e call in order to the regular meeting of the Wong Board of Education on March 18th at 7:03 p.m. may we please stand for the pledge of allegiance 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 welcome to the Board of Education board B Wang please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are an open public and media consistent to the open public meetings act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that an advance notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the Bureau of watchong at which formal action may be taken this meeting is streamlined on the district website where a recording of the meeting will also be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recordings or photography other than the private personal use requires a consent of parent Guardians whose children may be included in the image miss Karen Bion Johnson roll call please yes Mrs agle Arrow here Mrs Amadeo here Mr fr here Mr Gonzalez here Mrs Harvey here Mr Ang Gracia here and Mrs Jetta and Mrs Santos are absent all here great thank you can I have a motion to go into executive session move second all in favor I I any opposed we are going into executive session for pending and anticipated litigation of contract negotiation and there are matters in attorney C and privilege okay e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e I read this whole thing huh yeah you have to start up here read that first you need because it's a walk- on right it's not on the agenda I'm going to start from the first L you need to say you have an addition to the agenda okay I have an addition to the agenda we're going to appoint the Board of Education vacancy uh as of February 22nd the Board of Education meeting a volunteer was appointed to fill the open Board of Education vacancy unfortunately unforeseen personal obligations prevent the appointee from giving the Board of Education the time and focus this position deserves and she resigned prior to taking the seat the three seats remaining C candidates were interviewed an open session on February board meeting each of whom would be an excellent appointee were contacted and affirmed their interest and the willingness to serve in a closed session this evening the board has come to a consensus and at this time I would like to nominate Jennifer vinces Chua uh her background in mental health education and experience is well suited and her commitment to the families and the experience expertise in education is there a second second any discussion okay seeing that there's no discussion Karen Bish Johnson will I have a roll call please yes yes Mrs AG Aro yes Mrs Amad yes Mr fr yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr Ang Gracia yes all yeses motion passes congratulations [Applause] congratulations have to say he we have to make an an amendment to also need to tell everybody she'll be sworn in in April pending her criminal background check okay so um Mrs Vincent shua will be uh sworn in uh pending your background check and fingerprints on April's meeting I know you want to run up here right now and help out but all right uh we have to make an amendment to tonight's meeting um Mr Harvey has to leave early so we are going to start with the uh budget at this time okay oops going up so Aon the presentation of tenative budget um presentation want to do that okay Ernie's actually first get out of your way so I think you all remember Ernie turner He's been working with the district for what six 10 years how longer longer longer um as a Financial Consultant budget developer he has also um been in that role with us in the short time we've been here so Ernie's going to kick us off uh good evening everyone um this is my fourth public board meeting that I've made presentations uh at uh describing what the financial condition of the district has been this past year um so this is the fourth time and then I've also uh met with board committees several board committees discussion as well too so this has been an ongoing situation now for for quite a while uh can everyone hear me there's people streaming or people at home all right so again um I just want to remind everyone that this issue about the financial situation of the district was raised last August is when it became apparent that when the actual expenditures for the district were suddenly being realized and the fiscal constraints on the budget as it was constructed last year uh had created a situation that required us to do a uh budget modification in October all right so at that time uh that budget modification uh that took place was able to adjust the budget to absorb the additional costs uh but they were done with one-time uh fixes in the budget it wasn't sustainable so now uh as a result of many years a very strict monetary control and it happened over a number of years and trying to be cost conscious trying to be frugal trying to be aware of the concerns of taxpayers uh within the community um the district uh maintained a very uh strict control on any tax increases from year to year unfortunately what happens when that occurs is that if the expenses for the district actually exceed the 2% cap which is what has been done traditionally in the past here in the district um that additional cost wound up meaning that expenses within the operating budget had to be reduced and it put a a severe uh restriction on the operations of the school district this had a compounding effect over a number of years that has resulted into the situation that we arrive at here at this moment um I personally think that this would have happened sooner if it wasn't for the situation that was uh presented as a result of the covid pandemic because during the time of the covid pandemic there was uh Federal funding a number of grants that the district received that helped the financial situation that no longer exist that's that's gone all right and uh and in October when again we had to do the reworking of the budget we had to call upon on the use of interest from the referendum account we had to use extraordinary Aid uh again which is special education Aid and use it in the current year of let instead of letting it flow to the subsequent year and then we also had to do a 5-year lease purchase for technology uh that we had to use with the payments starting in the subsequent year in order to be able to close what appeared to be a financial gap again this was uh again one-time situ situations that uh required us to address the uh the situation immediately but is not sustainable it's important to keep in mind too that um there's a thing called Bank cap in the operations of a school district what bank cap means is is that uh you're allowed to go up 2% on your tax levy and if there is a waiver either for enrollment or for Health Care um and you have the ability to raise your taxes above that 2% if you choose not to use it um that increase that allowance that waiver that's uh available to the school district winds up going into what's called Bank cap and Bank cap then is is an accumulation of taxing Authority for the school district to raise taxes to raise revenues to address increase expens within the school district over the years but those waivers those additional bank cap uh authorities that were available uh were not used so it accumulated over time to where right now there's $1.3 million in Bank cap Authority for the district Mr Turner I'm so sorry I just I'm guessing people are going to want to watch this later would you please keep to the mic so people streaming hear you okay I'm sorry I'm sorry I just I'm worried that not I face this way I'm just worried they're not catching half of what you're saying okay sorry all right very good all right so basically what it is is that you have Bank cap available and that's what's being proposed in the budget right now is using that bank cap but in it in effect what it's doing is allowing you to catch up for past years as well too because uh the 2% tax levy the dollar amount that that represents is not enough money to be able to absorb the increase increase in costs from year to year so as a result you have the bank cap right now that is the option available to the board right now to be able to start to build that uh Financial Foundation that you need to have to uh allow the district to be sustainable in the in the next year and every year going out no more one-time fixes this is this is a step in the right direction to build that foundation so that you're not stressed in your budget now and and go going forward into the future it's a shame this has to happen this way but this is the condition that would has been presented to us at this point in time um I should note that um uh I work in a number of other school districts assisting them and Consulting with them on their finances and you're not alone this is something that's uh happening in many school districts right now there are a lot of tough decisions need to be made um but the financial conditions as presented are what they are and you have to face up to the reality of the situation and face up to the truth of the situation um it's something that uh you the expenses that are in the budget and this is this is a budget that a lot of time and effort and thought went into it by your superintendent and business administrator um and keeping in mind the taxpayer as well too and the burden that they have to pay so keeping all of that in mind trying to balance all of that with the needs of the school district is a very strenuous task you know there were a lot of late nights that people worked and effort to be able to pull this budget together to address the needs of the district and this is something that will be ongoing as you go forward in subsequent years as well too um but I just want to emphasize that that you are not alone this is not unusual I'm working in other districts that had to make very very difficult uh decisions uh there's there's one particular District that had to lay off a number of staff to be able to balance their budget and uh there are uh these are tough times for school districs at this point in time so um again what we want to do is to create an environment for the students to succeed you want also to allow your super intended to be able to work with the board and the community to implement her vision her educational vision for the uh for for the district and to be able to implement that and maintain it all to the benefit of all the students in the school district and I think that what is being considered tonight and this budget that is being presented for the board to approve and then subsequently uh sent to the county superintendent for final approval is a is a big step in the right direction C and I think that this is uh even though it's tough decision and it's uh and it's but it's something that's absolutely necessary at this point in time all right so thank you yeah I'm just goingon to use this you GNA use yours oh it's just I can't see that I can't see it um so thank you Arnie because I do think you know from our perspective and I think anybody who's been following along knows Karen's been here just two months I'm here just over six months our perspective is not the perspective of people who have lived here all their lives or whatever but the the reality is even in that short period it's become painfully obvious that we have to as Ernie said build a financial Foundation that'll be sustainable we we both started here at a time when it was in crisis mode right and now we're moving in a Direction Where We can turn our attention finally to enhancing the educational environment for our students and that's kind of where our focus is um with this budget and now I can't you know I