##VIDEO ID:q1rZUJYKbes## [Music] Hi how are you welcome to our November board meeting pursuant to the open public meeting act chapter 231 Public Law of 1975 this meeting was sent to the ad press on July 8th 2024 and was duly advertised in the Press July 12th 2024 all mple Clerks of the townships within the B within the Regional High School District have been notified and the requirements of this posting is met on July 8th 2024 please rise and join Antonio theed I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God invisible with liberty and justice for all this any changes to the agenda yes Mr President uh in addition to the items noted on the agenda preprinted prior to the meeting tonight uh board also discussed in exception number three uh the uh student suspension report thank you that's all oh and the board did not discuss uh a professional staff matter that was noted so that did not help okay thank you okay so moving along we're can see I have a motion to approved in minutes of the October 17th board meeting motion second Mrs Higley M any discussion board not hearing discussion vocal Mr ACA Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capell yes Mrs Howard coward yes m Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes M mob yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Bruno yes just a note Communications are on file at the board secretary's office now we have our superintendent report thank you Mr berno proposal yes um you will see on this agenda uh board that we are looking for a first read of our 2526 uh District calendar um our calendar is uh done in conjunction and in development with our sending districts um they are not identical uh but we uh do collaborate on the development of those calendars so this is on for a first read at the December 12th Board of Education meeting uh which will be at Colts Neck high school we had a change from freeold Township High School to Colts Neck high school we will have the second rate of that calendar um for our board and Community we are looking forward to our middle States accreditation visit that is scheduled for December 9th through the 12th uh the visitors will arrive on the evening of the 9th and we'll stay with us through the 12th on the 12th we will have uh a full report from that uh committee um and um Mr hener and uh Mr Simpson and Mr Diaz are our internal coordinators and have been spearheading that under uh the leadership of Dr Howell so we are looking forward to that visit we've had had a number of stakeholder U meetings um that started last school year going into this school year uh really looking to plan out our course over the next seven years uh again we have uh our strategic plan with our four core areas but the objectives in the middle States report um really go in tandem with the work of our district strategic plan um but um very granular work as it pertains to student achievement and organizational capacity um Mr Mendes and myself uh we were had a visit at Marboro High School from Dr Thomas cam Gambino uh he is a friend to the freehill Regional High School District he is the New Jersey Department of Ed he is in the office of school preparedness and emergency planning he observed a lockdown drill um Miss deette was a part of that uh with us um and conducted a walkthrough of the school and evaluated um the security measures at Marboro high school but he was there the day that we executed a lockdown drill he observed all of our procedures U we had a tabletop discussion with the administrative team myself Mr Mendes were present we also had staff members um who uh you know participated in that meeting with us uh he was extremely impr impressed um with what he saw over at Marboro High School uh we are always a district um that is very open to the suggestions of the Department of Ed especially in the area of Safety and Security and it is something that we will uh continue in our other buildings um and we will also spend time in buildings when uh different type of drills are being um implemented uh for our parents and students um just want to remind remind everyone that we have extended day content tutors available in all schools for our students um any students that need support in their classrooms uh and support in their subject areas we want to make sure that they seek out the help not just from their classroom teachers which are willing to give them support but we also have tutors available after school hours and in some schools before school for our students we will be starting up um in preparation for our state assessment which is the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment the GPA uh that test is administered to 11th grade students in March once we return back from winter break January uh we are going to start up with support programs for the students uh from January through the March test Administration um that's supported by our assistant principal and our uh academic supervisors um in the buildings uh along with the teachers who actually work directly with the students uh and we want our Juniors to participate in those opportunities I think it really just gives them an opportunity to become familiar with the format of the test uh our goal is for them is to walk into that test with a breath of confidence that they can do well on that test and that they are successfully prepared to be a able to handle and tackle the assessment um so um just want to make sure that that information goes out I know each of the principles will be communicating uh with the parents regarding these opportunities I see all of those Communications and I know they are constantly in contact our guidance counselors and administrators about these opportunities um I attended the col High School's Navy Junior Roc annual area manager inspection um passing review it was this Tuesday um there was an area 2 Commander Eric Humphries uh who came in he also came in last school year this is a yearly inspection um and conducted the units review uh again all of the cadets um did an outstanding job in their formations in um you know their marching review and it was really a special day for recognition of of seniors who are in The ROC program at Colts Neck High School uh really um the uh the major and uh Master Chiefs that are in the program they do such a great job with all of those Cadets