##VIDEO ID:3lMOJwBg23k## oh we have very to see toally good today is in it long battery I have I got a full battery right well we'll flip we'll flipflop around as for an hour chop it up oh calling this evening's uh meeting to order can we get a roll call Mr kapadia here Dr lilis here Mr Peters present Dr Resnik here Mr slotman Miss Williams gallano pres Dr Wilson here you have a quorum the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right 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 or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the hopal valley regionals uh board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof communicated to the Hopewell Valley News and the times on January 4th 20124 this meeting notice was also sent to Comcast cable and Verizon bios the board reserves the right to enter into executive session during all meetings of the Board of Education the meeting is being recorded for the purposes of Board review future reference preparation of the minutes and viewing on you uh YouTube Bulldog TV and the school district website www.org members of the public who intend to participate in public comment we ask that you sign in prior to speaking at the podium this will assist us with um our recorded keeping or recording excuse me please join me in a flag salute to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for IT stand one na indivisible andice so before we get started I just wanted to give board members and people at the table that the microphones are new and they don't lock off so they're hot all the time if you want to mute you can mute it now I'm talking no they won't lock in place so you know the best thank you new equipment thank you we can hear us now that's that's yes does this count for us being like more transparent L my mouth is they can hear me still speak okay uh I need a first and a second to approve the minutes uh for the November 18th meeting meeting all in favor I any opposed or abstaining seeing none the minutes are passed um hello our student representative we are looking forward to hearing what you have to share with us today um as we enter December our students have been participating and actively engage with a wide range of winter sports such as boys and girls basketball boys ice hockey winter truck boys and girls swimn cheer and wrestling in the Arts our hbcs art programs have been preparing for several upcoming performances these past weeks rehearsals for the winter musical Alice by heart have begun and we're excited to see the production take place the HJ Orchestra recently had a successful concert last week and the Band program is expected to have their Winter concert tomorrow at the pack Additionally the H choir have also been preparing for their concert in January and we look forward to celebrating their musical accomplishments this past month we also had the induction of the new members of the math Honor Society mu ala Theta recognizing students for the academic excellence in math additionally FBLA unified Club had their annual gingerbread house building contest and finally the student council had kicked off their annual winter Spirit Week today which includes various themes themed days leading up to the pep rally on Friday we are proud of the wide range of activities our students are involved in this winter season and we look forward to their continued success in the new year thank thank you thank you Erin are there any questions from the board okay well I I just want to acknowledge you going into this season of probably test taking and final papers before winner break so we wish you the best of luck and we absolutely invite you to stay um with that we're going to go ahead and move on to the superintendent report I'm going to wait until um um Mr Cavita presents I'm going to share my report with him if you'd like to say a few words before um I am good for now we'll move on absolutely thank you so much that was in my in my other notebook so um I sorry for that I do have a couple of notes and um we are celebrating the year of the end of year but we are also um saying goodbye to a dear colleague uh Sarah Tracy um was voted in she's not able to join us this evening uh but you know she was voted to unanimously by this board to be um uh taking on the field Ro of what was it four four four four month for Miss Lou um and Dr Lou and we are grateful for her commit and uh in her said she chose not to run U for the open seat but we're happy to welcome Amanda Sano thank you I did not want to mess that up um but we are so happy to have you and thank you for um your amazing work to um you know get your name out I know that's a challenge but we're looking forward to getting to know you and um picking off 2025 welcome um so those were my two notes thank for reminding me and we'll move on okay so I just wanted to um take the time before we got to the end of the end of this calendar year and before we get deep into the budget process to kind of give an overview of where we are right now some of the challenges that we're facing um and items that we're going to be tackling uh in Earnest in January uh Dr tce and I and the rest of uh her cabinet will be sharing some of our ideas and the thoughts that that we've been you going through the last several weeks um we are still very very early in the process and we'll get we'll get into that as we go um just to piggyback on um on what Mr civita is sharing we know that this is early in the conversation but we are already looking at some of the challenges we face um it's going to be worse than what we thought um Bob will share a little bit of the conversation he's had um at the executive superintendent level with um representation from the New Jersey Department of Ed um it's looking Bleak for a lot of us school districts I know that many of you have read the article that I published the brief article um in the um hopeall Express I will be publishing another article and sending out um in January that will give a little bit more you know it'll recap what I talked about in how schools are are been have been underfunded for quite some time um and now it's really really getting difficult for us to maneuver around the lack of um funding we're receiving from the state um so again what drives all of our decision-making when we talk about school budget is is the priorities of the school district our community and the needs of our students and our mission statement which we um we rewrote very recently with the support of students faculty and parents and what you all wanted to see for your students this drives how we make decisions for the students as best we can go to the next also recently we were able to work together as a community and develop a strategic plan these were the uh the the five areas of of um that we the community said were important we're really going to focus on the finance and facility portion of that but I'll give you a little little uh progress report on some of the other goals that we set but today's focus is really going to be on the finance and Facilities goal let me start with a quick update the first one was student autonomy I'm G to back up so I can see this um it was very important for the the community that we brought back te for our students or stem experiences experiential learning for our students Project based learning um problem solving so we were able to bring back our Sim facilitators at the elementary school each one has a certified Sim uh teacher and the curriculum that we're developing touches upon all of the things that the community has asked we talk about the sacrifice Zone sustainability they're learning about professions within the industry they're problem solving and they're coming up with their own experiments um so all of the things that that the parents have asked us to do the Sim facilitators are now engaged um k k five students are consistently experiencing this exploratory which is also a talent we had before um and they're they're able to um with consistency experienced that technology literacy the um education program committee um just had a proposal for a new course um but we have been doing a lot of work on examining Ai and what does that mean in schools working on developing a policy it is here to stay it's not going anywhere and how do we teach children to use it properly when it's appropriate to use it when not and also you still need to learn how to write but AI does have its purposes too right you know it it can be a time saer um and someone gave me a quote just recently I thought was very um interesting it was um it was the people that don't know how to use AI are going to are going to be the ones that are least productive and work for because it is a time saer if you're using it correctly um and then finally um the high school has done their second iteration of student Le conferences students talking about and taking the lead in their reporting out on their their learning was something that the the uh the committee was very concerned about the ones that were looking at student autonomy the high school is now evolving that that um at the high school this is the second time they've had a back to school night where the students actually share the prods we're looking at Freddy communication um one of the things uh that came out with our referendum was people feeling like there's too much information but they're not sure where to look one of the things that I'll be doing in January is I'll be visiting each one of the PTO to discuss the school's facility needs again in each school I have date for for um January that I will be publishing to the community and to the um to the parents and it addition to that our board meetings for those of you who don't have children in school we want you to be able to also have that same knowledge we are going to be moving the board meetings around the building starting with Bear Tavern first so that we can open with the tour of the building and we can show you some of the challenges we're we're talking about and then the board meeting will start directly after those tour we're working on figuring out the technology how we're going to make that happen but I I'm confident that we can we'll figure it out um so that's how we're going to make sure that we're doing that in addition we've already met with the um the mayor of um Kennington burough who shared that they expect development to be coming online in the next thank you footall bur who explains some of the development that they have planned in the next two and three years and we are following up with the meeting with all of the mayor I've made contact with the liaison Hotwell Township and pinnington Boro we need to get them all together and meet again to start talking about uh their contributions to uh the incoming students that we have health and wellness we're working very hard with the digital Wellness committee we've got cohorts of parents at the elementary school and the middle school who are holding off on buying cell phones for their children um and are teaming up to make sure that they have checkfree play dates in their homes so the support coming from the community has been amazing timberlay middle school has has fortified their off and Away protocols which is always been the case um I'm sure our student representative and new board member remember that it was always the case that the Middle School it is even more stringent than it used to be kids put their phones in their lockers and now they will be locking their phone in a pouch and putting it in their locker um moving forward so um we' procured the funds for that through Grant's money and um Mr Trumbo has done a very good job with in communicating with the parents um he's had lots of forums and discussion and Tech three nights he did a community the community read of anxious uh generation but he also did that study with his his own school so the high school is the high school will be right behind uh the middle school with exploring ways to um have less technology in the classroom in terms of that cell phone and also we're trying to push folks to not always be on these chome books as well so I'm very excited about the progress we're making with that um heid EC to be celebrated for having another room full of people just a week ago training for Teen Mental Health First Aid in this room and she has another session scheduled here after the uh winter break help Squad thank you Miss ham who made contact and connected us with this wonderful resource um help Squad is is a training for teenagers sort of a mental health personate as ambassadors about mental health and that they will be trained in how do they one teach their their classmates about how to stay mentally healthy but also how do you get someone helped that needs it Al you want to share a little bit more about that before I go any further I was going to talk about it in myal committee but I can talk now if you prefer okay yeah yeah so um again miss tamam thank you she introduced us this summer to um a really special mother who um started a nonprofit to provide awareness and resources for families in need but also has connected many school districts around the state um to this suicide prevention program um that has proven to be very effective across the country over there's over a thousand schools that are implementing this um so after that meeting um I passed it to Corey R our new supervisor of