appreciate all the years you've been here and all the budgets you've built Ernie and and I value that you're saying right that this has been a long time coming you've said it every time you've come to the microphone um it is a lot right I wish we did do it over a period of years but now we're at a place where if we're going to move forward doing what we say we're going to do the these are our recommendations um Aaron if you go forward Karen I don't know how to move yours forward perfect perfect all right so the first slide you see is the actual budget process typically and you'll hear this when I get to our budget timeline you would have gotten to hear this back in January when we start talking about the budget but Karen hadn't started at that point right but the budget is the financial expression if you will of the district's educational goals we take the vision of the district that you set and we turn that into Dollars basically so Erin you can keep going um the vision of the district is posted pretty much everywhere um we put it up here again for you to see those of you who are here those of you who are at home but that idea of um inspiring Learners to explore inquire colle collaborate right the idea that we are going to prepare our students for the world is a big part Believe It or Not of building a budget at this moment in time up until us right for the previous years and you're going to hear about this we've had this priority right we've had this Focus the budget goals are not significantly different but how the budget was implemented is what is different our recommendation is what um um I think is different and Ernie's words a lot um Erin next thank you I'm not yet thanks um the actual budget flow process and so you know we also did follow this process we work through um the chain a command for input Karen and I and Patty before her we met with the principls with the Teachers Association um with board members community members and we get to listen right what's important in the budget the curriculum committee um reported for two months in a row about the meetings where the principals and our special services director talked about the successes and the challenges es over the last few years all of the things that were cut from the general budget some may be put into other places like Ernie said um grants or interest or wherever but out of our District budget and we'll talk more about that we are Believe It or Not only at the second phase of this process I know it seems like we should be a lot further tonight is the presentation of the tenative budget and the board's approval of that budget to go to the county executive that doesn't mean this is the approved budget and I need people to understand that I keep getting asked that question I want people to know that what we've done so far what we've recommended presented to the board so far is a budget that supports what we've heard that this Community Values right and what they expect we have um presented a budget that restores some of those things removed over time from the operating budget into monies that no longer exist so we are only at this tenative space right in creating a budget that supports that student achievement and skills when we're done here tonight regardless of outcome believe it or not it goes to to the county on Wednesday that is the state mandated deadline after County approval then we have the opportunity as the board and you as the public to continue to look to continue to revise after we get that approval and we know these numbers are what they would consider real right in the state budget software the tax impact can be developed we can confirm the tax levy all of those kinds of things there is also a public hearing there's opportunities for the public to be heard on the budget as well before that final vote in April so this isn't it we're only step two and then the executive County supera intendant Wednesday as soon as we get that approval we'll know the tax impact we'll make sure everybody else knows that as well right and then we again we have to before and during that public hearing consider Community input the board will meet probably many times not just in committee to talk about it and then hopefully on April 25th adopt a budget whatever that budget is um by a majority of the board that meets the needs of all of these constituencies okay Ain you can go forward um this is is the budget timeline we're working with so you know this is pretty unusual typically we would develop a budget calendar in June at the Board of Education Retreat and the board process the budget process begins in July right so when interim superintendent uh Roar was here and Patty Rogers was starting right when they open that July budget they realized that there were significant short Falls as you know um and some of our budget timeline looks very different um than maybe it would have otherwise right because we would start building that expense side for February and await the development of the revenue side here where we are now in March um Ernie talked to you about in October the need to reopt um and the approval of additional appropriate ations and revenues in our current budget Patty got a great start identifying the issues that would affect the development of our 2025 budget which is what we're going to talk about tonight but with her resignation in November with Karen starting in January again our timeline has really been shrunk I want to make sure I take a minute um and I know dor got to go but just a minute to give kudos to Karen Bishop Johnson you heard Patty amazing still amazing love her miss her talk to her we've had to call her at least 10,000 times what Karen has been able to accomplish in two months is mindboggling to me her understanding of where we are of the budget by talking to everybody has has amazed me and I think as you hear her talk even tonight you'll see all of the areas where she shines in such a short period and thank you because it's been 7 days a week 24 hours a day we know that and we appreciate you so our timeline again starting in October and what's happened each month in February you heard us talk about this last month and from our committee reports Erin you can move forward um we did have the budget addressed from the governor we did get our state date announcements and here we are tonight with the presentation of the tenative budget just again for the timeline to the county office Wednesday public Hearing in April the userfriendly budget posted um April 27th just two days we have after that approval to post that for the world um and then May 9th we'll be back for a one item agenda our staff reappointment agenda based on that budget there will be a second regular meeting in May Aaron you can go ahead um I'm going to turn it over to Karen to actually get into some of our budget talk so I just want to tell you a little bit about collecting data for these expenditures we look at salary projections that's always a big driver of this budget we look at all the employee benefits the estimate in the health care the medical the dental what are our sick and vacation payouts going to be it's an estimate how much are we going to be paying for the pur pension contribution to issu reimbursements we also look at our our outof district placements and we try to conservatively budget but also being cautious Transportation that's always a big driver the CPI this year is 5.8% so budget for all of our children being transported all of our students who are going to be attending esy and then also all the added District students we look at the enrollment projections to see how many students we're going to have per class and how much how many teachers and AIDS and whatnot we're going to need we look at our debt service we met with um building principles and others to talk about what they wanted in the budget what we could do you know we did looked at just everything like that and we also discussed the statement of priorities how we're going to support these student programs and that's that's the major way we do that expenditures gathering for I think we're we're caught up y caught up I think we're caught up I hope we're caught up so um this slide is important for everybody to understand because the board's role is oversight of the budget process right so as a board of education um the conversations in each committee right happen around the budget in the operations and finance committee believe it or not they go line by line more than 500 Lines by the way and ask questions figure out what it is that we're trying to accomplish here right so what has to be funded what are District goals what do we need to improve student achievement what can the community afford right this budget calendar as I have already talked about was different this year but we'll return with our June Retreat for next year um we also have the important role the board to help the community understand right what this budget means what it represents um what we expect what we've heard the community expects um for education in Watchung and then obviously um oversight the biggest responsibility right does the final budget support the student achievement does that final budget throughout the year and you hear every month right there's a secretary report there's the financials every month that's the board's oversight Beyond approval of that final budget I just want to you heard me than Karen I'm going to say Board of Education again short amount of time but thank you you have spent and the community should know that you have spent hours reviewing these recommendations literally until 9 10 the other night midnight asking questions and getting clarification and um even though we still have between now and the public hearing to refine the final budget the tenative budget being presented tonight represents a thoughtful and purposeful process it's our best effort to stabilize the finances of the district and prioritize restoring not just staff but programming and to also be able to enhance that curriculum instruction and assessment Aaron you can move forward um the budget object objectives for this year are very similar to what they have been um support teaching and learning in accordance with the district Vision maintain current class sizes this was very important and you'll hear more about that in what we are looking to restore to the general budget I have understood in my short time here that that has been a priority to keep class sizes low and that was one of the objectives that we worked on um additionally restore again some of those fundamental positions and programs cut from previous budgets or funded through grants and interest or those private donations money that's no longer available but has to be replaced right in order to have those things that we expect and finally and and maybe for Karen's part the most important to manage the budget efficiently and seek to reduce expenditures I know I mean I'll move out of the way so you can there's right I mean there's not um that much to say about that but always watching watching the pricing making sure that we've uh checked every invoice you know nothing comes past us that may or may not have been needed or wasn't already requisitioned that I haven't se and we've made sure we have enough money on those accounts so we're very careful uh Ricky our buildings and grounds um supervisor he he is great at getting quotes checking you know calling his contacts making sure so we even though there's not many of us in the business office we're um extremely diligent about checking you know every cost so we can I am okay uh so me meting these objectives in 2425 we are maintaining current class sizes or