who's missing Mr Faber the Jeopardy good evening everyone the executive session of the Wayne Board of Education March 7th 2024 was convened in the conference room of the Wayne Board of Education 50 NS Drive Wayne New Jersey statement of compliance setting forth datetime and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act a roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened please stand for a moment of silence followed by the flag salute I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all yeah got to move this thing up kind Dr toak okay so before I get started uh just a quick reminder for the public that although we are at Town Hall this is a public work session meeting which has a little bit of a different format compared to our usual meetings that we have here at Town Hall um they're a little more casual a little more conversational nature and it does not include a recognition program although I did want to take a moment to congratulate um a few of our student groups first of all I want to congratulate the Wayne Hills SDA team maroon team white and their adviser Miss kler for putting on what was an absolutely incredible show I know many of our board members were also in attendance wow that's the only word that comes to mind I also wanted to thank the Wayne Hills Project Graduation committee and the PTO for inviting me to the senior fashion show congratulations to the class of 20 24 and also finally thank you to my kindergarten friends at JFK and Fallon for inviting me for story time so tonight we have a presentation about the progress that we're making toward our goals as well as our first important discussion about the 2425 budget I will also be providing the community with the student safety data system report also known as SD ssds um this meeting is also our last Board of Education meeting before March 12th the date of the referendum vote so we would like to just take a few minutes discussing the referendum over the past few weeks we've spent quite a bit of time engaged in a debate about the referendum throughout the community but the community debate debate has been sidetracked by a few other issues that detract from the main issue disputes about future enrollment numbers concerns about existing maintenance programs and a host of other comments are a diversion from the real issues facing the community a referendum is a complicated thing there's a lot to know but at this point anything that can help simplify things is beneficial so here's my attempt at simplification when you break it down into the simplest elements a referendum is really about five things first student and staff safety in 2015 the school district was forward-thinking in proposing a Safety and Security referendum that failed narrowly in 2015 the community was not aware of what security vestibules can do to protect students and staff because they just weren't as prevalent 9 years have passed and now vestibules are a standard feature in schools across the country partner Alliance for safer schools K12 guidelines note secure entry vestibules are a tier one security measure because they are crucial for establishing effective Access Control strategies which can include locking devices and visitor monitoring protocols this organization considers vestibules as Baseline protection for students and staff half of our schools do not have this Baseline level of protection ction also our elevators both of our high schools do not allow for EMS access that means if there is a medical crisis the elevators cannot be used by EMS teams also our bleachers are 6 years old one child already fell through a gap new bleachers will meet current safety codes and will protect from people or objects falling through the second element of the referendum is really related to our changing Community the referendum is about adapting to change which is not always easily easy to do especially when changes affect the entire Community that's much harder changes coming to Wayne in the form of high density housing and the community is going to grow with that will come new students and an approved referendum is the only way that the board has to accommodate the many new students who will be enrolled in our schools in the next few years while a proposal for a new school is not new I think that the community has now had time to think about what it means if there is no new school no addition to Preakness parents know how full our elementary schools are and they Now understand understand how that would influence our favorable class sizes that we enjoy today and why redistricting would be an important part of how the district responds in the event of a failed referendum the referendum is also about maintaining what we have every educational dollar is precious and the most important thing that we preserve when we go through the budget process is those educational dollars our schools were all built at the same time period and they age at the same rate which means it should be no surprise that there are some common problems happening at the same time basic work like roof repairs window replacements and boiler Replacements are the bulk of the work proposed in this referendum and it helps us maintain what we have and keep of our all of our buildings in service the more funding that we have to use for facility maintenance and repair especially when you have a 2% cap that means there's going to be less funding for Education fourth element funding the big issue for the board has always been reducing costs as much as possible and moving ahead with this essential work the board has done everything that it can to reduce the impact of the referendum by selecting projects that bring state aid and they've spent months selecting projects that are needs and not wants there has been a suggestion that if the Board of Education reduce the referendum to $100 million voters would find a reduced referendum helpful first of all there's no guarantees in a future referendum and I would like all voters to think about what that really means it means that the state aid to the community would also be reduced and it would also mean that there is about $70 million worth of work that would be 100% paid for by taxpayers and finally number five investing in the Next Generation that's what the referendum is about the proposed referendum is about investing in the Next Generation and creating an environment where they can Thrive academically socially and emotionally this referendum will enable us to maintain the educational expectations of our community and provide safe and healthy teaching learning spaces that Foster creativity and Innovation so just a quick reminder that all School dist I'm sorry all district schools will be closed on the day of the referendum March 12th so please remember to vote if you did not get your sample ballot in the mail and do not know where to vote you can go to the district's website wayneschools.com and click on the Wayne Township Public School Bond referendum link okay so at this point what I'm going to do is I have to go into a required report which is as I mentioned the ssds or the student safety data student safety data system okay so this is the semiannual report under njsa 18a 17- 46 of incidents of violence vandalism weapons and substance abuse offenses and harassment intimidation and bullying which took place in our schools during the period September 1st 2023 through December 31st 2023 so pursuant to statute I'm required to report to the Board of Education two times per year at a public meeting all acts of violence vandalism harassment intimidation and bullying which occurred during the previous reporting period and I am reporting the following incidents that took place during period one as reported to the New Jersey Department of Education through the ssds the ssds replaces the former electronic violence and vandalism Reporting System it also requires each School District to report more and different data than in the past for example all HIV investigations both alleged and confirmed must now be reported in addition all removals like suspensions for disciplinary reasons must be reported for both general education and special education students so the numbers being reported may appear higher in some instances than the totals reported in Prior years for that reason it is tough to draw conclusions on any increases in reported totals due the state requiring more information under the new system our schools continue to maintain an excellent record of Investigation documenting reporting and handling incidents in a timely and efficient manner for reporting period one throughout the district there were incidents in total reported eight incidents of violence three in in of vandalism zero weapons offenses eight incidents of substance abuse 104 General code