counseling and Dr Chris Ferman who's our Sac counselor um they continue to vet the program and also with the help and introductions um from Miss ham in that meeting this summer we were also able to obtain um funding through the Cully foundation so huge shout out to them and they will be um funding this this uh program that we have already started to um put the pieces in place to implement um across the district and then finally also able SCP Monies to support tier two of character strong which you will share during yourl umit update I there under diversity equity and inclusion we've SP um Dr pitz is couldn't be here tonight she's not feeling well she spent a lot of time planning and implementing trainings for our staff on how do you different differentiate for students of all learning abilities she has Implement a writing Initiative Program to our students catch up with writing because we know that they could do a lot better in that category um and so that's a component that was missing from reading and writing Workshop that's specific prescriptive writing instruction and um Mr Nardo and U one of our reading Specialists helped Define this program and our our staff is being trained they're also um having conversations within their professional learning community on data driven instruction now that we have all this Rich data that's coming back from our internal Assessments in addition to the high State Testing that we take with the state um we're really looking to get those scores up based on where our students are right now what skills they're missing what gaps we're finding um Mr um umad is working very hard with the new teacher that we have on assignment now that goes around to all uh Four elementary schools and expanding the net of are gifted and talented to make sure that we're identifying more students that might be Miss we might be missing by just using the one assessment of the coap which has have been happening for years we know that there are some biases with that test um so now she's able to go in and push it into lessons this is something that used to happen for Co and um she goes in and really looks for those particular um um Cur the Curiosity and and the the thinking around the student that is gifted that may not always translate into straight A or or good student student right so she so we're really looking at excited about her expanding uh widening the net to grab more students and her expanding the opportunity um she's really strong teacher and she's also a trained um u a learning specialist so she she knows how to find those T how to and then finally we have identified uh the new subject under the witness Stones project if you're not familiar are eighth grade students research and enslaved African that would have walked the streets of Hell at one point um they do projects where they look at um secondary and primary sources they try to piece that person's history back together and then at the end they have a culminating um presentation and celebration of their work they do they present essays artwork poems music and they install a tripping Stone of that person in that space if we can invite a surviving uh descendant of that person we do the first uh two um people that they researched we were able invite those those uh descendants very elderly um people some of them are still with us um I don't know that this one we will find uh I don't think we can find uh somebody descended from this person um but it should be very interesting and we of course we'll invite folks and we'll have the video available um the parents to view if they can't make the U the actual uh PST um but we also keep the the video online watch if you want to see the old presentations they are available on our website under witness then finally this was not a goal that was part of this of the um strategic planning but we had a separate very lengthy um strategic plan that came out of the work of the green sustainability ad hoc Committee of the board um the committee is now going around with pieces of that strategic plan to the Committees of the board that those apply to so they've met with edcom about the some of the the um suggestions that they came up with for them they've met with Finance facility they're going to meet with the policy committee and committee relation very soon they they are researching and providing us with plenty of grant opportunities as we dig into them we're not eligible for a lot of them but we're still trying we're still digging and looking and they're also coordinating the green teams in each one of the schools which is one of the things that we were asked to do to determine how we're going to continue to maintain these Gardens and I'm hoping that you Jo can support us in that as well and I've been in meetings with them so now we're getting to the one that we're really going to talk about tonight which is the financing facilities goals that came out of strategic planning the things that we were asked to do some of the things we were asked to do to identify the top three drivers and to investigate cost saving Alternatives so Bob as we and I and my team as we dig into our budget and this is something that we've presented over the year a majority over 80% of our budget is tied up in the Staffing and the benefits so that's Health cost and salaries is where most of our budget is is um is fixed and then another Big Driver that's really affecting us adversely this year is out of District placement I'm saying this because with the new students that are coming in we we we budget ahead right we know that we have a plan uh for our students that are here that are going out we also put aside some money for those unexpected you know tuition because things come up there maybe a student that wasn't on our radar who's in crisis that need something and we have that money saved right now we have such a number of students coming in the district that have iips private nurses Care Professionals already in place when they come to this that we have the honor that we did not have um we did not budget for you want to share yeah so um since July 1 of this year we have had um six students move into our district who came to us already placed in out of District placements meaning that their challenges were so that they benefited most from a very specialized um placement and um they're very costly um but that is what the kids need and they were already in these placements and per our New Jersey Code we honor the IEPs that come to us within the state so if it's a school within New Jersey we honor it and we do a 30-day review and um I just want to also reiterate that I also met with all of these families met the student and visited the schools um and they do need to be in these placements right now we do not have programs that can support um the immense needs that many of these students require and then some of these may also be um tuition to Charter Schools which they're entitled to continue to attend and that now becomes um something that we that comes from us that losing fund pette so on that one um um does State provide any support for that because I know sometimes we can get State money to help us so we are we so I made several calls yes um because this is the first for me to have that many movements um and we also have like we do have a handful of students each year who do who are already with us that you know we're watching we're tracking data and seeing what their needs are and some of them may do need a higher level um I did call the state say hey this happened you know what do we do in this situation there was no feedback they weren't sure and I've also met with the executive superintendent Bob has also met with um the ba at the executive superintendent's office they will sit down with us and talk about it they're going to look and see where we can make Cuts we can do that right so that's that's where we are we need their help to help us make Cuts that's not where we need help every year we we talked about um the the true rainy day Surplus fund that we have the 2% in my career here in 20 plus years I've never dipped into Surplus we may have to yes we may have to take money out of our raining day fund to cover this now you can't do that until you can justify that you've taken every bit of your budget out to cover those costs and it's a lengthy process so the short of it is we'll start stripping money from other parts of the budget to cover those short Falls first y oh yes absolutely but we'll continue to have you know to to uh make known our our challenges and we're not the only one facing this right all all of um I just had my Round Table this Friday we're all saying the same thing we're all uh having this similar um crisis and um right now uh the um NJ dooe is going to be holding hearings where they're allowing us to come and speak uh um about our concerns again so we're all going to Avail ourselves of those and and do what we can um but you know this is a crisis we're all facing and we're going to continue to do what's best for kids but it's it's getting increasingly tougher all right um and again I we talked about the Green Building options we're exploring them as of of late we haven't determined one that that um apply to us but there is one I think Vicki's exploring Dr Fitz is right now and we're prioritizing um it also said said prioritizing the districtwide initiative for the guards I already talked about that the green teams have met and they're looking at coordinating efforts to maintain our outdoor spaces okay go ahead all right so um again we're into our budget calendar um we've had two presentations about cni and special ed um already this will be more of a general uh discussion to kind of get us going on the track of where we're going to be um the ultimate goal is um for a tenative budget adoption on March 17th um and a final budget submission uh on April 28th so that's that's where we're going to be working over the next you know four to five months to get there with a lot of discussion um there's some 2B determine dates on there um as we get information from the state um we may need to meet as a board we'll probably need to meet as a board anyway to discuss um the cuts that will be proposed um sometime in in January February okay again our priorities really haven't changed um this is a slide that we've used for the last several years but this is what um we hope to to accomplish um reflecting our our mission statement our strategic plan maintaining and continuing all of our services that we currently have um you know all I'm not going to go through it you've all seen it before but you know meeting all the obligations and to our students staff community that we've done for years okay so um I do want to point out the second um and and I I think we've used this slide pretty frequently but I think number two is an area that we are scouring right um is maintaining all existing program even feasible um and is it and it is is it being responsible for how we need to manage our budget so I just want to to call that out is um actually a modification of how we are looking at the budget given our challenges um we just may not be able to or will not be able to we will we won't be able to we just have to be we have to be real about that we're not going to be able to um as I've said in the past we're hoping that natural attrition would take care of some of it but we we can't continue doing what we're doing when I say that when you ask a question what will the state do one we are well over adequacy according to what the New Jersey Department of Ed says a district needs to do but they also don't feel like everyone needs a librarian everyone needs a um nurse in every building they don't you you see what I'm saying they certainly don't think we need stem facilitators they don't think that we need the class size we have um so what they think is adequate is not what this district has come to expect right yeah so I I mean I think technically that bullet should come out because I think more is reflecting the values and all those things that would determine any I think say maintain as many exist progam possible was more in a goal as more of a goal we can't we can't but this is what we would try to do within yeah I was going to let Bob go through this but since we forgot I I second that I think that should say something like dry or maintain as many but also you know if you look further down provide class sizes in accordance with Board of Education policies right again that's another variable that we have to have in consideration as we look at things uh it would be responsible to not um use that as a variable and it may very well be that we'll wind up maintaining class sizes as for current policies but I think that's something we need to be consider sorry if we just does this it's on okay you can hear me thank you yeah I I would just say if the as Bob just said this is a goal I mean it certainly should be that we maintain I understand we might not so I don't know we're arguing over a slide here and I appreciate that but I mean my goal would certainly be to maintain all but if we can obviously we can't but that should be where we start no it's not an argument it's a clarification because this is a slide we've used for a while so it's there is a an adjustment we need to acknowledge and also I would say that we are not maintaining not that we ever did I don't