okay I would like to call this meeting to order will the secretary please call the role Mrs Becker here Mr Cummings miss guas here Mrs herck here Mr Hong Mrs ree here president LAX here we have a please rise to salute the flag I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the East brunck board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the home News Tribune the alternative press of East Brunswick and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions are videotaped for later broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that videotape meetings are not edited for any purpose individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening everyone I apologize to my early um attendees um generally we go into closed session right away so I will apologize I wish I had something to give you in the meantime um but I am going to call for a closed session um and you will see us in an hour so whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in public meetings and these subjects are within the exeptions to the open public meetings act and are permitted to be discussed in Clos session the Board of Education intends to discuss matters as follows those items listed on tonight's agenda the length of Clos session is estimated to be 1 hour after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and action will be taken now therefore be it resolved that the East bronic Board of Education will recess into close session for only the affers said subjects and be it further resolved that the East bronic Board of Education hereby declares that its discussion of the affers said subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure in accordance with the open public meetings act so moved by Mrs Becker second second by Mrs herck is there any discussion all in favor opposed exstension motion carries thank you we will be back in an hour welcome back everyone sorry about the short delay um we'll get right down to business I'm going to ask Dr veski to start with the superintendent's report for please sure person LAX good evening the artwork on display in the boardroom this evening was created by students from Memorial Elementary School the art teacher of these talented students is Margaret Sasso Cheryl Jones is the principal the hammmer shold sixth grade students went on the first Fairview trip of the year on Monday April 15th they had two great days of weather that allowed them to enjoy the outdoor activities while at Fairview students enjoyed stations where they engaged in row boating lemony which is also freshwater ecology archery and ASC team building obstacle course and the famous Ridge hike the windy weather made for challenging boating but students appli their problem solving skills and persevered to master rowing their boats throughout the day students enjoyed frequent bald eagle sightings at night the students enjoyed a campfire singal along experience and an entertaining animal show before heading to their cabins I'd like to thank all the teacher coordinators who organized the trip as well as the teacher and parent chaperons who made this trip possible on Thursday April 18th school counselors Eric Kaplansky and Jessica Allen along with the High School counseling department organized a successful College in career fair in partnership with the East Brunswick Education Foundation over 100 College Representatives trade school Representatives milit military recruiters and career professionals set up information booths for students and parents to learn about postsecondary opportunities representatives and attendance included Princeton University Ruckers university University of Chicago Savannah College of Art and Design East bronck police Salon Professional Academy and the National Guard to name a few and we were happy to see over 500 students and parents take advantage of this event the fourth grade students at Irwin Elementary School recently presented their career day Pro projects students research future career of their choice to create trifolds that included their career's responsibilities tools used and the impact their job has on the community in addition to their posters students created resumés where they connected their individual skills and experiences to the expectations of their future careers they also identified adults at school at home who could serve as references finally students research common interview questions for their careers and prepared answers for them in the point of view of their current selves or themselves as future adults high school students in the apol represented New Jersey in the National We the People competition in washingt Washington DC over 20 students led by their teacher Mark mandre mandre participated in the event which they presented arguments related to the US Constitution ranging from the the importance of compromise in political debate to the legacy of Brown versus the Board of Education in public education to modern technology and its impact on privacy rights each group of students faced eight minutes of follow-up questions from panel of experts including politicians professors lawyers and federal judges final scores will be announced in the coming weeks and today was districtwide bring your child to work day and it was a great success staff members with children ages 6 to 18 took this opportunity to bring their children to work and this opportunity allows children to see the important work their parents do in East bronic Public Schools every day thank you you're welcome and as a reminder for the board we have moved our take your child to work evening to the next board meeting um since one of our own uh Tim Cummings had a work commitment because people tend to forget that we are volunteers and do actually have day jobs so unfortunately he had a work conflict and is down at a work event um but he's got three kids so we'll hopefully have a very full day as at the next meeting when we pretend it's take kid to a work day check your child to workday um thank you so much our next item is a resolution of appreciation for the parent teacher Association do we have we're not going to do that we're not doing it tonight oh that's why she asking bney okay okay you know what that means Chris you're up all right good afternoon everyone um I'm sure many of you guys know that take your child to work day I was hoping to see a few extra friendly faces up here but I guess I have to wait one more week um but even at the high school several of my friends and classmates have taken the day off to accompany their parents to their workplace many of which had Parents working in East bronic School Districts so that's always nice to see and I heard many of them had a blast um apart from that the senior class Council held its annual senior staff Friday show last Friday which hosted several dancing singing and comedy routines which were all huge hit and raise profits that go towards our prom so that's always a event to look forward to and I had fun actually um uh partaking in one of the dance routines there so that was a nice experience um and on April 10th to 12th the APLE class at last got to compete in the National Weed of people competition in Washington DC as well as tour DC and visit several historical monuments my personal favorite being the Lincoln Memorial um it was a wonderful experience and it was a nice weekend that we got to spend and it all wouldn't have been possible without the support of um my advisor Mr mandre the alumni and the many donors that helped to make the trip possible um and last week the concert band and one Ensemble went to their annual concert down in rockberry to compete with other other schools and as well be given live feedback from adjudicators which was a great um great experience and finally most students are beginning to prepare for the AP exams which are coming up in a few weeks so I wish all the students the best with their studies and I hope all the parents um understand some of the stressful times their kids go through so take it a little bit easy on them and uh that's all thank you thank you your Your Enthusiasm is contagious you can't help but smile when you listen to your reports so thank you yes [Applause] absolutely it'll be a tough act to follow so we are now at the public hearing I'm going to ask Mr Juliano to give um the budget presid presentation and then I will open it up for comments and I will give instructions at that point so before Mr Juliana gets set up um last night we had a public forum on the budget and there was a question that was asked about a specific item last night that I didn't feel I gave an appropriate answer to um I felt last night as though I was I was constricted by items that were discussed in closed session we researched today and Mr Juliana has an explanation for the question that was raised last night at the budget Forum thank you Dr veski good evening everyone so the first item before we get into the uh budget details has to do with the collection of school taxes so let's talk a little bit about process on this firstly there's a certificate of school school taxes it's something that is prepared it's a document that's prepared that is prepared by the district is submitted to the township that basically summarizes what's the amount of taxes that is going to be raised in the next year it's sent to the township for verification for counter signature and processing the reason it's sent to the township is because the school district doesn't raise or collect the taxes the township collects the taxes that's what the legal process is in the 2020 21 year the certificate contained an error it didn't include a portion of The Debt Service which is the mortgage uh a portion of that uh that was required so as a result that amount was not raised or collected from the local taxpayers the taxpayers received a tax holiday since that amount was not included in the tax bill the error was missed by both the township and the district the township paid the district for the full amount that wasn't collected in the summer of 22 the district discovered the error and communicated that information with the township the board subsequently unanimously approved reimbursement to the township for the amount that the township had paid to The District in error the presentation on this issue was made at a public meeting in September of 20122 the funds that were used could not otherwise be used to support the district's regul regular operations the issue is completely unrelated to the fiscal 2025 budget or any prior budget year so let's go into the public hearing now on the budget talk about some District facts terms of the District Operations district is also a business and some important facts we're the 23rd largest District in the state that's as of the fall of 2023 Department of Education report last year I believe we reported we were the 26th or the 25th largest so we've become even larger than we were previously we are the largest employer in East brunwick and we have in terms of our total population uh 8371 students that was as of April of 2023 and that's excluding our our staff population so when you look at those numbers we are essentially a town within a town we operate a major major Transit System 512 routes all told throughout the course of the year it's 3.82 million miles that are traveled and when we look at the number of passengers from day to day as if they were individual uh and separate tra uh passengers each day we're transporting 2.5 million passengers essentially if we were a public transit system we are a major food service provider this is an analysis or listing of uh the annual meal served in comparison to um uh restaurants and eateries in the public when we look at our serving just through April less than 180 serving days we served 479 almost 480,000 lunches 213,000 alicart meals almost 70,000 uh breakfasts so in comparison to uh major food service providers we are up there in terms of our facilities uh when we compare what our facilities are in terms of what we're responsible for maintaining in terms of buildings in terms of land the data speaks for itself and there have been questions regarding what does the district do in terms of controlling costs and savings um and so here's a list of the kinds of things that the district does on a regular basis we have a a major energy program in place we've got solar uh panels that have been installed on multiple buildings uh to try and reduce our energy costs we cooperate with other districts uh regarding purchasing so that we can stretch the dollar we've increased our in-house transportation services uh through multi-tier uh busing and also by reducing the amount of costs that we spend on contracted Services I talked about about that at the last meeting I think at the meeting prior to that as well we provide 60% of our total busing inhouse that's a complete flip from what it was a number of years back we used to be at 40% we've grown the fleet um and we provide a superior service we want to grow that further but the only way to grow that further is to have the appropriate facility to do that we're not in a position to acquire a new facility at this point but that is something that is on the horizon that we need to look at seriously to help uh improve services and costs we utilize the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey for uh Services as well as purchasing uh Power uh we cooperate with the township with uh refinancing utilization of services and through the county of middle sex as well we've refinanced our debt a number of times as interest rates have come down we refinanced the debt so that we can lower the cost to the taxpayers and we have been involved with local and National purchasing cooperatives that also save money and allow us to stretch the dollar and lastly we're part of a dental Consortium that keeps uh those costs controlled as well we're a revenue producer through the community programs uh Department as well as our facility uh area uh we provide uh services for early morning program the after school kids program The Early Learning Academy we have Services uh and programs for the SAT PSAT and act preparation Elementary enrichment and the Performing Arts Center rental these areas provide significant Revenue to the district that go to support the general fund budget and to offset costs but also enable us to continue programs and services that the district has been accustomed to I believe this was last year but um in terms of the Excellence uh numerous student school-based awards Dr veski reviewed those uh last night briefly having put them up uh we post that information in our annual audit uh that information is talked about from one boarding board meeting to the next as students are recognized and that goes for the staff as well according to the middle States Association which uh rendered its report about a year ago uh with regard to East Brunswick High School without a doubt one of the finest schools in the nation it is a school that has a very strong Academic Program supported by ample financial resources and guided by excellent leadership and for 2022 which is the uh last audit that the uh District was able to submit for uh analysis and review uh by the Association of business officials International and the government Finance Officers Association of the district has been recognized for its excellence in financial reporting you know this is only possible after the close scrutiny of the independent auditor this doesn't come easy uh one need only review uh the auditor public presentations that have been made here at board meetings year after year after year here to hear what the auditor has to say in terms of financial management of this school district and view the reports that are also posted online they've been available to the public for years the only area in the uh this is the only area the only area for any school district that is subjected to an annual audit each year it is scrutinized analyzed evaluated and quite frankly frankly we're very proud of the financial oversight results that we have had consistently year after year after year and so let's talk about budget facts the last meeting I talked about the budget development process and it is a lengthy process it involves administrators throughout the district it involves the board finance committee it involves the Board of Education we started this process in November of 2020 23 we uh have a timeline for Budget managers to provide their proposals we have individual meetings with every person to discuss what their budgets represent what are the priorities that need to be addressed we go through a period of compilation analysis and discussion we're looking at a almost a $200 million budget it takes time to go through with a fin tooth comb and make sure that everything is correct Budget Finance meetings we've had those January throughout the month of February and then February 27th was the governor's funding formula announcement two days before East Brunswick and every other school district in this state received its information regarding how much State funding was coming two days continued Finance committees were held in March tenative budget was adopted March 20th Karen I've got it thank you okay everyone's heard about the state aid reduction $1.32 million this chart shows the trend of state aid over a period of time from 2009 through 2025 we had two upper years in 20 2009 and 2010 then we had a significant cut in state aid in 2011 that was the last time we had a major cut that impacted our budget and we had to make significant reductions across the board could not be foreseen after that you see that state aid remained relatively flat flat is a it's an interesting term because flat over time doesn't mean you're maintaining you're actually reducing you're not maintaining the the level of Revenue to support the costs that are going on and so the burden has been transferred further onto the local taxpayer throughout the period beginning 2020 2021 state aid started