if everyone could please take a seat and I will back up away from the [Music] microphone let's try no all right let's try this again a little bit better good evening everyone my part's fairly quick so uh we can stop the feedback from this speaker for a little bit um thank you everyone for taking the time out of uh your Tuesday evening to come and hear this presentation this is an official public meeting of the board of education so we do need to do a few of our quick things first um The Welcome to our uh special meeting of the board on I'm trying to move over as much as possible so it doesn't make noise um uh on March 26 2024 appropriate notice of this meeting has been advertised roll call please try that all right is it working yeah Mr CH here Mr Craig here Mrs Maya here Mrs molski here Mrs arino here Mrs Sharon Celia here Mr Sherman here Mr dolas here Mr Ken here please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance okay as I said this is a special board meeting and as everyone can see there is really only one item listed on the agenda and the reason that we are all here is to hear the proposal for um a potential upcoming Bond referendum everyone sitting over here uh has worked hard to plan this presentation and um we encourage everyone to listen take notes and um we will I have no doubt everyone will let us know what they think so without further Ado I'm G to turn it over to Dr mcdell [Music] try to make sure that it good evening everyone thank you for being [Music] here our theme this evening and the title of our referendum is our schools our community and our future um and so it's uh it's interesting that uh we're here uh at this particular moment in time but I also want to make sure that uh we're here and we start on the right foot and so we just wanted to say thank you um for the continued support uh the ongoing feedback that helped us get to this day what you're going to hear uh this evening is how did we get here what we're proposing and then additional opportunities for us to be engag in continual communication and so thank you again for being here um I don't only come to you as a super of schools for Collingswood in Oakland I also come to you as a Collingswood resident homeowner a Collingswood public school's parent lifelong educator um Dad husband son all of those uh lovely titles and so we're all here for one reason and one reason only it's that's because we all care deeply about our community and so we want that to be on the Forefront uh as we uh discuss and we present what our thinking is for this evening and so a quick overview of what you're going to hear this evening is uh what grounds us which is our mission and our vision for the work as a school district and as a greater Community why are we here how we got here the proposal summary which will be the highlights of what you're going to hear in in depth from our presenters this evening in addition to uh schools what will we be doing with schools what will the discussion be or the proposal uh look like as it relates with Recreation and athletic spaces cost uh and then schedule and then uh really important what are the opportunities or the benefits to our students to our staff to our community uh and then ultimately what impact are we going to have aligned with the vision and values uh that Drew each of us not just to this uh School District but also to this community and so to keep us all grounded our mission has been for many many years by building on the strengths of our diverse School Community colinwood Public Schools commit to providing an inclusive and supportive environment that inspires and empowers every student Vision which is our preferred ideal state in the future to Foster the qualities necessary for students to serve as contributors in an equitable and a socially just community and so that's what grounds us and that's what keeps us uh uh pushing forward why are we here we are here to discuss Community investment in the form of a bond referendum there's three core areas that uh we will be talking about this evening one is improved and updated facilities two academic rigor and three inclusion when we think about our improved facilities we want to make sure that we're being crystal clear about how School uh uh funding is distributed and so annual School budgets or operational expenses uh day-to-day operations of school districts there is uh insufficient revenues to support major construction projects such as these uh in an annual school budget in addition to the recreational spaces that we have each been in active discussion uh for several years now academic rigor rigor that comes with the alignment of uh new grade levels and new configurations collaborative efforts and opportunities among students and staff and then ultimately inclusion how do we make sure that every single one of our facilities is accessible and is consistent with the diversity of our community and so how did we get here and so we we didn't go back really far back because uh there have been ongoing discussions about uh the state of our school Community for for many many years but we re um started these conversations post pandemic in 2021 upon my entry as superintendent in February of 2021 I started what's called a transition plan that's where you go out and you talk with all of your community stakeholders on each campus by and large and then you collect a lot of data you draft a summary report to give back to the Board of Education which then becomes some of the foundational work to be able to move forward based on what is articulated by the needs of the community the data your staff and the goals and expectations of the Board of Education and so that helped to lead into the development of our vision 2026 strategic plan during this particular process our uh Board of Education we hired an outside external educational specialist to collect data within the Collingswood and Oakland Community it took roughly six months and almost 1100 community members between both communities participated and provided substantial feedback and some of the areas of feedback you're going to hear as they manifest in tonight's proposal some included concerns around the Aging uh infrastructure others talked about Athletics um and then others talked about the academic disparities between different campuses and how that would be addressed in the near future in September of 2022 um we talked about infrastructure finance and facility ities in a public meeting and at that time we uh publicly announced that uh the school district had gone into active agreement and partnership with the Camden dasis and that we were seeking to acquire additional uh educational facilities for our students to address some of our capacity issues and that after we had performed our due diligence we would come back to the community with a cohesive and an aligned ask for the community to consider which leads us here and so as we've continued to perform our due diligence uh we establish an ad hoc Committee of both board members Educators Community leaders business professionals to help inform what could we do with the resources that we have within our community and how does that address the needs articulated by our community and that lands us to today um in the form of our proposal that you will hear uh more about and so to provide a summary of what you're going to hear this evening we are going to be talking about elementary school shifts specifically the fact that in a new grade level uh proposed configuration that means that Tatum and newbie would convert to a K3 School building the number of seats or the number of students served would remain the same zann would then transition to a prek to three School building with additional square foot footage in the form of new construction being added to add an additional 126 seats the good sheeper facility would house an upper elementary school serving students in grades four and five with 300 plus seats and Garfield and sharp would be decommissioned but would remain uh School based assets uh due to the age and expense to renovate um Stadium complex is also part of the discussion that has been an active part of the discussion in Community since 2017 and we are seeking to address the the demand uh and the needs articulated by our constituents the re reorientation of the space um the addition of turf and grass fields for multi-use a full uh competitive eight Lane track so that we can host uh meets here new grand stands with Press Box locker rooms storage and the like lighting sound irrigation fencing um so that we will have uh facilities that are the equivalent or greater that all of the neighboring towns and many of our competitors that our students compete with uh each season and then the most important piece is schedule our goal is to be able to come back to the community after we have engaged in conversations over the next several months uh for with a formal ballot question for vote by the community in September keeping keeping in mind that there would be no movement no shifts in schools assignments um until uh the uh good sheeper has been fully renovated and all of the other construction projects have been completed and so the construction timeline is estimated at two to three years with school shifts tentative for September of 2027 so this is not an immediate movement uh realistically we would be looking at uh young people who are currently in preschool uh would be able to fully participate in a new trajectory but existing elementary students more than likely uh there would be no change and so to dig a little bit deeper into the conversation around buildings and grounds and construction uh reports feasibility um and then the proposal um our one of our board leaders Mr Matt Craig uh will take us through the next phase of the presentation going to keep trying microphones till we find one that works thank you um Matthew Craig I'm the chair of the finance buildings and grounds Community I want to thank everyone first and foremost for coming out tonight uh to be able to fill this room on such an important topic is a huge Testament to the Civic engagement and the commitment of this community to come out and hear this plan and I really do want to thank everybody here and everyone who is watching us um and note that uh the presid ation that you're going to receive here is going to be very high level uh posted on our website will be a very detailed line by line of all the projects and the estimated costs um that will be posted on our website along with the FAQ document you should have seen a um QR code where you can post questions where we are going to be actively trying to answer so go through the course of the project um all those things being posted along with this video with closed captions on YouTube if uh to make sure this is accessible for everyone um I will be doing my part to lead you through this presentation I'll also going to have support of uh Bob Garrison Garrison architects who really helped to put together uh the scope of this plan and a lot of the numbers and estimates that you're going to see and uh does Dennis mnal of Remington and bernick uh Engineers who help put together the floor plans uh for the facilities and the athletic fields um so let's start first with again where where we are this is the current breakdown sure try just trying not to get the uh the feedback but that seems good thank you okay I'm going to be moving too so this just we'll we'll deal with it we're g to roll with it as we go along but thank you Matt um this is the current breakdown of where our students are in our in in classrooms across the community right now um as you can see we are prek through 12 uh roughly 20 just over 2200 students um our elementaries five elementaries that are K through 5 uh with a middle school 6 through 8 and high school 9 through2 this is where our current facilities are within Collingswood uh as you can see here our total enrollment just over 2200 um our functional capacity is a number that I wanted to talk this is what the Department of Education says based on the size of your district and in your classrooms that this is the amount of students that you can serve as you can see that number is lower than we currently have uh through waivers um and other process we're able to accommodate and seat all the students that are in our district but this is just to show you that we are and as you know if you've been in the schools we're serving a lot of our kids in um pull out in hallways uh on stages uh we're making use of every inch of our buildings right now particularly at the elementary level and we see that our based on the state uh the enrollment and student numbers are going to continue to rise so we take this information and we think about what our facilities currently are able to serve and what we think we're going to be able to do in the future under the proposed plan this is what we would uh how we would redistribute our students so again um we would have our pre- spaces then K through three at Tatum newbie prek through three at Zayn Tatum and newbie would serve roughly the same amount of students and be able to accommodate there through K3 um we would be adding seats into zaye North uh and then about 300 students in the new Upper Elementary building which is the Good Shepard site as stated in Dr mcdal summary students would not be attending sharp or Garfield the course of this plan so let's start there and let's sit with this and I want to take you back to some of the early conversations that we had about the Good Shepherd site which is the biggest part of this plan and investment and when the former good sheeper St John's closed and we saw that we had a school that was in our town that was available we started doing investigations to see what it would mean to bring it within our district we knew that at its size um just about 43,000 square feet with a full gym cafeteria um kitchen and Library it had amenities that none of our elementary schools currently have it's also significantly younger than any of our buildings in the district we thought about this um and we wanted to see and start the explorations of what it meant to to bring in in um which brought us to engaging with Garrison to better understand what's the cost of renovation to bring that space up to code to be able to serve students but then also to understand approval process of the Department of Education what would it mean to have to for the commissioner to say that yes you can bring this building in we know that we need the space as we talked about but what what are they going to need to see and that gets us to this question of unhoused students currently as I said we have enough seats in our district to house all of our students if we want to bring in a new building and add extra seats we have to show that there is a need for unhoused students which is what brought us to the conversation of looking at our current business buildings and making a future decision based on age and size now I said Good Shepard was built in 1973 we know that sharp and Garfield are our oldest buildings um both over 100 years old also our smallest um Garfield is or excuse me good sheeper is roughly the size of newbie newbie sharp and Garfield combined um and these buildings we we know if by closing down we would be able to relocate those 346 students in Good Shepard and then also in the seats and Tatum in any part of these conversations this is always the most difficult part um I think it is a Real Testament to those buildings even given their age um that the staff the buildings and grounds have been able to create a learning environment that has been conducive for students and has served generations of Collingswood kids um but we do have to think about the future um when this opportunity comes around uh we know that in the past there have been conversations about the different buildings and what their future would be um but I think we're in a different situation now knowing where our enrollment is going and what our needs are going to be in the next few years that bringing