here here Stanley adequate notice of this meeting of the Berkeley Heights Board of Education was given as required by the open public meetings act as follows on January 8th 20124 notice of the Board of Education meeting scheduled was sent to the Star Ledger and The Courier News and was also provided to all schools president the bhaa Pres and posted at the administration building a copy was also provided to the public library and filed with the municipal R for the flag I PL to the 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 whereas the Berkeley Heights Board of Education seeks to adjourn to Executive session in full compliance with the open public meeting act njsa uh 10 colon 4-6 and whereas the open public meetings act provides that a public body May exclude the public from the portion of the meeting at which it discusses matters related to those identified below matters rendered confidential by federal law state law a Court rule individual privacy collective bargaining agreements purchase or lease of real property if public interest could be adversely affected investment of public funds if public interest could be adversely affected tactics or techniques utilized in protecting Public Safety and property pending or anticipation anticipated litigation attorney client privilege Personnel employment matters affecting specific perspective or current employees be it resolved that the Berkeley Heights Board of Education adjourns to Executive session to discuss matters relating to Personnel students and legal and be it further resolved that the minutes of the discussion of any of these items will be disclosed to the public when matters have been determined and confidentiality is no longer applicable do I have a motion to move to Executive session I move to go into executive session according to the resolution second second um oral vote eyes I Nays abstentions okay time 6:34 okay we will return return to public session so moved second vote All Eyes Nays abstentions okay passes returning to public SE session at 8 o' thank you all for your patience tonight our student Representatives we'd like our report from Jake and from Olivia thank you hello everyone our spring sports teams are on a roll with a combined record of 56 and 32 a 636 win percentage let's dive in the baseball team has been dominant with a 15 and3 record the baseball athlete of the month is Junior pitcher and division one STS and kit Matt disin disin is currently 4-0 and has an RA of 1.21 coach rof said Matt pitched a great game against the number two team in the state Del Barton we lost three to2 in eight Innings but Matt got the no decision in the game he topped 91 miles per hour in that game and is one of our captains in an incredible competitor the softball team is also on a role with a strong 16 and4 record the softball athlete of the month is sophomore starting pitcher Alysa Monaco coach Lanigan said she's had a tremendous month and more specifically has won the last six in a row for us consisting of three huge divisional games and also including an 11 strikeout night against Oak null for our senior night she ended last week with a huge win against County rival Cranford with a 4 to3 win and really kept some of their top hitters limited to their hits and scoring Alyssa has been a great addition to our program this year and I'm excited to watch her progress as she's consistently getting better every day the girls lacrosse team is 8-3 and 4-1 in their division the girls lacrosse athlete of month is senior captain and goalie Maria D Pasqual coach well said Maria stepped back on the field this season after spending her time recovering from an injury last season averaging 14 saves a game this season Maria is a Powerhouse in the cage she has been responsible for keeping the team in tough games and has faced some of the League's top shooters actively shutting them down Maria has accumulated a total of 160 saves 184 turn turnovers and six ground balls this season she also achieved her 300th career save against Cedar Grill on April 27th the boys tennis team has a record of s-4 and are 4-0 in their division the boys tennis athlete of the month is senior Joe laosi coach panchenko said Joe is a two-year Captain a great student and had a big win for us against oratory prep last week the golf team has a record of seven and eight the golf athletes of the month are seniors Hanks Lewinsky and Christian Sabatino coach Ley said as senior leaders and four-year Varsity players their dedication and commitment has propelled the team to a great season the team won the conference division championship and qualified for the state sectional tournament which the golf team has not qualifi qualified in for in over six years good evening with just about one month of school left at GL students are nearing the home stretch however they still continue to be involved in both extracurriculars and academics during the month of April the environmental Club celebrated Earth week with tree planting gardening and getting inspiration from art made out of recycled materials last Friday May 3rd the spring cultural celebration was held during lunch featuring food games and more many of the school's cultural clubs including the understanding Asian cultures Club Eastern European cultures Club Italian Club and more participated starting on Monday May 6th G students began to take AP exams that will conclude on Friday May 17th throughout this stressful time the French Club is promoting student wellness by selling coffee pastries and Play-Doh before school from May 20th until May 23rd freshmen and juniors will be taking njla testing this will be the final round of State Testing before the end of the school year additionally GL students have a lot to look forward to as we near the end of the 2023 through 24 school year on May 30th students will have the opportunity to participate in field day and on May 31st GL seniors will attend prom thank you and have a great even evening thank you Olivia and Jake uh you can leave whenever you'd like thank you so much we are going to move now to the report of the Acting Superintendent thank you Mrs Bradford and good evening everybody um to start my report this evening I want to share uh some of the things some of the good things that are going on around the district um I know Olivia mentioned this just a moment ago but at Governor Livingston High School AP testing began yesterday um Al together 302 students uh which represent 60% of all of our eligible test takers will be taking an impressive total of 909 tests this year these numbers both represent the most test takers and the highest number of tests taken at Governor Livingston high school so great job to all of our teachers for doing a um really great work preparing our students and best of luck to all of our student test takers slide three camera so at Columbia Middle School uh the Berkeley Heights Fire department battalion chief Mike shamberg presented to miss ganger e8th grade English class this fire prevention lecture is used to complement the students reading of flesh and blood so cheap which is a true story about the Triangle shirt waist factory fire uh we appreciate our Community Partnerships and thank both both Miss ganger and Battalion Chief shamberg for collaborating on behalf of our students one of the cool aspects of being Acting Superintendent that I have the opportunity to experience uh some of the new things uh around the district for the first time most recently I stopped by the Bike Rodeo at Thomas P Hughes where I enjoyed watching Sergeant William fetus and Corporal Don Max well review the ABCs of bike safety with our students along with principal Mrs nardy we watch students demonstrate their skills by performing a safety course the week prior Mr marso principal at Mountain Park hosted their Bike Rodeo as well so great job by all who were involved in planning this event students at Thomas P Hughes were treated to a cool assembly to kick off aapi month presented by the New York Chinese Cultural Center students were shown several traditional dances including a traditional lion dance participated in martial arts demonstrations and learned a few Chinese phrases the exception of needing to be remind uh needing to have to remind students not to use their new martial arts moves during recess Mrs nardy reports that this was a very fun event at GL in support of Mental Health Awareness Month Student Assistance counselor Casey nebus and school nurse Jing wood Jean Ringwood together with student volunteers Dominique Carbone Kylie Pines Charlie Brandy and Arie Clark supported the Rotary Club in their efforts to hang green ribbons throughout downtown and outside of each school to help serve as a reminder of the importance of mental health in addition staff members throughout the district are encouraged to wear green on Thursday May 16th to support National mental health action day different different information tables regarding mental health and wellness are all activities throughout the month for both students and staff which will present each building uh which will be presented at Governor Livingston during common lunchtimes culminating with field day for staff and students to work together and encourage community at ghs thank you to everyone involved in this initiative and finally I want to share an update on District transportation in particular student busing I wanted to share that I understand the community's concern and I'm working hard in part parip with the Board of Education to finalize the district plan and provide Clarity for our community if you haven't seen it yet I posted a message on our website yesterday in that message I shared that the conversation about student busing has been ongoing for over a year the conversation has centered around working to Define what students should be eligible for Courtesy busing and why as I understand this issue in the past the Board of Education and administration have received criticism for not having an equitable process for determining who qualifies for Courtesy busing the work done by the consultant firm consulting firm that was hired along with the proposed revision to policy 8600 was intended to do that however there were questions related to process language and criteria used by the consulting firm and the policy change was not approved I'm hopeful that we'll be able to finalize the transportation plan this evening and provide clear information and timelines to our school Community tomorrow and this concludes my report for this evening thank you thank you Mr Nixon okay uh report of the president a report on our board goals the Board of Education will improve and planning and the committee structure we are working on that to refine and standardize our committee minutes the Board of Education will work to improve communication internally and externally the board continues to discuss the option of hybrid meetings including a timeline for trials with it and discussions on updated policies related to remote meetings the Board of Education will evaluate the CSA in a timely manner the board is beginning this process the deadline is July 1st the Board of Education will promote all district goals by providing support and resources resources necessary to achieve the goals the Board of Ed has had input in the budget process the Board of Education will devote and develop and Implement a plan for continuous board professional development with ongoing board training board members receive frequent in invitations for ongoing training uh in fact two board members are being recognized tomorrow night at the Union County meeting Dr forer and myself um the board is also recognizes the resignation of board member Angela Penna and we thank Mrs Penna for her service to the district and to our students and we will recognize her later at a another meeting I noticed that there are a lot of community members here this evening and you must have concerns to be here tonight in response to the community concerns expressed at the last meeting of the Berkeley Heights Town council members of the Board of Education were were invited by mayor Angie Dean to speak at a Roundtable discussion Mrs jolly and myself were invited as well as the Town Administrator the council president and a member of the Berkeley Heights Police Department the discussion revealed that more information and communication was needed the PTO expressed concerns and the finance and Facilities committee met last week to discuss the busing concerns the Board of Education recognizes and acknowledges the community's concerns about the vote for the option to bus mandated students only and to offer subscription services at a fee to other families according to Robert's Rules of orders the board cannot reconsider a vote from a previous meeting and cannot move a motion forward as I was in the minority voting for this option but according to Robert's Rules of orders there is a procedure to follow when the board may have second thoughts the board can ask the members to renew their decision since the related issue of Transportation costs is on the agenda at this meeting so I'm asking the board to renew and re-evaluate another option presented at the last meeting the option to keep busing the same as this year for the school year 2425 then to use the school year to more fully evaluate the information for a busing plan and a revised Transportation policy I move to amend something previously adopted from the option to offer only mandated busing and offer subscription busing services with a fee to transport students to keeping the current busing protocols for school year 2425 and to use the year to more fully evaluate the information concerning the busing plan and to develop a revised Transportation policy do I have a second I will make a second discussion Mr secretary vote I will repeat the motion the motion is to amend something previously adopted from the option to offer only mandated busing and offer subscription busing services with a fee to transport students to keeping the current busing protocols for the school year 2425 and to use the year to more fully evaluate the information concerning the busing plan and to develop a revised Transportation policy was that discussion the only Point yeah the only that's me Mrs Bradford thank you so the only point I want to make is I think through njsba training and everything that we go through to be the board members we are told not to surprise the board or the administration so my only request is as a board president if you were planning on making this motion as part of the Su you know your report maybe giving us a heads up would have been great also we are all very aware last year you voted yes on a policy update where to make to discuss new business even an just an item it could be about how we recognize our students board members were forced and it's our policy to give you and the board a 48 hour notice and and it just speaks for itself your actions that's about it thank you and also I think um Mr Nixon can attest to this there's a communication that has gone out to pretty much 2,400 odd students and their parents the transportation call applications are up people are signing up for subscription busing and I don't know what impact this is going to have for parents who have already signed up so that's all I have to say thank you thank you the 48 hour rule does not apply because it is on this agenda as a related item to Transportation costs any other discussion okay Mr Secretary of vote I'll read the motion one more time I move to amend something previously adopted from the option to offer only mandated busing and offer subscription busing services with a fee to transport students to two keeping the current busing protocols for school year 2425 and to use the year to more fully evaluate the information concerning the busing policy and to develop a revised Transportation policy we had a second we've had discussion I I think it's a wholly improper motion you're basically trying to uh revote on something that's already decided and to do that you need a motion to reconsider and that takes a 2third vote even get it on the agenda so I think the whole thing is totally improper Mr dler so I want to be very okay so I want to be clear that I'm not a judge this is your vote and the like right so if there's a motion made a motion pending as an attorney I can't stop such a vote I can say what I'm about to say could call into the validity if it were ever like so what I would recommend is the vote has to go forward I can't stop that any attorney that says they can stop a vote I think is overstepping their role um but what I'm about to say I think may call the validity of it so the way I am viewing this motion is probably a motion to um recall the previous vote which typically requires notice at the prior meeting um so again this is I think is characterized a motion to renew a motion to renew typically under my experience under Robert's Rule is a vote that at the previous meeting didn't pass you remote to renew it at the current meeting that's my understanding of it and this is I think more of a motion to recall it which would require some notice at the prior meeting but again that's just my opinion my recommendation to the board is you have a motion in front of you in a second if it passes we can discuss the implications of that if it doesn't then I don't think this discussion needs to go any further thank you we are ready to vote Miss Bradford I'm sorry yes Miss Stanley yes Miss Airi no Dr forer No Mr Hyman no yeah I didn't vote prior I don't I don't vote on this I'm sorry Miss Jolly no Miss Connor motion fails okay thank you uh we move on now to the presentation of the final 2024 2025 budget okay good evening members of the Board of Education um so we're here tonight to review the presentation uh regarding the uh final budget presentation of our School District budget for the 2425 school year um as we did at our last meeting I we want to remind you of some things related to the creation of the budget uh first when we create the budget we keep the board strategic plan in mind with student achievement at the center of that plan all together we had five different goals for this budget which was to promote student achievement through the support of educational programming to maintain and upgrade technology in support of District goals to develop a budget that retains and attracts staff so that we may meet the needs of all students to upgrade facilities and maintain equipment to enhance security and be respectful of the impact of this Budget on taxpayers as you know we I wanted to reshare we we shared a survey with the with the school Community uh overall we had close to 600 um different responses um which asked about the Public's interest in five specific areas related to the budget as you can see by this chart what the what the people who responded shared that was of most importance to them greatest importance to them uh was teacher investment uh followed by facility improvements technology student needs and then finally reducing tax impact there were two independent questions asked on there as well you feel the board of education is proactive in school Community engagement during the budget process with 46% of respondents saying yes 53.8% saying no in the feeli the board of education is transparent in its budget development again 45% yes 55% no and I'm going to turn it over to Dr gardano to share some budget highlights thank you Mr Nixon thank you everyone at the board um as I said last time we were here first and foremost this budget maintains our staffing levels and all programs that we have currently this school year so there currently there's no uh cuts to staff or programming for our students in addition to that through the budget process we identifi with building principles and District level directors some needs that we we we we have in the district number one is the addition of a reading specialist at Columbia Middle School the second is a is an extra District athletic trainer not another District uh not another Miss Clifton so we're not looking for an athletic director this is another trainer so we can have multiple Sports on mulle fields in the area of our of our of our grounds and and have uh covered from a from a safety standpoint for our student athletes the addition Mr Nicks and I one of our first things we had a conversation about back in September October was the equity of our of our GL school nurse uh in comparison with the number of students she has to serve and a little extra help so we did put a part-time nurse into this budget and then conversation um and uh moving to uh from a 085 to 0.15 and making an elll teacher uh fulltime at Mary K McMillan McMillan so that's the additional staffing needs right now we turn over to Mr jtz evening everyone good evening everyone good evening board good evening sorry wanted to go over the uh budget highlights for this evening uh count lines in the budget were uh compared with prior spending over the last several years uh to go through budget lines out of 612 uh budget lines 477 uh have remained flat or decreased which is about 78% of the budget contractual increases of 3.2% for the bhe contract for the 24 25 year were incorporated into the budget contractual increases of three uh 3% for the bhaa were also incorporated into the 2425 budget increase to the bus driver contracts for hourly rages to attract drivers was also included that was a sidebar agreement that was uh uh passed about two board meetings ago and that was incorporated uh there was an increase into the contribution for the public employees retirement system uh that was budgeted about 18% um me see here the school business administration uh Association has suggested an increase regarding what to budget for that P um pension budget and what the prior actual numbers from the state for this actual uh actu Actuarial were at 18% and that that 18% average is what was uh had come which is the conclusion of how the 18% was arrived at um Property and Casualty Insurance rates are projected to increase by 10 to 15% there are about nine different Insurance categories that our broker has um that that our broker suggested for increases for each category from this range based on market and past claims actual numbers come in toward late June health benefits and prescription rates are projected to increase by 11% Health broker health benefit broker suggested to budget based on claims to date when compiling our budget when at the time in February was at 11% actual numbers will not be determined until all claims have been examined and reviewed and the broker has negotiated the final rate with the health benefit company siga at sometime in uh early June increase of utilities as is at about 10% the increase of utilities was a collaboration of of peers and Market advisers to determine that percentage increase uh there is an increase of sew and water of 5% uh the increase of sewer and water was a collaboration of peers and Market advisers to determine that percentage increase as well the increase in uh in effective School solutions for mental health services uh that was previously supported by Esser funds which is uh Federal grant funds that we had received the past several years These funds helped keep students in the district and needed to be supported by the local budget and now I'm going to turn this over to Dr giod Dano to discuss the technology highlights thank you Mr Jess um again as I stated before we have a couple uh technology highlights in this budget through Mr Marks and his Department more durable HP forus Chromebooks they're more heavy duty so hopefully we'll cut down the breakage and student repair Google work workspace for education plus that's going to allow Mr Marks and his team a little more enhanced cyber security going to allow more things for our teachers to do improved digital report cards we are finally moving to the 20th century with our sis system where we will be able to purchase it's an add-on with power school we'll be able to digit digitize our report cards and our transcripts and be able to email them to the parents as opposed to mailing hopefully we'll save some money on postage with that and a class link which is for onboarding staff so once we hire a new staff person in the district it's one log on and they are synced up to every system we have that's their email the CIS system uh whatever we have linked for them in and in our uh in our uh information system so those are the things from a technology uh highlight standpoint that are added into this budget as well this is a new chart that I added from the last time this is just a little uh Revenue comparison just to let you know that where our revenues come from uh first we have our