essay 1046 PL 1975 c231 S1 amended in 2006 the asur Park Board of Education has provided adequate notice of this meeting by sending a notice of the time date location and to the extent known the agenda of this meeting to the asur park press and the new coaster on January 8th of this year via email copies of this notice have also been placed at the administrative building Bulletin Board District Schools azri Park Municipal building the police department and filed with the city clerk on January uh 2024 um the mission statement for the AZ Park School District azre parkk school district will provide all students with a comprehensive and Progressive education where everyone possesses the skills and character to succeed in a diverse and evolving Global Society rule call Miss glasman here miss linski here Dr Maud here Dr Penna Mr Remy here miss Ricks Mr Rogers here vice president gillo here president Saunders we have a quum great uh rise for the salute to the flag I pledge 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 all right great all right thank you everyone for coming um I would like to say that we are uh we should take a vote uh as per District policy 055.1378000 we need to vote on that so so you want somebody to make a motion y I'll make a motion I'll second it roll call this is for Miss Ricks to participate via virtual yes m linsk Dr maxud yes Mr Remy yes Mr Rogers yes vice president gillo yes motion pass okay great I think we're working on getting her on on online right okay all right if you just let let us know when she's when she's online all right um let's do student teacher recognition for the month first like to thank every for everyone for being here tonight uh every once a month we always recognize our students of the month staff members of the month and this week uh this month athlete of the month right now I'd like to start with thir Marshall Dr schules thank you Mr dinino good evening everyone tonight I have the privilege and honor of introducing a student of the month who is a true leader in an out of the classroom on behalf of his second grade teacher Miss galdi we would like to describe him as someone who is kind caring generous and very very very nurturing and helpful to all of his classmates he not only excels in academics but he is very active along with his family in our school Community joined tonight by his wonderful family Mr miles per please come get your award mom come on up please take a picture and in truth they good fashion a backpack of all your favorite things it's heavy bud conratulations it's very heavy careful and here's your reward oh here you see y miles thank you Mom and now for the third Good Marshall staff of the month for the month of March it is again my honor and privilege to introduce a teacher who is the true definition of a team player I am very grateful to have worked with her for many years her co-workers describe her as someone who is compassionate hardworking detail oriented helpful always willing to lend a nice helpful hand and overall very kind and dedicated to her students join tonight by her lovely daughter and beautiful granddaughter Mrs Miss Lisa Bruno please come get your award I might need your help with this one yeah the flowers y yeah Miss now I like to call up uh miss the Jackson buyers for Bradley Elementary all right the Bradley Elementary the Bradley Elementary good evening um at this time it is uh deani Delani Busy has been selected as the Bradley Elementary School's first grade student of the month deani demonstrates kindness respect to everyone she meets she's always willing to help others and last but not least she comes to school eager to learn always tries her best congratulations danani keep up the good work this is from your teacher and as always it's a family affair her mom is a former student come on up mom come on up you're your sister Kiara you are a former student but now you are a parent and I just want to say thank you for entrusting your baby the same way we trusted you and had you we now have your daughter thank you thank you our so the Bradley Elementary School staff member of the mom nurse Sarah art nurse Sarah art come on up she just joined us in January but when I tell you she has patience no like literally has patience like you get it patience she has five children at home her husband and her sons are here come on up come on up Dad come on up husband and she still cares for 363 students we are so happy to have her thank you Nurse Sarah um nurse Sarah the students wanted to do a little something for you so they made you a giant band-aid and um saying that we love you here come and then of course we always want to give you a flowers nurse you want to hold this for Mom mommy hold this for mommy there you go thank you she just has two of them with us she has three more thank you you're so welcome thank you Nurse Sarah um at this time myself and Dr schz um Mr Medina could not be here tonight for MLK but we said that we will take the charge so for the MLK student of the month is Diego and aleno Ramos Diego is hardworking he's a hardworking eighth grader who has met every academic expectation thrown his way he is a wonderful young man who has maintained an a average for the school year Diego is well on his way to any path he wishes to take he makes us very proud and we look forward to all his future accomplishments congratulations Diego is he here and die just to let you know Mr Medina's not here but he said he will be giving you your gifts he's going to share you on Monday you will get your gifts and for the MLK staff of the month it is Angelica arus MLK staff of the month yes give her a round she is a remarkable human being helpful enthusiastic willing to go the extra mile it is MLK's absolute pleasure to announce Miss Angel as staff of the month Miss Angel has done an amazing job helping the main office and school Community she serves on the climate and culture committee and has been the go-to member for the building at large congratulations Miss Angel so well deserved so deserve it thank you thank you and at this time yes I'd like to call up Miss O'Neal for the high school good evening everyone we're first going to start by recognizing our athlete of the month uh this person is out on the fields courts anything um she's an incredible student as well she is someone that we are very lucky to have in our overall Community Mr arone asked for her to be recognized tonight it is Elizabeth uh Villa Hernandez for our students of the month we are recognizing the 12th grade students at Asbury Park High School who have earned the prestigious seal of biliteracy these students will graduate um proving that they are more than proficient not only in English but also in either Spanish or Haitian it is an extremely hard accomplishment um to reach it is something that is celebrated in high schools across New Jersey but high schools of thousands of kids tend to have anywhere around 50 60 and this year we have over nine here tonight um and we also have some 11th graders who reached this accomplishment as well so we're incredibly proud of them I'm going to call them up we're going to take a group picture and we are celebrating a special lunch with them next week at the high school so first if Yandel Garcia Carmona could come up Angel aiio Castro Naomi Hernandez Sanja Hernandez porus Betsy Lima I'll do him I'll do no I didn't Eric Lopez Ortiz congratulations Danny Martinez urbina roselli Riano Denise Roos Ruiz Randy Vasquez and we have one student who earned it this year for Haitian Creole and that is Briel Paul King me Sor one two ready you know I'm good for that thank you that's and then also presenting our teacher of the month for the high school um this teacher has been working incredibly hard this year we have a new course called modern Global Studies which is studying things that are currently happening in the world around us connecting them back to historical events uh he has made his classroom so exciting there are games incorporated into every lesson he has bringing he has brought in a variety of speakers including Veterans for Veterans Day from the Vietnam War um the daughter of a tusi uh Airmen and most recently women's uh League voter representatives to make history really real for our students um it's Mr Ronco celebrating one of our history teachers anyone I would like to congratulate everybody tonight uh it's a you did a fantastic job students as well uh thank you for your all hard all your hard work and teachers thank you for instructing our students can you do without you thank you all right thank you everybody um we're going to go into executive session um we need to vote on it uh I know everyone's like just hang tight um we're going to make a vote for it but just um asking everyone to to stick around because a very important meeting especially in terms of the budget so um please hang okay um make a motion to go in executive session I'll move it roll call this classment yes Mr zinski yes Dr maxud yes Mr Remy yes Mr Rogers yes vice president gillo yes ladies and gentlemen the board's going to go into closed executive session for approximately 30 minutes to discuss matters related to Personnel litigation contracts and other related matters we will be returning to this room in approximately 30 minutes the board will not be taking any formal action in executive session to the extent that the board is going to take any formal action it will be done here in this room in front of the public thank you roll call Miss Glassman here Mr zinski here Dr Maxon here Mr Remy pres I believe M Ricks is um virtual okay if she could just raise her hand online she did thank you Mr Rogers vice president gillo here president Saunders yes we have a quorum ask ask the board let's ask the board I first would like to ask the board if we can do the public participation portion of the meeting first do you want to do student presentation no no we're going to do student presentation first and then we do public participation I'm sorry a second Mr Wendy it seems like you have some questions but the thing that I I wanted to do is do the um student presentation first so we can see exactly what our students are doing and then do the public participation so I know we have some high school students that want to come come and give a presentation spe we respectfully ask you to tell us your name and what grades you are in and what school you go to I I I know you go to high school but you know um my name is Sandra Hernandez I am in 12th grade at the I go to Asbury Park High School I'm part of the class of 2024 um I'm here to advocate for the change of the graduation date um AZ Park High School's class 2024 is requesting to change our graduation date from June 20th 2024 to June 18th 2024 the current graduation date of June 20th is the same graduation date as for many other districts such as Neptune High School Mammoth Regional Freehold High School among others many of our teachers and family members will not be able to attend the Asbury Park High School's graduation ceremony due to these clear call conflicts in the past Asbury Park has always made sure its graduation date didn't conflict with other local schools we hope the same can happen for the class of 2024 please remember that the class of 2024 is the most impact by the global pandemic covid and never got to enjoy many of our normal celebrations leading up to graduation due to the conflicting other graduation ceremonies in CO's impact on us the class of 2024 should be able to pely commemorate this exciting moment with all of our teachers and families and I have a petition here signed by many of the students of Asbury Park high schools class of 2024 to reconsider the selected date of graduation good evening my name is Angela paricio I'm a senior at ay Park High School representing the class of 2024 I am here to I am here today to add with my fellow classmates for the change in our graduation date to me graduation is something I want to spend with family and teachers who have pushed me to become the person I am today but with our current graduation date that won't be possible and I'm hoping you consider making this change on behalf of the class of 2024 thank you good afternoon everyone my name is roselli Riano and I am a senior Asbury Park High School representing the class of 2024 I came here tonight to support the this decision taken by my fellow classmates to change graduation date like my classmates mentioned many teachers aren't able to make it to our graduation due to the fact that it's also other School's graduation day I would like graduation to be memorable and have all teachers and family members that pushed us to succeed to be there graduation day should be a day to celebrate and be excited about it not a day to worry who is not going to be there for this reason we ask to change graduation day thank you we want to say thank you to Mr jino for um allowing us to speak tonight and thank you have a good night don't go anywhere stay right there first of all I would like everybody to stand up and give them a sending ovation so many of you know me from back in the day right I've had you as Elementary or middle school right 2001 I've been here um and you you approached me at the high school the other day when I was doing my walkthroughs and I said absolutely you should you should have get up in front of us and tell us how you feel and what you're going through and we heard you we have changed your graduation date to the 18 thank you very much the one thing I want to say is I can appreciate you guys courage and ability to come up here and speak I'm not the greatest oror at my age but I just want to say you guys did a wonderful job and we appreciate you don't forget this night we need to hear your voices so please come up here and email us talk to us we need your voices so congratulations thank you was that June 18th was it June 18th you asked for okay I just wanted to check my calendar I thank you guys have a great night thank you very much hey board member you got to come you got to uh Mr President one one quick thing if I can uh mention to Mr jino in the past um we've gotten requests many times from the mayor and Council to be in to to have uh to get invited to the the graduation ceremony and everything if we could do that with a little bit of advanced time if it conflicts with any City thing they'll they'll have enough time to switch it around and and uh they could participate in the graduation so just wanted to put that out there I'll absolutely make that happen will happen thank you we're going to move to the um public participation portion of this meeting in accordance with the board policy 0167 the as Park Board of Education recognizes the value of the public commitment on educational issues and other matters of importance and provide members of the public to speak with opportunity to express themselves on school matters of the community interest the public comments portion of the meeting is not a question and answer session and all public comments shall be directed to the board president or presiding officers of the meeting members of the public uh who wish to make public comments must be recognized by presiding officers and provide his his or her name Municipality of residents and group affiliation if applicable all public comments shall be directed to the presiding officer and are limited to 3 minutes in duration members of the public who do not follow the forgoing rules and interfere with the orderly operation of the board meeting may be removed from the meeting public participation good evening my name is arva Council my address is 302 3rd Avenue as Park New Jersey and I'm standing here because I want to thank Mr jino for Monday um I had a meeting at the school and it was at 12:00 and he was a little bit late and he came and he talked with me for 15 minutes and make sure that everything is going to be okay in this district and I just want the board to know that before I make any decisions please think with your head not with your emotions and what I mean by that the last board meeting three members walked out and when you run and you sit on the platform it's always about the kids cuz I ran and on the signs it says kids first and I felt that that night you didn't put the kids first and I'm not here to bash you I'm not here to put you down but I appreciate you coming back and thinking about the kids and another thing on the agenda I see about summer school it's Monday through Thursday please don't vote on this because it's usually Monday through Friday and it's a week after the kids get out and they um get out of summer school a week before they come back so it's on the agenda and it's usually Monday through Friday not Monday through Thursday thank you I hold it no B into it Bend into it okay sorry hello Mr President board members I'm Liz homer I'm a special ed par professional at TH Good Marshall Elementary School and I live in West Long Branch I had to come here and tell everybody how great we've all been feeling um for the first time in a long time I really feel seen and Val valed when Paris recently got directive that we no longer had breaks and our lunch was cut to 25 minutes it really made myself and others feel kind of worthless did we not work hard enough to earn these breaks did we not deserve them are we looked upon as that invaluable that we weren't allowed to have 15 minutes to collect ourselves