and gave them to the teachers um so I want to thank her for that but that was a really fun video I mean I haven't watched Elmo or any of the characters in so long when I was watching that in my office by myself I was just big smile on my face so I'm sure it made the kids smile too so all right well thank you oh thank you thank you so much um do you have a business administrator report or should I go to superintendent um I just wanted to um let everybody know that on tonight's agenda we have an um an appointment of our new payroll person uh she would start if she's approved tonight on May 6th we're really looking forward to having that position filled because as you all know that our office currently only has uh one other employee beside myself so I think I just wanted to mention that we're really going to welcome her welcome her back welcome her back she was here temporarily a couple of times she filled in once and then uh at one point she had a a quick stint in here so she has she does know how to do that job so it's really great and um while I'm saying that I would take 5 seconds and thank the office staff that is in that office along with me they have done an incredible amount of work uh picking up the slack that you know since I've been uh occupied so I do want to thank them publicly right you Erin you can run my slides I'll read over them there we are there's my that's for you Phyllis I put that in just for you that purple hair made her laugh when I came the other day um first of all thank you for approving the budget for the 2425 school year I will actually go to sleep tonight head on pillow um knowing that um to to quote Ernie we are beginning those first steps to financial stability I I haven't really felt that we were able to say that since I arrived seven months ago um as you could hear from Mrs vickner from the school report it has been a whirlwind a whirlwind since the March meeting if you're looking at the pictures you can see some of it I'm going to talk over them um and I know you heard you know during the budget presentation and from Mrs Victor and Mrs lamming um what's been happening a lot of progress a lot of wonderful things teachers I really do hope you're watching at home I am so grateful for so many people here in Wong who are committed to making the educational experience the best it can be I'm going to highlight as many activities as possible to keep celebrating our learning community and the amazing things that are happening for me being part of all of these reminds me why I show up every single day this is truly a village that puts children first um as you heard already multiple times um it is autism acceptance month there have been as you can see many wonderful activities to promote acceptance and understanding of autism the goal is to celebrate the strengths and abilities of people on the autism spectrum and embrace neurodiversity um it's an important part of our society um from showing all the colors of our minds to celebrating our passions it's been a learning experience for all of us the spirit week was the same K to8 everybody um doing the same um spirit activities each day tomorrow um we're all going to be wearing red um there will be a parade a red parade to show our solidarity uh tomorrow morning um please join us wherever you are wear red tomorrow our Valley View students and our theater Dream Team turn this space that you're sitting in into High School Musical and it was fabulous it was a wonderful production it felt like there was a part in the play for every person whether they were on stage or behind the scenes anybody that wanted to be included and when you look at the pictures you can see that from the soundboard all the way through it was it was a lot of fun to see and I loved seeing the teachers collaborate and parents and students with the sets and everything it was just tremendous um Denise detailed um the day of giving at the end of March at Valley View some of the slides um that you're seeing go by are from that day I I couldn't believe the number of activities that were organized it was incredibly impressive and once again every student was engaged in participating um Denise talked about um you know the greeting cards the necklaces for veterans all of those things um the only thing that we didn't talk about is that Frankie our bus driver um on April 9th took groups of students to the library to deliver those kindness and greeting cards and boxes and to the Lions um Veterans Administration Medical Center to deliver the necklaces and to the Warren senior assisted living in memory care to to deliver the coasters the police department rescue squad Town Hall mun ipal building and fire department all got the happiness signs um the window suncatchers went to the mcau hall healthc care center right here in wung the reusable grocery bags that were decorated went to the Brandy Wine Living Center um at Mountain Ridge also right here in wat Chung the dog toys went to Plainfield Humane Society operation gratitude mailed out um letter letters of thanks to our servicemen and women color smile distributed drawings to senior citizens to our troops overseas they they um are organized to give anybody in need of a smile a smile I have a picture in my office um it is it was just really spectacular and the free race that um Denise was talking about so students used their Chromebooks anytime they had extra time during the day they could go onto their Chromebook play an organized trivia game it's called free rice every correct response donates 10 grains of rice to the UN world food program it doesn't sound like it would be a lot but you would be amazed how much that um makes a difference for people that are food insecure around the world it really does add up um we also talked about the staff professional learning on April 10th it was for all of our staff we did include our secretaries and custodians as well