want to imply we we maintained blindly but I think we are considering other factors in terms of what is existing that we should right like you you don't we've always said we try to get as many AP classes as we can as many extracurriculars as we can the more the better and now we're assessing the sustainability of that so just saying maintaining or trying to maintain I don't think has the finer tuned um accuracy that I would like us to be conveying to the public that's all it's not an argument it's just a simple conveying of what's actually going on um so that there is a vote of confidence that there we're not just going along with whatever is out there because that's what we've always done Mark you look like you wanted to say something I'm good we talk a lot about this slide let's go to the all right we got all right so some of the variables that um that I'm looking at right now that are causing uh some some consternation um we are still stuck at a 2% Levy cap uh some of the things that Dr Tre talked about that's going on with with um testimony to the to the the doe is um a lift on that cap um but we haven't heard anything yet um we there's a health benefit waiver that we used last year and I'm looking to hopefully um exercise that waiver this year uh remember the state has increased uh for January 1st uh an aggate increase of 14% so that's going to help us because they have estimated an increase that high so we we should be able to get something back from that waiver um on the same lines there there appears to be um push that the doe may offer additional waivers for transportation um some additional special education waivers that used to exist that have been removed so we're crossing our fingers that some of these areas that have hit um incredible escalation due to inflation such as Transportation um may find some relief this year we don't know anything yet okay um state aid what I did hear um and Dr T heard and if you were at the New Jersey school board's conference this year the commissioner of Education said it um prepare for a reduction we did get seven years of increases um they have brought us to the level of what they consider fully funded based upon the formula um but now the co money has been exhausted and they don't know what revenues they are going to have for 25 26 um at this point we are hoping for Flat state aid I'm building the budget based upon Flat state aid um but we are also going to consider what 10 5 10 15% reduction means to us um 15% reduction State a is about a million dollar okay um last year just for your notice we got an additional 500,000 last year so it's not a whole lot of money but every bit counts you know $500,000 plus last year was very important um something else we're trying to work on other locally generated Revenue we do bring in some tuition money um it's not guaranteed each year last year we did have some folks who were here last year but pulled out this year we had some folks new folks come in this year so we don't know um that until it actually happens facility rentals um have gone up somewhat this year to but we're we're maintaining local only we've stopped looking for outside hopo Valley rentals because for no better reason and they just they don't treat our facilities with respect and it's not worth the money uh it takes to to fix them after they're gone so there is some Revenue there we are talking in Earnest right now about uh reinstituting the athletic and co-curricular fee um we don't know what that is yet we'll be discussing that in finance facilities and with the board as a whole to what um that fee may be and then transportation fees we'll get more into that as we move forward um and the the use of if we're interrupting we interrupting um this is kind of like a laundry list but I think to me one of the important things for people to also realize that first bullet that's almost 90% of that's what high 80% yes it's of our Reven right we are a district that is almost 90% funded by the tax levy so at the end of the day you know yes they a impacts us and it's a little bit here a little bit there but we are severely limited in our budget and what we can do by the 2% tax right yep when inflation has been well above that for two years now we'll get we'll get more into that as we get through we'll touch on all these things more the the the last thing and not necessarily least that Lo Surplus I almost want to shift higher in the bracket we are dangerously um utilizing Surplus there's $4 million worth of surplus in our budget now what that means is I need to pull $4 million from this year's budget and move it to next year we just talked about different things that are driving monies unplanned from this year's budget will I be able to generate the same amount of surplus for next year I don't know not yet it's too early to do that okay we'll go to the expenditure side what's driving it okay we talked about inflation and everything that we see right now is driven by inflation from supplies to Services um to energy we're expect we' been we've been told to expect um a greater than um normal increase in utility cost this year due to an electric grid overhaul that covers the entire um Middle Atlantic plane so I don't know what what that means yet um but this major grid this grid that runs from Maryland up through our area um is undergoing an overhaul and we're expecting the cost to be passed on to us that's one of the benefits of AI That's you have to run all the cni curriculum instruction is what we do okay we we educate children there's costs that go into you know the curriculum we write the curriculum develop the curriculum we Implement um so that's a driver transportation is growing um we'll talk more about that when we get to that slide but the uh CPI the quote CPI related to transportation is right now 3.6% last year it was 5.8 it's dropped a little bit this year but remember 3.6 is greater than what 2% Insurance um both both health health insurance and um Property and Casualty um our Property and Casualty Insurance came in lower this year than was budgeted so I'm hoping that the money that we had put aside this year um the increase we may not have to increase it as much this year or or not at all because it came in lower last year crossing my finger as I said health insurance state is is already implemented a 14% increase we are self-insured so we don't necessarily have a premium increase but I can tell you that this year we're running uh through November about half a million dollars over budget based upon the inflation in the health benefit marketpl um but we are 27% below the state so we are doing well comparably to folks who are in the state health benefits plan pH facility and maintenance cost well we we are refer did not go through the repairs go on um so you know it they're coming we we have had a relatively quiet month of of um things that are going wrong but we did have a busy summer of tree maintenance and Sewer maintenance uh hbac failures things like that um but right now we're hoping that that we'll have a little bit more of a quiet period Special Ed we've talked about um there'll be another slide later on Staffing we'll talk more about that um technology we had a a quick meeting with our technology folks we'll talk more about that and anticipated growth in the valley we are seeing it entering our schools especially at Bear Tavern um and we'll get more into that later on but we are seeing the growth um there is cost to it I know that the township said there wasn't but we are already seeing increases in certain class areas we are seeing increases in transportation to the effect of three additional routes that we've had to adapt to already just the way that the the developments are laid out and where the students are we're going to have to add routes to accommodate um the growth did you say you have to add round we probably will have to add but we'll get we'll get into that this is just the over stop three rout three rout wow okay so enrollment we've we've seen um relatively steady enrollment uh since about 2020 um we're seeing a slight growth back now we are seeing some of the students come in this these numbers are effective as of November um what I hear from our principal over be Tavern that they're expecting at least five to seven students to start on January 2nd so we will monitor this number through all of our presentations to see how we are growing in enrollment this year Alone um trigger so looking forward to next year our first grade enrollment class is looking uh 20 students higher already uh based upon kindergart enrollments right now so we are seeing uh some growth we aren't to the levels we were in in the early 2000s but you know we are starting to see class sizes increase now there is a waiver for for growth and enrollment but we're nowhere near that as far as the state is concerned but we'll keep an eye on that as well and there's nothing we can do about that uh it's Assa report to ask report the application for state school aid is done based upon the October 15th count so we will not see an increase in if we ever see it an increase in enrollment until the ass report dictates that we've seen a significant increase and Bob just to make sure I understand how to sort of piece these two slides together so the bulk of the enrollment is happening among the younger students correct right now yeah right now okay yep but we have seen we have seen an additional some additional students in timberlan but we did have a we did have a bigger fifth grade class enter sixth grade this year uh compared to the one that left and went to high but yes be Tavern Elementary School seen the bulk of it okay and we're not seeing it as much in the element in the excuse me the middle or the high school no yeah okay no so again we talked a little bit about curriculum um and what's going on there Dr Blitz has talked about an audit she's going to be having um over our language Arch program there'll be standards that that have to be addressed there as we enter qac for next year um but again curriculum drives a lot of what what we do transportation again we talked about the increase the projected increase to our bus route renewals bus route renewals is about 50% of our our uh our Transportation cost we transport we as a district uh transport most of our if not all of our special education students some of our uh regular ed students we contract out the majority of our regular uh Ed districts or regular ed students we continue to have driver and Van attendant shortages we are currently Five drivers down right now um and we are probably three to four van attendance down um so that that is constant battle keeping folks uh here um and and on our buses um Fuel and parts again fuel we we we actually pay a pretty decent rate on fuel we're in partnership with the township we got our fuel there um but Parts the cost to repair and the the get parts for our buses is is incredibly high right now um we are hoping that we'll renew that our contractors will renew this year at the uh that 3.6 % rate they could uh if they're seeing uh escalations in their cost could kick the roots back so that they can bid higher but we're hoping that that's going to be it as I mentioned we are looking at three additional Transportation routes right now at a minimum that's what for what we have now uh they are currently trying to reroute um certain R buses to to eliminate having to add routes Midstream we don't have the drivers right now and we don't have the contractor who's willing to offer any addition Timber I mean a boss capacity unless this is a special ad on is what 20 30 kids no 54 okay 54 so three Rs so now K we have kid we have routes right now that are not at 54 but they're so they're the kids aren't close enough together so we're trying to keep the routes 45 minutes to an hour and it's very difficult to do that with how far they're spread out the new development is one long road so to get to the into it and to the back of it and back out again and the development on Scotts Road you can't make a left-hand turn out of so you've got to come in and then make a turn back around to go the the way you need to go so it's they're challenging in routing them so what we're doing is trying to move some of the the routes around to fill some of the buses more but it's a it's a process because kids keep coming and then also you have you know if a student comes in with needs and they have siblings and they need to be at one school we honor having all the siblings at the same school for the the ease of the parents right so now you might be routing somebody across town to a school that they first of all wouldn't be going to which is helping us because we also bear that capacity but but I mean if we're doing that for the ease of the Parn right we we may want to consider saying we're happy to do that for you but right like if the busing well this shouldn't make the busing more difficult well EAS because it depends if they're all on the same bus because some of those might be on a speci bus right right the other so then so then I think we need to consider talking to the parents and saying look we're happy to do it for you but we're not going to be able to provide you you have to we have to fit it we have to the to put the regular ed student we do it but to put the regular ed student sometimes on the special ed bus yeah it there's not room