we work hard we are with our students the entire day including specials lunch and recess yet apparently we were not deserving of a few moments just to sit quietly and then Mr duino graciously went back to past practice we now get to have breaks and a 30-minute lunch and for that I am so grateful and thank you Mr duino for visiting our classrooms by yourself without any intention of intimidation members of the board thank you for hearing our concerns it means more than you know you all see us we appreciate you and you appreciate us thank you for knowing that power professionals are an extremely valuable part of this District I'm looking forward to a new day here in Asbury Park a place where Educators can feel safe again where students will see the Joy on our faces where the stress of the unknown will be replaced by open and honest conversations a district that works together to do what's right for the beautiful students of Asbury Park I have restored hope and can't wait to see what wonderful things will happen thank all of you so so much from the bottom of my heart thank you good evening and Mr President um Mr Chino um board I thank you for an opportunity everybody that I know that works for the district feels happier so so I just want to say that um again Pamela major I'm at 121 Springwood Avenue Asbury Park and I come here tonight on behalf of Brookdale Community College I've called a few times and I did get a response from a staff member to let you know about the Community College opportunities Grant this grant allows people who earn under $100,000 or their household have a total income of less than $100,000 to go to Brookdale tuition free that goes for any staff members who don't have degrees already that may influence some of your maintenance staff some of your security staff they also can be a part of this but there are many students uh many of whom were just speaking now they can come to Brookdale tuition free I keep saying tuition free um tuition free because I know many people and many of you may remember what it's like to pay a student loan there to to give these students the opportunity to not have to do that and saving them in some cases hundreds of thousands of dollars is something that I think you can all get behind and invest in and so I'm more than happy to speak later about this but I wanted to come publicly say thank you that someone actually did call me back I've had many times when that has not happened happened but this time it did happen but we want to make sure that these students can go to Brookdale their Community College tuition free thank you I'm going to direct you to Mr jino so that you can have some dialogue in which for the um the grants and stuff like that so that this can happen um because as a graduat of Brookdale I understand and back then it was only $66 a credit but I'm pretty sure it's a lot more expensive then and now yeah well I'll just say this very quickly um students can go to the Neptune site on Monday we're starting um you admissions the admissions process there there's a fasta coach that's there as well so we'll make it as simple as possible and the mentors are there to hold hands and make sure that students are also um emotionally have someone to talk to when things get challenging cuz college is sometimes not fun so thank you thank you good evening my name is Lyn Johnson I live in Oakhurst 33 Peach Street Road um I just wanted to say thank you to the board for your decision last week we walked into school on Friday and it was like a cloud was lifted most of the staff was all SM FES and something we haven't seen or felt in a while Mr jino has been in our class at least once a week smiling saying hi to the students and this is something that we are not used to it is so nice to see him and not be bombarded with nine other administrators interrupting lessons our Asberry family feel has been restored we can't wait to see what the future holds I just want to thank everybody so much thank you for your comment good evening my name is Shannon Young I am the preschool instructional coach districtwide and I have been in the asber Park School District for 19 years I live on I live in Matan New Jersey I want to thank you all I want to thank all of you on the board of education for considering our concerns and pleas for help distress and hostility within the district for the past 2 and 1/2 years has been traumatic for all I want to thank the Acting Superintendent Mr J for reconsidering and addressing some of our concerns and the Damage that has been done to the students and the teachers one change in particular that I would like to discuss that has been changed since he took took his role as Acting Superintendent on February 22nd is the reinstatement of par professional breaks as per as per a directive made by central office prior to his prior to him taking office as Acting Superintendent power power professionals lost their two breaks this change did not save the district any money nor did it nor did it have any impact on the district except for hurting the staff and the students this was a cruel change to the working load and working conditions for our her work staff and the backbone of our school district power professionals keep our most most disabled students safe some of their duties include toileting medical timing following behavior modification plans and IEP updates they also assist students with instruction so I thank you Mr dabino for reinstating the braks for power professionals honoring the apaa collective bargaining agreement and allowing teachers and power professionals to schedule their breaks around the instruction needs of the students thank you good evening everyone my name is Sean Hamilton I'm uh live in large at 84 Creek Road keensburg New Jersey still place of to buy if you're looking uh I've been here 25 years and currently I a grade five math teacher um for the first time in a long time I get to stand up here and not bring up negative things about our district and it makes me happy I know there's a lot of tumultuous emotion last meeting and I'm glad we're all past that we're all as emotional as you guys are because we all care about our kids I want to thank Mr jino one for showing up at the uh St Patrick's Day Parade along with Dr Matsu Mr Rogers was there Mr gillow Miss glasman I want to thank you for coming out Senator gopal was there assembly woman uh Peter Paul was there it was a nice showing and for the first time in nearly 20 years I've never seen a more solid group of people teachers administrators walking together in solidarity and trust me kids noticed it parents noticed it there's been a whole different vibe in our school at thuren Marshall the kids when they came in and saw Mr jino Walk in no one looked at him as this who is this stranger coming to our room with a clipboard disrupting our instruction they all say hey Mr G hi Mr jino and I want to thank you again thank you for remembering Pi Day for the math people we had a big day today with our fifth graders it was a wonderful day uh but I want to thank you for reminding us that you know why we're really here hopefully the politics the nepotism the favoritism all that has ended I see someone said you know there are brighter days ahead the Bright Days started Thursday night and I can't again like others reiterated I can't wait to see what we can do and what you can do for our kids once again thank you all very very much my name is Nancy Sabino I live at 1000 4th Avenue I've been a resident here in Asbury Park since 2009 a former business owner now retired and uh a volunteer here at the Bradley school for the last 10 years with the reading buddies program I know how good the kids are here I know how much they really want to Excel and how great the teachers are keeping them motivated challenged and in line when we come to read we were told last night at the council meeting that because of the school budget our taxes are going to go up next year 25% that's crushing to anybody who's lived here and has paid taxes for this amount of time I know you all feel the same way if you own homes in Asbury Park I really want to urge you to work together with the council to come up with creative ways to get the budget fulfilled maybe look at some of those schools and offices and buildings that no longer are really necessary in their current state and do something because more and more people are going to be coming here the way they come to the council meetings to say you got to do something otherwise people are just going to start leaving and we don't want that to happen I know you don't want that to happen the less students the less budget so think about it and I'm only one person but I know a lot of other residents and anybody that hears that 25% increase does an immediate intake of breath because that's far more than we can do especially on fixed income thank you thank you for your comments good evening board my name is Nina suin I'm a resident of vve Park um and I just like to say from here on out my hands go out to all our teachers to say I'm glad they all feel more comfortable in being able to come to the school district and do their jobs what I'm putting on the table tonight is now that we've taken care of our staff now I need you guys to really take our children more seriously cuz at the end of the day if it wasn't for our children none of these people let alone you would be here so from day forward I'm asking at the end of the day let's start focusing on our children and stop fing on politics or personal issues personal gains or whatever cuz when it's all said and done without our babies none of you guys would be in this building tonight and I'm going to Jabina you know I love you to death but I'm going to tell you the same thing I've told everybody sitting in your seat me and my oxy machine don't have a problem coming to a board meeting or to your office and calling anybody out on whatever that not doing and that also goes for my board president I'm telling you from here on out my whole focus in this district and in this community is all about accountability when it comes to our families and our children so I will personally be holding every last one of you guys accountable thank you Miss Summerland Miss sum wait wait wait come back to the microphone for a second you forgot something really important when is your next PT meeting at the middle school Oh Yes actually it's next Thursday March 21st at 400 p.m. okay pleas send out an email please send us an email Dave Ronco Asbury Park High School I've been here for 20 years I live in Lakewood I just want to make this short and quick I'm proud to say we finally have a captain that's going to steer Us in the right direction and Mr jaino it's great to work with you again thank you woo hi I'm Jessica Daniels I live at 414 Ridge Avenue and I'm a high school teacher um in at the high school sorry I'm nervous I'm here tonight to thank this board of education from the very bottom of my heart it has been a long arduous last few years one where teachers voices have been not only stifled but blatantly ignored at all levels here in Asbury Park I'm beyond elated for a man for a future where the staff who has given their entire adult lives to the kids of Asbury Park can now be a part of improving this district one voice at a time I realize that there are teachers in Asbury Park who need to show Improvement this fact likely makes me just as angry as it makes you and I wouldn't be myself if I didn't point that out here tonight but what I can also say is that this teacher and many others like her work with every ounce of their beings to teach love and support the students of Asbury Park day in and day out last year every single one of my juniors passed the NJ GPA except one representing the highest aphs scores in years also I have had perfect attendance for so long it's become a running joke amongst my colleagues further I haven't written a student up in years and rarely if ever have discipline issues and finally I haven't missed a single asbery Park sporting event in as long as I can remember I don't say this to brag I say this to express that I represent a plethora of the staff here in the Asbury Park School District and yet in recent years I've never once been brought to the table for any decisions pertaining to the children I have rarely have ever been asked my opinion on critical educational decisions I have not been included in conversations that will impact the teaching and learning of the very kids that I have loved and taught for almost 20 years instead I along with the collective unit of the hardworking teachers here have been vilified blamed clumped together and scapegoated this is not only unfair but it is counterproductive to creating a school district focused on children learning and Improvement when those in the trenches have no voice especially those in the trenches who are actually succeeding I also wouldn't be me if I didn't point out that these are my words and the words of no one else I am not here to represent the union or any political party or any other entity that's been brought up as of late I am here to voice the overarching opinion of the strong devoted teachers in this District we are so extraordinarily happy to finally feel like we are moving in a direction of growth collaboration and genuine progress I want to close with this let me just take a breath two weeks ago when Asbury Park High School senior icoin Crawford won his Monumental Regional wrestling matches at Jackson Liberty High School on a rainy cold Saturday afternoon he had two fans in the stands both unpaid and there voluntarily me and Mr jino you may agree or disagree with Mr gerbino as the Acting Superintendent and that's okay but what I will say is that he knows who has given their hearts their souls and sometimes even their sanity to the children here in Asbury Park and he knows it's time for these very people to have a chance to speak to lead to flourish and make this District stronger than it has ever been that's it thank you for your comment hello edley victorin Union County speech language pathologist in the district okay I'm just going to take it off sorry all right um i' like to make the board Administration and staff aware if you're not already aware that Haiti is currently experiencing civil political unrest where members of the opposition have taken control of the prisons airports and most essential places we have Haitian students at all levels elementary middle and high school um who have families in Haiti some are experiencing Stress and Anxiety and also staff I'd like to say I'm one of them um related to what's happening and the effects on their families living in Haiti um some of these students may not express their concerns that's also a cultural thing for uh for most um or may not seek help but I am hoping that we may have some resources counseling available for our students um I don't know what that looks like but i' just like to bring that uh to the front um I'd also sidebar um I'd like to thank the board again I'm just going to Echo what's been said already for listening um some of us are still experiencing things but I'll speak from for myself I am here because I am dedicated to my students I am here because I care and I am ready and willing to move forward and to do what we need to do in order to move our Stu students forward and to move our district forward we don't want to be ranked 400 or whatever it is it's time for us to move forward a park is known for its Arts we have so many kids who are artistic we we have so many kids who are talented we need to start investing the time and the money in our kids no more raises no more you know backand deal no let's start investing that time and that money in our students cuz I don't want to hear when I need a test or something that we don't have the budget it's not good enough so I'm happy I'm I'm thankful for all of you and I look forward to the future thank you M Victor M Victor contact my office tomorrow Mr Ruiz will work with you try to set something up for the students absolutely thank you love hi there uh my name is Mary Sparkle I'm a resident of nepton New Jersey um and I am a third-year teacher at asur Park High School um I teach ESL English second language I teach world history I teach us one and I teach career Explorations um last year I was the assistant coach for the girls varsity soccer team and I hope to start a varsity girls lacrosse program at the high school in the coming years um I also T tutor several students after school and I'm a strong and also very loud supporter of students at various athletic events um I say all this as a way to show you that despite my short time in the district I am invested in its children in the district's success and in the future under our new leadership I am so I'm so proud to be an Asbury Park teacher um I'm so proud to see my students grow and improve and believe in themselves every day I am honored to stand witness to those victories um all of which are so big and meaningful and important um I recently took my career Explorations class on a field trip to fulfill NJ um so we could gain some volunteer experience to put on our resumes we were making in class um while there another volunteer asked me about my students I told her about the class gave her a little background on the students and when she remarked at how hardworking and how sincere they were and their efforts