um I I'm always each year that we go I am always uh thoroughly impressed so um I was really excited because I was able to open up the program and and greet um the parents and the cadets and uh they did a fabulous job um our 11th grade uh College Planning night um is a district event this year um Manalapan High School is hosting on Thursday December 5th at 6:30 uh we have a panel of Representatives coming in from ruter from Dickinson from Bingington um and NYU and they are going to present uh two parents and students of our Juniors um and this is for the district um and um they're going to go through the entire college application process uh for the junior parents um I did share this information with the board but also want to share publicly um that our holiday concerts um are in the month of December uh December 10th Colts Neck and manalan high school will have their concert December 11th is freeold in Marrow and December 12th is Freehold Township in Howell High schol school um so uh again we invite uh our communities um to those uh wonderful uh conent concerts that that's great yesly concerts well it's unbelievable to think the middle stage is coming up yes Afters like was four years ago here doing me mon this like was it like last FR last winter we started dinner so that's coming up soon um you it's crazy we because we have a board meeting and holiday concert and middle State's coming to town so how's that going yeah I I feel like we are fully prepared and ready um Dr Howell you know has it all under control the calendar notices out everybody's in place um our internal coordinators um are really you know ready right now we are working with our buildings because each buildings you know had representation and you were a part of all of meetings that we had here at central office where seeking feedback from all and um so just putting the finishing touches on that you know getting everybody prepared because when the middle States team comes in they will be um posing you know interview sessions with our administrators starting with the building principal um our administrative team um our teachers as well as our students and they review all of our material um they have meetings uh the first day with myself and Dr how I think 7:30 in the morning we start um and we have a 1 hour you know meeting kind I won't be here at 7:30 in the morning yes yeah I'll be so you know that's a when they come in um you know it's really a proud moment for the district uh because it's a it's a a tremendous validation of the excellent work um that's going on in the school dist School you I think we're ready we're ready good big deal mhm and I just wanted to one comment on the 12th Thursday night our board meeting we're also going to honor the uh not just our athletes but kids in music and and with the district medals um at cnck high school that night on the 12th so busy night what's that Thursday nighted that yeah oh it's the H concert I just didn't realize we had bo we have our board meeting at the col High School thank you thank you sorry thank you um we do have one board report tonight um Finance messenger our vice principal our vice president speak wish I wish I was we had we had our finance meeting on Tuesday night go to Mal High School and it was a very interesting meeting and Mike's going to fill us a little in about what we did at that Finance meeting thank you very much Mr Bruno um Mr aseta had brought up a couple of things that we discussed the first one you may real or remember during the presidential election uh president Trump had said that one of his goals was to eliminate the Department of Education and in and and have the funds that would typically get funneled through have you know go to the states um and I mean the first thing that came to my mind was we all know how the State Department of Education uh has treated Freehold Regional so we were a little bit distressed about that uh but that remains to be seen and of course the whole thing's hypothetical cuz um you know the political process of doing that is going to be long and drawn out but nevertheless we got to talking about the total amount of federal funds that we end up with um and basically the funds that we get are basically used to supplement existing programs so hypothetically in a worst case situation if we ended up with nothing you know it wouldn't be like a big program is getting cancelled or any project was going to not go through because of it but again this was all hypothetical because we don't know um what's ultimately going to happen with that um another issue that Mr aceta brought up that we had addressed was with respect to potentially replacing the sewage plant at Colts Neck High School um because Mr ASA had brought up the stat mandated uh Housing Development that's being built across the street and how he was wondering if we could hook in to whatever sewage line was leaving from there uh because the sewage Planet Cults next 20 years old it's at the end of its useful life and we have to prepare for the future so Mr Boyce did reach out the freeold township to see if the state mandated development was uh tapping into their sewer system but it turns out the development is going to have their own sewage plan so there's not going to be be any kind of sewer line to tap into and just to refresh everyone's memory the maintenance of this sewer plant costs a couple of $100,000 per year for maintenance uh so it looks like we're going to remain on our own we keep up with the maintenance plants beyond that useful life but due to the maintenance that uh buildings and grounds puts into and it maintenance um there's no issues right there uh we all remember several mon months ago we voted uh on a tax increase to the taxpayers of the district so another topic that we approached in the meeting was what was the taxpayers money used for uh so Dr Hazel had just explained to us how it paid for six additional Math teachers five additional English teachers I think there was one additional science teacher uh school counselors also additional money uh for additional PSAT testing for the students uh security doors and windows of Colt neck High advanced mandering classes um and also inner doors at Colts Neck Freehold Township and Howell are being fortified with this extra money and uh the courtyards uh also are being