welcome to a meeting of The Hunton Central Regional High School Board of Education please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided meeting notice was also posted in the boardroom of the upper school campus sent to The Courier News Star Ledger Express Times And The Hunton County Democrat and sent to the clerks of Delaware Township East Amell Township flomington burrow ritton Township and Readington Township the public will have an opportunity to be held as shown on the agenda M Spitzer if I could have a roll call please Mrs blutfield here Mrs dougen here Mr Fowler here miss gong here Mrs Kellogg here Mrs odonnell here Mrs Peterson here Mr Rymer and Mrs S Angelo here thank you if we can all stand for a flag salute to the flag of the United States of America to the for it stands Nation God indivisible andice for all thank you all Miss dougen would you mind to read our district mission statement tonight hun Central is an Innovative emotional educational Community dedicated to the intellectual social and emotional safety and growth of all students while fostering curiosity and promoting Wellness we aspire to create powerful learning experiences establish strong Partnerships and serve as contributing members of society thank you next we'll move on to approval of meeting minutes we have U minutes provided as of the March 18th meeting have there been any changes anybody has submitted before we move this seeing nothing then um I'll move it could I have a second please second any conversations hearing none roll call Mrs blutfield yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellog yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you so much next will be approval of minutes for our March 22nd 26th meeting my apologies 2024 um I'll move it is there a second second any commentary any questions any feedback hearing none roll call to approve these Mrs blutfield yes Mrs dougen yes yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rhymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you next we'll move to correspondents received I see that there were two correspondents that were received and made uh public one of them does have outstanding questions to a number of members of the board I can say those questions are still being worked on we're working to get them answered and back to um that person as quick as possible next I'd like to hand the mic over to and welcome Dr Shadow Hunton Central um before I officially hand it over I just want to say welcome looking forward to collaborating with you I think the whole board is um we've already had a very nice interaction so far with all the Committees um so we we look forward to striving to to to build on Dr Moore success at at your leadership and continue to move us forward for inclusion diversity safety for all of our students and uh to that end I'd like to to congratulate you and the entire Hunton Central Community on being number four High School in New Jersey number two non-specialized and in the top 5% of uh the nation that is definitely noteworthy I'm sure it was already in your summary so I'm sorry if I stole your thunder at all um but hey you know it's something that everybody at Central has to bring every single day to get to those numbers so absolutely congratul ations ma is yours yes I would like to uh review the Hib summary so far uh from February to April we had seven reported incidents none were identified as hibs and in terms of suspension summary in April we had 18 in school suspensions nine out of school suspensions and uh that pretty much wraps up the suspensions I would like to um comment on a couple other significant events Hunton Central's unified basketball team won the state championship last month congratulations team and coach Rich minio and again Hunton Central is ranked number 14 in the state of New Jersey by US News and World Report there are literally hundreds and hundreds of high schools in this state and we're number two in terms of high schools that don't selectively U admit students number two that that's an incredible achievement and I would like to join our Board of Education in congratulating our students parents faculty members Administration our board of education for being a part of of this achievement you're very much a part of this achievement and uh we need we need to celebrate this as much as we can our Hunton Central robotics team performed well in Houston Texas at the world robotics Championship congratulations to our team coach William broka parents and volunteers who contributed to the success of our team we ranked number 27 out of the 75 teams in our division we uh part participated against teams from Israel turkey Mexico Australia across the United States and Canada and finally I'd like to talk a little bit about the junior junior prom it was a success our students were praised by the employees at the fuge and representatives of hun prevention resources who assisted at the prom so thank you Ed do you want to talk a little bit about Relay for Life or make a comment or thank thank you Dr Shadow and thank you all too for um recognizing a pretty darn good accomplishment there number 14 in the state and some of you back here know how competitive I am I don't I don't like being number two just saying um but all seriousness robotics for example Relay for Life the prom there were just a few of if you don't mind me listening a couple other quick ones too just from the last couple weeks you know as you know the robotics team in a quick Whirlwind qualified very quickly to be invited to that um basically World competition there in Houston and thank you again for all of your support with that um the uh the prom was excellent over 400 students came and again it was fantastic and it was it was very nice to get um the aides we received were in a way by accident there were people who went thereafter and heard people who worked there saying how wonderful our kids were um so that's pretty much one of those great kind of like a hidden great compliments um to get our our thespian troop 3035 um competed over at the Bucks County Playhouse and uh of the four best actor awards at that whole event two of them or students um our investing Club our investing Club five of our students placed in the top 50 out of 2500 students in New Jersey in the National Stock Market competition um our indoor Color Guard who if you recall is going um for a weekend soon in the state competition just finished first place in their weekend competition uh the National Honors Society we had over uh 100 juniors inducted to the National Honor Society just this past week um and again a great model for us our model un uh sent nine students to New York City over the weekend they got the tour the the UN itself which was fantastic and they competed if you would as five teams and three other five teams um were recognized with Awards this past Friday night uh we had uh close to 100 students out here with Relay for Life um from 5 to 10 M uh wonderful event bringing awareness and raising funds to help against cancer and then also last week we had uh two girls relay teams and one boy teams uh representing huter and Central down at the pen relays in Philadelphia which uh is on my bucket list of being a principal to be able to go and cheer them on maybe next year I'm put in for that but again not a b of two weeks and I know and this isn't a comprehensive list um thanks for the time there apprciate thank you Mr Brett Mr Cole are you [Applause] ready good evening um I'm here to present to you our math department so last month you recall that we paused our department presentations very proud to kick it back off and kick it back off with our math department um I think it's a testament to being number 14 in the state I really want to say number two but I know can't do that but also number 258 in the United States which is pretty amazing as well so I will kick it over to Mr Cole and he will present to you our math department you'll learn more about some of our teachers the projects they're doing and best of all you'll get to hear from our students as well good evening we have a wonderful cast it's with great pride and pleasure that I present to you this evening on behalf of hunon central mathematics Department my name is Bob Cole I stand before you with two decades of service to the district serving The Last 5 Years as supervisor of mathematics my Roots Run Deep as I'm a graduate of 100 Central a parent of two Central grads and I've lived here locally all my life for the benefit of new board members my background includes a degree in industrial engineering from Lehi University a master's in educational technology from NJCU and through the New Jersey Excel program I've completed coursework leading to uh CS in as supervisor principal and school administrator I am passionate about our I am passionate about our school and I truly believe as you'll see here tonight it's the people that make 100 Central great our faculty staff and students I'm joined this evening by several colleagues and many engaged students together we hope to share a lens into what makes us tick with our time tonight we'll be presenting Department highlights and student spotlights I'll provide an overview of our department and then turn the mic over to our enthusiastic students and their supportive teachers as we shine a spotlight on some of their classwork we strive to align our department goals with the four Central initiatives of Wellness powerful learning equity and service this helps to ensure a direct linkage from our district names to our math classrooms so from an organizational point of view what we say is what we do our department goals include building and fostering strong relationships using available tools and techniques to support and personalize student learning using data and reflecting on our practice in order to determine what's working best and creating a culture of belonging by providing not only access but confidence in the belief that anyone indeed everyone can be successful in math we are engaged we engage students with Adaptive Technologies and embed gameplay and purposeful activities into the classroom environment reach research says this is a key practice in reaching this next generation of students here we are teaching calculus yes even integral calculus within a context of a gain I specifically want to thank you for supporting our use of a program called EXL we partnered with this company in the year following covid and it's been exciting to see this company continue to expand expand product capacities including offering increased data dashboards for teachers and skill sets for students including test prep and review we seek to create inviting classrooms with faculty who are known to students as teachers but also as coaches and advisers outside of the classroom we like to have fun with our students and post silly math puns for Valentine's and create opportunities with participation in various initiatives including hour of code New Jersey stem month Pi Day and our long-standing tradition of hosting the American math competition which is among the most prestigious math contest of its kind we are increasingly aware of students social emotional needs and the increased benefits of building Transitions and breaks into our classroom routines in order to maximize attention and engagement we often organize students into groups sometimes visit random sometimes by ability including mixed ability collaboration sharing ideas speaking and writing using the language of math and using the multiple forms of math tables equations