of conduct incidents which led to educational removal and 21 confirmed incidents of HIV out of a total 65 that were investigated the 21 confirmed HIV cases involve the categories including race seven ancestry ethnicity and national origin one religion two gender zero orientation or identity three power and balance two disability 1 and other five distinguishing characteristics cases were investigated by the school level anti-bullying Specialists with guidance and support by principles and the district anti-bullying coordinator consequences and Remediation efforts for offending students included individual counseling student and our parent conferences discipline in accordance with the district code of conduct and remedial measures for targeted students including counseling support services parent conferences scheduled changes staya away agreements teacher aids and monitors during the school day adult student pairings and other monitoring measures in addition each school has instituted programming including the districtwide initiative no place for hate intended to reduce bullying and improve School climate so also with the Hib report for this particular period there were 16 incidents of Hib that were investigated since my last report and three of those cases were deemed to meet the criteria of actual hi HIV incidents thank you all right where are we okay so at this point I'd like to get started with the medear goal report Mrs Richman and I will be completing that [Music] report Dr tobac can we move the banner so the board members can okay okay so um so to get started I I would like to take a moment to talk about this report first of all there's a required report um somewhere around the halfway point of the school year we're required to report on our district goals but I would like to also mention particularly because we have some new board members the unique nature of the district goal system that we have ultimately the district go that we've um we've put in play over the past years have led to a number of significant enhancements for the district at this point there's probably over 50 goals that we've established in my time here and each of those goals include some really major accomplishments for the district so some of it includes full day kindergarten some of it is our high school block scheduling um a lot of Technology upgrades modernization projects a whole host of things that have led to our district being a better place to teach better place to learn and um so it's really really this system has meant a lot for the district um it's based on good change management that's the reality of it good change management planning um making sure your budget matches with whatever initiatives you have and then assigning people to carry out different parts of that goal okay so um why don't we get started with our first goal the goal one is schools for the class of 2038 and so this is the referendum right basically what we're looking at is what kind of schools do we have now what kind of schools will we need in the future and what we've also concluded is that in a lot of ways there's the schools that we have now are not the schools we need for now right there's a lot of things there's a lot of improvements that um we've included in the referendum and so we know that we're almost at the end of this goal right the vote for the referendum will be on March 12th and um during that time period we've done a tremendous amount of work you've seen all the public relations work that's been done you've seen our podcast you've seen a host of other things also you can see we've been very active in making presentations um first of all the community Forum which was really nice opportunity for members of the community to hear directly from the professionals who've been working on this referendum for the P few years as well as board members and administration um we've made presentation to our Township Realtors faculty at each of the schools Parent coffee events PTO Council meetings two of them um the pacac community Clubhouse meeting the Wayne Adult Community Center um and also our other methods of communicating you can see on the right our YouTube videos um our podcasts which you've been catching on and press releases and a variety of letters to the community that have been released over the past few weeks so we're almost there and March 12th is a big day be sure to vote goal number two is the implementation of our learning management system this is an extension of um large committee that looked at digital platforms during the 2223 school year um during Co we had to deliver online instruction and had to make a lot of changes now we're committed to maintaining those digital platforms it we learn that there are um many benefits to the resources provided um students have access um at all times parents can go in and see what students are learning in their classrooms if the teacher's out it gives them an opportunity to record classes um interact and engage with the student if a teacher knows they have to go to a professional development training if they have a child who's sick and they know they'll be out the next day uh it there's so many ways that they can load up their classroom and just make sure that they maintain continuity of instruction canvas was what was selected by the committee it is um really the the leader in the industry the most popular in the country colleges and and now high schools middle schools and even elementary schools are are using Learning Management Systems so we have committed oursel to um a really um smooth roll out and been working closely I see Rob sitting here with the wtaa we just um this week um we've been meeting regularly but we said we're going to have weekly check-ins because we want to make sure that we provide the teachers ongoing support so um it started with we have a team of canvas lead teachers from the middle and high schools they engaged in nine learning sessions with a dedicated canvas trainer through the company and also with Tracy Lee our supervisor of educational technology our administrators participated in canvas for school administrators um Dr toac and I have been participating in our own user group so that we could be there to support the teacher so um we become very proficient and um want to show them that we are using it as well uh we have our assisted technology team um they participated recently in an accessibility canvas Workshop we have meetings regularly um with the canvas trainer the WEA president uh the supervisor of Ed technology and teacher trainers just to learn about all the engagement tools um we have weekly check-ins so that the teachers have tasks that they can do and they have access to an integration specialist now we are offering TurnKey trainings facilitated by our teachers because there's nothing better than teachers learning from their peers and we have an upcoming February 7th PD day where we'll continue to offer professional development um the plan is some of you may be thinking you know what happens as new teachers join our staff during the summer we are going to have boot camps running throughout the summer and we offer an opportunity for any teacher who would like to facilitate workshops from home online to invite um a minimum of five teachers to join them and um they would be paid for their time as we typically do with with the Wayne Township Learning Center model um goal number three is our youth mental health support goal uh we we know that the needs for providing mental health support increase significantly during the pandemic we had uh lots of covid relief funds available to us that we were able to use to bring in additional counselors we know that those funds are expiring and wanted to make sure that we built capacity within our staff and our students um so as a large part of this goal we offered Mental Health First Aid training to staff members so that they could have the knowledge and the experience and training to um work with students who are experiencing mental health challenges and we are training students so that they can assist peers and just detect when a peer may be experiencing some mental health challenges and know who it is that they should reach out to and how they can best support their their appears in their grade did I oh no there we go um so to date uh we have 30 staff members that participated in the youth Mental Health First Aid training we now have trained more than 120 staff members we're really proud of that uh five staff members were certified as TurnKey trainers we'll continue to expand those opportunities throughout the district we have a collaboration with the Bay County Mental Health Association and the bay County Department of Human Health Services uh at no cost we can offer additional training to the district the