refurbished so the students will have extra functional space at the school so that's basically what the T taxpayers getting for his money um Switching gears Mr Boyce had explained to us uh that we're going out with an RFP for Consulting Services potentially with respect to our prescription plan here cuz Freehold Regional is self-insured now we spend over $30 million a year on health benefits 5 million of that is for drugs so there are two different companies that we may you know consider our Administration met with two of them and it's a whole very complex issue as you could imagine again we since we're self-insured we actually pay the claims out so preliminarily uh the financial staff here feels there might be 300,000 to 500,000 in savings or at least that's what these companies told our uh Administration so this is something that's going to be explored uh if we do proceed if anything it would just be a one-year contract and this is something that the administration is looking to wrap up by year end uh with respect to Transportation you'll see that tonight there's a resolution on the agenda to sell buses to hunterton Educational Services eight buses uh and this really comes from we're down to 70 drivers we used to have 124 so everyone's aware of the bus driver shortage so basically the sale of these buses is just sizing the fleet to the driver crew that we have uh and then lastly we spent a lot of time on in terms of a a 30,000 ft view on potential referendum down the road uh you know just throwing out what various things would be included in any kind of referendum whether it's you know Plumbing HVAC boilers electric things like that so was just a big discussion and obviously uh this is something that the entire board will uh contribute to once we really get down to the specific and everyone will be giving their input as we potentially proceed down the road and that's uh that's what happened Tuesday night thank Mr Boyce any changes to the agenda yes uh there are a couple changes to the agenda um just before I do that just a a couple comments uh on Mr messinger's report about finance committee um the referendum development is we're we're in the due diligence phase of a process that was initiated back in September when we had done an RFP for uh architect of record we made a change there first order of business was to do a a facility assessment to understand where we are in that um in anticipation of um having to develop a capital plan coming out of funding Cuts over the last seven years um something that has been on our radar throughout that time um and a capital plan that will have a referendum as its centerpiece but but it's more than that because that referendum is not going to be comprehensive and we need to think about not only those immediate critical needs but also uh looking forward and understanding the level of commitment that will need to continuously Fund in order to maintain uh our facilities on an ongoing basis um the referendum um will be of of scale uh referendum will be cons considerably subsidized by state Debt Service AIDS so that's a good thing um and the referendum will address those those immediate critical needs that that we're spending a lot of time on administratively through our due diligence process so just some more comments about where we are in that process also did prescription consultant um discussion that Mr mesinger mentioned that's that's a u it's an oversight um Consulting uh RFP that we put out for is not actually changing the provider so no change to employees or contractual anything like that but it's it's as you would imagine the pharmacy uh system it's complex with Pharmacy benefit managers the manufacturers the the insurers and there there's a lot of moving Parts in there and what this would give us the oversight with expertise to make sure that we are getting discounts and rebat of things that we are entitled to under the existing contract so we're considering that as well um so for changes to the agenda I do have uh a couple things um I have some additions to existing resolutions G1 and G5 that's in the back of the room uh on this version of yellow paper um G1 is approval resignation so there's three additional names added to that G5 approval of honoraria two additional names added to that uh also the pre printed agenda had an item I2 that uh was a resolution to be provided that meeting and that is uh it is the approval of the sale buses through the hunterton County Education Services Commission into local vehicle sales program as Mr Messinger had uh mentioned before um we were sizing our Fleet to match what our driver capacity was that was done through um this we had eight buses that were being sell and still have useful life um associated with them and uh so we did that through through this Cooperative purchasing so that's that's a way to reach out to the maximum number of biders and really cast the broadest net possible and get the best money that we could for it um so there were significant biders on that so we feel comfortable about that um we sold uh eight Vehicles Al together 354 passenger buses 229 passenger buses to 25 passenger bus buses and a 16 passenger bus um both used um and so this resolution uh and I'll read it into the record here um we resolved that bid to were received by Hunton County Educational Services Commission on November 21 2024 at 1:00 p.m. so that was today that's why we're carrying this on be a further resolve that the Freo Regional High School District Board of Education hereby Awards the sale of buses through Hunton County Educational Services Commission interlocal vehicle sales program to the following vendors it lists six vendors um that are participated in the purchase of those eight buses that's on this version of yellow paper in the back of the room uh so I want to fill in the blank resolution on that in addition two corrections to G2 um one of them is just a a name spelling change Matthew abata to M mat it's ABB a t is the correct spelling of the name so with that change and also the start date for Scott uh Spingarn is uh to be changed to be effective on 12 to 20 24 uh or upon availability so with those two amendments to the existing resolution uh and the addendum uh that that's the changes to what was pre-printed thank you Mr boy we're going to move right into just before