um The Learning opportunities that Denise talked about with training in our new Safety and Security initiatives was successful and you're going to hear more about these um as well as referendum projects at our May 23rd board meeting there will be a full report from our um construction management um Team talking about what is being done this summer and what has been done so far um our administrative team also had training training from lifelines um that program is a partnership that we have with Empower Somerset it helps districts address and respond not only to Suicide any type of traumatic death that profoundly affects the school population it helps us to understand um the issues involved with trauma I think um you know we reported earlier in the year that there is new um curriculum um legislation to include trauma and formed instruction as part of our curriculum and we'll also be including our parents in that same kind of conversation and training in the fall um last week and those are some of my favorite pictures up there Bayberry had an all school meeting you can see uh Mrs vickner leading the cheers but it was also an opportunity to meet officer Mike you met him at the last board meeting um and it was just great to see them welcome him we also had chorus concerts number of students were honored for academic and extracurricular Pursuits a lot of them we're going to highlight them individually also at the next board meeting but I do want to give a shout out to Daniel Marco and William Lee who are honored by by mayor jubin Congressman Tom Kain Jr and Senator John bramnick at the last council meeting they are representing the United States at the world um re beex robotics competition in Texas um and then last week this one of my favorite things I want these pictures to scroll back through again we did as um Mrs ficner shared have our spring senior luncheon at Valley View and yes they did a craft and yes they played Bingo for me um I just it was a wonderful afternoon our guests were so impressed with our students loved Meeting those community members we don't usually um have that opportunity and one of the um guests that were here was a former sixth grade teacher U Mrs Florence lurin she retired in 2002 by the you're making a face but she came to the board office office for a tour because her classroom used to be there back in the day she told us Amazing Stories we had a lot of fun having her there we loved having her visit and all of our seniors but that was just one former staff member story to share with you um as you can see I've also had a lot of opportunity to be in the classrooms that is the highlight of my day you see the cute picture of Karen and Cynthia during the eclipse we couldn't not include the eclipse um and the last slide with our Goose family we had a new Goose family at Bayberry although I think they've flown have they flown um but we had to include them too it was a big huge news thing at the school none of this I know I say this every month it is heartfelt none of this could be accomplished without our staff and our principles you are fabulous thank you thank you thank you for making our watch on burough schools a place where every single student finds something right that that appeals to them that develops their passion their interest their academics thank you thank you Dr glaz thanks Aaron okay at this point uh we're gonna get kicked off with committee reports Mo can you start us out with the HR committee report please sure um the Personnel committee met on April 18th uh this which was a Thursday at 5:35 p.m. um myself Jen and Anthony were all present as well as Dr Glazer um we discussed the esy program proposal update um which we sent to the Morris County Superintendent uh we also will most likely be having another meeting to to review the reappointment agenda um this is done using a position control roster which just identifies all the staff um we also this meeting will most likely take place on May 2nd although we haven't finalized yet we also discussed the last day of school um because it was a we have been saving a snow day uh we will make June 13th the last day of school instead of June 14th and June 13th will be a single session day for students 12th Noe NOP only 13th so construction will begin on June 17th for the referendum and both buildings will be closed then 12 month staff who cannot be in the buildings will be working remotely such as Dr Glazer and Karen we also discussed potential board agenda item such as a leave of absence uh we also revised so previous decisions uh we also have an appointment of a Val view language arts teacher uh we have a possible appointment of a valie social studies teacher happen sorry um we we're also looking for filing help which I believe we have done now tonight's agenda yeah and that's on tonight's agenda which is the confidential assistant to the business administ minator andboard secretary uh we also discussed a little bit about the 2024 2025 budget and a little bit about the action plan as well thank you m' um curriculum Mr jat please M okay we met Thursday April 18th it was a virtual meeting from 405 to about 5:00 we ended uh Dr Glazer was there Denise vickner our Berry principal Karen kit our Valley View principal Fus Santos Committee Member moamed F uh our vice president Dory Harvey Committee Member and myself Phyllis JT I'm the chair we discussed the extended school year also special services director Nicole doota and Dr Glazer review the shared service agreement for the esy program they determined that we would run the before and after CARE program for at least 20 students the survey was sent to eligible parents and 44 responses were received they're waiting for Mars Count's approval before it will be brought to the board our board we discussed the last day of school already in Personnel new business discussions the science of reading program was discussed