to increase the state was making up for what it had not been funding appropriately in the past and the footnote I'll add to this is that the state funding formula was enacted in 2008 but never put into place until this year so our Aid was going up as it should have been and it should have continued based on what the history had been but unfortunately we were faced with a shortfall that we learned about February 29th this is an excerpt from a new jersey.com report that was posted yesterday and I'm going to read this New Jersey has fully implemented its revamped public school funding formula with the announcement of proposed state aid for the 2024 25 Academic Year but you might not like what the what that actually means for your school district some districts will see major increases in state funding under the plan While others can expect far less why the difference the answers come down to the new funding formula that was enacted in 2018 or 2008 apologies 2008 under the 2025 budget proposed by Governor Phil Murphy the new formula will be fully in place for the first time since it was passed that means the state is using a new way of calculating how much money each of the state's nearly 600 school districts should get from the state budget those aren't my words those are the words of Katie cou a reporter for NJ Advanced media and it coincides with the information that we've been communicating since we found out the news so bear with me I went through this last meeting I will not spend as much time as the last board meeting but I think it is important and I talked about this a little bit at yesterday's Forum regarding the impacts on state aid there are as we've analyzed the state aid formula as it's been implemented for this year there are two elements that seem to have a specific impact upon how much state aid we would or would not receive one of the elements is equalized valuation equalized valuation is the value of all the taxable properties in town that the state analyzes and puts on an equalized basis what does equalized basis mean no two towns are valued alike if you look at your tax bill and you look at what's the value of your property that the basis of your taxes are it's may not represent 100% of what your house may really be worth so we've got towns where valuations are less than 100% we have those that are close to 100% East Brunswick is at about 20% of True Value generally speaking the State Department of Treasury takes that information across the entire state for every town and brings them all to a to a standard where they compute what would those towns be at 100% And that value at 100% is what goes into the state formula when we look at the data we look at what those increases have been over the years East Brunswick didn't make this up this comes from the Department of Treasury and feeds into the state funding formula you see going from the bottom up very small increase from 21 to 22 more of an increase from 22 to 23 a bit more of an increase from 23 to 24 and then going from 24 to 25 you see a large increase $800 million when we work through the model that we created and we tried to replicate what the state formula is the and we did a what if what if state aid or I'm sorry the equalized value Changed by $100 million we did a what if we'll go $100 million more what what did that mean in the in the formula that resulted in a approximately $500,000 reduced in state aid so as the value of the town's properties increases it has an impact on how much state aid we get to the negative it gets us less money that's not where the big problem is now let's look at District income this is looking at the income from the entire Community households businesses we can't find this data this comes from the Department of Treasury Division of Taxation it's fed from the from that area directly to the Department of Education to plug into the state formula according to this you see what those changes have been in District income you see going from the bottom up there was a slight decrease from 21 to 22 then there was an increase from 22 to 23 a slight increase then from 23 to 24 and then from 24 to 25 a very big increase in District income so we did another what if what if District income were to increase $100 million and that by far has the largest impact in state aid because that $100 million change in that formula results in approximately a $2.5 million reduction in state aid that's the 2008 Formula fully implemented for the first time this year something that we haven't seen before that no one's seen before there have been all kinds of plugs that have happened at the state level and no forewarning [Applause] in the state formula there are two calculations one is uncap state aid that says this is the amount that you probably should get these are my words you probably should get but then the calculated am amount where the state says but this is the amount that you'll receive the calculated state aid there in addition to the other components that I talked about it's going to be driven by student enrollment how many students are classified in special education how many um uh U ESL language uh uh proficient students there are it's going to be driven by um a whole host of issues but calculated state aid was always based on here's a pot of money that the state set aside and while you should have gotten a different amount you're really only going to get this other amount what you can see between the two now for 20242 is that they're the same again reflective of the fact that state aid or the state formula was just first implemented this year let's talk about some of the other impacts health benefits for existing staff uh overall our health benefits rates for next year uh will go up approximately 7% couple of areas I think may be slightly higher than that um this was a question that came up last night and we don't have information from our claims at an early date we don't get that information until sometime in February to be able to do a projection on what that health benefit cost impact is going to be why because the the carriers don't like to give any information out based on a lack of claimed data they want to look at what's the data so from July through the month of January or February gives some of the data to be able to make reasonable assertions at to what that rate increase would be prior to that they wouldn't give us any information to be able to uh uh project Charter School increase Charter School increase is going up $740,000 people may be tired of hearing about the charter school but it still Bears repeating it's $740 additional th000 coming out of the School District budget take that on top of the state aid reduction it's a lot of money when we look at how much is being allocated for the charter school out of the school budget it's $5.8 million that $ 5.8 million didn't happen overnight $740,000 did happen overnight but over the period of time for approximately 311 students as of right now we've cumulatively had to pay about $44 million we don't have a choice we also don't need a charter school so what are the budgetary impacts first I want to start by saying involved in the well I'll talk about this in a minute so let's go through the budgetary impacts um state aid reduction 1.3 million there's nothing new here that hasn't been said previously Charter School increase we just talked about special education out of District tuition almost $1.2 million out of our control it's out of our control and it's not because there are more students going into out of District placements from last year's budget to the proposed budget there are and these are real students there's no buffer in there to say well we've got to put some additional money aside for students that aren't here yet there's real students two additional students I believe the number is up to was up to 56 students in total and now of District placements $1.2 million in additional costs it's out control we don't have control over that the private schools for the handicap set rates and then not only do they set rates that we budget for I can tell you this year they've come back to us to say you know the tuition we told you that you had to pay for each student that wasn't enough we've had some changes and by the way we're going to charge you more instead we don't have a choice contractual salary increases we have two unions for which collective bargaining agreements have been negotiated over a lengthy period of time and we have non-unit staff people that are not represented by either bargaining unit the contractual salary inre inrees are almost $3.9 million the health benefits increase approaching $3.3 million new special education positions that were required in the current year but not budgeted you know you see that you might say well why didn't you budget for them did you make a mistake no these are positions that arose after the budget was struck for the current year these are positions that arose because of displaced students that have moved into District that have arose because of additional classifications additional IEPs these are positions that were required to comply with the law federal and state there's no choice there's no choice and we should provide the services but the money has to come from somewhere because there isn't a printing press in the back room printing off $20 bills for us to use therapeutic counseling services this has been supported through federal funds for the last several years those federal funds expired they were covid funds they're not in existence anymore it's $572,000 Transportation contracts for the contracted Services a 3% CPI computer price index adjustment is what we budgeted the state told us we need to budget at almost 6% that's not happening we can't do that we're going to negotiate we've been negotiating with the companies trying to get them down to zero if we can and not spend that additional money but we don't have a choice because in the end we have to transport the students and our custodial Services contract $245,000 all told 12.8 million their additional Revenue offsets that we were able to identify and part of that quite frankly is utilizing what's called Bank cap what's bank's cap taxes was that a priority no the board didn't want to have to raise additional taxes beyond the base 2% but that's something that had to be done to try to minimize the impact so where does that leave us $7.8 million in additional funding requ ired where is it coming from and that's where we have to then be faced with making tough decisions and they're not easy decisions they are painful incredibly painful and the last thing that we want to do is Impact Staff but unfortunately when we look at the composition of the budget the composition of the budget is such that 69 about 69.5% of of the budget is salary and benefits it's people because we're a people business the other 30% it's not pencil and papers it's not duplicating paper what are the mandatory things that we have to provide we have to provide otpt services occupational therapy and physical therapy for special needs students we have to provide utilities Gas and Electric to keep our buildings open and operating we have to provide physical services medical services we have to provide cleanliness of our facilities and custodial Services we have to provide transportation services and the list goes on and on of what we have to provide of what we have to do so there's very little in the area of you know what we can just cut and do without but we tried to do that to see where we would go what we what we would be able to come up with to help bridge the gap and the process was not an isolated process the process involved many administrators coming to the table and working through to try to identify what can we do what can we do and there was a lot of stress going through that process to identify what it was that we needed to do because the last thing anyone wanted to do was Impact Staff but when we're looking at $7.8 million there's no choice there's no choice but to ultimately have an impact on staff non personel reductions supplies mailing printing costs those are easy ones purchase service contracts what does that involve well a couple of areas one being substitute teacher costs and looking at how we handle certain things differently so that we're not going to encourage sub as much in substitute teacher costs I think there was a comment last night regarding uh substitute teachers I can't remember if it was made last night or at another meeting uh and the amount of teachers uh that that are um absent amount of staff that are absent this is not an East Brunswick issue first of all there was a change in the law that enables staff and this just happened recently within the last year that enables staff to utilize sick time for more than just sick time and I'm not making an argument one way or the other on that I think that folks need to be able to take time when they need to take time but that has an impact on attendance and it has an impact on the number of Subs that are needed to be able to cover classes for students it's not a new issue it's been an issue for a number of years but part of the issue also is that we've got post pandemic attendance issues it's not just East Brunswick you look at any District across the state and there are issues with regard to regular attendance talk to any and we have we've talked to our our providers for uh The Substitute Services they cannot staff and none of the pro none of the providers can fully staff what's needed across the state because of the level of absentee ISM that exists moving graduation to the high school that will happen for next year field trip adjustments Fairview will be a one-day trip not an overnight that will save 360 substitute teacher days professional development professional development will be limited over the summer greatly reduced from what it's been in the past and there will be no professional development that requires any substitute teacher coverage technology Replacements we're deferring textbook Replacements and related material various stiens have been eliminated and we're deferring selected maint items for one year and that didn't bring us nearly enough to what we needed to do and so unfortunately these next two slides reflect the Personnel reductions and I'm just going to post them up there for your review what's the human impact 25 reductions in force it's people losing their jobs because of the budget non-contract renewals these happen from year to year anyway for various reasons performance whatever could be something along those lines there are five eight positions are currently unfilled they will not be filled those positions will be abolished 13 staff members are retiring and those positions will go as well for total of 51 positions being eliminated there was a comment regarding class size and this is not a new slide this has been presented at every meeting that we've had on the budget class sizes projected average class sizes K to four remain in the range and unchanged from last year that's important Dr veski said last night that the decisions were made to have the least direct impact on students and that's what this is so I talked about the percentages before salaries and benefits and all other the total budget is $17.6 million the budget tax levy 5.7 million the last meeting we reported that that was a little bit less than that the board has given consent for that to go up there's there's no more for us to go the general fund tax levy will go up 4.11 Cent uh 4.11% over the current year The Debt Service fund which is the fund that pays our mortgage that's going down for next year by 6% so thankfully if one can say that it brings the overall tax levy increase a little bit less down to 3.76% and unfortunately it's not showing up on the slide but that tax levy includes 2 .9 million in Banks cap and a health benefit adjustment increase those are taxes those are the state's terms but those are taxes and this budget represents all the budget all of the adjustments since the tenative budget was adopted folks this is a call to action and it started last night Dr veski talked about it there were members of the community that came forth to talk about it it is time to get real we can't do it on our own the issue is not here the issue is with our legislators we need you to help and so we've got up here who the legislators are that represent East brunwick we've got the State Assembly speaker the state Senate President the governor the state senate education committee members or at least the leadership on that there were too many people to list and the State Assembly education committee chairs Mr juli I'm sorry just I'm sorry to interrupt this will also be on our website if it isn't already uh for the public to access but I also wanted to mention two important things we have submitted through the Department of Education a review of the application of the state funding formula asking them to recalculate it to see if there were any errors in the calculation that's currently ongoing we confirm with the county superintendent this morning that's ongoing uh tonight I confirm that um there was an assembly Bill 4161 That was supposed to supplement Educational Funding but had a lot of Provisions in it there is a companion Senate bill that is being worked on being crafted as in committee I was told tonight that it's likely they will vote on that on May 9th so we are waiting for that outcome to see if there's any movement on that legislation that would give relief to school districts like ours who uh suffer this kind of uh Financial loss so I just wanted to update everybody on that the final budget adoption will take place on May 9th thank you thank you Mr Juliana um I just want to say I'm going to open this up for a public hearing I'm happy to see so many residents out here I'm unhappy about why you're out here this is indeed a really difficult time but you have to remember something the people that are on this dayas