right but he's saying like transport your own students but that hasn't been our policy because if you know if you have little ones yes and you have one over here and they over here and B different back to school I that's a lot to ask a parent with a student would need but so that's not how we've operated okay um so the courtesy busing uh tag just to give this is just facts right now we have 144 courtesy busing students the majority are in the Stony Brook sending area um to go to the high school uh no Stonybrook to go to Stonybrook and then the tolgate area to go over to the high school um since we increased the rate of to $500 at the high school it was always been it's always been 500 at the elementary we did have students drop out um what we are what we have allowed is half halfway uh one-way Transportation which is costing us money because it's a seat it's a full seat that we that you sell for half the price so the student rides in the morning and not in the afternoon we only charge them half so if we don't fill the seat in the afternoon the seat goes empty um the the the money we're taking in the the revenue is only $59,000 um the average cost of a seat this year for our contracted runs is close to $1,200 okay so just I'm we're discussing stuff this is what I'm showing you right now if we were to eliminate courtesy busing it would free up probably three bus routes and it could help fill the gap for the buses that we need I would prefer that we raise the cost because you're going to be leaving the whole of Penington without any bus any option for a bus I just don't know what the reaction is going to be to a $1,200 seat for M to not even having that up right and I think that will have to be explained but I mean or at least the option is there people still have the ability to say right and we'll see where that go I mean because right now we're only bringing in 5900 and costing us another 113,000 again this is where where we are right now Insurance kind of touched upon that um I am I am uh anticipating or probably will be budgeting somewhere in the area of a 10% increase for our um spend for this year um but again we are happy that we are still running more efficiently than most districts with our plan Property and Casualty again we talked about that workers compensation claims here continue to be high regardless of how someone gets hurt if they get hurt in our building whether it's because we did something there was a there was an issue where we were uh there was something that caused the slipper fall or someone just trips uh over a shoelace that they didn't High we're we're liable and and rates and this is a national thing um rates continue to climb I think our rates for for workers comp are somewhere in the area of $700,000 a year it's just it's the way the market is right now not going to Bel labor facilities of Maintenance we've talked about this but all these different areas on here have been one way or another driven cost for the uh the facilities and maintenance department we are very fortunate that we are able to have our guys do a significant portion of the work we installed the new sewer a water line from um the uh building here from the main water supply underneath this building to go to the the transportation and maintenance buildings we did that on our own um saving us you know thousands of dollars in in contractor cost so we are fortunate for that um I added things that flooring on the bottom there are a number of rooms in the district especially at Stonybrook now that it's it's over 20 years old um that we need to replace Carpeting and Flooring um in areas around the district as well as you know other things that Customs have such as blinds um so there's things that need to be taken care of that aren't being addressed because the repairs are taking hey can you just maybe for the meeting if you don't mind just appeasing me on this one can we just talk about a worst case scenario off of this slide so the public understands it let's say we have an HVAC issue in a building and that HVAC issue by regulatory purposes or constraints we then can't open that building up right and then let's say that that rainy day fund may not exist what happens next like what do we have to do if we don't physically have the money worst case scenario in order to deal with that situation I mean you can do um you can do temporary borrowing you can do at least purchase to to generate monies on that um we do remember we do have um a capital reserve money that we could draw on to do temporary there's there's always a way to do temporary heating you could bring in a a truck um that can provide that you can wire into do temporary Heating um how long that poti right that's what we need to get to it's not going to be quick um I mean there there are ways to mobilize within a few days to get temporary things going I mean there's space heaters things like that that you let's get specific we had a well pump fail at last year you said a number of times we got lucky that the part got found if Tom didn't call 20 places and Found What was it seems was the only place that had to park in the state we would have been out we could have gotten again for that we could have gotten a truck if a longterm solution you could have gotten so Bear Tavern had lost its um we thought there was a there was a clog in the Bear Tavern um Pump Station it was a broken line out in front of the building sewage was coming up through the ground and we brought a truck in to pump out the waste um it was expensive but for a day we were able to get that out you could do that on a regular basis or a well you you could find a you could get a a truck to come in and bring portable water in that could be run through the system it's not ideal but you could do it or you you'd have to go and try to rent a temporary facility so rent that would take time and in the meantime so your question is your your child would be home with their Chromebook the district would go immediately to e-learning right now does the whole District go to e-learning just that school right we don't want to disrupt the rest of the the buildings are still viable but I can't open the buildings until I have a viable water source right kids are at home and the state doesn't count those days as actual days until you've been out three consecutive days in a row then they will go back retroactively and say okay those days are blessed we'll count those as real school days but in the meantime Mom and Dad's caregivers need to go to work and your kids are at home and I can't give you a definite until so we're going to style learning except the employers and not the parents employers are not right going to be as understanding as they were during Co there are folks that can help us with this there are there are schools that you know we talked about go back to Hurricane Sandy um there are a lot of schools that that found temporary places to go if they have a fire you can find like and you know there are districts that we can call in the state will help the county office will help us find but all of that takes time that takes time right but you know that's where we get on our horses and we try to find but but here's the I guess what they're trying to get to and and this is this is why we're we're talking about this now again at this time of year and we did this last year same time these are real problems that I don't want us to get to that position where we're backed into a corner yes if your house floods you can go check in a hotel right we don't want to get into this situation and so what I have to recommend to this community again is a referendum in the fall now I don't know if the board's ready for that yet or not we're on that listening tour folks are telling us some of the sticking points with the last one they're also alarmed because they're seeing the effects of these buildings coming apart we just had the fire trucks at Stonybrook again just just this past week right so these we can't just keep our fingers crossed and hope things fail and if they do we can scramble around and spend more money we don't have to stick our finger in the in the in the dyke that's about ready to blow right so we we have to address this by going back to the community um we've already had the Architects telling us what does this look like without the turfield and the restrooms and the concession stand and the cost as was I feared is exactly the same as it would have been with those items it's gone up everything's gone up nothing's going down and I don't anticipate cost will go down by November right so that's where we are um so it's it's not good if if we have a catastrophic failure kids will be at home yes we have a mechanism to deal with it and nobody wants that again at least I don't think so I agree and I think my point thank you I think my point asking that Bob was it's it's absolutely zero refle reflection at all on our ability to figure it out because I think we've proven under your leadership and Tom's leadership we can do that it's more of the there's going to be a a day to five day disruption if any one of these things do happen and uh I'm going to continue to be very vocal about this throughout this process in these meetings so everybody understand it's all knock on wood right now yeah yeah I think I think that's to put it allegorically Tom's really good at duct taping stuff at some point the dock just St that's what we're hoping to get through that to the port where everything's going to be fixed as an extension to what Mark and Dr are saying is that yes we can scramble yes but there will be some level of disruption and the cost bringing in a drop or the the Band-Aid solution is costly and will eat into the very funds we're trying to save in order to fix it it properly so it just extends the amount of time it takes us to actually do the Full Repair okay right I think yeah s right we we've touched a lot about we've touched a lot on special education already I don't know if Paul has anything else so on this one I had asked just to give actually public an idea of like what we're spending on just for a list of out of district schools and what we're paying them um I was criticized for asking for something that I shouldn't be asking however it is the information is actually in our minutes it's just not cated like if you go to October minutes right it has an aign item that says just finance and uh because we need to proove it under the finance item that says hey we there's a contract that needs to be approved this amount of money is going to that school it actually sets for how many students which is not something that I'm interested in but I think for the public it's important to see the cost and the amount of money that's leaving the distory for no other reason than to better appreciate the value of the work that pette is doing in trying and keep as many kids in District as possible because we do a lot of work to be able to keep them in District and provide those programs right and and and and and they are more expensive than regular instruction programs but I think it's really valuable for people to have that perspective it's just how expensive things are um and and again I didn't ask for anything that's not out there in public domain already it's just that I would have to go and scour the last two or three years of meeting minutes to pull all the contracts out where it it it there's probably an easily accessible assary don't need it in this meeting but that's something that we should get to I'm going to add something in here if that's okay um so I'm going to go one step further on the litigation piece I would actually like to see this on a PowerPoint slide at a meeting because I want everyone in the community to understand what's happening when it comes to some of the situ ations happening with some of the private schools within the community I think this is just a bigger part of the conversation around money that's being spent not because we have a lapse of something in the district in fact it's the exact opposite and I'll Echo what Alex is saying about pette and her entire program like we have one of the best in the state and we know that we want to protect it and as we're all talking as a district about where money disappears to and as the public asks us for this idea of transparency to me when we show where things go because of things that we agree or disagree on is equally important to where we're spending money on and not spending money on as we're cutting so I would like us to show this in more detail somehow as we're talking about this over the course of the next couple months and I would just defer to the administration on how you guys want to show I think we'd have to figure out whether or not how specific at all I don't I don't know how specific get so in the October minutes right in a public October minutes it at school number of students and total amount I am not even interested in the number of students just the school and the money amount right and I do definitely want to as Mark said have it broken down by placements that pet recommends versus court order litigations I'm much more inclined to uh to say that if pet recommends it we absolutely need to spend it court ordered litig well we still have to spend it because the court ordered but um I think that we need to be transparent with the taxpayers uh about the money that's going