recommending that we do so we are recommending to maintain All Staffing levels within the budget we are maintaining the current level of programming for transportation clubs and sports we continue and expand professional learning and collaboration initiatives we're prioritizing curriculum instruction an assessment to improve academic outcomes and strategic stabilization of operations including Staffing support services and purchase Services okay okay so according to statute the board can raise the school tax levy by up to 2% plus allowable adjustments as determined by enrollment and health care cost increases plus the bank cap the enrollment adjustment which comes before the 2% is added to the tax levy before anything else the enrollment adjustment comes from numbers on that are produced on October 15th and projected by the New Jersey Department of Ed that doesn't mean that it's the same today but on October 15th these were the numbers and those aren't there are no changes we can make on that software for that that's where those are then you add those to the budget and then to then you get a health care adjustment and that's that's anything over and above the State Health Care um increases so this year I think it's you know small percentage that we received so that comes next and then then you can then request for Bank cap after that so that's the order that it goes in it's the enrollment adjustment then the 2% of last year's Levy than the health care adjustment before Bank cap and if this is how you this is how the um that would lay out so you see your current tax levy which is right now where you are since last year there's that enrollment adjustment and now you subtotal that to that 13 million 2% on that healthc care and right before the bank cap is where you would be so we looked at our budget and our expenditures meeting all of the goals that I just told you about and then we needed an additional $810 $874 to be able to do those programs so in the end we're requesting of the 1,300 and you know I'm not sure I can't remember all the um the rest of that but it was 1,3 available Bank cap we're requ requesting $810 874 and that leaves 57,98811 Healthcare adjustment the budget was limited at 2% and then the additional taxing Authority that was available last year then becomes part of what's known as Bank cap and that's part of what the increase is being used for this year to go above the 2% tax levy cap um Bank cap adjustment each year if you raise taxes by lower than the allowable tax levy which is calculated by the state the difference between the maximum tax levy the cap and what you use as tax levy becomes banked uh like in a savings account bank cap expires after three years if unused it is returned to the state not to taxpayer Wong has not taken advantage of this and have left millions of dollars that could have been used to grow the budget and been an investment in the schools um by not taking what was available each year and artificially limiting to the 2% Levy the budget has not grown at the allowable rate fund balance needed to build the subsequent Year's budgets uh has been invaded each year creating a shortfall that recently has been covered by federal grants and bond interest and there have been no investment in the schools with the loss of the grants and bond interests just a break even have to take now all at once what could have been spread over several years Aron is it back one slide yep there you go that's it so just as a reminder if you uh recall what I spoke about earlier uh it was back in October that we had to rework the budget and at that time based on the information that I was working on I was Pro uh projecting a 13% increase uh in the tax levy at that time and now what's being presented tonight is uh is somewhat less than that all right but at the time based on what appeared to be what the financial Outlook was going to be for this current year uh I had mentioned to the board in committee that it looked like it was going to be a 133% increase so um one thing to that you can note on this slide is that we did receive addition state aid this year it's an increase of $209,200 technology fee that we charge $25 a student for Chromebooks that's all in a local Revenue really mainly made up of Interest this year the um special Revenue grants in fund 20 those are all your uh local grants your uh idea your you know prek idea just that can only be used very specific so that's not in the operating budget and then Debt Service is the referendum Debt Service Serv all I think uh you we're ready to move up yep so this a little bit hard to see but this is the major drivers of the expenditures for this year the small the narrow um part of the pie there that's all of our student services clubs and Athletics you then have um transportation which is the regular and special education have the administration which is salaries Professional Services other purchase Services Board of Ed memberships and workshops are all in that category in plant operations you have salaries supplies rep repairs and plant contracts in employee benefits it's Health dental disability workers comp purs and in special education you have salaries supplies and purchase services at a district tuition and in regular instructional programs it's salaries supplies and purchase Services purchase Services is um it's just basically having an a person provide the service that's not in District so any outside purchase service the drivers for what regular hard to read it's hard to read so just big purple pie is regular instructional programs let me see if I can make it a little bigger sky blue is employee benefits orange is special ed plant is purple Administration is the Green Transportation maroon and student services the blue yeah so going from um right to left starting at the top zero you know it's 0% because it's 9 you know it's not even 100,000 but that transportation is 6% the admin is 7% the plant is 8% the benefits are 20% special education 25% and regular instructional is 34% that's okay ready for the next slide so significant increases in these fixed expenditures are mainly know at the top are the salaries and health benefits the salaries increase 2.8% but that also includes your F tax restored positions esy overtime substitutes and any salary adjustment and that total was 765,000 the benefits medical prescription which is estimated to go up 11% from last year de Dental workers comp retirement and Social Security 375,000 student transportation up 61,500 7 and the total increase in other fixed operating costs like property insurance the outside services that we have contracts for you know uh pest control things like that you utilities is almost 100,000 and those are increases over last year I have the part of the presentation to talk about how Karen I can't make this move to catch you up oh there it goes thank you sorry I was like uh oh what's happening now um and this is the the good part this presentation will be up on the um website tonight it'll be public um so no worries you'll be able to also um see this but this is uh the next couple slides I'm going to talk about a representative of how you build the budget right we told you we met with the principles we meet with um buildings and grounds we meet with it we meet with special education we listen to the community we look at what is valued all right what you see on this restore list each of these items were removed from the general budget and either not funded or funded through grants covid federal dollars bond interest or private funds the grants covid funding and the bond bond interest have all been expended and at this time as of this moment no private funds have been committed so we're we're stuck here right now the first two I'm actually going to work up from the bottom um because Ernie talked a lot about this in October when the budget was developed and limited um the extended school year program was not included that is our special education program that's required um by the state it's listed in students individual education plans that was the first thing restored um followed by Chromebooks the district has made a really strong commitment a onetoone commitment for our students and at second grade and fifth grade right those get refreshed that's when students get those Chromebooks at their transition years in the earlier years there are iPads right developmentally a different program um but the Chromebooks as Ernie already talked about were not budgeted for um previous in the previous budget they were provided by a private donor um so we did need to restore it because to do it last year right we took out a lease and now we'll be paying that lease for four years instead of right restoring it and looking I don't want to steal your thunder but looking for lease purch programs or other ways to pay it now going back up to the top this goes back to our budget objectives what people expressed were important to them um class size right so the Bayberry PE teacher was paid only 7 in the budget the rest of that salary was paid through grants not in the budget so now that that money is gone if you you only add a 7 um PE teacher in some sections of PE you'd have to double up and I don't think anybody wants 40 kids in a PE class and I have Miss vickner sitting right here and she can tell you that nobody wants that not the teachers not the principal not the kids not the parents um Bayberry school counselor same thing we all want that full-time counselor but for budgeting purposes only half of that that salary was in the budget the rest of it was Grant funded now that the Grant's gone does that mean we only need a halftime counselor absolutely not so again another position that we hear all of you um value know the importance of and that's another recommendation for restoration um you added a teacher in the last year for class size reduction you have an enrollment bubble going through Bayberry I think we've seen it we worked again with u Miss vickner while we were building the budget to look at the enrollment at every class at every section at every grade level to see what needed to be adjusted what class sizes would go up to if we didn't include a teacher you know all of those kinds of things and the decision was made to recommend to maintain that teacher to maintain that class size reduction that's a full-time position and again that was a position paid for out of bond interest not in the budget needs to be restored we are also recommending a librarian for Bayberry School Bayberry has not had a full-time certified librarian in four years maybe more we only know four because that's how long we've been here um but without that you have had a library clerk who does the book checkouts I think does the very best um possible working on under the certificate of the Middle School librarian who recently retired right there have been no updates to that Library curriculum there's not an opportunity for articulation between the Librarians and again what we hope for for students you all voted a referendum that included steam included additional resources in the library collaborative space now with the restoration of librarian you have one at each school you have your sore teacher your gifted and talented teacher and your steam teacher plus the steam teachers here at Valley viiew able to work together to create a comprehensive program for our students so that recommendation is in the school resource officer and they'll be here a little later I actually called them and asked them to come later when we switch the agenda so make sure we give them like extra love when they do get here cuz they're late for them um but the school resource office position was added