we go on Mr ber I just uh stand corrected I was discussing middle States and um Bruce hener who is now Dr hener yes yes thank you Antonio for leading that um well done um but just want to stay uncorrected um and uh he did a lot of um the initial work with our U Middle States and is still seeing us through that so thank you Dr hener Dr hener with recer univers Yes red okay congratulations um we going to go through um Personnel uh person negotiations we have nobody tonight note that just note that we're just going to note that because we're going do SE of this so there's nobody signed up for public participation okay let's move along personal negotiations and I have a motion to approve G1 through g15 motion second Mr second any discussion not hear any discussion roll call please I just have a question it seems like there's an awful lot of six period teaching assignments on this agenda in Tech yeah is it an unusually large amount there's seven lot of is maror right there are many yeah when when teachers um are out um on a leave and it's a long leave um we traditionally if we know it's going to be a long-term leave would rather go with a six period teacher with one of our in-house teachers any short-term leave for a staff member we can do with a daily sub but these are longer leaves but some of them look like they're going out till June potentially correct yes some of them look like they're going all the way out to June potentially all of these experi assignments are still posted and so the what's happening is our staff we going out on a leave for whatever reason um we don't have a long-term sub in place for that person yet uh and that's why we may have it going out to 6:30 and there's an asterisk indicating that we're still seeking and intending to replace them with a longterm substitute okay it just seemed like an unusually large amount I mean I know the concept I think it a long time since the last board meeting right so sometimes s this just happens where the timing of folks going out on a leave we do see a lot of folks go out around the middle of the year um and so I think it just had to do with how long we've been since the last meeting to this one um but you know we're we're we're pretty much almost full at this point and hopefully um and as you see we actually have a lot of appointments on this agenda as well did notice that we did hire somek some technology teachers for a part time which is great so we have them available we're we're always working on it could congratulations okay so um roll call please Mr ASA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs cello yes Mrs coward yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes M mcov yes Mr Messinger yes Mr Vero yes we're going to take H and I programed operation building transportation and the physical plant I have a motion approve H1 to I5 motion Mr second this any discussion board not hear any discussion roll call please Mr ASA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capello yes Mrs coward yes Mrs Higley yes Mrs Lavin yes M mob yes Mr Messinger yes Mr ber yes motion is Carri educational program and administration J1 through K3 may I have a motion second second was any discussion not hearing any discussion roll call please Mr ACA yes Mrs Bruno yes Mrs Capello yes Mrs coward yes Mrs Hy yes except Iain on K1 as to Kimberly Bradley Mrs Lavin yes M mob yes Mr massinger yes Mr ver yes Mo um board any old business I do have one it's been a year now that Dr Hazel and Dr how has been in their new positions Dr Hazel as our super intendent and Dr how as our chief academic officer it's flu and congratulate you on your year it's amazing how fast be year yeah it flew by flew by maybe not for you got the best team so it's great and the best board okay um anybody else with old thises yeah if I may Mr know um very quickly regarding the sewage plant in Colts Neck I heard from a a good source I think it should be looked at by an engineering firm that the plant is has a life expectancy of 20 years it's already 23 years and it just very well may fail if it does fail it's going to cost 1.3 million and I don't want to see a Freo Regional become orange you know because where does that money come from so we have to work very diligently and be very careful with everything as I know Dr D you're doing looking at all of that so um please take a very careful look at that no so Mr asa's point is well taken and this is part of when we talk about a capital plan and while a referendum would be a immediate need it's the it's the accumulation setting aside funds for the ongoing maintenance of our facilities and that's done through a capital reserve which is a place to to put that and given our funding scenario for the last seven years um there are strategic um decisions that we made um and they are not without consequences and where the district had traditionally uh been committed to either through annual operating budgets doing large scale projects um each annual budget or putting money into the reserve for when it was needed um that's that's the perfect example of of why it's it's in capital planning is to make a a commitment to ensuring that your Capital reserves are where they need to be to handle those types of things regarding the the sewer plant and Mr asol and I have discussed this uh several times I I mean as Bo as you know it's highly regulated operation over there um we have a an engineer overseeing it and we have also have a plant operator licensed plant operator uh there is it's D U reporting and uh testing that is um like I said it's it's pretty rigorous as you would expect um I think we' we've we've done what we've needed to do over the the the years to maintain that properly um but you're right as toal that's only going to that's only going to extend that life for so long so it's something that's on our radar I think we're in a good place at the moment um and uh you know Capital reserves being there to be able to um accommodate those things as they come do is an important part of our overall Capital plan thank you sewer information is very important it is I'm home and check my you see something say something okay I'm going to call my plumber when I get home okay um any new business not hearing any new business not hearing any new business i' like to make a motion to a Jour yes all those in