state aid state aid figure I have another chart uh that speaks to this state aid figure went down by about close to $88,000 from uh last year uh our tuition from last year that consists of tuition that we received from Mountainside and we also run a special education program here at the high school uh that is increased uh we have a send receive relationship with Mountainside and that uh increase is 2% uh that is increased from last year so that that equates to an increase that we have for that Revenue next is extraordinary Aid and that extraordinary Aid is based upon um students that we send out of district and is a Formula that the state uh comes up with based upon the number of students that we send out and the amount that we spend with those districts uh with those uh private schools that we send our students to and it's based on a number that the state only knows so um that um um excuse me I just lost my train of thought uh that is something that the child study team fills out and they're in the process of filling that out right now and we wind up getting that number sometime in uh that in sometime in August our preschool tuition uh that's a little bit down at the moment because it's based on the number of students that we're allowed to have and the number of students of on our capacity that we have in District um I guess if we wind up having more students that Revenue May uh rise but at this present moment it's it's down at the moment subscription busing uh we're budgeting the same amount due to the fact that we've had uh changes as we're going to probably be discussing this evening uh if we do wind up taking more or less that may depend on where we are uh with subscription busing uh interest in our maintenance and cap Reserve uh that has been budgeted at the same amount um if we do take on that does add to our Surplus and in a better light uh but that will depend upon uh how we invest our money and we've been putting our money in a better account at this point and that's with the state so we'll see how that uh determines during the course of the year um and I just spoke of that with our investments here uh with our general fund we've been putting on money this past year in open account with the state and we've been earning close to five I think 5.3% and we are continuing to do that for this year and for next year and it's been in a positive light so we're able to increase that interest earning for next year based upon what we've been doing this current year activity fees have been increasing due to the fact that as we've been coming out of uh covid and we have increased the fees from last year so we've been put into a better position with those revenues same thing with the facility use and uh cell phone tower rental uh there was a little bit of the cell tower rental fee here at the high school they were added they were able to put on additional pieces here uh with the cell phone tower rental uh and that has created a little bit of extra rental fee for us so that is why there is an increase there non-public Transportation Aid that is money that we're getting back due to the fact of the aid and Lou money that uh we pay out for um transportation that parents receive for sending their kids to um public school um I've Incorporated that this year since we've been getting that money for the several years to support our budget um capital reserve since I'm not including any projects in for next year I didn't have any funds so that is why we have a negative balance there and lastly is budgeted fund balance um that is money that we take out of surplus to have tax stabilization um and I've used a little bit less for next year's budget but that's that's what we've been using to stabilize taxes in our budget School tax levy is a little just under a little under 2% the Appropriations um as I stated earlier in trying to go through most of the expenditures in looking back at the last five years and trying to average out most of our spending that was down 75300 and as I alluded to before of the 612 lines uh 477 were a little bit lower uh with this pie chart we had percentages here uh when we speak to 82% now this whole entire budget is 59,4 38,00 $888 of the 82.7% that equates to 49 million 155,00 is salary and benefits and the remaining rest of that budget is 10,282 n28 that's just to give you a little perspective of what the salary and benefits are as opposed to the rest of the budget next we have the budget allocations I just wanted to put some numbers to that as well of the 59 438 $888,000 the general admission that's 3.4% which is up above that equates to 2 million uh $2,922 business technology portion business office and the technology portion of the budget that is 1.1 mil8 88778454886 the operations and maintenance budget that is 7 uh 6% which is 4,517 355 instructional support that is 12.9% that equates to 7, 667,000 8,950 and last is classroom instruction at 48.4% which is 28 m768 422 School tax example a home assess of $300,000 would see a school tax increase of $135 that would be a a monthly in increase of $11.23 CLE expenditures these projects or what is included in the 20 these roof projects the first two that are listed here those roof projects were not completed this year the one reason why they weren't done is because the reported uh which is School development agency uh the pro the paperwork and it was not only this school district but many of the school districts across the state the state has not sent out the paperwork for those for these projects and until the P the state sends that paperwork out we cannot start any of that work and if we did for that paperwork for that work so until that uh is sent to us we can't do anything with that we would have to uh start that in the summer of 2526 thank you very much Mr Nixon um same thing with these uh electrical panels uh we're going to see if we can try to do some of this work um maybe sometime in September but we're going to be speaking with our Architects sometime over the next two weeks and see about getting that work done lastly that retaining wall was feted sometime back in October but that's the status of these projects having to deal with the capital expenditures maintenance maintenance uh Reserve uh we have money in a different account for maintenance Reserve uh one of the things that we wanted to start talking about and we've seen is a lot of these projects or I should say our parking lots are deteriorating at some point we're going to be taking look at those and in our discussions with our architect we need to have them look at them and and start assessing these projects and giving us drawing so we can go out start speaking to contractors and getting pricing for these things one of the things that need to be done is having those drawings and having these done these projects done the proper way and once we can have the proper um uh pricing come back to us we can look to to start some of these projects and utilize the money that's in the maintenance reserve for these projects at this time we like to take uh some questions and answers not only from the board but from the audience so uh Mr just gitz Dr gardano and Mr Nixon thank you we're going to ask for questions from the board first and then on the agenda we will make a motion to move the public comments before the board votes on resol solution a so are there any questions from board members okay let's make a motion I make a motion to sorry one quick one sorry Mr H apologies AJ if you don't know this no worries um the 10% utility number I think a couple meetings ago we uh we looked at an audit of energy bills and and approve that do you know just when we might see savings there or start to ably recoup some of that know budget wise that that could take some time but process I've been sending the bills to that firm um I haven't heard anything yet because I'm sure that they're involved with some other things but I haven't um gotten anything back from them they were one of the uh companies that I consulted with in terms of asking about what should be done um budgeting wise along with some of the peers from other uh school districts um oh yes Mrs cona thank you for the presentation um I'll start with the Staffing question so uh we are adding the athletic trainer can we understand the implication of not having this additional athletic trainer I think we heard in the last meeting that um the other teams might not play can can we just talk through the implication of not having one yeah for a second here I can put my my high school principal hat back on um so what what athletic trainers provide is medical coverage for our our student athletes and you know not only our student athletes uh during practice during training uh but also during games and that also impacts potential visiting teams as well uh we are a school of about 920 students right now but our program offerings um mirror that of a lot of larger group four schools so on any given day if you're up here on our campus you'll see that we have athletic teams playing in various places in the fall we could have volleyball happening in the gym uh we could have you know football practice outside we could have field hockey we could have soccer um cross country running and um having having one person who's only able to be in one place at a time has has you know created an issue for us Us in terms of being able to provide adequate medical coverage um additionally it's become even harder like it's been more challenging to find uh Personnel for a lot of different positions uh on a day where our athletic trainer is not available or sick or or has a personal day or something like that finding athletic trainer coverage uh for our events um which has resulted in some concerns um brought from other schools to miss Clifton in terms of scheduling athletic events um with other schools being concerned about their athlet safety uh without adequate medical coverage uh we've taken a look at what a lot of other school districts offer and and we currently are behind what other school districts offer in terms of athletic training coverage which is where the recommendation comes from thank you uh my next question is about uh the increase to bus driver contract right so we we passed that um in the past couple of months the increased salary for bus drivers can we understand in this budget how many more bus drivers are being added over and above what we have today in the district what's the plan if I'm not mistaken I believe that there were two other one or two others that were hired already since that initial um increase was was done and I believe that I one or two more need to be hired but just to clarify these these are positions that we had lost dri not we not Crea to begin with right we're not creating new staff positions we inre we did increase their pay for the positions we have to in order to retain we were short three or four drivers to begin with so is the budget projecting us to be what six or seven district drivers and would that what we would call full capacity meaning we would be able to run all the buses that the district has I believe that there was eight if I'm not mistaken and at the time I think we only had four or five I don't don't quote me I I believe I I I believe that Mrs um Mrs Sheen's supposed to be coming and she'll be able to best answer that question shean would you like to answer that question come to the podium please I'm I'm sorry I didn't see you snuck in I'm sorry yes we um we were we had lost three drivers four drivers excuse me and we have replaced one of them which is our athletic driver we have two more ready to go for September and then potentially one retirement and then one replacement so total of eight with the sports driver so the district will have eight drivers uh that's the projection by September correct and would that mean that we would be able to operate 100% of the buses that we have with that or no we would never operate 100% because we would need a spare in case we had a breakdown or in case we had you know a trip or something like that got it okay but we would be operating as many as we would be able to without putting ourselves in risk of not having a bus got it got it that's helpful thank you Kim YK you can I back can I ask one quick question to Mrs shean while she's there sorry so how many buses do we have in our district 10 we have a new bus that's coming tomorrow oh that's great news so we will have 11 it'll have 11 buses um and then we have we're going to have eight drivers for the September starting September or that's the plan yes okay um also the transportation budget number that I saw was 2 million 2.55 milon 872 so this includes all the routes including the routes that go to ucvts correct uh which is a total of how many two no no no how many routes do we run with 11 District buses under under this 2.55 million how many routes are we running well we run eight routes to G okay we run four routes to Colombia two routes to Woodruff two routes to Hughes eight eight to GL and two to Colombia four to Colombia four to Columbia okay two to Hughes okay two to Woodruff okay we have a combined route this year to wood or Mary Kay and Mountain Park one route Mary okay depending on where the numbers fall for next year we may split that okay um or keep it together and then we have a whole bunch of special ed routes for Mary Kay they go throughout the day how many are special ed routes just a so we have two preschool routes we have a midday preschool route okay we have a GL special ed route a Columbia special ed route um these are in addition to the numbers that you give okay so one just bear with me yep one G special ed and one Columbia okay one Mountain Park okay one Mary Kay In addition to the preschool okay none at Hughes none at wuff one Mary K in so like K through two okay and nothing for Woodruff no special okay no special ed routes to and then two votch routes no special ed to Woodruff and Hughes correct and one special ed to WK none to Woodruff yeah none to Woodruff and Hughes no special ed and then one special ed route to votek no special ed to to votek okay we have two regular Ed routes that go to votch we do a shared time route for um votch we go down once in the morning to pick the students up and then we go down once in the afternoon to take the PM students down there that's the two routes that you're talking about wch right no it's not actually so we have two regular Ed routes that would go down for all theems and then we have two routes that go during the day um one goes at 10:00 to votch to pick up the students who go there for the am shared time program one that goes down at noon time from GL that brings the kids down that go for the PM shared time so in reality there's four routes at votch if you count those two shared times and then the other thing that our department does is we manage all of the transportation for the community based instruction program so we have drivers that are dedicated to that each day that take the students out to their job sites um so would you count that as an extra route or I don't but yes I guess you could count as ADD so I have three drivers that go on that program every day three drivers and it's only like a part-time thing or is it a so they go out at noon time um and they all go to um various communitybased um locations where they do a job uh a job a job they have a job at each of those locations and our drivers drive them there and then pick them up and then they're on call in case a student needs to come back before their shift is over okay so maybe this is offline Mr Nixon if we could like put this on you know we have spoken about more clarity towards Transportation could we just list these somewhere like on our district website how many routes do we have for 2.55 million that's about it yeah that right that 2. over two million right includes Athletics right it it it's more encompassing than just that um but I do think we need to focus on the budget because we do have people who would like to make public comment correct are there any other questions on the budget from the board members yes I'm I'm not done yet sorry yes Mrs con want me so just last question for you all of these routes that you just um listed and super helpful the cost for these routes is in the budget that we are looking at correct thank you okay if there's no other questions from the board sorry Gil I'm still going oh sorry no thank you Kelly uh talking about the technology highlights we had talked about enabling hybrid meetings I think as soon as the njsla was was completed perhaps is the cost for enabling these hybrid meetings is that already in the budget that we are looking at any you know Google or any other technology costs that we anticipate right now I don't believe they're in as a specific line item but also the costs the majority of those costs were in initial equipment purchases that have already been done so what we're talking about is identifying um monies that we would need just for specific licenses if that's the plan we decide to adopt we haven't adopted something specific yet I believe we do have a meeting online for that right Mr Heyman uh where we're going to be where we're going to be making some decisions or that will lead to a recommendation um which we could identify the total cost of at that time but there's we feel like there's room in the budget for that yes okay yeah I think additional cost would be what we cons we would consider minimal in comparison got it to the rest of the budget um on the Chromebooks itself do we have any kind of better Insurance on these Chromebooks where you know people get end of the year fees for keyboard has broken you know you got to pay some dollars uh as as a so Mr Marx is looking um at different different plans um that come with these Chromebooks or have parents purchased that so we still researching what other districts do and we'll be making a recommendation to the Acting Superintendent to take that to the business committee and go forward from there Mr okay one more question it's more of a clarification AJ I think we see that the activity fees the total number has gone up but the the actual fee per club or per activity has not gone up right the number of students is probably higher but we are not increasing the rate of the activity fee no I think those are my questions thank you thank you Mrs kaana I move to move the public comments we have questions oh sorry Dr for yeah I just want to go back to the athletic trer business I did a uh search um the state puts out a list of all the uh certificated staff employees so you can look up uh you know how many uh athletic trainers does a district have I checked out Union County the only ones I could find that had more than one athletic trainer were Westfield Summit and Elizabeth these are all larger districts what I'm what I'd like to know is uh are they saying that they will not play against us because we only have one and uh why wouldn't they just forfeit if they don't show up and uh don't they send their own athletic trainer to a game or do we have do we have to provide two and they don't provide any in a game how does this work so the athletic trainers cover the home the home site um okay a school's not going to Forfeit and take opportunity away from a student to participate something they work hard at every day and year round to prepare for um because there's there's not an athletic trainer available but for for certain Sports certain um sports that are more high intensity or perhaps have a higher level of physical contact having medical personnel on site is something that is certainly preferred um you know when you talk about trying to create an athletic schedule and different things like that um there have been schools that have expressed concern about not being able to have an athletic trainer on site for that particular event they're not going to necessarily not come to that event but they express that concern and it makes it challenging for Miss Clifton to then schedule events against opponents such as that you know in in following years um I would say that the data i' I've seen is is different than the data that you shared so I can I can get you some of the statistics that we've seen as far as the amount of um athletic training coverage that other local schools you know do provide yeah I had the data that went up also I'm sorry just one I would also encourage you to not just look at the size of the school look at the size of the athletic program how many teams do they have how many levels and how many teams per season okay can I make one just one ad piggy back uh I won't put you on the spot on this one but I I'm guessing that well I know that this is not a 100% net incremental cost we I know we've approved Jag and other part-time Trainers for coverage I don't know what that all in was for last athletic school year but it's got to be a big chunk of of this specific cost so I mean in my mind this is not a 100% you know net incremental cost this is whatever it is above and beyond what we paid for those part-time coverages which Ann has told us those are harder to find as well just to get someone to come for you know one game or for the day so I that's I think that's part of the rationale here too let's have more reliable dedicated coverage and and also just anecd having seen Todd run around or golf cart his way around it it's that's not sustainable Mrs Stanley so um someone had sent me some information from social media and I know uh the athletic budget increase is pretty large this year um I think people were thinking that we were hiring an athletic director for that amount which we are not the reason for the athletic increase in budget is actually because last year we cut it right significantly and this year we are saying we are not able to sustain that because our students are missing items that they need to continue to perform the sports so I just want to make sure that that is clear that this athletic trainer is not getting pay that amount that is being added to the budget that is because we have um we we cut it last year and we're trying to fill those uh deficits this year I also wanted to just make a comment on subscription busing Revenue um I just want to make sure that that it's clear that we're not trying to make money off of people in the district this was a way that when we had buses we were already running availability on the seats available on those buses that we were already running right so this was just a way to help parents but also to bring revenue for the district this is how much we had budgeted for for the 2425 uh school year so again this was just a way to help families and help the district this is not us making money it's just offsetting the cost of the busing thank you I'm looking around one more time I have um Mrs secury Yeah couple questions on just to confirm if I maybe this can be a followup Mr jovic or Mr Nixon I just noted down all the routes so they total up to like 25 routes and eight drivers if you can confirm it later that's fine or based on that that's one first question the second one that I want to ask is so average tax increase per household you said if the average house is 300,000 but we know in Berkeley Heights we are around somewhere in half a million so yes so I'm I'm asking a question if I may thank you so Mr JT if an assessed value is in the half a million range then is it a right assumption to make that the tax increase is going to be $270 when I asked tax assessor yeah to be exact it's about 315 is what he gave me for the average home exactly and okay it wasn't a half a million it's 350 exact if if there is a property that is assessed at half a million well if you if you want to base it upon you know what there was a little caveat that was in there that was what you have right up there 374 times 100 okay so I can mul you can use that that calculation okay and um I know we've asked you multiple times about the Surplus number I'm not going to repeat that question is if we do whatever we budgeted for in the current year budget which is 2023 2024 and we're almost at the very like I think we a couple more maybe until June so if we do not use or what was budgeted so if if a particular line item for example Administration or even Transportation comes below if we spend less then that money is going to be moved at the end of June into which Reserve account we can lap let it lapse into Surplus and the other thing is there's a 2% cap that would have to go back to t uh taxpayer so there's there's an amount that you've been seeing that we've had to be going back to the taxpayer which was 1.4 we've been giving more back to the taxpayer uh can you elaborate when you say giving back to the taxpayer are we giving sending checks to taxpayers no