last year also paid for with that same bond interest don't know how but this we're committed to keeping this position it's been very successful right very successful even more than I would have understood when I was hired um so again that's restored to the budget right not from outside funding um I think we all know that professional learning has been funded through the grants and the covid money with the end of that and the reappropriations in October we had to freeze those opportunities for staff we did keep the um already um committed to conquer math the already committed to IDE IDE professional learning around personalization of instruction and coaching into instruction but it was Grant funded we want our staff to be able to be developed we want them to have those opportunities to grow in their own learning because we all know that impacts our students right so we restored that to the general budget instead of the whims of whatever grant funding we might get curriculum writing curriculum writing has happened based on sorry um the requirements that have come from the state for update at this time we're really behind language arts math right we've restored that curriculum writing to the budget and those projects if approved would start right away and in the summer so we can begin updating curriculum which again is a pathway to enhanced academic success the Bayberry report card revisions are important because it every year the state has standards there are skills right listed in those standards and we need to make sure our report card aligns with what we're teaching so a really important project that's been put off and again if recommended and funded will be able to happen um this summer so we're ready for next school year um those are Restorations right meaning things that we have things that we wanted we wanted to keep but we're not in the budget even though they're currently in the district there are no additions except we have to bring them into the budget to pay for them in addition Aaron thank you in addition and again we had lots of requests we couldn't fund every request but there were some additions that we thought were pretty critical um our social worker um position is8 shared between the two schools the recommendation is to make that position full-time I think that's for obvious reasons um transportation not a conversation a big conversation for tonight but I did commit to fixing Transportation this year be ready for September you can look forward to some Town Hall meetings on the conversations we've already on our side begun those conversations with the high school with neighboring districts with our association but one of the things that I think I think we recognized right away even on my first day the disconnect by not having the same person who is running Transportation on all three tiers high school middle school and Elementary the disconnect between having a different software between our district and the high school district and the disconnect between having all different people involved in the routing instead of one professional who does this for a living was pretty obvious so that is an addition um it would be a shared service with the high school having the same transportation coordinator in the same software all the way through um you'll also see some um salary addressment in these additions not obviously if the total amounts 90,000 not a lot of salary adjustment but really critical a one-time I don't know why it says once but a one-time adjustment in our custodial maintenance staff this was planned years ago there's a whole beautiful chart it was implemented for the first year never happened again so um this allows our custodial maintenance staff to actually be hired at steps not just willy-nilly to be paid a a living wage that is not minimum wage ladies and gentlemen if you can imagine that we have some of our staff who has worked here for 24 years 28 years I think you would be shocked um I don't know tonight is the night to get into that detail but we'd be happy to to share that with you there's also um an adjustment in our payroll and benefits seat I think you know I'm on the third person just in the six months I've been here and it wasn't stable before I came um there were too many jobs on that desk right trans portation was part of that desk it's also the executive secretary to the business administrator um just receiving resumes and interviewing and looking at the salaries we needed to make an adjustment up um and we will also be rewriting the job description for that seat um and a salary adjustment for our business administrator um unlike the rest of the staff who might have multiple year contracts uh Karen's contract is year to year she came in in the middle of the year with no negotiations nothing just with what Patty was receiving um so this is in preparation for developing that contract and um for her contract for next year and again by the number you can see we're not talking millions of dollars here um and then finally Aaron maintain so many conversations in the community right so many conversations amongst staff amongst our coaches about sports and clubs and the importance of it right just the same way we decided as a community we didn't make change to Transportation this year and we'll have those conversations Sports and clubs were maintained at the level that they are in the contract we didn't cut it so um you'll still have right the sports and the transportation and the equipment that's required at Valley View with all the sports you currently have we'll have all the clubs that we currently have at Valley View and Bayberry although I will say no Bayberry is supplemented by the PTO so you might have some different clubs but we won't have any less there are no Cuts this is maintenance right and when you see this please know and I brought up my legal pads so you would know cuz I kept a running total we couldn't even begin to put all of the requests in we made a a very thoughtful decision not to do everything in one year I'll you give you an example of textbook adoptions we've talked about that right that the books are out of date but in talking with the principles with our sending districts right our neighboring districts in order to identify bu right appropriate materials to Pilot those materials to adopt them to do the professional learning we would not we didn't believe be ready to start right to have all that money spent by next June and that is the requirement to the bank cap if we're taking it has to be spent by next June right if we couldn't do it we didn't request it and that's just one example again uh maybe at the public hearing we'll spend more time if you're interested in hearing about the other requests the board has heard those some of our ideas for the future moving forward and why we didn't request the full Bank cap it's not just because of the sticker shock right and there is that but we also knew that there are more things that we'll want to do we're going to have our strategic plan conversations the community is going to have the opportunity to talk about right what we should be doing so we did want to make sure we saved some of the money and Bank cap for the future use not to to use it all currently um and again the the other piece to this and I can't see my notes but that's okay maybe it's over here um the other thing is Right Ernie said it I'm going to repeat it you don't even you're going to hear it over and over again between now and April I know you will so I'll just say it I'll be the one to start it right we know this is a lot in one year we know it but we've heard what the Community Values and expects and we really did go through a very purposeful process to try and restore the things removed from prior Year's budget and to try and honor what the community expects for the children of wat Chung you know Ernie talked a lot about how many years he's been here and what we've gone through under the available tax levy you can see the pressure on the budget you can see we we talked about those Band-Aids a lot this year even in my short time but without using the money we really can't consider all the things that we're saying are important right that we've all said are important for the education of our children so I I will start that piece of the conversation um whoops for the future um I think that's my last slide Karen you have one more slide yes Aaron is there one more oh there you go Karen no that's you you should last slide there is a public hearing Thursday April 25th 2024 we'd like to thank you for the continued support of the education of our children please contact me if you have any questions that's my email i' be happy at any point to discuss anything with you any detail and Ernie I think want okay thank you and just to finish up um at the last board meeting Mr Ang Gracia raised a very important question that I just wanted to expand on real quickly because he was talking about the board secretary's report and what the funds available were on that report there's a thing in in uh School District budgets called budgeted fund balance and that is the equivalent to a revenue on the School District budget so each year whatever Surplus that you have left over after you fund your reserves if you have enough money to fund your reserves that Surplus becomes budgeted fund balance in the subsequent budgeting year the budgeted fund balance for the current year that we're in right now is $81,000 all right so starting for next year in the next budget cycle we have to try to maintain the Surplus and the budgeted fund balance as close as possible to that $800,000 because every reduction below that $800,000 is a reduction in revenue and you're starting from a from a lower position that you have to make up all right so this is an important point for us to uh to keep in mind because when we reworked the budget last October that was something I know I was thinking of at that time when in uh doing the modifications to the budget that were necessary because we couldn't go into another year with zero budgeted fund balance because we would have been $800,000 in the hole right from the get-go all right so I just wanted to make that clear Mr andr so you knew what the theory was behind that thank you Ernie can I just ask you one other question since we're up here uh since you're up here uh this uh so this is a 12% tax levy increase that's being proposed right but um it's a seven % expense increase could you elaborate just briefly there's not much more to say on that but the it's a because of the the way the uh resources in the revenues are um a 12% what we're proposing is a 12% tax levy increase right to the taxpayer yes but that's covering a 7% expense increase in our budget right and and if you remember when we rework the budget last October you know we we had to do it to close that Gap all right so in effect those one-time uh fixes that we had to put in there those are gone now those weren't sustainable so we still have to fill that Gap that was there initially when it became obvious to us that it was a shortfall in the budget and as we uh received the request for 12% tax levy increase we're not we're not saying that the um our expenses have gone up 12% that's what we're we're covering 7% uh that that and in addition to other expenses that were part of the regular operating budget that weren't funded by the previous budget all right it was it was larger Gap than that if you remember you know because we spoke about it at length and committee you know and and we revealed what really what the shortfall was so it wasn't just an increase it was also a shortfall in the operating budget a combination of the two I wasn't