in great detail uh by principal ficner and kid we are already using a balanced literacy approach we have a systematic way of teaching which includes phonics and comprehension and a running record is given three times a year to assess growth conquer math is a very specific math professional development program it focuses on grade level standards and skills and provides teachers with strategies and opportunities to increase their content depth of knowledge and new teachers are being targeted to attend this training due to limited uh budget limitations it is something the princip won for all K to5 teachers principales also reported again that new textbooks are needed was one little bit more okay during our strategic planning session we will discuss our mission statement and our vision for watching schools the action plan for the district goals was removed from the last agenda since there was too much to review with budget meetings it was reviewed in committee and will be placed in board packet action items are the basis for superintendent evaluation thank you thank you Mr W policy sure uh we had our policy meeting on Wednesday April 17th the meeting time was from 5: to about 7:58 p.m. uh this one was virtual for us and it's attendance was the superintendent uh the board vice president Muhammad FR and um myself and committee members Danielle Amadeo and Phyllis jwet everybody stayed for the whole time uh the committee went over the following agenda items so we had a follow-up for March this was for policy and regulation 2419 School threat assessment teams the committee asked how the training specified in the policy will occur and how frequently the refresher training for the staff needs to be Dr Glazer contacted the office of school preparedness which coordinates this training there is no schedule and the district is expected to manage it so there are resources online um they have completed the staff training and Refreshers as required and they will place the parent training on the district professional learning calendar this is on the agenda for the first read uh policy 5310 Health Services Dr Glazer spoke with Strauss Esme to determine if language could be retained in the policy regarding the schools keeping uh the epipens nebulizer Motors Andor other prescription medication the Boe attorney did not know the answer to that um Strauss Esme advised that we could retain the language from the previous policy if we chose as long as it acknow uh it is acknowledged that if stated in the policy the board ofed has the responsibility to fund the materials and liability if they aren't or can't be provided uh suggested not adding to uh the policy and managing with School nurses but no uh prohibiting on adding the committee decid decided to add the language from the previous policy and this is on the agenda for first read then we had policy 2363 student use of privately owned uh technology neither School allows students to bring their own technology in and our uh manager of Information Technology doesn't think the district needs this policy now since this is not a mandated policy the committee agreed not to recommend it for adoption then we went over some uh proposed policies so we started with 01 64.6 remote public board meetings during a declared emergency which is a mandate policy this is on the agenda for first reading uh policy and regulation 1642.1 6 leave SI leave sorry the committee recommends holding off on adopting this policy until negotiations with teacher the teachers union takes place next year the committee will then review the policy based on the the collective bargaining agreement with the teachers union as aligned with the new state legislation until then the district follows what is negotiated in the teachers current contract uh policy 2270 religion in schools uh we do the committee asked a couple questions um and part of the policy states um that we do actually uh receive the Essa funds and submit the ESS EA CER ification to New Jersey state by October 1st every year and this is also on the agenda for first reading uh policy 2456 unsafe school choice option which is a mandated policy this is on the agenda for first read policy 24161 postnatal accommodations for students the committee decided this was unnecessary in our district and the policy is not mandated policy 2421 Career and Technical education the committee decided this policy was unnecessary in our district uh because it seemed geared more towards High School the district is covered in offering CTE in our schools because it's mandated by the state of New Jersey and written in our curriculum this policy is not mandated uh then I won't go over all of the items on here but we have uh about 18 I believe that we had to schedule into um our already existing calendar in polic policy and the committee agreed um to add the above policies to the schedule um and an updated schedule with the meeting minutes was provided to the committee and the board uh potential board agenda items um a couple of policies and regulations are on the agenda for a second reading none of the committee members received feedback from the other board members and no one had any questions or concerns um in the committee about the second reading bylaw 0169 uh oh I'm sorry I just listed all of them I'm not going to read those for you guys there they're there uh we did um go over the 2425 budget again and some board members had some questions before the committee meetings and the business administrator had answered All Those Questions including offering additional information sessions for all board members some committee members sent emails with questions to the business administrator which were also answered um and then we went over the uh the emails in the committee meeting and discussed any additional questions all committee members felt as if all their questions were answered new business um Strauss smme