##VIDEO ID:k4AhrDL27x4## hi good evening welcome everybody thank you for coming out tonight to the calwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting tonight Monday October 21st 2024 tonight the board met an executive session at 6: PM in the James Caldwell High School room 105 the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Personnel litigation miscellaneous and old business matters that meeting had been advertised and is in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 colon 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law the matters discussed will be made public when confidentiality is no longer required and formal action pursuant to said discussion shall take place only at a meeting to which the public has been invited tonight the public conference meeting forgive our tardiness is happening at 7:07 p.m. here in the James calwell high school cafeteria the Board of Education meeting is being streamed live but all Community questions and comments are welcomed here in person only the calwell West calwell Board of Education public conference meeting is also in compliance with the open public meeting act and njsa 10 4-6 also known as the Sunshine Law notices have been sent to the progress in calwell New Jersey The Star Ledger in Newark New Jersey and tap into West Essex notices have also been posted at the Board of Education business office and the Harrison School building Grey Street West Caldwell and have been delivered to the clerks of the burrow of Caldwell and West Caldwell for posting Brian can you please take the row yes uh m Miss D Martini here miss lindie Jefferson here Miss Mack here Mr dimola here miss Gro here so we have five voting members present we have a quum great can everybody rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Brian are there any Communications for the board this evening there were none okay great so we're going to move to the superintendent report thank you board president I'd like to invite Josiah saki up to get voted in he is our student council president for the high school jiah come right over come over here buddy all right okay all right so what I'm gonna have you do is you and then I'm have you I Josiah Zaki do Solly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Josiah Zaki do solemly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law to be the student representative of the cwell West cwell Board of Education and that I will Faithfully and justly perform all the duties according to the best of my ability so help me God great all right congratulations and just just wait one second take a picture we'll take a quick picture okay good thank you we're so excited the high school sent us a bunch of different Representatives is always here so it's awesome [Applause] thank uh now I'd like to welcome are two house leaders Brandon Keenan and Leo Goodwin um Brandon is from the house of responsibility and Leo is from the house of endurance if you guys could come up to the microphone tell all the great stuff at the middle school that's Landon righton Leo that's Leo that's Leo you look so much like Landon Kelly oh my goodness right I'm not crazy Leo right I'm like Dr kin I think that's Landon oh my goodness okay sorry Brandon go ahead you're up it's up okay it should be hi everyone my name is Brandon Keenan and I'm a house leader for the house of responsibility I would like to thank Dr Conlin and the board of education for inviting us to speak at this meeting the first thing I want to talk about is the student council elections recently all advisory classes shared several videos created by the candidates for student council and all students voted for who they believe should represent our school ultimately student class president Jake kho vice president William Balman secretary Vivian Iverson Treasurer Matt manano and Communications officer Johnny kordowski will be representing our school for the 2024 2025 school year the next thing I would like to talk about is the ultimate football tournament our first inter mural house tournament this school year was The Ultimate football tournament each house had five members represent our house in after school in Ultimate football tournament after several close games responsibility took the win moving them to first place in the house tournament our next intermural tournament will be handball and will take place in November the last thing I would like to talk about is one of the assemblies we had recently in the beginning of of October students were gathered in the auditorium as motivational speaker Dr Paul Stewart spoke on the topic of anti-bullying and disability awareness in the first four years of Dr Paul's child childhood he was unable to walk and had to learn how to walk again Dr Paul shared various stories in which he was bullied for his disability and had many struggles this was an inspirational assembly that helped students recognize and appreciate differences that people have hi my name is Leo Gooden I'm the house leader from endurance um one of the things I'll be talking about is sorting day on the second Friday of the school year we announced the houses and and the new six graders would be be would be putting would be getting put into to achieve this all house leaders gathered with their houses in the gym and cheered in the new sixth graders we followed that up with a round of musical chairs that we the house leaders participated in and as well as some games for the sixth and seventh graters as well overall is a great end of the week for the new sixth graders then $5 Friday last Friday we asked students and staff to bring in $5 to help out in Need for people who suffered from the Hurricanes the house that most students participated in won a golden ticket to re-enter the house competition of their choice we collected up to $800 and the house of respect won the golden ticket the food drive each year our our school district collects food items to help stock the food pantry different schools are assigned different items to collect each year this year the middle school is in charge of collecting corn mix salad dressing rice and cookies all donations are due due November 11th and lastly the gcms make a difference field trip the gcms make a difference program is is new this year it is a program that we established to help give students the opportunity to actually make a difference students can sign up to for to any of the four field trips that we have this year one per marking period students that students went on this go students went on the first field trip today to Grover Cleveland Park over 50 students volunteered to help make a difference by partnering up with the go Cleveland Park Conservancy to participate in several projects throughout the park thank you again and Dr Conlin any member and all members of the board for your time and does anyone have any questions I have a question yes what's been your favorite part about being a house leader this year um probably just like being able to like hang out with all like the kids younger than us a what about you Brandon um my favorite part has probably been organizing all the events because in like past years I know some of the other house leaders haven't really been