and desire to help I just told her these These are the best people I know um my love for my students brings me here tonight to tell you that I'm very hopeful for the future and direction of this District um I am hopeful that the board board and our Central Administration are ready to listen to its teachers um on how we can better serve those absolute best people I know and give them only our best as adults who they are meant to trust uh these students are so good and so intelligent and so eager to learn and succeed um and I'm excited to work together to figure out how we can improve how we serve them um particularly as an ESL teacher um I'm even more excited to figure out how we can better serve of our students with stronger programming and activities that cultivate a welcoming environment for um our immigrant students and their families uh I'm hopeful that you the board Central admin want to hear from your local stakeholders teachers parents students um hear us as teachers and Par professionals when we say that we want to do the jobs to the best of our ability um hear us when we say we want to work together thank you very much bye good evening Sheila Brazil board president Mr jino administrators staff um I'm so glad that everybody is in a better place a better space Mr jino it goes I guess the shout out goes out to you huh but um seriously now that everybody is you know want to be on one Accord everybody have their breaks back have their time back can rest so the next test we have for the students I expect the grades to go up okay thank you have a good night t good evening my name is Shelley Sanders I am a teacher at um Dr Martin Luther King Middle School I've been in the district since 1979 I know I look young but I started started bangs Avenue in 1979 I've been here ever since never left so I am I believe blue I just wanted to talk about some of the things that's going on at the middle school and uh I know some of you had a chance to come visit when we did teach Rock was stepen vanan we did read it across America we had a published author come in and reach to our kids I'm employing you to come out to the Middle School more to see the wonderful things that we're doing I know you hear a lot of negative things but I want you to see we're doing a lot of positive things and I hope that the change that we have that teachers are still held accountable I don't want it to be a change where teachers think like okay now I can relax no this is where the fight starts because I think we're all here for the same reason and that's for the students of of asber Park so I want us to stand together and no matter who sits in that seat I want us to all work together for the students of Asbury Park I am a proud grandmother of a first first grader at the great Bradley Elementary and I'm on behalf of my grandson I expect everybody including myself to do our job to make sure these children are learning thank you I appreciate I appreciate all you com all all the comments that were made um the one thing that I do want to say is I don't believe in Perfection um and the board looked at a three- tier approach to their decision it was the administration the teachers and the community we still have a lot of hard work to do and it's not going to be easy to be quite Frank with you I wouldn't want to be I've been in leadership over 20 years and I wouldn't want to be in Mr doino's seat right now we hear you as a community and I just want to thank Mr dinino for stepping up and doing his job this was one of the most positive meetings that I've ever been and and I've been on the board for 10 years and i' it's just been like a revolving door so to speak thank you Mr deino I can see that the morale has gone up tremendously and I appreciate you yeah Mr President can I just make uh just a point of privilege to say something um I wanted to see if uh speaking to um the mental health issue that someone brought up regarding our specifically our Haitian students and staff is there any way that we can redirect or bring in services to kind of help with this ongoing crisis um you know Mental Health Counselors come in whenever there's other crises that happen I think this deserves merits um a little bit of an extra redirection what do you think um I'm going to be speaking to Mr Ruiz tomorrow um regarding that exact request okay so we we'll have something plan this week we'll work with Mr matoran as well um we will provide for our students that's a guarantee okay thank you I would like to close public participation part of the meeting and we do have an present presentation from school board here here a presentation from school boards hold on I got something to say real quick I just want to apologize for my emotions my words my actions disappointment that y may have done last meeting I just want us to move forward and do what's right do what we all came here to do and that's provide opportunities for the children in the District that's it now we'll do the presentation from from the school boards I my name work and I hope I know public comment is over first a minute having been a board member on for 20 years having been a former board member board president for a number of years that not just heard from your board your staff your students congratulations I'm here for a different reason but really congratulations and good luck to all my and I'll use like if you need me to I knew I made a mistake when I said that uh and I know you're live streaming so I guess I need to use it I also know there are a couple of new board members here but I know that a number of you are experienced so you've gone through the ethics presentation before uh and for the newer board members you probably already have completed your new board member orientation you heard about ethics so while I'm not saying I'm going to run through this I'm I'm not going to hit every detail to the fine point if there's something comes up you'll stop me I'm going to do the presentation what I will do is the PowerPoint I will email it to your ba tomorrow so that she can share with the board but typically I prefer not to give it out ahead of time you did each get a package that it's very slim and what it has in it is the sheet that everybody needs to sign that they completed the ethics training it also has in there the 10 pieces of the ethics uh code and there's also a sheet in there that's new this year uh and all the board members received it uh superintendent received it um it has in there one of the slides that we'll get to that talk about things like nepotism and who can who can vote on certain things uh I'm also going to talk about the disclaimer for a quick second I'm not an attorney I don't play one on TV either all right so but what I am telling you is I'm here to do a presentation and any questions that really come up and anything that you have a sincere question about in terms of that doesn't make sense what you should always do is you should refer back to your board attorney that's what you're paying him for he's the one who has who has the knowledge on it I'm doing the presentation in terms of what I need to cover ethics and accountability public service is a core value that can improve the lives and the world around you as a school official you have the honor of serving the public so much of what we're going to talk about this evening with this presentation is the perception clearly from what I heard a few minutes ago the perception of this board is that you're on the right track and you need to always have that in mind the perception is is the ethics Act is a set of minimum ethical standards part of this is also to remember that you serve now all of your community so it's not just the students but it is all the community it's those people who live in the town who have nothing to do with your schools you know senior citizens who who maybe have grandchildren or or children who are still in the district uh there were there are certainly citizens in your town who have never had any involvement with the school but they're certainly paying taxes so they have they have a right to be represented so it's essential that the conduct uh of the local board holds the respect and confidence of the people these board members administrators must avoid conduct which is in violation of the public trust the way I like to think of it is you know for those of you who have been in The Busy World you're the board of directors they're they're your stockholders you know they elected you to sit in those seats and they have a right to to have confidence in you to see how you do your business and to uh to be very confident that you're looking out for everybody's interest School ethics Act was established uh it created the commission it created prohibited acts the code of ethics which you have in that folder mandatory training requirements and a disclosure statement we'll hit each one of those briefly conflict of interest and disclosure statements you all had to sign a disclosure statement which says uh what what family members or yourself what family members might have an interest in any type of business that's doing business with the district they never ask how much you make but they do ask the state doesn't require that they know if you have a a brother-in-law a cousin a son or something like that who's involved with the business that the district is paying in some respect that sheet just in case you're not aware of it becomes public knowledge and if somebody does an internet search on your name that sheets up there so again they don't ask how much they make but they want to know about all professional staff members uh board members Charter School trustees administrators everybody has to fill that out the code of ethics and mandatory training uh New Jersey school boards is not a state organization it's an association made up of the 560 some districts in the state but we are the ones who are commissioned to make sure that we do the training uh for folks who don't know it in the audience what happens with board members is when they come on they required to go to training the first year second year and third year of their first term and again the first year of every subsequent term and that's really just legal updates but the mandatory training has to be done if somebody doesn't fulfill the mandatory training they can be taken off their board uh they can be removed um and that has happened uh the big change this year was they changed it now that the uh board members have to go to training within the first 90 days of their board their Bo board service in the past you'd have people that were holding off and not going for training until November they had already been on the board for a year the school ethics commit serves at the uh pleasure of the governor he appoints he or she appoints the uh the people to the ethics commission it's nine members five are non-school officials two are school board members and two School administrators and uh I heard somebody mentioned the term uh you know parties before and and no political party can kidnap this it's a maximum of five members from anyone party who can be part of that commission advisory opinions and ethics complaints I'll try to do this one quickly here's the difference advisory opinions are for something that's going to happen in the future I'll use myself as an example here my full-time job is I'm a real estate agent a number of years ago when I was still on the board I asked the commission for an advisory opinion in terms of what I could do in the school program for the play you know and as long as I just said that I was a real estate person that was fine I couldn't say I'm a real estate person and also the Board of Education president so you have to you can ask an advisory opinion for to make sure you stay out of trouble it's really you do it yourself nobody el else does it if you have a question about something you want to make sure you're in the right and that you're not going to get in trouble you can ask for an advisory uh opinion uh ethics complaints are something completely different an Ethics complaint can be filed by anybody it can be filed by fellow board members by administrators by members of the public by students an Ethics complaint can be filed by anybody and it's for somebody who is alleging that there's by been a violation of the school ethics act or code of ethics uh the SEC hears about 85 complaints a year and about another 35 advisory opinions those opinions and and the complaints are also made public and or available on the internet and the reason for that especially with the advisory uh opinions is they do that to if somebody else is going to have the same question down the road am I am I right I'll get off of it um so if you have a question it's a good chance that somewhere along the line somebody else is going to have a similar question so you can look up and to see what the advisory opinions that have been filed are I talk to about the training the first 90 days governance one governance 2 three and then governance four the legal updates the first the first year of every subsequent term uh those trainings are done in person live virtual self-paced online uh they try to make it as much as available as possible to make sure that everybody gets the training in talked about the disclosure statements new school officials must file disclosure statements within the 30 days of the start of employment returning school officials April 30th deadline to file the disclosure statements penalties there are penalties for somebody who ignores the code of ethics or who violates the code of ethics there reprimands censur suspensions or removals clearly the removal is the is the toughest one and it's something you never like to see but it has happened an immediate termination where you're taken right off the board uh repres centure suspensions again they are made available to the public the public has the right to know about those and I think personally I think that's a great thing because we talked about the trust that you want the members of the public to have in the board and how you're doing things so it's a it's a good thing that they if they see that something has come up that it's available to them there are 10 pieces to the code of ethics and you're going to get this PowerPoint over the next couple days as I said I'll send it to the bay or to to the superintendent's office tomorrow but with each one of these what I'm going to hit is I will hit the 10 uh pieces underneath they the standards the standards are if somebody were to file a uh a complaint an Ethics complaint those are the type things so let me do the first one just to give you an example so the first one uphold and enforce the laws rules and education regulations of the State Board of Ed court orders pertaining to schools desired changes shall be brought only through legal and ethical procedures I'll give you a good example of where that one played in was a number of years ago number of years ago I'm only talking about three or four years ago when we had the whole thing going on in the state about the masks who was in favor of masks who wasn't at that time it was it was the law that you had to follow the mask so it was a court order pertaining to the school so whether you liked it or not you had to follow through with that so at the bottom there the standard if somebody were to file a complaint they have to provide factual evidence to include a copy of the final decision showing that somebody has failed to enforce all the laws rules and regulations of the State Board I'll make decisions in terms of the educational welfare of children I'll seek to develop and maintain public schools that meet the individual needs of all children they did the all children in the red I wish they had had really followed through and done the rest here because regardless of ability race Creed sex or social standing we're going to talk about ability for just a second and again this is a personal thing I hope you don't mind a couple years ago I was involved with a district that was doing their their strategic plan they were talking about their mission statement and somebody wanted the mission statement to say that we're going to we're going to help each child reach his or her potential and somebody else made the comment well who's to say what a child's potential is it's not our it's not our place so what we want to continue to do is maintain schools that individual needs of all children whether they're the children performing at the lowest level or whether they're your gifted and talented students somebody mentioned Arts we always need to make sure we're doing everything we can for all the children confine my board actions to policy making planning and Appraisal I hope to frame policies and plans only after the board has consulted with those affected to them you only have one employee that gentleman sitting right there he's your only employee everybody else who works in the district is the employee of the superintendent so you have to understand that the only time you have any power is when you're a policy forming committee up here sitting as nine I'll carry out my responsibility not to administer the schools but together with my fellow board members to see that they're well-run what does a board member do they come up with the what it's up to superintendent Administration to figure out the how they have to come up with the