session um at the superintendent conference Dr Glazer updated the committee on her experience attending the Strauss Esme session she informed the committee that a couple of policies were highlighted at the conference and that she would share the presentation and notes with the full board Dr Glazer pointed out that one of the policies highlighted at the conference states that only the American flag can be hung in schools she then pointed out that some um audio work was done in the Valley View APR room which caused some of our flags of Nations um displayed to be removed uh community members have had questions um where one or more of the flags went the administration decided All Flags in the Valley View APR room will be removed because we need to display flags from every country or none except the American flag so even though removing the flags in the Valley View APR room wasn't due to the policy the administration felt since we were not and potentially could not display all Flags it took a pro proactive approach to the situation uh the last day of school has already been reported on and then uh we also went over the uh District action plan as well um that we were told uh that would be placed in the board packet which it was and the committee was satisfied with the amount of detail in the action plan um and its structure and then I just put some uh important dates on there but one specifically for the policy committee is our next meeting is on Wednesday May 15 thank you very much thank you can I have the Cuban flag all right um operations Mo please the operations committee met on Tuesday April 16th 2024 at 5:20 p.m. in attendance were myself Jennifer Dory and Manuel at 5 but he joined at 5:30 so 10 minutes late um as for the administration we had Dr Glazer Karen Bishop Johnson Ricky Boyd Ernie Turner um Frank bulby and Conor O'Brien for the first thing we discussed the referendum projects update um Ernie and Connor both um kind of delved into the way that they do the accounting um they both have independent accounting systems and they compare notes with each other just to make sure that we're sticking to a solid budget uh we should get a more finalized budget for the next meeting and an accurate project list to replace what is on the district website um Connor will also do a presentation at the May Board of Ed meeting with updates summer project information and the schedules or timeline as we also discussed the package three roof bid um labor costs have gone up which is one of the main reasons that the roof pits have been so high trimco gave us a co-op with a greatly reduced scope of work which is active for 60 days uh we could potentially only do the front two sections and leaking side sections with no solar panels uh we were also planning on doing an infrared roof examination but realized they cannot be infrared scanned because they are ballasted roofs um so they must be scanned using a nuclear roof moisture survey survey which is not as scary as it sounds um we identifi two outfits that provide this service um they also prefer to do it later in the day so that the sun is is not at the strongest when the testing is done they also do not do it after it's rained the turnaround time is unknown at this point but the estimated price is roughly $5,000 um it's still possible to have it done by the summer even with delays and the current status should be given relatively sorry relatively soon um we also discussed the furniture cost for the uh art room which is currently being invoiced we also had updates from Ricky um he went onto the roof with two contractors and checked the leaks and it wasn't the roof it was actually three drains um we are out of warranty for the roof and it does not currently need to be replaced we also got uh I actually mentioned this already we cleaned out the art room sorry they cleaned out the art room storage um that filled up two 30ft dumpsters um the teachers room and facility or faculty room has also been remodeled uh with new furniture we all took a tour and it looks great uh we also had the or sorry the two music rooms um have also had their Acoustics replaced uh the committee also took a tour and the teacher is very happy with that this was all done over spring break which is crazy and the fire inspector um was scheduled for the week of April uh 16th and we passed with no Corrections um um we also did discuss the business office which I discussed previously and we also discussed the last day of school um as for professional development uh Dr Glazer will be going to the njasa conference um in in May uh Karen Bishop Johnson's um njasbo conference and certifications are in June and also congrats to Karen for receiving her purchase agent license yeah and we also just discussed the usual payment of bills um the committee meeting adjourned at 840 p.m. thank you thank you m we should bring up the toaster that was in the teachers room all right um so now we're going to move on to um oh no I there you have one more yeah legislative okay yeah yeah so our board on yeah I'm just going to do it in board business should I just do it in board business or should I do it now new board business end I mean we could do it now because I guess it's liaison I think we have to add it now under liaison okay and going forward the regionalization we should add a add the L sorry go ahead okay so I'm going to do the um Lon report for the um sorry I a brain fart what Regal ization meeting sorry second with full funding from the state of New Jersey a highly experienced Rowan University team led by former Warren Township Board of Education member Kathleen Hela will be conduct conducting a shared services regionalization study covering the Wang Hills Regional Wang bro Warren Township Long Hill Township and Greenbrook Township School Districts The watching Hills Regional and washing Boro districts applied for the $135,000 grant under the state's