are working for you not against you and I implore you social media is wonderful for getting people mobilized it's wonderful for certain types of information posting pictures of your kids asking questions but it can be a very very big proponent in the spread of misinformation you can call Dr ves's office you can go on the website to get facts unfortunately the problem is they're not policed on social media so people are put into panics it's happened we've seen it happen before in this District where somebody puts out information without anyone checking it they run with it they say this is what's happening this is facts when in fact unfortunately a lot of times they are not facts we are Board of Education members currently there are people that have served on the board of education it's wonderful when you've done your time but the reality is because you once served on the board of education does not mean that you know what's going on currently it also does not mean that you get to take things from privileged conversations in close session and spread misinformation and I will just say there's been things out there that have talked about misinformation um these gentlemen you've seen it from Bernie and I apologize I am not a politician I am a little bit nervous and I'm freezing um we have year after year been cited for our clean audit reports for our financial Excellence this gentleman and his team do a phenomenal job you heard the explanation for what was thrown out there last night as if there's a $3 million um deficit that we've hidden from you somehow because there's some type of mistake that's been made made that's not the case and that was information that was used to try and discredit these gentlemen you've been told that we have close session meetings and that we talk about things and there's no transparency there are certain issues Personnel issues security issues these are things that we need to talk about in close session we had a meeting we were bashed for a meeting um during our budget season when we had to move a meeting to 5 PM it was not a public meeting by law we always have to offer you the opportunity to talk but the meeting was at 5:00 not to hide anything but because every single member of this board works somewhere else and we had hours and hours where we painstakingly went through the budget to try and figure out how to get the best possible solutions in a horrible horrible setting and somebody put it out there and said well they're doing this to try and hide it from the public that's not the case if you have questions please asked you have a a former Board of Education member that voted for every single increase that he therefore says Hey the board votes for this and that you have a a former Board of Education member that sat up on this day as during the beginnings of these problems and said to our budget managers well tell me what more I can give you you've told me what you you need tell me what you want now how much more can I do and then decided to to quit the board and decide I'm going to not be part of the solution I'm going to throw stones and say oh well you know what you're doing something wrong please if you want information go to the website look at former meetings go to the meetings you can see the votes of the board and how people voted I promise you as I said we have a member that's not here tonight because he is at a work event the people up here are volunteers three of us work in nonprofit a couple of us are teachers we are all volunteers we all have children either in the district or have graduated through the dist the district we are here because we want this District to be well-run and a wonderful place for your children and if you don't think that our hearts aren't breaking for what is going on I assure you they are and last night you couldn't say this but I can last night people called into question his credibility his service to the Armed Forces you know this is a military man from a military family who's given his service that is not something that you take lightly and people said you know what you should take away his raises I don't know if anybody did the math but Dr vesy salary the 3.8 million that you saw that's across the board from our absolutely lowest paid to the highest paid in the district his increase next year is $7,500 and I haven't said a word to him about whether he wants to freeze it or not $7,500 is not going to restore jobs I wish it were and I can't answer for him but my guess is is if it would he probably would freeze it for this District because he does everything in his power as do we so I just wanted to say please use social media come out for your look I wish we had this type of crowd every time come out advocate for your kids advocate for your issues but I am begging you do not just take the word of people on social media that are just trying to get people upset there are real things up here there's real pain and real things that to be upset about I'm sure that that was a very hard presentation for you but I am begging you please do not let people that don't want to be part of the solution and only want to make problems for other people do not let them be where you get your information so I'm sorry for my Outburst but I just felt that it had to be said um this is your time I just want to make a few things clear this part right now is the public hearing so anyone that wishes to speak can speak for up to 3 minutes you you can only speak on the budget after this you'll notice there's going to be a public portion which you can speak on anything and out of fairness because we had a lot of people I'm going to ask if you could please keep your remarks to three minutes again everything right now is just on the budget portion and anything else we're going to do after did you want to speak if you could just come up state your name and address for the record please good evening my name is Dominic scani we at to Morgan Place East Brunswick and and I'm I'm a part of the class of 2021 I'm at a loss of words right now because many people may not know Dr L Figaroa but they are absolutely affected by this impact he oversees critical and time-sensitive scenarios directly impacting students such as anti-bullying mental health services including counseling so I ask who's going to take over these responsibilities will it be someone who has the same experience as Dr Figaroa will they have the same training and certifications if you care so much about the students well-being why are you cutting the superintendent of student services and counselors how is that helping students there will never be an English or math emergency but students facing a behavioral crisis happens on a frequent basis out of all the superintendents you chose to cut the one that impacts students the most another important person is Jamie Canard who has made it possible to graduate the high school with an associates degree through the dual enrollment program program and oversees summer school for ESL and special ed students she also runs the flex program which has many students uh many students graduate rather than dropping out of high school and keeping eie a top rated School who's going to fill her shoes delegating these tasks to current administrators will only cause burnout and it will not run smoothly I'd also like to point out Dr Figaroa and Mrs Canard are at almost every athletic event home and away where are you guys Mr gulana over the summer why did you focus on removing every single coffee maker and microwave from every school instead of focusing on the budget I didn't know was the business administrator's job to take care of facility management there this is no longer the school I used to love and I'm no longer proud call I'm no longer proud to call myself a bear and regarding the Arts issue I see my former history teacher is in uh in attendance so I must say please don't let history repeat itself thank you thank you [Applause] just hi you could just state your name and address for the record please sure will but salzer 590 Route 18 strap in folks um I have a little story for you my kid is graduating from the Berkeley College of Music um she is an East Bruns of graduate she is going to be very famous and I'm very happy for her I'm going to rewind to about 2013 when that same kid told me that she wanted to kill herself she was attending school she was severely bullied she was threatened with death and didn't know where to go that man saved my child's [Applause] life he didn't turn his back he didn't walk away he called every night to my house to talk to my kid and make sure that she was okay every night he came to every one of her performances all through school whether it was chorus or it was theater and after it walked up and said great job he went to bound Monroe's reun reunion concert or it was something that my kid went to brought his daughter who wanted a picture with my kid because his daughter knew that my kid was going to be famous one day but he came and he hugged my kid and it was a love that I saw between them that made me feel good that's L Figaroa that's a man who should be sitting exactly where he's sitting Mr Juliana no disrespect I don't know you um it's very interesting that you talked about the school being a business this is freaking East Brunswick Public Schools we're not a business we care about our [Applause] kids we care about what they're going to be where they're going to be 10 seconds not two days from now but 20 years from now that man sits there today and my child is about to broaden her world like you wouldn't believe time because of Lou Figaroa that man deserves to be here sir sir your time's up I understand that man deserves to be here your time is up your time is up shouldn't leave time is up thank you Mr junor thank you [Applause] Mr do you need this hi hi do you step I'm good I can reach it I I'm good I need the step so that's why I asked I'm Diana weiner for a Memorial Drive I graduated from the high school in 2013 I'm here for Dr Figo he's done a lot for special out in this district and please stay in this District we need [Applause] you hi everybody first of all I know you guys are volunte sorry if you could Amy address Amy LaVine two in Beam Court I know you guys are all volunteers I volunteered too as a lot of you know but nothing like what you guys do so I appreciate it um I'm a 25 and a half year resident of East Brunswick I'm a parent of a class of 2018 East Bruns public school graduate and I'm a parent of a 2017 bankr Special Needs school graduate I'm here to support Dr LOF figa I still can't say his name after all these years letting him go would be a huge detriment to E Brunswick Public Schools his leadership over special ed mental health nursing guidance Etc and Athletics has been instrumental in helping both the students and the staff and part of the reason why his Department runs so well is because of him I heard discussions last night oh you know this director will report there this director will report there think about it a lot of us are in business we get new man we're doing our job really well well we have great leadership all of a sudden we don't have that leader anymore are we still have that motivation do we still have that passion that's what I'm really really afraid of with the staff um with him uh okay before he started in 2011 and um I know Vicky Becker I think is the only person on the board from back then the special ed Department I'm really uh was in shambles we had a lot of turnover um no one St um we finally got Sharon Alis gevitz who really turned it around and um thankfully doc Lou came and they had worked together in Edison and that partnership set the P set the basis for the special ed Department that we have today um would I be able to go into Sharon's office and say and have a coffee you know Scott pulled my hair I got pulled over by the police what am I going to do going out of District the area I don't know what to do anymore he's beating us up could I go sit with her and have a chat like that the director of special ed without someone like him overseeing it um I don't know I had a really really dark period some of you in this room know about it if it wasn't Sharon it was Doctor everybody was there everybody helped me um one day she sat down with and said look you know you want to go out of District yeah and it was really hard and and my younger one 10 seconds okay my younger one fortunately Mrs block was able to give him counseling for having a sibling with special needs he even lost um our next door neighbor in fifth grade time so thank you thank you [Applause] Mrs you could just dat start with your name and address for the rest sure Brian harvy 33 Sterns Road thank you for letting me speak today my name is Brian harkavy I am an alumnus of the East Brunswick Band program a music educator and a lifelong Community member of East Brunswick before I get to what's written I do want to say one extra thing unfortunately in 2019 I lost my younger sister to Suicide she was an alumnus of this district and obviously I have no blame for this District they did the best they could for her at the time and it heartens me to hear that there is someone here like Dr Figaroa going out of his way helping these students and it makes me so sad to hear that he is one of the administrators we are going to lose now to get to my speech uh I rise today like many others to address my concerns over cuts being proposed to the East Brunswick Band program by the Boe and Dr veski I would like to address three specific points what pullout lessons offer from the perspective of a music music educator why instrumental education is important to the Elementary School environment and what the ban program means to me I'd first like to acknowledge a difficult position that you are all in there are Cuts these cuts from State age and the budget shortfall will not be easy to address one of the schools I work for as an educator for the marching Arts is facing an even higher budget shortfall that has snowballed over the last three years from S2 I do not envy your position however as public servants and public employees it is your duty to make those hard decisions in ways that hopefully the least amount of damage to the student population making such a large cut to a program that encompasses 70% of the student body is not a way to do it there are districts that dream of having the band numbers that we have of having the band program that we have cutting this program is shortsighted and will lead to Greater loss for our lower elementary schools so why is this such a detrimental loss to our music program fourth grade is one of the best time for students to start an instrument it is a point in their educational growth where they they are open to Great change and a point in their coordinated development that lets them start working on more complicated tasks such as playing a wind or string instrument at this point in their education it helps to develop their fine motor skills critical thinking and creativity furthermore the lower elementary model of small group pullout lessons is the optimal way to learn an instrument in a student's first year instrumental lessons are vital to the lower elementary environment having an instrumental program in the ele elementary schools offers many benefits such as elevating the status of the final year school giving younger students something to look forward to and to look up to and give students more ways to learn and Achieve I can remember being in Frost Elementary School and always being excited to see the Bandon Orchestra perform when I would see the older students bringing their instruments into the school I knew I wanted to be just like them it also made me excited and motivated to work hard to get the grade to get to the grade where I could finally choose an instrument I was pulled out of my classes but many times those were the best parts of my day time thank you Mr thank you just say your name and address for the rest good evening Audrey weiner for Memorial Drive East Brunswick and my daughter got up to speak she's an alumni of special education and I attribute all of her success to this district and leaders like Dr Figaroa and why because he knows the difference between specialed not being Under One Roof so every special ed student doesn't get the same Services every special ed student with the same disability has different needs and this is what this man brings to the table academics social emotional he understands every aspect and continue use to try for our kids to thrive get jobs transition to adult life it just goes on and on I don't think just anybody could do that job it's something that takes extra training it's like going to your general practitioner are you going to let him do heart surgery on you so it's not something you can just give to anybody to delegate those responsibilities it's something that he works hard at um he makes sure there's job sites out there for our kids it's not something every single person can do I have all my faith in a man like this we've had other sup assistant superintendents there's no bad but Dr figuro is exceptional and there's no one who cares as much as he does he provides resources he's there for kids for the families there's just not enough words to say how much this man does in this District we cannot AF my my daughter is out of school so to me she succeeded but this District cannot be without a man like this it it it would be a loss to this District so when you're putting everything together I hope you can consider other ways other than letting a man who brings so much to this town and special education it's such a specialized area so we we need you [Applause] Lou if you'd like to state your name and address for the records thank you uh good evening Jim Logan 30 Myrtle Ries Brunswick I had a different angle uh for how I thought I would want to address the comments this evening but listening to the numbers presentation from Mr Juliana and and the comments that have