okay I'd like to call this meeting to order this is a regular session of the boen Township Board of Education held for the purpose of transacting appropriate board business in compliance with chapter 231 WS of 1975 the notice of this meeting was advertised in the mar count after of the agenda of this meeting the public Mrs Bardock here Mr Brer here Mrs gavana here Mr Chen here Mrs Herm here Mr Johnson here Mrs MCR here Mr Mills this W yeah um Dr Angelo is not here I do not see our student representative we have great thank you please stand Alle to FL the United States of [Music] America indiv andice welcome everyone um the first thing on the agenda is a presentation but we're going to to you use our discretion and move that down the agenda right before the first session so that way if anyone has any questions or comments it'll be right before that for all you folks which will take us to them and first we need to go into a very brief executive session um to discuss a couple of quick matters we only it to be 5 or 10 minutes so no worries we're not going to make you wait too long and with that may I have a motion to enter into executive session to discuss issues that more confidentiality as permitted in the open public meeting chapter 231 of the laws of 1975 these matters may or may not be made public when the board reconvenes they will made public when the confidential of the subject is no longer wared the topic of discussion is Mountain Lakes negotiations there will be no action taken regarding that matter when we return we're going to leave the room so you folks can stay where you are have motion please is there a second second all those in favor say I I will only be about 10 we return from our close session and at this time we reached the presentation what we're going to do is move the presentation I think I as I said before we went into CL session we're going to move it down to just before the Open session so that way anything we say at the presentation pleas fresh in your mind and you can make comments or and ask questions before we session number one that we will start with this is motions 1 through three have any motion please move is there a second second any questions comments or discussion if not questions on the adoption report M bu motions 1 through three all those in favor say I I anyone oppose say no any extensions thank you that brings us to administrative report starting with the business business administrative repard secretar report Mr thank you Mr Brandon um the administrators and central office staff met with the county superintendent and her staff during the on-site New Jersey qack visit on January 17th the county business administrator and I met for for several hours to review our finances business and facility operations state and federal compliance state standard operating procedures and to ins classrooms in other areas of the facility uh the business administrator was very impressed with the state of the business office operations and the cleanliness of the building and the maintenance of the building as well she also acknowledged that the plan of referendum would address the long-term facility needs of the building that could not otherwise be accomplished through the annual budget with the recent snowstorms the building the ground Department did an excellent job clearing snow uh during the recent storm so the school could remain open and we have been very pleased so far with the plowing service that is provided and shared service to the township that's doing a very nice job compared to what some of the previous years have done and it is a shared services agreement and with continued V vigilance and repairs we're able to keep all the Building Systems up and running all I have to rep great thank you that brings us to the superintendent report uh Dr Angelo is not able to be here tonight so I report it from me on the 17th our district was visited by representatives from the mors county department of education office for our quality single accountability Contin monitoring otherwise known as qack this visit was the culmination of many months of work dating back to last school year I am pleased to report that we did very well in the five areas that were reviewed during the course of the entire day and a superintendent commented to me uh not only how impressed she was by our planning and preparation but she also indicated how it is evident that those in our district District are providing our students with a quality education that is both Innovative and challenging I can not be more proud of our work we continue to share information with the community and parents through several vehicles to deliver content and information about a referendum our new web page was unveiled on Friday and information will continue to flow through the township newsletter with dates being scheduled for tours commonly a a community Q&A forum and informational video and mailers and that is the conclusion of the superintendent report and we' all had a chance to review the other reports that are listed on the agenda and that brings us to accomodations also for accommodations thank you thank you to our student council for the fun holiday peity in the lower grades and the week long holiday spirit week in December congratulations to our second graders on the publication of their books in the F publishing party thank you to the HSA for the December hip hop assembly we' learned about the history of this unique American dance for thank you also for the holiday parties and January nights shout out to the environmental club for leading us in a variety of recycling projects that help us become more aware of the many ways we can engage in protecting our Corner plan kudos to miss miss Andis and Mrs BR for their facilitation of the group congratulations to the ministry of team and their assistance on the successful NJ qac visit and next is the spotlight on student work for December congratulations to in preschool oen Owen lior Hannah w kindergarten Madison B Kenley Cala Riley Winters Lincoln Wyatt in first grade Emily CH Sarah Lopez and Justin SW SW second grade Joseph Cohen Juliet Ellers Audrey lowski Joseph Ponte Zoe Jane zesi in third grade Nolan bck s and Ella beer meister and next is the SP the Falcons of the month for December congratulations to in fifth grade Antonia Ruchi sixth grade Molly Johnson seventh grade Marco s and eighth grade Regina Brandon BCS of the month that exhibit a dedication to learning leadership skills great attitud character [Music] traits there is no correspondence and at this time we would like to present to a uh on the boo Township M Lake s receiving relationship the negotiations update from the finance committee I so tonight we're going to briefly describe sending receiving relationships we're going to provide a negotiations timeline from we again our negotiations up until now an analysis of how cost per people is count uated and the summary of our key takeaways can I just ask can everybody hear in the back Noble hearing so okay so beginning with sending receiving relationships all all the relationship between school districts in New Jersey is covered by State Statute and I I'm not going to read through these CU that's rather boring but you can review it on the presentation there there are statutes that cover uh when a local school district does not have a place to send their high school students they have to designate a high school for that and there's State statutes to cover how those relationship ship are established and how they are changed there's also um a statute on representation on receiving School District boards when there is a sending receiving relationship in our case State Statute allows for us to send to appoint one representative to the mountain lake support of Education from from our board so in addition to their nine member board in that are elected in in their town we appoint a member from our board to sit on their board so they have 10 members on their board and then there are also State statutes that regulate the maximum tuition that may be charged per pupil and there are statutes and regulations that cover that and I've just listed them in the in there I'm not going to read that and at this point I would like to have Mrs hermy go over the negotiations timeline okay can everyone hear okay y okay great all right so I want to walk you through the timeline to provide some clarity on the last 14 months and discuss some of the next steps coming forward um in so there there's a lot of detail here and I'm just going to hit the highlights but in November 22 um botin Township reached out to Mountain Lakes 8 months before the expiration of our contract to um to begin negotiations um this was in line with what we had done 10 years previously um and the agreement was made in advance of the exper um we heard back for Mountain Lakes in March of 2023 5 months later um we both Mountain Lakes and botin Township agreed to use 2% um increase in tuition from the previous year to set our March our preliminary budgets so in March we both submitted budgets um that matched for the 2023 24 budget however Mountain Lakes did let us know that no matter what tuition we agreed on in the budgets that they would be looking to say Seek a cost for pup adjustment um and you'll see later slides why cost for people is not acceptable to boen Township as it swings wildly from year to year and it's based on two variables that we can't control um in May Mountain Lakes Board of Education unilaterally changed their budget reflecting a new tuition rate for the cost for p certified cost for pupil and that was now a 7.25% increase um I'm the Sate I'm the representative on the Mountain Lakes board of education for Township so I had said no to the tuition and the budget um in May and June each district made counter offers next slide okay okay in May and June we each district made counter offers um in July Boot and Township and preparing for the next school year issued um POS uh purchase orders to to pay our tuition and Mountain Lakes uh rejected them preventing us from paying them in August um Mountain Lakes Board of Education requested mediation with the county superintendent and the first date that we got was December 1st so um we were looking forward to going into the December negotiations and 3 days before um we received Mount Lakes filed a petition against our district for non-payment with no explanation to us or without any communication so at the December 12th meeting um boen Township Board of Education felt it was imperative to get a press release out to let the community know that um a petition was filed against us for non-payment and to encourage people to ask more questions and to get us to get the negotiations going um so I think those of you who came out uh to the January 4th meeting they asked good questions Mountain Lakes gave a great presentation and shed some light on their perspective um later um later in December Mountain Lakes agreed to to accept accept the original tuition that we had agreed upon but without so that they could get paid but without prejudice not locking them into any um commitment to either way um and they also shared extra data with us on the details behind their costs for people was very important to us to understand the all the details behind the number um and January January 11th we had a fact finding meeting um and we are very encouraged with uh the results of the meeting we have another meeting coming up for February 9th and we feel that we um in a good place to have um a more productive discussions so I'm going to um hand us over to Jeff he's going to talk a little bit more about everybody hear me thanks Le I think that's um a good transition to the next section of the presentation here which is more around cost per p and obviously is reference that several times throughout the materials here you guys probably heard that term thrown around for a lot so um we did just want to walk through what it is what it is not um the methodology of How It's calculated it's important and ultimately what does that implication to right um the the main takeaway I I want from this side is that cost per pupil is not equivalent to cost is it is simply a formulate metric or a calculation that's based on two fundamental underlinings right on the top of the numerator you'll see total cost total cost to run the high school is at the top and on the bottom is what we call average daily enrollment that's your average annual amount of students that go to your school that could be a whole number it could be a a decimal number at times because students will move in and out Etc but you'll see here that fundamentally the the metric of cost per pupil in it of itself is not equivalent to cost it is really being driven by those two fundamental components right so in in our in our first two bullet points there right there could be scenarios where the total cost increases and your enrollment Remains the Same your cost per people will rise right simple math formula there in another scenario your your total cost cost could remain completely flat your average enrollment could Decline and your cost per pup will fully increase right so it's it's very important understanding this fundamental kind of calculation to kind of the discussion here it gives context to the implications for bruten Township right as relates to these two components that we had mentioned total cost Bo Township effectively has zero control we can't control if the expenditures go up we can't control if they go down or if they remain the same similarly as it relates to the enrollment we have no control as it relates to how enrollment may drive cost per P so enrollment declin significantly cost per people could go up even if costs remain the same unless there is a corresponding drop in the expenditure of which again we have zero control over um the last Point here is is more around the mechanism of how CPP is calculated it's something that's done at the end of a school year but what is more important here is that because it's a lagging mechanism you'll create a budget maybe a year and you may not know what that cost is even 2 years out and that for a small District could could swing wildly Chris will speak on this in about another two slides it has an example of hypothetically an illustration from data that we have in I think it's 17 and 18 of what that would have done to our budget potentially and you'll see that that large variation of fluctuation is essentially something that is impossible for our district to uh budget for um go to the the next slide if you can um so here uh thanks to mount Lakes they did send us data and what we wanted to do here was actually show you the data that the mount Lakes business administrator had provided us for the years 2019 through 2022 and again the context of how the calculation works and the relationship between cost enrollment and cost per people what you will see here in the Years 2019 to 2022 cost of the high school remained essentially Flat 12 million 12.1 million 12 million however you'll see during those same years and en rollment has declined substantially 715 to roughly 622 so again math the denominator has dropped significantly the expenditures have not changed cost per pupil has risen