graphs is commonplace we seek to build not just independent thinkers but interdependent thinkers recognizing that students will work in groups and will need to Leverage The expertise and insight of others powerful learning can be a highly social activity in these designed experiences students are working in groups while standing at the Whiteboard and moving from Station to Station the teacher is among the students in close proximity listening and looking for evidence of learning and providing immediate feedback we use classroom technology to Overlay parallel lines on an Oreo cookie and create stimulating context which serves the as the basis for exploring geometric principles for interior and exterior angles students gather around to watch their teacher demonstrate rotational transformation using tracing paper as we physically move the shape from Quadrant to quadrant before codifying this into a postulate or a rule our classrooms feature movement and interaction between students as teachers provide feedback in real time lately we've been exploring research that points to the use of non-permanent work surfaces with vertical orientations so work in progress remains on display student thinking is made visible in the classroom setting here we are graphing polinomial solving equations working with scale factors and learning to code arrays and use looping structures in 2023 24 this school year we added course work including cyber security 2 as part of our continued buildout of a compelling competitive computer science program including an academy transcript endorsement we also made structural changes to our Algebra 1 pathway where students are now offered two parts of algebra algebra 1 a and 1B in just one school year regardless of where students start our ambitious goal is to have students complete Algebra 1 by the end of 9th grade our department work has also included data Dives within core curricular teams book studies and review of existing academic support mechanisms within the broader framework of mtss multi-tiered systems of support we've arrived at the most important part of the evening where students will showcase coursework and accomplishments using their words not mine these projects were selected not on the intricacy of the math or the rigor of the coursework but rather based on the engagement of student learning common themes found in these projects include helping students to understand the world and universe around them through the lens of mathematical behaviors use the Precision of math in a creative context to build three-dimensional objects from 2D scale drawings and use math in multiple forms and gain exposure to the design process and math that fuels Innovation it is a testament to our teachers and students that we had overwhelming student demand to attend and present to you take it away students and staff good evening everyone I'm Dr Amanda Panico and tonight I'm joined with my students Olivia Ki and Olivia or sorry Olivia Ki and Emily renov um to to present about Algebra 2 we did a projectile motion lab um which falls in our quadratics or quadratics unit to show applications of quadratics in real life using something as simple as a ball to show how we might throw something and what that's modeled by students worked in groups of three or four to accomplish this task before accomplishing it we watched some background videos just to get an idea of what we were actually working with and then students broke themselves up into different roles within their groups chose their projectile and then went off into either their drop task or their catch task so Emily is going to present the drop do um okay so before we started the project Dr Panico showed put us two videos about projecti motion and velocity and because we're only Juniors this really helped us like get a better understanding of um like the physics background of it um and also before we started the project um we were uh like within our groups we were assigned roles so like for example there was a launcher a catcher a timer and a recorder um and I was the launcher for my group meaning that I kind of like demonstrated what we were doing um so before I actually dropped the ball um we measured the height of my hand which was 5 ft and then the initial velocity was Zero because I wasn't like spiking the ball I just dropped it and then we plugged in these numbers to the first equation right here to get like our theoretical time that we would have gone if it was a perfect world um so when I dropped the ball I just dropped it like this and our timer in our group um started the timer when I dropped the ball and stopped it when the ball hit the ground and we got 1.1 seconds and two main factors that could have affected um the difference within the two times is the reflex of the person that was timing it so it's not going to be perfect when they start and stop the timer and another factor is the air resistance which could have also had a small effect on the time difference hello I'm Olivia and I'll be explaining the catch task which was to create a model of the parabolic path path so I was the launcher for my group so they took my initial height of 5 foot and they also used a stopwatch to get the time in Flight which was 1.05 seconds this was all to measure the parabolic path so 1.05 seconds was the x intercept as well as zero because that is when we caught and through the ball just like this so0 53 seconds was the Free Fall because that's half of our parabolic path which was the x value and then we Ed that x value and the freef fall height which the was the y y value to get the vert Tex and then we use that vertex form quadratic to find standard form formula this led us to the model we used in class which is right here and it also was given to us in meters because we needed to use that for our test then we were able to identify the initial velocity and the initial height the equation gave initial height of zero but it was my height of 5 foot because that's where I was the acceleration due to gravity made the general formula and my formula very similar right here it says -16 and my my measurement was -6.02 which is slightly imperfect it showed the real world numbers the whole activity really helped me put things into perspective I even said to Dr Dr panaco at the start of class that I had never done math in real life so it helped me visualize what I was doing on paper thank you and next up we'll have Mrs Krauss with discreet math [Applause] hello I'm Jamie Krauss and with me is my student Dylan Gail and one of the courses that I teach is discret math and one of the projects that I do in that class is a NASA technology project so for an overview of the project I have students choose their top three choices of technology that NASA used in their Apollo program and some of the different things that I have up here are digital image processor solar panels there are moon boots uh there's a quartz rock clock so there are a plethora of different pieces of technology that they can choose from and then I create groups of three to four students based on their preferences and this way we have some mixed groupings and also someone might you might be friends with someone but you have different preferences you don't need to be grouped in the same on the same project and each group focuses on a single piece of technology they Lear learn and discuss its history advancement the math and science and then they create a hybrid model that includes both old and new pieces from it and then they explain how the research relates to what they have previous learned in any math or science class so it's a huge integration of Concepts from math science technology engineering history and yes language arts because I make them do research and site properly so Dylan's going to talk about his work on the project which was the digital image processor hello uh my name is Doan Gale I've worked on the digital image processor it's on the correct side uh the first step was obvious to research the project and learn about how it works uh some of the U major parts I was in charge of researching where the uh star trackers which is back here uh which allows us to uh position the imager to look at the correct objects and take uh images of what we want to take images of and the um data collection uh tubes here which uh taken the waves that we're taking uh images of uh filters out the uh wavelengths that we don't want to have any like large amounts of light or radiation that's not going to skew our data and then stores the data within the processor um but the math part that I focused on which was the biggest part I focused on uh was how we once we get the data and make an image how do we correct it because when you have an image it's going to get a vignette around the outside which is the dark ring and that's going to leave out a lot of data that you want to have and so you want to figure out a way to correct this and the solution they found back then was to uh take the lens and measure how much how much it darkens the outside of the ring and offset the data by that amount which you can see on the bottom left here uh that's the result the top left is the original image that's what it should look like um the middle is the vignette that we're offsetting by and then the bottom left is how what the image looks like after uh you you'll see around the edges that it turns very white that's because when uh you have dark colors and they are darkened it's very hard to collect the data back again uh so the uh solution they found was to just um leave the dark areas dark and that uh changed it from about a uh 30 a 30% error to about 20% error from the original image which is a big difference in the numbers and then finally uh what I got out of this project was uh it uh relates to a lot of my personal Hobbies with a 3D uh 3D modeling and rendering uh through blender um so having this knowledge of how imag are taken and how uh things can react to Glass and how to work with these numbers uh severely you know changed my understanding of it and it helped me learn to use research in my daily life and more specifically I worked on a project where I made a simulated camera within this program and I came across the same exact problem and this project showed me exactly how to fix it uh so it applies to things that aren't NASA and no I was able to use in my real life um thank you very much thank you and up next we've got large group for Algebra 1 okay guys you all set yes hi everybody um I'm Courtney Loro um This Is Karly to and Denise Saina we are the um teachers that worked with our Algebra 1 Crew back here we'll introduce them in a second um actually they're going to tell you a lot about the project we're not going to do a rundown on it because they're the ones that did it um they basically got a cool keychain at the end of this so they put their maths skills into our 3D printer here and they got something at the end of it which they'll tell you the process of um my crew is Angela Weaver um Brooklyn Hopkins Mir mcferson and Sam Gavin and my students are Nick Vasquez Trevor Wallace and Kobe townend did you do explain like what we did do what explain what you did and then you just C through so we we did our project right before winter break and we just used linear equations to make different shapes some of us made like houses or like our initials it was really fun just like picking what we want what we wanted to do and everyone like got really complicated with it though because we had to make like six lines that were like horizontal or vertical and then six lines