been uh portrayed already I think I'd like to approach us a slightly different way so we all know this is a very difficult situation and no one wants to be in this situation clearly my question is perhaps have we had enough time to think about are we taking a bad situation and making it worse as opposed to looking at and I'm not even implying that the analyses have not been rigorous and I'm not trying to imply that they haven't been done justly it's not at all where I'm going with this however if you look at other programs um even in the sports and people most people in this room will know you know for 13 years I've been involved with East Brunswick baseball and softball um I'm involved with the booster club in the high school but if the financial impacts to removing a quality individual who frankly I'm proud to call a friend so I am biased I'll just put that out there but on a personal level the types of services that he's responsible for it's it's not just about what we've heard so far about mental health and other attributes it's security it's nursing it's mental health it's threat awareness it's being the liaison to Fire EMS etc etc I'm just curious if we really can take that risk of putting the atrisk population of our students at a lower even lower disadvantage by removing this quality individual from our program and I know the money's got to come from somewhere it obviously has to come from somewhere but can we take a pause is there a way as a board that you can think a little bit longer on the tradeoffs eliminate Middle School sports half the half the schools that we go and play against they can't even feel the freshman team no one wants to cut sports but if that is one of the painful trade-offs we have to make in order to preserve the quality of what we need to be doing for our children in this community that's the individual that I'd want in I don't want to see any of these 30 people L their jobs everyone's talking rightly so about Lou but there's 30 people who are losing their jobs once you take out retirements and the eight positions that won't be no one wants to see that that's that's horrible it's tragic but we've all been there in different walks of life before and we've had to make these painful decisions I'm just saying let us take another pause and look at is there somewhere else we could try to make up this deficit and preserve the Integrity that this man brings to the table thank you very [Applause] much jonu 54 Courtland Drive dear Dr vaski members of the Board of Education and other members of the East Brown School administration I would like to say that what a great job I believe East bronck teachers staff and administrators have been doing for the 20 years that have been a resident here not to mention the uncertain times that all of you work so hard to navigate how to safely open schools during covid which was not so long ago and let's not forget it East Brunswick has a skeletal crew as it is without the layoffs and the retirements and not filling those empty classrooms guess how many administrators are at yo University over 5,000 guess how many administrators are at Harvard over 7,000 what I'm getting at we have a skeletal crew East R school people including all of you up here do not work from 9 to 5 they work from 5: to 9: no one is overpaid here I should know I'm a parent here I'm also a teacher although at a high education institution which I have to say is a much easier job than educating underage kids and I work very hard I can tell you that it is the people who work at EB schools that make EB schools so enviable people say oh East bronswick smart people good people there in a difficult time like this I know how difficult it is for all of you I don't envy where you are let's keep the people who have EB School's grade including our beloved assistant superintendent teachers directors supervisors secretaries specialist counselors technicians and janitors I don't know how you guys are the decision makers but maybe let's let make some shared sacrifice fellows maybe just maybe as residents I would like to remind everyone and I encourage everyone also take on the task of calling emailing and lobbying state legislators to change the school funding formula which sound to me is very unfair after all East bronswick and the people who work or live here should not be punished by heart earned achievements thank you Aaron Jenkins 24 West damer Street my children graduate this year so why am I here I'm here because they graduate because of him and I'm sorry to be emotional it is because of Lou my daughter got her IEP and is an a student it is because of blue my other daughter is alive when she was threatened to be killed publicly over social media he reached out to me on a Sunday I'm still waiting for calls back from her GLA and the former principal this was in 21 this man is beyond an asset to this District letting him go puts every child at risk I know the money has to come from somewhere but at this stage in the life that we live now I know my kids are safe at school because of what he does with security I know my kids are safe in their development and they will be good adults and good people because of the education he helped my daughter get balls were dropped he didn't hesitate to pick them up it was not his responsibility he did not drop anything but he swooped right in and handled it and for that I will be forever grateful but mainly because my daughters are alive because of this man I'm sorry taking him away is too much of a detriment to this community though my kids will be gone your as well I'll be here and I care about this district and I didn't grow up here I'm from Spotswood I don't know this District it overwhelms me and it scares the crud out of me to put it nicely the only legitimate way I can ever understand Dr Lewis Figaro and not having his title is because he's earned a higher title I thank you very much [Applause] philes 1118 Princeton Road hold on to seats I'm from mbridge my daughter decided to settle down in East Brunswick and I have two beautiful grandchildren at chid L figeroa I've known since [Music] 2002 I was supervisor of guid and he was assistant principal Lou has this special gift if he disciplines a kid on Wednesday the very next day he'll go through a war to help that same kid he's a special person I'm proud to be his friend and you making a big mistake and I am I don't mean personally but figure out something else you got a gem here don't blow it thank [Applause] you hi name and address hi uh Wilbur pan 223 miltown Road just for transparency I have put my name in for consideration for one of the two uh open board uh seats just so everybody knows um I'm a a little bit of mixed mind coming up here because I'm not sure if what I'm going to say is going to alter uh whatever is going to happen from that but um I I really came up here uh before ask and the gentleman over there who uh talked about maybe reframing the situation that we're in I I I I do very much appreciate that uh that Viewpoint this is a bad situation um it's extremely bad situation um from what I know um this has happened one time in somewhat recent history here um and but what heartens me is that we actually got through that period of time so even though it's a bad situation it's not an unsolvable um unsolvable uh situation and the other thing is that um and I know this from many many different experiences that when bad things happen the first impulse is to think oh we're all alone and we're not alone there are 20% of the school districts in the state have the same situation that we have right now with with the state funding Cuts leading to a bad financial situation South Brunswick is one of them and so I have a few asks first of all for the people in this room go on YouTube look up the South Brunswick Board of Education there is a presentation on March 21st and a presentation on March uh April 11th the one on April 11th go to skip ahead to 40 minutes in in into the video there's a lot of extra stuff at the beginning but the reason is that they actually did extreme good job explaining their financial situation and although the details are different my takea away from what spending the time to watch those videos it's a little bit over an hour maybe 45 minutes if you want to skip the Q&A stuff um the the details are different but the situation is actually pretty much the same the same factors that have led to the cuts they've had to face over the past six years are the same ones that we're facing this year we just got lucky over the past few years because of the timing of the implementation um second thing is take um there's a lot of passion in this room and that's awesome because that means we care about the school district um take that passion and focus on Solutions um it's easy to get caught up in blaming and Monday morning quarterbacking and that's fine it's a natural human response but it's not going to solve the problem and we need to solve this problem fast the third is there's a lot of people in this room but we all have friends tell your friends because we can do a lot with our friends we can can do more and with people in other towns we can do even more which leads to the point that's already been made which is call your legislators and finally for you guys we're going to have the situation next year whether or not I'm up there we should have maximal transparency in terms of this process not enough transparency but maximal yep [Applause] thanks come on down if you to just state your name and address for the record Danielle Vio 23 Bradford Road so I like this gentleman came here with a whole speech that I'm completely trans completely changing um so I first want to say I agree with the transparency uh in regards to South Brunswick I feel like leading up to this I think the presentation that was given today about the formula would have been benefited you last night I think that you got a beating last night um I think that if you started a little bit with that information it might have helped alleviate some of the anger um in regards to this is education but it's a business so I'm going to put that out there I work in healthcare Healthcare is a business this is a business they're running a business so we can't lose sight of that and people are getting very emotional and like I said I had a whole different speech I see that you're beloved and I I I'm sure you are and I'm I I know everyone wants everyone to keep their job but where's the money going to come from guys if everyone here loves everyone and every position that and no one wants to to no one wants to lose their job then if we're this affluent Community then maybe we need to talk about taxes I'm going to get shot in the parking lot I know that but what I'm saying is right if if this year going to the legislators yes we have to do that but that's not going to make a difference today it's not going to make a difference tomorrow so how are we going to get the money are we leveraging all the resources with our town with our mayor are there things that we're not doing to talk about the revenue increase that we can do now rather than cutting these positions I don't know those ansers I'm not on the board I'm not in finance but what I'm saying is if we all care this much about the people and our kids then we need to put our money where our mouth is thank you hi Mark sisar 100 fresh puns Road first of all thank you I know and appreciate the hard work that all the day do and I know 70 are volunteers and I know Tim's not here last night I made a suggestion to explore an option to go for vote to go over the 2% cap to save all the jobs lost it wasn't a criticism of your hard work it was a compliment to our caring residents that probably would have approved it so here we are so I'm going to focus on Saving Dr Figaro's position Dr veski I know you said the work would be dist distributed and I and I understand that we have confident staff but let's look at redistribution of work if we lost an assistant superintendent if if we lost the assistant superintendent of academics we have two directors and 12 supervisors to accept that load if we lost the assistant superintendent of business and support operations there's two directors and several managers to accept the load you take away Lou there's only one director and seven supervisors to accept that load see the discrepancy removing the assistant superintendent of Student Activities and services will I repeat will have huge student impact even though you said you're trying to limit it I could go on for days telling you about the exemplary cment of Dr figuro I only have three minutes though and you guys are doing a great job Dr Vanella retired it created a $200,000 breakage which means there's there's uh replacement has to be made hire from within maybe even moving one of the directors to be the high school principle don't hire from the outside for that position and I'll tell you why because no one would lose their job at that point we could keep blue and potentially save there's also a line item that I spoke about last night Dr veski you said go find it in the budget it's not there for the for the public anymore so I had to guess there's still a line item in the budget with with money that I estimate around $110,000 based on historical raises for admin which we don't know yet if you combine those two moves in my opinion Dr Figaroa stays no one else gets gets lost the district will suffer for years to come if you make a mistake of letting Dr Figaroa go he's performed his job in an exemplary manner he's done nothing wrong he lives in and is in the fabric of our great Township I've never heard a standing ovation for an administrator before like I saw tonight so thank you for that I I I implore you make some changes before May 9th keep Dr Figaroa that's it thank you [Applause] state your name and address for Jennifer Figaroa 101 Rus Lane I want to thank the board for their hard work and support of student services and my husband Dr Lou Figaroa for the past 13 years I know how hard your jobs must be all of you have families and work that you do as an Edison teacher I know the how hard I work I know there's an Edison teacher on the board I appreciate all of you and what you do for this community that's why I'm here tonight I'd like to discuss impact to the community when it comes to losing a special person like Lou Lou is not a 9-to-5 employee Lou and the people he is so grateful to work with in student services work seven days a week are always available to each other and the families they serve they are public servants and they're proud of it I can't tell you how many times dinners family events and even family vacations are interrupted when Lou gets on the phone to talk to someone from the district who needs help most recently when he spent nights at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital when his dad was in a coma he would be taking calls from principles community members and people who needed help in their own lives he never LED on to where he was or to what he was doing he just answered their calls and try to help he never turns anyone away and he's been there for all of them when news of him being unceremoniously dismissed was provided to him his first reaction was what about my team what about my people what happens to them his second question was what about the families we help in this town as his wife and his friend I realized many years ago that I had to share him with this community he has turned down a number of opportunities in the last 10 years to stay here in East Brunswick this is where he made his home our home this action is pulling him away from his family his East Brunswick family from the kids and families he helps in this town and from our family we will have to share him with somewhere else some other town and that is the shame because he is willing to finish out his career here in East Brunswick to continue to provide the students in this town all that he could for their success that will be cut short and that is unfortunate thing for all of us thank you for your time [Applause] [Applause] you could state your name and address for the record please this is very difficult for me to do I'm not a very good so Sor could you please state your name and address for the record my name is Sharon finello and I am a district employee for over 17 years my position has been dissipated along with my immediate supervisor Dr Figaroa Dr Figaroa has made all of us working in student services the best version of ourselves through leadership compassion and knowledge in all things education our department handled everything from security parent complaints security drills fire drills special education State reporting hibs student hearings affirmative action clubs Athletics and that's just to name a few of what goes on in our office if I named everything that Dr Figaroa oversees and does we would be here all night I want him to know along with Paul natalicio Karen Keegan Venita nargon Danielle billock Kevin zebro Eric Meyer Louise Sultana Adrien Berg all of the special ed staff am Bill PM bill that this has been the best journey of my life I have learned so much and learned the true meaning of family does not always mean blood I thank Lou for believing in me and all that I could positively do in this District while I know that I will move on since my job has been dissipated this speech is not about me it is about the loss of Dr Figaroa I am confident that this this district will be a lot less fortunate without the guidance and Leadership of Dr Lewis D Figaroa there are kids in this District that need him I don't care about me I know that you guys did what you needed to do with me but this is the worst decision that you could possibly make for this District [Applause] good evening my name is Joan shelowitz I'm the president of the East Brunswick principal and supervisors Association the proud principal of Irwin School 71 racra Road and a resident of the East Brunswick Community