Wayne Valley counseling department is currently training all Juniors to be Teen Mental Health certified jck Foundation um will deliver presentation soon to our 11th graders at Wayne Hills with a focus on improving mental health and resilience amongst Youth and we have a partnership with nj4 s in Pay County so students can be referred to them and and we continue to maintain a smaller contract with Tri County Behavioral Health uh many of our students and families have benefited from their services this next goal was um part two of our special education goal a continuation from last year and our mtss goal um mtss is a multi-tiered system of student supports um you know with with we're always looking to meet students where they are at and make sure that every student needs are being met in the classroom uh we're training all of our teachers to provide um small group and targeted intervention to students as they see they need it so every day we're assessing and Gathering student data and and then providing them small group instruction so that along the way if they're finding any challenges with any concepts um we make sure that we get them caught up and we provide additional reinforcements um for the special education goal we have um brought back her consultant from last year and she is um has visited classrooms let me bring you so you can see exactly what she has done um she made School visits to look at her in-class resource programs we um implemented an identification matrices and that was something a recommendation from the prior needs assessment this way we're assessing every student who go through the iron arest process um fairly and the same way and we have measures in place before um classifying them because the mtss is a goal and is training that we're providing to meet students where they are at in the classroom we brought in coaches to teach the teachers these specific techniques and show them how to assess and how to manage the rest of the class and and what this actually looks like in a classroom environment so that you're working with small groups but also maximizing the learning time for all the students in the class um we have have um developed and implemented a behavior Hub that's a tiered um Behavior resource module uh there are students who have difficulty self-regulating their behaviors again this is not training that a general education classroom teacher necessarily has um so we're boosting capacity and and providing this training so that we're better equipped as a whole to meet student needs in the classroom we are hiring an additional board certified Behavior analysis that's a bcba to help us with behavior interventions in the classroom uh I I know that you all know and we're very proud of our partnership with Montclair State University and the Department of Labor for a power to teacher apprenticeship program uh we have someone enrolled right now this was a year to go through a pilot with the Department of Labor we have a follow-up meeting with them next week and and just determine compensation and um what type of support we would like to offer anyone in the program program um as they pursue this continuing education and um the me mtss training has continued we have second grade teachers being coached and we provided an introduction to our fourth and fifth grade teachers and that'll continue next year um after next year all of our teachers will have had training the next goal is um the profile of a graduate we had 60 of our um teachers we had parents we had administrators um stakeholders um from from all areas participate in this committee and um the goal this year was to develop a graduate profile for students um for high graduating high school and then um middle school and Elementary we were able to come together and develop One logo with six core competencies that we thought should embody all students as they graduate from fifth grade they graduate from 8th grade and as they graduate from high school I included with your packets tonight some of the collateral that we developed and we have a sample of a retractable banner that we could make available to all schools um so there you see the six core competencies what I included um is I think you also have the the the posters um each of the posters shows what a student would be thinking about when they consider each of these competencies the work would continue next year we'd have a second part of the goal and we'll start framing that out now um and the second part would be to develop profile projects that students would complete um most likely at the end of third grade at the end of fifth grade at the end of 8th grade and while they're in high school we had Ramsey uh we have a principal in town who is um an administrator in the Ramsey school district he was able to share a portfolio of um I'm sorry he's a resident in town um in our Randall Carter section his son will be entering our school district but he's a principal Ramsey he was able to share a lot of samples from the work that they've done and um we have also been able to gather from some other places but it was nice to be able to involve someone who who lives in the community and has had great success with this work in the district where he's working uh so we will form a new committee and involve teachers who would like to participate in this work and um so that'll be the next step uh Dr toak I think you want to report out on this next goal so then to wrap up this presentation would like to do is talk about goal six which is a goal that was added a little later in the process and it it was in response to some of the behaviors we were seeing throughout the district at the end of the year last year um especially so bullying prevention and education so this particular goal um was something that started out with just discussions with guidance counselors to collect information to find out um where it is that bullying incidents were taking place um collecting more information recommendations and strategies and also one of the big components of the program was to develop educational programs um one of the one of the real issues that we found last year was there was a lot of situations that were conflict that were identified as cases of HIV or at least originally there were claims and so that UPS the number of cases that you have it number it UPS the number of Investigations that you have to conduct but more education about what is actual um HIV compared to conflict is something that was really important so you can see here counselors from across the district designed three presentation uh three presentations focused on bullying prevention social media awareness and emotional regulation the presentation was designed to be modified for student staff and family viewing and so those are in the possession of all the counselors across the district um they've made their way to at this point and they're available to all parents and Guardians and our newsletter actually tomorrow is going to have a new way of Distributing the information there's a QR code so it's very easy to get to these resources presentations will also be made made available at the schools with handouts and principles and professional school counselors communicate proactively with parents to deescalate conflict and offer support so with fewer cases that we're experiencing this year that's good news the principles and the counselors have a lot more time to communicate and be proactive with a lot of these cases so and the district continues to work with outside agencies as Mrs rman was pointing out and the goal for this year was to reduce the norm of cases by at least 10% at this point we're tracking with a 38% decrease as of right now so that's great news we're well ahead of pace in terms of meeting this goal and um that concludes our our presentation board members do you have any questions or anything you'd like to discuss questions thank you um there's a lot of work goes into these goals by a lot of people and there's countless hours that go into these goals and achieving them and it kudos to you Dr toak and you Mrs dman for leading this um I will tell you you'll get pushed back on canvas Google Classroom is is some people like it better but having worked in Google classroom in Blackboard and canvas they all have their ups and downs but we'll get there over time you'll get there um it's it's just amazing when you sit back and we get away from all the minutia and see what really what's happening in this District it's amazing because too often we forget about the key reason we're all here education and I made this comment to you the other day when I was talking to you in almost two and a half three months when did we talk about education so and education is part of the referendum that's education too but I'll talk about