you weren't in the committee meeting that I was in this past week so that's why I wanted to ask you that question also no I'm I'm happy to answer it thank you I can just give you a a little bit of extra explanation the 7% is the increase from last year but those last year numbers that we're comparing them against have those positions in the operating budget not in the grant not paid through the interest you you can't see that in there but if they had been in there this would have been straight seven but all those positions weren't in there they weren't in there and that's back in October so you you can't really do it that way compare it thank you thank you all so you're you're gonna because we're all out of order on the agenda um so we're going straight into a roll call right Mr discuss president um I just wanted to thank the board for adjusting the agenda tonight and I would like to make a motion to move four operation items now uh they're listed on the agenda as four adoption of the tenative budget for the 2024 2025 school year five adjustment for enrollment 436,000 six adjustment for health care cost 75,4 and seven adjustment for Bank cap 810,000 increase uh and so um there was some criticism of that uh last year and um as you can see uh we do rely very heavily on um the uh recommendations that we receive as a board and I so I just wanted to share not to uh you know go too far into any uh disagreements but just concerns or questions that I think would be helpful to the public to know uh what what was discussed or covered just to say um the question was asked are there any cuts that can be made and the answer was no um I was concerned about um having this uh size of an increase but with no uh contribution to the capital reserve or to the maintenance reserve and it was it was explained that that just wasn't possible uh even with this increase it's something uh to go for next year maybe June we'll find out uh some good news there so um I you know I do appreciate that in the board process it was noted because we've seen this in our training also that affordability for the township is a consideration that we as board members are asked to make and I think maybe an expanded discussion on that would be helpful at another time I know this is just a tentative uh vote here from the tenative budget but um I think that that's something that um you know know I I've seen uh the formul there's mentions in the formula that the state may use when they come up with our state aid so there's some based on median income or home value what you could say that the town can afford in a in a formula um I do think that economic conditions are something that we have to consider when there's um whether it's a pandemic or a u an inflationary uh period that we're in now and I think a third component and there may be many others but the uh for affordability for the township would be um that we're competing with other towns for U the desirability of a u you know the tax rate um when people are buying their homes so I just think that it would be helpful um as for board members when we talk about our our role and responsibility to look at the affordability for the township that we come up with maybe a more robust discussion on that and uh other than that I I just um you know would point out last year we had um interm positions and um we've already pointed out the calendar has been um impacted by um people that are just new to the district and things and I think that's totally understandable um and so I wouldn't even really point to last year's uh documentation that the board received as as a goal I would say maybe the year before if uh we look in our board pack pets we had um we had the the budget the printable budget the 80-page budget that we could look at and I I've heard that the operations committee went through line by line this year but um we didn't all board members didn't see that level of detail and um so the sooner before the final budget if we could have that um that to actually see the budget I would I would feel more comfortable when that vote comes I think um there was some I think a bit of new information that came out recently when it comes to the enrollment enrollment adjustment and the health care adjustment and uh it's been mentioned that maybe that's been uh funds that were left on the table so to speak in previous years and I think it would be helpful to have a um just a simple spreadsheet or something to show what what adjustments because we we're usually looking at the 2% cap and whether we've taken that or what bank cap we have Avail available from that but I think it would be helpful and I mentioned it I think in the committee that if we could find um a history of what those adjustments that were available that weren't uh recommended to be taken and so weren't taken uh would be helpful I think the anticipated enrollment is something that we normally have in the 10 budget presentation and I think it's just helpful for us and the public to see uh what the anticipated enrollment is uh so and I noticed it's not on our uh agendas anymore either but we used to have a just a a report showing the uh the enrollment for each grade level so I think it would be helpful to have that and uh that that's really I just wanted to share those points and some questions and if I if I was wrong in any of that it's correct right there's no cut we the question was asked can any Cuts be made this year and it was no right um we and we and we'll maybe find out in June about capital reserve or maintenance reserve and the only thing just as a reminder about the enrollment it was on every month and it was a change of maybe one student at a time and it there wasn't a reason to report it um this and Karen I think mentioned in the presentation the enrollment for the budget is generated by the state it's a projection by the state not our actual daily enrollment yeah two different two different I'm just going by the the you know the budget presentations for past year is the tenative budget had it showed the anticipated enrollment for each and we will do that because that supports the requests from Mrs vickner Right for maintaining that staff and um why we could do some things and not other things that were requested in between now and the next meeting we'll we'll all as board members see the full I won't say 80 Pages whatever however many pages it is the principal budget it's a lot yeah it's a lot of pages right you will get you will get it it they have a they have a little bit of time to approve it it gets it gets sent to them on Wednesday so we should get it back soon okay and that in past years has been then posted on the public web ite also so I don't think the last well there's the user friendly one but the full printable one is something that I think was not when we uh readopm even though we reapproved and made reappropriations and whatever we do that with the approval of the county in the state but you can't reopen the software they don't let us do that okay but we'll have it for our next for you you'll have it before our next meeting oh well well we're hoping well before as soon as we get the approvals thank you any other comments I just want to thank you Dr Glazer and Karen for putting together such a really clear and thoughtful presentation for community it was very helpful thank you thanks okay so we're going to go into a roll call for Mrs Harvey's four things C4 to C7 C4 to C7 just to check okay um Mrs Harvey yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mr fr yes and M Mrs agaro yes all yes motion passes thank you Thor thank you good luck good night thank you and we'll continue what that was the tentative budget so now I see that Chief Anderly and officer quos and officer delinsky have arrived thank you for being so patient with us I did tell the whole community that I put you off thanks Ernie for um being here tonight we'll talk to you tomorrow um so at this time I'd like to introduce formally if you guys will come on up um Chief Scott Anderly of our wat Chung Police Department um I don't know if you want to introduce uh officer Pete and officer Mike but um these are our current and potential resource officers and you missed what I had to say about all of you but I have loved I have not had this um position in my previous districts we work differently and the partnership has been amazing so thank you thank you thank you oh thank you um wow I don't usually need a microphone in room this size but I'll use it um so when we started this program and I was selecting an SRO I put a lot of thought into it because uh it's a really important position and when we chose officer quavas um really thought he was going to make a huge impression on everybody and I can look around the room and see a lot of head shaking and know that he did and um he got promoted he's a sergeant um So within our organization he's going to move to a new position so when it became time to select another SRO again I put a lot of thought into it um and officer delinsky or officer Mike as I think he will soon be affectionately known by uh staff and students is exactly who I want to see standing outside of my children's school um Mike is a 19-year veteran of our Police Department um Mike is a very accomplished martial artist he has a lot of experience in special weapons and tactics on our County SWAT team you are and your children are in very good hands um he also has school age children himself so I know he's going to be able to make those connections just like Sergeant quas did um I think this is a real positive um I just just thought it was appropriate to and as did you Dr Glazer to actually put a a face to the name before he shows up on day one um I I don't think uh unless you have any questions I I'm just happy that you gave us the opportunity oh no we're believe me thrilled now can I say officer Pete did make that impression you cannot go into either of our schools and I'll say this with both principles here and not every kid's little face lights up they high five they hug you I couldn't ask for better right isn't that what we want for our kids to have that kind of relationship and trust and offic rep Pete will be a loss we'll do our goodbyes I know um both schools are making that transition I know officer Mike you'll be just as wonderful and we'll look forward to welcoming you if you haven't already heard from the principles how we'll make that transition um we'll work on that together do either of you want to say anything look at you both are like dear what kind of policeman are you dear in the headlights I promised I'd earn my money and do the speaking tonight I know here comes officer Pete sure thank you for the opportunity it's been a blast thank you officer Mike anything okay oh yeah we're going to have um a little bit of onboarding training um we have our own schedules to work out so so it's not going to be an immediate thing but um you know you'll see a pretty smooth transition um we have a plan in place and I'll be working with the principls and do Glazer to get that done efficiently and effectively um any questions for me or thank you for your service just thank you for everything truly you it's been terrific and thanks for waiting and coming late tonight I know that wasn't fun for any of you no problem at all thank you everybody thank you thanks guys hey um so now we're going to go on to superintendent's comments any um oh yes we have our two principls here I don't know who's are you both doing a report tonight one tag team what are we doing all right so miss vickner Bayberry School up first and then I guess Mrs Karen kid Valley View School coming next yes good evening yes when you give me middle middle