that were linear so we couldn't just make like a square it made it more complicated and a lot harder to do but we all had a lot of fun with it and we ended up printing them out afterwards and some of them worked and some of them didn't all right they're going to go through this um just so you know so getting started who who do our sketch our sketch guy okay okay my name is kobby townend and this was our getting starter process we had to like design what we wanted to have so some of us made like she said our initials or some other stuff and you had the the line like letter and you had to make it like like the point and the slope so like where they meet on the graph here like there was a point here you could obviously mark it like five or like five and like one and that would be one of your points and then it would go in that graph on the right and then that would be how you would graph it and then this was the design sketches so we all my class did it in the bubble over over there and uh I had fun with this because I got to design what I wanted to design but also maintaining the C that we had to have and I don't have mine with me but I made a a Santa hat because it was around Christmas time hi my name is Sam Gavin so after we did our sketches of the project we went straighten to Desmos which we used to uh graph the project which we would later use that graph to print it we used several different type of equations being uh linear equations we did ones for horizontal lines uh vertical lines which you know it got confusing at times but uh it's a lot of numbers but eventually you work it through and uh I actually spent a lot of time in this part of the project my perfectionism getting the better of me and I was but I was able to persevere through any confusion I had and so was everyone else and we were able to get through the desmo section of the project my name is Angela Weevil and I'll be talking about the 2D design to the 3D design this is one of the keychains that we made this is mine I made a a because it starts with my name name um we did it to these um Desmos and then we T it into Tinker CAD we put it in and it was easy to put it in because you kind of had stepbystep um instructions to put it in we had to make it bigger so then it would actually be a size of a keychain we had to make one hole for the keychain to have it looped in into for Chromebooks and whatever you were holding it into and yeah that's everything hi I'm Brooklyn Hopkins and in my class everyone really enjoyed the transformation process from the Desmos to the Tinker cat uh we didn't really have any troubles with it at all it was very straightforward and easy um it was really cool to see the keychain from 2D to 3D and to see that we actually used like math equations and can make something physical out of it um then from tinkercad we moved it to a Google file where we were able to pick a selection of colors and what colors we wanted ours to be it was really to our selection and I thought this project was really cool cuz it was just about what you wanted it to be but also including what you were learning um I'm Nick Vasquez um I played three Sports at Hunter Central and I created uh this keychain of number 11 um the reason why I made this keychain is cuz in two of the sports I play I wear number 11 so um my reasoning to make it was I guess to represent myself on my backpack CU I keep it on my backpack so I guess to represent myself through the day and represent my number and yeah all right uh I'm Trevor Wallace unfortunately I forgot to bring my keychain but I'm a I'm like a big Duke basketball fan so I made the Duke logo uh with this project that we did um and I just thought it was cool because I could like like Nick said I have it on my backpack um and like it was just cool cuz at first I didn't think it was going to work because like some lines looked off but then I went into Desmos I was able to figure it out and uh yeah that's it [Applause] Sor let's see uh before we wrap up I was hoping to give a round of applause to all of our presentation participants this evening clearly their Learning Journey is enriched by their participation here and I commend their schoolastic efforts I'll conclude the presentation by sharing a quick look at what's on the horizon for HC math uh even as the school year is particularly busy in Spring and excitement of graduation builds we're looking ahead to our summer course offerings which offer pathway acceleration to students making curriculum revisions including the embedding of newly released New Jersey math standards ahead of an upcoming CC review cycle uh we also continue to monitor developments from college board regarding AP and preap math curriculums we're adjusting to shifts in the New Jersey testing landscape including a new test vendor and implementing uh academic support within the broader context of mtss uh thank you again for your time and your continued support [Applause] try it again questions I had a couple questions first I just wanted to say I really enjoyed the presentations so thank you for that and to all the students um I was just curious with regard to the highlights um examining the student data do we know and have that data and would we be able to see those results Mo most of the data that we look at are linkit uh results uh so we give uh linkit test um three times a year we call it form a b and c um generally the test Remains the Same um but the curriculum progresses so we kind of measure progress through the curriculum and um what we do is set aside time uh to to look at those results in uh curricular teams um we've had linkit for about three years now um first year I don't think we started with form a but but we did have B and C data so we're starting to develop um a data warehouse uh this data is important we can look at it and reflect um you know from from past classes comparison but um generally we ask teachers to look at who's in their class and how are they progressing um and the using the form a b and c from this particular company um is uh they use test questions from a a data bank that would be uh connected to the njsla and the NJ GPA so rather than using our own midterms or finals which we're tempted to do because there's a level of customization that we would we we think would would benefit us um at this point we've stuck with their program because there's a predictive uh capacity um to to working with the form a b and c um and one of the things that we've gotten better at over the course of time is to um impress upon the students the need to put their best foot forward as they're taking this diagnostic because we we really want to use this um and find students who may need support early uh and that would guide us towards offering support say for junior year and the NJ GPA which is which is the the threshold that's that's the water test for a graduation math testing requirement which which mathematics has that was a long answer I'm sorry I appreciate it thank you and then my other question was just with regards to adjusting with the New Jersey testing landscape what were some of those adjustments yeah so um the NJ GPA is a relatively new test um and um that test when it was first offered two years ago um Ela scores went up Statewide and math scores unfortunately went down Statewide um I like the principal of the school is very competitive so I want to find 100 Central at the top of every list um but uh we we did notice that there was a decrease and we're we're trying to understand uh through um through looking at questions to see what what it was that that may have made that go down um but also that cut to the new test occurred just as we're coming out of covid as well so um there's some data that that that suggests that that math has fallen a little bit behind and and and learning loss was maybe more for math than for English um but I will say that we're on a a great trajectory and and we're covering very nicely do you think do you think that's mostly attributed to the algebra SC scores mostly that drag down the average um yes it can be and it also has to uh do with you know who who's taking Algebra 1 and who you know like like we we have a lot of students that are in algebra one that's that's kind of our largest pool of test takers um in other cases uh you know like you know if you look at some of our subsets our geometry is through the roof um but so I'm particularly focused on Algebra 1 just because I feel like that's our greatest uh chance for that's our greatest opportunity for helping to improve and do the most benefit okay and so you think so you mentioned the added C cours workk right related to the algebra is that part of that it will be um those students will now take that um well that's I'm mixing something up uh the NJ GPA is only for juniors it's the njla that we'll have more test takers of as well um for Algebra 1 uh njsla is taken by ninth graders and further adjustments to the testing landscape um successful performance on that test in nth grade would have qualified a student to have met the testing requirement the state took that away now the only primary requirement is the NJ GPA so they've overemphasized a brand new test for us and they've taken away some of the levers that would have otherwise allowed students to be successful in meeting their math graduation requirements and those are adjustments that we're making but they're they're seen clearly by us and we're we're just trying to navigate through um and then I mentioned in the presentation that the vendor for the NJ GPA is changing so I'm not sure what that means for next march um but we try to stay in tune and and uh connect with a larger math supervisor groups um in order to be aware and our curricular and instruction team uh continues to to monitor that as well yeah and that would be for ELA as well okay yeah thank you very much yes you're very welcome I have a quick I could just just um add I thank you so much again for your presentation and um as as I remember from last year I'm I'm just wholly impressed by how your department navigates um really striving towards the the marks that you want to hit the opportunities you want to provide for students while still working with um perhaps the challenges of sending districts and and working with students who may have been for lack of better language sorted or leveled in to places where maybe they don't get to act on their full potential or ability and I feel like you've given folks an opport students an opportunity to overcome that hurdle here so I really and when you talk about um mixed stability classes um that I think really speaks to that so um thank you so much thank you very much I just have a quick question um thank you all for the great presentation and I see so much good like technology and vertical stuff do the kids the students still get good old paper and pencil take it home and do a packet of work for homework I mean it seems like I know during Co during the virtual learning that was a real challenge for math particularly because you couldn't send H work and get it back so are they kind of back to getting some of that yes that too and and there we we try to strike an important balance between um practice through repetition but also um uh knowledge gaining knowledge through experience when students talk about linear equations in Desmos um a worksheet that focuses on y equal MX plus b it is not going to make that experience as deep as as what you just heard you know when a student creates their jersey number and they wear that around on their backpack that's powerful and I'd