like happy with all the games so like this year we actually get to decide what games we want to play awesome great good job awesome great job guys can I borrow you guys picture [Applause] you ready yeah thank you also always to miss Silverthorn and Miss halus for bringing the kids every single board meting meeting um it's so great we love to hear from them so thank you both very much for that uh now we're going to run the annual fall assessment presentation for the 23 24 school year hopefully it'll be on the screens behind us and people at home will be able to watch it we run it through screen cify so it's always available for the community to watch assessments and our progress toward our fiveyear strategic planning goals for student learning this presentation and slides will be posted on our district website highlights from the 2324 school year include the following we met our grades 1 through six District reading goal 73% of students are reading on or above grade level that's a 23% increase from 2020 on the English language arts Ela New Jersey student learning assessments njsla across all grades we had our highest percentage of passing scores since the pandemic on the math njsla across all grades we had our highest ever percentage of passing scores in 11th and 12th grade we increased by 8% the percentage of students meeting the SAT benchmarks in both math and Ela grade N8 math and grade 10 Ela met our link growth goal of improving 15% from the fall to Spring the first part of our presentation will cover our English language arts Ela performance for the 23 24 school year this table shows how our students in grade 1 for six performed based on their reading levels as you can see we made significant gains in all grades and increase the total percentage of readers honor above grade level in Reading from 61 to 73% meeting our district goal the implementation of multi of multisensory phonic Construction in grades K through three using foundations and phonics first in addition to targeted small group instruction have been successful District initiatives students in grades 3 through five surpassed State averages on njsla are students in grades 4 made significant gains and performed 14% higher than they performed the year prior in third grade our sixth and eighth grade scores improved from the prior spring up 17 and 4% respectively this was our highest ever percentage of students passing in sixth grade our ninth grader set an all-time high on this spring njsla with a 177% improvement from Spring 2023 included in this presentation are data displays illustrating achievement levels with the first three bars in each group representing the percentage of students not yet meet proficiency standards to varying degrees and the last two bars shaded in green representing those that did meet or exceed proficiency standards across all grades 66% of students met or exceeded proficiency standards in the LA last year here's performance across racial subgroups disaggregated by gender and performance of students by program including free or reduced lunch 504 English language learner or ml status special education and general education this data display illustrates performance in specific grade levels over time a particular note our third Sixth and ninth grader spiky performance this past year this shows performance for the same group of students from last year to this year of note is a jump of performance from sixth to seventh grade in ela last year these are our current eighth graders the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment NJ GPA is a required graduation test for all 11th graders 94% of our students met the requirement in ela surpassing the state by 133% this slide shows our NJ GPA passing rates broken down by race data is not displayed where we have less than 10 students in a group for privacy reasons this slide shows our ngj gva passing rates broken down by a program including free or reduced lunch 54 English language learner or ml status special education and general education on the pat preliminary Scholastic aptitude test our high school students continue to outperform the state here are our SAT results for 11th and 12th grade we improve by 8% versus the 2223 school year we outperform the state by 21% we have made tremendous growth and achievement as and Inspire to continuously strengthen our performance our year for strategic planning goals in English language arts are noted here and here some of the ways in which we have and will continue to support students and staff in ela via professional development and resource allocation the second part of our presentation will cover math performance for the 2324 school year all of our elementary students outperform the state between 14 and 19% similar to ELA our fourth grade students made big gains as compared to their performance in third grade increasing the total number of students meeting standard by 14% at the middle school all scores improved from the prior spren and all grades out performed the state seventh and eighth grade demonstrated significant growth as compared to past cohorts with 100% of Algebra 1 eth graders meeting or exceeding proficiency standards in fact this past year 21 20% of our Algebra 1 eighth graders exceeded proficiency standards the AL one group at jchs demonstrated a 20% improvement over the prior year and geometry students outperformed the state by almost 25% 72% of our Junior students met the proficiency requirement for math exceeding the state by 17% this slide shows our math and J GPA passing rates broken down by race and by program we continue to outperform this date on the PSAT for the math sat we saw an increase of 8% in students meeting or exceeding The Benchmark as compared to the 2223 school year these charts mirror those demonstrated for ELA but include 2023 24 math performance stat this chart illustrates student achievement level by grade performance across racial subgroups disaggregated by gender and performance of students by program including free or reduced launch 54 English language learner or ml status special education and general education this data display illustrate performance in specific grade levels over time a particular note our third e and algebra spiky performance this past year this shows performance for the same group of students from last year to this year of note is a jumped performance from 6th to seventh grade in math last year these are our current eighth graders our year for strategic plan planning goals for math are noted here and our PD and resources dedicated to math Improvement are listed on this slot this next part of our presentation will cover our science performance for the 23 24 school year CWC outperform the date across all schools and grades these tests are designed to measure the science standards for students covered that year and those preceding it the link on the slide has more information about this assessment here are science displays illustrating achievement levels performance across racial subgroups disaggregated by gender and performance of students by program including free or reduced launch 504 English language learner or ml status special education and general education here are some of the resources