substantially right and so there there obviously I want to address it that there have been statements that Mountain Lakes have made it hay in the past couple years cost for people has risen six 7even 8% does booten Township dispute this no it's it's factual the the data certainly says cost per pupil has indeed increased increas quite substantially however again the components matter here right it's not driven by costs costs have remained essentially flat enrollment has declined quite substantially and has driven that cost for people up um I will let Chris speak more on the next slide but one of the natural questions one may have is okay well enrollment decline how much of that is driven by boen Township and Chris will show over that course of the these 3 years um that enrollment decline nearly 90% of it is from Mountain lak um so again costs have remained flat to run the school cost per pupil is not equivalent to cost because of these mechanisms so hopefully that's helpful and clarifies why cost become such a problematic um mechanism for us to to be T to but Chris if you want to take the next slide so Jeff just talked about cost for people and why it's problematic right but let's look at some historical data and apply cost and see what that means so if you look at this to the year 2017 2018 for example on the cost it Rose $2400 in one year right between 17 and 18 what that means if you look at the boot and Township enrollment 260 essentially remaining the same Boot and Township would need to then send Mountain Lakes an additional $667,000 in one year that's in addition to the tuition we were already paying them in a district of our size that's not something we have in budget it's not something we can afford and it's detrimental to the students of this district and that's not something that is very dangerous to how we educate our children if you also look at the the next table below if you look at fiscal years's 2020 or 2022 this is the underlying data in the charts that Jeff was just showing you'll see cost remaining basically flat those are the exact dollars it took to run the school about roughly $12 million and it's not moving cost is not increasing through those years enrollment for both Mountain Lakes and boen Township you'll see there declined in that period what does that mean that's an additional in that 3-year period $2,400 increase per student if we were to use cost per people through that 3 years basically in the situation through no increased cost but a declining enroll botin Township is penalized and we have to pay more in that scenario that is why it's very problematic to our district so to reiterate what Jeff said it was asked in the mount Lakes meeting whether we dispute cost for people as increasing we do not but if you look at what's driving it that is what's problematic to our district when we look at the underlying data so there's something else I want to talk about too it was mentioned the $1.9 million uh on the mountain lake side that is simply the difference as we understand it from the tuition we had in our agreement versus the cost per pupil as we've shown cost per pupil is a problematic metric not necessarily driven by cost and it is also not indicative of what it takes to educate a student at Mountain links to be very clear that is problematic for us so basically I think there's a there's a narrative out there that that 1.9 million is both an underpayment and a Mountain Lakes subsidy of boen Township students both are 100% incorrect it is not a mountain lake subsidy and I want everybody to clearly understand that and it is not an underpayment we paid the prior agreement everything we needed to and that is simply a formula calculation between the two numbers not necessarily driven by increased cost so I want to be very clear on that the last point I want to make on this is cost per people by state statute is the max amount that a receiving District can charge a sending District so by definition if we were to sign up to that deal that is the worst deal that cont time for it is not the tuition number it is the max tuition number it's a very important this might be a number that you would charge one student from out of District Boot Town Bo town Township sends hundreds of students every year to Mountain Lakes at a large ball so um that slide real quick so just to summarize what we've talked about with all that said it is the intent of this board of boot and Township to work with not LS and come to a negotiated agreement we believe it's in the best interest of the communities the students we're we're committed to that actual cost per pup is a problematic metc for budgeting due to the very ability and the wild swings that can create in the budget for our small school district booten Township and Mountain Lakes have differing views on the approach to calculating that tuition I.E CA increases versus cost per but we want to ensure there's predictability and ability for a small school district like us to be able to actually budget for that tuition we're seeking an agreement with botin Township we want to be able to fund Mountain Lake's tuition but not negatively affect this school district which is incredibly important to the children in this District we want Equitable terms for both Boot and Township and Mountain Lakes and we'll continue good based negotiations with mountain LS and we're encouraged by the upcoming meeting uh on February 9th we the for I would like to say that over the past 30 years both of our committees have had a very very successful and and a great working relationship um we have many you know communi efforts between our you know our districts and our communities our kids you know you know it's been a thriving environment for all of our kids you and by virtue of our district contributing sometimes between 30 and 40% of the of the enrollment uh of students at M LS High School it allows the high school to offer many more programs and otherwise could you know that's what allows that high school to be successful in offering AP courses and many other courses that your students enjoy there so it's the larger the enrollment by AR ution it helps that but we have many great relationships um all of us have great working relationships with people if we have kids in the high school you know it's it's a it's a great place for kids to go and we're going to work towards continuing this agreement um with that with that we will go to the first com public comment period will be limited to agenda items only the second public comment period will be open to any topic please be mindful that public comment periods are available to enable the public to give comments and feedback to the board personal matters and day-to-day operations are not appropriate subjects for board meetings these can always be most effectively resolved with appropriate staff members or miners according to the chain of command concept questions may be directed to appropriate School Personnel or board through email please state your name and address for the record and all comments are limited to 5 minutes I would just ask that you please ask and make all of your comments and ask all your questions in one round and then we'll try to address your your comments or concerns at that time so uh who would like anyone like to address the board on the agenda I is yes Leo glenor sorry it's okay you were in front of me go ahead Mar Le glenor Drive I just want to say about 20 years ago the last acrimonious um negotiations we had I was board president and I really encourage you to hold fast on your 2% because they do eventually realize the benefits for us to be there and how we cannot budget and that is not acceptable it won't work so I I appreciate you holding fast for rtion that's that's very important uh and it all worked out fine but there's you you know everyone doesn't know everything board knows things public doesn't know just yet so I'm just happy with you holding on your negotiations my other question thing is with the price per pupil when the numbers go down I feel feel like that's kind of what happened is happening in our school even though you may have seen a little bit of a jump we've dropped enrollment incredibly but Staffing hasn't dropped so our cost per pupil has actually gone up very much too I think it's something that everyone needs to realize if if we're not happy with their cost per pupil going up how can they cut you can kind of put it on our town also thank you very much yes hi Heather Lavar um 28 benle Brook Road botin Township I have a sort of a two-prong question uh it has to do with the cost per pupil and so and budgeting per cost per pupil so if we if I've been to a couple of these meetings and I noticed that there was a really uh conscientious effort by the board administrator to predict and future you know future predict what the numbers of students would be which seems like a very positive and proactive step in terms of understanding what type of expenditures you would have to go along with the cost per pupil so you know and maybe this isn't a question that could ask but would we not assume that there's a certain level of responsibility being held by the receiving School District to address cost per pupil and obviously it might go up slightly but it you know it seems pretty dramatic in these situations um and then the other question is is what was the effect of eliminating the biotech program on this cost per pupil how does that play into students from boen Township students from Mount lakes and figure into the overall equation of um cost for people thank you thank you um our district it [Music] only let's go to this one no I forgot that's better okay okay let me regroup here and try to your two questions so um yes the mic our prior two agreements we had one Nye agreement one 10 year no there you go just be we had two prior long-term agreements one was a 9-year agreement one was a 10-year agreement and those those agreements had uh I guess fixed rate tuition so we could predict one of the variables you know when we sent our children there the variable being how much tuition will we pay we you have to set a tenative tuition and then a final tuition that's determined afterwards since we had a fixed agreement we knew what tuition rate we were going to pay well tedly and after the year was over so all we had to worry about is the enrollment that we were sting there and we do I we know exactly for 9 years roughly what our enrollment will be when it when they reach the high school because we we break out our enrollment from you know PK to 8 8th grade so you always have people you they go to the Mar High School Technology you might have folks go to private school you can't predict everything but we have a a pretty good predictor of the enrollment so based on that we you know once if you have a fixed tuition rate You can predict at least the en mment going in and then it's adjusted at the other end of the year just for the enrollment the average daily enrollment represents if a child goes there for half the year and drops out that P say a half a child you know that's where you get the decimal places someone can move in uh a quarter of the way in the district so they would be 3/4 of a child so that's why you get decimal numbers when you do average deily enrollment so we we can estimate the amount of students going in and the amount of clost our district and then at the other end the year all you have to worry about is how many kids actually went there so if we predicted 200 kids going in and it was 205 other and we owe them for five five times that t fixed tuition rate if there were five less children then it would be they would owe us five if we paid them those estimated payments they owe us back five times the the the fixed tuition rate that's the only variable I have to worry about is an enrollment when you use the cost per pupil you you right now for example we're budgeting for next school year um there there's a certified tuition rate from last year that will become available really soon we don't have it yet um so there's no without fixed agreement you have to come up with a reasonable method to calculate the tuition for a year that's ahead of us based on the year behind us that's a two-ear difference and so that is a variable that goes into the calculation if you don't have a fixed tuition rate agreement so in addition to the enrollment swings that you all I just described that you can't predict you have a Ted budget set up based on our projected enrollment times an estimated tuition rate once the year is all over and after the the uh uh receding schools books are audited which is well after the school year ends then you get the final total cost that it took to run the high school you know things can happen during that year and then you get the average daily enrollment you know exactly the number of students that attend the high school at the end of that year and at that point you get the certified tuition rate and if you settle on that rate now you have two variables the enrollment differences and you also have you estimated a cost for People based on something and now you have to settle that difference too so if you took your best estimate you know based on last year certified tuition rate to estimate what it's going to be 2 years from then and and it we don't know what the variability is there are some years in the last 10 years where we're still reviewing data but there are some years for example when you look at the 1.9 million difference where in one year alone you could have a half a million dollar difference you know one year that contributes to that one $1.9 million would be $500,000 and that's the difference between the certified tuition rate and the agreement rate that we were using as an example um your the biotech I do not I do not know the impact of how the biotech students impact the high school enrollment at this time and okay um yeah just to I know I'm not trying to start time over again the first question was if booten Township is has an ability to predict our booten Township enrollment and the boen Township kids that are approximately going over to Mountain Lakes High School would it be feasible to say that Mountain Lakes has the same ability to predict their own enrollment and the own number of students that is actually going to their high school and therefore adjust their cost proactively is it's kind of a yes or no question would they not have that same ability I I would believe so I can't answer but I would believe so that answers thank you um yes what I should do is maybe since there's a lot of people maybe I'll start there and I'll work around at this point so I'll just go in an orderly way so I'll start there and go that way five Catherine Court Francis um at the M Lakes meeting um there was a very complex so the first part of question there's a very complex formula referred to by Mr Ferrera and it sounds different than the methodology that you're referring to in the cost per pupil and I'm just he had even a technical word for it so I was wondering if you could explain that if you know what he's talking about second thing I was wondering about is regarding the Lake Drive program um is the is the Lake Drive program included in the constant costs and also the