out of the district I mean the on the in the budget document itself it shows exactly what monies were allocated to private to uh special education right but we're asking for a second level of detail which is what specific um schools me rough roughly we have 51 students in out of District placements right now so we are up by about 15 um and of those the total tuition combined is roughly 3, 800,000 that's where I had right so we're asking forget about the number of students right School amount of money and whether this is something that that's court order or this is something that we agreed is necessary yeah I'm going to have to find out what I can and that's fine but I'm just pointing out that information is as far as I can see in the minutes I would just have to scour the minutes meeting by meeting to get it I don't know no we do oh yeah we do oh yeah we do no when we approve the contract we will we will do some research on our to see what we can thank you and again I just want to I just want to Echo for the public that this is about not what a concern about the spend of the money or Pet's recommendation this is a conversation that we are having about every part of the business and this is one and I say business running the district right this is that's right there's three pillars where money comes from and this is one of the big pillars right and in order for us to be able to understand and for the public to understand where money is going and I care about court ordered more than any being candid like I want the public to understand that there is a significant amount of money going out there but again it is zero reflection on the great work that Paul let and her team does zero reflection that we're asking this yeah and then and they spend a lot of time in court dealing with those issues which is not yes which is not their time well spent prevented okay so again as Dr Tre said in the beginning of our presentation Staffing is a is a huge part of our budget you know combined uh with health benefits um we are you know again we have our two uh largest bargaining units up for negotiation as we speak we're currently engaged in negotiations with our with our teaching staff um as soon as we finish that or concurrently we will probably start working with our support staff unit which is our second largest unit um you know we are we know that that that settlements are going to probably be in excess of the 2% that we've been speaking of um the current contracts that we've already set there are four other units that we have and they're all settled above above 2% um there's continues to be a teacher shortage um unlike we've that I've ever seen in my career in education candidates have the now the ability to shop as a you know before you know I remember when I came into the profession I was happy to get the job and I was whatever you offered I'm taking it give me the job that first step right um now they're saying is that the best you can do um you know and and T and I sit and conation what do you want to do they need this teacher it's like well can't we go back out no we need somebody now we're out of compliance with this that or the other thing we have to we have to hire somebody today and we're going to have to pay them you know higher than base salary rate um you know again the veteran staff are leaving districts UN in unprecedented numbers when you had tenure you almost never left the district and once you got to the upper steps on a salary guide 14 15 16 top of the guide you didn't think about leaving you were too expensive to go somewhere else now they're leaving we're you know people are leaving at the top of their guide with longevity and coming to other districts just because they can't um you know again in contract settlements it's just it's an precedent time um with in in attempting to staff our position no I was just going to say um you know even in the five years since I've been in this position we used to have 20 to 25 30 people applying for a position and it's just dwindling down to maybe you get three or four people applying all of which have at least five six seven years of experience that comes in expensive we pay Year forear we're very consistent so that that protects the district from from false lawsuits over you know how you're placing people um and that's the biggest thing I think what what Bob said we have staff or teachers coming out of colleges and you know we have quite the the reach where we're talking to all the different schools we're on handshake we're working with the different universities trying to get these new students and they say well what can you do for me I can go over there and I can get this or I'm getting this and so that that's quite difficult that plays into contract settlements and what our salaries mins and Maxes look like all these things come into it um and and Bob's 100% right we after covid we have seen so many veteran staff say you know I always wanted to come to Hope well and and I saw this position and they know that we don't have a lot of applicants and so it's the time for them to to do that so we're it's not as much we're losing where we have opening getting both and which means our salary inre which is good for the kids but good for the budget good for the budget exactly can you speak to the um and excuse my ignorance here but the these entry level staff and if all of the schools are you know faced with the same challenges right now regarding sort of budget shortfalls and um challenges looking forward how are they able to give higher salaries than we are to make it more enticing so that's part of negotiations and it's part of the salary guide is created and what the agreed upon um rates are uh so that's something that we've discussed in previous negotiations we continue to discuss is how we can raise that minimum but there's a lot that goes into the negotiation of of where the money is placed on a salary guide there are also some uh rare districts who are adding things bonuses you might have heard over the last few years years um not all um able to continue doing that um money is involved and I think you know some some practices have been looked at as to how how can they do this and where's the fairness it comes with lawsuits afterwards why did that person get the money why didn't I what were you basing that on so there's a lot that goes into that we are we are very careful as Tana said to make sure that when we hire people we're hiring them consistently with our practice and not just saying is you know this person has 15 years experience but they said they would take less we don't do that because it just opens the district the district up to a lwuit but also T personally for for you know bias or whatever so we we have a policy where we M we maintain the way we always assign experience it's a it's a best practice are we're all so desperate that people are paying well beyond like we pay more than I would like to pay for some staff members because if you only have have two that apply right and they're both at the top of the salary guide or they're they're veteran teachers you have no choice it's either that or what or not have enough teachers with some districts are running without full staff right so we're fortunate to not be in that situation um but some right next door to us have been running without teachers in classroom for over two years so we don't want to get into that situation either and we are we are too we're running we have instances where we are using our own people in periods subbing because we don't have we don't we don't have the staff that are either you know ready to be they're they're in between we have an opening we have a person going out on to leave and we haven't replaced them yet and Subs are still hard to find yeah we we are actually fully staffed with substitutes more than we've had but we have so many who are not coming back so they get approved every year and then they just don't take the job so that's that's another issue is the Sub sub shortage um some of the regulars group you might even remember faes that were always here day after day in the classrooms and they've chosen not to return um or they're just not doing it anymore and you we talked today about people who just don't they don't the people who you know they don't come like you know they they've come for three four weeks in a row and all of a sudden they don't want to come anymore just and that's another thing the board has been very supportive in raising the sub rates after you remember we talked about that a lot over the last few years and we have a very good rate comparatively in County now it they're just not working do the shortages also spend over to par professionals and yes okay and is there is there any interest from like our PA professionals to potentially like step into like get training or whatever for teaching oh yes we actually just discussed that last week we have so many power professionals who we have moved into a teaching role um it's a great pipeline because they know our district they know our students our culture and how things work um and they have done a great job so we are really happy that that's something that we've been doing and utilizing um then we have to replace the par professional which is a problem which is you know often IEP driven and so then that then we get stuck in that situation but it it's a great um pipeline that we've created and the universities are now working with us based on some of the work that we've done and we and we're they're creating programs for these um for Paris to to become teachers so we have done that and we've we're looking at some just recently that new ones that we've hired as teachers all right technology um again as we've heard before technology is involved in almost everything we do now from HVAC installs to you know every device that we bring into our system um we are starting now to see uh some of our infrastructure that needs to be replaced we had a brief meeting with tech last week um there's some changes to our badging system that we need to address um our badges are slowly becoming outdated um and more susceptible to um they're they're just not as secure as they used to be so we need to upgrade that um there's a a Chromebook refresh that we're going to need to address um we we are trying to keep a fouryear Refresh on Chromebooks but we've pushed that out to five and even six years um so we we we need to figure how we're going to fund some that so we have a lot of discussions with technology that are going to be coming up this winter as well again just some of the things that we've done um you've seen this before uh you know we we our health benefits have really kind of saved us we don't experience the increases that other folks have incre seen we continue to bring our students back home to that least restrictive environment all that talked about it's become difficult uh with some some issues over the past several years the litigation we talked about but we're continuing to work with that we try to reduce staff um and even Administration over the years through enrollment we are seeing um that we've gone as low as we possibly can go especially at the elementary schools if we were to keep those class sizes that we were used to that's a discussion topic of of that we're going to be talking about class size we do still participate in the school choice program that brings us you know about $350,000 in Revenue uh just to help fill some of our open seats in our in our fine arts program our Cooperative purchasing continues to save us money by by you by uh lumping our district in with hundreds of other districts are able to benefit from not only time savings but also cost savings through through bulk purchasing and again our facilities department has saved us money even though it's costing money now but we're able to do things cheaper with our own uh staff members than other districts who have to contract out for everything this is this year's budget don't this is not a projected budget for next year this is just how we are looking at our budget now as you can see our general special ed and staff benefits is more than three4 of that pie um with other services that you would consider mandatory as part of the program your Athletics co-curricular your Transportation all of those things are are necessary to run so B this is always like to talk about so when I look at these and I look at slices that are somewhat big right there's really only two slices that we have control over and that's the blue general education FL and the I can't do anything about benefits can't really do anything about special ad we can if we try and marck with it we'll probably only uh right can't do anything about Debt Service um you know Athletics is fairly small so what I am anticipating is as we try and make the budget work a good time make budget work those are going to be the disli right so I want to think about in two extremes right one extreme is we try and keep the general education as it is right which means that we got to take money out of operations and maintenance which means we're playing we're really gambling with our ability to keep the district to but I would like to ask you guys to somehow consider and give us a sense of how large of a gamble that is hold on a second soat for years years so what is happen now is that's not going to play anymore now so