in something younger that's going to be more adaptable is is an opportunity that we have to explore and put out to you as the community to see whether you agree just a a few comments to kind of clarify what Greg's talking about and and first and foremost it's great to be back in Collingswood uh Garrison Architects myself and our staff was part of the 2005 referendum that was successful $33 million program that enabled this District to maintain these facilities you talked about these two buildings in particular these two buildings were part of that referendum where we did air conditioning in there we also renovated bathrooms and did replaced doors and some other things so congratulations to your community for making that investment of that money back and now we're almost 20 years later so I think another theme for tonight is what does the next 20 years look like what are some of the decisions to be made I applaud the the bur or the uh Board of education's courage to look outside the box to look at different assets in the commity Community to see how those assets could uh enable and facilitate a better education and a better environment for the students so a couple quick statistics uh for you those out there that like numbers Garfield Elementary School is 16,479 square ft and sharp is 27,40 uh 439 Square fet so if we were to renovate these facilities and later on in this presentation you're going to see the investment the proposed investment in Good Shepard is about $500 a square foot so all things being equal you would spend $8.2 million renovating Garfield and the same math at 27,000 square feet for Sharp would be about 13.7 million investment if we were to build new construction we can't build things the way we did the link back in 2005 for some $200 a square foot no today the numbers are dramatically different currently my districts are north of $600 a square foot uh when you take it other considerations like site work Dennis is going to talk a little bit about that storm water requirements all the it and whatnot starting from scratch and the demolition you're probably talking Allin $750 so if you extrapolate that times the square footage you're talking about $13 million Investments and 20.5 million Investments there's another C to the wind a lot of times my experience in working with schools if you have a a new building that serves one grade group on a certain part of the town you really have to work hard to convince other people that live in other parts of the community that would not benefit from that new construction so it becomes a very parody issue or parity sensitive issue when you launch on new schools in in a district um as to the question that you will talk about good Shephard and Craig pointed out our superintendent with the gray configuration four to five that does offer educational opportunities we'll get into a little bit about that um in a neighboring town in Burlington County they went to that great configuration it was very successful thank you P So the plan for these buildings uh moving forward after referendum um the first off being that Barfield and that that property would be that that property would be sold um students would remain in that building until all of the work is completed and we're able to safely move to the other other spaces within the district um portions of those sales would go towards investments in sharp which will remain a district asset and become a community space um also into um looking into funds to ensure uh that students that are have the furthest to travel given these shifts would have safe rotes to school and remaining funds would be used to address long-standing maintenance needs and capital reserves uh other point too to make within this um we know that there have been a lot of current Investments particularly within sharp we look at the the tree grant that we just got and within the mural every intention is to make sure that we maintain those and and follow those through as this will still remain a district property and we just imagine that the use will be different opened up more towards the community um so wanted to be very clear that at in looking at that space making sure that we're preserving a lot of that culture and bringing in a lot of community impact on what that space can be so let's move into what would be happening at our other Elementary buildings starting first with newbie and then going in with Tatum uh the first project here um you can see this is the building here this is the large black top it's a little bit tough to see blown up um we would be adding in a new ADA Compliant age appropriate outdoor playground there is currently a playground over here uh this would be a the surface would allow for students that are in wheelchairs um everyone uh to be able to access access it and utilize it giving an asset within the community that's not something that um we currently have at any of our other schools or many of the other surrounding districts Tatum as well would receive a similar playground uh built into where they are current they currently have their space thank about anything around just the playgrounds or Dennis and as we're talking through here just one one of the things we're always looking at new technologies so and as Craig points out ADA compliance is always a a big aspect of everything that we look at and do uh with the port surface that enables that to be facilitated also it takes out the maintenance issue you can imagine because you have mulch around your house and whatnot that the the way that it gets scattered the the rain uh other things the port surfaces are the latest and greatest they take all that out of the equation it's less maintenance thank you so moving over to the work that would be happening at zaye North again to add seats Within the uh the footprint of of the current space um the additions here would be happening in the or what is in the yellow of the floor plan um built in I believe it was 1956 this is the youngest of our current elementary schools um and here would be adding almost would be adding um six classrooms about 7,500 Square ft of educational space um new teacher rooms classrooms will will be fitted with bathrooms um and new there will be group small group instruction speech rooms Hall bathrooms ada8 compliant age prgram will also be added up here on this part of the property um we can't see it this is the front of the building Ada ramps would be added to increase accessibility into the building along with a security vestibule uh that would go at the front to increase security into into the facility we also would be adding in new Fire Systems um not just in where the addition but throughout the entire building um I think captured everything uh within this space very rarely do we get a situation where we can put on an addition very efficiently and if you look at the yellow how it matches up with the white which is the existing carer it really lays out nice in an L-shaped addition right off the back uh there's no wasted SP for long 20ft Carters or extensions it really wraps around nicely so thank you to whoever designed this originally because it lays up perfect perfectly for us to put the yellow on with an efficient addition you might also wonder how come 950 Square fet well what we want to do here is be mindful of the facility efficiency standards so the doe tells the Architects and the design Community how big spaces need to be so here we're designing this space for prek andk that's 900 ft in an infield and 50 sare ft in a unisex ADA Compliant toilet the other important aspect Craig brought it up we'll be able to do with security vesu and reconfigure the main office to find that entrance accessible entrance and to find that in the pink area that we we show um in a state-of-the-art travel pth thank you B also part with this is the flexibility of the space what it would give to us if the needs of the students in enrollments shift we could make these classroom shift in the future as they are big enough uh to support our youngest but then all all the way up through fifth grade if if the need arose again the the proposed plan here would be prek through third grade so we'll move now into the biggest part of investment of this plan which would be taking the bringing the good Shephard building within the district and investing in this space as a 4 five building um this is a rendering of what the outside would look like um off of Le Avenue uh kind of grade out here is the convent space just to give you an idea of of where that is um this would be an an added feature here to kind of draw people into the front of the building um temporary placeholder of Collingswood Upper Elementary here um as we would figure out throughout the course of this project what to name the building um I spoke a a little bit about this in other parts but again want to reiterate um when we saw this building as an opportunity um again would be younger than any of our other facilities in the district uh with the full gym cafeteria and library and classroom space it boasts um opportunities and amenities that none of our other facilities have currently at the elementary level so that is a lot of what brought us here to explore what it would cost and what the investment would be to bring it in um again walk through of high level about a lot of the work when you pull up this if you want to go in and dig into this presentation which will be posted online after this you'll be able to see the line by lines for for all the work that's going to happen in this space so here is the first floor a lot of the work that's going to happen just to orient you again from what you just saw this is that main entrance here right off of Le's Avenue uh this is the cafeteria that goes down and there's uh the library here there's the full kitchen and we're proposing adding a corridor in here to give passage from the main area all the way down into the uh into the library bathrooms here on the first floor which would be completely renovated um district office space up here along with some teacher workroom flexibil Flex learning space and other amenities to serve students uh in the building also as an addition uh we would be putting in a three-story elevator on this part of the facility I'll run through each floor and then if you want to kind of talk more second floor this is where the gym currently is two-story gym uh bathroom Renovations and the elevator these are the classrooms to give you a sense of the size of what we would bringing in they would also be getting overhauled uh with blackboards electric electric um and other pieces that are needed to um to bring it to not only serve student needs today but into the future third floor looks very similar um as a parochial school that was built in the 70s there was an additional investment that was put in but then it was kind of hard to keep up with a lot of the needs that a district public school would have so we knew going into this where was going to be a lot of projects within there that were going to have to be updated so we'll run through a little bit of what the work is going to look like in the building we know around the outside of the site Ada accessibility making sure that everyone is able to access this building uh updates a new roof HVAC there's currently no air conditioning in there um boiler and other major systems so that we can extend the life s the lifespan of this building um new Windows Doors masonary repairs the add the addition of that front canopy to again draw people into the front of the building um gym kitchen Library improvements bathrooms office and teacher workroom space uh security upgrades hazardous material abatements and um the addition of a three-story elevator are the big projects again there will be a lot of other small work Plumping other things that are going to again are an investment but are going to extend the life and the feasibility and the use of this building for for a long time I'll turn it over to you too before we get into next think and some of the most important features and mentioned here in the slide are full siiz gymnasium full service kitchen full service kitchen with food prep capabilities a library and then 12 classrooms 12 classrooms that can be designed to a specific fourth and fifth grade curriculum along with some other spaces the housing of the central district office in a in a proper space with a separate entrance guidance and other features that can be relocated or departments I should say can be relocated to this building that will additionally free up space within the district so while it's a win-win on the surface for the fourth and fifth graders there are a lot of additional benefits as we pull departments out of schools free up space and allow for expansion in there so this is a complete investment complete investment from the top down this is just a highlight of all of the improvements at the end of the day it'll be a brand new facility renovated facility and something that'll service well for the decades to come thank so that is a run view run of the building component of the plan the other important piece of this is addressing the athletic facilities and Recreation space um knowing that this is a major issue across the entire Community we wanted to look at one of the biggest spaces that we have and what is available and think about how we could be maximizing that space not only for our students but for the community so this is the proposed plan that we are running for the athletic space which to orient you is just beyond this building over here starting out by the current football field which is oriented this way we would flip this over opening up space in the entire lot adding a turf field eight Lane track up from the currently I believe is five a ,500 spectator home grand stand with a Press Box uh and entrances here into into the facil faity um another turf field down here um multi-purpose and softball with some grass practice fields and grass softball up here as well um lighting that uh is I I'll let you talk a little bit about the the lighting portion of the Dennis um uh Ada accessibility upgrades to the sound system and a little bit of storage we'll talk more about what people see here Den from Remington and Vernick Engineers uh I've got involved with collinswood school district since 2003 uh they first asked us to look at the running track uh it's an older running track uh it's a latex synthetic surface uh we rehabbed it back in 2003 um the district contacted me maybe 15 years later and we did a another uh resurfacing um back then uh but it's still um it's a very old track um as you know it's it's not eight Lanes um during our investigation we determined that it wasn't even 400 meters currently uh so what we're proposing to do is you know reorient the track and bring it up to eight Lanes bring it up to 400 meters um synthetic uh turf fields inside for soccer and football and also a future synthetic uh softball and multi-purpose field in the lower area um it's going to be basically um set up as a uh the underd drain system for the multi-purpose fields and we're going to cap it with a uh geotextile and put grass on it at first uh but it'll be ready in the future if Community ever wants to upgrade it to synthetic um also in the uh two tennis courts added there and the basketball court um as you can see we're also adding a a pickle ball court uh in the middle of the basketball court so we'll have portable pickle ball nets for that um overall uh two practice fields and this is really something delighting in this complex upgrading it to LED lighting right now the current field lights face toward the residential yards each Direction by reorienting the fields uh Sports lighting will be directed toward toward uh the opposite directions toward the school and then toward the lower area so there going to be much less impact with noise and with lighting um as a result of these improvements and overall this is really uh it's a great facility um you know like I said collinswood we've been involved for a long time and