and strategies we are using to support student achievement in science at jchs students also take AP exams in May at the conclusion of their AP class these tests are scored from a 1 to five and a score of a three or better is considered passing by passing an AP class test students can earn college credits for free last year our students match our greatest percentage of students receiving a three or better on their AP test this past school year jchs had its highest number of students take AP courses and test 85% of these students earned a three or higher this is the highest number of students in recent history have taken and passed AP tests at jchs also listed our specific courses where we had the most growth from last year biology Calculus AB Computer Science principles and US History finally these last slides provide information about achievement on assessments for multilingual Learners MLS and students deemed eligible for the dynamic learning assessments each year MLS take the access test to measure their growth in listening reading speaking and writing scores range across six levels this slide shows our student performance in each grade band and across the whole District here is performance across racial subgroups disaggregated by gender and performance of students by program including free or reduced lunch and special education the dynamic learning map DM is administered to students with significant cognitive disabilities for whom State assessments are not appropriate score ranges are referenced here and individual student reports are mailed home to parents and Guardians this concludes our annual fall assessment presentation for the 2023 24 school year please feel free to reach out to your child's principal for any questions we think our students staff Board of and families for all the support that LS to last year's growth and achievement the presentation is going to be posted on the website tomorrow for anyone to look at the links are all live so when you're going through it you can attach all those links if you have any questions please send me an email or reach out to your child's principal if there's any current questions about the presentation we're happy to we have the couple of the people Miss Jacobs and Miss Jones are here tonight to answer any questions that people may have board members does anyone have any questions on the presentation they'd like to ask right now anybody that concludes my uh okay thank you thank you before we move on um this is not a voting meeting so I'm just going to peruse the agenda then I'm going to open up public comment for anything on or off the agenda before I do that I just want to thank um Miss Jones Miss Jacobs um and Mr mizab abuin I I poor Jamal I I just always say jam because it's easier to pronounce but I'd like to thank him as well as all of our teachers in the district all of their hard work we've seen such significant growth it it takes a village and they are truly such a wonderful team so a big thank you to our teachers especially we saw a lot of growth in the high school and I know they've worked really hard over the summer aligning their curriculum and that doesn't go without notice or gratitude so thank you all very very much um okay so I'm just going to quickly prise the agenda nothing really exciting going on it and then we're going to open up public comment because I know I see a lot of familiar faces here um probably wanted to talk to us about the referendum and just as a reminder the architect will be here on November 4th the day before election day to go through the referendum more FAQs and answer any more specific questions but just moving through we have our community based instruction um they're going to mon Claire they do such a great job in that program um some more field trips we love that the kids are getting out and about um thank you to our teachers we know that they are solely responsible for coordinating that and it's a lot of hard work work on them so thank you to our wonderful amazing teachers for that um we have some Personnel changes going on um certification of funds boring boring boring that some um joint Transportation contract with North Caldwell um and I I just have to once again just very grateful to Brian and the business office um because we really are are very fortunate as a district to have the transportation Fleet that we have here and it brings in six figure Revenue to the district right Bri like how much does it bring in about like uh 150 200 yeah I mean it's no small chump chunk of change we help out a lot of neighboring districts by picking up their kids and they pay us a nice amount of money for it it's great revenue for the district but it takes a lot of coordination from Brian and his team and and we're very grateful for that it's it's it's great and every year it it's it's built up and it's a lot and it's awesome so thank you Brian um just want to look at this real quick oh yeah we have in here um for the um Varsity JV ice hockey program we've reached our agreement once again with West Essex so that program can go through that's something that um is a great opportunity for our kids that play hockey they get to make relationships with West Essex um and it's it's a really wonderful thing so we have that we did that Brian thank you for getting that done as well um let's see usage of facilities we love that people want to use our schools we also you can see towards the end of the year here we have a lot of people renting out the building again that's revenue and Brian has really increased that as well so big Kudos thank you to the business department they're so busy it's amazing um and that'll about do it for the agenda so right now I'm going to open up public comment for items on or off the agenda we're going to do a little differently tonight because it's a non- voting meeting um public participation shall be governed by the following participant must be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by an announcement of their name and address statements are to be limited to three minutes duration participant may speak no more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer the boards use the public common period of the meeting as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter enter into question and answer or across examination between the public and individual members be aware not all issues brought before the board will be resolved this evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issues to the superintendent or his designate the presiding officer May interrupt warrant and or terminate a participants comments if they exceed the allotted time or are objectively obscene participants may be civil liable for any obscene defamatory or slanderous statements made during public comment so that being said would anyone like to get up and speak to anything on or off the agenda this evening jurn hi hi yes jurn come on I'm GNA talk really fast so I get it all in in my three minute that's okay we're not going to uh my name is Journey spelli I live at 64 McKinley Aven West calwell and I'm here to discuss the importance of building a new Fieldhouse for our town focusing on the future athletes especially the female athletes