what you're saying is we don't have any choice we have to T to keep it continue not anyway right well but that's what I'm saying but one extreme is we do even less on the facilities we're gambling and I think it's very important to show to the board and to the public what that gambling actually means right the other extreme is we do what we need to do for the facilities to really drive the risk of us having to close schools down as as low as possible that's going to cause us to that's going to cause some real significant pain on the general education right but it's I'd like to understand what that is in terms of class size for example right and that's what we're going to be doing and then and then whatever recommendation you come with I imagine is going to be somewhere in between those two but I think you know when you have only two variable bills that you're playing with to me at least I always like to understand what the extremes are because it gives you a better perspective about the importance of trados that we being right so right and that's what that's what the plan is to do as we move forward into the into the winter again this was just an overview tonight right so I I would argue with you in a little bit and poette and I have been working closely over the past several weeks there's we're not saying that there's no room to say and paet you've come up with close to $200,000 in cuts and in tweaking her other areas within that so there are room there's room to find and we're looking for pieces um Athletics you know we're going to look in athletics you know whether it's by adding revenue from fees or by you know looking at we're not going to run a freshman program here we're not going to run this program now and and little things do add up they will but at the end of the day ma of special at is mandated M of transportation is mandated staff benefit mandated right contractually obligated right so yes there's little things that you can play with there but there's only two Pi that we as a board control right I mean we could it would be a terrible idea but we could as a board decide to just not have an operations and maintenance budget period right because we control that right there's only two slices that we have you you've seen that required M there's things that you have to do to run the building you've got to pay for your energy you've got you've got to do those but those are the two big things that we do control right is those are the I think the biggest thing that you control is the the generaliz budget you could say is we're not running AP classes anymore we're not running this anymore and operations is not really a place that you have control over yes in theory you do but it's just like not maintaining your house not getting things maintained and eventually you're something's going to blow and and in addition to that we are monitored for f we're keeping up on these things yes but what I'm saying is we need to show that you know the in order to keep things as they are right what are we what is the pain that we're going to pay on the operations what what kind of ridiculous state are we going to have to get we're not maintaining the house right but I mean those are the only two things that the two big the the only two big areas that I see as a board member where we as a board have any control operations and maintenance and and yeah the blue one so yes you guys are G sorry I started on on on certain towns so I'm sure you guys will because I've seen some of it will find a lot of savings in L areas that will adapt to not in a significant amount but they will also not address the fundamental problem that we're going to have to deal with right it's not like you're going to be able to cut things here and there and suddenly come back and say oh you know we dodg the bullet for this year where we're not Dodge this year no I I think we all agree the key is there at the bottom it's salaries and benefits for all staff is about 76% of the budget it's I mean it's the we said it before the way to make Cuts is through people that's what you know that's where we are we mentioned it earlier 92% of our budget is from local funding State funding is about 7% Federal funding is 1% uh of our budget but we are in large part funded through local sources property taxes have come down property taxes used to be in the 90s and now it's dropped a little bit we have received additional state aid U over the last seven you want to be careful property taxes have not come down the share that the property taxes correct the percentage of the budget yes I wish property taxes and again this is what I I started at the beginning um back in in 1617 where we had $1.8 million of surplus in our budget to uh the last three years where we're teetering on that edge of of $4 million of surplus in our budget it becomes an unsustainable number to be able to pull $4 million out of a budget each Year and hope that you find some savings within that budget whether you you know through whatever you have teachers that go out on leave the substitutes that come in are you the long-term Subs coming in are not making the money that that that that that higher paid teachers making um you never know what's going to happen so um we'll see what happens with that but I it is a thing that keeps me up at night turns my hair whiter than it already is um it's hard it I worry about it I my audit came through we made it through this past year um and it it's just something that I want to try to get lowered in our budget I know we've had a lot of questions already um I think I'm out with questions on this topic we have you know we have a lot of work Rosetta and her and her team have a lot of work to be doing over the month of January and February we'll be keeping the board uh appraised and we'll probably again be looking at extra board meetings in January February thanks Bob and Dr Tes minutes no 20 minutes yeah yeah holiday discuss we needed to talk about okay um just all joking aside we're good with questions or now okay good okay moving on um just a quick U note about old business um we talked a couple of different times about our self eval and coming off of the referendum and everything else that we were dealing with timing wise just did not work um to our advantage so what will probably be happening is um we'll initiate one during the break um and going into next year we'll debrief at the beginning of uh following our reor so just um it was somewhat intentional just realizing it didn't make a lot of sense for everything we were dealing with to put that out there um so you can do it while you're having your holiday cookies at least while you're relaxed so um that'll come out in the green notes um for this all right with that U we're going to move into our uh public comment section um and members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of three minutes during this portion of the meeting you're asked to state your name address and municipality in response to your comments the Board of Ed May May respond or direct the superintendent to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meetings so that the matter is researched by The District administration with that um our time and uh yep so as usual yellow means you have 30 seconds left and red means that you's going to use the gavel yes awesome all right with that uh public comment section is now open please don't uh forget to sign in at the podium I signed in already um thanks for the new microphone it's wonderful yay and especially on um I hope I'm not being timed on this please um on uh Zoom because you can't hear anyway okay if I was time that's all right on November 22nd Jason Kelsey revealed that his wife Kylie is pregnant expecting their fourth child and it's a girl a baby girl how do they know it's a girl when the due date is months away maybe they peaked at an ultrasound or got results from a prenatal blood vest according to policy 5756 in public comment in November Jason's announcement makes our schools unsafe and hostile to students who identify as trans or gender expansive in 2024 we can't state that sex in humans is binary male or female and we must wait until a sex is assigned to a baby when they are born to respond to public comments in November and for information for the community in September I asked the board to revise some definitions in policy 57 56 to facilitate clearer communication no suggestion was made to um change any other section of the policy to repeal the policy or to prevent students who identify as trans or gender expansive from receiving appropriate Medical Care the suggestions were add the definition of the term sex and objective reality to distinguish it from gender which is based on feeling sex and gender should never be conflated in law and policy change the phrase all people have a gender identity to some people believe they have a gender identity because not everyone in this school district in this community agrees with the political ideology of queer Theory the adjective some would demonstrate respect for diverse view replace the phrase sex assigned at Birth with sex observed and confirmed at Birth I'm not sure why Jason's announcement was given so much positive publicity on social media he should be reminded that using modern medical technology to announce the sex of his pre-born daughter makes our world unsafe how do we as adults board members and administrators justify making it so confusing for young people today policy 5756 can be written so that it secures personal protections and rights and be scientifically correct and accurate it could do both unless of course there is a sociopolitical agenda are elected board members activist first or are they academics second doesn't your code of ethics state that I will refuse to surrender by independent judgment to special interest groups thank anyone else okay seeing none um thank you Mrs koses for your comments and um we did have your comments when we reviewed the policy 5756 at our last um policy meeting last month and based on our research um our conversations with our board attorney and the expectations in alignment with code we will not be making any changes at this time I seeing none other U no other comments the public comment section is now closed um moving on to consent agenda items I need a first and second to um motion all in favor I I any opposed the cour over there sorry any abstaining or opposing okay seeing none all consent agenda items are passing we're going to go ahead and move into uh brief committee updates I think a lot of I'll I'll I think facilities were going to be quick we did not have a meeting because uh Bob let um we know that there was no need for an update from facilities which is great news because we can have anything happen of course since then we had a smoke issue at Stony pling issues internal nothing major I'm I'm going to knock on um and and then um Bob was reading the budget presentation and some other things uh that that you saw for today but he wasn't going to be ready to discuss it in the me again anyway what you saw today was a was an over so yeah we do have an update that we do have the and Dr T referred to it a little bit we do have the um updated numbers from the architect based upon the feedback that we gave him we'll be meeting um right after the agenda of the uh re the organization meeting um in January to discuss options what we were asked to do was to reclassify um the projects we we took the existing the existing referendum and uh classified projects as one two three um and the board will take a look at it and and see how they want to proceed and what number as I had suspected the number did not uh drop even the taking out the things that were the highly controversial things and leaving the uh critical items the number the one and two level one and two and whether the board determines that they're still one and two um the number is higher than it was I it's just the way it is it's escalation in cost you're looking now two years further down the road and yeah it is what it is but the we will be discussing the rankings and and what the board feels comfortable with the committee anyway and we'll come back to the full board to have a further discussion as I said we're probably going to need some kind of another meeting in January to discuss in depth some of these topics and Bob just to clarify you may have said this but I missed it just for folks who aren't on the committee so the one two three rankings are essentially the level of urgency of project and so we had asked them to come back with a rankings so that we could really look at an itemized list of each project and then if it's on fire essentially yeah all right any questions other than okay seeing none we'll go ahead and move on to Personnel we're good um so we met as we normally do right before this meeting uh we're going to have some roll call actions that are fairly normal for appointments as well as some of the extracurriculars um I did want to take some time on behalf of the board to congratulate a few of our uh staff and teachers here for the Governor's educator and support Professionals of the year so I'll let's go through those names very exciting we always like doing this and talking about the great work uh that our teachers and our staff do so uh Denise euwing in Transportation uh I might butcher some of these so my apologies Terry