for the past 28 years East Brunswick has been a very big part of my life for a very long time my reason for speaking to the board tonight is to remind us of the importance of our entire administrative and instructional team who work together to ensure our students success it is a plea to remember the most important people in this discussion the children of this Township I'm here to advocate for our students and also for the administrative instructional and support staff that educate them budget cuts are about real people with mortgages and families many of whom live here in East Brunswick themselves and want to be a part of the process to reduce teachers support staff and administrators to line items not real life people committed to the success of the children of this town is heartbreaking eliminating an administrative role that supports the most vulnerable children in East Brunswick those in danger of not graduating high school and those who must remain educated while on home instruction is very troubling as recent events have shown us when we work together we can find other sources to make up for our shortfalls and RSE reverse decisions that would otherwise have had an acceptable outcome East Brunswick's principles and supervisors provide invaluable support leadership and training for our teachers councelors and staff our group works collaboratively with every individual in all 11 of our buildings and the administration building and ensures the high level of instruction and responsiveness that our community has come to expect more than two-thirds of East Brunswick's principles and supervisors are also former members of ebea the district has a long history of cultivating administrative Talent from it's amazing teachers EA's members comprise our spouses our children our friends and our colleagues we work together every day in our school communities to support this town's children to pit our two bargaining units against one another online or to take a Victory lap at the loss of anyone's job is shameful we are better than that this town is better than that every position in our unit and organization has purpose and value East Brunswick's motto has long been excellence in academics Athletics and the Arts that Excellence has taken a communed committed group of Administrators teachers and support staff it takes Visionary leadership to anticipate what our children will need in the long and short term educational leadership and teaching are the hardest but best jobs there are that commitment to Excellence is why we took jobs here it's why some of us moved here and continue to raise our families here every job hurt loss hurts both the individuals affected and the whole organization as we attempt to navigate this process our principles and supervisors will continue to show up for our students and staff thank [Applause] you good evening board good evening folks I'd like to uh first of all let Miss LAX know I'm honored that I'm living rentree in your head that you decided to take the first five minutes of your presentation tonight to eviscerate me I'm addressing the board Jeff Winston 44 Fresh Pond Road East Brunswick thank you U Mr giobi so again very honored Miss LAX uh it's uh nice to see you do that I wish you spent as much time worrying about this budget as you do about me that being said the uh was just mentioned the motto of Brunswick is excellence in academics Athletics and arts it's time we add another a and it's called accountability you've taken this budget and the presentation Mr Julian I missed the title of it what was it called it's not my fault I missed it and in that presentation you mentioned a lot of things a lot of things a lot of things that happened to you the victim of what the state the victim of the charter schools you're a victim everything happened to you but what did you do what have you done to cut cost throughout the years yes Miss LAX you are correct I did approve many things many of the things I approved as a matter of fact had to do with Mr Figaro are right there when covid hit I went to Mr figuro and the first thing I said to you was what it's not the illness of the of the virus it's going to be the mental health of our kids our kids are going to be in the homes perhaps in dysfunctional relationships and putting themselves in danger what did Mr Figaroa say say let's do whatever we have to do and you're right Miss LAX I asked for money I asked it for that reason but how dare you vilify me in this meeting because what I write something on Facebook over and over again and I what it I struck a nerve I said something that was truthful I never disclosed anything about closed session but you just did to address down a member of the public makes you a disgrace and it will be taken up with the ethics board you have violated a major policy that aside I will say that I call upon this board to pause for a moment think about what you're doing and in spite of what Miss LAX is convinced you of you do not have to approve this budget all of these actions have taken place with a lack of approval you have been brainwashed to believe that you have to do this you do not there is something and hopefully you've been informed by Mr shakobe what the results would be if you said no and there is a remedy around it do not do this that man can't leave you've chosen the wrong person Dr veski has been unable to put together any type of succession plan for any position within this District we lose a principal in the high school and you have to go out looking after 10 years you didn't prepare one individual to take that role that's a failure in leadership thank you so with that said I I'll leave it at that I don't appreciate the comments that were made regarding me it's not my fault stop being victimized stop excuses be leadered all of you thank you thank you Mr [Applause] wion hi if you can state your name and address please for the good evening Michael msto 27 Colonial Drive East Brunswick New Jersey so my name is Michael msto and I'm in here in support of Dr Lou Figaroa although I've coached Little League baseball with Lou for a number of years I'm here to share the impact that Lou has had on our family and our school system you tell me lat my son Ari instantly had a connection with Lou and looks up to him as a huge role model when when my son transitioned from elementary school to Hughes Lou has helped not only my son our baseball team but many other students with the transition and it's because of one thing Lou genuinely cares about the students Lou has this natural ability to connect with people and make them feel special and bring out the best in themselves all of the people who are here in support of Lou is a testament to the connect ctions he makes with people that is important to hear people students kids that are going to be impacted by this so aside from loving what he does Lou is a beacon that shines in both the community and the East Brunswick school system the programs he oversees work effectively mainly because of who he is as an individual and his passion for the students and his community eliminating a position and removing a person like Lou puts this school system at a detriment and in all frankness makes me a little concerned a father a parent a coach of 12-year-old boys for the future of the programs and a lot of the other kids that the programs that this town needs now I get it I'm a finance guy you have to balance inflows with outflows it's simple mathematics but you don't start cutting at the place that makes the heart of this school system beat which is Lou Figaroa as a loyal Citizen and taxpayer of this town I urge the board councel to rethink their decision on the removal of Dr Lou Figaroa and keep him as a part of our school system and our East Brunswick family thank you thank you [Applause] Mr you can state your name and address for the Chad sealer 11 Apache Court East bronswick I have nothing prepared to let the gentleman before me my wife allowed me to come here this evening I used to be a member of the board from 2017 to 2019 I chose not to run yet two days ago I that decision based on Dr Figaro I had the honor I don't know if honor what is it these people change spots every year on where they sit they didn't move mine I sat to L next to Lou for three years and became friends with Lou we've had our disagreements we've gone after for a beer afterwards about things oh when I first came to East Brunswick I had an issue with co-parenting I approached a member who's up on here name name names who turned his back on me and didn't want to talk to me said he go something else to do Lu fig gr did not do that does not do that for anybody in this District so with that being said you know I know things can't change I know you get tough things to do I'm going be all over the place Dr veski you were a gentleman last night in myice Mas you took a beating for no reason it's your job the way people have come in here over the years and spoken to Dr veski and some kids have come in here it's not right God's job to do and you have to respect the position if you don't respect the man respect the man uh it was an honor to work with him for years um you know another reason I'm here my daughter graduated last year she's in college three members of the board of education has served for years here our second kids have not gone to e High School my son's going to St J next year not e high school so let that speak volumes there's other board members that have since been on the board whose other other children have gone to different high schools not here after first one has graduated that's an issue so we we mirror on that other than that that's all I to say tonight uh Lou you've done a great job you a friend of mine I respect the guys on the board again I regret not being honored to to assist with this situation and one more thing I'm going to say it again going to make a cut you know I'm going to say worry cut Middle School football there's no reason for it St Bart's program is better than it and it is I'll I'll pound that till Till I'm Gone here thanks everybody thank you are you student in the district yes then if you could just state your name do not give your address please just state your name you can tell us your grade but do not State your address please okay good evening my name is is Matthew hoe I'm a sophomore at the high school and I'm a chist I'm here to urge you to consider extending the band and Orchestra programs in our elementary schools Beyond just next year as a product of our District's Elementary School Orchestra program I am tremendously grateful for this wonderful experience I remember how excited I was when I played my first note on the rental cello I got through school I remember how proud I was the first time I sat in the fourth grade orchestra playing for one starer families since then music has become one of the most important parts of my life now seven years later I'm a student at the juliard pre- college studying with World rowning musicians winning National and international competitions and I've played in many prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't start playing the cello when I was in fourth grade my parents wouldn't have started me with private lessons if I hadn't begun with the school orchestra first and demonstrated my passion the elementary school orchestra experience has fundamentally shaped who I am today it was in The Humble settings of Warren starer music room where I learned more than just notes and rhythms I learned discipline collaboration and the joy of expressing myself through music it broke my heart when I heard that the inter in the instrumental music programs would be discontinued in all our lower elementary schools so I thank you Board of Education now that you've decided to bring it back for next year I really hope that we can find a solution to continuously keep the program and that students and families don't have to worry that it will soon be discontinued in the future you may say that students can start Banning Orchestra when they're in fifth grade uh in hammerfield but at this age one year of instruction and practice is critical and can make a big difference personally I don't think I would be able to achieve all that I've achieved today if I started Orchestra just one year later East Brunswick has a long tradition of excelling in music education our high school orchestra and band are among the best in the state these all rely on an excellent music program starting at a young age so let's try our best not to lose this tradition I understand that we have a shortfall in our budget however let's not measure the worth of our Orchestra program simply in terms of budget sheets and expense reports but in the countless stories like mine let us find Creative Solutions that will allow these programs not only to survive but to thrive as a person who greatly benefited from our or Elementary School Orchestra program I'm willing to contribute my time and effort to help raise funds that we need thank you for taking the time to listen to me and thank you to all our board members for your continued dedication to our education Matthew Matthew Matthew before you go are you 16 years old how old are you I'm 15 15 years old very well spoken unbelievable thank [Applause] you Aram Shaker 8 Lantern Lane East Brunswick before I start my little talk here I wish better accommodations made I was standing outside for 2 hours in 4 in heels cuz I came back from or and I haven't had dinner so I know that you guys have notices that need to be sent out but when you know there's a Hot Topic in the town and a lot of people are going to show up and for support please have proper accommodations you know we have a lot of venues in town anyways I'd like to first start by thanking you for your the board for your countless hours and dedication towards our district and children your roles are difficult challenging and underappreciated and I salute you for taking these roles on for the betterment of our schools with that being said we understand that budget cuts are inevitable however cutting roles that are critical for our children and schools is unwise and a detriment to our children to our all our children to be clear we're talking about cutting a role that oversees security counseling Athletics and most importantly special education delegating these roles to others or hiring on a stip on contract base is extremely risky Reckless and foolish things will slip through the cracks and create a multitude of problems and difficulties especially for kids that need the extra care we are already have someone that's not only handling so many critical roles at once but handling it beautifully a lot of you on the board have been around for years and are well aware that Dr Lou is an amazing human the fact that so many people have been advocating for him speaks volumes towards his professionalism and empathetic nature it's a true Testament to his character I chair East Bruns of human relation Council and Dr Lou also serves on the same Council he wholeheartedly gives himself to the community not only during business hours but during his personal time too taking time away from his family for the betterment of our community I don't know what the answers are I don't sit on the board you all do frankly I don't have the inside or the full picture but I'm sure the board can come up with innovative ideas and solutions to deal with these budget cuts maybe forming an advisory committee of professionals that excel in finance that can provide valuable Insight or maybe reduce the number of programs and softwares the kids use and have a general program across the board we have way too many licenses from canvas OneNote Team Zoom Google Docs and I'm sure a plethora of apps and software that I'm not aware of maybe have a uniformity across the board so that there's less software or programs maybe work with the township to get more funds allocated than 67% that we receive I'm not sure the Cs the cuts are inevitable but I implore you to not cut Dr L's role as he serves an extremely critical and essential role and simply put is amazing at his role again I urge you to look for other ways to deal with these Cuts he's invested in all our childrens and our schools thank you [Applause] you see something about while we're here why hi I'm Gavin Salgado I am a student at Churchill Junior High School and I wanted to come talk today about the removal of the fourth grade instrumental program music's been such a big part of my life and I it's it's I don't know what I do without it I have been playing percussion for most of my life drums mallets zyo you name it whatever I've played at all and it's become one of my coping mechanisms and ways of relieving stress and it's you know when people aren't there my drumsticks always were and I started really and I took off and I I I traveled around the country and I've performed in so many different venues due to my opportunities with music and I never would have continued if it weren't for the opportunities that I had when I was in fifth grade in the K through five schools which are now K through four and to see those programs go when there's another kid who comes through and they need that same opportunity they don't have anyone there they need something to rely on and like how I had my music I had my drumsticks I there needs to be something for that kid and to remove that program they're losing that and I when I hear that that program's getting removed that's I couldn't take it like I'm shaking while I'm up here it it really hurt me so please bring back the fourth grade program thank [Applause] you hi everyone uh my name is Rebecca sudell um I'm not a resident of East Brunswick anymore I do believe it 48 Mel Roseway Keyport however I'm an East Brunswick High School I'm of 2010 um I'm a data migration analyst by day for a software company company but I am a touring musician by night so music means a lot to me and I would not be here without the East Brunswick um music program