suggest that there's there's probably some deep learning that's occurred there as well but yes tests and quizzes uh we we do use paper and um that that's that's something that's also strategically important to students we recognize that I just had one more question I'm sorry um regarding the New Jersey math standards just what are some of the main changes would you say um the really many of the changes are um for uh high school so they're in 8th grade and um the changes are uh over what defines algebra one so a little bit more clarity with um for instance square roots um you know or or let me just say radicals in general so I don't mean to get into the weeds but um you know are we talking about square roots are we talking about cube roots are we working with an index other than two and the standard just continue to like spill that out a little bit more um and that eighth grade ninth grade seam becomes important to us and it was mentioned but we do have a healthy articulation process with our sending districts and so you know we share information back and forth and um you know I've already gotten some emails about you know what what what are you doing for the standards what what what does that look like as it as you embed this in your curriculum guide are there where are those tweaks and they're uh they're they're they're indicated with little leaves and right now they're optional but uh the state of New Jersey also adopted uh climate change standards and so I could see down the road where those would also need to be embedded in in in some capacity so um and with regard to that though are those optional they are uh yes other questions all right budget next thank you very much thank you [Applause] support okay is it control K window there it is there's my baby oh but you know what start we're close we're close but we need hold on that's not what we need we need to come back over here where'd it go hold on it's okay I need to change it must default to extend that's a good thing so when I go back to my desk I can work yeah okay is this the right one yes okay thank you should at risk of not being able to do this slideshow successfully I will just read from what I have available to me sorry so tonight we're going to review the um yeah please I'll got it there you go thank you yes so tonight is the official public hearing um for our 2425 school um budget if you remember last month I did an in-depth dive of basically how we build our budget and what our numbers are this year um we've been very successful in many ways and I will touch on each of those things again um this evening so as a quick overview I have if you were here last week I I promise I did remove a few slides um so I don't bore you completely to death um and this doesn't look like it's the right presentation so it's okay I'm going to use it um so what is a budget I'm going to skip the ones I promise the revised one um actually does include our interim superintendent Dr shadow um what is a budget this is basically our Tool uh to run the district it it delivers the financial plan um and to maintain the uh District's facilities mandated and non-mandated programs and to provide students with a thorough and efficient education our process in the budgeting uh role begins actually in November the year before the budget actually is implemented which is really kind of curious when you consider we're doing a budget from July 1st uh through 6:30 of each year we actually start to project and budget in November uh the year before so if you can imagine it's it's quite an extensive process uh we start with sending out um Financial records to each of the the the district's um uh supervisors they're able to take a look at where they think they're going to be each year based on enrollment based on needs of classroom we start to pull all of those things together um and at the end of the day we end up here hopefully in uh the end of April sometime and we get a finalized tenative budget um and supporting documentations that then go off to the county office um as a final budget and to the Department of Education Hunton Central just like every uh School District in the state of New Jersey has faced several challenges um we we've we've faced challenges but we've also had many successes and um we we um have been able to to do this in a in a a tight manner because we pay attention to what goes on dayto day um some of our challenges some of these things I'll I'll I'll go over briefly and there will be a few slides that I'll get into a little bit deeper so just like everyone else in the state of New Jersey we have been experiencing state aid Cuts over the last seven years that have been quite substantial we also are experiencing declining enrollment um we have had some staff vacancies which have been challenges in filling but also we've been able to um experiencing experience some successes with that as well because some positions we were able to absorb through attrition which helps with the declining enrollment we also have um several of with there there are several programs that are operated at The Hunton County Polytech you'll hear us talk aboutmy which are full day programs where our students actually go to um other campuses for the full day of Education um and then we also have shared time uh programs where our students are here for their Reading Writing and arithmetic and I apologize if those aren't the official terms um and they may go to the Polytech for early child child care education or they might go for auto shop or they might go for nursing so they're getting their main education here but we're we're we're taking them across across the street and they're getting the other half of their education there that's what we called shared time enrollment and I'll get into a little bit more detail of how each of those hurts and helps us as a district from a state aid perspective our utility costs I apologize our utility costs continue to increase year-over-year over the last two years we've gone up almost six uh 26% Property and Casualty Insurance um is projected to go up another 15% this year um compared to last year cyber insurance is up another 30% I think we all experience that um we've been challenged to get that underwritten uh we have been successful in doing so but it is at at a pretty uh Hefty cost Transportation Route costs are projected to increase year-over-year uh for lots of reasons you all heard that we have been continually struggling to get bus drivers not justun Central but I think the state of New Jersey some of that is due to the requirements and the standards that they need to meet in order to be able to drive buses um contracted routes the bids have gone up exponentially a lot of that is because there's no competition so when you only have one or two vendors that service your area what happens is they're able to really charge whatever they want so we work really hard to try to get a comp comptitive process but again we're kind of stuck with who's in our area and where they can tear them with other routes fuel costs of course like everybody's own gasoline is going up substantially and the cost of new buses if we can get them um we're we're ordering buses uh two and three years out so we just took receipt of three um buses that we ordered two years ago so what's interesting is we're able to get the chassis they're obviously no good without the engines we're waiting back backordered engines so we're getting there we're consistent were on a good replacement plan um however they are getting substantially uh more expensive uh other employee benefits as your employment costs go up obviously so to your unemployment pensions workers comp and disability insurances chapter 44 we'll talk about this is one of my favorite topics um we'll talk about that in more detail later on in the presentation and expiration of our Esser grants you've heard that we have received substantial amounts of money um we've had covid relief we've had what's called um Esser grants and they've um they've extended over several years the 23 24 budget which is the budget we're currently living in uh they expire so when you hear uh Mr Cole talk about ISL and some of the other assessment tools that we have available to us those programs were put into place as beta testing through the Esser grants and because they've been so successful we have absorbed them into our budget and we'll talk a little bit more about that as we go on but a few of those things are we now test at all grade levels for the PSA s we do we do have EXL and another uh assessment tool called the link it um that again is a a tool used for um the students to to measure where they are and how we can provide them with better supports and we also have a um talking points which is an additional translation program as our population continues to change and become more diverse we're finding that we need more translation Tools in different languages and this again these are just four examples of um monies that were paid out of previous year's Esser grants as they're expiring we then absorb them into this year's budget and I think that total was about $140,000 year-over-year so to speak a little bit more detail about how the state aid reductions have looked over the last several years I apologize this year we were really lucky you're hearing Tom's River us losing millions of dollars you're hearing this a lot all over the state of New Jersey we are very thankful in in in Hunton Central that we lost $31,000 year overy year um however over the last seven years we've had to absorb $1.13 million in state aid either by reducing cost or it gets passed to the taxpayer so that's where a lot of school districts are currently if you look it's it's almost a 20% decrease in state aid this is more detail in terms of what our enrollment numbers are looking like you can see as we we're continuing to decline but I'm going to kind of try to do this in coordination with two slides from here we talked a little bit about um our students that go to the Polytech we have students on a shared time basis if they go to the Polytech on a shared time basis since we're 100 in County school we get we get to count half of them in our in our enrollment count so that's why you see these numbers that are 05s that's just because we happen to have students at an odd number that are going to the the PO Tech shared time program we also have students that go to theems so they have a um a computer science program they have a an animal science program and the other few are escaping me but when they go to that program because they're 100 in County school we don't get to count them at all so what that means is they come out of these numbers so over the last let me see if I can SC scroll this properly over the last seven years we've gone from 29 students going full time so that was my reduction year-over-year if you will going to the Polytech that I was unable to count this year's budget it's 155 students so that's about 120 some students that makes my enrollment go down what does that mean we don't get funded for them so as we go to the hund as we go to the Assa and we start to look at the enrollment those numbers are coming out so if you see these slowly going down they're going down for other reasons but that's a big number if you start to look at the number of students that are going to the Polytech so our goals here are always to bring those students back in house as we continue to build programs and encourage them to stay at 100 Central for programs that are as good if not better than what they have to offered the