action plans in terms of I I heard somebody come up and talk about let's make sure we're doing everything we can for the student in terms of their achievement it's up to him him and his administration to figure out how to do that you're doing the what here's what we would like to see happen and that they're well-run um I'll leave that for another slide I recognize Authority rests with the Board of Education I'll make no personal promises or any private action that may compromise the board it's not up to individual members to go out and and seek somebody it's not up to you to try to get somebody a job it's not up to you to do anything other than realize that the authority only comes when you're sitting as a board of nine your board of committees is that correct even the committee the committee what does the committee do committee makes a recommendation to the full board so a committee has some Authority some power but that power is really only to make the recommendation to the board uh that bottom part there you don't want to do anything that had the potential to compromise The District Board of Education or the Board of Trustees part of that is to remember also who speaks for the board you know usually it's the board president it's the superintendent and unless permission is given on a particular topic when somebody from the Press comes to you and wants to ask a question refer it back to Administration it's not really your place to be to be saying something it could compromise the district but at the same time you refuse to surrender your independent judgment to special interest or partisan political groups for the personal gain of of of friends special interest or partisan political groups I'll touch on that one for a moment I'll give you a a real life example so a board member uh a a candidate somebody who would like to be on the board or even an existant A A person who is an incumbent election time comes up and the particular Union sends out a letter on their own saying you know I'd vote for Manny Mo and Jack that's that's fine there's no problem there they're not doing it so that you have a financial gain out of it but what you have to do at the same time is realize that just because they supported you you can't now give them any special interest you can't look at them in terms of okay I'm good you know they're the ones who supported me they're the football parents they're the art parents they're the band parents everybody has to be considered the same I'll hold confidential all matters pertaining to the schools that if disclosed would needlessly injure individuals of the schools in all matters I'll provide accurate information and coner my fellow board board members interpret to the staff and aspirations of the community for its schools if there is a complaint that the SEC gets probably more than any other one there's two of them and this is certainly one of them too often people you know take something that was in a confidential memo or they they share something they they cut and they paste and all of a sudden it ends up it ends up in a letter to members of the public or to the press or something information clearly the only way you knew it was because you were a board member keep keep matters confidential that are supposed to and and the worst thing in the world get rid of the reply button reply all button reply all is like the worst thing in the world first off your attorney will tell you the last thing you want to do is hit reply all on your phone and next thing you have is somebody taking your phone to look and see all the different things that that you've done on it a vote to appoint the best qualified Personnel available after consideration of the recommendation of chief administrative officer again the superintendent is the one who comes to you with the recommendations in terms of here's the staff that I'd like to I'd like to bring on it's not up to the board members to pick that staff it's up to your employee who's the superintendent I going too fast with this or am I all right am I going too slow with it I'll support and protect School personnel and proper performance of their duties factual evidence of violation would include evidence that the the respondents took deliberate action that resulted in undermining opposing or compromising School Personnel I'll refer all complaints to the chief School uh officer act on the complaints at public meetings only after failure of an administrative solution there is a chain of command that's going to come up again later on in the slides but understand the chain of command always send it back to the lowest level somebody has a problem with the teacher tell them to talk to the teacher that's not working out tell them to talk to the principal that's not working out let it go up the chain but it's not up to you to say it you know at the football game talk to somebody who has a problem with Mrs Jones who's the teacher well I understand I'll take care of that no no it's not up to you chain of command resolutions the most expedient manner uh the key phrase up there is on that second part know the chain of command issues uh that are brought to your attention again what you want is you want situations where if somebody's got a problem they came to you it's not for you to search out problems again it's not when you're at the supermarket or the game or somewhere else or a church we are saying hey tell me what's really going on in the school if they've got a complaint they're going to let you know and again refer to the lowest chain board member is advised of any issues complaint to the uh District you don't solicit it you remember the lowest level one of the things you want to do though is if you hear something especially if it's something of concern let the superintendent know about it one of the worst things that can happen with boards is surprises you know certainly Administration never wants to be surprised with anything let them know what you've heard and let them handle it in an expedient manner it's not a matter of you trying to take care of it when you get this you're going to see that some of these uh some of these cases are are highlighted in in blue and have an underline in it that's a hyperlink so when you get them if a particular case up there has a particular interest to you you can always go back and you can see the actual case that it was from um I'm not going to read each one to you you don't want me to do that especially experienced board members uh which one here is interesting um the second one a meeting with members of the public to discuss a highly divisive board action or to change a holiday name that type of thing I mean it's really up to and that that brought around a a reprimand but it's up to Administration to handle it as they need to you could certainly voice your opinion or you can make a motion that we can we consider this but again it's done through the table up here uh the day after board president lost election directed the board counsel to conduct research on another board member who campaigned against him not the not the best way to work together not the best way and that one brought around a centure prohibited acts recuse yourself if there's a benefit to you as school official or your immediate family du to business interests Financial involvement Services gifts favors I'll talk about the term recuse in a few minutes a little bit more but uh recusing is when you you have to by law not vote on something when a conflicted board member votes there's a distinction between recusal and abstain abstaining you can abstain from certain things but there are other things that you have to recuse yourself from and when you recuse yourself it should be in that it should be in that term I recuse myself for voting on that because my sister-in-law is a nurse in the district or whatever um but let the public know they want to they're watching your meetings you're live streaming them they're sitting here sometimes they want to have confidence in you let them know I know the ethics I know the laws that's why I'm recusing myself relationship definitions I told you the one sheet in your packet that I gave everybody has the latest from the SEC on all the different who puts you in a position where you can vote and who you can your attorney shaking his head because this is something he did with time it was it was actually uh recently expanded as a result of that a20 I think it's a23 whatever the brand new advisory opinion that came out with a chart in it which is a new chart um and that's gone beyond what the um prior advisory opinion uh 8 24-17 had in it if I remember correctly uh look look in there and you'll see that that chart uh this on the right hand side is that the one you're talking about and that chart is in here but it's also a great chart to keep on your desk to make sure that you keep out of trouble and again if there's something you have a question about that's why you pay an attorney although term relative doesn't appear in prohibitive Acts or code of ethics a relative can create a conflict the tough one here and again counselor if you want to jump in on this is anyone not listed be can be considered an other that was almost a joke over the last couple years and it's like okay well you know somebody I met once and and had a cup of coffee with be smart you you know what others are you know what people can draw you into a problem that's a chart I was just talking about uh if a relative already works in the district the uh if they're already in the district then you're just coming on to the board for the new members if you're just coming on to the board you have a relative who's already there that's fine the problem is that now you're on the board once you're on the board you can't hire anybody and bring anybody onto the district who's who's a family member uh and the other piece of it is it also means it also means that if you are recusing yourself because you have a family member involved in the district you have to also recuse yourself from the evaluation of the superintendent you can't be you can't even be in the room when the conversations are going on you have an interim superintendent right now at some point you're going to be talking about what you're going to do with that situation if you're in a situation where you have to recuse yourself you can't even be in the room when that conversation is happening and I'm sure your attorney would keep you on track with that the best thing to do is if you know already that you have somebody who puts you in that position let him know let him know ahead of time so that he can keep you out of trouble but you can't be invol involved in the search selection or vote to hire a new uh CSA Chief School administrator again it's another it's another you know just follow through on on when you can when you can be involved in Collective bargain in uh if somebody works in a district you're out of it entirely if you have a self spouse or dependent child who works at a district you can't participate in the negotiations but once they've reached a memorandum of agreement you can vote the yes or no on that other possible conflicts endorsement of a candidate by a local or Statewide union doesn't create a per se future conflict unless your f Financial contribution is given and is intended to influence that's kind of the one I said before in terms of Union saying hey we're we're going to endorse you well thank you but I didn't ask you to do that other advisory cases the writing's too small I'm not going to go through all of those now um impact on committee assignments uh the board president had a child that who was an instructional assistant in the district he can't he can't make decisions on what jobs to give him board member B spouse is a 10-month employee in the technology department you can't be involved in any or in all matters including service on committees that remotely touch upon their their employment uh that top one is one I already talked about uh a member atted attended an executive session discussion on candidates to fill a vacant board seat the husband applied and both of these it ended up being a censure volunteering in school can you still be a class mom as class Dad yes you can do that what you can't do is you can't put yourself in a position where you are deemed or perceived as having a any uh control over a board member a school play is coming up and three staff members are involved in building this set and because you have some expertise in something like that you want to help too you can go help but you can't be the one who's directing them you can't put yourself in any position at any time where it appears that you are directing staff will I be in the building off the there are board members who like to go to visit buildings uh you C you can there's nothing to say you can't go in a building but anytime you come in a building that gentleman should know first you know hey I'd like to go visit the the high school tomorrow you know what well are you just walking the hallways again keep it keep it light don't walk into a room and have a teacher think that you're there checking on him or her board members are entrusted to review recommendations from the superintendent then vote in a way that they feel best serves the needs of the district and its students an advisory opinion was asked whether a board member can violate the ethics act if they vote in the affirmative on a board motion to refuse to implement the New Jersey student learning standards for Comprehensive Health and physical education let's put that in in language that people will understand where that one really pertains is obviously over the last year there have been a lot of situations where in in certain districts uh people have come in and they have complained about the health standards the new health standards the the new curriculums that that pertain to that if it's something that's approved by the state you can't say we're not going to do it you can monitor how you're doing it you as board members you're the ones who approve curricul um but again don't do anything contrary to what the State Board of Education says you have to teach how am I doing on that one all right social media that I said there's two things that that the Ethics Committee gets violations on a lot one was that sharing confidential the other one is things that come up on social media if you're putting something on Facebook again that the only way you happen to know it is because you're a board member you would have had no way to know it otherwise be careful don't don't do it if you want to know the truth the best thing is if you have a Facebook page get off of it don't I mean stay off of social media it can only lead to trouble one of the things for sure and especially for the uh members who who used social media to help run for their candidacy if you had set up a face Facebook page or social media page as a candidate and you have now been elected don't continue to use that page for commenting on things with the district because that was the page that you set up specifically to get on the board you're on the board now get off of it don't go back to it um you even need to be careful just about Impressions uh I'll give one more personal story here as board president uh I happen to be a person who really really dislikes the term ugly Christmas sweaters my family wears festive Christmas sweaters my sister-in-law my wife they like them I had made a comment on Facebook about the fact that I really can't stand the the topic about ugly ugly Christmas sweaters my superintendent who I get along with very very well called me in and said Mark do you remember that one of the principles two days ago put up that on Friday is the ugly Christmas sweater competition there in the school what you did just now is you told that principal I don't like what you're doing how is that going to be viewed he was right I still don't like them but I'd have to be careful about how you phrase things you again you don't you don't want it to be where that principal is now looking at what you did in terms of are you criticizing them uh a board member asked if as a private citizen would it be a violation of the ACT if they answered operational questions you can answer operational questions meaning you know what what time what time is what day has graduation been moved to something like that public knowledge you can do that don't do something that you only know because you're a board member Community is aware of your status as a board member it doesn't matter how many times you put up there I'm saying this on my own you're a board member you're a board member you're a board member I don't care where you are the public knows you are a board member there is a a suggested disclaimer does it get you out of jail free no there is a a disclaimer if you wanted to continue having a public media page if you wanted to use this it's a suggestion it's not the only one you can do but it's it's a pretty good one these statements are not representative of the board what would cause me to be in violation with a disclaimer based on the content again if the public would perceive that you're speaking in an official capacity or pursuing to official duties you can get yourself in trouble general guide be careful you know all of this really B boil us down to when we're talking about social media stay off of it just you can only