and I owe a lot to this program um we all started somewhere so when you don't sew the seeds of a foundation for a program everything else will suffer you see how well the band programs are going at Churchill at Hamer at the high school anything less than that you will see that domino effect and you do not get to you don't get to call yourself excellent in the Arts without having the full Foundation there supportive arts program start at the top that's it's the way it's always been and offering Elementary instrumental is an equitable choice for everybody in this diverse District as you all know East Brunswick is a Melting Pot economically culturally parents can't always afford those private lessons and that one-on-one instruction time like fourth and fifth graders have been getting and like fourth graders should continue to get and on top of that too transitioning to a new school on top of having to pick an instrumental an instrument that they've never played before Not A wise choice during Co at the height of Co the Arts were treasured you know you saw all these celebrities all these musicians who were collaborating together and everyone was just in awe of it treating it like it's disposable starts in schools and we can't allow that that is not Model Behavior for school districts this also sends such a broad message to other neighboring districts I have friends that I have met through the music industry and through playing and touring bands who actually teach nearby in other District they are feeling the pressure of this potential decision so sending that message from a district that is so nationally recognized it is right behind you sending that message is going far and wide so I implore you to find a way there is another way to make it happen um and on top of that I don't know Dr Lou however everybody here I mean that's a testament to his character and when times get tough you find the helpers it is evident that our elementary school music teachers all the staff in the schools and Dr Lou are all the helpers so I employed to make it happen make it work figure it out if not for being a musician I would not have been able to figure it out and that might be my biggest lesson that I've learned in years of being a musician thank [Applause] you I just state your name and address for the record please hi I'm Rael Harrison I'm from Church Virginia High School you're a student I'm sorry could you say your name again please Mel Harrison thank you and she's from Churchill thank you Rico I just want to say a few things Dr Figaroa you've been here for everybody and I've known you for as long as I can remember since I was in prek and it just breaks our heart just to let you go we don't want to and you know um you have supported and loved everybody's decisions you've been here for everybody and you supported them and I just want to say thank you for everything that you do you're not only an employee but you are a citizen and a leader to to our community we just want to say thank you so much good evening my name is Caitlyn Nichols I live at 67 Ravens Crest Drive in Plainsboro I've had the privilege of teaching band in East Brunswick since 2012 and I need to remind everyone here that if you rip out the roots of this community you will watch the tree die in 2012 in the throws of the recession most school districts cut their arts and music programs down to the legal minimum in stark contrast East Brunswick was adding a position to its music education faculty it was a strong indication that EB was a district that valued and prioritized Arts education at last night's budget hearing we learned that EB plans to eliminate fourth grade band and Orchestra programs after one more year we are grateful that the program has been retained for now but this is not enough this year's 70% enrollment rate is typical and it is a testament to the value our community places on instrumental music the department demonstrates year after year that the cost of four teacher salaries is worth running a program that benefits a great majority of our students it is not an efficiency cut most of our fourth graders rent their own instruments while the school maintains a small inventory for students who cannot afford one remember the $572,000 allocated toward therapeutic counceling services this year and watch that number Skyrocket if we eliminate programs and people that promote our students well-being this month the hammerhal band celebrated extremely well-received concerts at the second annual night of percussion and the 15th annual night of jazz the opportunities and the level of progress our our program affords these students is astonishing displaying excellence in the Arts on the front page of the school website Rings Hollow when administrative actions perennially threaten to decimate a successful program that has taken decades to grow from the ground up make no mistake next year delaying the start of band and Orchestra by a full year is not an increase in instructional time the band program began in fourth grade prior to 2020 and we can attribute the tremendous amount of recent growth in our Jazz percussion and concert band programs to the decision to start them earlier the success of our instrumental programs is the direct result of a strong technical foundation and expert instruction our students receive at the fourth grade level learning to play an instrument builds character it Fosters perseverance critical thinking and physical dexterity playing music with others promotes teamwork and social skills and that experience cannot be replicated by oneself at home with a book or through a screen most importantly our students Collective mental health has been in crisis for the past 5 years or more and removing a program that does so much to bring them joy and teach them these skills is unconscionable students aspire to play an instrument because it's woven into their school culture they see the rewards that practice and dedication bring every time they watch a fourth grade concert assembly they see those instrument cases going home on the bus and imagine themselves carrying their own trumpet or cello someday they hear the sounds of the band and Orchestra ringing through the Halls they witness it as a worthy joyful Pursuit firsthand we cannot allow this crucial component of our District's culture to disappear thank you for your time and your consideration thank [Applause] you good evening I'm one of the family here in East Brunswick I here since like 14 years ago I'm so sorry to interrupt you if you could just give us your name and address for the no problem my name is Raquel Richards thank you ra I live in E Brunswick since like 14 years ago when I came here in East bronswick my big one she was like in fourth grade now she's in dentist school and I have the second one he's Engineering in engineering school and the little one also she's in ninth grade and the other one because I have four kids he's in 10th Grade I won't say something I'm not good in speech but I'm going to try I going to just say Dr fura he always help whatever he ask Dr Figaroa I think this is the right place he to be here wherever he need him he found him when I came in East Brunswick here because of him I didn't move because he bring me here and he know what's going on and he solves the problem that's why I want thank you so much to make me stay here in EAS Brunswick because of you and I want thank you so much because you take care our kids here in East brunwick please we need you here thank you so much everyone they give us opportunity to talk and I'm so sorry for take your time and good luck we all love you Dr faga thank you so much hi my name is Taylor I live at 86 applebe Avenue in South New Jersey I'm not a resident but I am a former substitute teacher your last name please fenel thank you you're welcome I'm a former substitute teacher for the ESL esy summer programs my mom is also Sharon finello who just spoke so passionately about Dr Figaroa just a few minutes ago I was blessed to be given career guidance by Dr Figaro and to have known him for over a decade and I'm very grateful my mother had someone so amazing to work under I think that the Clapping while he walked in Spoke volumes about how much of an outstanding leader Dr Figaroa is I believe the question on everyone's mind is how did you come to a decision to cut one administrator over another was this a board vote I do not see how this District benefits from losing the administrator who is the most invested in this town he's at the majority of District sporting events supporting all the district sports teams he is a local Coach in town for sports I can honestly say in speaking to a lot of people in town the past few days people tell me he's the only Central office administrator that they see at events in town he runs the secondary principal meetings he runs safety committee meetings he's chairperson of student services committee meeetings he runs EB HRC meetings he along with Paul natalicio fa to put the safety of the students first and for forem most in the world that is a complete mess he's also the district anti-bullying coordinator in a district this size that is a huge undertaking and a full-time job of its own he truly cares about diversity equity and overall success for all students and he has saved many students lives as you all just heard by many students this decision to cut Dr Figaroa actually hurts the students and parents of this town this doesn't seem like the least impactful decision for students which was mentioned at the beginning of this meeting he lives in this town and he's actually present for the kids in the community he is the fabric of East Brunswick I do not believe that anyone else here can say the same to Dr Figaro this is not just a job the decision of which administrator to cut should not be made by the board it should be voted on by the parents of the district I believe that it will be a unanimous decision to keep the man who exemplifies what an administrator should be Dr Figaroa so I say to the board if you truly care about the students and what best benefits to the community you will reconsider which administrator is cut for the 2024 to 20125 school year and to Dr Figaroa do not let this board break your spirit when Dr veski spoke about the recent rankings rankings of our district you and your staff can honestly take credit because your dedication is a huge part of why East Brunswick is the top District in your state thank you thank you can state your name and address for the record please Hi how are you Eric Varga 37 clear viiew Road um I came here in support of Dr Figaroa and I wasn't going to speak um but I feel compelled to after seeing you guys have a line out the door right now so get here for be prepared for a long night um what I really want to say is everyone in this board right now is tasked with a responsibility and that is a responsibility to represent the people of East Brunswick and what's best for our children think about that for a minute the decision you're going to make right now is going to be about the two hottest topics in every school district Across the Nation student services and school safety and you're about to make a decision on a man who has his own horses in the race with his own children in this school district think about that for a moment an administrator who has children in this District that supervises school safety and student service and you're tasked with that responsibility to represent the people of East Brunswick who don't want it to happen thank you thank you [Applause] Mr state your name my name is Chris finegan and I live at 32 Stevens Drive in East Brunswick the first time I ever set foot in an East Brunswick school was in 1996 when I came here for a high school region Orchestra rehearsal later while in college and graduate school at ruter I had classes taught by Gordon tesi then the orchestra director at East Brunswick High School time and again East Brunswick showed itself to be a model of what an orchestra program could be I have been an orchestra director for 20 years and have been proud to serve the people of East Brunswick for the past 14 of them I have taught at Central Frost and Irwin Elementary Schools Churchill Junior High School East Brunswick High School and hamers shold both as a middle school and an upper elementary school I am proud of what my colleagues and I have accomplished with the of this board administrators who support music education and the wonderful families and children of East Brunswick I don't need to tell many of you you've seen it with your own eyes as we have taught your children I moved my family here two years ago so that my children could grow and flourish in this vibrant Arts community and receive a highquality education that included one of the best instrumental music programs in the state I believe in the potential of our town our schools our staff our students and our families it is why I chose to work here and it is why I chose to raise my family here I do not want my second grade son to be part of the first fourth grade class in at least 40 years to be denied access to the wonderful instrumental music program that we have during the first week of school I always teach my students an Irish phrase to SM the it means a good start is half the work for the 398 fourth graders 70% of the grade currently enrolled in this program that is exactly what they are getting just take a listen to one of our concerts to see what our students can achieve I thank the board for restoring the fourth grade instrumental music program and the four teachers who make it a success but this is only a good start the community has clearly spoken and shown that this is a valued priority that must be sustained why remove a vital year of learning and ruin a program that means so much to so many of our children and families has brought countless accolades for decades and puts East Brunswick in the Forefront of music education we know that you faced many difficult decisions but know that you are not alone we have a great staff of Educators in the instrumental music department 16 people with 23 degrees and over 204 years of teaching experience between them many of us have spoken over the past two nights to try and share our experience so that better decisions can be made we have a Vibrant Community that supports values and loves the Arts we want to help it is my hope that going forward this board and administration will Avail themselves of the expertise of the staff that they have hired and listen to the will of the community before making such important and far reaching decisions I again thank the board for the restoration of the fourth grade instrumental music program my heart goes out to all the people in this District whose jobs have been reduced or eliminated and I hope that we can all work together going forward so that we do not find ourselves in this same place next year thank [Applause] you state your name and address please Michelle Moore I am the Irwin School general vocal music teacher and I just like to say what an incredible inspiring night it has been to see the flow of support coming toward you Dr Figaroa first I'd like to thank Dr veski and the board of ed for extending the life of the Bandon Orchestra program for the next year the outpouring of support for our program has been invaluable and we thank the community for that our hope is that this is not just a short-term solution and an act of good faith that expires in one year our instrumental enrollment was strong in fourth grade across the district we have heard it many times 70% and the projections for next year look equally as good we feel the need to address and clarify the myth that pullout lessons put students at some kind of academic disadvantage that argument is simply inaccurate and outdated I could provide Decades of scientific evidence um regarding playing instruments at an early age and what it does for the brain creativity building social emotional well-being but the community of East Brunswick already knows these things during the pandemic parents teachers and administrators knew how important it was to get our schools back to normal hearing performing and celebrating live music as a community was essential to our normaly and our well-being coming back to school we struggled to get our numbers back up and finally after seeing some improvements in healthier numbers now we fear about the foundation of our program what happens after next year East Brunswick High School is recognized as a New Jersey model School for the Arts we want to maintain this recognition which is only possible because of the foundation developed in the lower elementary schools and every developmentmental stage after that into high school every year my chorus numbers my enrollment goes up after from the Winter concert to the spring concert Why students are inspired and influenced by their classmates performances we want a long-term plan to keep instrumental music in K to 4 buildings to keep that vision and influence in our elementary schools for years to come the morale of teachers and staff in our school district is really at an all-time low we want transparency we want to be heard last night Dr veski I heard you speak that we cannot do this alone I I wholeheartedly agree with that we're often told we are experts in our field and I agree we need to work together we would love a seat at the table thank you [Applause] thank r Cruz 22 Perry Road I have two boys at Lawrence Brook I'm also the secretary for the special education parent advisory group today my six-year-old asked if he could come to work with my husband or me today and I told him I didn't have any projects to work on but the truth is that we were both Cut Loose from our fully remote tech jobs recently I was actually laid off on April Fool's Day and we're broke as a joke the special eded and student services department departments interact with students and their parents of all different socioeconomic statuses and abilities