um this is something that's been a vision for a while and something the community really deserves judging by the reaction we should have led with pickle ball so thank you um yeah I think the opportunity back here to reorient and reimagine what this space could be is going to be a direct benefit to our students um not only from uh access for physical education but then within Sports uh it also creates a space where we can start to host events uh band competitions Regional [Music] everybody safe keep them over at the sports complex and not have to use portable facilities leave the campus or come into this building for the school so that's why it looks scary to you about the number of of fixtures like link and financial field but that is the plumbing code on the women's side and the men's side and we wanted to match that up also having space for our visiting and home teams as well as our officials and and a proper concession area and a new main entrance there should be public comment but not questions tonight so I'm gonna let Bob kind of run here through here uh as we get into what this investment and the cost will be again all this information will be posted on the website with more details about each of the projects and how these numbers add up um but Bob if you could walk us through this estimated total cost what the we can anticipate in terms of state aid for this project and how we get down to this um our your estimate around what the local share will be for the for this part of the project certainly thank you so Dennis gets pickable ball I get cost um so we'll we'll run through it new newbie and Tatum playgrounds so as Craig pointed out the detailed backup for this and you'll see many many pages of detail as we use cost estimating Services my office bids 50 to 60 jobs a year so we try to be current with the cost when you see the the estimated total cost that is not only bricks and mortar but any soft costs that are involved in their project so it's the the total package to build the new playgrounds at newb and Tatum that soft cost is eligible for by the state of New Jersey it includes architect engineering fees construction contingency cost of election day um Legal Services auditing and full-time construction management so to walk you through it the estimated cost for the two playgrounds is $700,000 state government on a renovation project is 40% state aid so that means in the green state government was our partner in this just like it was our partner back in5 where state government partnered with this community for $13 million they're going to partner for $280,000 therefore leaving the local share at $420,000 the way the state calculations work is Renovations are The Architects or Engineers estimate including the soft cost at 40% minimum what does that mean 40% minimum why I live in Ocean City New Jersey and they don't get 40% District Aid percentage they get very very low amount so everybody gets at least 40% neighboring districts um maybe or the abbid districts get 100% of their money paid for so you're in that regular operating District 40% um amount Zay North so Zay North is a $7 million project the renovations if you remember that slide in the pink area which is the main entrance uh the office and the bathrooms are fully funded at the 40% new construction however by state government is dramatically different new construction is funded at $143 a square foot $143 a square foot state government doesn't care that it costs five or six or 700,000 dollars1 doll a square foot their funding is 40% of 143 or just over $50 so that's what you get for new construction in fact that formula has been maintained by state government since 2000 so we've been 24 years with the same formula for state government with a cost increase over decades but they don't recognize any increase over the 143 so we put the renovations and the new construction together and the state share on that aspect of the project is a million three the new Upper Elementary School same situation so you're sitting there and you're saying well wait a minute that's a renovation project you just said that you were going to do Building Systems and everything everything else it is a renovation project but state government says if it's not currently in your inventory in other words it's not in your school district's inventory as a school facility you're buying this building therefore you're subject to the new construction formula so that's why you see the disconnect with $2.3 million on the $23 million and again the detail is there expenditure for good sheeper land and building acquisition a450 that's included in the number above so your total investment for buildings if you will is $32.7 million almost $4 million in state aid on the stadium complex Stadium complex just like we did in 2018 we appealed to the state of New Jersey that a portion of the stadium is used for physical educational construction so that's why you see $550,000 for a portion portion of the cost of that complex stadiums just like land just like other things Athletics are not included in the state formula at $143 or at renovation cost architectural building costs again the bleachers the building under the bleachers the bathrooms and whatnot are not funded under the state form for so the 11 mil7 investment gets $550,000 because as I said that portion is used those fields are used for p instruction the total project cost is $44 million but with the state contributing $4.5 million estimated the estimated local share for the taxpayer will be 39.9 million just under 40 million the district and the Board of Education was also mindful of the borrowing capacity the current School District borrowing capacity is that number that you see there calculated by The District's Financial Consultant and bond counsel at 47.1 million so it's important to note the district is not going to their their full borrowing capacity this leaves with the financial advisor uh calculating the numbers $ 35 to $40 per month on the average assess value of [Music] $232,500 we will have a tax calculator tax calculator uh that will be on the website where you can put your assessed value it is not your market value it's not what you think your house is worth it is actually your assess value that you get off your tax bill we will also have a link to the burrow tax office so there won't be any guessing as what your assessment is so each of you will be able to go in drop in this assessment and get a 100% accurate impact U on the program U offered by the Board of Education this is the estimated timeline based on all of that information that we need to get back from the Department of Education and approvals for the project the vote on the referendum would be in September of 2024 um with some flexibility if we needed to move to December based on uh the Department of Education back to us so another question that try to anticipate some questions that come up state government dictates the school districts when you can hold elections elections are not whenever the school district wants or when people leave for Florida or whatever School District elections are held four times a year or on the general election so the four special times of year are the last September last Tuesday in September the second Tuesday in December the fourth Tuesday not the last the fourth Tuesday in January and the second Tuesday in March so you may have read about Haden Township having a successful re referendum on March 12th I had one in Palmyra those dates are dictated by legislation not at the board's discretion thank you for the clarification and just to walk through then what the timelines look like the vote coming in September of 2024 um upon passing the referendum construction would begin in June of that following summer um with the playgrounds at Tatum and newbie being the first of the projects that would be completed um the next coming in August of 2026 uh the stadium being being complet completed uh December 2026 Zan Renovations would be would be finished with that following summer the Upper Elementary School renovated and complete which will put us on a timeline of September 2027 to um start transitioning students into the new buildings these are fairly conservative estimates and being pushed back um would like to make sure that we're able to fit all this knowing the scale of the plan and what we're asking and all the different factors that go into being able to complete this um was a a question that was asked about questions there will be more opportunities to engage with us about this plan and there's more that's coming in here uh there'll be a public comment period after this I also just want to point out there was slips of paper that were there but if in case you didn't see it this is the QR code for the FAQ that we're going to be actively building and updating throughout the course of this process so that we make sure we get as much information out to you all so that you can make an informed decision uh come September um again want to thank everybody for for listening to my part about this I'm going to Sarah Sherman that talks about the academic impacts of this one okay hello everyone sorry sounds awk hi hi guys um thank you Matt for walking us through all that um I want to talk very briefly about some of the other proposed and potential benefits of this program AC mically um in terms of teaching and instruction and also just as a district um and then we'll get more into some more um Community benefits in terms of diversity and inclusion um and so briefly just to talk about um some of the proposed or potential benefits that would impact students um we're looking at a number of of things that would include um different forms of socialization for our students mixing students up so they're not traveling with the same cohort every single time um minimizing transitions to different schools particularly for um so students don't have to go to a designated Center um that we're we were hoping to have more uh general education more inclusion classrooms once we consolidate some of the schools and create the upper elementary school as well um in that also um there is a hope that it would allow for more specific focus on developmental needs and resources um at the k through3 level and at the four through five level and this would also hopefully manifest itself into creating more developmentally and age appropriate school routines school schedules Bell schedules um and um even recess activities okay um things that are a little more um uh geared towards specific age groups um space is also something that will benefit students academically we know that at a number of our schools right now students are being pulled out like Matt said on stages pulled out in the hallways we're using multi-purpose rooms for you know five six seven different types of classes and so creating dedicated academic spaces for small group instruction for different learning styles is something that um this uh plan would hopefully create the potential for moving forward in terms of teaching and instruction the greatest uh benefit that we see overall is that teachers would be put more together so that it's not not just one class per grade level there would be more time for collaboration across grade cohorts with this um increased time for collaboration um there might be or there would hopefully be better alignment of curriculum and programming better alignment of Benchmark testing better preparation for um for State standardized testing for certain grade levels as well okay within this we're also looking um at increased specialization for different staff members members on the one hand increase uh opportunities for specialization among instructional support staff aids to work with specific age groups as well as different um teacher specialization particularly for the Upper Elementary levels grades four and five um rather than um teachers Elementary Upper Elementary School teachers teaching all content areas allowing teachers to focus more specifically on a specific content area like Ela or math or science or history um which is what many um elementary schools do already um we also believe that this plan has the potential for positive Social Development like I said students would be traveling from if we do the increased specialization students would be traveling to different teachers throughout the day it would allow for mixing up cohorts it would allow for students to build social bonds with students across town not just the same group of kids from K through five as a district we I think it's worth mentioning that one of the greatest potential benefits is that we'll create schools that are better representative of our entire Community students will be mixed with um other students from across town not just localized with their cohorts not just localized within their neighborhoods there's a number of cultur and climate benefits like I said um and uh Bruce Smith is going to talk more specifically about uh diversity and Community Building um but this is an opportunity for students to get to know each other before they enter the Middle School building because of all all the craziness that comes with Middle School um the socialization that will take place prior to that um will have a lot of benefits um Matt also talked about uh increased field usage um and uh for the community as well um students who want to be athletes Beyond High School um now we'll have an eight Lane track okay more um uh different fields and uh more opportunities for students to really fine-tune their athletic abilities um and this will also bring in increased Revenue potentially for the district as well hosting competitions allowing the track use to happen um many students are also engaged in a number of community recreation programs like Odyssey of the mind um different art camps and so having these spaces particularly at the good sheeper building with its cafet dedicated cafeteria space dedicated gymnasium space and dedicated Library space maybe taking some pressure off of the middle and high schools which often host a number number of these like indoor athletic events and so these are just some of the potential benefits and potential opportunities that this referendum can offer our students and our teachers and our community um Bruce Smith who is the head of diversity equity and inclusion committee here in collinswood is going to talk more specifically about the impact here you're GNA stand there okay good luck to you I'm gonna stay up here because I'm not as handsome as Matt and I'm not as cute as Sarah so I'll stay all the way over here um before we get started I'd like to uh take the opportunity to uh extend a thank you to Dr McDow for his leadership and for asking uh members of the DI commit to be part of the referendum ad hoc committee I'd like to thank the school administration teachers and the board of education for their continued commitment to Dei initiatives in the school district I'd also like to thank Beth Anne for her guidance and all that she's been able to support in this process and um Bob and Dennis for their team and all the work they put in into putting this together um also there is a when it comes to de we also like to extend a thank you to burall and um the mayor for all their dedication of resources um not just to Dei but to all the groups in town um I'd also like to thank the mayor and the commissioner for their dedication to development of our town and creating vision and focus on the importance of public buildings on our town as evidenced by the new public safety building and our coming soon Public Works building um before we get into a snapshot of where we are as far as diversity equity and inclusion and what it could be I'd like to just be very clear that how we get to these numbers and how this happens is more of a system and the structure of buildings and not an intent to keep us separated or segregated it's just a matter of fact of schools being built in the 1900s and we're in 2024 diversity the practice of quality the practice or quality of including or