we're using it to use for for that M the amount that you've asked me before that was I put in there 2.2 yes there was a question that you had asked me back when we were doing the budget you asked me what was the minimal amount which was 1.4 remember that that question that came up before the tenative budget Tom you remember asking me that question you asked me the question you asked me how much was the minimal amount that I could use for Surplus and I remember and I gave it to the full board it was 1.4 well we used more than 1.4 we gave 2.2 is what I used in the budget so with that being said whatever we don't if we have money that's left over at the end of the year that would be going into Surplus and if we have excess over 2% that would have to go back to the taxpayer and the example that was used was 1.4 which was going back to the taxpayer so if our Surplus goes about 2% then we start it goes back to the taxpayer and that's what's used toward um budgeted fund balance or so it basically it doesn't you're not we're not cutting a check back to the to the residents but it's going back into the next year's budget yes got it okay yes okay um also in terms of mountain side you said that we are our revenues are increasing has the enrollment increased no when I said that there there is a clause that is in the agreement that we can increase the tuition Revenue 2% per year that was that was what I was alluding to okay it's because of the contract not because of the enrollment no okay um I might I might mess this up so you keep me honest I I think you guys have I think you've got uh like nine fewer budgeted students is either nine 10 or 11 of the and part of it is because the senior class is large but maybe I think it was somewhere around 7 we're at 24 not 240 2 237 maybe that's current 237 some some somewhere in that neighborhood yeah I I remembered it the last time but not not at the moment I have too many numbers through the head I I think I think it's nine fewer but that 2% plus special ed cost well we we never know Jordan we made people mountain side is popular so people could be moving in and you could be sending us more students yes yeah uh I the last one is not a question I'm very happy to see that we have increased our spending on textbooks uh physical textbooks I hope and I'll I'll clarify this later on but I'm happy to see that we are spending more than what we were last last year thank you I move to uh a motion to move the public comments before the board votes on resolution a for Budget only do I have a second who's it you're you're moving okay okay do we need a roll call count uh Vote or can we just do and I you just do you could do a Voice vote is fine Voice vote eyes I nay abstentions okay public comment on Final 2024-25 budget during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on the final budget only the board requests that individuals State their name address town of residence or School of attendance for the record the specific action items they are commenting on and ask that all remarks be directed to the board president or design not to individual members or staff the board ask that the members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public if a matter concerning a District staff member is of Interest or concern to a resident the matter should be referred to the responsible building principal Acting Superintendent of Schools or the Board of Education either by telephone letter or email although the board may not respond to items raised during the public form all public comments will be considered please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result and removal from the meeting or adjournment of the meeting each speaker statement will be limited to 3 minutes in duration speaking on the budget only yes hi my can you hear me my name is Ramia curri and I live at 86 Cromwell Court um I noted on the budget highlights that they for Property and Casualty Insurance rates they are projected to increase 10 10 to 15% and I was just wondering if this includes or considers the additional liability that you all are taking on now and that you all are on notice of and that's specifically related to The increased exposure you now have to accidents on roadways particularly hazardous ones now that these four board members are not providing free and mandated busing to children that live on hazardous routes any other question that's it thank you okay Rich bow 68 W place I just want to clarify if I heard something right with the amount that's in the budget for next year for busing is equal to what they paid this year for the same roots that are set up this year so you could keep the current roots and work out a common sense way to protect these kids to get to school at no additional cost and you chose not to not too smart so nany and Bano am I supposed to say where I live like we do on the other one 215 Karne Drive um so there's a theme to me that's coming up today and it's safety I heard you ask about safety when it came to um whether or not we needed more support for athletic trainers I had a son who was hurt severely playing basketball here and thank God for Todd but if we' had another sport going on and it had been a home game he would not have been nearby that practice and he would have not have been able to give the support that my son needed to live so I just want to point that out safety seems to be an issue with this group we worry more about dollars and penes than we do about the safety of our children the safety of our children to get to school safely I've heard this organization talk a lot about fact-based I want fact-based decision-making I work in fact-based decision- making yet what are the facts that says that the new proposal and what we're going to do this year is better I don't see any facts what are the facts that say getting rid of hazardous park or road assistance for our children children to get to school in a safe way what are the facts that say what you're proposing for next year is a better option there are no facts the only facts we have is that the old way worked I don't see any facts that says the new way is a better safer way for our children and for our community you any other public comments on budget items only aen pharoh 258 Diamond Hill Road I'mma say it again 258 Diamond Hill Road here in Berkeley Heights so I heard uh one of the board members Her Name Escapes Me she said that you're not making money off of line item the line item for subscription busing if you take away the seats that some of us previously had because let's make it clear my son can't walk to school I don't think any of your children will be walking to school from Diamond Hill Road never going to happen but if he can't walk to school you take my seat and now you sell it back to me because you know I have no other way to get him to school those figures haven't been put into the 2324 school year because my route was already accounted for and paid for with my taxes so now if I got to give you some more money back how are you not making money off of subscription busing at this point anybody G to answer that is that the question we'll answer it is it is okay it is how are you not show me how you're not making money off of subscription busing break that part down in layman's terms I don't need anything fancy I need it to be really simple because you took my seat and told me that I could have my seat back if I pay for it in my eyes that's equivalent to somebody stealing my car and then telling me I can have my car back if I pay a fee I would also like to ask nope never mind I'll wait till the end thanks thank you any other on p uh public comments on budget  Aurora 55 Grassman Place Berkeley Heights so uh I I'm presuming that we would need more crossing guards based on uh the new uh plans that we have right in terms of new busing system which is being proposed and if that's implemented uh if we would need those many crossing guards I don't know the number but whatever numbers we would is that that additional cost budgeted for that's it for now thank you thank you okay yes hi uh Michelle Ro uh 46 tip toop way here in Berkeley Heights uh I'm gonna piggyback on the last gentleman not you oh sorry I'm gonna piggy back on his uh statement about crossing guards so not only are you gonna need more crossing guards but you're going to need a whole lot more police officers because if anybody has ever driven up in this area whether it's in the morning or in the afternoon with brand new student drivers you have an entire you know 200 plus students that are just getting behind the wheel of a car which is the most nerve-wracking thing that a parent can go through they can't get out of the parking lot Mr Nixon right without getting into car accidents so start to think about what the cost of additional police officers are you're going to need people at Diamond Hill Road Mountain Avenue uh hundon and uh Glenside sorry Murray Hill and Mountain the cost is going to go up and up not to mention first aid Squad additional Insurance just it goes on and on so we don't see any of those numbers in the budget excuse me what what's your last name please oor oror thank you you're welcome thank well I can see my kids Helen Gabara 62 Burlington Road Berkeley Heights New Providence Murray Hill what have you nobody cared about my kids while they were walking these last three blocks now all of a sudden if they're coming from somewhere else and they have to walk through these three blocks we need crossing guards I asked the cops years ago and they said they have to be stationed at all the other schools they can't have a cop up here okay when we moved here with the best of intentions we bought our house where our small children could be busted and the high schoolers could walk no one told us that the last three blocks up to the high school without sidewalks on the street were the dangerous the traffic was as by no one told us that living 3.8 miles from Columbia school and 3.5 miles from Hughes would require so much driving to and from school even if they had no one would foresee the reworking of the schols to add in Mary K McMillan school another threemile trip often times when we had to drive one child it conflicted with the other bus times so we had to drive all of them we had kids in eighth 6th fourth 3D four years old and a newborn with newborn babies nursing babies napping preschoolers possible sick children at home it wasn't easy or convenient to drive we all make our choices and we all live with the consequences like or not back in the day Bandon chorus practice at Hughes was weekly before school each of four kids in Scouts required pickup for those days a student oversleeping required driving on that morning there was drama dragons at Hughes rehearsals at Columbia for Productions there then there was science club Art Club Spanish club after school at Columbia every time it was a hassle to remember to write the notes no bus today pack up the other children and make time in my what else does she do all day schedule we make our choices with the best of intentions we live with the consequences there was the literal cost no one helped me pay for 13 m per gallon gas $ per gallon wear and tear on the car I car pulled once in a while when I could but it was not often I seem to remember only one year with the newborn once a month for Scouts so now I see people in the same boat life through a curveball when they were not expecting it as my mother would say this is life for the past 25 years or so there was the opportunity to pay for busing if you did not live in the bustable zone I remember the offer going out to everyone no one that I knew of got a free ride I was shocked recently to find out some people did get this free deal free of charge I think if there's going to be busing everyone who lives closer than the two or 2.5 miles from school should get the same Equitable deal they all should pay for it right now there are people at the end of Holly Glen Lane South who have to pay or drive and just over one house to the next street those people get free rides it isn't fair everyone should pay thank you okay M this is about budget items only understood thank you Mr dford um there we go that's not the right height uh Steph Yellen seven finch Court good evening all a few questions on the budget um first of all has there been a coordination effort uh begun with or considered with the township uh regarding Public Safety needs that may now be increased as a result of the decision made with regard to uh the busing policy uh if not why not and is there a estimated goal as to how long it will take to achieve that kind of coordinated agreement with the township that's question one question two is if the subscription busing uh is no longer being made available to those uh funding in there being made available to those on hazardous Roots why is that line item being kept in the budget third has the governing body board of ed considered the possibility of allocating the funds that are used for Surplus budget uh for excuse me for subscription buzzing and making a commitment to the community that they will allocate the entirety of funds that are available for subscription busing to all those who would be affected who have been affected by the loss of the free busing that was given to them uh by the elimination of those uh were On the Hazardous roads I've done a calculation I believe there and please correct me if I'm wrong that there were 220 students who were affected by the uh elimination of the free hazardous busing policy if that is the case I've done the calculation based on the line item in the budget and the township could provide about $572 per student who was in a who lived in a uh house that was on the Hazardous busing list so that might be something for you to consider as part of a the budget making that guarantee to the residence you'll provide that funding as at least some way of mitigating the you know issue that has been brought to Residents as a result of the change in policy uh lastly I would just say that I agree with one as one aspect of the comments made by the previous speaker which is that the governing body does make choices and the community has to live with the consequences and I hope that you'll consider what the Public's had to say tonight on this and other issues and reevaluate the decision you made earlier this evening while you still have the chance to do so thank you thank you okay I see no other for public comments let's see if we can answer some of the things that we have in no particular order um in terms of liability do we have liability insurance Mr jtz we have liability insurance where that falls and what happens we have to take each and every occurrence as it as it comes along thank you um in terms of what Mr Bower said 100 126,000 would keep our current Roots is that correct Mrs she Mrs shean one more time 126 126,000 was budgeted to keep our current Roots is that correct correct okay uh let's go down to it yes if I may clarify I think we're talking about two things here the $126,000 is the revenue in the budget that was based on a certain assumption on the number of students that would sign up for subscription busing as have done in the past in the past over the past few years the students have signed up at a rate of $1,000 for a subscription busing seat what we have in the budget is the 2.5 million in total cost for transportation like we said earlier the routes the cost in the budget that we have right now are all the routes that we are running today and they have been escalated for whole law based on the agreed upon index so it's sort of two separate things just so go ahead Mr Nixon I I think what some people are trying to understand the $126,000 number so over over the years there's been uh mandated busing the people that qualified based upon the distance that they lived from the school um there's also been a certain amount of courtesy busing um that has occurred historically then what happens at the end once those routes are put together for all of those students Mrs Sheen and her office are able to identify the number of seats that are left available which have been made available for anybody who was interested in um purchasing those seats so to speak on a subscription basis that number has been used historically over the years to offset some of the transportation costs in the district so um the the 126,000 number that's in there is an approximation based upon what we've been able to realize from year year to year about how many that that essentially represents approximately 126 subscription students that we've had in the district over each of the past few years so that line item was built into to offset some of the budgeted costs so that's that's where that 126 number comes from if that makes sense correct um Mrs shean can you answer Mrs pharoh's question about are we making money off of subscription busing oh sorry okay are we making money off of subscription busing so subscription busing as Mr Nixon said would be in the budget we anticipate 126 students that would would do and now obviously numbers could shift um those would be to offset some of the costs that the transportation cost The District in regards to Mr yellen's Question uh can surplus funds be used for subscription busing not at this present time no right that's not a factor at this point in time and Surplus can only be used for certain items so I'm going to say no at this present time could things shift can decisions be made on this board can things be reallocated reallocation is a better word than Surplus that's a whole different story so I I really can't comment it depends on the situation and how things can be formulated and moved things can be done or changed I can put it to you that way the uh going to the comment on safety and sports Mr Nixon I think you had addressed that already okay um the crossing guards I believe are hired by our Berkeley Heights uh Township our Police Department hires our crossing guards the Board of Ed does not hire crossing guard is that correct that's correct got it okay um in terms of coordinating with the township yes the township and the Board of Education are meeting together we're meeting we have met with the mayor the police department uh the town administrators the difficulty is is that some of these roads that uh were were called hazardous are County Roads and that takes a lot more coordination and that would be the mayor's job to do that so we have some difficulty in the coordinating of these roads if there's no subscription busing why is there a line item in our budget for it it's just I think we just answered that okay all right I think we've answered the questions that we can okay we are ready to go to a vote Mr secretary oh yes was there one more question um yes hi sorry it's Ramy again so I think the answer that was given while I was out was that you're going to take liability on a caseby casee basis is that correct about the insurance question I I I can't say anything if an accident happens I we report that but so my question is if you know how an insurance policy Works pay premium you have a deductible and you have a limit amount if you bust through the limit then you pay out of pocket so if your insurance limit is a million dollar and you have a child hit on Diamond Hill Road and the expenses are $2 million then you come out of pocket for a million doar now that all of you who used to provide free busing to children on hazardous routes are no longer providing that busing you are on notice of an increased exposure of risk and so you've allocated that your Property and Casualty rates will incre inre by 15% does that take into account the additional premium that you will have to pay for increased limits on an insurance policy for your increased risk I think we understand and perhaps perhaps a better way to consider it maybe Mr dler you can help us with this in terms of a a student walking home from school right we're talking about a student who's walking to or from school what happens if there's an accident and you're responsible for them until they at home what is How would how would the law determine that level of liability from a school district should a student get hurt on the welome so again I think part of the question is probably more of AO question for the district's broker right I I would recommend based on this question if you want to reach out to your broker to see well one of the things we're doing is doing Insurance renewals within the next two weeks so I'm sure that question will probably be coming up yeah exactly I would re I would recommend that you reach out to your broker bring up this issue and see if your broker has any recommendations in relation to that right because liability is an insurance-based question right right and so really it's a question for your broker to say bring this up bring this issue up and see if your broker has any recommendations for the board and I'm sure the finance committee and particularly the head of the finance committee has already contemplated these questions and is prepared to have a quote that is much higher than your previous quotes thank you thank you Mrs Bradford um I just want to ask you about the Outreach answer that you said with the township so if you can just clarify that who was at the meeting and what was the information shared and the board sitting here has a lot of unanswered questions in terms of we are hearing about hazardous roads designation by the consultant we hired we paid this consultant $112,000 we haven't seen we've asked for any email communication from this consultant according to their paid contract if they have sent an email to anybody in the district be it Transportation be it the business administrator be it you be it the Acting Superintendent or the previous superintendent for the last 8 to 12 weeks we have not got a single response and based on my conversation yesterday at the business office there are no emails so can we keep the story straight here what did these Consultants do they came here they walked our routes they drove around with Mrs shean did we get a final report did we get an email from them with the rubric if there is then I think that needs to be made available to the public it needs to be clarified that the board has not received a single document be it an email be it a PDF be it I I don't know how you received it okay Mrs zi this is a question for Mr Nixon Mrs we are right now in the middle of a budget discussion and we're going to Bud if you if you would like me to ask it as a taxpaying resident I can definitely go over there and ask you I want you to if you are answering for I'm I'm can you please not interrupt if you are answering to the public as a representative of the board you need to be honest and you need to be truthful about what did the board receive you cannot be spreading or continuing this information and I know Miss Jolly was there at this meeting what was the outcome of this meeting where even the superintendent wasn't included Mr Nixon I just want a simple question do we have an email document from the Transportation consultant with the rubric and a ranking of the stets that's it thank you I understand your question I think what Mrs atford is trying to say is her answers were in relation to Transportation related questions towards the budget that's part of a different discussion that's all this this is this is not the right time in the meeting for that portion of the discussion we have theout Mr jtz has run all of the communications that we have received from the Transportation consultants and he has that ready to become available okay we're going to move to a vote now by the board for the budget Mr secretary we we need a first and a second okay uh okay let me go back to the resolution now resolution a all board members adoption of 2425 final budget resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the Acting Superintendent and the business administrator authorizes the submission of the 2425 final school budget to the Union County Executive superintendent of schools with the following fund allegations and you can read that in the chart okay just sorry be further resolved that the general fund tax levy of 46,7 63,360 reviewed and approved by the board at its public budget hearing which we have done and now we are on to a roll uh excuse me we need a second on that motion second discussion vote Miss Stanley Mrs Connor yes Mr Ki I wish we could have balanced the budget better I know we've tried but I'm hoping that we can see the Surplus numbers reflected clearly yes Dr forger um yes Mr Heyman yes Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Bradford yes motion passes we're going to move on to committee and Lea reports the Veterans Affair