Polytech but this is becoming more and more of a challenge and the reason it's a bigger issue from a financial perspective is not only do we pay tuition for those 155 students to go to Polytech and I think it's about $112,000 a little less than $122,000 a year per student I also have to transport them so a a bus I mean 155 kids if I can put them on a 54 54 passenger bus that's a little more than three buses right it's about three buses a bus is costing me about 100 Grand a year so I've got the tuition I've got the cost of the bus and I also have the reduction in my state aid that is really really difficult to explain and get your head wrapped around but that's substantial as well so we're kind of getting hit from many different directions just on these students alone so that's why this is kind of important to talk about yeah we're seeing declining enrollment there's a lot of reasons for that we are just overall seeing declining enrollments although we're really excited the elementaries are starting to see more kids so they'll eventually get here but this is something that we really have to work work on chapter 44 this is my favorite health benefits is very very difficult in any District anytime you have people this is a number that you can't control chapter 44 is a law that went into effect in Jan uh July 1st of 2020 and basically it was a negotiations between um the the teachers union and the government and basically they said um we used to live under what was called chapter 78 chapter 78 was a year a four-year program where it began to charge staff for contributions towards their medical benefits and it's subst it was a substantial amount of money going from zero to all of a sudden based on your salary on average it was probably about 20 to 25% of the cost of the premium so as the cost of the premium went up your cost of your contribution went up so that became more of a challenge because your your salaries weren't necessarily increasing at the same rate so this is a brilliant concept it's absolutely a brilliant concept what the thought was is what we'll do is we'll offer you a less robust plan theoretically it should cost less right less robust plan you don't have to contribute as much what we're going to do is we're going to tie the contribution at a much smaller rate to your salary instead of tying it to the cost of the uh benefit brilliant except the cost of the program did not come out less than what it would have been under chapter 78 they did offer a less robust program the cost of the premium on a family coverage is about $1,000 year however we get anywhere from on an average person we were probably getting 20% of the cost of the premium and now we're getting 2% of the cost of the salary so oh since this law has been implemented we've lost $240,000 now when I say lost it just means we've had to absorb it into our budget so our health benefit costs actually have gone up even though the state of New Jersey tells us this is going to work it hasn't it hasn't um this law is in effect for seven years so I think we have to live with it until 2027 I think we've got a couple more years and then they'll re-evaluate and they'll make it something different so those were the bad things how are we able to do it um even though we're absorbing chapter 44 we've been able to be very successful in where we have been with our health benefit cost increases year-over year and I do have a more detailed slide on that our out of District students this is just timing this is this is nothing that we're doing here or not doing here this is just timing of students as they go through through the and age out through the system we have 12 less students um going out of District next year because they've either successfully completed their program or they've graduated that is just it's just happened to be this year which which helped us in our budgeting process inflation in a situation like ours because we're well prepared with our our reserves what happens when we have inflation our interest rates go up we have a really good robust interest rates um revenues that we currently are pulling in that also too helps us stay underc cap we do this every year we're very tight with our budgets we pay attention to what's spent out of every budget my supervisors our administrators everybody takes a really close look look at this we take it seriously and we pay attention and we make sure we stay where we're supposed to every year another reason why we're able to come in underap and then of course the declining enrollment the declining enrollment as I as I said is it's a double whammy right it the declining enrollment is going down but as things start to to to to work out in the classroom as teachers retire or resign and go to other places some of those positions were able to absorb into our budget and not replace at this time so that's another way we were able to come in underap this year actually the last last two years this is just more detail as to to where we've been when we talked about um our health benefits as of 1121 we went to what was called the shift program which is a school health insurance fund it's the way the state of New Jersey program should work um it's a it's a pooled uh resource um they're they're um very selective in terms of who can get in I mean if you can imagine if you have automobile insurance if you have a lot of auto accidents what happens your insurance rates go up so they take um good uh programs uh with good experience rating if you will in our first year we were able to save $954,000 and since then over the last few years um in the year of 2022 our our rates went down 1.6% in 2023 we um I'm sorry we went up 1.4% in 2023 we went up 3.4% and this year we forecasted 7.8% those rates have not come in yet an average of 14 4.2% over the last four years that's excluding the 954 we saved right out of the box and if you could take a look at what the state health benefits plan has done is cumulatively they have increase 25% year-over-year and they're already projecting that they're in a bad PE place um and next year we'll also have double digits so I think overall we've done a really good job um marketing our plans taking a look to see what um competition is out there and working to keep our health benefits under control and this at this is at no risk to the employee what I mean by that is um contractually they are offered equal to or better so the if we switch plans or we do any of those things there are certain things that we have to maintain and it's always equal to our better benefits as I discussed earlier we are anticipating 12 additional students um that will not be going at a district next year so just naturally that's going to save some tuition re uh expenditures year-over-year our Revenue sources I'll go through these uh rather quickly um sadly school districts really don't have a lot of opportunity to generate Revenue we try to be as creative as we can but you know if you work in in industry and you make widgets you just make more widgets if you need more money hopefully you sell them right in the in New Jersey or in I'm sorry in school districts we don't have an opportunity to do that we have very limited um ability to to raise money um we do have a little bit of flexibility as I discussed in interest income but the bulk of our Revenue um 76 almost 77% comes from the tax levy so we're really mindful of that um however we don't have a lot of control because as you can see as our state aid goes down there's not really a lot of ways that we're able to um increase Revenue other than tax levy so we really are mindful um of what happens with our state aid we first look to see if we have anything on the expense side that we can eliminate or tighten before we go to tax levy and we've been very very successful in doing that over the last several years these are the specific things um the local tax levy as you can see is going up 1.03 so a little bit more than a million dollars that number is uh I think it's uh 1.75% um where our cap is 2% year-over-year other there are such things as interest income uh we do have a little bit of facility usage where we rent the space uh we have some rack uh utilities we do some shared services agreements so that's all included in here but the big number here um in terms of this uh the size of this number is actually interest income um state aid as you can see is down the there's the $31,000 and our federal aid is up 122 ,000 year-over-year this is a semi- program this is a Medicaid Program that we're required to do by law they give us this number and it's never right um Debt Service fund this District does not have any Debt Service we were successful in 2021 I believe to um paying off our our final um notes on our past projects and due to the the um ability of past administrations and business administrators we've really saved for a rainy day day so when we talk about capital projects we talk about maintenance projects those are all things that are planned in advance and we save the money in advance so we don't need to go back out to the taxpayers to save more money or to ask for more money it's all um sitting on our books this year we're doing um we're asking for projects of $7.6 million you'll see a slide of that um as we go into more detail so our total revenues and expenditures were um because we are a school and a not for Prof it's it's fund accounting so your de re uh revenues and expenditures have to equal um there's no profit or loss expenditures that are included in our general fund this is something that I call fund 11 regular instructional expenses special education instructional Support Services which include Library Counseling Services Health office curriculum supervisors and staff training administrative expenses which are the superintendent principal Human Resources business and information technology offices operations which is maintenance custodial grounds and security our transportation department then we have all of our benefits um and taxes equipment That's What I Call fund 12 those are any assets greater than $2,000 we have to book as a fixed asset and capital projects is also running through fund 12 and those are things that we budget to come out each year so this is kind of the makeup if you will of those categories and we're we're we're pretty we're pretty good with where we are we want to spend most of our money here here which is in instructional um benefits are those things that we're unable to control a lot of this is our health benefits which is driven up up substantially so this is the breakdown of each of those in each of those areas we're pretty we're pretty consistent year-over-year you see a big drop in capital uh projects BEC and that's just because we budgeted more projects last year than we did this year that's just an in and out of like almost a savings account it doesn't impact the the taxpayers um grant funding these are things um you'll hear me say fund 20 fund 20 are are um idea grants are um Esa grants which is what we used to call nclb these are monies that are given to us through the state of New Jersey either federal or state and this is down because by law I'm required to budget 85% of the prior year Lo um allotment so um at 85% if I get more I book more but I spend more so it's a complete wash as I get the money we spend book we get we're really cautious about making sure we spend all of our money you don't want to give that back the biggest piece of our educational expenditures in as in any district is people people um our employees salaries are 54% of our overall budget and the