School regionalization efficiency program which funds the full cost of studies with no cost to school districts or property taxpayers the study will be conducted over the next year uh with input from an advisory committee that includes representatives from all five School boards watching Hills Wang warrren L Hill and Greenbrook along with school administrators and Municipal officials the study will analyze educational programs for students from preschool through High School within the five districts including curriculum coordination special education programming and transportation costs um we they will also provide a demographic analysis of future enrollment for the five districts forecast state aid based on those enrollment projections and evaluate future budget challenges based on this analysis the study will provide recommendations for educational enhancement and potential cost saving through various options ranging from expansion of shared services in specific areas to full prek through 12 regionalization the Rowan School Regional ization Institute teams include Hela um and Warren resident who previously served as senior manager of field services for the New Jersey school boards Association former school education commissioner Lucille uh Davy J Kennedy green uh former president of the New Jersey Association of school administrators Mark m magar a principal author of the 20122 school regionalization legislation and school Finance consultant Brian falowski uh there will be ongoing opportunities for your valuable Community involvement through the study process beginning with an informational Zoom session on Monday May 20th at 7: p.m. a meeting recorded will sorry a meeting recording will be posted on District websites following the session and registration information will be forthcoming thank you Mo okay now we're going to move to board liaison reports um if you can please um you can please uh read legislation Le there there's no update I'm sorry um Somerset County Educational Services I gotcha okay um so we had the meeting of the representative assembly SL board of directors on April 10th 2024 Mr Harold dunsavage um gave his superintendence report which I figured everyone would probably find the most interesting um he explained that some floors um have classrooms that aren't assigned to a specific teacher the teachers travel between classrooms to enhance the spaces for students uh they plan on beautifying and brightening them up um they are short staffed and are looking for special education teachers AIDS Etc the school is filling up and they can't accept more students because there isn't enough staff to open more classrooms even though it's not about enough space right now they will eventually run out of physical space uh but they received a quote of $1 million to renovate three rooms to add more classrooms for students the quote seemed relatively high so they will go out to bid um they stated that they might have to start a waiting list for students until spots open they also are exploring the option of sending some students back to their home districts that haven't shown progress some of the students attending the school who don't show progress might have needs that they can't accommodate if students don't succeed after they attend the um secec the next step is a therapeutic or residential placement um and they also have waiting lists which doesn't help the students waiting for a spot to open um the superintendent gave an update on their classes they just had a soft launch of their cosmetology class and are waiting for contractors to finish updating the space the students learning um construction by building a small bathroom sorry hold on I lost my space uh building a small bathroom with with a window this build uh allowed the students to learn carpentry Electrical Plumbing drywall door installation window installation and siding uh they also updated their auto shop by adding an auto lift which was pretty cool um so the students no longer must use the dolly to roll under the cars to do oil changes and whatnot the students uh will learn um about retail in their shop right store and will add a beastro to the space they want to bring back culinary heart um culinary arts to help support the beastro uh but that won't happen for a few years they're developing the I believe they said SLICE program but I could could be wrong cuz they said it rather quickly uh but that uh which will cost about 54,000 based on the number of students participating this program is for ESL students who don't speak English need counseling and have minimal education that price does not include the cost of Transportation um I shared photographs of the spaces with all the board members so there's a handout if you guys want to look um because we did ask for them to give us a tour which was super cool of them to do it's a beautiful space um so if anybody next year is interested in this just know that you get sworn on to another board and then you get a whole another board packet that you have to read through and but it's it's great it's all good like the the kids there it's it's just a wonderful experience um so all the items under um their Finance Transportation personnel and policy ped um they are all available for the public to view since it's a public board meeting um they are in the middle of negotiations still with the par professionals so there was an executive session which I recused myself since I'm a member of the njda and our um next meeting will be on June 5th but it could be moved to June 12th um so I should have an update hopefully during our June meeting all right thanks everybody thank you okay um Somerset County Danielle um there was a webinar today actually on harnessing Ai and cyber security um for New Jersey school districts uh I was not able to attend but plan to watch it um after fact and we'll report on any interesting news and updates thank