committee Lea on on Thursday May 23rd the committee is having a red white and blue day in the Heights to begin the town's Memorial Day celebration invites all our school staff and students to participate by wearing wearing red white and blue the town hall staff are volunteering and also using this as a fundraiser for our VFW and Veterans the Veterans Affairs committee also invites all schools to participate in Marching In the Berkeley Heights Memorial Day Parade on Monday May 27th Mr Dennis Ryan is the parade coordinator and students are encouraged to march with her school Banner wearing patriotic colors Andor sports shirts a special invitation is extended to our GL high school athletes to March and receive recognition from the community for their accomplishments during the parade invitations to local veterans to read school age appropriate books to students have been extended at all schools and to the principals and Librarians Berkeley Heights Town Council met on Tuesday April 30th public comments included District busing concerns um out of that there was a meeting held and Mrs jolly and I were invited as part of the mayor's Round Table informally and we were working with uh the previously mentioned business administrator Town Council president police officer and the mayor herself May is a mental Heth mental health month in Berkeley Heights the Rotary Club and the mayor's Wellness have tied greed ribbons around throughout the town the PTO area Council met and the administration shared and discussed curriculum agenda with PTO liaison from each of the schools that ends my liaison report does anyone else have a liaison report yes okay we've got Dr forer yes okay this is is this on hello this is from the uh minutes of the curriculum committee meeting we met on uh April 23rd I'll just go through uh uh we talked about proximity learning home instruction followup uh Dr gardano has shared a budgeting related to proximity including current home instruction costs $8,900 spent year-to dat on Virtual home instruction Dr gardano stated that Diane asalone would break down the hourly cost of each to share out Dr Gano stated they would invite a representative from the company to attend the next meeting um let's see there was some discussion about re Renaissance Learning assessment committee update Benchmark assessment platform followup uh Dr seminario shared and reviewed a comparison of the I ready and Renaissance Learning platforms as well as assessment results comparison between them the next meeting of the assessment committee will include a presentation and question and question and answer from a Renaissance representative it was decided that Mrs Bradford would join the meeting as a representative of the curriculum committee uh summer curriculum writing staff uh once a sidebar agreement as scon staff will need to be approved curriculum writing AP Physics 1 and AP Physics C I think actually just tonight we're talking about AP Physics 2 there's going to be an agenda item for that curriculum guide uh create your playlist uh I don't think we got into that change CMS World Language change uh uh this going to be moving CMS to language level one over two years seventh and eth grade as opposed to all content in eighth grade only that's budget neutral and academic sound sixth grade would remain a cycle course we talked about an Honor Society for history a GL that will need a board of education and bhea approval for a stien there's currently no Honor Society and Associated club uh this for history students will be involved in Grant work through participation in the club creating living Memorial as a first project that would require a sidebar agreement with bhea or stien to cover the club advisor I asked what criteria would be for participation Mr Hopkins shared broadly speaking you need a bleep Closs average and students would enter during junior year Mrs Jolly asked about a timeline for the project that would be the 2425 school year uh let's see sidebar agreement sidebar needs to be Revisited by bhaa building thinking classrooms we're not a BTC district teachers can choose aspects SE to use as they feel appropriate we're working towards consistency within departments for example assessments given grading assigned and so on uh Dr Curtis shared the desire to reset and retrain teachers on research-based best practices and Mathematics which may include some components of BTC to ensure more consistency in structural practices and Grading Dr Curtis shared the need for increased funding and professional development and curriculum resources for the mathematics department and she offered a propos she offered to put together a proposal for a professional development plan um Mrs Jolly asked for any updates on introducing a new language Mr Hopkins indicated that the primier issue would be Financial of adding for to add additional staff resulting in very small class sizes for French Italian and ASL uh Mr Hopkins was asked what his preferred language would be to add if he could if there were no Financial constraints and he stated Hindi Dr girano stated that any change would require a stakeholder input and should be taken slowly and shared that an adoption of proximity learning may allow for increased opportunities in taking various languages that's it thank you any other curricula uh sorry committee meetings Mrs Stanley um so the Personnel committee met on uh May 2nd we had updates on the applicants for the acting principal at Governor Livingston high school we also had an update on the SE summer curriculum writing um again we are waiting for negotiations with the bhea but we do look forward to having that um we had a resignation that's on the agenda tonight the director of Elementary education and intervention um we have non-tenured administrators on the agenda tonight and we have um a central office um contracts we are going to look at them and start discussing um maybe renegotiating some of them to make them more uniform that's it thank you Mrs Stanley Mrs Conor I have two um liazon reports I'll start with the Union County ad Services Commission they had their meeting last week uh two key points discussed in the meeting uh the first one was they're able to offer a $4,500 stipend for their teacher assistance uh these teaching these teacher assistants are essentially you know Hands-On supporting the students they did not have to raise their tuition so um that was a plus the other um point of discussion was they conducted a survey through the New Jersey school climate initiative uh and it was a survey of the students the staff and parents they had about 75% student participation uh parent participation was low staff participation was about 55% uh the positives that came out of the survey was their students feel safe and um feel they have strong relationships with the teaching staff the teaching staff feels like they are supported um students have identified some areas uh as as of strength as well as uh areas that that need some work so um the uh Union County Head Services Commission uh district is is going to look at how to address uh some of these things that have come in through the survey uh the next report that I have is the finance committee meeting that happened on May 3rd uh which was last Friday uh the discussion there was on the cost of subscription bus uh a few data points were shared in the meeting we looked at fees at other districts Milburn at uh 1495 per student a family Max of 2,990 chatam charges 800 per student Long Hill is charging 900 per student Bernard Township has 900 per student Scotch Plains is charging 950 per student uh Berkeley Heights our rate as of now is $1,000 per student Mountainside I believe is increasing their rate to 750 uh the District of West Morris is charging 750 per student and uh $1,200 for two or more students in the district Monclair is charging $400 per student and uh 225 for the second student and $100 for the third student so these were the comparables that the committee discussed as we discussed the options we have for subscription busing as of Friday there were 86 subscription busing registrations for the 2024 2025 school year uh we talked about the current number of uh students getting busing total Riders were um 1,27 that includes special ed uh in District we had about a,2 students and subscription writers made up 102 uh GL had 480 qualified writers CMS had 81 Hughes was 63 Woodruff was 61 and Maran Mountain Park did not have and what I mean by qualified is these are the students that would qualify under the uh State guideline of two miles for elementary and middle school and two and a half miles for high school uh based on the data that we have uh this the estimate is uh subscription seats could be as many as 350 uh and that's something that the transportation team is working on we discussed the impact on the budget so based on the projection that we have in the budget $126,000 from subscription busing is the estimate that is based on $1,000 per student and about1 six is a projection based on uh past numbers the committee discussed options to uh set the pricing for subscription busing uh one was uh one would be $500 per student and a cap of 750 this would require uh 252 students single subscription students to sign up to meet the budgeted number of 126,000 at 650 per student would require um 194 single subscriptions to meet the budgeted number and finally the third option we discussed was 750 per student which would require 168 single subscriptions to meet the budgeted number uh at the end of the meeting we came out with um two options for the recommendations uh option one uh was uh $500 for a single writer and 750 uh as a cap for the family option two was 750 for a single riter and a $950 cap for the family uh Mr Nixon if you want to chime in more from this perspective on the recommendation yeah we we we talk we talked through several of these options and um I think a couple of the other things that we talked that maybe not specifically talk about his concerns but also the number of seats aren't necessarily reflective of there's this many seats in there on a first come first serve basis some of these seats are dependent upon how many seats are available on which routes depending on how many students fill a bus on a route so it's not it's not exactly uh perfectly specific and perfectly clean either um I mean I think the one thing I would say and the one thing I would like to recommend is is short of um some of the other options that we've discussed not being successful uh I would just like to recommend that if if you know as the board moves forward with with setting a number here I would recommend setting the lowest possible number in order to support um our families and students as best as possible Mr Nixon is this recommendation for one year only yeah I think one of the things that we should definitely commit to do uh to doing um would be taking a lot of the questions that were asked and a lot of the reasoning being being given for um other things not being uh supported um I think we should do more work to make sure that those questions are answered so that if we have the ability to make a much U more specific policy that supports student safety um I spoke at a previous meeting I think everybody is aware that I was supportive of putting through a hazardous routes policy that identified uh specific uh students to receive courtesy busing based upon living on a hazardous route I also understand uh questions that were asked and the concerns that were brought up regarding the presentation and regarding the um consulting firm and and the information that was shared by them um so yes I would recommend anything that we do being something that we do on a oneyear basis so that we can work a little bit harder and try and get this right Mrs Conor does that finish your report thank you um any other reports Mrs Jolly can we have an update on educator of the year which is a happy time for us um it is I actually don't have anything specific to say to that but I did want to um give a shout out to um the uh fiser fin techies program um this is an email that was shared by Mrs Kang who as we know was a math teacher in the district so on Thursday um of this week um from 4: to 6 um the program is in its third season and with the for the fifth through eighth grade students and they will be finishing up their and presenting their work um uh on this Thursday so that's at The Innovation Center um at 100 con Connell Park in Berkeley Heights um so they've invited the board and I'm just uh you know shouting it out to the community if they would like to attend though I think now that I read it there might have been a registration um that was needed but um just for awareness yes thank you what a wonderful uh opportunity has been for our students and I I will be attending that if that ends our committee and liaison reports we're going to move on to board Communications I have four board correspondences um one of them was a possible solution to busing issue next was a second possible solution to a busing issue and a third a third possible solution to a busing issue and last was a resignation of board member Angela Penner those were the four correspondences that I received uh thank you and with the resignation of Mrs Penna and AD will go out tomorrow to fill the seat is that correct yes thank you uh report of the business administrator uh this is basically just uh maintenance uh facilities at GL we have uh potholes are being repaired at uh GL room 12 had a new projector installed and roof repairs had been completed Mountain Park there was an excavated swell by the Ballfield to create a better drainage and reduced Ballfield and infield clay erosion roof repairs had been started inspection inspected and performed general maintenance on lunch tables and Jim divider was inspected William woodruft uh prices are being obtained for repair to the catch basins uh uh in the parking lot used we had a removal of an old air conditioner uh a new one was installed and the reframing around that air conditioner was done and uh an outer pounder was was installed in order to protect that unit uh CMS Poole repairs are ongoing there uh we had cafeteria monitors that had been installed and the power has been run to them now it's just a matter of getting the uh the what is the word I'm looking for here Tech the technology part of that issue is to get those monitors with the menus for the cafeteria up and running so they can be utilized for the cafeteria uh CMS uh slate sign was power washed and new power was Run for the newly installed air conditioning unit districtwide playground mulch is being uh delivered to the elementary schools this week and the B&G director had is indoor air quality certification renewed for the next school year finally the electric bus application has been submitted and that concludes my report thank you thank you to Mr jusis our business administrator um at this time we have comments comments from the public on any agenda items we've already done the budget so any other agenda items okay sorry during this portion of the meeting District residents and staff are invited to address the board of education on agenda action items only the board requests that the individuals State their name address town of residence or School of attendance uh for the record all comments should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded although the board may not respond to all items raised during the public forums all public comments will be considered the board asks that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking spe specifically comments regarding Personnel matters are discouraged and cannot be responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights afforded by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by the members of the public please note that if any member of the public becomes disruptive during the meeting the board president May terminate the participant statement continued disruptions may result in removal from or adjournment of the meeting each speaker's statement will be limited to three minutes in duration yes thank you hi Toya Facey uh 440 Timber Drive um I won't address any particular Board of Ed members by name but I will say the four Board of Ed members that actually voted at the last minute removing Hazard hazardous busing um I want the public to be aware um that the the Hazardous busing and courtesy busing was an area that two of the board of Ed's members spoke about publicly about eliminating during their run for Board of Ed they were asked about how we can improve the busing situation while both recommended a long-term phase solution um they also indicated that we would need more data in order for us to make a decision from what I understand in in in attending the Board of Ed meetings the data was provided so I think it is a false misre I think it's a misre misrepresentation to say that this is about the data this is about something else and as a result our children are more unsafe um than they were previously having to write make those hazardous routes so while we're talking about being fair and Equitable I would just like to make a note pleasee do not use the word Equity as Loosely as you have because this is not about Equity at all look up the definition of what Equity means and what we are doing around the Hazardous routes and not making sure that our kids are safe does not make things Equitable I think one of the Board of Ed members um actually used that as part of their campaign platform to say that we should actually do away with what is deemed as courtesy busing um I would like to just kind of say I am a parent um I do um take part in subscription busting for my son because we are too close for him to be busted um my daughter is also a GL student and she is part of the Hazardous routes I live on Timber that means my daughter has to cross mountain and that means that she has to walk where there is actually a sidewalk but actually ends at Diamond Hill and then walk in the grass to get over to GL so this does impact me um and I am very disappointed in the four Board of Ed members and I want to be clear that it is four Board of Ed members who actually voted for this because it wasn't the entire board I'm disappointed that the four would actually put personal gripes because I do think that this is what this is about rather than making sure that over 200 children are actually safe getting to school and you did it without feedback from the community which under the New Jersey Code of Ethics of board members you are supposed to get the feedback from your stakeholders and I am a subscription bus payer my child is also affected by not having the Hazardous routes and no one got my feedback to ask me how this would impact me that's it thank you thank you hi Louisa Gman 194 Princeton Avenue um I have a question Switching gears for a moment regarding the search for um replacement for Miss peny so I just want to just just so the public we all understand how how it works um so I believe you have 60 days from the time you accept her resignation is that correct so May 1 is what I heard is that to stop me if I'm wrong anywhere so from May 1st you have until June 30th to actually have someone in her seat I will have Mr jtz read the ad in when you're done okay and then so my so my question is you I just want to make sure that we all understand that you're going through the process of I guess Gathering res first advertising for posting it Gathering resumés some kind of interview process but then on June 30th there we we as a public can expect to have somebody take her spot I just want to clarify that when all the public comments are finished we'll have Mr J quits read the ad okay thank you thank you uh Adam harwitz a 79 cromo Court in Berkeley Heights um I heard some discussion tonight about potentially reducing the price of subscription busing based off of the budget number of $126,000 in Revenue um and heard you know floated anywhere from 500 to I think it was $750 a student um to me that sounds like we're asking the parents of whose children live on hazardous roads to subsidize the busing of those on less hazardous roads on safer roads um I don't see how that is fair or Equitable to ask um parents to decide whether they should make their child walk along Mountain a where there is no sidewalk and no shoulder in front of the Nokia building and risk getting hit by a car or subsidize the busing of someone who lives significantly closer to the school whose children do not have to walk on Diamond Road on Mountain AV or any of these other hazardous roads um if anything I think that it's almost like blackmail you're telling parents choose your child's safety or subsidize the busing of other students um it's honestly despicable and I'm highly disappointed that four members of this board chose to implement such a policy without first determining how they would ensure the safety of our students um especially when the courtesy busting is already budgeted for for the upcoming year there is no reason why we couldn't provide busing for one more year to at least find a way that was fair and Equitable instead of forcing this sort of situation thank you aen pharoh again and I'm back and I'm not disappointed I'm angry and the reason that I'm angry is because I feel as though the board members that did vote it down pulled the rug out from underneath the families that actually depend on the busing because there is no other way which which is the same thing that I heard several board members complain about our former superintendent so I don't see where your actions were any different than what she did when she rolled out full day kindergarten please be careful do not mention anything I'm sorry I apologize for that but I am angry it's not disappointment it's anger because I get a letter in the mail that tells me that now I don't qualify because of a decision that you guys made and you didn't ask for my opinion you didn't ask for my input none of it and then you tell me I'm on the hook for $500 deposit within two weeks now just because I might be able to pay it doesn't mean that my neighbor can pay it you don't know people's Financial situations and you made a blanket decision so I do agree with the gentleman before me which is it could have stayed in place you could have given people time to prepare and had a comprehensive plan because the last time I stood in front of all of you I asked what is your comprehensive plan and everybody looked at me as though they had as though they were Dearing headlights with nothing it was an opportunity for you to at least speak on it that's it you hi Ramia Castor 86 chomel Court just a few more comments um I know you four love social media so there's actually h a video posted on social media now where my son um tries to cross Mountain Avenue tries to cross Diamond Hill Road um and it's obvious the dangerous situation that you four have created since you guys live on social media you should definitely check it out as should everybody else um and the fact that you for for are sitting here and continuing to defend your action of not even allowing for this year these kids to continue to have free busing is truly despicable and you should wipe the arrogance off of your faces and replace it with shame thank you Rich Bower 25w Place call it courtesy busing for 50 years they bust the kids more than 50 years the kids had gotten busted GL wasn't courtesy busing it wasn't subscription busing they got the bus because it wasn't safe to walk so now you're changing it changing the words and now you want the kids to pay for it uh for my neighborhood which is going to get all the kids from Timber Drive there's no legal crosswalk at Debbie place in Mountain so you shouldn't be crossing the road there but now you expect the kids to do that when they get to Diamond H road you have to cross five Lanes of traffic to cross that intersection you think that's safe there's no sidewalks along Mountain by no Kia there's no sidewalks on Glenside the lower half try and turn off a hunter Glenside on The Hunton in your car it's dangerous people fly over the hill how you get across the street as a kid you spent $122,000 on a study you ignored it the police agreed with the study you ignored them you had two good sources of information saying hazardous and you ignored them all these days dangerous intersections don't have crossing guards the 2 and a half miles that was said tonight it's a guideline it's not a law it's a guideline you can change and adjust a guideline make it two miles that should pick up all the kids from Diamond Hill over that were getting bust before that's a hazard so change it based on the distance if you go down Mountain Avenue people at the end of some of