here in James Caldwell the current Fieldhouse constructed in 1943 presents serious health concerns that directly impact our athletes its aging structure outdated facilities pose health risks and in in such as inadequate ventilation mold growth insufficient space for proper training these conditions not only hinder athletic performance but also compromise the wellbeing well-being of our students making it crucial that we invest in a safe modern facility that supports their health and development while this project will require a tax increase the benefit to our community far outweighs the few dollars a month a new Fieldhouse will provide our students with a dedicated space for enhancing their preparation and performance this will Empower them to fully pursue their athletic dreams it's also important to note that the Fieldhouse is being used exclusively for our high school students and will not be used by calwell University this ensures that our students will have all the res resources they need to thrive investing in a facility is not just about sports it's about attracting families to our town who want the best for the future of their children a robust athletic department can grow and draw in new residents boosting our current local economy most importantly and in my opinion most importantly our female athletes deserve equal opportunities and this facility will serve as a powerful inspiration for the next generation of strong comp confident women leaders the new Fieldhouse will feature a balance of a 50/50 split for male and female athletes an an essential step forward especially considering the only facility currently available to our female athletes near the Fieldhouse is a single stall bathroom this change is not just significant it is long overdue I often hear people suggest renovating the existing field house to save money but that approach still falls short our female athletes on a more personal Al note sorry I have a type 1 diabetic daughter and she deserves a place to be able to care for herself that is clean and safe her condition requires her to often change medical devices in the middle of a practice or in a sporting event she deserves because she is an incredible athlete a place to go where she can maintain dignity and respect where she needs to change her medical devices or seek medical attention it isn't fair for have to her to have to go to a one- stall bathroom or all the way back to this building to the gym um so to close a Fieldhouse would provide her with a safe clean private environment to make necessary adjustment to her medical needs ensuring that she's able to focus on the game just like all her teammates my daughter Anna deserves this Fieldhouse and so do all the females in this town thank you thank you joury thank you anyone else want to come up and address the board hi sh come on up hi Sandra Kramer 25 gold place I'm not sure I want to follow that but I'll try um um so I'm here to share my thoughts also on the referendum of the upcoming um Fieldhouse so I have a 17-year-old son who is a senior and a 13-year-old daughter who attends gcms uh my son is in his last year of the football program here at the high school so you may think like why do you care he's a senior you have no dog in the race but I think that's the issue uh first sometimes we plant the seed not so our generation has shade but so that future Generations get to reap the benefit second the current field house that we just heard has absolutely nothing to offer my daughter when she starts school here it will have nothing to offer anyone's daughter or anyone any student with a disability regardless of the sport they play so we have an opportunity to change that um the current Fieldhouse um like we just heard was built in the 40s it I believe it does not meet Title 9 requirements and it's also not ADA Compliant um I was just there last week for Mom's Night for football and I thought hey as a fundraising raising idea uh maybe like during Halloween we could to do like you know a um haunted house experience in the Fieldhouse because there's like chipped paint and like mold and it's damp and scary and you know maybe you could raise money that way um I'm kidding um I wish I was kidding but I'm actually not so I urge that come March any voters that really want to make an informed decision just take a walk over and look for yourselves um and speaking of voting uh about 10 years ago there was another Bond referendum that also brought very mixed reactions uh in our community at the time the improvements included things like installing air conditioning throughout the high school and uh the most hot topic was uh the turf at bonell field so at the time many in the community thought these upgrades were frivolous expensive unnecessary we could just fix what was there and now I think can you imagine that 10 years later if you asked the high school students in the you know 500 Wing that was called the sauna how they would deal without air conditioning or our lovely F that we enjoy here at bonell field I thank those taxpayers 10 years ago for making that decision um so again as I as we also heard there's nothing in the current Fieldhouse if you're a female every time I I attend an event here I always think what is the away team think like here's this awesome field and this awesome school and if you're female and you have to go to the bathroom like there's one stall maybe open for you or there's the PTI potty so that's not great um the Fieldhouse is a stark reminder to me that there's no female coach athlete or visitor that's welcome there so I trust the plan that's been pres presented to us has been reviewed by either the Mayors the Town Council Members key stakeholders all of which we as a community have decided um that they're in their position like you guys to make the best decision for us so let's trust them I'm putting my faith in them I'm putting my faith in the voters of calwell and W Caldwell that they will continue to put children first which always puts our community first so I'll end with this this past Friday at the football regular season home home game or last home game the esteemed former athletic director Ron San Filippo was inducted into Legends park at Bonfield one of the overarching themes in that presentation made about Mr San Filippo was that he always made sure the kids had the best equipment the best uniforms everything he did was to ensure the kids had all the best resources they needed to be successful as they could be because it's always about the kids so let's make it about the kids and plant that seed so that our future Generations will thank us for the shade thank you thank you Sandra thank you anyone else want to get up sure come on good evening my name is Sharon too Moodus and I live at 231 Westville Avenue West cville New Jersey and as much as I would really like to support the building of the Fieldhouse I have a few issues the first is we're spending $15.4 million of that we're building a two-story Fieldhouse and my question is still for what I understand we need a new Fieldhouse that's ada8 compliant I completely agree I do not believe we need a two-story Fieldhouse I also am concerned because with all the new building that's going