involving people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different gender sexual orientations and developmental abilities this is a snapshot of our district which is estimated and within a margin of era that includes uh minorities and white students so across our district our population of the five elementary schools is 65% white 35% minority our Middle School is 62% white and 38% minority and our high school is 51% white and 49% minority when we take a look at our elementary schools as they stand today Garfield is 60% white and 40% minority sharp is 40% white and 60% minority newbie is 6 5% white and 35% minority Tatum is 70% white and 30% minority and Zayn is 80% white and 20% minority um I just want to stop here as we we're reviewing the data and the numbers and the percentages it it's very clear the way the district is set up but because the numbers in the schools are so small sometimes it doesn't tell the whole story so I can tell you my daughter Z is in kindergarten and she's one of three minorities in a class of 27 kids and as that class of 27 kids goes to fourth and fifth grade they will go into the middle school and in the Middle School those three minority kids for the first time will be around over 200 minority kids and that group of white kids for the first time will be around such a larger percentage so one of the things when we talk about this is what ways can we get our kids together at a younger age so they can grow together uh projected student enrollment of Upper Elementary School based on the data that we have from Fall 2022 and 2023 projected Upper Elementary School would be would make up 65% white and 35% minority as a result of realignment the Upper Elementary School enrollment will be reflective of our elementary population across the district our current middle school and closer to our high school enrollments so if you were to go back and look at a couple of slides which you will see is that the upper the fourth and fifth grade will look very close to what the Middle School looks like which is closer to what the high school looks like and also our prek and elementary schools will also be more reflective of their enrollment demographics across the district um equity freedom from bias and favoritism equity and education no matter a student's race economic status gender disability or history and background they will have an opportunity to receive Source receive services and resources to accomplish academic academic achievement that meets their needs benefits of equity gives everyone a chance to learn in ways that best fit their learning style provides more opportuni for under resource students to get what they need to be successful academically socially and emotionally helps to close the gap in academic achievement removes the unconscious bias associated with the success or failure of certain School communities so as we're bringing people together and bringing teachers together and bringing more resources together in uh bigger buildings uh gives the opportunity and gives our teachers more resources to search for these goals and equity inclusion the practice or policy of providing equal access to Opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized such as those who have physical or intellectual disabilities and members of other minority groups so two board meetings ago um CPAC collinswood CPAC gave a presentation on um inclusion and we had went through a lot of bullet points that we could about the positives of it but there was some data that was part of that presentation that tells us specifically where we are in inclusion and I thought it was worth uh showing again therefore I made Ali aware that I was stealing her slides how do we measure inclusion a student with dis with a disability spends 80% or more of their day in the general education setting in 2022 the national average inclusion rate in the United States was 66% how are we doing New Jersey in 2022 our average is 45% Connecticut 68% Maryland 71% Virginia 72% again the US average is 66% and the csw average is 41% so when you see this chart and you see where we are as far as inclusion it it's very clear that we have a lot of work and the process of this realignment gives us an opportunity to have more general education classes with more teachers in those classes so that all of our kids can be together inclusion benefits greater access to the full spectrum of curriculum curriculum offerings increases social interactions and relationships among peers Fosters acceptance and understanding of individual differences creates a culture of belonging makes space for collaborations between teachers and AIDS across the spectrum of Specialties Unity so I uh thought of two of my favorite quotes and about what this referendum represents um for a lot and it may not be for all um alone we can do so little together we can do so much um by Helen Keller and the greatness of the community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members a heart of Grace and a soul generated by love um Dei work is Unity no matter how you try to picture it and separated it's about bringing people together and um this referendum goal is to do that but I think we also have to acknowledge that even in the excitement of this referendum we have to be empathetic to those who are most affected by these proposed changes to the parents and students who will be in convenience to those who whose dedication hard work and memories are part of the fabric of sharp and Garfield we may we must also as we leave here and go down this path understand that regardless of identity demographics or gender we are not monolithic um people may not agree with this and that's okay we must understand that there are additional costs and for some it may be a burden optimism and excitement for this plan does not minimize those feelings everyone should make their voice heard and their her their voice will be heard the loudest at The Ballot Box I imagine that everyone in this cafeteria and every parent of a child that attends the school district and every citizen who doesn't have children wants what's best for our kids that is our commonality that uh we all share and we can start there the discussion around this referendum proposal should be robust and it should be worthy of all of our students and we should be able to disagree with a common goal of doing and making decisions that are worthy of the kids in this District this District makes up so many different kind of kids who come from so many different elements kids of economic privilege and those living under the poty line kids students who excel at academics and some who read at a lower grade level than they're currently in students who love sports and Love Languages and arts and students who are competing in The Odyssey of Mind students who have disabilities and students who struggle with mental health we must be worthy of all of our students our students from Oakland our students from Woodland and all the students in the col were kids and in this discussion we should make sure that our thoughts and our disagreements are in the purpose of pushing the conversation forward and that our personal wants and needs are secondary to this uh to that cause um we have a very very big group of talented and smart and diverse group of students and I think that um the excitement from this proposal uh tries to handle some of the issues that our students confront uh daily um we should all be disappointed that we have schools that aren't ADA Compliant and in this District we do not have one Ada complying playground Equity cannot be what takes place in a classroom if we have kids who want cannot be what just takes place in the classroom if we have kids who want to play football and Lacrosse and field hockey they deserve to have Fields locker rooms and equipment that gives them the best opportunity to be successful it is um an honor to I am president of Perkins Arts Center in town I sit on a zoning board I love this town I love the people of this town um as exciting as this is I um would be remissed if I didn't say that this is a hard conversation and it's hard for people here and I hope that moving forward we can have a discussion that's worthy of our [Applause] district thank you very much Bruce uh and to everyone that uh that participated in this presentation today like I said a lot of work went into this um a lot of research and and planning and practice and so thank you to everyone sitting over there um for for bringing this proposal to life for everyone um okay so a lot of information has been shared tonight and I know if I were sitting in the audience um on the other side of this table uh listening to all of this I would be feeling really overwhelmed I would have a ton of questions I would want to look through this presentation in front of me and read through it look at the cost summaries get get a sense of what was going on and really process it and we encourage you to do all of that um this is only the beginning this meeting um is one of many and we intentionally set things up so that there would be a little bit of space between now and the next time that we meet so that folks can take the time to sit with a lot of this um really tough news that was just delivered as well as some potentially really exciting news that was delivered and think it through write down your questions um and that's why we have up on the screen scheduled after spring break two information sessions that will be a different format than what we have here tonight it will be more informal there will be a chance for question and answer periods because we will not be in a huge Auditorium uh or we're not in the auditorium cafeteria um with uh with a the structure that is necessary for a public board meeting so please come and join us with all of your questions your feedback your con your concerns on Tuesday April 9th and or Tuesday April 16th at 6:30 at the Collingswood Community Center uh we're going to leave this slide up for the remainder of the meeting tonight so that you can um use that QR code to type in questions that may be coming to mind uh starting tomorrow morning our website hopefully it is live tonight but we can guarantee it by tomorrow morning that the website will have the full PDF of this presentation which will include the cost summary breakdowns that Matt mentioned earlier uh the video for this presentation will also be available and we couldn't do it live but uh it will be converted to our p no not a PDF it will be converted to our YouTube channel which will have live captioning for those that need it as well as um the frequently asked questions document that we have already started with some some questions um and will'll continue adding to as we go along this process will be on the website as well as the link to the Google form to continue asking us more questions as uh you think of them so with all of that being said uh at this time it is our opportunity for public comment the board will be actively listening and taking notes as we usually do however in this time it will be to process feedback about this this particular proposal and plan for informative and helpful sessions in the future please remember that anyone who wishes to speak should do do so with the utmost sensitivity to everyone in attendance there's a strict three minute time limit to ensure that everyone who wishes to speak has the opportunity this evening uh so if you would like to come and share your thoughts uh ask some questions because like I said uh bethanne and I are going to be typing out um comments as they come in um come to the microphone state your name and address for the record and please keep your comments to three minutes or less hi Wayne Rossy 114 East Palmer ra um so I think that it's been a crying shame in this district for years that we have not had grade level schools because um I don't think I saw it discussed enough but there are achievement gaps within the elementary schools and I think that anything that moves us closer to grade level alignment which I believe this plan does is going to be a huge step forward in that uh in terms of uh better representing students across schools and better uh moving uh resources to uh help students who are currently underperforming I I think think that that's the the critical thing the other thing I I find about this that's compelling is getting good sheeper school like I've seen the numbers for what it would cost to build a equivalent school and it's like three times more to do that so I think that this is something and you know watching the presentation really feeling that like our students deserve to have these things like things like a separate cafeteria kitchen gymnasium Library these are things that like the the more we can do the better um so I understand that you know some of these decisions are going to be painful to some people but I think that there's a lot here uh to be excited about uh my main personal reservation is about turf fields I understand that there are difficulties with both Turf and grass fields uh but because our athletic fields are so close to Newton Lake uh I think that that becomes an issue in terms of uh the environmental impact and I'd like to see that addressed throughout the process of this referendum but overall I think that this is a major step forward and I I think that this is big for diversity and I think it's big for our students who really deserve this thank you hi uh Angela Imperial 227 East Madison Avenue um I do Echo the sentiments of the man before me I definitely uh coming from a background of working with people with disabilities for uh 10 years I definitely saw and recognized the ADA requirements right away so that's a huge plus and there are great things you know nobody wants to say in the past but I I can't help but recognize the vast improvements moving towards the future while somewhat not giving enough attention to the past and giving enough emotional recognition and the impact of whom this will directly affect so the people that have lived here grew up here some people have lived here their whole lives and then decided to live here and raised their current families they lived here also the Educators at Garfield who already do a fantastic amazing job with incl with inclusion the stuff that my daughter brings home blows my mind and teaches me things every single day so the the nod which it was to me a nod and the presentation does definitely does not give enough information for the people that'll it will directly affect as far as taxes go home appraisals increased home appraisals who's going to do those home appraisals if they're paid for by the town home equity home values wonderful definitely not against that but the tax burden that comes with that begs the question to me what is the goal what's the goal here is the goal to change the population landscape of Collingswood that could be good also a humongous sporting complex that welcomes a lot of other traffic into our town that requires what I heard security and security vestibules to me begs is like a metal detector like what are we talking here so this was great you know first step but more information for sure for the people who live here especially those of which myself included chose to live here and to raise a family after looking for years for a town where home to school proximity for Garfield East Madison was a direct you know decisionmaking uh component for my family so definitely more information needed less flowerly language like we you have smart people here in this room please you know treat us with respect give us a little bit more detail thank [Applause] you hi I'm Katie Des Shan 11 Maple Lane um so I just wanted to make sure that we're addressing in the community um sessions a couple things right now my uh we're at Garfield and we commute about a little over a mile to school and it is a far commute um and so understanding that now some kids will have a much further commute than that I know that there was mention of like some safety things going in but I think we need a lot