those streets have to walk people a little further in off a mountain they're going to get the bus that's not realistic either people that moved to this town purchased homes here because you got busted a high school that's what people look at when they look into buying in a town now you've just changed that whole scenario so now people might be looking in other towns the subscription busing is available if there's an empty seat what if there's no empty seats now how's your kid going to get to school being in charged for seats that you already paid for with your taxes tonight a comment was made that a lot of people are signing up that doesn't make it right it's mean mean you're forcing to do it whether they can afford it or not uh there was a claim about not receiving the report tonight so you made a decision and you didn't have a report that had all the information in it that you needed that's not too smart we we expect more of the people that are on these boards board shouldn't be concerned with how the company came up with their hazardous Roots people say oh we didn't get the rubric for it so what look at the information if they tell you a Street's hazardous and the police agree that that street is hazardous it must be a hazardous the street so why do you continue to ignore it I think they need to go back and if you can find another way to bring this vote back up give you people had an out to get out of this and you sat there and just no no we're not going to we're not going to change our vote take the year you got the money in the budget give the kids the bus and figure out the good way to do this this is absolutely ridiculous hi this is uh Aurora 55 grasman pleas so a couple of things one uh I have heard before also that this consultant was hired uh to basically you know outlay which are the Hazardous Roots uh I as a resident I'm I'm hoping that I have access to that report in writing if if he or she has presented um and I would really like to have a copy of that uh do you think that's possible because right so a written report from that consultant where we spent $112,000 so that's one uh then the area that I live in is considered to be a part of cinnamon Ridge um and I was given to understand right from day one while I was looking uh from the realtor you know the town and everybody else around that when that area was being constructed there was a there was an like um I don't know what the right word is but I guess understanding that uh the uh students from that area would be given busing to all the schools in Berkeley Heights uh including GL CMS and all that this is cinnamon R and around area uh and there is apparently some kind of documentation to that effect as well if that being the case and which was the case so far right because that's where we were and as per your measurement not mine though uh we my house falls under 2 miles if that is the case but we have an agreement for that area for all the students not just my kid then it should be still honored right I don't see a reason right for any of this changes happening uh if there's already something documented based on the Builder which constructed that area I asked that in an email I haven't gotten response so far so I I would expect a response on that and that's just not for my kid for all the kids in that area that what where is the document and if that document is there the understanding is there why should we even talk about dollars whether it's $500,000 or what or or what have you so uh that's another thing I mean this is my general observation uh on various I've not attended a whole lot of Board of Education meetings But whichever I have there's it looks like many uh political Circle Happening Here circus Happening Here uh in terms of few members ganging up others on the other side uh Petty politics I mean it's I don't even know I I was laughing with my friend but basically I should be crying because I you know uh but that's how it is that board of education and I'm presuming some of you have kids here in the schools I mean it's it it has such pretty Politics on busing oh because this board memb is here so we'll provide uh busing to that street uh because of the presence of that board member on that street or their relatives or whatever I don't even know but I I have some examples but obviously I don't want to you know get into that right now so I think we should rise above that that's my request because it's a small town right uh and uh I think we should we should get our act together and really look forward for the benefit of students town and the school thank you good evening Debbie Terrero 170 Len pain um for the four of you who voted against this busing policy you really should be ashamed of yourselves you are putting Children at Risk and the thing is you are all leaders every single one of you up at this table and sometimes when you recognize that you've made a a choice and maybe it was a mistake sometimes people come back to the table and reconsider and work together to come up with a solution I'm sorry trying to sell that oh we'll just reduce the amount of money that people are going to be charged isn't a reasonable you know op option for some people and so I think that you guys really should have thought about possibly allowing the families that are affected by this because I can tell you I'm hearing from a lot of families that are affected by this and I'm telling you not everybody can afford it not every family can afford it and not every family is guaranteed it let's not forget that point and there's another thing that I want to make sure that it's made very clear to everybody there is a difference between a hazardous Road and this was explained to me at Town Council a hazardous Road has to do with um potholes in the road and things like that that is not the responsibility if there are problems with the potholes that is the responsibility of the Town Council it is not the town council's responsibility to fix your mess you need to be fixing your mess and you need to be taking care of the students in this district and you are not doing it hi Michelle will work 46 tiptop way um so I just want to comment on the Hazardous route roads whatever we want to call them what Debbie just said you know a hazardous road is is qualified as something has a pothole in it you mentioned mentioned um Miss Airi that you didn't see the report yet you voted on it I don't think we need anybody to tell us what roads in Berkeley Heights are hazardous and which are not so when you look at Diamond Hill Road which I walked up last Friday morning to make a right onto Mountain Avenue in front of noia that you can walk on the shoulder until you can't until you literally can't to cross Glenside I keep forgetting the name of that road that has a turnoff four lanes of traffic I think any reasonable individual when you're talking four lanes of traffic at 45 miles an hour is that a safe road for anybody to walk on I don't think we need an expert and you had an expert and you decided his expert opinion wasn't good enough so clearly you are all better experts than this Transportation consultant who had been doing this for 20 plus years do we really need an expert to tell us that these roads are not safe really you should be ashamed of yourselves Erica Pedraza Robins Avenue I'm not going to tell you guys that you should be ashamed of yourselves um I am I was actually one of the parents that was okay with your decision and the reason that I was okay with it is because I read the New Jersey state law that said all public elementary school students who live more than two miles from their school and all public Secondary School students who live more than two and a half miles from school are entitled to Transportation any student that does not meet that distance criteria would fall into the subscription busing category and that includes the people that are on hazardous roads I'm not diminishing any of the concerns that any of the parents here are raising I'm just saying that the decision that you wa made was based on the law here um it seems to be that the decision the board made seems to be the course that other school districts are taking as well on their busing plans in this model all students are given busing or the ability to sign up for busing um but the criteria for who gets it for free and who doesn't is pretty clear I just want to point out that I don't receive free brushing I wish that I did I am also a taxpayer so I wish my taxes paid for sub uh for free busing but they don't so I'm one of the ones one of the few ones here in this meeting that's actually glad to see that there is an agenda item to review and approve subscription busing rates um I am a single mom to two kids so I come up with $2,000 a year in in order to pay for busing and you know the fact that you might be reducing that I'm really happy about it um the last thing that I'll say is that there is a lot of backlash on busing it's been really sad to read all of the social media comments um both publicly and privately uh there is a ton of finger pointing gossiping and spreading of misinformation um and it's really really sad to see I wish we we could all come together and work together on some type of plan uh for the future maybe you guys could all revisit the Hazardous policy but um you know that's all I'll say thank you Hamada 19 Barn stable Road um I have two children at GL uh I live in Maria Hill Farms um part of the neighborhood is New Providence and part is Berkeley Heights I kid you not when I tell you we only looked at houses in Berkeley Heights in that neighborhood because we would get busing so I have waited and waited for my children to reach high school because I was not eligible for free busing before now that they do I wake up no free busing all right so what are we supposed to do I guess my question to the members here and I would love to hear your viewpoint on this do you think students who have to walk on Mountain Avenue who cannot walk on Mountain Avenue on hazardous routes should or should not receive free busing I just would like to hear the board members opinions on that my next question would be so you didn't have the data as leaders and corporations today none of us have perfect data and as Leaders we have to make decisions and you our own moral judgment on what is right we look at you as Leaders each one of you so without perfect data do you think these are hazardous routes or not that's question number two so question number one what is your personal opinion on hazardous routes what is your personal judgment um and lastly on people who are saying well we don't get it and why should you let's do better as a society I am horrified taking this crab mentality route where we're going to say you don't get it so no one should get it and let's push everyone down instead look let's look for ways where we can get everyone up if someone is eligible for hazardous routing let's wait and get the data to help them also receive courtesy busing but let's do like and my last question do you think we are better off as a community today with fewer students receiving busing so I would love to hear the answers to those three questions thank you hi Ruth jbang 41 Hamilton Avenue um I just wanted to kind of talk about something I talk about a lot at work um we talk about it with our kids when they say something isn't fair why does that kid get a reward for something that I did too Fair doesn't mean that everybody gets the same thing fair means that people get what they need and we had an independent objective opinion about who needed hazardous busing it was done by an outside consultant they had no interest in this community and they told us who needed that busing and the four members of the Board of Ed who voted it down decided to disregard that because in their minds Fair meant everybody gets the same thing and that is not what fair means thank you I see no more members from our oh yes just want to put on record that um the four board members who actually voted not to have um courtesy busing this year have an opportunity since they they were the ones who made the motion to actually change that if they choose to as we've heard from the public a recommendation would be keep the courtesy busing in place develop a long-term plan as I think there was some minutes that someone had shared on social media as that was the the the plan was to do a phased approach instead of just pulling courtesy busing completely out so again the four members who voted to eliminate courtesy busing can vote make a motion to change that that according to Robert's Rules of Order if you care about the safety of over 200 kids thank you evening sorry my name is Jill mney I live on 288 McMain Avenue and we keep speaking about the busing as a courtesy um it's the necessity to keep our children safe which is why this busing has been provided to our students for decades since my husband and I both work our children and this makes me emotional because my children will have to walk to GL from McMain Avenue my children will have to walk Diamond Hill Mountain Avenue Glenside road hun in Boulevard or I will have to quit my job which will create another financial hardship for my family or my children will walk down McMain Glenside cross over the on andof ramps to Route 78 which is really safe up the hill for Glenside you understand my point please keep in mind that these roads are flooded with 30,000 ton dump trucks box trucks landscape trucks 18 wheelers countless automobiles these roads are not meant for our children I invite each member of the board especially the four that voted against this to join me walking these roads with your dogs and your children because these roads are not meant for students we were honked at people stopped um and yelled at us we're staring us down people were telling us to get out of the road we were almost hit what about 12 times just on Diamond Hill in Mountain Avenue um while I understand we have been offered this the subscription busing for our children please understand that the financial hardship this will place on my will place on my family paying an additional $2,000 a year to send my children to a public school will have an imp a negative impact on our already type budget it is my understanding that a dis sibling discount may not even be offered um is this correct not to mention there's a $45 Administration Fe fee that we will have to pay through pay school so for my two children to come to GL I will have to pay $122.50 per student to leave the same house to get on the same bus with the same bus driver on the same route to come to the same school I understand one of your primary functions is to all as a board is to allocate resources it is heartbreaking to know that the lives of my children as well as as well as all these other children um are so greatly impacted by your decision are they not a priority when it comes to funding you had the option to the do the right thing by our children but obviously the four of you who voted it down chose otherwise thank you very much Adam harwitz again 79 Cromwell Court um during our budget discussions earlier I heard there was a lot of concern about the cost we were spend the amount we were spending on Transportation um which makes me think at least part of this busing issue is motivated by the cost of courtesy busing um I also heard that crossing guards are the responsibility of the township so I'm curious if there's also concerns about the property taxes um if cost is really the concern I want to know if the board did an analysis as to how much it would cost the town ship to do crossing guards add crosswalks more traffic lights um and how much that's going to increase our property taxes um it really as seems in addition to the Myriad of other reasons as to why this was a poor decision even from a financial dis decision on its effect on taxes it really wasn't thought out and it'll probably raise our taxes in the long run um another Point are we going to have to use eminent domain to get land from the Nokia property to put in a sidewalk that's an extremely expensive and long process um it could be years before we win that um if we do and then even then we have to pay for it um in the end I don't think this is the you know Financial savings you really think it is um but in the end you're hurting children and taxes are going to go up anyway thank you n sble 215 color Drive I got emotional before about safety but that wasn't really why I was going to get up here and just speak and what I wanted to couch on and someone mentioned it before I think it was commo is about neighbors and about community and not about individuals especially the board ofed especially organizations like this that are about building a community of schools my kids went to Woodruff and what they learned in Woodruff and were taught in Woodruff about being kind being caring about being part of a community about being citizens are we as a board of ed living into that are we living into being part of a community I see you smiling I know you guys and apparently somewhere inside you think this is the right thing but to what purpose you're part of an organization that exist to make children's lives safe to teach them to be good citizens to be good people partly that's our jobs as parents as well and to be a part of a community and what you've done is said no we're more concerned about individuals I hear you say yes look my kids are out of school I pay a ton of money in taxes I don't get the benefit of all this I don't care I'm lucky to live and to have the money to pay taxes in a community where I'm supporting the Next Generation where I'm supporting all of our teachers and our schools and I feel privileged to be able to do that I don't set up here and say don't spend any of my money I say spend it appropriately spend it for my children spend it for the next generation of children let's remember we're part of a community and we're not about individuals we're about building Berkeley Heights and our children for the future Rich B I just wanted to clarify the couple comments of people saying is the town going to put sidewalks in and hire more crossing guards when you get in front of Lucent that's not Berkeley Heights that's New Providence they own the front of that property so Berkeley Heights can put all the sidewalks in they want up to that point and do you think New Providence if we go to them and say hey would you put some sidewalks in for us they going to do it I don't think so so to base a decision saying well maybe we can get and make it safer you can't make that safer and they were saying that they got honked at and yelled at walking in the street what's going to happen in the winter when you got snow piling on the side of the road you're going to be walking out in the lane of traffic there there is no other place to walk so it's just not physically possible to make Mountain Avenue safe I'm sorry I keep saying I'm not gonna get back up here but I'm gonna get back up here I ain't Pharaoh again so I need everybody to understand something when you do live on Diamond Hill Road they're never going to put sidewalks in that's not going to happen it's a county road I get it I bought a house there and that's where I'm at right but when the kids take the bus in the morning and just so that you all know like don't let this little bit little bit of gray fool you I probably have kids that are way older than your kids because I've had two other boys that came through GL many moons ago I never let my kids stand at the driveway where they get picked up that was my courtesy actually not the busing cuz I need the busing the courtesy was that I didn't have to figure out how to get him to the bus stop on twinfalls road so everyone of Diamond Hill roads the courtesy that we get is that the bus will stop at your driveway but you know why the bus stops at your driveway and I I don't let anybody's kid if I see them I tell them back up off the driveway is because they can't stand anywhere else a lot of times the bus drivers are nice enough to let your kids stand back and then they get to know the child so they know when they're coming out because if my kid stood at the end of the driveway and I have a driver not even one that's drinking or high but if I have a driver that's paying attention to their cell phone my kid is getting wiped out immediately because there is no barrier there so when you are making your decisions about busing what's needed what's not needed had you asked some of the stakeholders in the community why things are set up the way they are I think you would have had a fuller picture when you were making decisions because it's not just about money it is about lives the buses come through constantly in that area and they're staggered GL comes up the street first CMS comes up the street second Mary Kay or one of the elementary schools they come up the street last but it's staggered in that way and if you took a trip down Diamond Hill or any of the off offshoot streets you would see where the kids are standing we don't have a bus stop there isn't one because there isn't one that would be safe if you come to Diamond Hill at 7:25 and you stand in my driveway then you get to see how many people actually blow past the house at 5055 I know they're already at 55 by the time they get onto that entrance ramp on 78 so for a parent like me especially when my son was younger I was deathly afraid but like the other young woman and I say Young because I like to believe I'm still very young that's on McMain I understand it when I say it's something that it's a necessity and you've gone into our pockets with no warning just kind of stripped in take all of this into consideration and we're all sitting here because we would ask we're asking you basically to just reconsider come up with a comprehensive plan so that it it is done in a way that's orderly and maybe a little bit more fair because I feel sorry for the young woman that is paying $2,000 as a single parent to get her kids to school but to dig in more pockets is just making people more emotional thank you hey thank you from the public we've had about 20 comments so we're going to see what we can address I'm going to address the easy one first Mrs Gman asked for a reading of the ad Mr juskowitz notice of advertisement for available seat on the Berkeley Heights Board of Education Berkeley Heights Board of Education currently has a vacant seat on the board if you'd like if you would like to be considered for appointment to the seat please for a letter of interest along with a resume by May 22nd 2024 by 2 pm. to myself Anthony jtz board secretary to my email address first initial last name at bhpsnj.org any email received after 2m will be disqualified those interested in seeking a seat on the board will be required to attend the board's public meeting on May 30th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. at Governor Livingston high school cafeteria 175 Watchung EV Berkeley Heights New Jersey and may be interviewed in public session by the full board the seat will be filled by a majority vote of the present members of the board and the person selected will serve until January 2025 Berkeley Heights Board of Education reorganization meeting pursuant to njsa 18a 12-1 Etc all candidates must possess the following qualifications be able to read write and understand English hold US citizenship residency in the burrow of Berkeley Heights for at least one year have no interest in any contract with or claims against the board not hold office as mayor or member of the municipal governing body currently registered to vote in the burrow of Berkeley Heights not disqualified as a voter pursu pursuant to njsa 19 col 4-1 and not disqualified due to conviction of a crime or offense under njsa 18a col 12 D1 thank you question yes sorry Adam har with 79 chomo Court um I believe part of the question regarding the ad was also asking by what date the position needs to be filled by um is there a deadline by which it must be filled within 60 days and that is June 30th if we post it tomorrow um let we see or that's May June July 8th okay thank you thank you um Mrs Sheen could you come forward there were some questions about uh the busing is the district making money on subscription busing no the the district is using that money to offset the costs of Transportation um are families guaranteed a seat on the on the bus with subscription busing not necessarily no there would be not a guarantee it will depend on um where the seats are available and where the students live we'll do our best to Service as many students as possible um but it is not a guarantee that we would have a seat for everyone based on where the students are that have signed up and the seats that