on in Caldwell in West Caldwell our elementary schools are already busting at the seams where are we putting these students we're building a Fieldhouse but we're not thinking about the 100-year-old Middle School we're not thinking about Lincoln being 100 years old these all are going to have to be problems that are addressed too the taxpayers you're telling us it's $130 for each estimate I think it was $200,000 000 they said our houses are not valued at 200,000 so it's a little more than $130 a year I'm just concerned because we are financing something that I cannot justify a second floor on $15.4 million and we're not investing in our education yes I agree with the first referendum but it's the second one that I really have a problem with so as much as I would love to build this Fieldhouse I do not believe this is the right amount of money to spend or it's a two-story building but I do believe we do need a new Fieldhouse I just don't think we're going about it the right way spending our tax dollars thank you and again we still need to think about the education and the buildings we have that are already falling apart thank you Sharon I just want to just correct a couple things so the first one is the tax impact is for the average home is not 200,000 it's based on an average home of 450,000 okay that's not what we were told other the night that's why okay that's why you weren't here that is the that is the truth we are also too we have a PR firm that was with the board you're going to be getting newsletters to the house the website's going to have all the information on one page for you to access so as we get and once those numbers when we hear back from the Department of Education and we find out The Debt Service Aid that we're getting all of that will be updated so we'll have final figures before you go out to vote so I just wanted to to say that and absolutely I agree yeah okay so other thing is just to address Lincoln and gcms all of the infrastructure issues in the district the big main infrastructure issues are in question one at no tax impact so I just want to say and I have to clarify this and I have to defend the board okay frankly because the board had an option okay when we were going to go for a referendum we could have put everything into one question and force the hand of the voters we could have been like if you don't vote this referendum the buildings are going to fall down right and because we want that field to what the board did responsibly and I'm going to give this group of individual's credit okay we said we split the question because the infrastructure issues of the district that we cannot afford with our operating budget are so great like you're mentioning the facade at Lincoln School the facade at gcms the staircase at gcms the Lincoln School of Lobby the security all of that is so critical for the safety of our children and our staff that's in question one at no tax impact we took the field house that the board feels is a necessity but we understand that people like yourself feel that it is a luxury even though you do support something in in a way absolutely we put that in question too to give a voter a choice because we believe in the voters of the cwell West cwell District we believe that it is their right because we live in the United States of America thank God where it is a democracy and it is your choice as a voter here in the United States to make that educated choice so we did something responsible but I have to just say and I don't mean to be disrespectful so please if I if I come up I don't really mean it I have to defend the board and say we are not not addressing the infrastructure needs of this community it is all addressed there will be nothing to do in this district with question one passing the huge infrastructure Safety and Security needs of this District are addressed in question one okay but my question my my concern is not only are we addressing that but think about all the building that's going on so with all the building so we just Ren I just I'm going to interrupt as well so we just renovated Harrison school is now a fully functioning school okay we are about to switch superintendence okay the new superintendent will come in here and do what he or she feels is best work with the community to open that building as a viable school what that school is going to be we don't know yet we are now we are in too much FL it's not fair to the community to leave it in the hands of Dr Conlin he's not going to be here to do what's right for the community he's leaving as of June 30th okay so we're going to have a new leader to come in that will engage the community that will then present a plan to the community to open that building the board again I have to give the board credit when the buildings were going up years ago in covid when Caldwell was putting up massive apartment complexes the board was on those meetings listening in okay virtually engaged a client uh um help me Dr kungum what's that called when you do this demographic thank you engaged a demographic study went out took our own funds to make sure that Harrison was a fully functioning ADA compliance school so that we could turn it into something to make sure that class sizes stay at 25 or less okay we have all those things Sharon we have done those things I just want to be very clear all of those things we have we have talked about and discussed it's all out there we have this is all part of the plan okay I'm just saying I just see more and more buildings so the the studies that you did may not be what they are now because they keep building they definitely are because they my fault I will definitely go back and pull some when we did the demographic study it was at the height of all of that building going on so calwell had already had those plans there was I didn't know that particular IED yeah that was one of the main goals behind taking funds that we had because again this is a very fiscally responsible board we had almost I mean our capital reserve is very very healthy and we are putting $2 million against the Fieldhouse to keep the tax impact low so it is not really 15.4 million to the taxpayer that would be the overarching C we're putting 2 million against it so really it's $13 million that's really what it's going to be because we're using using 2 million of our own funds against it to keep the tax impact lower so I just I just have to get out there and say those things to make sure and I do appreciate and listen Sharon you are an in I love that you're here I love that you're being formed I love that you come to talk to us do it all the time I I love it but I do have to say I have to defend the board in the fact that all of these things have really been very carefully calculated and planned out with all of the things that you're discussing all already put to bed like those are things that went into the planning of this referendum okay I appreciate your comments back to me I just want to let you know it was told to us 200,000 last the last meeting I was at so maybe I misunderstood what they said it's it is 450 I know it's the average assessed value home right now which is I believe you it's just that there were some numbers thrown