declining enrollment in the high school because that's been a known issue over there for a long time fiscally and the third part is in regards to the 2% cap from New Jersey is that something that the Mountain Lakes board has engaged on um discussion of how why would they think it's reasonable to ask a local District to increase well in excess of the 2% cap even with bank cap I think it's very difficult to do that I think I know what you're referring to the first one was it the 841 842 is that what the explain yeah this is that is a certified cost per pupil so what he's explaining is what's complex about it in the data that they provideed is it it's a long list of expenditures by different accounts and line items that we went through that they sent us once they roll all of that up basically as bar was this explaining you have to finish the calendar year they roll up all their expenses they have direct expense that's related to the high school they have allocated expenses high school once they figure that out which takes a while then they figure out the average daily enrollment and then you get the cost per people so they're one in the same it's just they call it a41 a842 one is for uh General Ed one is for special ed does that help yes sir and your other two questions um Lake Drive enrollment um I we're still evaluating you know we're still engaged in information gathering from Mountain Lake School District regarding how Lake Drive students impact the high school it uh I I have listened to some prior board meetings about that it is is a complicated issue but we we our team uh from the finance committee is is asking for and obtaining various information we don't have all but yet regarding how the impact of of lake dve on on how that affects the high school enrollment and the 2% cap there um all all New Jersey school districts are limited to a 2% tax levy so whatever the tax levy to the entire Community was last year we limited to a 2% increase um and that was provided we moved our elections to November back in the early you know like 2010 2011 somewhere in that range um there are exceptions to go above that 2% cap there uh written into the statute for certain very specific things which I'm not I'm not going to list um in BO Township we we not used those exceptions um at at all I don't believe in many many many years fact since the statute was passed we've never never uh use those acceptance here um yeah I'm not sure if I can answer the question but m l is doing the 2% cap I can't answer for that see so moving overs they went from that side [Music] and you get yeah I was going to try to go that way so Jason schne um two questions one was that what's the time frame for when the decision has to been made and what's the contingency um there's I guess there's really no time frame we just continue our good faith negotiations and and reach agreement nothing happens you know during that process you know nothing you know nothing we the S receive relationship continues and you know we we just have to settle on the tuition rate so there's no particular time frame to settle that I guess you know of course it would be be benefit both of our needs to reach that conclusion as quickly as possible so there's no you know concern about that but we're working in good faith to to accomplish that but you know there is no specific time frame and did well just because I'm just trying to understand the time time frame was completed for the last agreement right so then when when do we have to come up with an agreement or do we just keep on paying however much we would pay and they give us a bill and then we just keep paying that until we finally come with the final IDE agreement and then do they reimburse us whatever we may have overpaid or we reimburse them whatever we the I would say that the amount that basically the last the 10-year agreement had two a 2% increase but we had a fixed tuition we had a base year in that agreement that was the cost for people in the first year of that agreement and the tuition increased by 2% per puple each year of that agreement so so when we got to the end of this agreement we continue we in good faith we wanted to you know pay our bills as best as we could so we took the year 10 of the existing agreement and added 2% just like the prior 10 years and offered to pay that with the understanding that once we settle our our our tuition amount if if any adjustments are necessary that we would pay pay that retroactively for this school year whatever that might be if we reach an agreement so so you there's no issues with your kids going to you know not going to school there that relationship continues there's a whole different process that communities have to go through you have to change that and that's not what we we're discussing here at all that helps okay so moving along uh no one in that corner over there questions comments and so we're back there um so I I have a couple questions if you could just state your name uh sorry Brendan Ellers 337 powerville Road thank you um one of the comments made in the presentation was that cost per people was not uh a good good indicator of the actual cost to educate a student at Mountain Lakes High School um could you explain why that is and is there a better metric that's known that we should be matching to um the second question is knowing that we're not the only send receive relationship in New Jersey do you have an indication of how many other send Reed relationships are tied to cost per pupil are we asking for something like out of the ordinary here or is the standard throughout other school districts to match what Mount Lakes is requesting okay i' say your first question just if you could uh the first question was based on the the comment I think it was Mr Johnson that made um cost per people is not a good indicator of the actual cost to educate a student is there a better indicator and why isn't it a good one there there you know one one there's several measures I guess for the cost rep people calculation that the statute provides for for example like the the high school budget is flat at $12 million by having a ining enrollment you know there are other issues that happen obviously if you have declining enrollment you can increase programs even more I guess at that point or not um but there it's not an easy metric to use um with the high volume of students that we send there because there can be fluctuations that we we can't control when we looked at these prior the prior 10 years of the agreement for example there were there are years where we were very close the the agreement rate and the certified cost for people at the end of year were very close and then there were some other years where it was very very different and in some instances that the enrollment didn't change that much but the costs did and that's where the prior agreement I guess protected botin Township from Sudden increases in the budget you know of the high school where you know we have we have one vote on their board so and that that was a protective mechanism that was built into the prior to long-term agreements and I believe when if you Google and look back at the newspapers I think when when the relation first established in the 90s there was litigation between the two districts which the recommendation was to enter into these long-term agreement to avoid what we're doing now so because if you don't have you can have a a sending receiving relationship with another school district without having an agreement in place a long-term agreement in place and if that's done then every single year you have a large guessing game for our business administrator in our Board of Education where you're look you know you're basing something uh for a budget a year ahead B on information from a year behind and you have no idea where it's going to land until it happens at the at the end of that school year and that's not an easy thing for for us to do and so that's why we support a fixed tuition rate versus a a variable tuition rate as that matches as close as possible what you know what it costs we want to obviously be fair to Mountain Lakes of course but we want to also have predictability in in our budgets um your second question I'm sorry was uh the second question was other send receive relationships around the the state there are many other s there's many many send Reed relationships in New Jersey some use the cost per pup and some use a fixed rate agreement like we have in the past and it just dep just depends on the the size of those districts and how how their budgets you know vary or don't vary so you know it's not it doesn't necessarily one size spits all there there you there are districts that use both types of agreements that Mak sense thank you uh yes waiting Pi yes okay uh Ray White I live at 12 Wildlife Run Okay so a couple questions the first is in the media release that you guys put out you characterize the Mountain Lakes Boe as starting litigation when they uh did the petition for the non-payment uh so the question is why why was it characterized to the public as litigation the and then I I'll give you all the questions and then you can take them in the order you want thank you so the next one is I understand your point of view on the cost and the the challenges that the variable cost has for our district my question is in your opinion uh what is the correct way to assess what it costs to send a student to Mountain Lakes if it isn't cost for people I I get your hey fix is better for us but it it by definition doesn't match the cost each year so how would we understand what the actual cost is if we don't use cost per pupil and then I'm going to Reas the question that came up earlier that I don't think was answered or at least I didn't understand it what is the contingency if the negotiation fails what is the next best alternative I don't feel like I've heard that so those are my questions for now okay so the first question was um litigation okay so the the Mountain Lakes uh Board of Education filed a petition with the New Jersey Department of Education and our attorney characterized that as litigation it's it's a legal document file filed with the New Jersey Department of Education and it would go before an administrative law judge if it if that process continues so that's the best I can you know an answer on that um let see cost for pupil yeah what is the best answer um we we found for the last 19 years that the a fixed rate tuition was was was very um beneficial to us it was predictable to us um when you look at cost for people for example like if you have when you look at the actual cost cost to educate a student at Mountain Lakes High School if you have variations of like 10 students you're not like getting rid of staff you're not hiring and firing teachers based on that when you add kids to like Rockway Valley school for if someone comes here we're not hiring a new teacher just because one child walks in but you get tuition for that student so when you really you know start plunging into the numbers you know what does it really cost well you know there's these formulas that we try to use to you know come up with the best answer but is that really truly the cost the the prior agreement that we had for example for better for worse it it for it um put a cap on the tuition at 2% so it assumes that if the budget was $12 million in one year but the if if the enrollment dropped in theory then if if you're saying at year one the base cost to educate a child in year one was this number it assumes then that next year it's going to be the same plus 2% because that's all we're allowed to ask our taxpayers to give us but it also assumes that if the budget drops you know the enrollment drops by 10% we may have to cut some costs to the tune of 10% at the high school because after all we we determined the cost for people was this much last year and and next year it's going to be that plus 2% because that's all we can ask our taxpayers to provide to US unless we go above to cap and ask you to give us more money which we we don't um so the best the best answer is we want we would like to come up with a way that is you know is fair to both districts we don't want to be unfair to Mountain Lakes but we need you know we need predictability and we need to be fair to our taxpayers here but also give them a good education are by having between 32 and 40 40% of the enrollment at the high school being boot Township students it does allow Mountain Lakes to have a much broader program and offer many more more things that they otherwise would not do and I will say when you know when the $1.9 billion has come up in discussion at at the Mountain Lakes Board of Education me that's that's a number that goes spans 10 years there are a couple years that make up that that number there's one year that's 500,000 another year that's 300,000 you could take one like two to three years and it's half that number that that changed you know and what happened in those years like we we're we're still obtaining information to understand it you know we don't want we're just using lot you know last 10 years's information to understand what we could best do for our district going forward we're not using other anything other than understanding you know the different formas that might be available how can we look at the historical data and make sure that whatever we do goes forward you know is beneficial to both districts but it's fair to both districts too if that helps and then so but Mr White you just want to clarify one thing you equated cost per people to cost as if if we weren't paying cost per people we're not covering the cost I think as we've shown cost for people is not the same thing as the cost to run that school the declining enrollment with cost being flat that changes our our cost goes up it is penalty to boot Township with no increased cost in Mountain Lakes to be very clear so that's why I think we've explained that that's a problematic meure but I want Mountain Lakes use cost per pupil is increasing yes but costs through certain time periods are not and then are as you can imagine tuition would go up so it's a big difference I wouldn't I would dispute that we weren't covering cost in my question was about what the right metric was not whether we were hovering or not but you know it what is the right metric we we prefer a fixed starting with a a base a base year tuition that's fair to both districts starting with that and and then trying the best we can to come up with a a fixed rate that will as best as possible be fair to both districts in cover you know in paying our share of Mountain Lakes High School but we prefer a fixed cost versus a variable cost because of the potential for unpredictability which we have seen in the history of the historical data that we' looked at and and those are the very things we want to protect ourselves from um but so so my our preferred metric is a fixed tuition versus a variable tuition is our answer I think and then contingencies obviously you know uh we want to S we want to reach an agreement as soon as possible and we're we're still engaged in negotiations with Mountain Lakes we're you know uh they're being very helpful to us we're being helpful to them