are available on the bus uh just to followup is there um uh Provisions for two children from the family to be guaranteed a seat no um also do you know of any agreement that there was for cinnamon Ridge busing no and several years ago we looked for that and no one could come up with anything from cinnamon Ridge so there's no agreement nothing was written down not that anyone that was able to come up with it when the realignment of schools was done yes a followup mhm so um again sh 55 Grassman I raised that question so uh may I ask where was that looked for and because I would believe that that document should be with um either the town a copy with the Board of Ed in their archives so uh the question is was it looked in these places thank you it was looked throughout the Board of Education back then and there was nothing that ever came up so if there's something out there and someone has it I still don't know that that would matter I believe it was an arbitrary decision by a a board president several presidents ago to do this and we were attempting to correct it by having a hazardous Road policy so that everyone was clear which roads um um and who would receive busing and who would not um let's see yes uh Kelly kavan on 56 Hillside so looking at the budget I understand that there's $126,000 of subsidized busing budgeted and that we're not quote unquote making money on that's helping offset but have we factored in now that there's an additional 220 kids that are affected maybe not all of them will buy into to the subsidize but there will be at least $100,000 incremental money coming in our way but that's not in your budget so that's the really the question that I think Rich has been asking that we're trying to understand like where is that money going if it's not included in your budget because I didn't see an incremental in that line going into next year I I think I could probably speak to it um part part of that the answer to that question is that we don't know because this is all new to us so we don't know who's going to sign on we don't know what the rate is going to be is that going to bring in more people is it going to be in bring in less people we don't know are people going to sign on to subscription busing are they going to walk to school are they going to take their students with school so we don't know the answer to that which is why we kept it static from last year at 126,000 but there is not an answer to that because we don't know right now we have 85 people that number has been ebing and flowing a little bit um right now we have 85 people I don't know what'll happen between now and and the time we're ready to start planning the actual routs okay thank you um can I ask a question has the email to sign up for subscription busing gone to all students in from K to 12 yes because there are parents who have I did talk to Mr Nixon and gave some specific examples and as of this evening there is a parent who was told by somebody in transportation that if you're a kindergarten student you will not get an email until Friday okay that is that is actually actually correct so it has gone to first through 12th grade students the kindergarten orientation begins on Thursday of this week and then Friday I'm sorry that is absolutely correct on Friday the kindergarteners will all get that information as um as we're just beginning the kindergarten orientations so the email to subscribe for transportation has only gone to first grade to correct because we were waiting for the um all of the registrations to come in so that we could manage that that process all together as one because we didn't they're not in our power school system so we need to get all of that information together um and then as kindergarten orientation begins that's part of the normal process that we would discuss that with them and then we work with them in terms of who would sign up and who wouldn't and you know like I mentioned before to all of you um our timelines are are flexible we know that this is a different year that things are kind of moving at a different pace um so our timelines are flexible so we'll work through all of those things with with with everybody that that needs a little bit of help with that yeah just to give some background this kindergarten student has a sibling and they live on Emerson Lane and unfortunately that part of Emerson Lane doesn't qualify as artist so they are waiting to hear from us and I I'm glad I spoke to them today actually yes thank you and I'm very glad that you clarified it I'm just hoping that the deadline for them is not May 17th yep I just said we'll be working with everyone to make sure that they have plenty of time to make their decision so okay just from a communication perspective if we can update the timelines on the district website so that if there is somebody moving in with a young family they would want to get a single Source information on hey when is my deadline for a younger child thank you Mrs shean is there a $45 administration fee added on to any subscription busing there there is a fee um set up in pay school Central um there's a fee that is charged for anything that you pay for on that website we have put in the uh Google form that everybody is is asked to fill out that that is not your only option you are able to send a check in if you choose not to um pay that fee and we have gotten um several checks already but also there is a way to not get charged that fee if you use a debit card pay school doesn't charge you the fee it's only with the credit card I did test that you can yes you can you can go ahead and test it but I know multiple parents who have paid the deposit have used a debit card and there is no $45 fee so maybe this is something that we could put on our district website as FAQs because a lot of parents have been asking about it thank you um at this point I'm going to ask if there's any board members who would like to answer questions from the public about their vote and about their decisions uh regarding not support in the Hazardous bus policy Mrs Jolly so um thank you all for coming to speak here today I know um I I hear your pain and I know um all your rationale is valid um what I would like to say is that you know my decision to um to support to support mandated and subscription busing was not U meant to um was meant to be again more fair to everyone else and to potentially Drive subscription busing down for some people who are paying thousands of dollars and to potentially open up subscription busing to those have who have been previously locked out um there is also you know um there there's also um busing that is free that is um you know not necessarily Justified because of hazardous routes and when looking at the Hazardous routes policy I was also concerned with what else was missing because when you look at you know places even even on Mountain Avenue where there is one sidewalk you still have to go across the Consultants said you know well Springfield Avenue is hazardous but then when the policy came up it wasn't so so I you know I'm also thinking about the elementary school child who would have to walk 1.9 miles to get to Hughes having to Cross Springfield having to cross railroad tracks I do understand Diamond Hill you know is an issue in the sense that you really cannot walk to school across Mountain Avenue in that part of um you know but again I also could not vote I know people said that we've been you know that we've had data but I also cannot vote where I literally the only information that I had was the presentation from February 26 and a blank rubric right so I wanted to see what other roads you know how did they score that because it seems like even on Emerson Lane it was only a section on Mountain Avenue it was only sections that were deemed hazardous I think that there's there was without the dat and understanding like what else didn't make it like what other kids are being impacted um and forc and being forced to pay you know thousands of dollars that um you know it wasn't the and the policy by itself was also written in such a way that did not guarantee um that did not guarantee free busing did not guarantee busing for those hazardous routes the policy kept you know said you may receive it maybe not so I you know when we talked about it last year Well I wasn't on the board last year but when it was discussed last year around the same time it was we were pretty much in the same spot where I believe in even Mrs Stanley was thinking like we should just get rid of it because and you know and I think you even made a joke that oh your GL neighbors might not like you because of the traffic right again for the reason that people were getting busing without a documented rationale and I did not vote for this policy because I did not feel that given what we had to look at as a board it documented it was IR rationale now I understand that um you know this was impactful and I do understand that this was not rolled out in the way or presented to the public with for public input but we have been talking about it for a year so I definitely it's you know obviously wasn't pleasant hearing um you know the feedback from the community um I know it's but I I do hear you I just wanted to explain a bit about you know why I did not feel that policy actually gave the community what was needed because come next budget you know cycle there was nothing to prevent anyone from or nothing in the policy that would prevent anyone from taking that busing away um there's nothing in the law that requires uh the busing and I know this is not not an issue of law this is an emotional issue um for many and for all of us um so I just wanted to say this wasn't done out of malice or you know for anyone I just wanted it to provide an opportunity more opportunity for a broader section of the community to have access to busing where you know previously they did not Mrs shean can you explain the rubric of your because you were the one who talked with the consultants and Springfield Avenue in particular so yeah in talking about Springfield Avenue um when when they talked about Springfield Avenue having hazards on there I don't think H Springfield Avenue was ever meant to be on the Hazardous Road policy I think what their determination was and in the the um the presentation that we saw even in the finance committee was that there were certain parts of Springfield Avenue where there were some offshoots that were missing some paintings on the roads and things like that and um AJ and I met with the Department of Public Works um and they are in the process of you know putting some things in place to try to fix some of those things but I don't believe that they ever meant that Springfield AB was supposed to be on the Hazardous Road policy and then it came off um so that was how I think Springfield Avenue came to be Mr Nixon you had a comment well you you had asked specifically about the rubric and some of the things that were on the r rubric um the blank rubric was what I used when I went out with Lieutenant May to take a look at some of these roads and it it it was very specific with the different things that were on the rubric it um you know was there a sidewalk was there not a sidewalk was there a curb was there not a curb did students have to walk on grass if it was that walk on grass was it flat was it an incline were there um obstructions you know leaning out into the road that a student might have to walk around um what was the posted speed limit on that road uh what were the total you know how busy is the road how many lanes is the road um is it is it off of a Highway uh um you know the crosswalks are there crosswalks and a lot a lot of those roads there are no crosswalks some of the crosswalks the term he used was obliterated um so you know when when we had the meeting with the uh Consultants it was very informative to me because I I I wasn't part of this when the presentation was made and um for them to come in what they did for us was they pulled up Google Maps and they said for example let's walk down this road on Google Maps and let's see all of the specific things that we look at when we consider the rubric and all of those different pieces so I kind of tried to learn the best I could and and then went out and and took a look at the rubric and didn't necessarily score it myself but was able to get some understanding about the different portions of that rubric that would qualify a certain Road um which was you know the reason why um I came back and reported that you know we went out and we did that work and and and um you know I think the roads that were identified out in that policy um you know really it stems from six I believe correct me if I'm wrong six main roads but all of the other roads that came into that policy is because they stay all feed to that road and it's impossible to pass moving through from there correct if I may ask one clarifying question Mrs shean did these Consultants after the review Send an email or a final report with a ranking or a scoring using their rubric they done this before right they've done it as plates so my question is did you receive uh a ranking for the 265 streets in Berkeley Heights and out of those 265 streets how did 65 streets make it and some streets only like for example Emerson it's only specific Parts did they send us a final report that is in your inbox no so they send you a facts on so they gave us the policy regarding that I'm explaining it to you because you're asking the question no I'm I'm still not done unless you can read my mind last time last meeting you said no last meeting you made a very unnecessary the cury please ask your question and Mr interrupted I asked a question about Surplus it was a very unnecessary comment certificate ba to say I do not have a glass ball if if I did I would buy a Powerball ticket that is not a response we expect from a certificated business administrator and I'm still trying to ask my question unless you can read my mind please don't interrupt me thank you so I'm asking you if we have received a ranking of the 265 streets like how you're saying Springfield Avenue you worked with DPW to remediate some of them so we as a board want want to be aware if there is a street for example that got 102 ranking versus a street that got a 98 and how did half of immerson so the mystery here is we cannot seem to have the story straight did these Consultants after charging $112,000 of taxpayer dollars give us a final report was it in an email they gave us a final report which they gave us a presentation that gave all of the recommendations that they had after looking at our town our roads and all of the way in which we transport so they gave us a presentation okay that was giving us all of those recommendations in addition to the present did they give us a ranking of the streets I'm trying to get there I know your questions I'm trying to get there so in in response to your question about the rankings of the roads they gave us the policy of the roads that scored above 100 that would be deemed hazardous so do we have a ranking for individual streets they gave us no they gave us the roads that were considered hazardous that without the ranking that that ranked I'm not sure if we're having hard time but that ranked above 100 the score that they asked for was over a 100 so if it was over a 100 then that road went on the the the Hazardous Road policy and if you look at the elementary compared to the high school the roads are a bit different obviously because you're not TR traveling across Diamond Hill Road which is is the main reason for so many people on the other side of that but they gave the roads that scored above it we did not ask them for who scored underneath that because they were providing the recommendation to us for what the Hazardous roads would be we took their expert opinion and put it through with with the policy recommendation for those 65 roads right next to those names you have a score because we haven't seen it okay no I just said that I do not have a score they told us that it was over a 100 anything that was over 100 is what at got added to that policy they did not I'm not hiding or withholding any emails or anything but they gave us that information we did not we we do not have a ranking to say these are the roads and where they fall they gave us that recommendation I'm going to ask any other board members who'd like to defend their vote Dr porer Miss Bradford we are asking questions I think this is the very first time we have we have made our when we voted we made our statements so it would be really appreciated if you do not start putting words and saying defend your vote we we have given our explanations and you as a board president needs to be honest and truthful that there was no data that was shared thank you Mrs Ziri Dr forer you had a comment yeah um each of the board members has received emails from uh some of the parents that were notified they did not qualify on the mandated on the Mandate uh either they were less than a two and a half or um and some of them were actually very close I remember one had a 2.49 and that always leads me to wonder uh what exact how exact L how accurate is this tool that provides a measurement could I say when it's a 2.49 well it's actually 2.49 plus or minus 500s that would possibly put them over 2.5 right so if you take into account that all measurements all physical measurements are not exact they have an air bar associated with it what is the air bar associated with this tool for these measurements do we know no but I will say that I have personally taken a tape measure out and measured yeah certain I mean I've walked with the wheel I was caught this week doing it um and walked to measure and it's pretty darn close I I will say that the walking is actually a slight bit shorter by a few inches than the the rubric showed or the sorry the the data showed but again even doing it with a measuring wheel which is I guess what you're doing there'll be an air bar associated with that correct so I'm I'm trying to understand does the PE do the people that make the tool actually tell they don't tell you how accurate it is so it could could be potentially plus or minus a tenth it goes to the like 10 decimal points yeah I can I can certainly you also have to remember this is the system that we've used previously for families that weren't on hazardous right so this system already in place and we're here to answer questions that the public asks I have the floor I think I have theor I have to to your inter your Interruption here we're in a situation where people are qualifying and or not qualifying based on a tool and we really don't know the ex accuracy of this and it could lead to uh hundreds of dollars of expense for them uh currently a thousand but may not that may not hold up but I think we need to know how accurate this tool is and maybe the manufacture can tell us we have used this tool before correct Mrs shean and we are going by State statue of the 2.5 in the two miles correct correct that's the state guidelines the state guidelines thank you yeah what I want to say though is the fact that you've used it before doesn't imply anything about the accuracy it just means you've used it before thank you Dr porer is there any other board member who'd like to make a comment Mr Bower we do need to move on could you put your followup into an email to us be okay okay can you make it quick Mr Bower I know this is an important issue for our Community uh Mr Jolly was any part of Mountain Avenue deemed safe going past from like going up Diamond Hill and then going east on mountain is that road considered safe hazardous where did that fall Mrs shean so so the part of Mountain Avenue that was on the proposed hazardous is that what you're asking right so it they they went um it it was kind of down toward GL where those homes were the ones that are across like by lacana and how about like where NOA is and that whole Str no that they but there that's in well I'm not going to speak them right I'm not but they evaluated roads where students lived so that would have been then we don't have any students living there so that whole part of the road though so that's the route though that all these all these kids from Mountain Avenue right so that right so but but so okay so let's take a step back so the the Hazardous Road deemed Hill Road hazardous so if the Hazardous Road policy had passed no one would have been walking on there so basically if you had to cross thond Hill Road you wouldn't have you wouldn't have had to you wouldn't have had to so it wouldn't have mattered it it wouldn't have mattered though that those that that part of the road was not evaluated because those kids wouldn't have been walking on there it would have been so that's they would have been getting hazardous busing the kids on Diamond Hill Road the kids on McMain the kids on tip toop all of those so all these kids now were forced to walk on what was deemed a hazardous Road no question right but the Hazardous policy was not passed so there isn't a hazardous Road in our town and then the other thing I'm hearing it's it sounds like you didn't have a lot of information sounds like yeah let you was votes taken without people having all the information based on what you've been saying to me is that true I think all answers and questions have to be directed to the president and I would like to know this answer too I'll direct it to you yes I would like to know this answer from Mrs having all the information the information was provided and they uh voted yes or no on the information that we had okay and then it just the other thing I see sitting here was some people seem to be more concerned with accuracy of details of numbers than the safety of the kids I mean it's just been shown that it's a hazard to walk past Diamond Hill Road so all these kids in the whole Timber slope neighborhood and all down Mountain Avenue you've just told them they have to now walk a hazardous route which sir I did I certainly said no such thing don't misrepresent what I said what I was trying to find out is are some of these people may be entitled to uh busing under the Mandate which is the two or two and a half mile cut off and we're saying no you're not and I want to know how accurate that tool is because maybe they are entitled let's not nitpick the details just Sir Mr power and Dr for I'm going to stop this conversation now okay the tool is accurate okay and according to Berkeley Heights Police Department there is a documented letter that there are no hazardous roads in Berkeley Heights unless Berkeley Heights Police Department has changed that address yes I can so so the Berkeley Heights Police Department they they um made a a statement that there were no hazardous roads and what that means that that there are no roads in our town that are not passible that have a hazard on it that you could not get through that's how a Township Road and that's the way they've explained it to me that's how a Township Road is deemed hazardous for our purposes the consultant evaluated our roads for a student traversing to school so were they able to cross the road at Diamond Hill Road safely in order to get to their school no that then makes it deemed by the school district a hazard to get to their school that's the difference between the township saying there's no hazardous roads and the school district proposing that there were some hazardous places where the students couldn't walk to yeah the name difference hazardous roads versus hazardous routes correct and and that not to be confused a lot of people thought in the beginning that a hazardous route meant that we were going to design bus routes among those things and that's not how bus routs are developed it's it's based on the as Mr Nixon said the Hazardous rout of Diamond Hill Road needing to walk on it needing to walk on Mountain by um by noia those are what we we found from the consultant were deemed hazardous thank you one more comment please and then we have to end thank you we we'll look it on social media put it on put it send an email to us thank you Mrs shean we have to move on it is 11 o'clock and we are not even done with our agenda okay that ends the public comment portion we are moving on to Administration resolutions a through L all board members we have two motions to amend uh c a approve a report of Acting Superintendent under case number we are going to add case number 259 795 CMS in that blank box to repeat we're going to make a motion to amend to add 29795 CMS to that block can I have a motion to amend that so moved second second okay Voice vote i i i any Nays any extensions I going to have to make a correction on that we're going to have to make a separate vote