out last time and I questioned some of the numbers that were thrown out especially I also know I wasn't at the last meeting I had I had a family emergency so please forgive me glad everything is better thank you thank you very much of course absolutely and I just want to say I know the architect misspoke the last time and said 80 lockers it is not it is 60 that is definitive he will correct that on November 4th it is 60 for the boys and 60 for the girls that is the size of both locker rooms okay 60 lockers for the boys and 60 for the girls he said two lock 80 it's not it's 60 and 60 it's 60 and 60 so the the boys locker room is broken out as 40 and 20 the girls locker room is yeah he messed up I the board yeah so I just I know that there was a lot of like outrage I don't mean that in a disrespectful way people were like what are you talking about OT but I'm going to just say the board reported back to me I was in the hospital with my daughter so they were like calling me like Greg messed up it was a but he just listen I love our architect he's amazing but he's also on a bunch of other projects when he comes back it's 60 and 60 I know that for a fact we have to have you go to the microphone sorry yeah if you could just yeah and first and last name just forgive me Rich jenet Tempo 24 Mountain Avenue calwell so well just on that topic the square footage is 8,000 square F feet right the first floor I don't I don't have the drawings in front of me so I don't want to affirm 16,000 I just know the number of lockers is 60 and 60 so what are we doing with all the space well have you you seen the drawing of the field house so the the public bathroom looks massive looks absolutely massive and you can't tell what it is exactly and if you're saying the locker rooms are actually it's actually smaller less lockers they're not they're not it's just less lockers lockers but the space is still the same so the space is the same the space is equal for the boys and girls the same thing it's it's the size you know if we need something new absolutely but 16,000 F feet seems I mean if you actually plan out 8,000 squ F feet it's actually it's massive so I went out say let me look at all the peers people our our our schools that we play against are in the local areas to see what they have okay West essics closest to us right a lot more wealth in West the towns of West ESS right we can agree with that I think right they're they don't have Fieldhouse they have a bath bathrooms 20 by by 20 400 ft and they have a concession stand and they use port by the way this is West Essex the kids at at halftime they go back to school again this is West Essex but you're telling us we need 16,000 Square fet it's two completely different things I went to Montville I'll show you the pictures of modville they use porta potties this is modville so when you say we need I'm okay with you I'm saying okay let's let's build something for for men and women but 16,000 ft is is absolutely ridiculous I can keep going by the way I went to Verona I went to Cedar Gro I went to Columbia Columbia's field is not near the high school they can't go back to high school it's about a half a mile and that's 65 by 40 one floor so the team goes there and and the bathrooms are there but yet we need 16,000 square feet how can you how can you justify that so and I going go to one of the topics about bringing bringing things to the town that benefit a town that makes the town better and people want to move here and I don't think it's lockers and bathrooms or a wrestling room above I think there are things don't get me wrong I I really do I mean you look forward to the next 10 20 years job creation and economy AI semiconductors uh 3D printing robotics cyber security these is the areas we should be investing in so if you said to me we're going to build a fieldhouse in the bottom where we're have lockers bathrooms and then above we're going to put a 3D lab printing lab a robotics lab that's going to be in that's in question one that 3D robotics lab that's all in question one at no cost to the taxpayer that's the renovation so the referendum so there's a whole Wing in the high school that's in question one we don't need to be a second floor then my point is that these are the areas that that we should be investing in not not not not so the second Flor so the second floor of the Fieldhouse that Fieldhouse design was worked on by by coaches the athletic director the high school administration that second floor is going to be AP testing professional development it's going to reach far beyond just it's not just a wrestling room that that that multi-purpose space is is a space open for for it could be Revenue building for recreation like for for for us to use I mean SP $6 million we should know what the revenue is going to come from like what we're going to do for Revenue building listen I'm just going to say this we didn't make those decisions for these plans in box there were a lot of stakeholders that had a voice in it I really rich honestly I I totally appreciate where you're coming from the plans are the plans the voters will vote and that's the way that it is so you know I do appreciate I respect where you're coming from absolutely but like I said the board didn't sit in a room alone and decide we want to build this huge field say this game no but I just want you to understand the process because you haven't like this is like my first time interacting with you I was just showing you the the difference between our surrounding towns and us yeah that's I appreciate that I I'm to be honest with you I don't I don't mean to I don't care what the surrounding towns do I'm just worried about the students of the cwell West cwell School District I don't care about the West Essex Knights or the Verona Hillbillies I just care about the Chiefs so I just want what's best for the kids of cell West call I know you do too but I'm just saying that's we put the needs of the kids based on the people who interact with them who coach them who teach them who lead them who Mentor them we put we we put our stock in what they felt the kids needed and that's where that design came from so disagree with it or not you'll have your time on March 11 so what's the question to the board outside of that so it seems like we have a a Debt Service reserve of like 10 10 million plus is that right I mean Brian I'm going to let the ba answer that I don't want cap Reserve is is going to be about $10 million at the end of next June correct um that's so for the the first proposal you guys are going to put like 5.6 million of that and then 2 million for the Fieldhouse if that were be approved and it said you'd have like a two and a half million still left right their plan is that between the two questions should be about 7 and half million and two and a half million right right which is great by the way honestly but so my question is if we have basically 18% of the budget in reserve why raising taxes the scope of the projects is so huge I mean question one alone like it's it's huge huge I mean but that's paid for by the that's paid for we're we're going to issue a bond for that at no tax impact because we're putting but you're raising our taxes from