we as parents of students with special needs can be a handful we typically have some issues of our own and we don't often fit the mold of what you might consider an ideal Cooperative parent we're not always thinking logically and it gets ugly I've seen you guys get your share of cringeworthy tongue lashings from this podium but what experience does anyone else have with leading Hib investigations threat assessments dealing with child protective services and handling mental health crises the more I learn about the complex codes and laws I feel like I understand them even less the knowledge and experience is acquired over time and it cannot just be installed like in The Matrix yet the collective wisdom in this organization is priceless and you're putting it all at risk missing bedtime moments really hurts because it's my favorite part of the day but I feel compelled to show up for PTA cpeg and Board of Ed functions I do this by choice because I know what makes this District excellent is not the curriculum or the dilapidated buildings it's the people kids do well when their basic needs are met they feel safe they're fed and loved we have all that and more and that's why I've never been happier my kids are thriving but I'm not content knowing that my kids are doing well when so many people around us are struggling and neither is Dr Figaroa which is why everyone who reports up to L already goes above and beyond every day to help the most vulnerable citizens they bend over backwards and jump through rings of fire before most people pour their first cup of coffee promoting family engagement is a priority for CAC because it's the number one indicator of Student Success the way I explain my absence to my family is the grown-ups have to get together with each other to help each other figure out what's working and what we need to fix and I'm new at this so I need to put in a lot of practice and they see me helping out the other veteran parents in the neighborhood and they know that I go to meetings humans make errors and poor decisions especially when we're disregulated tired and stressed it's part of life 10 seconds hiding our mistakes and not asking for help makes matters much worse I understand this budget might look good to someone on paper but out here it feels like you're taking away parts of the engine without really demonst ating and understanding how it's going to impact us down the road thank [Music] [Applause] you good evening Board of Education and East Brunswick administrators my name is mar om Mara and I'm an orchestra teacher at Churchill Junior High School this is my 21st year as a New Jersey public school teacher I also grew up in this town I was fortunate to begin playing Viola in fourth grade at Irwin elentary School in 1989 I consider myself lucky that I am now entrusted with carrying on the legacy of the Orchestra program in East Brunswick my former teachers Darlene Brandt Anna braa Michael Barry and Gordon tesi all built an incredible Orchestra program during their tenure here and I believe that many of you heard from them this last week as to why we must begin instruction in grade four I was very relieved to hear the news that the fourth grade program will be in place for the next school year I would like you to consider the following when moving ahead with budgetary issues the last four years have brought about tremendous change and I think this also relates to everybody speaking about Dr luff figeroa tonight speak to Any teacher who has taught before and after the pandemic our students have changed and the job is more challenging I feel very strongly we are asking our children to grow up too quickly they are exposed to so much so early as a parent and a teacher I want our kids to be nurtured in a rich and supportive cultural environment for as long as possible providing opportunities such as instrumental music in the lower elementary schools Fosters such ideals it leaves the groundwork and enriches the entire school by showing what's possible through hard work and tenacity it creates Joy not only for the performers but for the younger students attending concerts aspiring to play their own instrument when they reach fourth grade these types of experience cannot be replicated and we don't want potential to go untapped and we certainly don't want to let students not find out about their talents their passions and we want them to build confidence and that needs to continue throughout their development but start early as possible as a member of my own Town's Board of Education I understand how challenging Your Role can be I understand that it's a lot to hear all of these comments it's a lot it's hard to not personalize it but I ask you to really just take the communities consideration very seriously I want you to be mindful of the values of this community you serve and know that my team that I'm very proud to be a part of the in East Brunswick instrumental music team works every single day passionately for the students of this town thank you for your [Applause] time good evening um my name is Sarah frankino I teach Orchestra also at Church Hill Junior High School and I can honestly say I love my job this is one of the finest districts to work in and I'm so proud to be on the staff here um I'd like to thank the board and administration for making the best students a best decision for our students last night and to restore the fourth grade instrumental music program for next school year I've had the privilege of working in this incredible District since 2012 during my first seven years I taught fourth and fifth grade Orchestra and I'd like to make a few brief points tonight focusing on access and Equity student mental health and our District's musical culture first a fourth grade instrumental music program offered during the school day is one of the greatest assets students families have in our public schools in the world of Music access to instruments and quality instruction at an early age is critical to a student's success and abilities as they get older in the absence of school instruction during school hours the only means for obtaining mean meaningful instruction is to pay a private teacher and this costs anywhere from 70 to $100 possibly more uh depending on the instrument while some students can afford this many cannot what most families can afford is the comparatively reasonable cost of renting an instrument in fourth grade in a low pressure setting and yes in East Brunswick it's the parents not the district that pay for instruments and repair this in itself is resounding proof that this Community Values a strong music education in the early grades families moov to East Brunswick for access to highquality programs like ours and it's our job to keep them in place for all students second I don't need to tell anyone in this room how important our students mental health is there are many people myself included who believe that excessive screen time and the general lack of productive diversions are having having an observably detrimental impact on the collective mental health of students picture this a student learning to play the Calo in fourth grade is excited they get to take it home it's new Everything feels new it has that new smell these instruments are one of the best tools to divert students away from screens and towards produ productive skills that for many will bring them lifelong enjoyment and meaning I can't tell you how many times my students have had told me about playd dates where they've practiced their orchestra music together over FaceTime and it even happens in the upper grades at Church Hill um participation in ensembles builds relationship collaboration in real time and is simply one of the best ways to regulate emotion our students need this in fourth grade when the brain is going through an exorbitant amount of growth and development instrumental music is a huge and Powerful part of this District's identity this is not an empty platitude it's an undeniable reality 70% of our students in fourth grade thank you very [Applause] much Jack live at for Springfield Road and like Mr pan Dr pan I am going to be transparent and say that I am also put an application to be a board member um a couple of week ago and interviewed I actually didn't intend to speak tonight um but I was very inspired by what I heard from everybody in the audience by and large um they're very supportive well researched and definitely passionate especially toward do Figaroa who I have a special place in my heart for because he danced for the Education Foundation and killed it but that's beside the point all the people here want the schools to win they want us to succeed and not lose valuable assets and we're fortunate to have people in town who care so much that they're willing to L line up outside for a couple of hours and show their support so many towns have people who are apathetic and wouldn't even give up their Thursday night TV to advocate for what they believe in it's a blessing and a challenge for the board you get all this guidance from the community but you can't Grant every request I do know that all of you care about doing what's best for our kids but it does take a village I appreciate that the legislator info was shared during the presentation it's going to be available on the website we have a strong and proud community and I urge all of us and that includes me I commit to use my voice and make it heard very loudly but show our strength and numbers and the use our volume to help the board and administrations get the attention and hopefully correct the faulty funding issues so we get the right funding and keep the programs we deserve to have thank you thank you [Applause] Mr good evening everyone Dana ziki president of the East Brunswick Education Association um rarely am I at a loss for words but tonight I am um it has been a really dark month for our community right nobody ever wants to lose jobs nobody wants to lose programs nobody wants to have Cuts but we're faced with a situation and I'm always a try to look at something with the glass half full kind of person and one thing I have to say is this community has come together and that is amazing we've collectively come together so that each of us could express our concerns and our words that you can hear and you can try your best to do what you can to move education forward because we know people come here to East Brunswick for our schools for our Public Schools so I think we have to look at this and Branch out and do all we can collectively as a group to ensure that the right people are employed in our district that we're not losing jobs that we're not losing programs and it's going to be a collective project that's going to go on for many months and many years I believe so as we move forward I really just want to ask for stakeholder involvement going forward um maybe if we would start some of these conversations earlier there might be more solutions because collectively as a whole we're a pretty smart community and maybe we could come up with something even if it would just save a little right we have so many lives at stake right now and it's it's heartbreaking right to know and I know you feel the same and I know you feel the same it's heartbreaking to have so many people impacted in such a negative way so I think my point is we need to have a better Vision going forward on what we're going to do and how we're going to handle this and come together collectively as a group thank you very much [Applause] that's it close did you just St your name and address for the record please Daren sislak a bir Hill Road um before I begin I just want to say Lou you know my family adore you I have three kids in three different schools and you have gone above and beyond in their Sports and in school um my youngest son even wanted to take L Trigg or-treating on his moped and put him in the side cart so you are our family um Dr figero Works collectively one special education director and several supervisors together they work to address legal ethical and procedural issues that require um expertise training and confidence Dr Figaroa has administrative experience as a principal at the elementary and secondary levels before coming here 13 years ago he implements his personal and academic expertise daily Dr Figaro is the only trained administrator as a school safety specialist which is required by code he is the anti-bullying coordinator this role is crucial in fostering an atmosphere of respect inclusion in our schools by effectively addressing bullying incidents he has contributed to the creation of a safe secure environment where our students can learn without fear of harassment or intimidation and I have had to do two Hib reports for my own children and he has been supportive 100% Dr Figaroa along with the supervisor of student services trained the other County districts on how to effectively implement hibs this cannot be trusted in somebody unreliable I can tell you the detriment it has placed on my children without his support he is also one of two affirmative action officers in the district for those of you who are unaware of this position it includes a professional responsibility of ensuring compliance with laws and regulations regarding Fair Employment Practices which as an educator myself I can tell you are not always compliant he works with various departments including HR and the EOC to conduct investigations trained staff and develop reports this is often entails additional work hours for which he has never asked asked for overtime where stien to be in place Dr figero works cohesively with the police department and the prosecutor's office to ensure that our director of school security school safety coordinator and security officers receive proper training and resources to guarantee a safe learning environment for students and staff Dr figero resides in town as many of you know and he's responded to emergencies as has protected our school students and staff 24/7 and I know this for a fact he additionally physically attends work five days a week I don't think he's really ever out and who do we call or text or email 247 there is nobody else that is closer his relationship goes beyond our administrative responsibilities he is our town Dr veski I appreciate all that you have done over the past 10 years but Lou you have been our strength our security and our guide through this and our true leader thank you hello everyone my name is Mia Figaroa and for those who don't know me I Dr Lou Figaro's daughter I'm incredibly blessed to have him as my dad he's an unbelievable dad to me and my brother and the countless number of other kids in this town who don't have dads or who need someone to fight for them he is the most selfless person I know he always puts everyone else before himself he is also the strongest person I know he always Stands Strong even when it's hard when we found out 3 weeks ago that my grandpa was in a was in a coma and he eventually passed away my dad stayed strong and was there for me and my brother while we cried and just kept comforting us even though he was the one who needed to be comforted I lost my grandpa but he lost his dad and I can't imagine what he was going through because I can't imagine living without him he is the best dad in the world he taught both me and my brother to always stand up for what is right even when it is not easy he has been a great role mod model for us and for many of the of the children who he has helped in this District my dad never does anything for himself and is always doing things for others this is just the type of person he is he is the smartest kindest and most helpful person I know and I would be nowhere without him my dad has done so many things for this town across the 13 years that he has been working here he has been an incredible assistant superintendent of Student Activities and services an amazing coach for wreck and assistant coach for travel baseball here in East Brunswick and still is and a wck basketball coach for hundred of for hundreds of kids over the years he even coached both me and my brother's team to championships with fast break this year my dad is so much more than his job here in East Brunswick he also cares about the culture and the community as a resident of East Brunswick he is a proud member of the East Brunswick human relations Council a friend to many and has touch a tremendously touch and tremendously helped and impacted so many people in East Brunswick so many people have told me that it would be heartbreaking if he has let go and I agree he is done so much for East bronz for this for the schools and tries to help everyone he meets in this town my dad always fights for what is right and for those who can't fight for themselves he will always support the people who who don't have anyone else to support them he defended special education rights and students working to make sure that they have the resources they deserve in all schools he's a supporter of Athletics and clubs for students at every level it hurts to know that my dad is being let go for defending these things because he loves and cares for them and the people so much and I know know they love him and appreciate him for everything he does and will continue to do recently there was a fire drill at Churchill my dad tries to be at as many security drills in this District that he can on that day I saw him and ran up to to my dad and hugged him but so did a group of special education students who were walking by on the grass and insisted that they give him a hug that is the kind of impact that my dad has had on everyone's life and the type of person he is I'm speaking today not just as his daughter but also as a student at Churchill Junior High School and I so grateful for everything he's done dad you are my hero and I love you so much [Applause] very well spoken Mia is there anyone else that would like to speak sure if you could give your name and address please mark felo I live in South River but I am