Montagna uh who's also a PA professional Carrie r a par professional uh we'll talk about some of the teachers Doug Morrison Le fesm ham welz Leah Anderson Jamie Adler and Jamie Toronto all right congratulations everybody thanks for all the hard work that you're doing and that's it so we got to do a roll call now you need to do a motion a motion we'll motion for the roll call how about that motion second now we need okay uh doc Mr kadia yes Dr Liston yes Mr Peters yes Dr Resnik yep Mr slotman Dr Wilson yes Miss Williams gallion yes motion Carri I just want to um give a quick shout out to the Hope Valley Ed foundation so all of the support uh people of the year and our educators of the year will be honored on March 21st um at the above and beyond uh hvf Gala we'll have more information as as soon as we have the location know I don't think we have the location yet so I will publicize that as soon as we have it but great opportunity to celebrate all of our Educators Wonder thank you all right atcom I'll take atcom uh Dr pus is not feeling well so um I'll take the atcom we had a good um atcom meeting we did have a review of the TMS math waiver program and in fact it's having on the agenda but we moved that into the January meeting um just to collect some more data um we had a number of course proposals uh Dana heler proposed two new courses in TMS that really focus on educating our kids on how to use and take advantage uh of modern technology uh for presenting their ideas also how not to use modern technology and we are talking about AI uh very positive discussion um so one course is geared uh towards kids who need some extra help and I think in that case it is double important and then one course in eighth grade kind of build on what we're already doing and the only thing that we discussed is for that eighth grade elective taking some of the skills that were present as part of that elective and pushing them into the Core Curriculum classes that all the kids have to take so that's something that the administration is going to look into um then we had uh we reviewed a proposal for three additional courses at the high school um highlight because we had a discussion about this and it's very important in the context of the budget discussion when the committee um uh uh propose that the board approve these courses what we're approving is putting the courses in the catalog and they will only be offered if there is sufficient student interest so we're not increasing the budget at the same time as we're trying to cut it but these are courses that um our that our teachers believe are going to be very important uh that should have sufficient interest and if they do then we will run them and if they don't we want the other thing that we discussed is um being creative and flexible in terms of reducing the cost of curriculum development for these courses so that's have to sort out how they're going to break them because really have as best can yep so we're going to find and there are some creative ways that we discussed to make sure that we can be essentially close neutral andc development so the three courses are creative community Community design 3 which already Builds on Creative Community design one and two courses that we already have so this will simply be the third course in the sequence that we've pioneered um environmental science as a college prep level course alternative to an AP Course and there we talked about you know again being creative about how we run that and possibly looking into options where apparently some schools run different level courses in the same classroom and then gets depending on what the kids ass sign up for their their work the work that they do uh is going to change and then the third course uh is academic writing which is teaching kids who are not into creative writing how to be able to express their thoughts in a written form um and the one comment which I think was unanimous from the committee back is um the court should not be called academic writing but something that will also attract those kids who want to go into trade uh because it's a skill that's being able to write technically and clearly is a skill that's important whether you go into college and become a a stem person or you go into trade or you go into any other area that's not a creative writing so all three of those are going ahead um as a course that will be in a catalog and then we'll see where yeah and last but definitely not least uh Dan Umstead and Kim Lester gave us an overview of the revised EA program and it seems like 's really doing a great job in terms of um just the way she's structuring the program improving the experience that the kids are having she gave us an overview of some of the projects that they're doing really what we spend most of the time on is how do we continue to get away from coat being the major means that we evaluate the whether the kids belong in in this program or not and and then the other comment that was made by me is that um we need to think about how to make uh how to clearly explain to the parents what EA means it doesn't mean the same thing as an advanced level math of English right it's not for the kids that are getting a pluses it's for kids that are really um exceptional in a particular area but may not be doing well academically in other areas because they use different approach to schooling and that's not something that uh is necessarily clear parent when they are looking at what the pr um so that was that I I don't think we have any actions for approval question aome thank you moving on to community relations uh we had three uh elements to discuss last Friday the first one was a uh the development of citizens uh essentially we proposed a deliberative town hall which is essentially a a process in which students are involved in uh deliberating in in front of some I guess local uh uh political leader or some somebody that's an official of of the of the the local government and to practice the skills of deliberation which are pretty important in terms of being a good citizen the next element was a I suggested I I'd like to get some data in terms of how how much the kids understand DeMark and how do they understand it in reference to who they are what they're doing and and how they uh you know how they're going to grow into being Citizen and the final piece was uh uh just a little bit on the referendum which apparently we're going to be bouncing from one school to the next uh in our Schoolboard meetings and um making sure that everyone gets the message thank you thank you right moving on toal so I spoke earlier about um hope Squad so miss Cory rud our supervisor of counseling join us um at our meeting and um talked us walked us through the Hope Squad initiative which is a suicide prevention C well actually starts at fourth grade through 12th grade um so I touched Bas on that earlier the second piece that um Corey presented was our tier two intervention um for social emotional learning we actually uh Corey and Dr Beth Hoffman are Elementary supervisor of special education applied for hopal Valley Ed Foundation Grant and were awarded it to Pilot um character strong tier 2 intervention um across all four elementary schools for the 25 26 school year so we will be awarded the Grant and begin the process and the trainings and discussion in June of this year um of 2025 and then implement it starting in September any questions I don't have a question just one thing to add which I thought was great was um Corey did share that as part of these um Grant proposals they wrote in strong components around data collection be able to be able to really assess how these programs are working for the schools so that we can then go and apply for funding if we find out that they work so um I think the the committee was really happy to hear that so okay Austin um um no just I think I've already shared it in the update with that um that uh Miss McGrath is working very closely with Dr btel to gather resources about um any grant opportunities that may be out there um they have met with the U green teams to to figure out how they're going to support our Gardens our community gardens um and they're going around to the different committees to meet with us to talk to us about what the recommendations are within the areas of expertise um you know for for that committee so uh their next stop I believe is Ed education program committee is where they're going to be stopping talking about some curricular things they'd like to see I know um Dr pitus is already working on one of those um out of a request to uh of U Mr kadia but also it's in the climate action plan about looking at agriculture as uh adding elements of that to the curriculum that's a quick update thank you all right moving on to policy so this one's short the policy committee did not meet because we have no policies up for second reading and um with the reorganization coming it's not customary to send incomplete policies over to the next group so we look forward to a busy January hopefully well yeah the the reason we do it is we don't send we don't try to approve policies at the end of one board we want the that board to approve both end [Music] all right um I think we have everything in routine is consent um all right we're GNA move into already approving calendar that's our fun part okay I move in second it but we're not GNA not going to do any committees obviously we don't have any right yeah I'm going to give you the date of just the reorg meeting and first the meeting in January so that folks can get it on their count very well first and second for December and January calendar Mo okay uh reorg and okay so the reorg meeting is January 6th at 6:30 will be be here be here okay and then the the first meeting of the month is going the regular meeting is going to be on the 27th again it's we have we didn't want to do it the 13th because that's right after the reorg meeting um the 20th is the holiday and we try to keep on monds when we can so the 27th um is the is the thing that will work best for that um again we are we'll talk Dr tce and staff will talk that we probably should get some kind of a meeting scheduled that week of the 13th maybe we do a midweek or maybe we do something we have to figure out what date works for everybody um you guys are all very busy so we need to try to find something so we can discuss in detail some of the things that came up tonight without having other action in would this be an in person or or an online meeting um I'm I'm probably gone most of I mean we haven't set we'll we'll do some kind of a a note but I mean I guess we could do it remotely but it's it's better to have I probably think better in first remote and the 27th yeah uh yeah hopefully hopefully try to have it question we have our our probably laughing in the other room as he's sitting there but he is uh assessing the viability of moving from from building to building um thank [Laughter] you all right all right um do anything okay um new business items how do I what's the what's the protocol how do I motion well um so just present because everybody just to be clear there would uh there is a new item that we have discussed uh electronically it's been shared with the board so you could just um basically read the um proposed um all right well this was spoken about um in the November board meeting uh I believe also a new business where we discuss potentially establishing an ad hoc government Relations Committee so after speaking with the board president um we decided instead of waiting until next year and going for a full-fledged standing committee we want to right now establish an adhoc government Relations Committee that will spend the next year um fleshing out the details and and viability as well as making sure that we're following all you know relevant guidelines state law and board ethics um to to make sure that it can eventually become a a standing committee um but with that the I'll read aloud the resolution for the public and as well just in case any board members did not have a chance to um review the document so all it is is it's a resolution establishing an ad hoc government Relations Committee there's two pre preambulatory Clauses uh the first one reads whereas the hobal Valley Regional School District Board of Education recognizes the critical importance of fostering and maintaining robust relationships with local County and state government entities to ensure the effective delivery of quality education and oversight of educational structure uh the second Prem is the board acknowledges the necessity of pursuing all potential Avenues to secure resources and funding for the district while also articulating policy concerns policy makers to Advocate effectively for the district's needs uh therefore be it resolved that the hobble Valley School District Board of Education hereby establishes an ad hoc government relations government Relations Committee with the following purposes and responsibilities um so Clause one which is the purpose it is meant to enhance the board's engagement with local County and State political entities staying AR breast of policies and fostering Partnerships that support the district's ability to deliver high quality education while laying the groundwork for a standing government Relations Committee in alignment with board ethics state law and relevant