that later thank you and thank you for everyone who took part in in achieving these goals thank do you want to take your thing Mr mafin your turn I'll provide an update on the budget last Thursday we received our state aid figures from the Department of Education and uh as reported in the newspapers it has been increased of about $1.8 million a little over that as this is good news it is subject to change due to the governor's budget negotiations with the state senate assembly usually occurring in June we will continue to finalize the tenative budget using that state aid figure uh the Department of Education previously uh released guidance for the 2024 2025 budget year covering the electronic submission and the budget details and processing changes the state loaded the state aid information into that software and we will continue to enter revenue and appropriation as required once our tenative budget is complete it'll be submitted to the Department of Education Bay County office by March 22nd for review as as far as the district what we've done we've reviewed all school and Department budgets and we continue to modify requests to currently uh close the gap that exists between Appropriations and uh Revenue in regard to planning information we've been monitoring the current years's budget revenue and appropriation projections uh for 2023 20244 to confirm our base budget specifically using uh and considering next year's uh needs uh on not only the appropriation side but the revenue the big ticket items that we're uh tangling with at this time uh first had to do with the state and federal Grant funds that have run out uh We've currently spent through all the money that has been uh provided by the federal and state as related to a p our pandemic we did focus on identifying those expenses uh Grant funds as well as general funds uh as as we addressed lingering issues for students uh from that pandemic second we looked at at the salary counts uh just a quick calculation on a little over 3% increases generally across all of our salary counts uh our payroll is about $109 million a year you uh calculate that out it's about a $3.8 million push for salary counts generally uh third we looked at a significantly increasing special ed costs again related to the pandemic and residual impacts to students learning um with that comes the transportation costs related to uh Rising special education about District placements as well as support services that we started with about $360,000 before reductions um and the last area that was a significant concern uh for us to while we crafted our budget um had to do with health care costs which is estimated to be around a 12% increase from year to year which represents about $3.7 million again that's all the appropriation side uh and the budget Gap is between the two so the revenue side again uh the budget Cliff hit and that is basically what I talked about on the appropriation side which the revenue portion which is the grant funds uh we no longer have we spent through them according to planned and as approved not only by the Department of Education it's also outlined in our audits uh over the years uh again that represents the budget Cliff so we had to identify some of those with the idea that we would not be able to move forward with them but we had to make a prioritized uh review uh based on need second area had to do with the tax levy increase as you know it's a 2% increase on our existing tax levy that's roughly about a $3.3 million increase we also had the uh previously mentioned incre increase in state aid uh as far as Bank cap and which is uh unused taxing Authority from previous budgets uh we do do not have any available uh within our budget to utilize for this year's budget we do uh have with existing projections for student enrollment uh that will generate an increase or an adjustment to tax levy of roughly $183,000 uh and the increased healthc care cost adjustment also generates uh through this budget and is available $616,000 is available as a revenue Source uh specifically looking at the procedures uh and uh specific timelines that we have tonight is the first uh public input on the budget uh you can uh anyone interested to speak tonight can uh talk at the podium for agenda items it is on the agenda as a PWS item which will be completed uh next meeting and voted on by the board um and second input is on that uh March 2D March meeting uh the actual budget as finalized and entered into the Department of Education software is due to the county office um U Back I would say March 22nd again due for approval and review of the County office uh their last day to review and approve to the district is a April 19th um at at that point the approval has been placed uh and we can uh then advertise in the for the general public and in the uh newspapers uh uh with the idea that a more detailed presentation will be provided at the budget hearing which is currently scheduled for May 2nd uh 2024 that concludes my portion and I think the superintendent want to make some comments what I was hoping to do is just spend a few minutes talking to the board about some of the realities that we're facing this year with the budget so um this year like every year there are different challenges and there's different things that we need to overcome in developing a budget and as Mr Moffet said our covid funding has run out all the federal funding that we Reed for uh Co is no longer available to us so this is a problem in districts across the country but there's also there's more to it it would be very nice if we were in a situation where we could say hey you know what the covid funding is running out but some of the issues related to covid are also over so it all kind of comes to an end at the same time but that's not what's happening and so that's a new challenge another unprecedented thing that we're facing so um I just like to talk about like I said some of the realities of of what the district is facing when it comes to increased costs and and why there's a lot of pressure on our budget this year so it's no secret to everybody that there is a teacher shortage and the teacher shortage continues right it is really not improving and um honestly our approach to filling vacancies we have is we've been basically taking veteran teachers from other school districts which does not make me popular when I go to administrative meetings when I attend the county Roundtable because we have been taking teachers from districts all across this area um we've we've added some excellent staff members to The Districts um and I don't mind because in the end we fill our classrooms we have excellent teachers that we've been able to hire but that comes a at a price right it comes at a price because no one generally speaking is willing to leave a position doing the same job and willing to be paid less and so that's where the difference is we're hiring teachers instead of hiring recent College grads or people maybe with some experience um we have to hire veteran teachers if we're going to fill our classrooms what that means is there's a there's a trickle down effect the trickle effect is that at the end of the year when there's something called breakage right basically the effect of hiring a new teacher after a veteran teacher leaves so used to be able to hire a new teacher maybe $50 to $60,000 for a veteran teacher that's leaving at $120,000 your breakage is that difference right that $60,000 or so and if that happens a bunch of times you have 30 people retire you can imagine how that adds up very quickly and that's really one of the things that funded what we've been doing with Surplus we've been building our Surplus we've been building our different Reserve accounts for maintenance and for facility work that is much harder to do now when you're hiring people at a much higher salary and there's other things that don't follow the budget either because there's increased expenses we used to have for example long-term leave Replacements that was kind of a group of employees that came to the district and these were generally speaking recent College grads or maybe teachers who were really interested in working in the Wayne Township Public Schools so the fact is they would be willing to come to the district at a reduced rate or step on the salary guide and they' be willing to work in place of a teacher who has left right and so the teacher that leaves and maybe is on you know medical leave or maternity leave or something like that um would be replaced for that time period but now we're in a situation where we don't have any of these people there are very few long-term Replacements that we can hire so what we do is we wind up paying additional stiens to the staff that we have so we pay six periods that is an expensive proposition