we're trying still continuing to gather information we're also trying to have both sides understand each other and and we're confident that we'll reach we reach a conclusion to that as soon as we can you know I you know I'm I'm not an attorney so I can't tell you what the consequences are you know whe they going further out or not there's no particular deadlines you know that are set right now it's just we're going to continue our negotiations good debate with our friends at Mountain Lakes that helps sure Amelia and Dean 12 Crest Road so I everyone's kind of asked the same question I think I'm going to reward it and maybe hopefully get a different answer how is the base rate on your fixed tuition calculated right so the cost per pupil is what's variable and you're saying that we set a base rate for year one and then we increased 2% off of that how is that base rate calculated what metrics are being used to determine what our year one base rate is currently currently the base rate that we would use going forward is still going to be negotiated amount so that from this point going forward we're still under negotiations of what that might be uh we want to come up with a a a fair metric and move forward with that measures are used to determine base rate are we like how what what line items on Mountain lak's budget are you looking at to determine base rate we're we we are looking at the total High School costs and enrollment the numbers that we've been discussing but once we begin with that number we would we we survive for a fixed rate thereafter that best matches you know what what the uh woman you know increases or decreases we want it to be fair there's always going to be you know you're always going to bounce around the actual cost for people but we want to be as close as possible but we need a fixed rate to protect ourselves from anomalies that Happ in those years those you can't predict and and and I guess I would say we're hopeful that when we're analyzing that data that the Year we're studying is not one of those novel years when you set the base rate yeah I mean 100% on board with the base rate idea I understand that I guess I'm just not understanding and I think it's been asked three times how is the base rate calculated like what measures are being determined for boot and Township Bo to bed to then go back and say okay our base rate is 18,000 per pupil or our base rate is 22,000 per people what are you looking at to identify that number Miss indeed we completely understand your question yeah because this is an active negotiation we can't go into that as you can imagine but when the time is appropriate we are happy to disclose whatever the agreement is what it looks like and how it's calculated but I can't express that right now I hope you understand that no that's a fine answer yeah that's a f answer that I understand moving along had a question yeah um Bill mck 25 Power Road um I I can completely understand where where you did not want to sign up for a cost for pupil the way M Le was was doing it because it was not going to be beneficial to this town way you know it would just vary by too much there um and I'm I'm just going I'm just that key point there I I think it would have helped if you put that in a letter to community because I I looked at the letter and I couldn't understand you know what was what was the Bri between man lak and B count why why did you get this point where you you you were you were you know you couldn't negotiate there um and I also feel would have been better if one of you one of you had shown up at the meeting at mad lakes and and explained that there I mean it was mad L's night there but I mean it would have helped if someone from the board of AD here had been there and gotten up and spoke and said you know this this is one problem that we're working on here and de the thing I wanted to say is is we're we're all geared on M lakester but have you looked at go to a different sending high school that might be more cost effective for this town here so so the first question regarding sending someone to the Mountain Lake boort Education meeting our our our talks our our our negotiations have you know happen in in a a private setting so that that would be we wouldn't want to attend their meeting and and negotiate in public as it were that wouldn't you know that so that's why we wouldn't have sent a board of education member there to make any statement to be honest um it's just not not not the proper form for you know discussions that's in the different form between our boards and and representatives in in in the proper form um and the other question is something you know that that's looking at other districts is something that's not in in front of us here we're we're trying to negotiate an agreement with Mountain Lakes you know to you we have a longstanding relationship with them it goes back 30 years and we have a great relationship with Mountain Lakes all of our kids and parents you know uh have developed relationships in the Comm community of of both um of municipalities so we're right now our goal is to negot you know negotiate a mutually agreeable you know tuition rate uh and um settle settle this matter I mean I went I went from here right to booten high school and I had no problems and I it's a great High School I mean I'm I'm just I'm just saying you know you're I I I don't want you to get so geared just to one high school there I mean you know cuz it it'll offer you a better bargaining chip to say you know hey I I could go to Ken along high school here or or booten or or denil I mean it it it would yeah I I can see your point of not wanting to have a variable there that that makes great sense me there but I just offered it there well thank you very much for your comments I appreciate that and let see moving over that way anyone yes uh Tom mopolis tole Rock Drive so I want to criticize and commend you for the letter that went out um I thought it was an absolutely terrible letter very I came emphasize just how uh alarming it was and I want to commend you because look what it's created right it's created this this you know real public attention around this issue and so um I guess that's you know it's it's great I wish some of this information was presented earlier um I realized that there's some stuff that can't be held back but I I I think or that needed to be held back but I think that um a little bit more education would have gone a long way um especially for for you know I guess the comments that we're occurring all over the place especially Facebook um so Mount Lakes on in December released some numbers uh through the administrator to the bo t board of education is that uh public information anywhere can we find that can we see what was detailed in those numbers I'm not sure where that information might be available that might would be something to ask of the Mountain Lake School District okay I I did send an email to Al requesting that um okay okay and so the the fixed rate tuition uh that was answered so I appreciate that um and we will eagly wait to see what happens there uh how has Mountain Lakes funded their increase beyond the 2 and a half% or the 2% cap that uh that is allowed without having to go to boats every year um I'm curious about that um although I do see that there expenses have remained even but in years before the previous three years they have had some significant increases which didn't necessarily go to referendum um Also regarding the contract I've noticed in some other sending receiving contracts that there are maturity dates with automatic renewal dates if they're not reach what are those dates for us do those exist in our contract I me you keep referring to 9 years and 10 years so obviously there is some date I'm curious what those dates are um and are we talking to other similar size school districts um I know Alpine New Jersey for one is is a great example of a very small school district that has a sending receiving relation excuse me sending receiving relationship with tenly um are we talking to other similar school districts or are we Consulting with professionals uh advisers to negotiate the setting re receiving relationship uh and finally the uh meeting that you had on January 11th can you comment on I guess the uh agreeability between uh you know between both towns um conversation I mean how how did it end how did people walk out uh and were there any I guess good points that came out of that meeting that that you know are no longer sticking points you know are there any concrete results from that so okay so first the the letter that went out the the letter went out negotiations were behind closed doors from the time they began until the time you heard about them the reason why our board felt that we needed to inform our community is because the Mountain Lake School District on November 28 filed a petition with the commissioner of Education which is a public document and the next board meeting after that petition was filed was our December meeting we have usually about once a month during this time of year so at that me meeting we decided that it was appropriate to let our community know what's happening mainly because there is a public document out there that's had certain things in it and we wanted to make sure that we told our community our perspective once that document was out there so that was the reason for the timing of that otherwise if if that petition hadn't been filed I don't think we would have made a public statement about our negotiations at that time I meant one of the real reason well States the statement that was in there which I mean well the reason was there was a petition filed with the commissioner and we did not you know we want wanted to address you know where where our perspective on where we were at that time uh next was how are they fun how is Mountain Lakes funding anything in nexcess at 2% I can't answer that you'd have to go to the Mountain Lakes Board of Education and ask about their you know costs and how they're funing I can't answer that I have um let's see next was an automatic renewal provision an automatic Ren Ral renewal POS uh provision could be included in an agreement but the each agreement is negotiated and the two agreements that we had did not have an automatic renewal provision in them and that's up to the districts that are negotiating it that could be a point that the the districts don't want to put in because they don't want to you know they they want to protect themselves in the future from you know the consequences of not reaching an agreement on the new agreement so that's that's something each district you know group of districts would decide to put in or not put in it our districts did not put them in in both years and that's just a matter of the district's desires at that time um see make sure I get all your questions here so um we are not you know exploring other districts we're we're working towards reaching a conclusion with Mountain Lake School District that's not something that we're doing at this time Consulting Consulting we working with our our board attorney and and their board attorney our consultants for our you know continuing our negotiations and can't really comment about you know the contents of our continued negotiation meetings other than you know we have I I believe we have very positive results you know we were continuing to talk and we continue to have very good conversations and we're continuing to share information and sharing our views and I I'm confident that we'll continue to do that can you speak to he's done this multiple times oh yeah I'm I'm sure on both sides yeah the attorneys on both districts honestly are very experienced in send receives I think one in three school districts in New Jersey have send send reive received relationships in some form or another so our are you I I believe all board attorneys are very experienced in s relationships and agreements for tuition between them and I think that covered everything it does yes thank you okay thank you uh and then anyone on this side I'd like to ask a question over that way over there we'll go back over there yes uh Tu Tucker glavin 167 powerville Road um just have a couple comments but I'd like to just clarify who I am so you understand what perspective I'm speaking from um I lived in Mountain Lakesville 10 10 years um put three kids through uh Wildwood Bri Cliffe and Mountain Lakes High School T graduate from college one is in college today um and also just heavily involved in the uh Mountain Lakes board bed for the last eight years so um I want to commend you first on what you're doing um because I think you're doing a great job in the negotiations so far um I'd like to Enlighten you on a couple things and one thing I'd like to Enlighten you on is what Mr Chen said which I think is the most important thing here that you need to consider and that is Putin ship has no control over the costs that have gotten Mountain Lake High School to where they are today and to where they're going to go in the future and you need to understand I've been there every night at all those meetings three four five of my closest to friends were on those boards for six years and I ran the campaign to get them on that board so I want you to tell you that only because I'm intimately involved in what they've been doing from a budgeting process and I like everybody there there's no problems or anything like that I just want to tell you the truth the fact is you said the most important thing because what's gotten them to to where they are today and sadly is their mismanagement financially and I mean over a long period 10 to 15 years they have never made deep cuts that they needed to make I suspect everybody here balances their own budgets in their household that's what allows you to live in a nice town like this town every year they do not balance their budget they they haven't in all the years I've lived here they for many many years they took $2 to3 million a year out of Lake Drive from the sending district and put it into the other three schools can you explain that I just I've heard this now pleas let's his turn to talk excuse it's his turn to talk please I'll answer question but that was such a critical thing the state of attorney general investigated Mount Lakes for 3 years because of that they were taking $2 to3 million a year from Lake Drive and put it into the other three schools that's how they were balancing their budgets every year and if you go and look and if you ask Mr Ferrera who I've worked with for many years and the other administrators before that the way they've been balancing their budget over the past six or seven years is they're they're right now they're already I don't know you know it they're already in a $2 million hole right now they'll be in about a $4 million Hole by the time march to April and they start present and what they do every year and they did it last year is they they just take from their Capital uh Reserve budgets and they take from their rainy day budgets and they just deplete them and put them into their school budget so they are completely mismanaged from a financial standpoint they have never made the cuts they need they have way too many super supervisors and