get yourself in trouble points to consider school boards recommends boards develop a list of board members and administrators who have a conflict review it regularly consult with your board attorney on any ethical issues identify conflicted members and administrators let him know ahead of time so he can keep you out of trouble continue to check Schoolboard notes Schoolboard notes is on New Jersey school board's website you can check Schoolboard notes and they will publish new advisory opinions they will they will publish things again the more you read about things that have happened the less chance you have of repeating them in closing a board member may not deliberately disregard and ignore the ethical standards that are required by law to uphold and enforce when board members do so it not only threatens the Integrity of the board it also unnecessarily compromises District Personnel subverts the very purpose for which you are elected namely to serve the needs of the school district and its students if I was going to add a line there I would I would say remember it's not just the district and its students it's your community as I said you have members of this community who have nothing to do with you other than that that they pay taxes keep that community in mind too when when you make your decisions there's some resources you'll get this in the next couple days I really thank you for letting me come if there's any questions that I can handle fine more likely any questions are going to be handled by the attorney make sure you sign the sheet saying you went through the training get it to your ba your ba is not here today or I'm sorry get it to your ba because they need to be able to report that everybody got it thank you thanks very much next we will do the budget presentation by the ba I hope we get these things changed this is ridiculous want a mic I should take my laptop is this this work yeah hello it's late so I'll try to do um won't stand too long before you but as you know this is budget season and I wanted to present to you as a board the preliminary budget it is due on March the 20th to the county office um because we have the privilege of having a state monitor Mr fiser and I have been having a few conversations already and um the intent is to um be able to submit this but please note that you as a board your decision really comes on April 28th um so you do have time to discuss have more meetings um anything you feel is necessary for you to come to a comfortable um place so that you can make um a decision on the budget okay huh okay so I just want to go through the process so this process because of the some of the unique situations um that incurred this year or or were part of this year was that we went through the verification of residency um as you know only Asbury Park um resident students can attend Asbury Park schools charter schools and out of district schools for in District programs and tuition payment to OU of District um schools um what a lot of people Miss is that part of the budget process is to really um as a business administrators to really manage the and be part of the October 15th um student count every district is required to count their students um on October 15 I want to thank Paul sooya he did a phenomenal job this year and in the past years to um make sure these counts are accurate so managing that process is important so that the maximum amount of students that are going to your school district is counted and even the um different um component of of a student um if it is their um their their address it could be um if they're receiving services from the district all of that counts and it's important to get every piece of it um correct again I want to thank thank Miss Lao um for making sure that we had accurate information for many of our special needs students we've met um endlessly it seems like now with the directors and principal we've had meetings um and we started early understanding that we had a major reduction in Revenue over the past um four years you as a district has received $26 million in regards to Essa funds those Essa funds are now um pretty much depleted and it's important to make sure that what you were using it for now you have a remedy to either stop the program and and um transition that into your current staff and or how are you now going to work towards replacing some of those activities or products or even services that came through Essa funds so we had many discussions on that again we had individualized meetings talking about um reductions of costs and we met with the board the finance committee to discuss costs and various options to reduce costs and begin to generate more income throughout the district so we've had those discussions also so the concerns that we are dealing with is the reduction of enrollment I did a eight-year analysis and um one of the things that I want to emphasize is it's so important to really continue to there's many options parents have I'll say it like this so it's important that they understand the options and the benefits to coming to Asbury Park Public Schools um other um schools are doing a a a very intense job to making sure that people here they um why to come to their schools but we need to be just as diligent and excited to have the students remain that do come and even um students they may want to come back because of some of some of the options that may not be in other schools but are here in Asbury Park the reduction of free and reduced applications for calculation of state aid and Federal grants um we'll see the numbers later but this is a major component when it comes to the calculation of state aid and the calculation of federal funds um your District in past years were um was noted to be about 80 to 85% of free and reduced right now we are at a 60% level and that was after the activities that we did this fall to um to um send applications home to parents and asked them to return those and we got um we got a number of them back but we still are in need of some more because we do not believe that you are actually a 60% District we still believe that you're close to 85 maybe even 90% so this is really important I'll show you why a little later okay the IM um the um elimination of the Essa funds again really understanding what we're going to do going into next year and how we're going to supplement many of the programs that were supported through your Essa Monies the verification of residency for preschool a of distric placements in Charter we'll talk about that and last but certainly not least the final year of the impact of the S2 bill so those are all the budget concerns that we went through this um season oh I off now okay I don't know what I did I could I could sing and dance right now but I don't think that would be appropriate huh the computer crashed oh it was that S2 bill you got a little nervous I would get nervous too I tell you you just want to give us the bottom line the bottom line yeah thank you I I believe all of you as board members do have copies of the presentation so let's keep on moving and we'll hope to get that going and I'll do my best for the public to explain to you what that is and at any time we can give you that information also so you see in the in the um handouts there is a 8-year analysis of the um of the enrollment over the last eight years in asbery park the bottom line in this one there is a 25% decrease you've experienced over the last eight years the numbers depending on the different areas are more um on roll students 26% decrease um special ed scent is a 994 % decrease special ed private placement thank you is 53% um and so on one and ones I did want to highlight that I talked about earlier and those are the ones I just went through the charter schools there's as opposed to everything else decreasing in the um Asbury Park numbers there's a 89% increase in your charter schools and the amount of students going to Charter Schools or at least the ones that they are reporting um your pre numbers have also um decreased over the years and um your total enrollment has a decrease of 23% freeing reduced I told you I would to focus on this and um free reduce over the last um few years has decreased by 45% but I think the number I wanted to show you was in the um third um the third column to the end and then the second column and then the last column if you see that decrease if you look at the numbers you went from 1,700 to 12200 applications or students categorized and free reduced that's over 500 that's a decrease of 5 100 students that were established prior as a free and reduce that number is significant you look at that 30% and then your um averages going down you see 70% there as your average right now but that average is really brought up um mainly because the charart of schools are at 80 to 85% and their free and reduced applications and we are at 60 so that's why that number is showing 70 why do I say that this is the state aid um report this is the first page what I highlighted is this is how your Aid is calculated so what I wanted to make clear to everyone is even though the S2 bill has come into play with the reduction of state aid what's also combating the reduction of state aid is the LI is the re reduction in your free and reduced applications because you have a weighted enrollment that number is weighted based on a number of students that have free reduced So when you say when you see 500 a drop between one year to the next of 500 students being um being part of the freeing reduced calculation that affects the number that you see there which is at risk and then LEP low income so your numbers for state aid calculation has now lost that impact of the 85% you used to have again very significant that we that we do as much as we can to get those numbers back to where they belong because your number then for next year should be going up because of the um the impact of free and reduced applications the other number that has obviously impacted the amount of state A you get is the growth calculation rate which I highlighted and is on the left as you see you're at a negative growth um status with your state aid of -2.9 690 zero that means your state aid is going down by that rate so these are these numbers are important so that even though you had um in 23 19002 your now weighted enrollment is 18 is 2813 it should be higher if those numbers in your growth rate and also in the free and reduced applications were um were higher you would have a higher weighted enrollment and thus you would have had a higher state aid number again these are areas of concern that we need to really work on this coming year Focus again on Charter Schools um this is the calculation of the past four um four years five years they've receiv received 51 th 51 million 043 and um 043 096 in total state aid from you as a district as we look at the 23 um state aid we see their pre-enrollment number which was last October the numbers that they projected which is the charter schools not the district the charter schools have have their own ability to project their enrollment it's 640 students so the state aid when we started was 11 milon 7826 um 263 however they have to do a reverified by almost 30 students and now their state aid is 11 milon 13444 and that's a decrease of as you see 25 students and a decrease in enr um state aid that you have to pay out of 651 however as we have gone through our um enrollment um our residency reverifying Hope Academy Charter we're still we have regarding college achieve we've only had 88 students verify their residency in the district so out of the 284 only 88 of those students residency has been verified to actually be living in um Asbury Park can you speak on to what we are doing right now as we had um our meetings and things of that nature as far as like the um verification process absolutely Mr Sanders we are working diligently um with our attorney to um really try to remedy this cuz as you see the numbers matter because numbers as it's calculated is what you now have to commit to the charter schools and it's not as if we're trying to um punish or hurt any child trying to go to any of the schools that we have however from wherever the child is coming from um based on the law that District should be paying for those students so all we're trying to do is to have the monies come from the district that a student would be living in right now the enrollment that we're looking at um in the state aid is like I said from the other sheet is 64 and that's what we're committed to pay however um the estimated enrollment is again a number that the charter schools are able to put in they are estimating an increase in those numbers the total numbers of students they're increasing by 127 students and that increased their projected state aid for next year by 2,974 students as you see that's an increase of 27 students so the question is where is these students coming from the next chart and again I want I want to thank Mr um sooya because he helped put these numbers together is the total amount of students that we currently have who has been verified as you see is only 42 seven students that we have that we can validate that they do actually live in um Asbury Park however the projection is almost 700 is at 742 a difference of 117 students the reason why this is a issue is based on your census your most recent census and you've had um for a a a Township there has been um almost 80% um of participation in the sensus so the numbers are pretty accurate um in regards to many other um townships and municipalities So based on the census there's a increase of um 50 um 90 students but based on the amount of students that actually are in asay park there's only 52 that would be um eligible for this ages 5-9 if you go to the ages 10 through 14 the same thing based on the census there should only there's a difference of maybe um four students that they could add to the population for that grade so the but the increase that they're projecting is 115 students so once again where are those students coming from Dr Simmons really quick so that 115 students what is that in dollar amounts uh B Park uh that's a good question that's a good question I didn't I didn't calculate that one but that's a lot I like that one it's a lot and I would think that's about 2 million if not more if not more I'm trying to do a quick calculation 115 times I'm use use um use 30 use 30,000 cuz our average is 30,000 per student that's 3.45 somebody said 3.45 that's a lot of money for for students that make just not be from Asbury Park 3.45 million million making sure we say that million million again a serious problem right and something that we we really need to and we are we're on we're doing everything we can to remedy this issue but it is a it's a current issue because that report showed what the state is telling us to now budget that 14 million is a number that they're saying you should be budgeting for your charter school students why is that a huge impact so now this is the revenue analysis again this is not an easy and I heard the um resident that came up before and she's right the tax levy increase because of S2 is is requiring an increase of 24% in the tax levy that's that's a number that I haven't even seen in the past again the S2 bill has done damage great damage to not just District this District but many other districts if there's any um light at the end of the tunnel this is the last increase that should come up a decrease that should come about because of the S2 bill this is the last year that this will impact you in this manner as you see there is a correlating decrease as you go down I have the interest earnings and the different um reserves but the number that I wanted to focus on his state aid if you notice there's a reduction in the equalization component of your state aid of 4.1 million it's almost there's almost a very relative decrease from state aid to tax levy again this is happening because of the adequacy budget and the calculation that the state created to say what is adequate for your municipality to be paying in tax revenue that's where that number comes from so that's why you see the reduction and that's why you see the increase um and that number comes from the budget um system that we received that this is the amount that should be budgeted for tax levy miss linski the woman from the public who already knew we had a 24% increase in the tax levy for the schools I didn't even know that so I'm concerned about how every other people know and we haven't even had our budget presentation yet I I agree but does state aid if I'm not believe and I'm not um mistaken there is public information at this point so she could have opened it got it from another District um it's not it's not it's not private it's not it's not um it is operable so she could have gotten it from the state you could probably call the state kind of hard to figure out what the tax increase would be you have to really know all you would be really good at numbers that's for sure so maybe yeah so maybe the city council had the information it was able to calculate it that's that's all I could imagine I know um we was just working on that last um week so this is um as recent as last Thursday the other numbers again not significant at all in regards to the amount of the decrease but if you notice everything is decreasing the budgeted fund balance that's