and so that's another thing that's facing um that's that we're facing as a district in dealing with that so we do have a significant increase in salaries across all of our bargaining units that includes additional stiens and other forms of compensation but one of the areas that is really increased is our six period payments over a million dollars a share um we also as Mr Moffett said we expect an a significant increase in health insurance which in some cases it exceeds for all the bargaining units really what our our maximum tax levy would be the other thing I wanted to talk about and I know that I I made a comment the other day regarding the increased state aid so we do have one positive thing and that is that we have a significant increase in state aid most of it dedicated for special education but in this District what we're facing is A4 million increase in cost on top of already significant budget for special education which is something that we will ultimately have to find the money to fund but we've had a number of pandemic related costs related to ex extreme behaviors we've had um also a situation where we've had about seven students move into the district this year who were out of District placements in their prior District they moved into the community so we have to now Place those students in out of District placements and we've also um we have a number of students that have significant needs medically so we have students that require catheterization we have a number of students with severe blood disorders um we have a number of students who have feeding tubes and they require round thee clock medical attention so we have to have nurses for those students both in school and on buses so these are the types of things we're talking about these are important things that we have to do to support these students but it comes at a cost um in addition to that there's also the Staffing that goes with that right so in addition to um all the other staffing needs that we have the other thing is that um just just to talk quickly about our reserves so for those of you who are new board members for the past 10 years we have worked very hard to build our reserves our reserves have really that's been the thing that has funded most of our capital projects so for example we have renovated 10 science labs that are high schools right brand new to completely renovated science labs um you know about the turf fields at both of our high schools there's all kinds of things this um this current round of projects that we're doing is the TD the Tunis partial roof replacement Ryon partial roof replacement AP partial roof roof replacement and the pness envelope that adds up to around $7 million the pness envelope is very important because if the referendum were to fail we want that building ready to go and we have to be able to even though it's a small building we would be able to accept students there it could become a very small Elementary School um but our capital reserve is something that um you know like I said that that with the rod grants has allowed us to really make a lot of progress with with a lot of the maintenance work or Capital work around the district um we're also concerned about our fund balance at the end of the year so because of all these different things that are affecting our budget now in a lot of cases we would have a fund balance in the neighborhood of 4 million5 million that we would be able to deposit in these different Reserve accounts this year we're looking at about maybe two and a half million that's where we we stand right now that's our that's our rough estimate of what we hope to have by the end of the year so um I guess that's basically I guess said I just wanted to provide the board with a little bit more about why um we have some of the things that we're facing Mr Moffett did a very good job of describing the numbers and some of the issues I just thought that would be helpful for all of you to understand sort of the the reality behind some of these things thank you any questions from Mr M Dr Toc uh for the board what we're going to try to do is set up small group sessions with Dr toach and Mr Moffett at the board building so if you do have any questions or concerns we sit down in small groups and we just we sit down we'll have small group sessions concerning and especially for the new board members to better educate you on the budget and how when you see it where everything is because it's very confusing because sometimes you're going to see a revenue and an expense and they don't make sense they don't match we're going to work on that and uh having you know over the years these small group sessions have seem to work the best so we'll be doing that within the next couple weeks uh we set it up with the administration at that point all right see no questions uh Mr Moffett revisions to the agenda yes we have a few tonight uh under T emergent Human Resources we're going to add number 13 approval of return from administrative leave that action reads resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves for the 2023 2024 school year The Following return from administrative leave uh number one is ID number 9406 Wayne Valley date of return March 8 2024 uh for administrative and under X emergent school resource legal X number one approval of sidebar agreement that reads as follows resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves a sidebar agreement dated March 7 2024 between the Wayne Township administrators Association and the Board of Education regarding one-time payment of stiens to complete physical education observation assigned to the district assistant principal in charge of Athletics the board board president and the board secretary are authorized to execute the same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the terms of the settlement to further Implement say number two again it's X2 being added approval of settlement agreement and general lease that reads resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the settlement agreement and general release in the matter of student ID number 9717 55 4951 dated February 27 2024 as attached by reference and further authorizes the board president and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take further steps required by the terms of the settlement to further Implement same and lastly X number three approval of Last Chance agreement with employee ID number 9406 that reads as follows resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of of the superintendent hereby approves the last chance agreement in the matter of employee number 9406 dated March 6 2024 as attached by reference and further authorizes the board president and secretary to execute same on behalf of the board the business administrator and superintendent are authorized to take all further steps required by the terms of the settlement to further Implement same and that concludes the changes to tonight's agenda thank you Mr Moffet this portion of the meeting is open to Citizens for comment on agenda item only residents are asked to State their name address and subject matter comments may be limited to 3 minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or student the board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business do I have a mover move Mr Gordo Mr B Mrs pup good evening weren't we just here good evening yes Suzanne pup 23 tuxedo Drive um there's an item in the agenda regarding the prus Early Childhood Center and then there's also another page that talks about before and after care in the elementary schools um I'm wondering if there's any before and after care available at The Early Childhood Center because I have been asked by someone whose child may qualify for the Early Childhood Center what does she do if her work schedule does not allow her to be there to pick up her child at the end of his or her session so I'm just throwing that out there thank you very much thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item Mr B M Mr gordano do I have a mover for the agenda like to move the agenda in total Please Mr Jano Mr batter any discussion on the agenda see none vo call Mr maffin Mr gardano yes Mrs lamandre Mrs yes Mr Paul yes Mrs regoso yes Mrs witing yes Mr Bill yes Mr Faber yes Mr Pacos yes and Mr pavik yes and I'll abstain on T1 motion carries okay this portion of the meeting is open to Citizens for comments on any topic residents are asked to State their name address and subject matter comments may be limited to five minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or student the board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or a subsequent meeting under their old business do I have a mover move Mr Judo Mr B good evening sir good evening board members I'm here to speak to