you School Board Chen um just two upcoming webinars these are free um there's navigating education governance insights into qac contract review and special education on Wednesday May 8th and best practices for policy development and maintaining the manual Wednesday May 22nd and I will just note when I've I've registered for the webinars in uh previously and missed the meeting they still afford you the presentation that's it thank you okay now we're going to move on to community engagement I don't see anyone from PTO my for ceg here so um me that there's um no one from those communities uh we're going to move on to action items um PMA can you please um move administrative items uh approv minutes of previous meetings resolved that the Wang borrow Board of Education upon recommendation of superintendent approves the following meeting minutes March 18th 2024 executive session March 18th 2024 regular meeting April 8th 2024 special meeting affirm the superintendent hip report accept babber and Valley View School security drill reports um establish 8th grade commencement ceremony and official last day of school approved District goals and action plan second any discussion all in favor roll call please M Karen M Mrs Amadeo yes Mr fr yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs jet yes Mr Gonzalez yes and Mrs agaro yes and M passes oh newort I have to add you get it you'll get it uh uh Dr uh Vince's Kua obain and now Mo passes still you uh Mo can you please move on to uh Personnel items I move items uh Personnel items one approve appointment of CER certificated staff two approve approve appointment non-certificated staff three accept resignation four approve leaves of absences and that's all second any discussion okay roll call please Mrs Amadeo yes Dr Vince Kua Mr fr yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr Ang Gracia yes yes Mrs jet yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs agaro yes and Mrs anos yes motion passes please move operation items Mo um I move operations item one um approve payment of bills two approve transfer of funds 2023 2024 three approve Financial reports four approved professional service provider five approved professional service provider six approve payment application seven approv donation from do Curt and salute solusi and Jennifer thank you for that um eight approved grants from watching Educational Foundation nine authorized s/ disposal of athletic equipment 10 approved professional development SL School business and related expenses 11 approve ucec Transportation agreement 12 approve s c c Transportation agreement and 13 appoint District purchasing agent second anyone second I have a quick discussion uh for number 12 should I do I have to abstain from that for the Somerset County ed services member yeah because I'm a board member on there I should have staying right okay just making sure I can't believe you're a board member of more than one board neither can I but again it's a great experience and you get to meet board members from all over from Warren from everywhere that's cool yeah it's great meeting other board members from other districts and hearing their experiences that's cool any other discussion okay miss Karen Bishop Johnson roll call please Mrs Harvey uh yes for all except for 12 which I will abstain graan uh yes for one and two no on three except Financial reports yes on 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 and 13 so just a no on three except Financial courts Mrs jet yes Mrs Santos yes Dr Vince Mr Gonzalez yes Mr fr yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs aaro yes okay motion passes think I got everybody okay m jet phis um please curricul okay okay approve Revis uh 2023 2024 District academic calendar number two approve Valley View field trip and that's about it for a curriculum want me to do policy um we have to vote second yeah I know discussion roll call please Mrs jet yes Mrs Santos yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mr fras yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs agaro yes Dr Vince Kua stain Mrs Harvey yes motion passes okay um Dory can you please move policy items sure I move number one first reading of all those policies and number two second reading of the policies listed is there a second second in favor any discussion roll call please Dr Vince Kua Dan s Santos yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs agaro yes Mr fras yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs jet yes okay motion passes um is there any board business to discuss okay seeing that there's no board business to discuss was there question Okay no Okay seeing that there's no board business to discuss I'd like to read a resolution authorizing in of charges with school ethics commission whereas the board is rep re responsible for protecting and maintaining the Integrity of his operation and whereas the board has an obligation to ensure that Wang school district is well-run and whereas the board recently was made aware of alleged actions and statements by board member Anthony ncia and the petition filed by Mr necia with the commissioner of the education that the PO IAL jeopardize the operations of the board and whereas the school ethics Act was enacted to ensure and preserve public confidence in the Integrity of elected and appointed school board members and school administrators njac 6 a28 d1.1 and whereas the school ethics act further provides that board members must support and protect School Personnel in proper performance performance of their duties and the board members are prohibited from taking private action that may compromise the board njsa 18a col12 d241 and whereas the alleged actions and statements by board member inasia if proven true May provide May violate the school ethics act Andor code of ethics for school board members and whereas the board cannot and would not make an ultimate