they know it but the union won't let them cut back they only need two supervisors and that's not my opinion that's the opinion that came from a prior business director or administrator who was probably the best one the school ever had Carol dandre who I think is in chatam now who came back to the board and said the school should run on a $10 million less budget so School runs on about a $4 $42 million budget she was the business administrator she told the board of they should be running on a less than a $10 million less budget for school sizes I want you to know if you give them any more than the 2% increase you're crazy you should never do that the the state should never allow you to do it but you should never do it to give them even the 3% now that you're talking about is a favorite to them because they're looking for you guys as a bailout the the other thing that you you really need to understand is that they're they don't get me wrong here I had I told you I had three kids went through this high school it's a fabulous high school and my kids like everybody else's kids here all go to Fabulous schools and benefit from it and two of them are working and blah blah blah but you need to understand don't become their crutch they're looking at you to help them bail them out at the same time and my kids were in the track my kids were in the AP tracks my daughter my oldest daughter took 11 AP courses but I want you to know they have way too many AP courses they have AP courses there with less than 10 kids with less than six kids and if you go do the Audits and look who's in those classes it's the Board of Ed members kids and every time they do that it's a $116,000 overage for them to pay that okay over the budget so they're just they're just keep they just keep spending spending spending so they're coming to you guys and looking for you to do that it's it's absolutely out of hand I'm just going end with with a couple comments somebody asked about biotech biotech's done biotech students are out does anybody know what the biotech students cost for Year let me $9,000 for a one biotech student you can come back up I just want you to know that $9,000 for a biotch if if if once we get through everyone that wishes to speak we are absolutely happy to back and I'm good thank you very much yeah but thank thank you very much for your comments uh yes that was some good informationn thank you John serar 27 Den Road Township I'm I'm glad he went before me I won't be the most hated person but here's the deal obviously for people who don't know me I spent 13 years on this court I spent a year and a half over there during the time this gentleman was just talking about first of all here's what I will tell you you're talking about certified tuition rate please do not use their certified tuition rate I negotiated I was a chairman I shouldn't say me negotiated the contract in 2013 what we did is we took the state average and then they haded 2% cuz that's the law and we even said if they change the law right bar you were on that committee with me that we'll open up the contract to go above the 2% that state law the only person that can give them or people that can give them more than 2% is this board no court will because it's state law commissioner education will not give it because it's state law so please don't do do that the second thing I like to say Mountain Lakes listen I was the most hated person over there everybody here knows that and you know why like play once said he who speaks the truth is the most hated person they didn't like what I had to say I fought for botin Township they always looked at us I said this a year and a half ago at these board meetings they were coming for this they would always tell us you pay you don't pay enough and I'm like no you lose sight of the fact that you are a public school district you're not D Barton they have right now they have three AP classes that have six or less kids in it and there all board members kids in that think about that they have at least I don't I don't want to say the exact there's like 20 classes that have less than 10 kids there you can't run that that's not a public school district if you let this go to court like it happened like believe it was 2003 here the Department of Education is going to say go by the state average that's not the state average and if we use their numbers we're going to be funding all their nonsense you can't have those classes they're putting classes in for next year already because board members kids want them because board members want them for their kids and that's great we all want stuff for our kids but I want to drive to rollsroyce I'd love it if you guys all PID for it for me you know that's what they want us to do we can't do that another thing that happened over there and this gentleman said it he's right to answer your question they've been pilage they drive for years and they got caught and I know they didn't like when I said that I got beat up on Facebook my wife want to put it for sale sign on the laan but that's the truth cuz I got every email I got every document and I got the five criminal subp as that came I was a board member I'm allowed to keep that stuff so please they forget that we're a public school district they're always looking for outside funding sources to fund their nonsense over there they don't want to make the cuts that they may need to make they can't run the classes if we did what they want we would have 35 kids in the class here we' L off half of our teachers here if they did that we got to fight for our own here I know it's it's you nobody likes litigation but it happened in 2003 and I I see Mora here I believe I can't speak for her you were on the board back then President right no court no Department of Education nobody is going to take go off the anything but the state average they want to be Del Barton how many times have I come to this board meeting and say I fought with gu and girls there and they're not all bad some of them are I ain't going to lie but not all of them they look at us as second class citizens here but they want us to pay D Barton prices cuz they want to run special classes for certain people's kids you can't do that please don't let that happen I could go on and on here you know for hours talking about this but I lived it I lived it over there I know Lee's there now hopefully she they treating you're a lot better than you're treating me I mean you're a lot nicer than I am that's for sure but don't take it they're going to want to bully you they tried it with me and you know it didn't really work and I got all the hate mail for it but I could again I I came here late I missed the presentation so I don't want to overstep but listening to the questions they've been paging late job don't let them pilage us what he just said is so correct you know biotech was only paying 9,000 they're they're paying 9,000 a student when we're paying 17 18,000 which we should pay that cuz that was the state average plus a 2% but they they wanted to bring extra people and extra money so they charge them half of what we're paying there's some people I mean what about the other student the parents that sent from other towns whether they come from Paran they want them to pay their state average I mean they want them to pay their costs let's not go by their cost because they will bankrupt us they will they'll run four person classes if they know we're going to pay the bill please stand your ground I know my time stand your ground and I'm going to listen to question I have so much more to say but you're doing a great job don't let them bully thank you that is anyone else address the board uh anyone hasn't address the board yet first and if not we can you know do do repeat folks if you have more to say yes please I think you you yeah so Ray White uh 12 Wildlife run I have uh two questions the first one is specifically to Ben uh Ben in your perspective questions have to be address to the chair of the board not to okay well I I'm going to address it to the board but I'm most interested in Ben's opinion so to the board to the board to the board you're unfortunately going to get my answer but yeah fine that's great so do you feel that we have the right level of competence experience and Leadership to lead the negotiations with Mountain Lakes that's question one question two who wrote the media release who was the actual person that typed that those are my two questions okay so number one yes yeah thank you you say yes yes okay thank you okay then number number two the the uh press release was uh written in conjunction with our attorney board attorney okay got it thank you any other questions from anyone wait did you want to address this question about are we competent GL got the yes there nice question and Mr Ms even added the yes uh yes yes Mary Leo 24 glenor Drive I just want to say that as far as the Lake Drive goes that's what we discovered way back in 2003 and that's how we got our 2% um and the negotiation and they got cold on the carpet on that and that was before it was litigated and they really got in trouble for it so um they know the thing is with since clear implants their L Dy enrollment has really decreased and so that's why they're not getting those subsidies from there that besides being called that ration they can't necessarily raid that like they used to and my other statement was when enrollment was starting to drop they went to outside they opened up the school to bring in outside tuition now we all know their ranking has decreased you know rankings are are decided differently than they were back in 2000 so their ranking in within the state has gone down which I don't know if that's causing less people to want to go there or not but when there was shortall in students they would go to outside because they always said they had a list of people that wanted to send their students you know their children so I don't know if they do that anymore if they look for outside students to fill up they do so are they not getting enough to fill their numbers there's not that want to go there anymore you have to direct that to yeah I am I am she was just so that's all all right well thank thank you very much for what's the answer to the question I I can't we'd have to ask Mountain Lakes about what's happening at their District I I can't answer do your board representative know that um we would have to address your question to the Mountain Lakes Board of Education versus our Board of Education she she serves on the Mountain Lakes board of education but you should address the questions to their board and their board president who would I would think answer appropriately she our board our board representative cannot speak on behalf of the m lak board of education she's our representative to the board and we appoint her there to act on her behalf oh I just thought that was a that was an open knowledge but she can't technically I mean if it's a real simple like number thing or you know factual thing that everyone knows that's great but you know but an opinion like that you or a question of that a I just want to say yes they they have a theyve enroll hands they've hired enroll hands to help Bo their budget boost their tuition uh anyone else I saw here yes yes Jonathan Lavar 28 Meadowbrook Road I was on the board here for 4 years and I was on Mountain Lakes board of Education in 2022 and they had an actual paid for marketing campaign specifically to get folks to attend Mountain Lakes High School so they would send Facebook ads and other Social Media stuff and uh yeah so the answer is yes thank you Mr yes thank thank you for your patience with me Tucker glav and powerville 6 167 powerville um I just wanted to conclude with I don't know who the negotiators are but please be very very aware that it is a completely financially mismanaged organization the current superintendent is close friend very good guy former superintendent who was there for a couple years and the long-term superintendent who was fired have never made the financial cuts that they've needed they've never balance their budgets they just keep spending spending spending so whoever's negotiating here needs to clearly understand that that as I said the most important thing that Mr Chen said was you have no control over their cost and that's 10 years coming up to now and going forward and that's what's brought them to the situation of looking at your board and and and and our town to help them balance their budget and I can tell you this if you do it one year it'll never happen the next year because they've never done it they just keep adding adding adding so look under the hood look what they've done and I mean over the past 5 to 10 years it's gotten them into this situation because that's what you need to do as negotiators if you want to be substanti sub substantive if you want to help this down to the best of your abilities that's what you need to do you can't go in there blindfolded not knowing what they're doing and they are never balance their budgets thank thank you very much thank you and yeah I'm sorry I just want to say a couple my five minutes ran out before but I will say this if they do want to go to their tuition rate and don't use the state tuition rate which we used back in 2013 tell them again I'm sure you do that we want equal representation if we're going to pay that bill we have to have equ if they won't there's no way we can do it Mr Lavar just prove my point he's 100% right they have a great marketing campaign for outside students again they forget that they're a public school district they're always looking for outside funding sources and to what Mr glavin had said and this I promise this will be the last thing I say is that they did have a woman in there that came in and said this is all wrong and I was on the board when she was there K and she's actually in East Handover now and they love her there this is all wrong you know what they did they got rid of her because she exposed it all wind up going to the Attorney General's office and what do they do instead of fixing the problem they got rid of her and that that's honestly I'll say so just think of that when you talking it's a public school district and you guys have and girls have a thank this job so uh good luck to this but botin Township comes first for you please don't let them bully you into anything thank you thank you is there anyone else yes yes Francis int um I taught Mr glavin son and your daughter Mr CIO and s and Hermes I was a teacher in M Lakes High School for 6 years I just wanted to make this comment I know it's getting late but um Mount Lakes is a very special high school with a lot of great students and families and excellent academic and curricular reputation that's quite frankly hasn't declined I mean I think that the perception of it has declined I think that the reality is that there's certainly areas for improvement but it's an excellent high school and one of the things that makes it special is definitely that you do get the ability to have high level AP classes with a small class right so I just would caution you know there's In classical literature there's this idea of a pic Victory where you defeat your you you chop up all your army men