school content then I pass it off to Karen that's so I I was going to say real quick thank you to officer Pete he did leave but Bayberry students are still trying to figure out where his desk is and it's been like a running joke because we had to move his desk so it's just really fun he is a great guy we're going to miss him in the in you know in the schools but um we want to wish him good luck in the future and Welcome to our officer Mike can't wait to start with him so that'll be great um so moving on to what's going on at Bayberry our fourth graders put on a spectacular performance of rats on March 7th uh their hard work and dedication paid off with an outstanding acting and singing by all of our students and we love that all of the students are included in the play uh thank you to Mrs Riley the fourth grade team and our parent volunteers for their efforts in making this a huge success the week of March 4th we celebrated read Across America with spirit activities and a wide variety of guest readers it was so great to see parent volunteers um we had police officers come in uh uh the principal um and superintendent also read to uh a bunch of our classes it was great um we ended the week with a schoolwide reading which was amazing everybody sat in the halls for quiet 15 minutes at the end of the day it was really nice um both schools enjoyed an engaging musical assembly by Jared Campbell on March 13th Mr Campbell's uplifting music with a powerful message of kindness and friendship put smiles on so many faces um students and staff at Bayberry and valy view so thank you to the PTO for bringing us this anti-bullying assembly was a lot of fun on Thursday March 14th staff and community members gathered at the Wang Arts Center to honor my very own Mrs dinardo Bayberry school secretary as one of the remarkable women of Wang U Mrs jardo also enjoyed an outpouring of appreciation throughout that day with posters cards lots of hugs from students and staff it was a really um great day trimester 2 ended at Bayberry and report cards were made available in Genesis on March 15th the I ready winter diagnostic scores were shared with parents via the Genesis parent portal on March 12th and parents are encouraged to reach out to their child's teacher if they have any questions all right that's it for me now I'm going to pass it over to principal kit thanks Denise sorry I didn't know if I was going to be here tonight thank you Denise for passing this off to me um this month's Mountaineer Monday lesson celebrated social awareness in women specifically Integrity resilience and courage in honor of women's History Month on March 12th our fifth grade students participated in either the tea talk led by nurse sushki or the donuts for dudes led by coach Leslie during the events students viewed a short video on the stages of puberty the always changing and growing up program is a nationally researched program that helps boys and girls understand the physical and emotional changes they experienc during puberty and acknowledge these changes as a regular part of growth and development they also learned about the physiology of their bodies and the correct terminology for parts of the reproductive system in addition the program helps girls to understand their menstrual cycles what to expect when they get their period how to manage them and how to continue with everyday activities parents and Guardians were invited to attend each of the presentations and joined their children with Refreshments afterwards thank you so much to our PTO for providing refreshments and goodie bags on March 14th also known as Pi Day valy view students and staff celebrated the mathematical constant the fun included Pi Trivia videos songs memorization challenges and even piie Ice Cube Refreshments our students have been busy competing in various competitions this winter I have a few listed here and a big congratulations to all of our competitors and I apologize if I miss any our school participated in the American mathematics competition congratulations to yelli kogan our eighth grade winner Lila Castello and pav AAL are seventh grade winners on March 9th valew students competed in history geography and science bees held in Princeton New Jersey Ryan W grade 8 qualified for Nationals in history and play placed fourth overall omes cholen grade seven qualified for Nationals and Internationals in science he previously qualified for Nationals in geography Rohan bosp grade five qualified for Nationals and Internationals in science and placed fifth overall Lexi Costello grade five qualified for Nationals and Internationals in science Marcel Gilbert grade five qualified for Nationals and Internationals in science also and Daniel Markle and Williams Lee's team won the new Jersey VEX IQ Elementary slapshot New Jersey state championship robotics competition and will be res representing the United States at the world competition so lots of wonderful accomplishments I love sharing them with you and um should be continued congratulations to everyone and have a great night thank you and thank you again for staying um Aon if you put up my slideshow so I think uh Miss vickner and Mrs kid gave my entire uh superintendent report but I have pictures so this was the last board meeting um with Miss Morrison and our Orchestra um so we're starting from that date moving forward is it is it on its own like animated thing Aaron I'm guessing that's a yes perfect oh no it's fine I just didn't know how long to talk here is um pictures from our Battle of the books um held right in the this room it was a lot of fun um it was the next picture comes it was Miss uh Trisha kean's last one here before she retired um and I was able to um be here with Mrs Berg our new librarian it was fun when I was a fifth grade teacher it was the highlight of the year and I'd have to say here because we involved so many grades it was just terrific really enjoyed it um it's it's coming it's coming there we go here's all of us reading you all the next slides are us reading um during read Across America by the way did anybody else notice that that Franklin Here Comes Franklin song sounds just like Beyonce's new song just saying I learned that from the officer um so as um Mrs vickner said a lot of us read in classrooms and Pinky swearing to something I can't remember what but there you go um and it was really a lot of fun it was parents it was so many of us and I think I talked to Mrs vickner about this and some of the teachers I would love not to just have to be in there during one week let's get you missy to get in there and read or the mayor or chief Anderly right like all during the school year I know that the kids I couldn't believe how much they loved it I read Harold in the Purple Crayon you can see they all got a purple crayon they all got to go on an adventure and and it was the only reason I could show up every day lately with doing all this other work this is what we're here for and we cannot forget that it's why I show the pictures every month remember what we're here for it's the students right so um just a few more of our reading pictures and activity pictures I guess I was in more classrooms than I thought because there's a lot of pictures I didn't want to not highlight somebody because I know how much you love to see your kids you always email me and tell me that you love this so I don't want to leave it out they also shared their adventures with their classmates and some classes we were able to use the document camera and the smartboards um and I'd love to see um how we can continue to grow that with our problem-based learning and collaboration again really a lot of fun um in every classroom and our teachers helping out also think we're almost past this I swear we might be able to do 10 seconds next month Aon a superhero day youall have to guess what my superpower was yeah definitely more classes than I thought you guys all need to help out next year all during the year then as Miss pner said there was rats Miss Riley did an amazing job if you saw this show it was so professional nothing I've seen at an elementary school compared the kids were amazing the show was amazing I I just loved it and valued that a lot and for everybody that helped because to me it seemed like everybody helped um it was really a lot of fun and you can see the kids had a lot of fun too even costumes and this is our wonderful Mrs dinardo being honored by the students um at Bayberry the women watch Chung event was only in its second year but amazing um and a huge thing there you are Camille um a wonderful project from um Sonia ABI Habib one of our Council women and all of the women that were honored that night um so deserving if you don't know them or know of them take the time um to to meet here are some pictures from some of those competitions um Mrs kid talked about this is the teams competition you'll start to see some press releases I was just a little busy last week um some press releases honoring all of these students accomplishments and thank you parents for sending us pictures and teachers this is also the teams competition um pretty amazing stuff happening and I don't know that we know that right I don't know that listen to that list of what students participated in in and how far they've gone in those competitions it's more than impressive and it's a testament these are our Vex winners our Vex robotics winners um more than impressive right to have that level involvement from our staff with our students um and that they are being so accomplished which one is this this is history the prince one of the Princeton and I know I have a spelling B1 that might be the last one the spelling B ones but truly be proud of your children be proud of um the programs that are happening because again this is what we're here for I know there's only one more slide so um it's you I think although we know what you've been doing there spelling yeah that's the last one so in the business office this month um it's mainly about the budget which you just saw so there's not a lot to tell you um we did have a person our payroll person leave which you um I think we knew from last month that that was going to be happening so that's really mostly our change there's really nothing else other than uh this work you know budgeting work being done right now and then your day-to-day operations of paying the bills and working on you know anything coming in that's all I have your committee report we're waiting for Mo to come out oh okay we're going to start with committee reports Mr fr can you please please give us the HR committee reports please uh the Personnel committee met on Thursday March 14th at 7:51 p.m. uh the committee members involved were me Jen Anthony and uh Manny as well as uh Dr Glazer uh it was a pretty short meeting the main thing that we focused on was the esy program proposal uh and the esy is the extended school year program uh the shared services program is still under consideration because a concrete proposal hasn't been set yet uh we are sharing a nurse uh an OT for occupational therapy Physical Therapy custodians and other positions uh we will be unable to house this required program here due to the referendum Construction in both buildings but this program will also save cost for us as well as uh L Hill uh the administration will be sharing a questionnaire for families who qualify for esy uh in order to gather information on who will be attending and then we also just discussed the uh each of the potential BOE agenda items uh for approval in addition uh to other Personnel ISS were discussed by the committee one a new medical leave will appear on the BOE agenda and the others being reviewed