the number that the district saves from one year and then uses that savings to budget into the next year you see that even that has decreased because the amount of money we were able to save last year was Million I mean what um The Pri year was 14 million but this year we only came with 8.6 million that's what the Auditors gave us last time that we were here and they um reported on the recapitulation of balances so that's where that number comes from and you see that's a decrease of 5 million I think what's really important to see is that overall the district's Revenue base um is is is um progressively decreasing so those conversations that we continue to have are how to produce more Revenue so that the burden is not you know on the district not on the taxpayers is so crucial to us really maintaining and managing our budget going forward the preschool monies um we're going to um be um sending a letter to the commissioner we have to ask the commissioner permission and um to utilize the free balance or fund balances in preschool they do have a fund balance and we I'm looking to ask for 2.5 million for that looking to also we have an Enterprise fund through the enter fund they also have um um a fund balance and I'm looking to take 250,000 from that amount I'm also looking to support our maintenance um in uh maintenance needs with another 250,000 from maintenance Reserve that balance is just about two 300,000 if I take that money so again Revenue resources are depleting and last but not least I'm going to take some money out of emergency reserve for security purposes that's pretty much a wash because that $272,000 based on the reserve um requirements will go towards equipment purchases for security overall we have a revenue projection for 2425 of 55,78424 % and it's a number of 3.2 million excuse me I have a comment the additional state aid do we have a number for that we no there is none there's no additional state aid I've called I've asked if is there possibility of stabilization Aid is there possibility of Maintenance of effort Aid and I was told no I was told that the governor in his if you heard the address he said he put all of the extra Monies that he um that he had in the budget towards the increase of other District's budgets and trying to make whole their adequacy monies that they should be receiving from the state so as as last year there was stabilization monies put um signed for districts that were suffering through the S2 I was told that there is only $5 million Statewide in that bucket so the like of us getting that for some relief is probably slim slim to none Dr Simmons in in the past when um when we'd have budget presentations we would get an idea of what the impact the tax increases would be on an average household or an average you know property in in in Asbury Park do you have that information I didn't do that not um because this is the first time we're presenting the percentage um but I will definitely have that done sooner than later give it to you as a board and and if you want us to put that on a a presentation so that everybody understands it it'll definitely be part of the presentation on in April that impact but I will definitely get that to you within the week but again being that this was the first time we really even to um Mr linsky's Point even mentioned what the percentage was was I didn't want to make any assumptions that that's what you would even do as a board can because that's a big decision that you have to make in terms of what you would want so again that's why I said this this is a preliminary there's still a lot of discussion that needs to be had so um as we digest this see what we need to do then I'll be more than happy to give you some scenarios okay um state aid again I want to show you in detail the reductions um they did not reduce the preschool Aid we still um left whole of that number but the overall um impact has been 4.1 million of a reduction the Char of school I mentioned that one of the questions was and one of the conversations we had in the committee meeting was what to budget for Charter Schools being that we only that we only have 88 of the students verified being that we're they're projecting an even higher amount next year being that we know that the census numbers don't really don't add up to that large of increase for the charter school so what I did was I used the first number that you see with those count numbers shows uh original amount of 12 million6 then it goes to the current appropriation of 11 m959 89 um we currently have um payments and um there's the purchase ort is still open but it does leave us with an available balance right now of a million6 meaning that even though it was originally projected at 12 million we're really not going to pay out we're only going to pay out close to $10 million again a reflection that the numbers that are being estimated for next year may be overstated okay and again that agrees to and you see the numbers of the most recent um this came out in December of their reduction of amount of students as you see that's 614 those numbers continue to go down because of the actual students in the chter schools so what I did was I took the current amount that you saw in the last page 11, 9598 because I saw that we are going to not even pay out there's a remaining balance of 1.6 million I reduced that number by 1.5 million so the number that I'm recommending that we appropriate for the charter schools is 10,459 189 and not the 14 million that the state is saying we should miss glasman I don't I don't understand why we pick that number given the magnitude of the problem as we understand it very good question I picked that number for a couple of reasons I know we only have 88 students verifi verified based on the information I gave you we we see 114 student difference if we're forced as a district to budget a higher number and I don't put it in the budget budget it will leave us in a bigger hole when when we have to then budget for that number so this is a safety measure budgeting at a more conservative number so that if you as a board are told to do something you at least have the Monies to do it and I think this is a safer number um because even if they projected the 14 million and we had to budget it as you see that number comes down when you start verifying the students when the students actually come in and the likelihood of that number continuing to go down is more than possible so to keep it safe to make sure that next year the money is there I think the 10,459 is a more conservative number if close to some of those students are actually in Asbury Park so that's why I use that number great question lastly um these are the total Appropriations so as you know the um the general fund sends money into whole school reform and that amount that I'm projecting for next year is $20 million meaning we budget 20 million from fund 11 it goes over to whole school reform which goes into the schools and that's how they're able to manage the school budgets again the charart of school number is at 10 million 459 89 both of those are 133% decreases from the prior year here um just as totals we have regular education we still have our numbers pretty healthy for regular education in our fund 11 numbers and increases in special education and um also in a couple other areas overall instructional did not take a big hit in this area right now we see a slight increase of 9429 48 a lot of that is due to what is required in some of the um classrooms and different things like that as we look at the rest of the um what we call undistributed numbers we see a huge increase in um out of um out of District tuition on numbers in this area um based on just the new tuition rates and just the average out of District placement for special ed is about 125,000 um that continues um so we have using next year's projected rates so you see that huge increase of a million 74 for our charter school I'm not charter schools for our outer District tuition the other areas you see those decreases to really supplement some of the increases that we had to go with like tuition and um other areas transportation and things like that so as you see the overall undistributed budget has gone down by six um but has gone up by 6% but as you see there's some large numbers of increases that we had to go with as I mentioned Transportation employee benefits the average for that um increase is about about 10% that um our Brokers are telling us to budget so um this is why we have a slight increase but again you see the major decreases as you look down the other lines again not easy decisions at all we have an increase for some equipment um Mr canel thank you for everything he does but um in maintaining some of our equipment we still need to do replacement of about 100,000 so we're going to continue to budget for that uh overall instructional numbers for um whol School Reform this is the actual numbers in the school buildings is a decrease of $12 million again being able to maximize the monies and based on the reduction um that's the overall decrease about 19% non-instructional another 18% decrease so we're going from a whole school reform classroom in all three four schools of 25 million from this year to 20 million next year that contribution like I mentioned from the fund 11 is going to be the 20 million again that $3 million decrease and the next piece of that is that is Title One also contributes to each school last year was budgeted at 1.2 million we actually did not get um actually was 1.4 million we only got 1.2 so we was actually down by 300,000 what I didn't want to do was do the same thing going into next year so we're conservatively put in about 939 ,000 from the title one um contribution and again that's the impact of the free and reduced applications is why we're seeing that number decrease so overall we're going with a a whole school reform meaning the monies in each building of a total of 20,9 39 um 1,189 the next steps again tonight's board approval is just to submit the budget you still as a board um are not making a decision on any number you still have the ability um to do that at the April 25th um public hearing on the budget I encourage um public um taxpayers everybody that come out to to hear um to to again go through the budget the tentative on the budget um review and again continue to ask questions we are diligently looking to get resolution to the chter school estimated enrollment issues that we're facing in both the 22 23 24 year and the 2425 year as we mentioned prior and again I think we have to put a lot of effort I talked to Mr jino and um and and Miss Brown and we're looking to put some incentives in the school to really get um parents to fill out these applications and get it back to us it's so important that we move those numbers up so that some of that the title one NES and any other Federal monies that we do receive has the best number and the more accurate number for Asbury Park so those are some of the things we need to do going forward and um any other questions that you have I'll be more than happy to answer that but that's the presentation for the budget right now thank you thank you Dr Simmons as I've said earlier I wouldn't want to be in um mr's seat right now because this budget is going to be hit us hard I know it's not going some things are not going to be popular but the board will support him as I understand as of right now the thing that we need to focus on first I and this is my thought process as um Mr Dr I'm sorry Dr Simmons alluded to is verification of the charter schools student enrollment that's our first thing and my thought process is for the second thing is the preschool enrollment as well and then we can move forward and get some of those monies back Mr President I actually had a had a question about um how do how are we're going to go about verifying that because it just came to us that you know recently that the onus legally is on us to verify the residency and um and also to see how we can if we if we need to vote on anything tonight uh or regarding that in terms of um taking action towards towards you know whoever we have to whatever we have to hire to to make those verifications happen I think it starts with our legal council first to see what we can do and cannot do right and um Mr Weiss and his um Law Group will advise us to say what we can do because like right I'm not a legal scholar by no stretch of imagination so the board um currently has Council uh for this issue and um there is a process by which the board can seek to verify can seek to verify um residency and um I know that your Council who's representing you on this issue um does have some ideas and some resources that are available able in order to um get that verification process underway so I would expect that through Council you you're probably going to be retaining um some professionals to to conduct that verification process which hopefully will yield um or help to uncover some students who perhaps don't uh should have their tuition paid for by districts other than Asbury Park and the other piece to it is I think that we as voters should support senators and um government officials to make it on the owners on the charter schools to provide that information it but that's that's a long-term fix but we need to fix right now one other thing I just wanted to to point out to the public um because here's the thing what what Mr saer said is completely accurate if we don't let our voice be heard not only here but also in Trenton okay um we have to make sure that that our voices are heard not only here but when there are hearings about this matter so um just really quick the assembly budget committee is is having a hearing March 20th um at the State House in Trenton at 9:30 and it's a chance for the for public input specifically on the budget the Senate budget Appropriations Committee has a hearing on the 19th um at NJIT in Newark also to gather feedback from citizens regarding the budget and then there's even a virtual hearing taking place on March 26th um where citizens can participate remotely and contribute their perspective perspectives on budget related matters and that's at 10:00 a.m. um and you can Google or if you need to you know let's see if we can get some of that information out to the public because if we don't if they don't hear from Asbury Park families Asbury Park homeowners Asbury Park students board members staff um they're not going to know that there's a problem there's 500 and change uh municipalities and over 600 school districts in the state um we need to make sure that folks know that if this continues or if this stays as is we're in big trouble as a school district um whether it's a 24% tax increase on homeowners I know I won't be able to sustain that as a homeowner and we'd get pushed out of out of Asbury Park um or if that's all Cuts we're not going to have a school district anymore um so that's just what I had to say about it Mr Gilla where did you get those hearing dates are they available on our website um I just you know what I I I just Googled it really quick and uh it it showed up on the uh uh on the um the state government website so if you go to NJ ledge. state.nj.us uh you'll see all the different committee hearings can you send it to all of us sure and then we can um disk uh the other piece to it is and just just I'm just thinking out loud right now is the fact that we have to work with the city as well because they gave all these abatements to these different can hear it now John and this just me talking out loud um they gave all these abatements to these different property owners and didn't give us enough money as far as the the school board to be sustainable that's the other piece to it as well well I would I I would say this the the the city um you know is is is going to be meeting with us hopefully soon um and where we could kind of Cl verify a lot of that stuff um but the city's not a dead beat they've been paying what they what they you know what they they were they've been asked um but we should see if there are creative ways so that way um there are creative ways to increase Revenue without having impact on uh homeowners and taxpayers um so it's something that we're we're discussing and we're going to look at all the different options that we we've got there but point taken we need to start working uh and I believe we're going to start working a lot closer with the city I know that um you were uh Mr President were talking about the finance committee meeting with the city um to continue discussions that started last year so I I appreciate that uh first I want to say when we when we start looking at these numbers and there's a lot of Errors I mean not errors but issues that that we don't even understand and talk about we have the S2 bill that didn't calculate numbers for a pilot program that didn't give students uh money in our in our district we're looking at verifying uh charter schools that now have taken our enrollement and decreased it by uh numbers that should have never happened uh we're looking at the fact that we I believe have a district that has a chance of rebuilding itself but the omness is not on this board just on this board just on Administration but on the teachers on the parents on the citizens that we have to get out and let the everybody know that we're going to start working together and to advocate