to win the battle right and I I just think that our towns are so tightly connected that I think we should have Financial scrutiny for example declining Lake Drive enrollments and to open up the books on financial mismanagement but at the same time to keep keep in mind that the goal should be to work together to maintain the excellent academic programs and relation ships we have with Mountain Lakes High School um our salutatorian and valid dictorian last year were Bo Township kids um I can testify to the passion and dedication of the staff over there in educating our children here at RVs I hope my own kids will by the time they get Toth grade will be able to go to m Lakes High School so I just think that I completely agree with some of the comments about opening up the books and trying to figure out what's the best way to manage working with them to manage the expenditures but I think it should be a collaborative Endeavor so that we all rise and fall together because I think it would be very costly to consider I don't want to say blowing up the relationship but the the programs over there are very important to to fund um within a reasonable bounds thank you very much and is there anyone else from the public that wishes to address the board one two uh I guess we'll go since Mr shio was there twice we'll go there and we'll come back to you all right Rock um so the the letter set up what seemed to be a very contentious uh disagreement between both towns and um and also I think made this board look a little bit more uh well I don't know just outmatched right and and and so in my comments on Facebook I I did give the benefit of the doubt on a few things and and I do appreciate apprciate uh you know fighting to cut spending or or or even just maintain spending so that we don't have these ridiculous uh tax increases um but I I feel I I I want to emphasize again that we need to um I I think be more open presentations like this I think are are much more helpful um I think the comments from the public have been you know greatly appreciated and very educational so I personally am walking out of this room um actually and even after my conversations with some of the people in Mount Lakes I went to their meeting on Monday uh you know feeling a little bit more strongly about the boot and Township case so you know I that's that's certainly changing um and then my other thing is uh related to the referendum and and the other stuff which I think is going to be later for for comment or yeah yes okay tonight yes I I can comment on that now or going way opena so okay thank thank you very much for that we appreciate that and we appreciate all your comments uh we had another question over here as long as there's no one else before sorry this is why my wife told me not to come here tonight me not to come here I do want to make one thing very clear um and I obviously I'm dressing the board but I'm going to dress the M lak's teacher here it's the teachers are amazing the administration's amazing any comment I made here is absolutely not against and they know that for my time there on the board it's clearly the board that's the problem over there when we hired some people I was there you know and I asked somebody why they're coming here from a great School District you know what they said to me it's like coming to the Yankees I'm a Yankee fan so I appreciated that but think about that they're like you going to Mount Lake it's like going to the Yankees over the last couple years years more teachers are getting leaving there not because of the administration not it's because of the board so your fight here with for us is with the board not with the teachers not with the administration which I think are fantastic and listen the reason why I moved here I moved up here in 2000 because and I was a cop in Bluefield I just wanted to get my kids into a so-called private school and when I heard they were going to Mountain Lakes High School and and RVs had small classes I went to Catholic school that was what I was all about so we need to keep that but giving them what they want we would not have that here but just to I want to make that clear the teachers and you know staff there and I promise you I will not get up again thank you very much U would anyone else like to address the board on agenda items at this time he if not we'll close the first public session I did Stick Over okay we're good [Music] they had two meetings one was January 4th and I want to thank members of the community for attending questions regarding the tuition agreement distri uh and I'd like to thank their board for addressing a lot of those questions um at the high school they currently Midway through the year um they're in marking period three now grades come out this Friday um Mountain Lakes High School robotics team qualified for state finals um their Deca Club had great success and we have I think 24 students moving on to the state conference um just in small news the winter formal is this Friday all high school students are invited and no outside guests $30 and they bowling this weend um the big highlight was at the last meeting um the uh they presented their governor educator of the Year award um it's a formal state run program um it's part of the 5year Strategic plan to embed broader teacher and staff recognition that very proud of of the um of their staff the Excellence in their staff um they had one award for the Educational Service professional which went to Mountain L high school counselor Mrs Sullivan who's credited for taking on a lot of the responsibility after the college and career counselor um was position was cut last year um and teacher Mrs Krauss who is recognized for her passion for in math and for helping students Excel and Thrive down the classroom um regarding their superintendent update tonight was um a chance for 6:30 they had a meeting for public and Community input um in uh so right now they're currently screening applications in February and it's all being helped by charene Peterson she's helping run the process from New Jersey school boards um in February they'll be doing candidate interviews in March there will be C candidate selection negotiations and they hope in March 2024 coming up that there'll be an appointment for um of a selected candidate and they will start um just on another note I want to thank Angela Sai um she extended an invitation to Rockway Valley School theater students to come to Mountain Lakes High School um to join Brier cliff and wildwood and high school all all theater departments got together to um listen to an hourong talk with uh Tony two time Tony Award winner Christian Boral and it was a fantastic presentation um and it was just a great way to have our communities come together um so we will'll be hosting uh or we'll be um showing Mary Poppins on March 22nd through the 24th and the high school is going to be doing something rotten it's um a hilarious musical about Shakespeare February 29th through March second um I also want to give a huge shout out to the Mountain Lakes Administration I did this at their meeting as well but they had um for the first time that I can remember for my Youngy student who is now in e8th grade they had an open house an e8th grade open house that invited all the um rer cliff and um RBS kids too but to the high school and it was fantastic it was like walking literally walking through their program and studies they had us break up into small groups with our kids and you went you met you went through the whole block schedule including lunch which was at the cafeteria and they had all kids with their clubs there that you could talk to and so you learned my daughter described it as it was like playing a video game where you can figure out how you can level up like you're getting all the clues you know they talked about each program this is where you start next year if you were you know this is how you would make honors and if you want we have all these AP options for you I mean it was fantastic um so kudos to Mr stles and his team and pure leaders Mr Fusco Mr Henry Mrs Corti like everybody was there and uh a lot of teachers gave up a lot of time and it was it was fantastic um and uh just a few few dates Mountain Le Ed Foundation has their Gala April 27th I think previously I might have said it was a 29th it's a Havana Nights theme um and um a lot of people participate in their annual bake sale they raised $42,000 through that big sale and the backst school supplies that they do was $3,100 which I think is kind of a great program um something maybe RVs could do and uh I think that's a WRA on Facebook thank you this is proba not working [Music] right okay can you hear me okay thank you that brings us to the New Jersey school boards Association um pleas mic yeah just very briefly uh the njsba held their new board member orientation weekend uh this past weekend in the crown PL princ Conference Center uh where new board members learned how to efficiently effectively fulfill their responsibilities attending large and small group sessions on topics of school law policy the school act pleas to improve student achievement School Finance Labor Relations the board superintendent relationship and AD um this training is required for new school members then the first dat of service and the njsb NJ SBA will holding the 2nd again orientation Fe 23 25 and also bring the program that concludes the report thank you very much and that brings us to that brings us to the Morris County School boards Association next meeting is on Thursday February 8th there will be table style virtual meeting the topics will include pilot programs new and effective programs and is your board this and schools imp legislation great thank you very much that brings us to the Education Services Commission of Morris County I did attend their meeting on January 10th um mostly routine business what uh twice a year they have the representative assembly meet uh and approve their uh tuition rates the representative assembly for the Educational Services Commission is basically comprised of every school district in Mars County and a few others beyond that that they service they provide shared services to all the school districts in Mars County it's a statutory um uh statutory commission that all counties in New Jersey create these commissions for shared services in each of their counties but they also do shared services uh and um uh Cooperative bid contracts for districts with rate as well that hander C instuction so uh for example the Services Commission has run um a special needs school over in Mars Township they used to have two schools they did combine down to one they also share bus services if a district suddenly need has a need for a bus or a bus route or uh you know things change or especially in special education uh you could have students move into a district and need bus and services and they they provide many many shared services that districts can't get right away uh and one item of note was Dr gardi who is the superintendent of the Education Services Commission his contract was renewed from January 1st of this year through June 30th of 2028 and with that we'll go to the bo Township special education parent advisory [Music] grou there are many interesting and engaging events staging Place uh the next is going to take place on January 30th and it's going to be presentation titled behavior management and Interventional strategy anyone interested in attending the presentation should go to prop United Methodist church located at4 48 Valley Road the presentation will be at 7:30 p.m. in the month of February there will be additional presentations I on February 6 at noon in M High School there will be there will be a presentation on Innovative programs and special ucation the presentation is going to be delivered by the Ark of New Jersey which is a uh developmental disabilities an group anyone is welcome to attend on the same date February 6 and this time at 7:30 p.m. c will presentation titled transitioning to M High School the presentation will take place at the RO church located in countship and the last update from CAC includes the roll out of a parent survey this was effectively done this past Monday the survey will be completed by C members and its results will be shared with the community the goal of this survey is to valuable input from the parents and to materialize it into concrete goals and objectives that will guide us towards positive changes in policies practices programs and services surrounding this special ucation great thank you very much that brings us to the Bon Township Education Foundation quick update speak um as I as always we thank the Ed foundation for the many enrichment opportunities and classes that they have for our students so the four kids classes have just commenced uh this past week uh a couple things to note um February 25th there's a bowling event that they have um arranged register teams for on their website volleyball for 6th through 8th graders uh February 5th through March 1st and the spring News school is Mary poins Jr will be on March 22nd through the 24th that my report great thank you and that brings us to the Rockway Valley Home School Association so HSA was unable to meet due to weather so the important thing is next week they have a talent show on Friday February 2nd at 6:30 p.m. that's it was it Tuesday February 2nd 6:30 p.m. okay thank you and that brings us to the township of bton okay the township held is Public Presentation for the renovation and addition to the municipal building and police headquarters on Monday night the Public Presentation is available on the township website public comment on the project will be accepted until February 1st there will be a gas main extension on Old Denville Road from the torn Road approximately 2,000 ft easterly towards powerville Road the construction is scheduled to begin on or for about February 5th and should be completed within 10 to 14 days the road will be completely closed to through traffic from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. except that school buses and emergency vehicles may pass the school day work will begin at 8:30 a.m. to allow the morning buses to avoid construction delays The Detour will be through the torn County Park and a reminder that dog licenses must be renewed no later than January 31st residents are now able to renew their dog licenses online and pay by credit card and you can see details on the Putin Township website under animal license and that's all thank you very much and that lastly brings us to the boot township Green Team okay the green Club met on January 5th and here takeway from this session we discussed the possibility of organizing another green Fair this year as well as taking steps in of meeting the requirements associated with attaining the silver status on our sustainable certif Jersey certification um we also discussed two possible cleanup projects for this year those projects will include collecting L alongside roads and a river clean up consisting of cleaning out trash from the bottom of our River using Bo more details will follow thank you that brings us to facilities Transportation I don't believe we had any committee meeting since our last meeting actually