last year to this year and we have a $10 million Reserve yeah Brian can you I mean so it's it's um it's not part of our operating budget so we're planning on putting in uh 3.3 million for question One Cop reserve and if you uh look at the total borrowing uh including putting in 3.3 million and then what we're going to get for Debt Service Aid we think that's going to the plan right now because we don't have the final numbers they're at the state right now we think it's going to match the cash flows of the expiring debt right and we also have another approximately two million of projects that we're going to take outside the referendum that we we could use capital reserve to uh to finance so that's 5.3 million and then we could have approximately $2 million going to the Fieldhouse that would subsidize the total cost of 15.4 and so that's a total of 7.5 is and two we about 10 so we think we' have two and a half Millions left my question is if we have 10 million in in reserve why would we raise taxes from last year to this year capital reserve money can't go into the operating budget it has be two SE two separate separate things right yes sorry I didn't answer your question I mean all right there's a lot more rules to a Schoolboard budget than like a regular budget like if you're looking at it like you're thinking of like a household or a company budget it's it's very different we can't just transfer funds from one line to another there's certain funds that are allocated only for certain things like a capital reserve like a m but we do transfer from one side to the to the that to that to the 10 million side right because whatever when you're running the budget whatever's whatever Surplus is then is moved to here right so at the end of the year if we had money left we roll the Surplus we have a chance we have an opportunity to put some into a subsequent budget or we could roll into what's called restricted reserves so they're restricted by you know heavily restricted so capital reserve is only for capital projects which is this area you're talking about right million right so so I'm saying it does go from one to the other it just doesn't go back to the other side at the end of the at the end of the fiscal year you could m i call special bucket right yes I can't go back into the operating budget that's what I'm saying there restrictions I mean it comes into the operating budget and then when it's left over it goes to the The Reserve side right but it can't it can't flow back in I got all right you know my point is why why continue to raise taxes if if you know if we're if we're raising tax if we're if our taxes are above our costs that we have enough to flow into the Reserve side right why would we continue to raise taxes if we're always have a if we're always having a surplus we don't we always have Surplus but we have mass $10 million and 18% of the budget that's pretty good right I I mean it's great so I would to answer your question is you don't always have um you don't always have Surplus uh I would say that uh many school districts in New Jersey uh were beneficiaries of of the co funds so it did help offset some of the costs uh and so we didn't spend as much as prior years and uh St Maintenance and Facilities and things of that nature and we did have money left over you have to realize we have a $65 million budget so if you have a million million and a half left at the end of the the year yeah I gu yeah it's not it's not a mat right now it's a small percentage and you know you can't be negative so we can't be negative so we do budget conservatively because um you go negative then you have the state coming in and they make decisions told all right thanks guys yeah you're welcome thank you anybody else going once going twice no okay so again on November 4th before we close the meeting the architect will be here to discuss answer questions encourage anybody here this evening or anybody that you know to come that will be Greg's final time here really presenting on the referendum um and then we have engaged a PR firm term so we'll have a dedicated spot on the website where it'll be house all of our referendum information you'll see things on social media you'll see things coming in the mail to your house um I just really want to again strongly encourage everybody here anybody listening at home please listen to the facts that come from the district please don't go on I love living in the caldwells and listen to posts that are done on there because that's thirdhand information the only people that can truly answer questions about the referendum is the central office the architect the pr firm who will be working with the architect and central office and the Board of Education okay I really encourage you to please get your facts from the district and not from third party pages on social media okay because again we're very fortunate we live in a democracy okay as voters it's our responsibility whatever way you're going to vote but to make an informed and educated decision when you go to the polls on March 11th so again the only way to get that is not through propaganda but through facts okay and we will be very transparent sharing the facts right now we're at still we've been talking about this forever because again to to really boost up this group of people transparency transparency transparency is our motto up here okay so we've been telling you guys about it forever because we didn't want it to be like yes guess what we're going for a referendum like so it feels like oh my gosh all they do is talk about it but we're still at the very beginning stages the vote is March 11 we have a presidential election coming up very shortly so once that election is over then we feel like everybody can then focus on this and getting informed besides the fact that our documents are still with the doe so we don't have all of our financials back right anything we're giving you is very preliminary right as more of those things get finalized we will be sharing it again but I just please encourage everybody please please please visit the district website please please send emails to the superintendent's office please come to November 4th and ask questions from the architect because that's where factual information is going to be and then you vote the way you want to vote you vote what's in your heart you vote what you think is best but do it with the Right facts don't do it by reading posts on social media okay so I I have to say so here no no no absolutely you are here you are here and I wasn't so I'm I'm going to just be honest with you I was not here okay so I'm I'm sorry that I wasn't here because if I was here and I had heard that I would have stopped him and corrected him immediately okay he's also I'm going to be honest with you he's a human being people make mistakes I understand it's our town but people make mistakes he's a brilliant architect there that stuff has been up there I am going to speak to him this week before he comes back well he's away and it but he's at school boards but when he comes back from school boards I will speak to him and make sure that he has all of that information again I'm sorry that I wasn't here I would have corrected it