guidelines um the responsibilities there's three Central responsibilities that are outlined in the resolution firstly establishing and maintaining ongoing relationships with the hopel township committee hopel burough Council hennington burough Council Mercer County officials and state legislators from the 15th legislative district uh the second responsibility is researching and proposing ethical guidelines for the committee's long-term operations as a prospective planing committee and thirdly advocate for State funding and policy Solutions government leaders that address hbr's needs and the last Clause just a timeline uh that explicitly says that the committee shall provide a recommendation to the board president by December 2025 outlining strategic actions ethical practices and a proposal to transition into a standing government relations so any questions yeah good question um thank you for doing this I've told you that since day one like I commend you on that so kudos just so I'm understanding this we are not going to do anything until December 2025 and then have an ad hoc is that no so I mean right now this no no it would be established for January 25 if we pass it today it would yeah so that's that's kind of the the logic of doing an ad hoc is one it's going to allow us to still get to that work of of you speaking with legislators and and having those conversations of securing additional funding resources um but as it's outlined you know the second corespond responsibility is researching and proposing ethical guidelines for the committee's long-term operations as okay thank you yeah because there is a chance that we speak with legal council we talk to other school districts and we just find that there isn't viable infrastructure for this committee to be a standing committee but I'm you know obviously we we want to do that research first the Bo's attorney is working on the research now you could do it yeah looking at the putting the G that's just the logic of going ad hog versus fully going okay thank you for clarifying I I have a question um all right this notion of of have being a a partner or partnership shipping with these different aspects of the government um I is does that also include things like pushing our own agenda in other words having some concerns or some uh ideas of changing laws that we want to get done well that's that's part of it right and that's kind of that's the that's the whole point of creating the ad hoc is to find out the boundaries of which we can what we can can we can and cannot and and honestly some of it would be going through the administration rather than us representing that role because there's some clear boundaries of which we can operate so um in order to not stand inside of hesitation and do nothing the the you know my recommendation and which I supported um uh Dr or Dr I just elevated you do Mr Kia's recommendation is to if we do the ad hoc we can do the like work in the process of having dialogues to get a sense of the of what what is possible and what what is possible right because our first blush was nobody does this this this okay well that doesn't mean we so um more work needs to be done to pursue what's I I do also just want to say one of the real drivers for me personally on on moving forward with this committee is is pushing our Administration to Lobby our state legislators um because as we've seen there are other districts that are also you know from affluent towns that are able to work with their um elected in in the legislature to get additional money and you know we just spend what an hour talking about the potential Cuts we're going to have to make and you know there are line items annually in the state budget that come out in June that are in the tune to 250 to $750,000 that goes to individual districts for Capital Improvements for extracurricular activities for students so it's just another Avenue for us to explore potential sharing additional revenue and the whole notion of lobbying is is I mean that's empowering ourselves and possibly our Su um uh good for you Mike I mean is is there any sense of of any other districts that are involved in this I mean it'd be nice to have compatriots you know we don't we don't know that so far initial be says yeah so far initial conversation is probably not probably not but but things are happening so we'll we'll figure it out we'll figure out our version does lot we do petition and and and work with our our government but we do it through our our associations like as a superintendent we had all of the folks coming to our meetings and roundtables we go to their meetings they have you know all of us have done that so we do it also but it wouldn't heard it's just more voices I think would be very um and I find that board members and parent voices are louder than ours so that does help anything else all right just wanted to Quick are we voting on this getting ready okay so I just wanted to quickly note that I'm going to be abstaining on this but I want folks to understand why because this has nothing to do with how valuable I think this is um but I think some of the language in here is around advocating to um state government leaders for State funding um and as folks might know I'm in a state government position uh in an agency that provides services and uh resources to public school districts so our legal council has advised me not to participate in this um because there's a potential conflict of interest so you're really refusing yourself from the vote rather than I'm mistake either is fine she will or go okay with that uh we're going to go ahead and um I'm going to request a first and second to and to move um that the resolution be passed motion okay uh Dr Litton abstain Mr Peters strong yes Dr Nick yep Mr slotman Dr Wilson yes uh Mr Kia yes and Miss Williams gallion yes motion carries excellent thank you guys um with that we're going to move into our second and final public comment um and the members of the public are invited to address the board on any matter for a maximum of 3 minutes during this portion of the meeting you are asked to state your name address and municipality in and in response to your comments the Board of Education May respond or direct as who pretended to do so the board may also opt to take the matter up at a future meeting so that the matter is researched by The District administration public comment is now open soia Costa 7 yell Drive Pennington New Jersey three minutes Never Enough um I accept your 5756 ruling I'm just trying to clarify what I requested in September sociologist explained that the trend to change terminology relating to the word sex male and female began about 10 years ago Society now expects to be insulated from emotional discomfort and offense for example the term larger body replaced plus size which replaced overweight Jonathan height calls this safetyism for most of the 20th century the word safety meant physical safety like the use of seat belts or smoke alarms but now safety means emotional safety we should not have to experience negative emotions from the term biological sex because it offends us using euphemism softens to what some students might seem like an unkind biological reality we're told that we need to learn to be comfortable with words like chest feeders and uterus holders or birthing bodies um is as a proper way to define a female by my body part Parts men do you call your wives and your daughters that at home defending human rights is praiseworthy but this strategy is misguided protecting people from discrimination and harassment does not require pretending that sex is merely assigned or that understanding of sex needs to be deconstructed the categories male and female matter for health for safety for social policy terminology should be as clear as possible because a shared language is the starting point for Mutual understanding and Democratic deliberation imagine the fiscal confusion if Mr Cavo was told there is no straight read of terms like debit or journal entry or a crude interest it's never Justified to misrepresent the facts in the service of a social or political cause when medical organizations distort the scien ific facts it undermines not only their credibility but that of Science in general how can the public be expected to trust their declarations on other controversial issues we saw that with Co has this board considered that your agreement with this Distortion of facts could undermine your credibility and your trustworthiness on other issues things like referendums like demographic projections like the impact of pilot deals on taxpayers or the curriculum that's taught in our comprehensive sex education classes going back and forth in my head about whether to say anything um about the budget cuts that we will all talk about in the coming months um I don't want to put anything on your radar I just ask you to state your name sorry I'm sorry Su Pinsky um I live in hille Township thank you um one of the things that was up in the last couple years when we talked about Cuts was teaming at the middle school and before I had a middle school I didn't really know what teaming was can you pull the mic towards you s these new mics not working for me there you go I'm in picking you up um I I encourage uh folks who don't have a middle schooler or who don't think about Middle School to look into what teaming means um the the concept uh everybody understands what happens in our small elementary schools where your kids have a a small building and a small and a a small class and teachers who know them um many many parents Express fears about the big scary middle school and that transition for their kids when it comes time um but uh timberlan is not a big scary Middle School timberlan is a place where really really concerted efforts have been made to break down groups of 300 kids the the grade of 300 kids into really thoughtful units where there are teachers that know them all well so I will do a poorer job explaining this um than folks who know it better than me but your child is assigned to a team and that team has the four core teachers um language arts history science and math and those whatever cohort of kids are on that team are known by the same four teachers so your kid may not be known well by the history teacher but if they're known well by the language arts teacher those four teachers sit down frequently and talk about who's who's on who's not on somebody's radar who doesn't look good who who are we watching who needs help um and in a building with 300 kids in a class that's a really big service and for all you parents who say I'm worried about going to the big scary middle school and I'm worried that no one will have eyes on my kid and I'm worried about my kid being on a bus with high schoolers this is the thing that makes it not that um and I've watched it with both my kiddos and I as I said I hesitate to put this on your radar because I know you're making your list of things that you're going to um think about but I hope parents will spend the next month or two learning about how that makes it a very different building and a very different experience folks know I'm passionate about digital wellness and Tech issues um the Middle School SCH is thinking hard about this and it's it's things like teaming that allow you to to break this down we're talking about mental mental health for our kids we're talking about the things that put them at risk and having adults in that building who know you're slowly developing becoming more independent kiddos is what keeps them safer so please um folks out there not a lot of folks in the room think hard about um protecting teaming at the middle school I hope this group will do that thank you yes um again thank you for clarifying your position and I know that that we'll be having more discussions in the future about it so I appreciate that um Dr Pinsky um I also value teaming and I know the importance of teaming at the middle school it does create that small school within a school environment um where teachers are are able to collaborate within conton areas and also they have the most uh um sustainable amount of of professional development time to talk with each other across content areas and within the content because of the teaming structure um however it is expensive it is a priority for me to try to keep it as long as we can because I was in a district the district before I came here where that was one of the first things on the chopping blocks and it it increased the number of discipline problems in the school it really changed the climate of the Middle School it really just it devastated the program um and that's the first place they went so that is not certainly the first place I'm going um if I could help it um but it is costly so we're going to have to figure out where other places we can and um I'm going to try to preserve it as long as I can any questions or comments from the board on okay seeing none public comments now closed and uh we are going to go ahead and move into executive session where we'll we will be talking uh about Hib matters as well as two Personnel matters and a individual student matter uh there will be no uh actions taken so thank you all have a wonderful winter break oh student oh okay I understand there is a student action that will be taken thank you have a safe safe winter break thank just joking