on that because it is the um all the other numbers case numbers are on there are the report and the recommendation of the Acting Superintendent the case number 25975 n CMS is to affirm it's 759 or 795 sorry 795 thank you Mrs Airi okay so can we make a motion on that first we had a a motion uh now I've had a corrected motion can we have another motion on that so so that that first that last motion that we did that's Absol that's it I was I was wrong I think you need to that's we're not doing anything with it right we make a motion I'd like a motion to approve the report of the Acting Superintendent on the case numbers that are there except for the last one do I have a motion shouldn't you be tbling the first one that you that you had an error because you got a second and we haven't vot it so I think you need to first table that and then redo everything thank you we can table that you need to move to table it we'll move to table it a second thank you okay is there a vote an oral vote to table that I'm like completely confused here right so so we had the first motion for 259 795 to add and that was incorrect now we need a Voice vote on the tabling of that is I I any Nays any extension oh so that was a table okay so who's the first and second on that it was Mrs Stanley was the first and Mrs Jolly was the second no Mrs Ka was the second that that that's where I'm I'm I'm I'm very confused with this whole thing the first one I had was Mrs Stanley Mrs Jolly 259 795 and it was a Voice vote and we had all all all approved am I missing something right is that that good and we're going to table that one okay so this is table and now we had a second motion okay now four the case numbers except for that box at the end I do we have a motion to no so we gotta do a walk resol I'm not understanding what we're doing here we got to do a Walkin resolution try to understand 29795 have we V have we had a vote to confirm that or not is that what we're voting okay so the easiest way to do it is we'll just approve the report uh C and then we'll do a motion to affirm at the end okay the other um motion we have is under Administration F motion to appoint an interim superintendent of schools the Board of Ed could not make any determination on this so we need a motion to remove this so moved second actually all you need to do is just not bring it up cannot vote on you can just not vote on it right yeah just not vote on no need can we just remove it just remove it okay is that okay can we just second to remove it so we can move on okay so there's a there's a so you're G to remove F Mr Heyman made a motion do we have a second then I don't think we need to remove it you can just basically say excluding F that's about it why are we moving a motion why are we colle do we have a second thank you we will remove F so now we're going to go back we need a Voice vote now a Voice vote hi I any n any Nays okay Administration resolutions a through L all board members so kale I'm sorry so we do have to do walk-in resolution as M yes so and walk-in resolution m l through M and Mr dler can you give me the wording for that uh I believe it would be a motion to affirm the uh harassment intimidation and bullying in the burgl public schools in the case number 29795 CMS and we're voting on that separately or are we going to include this in no we'll include it in the a through M now yes resolutions a through M all board members Mr jitz we done minut it's removed it was removed from the final version of the agenda no minutes at all we are voting on resolutions a through M all board members so moved Mr I get a second need a second second second Mrs Conor roll call Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Conor yes to a b abstain on C and yes to everything and we've removed F so that's the only there's only alphabet not on the list okay so you're you're approving everything you abstain on C that's right and there's no F correct yeah Mr Kiri S2 a b and on C it's a NO2 2612 68 CMS 262 354 wait wait just hold hold on one second so you're can you just give me the nose that you have the days right now okay so the no is to certain numbers on the hip report okay it's C and I can read you the numbers okay 261 268 okay 262 354 262 375 262 426 263 458 262 245 these are the noes 262 four five8 four five8 no no no 262 2 45 how many numbers did you get I have one two three one two three hold on one two 3 4 five 6 261 268 262 354 262 375 262 246 no 426 262 426 just give me a moment here I've I've I I got this all mixed up here I'm sorry no I I'm I need another sheet of paper because it's not I I've I can't read my own writing sorry sorry 261 268 262 2 354 262 375 262 426 263 458 262 24 five thank you very much and a yes to 262 528 wait give me one second I need to go back to that same sheet that I was just using just do this go would you like my new like this is nothing written on it I have it here I have it okay okay I have those yes to 262 528 and 262 895 you asked me to give you the nose first I gave you the nose and then there that's all that's all for those no in the recommendation of Acting Superintendent for the Hib there are two additional cases and I'm saying a yes to them oh wait a second so there are a total of eight on the agenda and I was a no to six of them and two to a yes to two of them I just I'll I'll get them from from no no I'll give it and I I I I know I I know I and I just wrote them and I just I'll I'll get I'll get those thank you very much and it's a no on K agenda item K so um no on k and a no on M the new new resolution that got added no on K and no on M you said yes thank you and uh yes to everything else yes thank you forer okay uh yes to a and b uh I'll go I guess I'll just say no on 261-268 hold on one moment let me just get a okay so 261 261 26 8 268 yeah 262 354 262 354 yes 262 375 375 262 426 426 263 458 458 262 245 245 and then there's two other yeses 262 528 uh those or NOS those first six I gave you okay and the other the other two are yes the other two are yes yes do i sh should I read the numbers okay okay and then items D through L are yes and uh m is no m is no yes m m m is no okay Mr Heyman uh abstain on C and M and yes to everything else abstain on C and M and yes to everything else Miss charie I'm going to give you please so um on item C it's a no to 261 268 263 458 262 375 262 245 and 262 426 got that okay and it is a yes on everything else Miss Bradford yes to all okay motion passes um the cases for let's see the hip cases Let's see we have one two out of seven we have three one two and three I'll just have to examine though three one two and three one two and three well those pass because we have majority of those three members that voted no so those pass motion passes on those thank you with two extensions on the hibs there was Mr Hyman and the the abstained on C and you had Natasha me and Dr forager voting no hold on three knows and two abstains so how does the motion pass our list may have been different on on one there's there's certain ones that I have to go back and probably take a look at them okay uh and I'll I'll have the T the vote tally on those because everybody voted differently on all those so there's going to be certain cases and I'll I'll yeah I I just wanted to make sure that they just didn't blanketly pass yeah moving on to education resolutions a through F all board members may I have a motion so moved second a second thank you Mr Heyman thank you Mrs Stanley I just want a quick um discussion or basically clarification on C uh which is the approved low enrollment course for multivariable calculus um how many students and are we listing it's not listed on the agenda but when we do offer it are we listing it as an online course from John Hopkins yes there are two students okay and then this is this is being advertised as an online course K correct students are aware what the courses okay no I'm saying for prospective students or anybody like previously on the agenda I'm just saying when we approve this if we just on the district website if there is somebody who's looking to move into Berkeley Heights and they see multivariable C calculus I just don't want somebody to be confused that this is an in-person course taught by Berkeley Heights Public School It's actually an online course offered I'm I'm for it sure there's and there there's very specific qualifications for it's for students who completely math out of any other option that we we have for them to take here physically okay in order to support students that want to take a fourth year math option no and that's a great option it's just that from a advertisement perspective we have a motion we have a second wait um I'm sorry what was the motion who made the motion I'm sorry and who's the second who's the first me thank you okay on education resolutions a through F all board members roll call vote Mr Stanley yes Mr Hyman yes Mr Kiri yes Dr forger yes Mrs Jolly yes Mrs Connor yes Mrs Bradford yes motion passes under Personnel resolutions a through Q all board members and resolution R Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion so moved second second roll call vote I just want to have a quick discussion sorry so I just want to thank um all the staff who is retiring this year there are some great people on this list who have been with Berkeley Heights for many many years and I just want to thank them for their service to our community and our school district we also have a couple of resignations of our St staff and I just want to thank them for being a part of brookley heights and trying to make it a better District thank you any yes Dr borer yeah I'm looking at uh this item and extra period teaching assignments um it says it's taught by uh some school psychologists what is the normal teaching load of a school psychologist I didn't I didn't realize they taught anything and and what course is being taught I'll get back to you on the specific of what that is I'll have to check with Mr MOA from Special Services okay and um why are we retroactively approving this I have again I I I think I know the answer for both but I want to be completely positive before saying the answer had a replac position that we haven't been able to fill so this isn't so much teaching an extra course what I believe it is it's these individuals picked up the case load for the staff member that's on leave so it therefore it constituted an additional assignment is yeah but is under the contract though is that a considered uh subject to this uh pro rated Fe the 10,500 I thought I thought that was only for like you picked up an extra instead of doing se you teaching what seven periods a day I'm sorry five periods a day you teach teach a sixth period I I believe this is something that has been done okay I can follow and uh then there's one person I don't think I have to mention the name but uh uh I couldn't see that name in the budget at all so I didn't re you know I check sorry was a question when I check the uh list of there's there's three people listed and one of them I couldn't find in the uh budget documents that we have as a salaried employee all three you saying the same line item you're talking about there's one person all three have been longstanding employees at Governor Livingston more nobody nobody's a recent hire okay then I then I guess I don't have a complete list all any other discussion roll call vote Miss Stanley yes Mrs Connor yes Mr Kiri um it's a no on n and uh everything else is a yes Dr forer um I think I'm I think I'm going to a through M could be a yes and I'm going to abstain on N so I don't understand it yet so a a through M yes and uh an an A on the N I'm just going to abstain on it abstain on the N okay Mr Heyman oh oh o o through R is a yes Mr Heyman uh yes on a through Q Mrs jolly uh yes to all Miss Bradford yes to all motion passes under business resolutions a through J all board members resolution K Berkeley Heights only may I have a motion wait num okay it's blank page 19 she didn't she didn't read K she only said a through J oh I'm sorry no she did say k but I think we can make the motion and then we we amend that resolution to add the the because we have to have a discussion on it so I will move the motion anybody want a second I don't understand you're you're moving K or not or you moving a through J A through J okay but then if you do K you have to fill in a number I know so can we fill it in why we have we have to have a discussion on that can we move the motion so we can have discussion just to clarify Mrs Bradford you moved you only said a through J you did not mention k no and then she said all board members and then K can can we just do simple a to J have the you know get the vote done then do he put the numbers in and then do the vote can we just do that it really doesn't matter I move resolution a through J all board members do I have a second second he discussion a through J roll call vote Mrs Stanley yes I'm sorry Mrs Mrs Jolly I I I did have a question I just just wanted to get a little clarification on uh the second part of um item J where it says be further resolved um this is for the under njsba contract I just wanted to understand what um that second part of it meant ohow Mr dler too sorry ask question so um under item J um there is a statement that says be further resolved the board author hereby authorizes and directs the board president and board secretary to execute all documents and take all other actions necessary to effectuate the terms of this resolution got it now sorry I missed the second part where refering so that's just my standard language anytime I think the board is going to authorize the board president to sign a contract I just put that language in there that so crystal clear that you're not just approving the contract but you're Al Al authorizing someone to sign it on behalf of the board so it's my just standard language to be honest so I have a followup on this so when a contract comes you're authorizing the board president but shouldn't the contract before it's signed be shared and reviewed with the entire board so I I thought it was attached is it not no this was I think the contract has already been signed before it's vot it so my concern here is the Miss Bradford has already signed the contract we never got to see the contract and then this is appearing on the resolution as a retroactive and I have some concerns with the terms so how what is the normal process the board approved me to go ahead and authorize the contract when did that happen executive session last meeting we cannot approve anything in exec session we we can expect you to go and speak but I think when a contract is being negotiated and signed by the board the contract terms have to be shared before it's signed and that particular act did not happen we we haven't seen the contract or the terms until it was already signed and this is a retroactive motion on the on the agenda right now so you're asking me which is what's the normal process yes there was a discussion in exec yeah but so this one was a little complicated so I spoke to your Administration on this um not to go into any privilege Communications but so the board previously passed a motion here to approve I guess off to approve um moving forward with school boards for your superintendent search yes it was it's my opinion it was unclear whether that authorized whether it did or didn't authorize your your board president sign in my abundance of caution I said you should at least put a motion on just so it's Crystal Clear for the record yeah again it would be one thing if there wasn't a previous motion I would say affirmatively one way or the other but I this one was just I don't like again that's why I put the to the question I put this is my standard language because then it's Crystal Clear one or the other I'm I'm perfectly see I'm not questioning the previous motion the previous motion passed we are all okay with njsba leading the search my question here is the motion was just to engage them but the contract before any contract is signed it's obligating the entire board to work with them so before it's signed a draft version needs to be shared with the board so we can review the terms we can provide our feedback if we have any and then the board president needs to sign right now what has happened is we haven't looked at the terms we're seeing it after the fact that it was already signed so if you're asking me what is the standard practice around the state again it it depends on individual boards right there are some there are many boards to be Care on the state that will do will just you know approve it without seeing the contract it's signed moved on there are some boards that are doing exactly what you're saying that before any contract is signed the board wants to see it and it's approved and the like again I think this is a determination what does this board want to do uh if this board wants to see the contracts they should indicate that so the administration make clear that moving forward that we're not approving anything till we see contracts so it's is it an email to the administration that we have to send yeah I I think that's fair that you know I see I noticed that this is going to be on and we would like to see the contract before vote on and what what if we want to discuss any of these terms on the signed contract because we never got to see it if we want to change or review any of these terms saw because you want to change something no I saw it after it was signed and I'm asking Mr dler the question so it was already signed and we never got to see it before it was signed so if you want to change something how do how do we go about it I assume you'd be making a motion tonight or notifying your Administration that you have an issue with the term right I mean that's it's on the agenda tonight that's all I can say Okay um and so if they're again it's an attachment to the end night of their concerns I think now would be the appropriate time to address them so I I I move a motion to table agenda item J approved contract with njsba until we can give the feedback on uh the contract homs can I have a second you wanted to I I'll give you a second yes are you tabling it or I second that discussion item Jay we we already have approved them and a contract has been signed and going forward in the future if you have an issue with a contract that I'm going to sign please send it in an email to the administration with the specific contract at this point we have a contract they're coming on May 20th to help us with our super superintendent search firm I'm okay with the previous vote Mrs Bradford as I've explained to Mr dler I'm not redoing or asking for a revote on that resolution I'm perfectly fine with engaging njsba I want to revisit some of the terms on the signed contract and hence I'm tabling item J approving the contract and so I can give you so I can give you feedback on the terms you can go back to njsba ask them to amend the terms and then sign it how is it the prerogative of a board to negotiate contract a board member to negotiate a contract cont ract the the usual practice that I've observed in municipalities is the council authorizes uh the administration to you know the mayor who or the administrator to sign the contract but they have seen the contract and they're okay with it this idea that uh we should just you know that you have some sort of authorization I don't think that was actually correct I think you did it without authorization and I think that's a mistake I think the board should see these contracts before we approve a signature that's all which contracts and if we if we're going to contract for services with njpa or somebody else we should we I mean it is a contract with the board and the board should see the contract before they say yes I'm okay with that at this point though we are delaying the process that everyone has asked us to move forward right so I was asked by members of the board to come up with a date that I could make earlier than the May 30th meeting right if we don't approve the contract that meeting is not going to happen because we don't have a contract with them again even if we changed it back to the 30th right the exact session would be before the meeting so again I I understand what you're saying that you would like to see the contract so you can try to negotiate um differently but at this state we are already made a motion miss dler Mr dler asked if we could put it on for clarification right and now in the future everybody knows but I think delaying this is not in the best interest it is can I sorry can I chime in so what was approved in the meeting on 18th April was just choosing the firm in an in a amount not to exceed 15,000 right we did not I agree with what SII saying we did not get to see the contract before the signature was you know before it was Inked with them so does it matter now when this is approved by the board today or on the 20th given that it's already ined yes it does matter how's that because we have already talked with them they have arranged a date with us we have pulled everybody on the board to have an earlier meeting at the board's request and we have that we have spoken with people who are stakeholders um it would be a a problem if this did not go through so I think all of that is true and all of that has happened before the board is officially voting on the contract it's a problem when a contract is already signed and then it becomes you know like Posta to like get in front of the board to get the approval in an normal course course of business we would have had seen the terms if there were any questions that would have been raised that should have been raised the board should have had the opportunity to do that so I understand the motion to table and I I don't know if it matters that we approve this today or we approve this on the 20th which gives us I don't know the next 10 days for us to provide any kind of feedback and if there is a possibility to amend anything in the contract I think it's a fair ask I guess dpy will they show up on the 20th if we don't have an approved contract before that no I assume no no we can't Mr Hyman sorry sorry can we answer that question will they show up on the 20th they don't have contract no how will no will how is Mrs further delays a process has been delayed let me address that will they show up is a question to so when we invited them we didn't have a signed contract we just approved to engage them and I think Mrs Bradford cannot answer for njsba you approved to contract with them yes contract with them but we did not did not look at the terms and I'm sure njsba which trains individual board members we received the terms on May 1st that's a week ago after yes after it was signed and I have concerns because we are expected to come again why were they not raised before this meeting because we wasted another week because Mr Heyman that's what I'm trying to say okay some of the terms say that we have to come up with a timeline on the first meeting and we have one hour for that this is the most important decision we don't have an hour we don't have an hour for that on the 20th we have all the time we need so all I'm saying is this Mrs Bradford you have already signed a contract they are engaged to come here we are saying we want to amend a contract with certain terms so we are not not we are not withdrawing the contract we are not asking we are not basically saying this contract is invalid we want to amend the contract there's a difference between withdrawing and cancelling a contract or amending a contract so if you give me 48 hours we will get back to you because we were all dealing with the budget we were getting back and forth with the answers some of the terms are just unreasonable to go after spending $155,000 to make the most important selection for the district it is going to have a long-term impact I'm okay with ngspa I'm just asking for some time between now and the 20th to amend the terms and I would let njsba speak for themselves and say no we cannot come unless there's a signed amended contract well you signed the contract in between the meetings we can make the Amendments and you can sign it in between the meetings just the way you did it this was the president that we had here that the president would sign the contracts if you wish going forward to send an email to Administration stating which contract you would like to see before it to sign by the president that is fine there is no president Mrs there is no nothing I went to the same trainings that you went to under njsba there is no president that gives the president the power to blindly sign contracts without reviewing them with the board if we table this we are putting ourselves