by the Board of Education attorney thank you thank you can you also read curriculum for us just gon to read them all we short staff today guys this one was also a very short meeting um started at 4 P.M on Thursday March 14th uh the committee members that were present were Phyllis Dory Fatima and myself as well as Dr Glazer uh Miss kid uh Miss ficner uh yeah Mr TOA um and this meeting was also held virtually and we also just discussed the extended school year program again um and we discussed that it will take place at Millington School in L Hill Township from June 26th to July 24th uh the school also has more classrooms and bathrooms to accommodate the children than Gillette school which was originally proposed uh the current preschool tuition is also being looked at to help establish what the summer tuition will be for the 20 uh days of enrollment and transportation will also be included for those who are eligible based on their IEP uh and like I said before a contract hasn't been reached yet so the cost of the program has not been established thank you thank you Miss Amo can you please read policy for us up policy committee meeting we met on Wednesday March 13th um at 5:00 pm at Valley View for over four hours um in attendance were Dr Glazer um muhammd fge Dory Harvey myself and Phyllis jwet uh was virtual uh Karen Bishop Johnson office also joined us uh for the first 2 and a half hours um to discuss some uh budget review um so for policy uh proposed review um board member use of electronic mail um internet which is already adopted the internet policy which is already adopted by the Board of Education uh in 2016 and uh policy 069.0 2 board member use of social networks they were both reviewed by the committee um they're related the committee agreed to to the language in policy 06902 and recommended for it to be on the agenda for a first reading the committee agreed to keep both policies policy 2363 student use of privately owned technology Dr Glazer is double-checking with the principles to make sure students aren't bringing personal devices to school since we are a onetoone district using Chromebooks um after the committee has provided that feedback it will decide if this policy needs to be adopted or not the policy is not mandated policy 2419 and ulation 2419 school threat assessment teams this is a mandated policy uh that is reviewed regularly the committee will receive feedback from the superintendent as to how parent training will take place that is specified in the policy um and uh on how frequent the refreshing the refresher training for staff needs to be to take place um this is a relatively new policy from the state so finding out about the frequency of training might take some time uh the committee agreed for the policy be on the agenda for a first reading policy 5310 Health Services also mandated Dr Glazer consulted with the school nurse and confirmed that they felt the practices in the health department are consistent with the this policy the superintendent was asked by the committee to find out if language could be added to the policy regarding the school's housing prescription medication such as an EpiPen um or nebulizer uh which is something that we currently do the committee agreed for the policy to be added to the board agenda after they are provided with feedback from our board attorney regarding adding the additional language policy 5330 administration of medications is included in the board packet since it is referenced in uh the health services policy 5310 and the two policies are related policy 5512 harassment intimidation or bullying mandated the committee decided to stay with the option from the originally adopted policy which was uh uh principal preliminary determination on when an Hib is investigated Dr Glazer informed the committee that the schools have a school climate team and the committee agreed that the policy should be on the agenda for a first reading regulation 8420 point10 active shooter uh mandated Dr Glazer informed the committee that this policy could not be found in the Strauss Esme database so the committee looked at existing adopted policies and feels that policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations um uh covers this area policy 8461 reporting violence vandalism harassment intimidation bullying Alcohol and Other Drug offenses mandated the committee agreed this should be on the agenda for a first reading um regulations 5512 harassment intimidation or bullying regulation 73001 disposition of instructional property and regulation 7430 school safety um have all been abolished due to these other regulations that cover the content I want to note that the policies that are abolished might show up in the policy alert under different policy numbers um there's a list here that I won't read to everybody of policies that also need review that we we will be planning and scheduling out over the next few months to make sure we get through all of them um uh and so we'll be planning that out soon um potential board agenda items bylaw 0164 is on the agenda for a second reading the committee didn't have any suggestions or concerns about the change to the policy and didn't receive any feedback from the rest of the board new business preliminary tentative budget um Mrs Bishop Johnson provided the committee with the tentative budget proposal during the proposal she we own the district's Revenue um Dr Glazer and Mrs Mrs Bishop Johnson provided the committee with a pie chart um and all the details that we've seen this evening um Glazer reviewed what what staff positions would be restored for example I'm wondering if I should skip this part since we've already you heard all district goals action plan draft Dr Glazer informed the committee that she would provide the board members with the action plan draft so we could review it um Boe goals action plan the committee discussed the action plan and the recommendations provided by board members the committee agreed to the changes to the document except for specifying a facilitator for the 5-year strategic plan goal the committee agreed to keep the terminology to facilitator and not list any specific organization or entity any new suggestions for goal one to find and appoint a new board member to fill our vacancy and Supply support and onboarding to our new team will be discussed when the committee discusses policy 0143 in May Since the board completed the process and this goal um Strauss SME policy software for the district Dr Glazer informed the committee of software from Strauss smme that could potentially assist the district in streamlining updating existing and establishing new policies however the software and services cost $78,000 annually 7500 that must be a typo oh okay $7500 I don't remember that number okay $7,500 annually and she didn't recommend the district P purchase such software providing policies to the public during board meetings in the past the board has not provided the Comm the community with a copy of the policies being discussed on the board agenda the committee agreed that we would like all policies that appear on the agenda to be made available to the community for each board meeting going forward um uh some important dates to remember uh that we discussed in the meeting are the the final budget vote April 25th and the staff reappointment date of May May 9th that's it J thank you Danielle Jennifer last and not least operations please all right uh the operations and finance committee met on Tuesday March 12th at 5:00 p.m. it was a combination of virtual and iners and it ended at 11:45 p.m. in attendance were committee members uh Muhammad fras as the chair myself and Dory Harvey as well as Boe president Manny Gonzalez um Administration and guests included were Dr Julie Glazer Karen Bishop Johnson Ricky Boyd Ernie Turner Frank bulby and Connor O'Brien so the roof we discussed um the roof pack package number three on the roof bids went out and they came back too high um some of the problems were material costs and labor um some Contra contractors had jobs lined up already for the summer uh this work is not tied to the HVAC project so we will be going out for a second bid um and then we'll go forward from there we may also look at State contracts um potentially looking at different uh materials if needed so I why you took a breath so um the board will have to reject the bids that we received and there'll be a walk-on resolution when you get to action items under operations to reject the bids so we can read vertise thank you um report from Ricky Boyd he said he'll be working from April 1st to 5th on the faculty room there'll be some Acoustics work in the music room um done as well he's um did a lot of research on the acoustic tile found a great one um and he involved the staff in that decision- making we discussed um the packing up of the library books so that the summer construction work can occur um we got a technology update from Aaron we got an ESI esy update that we've already discussed um we went over the budget as was stated earlier line by line to make sure that we all understood it um and that it was sustainable um I think that's about it thank you okay now we're going to move on to community engagement is there anyone from the PTO here on report sorry how many marks here okay board delays on reports so dory's not here for legislation okay so Mr fr will cover um so I have a couple updates I'm just going to read through them real quick um so wait I think I actually did this sorry one second um so the first one I'm going to talk about is the security Jews and students with disabilities um a1174 s257 uh which requires certain documentations of the needs of students with disability during school security drills and emergency situations uh as well as in the security school plans uh it more focuses on staff training and the needs of students with disabilities and emergency planning there was also an update about the School Safety and Security task force uh s379 a49 77 which establishes a School Safety and Security task force to to study and develop recommendations to improve School Safety and Security and to ensure a safe learning environment for students and employees uh this task force will consist of 17 members including representatives of various government agencies education advocacy groups including the New Jersey school boards Association and members of the public with expertise in school security um another piece of legislation that was passed was the youth Suicide Prevention uh which is a352 6 and S1 1662 which requires the New Jersey youth Suicide Prevention advisory Council to prepare a report regarding suicide prevention instruction in public schools um in preparing this report the council will develop a survey to collect data from local school districts approve private schools for students with disabilities and chared Renaissance school projects uh the councils will be required to submit the report to the governor and legislature within 12 months following the um enactment of this legislation uh there was also the students Civic engagement uh s234 a1271 which permits beginning with the 2023 2024 school year excused absences for students who attend Civic events uh specifically this law permits Public School pupils in grade 6 through 12 one excused absence to attend a CI Civic event each school year and allows for school distri districts to provide additional excused absences for such purposes and as for the last one uh this is about grief instruction it's s333 a551 sorry a515 which requires the School Board of Education to adopt and districts to implement the New Jersey student learning standards pertaining to grief in the Comprehensive