more detail on what exactly that is since we are not a busing District um knowing if my commute is going to get any further that's something we need to talk about especially since we don't courage ly allowed biking and that's something that that would have to be readdressed I didn't see any bike racks on any of the schools so that's something that would need to get addressed I think we also really need to talk about we're putting all these great upgrades into Zay into the Garfield or into the new upper elementary school but what are we going to do then with newbie and um Tatum so newbie you know my son went to Camp there last year you know what are we going to do to upgrade their bathroom facilities what are we going to do to make sure that there's enough adult bathrooms and a he friends um you know enough like you know prek bathrooms and then I think we also need to understand are we still going to keep prek at Oakland and as well as the CE because again that's money that we're spending on leasing are we going to address that issue is that issue going to continue we need to know what the plan is for prek there my other concern is our overall spending capability I saw up there that we have a spending limit of about $48 million if we're borrowing $40 million we're going to put ourselves at basically the top of our spending so what does that mean for future improvements so like how are we going to address that when we need to upgrade these facilities in the future I think we really need to understand if we're taking out a 30-year Bond what does that mean for us in the long term because the high school also needs improvements not just the fields so like how do we deal with that if we don't have the money to borrow to do it so those are things that I'm looking forward to hearing more about um in the next session um hi my name is harmony Thompson I live at 424 Richie Avenue um uh so I have two children they one attended sharp until this past year and the other is still at sharp for a few more years um so I just want to give props to Sharp and the teachers and the community are like incredible um so it's an emotional moment right for us so I do agree that we need a little bit more recognition on that but also I think that what would help us understand the plan a little bit better and I think it really really has to happen before this next meeting is what is going to happen to Sharp somebody said I believe you said oh it's going to become a community center what does that mean what where's the money coming from who's going to be included in the decision- making on that and how is it going to happen and when is it going to happen and what are the improvements to that building and that out that black top which there is no green space there is no Ada playground a community center in my mind would also have a playground that's open to the public and not locked every day um and also maybe have green space and all like what is that and we really need to know that ASAP because I know that our community is hurting right now and in order for us to even have any semblance of what's coming in the future um we have to know what that means detailed like like Maps like what's the vision where's the architect on that right okay so that's all I want to say there's a lot more questions but I know that's not for right now too short for this I'm Rebecca SE 1030 Grant a also a very proud sharp parent um with a three old and a six-year-old at Sharps this is certainly something that's going to impact our kids and I think I've got a lot of questions I'll say the emotions are very high because in the same presentation being told our school is looking to close but we're getting pickle ball is actually not a comfortable juxa position to sit with um but I'll say I have a couple of big questions the first is given the population that sharp is currently serving as you spread our students out across the district what happens to title one funding and programs that support that student population at sharp um the second is and we're all the way by Granton Champion so we're at the far end of West Collingswood um and we moved here intentionally we love the diversity of sharp we chose it for that as I look at any other Elementary School our kids are going to go to it's a good 20 25 minute walk each way for tiny legs and after going to healthy kids at newbie and driving there last summer I don't understand what the logistical capacity of this is going to be to make sure that we can safely drop our kids off on these narrow side streets and where there are already so many kids coming and going um and then the third that I just say I would encourage to consider is that in West Collingswood we have this wonderful thriving Community designed to support one another and what you're doing by taking away the only school on that side of our town is our community where we go and help pick each other's kids up if running late from work or do drop offs and help we cannot do that and support our community in the same way as we are spread out I can't get five car seats in my car to help people out I can't do it so you are genuinely in this proposal breaking a piece of that community that we have in West Collingswood and I really want to know how we're going to be able to kind of build that a new given the constraints we have as we cross town so thank you [Applause] Lindsay auster uh 105 McGill Avenue uh another very proud West Collingswood resident sharp parent sharp PTA president um one of my biggest concerns here is the way people are going to get to these new schools um I live on the outskirts of West Collingswood I calculated the difference granted my personal children will not be affected by these changes that will be in middle and high school by the time this happens however from my house to the good sheeper building is 1.6 miles from my house to Zane or newbie I believe it yeah Zay or newbie I believe it was like 1.3 and 1.2 something to that effect that's a really long way to walk um and while I agree with the 4 five building I think that's a great idea um you know you're bringing people really really far and having them walk or be driven to school at the point at which they're just starting to get that sense of uh sense of being able to do it on their own uh sorry I'm bit lost for words um you know my kid in fifth grade now is allowed to walk to and from school let her in the H let herself in the house things like that that I she's not going to walk a mile and over a mile and a half for fourth grade fifth grade those kinds of things also crossing the white horse Pike um where there's already not enough crossing guards crossing the pike um I Heard a bit in one of the plans that some of the money will go to safe routs to school and some sort of Transportation would love to know really what that's about um you know more about that um and the other the other question I had would be with regards to libraries at the elementary schools um I believe you all know that sharp I believe is the only ele elentary school that currently has its own Library space uh okay Garfield has oh so you taken away the two schools with the library is awesome um but I heard that you're putting a library or there is a library that exists at the 45 building what about the other three elementary schools you know what are we what are we putting in there so I need a lot more information I know that those info sessions are there and I I plan to be there so thank you uh grud and Ki uh 920 Grand Avenue uh I have three sharp graduates um I have a high school graduate uh this year I have a an alumni uh and I have a child entering uh high school next year uh I was on the committee when we looked at this I don't know 15 16 years ago one of the huge problems at the time we were considering closing Garfield but we're going to keep sharp and regionalize things and the the biggest from most of people were I'm not sending my kid over to that side because it's not safe enough I'm wondering is that why we're closing sharp this time um has to be you have to go over and I I can't Echo safe ways for these kids to get to school um of sharp PTA involved for 13 years um I care about all my kids I kept I kept my kids at sharp other people in the neighborhood left I wanted my kids at sharp that's why we moved there I live a half a block away um I'm all about and make sense the regionalization for the grades I understand that but you've got to look at the community and getting these kids safe and they can't just be well they're over there those folks on that side don't count they're on the west side it doesn't matter we pay a lot of taxes too folks um my other concerns are what's happening you know the the district offices were moved out of Zay because they weren't the Zayn building wasn't in good condition where the district offices were what's happening to Zayn in that part is that going to be fixed um and how's that being addressed and what's that space going to be used for also um again it's wonderful I think the 4 five makes a lot of sense they have the dedicated are areas but your high school doesn't fit everyone for lunch my kid eats outside kids eat in the hallway what's going to be done about this facility for lunch are you looking at that if you're if you're concerned about room for everyone else this isn't being addressed um I think my three minutes is [Applause] up hi uh my name is Cara Boer I'm at Summerfield Avenue in Collingswood um so I'm going to start a lot of people know me but those that don't a personal anecdote um I have four kids uh last year I had one in preschool at sharp I had one at newbie I had one at the middle school and one at the high school and I have the luxury of being able to stay at home and I have two we're a twocc car family and I set off my day at 7:45 in the morning and I start just dropping kids off and wandering around the district and in my travels I see is walking from Park viw and I see them walking to newbie and they set off at 7:45 or 7:50 before the school day even is beginning and it's in all kinds of inclement weather so I have a very large concern about what happens to our furthest traveling students who don't have the luxury of a parent who's at home who can travel with or a two-car family and be able to get to school I was able to sit in parent advisory committee me meetings uh last year I expressed this concern and I said that I thought that this was something that could be addressed um if we were going to go the route of grade align schools what um I I know there's a safe root to school possible plan but I would be concerned for kids that maybe live in apartments on Champion Avenue who would probably be one of our furthest uh apartment Stu students maybe uh coming over from sh our sharp Community if a family didn't have two cars and they had two different grade align different grade students an upper grade and a lower grade the students if they were walking a sibling would have to walk 20 minutes or 25 minutes to get a drop off a sibling at newbie and then it would be another 27 minutes across town to get to an upper elementary or to try to get back to the elementary or middle school so I would love to see more about what the plan looks like for those families and how we can address that uh secondly um if I have time let me know when I'm up um those that don't know me uh my little bit of passion project has been trying to revitalize playgrounds in the district um I helped write based on the model at Zayn I helped write a grant at um Mark newbie we got $10,000 um thank you uh the plans that are here they don't address the concern of that I had in our in our elementary school so anybody that has that doesn't have students at newbie on One S small side of the playground we have a kindergarten playground it's only used by kindergarten students when there are enough lunch aids to be able to to watch students on that side but we have two lunch a during the lunch hour and so all the students that are in the upper grades from 1 to 5 play on an asphalt that's all they have to play on there's no structured equipment there's no green space so I spent a great amount of time trying to figure out a plan to work on that and this doesn't address that all this does is revamp the kindergarten playground that is already existing and it does not consider the fact that there's a whole opposite side of school building that is major is the the majority of utilization is on that side for lunch [Applause] sure good evening uh Jen Rossi 114 East Palmer Avenue uh some of the things that really excite me about this uh proposal about doing the grade level schools for example is it opens Collingswood up for the opportunity to be awarded as blue dis uh Blue Ribbon Schools which I think would be so really great for I mean people talking about how like real estate like oh you want to be your kid to be like sent to this school well it would be callings with schools so it would really help boost everybody if they're planning on staying going whatever their plan is uh for their families the other thing is again safe routes to school uh I know that's going to be done in coordination with the burrow I've been really disappointed in seeing how things have been working out so far for our uh students who are traveling again early in the morning crossing over the White Horse Pike when uh the uh the crossing guard show up is it necessarily when all the students are coming and going um also um hoping to hear more about how the improve improvements in the facilities will help with um the comfort of our staff because the needs have changed for staff since uh buildings were built in 1889 and 1905 uh and that um we have mothers returning to work and they need lactation space nursing spaces so that way they would be able to comfortably pump while at work so I'm hoping that's something that we're accounting for in our plan as well I heard not thank you and uh also the just to see more on um if we're going to be having any kind of lead certification or additional green initiatives that we're going to be having in the construction as well as Green Space plants life out on the uh the black top because it's 110 degre sometimes out on that black top when the air temperature is only 80 so to have some more green space would be fantastic and uh more than LED lights out on the uh football fields but also what is going to be part of the new construction at uh the uh buildings thank you so much grab this I'm short um I'm Dorian Adams I live at 702 col ings Avenue um I'm a former sharp parent my child is at the middle school I currently work at sharp um and I've stayed there since my daughter's graduation because it's my community I want to serve the children in my community and be able to support my neighbors um schools are critical anchor institutions of communities they are Lynch pens of what sociologists define as social infrastructure the physical places and organizations that shape the way people interact sharp is a center of community building creating and maintaining relationships and help create a cohesive and Vibrant Community which we've heard from already today the carry history and culture such as the mural in our allpurpose room that was painted by students parents um we have a mosaic wall that was designed by local artists whose children and grandchildren all attended sharp that was built with the assistance of parents and students and all of this has come together to give our community a sense of cohesion and belonging and giving us a vibrant and thriving Community to be a part of um there's a lot of data out there about the effects of school closures um I'm from Philadelphia I'm very familiar with what happens when you close a lot of schools or even just any schools in a community closing schools destabilizes communities and neighborhoods it lowers the property value values and tax revenues in the communities where the schools are closed the additional travel time which we've heard a lot about the safety there's more to it than just that additional distance travel