I had one more thing I wanted to say on oh sure absolutely sure not sure why notes it came up in discussion um because we had U Bo Township called for a half day when Mountain Lakes did not and what happened was that um our busing took place at 12:30 so they had to allow Mountain Lakes had to let Bo Township students leave early on the at the on the 12 so Bo and Township students were dismissed early at 12:34 um while the rest of the school day went on that um led to like less than ideal you don't want our kids missing school I'm sure the kids themselves were probably happy to go home early the ones that were on the bus but that you know but um it Mr featherman said that had he known about the busing situation he would probably would have made a different call so I think that they'll be happened in the past so a crazy explanation right I actually emailed him myself on that behalf because I thought first of all Mountain laks was the only District in Mars County not to call an early dismissal right um I understand maybe the roads were fine but to segregate and he didn't like the word segregate that I used in my email but to segregate out the boot and Township bus students um and this isn't just me I was hearing this also from others but to segregate out segregate out Boot and Township bus students can leave early so you have students sitting side by side in the class oh you Bo Township bus oh you can leave oh you have a car but oh you know but the rest are going to say and my question back to him was if the sidewalks were slippery in Mountain Lakes or if the power was out in a certain section of Mountain Lakes would he have kept Boot and Township students in school and dismissed Mountain Lakes it's completely fair so there is and he wasn't very nice and he's emailed back to me but regardless so hopefully that will happen again thir yeah it was just and had it been like half of Mars County was in or out but when he was the only District to stand hard when he had a good reason to close half day with Bo Town J busing soir to say there's no coordination between administrations and districts no no there was there was absolutely our superintendent was on the phone with him they talk in the morning he was aware of those issues and and actually Mr featherman told me to go back to my BA and discuss our busing system because that's the problem but I really don't think that was that was it at all should be discussed in facilities of Transportation thank thank you very much for your additional comment your comments now move on to finance committee and Mr Johnson will give a oh so the finance committee met several times com in the last month the topics of which are the Mountain Lakes Bo and Township and receive as you can imagine which is the presentation here we reviewed the information that was sent to us from M Lake and we'll probably continue to meet on that in the future but those the top main topics that we discuss thank [Music] you with that we will reach the finance motions so may have a motion for my to approve Finance motions 1 through 5 please is there a second second any questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of Finance motions 1 through 5 all those in favor say I anyone oppos say no any extensions thank you and that brings us to Personnel uh the Personnel committee has not met since the last meeting um and as an assign the committee assignments are are finished I had a couple more phone calls and people to talk to before finalizing those they'll be virtually the same as they were before but had a few things to work out with some folks before finalizing that so but there were the personel committee did not meet um since the last meeting with that may a motion for personal motions one and two please is there a second second are there any questions comments or discussion if not the questions on the adoption of personal motions one and two this is a roll call this is Bardock yes Mr branner yes Mrs Cabana yes Mr Chen yes Mrs hermy yes Mr Johnson yes Mrs mcde yes Mr Mill yes Mrs no motion carried okay thank you the next it on the agenda is program motions one through two the program curriculum committee has not met since the last meeting as well but the program motion one was discussed at a prior program curriculum committee and with that may have a motion for program motions one and two please is there a second second are there any questions comments or discussion okay if not the question is on the adoption of program motions one and two all those in favor say I anyone oppos say no any exensions that brings us to policy I don't believe the policy committee has met since the last as well and there are no policy motions so that brings us to open session number two the second public comment period will be open any topic please be mindful that public comment periods are available to enable the public to get comments and feedback to the board personal matters of day-to-day operations are not appropriate subjects for board meetings these can always be most effectively resolve with the appropriate staff members or administrators according to the chain of command concept questions may be directed to the appropriate School Personnel or board through email please state your name and address for the record and all comments are limited to 5 minutes uh please you know ask all your questions and make all your comments and try to address them uh with that would anyone like to address the board on any matter yes hopus to drive uh regarding the referendum I believe the language for the vote was voted in at the last meeting correct so this this may be a day late but um is there any possibility of or or has has any thought been given to prioritizing the projects within the referendum and possibly voting on those instead of doing like an All or Nothing vote um to look at prioritizing certain projects um certainly AC certainly fixing the roof um you know just because it it's a large chunk for I think the CH to to adest uh sure we're all hoping to get a good education from uh the new page which by the way there's a link in the the Board of Education side that doesn't have any update at all and yet and and the actual link and the information is on the school website so that should probably be updated but uh it's you know I would I don't know if we can change the language at some point or maybe consider doing that or maybe you can comment on why it has to be in all nothing um vote um I guess I could speak to there there are possibilities to stack um referend of motions you know to to do that um but based on our discussions in uh of our board in committees uh we decided that would be one question um I I do not know the answer whether you can change it at this point or not but but we did have discussions about stacking questions um you know having multiple questions than we decided on one question and can answer the question on the answer on that is no you had that that limit prior to the March 12th referendum date to set that resolution in place and that has been approved it's already at the County uh clerk's office yes so it's already set in motion okay thank you that's the answer one and I think I think the other item can you know we you know the folks are here you know that can address the issue that you mentioned thank you and is there anyone else address the word on any matter yes hi Tim mare 134 Kingsman um also on the referendum um I was supposed to be on u c worker Duty back in December for the Montville referendum and I got Co so I missed it but uh their referendum failed they had two questions I think the second one could only work if the first one passed but neither one of them passed and I guess my question is were you aware and do you have any insight as to why theirs didn't pass they have you know sort of growing population um grow you know it seems like they have certainly access to more funds possibly um you know and they definitely have bigger enrollment than they've had in the past so I was I was surprised was it purely just we didn't want our taxes to go up that much or were there other things and I guess there's a followup to that if our referendum doesn't pass are there still ways that our school can do some of these improvements that you've talked about okay thank you for both questions U regarding monville I'm not I you know I I can say unfortunately I did not you know uh keep up with what was happening there in particular but I know Montville Township is a very different School District than botin Township it's a k through 12 and it's quite quite a large school district at that so I but I can't really speak to what happened you know as far as whether why it failed or did not you know each M municipality has its own unique issues so you know so I really couldn't speak to that and as far as let's [Music] see yeah if it if it fails I mean we we do have things that need to get done you know we will'll have to find a way to get them done you know there there are many different ways to handle that I mean we do we do put Capital reserves away for for your repairs but these are large repairs that need to be done um so you we would hope that nothing happens in the intrum if if um you know if a boiler goes at some some point we do have to be concerned about that um but we would have to go back and re-evaluate try to find out what happened and you know hopefully get feedback along the way from from you all thank you all for you know providing your feedback to us we welcome your feedback so as we go along and we're providing information to you uh we're I I believe we're gearing up to you know start giving you lots of information on the referendum so uh I would encourage you if you have any questions or comments about the referendum as we roll out information please ask them so we can understand any concerns that you do have and we'll try we'll try the best we can to answer that that helps but yeah we we would just have to you know regroup and and and you know think you know plan ahead you know because there are certain things we have to do regardless that helps um yes uh just a few questions is will this presentation that we discussed earlier um the presentation with the Mountain Lakes is this available to the public and it will be posted on our website tomorrow it will be okay yeah um and I I might have missed it has there been a board of ed meeting or presentation and there was on on the referendum there was an original one that was back in the fall has there been a second one no there has not um the the the goal is in the next two months to provide as you know in the next two months we're accumulating information and we're trying to roll out information to the community at from this point forward in the next two months uh closer to the referendum so we did set up a special website for it where where there's an email on there for questions that you may have then if multiple questions come in with the same uh you know theme uh the goal is to try to put out frequently asked questions for for those things if if there's just individual questions that you have you know hopefully that'll be answered through that too or you know up to us um so no presentation yeah we're we're planning some yeah we're planning some forms I'm not sure one two two two a couple we'll be on they'll be on the yeah two forms so we hope to advertise those forms once they're the dates are established so that you can come to the school the uh the architect and other professionals will be there to answer the questions that you know we cannot because we're not those people but they will have the specific information for you hopefully and if not you know you know they'll take your questions and hopefully answer them at a later time so my last comment is you heard I was a mountain lake resident for 10 years and was there during the referendum um I will say the ability of this board to communicate to the residents is going to be absolutely critical to doing what this gentleman is talking about and that is getting your vote your yes vote secondly Mountain Lakes passed a$7 million referendum the head of the referendum on the board at the time admitted that they were only going to be able to deliver 60% of what they actually told the public they were going to get that's in the record if you go back I know cuz I asked the question so they voted in a $17 million referendum but they only delivered 60% of what they told the public they were going to get don't allow that to happen because it'll ruin your reputation as a board and the last thing I'll tell you is this referendum you were talking about and I came to the original presentation is a lot of bricks and Mort it's a roof it's an hmac system it's a canopy outside it's it's a storage unit in the back those are probably the biggest things you're talking about to be to be had I will tell you this if you're going to ask this town to spend $15 million they're going to be totally disappointed when you finish and they come in here and they can't see the roof they can't see the storage unit they'll only see that canopy they might feel cool air but if it's in the winter they won't when they see rooms like this never changed and you spend $15 million when they see hallways not being used creatively in different ways and I'm talking about pennies not hundreds and thousands of dollars but you need to be creative about what you're going to deliver so that the residents look at you and say wow you gave us something new not just a roof and HVAC and other things we went to pic Technical Institute they had a lot of money but they did a lot of cool things and we went and looked at them to find little things that we could do that we really additive to the teachers experience and to the students experience okay and I just encourage you please do those things because if after $15 million we walk back into a room like this it's going to be really disappointing because technology is what you need bricks and mortar is not what you need you need technology for your teachers and for your students you should be spending an exorbitant amount of money on technology because that's the next 10 to 20 years so please consider that thank thank you very very much for your comments really appreciate that and is there anyone else in the public yes I just something I to say you reminded me the lights outside at night when we come in here for these are terrible there's no lights there are no lights so um spend the $3 of your 15 million if you get it on lights thank you very much appreciate that and yes hi Heather lar me um I just wanted to say in the last uh session last bit that you talked about um I heard so many really positive things and I just wanted to celebrate a little bit of that like the whole um stuff with the mount Lakes High School how they have the open house I always kind of just thought oh it was Co we missed it or something or maybe I was asleep at the wheel or something you saying it was the first year that that happened what a win um you know I wonder you know hypothetically if there this if this is an effort to be more more inclusive as a result of you know stuff fine you know like sometimes you know you you kick kick a can and dust goes up and like and and it's actually a positive thing