you all about the pay raises that you've all given yourself and I was wondering if it was retroactive okay well here we are s sir can you state your name I'm sorry Sean Duffy Tall Oaks driveway New Jersey well here we are I know I speak for myself and former board members Kathy and Susan and I believe for the majority of the current Board of our of our current board members and our Administration when I say this referendum is not just necessary but crucial to the future of our school district I've lived in Wayne for 13 years my wife has been here for 30 well I'll get in trouble if I say how long but she's been here for all her life and now we have three children three children that have been blessed with each one of the teachers that have taught them and another 13 years to go in the wayed education system that my children will benefit from I could not imagine being in a better school district to live in and that's why I'm here tonight I'm here tonight to encourage all parents who have students in the Wayne School District not just to vote Yes on March 12th but I encourage you to talk to your neighbors your family members your friends the person standing behind you at the grocery store encourage excuse me anyone who lives in this District well yes this might be a steep price tag but ensures the future of not just our schools and their maintenance but the solid education that the children will benefit from and at this current time we have schools that when it leaks when it rains it leaks I know that if I have a water leak in my house and I'm in the middle of cooking dinner dinner stops till I fix it it's a distraction and it's the same for our children our children don't learn when they are distracted they have to be moved from a classroom due to a leak or no heat or exessive heat and if the person that you're talking to doesn't have children in the district then remind them of their property values and how that will be affected when the school district ratings plummet because of the depl deplorable infrastructure that caused our school closures redistricting and the loss of our teachers due to being poached by other districts that weren't afraid to invest in their school district once again I'll state that I was on this board when the initial projects came in and this fiscal SCH board past and present looked at what was necessary and what was a wish list and we paired it down to its current state many numbers have been thrown around this town what is the tax implicant on my property ask the mayor he'll give you a number ask Dr tobac he'll give you the right number but for me there's no price tag I put on my children or their education that being said I hope you all agree with me en Joy me voting yes on March 12th thank you for your time thank you Kathy Kazan six Strat and drive I attended the council meeting last night because I thought it was important to uh speak to our mayor about his recent behavior in our community the mark of a good leader is someone who brings communities together not divides them he's done an excellent job of dividing our community with misinformation last minute shenanigans ambushes videos Etc I made my points about that last night but the point I want to make this evening is to ask the parents to forget what the mayor has to say because he's shown you he couldn't care less about the working conditions of our teachers or the safety of the fields etc for our students um I ran for the board 12 years ago because I lost my first race and then four more elections after that and the reason I ran for the board was because the excellent education my son received here he received a full free ride to undergrad and a full free ride to law school because he had his foundation from an excellent school system here and I've always felt the need to pay that forward and I think you all should do the same continue to push for this referendum tell everyone who will listen that this is an excellent School District but only if we keep up the good work and maintain it and make sure that our schools are excellent that make sure our teachers are well cared for that make sure we hire the right people do your job I'll continue to do mine regardless I'm a private citizen now but I still care deeply about the students in the school district and I hope everyone gets out on March 12th and votes yes don't let the mayor tell you what to do you make an informed decision and you've gotten all that information from that man over there who's telling the truth thank you thank you good evening ladies and gentlemen Suzanne pup 23 tuxedo drivewayne I'm sorry I missed last week's meeting uh congratulations to our staff members who received the governor's teachers award nothing makes me happier than honoring our students and our staff members I'm not going to chastise anyone for an omelet station that's not why I'm here tonight unless you flew in Gordon Ramsay to do the omelets I'm sure that it was Mike Schmidt and his terrific team from sto I want to thank the board members especially for their support of the referendum and especially to those of you who spoke out at the council meeting last night my favorite line from last board meeting was Mr fabers the term he used was unequivocal support regarding the referendum and I think that's where all of you are that's certainly where I am and the two previous speakers our Administration our teachers and I'm really hoping the community at large feels that way also Mr pavlac you always do your homework and have valuable statistics at your fingertips thank you I want to thank Mr resmer who asked last week if the mayor had asked for a sit down no about three and a half years ago the mayor gave us the information about all the new housing developments that were coming in and told the school district to get prepared basically well you have been getting prepared we've been we the previous boards have been getting prepared which resulted in this referendum so we've been doing the homework the requirement and it hurts me to the core that we have not gotten support from the municipal side save for Miss Ritter thank you I want to thank the seniors who spoke last night at the Town council meeting in favor of the referendum Mr freeswick and Mr molner they said after all it's our future it's our children I'm going to peeb on some of the business statistics from Mr Pacos and Mr pavlac in addition to commercial properties mentioned last few meetings Willowbrook FedEx Gucci Crossroads Apartments Etc look around we have Whole Foods when Trader Joe's decided they needed a bigger store they made a bigger store with a whole new shopping center around it there's a CarMax in AAA we have an expanded shop right but building is going on at the old shop right and a manello project is going in across from the main post office I'm sorry that prnus is a ghost town oh but wait they're getting 256 Apartments because it's going to become a mixed use complex and there are also four new daycare centers ERS in town all these businesses do their homework they do their demographics it tells you that they're willing to invest in our town and I believe that our citizens our voters should be interested in investing in our town also by supporting the school referendum I want to mention our class three officers when the Safety and Security initiatives did not pass one of the ways that the school district decided to keep our students as safe as possible was hiring class three officers in every school that comes in at about half a million dollars a year it's probably a little higher now and they have really become an asset to all our schools in the district so thank you we've already had a new in influx of new students classes are full especially on the Elementary level seniors like me in my neighborhood are being replaced by people that move in with children I have there two children moving in across the street from me they retired to Florida good for them another phenomenon though is adding to the student population we have multi-gen generational families we have parents whose grown children have moved in with their kids whether it's through divorce or maybe they need to sa save more so they can buy their own home and I I I I know three or four families in close proximity to me that have their grandchildren living at their home we don't turn them down their name might not be on the lease but they're still living in Wayne and we educate those children too so in all I want to say thank you very much I want to wish you happy read Across America month and next week is a happy St Patrick's Day to all of you and I would like you to vote Yes for the referendum on the 12th and make it a very very happy March thank you thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak seeing no one else I move the clothes Mr