back a long ways because they will not have a contract they will not come that is a question for them to answer if that is the need and how would you amend it what makes a board member think that they have the ability to amend a contract because I have to I have to participate you saw the contract it was sent to you after after being signed would you have changed it after being signed it has been signed so that's the problem just a question other than the thing that you mentioned right in order to amend the contract we would have to have agreement with everybody right um like you you can certainly provide your feedback um but as you know one person I don't know like you would have to be shared and we'd all have to agree right to actually try to make that Amendment but for my information was there anything other than the timeline um it is very ambiguous Natasha okay the whole contract is very high level it's very ambiguous on their deliverables and that's my concern but at the meeting on the 20th they're going to explain what the timeline is and they're going to help us so I just want specific language introduced and I think they can still come on the 20th if the contract is amended then they have to agree to the Amendments well maybe we should have thought about that before well yes we should have you should have brought this up before I didn't know you were going to sign it behind their backs thank you it was not signed behind behind your backs it is the job of the president to sign the contracts Gail I just want to chime in right two separate points yes you get to sign the contract but the contract signature should happen after everybody has had a chance to review what is the board signing up for when we received your email when we received the contract it was already signed and that is a problem that's being highlighted in the process right well then please send an email to the administration as to what contracts you would like to review before all contracts telling all contracts this should be normal course of business because otherwise what exactly are we approving if the contract is already signed what exactly are we approving Mrs Mr dler can we get a legal opinion on this at this right I'll see that but I'm sure it was signed um let's see our are busing that we have a contract with them was it signed it was probably signed without me seeing it or you seeing it right so the last meeting we said we are choosing a search firm this is who we are going to choose the board president gets to see the contract and sign it she shared it with us and now we are reapproved it this is not reapproved this is come to approval for the first time we got to see the terms in the contract after it was signed in any other normal course of business that's not how it works when you have a board that needs to approve something right all of those other things that you talked about the contracts have been renewed so transportation is just being renewed tied to some increase based on cost of living adjustment I also think that you asked me to come on the 20th right you asked me to start this earlier we've been asking you to get a search for a long period of time all of us why did you do that if you were not going to go through with this contract this is not about not going through with the contract this is about establishing a process that us as a board would agree upon we can establish it from this point forward but between now and the 20th how are we all going to discuss the contract because again we can't do it right individually we have to come up with a plan then we have to get njsba to approve that change to the contract all by this point 20 all of that we're going to do all of that by the 20th I agree all of that and in terms of planning like we've we've had this missing conversation this Wasing in the timing here like I don't think that you're thinking that through because that's not fair to anybody's time it's not fair to this board's time it's not fair to staff's time it's not fair to the njsba fair this this approach is not fair can we have one person talking at a time thank you just ironic that we spend a lot of time wrangling and this sat in our inbox for a week no questions so I agree if there's a process conversation we should break it apart from moving this forward that that would be my hope so that in the name of progress we can make this happen and if there's concerns about the process let's address that those are two things even if I had raised concerns about the terms do you think before the actual vote if I said I'm not okay with the terms I have I have said that before based on Mrs Bradford specific or would you so you had specific markups perhaps there was a chance that's five business days four business days we go back and forth we get a we get a question out to school boards would you show up if we don't have a final contract we don't know that now so we lose our meeting in in instance all right I'm going to end the discussion on this now and call for the vote discussion is ended we're going to call for a vote point of order he has been o speaking over me all I have to say is I have to respond sry the the irony about speaking over you are better than anyone I've ever met in the world at speaking over people so please stop that's just enough point of order your remarks you got your vote remarks have to go to the chairman Miss Bradford Mrs Bradford has issued public statements without reviewing with the board when I gave her my feedback and I said you issued a public statement about an Acting Superintendent which was not reviewed by the board can we can you change or amend this I got a response that said thank you for your feedback we will discuss it there was no attempt made by the president to discuss it or amend the project can you talk about what we're talking about here with the N yes this is your president this is your president you go ahead you sign your contracts and then you ask for feedback when we give you feedback you do not want to take it into consideration so there is no point even if I raised it for weeks ago or four days ago because you had already signed it without our approval I'm going to call for a vote we've had a discussion Mr secretary voting on motion we are the voting on the first first motion which is going to approve or disapprove I think I let let the ba take care there's a motion to table that would come first second I believe it does um believe the motion table is a secondary motion that supersedes but I believe that is correct why am I Reckless I believe the secondary motion the motion of table inside the interior motion would go first votes a motion to table it vote on that that passes it's tabled so the next meeting um if it doesn't pass then you vote on the exterior motion whether to pass this or not although to be honest I think it's likely the results of each motion will probably be the same okay motion to table is up for a vote we had a motion and we had a second Mr Kiri yes Dr forer yes Mr Heyman no Mrs Jolly no Miss Conor yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford no so we have four Nays and three yeses motion fails we're going to move on to a vote for uh let's see let's go back to business a through J all board members resolution K ber resolution k no resolution k sorry we have not discussed it a through J Mr secretary roll call vote Mrs Stanley yes Mrs Conor yes Mr Kiri it's a no to a b and um J yes to yes to the rest Dr forer uh no to A and B and J no to J and yes to CDE e f g and H and I Mr Hyman yes to all Mrs Jolly yes to all Mrs Bradford yes to all motion passes we are now coming up to K approval of subscription busing rate for the 20 425 school year resolved that this uh Berkeley Heights Board of Education upon the recommendation of the Acting Superintendent and the business administrator approves the subscription busing rate of blank per seat and blank per family for the 2425 school year do we have a motion for approval oh we need to we need a discussion first I think to fill in the blanks I think you probably wanted discussion and an actual motion then someone will make a motion for what those blanks are got it and then that will you know someone make that will get up and down then there'll be other motions depending on the different rates Mrs Conor you mentioned it during the finance of facilities Mr Nixon do you want to address this well we need to address it because we need to give our community uh the answers that they've been waiting to hear again like I said before I was hopeful that policy 8600 would be approved and students on hazardous routes would receive busing from the district uh without that being approved and without the motion earlier tonight being approved I would recommend the lowest rate that we are prepared to offer based upon uh the committee meeting so that's that's 5750 cap okay uh any other discussion on this Mrs Stanley yeah so I just want to make sure that like we're all having the same discussion because I'm a little bit concerned with the 500 and 750 because this requires 252 students to sign up for subscription busing in order to meet our budget um we usually only have about a 100 students now I get that we took busing away from a decent amount of students and we're right we can we can can think that most people will try to sign up but the reality is is we might not have busing for all of those students right like that's not guaranteed it's not guaranteed at all and we also have about 1300 students that currently right the way we have it where it's only mandated only 1300 students that are not going to be bust but we only have a little over 300 seats and that's not at every building right so we could say we need 252 but if 50 of those kids all signed up at one school we might not have those seats available right so even if we hit this number right we might not have the seat available at the school that they want to go to um the only thing that I will say is that GL um the students that didn't get busing are the ones here on the hill most likely they will not steal your spot and have to pay so GL students you probably do have the spots on your bus um but the other the other um the other schools it's it's kind of up for grbs because we don't know who will sign up um and we are not guaranteeing seats to students who are previously courtesy busted um so I do want to make sure that when we say 500 this is not 500 for all right because we don't have enough seats for all students right there's not capacity in the buses for all of all of Berkeley Heights students um so I I suggest that we go at the 750 because that only needs 168 students to sign up um which will give us the budget that we need the budget that we just passed right that's and we don't have to try to push to 252 students to sign up um I also am very concerned that people won't sign up just because they're upset uh we've seen this in the past where parents you know try to almost um create traffic problems to kind of try to prove us wrong in s situations um I wouldn't be surprised if we see that at GL right we are going to see increased traffic because I don't think there's any way that we're going to have 113 students sign up for Courtesy busing even at $500 um so I I do think that we need to be prepared that we are going to see increased traffic in this area and that we're going to have to continue to look at busing uh again as Mr Nixon said this is not a long-term plan um we are giving seats that we had budgeted for hazardous to other students right we had budgeted it for hazardous and we were giving it to other students at a discounted rate that rate is not going to last past this school year because we might not budget for these buses if we don't get the subscription spots we need um so I I would say to go with the higher rate because it only it it allows us to hit the budget at a much lower student rate and a much more reasonable rate for based off the seats that we have at certain school districts I'm sorry certain buildings Mrs shean are those numbers correct the numbers are are what Pamela is saying is true we will not know until we get through so right now we have 303 students who qualify for transportation have registered so we have 323 left so we're about halfway there which is really good for this point in time um of the GL students I think only 27 of them have waved so we had 84 seats available plus the 27 so what is that so 102 so so we're close I mean we have about 138 students at GL that do not qualify that don't live up here or in this neighborhood um so you know I don't have a lot of the waivers I think still so it's it's so hard to say right now not having all of those registrations in I mean the senior class I don't know how many of course of them would wave their bus based on who it's so hard to say right now based on who it is but I I do think your numbers are correct in that um there certainly are um not going to be enough if we need to a 250 would be a lot of students but I don't know that they would all sign up anyway that's $250 at the $500 yeah that's yeah it would it would be a lot but I I honestly I don't I think 160 is a lot is that's at the 750 at the 500 right or the yeah yeah 750 sorry okay so at the 750 it's I say it again one somebody else said the number one 168 16 got it okay okay so we have at 500 we need 250 students and at 750 we need 168 students I mean you would definitely get more at the 500 I believe you're definitely it's definitely going to be more doable for people especially the people who have three families three students in their family to only pay 750 it would make it a little bit easier for them um the other the other question mark is at Mary Kay and Mountain Park those are two buses that's that's a 100 kids right there we're definitely not getting a 100 kids at Mary Kay in Mountain Park because that's two one bus each we've planned for but we haven't even opened up the registration right for Mountain Mary K yes yeah you just said Mary Kay is not yet I said kindergarten so Mary Kay has kindergarten first and second yeah so so those kindergarten kids can fill up the bus because you haven't even opened it up and kindergarten rates our enrollment in kindergarten has been increasing over the last two years so certainly there could be some additional students that would come on to that but I I we have never gotten that amount of students and we don't bust that many people to Mary Kay and Mountain Park to begin with I I think it was about 15 students each when it was in the Hazardous roads um so I can't imagine getting 85 additional students for each between the two schools okay thank you m sorry I have a I have a quick followup to that so in the past we have not run a bus for mkm is it because there weren't enough students who were interested in signing up for the bus or did we not have enough buses so we so we didn't have enough bus drivers is what the problem was and the the way that those two schools are situated the students that qualified for the bus were on Emerson Lane and um one little condo complex down on planfield so we we weren't able to use to do subscription busing because the rest of the students that had applied for it were kind of all over town and the route would not have been able to be done efficiently so we weren't able to do subscription busing for those now this year we're hoping that we would be able to do all of them but we won't know until we see what comes in got it so you're you're waiting for people to actually sign show interest sign up so that you can plan your routes correct but this is all typical of this time right now okay very typical It's Not Unusual we not behind no no no from a planning standpoint absolutely not 303 student number that you just quoted is that in a particular school or is that everybody who signed up for subscription busing right now or mandate sorry everybody who signed up for mandated like qualified busing right now correct 3003 across is that GL and CMS everywhere across all schools so basically if last budget session I think there was an suggestion made that we serve Sur the the students and Survey the parents if we had sent the survey out during the budget session for 2023 last year we would have had some data point right now we haven't sent the survey we are in April so and if it's not typical then maybe no it is typical this is very typical yeah it's very typical and this is our survey at this point as how we know I I understand so we have to wait until the numbers come back and then which we do every year yes it's it's just done I'm with you on that yeah so and I agree with you that with the 500 750 there would be more people who would be interested and it's just there there is a a scenario where we wouldn't be able to handle all of those but we'll cross that when we come to it sorry is isn't Kelly isn't that something that happens today meaning you probably have people interested in signing up for a bus or a route but you don't have enough spots they're willing to pay the, because their alternative probably is more expensive but either we don't have a bus or there's not enough spots does it's only happened at Mary Kay and Mountain Park based on where the students were and not being able to serve those parts but we've always been able to serve everyone else this is obviously the first year that we would have subscription at GL okay thank you is there any other discussion before we go to a vote a motion sorry is there a motion I thought we just the motion no no I think I think Mr Nixon recommended the thing so that's isn't that the sorry I think someone actually asked us to make a motion with the numbers filled in so that the board can vote okay I'll make a motion um approval of subscription busing rates for the 2024 2025 school year at $500 per child and $750 cap for the family second a second oh okay any other discussion roll call vote Miss Kiri yes Miss Connor yes Dr forer yes Mr Heyman Miss Jolly yes Miss Stanley no Miss Bradford my inclination would have been to pass the policy and have our hazardous roads but in light of our families and the financial implication I'm going to vote Yes motion passes Finance resolutions a all board members what's the result of the vot what's what's the count 51 motion passes it was one uh one one day moving on to finance uh resolution a all board members approv payment of payroll and bills may I have a motion yes a second second discussion roll call vote did the bills this month you did the Bills Mrs Conor yes thank you Mr Kiri it's on everything except um check number 20 9968 21037 21072 I need you to repeat that cuz just went a little too quick to 209 209 968 2110 137 210 072 072 thank you Dr forer uh yes except for no on 20 9968 no on 210 137 and no on 21072 Mr Hyman yes to all M jie yes to all accept check 209 968 2110 137 210 137 you said Mrs Conor yes to everything except check number 209 968 and 210 137 Mrs Stanley yes Miss Bradford yes so we have check number 209 968 and check number 21137 do not pass comments from from the public on any topic I'm going to not read it because it is after midnight uh hi again Debbie Terrero 170 Len pain um I want to commend you for actually uh approving the business administrator thank you very much for doing that um I do want to address something that I'm a little concerned with and that is the fact that we have several administrators that have have actually resigned again this year my concern is that we went through this last summer so we are doing this again and I'm very concerned that we are going to have other teachers starting to resign um again and I appreciate your volunteerism as board members I know that this is not an easy job um but I do have grave concern about the fact that there is a level of instability that's going on with this board and for that reason we are losing talented teachers I can tell you one of the teachers resigning is actually my daughter's science teacher in CMS and she's a great teacher and the kids love her um as far as the administrators as far as I'm concerned that's a that's a big loss so what I'm concerned with KN looking back at the January 4th meeting you guys initially voted down paying these teachers thank you for actually changing your vote in that meeting by the way because the teachers actually ended up getting paid so that was a message that you taught you told the teachers that you can't be trusted and I hope that you work together to try to create a situation where we're not going to lose a ton of teachers this summer I'm very concerned about it wfac 440 Timber Drive um I'm just here because I want to put on public record that there was a comment earlier about uh rational to vote and or why um one board member voted the way that they did I think it's very important for the public to understand that there are two very separate issues so one there was the policy the 8600 which would have deemed Rose as hazardous routes and that was voted down but that did not prevent the board from maintaining the current Transportation policy that we have or policy or plan that we have in place and the four board members decided to do away with hazardous routes or courtesy busing so those are two very separate things you could have voted down 8600 and kept things status quo while you put together what the long-term plan was so let's not co-mingle the two and let's not make excuses because now my child is unsafe all of you guys who voted to eliminate courtesy busing all of your children have busing I know some of them have ucvts busing and every single last one of you guys should be walking those hazardous routes and you can laugh but I am a constituent and remember that I M of I am the member of and I am a constituent so you can laugh at what I'm saying right now but your child does not have to walk on Mountain Avenue to get to school and my kid doesn't get busing okay my kid does not your your kid is not walking on Mountain Avenue my child this is a this is public your child is not on a hazardous route so yes it is an emotional thing for me because I love my kids so you're going to give that I'm at the end of the day I just want to make sure that the public understands that these were two very separate things you could have voted down 8600 and you could have kept the transportation plan status quo while you work together to actually put together a real and sustainable plan thank you thank you yes to ask this question from a business perspective because I'm actually a realtor so and I don't know if Kelly can answer this question but if someone needs to move into the district and they are going to want subscription busing or for that matter if they're eligible for mandated busing and it's during the year and there's no availability on the buses what happens because that could affect the value of your homes and it could it could affect the value of the rents so keep that in mind Mrs shean the way that we have handled this in the past when new people move in whether they qualify or whether they don't qualify is that um if there is a seat available then we would add them to the route we would prate the subscription bus amount they have to then go on a a bus stop that's already established like we don't rearrange the bus routes but as long as they can fit into a bus stop that's already established we able to put them on um and then if students move in to town um obviously that they qualify then they would get the bus we have had a couple of situations we have one GL bus that's like at capacity um so we've had to rearrange some of our district routes to get the drivers to kind of help and and go around so we make it work in whatever way we can especially for the ones that are qualified but the subscriptions if they fit then we put them on thank you okay Rich B 68 that be place I would just hope with all the back and forth tonight that the four people that voted against busing will realize all the problems they've caused because they've heard them tonight they now realize that where the hazards are and the traffic problems are cause or make worse up at the high school the safety issues and go back and figure out how you can revise this you know revote it whatever you have to do and work on it over the next year because you can see it's a problem for everybody that's involved in it and me they can't figure the buses out people got to pay more money so realize you made a mistake and go back and fix it any other comments okay okay we are going to be continuing to work on this and we will be collecting data on this um we have new business now annual professional appointments expired in December 2023 who brought this up motion second voice eyes may okay motion to adjourn second second Bo I meeting adjourned at 1210 May 8th