for ourselves there's there's a bill right now uh in the Senate that they're working on which will give us money back for special education which is is a big problem in our district that has to take away census based that uh uh Pro uh process that allows us to uh be underfunded in the fact of dealing with these kids we also have to look at the S2 we have to look at what what other what other districts are getting we have to look at the fact that you know we have not gotten our opportunity to rectify what we need to do to get things done and I think right now we have this opportunity and that means everybody and I'm hoping since we're on the internet and this is going to go out to everybody is that when these B uh uh uh budget hearings are coming up these these uh calls that you make to your Senators to your assembly people that you get out there and advocate for us Asbury Park the district that is providing services for our kids and right now we have to look at how we're going to better serve this community if we don't this is the opportunity to lose it but we have an opportunity to gain it and gain National respect because I think we can do it I think we have the opportunity to think outside the box we're going to look at other opportunities we're going to meet with the city we're going to meet with the commissioner uh president I would like to request that those those meetings be we set up and that we are also uh meeting with uh the governor if we have to because he's making these decisions and says he's fully funding schools which if you this seen by what we have we're not and some of these legislative ideas that uh the S2 Bill brought in did not correct or the fact that there's not a legal obligation for a charter school to verify or be made to verify who they're accounting for all these things are legislative things that we have to advocate for we have to advocate for what we're going to expect in new programming what we need for our special needs kids because we need more right now I I've always said and I said this you it should not be the ZIP code that you liveing that determines the education of any child and right now it seems to be happening with Asbury Park so right now I'm taking a step and I'm going to be in trting more doing whatever I can to make sure everybody knows that our district needs help that we need we need support we need to advocate for our kids who need the opportunity to be the next president or vice president of this country we have the opportunity to make this move and this is what we need to do it's not all this bickering and and one side or the other I I've never been about that I'll sit down and talk to anybody and get anything done that's what I feel about what I do every day in my life when I get up and I try to make sure that people have housing a place to live and what they need we now have to provide for this education because that's the next stage for these kids to go out to take care of us as we become adults so I'm I'm saying to us as this board I'm going to say to the governor I'm going to say to our Senator I'm going to say to our assembly person I'm going to say everybody else to the council we need the support we expect and we're going to live up to the opportunity that they see that this this this district is about and I and I want to support not only from this board from the teachers from the parents and for the property tax owners or committee reports um let's do committee reports next M let's start with Mr Remy all right um buildings and grounds uh we met we talked about the tenants courts with the um about the tennis initiative uh with the board's approval plan on moving it Forward um they want to do they want to give us funds so they can build tennis courts without us without the district having to come out of pocket and that's um between the Middle School and um between barck and Dr Martin Luther King and also at the high school as well um we talked about emergency Reserve we already went through the budget so I don't need to go through all that um and we also talked about the esus issue in Obama and seeing ways how we can um just get just future use with Obama um how we can move forward how we can get uh Community or involvement um programs certain things that we can do in that building that's basically it thank you sir okay the finance committee has met with our new Acting Superintendent six times probably close to 15 hours in the past 3 weeks in an effort to evaluate the funding for the Asbury Park School District for 2425 and the impact of the state budget and cuts and AIDS to Asbury Park on our ability to provide a fair Equitable and con comprehensive education for our children the governor's message of full school budget funding does not apply to our district as a district feeling probably the greatest effects of cuts from S2 equating on its face as an additional cut of 4.1 million but to which we add the loss of additional Aid we were able to receive last year year of 5 million the true impact is over $9 million over the last year we're facing a crisis the initial draft analysis submitted by the interim business administrator showed an increase in charge of school Appropriations to about 14 million and that's what you saw tonight we still lack residency verification for college achieve on hundreds of students if that amount must be paid it contributes to our passing on a tax levy of 24 4% and expensive will still be need to dra be drastically cut by more than $4 million above planned expense reductions the steps will be drastic if additional Aid is not forthcoming including potentially shutting out some of our lights none of these are the outcomes that our new Acting Superintendent and the finance committee desire that is why we have worked together diligently and collaboratively both one to reduce expenses within our control including litigation expenses and further investigation of shared service programs with other districts in the city and two to support adding programs that will increase Revenue into the district not out and ultimately increase educational opportunities enrollment and the state aid we want to support a budget centered on student education that's fiscally sound Mr Gino has presented concrete proposals that we agree will quickly increase Revenue and increase enrollment through offering programs attractive to other districts and bringing back our own students to Asbury Park such as alternative schools trade programs and health programs I will leave it to Mr jamino to discuss those in his report we've also met with Senator gopal to State our needs and the Draconian effects of the cut in Aid and potential cuts that we will be required to make we've asked for additional Aid we've asked for loan we have asked to be relieved of the unfair burden of the charter school payments without proof that students we pay for live in the city we will continue those conversations with Senator gopal and other County and state officials and legislators as we've already discussed uh the board and the Acting Superintendent will be asking to meet with the State education commissioner and the governor we ask that you are residents join our voices with our voices and we believe that this teristic is in a position to turn a new page and provide an education that we can be proud of but we need fiscal Aid even short-term Aid to get to this new vision moving forward immediately in the next school year thanks M Wiman thanks to all the committee chairs I miss Mr President may I um could um we receive uh minutes of the committee since I'm omitted from most of them i' I didn't know what happened and I'd like to know what happened in committees before a public meeting if I could get minutes next month not a problem I'll speak with all the committee chairs and then we can move forward okay let's move forward to the um the statement monitor's report again just to conserve time um focus is purely on the development of an approvable budget that provides for the students of Asbury that's been the sole focus of the state monitor over the last couple weeks and pretty much we'll be going forward until the approval process is done superintendent report uh thank you um I'm going to go through some things that I've been doing over the last two weeks and then uh things that I want to look look to do in the future so we know that I I have been visiting at least one to two buildings daily and visiting every time I'm visiting a school I visit every classroom just to show my face and and make sure that everybody sees me present I have weekly principal and supervisors meeting being present being available building issues and conc concerns of what is discussed I have settled all affirmative action complaints when I met with board attorney and board leadership and finance teacher and a teachers unit representation I have a standing meeting with the county superintendent every Thursday morning where we share ideas and discuss what I have been doing and what I've been working on we had read Across America last week uh was fantastic and I want to thank everyone that came out to read not only in District but our guests that have come out and shared their talents with our students again I'm in constant communication with the billing principal to create more a more cohesive environment I have asked them to reach out to each other to form a cohort of professionals so that they can share ideas and concerns it's important that leadership is shared and that they feel comfortable working as a team since I started I've been working on the budget with our ba and our state monitor this is an uphill battle as we all heard tonight and there will be tough decisions to make in the future I have met with the Asbury Park tennis initiative group discuss refurbishing the tennis courts with which Mr Remy has said and uh you know they were looking to refurbish a course between Barack Obama and MLK and I said I will not approve that unless you give me the high school as well and they said we've already raised half the funds to complete the work at the High School tennis course as well so we should be getting Sports in both areas um talking to the athletic coordinator there in is interest from kids that want to play tennis I been in communication with the coun with councilwoman Miss Angela abz Anderson to discuss several initiatives such as creating a building and trades curriculum and program this program will not only create a certification program for our students but also offer the program to our surrounding District to send their students to us therefore generating revenue and increasing enrollment Mr Ru and I have been discussing bringing back our nursing program which we lost and adding a photomy certification program this is another program that Miss abz Anderson and I have been discussing long term I completed a walk through Barack Obama Elementary as Mr Remy said prior uh with the head of Maintenance we discuss the viability of using the building for future student programs and Community programs we'll be working with the necessary agencies that will help make our in make our form informed decision I've sent an email to staff and board members are putting together a focus group to look into bringing an alternative program back to the district this way we can service our own students in setting our instead of sending students out and also we'll generate Revenue cuz we will be a receiving District instead of a sending District which has always been what we have doing for the last several years I've identified cost deduction options and will be working closely with our business office the state Monitor and finance committee to sure we optimize the funds that we have but to also look to create Revenue generating programs this will help the district in creating more programs rather than having to cut programs for our students and lastly it is time for us to heal and change the climate and culture of our district we owe it to our students we ow it to our community we ow to our staff for years the district has been kicking the can down the road and expecting a different outcome our district faces a major economic shortfall that has never been fully addressed throughout the years but now it's time we face it again it's because the can has been kicked down the road there are going to be many tough decisions that I as a superintendent have to make I have inherited the shortcomings of the past and now need to fix them I continually meet with our state senator and business administrator to look for ways to create a budget that will allow us to keep growing I will do everything in my power to affect our students because our our students are the most important priority I will continue to meet with those who can help us explain why it's important that we that sorry they lend us a hand the road will not be easy but I will work tirelessly to put our district on a path to success I have called Asbury Park my home since 2001 this place will always hold a large part of my heart thank you thank you Mr thank you Mr superintendent I know I had a question for um where are the tennis court site that they picked in high school cuz I I don't know if they pick the one where the basketball court is or the original site the original one that's a lot of money it's not coming out of our pocket that was estimated to be $2 million just I just want just to tell everybody that they've assured us that they're going to pay for everything Soup To Nuts and they were informed of the cost as well thank you um I I know I went a little bit out of order but I need the Hib report who's doing that no report okay okay let's move forward it's it's on the agenda the report is okay yeah um let's do the acceptance of minutes motion move it second questions comments you're speaking of number 13 a and B on page A2 is that what you're referring to yes and I um did distribute the Clos session minutes also everybody should have got that okay I'll call the role right now M um it was motion by Mr um president Saunders and I believe Mr gorilla was seconded thank you Miss glasman yes approved Miss lazinski yes Dr Maud yes yes Mr Remy he will be right back left his Al watch Mr Rogers uh yes on on a abstain on B Mr gorilla yes on V Mr um president s sir yes motion passed I'm Sorry Miss Rick Miss Ricks I heard you good to hear you miss Ricks thank you I would like a motion to um the superintendent agenda from B1 to B6 um prior to that we have um revised District calendar 14 and um it's a it's attachment A14 and a15 on the same page as the minutes oh I'll move those two I'll Make a Move motion thank you second okay this motion is for um the revised District calendar there's two attachments um it's 14 and 15 attachment a814 and 815 Miss glasman yes on the revised calendar thank you Mr zinski yes thank you Dr Maud yes thank you M Ricks thank you Mr Rogers yes thank you vice president Guillo yes president Saunders yes motion passed thank you we'll move to the superintendent at this point Mr President I have a question about the superintendent's agenda um we had a discussion about 10A um I don't know if so you want it that would be adjusted that's not yeah we we have to uh the Top Line in that uh jav description has to be amended uh the person that is doing that job would not be a supervisor so the whole job description has was done right except for that one line at top so we have to make an adjustment there just cross we just got to cross it out I actually and to be clear just just so that everybody knows what we're talking about on that item uh the adjustment would be that that individual will not be a supervisor so that just so the public and and the board members are aware of what the adjustment will be so when you vote um you'll be voting on The adjusted description which will remove reference to it being a supervisory position position thank you so so we're looking at items B1 and B B6 yes I actually had one other uh question I noticed um B3 item 13 and B5 item 24 um seem to be have the same language except 24 has the actual resolution is that correct or see say that again so uh it's b313 which is the sustainable Jersey for schools mhm right and then if you look at b524 it's the same okay all right just making sure that's all right not as on the I just got so we can we can eliminate 13 because 24 has all the information it's actually more uh thorough so when we make the motion um whoever makes the motion if you could um break it out so that it would be items B1 number one through B312 and then B4 14 um through the remainder B6 206 just percent cons sen jitting the one number could do that as well may make more sense actually sorry 13 it's b313 is the one you want to Omit I have a question um uh b14 19 and 20 one of the uh parents concern was why the summer classes are not extended to Friday and why it has changed Monday to Thursday are we able to okay yeah we we're actually extending the the days it'll be a 4 day work week the the 4 days will be extended an hour we are closing the schools on Friday uh to conserve money to have the buildings closed on Fridays is there any alternative um child care for parents that are working on Fridays well we still have the boys and girls club that'll be running on Fridays as well uh we just have to figure a location where they would pick the students up at we're having a meeting tomorrow by next board meeting you'll kind of