batters Dr toak any comments just very quickly a response to Mrs pup who asked about after care for the Early Childhood Center and before care so we are working on a contract for some services for the upcoming school year so we're in the mid-stages of the process so we should have something for the board later this uh spring okay any old business new business board member comments for board member comments now I'm going to start at the end to my right this week next week will be to the left and we'll go down and then Mr pakos and I will finish Mrs leandry hi good evening um I just wanted to say I think it's terrific the uh 38% decrease in the HIV investigations um and all of the work that went into putting the presentation together it was wonderful thank you thank you Mrs regoso so I just want to say real quick the future belongs to those who prepare for it today I can't tell you how to vote but I can assure you that the Wayne board of education has your children's best interest at all times with over 3,000 un units whether we believe it's 100 extra kids 150 extra Kids 3 00 extra kids it's still extra students we have to prepare we all have to prepare our schools need repairs and preparation for what lies ahead the investment in education is never ever wasted our teachers are the key to success however teachers need a safe environment and good working conditions so please vote on March 12th it's for the children and it's for the future thank you thank you Mrs wch so I was happy uh or had the pleasure to participate at Randall Carter in the read Across America program this week so that was a lot of fun um uh my next point is for the referendum um the projects as it has been mentioned many times there's 62 projects and there are our must have not want have so we will have to get it done one way or another um with the referendum there should be minimal disruptions to the teachers and the students but if we don't have the funding we will have to move things around make cuts and be very creative on how to get those things done and that's the problem that's what I worry about the most so what price are we willing to pay for the future of our children um I think it you know what will the education look like if we don't have enough funding and we have to make those cuts whatever program it is we haven't gone that far in that way but that's where we will have to have conversations about so please vote it is for the future of our children and uh I hope to see you at the polling locations on Tuesday thank you thank you Mr G Dan thank you um last week I was acknowledging a teacher and kind of got emotionally caught up in it and was remissed to say that yes I do naturally support the referendum uh I was the only one I looked back and said o I forgot to say that one I want to get that on record I do support it um to the man who swore me in the first time I was on this board I only have one question for you and the gentlemen's office is down the hallway why why did you do this that's all thank you Mr Paul thank you um I would like to address a couple pieces of the referendum and some of the information that's been put out out there um on the woer Brook Mall tax increase uh I feel like that's being put out there um pushing on people that prices are going to go up when their rent goes up um kind of scaring people into more money that they're going to pay uh but if you look at willbrook mall the majority of the highest paying renters in that mall are National chains right National chains have established pricing you don't pay more for an Apple computer on Fifth Avenue in New York than you do in willbrook Mall you don't pay more for a pair of jeans at Macy's and Herald Square than you do at will Brook Mall so when their rent goes up their prices are not going up they're not adjusting National pricing because of willbrook malls rent so um you know be sure that they understand tax increases and rent increases are part of business that is not going to trickle down to the Shoppers in the mall uh if anything the new units that are coming into town are only going to increase their revenues by people going there to shop um it was nice to see the mayor last night uh acknowledge the need for a new school at pness um however I I don't understand how we can go to aund million referendum and build a $47 million school um that's a lot of cuts that we then have to make from our needs and the biggest piece then of that budget is not backed by state aid so we're giving up a lot of state aid to cut a lot of needed projects um and as everybody has said uh there are no wants here these are all needs um we talk a lot about maintenance and I think um a lot of the public gets upset that we haven't been maintaining our schools over these years the maintenance we're doing now is more of a refurbishment than maintenance we haven't neglected the buildings and now have to make up on that maintenance the mayor talked about um fire trucks and not buying 20 fire trucks in the same year and having to replace them in the same year um none of of us were here when these schools were built they were built around the same time a lot of us weren't even alive so we're we're in the position now where we have to take care of them um we didn't plan for them all to be the same age and need the repairs all at the same time uh but it's our responsibility and our duty to do it um I think that's it please go out and vote everybody do your homework couple days left but get out and hear your voice Mr Paul you saying I'm old because I remember when they built the [Laughter] schools so I like to think about things in a simple way because I'm really a pretty simple guy and I think about when my wife and I bought our house in Wayne and for the amount of money that we spent on our house there were a lot of towns where we could have gotten a much bigger house but that wasn't what was important to us what was important to us was the education system for our children and you make the choice in a lot of cases of what's best for your child versus some of the things that may be material and you know there are sacrifices that could come along with that when you do that for your children so I question situations where people are trying to come to Wayne that may not be able to afford a home but they have children and they really really want the educational system and maybe they have three children but they can't afford to buy a home they may not be able to afford a three-bedroom a three-bedroom apartment but maybe they can afford a two-bedroom apartment so what do they do they throw in some bunk beds into the bedroom and maybe instead of having you know one child in a two-bedroom apartment you end up with three children coming out of a two-bedroom apartment the reason why I say this is because there's arguments going back and forth about the number of units being used to create the basis of what the you know the outcome is going to be or how many children are going to be coming nobody has a crystal ball but what I will say is that the demand to try to come to Wayne is so high that people may be willing to settle for something smaller and try to get more people into a unit than some of us might you know have been willing to do to benefit their children and get them into our educational system so while we're arguing over you know 50 students or 100 students or 200 students it really doesn't matter what you see in your demographic studies in my opinion because time is going to tell what's going to happen and we all know that there are going to be more children coming so either you could prepare for it and the worst case scenario is you're going to be overprepared which will keep us in you know with a little extra room maybe for a longer period of time but what we can't afford to do is be underprepared we can't afford not to have the space to put these children because if the influx is greater than what we've anticipated that creates a much more difficult situation what we we're going to have to bring in trailers to have children or put up tents I mean talk about discomfort if you're outside in a tent I mean that's really not going to be great in the winter time so I just want people to think that you know about a lot of the things that you're hearing aren't necessarily factual nobody really knows what the future is going to bring but all we need all we can do is try to prepare for what is going to be best for the town best for our kids and like I said worst cases we a little bit overprepared but I I don't think I've ever heard too many people complaining about being in a better position than they thought they were going to be in you're only going to hear people complain if it turns out to be worse so I you know I appreciate everybody that came to speak on behalf of the referendum