on the spot okay but I do know what I know I know that there's 60 lockers I do know that for a fact they're not 80 okay I mean I know he said he do yeah we're we don't want to do that because it has to pass but 60 yeah but it's hard for people to make an decision when we don't have so you have enough specifics to make an informed decision the things that he's talking about meline are the like the girls locker room the spaces are equal but the girls coaches with the ad might say you know what we don't want two rooms like football lacrosse baseball the boys end right track they want one big one and then a smaller one right the girls might say we don't that doesn't fit our needs this is our enrollment in field hockey track and field thecross we want three of this size three I don't like that those are the things things that aren't going to be mapped out the the square footage equal the design and layout we're not going to we're not going to give him any more money because if it doesn't pass what's the point what's the point all we can tell you is it's equal the amount of bathrooms the amount of space for coaches the amount of space for athletes male and female that's all the same that's that's the same we just aren't going to be able to tell you like the girls might have three smaller locker rooms they might have one huge one I I can't tell you that that's going to be the coaches are going to decide that that's their job they're the ones who work with the kids they're the ones who understand their programs we don't we didn't make these decisions we don't we trust them right that's part of having staff that you trust right like I said again rich and be honest with you we didn't Design This they did this was this the stuff that came no I know I'm just saying like I just want I'm just being like I just have to clear the misconception that the board sat around and just decided to do this and be like we're going to this was from the coaches the ad the High School principal like like expressing what they needed and what they wanted repres us and our money that's right that's right right but Rich I'm also and I'm not gonna I'm not gonna I'm not going to debate yeah no but yeah we're not gonna we're not going to debate back and forth Rich we're not going to debate we're not going to debate back and forth we're not going to debate back and forth but I'm going to say in in response to Sharon as I said being responsible with the Public's money that's why the main infrastructure things all the academic things are in question one at no tax impact so I just you know I have to continue to say that over and over again this is not something we could have put everything together and forced it we didn't do that we gave everyone a choice because there are people like yourselves that don't agree with it and that's okay you don't have to agree with it we felt that based on what needs are currently in the district this was the best course of action forward and we'll see who agrees and who doesn't on March 11th right all I'm asking is that everybody continue to use the district as your main resource for information and not miscellaneous Facebook pages okay that's all I'm really asking here tonight okay um yeah no Shar this is not against you no this is not against you yeah that's fine all the building that's OCC yeah right but Shar yeah you don't that's right no and I have to tell sum yeah that's okay and you don't have kids in the like it's fine and you're I mean though I don't have kids in the district no but I'm saying you haven't been following the meetings to know stuff about the demographic demographic studies because you're not here all the time right right it's totally understandable it's it's totally understandable but that's why I wanted you to have the right information about what has gone into this question can you just yeah I know you can stand up just stand up you don't have to come all the way up yeah how many high school students do we have Dr con 748 as of today 7% of that would be uh we actually have over 600 kids participating in sports freshman JV and varsity and you're not double count no I am if I double count if I double count them it would be 798 I I just that that 600 and we have over 1300 students in clubs and extracurricular activities actually we only have 750 so that means some of those kids are counted twice means they in multiple clubs so they're in band they're an art Club but there's over 600 students actually participating in sports and I'm downplaying that number the number I got out of Genesis was 683 so I'm saying I'm saying 798 students are listed as participating in a sport we only have 748 that means some kids are playing in multiple sports right 600 individual students based on the way it was sorted 6 80 actually out of 7 748 are are listed as participating in only students not playing sport playing in a in a sport JV Varsity or uh uh and then 798 just telling you what the numbers are out of my thing I don't know how it could be but I I could double check it for you if you like sir architect is obviously wrong so obviously well I'm not the architect I'm not the architect so you could say he's wrong but I'm not the architect right but I'm not the architect mes that's why I'm I'm downplaying it to 600 in case some of that is wrong but the number from Genesis specifically how many kids participating in sports not counting them twice was over 680 kids well I appreciate your opinion yeah I mean register through Sports in Genesis I guess part myid School considerings think well we've opened several Sports over the past several years so there's a lot more Sports and we have we have freshman JV and Varsity Sports now in the past they didn't have all three layers of sports and again par ipating in the sport doesn't mean you stay in the sport but we have sit the students aren't double coun we're not double counting them just part of our culture not best we Poss aing out I mean and if you're complaining about the taxes beinged maybe we can go to the actual town halls and those meetings because the towns are the that actually our taxes more theing to improve so um so guys I'm just Rich I'm just I don't mean to be rude I'm going to wrap up the meeting and then if you want to I'm going to wrap the meeting up okay again the whole point is just to please make sure and I'm going to be honest with you I can speak for Greg or myself like I don't have drawings in front of me I don't have Greg will be back here on November 4th it is what it is he'll put the he'll put the blue prints up all the information is there I don't know if he did or did not do that the last time but I'm going to ask him to do that this time okay so that we can see it again okay yeah so that at least we can get the correct lockers correct make sure everything is there cuz again all right so that being said anyone else have anything else to say outside of Fieldhouse discussion for the board this evening no okay that being said can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting and enter back into executive session tonight at 811 p.m. I'll make a motion okay and a second a second okay Brian can you take the role thank you everybody we'll see you on the fourth