have a little bit more of information about how the summer will look in its totality but we've always run a 4-day summer program with the exception of esy which did in the past Run 4 days and then also ran 5 days but given the consideration about trying to close the buildings we're looking to at least have if we can do one building that's where we'll have everything and and but we'll have more information for next month CU I'm actually meeting tomorrow with boys and girls so that will give us a little more information so could we table this if if if I may respond Dr M so this is specific to our extended school year program for our students with disabilities who qualify for the extended school year program per their IEP in order for the district to receive extraordinary aid for those students which is a stream of Revenue to bring back into the district it must be a 30-day program okay in order to be consistent with the rest of the summer programs in District the recommendation was made that we move to it being Monday to Thursday for this summer for that reason but it does need to remain that 30 days so we can apply for Extraordinary Aid and in my time in the district the extraordinary Aid Revenue that we've received has increased from roughly 500,000 to 1.2 million so it's worth it okay thank you I'm looking for a consent agenda from B1 to B 6 excluding excluding um 13 right yeah um move that questions discussions again this is consent eliminating item 13 and the amendment of 10A for no supervision Miss glasman yes Mr zinski yes Dr Maud approved Mr Remy yes I come back Miss Ricks and get that John can you you put the microphone by by the speaker no say it again miss Ricks to number nine page B2 10 a on page B 3 and as I understand that you removed item 13 on B3 yes yes yes that's correct all others uh I vote yes thank you thank you m Rex Mr Rogers yes vice president gillo uh yes I'm staining on um B3 number 11 B3 number 12 and um B5 number 24 number thank you president Saunders yes thank you I'm looking for a consent agenda C1 through C6 I'll move it second roll call any questions comments first and no you have to you raise a question before the vote oh you're going to object okay okay no questions comments roll call please hold on one second I know we want to get out of here I just want to make sure the the tentative budget is C1 number four for everyone's information right okay I have a question um C5 item 15 would I be able to get more information about the program or itemize um list of their Early Childhood programmatic budget yes I actually have um if it's it's attached you should see the C5 C15 it's attached and if whatever reason you don't see it there I do have copies here with me it's what it is it's the last last page okay what's what's the uh what's the uh the charter school that's the charter scho no this is the Early Childhood um budget okay but the charter school no say this is not charter school this is the um students that go to the Asbury Park schools and the two providers that we have in District the question uh Mr Rogers has is the charter school is under uh bills and claims so if somebody has a a specific specific vote oh no it's not a specific line I just mentioned the charter school and what your vote is under bills and claims I got the charter school then I'll raise what I was going to raise later but unless you can show me where it is under bills and claims the only place I see um the college achieve is under the check register that's where it is okay but that's not bills and claims under check register oh it's a bill those words are interchangeable bills and claims check if you say so it's a separate okay separate category fine okay thank you any other questions comments roll call please miss Glassman okay I'm going to do this slowly uh no on c one no on C4 tenative budget um miss glasman when you when you said no on C1 did that mean the whole page or just number four on C1 um I think so so uh chart just Charter achieve uh College achieve sorry c1a and C4 which is that I don't have it uh c1a so it's C1 and and want me to keep going or not and c14 right what c14 c14 correct no on the budget yes um I'm I'm not done yet um um I have a few more NOS uh no on uh c10a um no on c14 C2 C C3 no miss glasman you said c10a but I did you mean C4 number 10 a sorry c410 a correct sorry um c514 and that's it thank you are the others are yes the others are yes okay thank you Mr zinski Everything Yes except for the payment to college achieve thank you Dr maon rejecting c1a c14 c410 a and C1 yeah I did say c14 right and Dr M c11a as well yes thank you for clarifying that and then he say C10 a and is there any of those C4 10 a and that's uh yes on the others yes on everything else Mr Remy no on C11 a and c14 and c410 a and yes on everything else okay can I revise something I got my pages mixed up um could you please take out c14 Dr mud when you say take out do you mean you're a no for that or I am voting yes to c14 so you're voting yes on the tentative budget to be clear thank you Miss Ricks I'm sorry Mr Remy no on oh you told me your sorry getting a little confused sorry late I know it's late Miss Rick Miss Ricks no on College achieve yes on everything else thank you no on Mr Rogers no one no one college achieve uh c14 no uh c39 B no also when when if we well this is a question uh if we were disapproving bills and claims and we said no were we saying everything or just call it to teeth no yeah you would say everything unless you specifically said just one check so you could choose a check or you could choose the whole bill list so if you say 1A then it's the whole bill bills list okay yeah so just College acheve thank you Mr gorillo um I'm voting yes accept I'm voting uh on I'm voting yes on everything except I'm voting no on the college achieve um on c11a I'm voting no on C1 number four I'm voting no on C2 number 7 voting no on C4 number 10A and voting no on C5 number 14 and president Saunders okay no one c1a and c14 everything else yesd fail yeah the budget fail which one is that Dr summons right which one yes I'm sorry wait hold on one second cuz I thought I got that one let me see you want paper copy can I get a paper copy cuz I'm scrolling like crazy sorry about that well thank you for all the papers um I'm dealing with the same sorry I have the electronic copy and the paper copy so um voting no to c14 my apologies okay Dr Simmons just to make sure you have my nose I have you know on College achieve um no on the budget no on C7 c10a and c14 yeah that's correct okay just making sure uh Mr President since we voted since we voted no on the budget we may look to uh do a special after we've start some of these meetings to discuss uh approving uh the tenative budget so I mean uh we look at that we can look at that I can reach out to all the board members and just see what their availability is and then we can go from there if everyone could email me their availability or call me rather because like I'm I'm as far as like the budget can I just um make a point the requirement is for us to submit the budget on March 12 um 20th if we don't submit the budget will be out of compliance and can't really tell you what happens after that um so there is a need to submit something and so we would need to have a meeting prior to the 20th cuz it's due on the 20th and I'm not sure what changes you're looking to make so I would re um recommend Monday Tuesday what's the Thought I don't know what to say you know it's Wednesday it's the 20th so what's the thought process of the board uh if it has to be Tuesday I'm I'll make myself available uh we need to have more discussions on this budget uh I don't I don't think it's going to be anything drastic but we still have to have more discussions on this budget I have a question Dr Simmons if we don't submit anything by the 20th does the state take over and recommend or make us or do their own Cuts in a way that's what happens right you know what I'm going to throw that one to the state monitor good answer you're submission by Statute is to the county office so I wouldn't want to speak on behalf of Dr richens the only thing I could tell you Dr richens was here he's actually texting me he's really interested in the results of your vote so anything that I do in my capacity anything is going to be done completely in conjunction with with Dr richens um so I can't speak for him now but as soon as we come about with a course of action um other than what is already statutory you know the um in the in the the calendar and the deadlines is so we'll we'll work with the district but I'm I'm letting you know Dr richin know right now that you still have work continuing on the budget development uh thank you if we can ask the state monitor I mean if we don't make this meeting and he talks to Dr richens and we go with this preliminary budget that we disapproved I I can go along with that but letting everyone else know that we are still going to be Focus focusing on this budget increasingly uh to make changes because this this is a jonian budget which no one I don't know anybody that wants to see this budget passed uh at all the way it's going to be uh let me add to that if I may because U especially in terms of why we were elected to the board and folks in Asbury Park families in Asbury Park um voted for us to stand up to these kinds of draconian cuts and to work with the state work with our elected officials to do what we can to Stave off something that's going to be devastating to our district so I mean to be frank there's no way in hell that I could vote for a 24% tax increase and um I'm sure that my fellow colleagues feel the same way cple and I'm going to add to that um we basically got this this evening um 1 hour before this meeting started um there fcts very little uh input from from this board um I think that everyone knows that this is as it stands unacceptable to us this does not reflect um the vision that we have for for this district and um another vote would be a formality it would not be meaningful um I think it would be it would be done dishonest for me personally um to vote in favor of submitting this uh deadline or not so um unless everybody's willing to roll up their sleeves over the next 3 days and spend six hours or eight hours a day working on this thing I don't know what better budget you're going to present to us um for submission but it this is this is an unacceptable budget just for clarity we this is the budget that we talked about in the committee the revenue I understand is not like I said in the presentation this was the largest cut I've ever worked with it's not something that I was happy to even work through and this is just myself Mr jino Miss Brown um Mr sooya it was a number of us that's been working on this this is this is a hard budget to deal with Dr I just saw this for the first time tonight that's why I was confused with my digital copy and this copy I just saw this tonight never heard of it I'm not in that committee so I was not aware of it um was going back and forth why I have something on my list as a know and why here it's just it was just too confusing um understandable I um I did make recommendations to have meetings prior to get the board together to do this extra committee meetings and there was really no response to even gather because it is hard to make your first presentation at a board meeting um never got any responses to try to get additional committee meetings additional board meetings to really discuss this so here we are today I will say this um your your your vote does not say you're in agreement with what's going on because that's not what the vote is tonight it's just a submitted to make sure that we dotted all our eyes and cross our tees on the county level your vote that adopts the budget is April 25th you're not adopting the budget tonight you're just telling us that we could submit the paperwork to the county so that they can approve for us to advertize it so that the public can get a good look and be able to participate properly for April 25th that's what the approval does but Dr Simmon this is not what we want to submit to the public I understand it this is preliminary but we we we feel this is unconscionable to our community and and the number and what was submitted to the finance committee was two pages of charts and a series of zeros so please we did not receive anything that looked like a budget at that time and as I reported out this committee has met on several occasions you may not have been present at all of those meetings but this committee sat diligently trying out I wasn't president any of those meetings so I I could not even speak to the 15 hours you referred to earlier now that includes the virtual meeting that we had and I think that's that's part of the point either this is a process that we do together I'm the I'm I'm the business administrator and it's my job to go through the details it's it's my job to go through the details based on the recommendations you make Dr I have no recommendations to go off of I've worked with Mr javino and the staff and pretty much try to present where we came from Dr Simmons I asked you directly and I was admonished for doing that I asked through the superintendent both the both Dr Adams and also Mr dabino for information in advance of the finance committee meeting um that you participated in and we received nothing until until the meeting so again I think it is disingenuous to say that we've had an opportunity to seriously consider this and again it is unconscionable to us to present this to the public as something that we are seriously considering pass I understand your concerns and I have the same concerns as far as like the the in the increase so I get it recommendations from the board well if we need to meet next week Mr President then you know um it has to be submitted by the 25th Dr Simmons I'm sorry 28th so that's that's 28 20 but again what is the consequence if we're late um May among other things it would certainly count against you um most likely for governance as it relates to qack um among among other things things um you know I don't know where Dr richens stands on this I'm interested to hear after he um you know considers what what happened this evening um we may get some more clarity and some next steps and suggestions for next steps from Dr richens um tomorrow or you know the following days as a result of what happened tonight but we can't be expected to come back into a room with the exact same document and be expected to approve it over our objections can I can I say this the same thing happened last year if you remember we voted down the budget and the state monitor at the time you know overrode our vote and that budget was submitted um I don't want this budget to be to to be submitted in any form but look I I think our votes stand that we are we're V voting down this budget and if the state monitor needs to override it then that's his prog his or her prerogative so um I think we just go forward let's see if we can have a couple meetings um before the 20th you know uh with the finance committee um and see what Dr richens also suggests I also think we need to look into uh calling for a a an interest free loan and seeing if that's something that the the state is willing to uh confirm for us that they would want to do advertised over 10 years um and if we can put that either part of as part of the budget or at least that will give us give me a give me personally a little more comfort in terms of voting for a budget a different budget next week even so what think we have a lot of next steps uh like I said we have a lot of meetings I think a lot of communication with other stakeholders and other partners so you know it's whatever richens has to do but I I think continually we're going to be working on this budget until April 25th and I think we need to make sure we're just ready to get in there and get this work done there's a lot of stuff that's on the table so let's let's move forward um if we go the long route I feel like we definitely need to find a way to get some Revenue as well but um I'm going switch my vote cuz I don't want something to happen where the state takes over and it's like they make Cuts or they do their own thing and I don't want I don't know I'm I got a bad vibe from it so we can accept it now and didn't work until the 25th to do what we need to do but if we don't have it submitted by the 20th which is Wednesday I don't want to shoot ourselves in the foot type of thing that just not going to take us all right can we make a a motion to adjourn well hang on one because um I'm not clear uh if Mr Remy's going to change his vote I don't know what that does to the outcome of the the the vote that was just taken what was the it doesn't change anything okay but on the record though Mr Remy your vote will be changed as a result of your request n I'm I'm I'm going stick with my board members okay so just we all going to drown together to take we're not drowning I'm not drowning I can swim so you're going to so Mr Remy just to be clear for the record you're leaving your vote as you originally I'm ride with my team thank you okay I want to thank M Rick for um joining the meeting I know she's on vacation and I just want to put on a record that um Miss lazinski has left the meeting okay I want to make a motion to adjourn this meeting second all in favor all right