benefits are 23.6% for a total of 76 77.6% of our total budget has to do with people I know we're here to educate kids but we're also in the people business Reserve funds are things um our capital reserve and our maintenance Reserve Capital reserves are projects that are are saved for um that are part of our long-range facility plan this is roving HVAC Building Maintenance uh classroom uh Restorations things like that um these all have to be approved by the doe uh before we're able to withdraw from there maintenance reserves um you'll see actually um coming up I think on this on this agenda um we have some projects that are our maintenance reserve for example we have a climbing wall outside um that has is almost close to ready to to fail inspection which means we can't use it so we have to put money into it to maintain it that comes out of what we call maintenance Reserve because it's not forecasted in our budget but that's something that we're able to withdraw from maintenance Reserve pay for the project if there's anything left over we're able to put it back into the maintenance Reserve that's not something that can roll to the budget or can roll to fund uh fund balance neither one of these two can once they here they stay there forever unless we spend them so these are the projects that are budgeted in this um the 2425 budget and what's really exciting about these as you see 7 point 7.6 28 uh million dollars these are what we're called Rod grants the district I'm sorry the state of New Jersey came out with more Rod grants this year it's a regular operating District Grant I think the last time they did this was in 2010 and basically these are for certain classifications of um projects and it's based on Safety and Security and uh building envelope those types of things we go through a a grant process we have been approved for all of these and actually once we complete the project we will get up to 40% of the actual cost of this money back so the actual expenditure to the district is up to 40% less than this I have to show it this way because it's eligible costs and that's just the way the state of New Jersey tells me I have to show it but the good news we we applied for 12 I'm sorry we applied for 15 and we got 12 I am not very popular at the County office right now but I try to get all the money I can New Jersey state law mandates that the annual tax levy can increase no more than 2% this budget increases 1.75% the additional 2.25% goes in what's called banked cap for use in future years so if something happens in future years we're able to reserve that money and pull it into our budget without having any any any struggles with with the Department of Education last year we also did not budget to cap um I think we budgeted 1.8% um so right now at the conclusion of this budget we have $263,000 in Bank cap that we're able to use in a future year tax rate calculation because we're Regional and this is a little bit tricky remember I was talking about enrollment and all of those calcul ations that go into that the other piece of this is Equalization value and all property owners in in in the state of New Jersey struggle with this a little bit because our property values have exceeded so substantially over the last several years due to the market so as Equalization value goes up and enrollment goes down our state aid goes down so there's an entire calculation that we go through um to determine what these numbers are based on those numbers it determines a share because we're Regional we have five sending districts this calculation determines the share of the total that gets allocated to each sending district and then once we determine the share of the total tax levy then based on your ratables which is a whole another story that's given to us by each of your town clerks we then are able to calculate the tax rate so overall the tax rate I should read from here this is the calculation so here's your Equalization values your Elementary enrollment your Regional enrollment so these are the students that actually come to the high school and then it's you get a percentage and a p a share of the total Levy based on these numbers so for the current year we are projecting that Delaware townships um taxes are going up 10.93 $10.93 per 100,00 of assessed values but over the last three years or 1.92% but over the last three years it's gone 27 down $27.98 east Amil is going down $25.32 or 4.38% over the last 3 years it's gone down $130.00 flemington's going uh tax Change is Going they're going down $ 3541 or 7.72 for a total over the last three years of 77 down ritin is going up $28 um 12 a lot of that has to do with enrollment and Equalization values for a total of 4.43% or $17.73 over the last three years and Readington is going down $11.64 cents or 1.9% um in the current year so we by controlling our budget we've also been able to and not having to go out for Debt Service we've Al also been um successful in trying to keep these numbers down as well so at this point in our process we're here it's very exciting once we get um we get approval tonight this will go to the county office as a final motion I'll certify taxes through each of the clerks and we could put the budget hopefully to bed until I have to implement it and put it in the in the system to start to spend for next year any questions awesome thank you sorry one question sure um there was a concern raised at the meeting last month that our policies could put us in Jeopardy of losing um or the the fact that our policies are not completely up to date with um State definitions we are at risk of losing funding is is that a a concern that you you have in implementing this budget in implementing this budget no no I I I don't I don't I don't have enough detail about that um I know that there are some things that could cause us to be at risk um I I don't know of anything at this point I'm I'm pretty comfortable with what we have at the moment based on what we have available to us any other questions as always thank you Mrs piter I have no idea how to make it go away so you might just have to look at my baby I'm sorry thank you Jess all right so I think at this time we're going to open the platform for anybody that has a public comment on an item under motion on the agenda tonight anybody like to have a comment about anything on the agenda hearing none I will close public comment and we will move to organizational items so I know one has to do with some adjustment of dates of the school calendar Dr Shadow or Miss Spitzer I don't know if either of you have any commentary I I think that the uh the discussion surrounded around how late we're going to get out this year next year and uh the alternative was putting two days prior to Labor Day and having teachers staff members come back for pre-service and that was a a 5050 situation the other way you get out earlier is to start earlier and you start you know a week or two before um Labor day however I would never recommend doing that without educating the public as to what is coming because people make plans one and two and three years out and they're renting houses three days or or three uh three years in advance and if if you're going to think about moving back the school year which is a good idea by the way because really what you do is you get extra uh instructional days before the before those important tests come at the end of the year however you really have to educate the public and get the faculty on board with that so we decided we're going to leave it alone and um we did put another day in for um Calamity day or snow day because we don't want to be in the same situation we are this year that you never know with Jersey weather all right thank you Dr Shadow so that will be the revised 2425 school calendar and your Hib report as detailed earlier yes correct right is it we've talked about it so much in committee that it feels like we've been through it a couple of times but okay this is next year's calendar corre the original it's the first time you're so it's not real yet okay it usually happens on September okay sorry all right so can I have a motion to approve the originally presented school calendar for 20242 and uh Dr Shadows hi report and the second thank you any commentary on it Mr Spitzer roll call please Mrs blufeld yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you Mr ryr Student Life student life and programming committee has two motions to move tonight the first is having to do with the operation of the summer session as recommended by the interm superintendent Dr Shadow and the second is a retrospective retrospective approval we kind of all approved prior to this meeting the overnight field trip for our robotics team who we heard a couple of times a little bit about uh heading down to Houston Texas and representing 100 Central so well and uh again a huge congratulations to that team uh those are the two items for the uh student life and programming committee this evening thank you can I have a motion for them you're moving it right you're moving it I moved to yes to approve those two items second second okay any commentary any notes if not R call please Mrs blood Fields yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you so much M dougen on okay um we have 14 items tonight to move the first three Financial reports the invoices and the transfers the fourth one is in Eric West safety Grant these are um these are for safety projects there's $6,000 that would be awarded to 100 in Central and 2,000 to the the uh joint Transportation committee um number five is move to authorize the submission for the application for Extraordinary special ed uh special education Aid so this is just to um allow for that application number six is to move to approve Food Service management proposal for from pomp tonium this is something that we have to do every four years seven is um basically to uh to to uh scrap an old Dodge Caravan that we have in our automobile Fleet there's the value there number eight is a withdrawal from the uh m maintenance reserve for the preschool playground equipment number nine is a withdraw for maintenance for the bading cages for baseball 10 is awarding the wireless access point and Cloud IQ controller refresh project bid um this is going to PBG networks and um this is you know our access points apparently are six years old this year so it's time to kind of do a refresh there and the good news about this project is that it's eligible for um some f up to 40% funding through e rate so we can get some money back on that the 11th item is to accept a donation of camera equipment from George hesie I believe it is for the 100 Central School of Fine Arts Department um number 12 is to accept a donation of some oral hygiene products 13 is the second reading for the choice of vendor that we reviewed in the past and number 14 is to approve the use of the doctors your doctors in or the doctors in for um CDL physical exams so with that I'd like to move items o and 1 through 14 thank you is there a second thank you any conversation see none Mr Spitzer roll call please Mrs bfield yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs sanangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes Mrs bfield you are up Personnel so this is the month where we have a lot of motions in Personnel we have 39 motions but uh most of them it's because it's our annual renewals so 316 through 338 are the renewals I'm not going to go through them um I'll just say it's it's um pretty much uh all of our staff the exception of a few the um HCA hcaa unaffiliated