decision as to guilt or innocence but recognizes that the appropriate place for such a determination is the school ethics commission which can weigh the relevant evidence and testimony and whereas the board takes the alleged conduct seriously which it hopes to have addressed in the appropriate for to allow the board to focus on the District business while maintaining the confidence of its employees and public now therefore be it resolved that the board empowers and directs the board president to file an appropriate comp complaint with the school ethics commission with regard to alleged violations of the school ethics act Andor code of ethics for school board members with assistance of the board special counsel and be it further resolved that the board directs and empowers the board president to file the action with regret to such action is necessary but believes it is left with no believed it is left with no other alternative in order to have this matter reviewed and concluded while maintaining the Public's confidence in the board okay obviously I find that completely baseless and uh certainly not Justified at all um could you even read what since I was never shown this uh prior to the board meeting is this related did you say to a petition to the uh to the education commissioner that what you is that what you said this is uh you just read do we have to get a second before we start discussion second any further discussion besides with Mr in yes I think it's it's very clear that uh you know this is a play out of dory's book from the past you didn't want to talk about the past but you're bringing out a uh story playbook play that we've seen before and it's it's uh completely Bas I will leave it I just find it interesting sorry I have the floor Dory blame me for everything it is just kind of comical at this I'm sorry Dory I have the floor stop this right now okay this is what I told the community that that we were not going to do and Dory I appreciate um you making a comment and Mr nasia thank you for your question well I'm sorry I think that uh I had the floor and Dory interrupted me and uh besides everything that was read is baseless um it seems to be related to uh my attempt to uh correct a very big mistake that would was made by this board and so I um have no regret about uh the petition to the education or commission that you mentioned and I'm sure uh that that will be uh added to the mistake that was already made now uh for anyone that ran on a campaign of no drama this is not keeping that promise for anyone who ran or said that they were neutral this is not keeping that promise especially being that board president and board vice president claimed that they were going to be it's obviously not the case and um so I think that this is a very uh negative reaction to What should have been a very common uh search for a a a nonpartisan a a independent uh Authority that I uh rightfully inquired to resolve a dispute so to bring it as as an Ethics charge is actually disgraceful and I think Mo you should know better because the person that uh encouraged you to run for the board was attacked by Dory uh in a very similar way uh in a censure and a false uh uh ethics violation and that was dismissed um the board members a fellow uh housemate brought a similar ethics charge against me last year which was easily dismissed and so I really see no point to this except um adding and compounding to the very uh big mistake that this board made and that I am uh well within my rights and certainly and no impropriety to try to resolve thank you very much um just want to say I normally would not be in support of anything like this but the fact that we have spent thousands of dollars on legal fees of money that we don't have on a budget that you will not let me finish please that you did not want to approve is ridiculous to me I'm concerned about the finances of the school district we do not have the money or the time to keep spending on your incessant questions and again I understand that you you are a board member I love the fact that you ask questions and every single time that I've spoken to anybody about you I have gone out of my way to say I think you're very intelligent I think that you are very um persuasive and I respect it a lot but at the same time when you are naming our superintendent in petitions and spending thousands of dollars I do not think is a good idea and I believe that this is the only way to get that to stop I'm sorry that won't stop the petition that's F and it's also um not true that there's been any uh you know to Anthony you've had the floor already at this moment does anybody else have any other comments okay um so we're going to go to comments of the public there we have to vote on that oh we have to vote on this okay sorry this is U volunteer position and petitions being involved is just totally thrown me off I'm sorry all I'm sorry perfectly proper the floor you already have the floor you roll call please Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs Jette yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mr fras yes Dr Vin abstain this is Garo yes and did I get anybody I'm a no I'm sorry with all du respect when don't you have to abstain considering this excuse yeah possibly not okay I mean I'm just asking this is fine I don't you should have an attorney here when you're bringing public ethics charges against a board member and you don't even have a an attorney discussion's over correct yeah okay let's move on so reop passes the motion passes thank you okay now we're going to move on to comments from the public seeing that there are no public members here hopefully they're listening to all of this um we uh may have a motion to adjourn so moved second second great thank you any further discussion okay great motion roll call oh no all in favor all in favor say I I I hi thank you have a great night everybody night