that's a terrible analogy but like maybe there's a good thing that can come from this as well right and and God bless Angela Sai who did with the theater stuff she is a real leader in terms of inclusion over in Mount laks and um and just bringing communities together and I I just wanted to say that out loud and it's so nice to hear that reported back to us um I love cpeg oh my God ceg mountain lake ceg is bringing us together like with all their different events and include including us in various ways what a win that is and then finally um that's all my win celebrations I I don't want to take a lot of time that was about a minute and a half and then the last question was um uh not to the board but the gas main extension is happening on Old DeVille Road is that correct okay thank you so much yes thank you just declared by the open house was that the eighth grade open house that you yes so high school had an open house for incoming eighth graders and I happen to have an eighth grader so I did attend that event and it was an amazing event um I have to say they um had everyone come into the auditorium at first and had an introduction by Mr surles and and Mr melli and then they handed out folders of different colors to divide the group up randomly and had a schedule where you could go meet uh teachers from each area of uh learning which was amazing guess we got to meet all these teachers the kids were carrying around their folders and and really having a great time with their friends and sitting and listening and the par you know the parents as well so uh it was actually a great event I I did inquire at the end and I think it was the first year they they had it and I I I commended them I said this was a really great event you know to bring our kids here and um they did they just did an amazing job so if that's you leving up thank question hi I'm Chris Johnson I live on two Road and this is my first meeting actually I I came because I wanted to hear about the referendum I wasn't as concerned about the thing with Mountain Lakes but I'm quite shocked that not well I'm not shocked I'm sure people don't balance their budget over there because they money um but I am a a resident since 2000 I have no children um I don't know anything about the school and if you want really the whole Township is putting out $25 million between the township building and this building this building should get the $25 million as far far as I'm concerned because I have a teaching background but I know nothing about the programs here and it would be really beho you to support what your teachers are doing and bring them in here MH bring them in here and tell us and then tell us why you want our money bring your kids in here invite me I don't really know if I got a letter because I'm not like I don't know I'm not even looking for the letter because I don't have kids in the I don't have children right so like if you really want the people who don't have kids to support this me or the people who are you know their kids moved on the mountain LS we need to know what you're doing here right and the best way to do is to Showcase your teachers and showcase your showcase your children just like this but invite us bring give us some cookies bring us in let us see your kids bring them up I mean I don't know if you're doing that but as a non-parent in the in this Township I never saw it it's never been in my doorstep so um walking in the hallway I'm like jeez this is pretty nice I see some really great work here the teachers the kids amazing if it's a if you're telling me that I'm spending for a roof are you going to put are you going to put some solar panels on that roof I don't know it would be really a cool thing if the Green Team said hey let's put the solar panels on the roof I would be really excited about a roof with full pant I'm not excited about a roof I don't want I don't know where the roof leaks are you didn't send me any pictures of roofs are leaking I'm just taking your word word for that right I want to see water on the floor you fix theb no but I'm saying just because it's time for a new roof this may not be the time for a new roof if but I don't know that because there's no communication I don't think I got that letter to be honest with you I have to go back and look cuz I think that would have caught my attention I look you know I mean I'm getting this on the out like the end here but $25 million this little Township has going to be putting out okay so I can speak to the the you know the School portion of that and the referend the referendum uh currently the only reason that the there is public attention is because there's preliminary steps that we have to take in order to have make the referendum happen one of them was last August where we just had to approve an application you just but and and now the the next two months is when that information will be rolled out and we have efforts to reach everyone in the community not just our school Community but everyone so as we communicate electronically we use the school resources of course but we also communicate with the temp booten Township and use their electronic newsletter and now of course there may be people that you know we certainly have residents that are you know not on either of those electronic communications we all there was also planned mailings so that when those meetings are coming up you will find out about them you will be told how to get that information so we're at the you know even though everyone knows about the referendum it's it's only because we had to take preliminary steps to get to where we are now that information is going to be rolling out in the next two months a lot so you should be reached you know hopefully some way if you don't please come back and let us know if you were not reached but what we hope we're going to reach everyone in our community whether it's the school Community or our extended community that doesn't do not have children in the school so so please come back you know if you know if you get to the voting booth and you didn't get any communication please tell us or before you get there please tell us um and the second oh the second thing is roof so I we have had discussions about solar panels on our roofs over the many years on and off you know when that topic has come up uh and we have uh there there are issues you know you know you have to have a certain type of roof to make that happen it also there are certainly upfront costs as there always are for environmentally friendly things you have upfront cost hopefully in the long run Rec cover costs but uh our school was not a good candidate you know because of the types of roofs that we have to to install solar CS but we did actually consider that as an option uh and thank you and lastly I can I can attest that over the years if you you know you wouldn't see this but if you had children in the school there were buckets in our gymnasium with water coming down you know like you got to kind you got to kind of show us who Dar here but but but I will say that you know you know we're at the beginning stages of actually communicating to our to everyone in the town about what the referendum is we're just not there yet you like I said the reason why you know about the referendum is because there's preliminary steps we have to do we have to apply to the state we have to submit like piles of applications to the state and they have to go through those and approve them and they they actually when they do that process they determine how much money from New Jersey we can get the the benefit of doing a referendum is that there are many projects that qualify for State funding so if we try desperately to put aside money every year for our Capital reserves and put it away that's 100% of the tax dollars coming out of your pockets here in Township if you um apply for if you do a referendum you qualify for reimbursement for many of the projects up to 40% so it's still your tax money but if you don't use the money that's going into the state someone else will so why not take that you know take advantage of that money that's there so that we can subsidize our our improvements and and not take the money 100% out of your pocket does that make sense and the timing of the referendum I know may be interesting but typically you a school district wouldn't have B bonds out there you know at more than one set of bonds out there at the same time so we just retired bonds for the addition that was put on the school 20 some odd years ago and that's the time when the school district started evaluating their facilities you know outright to see what needs to be done because you so Tech in theory your tax bill went down when those Bonds were paid off you know to the extent that you know the voters approved that referendum 207 years ago and this referendum if it's approved would make your taxes go back up again but by you know a similar amount probably um so the benefit though is that if we you know look at capital projects that can be done through a referendum the benefit is that we get subsidized up to 40% for many of those projects and it's benefit to us and you know we want to look out you know to save your tax dollars if we just paid for everything out of our current reserves it would be it would be hard and and we would be paying 100% of your local tax dollars okay if that makes sense that does make sense okay well thank you very much for your comments over much appreciation is there anyone else that's okay okay I I realize it's get going late uh three things so one I'm seeing a a theme of wanting more information right in general so I would encourage to uh continue to keep us informed and maybe doing a little bit better job than what we've seen um in in the last year uh second the if from what I remember the the referendum language at least for my perception seem to be broad so I'm wondering if as public comment and information uh as information comes out and the public is commenting um is there an ability to change what is in the referendum to allow for you know eliminating of of a Project based off of the priority that the public is uh giving it and then lastly and I think this one's going to be the the least popular um sidewalks um I I know that there's a program through the state that provides for you know safe uh schools and and children to be able to walk to school um and I believe that one of those programs even fun up to 100% of the cost of the sidewalk has that been a consideration ever can that become a at least a feasibility study or something for the future let me ask let me see one was the questions to be modified in the referend and sidewalks the first thing was oh the first one was just a comment just saying we want more information um I can ask you the def to Mr Murray on the question about whether the the referendum question you know I'll that the the original question was set up it was a broad case but if you have project changes they can only be done within the scope of the applications that went down to the state for example if you're doing a roof you can't eliminate the roof and do an athletic field has to be within the scho that's why it's broad enough so that if one of the projects within that bigger project comes in a little bit different still have the funds to maybe if another one came in over right there's a cap there's a cost a cap on the cost but could you eliminate a project not change a project saying eliminate one if if the public says you know what we don't want to spend $5 million on this well right now the question is set because by law we had to get that question question but the well that's the question so in the question it's what you're going to spend the projects for right so you're going to the voters the voter the voters get the information from us they vote on what that question is so from the downside could be is you you you told us we're going to vote on a roof and now you're not doing a roof so once you're once the board commits that 100% and those questions are set that's what you're you know we're committed to going to the voters now with those questions so that cannot be modified okay okay and your question about sidewalks I'm I'm I'm going to surmise that that's going to be a municipality question for the township committee not the school uh for in SL sidewalks you know out off the school grounds is what I'm gathering your your mentioning there's a the whole line of information out there on courtesy busing and sidewalks that that can be intriguing to review but um I would venture to say that I I don't think botin Township has you know the the municipality has is looking into sidewalks other than you know very local neighborhoods if there are any I don't even think there are in the local neighborhoods but that would be a question best directed to the township committee if they were considering that that wouldn't be be in the the realm of the school board you know sidewalks off site that makes sense thank and thank you for the questions uh are there any other questions or comments on any topic at this point I just want to reiterate sure yes um let's honor the teachers and the kids you bring the teachers and the kids in the parents will been more excited the people will be more excited just honor them before you even start your referendum get them excited about their kids and their teachers the teachers are holding the forecast and yeah you want a newon group but if you don't have any good teachers to honor them honor your teachers and your kids so that people want to get their money to you well thank you very much I will say we have excellent teachers in the district and and you know appreciate the comments know about it yes absolutely I agree they are they are they anyone that has children in the school knows that we have excellent teachers here and with that we will move into Old business Clos move into Old business is there any old business to come before the board is there any new business to come before the board I just wanted to say really happy to be here in my second Bo meeting it's very uh inspiring to see so many people come out and ask few questions the whole thing so I thought this great meeting and I hope everyone is equally detailed going forward thank you very much I would love if we could work with um I'm coming up with better microphone setup better microphone setup oh thank you can't hear you thank youate that just batteries thank you I think we just had some battery issues multile we can do that sure we can figure that out thank you okay and with that before we are going to go into close session but with that I would like to thank you all for coming to our meeting and and expressing your comments and concerns and asking your questions and you know referendum keep an eye out on their website and you will be you we hope we will communicate with you in many ways between now and the referendum but thank you very much for coming to our meeting and you again thank you the topic of discussion is the negotiations okayy at this time we uh we have returned to open session it is 11 11 p.m. and there is no other board action may have a motion to adjourn is there a second all those in favor say I I thank you very much for coming have a great evening