um bus drivers divided to we we have um employees who are uh tenured acquiring tenured non-tenured Etc um the couple that I'll just point out though we have hcaa Administration and the JTC bus drivers both of those contracts are still being negotiated and so those salaries are subject to change once the the contracts are uh ratified and approved uh other items starting with 31 we have five retirements some of with a a lot of years of service we have Heather Cole with 26 years Mary dler 21 years Kathy Kain 40 years Anthony ricardel 25 and Carol Smith five years so thank you all for all your contributions to the district and I wish you all well in retirement 32 we have two resignations 33 we have some contractual salary appointments the one I'll point out here we have um a learning disabilities teacher consultant who is starting September 1st you'll also see that same name in 35 as a perum appointment and that's because she's going to come in some days in June to learn about the case load then we have three four some hourly appointments for hctv student texts skipping to 36 we have some chaperon appointments some substitutes in 37 we have some curriculum writing in 38 that were getting in before year [Music] end 39 we have a home instructor 310 AP testing overtime hourly work that's for uh needed to come in early to set up and stay late to clean up we have um a co-curricular advisor unpaid Schedule C advisor for Fellowship of Christian athletes then we have 312 and after hours to IAL instructor 313 some professional development 314 we have a change to the dates for some of the sixth block stiens for some Spanish teachers because we have hired now a full-time Spanish teacher so we we no longer need those six blocks 3:15 we have a unpaid leave of absence and then finally our last item is just some um minor changes to some job descriptions and hopefully everyone saw the red line versions that went out and so I will move Personnel one through 39 second thank you we have a second any conversation or commentary Lori I just had a quick question the longevity that's on here how is that applied obviously it's part of the contract but is that like a a one-time thing or is it wouldn't the longevity um that I see in um the hcea staff I guess in item 16 yeah yeah how is that th those are all part of the contract yes okay like one time um no uh once once they yes on once you hit a certain amount of longevity you get a certain stien yes okay thanks anything else hearing none roll call please Mrs blood Fields yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellogg yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer yes Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries Mr Fowler yes I was wondering about that um because it's nowhere in it is it's actually under the presentation of I just right well and we we shouldn't do it until after public can comment on it if they wanted to right that's what but yeah we can do that unless you wanted to present again next month are you need on behalf of of Mrs biter sanity can we please can I make a move move to accept and adopt the resolution regarding this year's budget second any comments on it other than another wonderful job as always Mrs Spitzer yes yes roll call please Mrs blood Fields yes Mrs dougen yes Miss gong yes Mrs Kellog yes Mrs odonnell yes Mrs Peterson yes Mr Rymer Mrs santangelo yes and Mr Mr Fowler yes all yes motion carries thank you Jesus all right thank you all right other committees I know we skipped Communications this month did not correct um red met unfortunately I couldn't make it I would say yes just informally um because you couldn't make it and we still want to set up Administration to be there because I don't have experience with setting the agenda as chair and also doing the um minutes I would I don't mind doing either of those I just want to do them at least in a collaborative you know effort so um there was an informal reset it's about as far as we got for now okay all right um any other I know we have JTC business but before we get to that any other committees I I'll just give a little update on the um the superintendent search so thank you we are just about wrapping up the engagement phase I believe tomorrow is the last day for the survey and we have a couple more focus groups tomorrow um we've had a pretty robust response I think from the staff uh the response has been a little disappointing I'm I'm going to say from the community so I encourage everyone anyone who's who's watching this um the survey is still open through tomorrow it's it will not take long um I know the first question sounds a little bit like another climate and culture survey but um it's really not that it's it's trying to get a a feel for your thoughts about where we are now and then there is a question to um get everyone's thoughts about what you're looking for in the next superintendent so I do encourage everyone to if you haven't already done that to go on and fill that out and then tomorrow it's it's sort of a catchall um it's our inperson Community Focus Group and I believe what time is that it's at 7 o' and I in the little theater right okay so um if you can make it um please do it's a chance to really um you know get your views known and then then that will be it then we move on to kind of um going over what what the consultant has learned from all the focus groups and the surveys about what everyone is looking for in the next superintendent um they'll meet with the board go over all of that and then the next step is to start advertising and and going through resumés wonderful thank you and we had a policy meeting this month um we don't have any action items but we did have an excellent opportunity um Dr Shadow was there and he was gracious enough to um to invite all of the administrators who generally I think attend most of the different committees so we had um Dr Shadow Dr web um principal brand and Miss kelos ha were all there they were able to really provide some really good Insight on how um the process has worked from kind of their end in the past we got some really great ideas together um for how that process will move forward we got some feedback um from different board members which will be shared with the committee at the next meeting great thank you and finally I'll give a quick update on the JTC so very exciting news that the memorandum of agreement was signed on April 17th by all of the JTC members from fem rare and hund and Central and it's um it's moved on to the salary guides have actually been signed off I believe right they've been sent back okay and so the next step is to um for the um 100 Central bus drivers Association to ratify the contract and then it'll come back to us to our board to do the same and FL rare will do the same and then we should be done for now that that's a one-year extension correct yes yes I don't know if we would discuss this now I'm just curious if there's any update or um any news about um JTC and prek and and where we stand with that um there's a lot of talk in the community or communication out there about it y uh yeah that was actually a really good setup for exactly where I was going so thank you it was like we planned that one um so as as as Mr Donnell reported there there has been some some feedback that um conversations in JTC have have hit some friction points as we've reported in the past uh there has been some statements that have been published um hunt and Central has prepared a response so I'll read that now into record and for everybody to to understand where we're coming from with all of this um the Hun Central Regional High School Board of Education supports the efforts of all ascending districts to expand the preschool programs and recognize the long-term educational benefits of these programs we also recognize that preschool expansion is a significant logistical undertaking that requires planning and collaboration from all stakeholders we do disagree with Flemington Ron's characterization of the challenges involved in launching a massive expansion of preschool Transportation as well as the accuracy of the information they have shared publicly nonetheless we see neither value nor wisdom in litigating this dispute through a public war of words we will instead continue to focus on all our efforts on finding solutions that do not jeopardize the safety and our drivers of and our students so that's our Focus right now is safety and uh driving that home everything else will fall in alignment all right any other committee reports I don't think there is any other okay if not then we will open up for our second public comment Forum we will give five minutes for every speaker if you could come to the podium write down your name contact information and uh I will time you for four minutes you'll hear a warning then we'll go for another minute and if you do have any commentary or would like to direct any of your statements please feel free to direct them at me and not anybody else at this table Kane I just did I miss new business did we go through that already additional board business I'm sorry that would I mean I was do if you'd like would you like to call something out quickly before yeah I'm sorry I just wanted to raise it as a point of concern and I think the board should probably take a look at is just some of the bathroom issues and cafeteria issues that have been raised you know over a year at least now some of the the students have come forward talked about it and I just think um we should make it a priority I would like to see it on the student life um subcommittee meetings and maybe even o and and just discuss some of the ways that we can maybe improve that because I know there's a lot of dissatisfaction with the students and you know especially with the bathroom issues whether it I it's various reasons but some kids don't go to the bathroom at all or there you know there's a whole host of things so um I just wanted to raise that and and hoping that that could be a priority sure yeah okay we can certainly will work with you and see what items we can bring up at either SLP or on as is appropriate yep and bring them back to the board thank you very much I appreciate it sorry for the interrupt no my name is John McKay I live in Township when I got my Master's Degree one of the things they drove into US was the fact that everybody deserves a good education no matter who they are whether no matter race Creed color or gender orientation I see that Miss s Angelo is a member of the hunter Central policy committee and a member of the student life and program committee which recommends policy related to curriculum however I've seen in the past that Miss s Angelo filed a privileged ethics complaint against a board member for wearing a rainbow mask Miss s Angelo made public comments on March 20th 23 hun Central board meeting and sent an email to the board members opposing policy 5756 which provides protections for transgender students who are our most V vulnerable population her objections to the policy include her claim that state law does not address more than two genders which by the way is not true Miss sangel also objected to instructions that follows the New Jersey curriculum standards in 2022 Miss s s Angelo sent several emails to hun Central staff voicing concerns about the health and physical education curriculum particularly about sex education and the Teen prevention education program it has been reported that Miss Angelo is currently one of the 45 people on the New Jersey on the New Jersey email distribution list of Pacific Justice Institute