a part-time ask employee and in October my wife said to me ask is looking for people and I did it 10 years ago and let me tell you it was the most satisfying job you know the kids love you can you come to the graduation a whole nine yards I do it Thursdays and Fridays kids come to me and say Mr Mark how come you don't come Monday Tuesday and Wednesday I say well I got another job and it's very hard for me when I get there like this afternoon I could hear the Kids in the Hall Mr Mark is here Mr Mark is here What a Feeling CU it it's not for the money because we know that it's not a great paying job but but on that small scale of what I what I do what L figuroa does on such a greater scale I come home and say you know what I'm tired I have a full-time job I don't want to do this anymore but then I think about Kit Kat and this one running up to you hey Mr Mock and I say you know I got to go next Thursday and Friday these kids rely on People Like Us Lou on such a big level 12 schools students Services how you could let this man go is beyond me thank you for your [Applause] time state your name and add address please my name is Vanita nargun and I live at 12 Cold Stream Court skilman New Jersey I am an employee here since last 17 years I had no plans of talking today it's 10:15 I am scared to drive in the nighttime and one part of my brain was saying that do you want to leave now it's only 10:15 the other part of my brain is saying no no no you can't you have to speak so uh I just I I won't take too much time 13 years ago when our department me and Karen Keegan both got new jobs and then office was empty um we were waiting for the assistant superintendent to join we didn't know who this man was we knew his he a male we didn't know who he was we tried to look up for him and but we were scared we didn't know you know what kind of man he would be and and it it was scary part so me and Karen used to talk about us each other like oh let's see maybe he will come today maybe he'll come tomorrow and the day came and he came and first day he called us in and he said um I'm luff fova um I will be working here as and I'll tell you honestly the first day he made us so comfortable so comfortable he said you're not working for me we are working together we are going to be working together in this department and make this department the best department there is and he said any phone call comes to my office every everybody has to be everybody has to receive the phone call with respect and I'll tell you every phone call we receive in this department we we love to hear people's um the way they talk about L and we have solved so many problems by just getting training under LW so many times we just speak to the parents and then parents are happy and then I have seen so many times parents come to our office with anger so so much anger in them but then he oh my God it's going to be a difficult day now I don't know I don't know I don't know but then they go inside lose office and then comes out smiling shaking hands I don't know what happens in that office but they just come happy happy happy ever so I I he has a magic he really has a magic with people and I have one more instance I wanted to say there was one Indian kid Indian B kid who got an award and say he had to present that award and then the kid's name was a little difficult as usual a lot of names are difficult so and he said can I ask your favor and he said okay can you please help me pronounce this name and then he practiced how to say the name correctly he took that much interest in just saying the name of a student correct on the stage because he was getting a big award that's the kind of man Louis and telling you the best 13 years of my life and I have never cried this much after I lost my mom and dad this is the third time we are constantly crying because we don't want to lose him please do something thank you so [Applause] much hi um my name is Ashley Rose I'm I I'm a student assistant specialist in the district I work under Lou um I wasn't planning on speaking tonight I wanted to just be here to support Lou but I was hired in the district 11 years ago Lou you were in on my first interview um and I saw Lou a couple of days ago and I wanted to say to him when I saw him but I wanted to share as a direct staff member in his Department he was my first observation I was fresh out of grad school and the assistant superintendent came to observe me first time ever and I was scared and he gave me a piece of advice that changed the way that I counsel students and he gave me the opportunity to go Shadow a student assistant specialist that was in the district far longer than I was and I spent the day with her and I learned a lot from her and I wouldn't have had that opportunity if someone like Lou didn't come to watch me and I know that I've had amazing relationships with students in my time here as a student assistant special and I think the reason why I've had the relationships that I've had with students is because of the advice that he gave me within a couple of months of being hired by this district and I worked for many years in this district and I am proud to be a member of the student services department I'm proud to work for people like Lou I'm proud to work for people like Danielle block and I proud to work for this District because of the work that we do in mental health for our students and I just wanted to thank thank you for the work that you've done for the mental health of our students thank [Applause] you [Applause] coun all right you could just state your name and address please for the record Pamela L nine Parsons Road first off I know this is difficult I know you in every in all your seats you have difficult decisions to make difficult choices to do totally get it thank you it's not easy I get it and you don't I know you've been had a lot of backlash totally get it but where do we go from here your presentation shows a deficit of $7.8 million this year and that's based off of what you're stating uncontrollable expenses and a formula based funding that we knew about was coming and it just implemented in this year it's $7.8 million and your only recourse well your first recourse is to eliminate vital positions teachers an important position right in front I don't know you I just moved here but what I can see from the outcry of your community and your students he's important you're getting it wrong you need to revisit your budgets do something you have 7.8 now8 million in deficit now what about next year that formula is going to be here what about the year after what are you going to do you going to continue to cut teachers you're you're providing our students with you're you're not setting up our students for for Success you're providing them less support less everything you're setting them up for failure you're setting Our Town up for failure the outes that you've heard tonight you need to take that back and you need to do you need to do better I know this is hard I know it but you need to do better you have a a town behind you I mean we are you know everybody's really looking into how we can help our children you really need to this is not going to work and I understand you want to put it on us but you need to play your part too this is not this is just not going to work and I just really ask that you revisit that budget revisit your decision on what you're going to do eliminating positions teachers positions Mr Dr Figaro over here as well please revisit that and I mean thank you again for all the hard work that you do um and I hope it you know works out 10 seconds thank [Applause] you hi my name is Karen Keegan fory Old Court East Brunswick New Jersey I just um wanted to reiterate what our team has said today about Lou um I've worked with Lou uh he he has made me and all of our team as strong as we are and better people today and we love you we love you for that you thank [Applause] you is there anyone else okay then and I am going to close the presentation on the budget and this actually brings us to the go of the cause for the public in case anyone has anything left to say you are welcome to speak on anything um the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest to protect the privacy of all students and staff concerns regarding individual students and staff members should generally be addressed by first meeting with the appropriate administrative staff in order to prevent the fair and over orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period of public comment at every meeting of the board you'll be limited to three minutes duration um and I always remind people um this is your time to speak to the board please don't mistake silence is not caring about issues um we do provide followup of your name and address and I don't see them because it's a very full house um or left with uh Karen or Jan in the back or in the middle so that being said is there anyone who would like to speak to the board this evening sure come on up and say your name and address for the record please mark say Mar hun fresh ponds Road I'm going to be brief you know when I sat there I was long-winded I'm going to be brief do you think they should change their minds and keep blue and do whatever it takes you know I when your children spoke when your wife spoke when everybody here spoke man and I know it's tough like I said I I told you guys right from the beginning my first words were thank you and I'm going to saying I know everything and I tried to give some options to remove some chess pieces so no so so none of the administrators lost their job and I'm sorry for the directors that maybe I said you're going to the high school but uh I I don't control that I just I wanted I I would love to if we could keep everybody's job um and I'm sorry for those people but we have to keep blue that's it thanks everybody thank you [Applause] Mr Good state to hi my name is Katherine noara I live at 251 R Lane you repeat your last name please nogara thank you um my question is unrelated to the budget that's okay right now right y okay sorry it's gonna be super boring for everyone that needs to stretch their legs this might be a good time um this question and issue may seem very inconsequential to you given the depth and gravity of everything you've been hearing tonight but I am having an issue with one of the classrooms at warnsdorfer for the ELA program and I've talked to the program directors and the principal there and both have told me that this is an issue that I think was presented to someone on the board um but it just has to do with bathroom accessibility for the preschoolers I know there are classrooms that have bathrooms in them um I'm not sure what grades are in there but the preschoolers do not have a bathroom in their classroom and I know that it has been very difficult for the teachers in there to continue their instruction when they are constantly having to walk three-year-olds and four-year-olds back down the hallway all day long cuz you know they constantly have to go to the bathroom um so if there's anything that you could do looking into next year um I just kind of keep getting the Runar around and everyone tells me they can't help me but um I know the teachers are really struggling and the kids are struggling I'm sorry this is such a silly question sorry not a silly question at all that's what you're here for if you wouldn't mind if you would give uh Mrs mandler she has her hand up right over here if you give her your contact information and I'll be in touch with you thank you so much thank you thank you so much sure I toate everything you wouldn't mind for the record we have to do it I'm sorry can you say your name again Dominic scani thank you two Morgan please um I I came off a little heated before but I I do want to thank everyone for their hard work especially Dr Lu Figaroa um and I just want to reiterate how great of a and he is that I I was uh I was having uh a problem a couple months ago and he met with me a former student he had no obligation to do this he met with me took an hour out of his out of his day and he met with me and he had no obligation to do that just to realate how great of a man he is I just want to thank all and again this uh board members you work very hard thank you for your time and commitment to this community um many of you I know personally so thank you so much just reate keep blue Figaroa thank [Applause] you hi welcome back if you could again state your name and address for the record which Seltzer 590 Route 18 crazy thought I've been sitting here listening to everybody and and we've been talking about lose salary and forget L salary I'm sorry the the position that he holds could we pay that I'm Ser asking a serious qu if I do a GoFundMe and I raise $215,000 can I give it to you Dr Julian I me Mr Julian you're you're the money guy can I hand you 215 Grand and get he keep his job I'll I'll do that if m have to go up to save him I'll do it I'll do it I can listen I do this for a living I raise money for a living I work for a nonprofit I can raise 215 Grand can we do it well first of all go ahead sir we don't have back and forth I know but yeah it's the last one come on come on he's actually a comedian he doesn't work for nonprofit um so no I do work for nonprofit foundation and I run it $5 million 12 years what I was saying what I can just explain to you is is that budgets I don't micone um but a budget and the board you know the board has to make decisions but a one-time infusion of money doesn't solve a problem as you know when you have so I so let me let me ask you if I raise $1.5 million to cover him for five years can I do it well I can say uh citizens can make donations to public entities such as Boards of Education can you ear mark it can I earmark it for his position you you uh you cannot year mark it you can donate it and and indicate what you would wish for it to have but ultimately a board would have to decide if it I'm putting you on the spot right now if I give you a million half dollars for five years to keep Lou Figaroa in his position will you do it I I sir I'm not the a board member I'm I'm a lawyer oh you're not a board member then I don't need to talk to you yeah I don't need to talk to you if you're not a board member you're you're I'm giving you I'm telling you you're talking about me I don't need to talk to you Dr veski I I don't have a vote on the board so who has a vote this is not an interactive this is not inter have not interactive it's enough we we it's not back and forth I gave you guidance on that members of the public can make donations but that's what I can tell you right now so we'll talk Mr we we are not allowed to answer you back but I we'll talk I think it's a very interesting idea and we will take it into consideration how's that good thank you my wife's going to kill me for getting up here again but I do have budget question Mar South River first all on the board my best friend is on the South River School Board and every day I ask him why are you on that school board I don't get it it's voluntary it is hectic and you guys listen it's a hard job Mr Giuliani I do have one question this is not a question and answer I can't ask you a budget question you can make a statement I can make a statement I'm just curious with the teacher cuts how that how much does that cut into the 7.8 million that's that was kind of my question that's you know what all the cut you do if you would like to leave your information with no then then we can get you an answer on that appreciate is there anyone else that would like to speak to the public this evening to the board excuse me this evening okay then I am going to then close the public portion um and do the late time I am going to entertain a motion for everything on the board of vacation Board of Education agenda evening does anything need separating out okay then I'm going to ask for a motion so moved move by Mrs gu second by Mrs Becker um this is for all discussion on any part of tonight's agenda okay well then will the secretary please call the RO Mrs Becker yes Miss guas yes Mrs herck yes Mr Hong yes Mrs ree yes president LAX yes motion carries leading us to information items for the good of the cause for the public committee reports etc etc it's been quite the evening thank you again for everyone it's been very impassioned um everyone spoke very well this evening um and a couple people actually said it we are all on the same side here so um we take everything you say very seriously um they said none of these things make us happy and I applaud the gentleman with the creative uh Solutions because that's what we got to do so um thank you everybody I see Mrs Becker waving her hands real quick um I'm on the RPA board Rex Park Advisory Board and I promised them I would I would announce two things at the meeting so I don't want to let them down um one on June 9th the rec department is sponsoring an EB youth sports day it's going to be at Bicentennial Park from 12 to three um there'll be people there from lacrosse football cheer Cricket tennis and basketball so um you can get more information on the Wen Park website if you go on the township website and the other thing is starting Monday um the rec department in conjunction with the East bronic sympathy symphony is going to be offering six weeks of classes taught by Dr Anna Brun it is open to anyone 18 years of age and older we've gotten the I think I think I'm the oldest one up here so too bad this is the park and wreck department they doing this with the East brunck SYM Symphony go on the website learn about the six week class Tau by Dr Anna Brawn it's for people 18 years of age and older and we did get the information to the high school students that's it thanks thank you Mrs Becker all righty then folks thank you again for coming out I'm going to entertain emotion well we have to have comic relief for adjournment nobody wants to go Mrs and Mrs all in favor oppose motion carries thank you everyone get home safe