distance has some less considered effects such as a move of as little of a as a half a mile can reduce participation in in enrichment activities and parental involvement for students these are resources that are absolutely necessary to support the achievement of any student but particularly for students facing a major disruption to their education as displaced students do requiring students to travel farther also reduces the desirability of an area as well as encouraging flight out of the community if there are neighborhoods in which it is safer and more accessible to walk to the Local Schools than others those will be the neighborhoods that people who want to build families or have young children will move to this loss of residence doesn't just harm the local community but as I said it negatively impacts property values and tax revenues school closures disproportionately affect low-income in minority communities as we saw from the statistics this case is no different from just an Optics perspective it looks like we are deines disinvesting from West Collingswood and giving a lot of money to schools that are 80% [Applause] white a closure like this would Place additional Community burden on these commun communities in order for these students to access their educations at all thank you Miss [Applause] Adams hi I'm Lisa Caswell 128 East Lyon AB I have two kids at Tatum and one at the middle school um the teacher side of me is really excited for the idea of Bigger Elementary Schools where teachers have the opportunity to collaborate with each other other in grade levels um as a former teacher some of my best collaboration and my best teaching came from stopping in my colleagues classroom at lunch to borrow her red linking cubes and seeing what she was doing in math or coming to her with a running record where I couldn't figure out how to get a kid past this next stumbling block and my colleague would sit down with me and we would talk about it and that that was something that was able to happen because we were all in the same building right next to one another so I'm really excited about that for our teachers I'm really concerned about the commute for our kids coming across town and I'm also I really have questions about what happens to families in which an older Elementary School student is walking their younger sibling to and from school this is what happens in my family so that I can get to work in time and supervise children at my teaching job I know there are a lot of families at Tatum where the fifth graders or the fourth graders are walking their younger siblings to and from school and I'm a little concerned about how families are going how families all over town that are in these situations are going to get their kids to and from school in the new [Applause] plan hi um good evening Maggie boac 616 Evert Avenue um also a very proud sharp family um you know I appreciate the thoughtfulness that I'm sure has gone into this plan um I wanted to represent those families that do cross callings and the White Horse Pike every day to bring our kids to school and um my biggest concern about going to Sharp was not the school but the commute and we are only s ten0 of a mile from sharp and we're actually 710 of a mile from any elementary school so it's just as close as Zane or Garfield to our home as a parent who crosses those intersections every every school day I will tell you it's terrifying um my daughter is in first grade so we have many year continued years of Crossing these intersections and I I tend to drive especially in inclement weather cold weather rain and such because not only the distance but the concerns and the fear of Crossing these streets um no matter what you do the White Horse Pike and Collings Avenue are hi trffic areas and so for me almost regardless of what the rest of the plan is safe commutes to school I think need to be addressed holistically regardless of the plan because those streets get crossed no matter what and um I will tell you that especially at Collings and Browning where so many of our uh older school children are crossing um that is a very dangerous intersection that um you will see many children young young adults perhaps reading and staring at their cell phones or looking down while crossing the street those are very very scary things to watch and it's important to recognize that something has to be done where so much traffic is happening to get our kids safer to school I have the benefit of my one-year-old being escorted to school every day by one of us and we have the choice to drive but for others that's not going to be the [Applause] case hi everyone my name is Carly Francis I live at 74 Harding a in Oakland um I am speaking both as as a resident of the community and also as a teacher I been the second grade teacher at Mark newbie school for almost 10 years now um thank you um I love it here I love this school there's a reason I never left after student teaching It's a Wonderful Community um however as a teacher at newbie I could not help but recognize that in the presentation um the only update that was mentioned to our school is the playground and while that's a wonderful thing I think that there are also not I think I'm sorry I know that there are a lot of other things that also really need to be addressed uh one thing which I know um the Newbie staff has been kind of fighting for for years now is another staff bathroom um I know the board already knows that I don't know if the community does uh on a daily basis we have 60s something staff members in our building and not only is it one bathroom for all staff it's one toilet so we all have to share and there's a line always I I actually cut in front of the principal today sorry Mr Smith um was on a time crunch prep was over uh we also have a problem with flooding in our building I know that whenever it rains a lot um our library floods we are lucky to have a library in our school but we've had hundreds of books destroyed in our library which has impacted the ability for the students to be able to go to the library and check out books are amazing parent Volunteers in the library have spent hours and hours going through those books and figuring out what we could Salvage and what unfortunately had to be thrown away um also every time it rains outside it rains in the Cubbies in my classroom so that might be something we want to look at um also technology is a concern many of the classrooms in our school do not have uh technology that really is up to what we think the standard should be um my classroom as well as the first grade classroom are projectors in the ceiling both went out in the fir well first grade classroom went out on the first day of school mine went out in October and it has yet to be fixed the reason for that um has been a lack of funding at least that's what we've been told so I'm just curious um if there's a way if this referendum does move forward is there a way to take some of that money that hard-earned money and put it towards the school that we're planning on keeping open thank [Applause] you that's hard to follow uh I'm Jessica I live at 385 Park Avenue we're Garfield people I see a lot of red y Garfield people uh I just wanted to take a minute to advocate for the music and the Arts teachers um I see that there com up there about having some additional rooms and additional space I did see one bullet point about Music Arts alss some other space um we did move to Collingswood for the schools New Jersey right you got go schools right uh taxers are super high there must be fantastic schools so yeah and they are these teachers are like I love them they're great our kids are doing great uh but I was so shocked when we came here and I found out that there was no choir room and there's no band room and there's no art room and uh seeing my kids learning singing without a piano and sitting on the floor of the cafeteria where I know there's squished french fries and ketchup packets and our Music Teacher is sitting on the floor trying to teach singing it just I was like oh man that's not right and there's one little cabinet in the corner where the arts teacher is trying to keep all of her art supplies to inspire these kids they've so much creativity they're being pushed so hard to meet benchmarks they're they're working so hard to do their letters and their numbers but the Arts and Music can Inspire so much more and improve everything in their language and their math skills and their science skills and just productivity moving forward and collaboration and socialization it's just going to be hard to see one more Garfield concert where the music teacher is sitting on the ground and the kids are performing outside in winter coats they really deserve a better theater space they deserve a Performing Art Space they deserve a space to work on Art I [Applause] think um I don't want to go on about taxes but man taxes so if our taxes are as high as some of these other communities like Cherry High School East and Cherokee high school when they have state-of-the-art facilities and Robotics clubs and music and theater we want to compete with that we don't want to keep losing residents to moving to Cherry Hill and Marlton to go to these bigger better high schools okay we're going to have to just do better otherwise we're going to keep losing students to private schools and other neighboring Public Schools who have lower taxes and have more facilities [Applause] thanks hi um let me get this I'm Claudia ban and and I am a former uh Garfield parent very proud of it and I wanted to bring or highlight some of the items that we heard here that I think are really important and if I had to vote today for this referendum I wouldn't vote if I didn't know those three pieces One Transportation um this is an equity issue and I think it h really needs to be included in your proposal it's not an afterthought thought is not a we will find out later what's going to happen so if we can take the time to think through this and think how people from different parts of town will be affected and what Solutions we can find that would be very important second what's going to happen with Shard and what's going to happen with Garfield just hearing Garfield is going to be sold is not good enough uh this this is an asset in this community this is a place that is really important for a lot of people and so we need a plan but does that look like and sharp is the same thing it's going to be a community center that's a great thing but I think this is the opportunity to think this through and not leave it for after the referendum I think the referendum really has to address some of these issues um and finally the facility the the Sports facility uh we didn't hear anything about parking and this is going to be an issue uh it's going to be hard to bring a lot of people from other communities if we don't have a response to that so four items that I think need attention before a referendum can happen thank [Applause] you hey everybody I'm br Borowski I live on Harvard Avenue here in Collingswood um I am parent to two boys who go to Tatum I come to a lot of Board of Education meetings um and I hear a lot from our community about what they would like to be done better and honestly what I see with this proposal is so much opportunity to do better and I just really want to do it I want to find these Solutions I see so many solutions in this proposal to so many problems that I've heard sitting in this room late at night with some folks that get pretty agitated and I think that this is I don't know it's really hope for the future I don't I don't like to think about my kids um you know we're not from here I I I was not raised in Collingswood I'm not like a third generation callings Woody and there some people um in the room but I hate to think of my kids and kidss younger than mine um doing things the way they've always been done just because that's the way they've been done I want to see us um grow and change and very specifically I don't see any better opportunity than Good Shepherd I don't think an opportunity like that's going to fall on our lap um again anytime soon and I think that's our best chance uh for meeting our growing growing needs because that's an enormous facility that can alleviate a lot of our space um issues there's so many other things I'd like to say but in just three minutes that's my high Lev view of how excited I am to solve a lot of our problems with this proposal thank you good evening I'm Tim faroh 911 Park Avenue so I do think that there are a lot of great opportunities that can be built upon in this town as far as changes as far as Good Shepherd it is something absolutely that I think is so important for us to take advantage of that that space that's there my biggest concern is a lot of what has been addressed already and that is what really I see as the cart before the horse and the horse I think it's a good analogy is the transportation issue that's been addressed so much and that to me is a funding issue so I understand we're going to have other sessions there's going to be other information provided but I don't know how that Gap is filled when the funding has already been been determined so we're not going to have busing part of this I understand because that's funding that would have to be included already in the proposal that's been presented tonight we're not going to have that these Transportation issues particularly again for our community that I I thought was a big part of what wanted to be addressed in this proposal which was the equity in this town particularly on our west side and what that Community deserves so much having to then uproot their whole lives as far as transporting themselves and their kids across town and not only being able to do it as we said the ones that don't have the means to have their parents transport them but the ones that have the means we have major traffic problems major around our schools in this town I don't know how without major changes in this town's infrastructure we can possibly manage the amount of Transportation have you sat out here at this high school and middle school secondary campus we call it and see the traffic that comes into this high school and middle school and now we're going to spread that amongst these Reg I don't I don't know how it I really I cannot fathom it so that's my biggest problem is that would have been number one number one in this presentation today would be how we're going to address that drastic drastic change that comes with this proposal and I cannot imagine how that Gap is suddenly going to be filled in between now and September because it was not included at all tonight and I don't see us being able to bring our way back and address that issue in this proposal thank [Applause] you good evening Justin Young 500 Haden Avenue I live ston Stow from Garfield school and that was one of the highlights uh moving to our home uh imagine my disappointment when I realized when I had a child who's now a prek student that he couldn't go to Garfield as a prek student so now he goes to Sharp and so I kind of do the reverse commute every day um and I understand the plight of Crossing busy streets this time too sharp every morning pick dropping him off and bringing him home and um so I'm a huge proponent of community schools and to me um closing those schools and sprinkling those students elsewhere throughout the burough is not the right answer um I'd be interested to see what everyone else is complaining about is the lack of forethought it seems on travel and also what someone else brought up is Garfield where what would be the the end result for Garfield for the people who are around Garfield what would that's a huge piece of property in my mind the largest playground and open space of any of the elementary schools but instead of utilizing it for additions they want to close the building entirely when I saw the plan for Zan I'm very interested in knowing more about that but they're adding classrooms but and doing some other renovation work but not