which is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-lgbtq hate group has also been reported the Miss St Angelo's candidacy for Schoolboard seat was endorsed by New Jersey project extremist organization intent on removing the health curriculum abolishing transgender student policy and erasing books about race and the lgbtq population Miss St Angelo has a history of opposition to policy and curriculum relating to lgbtq plus people and to sex sex education in my opinion Miss s Angelo with her views should not be guiding Hunter and Central policy or curriculum thank you thank you sorry hi my name is Donna shrinkle I'm a member uh resident of Ron Township um I've had children at the school presently have one and have two other children um I'll keep this short and sweet and it's a good segue um I've been to a few board meetings and listen to many more I've heard a lot over the past year from board members about working collaboratively I shake my head a lot when I listened to the last board meeting there was a clear planned and calcul calculated attack by three board members excuse me on one specific board member and more from the community members it would be really refreshing to see in action practiced what is preached and it would be really nice to see modeled what you expect of the student population I hope the board can get back to focusing on academics and the students and staff and less on dragging each other and ultimately the school down you have really good teachers really passionate administrators and really devoted support staff support them the good stuff rarely makes the media but the vit all does positivity always precedes success and good-tempered leaders good tempered leaders invigorate lives it would be nice to see a shift in Focus 100% towards invigorating the school Community thank you thank you good evening Joff Flemington burrow I first just wanted to congratulate you on the recent accolades well deserved and to say once again that your students impress me what impresses me less however is the continued behavior of more than one member on this board and the fact that there seem to be a lot of people in this community including board members who want to continually talk about trans people and talk over trans people but you never want to actually include them in the conversation so if you're so interested in trans health care and transition let's talk about it I have a list of myths and facts myth number one transgender healthcare is experimental and improving transgender healthcare is supported and backed by extensive medical research 30 major medical organizations in the US and internationally support gender affirming Healthcare this includes the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry the American Medical Association and the world Medical Association myth number two trans activists want to mutilate children and cut off their genitals no medical interventions are recommended for prepubescent children none puberty blockers can only be prescribed once a child has already begun puberty even if a child identifies as trans from a younger age they cannot receive blockers Top surgery is also only approved in adults or special cases 16 years and older and bottom surgery is exclusively for adults 18 plus so no no one is advocating for children's surgeries myth number three puberty blockers are dangerous and experimental despite misinformation puberty blockers have been in the use since the 1980s to treat the condition of precocious or early onset puberty in CIS children the use of puberty blockers in children is older than I am according to Cedar's Mount siai website while puberty blockers have been scrutinized by some due to their use and caring for transgendered children these drugs have been in use since the 1980s and are overwhelmingly safe if used appropriately side effects such as bone health risks are typically only occur with prolonged use past the age of puberty myth number four transitioning is a decision made on a whim and is a quick fix fact transitioning takes an overwhelming amount of time energy and money weight list for an initial consult for hormones or any surgeries is typically 6 to n months I know I tried to get Top surgery as after an initial consult if you're even approved for surgery surgery dates are typically scheduled out another 6 to 9 months so from the moment of deciding to get surgery to the moment of having it you're likely to wait no less than a year a year that's a lot of time to consider being transgender is not a trend or a social conion transgender and non-binary people have always existed and will always exist hundreds of cultures across the globe have defined gender differently than our current Western culture more people are coming out as transgender not because it's trendy but because it's finally safer to do so the concept of the social contagion has been debunked multiple times because studies that cite this phenomenon are missing one crucial component any input from actual transgender people many trans people especially youth realize they are different from a young age but choose not to come out until later due to fear and lack of information about identities myth number six most transgender people who get affirming Healthcare ultimately detransition the the fact is that D transition rates are as low as 1 to 2% and the 2022 us transgender survey which pulled 90,000 individuals found that 97 to 98% of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their transition the most prevalent reasons for D transition were social pressures and a lack of safety that is rampant transphobia causes trans folks to no longer feel safe and to go back into hiding the reality is that as Suzanne DT Hall stated transgender people are transgender whether they take medical action to shift their pres gender presentation or whether they take no action whatsoever there is no right or wrong way to trans to sum it up the reality is that transgender people don't want to force anyone to be trans or Force anyone to get a medical procedure all we want is the freedom and ability to make the choice but what is best for us and our bodies thank you thank you my yep that's okay thank you we urged the community to withhold judgment until the final reports came out about her suicide there was a lot of misinformation about this young girl and I would like to set the record straight first public legal documents including sworn affidavits disclosed that dagy was sexually molested by her own father at the age of 9 years old her father pleaded guilty to these charges and was incarcerated dagy suffered from bipolar disorder depression anxiety self harm cutting Boon swings and according to her grandmother dny had to be carefully monitored for overdose overdose concerns this past January 25th of 2024 dagney's father was arrested again for failing to comply with reporting as a sex offender two weeks before dagy would take her own life her suicide notes reported by the police that her family and personal experience influenced her decision dagy did not deserve to be thrown in the spotlight in the name of social justice or to push a false narrative the girls she started a fight with per the videotaped police interview did not deserve to be targeted for something they did not do her death should have been treated as A Private Matter the media and many in this community took a traumatized young girl and exploited her suffering for her own personal gain to push an agenda this is dangerous and irresponsible we should remember her life in the proper context and anything else is exploitation um and then Mr fer you did mention at the beginning of the um board meeting about correspondence and I'm assuming that part of that um was from my email and follow-up email in regards to Mrs odonnell and she's seeking her advisory opinion from the SCC about her um current position on the njpc advisory committee yes you can assume that and it is the case and I'll also share that Mr Donnell is proactively reaching out to me with any update to make sure that I'm aware and once we have a final answer we'll definitely get back to you okay thank you because I know again um Mrs Peterson there's been a lot of time spent on um Mrs Peterson and an Ethics charge and so forth and again we certainly would not want the community to see this as again a two-tier justice system as we've seen in the past thank you thank you uh pardon me hello my my name is Edward Brent uh principal here I just want to actually comment uh if you don't mind on a comment I made earlier um first off I want to say thank you for tonight and all the other nights over this past year that we've invited students to be part of our presentations um rankings or no rankings I think you saw the good stuff going on tonight in each month when we have students coming here present I'm very proud to be able to sit here as principal and watch them come up here and speak on behalf of whatever the curricular area is so I wanted to comment on my joke about you know ranking 14th and being competitive um and I am however the most area the area I'm most competitive in and you need to know um is that I truly believe that any positive outcomes are are the results of being a truly comprehensive appropriately challenging welcoming and supportive high school and I think what we are doing here day in and day out and I am a constant learner and listener and watcher and I'm trying to improve myself every day um and again I'm proud to be able to principal to see students like tonight with staff members like tonight um give a presentation on an area like in mathematics so again thanks for doing that each each month I really appreciate it and I just wanted to correct myself a little bit about that uh moment of being competitive all right thank you thank you Mr yeah anyone else seeing none I will close public comment board comments anyone have anything in closing go ahead I'll just add and and also um again congratulate I I know I've already been able to congratulate I think most of the staff who who is here tonight but um for all the rest of the staff who's out there and and watching um it it really is um you know a huge huge accomplishment I mean really amazing when you look at the schools who who are behind us the ones who were always at the very top um it it really is just validation I think from all the good work everyone has done over the last several years so um you know thank you and congratulations you're here what else I would like to add um to my fellow Board Mates thank you for all your time and um you know people have been mentioning at the podium time spent this on this time spent on that I can I can assure everyone um as Dr Shadow has lamented in his his few short weeks here this is a complex environment it's a complex institution it takes a lot of things working in coordination every single day to be successful um and to not only be successful to be top ranking in state and National numbers uh is a testament to what we do at this table what all of the Administration staff and students and parents do as part of Central's community and uh through all the trials and tribulations I'm I'm proud to still call myself a red devil and uh sit at the table with the rest of you and fight the good fight so thank you if there's nothing else we will close into and convene into executive session we do not anticipate a vote afterwards um can I have a second to move to Executive second second all in favor I was I always forget the N it's not Nays any nay no horses no no extensions thank you all have a good night