both last night and tonight and uh please get out and vote on the 12th thank you Mr B so first of all I want to um just say that uh staying away from the referendum to start with um I got to go to James Fallon's TRS I always find those traps awesome I think people should go and experience some of those things more and apart from everything else it gets you into school systems where you can see for yourself what the school systems are like so good job on keeping the TRS up and running and going and do more of that because they're fantastic to get the kids really pushing their entrepreneurial Spirit early um in addition to that I really want to like think about what we're getting out of that profile of a graduate right I think the profile of a graduate really starts to aim us towards looking at what our students get out of being in Wayne I'm really interested to see what we get out of the projects at each level and hopefully that shows something to the individual students where they can see how they've grown themselves as well over time but like that kind of educational support that we get for people working through Wayne that's what Wayne is as far as the referendum I think there has been more than enough information that everybody has you know where to find the information the thing I need you all to take away is go and vote on the 12th get out there vote we really need the community to tell us what where that support is thank you Mr pakos thank you uh first I wanted to thank the Wayne Hills SDA uh my wife and I attended and it was a great performance and I also uh heard a unique variation to my name when they announced it on Friday so that was pretty cool um also I wanted to congratulate the uh two Wayne Hills wrestlers and the uh Wayne Valley wrestler that made it to States also the track and field folks that made it to States for for both high schools and uh of course our musicians that do a great job I know there's a lot of uh plays going on these days as well so I hope to attend some of those uh I wanted to say that that was a good summary on the referendum by Dr Tobak earlier so if somebody missed it please go back on YouTube tomorrow and uh listen to it I know we live in uh on demand and information overload world everybody wants to know you know the answer right away so you know we've been we've been Fielding questions we've been getting questions but 100% of the questions are on our website we have podcasts we have a YouTube channel at this point as of this afternoon if someone posts on social media and says I reached out to the Board of Ed and nobody got back to me you know I can't believe this that's fake news cuz you know all all the questions have been answered so far um and if they haven't been answered thus far and there's new questions there's plenty of sources where you can get the information so I'm as Pro business as anyone in this town you know the the businesses in this town are going to gain from the influx of apartments and the influx of people coming in but I'm more pro-education and more Pro commmunity so please go out and vote on Tuesday March 12th thank you excuse me it's been a rough three weeks it's been a rough three weeks and as Mrs Kazan said the division that has been driven through this town is as wide as the aisle in front of me if not wider we talk about numbers we talk about demographic studies and that's exactly what they are they're studies and we have to use the best information you we have avail available to provide to this petition to help guide us our Ro our most recent demographic study is a couple weeks ago but we can get into numbers and everything else but the issue is that we are seeing some real live things happening in our schools with population before our eyes that no demographer is ever going to be able to pick up in a study and it was alluded to by other board members we are seeing extended families move into town and how do we know it because one of our schools is at the B breaking point right now because we're seeing it as the parents register their children and it's also happening in other schools as well no demographer is ever going to tell you that before coming to the council meeting last night I was at had dinner with a realtor and I asked them I said how many houses are for sale in Wayne now today he goes about 30 maybe maybe even less because as quick as they come on we can't even show them and they're gone I said to him I said can tell me what the people are who who are moving in he goes they're all families and the first question I get is about the schools how good are the schools and he's a product of our school system so he knows so as as I was contemplating what I was going to say tonight I had a lot of emotion and I began to think and the words of a great American educator and philosopher John dwey came to my mind he said education is a preparation for life and education is life itself these words resonated with me and they gave to me the vision of this that this community has had for years we under we understand education is the Cornerstone by which society is built with this in mind I stand here before you tonight and I entrust you with the solemn duty of advocating for the future of our educational institution and most importantly the welfare of our teachers and students at the heart of our discussion today lies the precedent matter of the upcoming referendum we have unprecedented growth the mayor laid out last night he goes yes the second Avalon Bay on on Valley Road he talked about the GF property that's getting ready to go shovel in the ground he talked about the rock ledge garden center property if you think Avalon Bay on Valley Road is big check out that that piece of property pregnant shopping center the realtor I had dinner with me last night said you can't get more than a 60-day lease in the Rama in the pregnant shopping center because they're redeveloping it I don't think they're putting stores in it because they couldn't survive with stores in it now so what are they going to do they're going to put up more housing it's coming he everybody knows it and we can argue all over and over you know should the town have you know sued developers and this and that that's not the point the bottom line is we are going to be getting a lot of children and guess what it was a rare occasion that I agreed with the mayor last night when he said that and when he said you need a new school wow unfortunately we have one means of doing that and that means it's going out to referendum I don't even want to think about building a new school because this Bond referendum would look like Chum change compared to building a new new school we have to be proactive in what we do we have to stay ahead of the curve we have to ensure that we can preserve the Hallmark of our small class sizes that's how children learn read all the studies you want small class sizes increased learning I didn't go to school for 3 years for a master's degree and education to figure that out it's obvious when I was in elementary school a long time ago when some of the schools were being built we had 36 kids in our class you were lucky you could walk up and down the aisles between the desks so as Mr Faber eloquently said last night at the council meeting what do we want our Legacy to be in this town do we want our Legacy to be yes we're a forward-thinking people yes we are going to invest in our schools or well look what they could have done and that's why we are where we are now now more than ever it's time to unite and support this referendum the critical work that lies ahead for our educational institutions our schools are not just buildings they are the very essence of our community they are the incubators of knowledge the Laboratories of innovation and the crucibles of character development by investing in our schools we are investing in Future Leaders thinkers creators those who will shape the destiny of society those who be replacing us up here and in government as well let's heed our call to duty tonight and Safeguard the promises of a brighter tomorrow for generations to come please go out and support the referendum people could have their their opinions and I've heard a lot of opinions on both sides that's fine and I respect everybody's opinion but when you go to the lengths of trying to tear a community apart and bring up a breakfast and then make a comment on taxpayers paying for it come on how about the breakfast the town has every year for the for the businesses in the community who's paying for that not our administrators who paid for the breakfast so I'm leaving it at that I could go on and on but I ask you please your support is vital in keeping this District in Pace with what needs to be done in the future I thank you all I'll take a motion to adjourn motion