adding it seams a lot for anything else music rooms other areas extracurricular spaces any additional outdoor space or playgrounds for the additional students that would be going there from all all over the burrow and so those issues concern me um as much as I can appreciate and welcome a fourth to fifth grade school these items are of major concern also I don't necessarily see the connection between the schools and the elementary issue and another go with the athletic fields I just it's not there for me it was soundly defeated a few years ago and I I think if any of the burrow has a vote I think that might be a huge sticking point for a lot of people thank [Applause] you hi uh Zach right uh Fern Avenue um I am very excited about aspects of the plan I think the grade level schooling is exceptionally important I've been an educator here for over 20 years and work with lots of districts to improve and one of the major ways to improve is through teacher collaboration frankly I can't imagine being the only Any teacher in any building and the idea of saying you you are this building's kindergarten teacher to me sounds not only terrifying but also um it's not what's best for kids um we need multiple teachers in multiple buildings and that and this is one of the ways to get there um I am also very excited about the upper elementary school I think seeing fourth and fifth graders at little league and at soccer all mixed together but then going back to their separate little elementary schools doesn't feel correct so seeing them come together in the upper ele upper elementary schools sounds good I also want to thank sharp and Garfield for opening my eyes to the Transportation issue uh that's not something that we have to think about with our kids but that doesn't mean it's not important so thank you all for raising that issue very much um one last thing I'll say uh I think one of the major things that stands in the way of school Improvement in general is just this inertia that education systems have where things just don't happen things don't change because that's not how things are done but that's not how progress is made so I'm very excited for some of these things I thank Garfield and Zay for raising their issues because I think those are legit and um hopefully a middle ground can be [Applause] reached hi my name is Rachel Hennessy East nirth Terrace um feeling a little bit of passion right now because my I'm a proud newbie parent I heard my second grade teacher stand up and say how things are not working in her classroom how they are getting inventive on trying to supply kids with things to function I do think we do need to look at the future so there are aspects of this plan that are great but we took Spanish away from our children that is a really important language to learn in the world today what electives that we are losing funding music is there instruments like what how can we help our kids Thrive outside of the classroom because it's not all about what you learn in the classroom these electives and these extra uh curricular activ activities help build well-rounded people for our community and if we're not even helping our teachers that now get proper working equipment to help our kids like all this money is going to what new pickle ball fields I don't know Leah foran 501 South Vineyard Boulevard I like Brenda come to a lot of Schoolboard meetings and hear a lot about what people have to say and I am also a Garfield parent and a sharp parent and I love I love my teachers I love my Sharp teachers I love my community and I'm here to say I got y'all we can do this this is an a great plan the good sheeper building is our opportunity to finally have the space our teachers deserve they deserve it they need it um I know at Garfield we are like another parent said like Mr Goldberg deserves space the art teacher deserves space and this is our opportunity to do it unfortunately sharp and Garfield happen to be the two oldest schools and that hurts me you know like I I love my Garfield teachers I love my Garfield Community and we are not losing that we are rolling into the Greater Community and I think we really need to look at that it's hard change is hard this isn't going to be easy but we're all here for each other and I'm a Relentless advocate for my kids and my promise is to continue to be a Relentless advocate for all of our kids and all of our kids need this and yes Transportation absolutely needs to be addressed let's get a committee together I I volunteer like I will be on that committee I will help you plan it I'll help you figure it out but we need more people who are going to stand up here and say that who's going to be here to help us figure it out we need to do this together and we need to all get on board because what is the alternative guys what are we going to do um my child is also disabled and black uh this is we are not doing great things with special ed and this is our opportunity to finally do that and and selfishly I really need that and I know that there are a lot of parents that do um and really want that so I really like this plan I want to hear more and I'm excited to hear more thank you all hi I'm Beth mahalik at 224 New Jersey AV I have a first grader at Tatum um and one of the as I'm very excited to hear about this proposal and I thank you for coming up with a solution because I think the current situation particularly in our elementary schools is untenable it just cannot go on the way it has we have no space for our kids um there's literally special instruction happening in stairwells so um it particular with uh the the changes for Tatum and newbie uh I I would like to see a lot more granularity around exactly what that's going to look like in terms of the number of additional classes and how that would impact the space because if the plan is just to you know add add an additional set of K one two and three uh then the fourth and fifth grades we we've kind of at a net zero for space and are potentially in the same problem at Tatum um so I think hearing more information about upgrades youve have for the existing schools and um how the the the different classes would be allocated would be really helpful for my understanding um also uh I have the privilege of being able to walk my child to school every morning and I can tell you that drop off because Tatum is kind of the quote overflow School you do have a lot more car traffic in our neighborhood and it can be dangerous um so taking into account you're going to have people um commuting from much further distances to take their children I mean Tatum is on a a small neighborhood street um it's a two-way street but when you have cars parked on both sides quickly becomes oneway and I think we need to really think about and maybe in conjunction with the burrow how we're going to handle traffic and kind of moving through those like really narrow neighborhood streets so that the families that are able to walk and do so safely especially for these kids that may be coming from extremely long distances um I also think it would be really helpful to see so $40 million is a really hard number to swallow and so it would be really helpful for me to understand better the thought process and logic of what went into choosing to close uh sharp and Garfield and um renovate Good Shepard instead of you know maybe renovating all of those schools so if um I know there was a mention about kind of costs per square foot so it would be really helpful to just sort of see that laid out what would it cost to renovate Garfield and bring it up to current standards renovate sh bring it up to current standards and then what is the cost savings for you know the existing plan because I could think of a scenario where um Good Shepard becomes you know maybe a larger neighborhood school so um the other kind of similar Transportation issues going to um the good sheeper area now you have Speedline traffic with people trying to get to work um and parking in those areas and now you're going to have the entire callings with District descending on that area at the kind of morning commute time where are we going to be dropping our kids off or if they're walking you know the safe roads to school I think as a lot of people have mentioned so I think getting those kinds of answers would be helpful thank you Marie Desi 1124 Mansion Avenue proud kinder Garden teacher at Tatum school I'm here to ask the question of where are we going to put all these children with two closed schools you tried to close Garfield back in the day I had taught at sharp for a while I taught at Garfield for a while I ended up at Tatum because Garfield was going to close the following year we had 31 kindergarteners and we had a lot of kids come in so you have these 12 classrooms at good sheeper um and that does not quite seem like enough for fourth and fifth grade with a growing population in Collingswood and I can't even imagine where we're going to put K1 two and three in the existing buildings without increasing class size so we're we're looking at less classrooms which is it so we can get rid of some teachers and some principles and grow the size of the classes which right now having 27 and 26 and 25 in most of our kindergarten classes that's the population that's going to continue to go up and grow bigger as they get to fourth and fifth grade so those are some of the questions that I'm asking on behalf of the teachers and the fact that what's the impact on [Applause] us hi maryan degenhart 644 Stokes Avenue Collingswood um I just want to say I'm very excited about plan that really addresses Equity at an earlier age um my two sons we went to Zay North and they they were the diversity uh in their class they two their black sons so I'm grateful to see if that can happen in third and fourth grade that's great um I also see an equity issue though with the closing of sharp school and the transportation issue um and I truly believe that there are enough people in in this room that can work together to help develop a plan and not just the parents of the children from sharp but everyone in this room including myself parents and non-parents of schoolage children uh so I think that's it thank [Applause] you um Mark Bryce off um Park Avenue gal parent um first I just want to thank um the committee and the board for doing this work it's not easy I trust you and I think the work that you're doing is really important uh I want to start with the contention that uh public schools are grossly underfunded and I had just moved here a couple years ago and I was trying to figure out if collinswood school district is one of them and I think that we are um just to give you just some information and some facts so that folks here can understand understand this um our budget is 30 Mill $39 million which is not a lot of money um most of that comes from local some of that comes from State and very little bit from the federal government and I was trying to think about like well if we are paying $116,000 per student for an education what is that in reference to other school districts and it turns out we're not doing so well comparatively to other school districts I think the average in New Jersey is close to $22,000 a student so if we were getting $22,000 per student here we would add another $13 million to our budget every year okay so what I'm saying to you right now is that we are grossly underfunded and we do not have enough resources for the schools that we have right now we just don't have them my child is suffering as a result of that we're hearing a lot of Transportation issues I'm sure we're going to figure it out so when any anytime a group of Educators and leaders come come together to try to rebuild our schools and find money that's mad props for you all because that is not easy to do and so one thing a question I have for for the committee around this is that um there are very few opportunities to expand the structural budget of a school district it doesn't happen very often which is why we have to do this for in the first place so if we're going to sell Garfield can we take can we asked the city to implement a system where all the taxes that are raised on that property go directly into the school district's budget so that we can actually expand her capacity to serve out you I think a lot of things that you're hearing here are district that is strapped for resources when I got that email last week about the 40,000 plus that we're losing from the state in a wonderful reaction that the wonderful job you guys are to responding to that um my first reaction was $40,000 is not a lot of money like that's not really a lot of money so if we're having this kind of a reaction of $40,000 to me it feels and reads that this district is really strapped and cannot serve its Community the way that the community wants it to and I think we have to make a very strong argument to the city and to the people of the city that we need to be able to take that tax revenue and make that a permanent part of the school system so that we can continue to do the services that you need because I don't think this referendum is going to be able Tok I trust lots of stuff so thank [Applause] you I don't know if this is legal that I'm allowed to come back I'll be quick um uh I do want to say though as someone who has a graduate he graduated in in 21 uh we didn't have a stadium Stadium is important to come back folks uh I went to other a lot of my I had I used to be a youth leader uh a lot of kids that I supported I got to go to their graduations when we had a stadium I barely could see my own kid graduate in 21 I don't know what's going to happen this year we need a stadium we need the room for our marching band to perform our award-winning marching band to to perform we need Arts you need Arts up in here you need that for them all right right so I'm not saying what I said before I do support the sports aspect of this too and not just the sports but the fields and the added Revenue like we're saying if we can host things we used to host when we had that Stadium we used to host huge band competitions and it brought in money for the district it brought in money for the businesses it was a good thing the restaurants were full everyone was happy so I I want that not to get lost in all the very much passionate feelings that we're all having about our elementary schools and our neighborhoods because you know I I feel that way already but we do need to address the lack of appropriate seating and the the situation of where it's graduation is rough I there's a lot of Young Elementary parents here but when you're level on the field and you struggled and and raised that kid you want to be able to see them walk across that stage and it's tough right [Applause] now Gretchen actually got it right when she came up and spoke about a different topic that's how you you can do it thanks I'm really short um so I'm Karina I'm from 607 Eldridge I have a junior here in the high school and a child at Thomas sharp in first grade um I am right with you guys on a lot of the things you brought to attention you know traffic and all but my biggest concern is is I know the environment in the middle school and high school and I fear every day sending my high school student there so why would I feel comfortable sending my first grader or fourth grader into that environment it's not going to change because they're fourth grade I mean my kid at first grade already has a personality knows the people he likes and stuff like that so the same issues that are in the Middle School will Arise at a fourth grade level you're just going to throw them all together together and think that the the problems that you're having in our middle school and high school is going to be different because they're in fourth grade I mean I get the logic but if we're going to do that I think it should probably be they should be together from the start before they start you know taking after parents and pull in in the racist bias that our kids grow up with from being segregated within this town hi