Health and physical education context area as it is next required update of these standards this standards will be included from beginning in grades in grade 8 and will end at grade 12 and would address the physical emotional and behavioral symptoms of grief coping mechanisms and resources available to students thank you you going to cover the suers count education uh have anything on that I don't think we have there's no update at this time for the Somerset County Educational Services okay um Miss Amo do you have a Somerset County uh school boards Association no update no update um Jen do you have any updates for school boards Association uh the njsba is holding its spring conference on Friday May 10th um 9:30 to 4:00 p.m. at the Princeton Junction it will focus on Student Success School Safety and public relations it's in person and has a cost of $99 for any members um March 28th at 1 p.m. there is a free webinar on immersive learning Solutions using virtual reality and extended reality and the next leadership series Workshop is April 12th in Randol and it's offered both virtually and in person and is free that's it thank you okay now we'll move on to community engagement anyone from PTO no anyone from W neither cpeg no updates thank you all right um so now we're going to move on on to board member comments are there any comments from the board okay seeing that there are no comments from the board now we're going to move on to comments from the public on agenda items only we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second opportunity for public comments is towards the end of the meeting total a lot of time for comments is 30 minutes before you make make your comment please state your name and Municipality of residence in the event it appears the public 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 foreign are not structured as a question and answer session but rather offered as opportunities to share input with the board in instances where the board feels a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comments New Jersey statute does not permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring 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 that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the public like we should have walk- on music good evening everybody uh Scott Kaufman 55 Glen Eagle Drive watchong um I want to take a moment to thank you all for your work on the budget I know it's a starting point and it's you know a living document so it will evolve and change um I will say in my 14 years as a resident in the burrow it's the probably the bleakest budget forecast I've ever seen and it does cause concern for me as a taxpayer um I think that we're at a point where maybe we need to prioritize our priorities and though it may be great to do all of the things that are in this tentative budget we may need to be more thoughtful about what we really need to do and focus on the things that we really need to do um I also want to take a moment to um acknowledge the resignation of Miss szo um Valley View music teacher she's um somebody my daughter's formed a really great relationship with and I know that though the position will be filled the um the person and the professional will be missed and uh I know that U my daughter will miss her and uh just want her to know that she has made an impact on somebody here so thank you for your for your time and thank you she'll love hearing that she will any other public comments okay seeing that there is no other public comments uh we're going to move on to action items um so administrator would be F so should I just give it to any somebody else can read administrator Danielle can you please read administrative action items um one approve minutes of previous meetings two accept Bayberry and Valley View School security drill reports there a second second any discussion okay I have a question about uh where in the agenda or if we need to uh do we have to resend the appointment of the the previous candidate for the uh board vacancy I I'm not sure what was how it was worded in the uh I don't know either sorry because we added this uh uh the volunteer appointed to fill the vacancy uh she resigned prior to taking the seat so you you have that resignation it's oose you could formally accept the resignation but you've appointed your new person to it's the question from I know it's a good question do you want to add it on as a second no I just you know if we could touch base with our attorney or something later to see if we need to do something with that uh formally I just wanted to bring it up while we're to accept the resignation yeah no that's fine too yeah we could accept I I don't know if it's resending the appointment cuz we did vote to a point and in the I mean the previous candidate so um you're in the middle of a different motion right so finish that one and then make a new motion okay or we could do a point of order to add right or a point of order but you have to finish the one you're in okay so let's do a roll call for this one sure ready Mrs agly Arrow yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mr fras yes Mr Gonzalez yes Sor Mr Ang Gracia yes uh all yes motion passed okay Mo can you please move because I think K is gonna make a I think we should add just in accept resignation of the other right but you still have to vote right so yeah everybody has to move it second um I move a motion to uh resend the appointment of Jessica madx would it be I don't know accept why don't we we didn't re second second hold on need one more second acceptation okay and who uh moved it um oh did and second second okay thank you wait yeah you didn't okay any discussion okay roll call please okay Mr fras yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs agaro good you're doing so well I know I'm getting I'm leg don't think too much best thank you very much okay personel because um Mr neier can you please move Personnel items yes item B1 accept resignation B2 approve appointment certificated staff B3 approve leave of absence B4 approve leave of absence B5 approve appointment of stem sore leave replacement teacher revised B6 approve appointments that's for the district testing coordinator directed of gifted and talented Karen kid7 approve wung Hills Regional student volunteers for Bayberry after Care Program E8 approve the use of carryover funds from the Wong Youth Services Commission Grant n approve appointment of leave replacement secretary B 10 approve appointment of long-term substitute a second second any discussion call please Mrs Amadeo yes Mr fr yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mr Ang Gracia yes Mrs agara yes all yes motion passes Mr fr can you please move operations and finance items you do have to read that and one to I'm just gonna read it at the end if that's okay one to three was already one you have one to three that one and whatever it is the end um so I move operations item approv payment one approved payment of bills two approv transfer of funds from 23 to 2024 uh three accept Financial reports eight authorization travel and related expense reimbursement for the 2024 2025 school year nine approved professional development SL school school travel and related expenses 10 authorized sale and disposal of surplus flooring 11 uh resolved that the watchong Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby authorizes the administration to enter enter into a shared services agreement with the lill Township Board of Education pursu to the njsa 18a colon 18-11 from for the 2024 extended school year program 12 accept donations and 13 which is an amendment um is to reject the uh the contract for the uh recent read the thing because it's not on the agenda so um resolved that the watchong bough Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent rejects the bid for the referendum project partial roof replacement at the Bayberry elementary school as follows where where as the washing Boro School District Board of Education advised for bids for the partial roof replacement at the Bayberry Elementary School and whereas the board previously held a public bid opening for the award of a contract for the project on March 5th 2024 at 2:30 p.m. and whereas three bids were received for the project as follows first bidder is Mac Group LLC the base bid was $786 758 um the second bid was USA General Construction LLC uh where their base bid was $849,000 and Northeast roof maintenance Incorporated where their base bid was1 milon 33,000 whereas the apparent qualified low bid was submitted by uh Mac Group M with a base bid of $786,000 758 and the low biders over the amount budgeted for this project now therefore be it olved then in accordance with the provisions for the public school contracts law the board hereby rejects the bids for the referendum project partial roof replacement at the Bayberry elementary school thank you second second any discussion okay roll call okay Mrs igly Arrow yes Mrs Amo yes this is Mr fr yes Mr Gonzalez yes and Mr Ang Gracia yeah yes motion passes thank you he there are no action items for curriculum so I'll move to policy um can you read policy for us uh E1 first reading I'll read the names of the policies board member use of electronic mail internet board member use of social networks those are bylaws and then uh policies harassment intimidation or bullying to reopt um the policy reporting violence vandalism harassment intimidation bullying Alcohol and Other Drug offenses and regulation 8420 for emergency and crisis situations and regulation for school thre threat assessment teams um uh E2 our second reading is for bylaw 0164 conduct of board meetings there a second second any discussion roll call please Mrs agaro yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mr fr yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mr Ang Gracia yes motion passes all right now we're going to move on to board business is there any board business to discuss okay seeing that there's no board business we're going to move on to comments from the public on any items um please remember to state your name of municipality at this point uh Rich desano uh 44 canar Drive in w um just one comment and one question uh I want to Echo Danielle's point about uh sort of thanking the two of you for how much work and everybody who worked put into this um I know it was probably a lot of time um so it was very much appreciated the time putting being put into this to try to meet the gaps that we've unfortunately accured over some period of time I would say as an 11-year resident of Wang it seems that we've been able to skim out on some of our bills over the past 10 years so making up for now for my kindergartener seems very worth it to me so uh again uh very very much um appreciate you guys having to make hard decisions um one question I did have uh and but unfortunately Ernie is not here um was the I believe he said that the bank excuse me the banked cap funds were available on sort of a moving threeyear window um and that we're using 800 and change now and that there's 500 left over but I'm curious if any of that 500 is three years ago and we're losing out on it or because it's leaving the window do you know the window I would have to check see how much of it is leaving next year versus the year after I can check okay thank you that was it I was curious obviously no rush on an answer okay great everybody have a good night thank you thank you thank you okay any other comments from the public okay I have a motion to adjourn so moved all in favor I opposed thank you for joining us this evening this meeting is now adjourned I'm waiting for one of you to say nope I plan