um Megan dmat I live at 220 Wood laon Terrace my son George is a first grader at Tatum and went to pre at sharp so I got just like a glimpse a little taste of what a great community that is um but I think it's really clear to me in this room and everybody in Collingswood like we love our kids we love our community we love our schools um I'm really excited about all the passion I hear and see in the room and in town and also I really appreciate all the hard work that all of you have done to try to like grapple with these really big problems that we're facing as a community um and come up with Solutions some of the most striking things for me in the presentation about the problems were um the fact that we basically have like 200 more kids than we have space for right now which I think anybody who's even volunteered for five minutes in any of our schools sees like how crammed to the gills and how much our teachers deserve the space and the resources to really be able to support our children um and also I knew that we had an old town and old schools and whatever but it is really striking to me how old sharp and Garfield are and I really appreciate the forethought and the Forward Thinking and coming up with a solution um to what is just an inevitable like we all read the news and see what's happening to schools in Philadelphia and other communities and it's just a matter of time if we don't come up with an alternative there um so I'm excited to see that I'm also really excited about the opportunity of getting our kids together sooner um my son you know does Sports and does activities in town and like knows some kids from other schools but I would like to see more of that across our community so I'm really excited I don't know if we'll get to go to the upper elementary school but if that works out um and then I'm ex I'm interested to hear more about how the remaining like lower elementary schools I guess will um be more inclusive and I know right now because our schools are so small kids who need certain Services only go to one school for ESL support or one school for certain special education needs or whatever so I'm hoping that because the elementary schools will be bigger we can actually have more inclusion in that way too so I'm excited to hear more about that thank [Applause] you hi uh Carib Boer 90 summer fre Avenue uh if I may um I'm going to uh diverge slightly similar topic different schools um I wondered in the plan if um I noticed for fourth and fifth grade we don't have a lot of outdoor space I envision myself maybe writing some more grants for the school um but what does the space there look like are our fourth and fifth graders going to have Outdoor Classroom time where is that going to be um I know when um good sheeper was in acting uh parochial school those students played in that tiny little parking lot and that's all I ever saw them do when I was traveling by through town so I I wondered what that looked like um if we could extrapolate upon that I would be very interested um and also having um spent some time time and energy in um assisting in writing grants um for the school um especially uh with Sharp Elementary I'm curious if we could expand upon what the proposal is for that school um to see how that space use is going to um be for our community if we're willing to accept the closure as a school building how is it going to be utilized for our students and the community the surrounding Community especially if there were to be a positive benefit for the people that live in that area thanks thank you uh Zakia Divine 1102 Stokes Avenue um so I've I have three things I really want to understand for the children who actually currently get commuted to other schools because they have an special education classroom that is not in their Community they move to a whole Community not parts of a community and they get moved every day they're already moved around so I would just ask you to go meet the families who do that today so you can really appreciate what that feels like for those students their families trying to break into a new community because it's tough and also appreciate that many families moved here right you know covid you needed a yard Collings would winner winter chicken dinner and you moved here because it looked different than maybe what you thought you could get and you didn't move here for just one school I could walk to cuz frankly my husband treats it like the Postal Service they walk in the Rain the snow and the SLE and the hail and my children don't love it so if we could figure out the transportation that would be great but I really want to impress upon everyone inclusivity is critically important my I will my timer of three minutes will go off soon he will be probably the first class to go through this experience and recognizing his brother's current experience he is locked in with a cohort who may or may not appreciate what he looks like he is locked into that and so I would ask ask you to really think about the inclusivity you are invoking in your questions and comments here because it does not it is not created equal for every child in this community and so I just need you to hear me say that to you with you and for you I will stand up and be on the transportation board because we currently wait for a gargantuan bus for six children who are shuttled around because their needs cannot be met in the school that is closest to them economies of scale is critical to be in inertia and not move is shame on all of us shame on us and so I'm just going to ask you I get it loss is hard but progress over Perfection and yes we do need to think about this building and others because it doesn't just start at our youngest of the students but I do want toess upon us inclusivity is critically important thanks uh hi again Wayne Rossy 14 palav um so to talk on a couple different topics um I do think that like we should recognize as we're going into this process uh I think we're probably at one like major structural crisis away from like just not having room for kids like I I honestly feel like any of these buildings are old enough that you know um remediation of like Asbestos and things like that is just going to be prohibitively expensive and getting out ahead of it is something we need to make sure and do the other thing that I haven't heard enough about and that I actually love in this proposal is that it provides a community center because the reality is there's not room for youth groups to meet in Collingswood it is difficult uh my partner runs a Girl Scout Troop and it is prohibitively difficult to get meeting space in this town so I and to have program for kids uh in this town especially if it if it's sharp you know in a a part of town that that needs it you know I I think is a critical thing thing that we need to be doing uh so I I really want to say I want to stress that and um the last point I wanted to make right was that you know it's become very very clear that unfortunately the state and federal governments aren't investing in our schools in the way they should and that unfortunately that means we have to do it and I think that this plan you know can be the right way to do it and it's the way we're allowed to uh so I I would say that getting this right is is critical for our [Applause] community hey everybody um so I'm Mike paluchi I live at 357 Park Avenue and uh thank you first off to the committee for putting together this proposal um it's not easy um does anybody know why there's two American flags and not two any other flag uh the reason for that is because there were complaints that not everyone in the cafeteria were facing with the Starfield of the flag facing the right way so in order to appease those folks that were complaining they H they hung a second flag um so the point is you're not going to please anybody EV all the time in spite of the fact that we have this wonderful display of all the ethnicities and nationalities that come to school here and I always respect the flag code but you're not going to always be able to please anybody so I roll my eyes as I tell you that that's why we have two American flags um right next to each other back to back and I do appreciate the work that everyone has done here on the committee couple things I wanted to bring up so I also teach here at the high school I have two small um Young Elementary School aged uh kids um and I serve I have the privilege of serving on the equity committee at the high school so I'm on the equity councilman Equity leader in our building um and one of the things that we have talked about as number of other folks have addressed here tonight um is the transportation issue but in our case not just with Elementary but our high school students we have Woodland students who travel across a four-lane highway every morning um on their way to school there's been talk of potentially getting them a bus U for a really long time um I think we do um you know need to explore that as a realistic possibility and Equity means that not all the kids are going to have a bus but the kids that walk across the highway that need it um we should really work to get them a bus um second I I do think that we need to keep in mind that we are operating on a skeleton crew Personnel wise in this district and in particular at the high school I think we need to understand that when the committee is trying to communicate trust to the rest of us the staff members and believe me we need this referendum we need it okay but when you're communicating trust you have to think about some of the hiring decisions that are made when we're hiring you know assistant superintendents and cutting teachers you know that is that goes a long way to kind of severing trust among the people that are working we need to all be pulling in the same direction I remember when I was in school teachers during the day tell your parents vote Yes tell your parents vote Yes we need to be those people too like we're all going to have to pull in the same direction because we need this we just have to think about that and then finally before my time is up wanted to talk about the political aspect of this not here in town but with respect to State funding the algorithm is messed up as Dr mcdow's uh email uh you know described to everybody we need to work those channels um and maybe have some concerted efforts to send people to Trenton get our state representatives to come through here and show them you know the broken printers the bathroom at newbie those things you know in this town where you know we have a lot of um you know high-profile things and features um so I want to just say that's something to consider as well we need to all pull in the same direction all right thanks the one tall guy put up sorry and I was figured sorry it's okay um I'm Adrien Earl I live at 409 cley across the street from sharp um I'm very grateful to all of the sharp parents who came out and much more eloquently were a able to express uh what this feels like I have a first grader and a prek student I have lots of questions um feeling pretty emotional um so I'm grateful to all those other questions um that I don't think I could get out tonight um without you know being prepared with this information given to the community prior to this presentation um but I have some I think more like logistical question questions about this process um I guess I can send these to frequently asked questions too I don't know if that will translate from here to there um one is for the two follow-up sessions or um info sessions um will those also be filmed as the board meetings are filmed and live streamed so that any community members who aren't able to make those like one I will be on the seventh grade camping trip for um so I won't be able to make that first one like so that we can hear since that is going to be more of like a time when we'll actually receive answers um and an open dialogue um will that be filmed and posted for all of us to see and hear um what is is being said um and oh I was wondering why the vote is scheduled for September I heard the explanation of the specific um votes but it sounded like be the end of September um why not November 5th when we will all be going out to vote um I mean well not everybody but like most of the community and the country will be going out to vote anyway and that if that would be um that we could get more of a representation of those who are able to go out and vote that day because we make it a point to do so every year um it's only like a month between that sounds like not a big time difference um um I was wondering what the um I guess like what the thought is because this is all depends on a vote what what's the backup plan especially for our schools sharp and Garfield like if if the vote does fail I mean it's our last big referendum failed um is my kids school still going to close and then what will happen um that's a question in my mind um will particularly will those schools still be commiss decommissioned and then like is there a backup plan I understand if there isn't really because there so much work has gone into creating this plan thank you Mr but it's a consideration Marie Desi one last question when is this this going to be submitted to the Department of Ed and is there time for changes to the initial plan with Community feedback thank [Applause] you all right folks um thank you very much for coming out this evening for taking the time to listen to the presentation to to give us your feedback I did just get um word that the pdf version of this presentation that includes the cost breakdown is on the the district website as we speak we will get the uh the frequently Asked question document with some updates based on some of the feedback from tonight which we appreciate up uh there tomorrow as well but the QR code will be there um starting tonight or starting tomorrow the QR code on the website yeah it is attached to PDF I put up separ okay we'll put we'll put that up separately so that you can keep submitting questions if you think of them as you go along or if you think of them once you have the opportunity to sit down with the document um I just wanted to take a moment to say um we we wanted to make sure we gave the presentation about the the logistics the why all of those sorts of things but um it was you know it's difficult when you're making this sort of presentation to to communicate sometimes the the emotion that that we are very well aware um is a part of this for many families and that is not being discounted and and those decisions were not made lightly and it is the biggest reason of why this is a proposal um because at the end of the day if the community doesn't think that this is the way to go the community is the one that has the voice um and uh we want to to take the time to honor the communities that are being most affected by this and to acknowledge that we are aware that that that is happening and that some tough um that that will be difficult for for folks both just emotionally with you know feeling like if their kids have been through it if they have been through those schools um for the teachers that have come up in those schools and what that will be like um but I also like what one of the the um folks said during public comment about but th those communities aren't going anywhere they're not disappearing they will be um joining the the larger School communities but um the the spirit of sharp and Garfield will most certainly live on because those are two really strong communities um I'm going to wrap it up because it's already nine o'clock and we've been here for a while um but thank you again please please please um go to the website look at the information come to the info sessions we will try to get some of the um the questions about the logistics also out to folks before those info sessions begin um with that I I need from the the board members that don't have microphon sitting over here to give me a a motion to adjourn and a second second and all in favor thank you very much have a great evening everyone