our public hearing for the School District budget April 25th 2024 the New Jersey open public meetings act law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the kinon board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in the suburan Trends on January 21st 2024 and posted in the public library and filed with the burrow clerk uh can you pull the board Please Mr Isa manger Mrs Leonard here Mr Myers here Mrs Pella here Mrs Portman here Mr Petrelli here Mrs Donaldson here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands na under indivisible andice okay our public hearing on the School District budget for 2024 2025 Mr mango good evening everyone okay so since most folks here tonight haven't been to any of our board meetings before this point let me introduce our new inter room Babs Mrs Barbara Francisco Barbara joined us on January 2nd and um it's been quite a ride for her since entering the district in January and I can say and I'll probably for the folks that stay here for the public portion of the meeting tell you again okay that uh yesterday was 18 months since I began in the district I can tell you roughly five months before that was the interview process that the board the then board conducted and during that interview process since I was already a seated superintendent and seasoned I knew that there were some issues and concerns um as far as our facilities that's a separate kind of conversation but that will come up here tonight but then also the status of our budget with our demographics so I'm going to tell a story as we go through the budget I'll be filling in stop gaps along the way if you get lost if you're confused that's all right think about it if you want to ask a question later on you'll have that chance under public comment or you could always find me so um for our students who are here I think that's good that's positive civics government um for our community it's good I hope we have more in an hour and I'll tell you why because do have Financial concerns this budget will tell you that so again anybody who has not been following us when we use and we throw terms like transparency not here it's been up there it's been everywhere in the forms of forums multiple last year and this year multiple budget presentations some that aren't even required it's all over of what we've been doing and where we've been so um before we really dive in the last thing that I will say is that as a board no board anywhere let alone this board where three of our members are lifetime residents of kinan and the rest of us including me and I'm the non- voting member migrated here more or less all at the same time this is very difficult on multiple levels but as elected officials and as a seated superintendent we are charged with a job and a position we have to do that and you can only do that with clear lenses so uh with that that's the Preamble welcome again to Mrs Francisco and I and here is our proposed 2425 budget presentation so the budget how does it work well we knew as an admin team when I say we our existing admin that um we had to tackle this sooner than later that actually began at the end of last school year during the 2223 calendar year and remember I literally began October 24th 2022 so your 2223 budget was already set I had no uh authority over that okay and as you know look we all live here there were some things going on well before that that sometimes you know when you have that disjointedness it causes an issue at all levels so nonetheless we came in we got through last year and we hit the ground running as an admin team and we work throughout the the entire summer and we had our budget worksheets to our admin team by December of 2023 the budgets were reviewed and processed by the business office and yes we have had a change in the business office but that does happen things occur that's life um and central office throughout our board committee meetings I've said this once I'll say it a thousand times are hours because another thing I did share during that process is that if I am the selected uh superintendent that the board will be working endlessly which they have for our community I'm the only I might be non- voting I'm the only paid position they are not and trust me they are working endlessly we had our preliminary budget presentation on March 5th and we had all financial decisions made by the end of March and now it's the end of April and it's that time to move forward with the budget the goals to maintain Integrity of instructional elective and co- and extracurricular activities to upgrade the onetoone Chromebook device at PRM is phase two of the cycle we all were here in 2020 that should have been an eye opener I know everybody was on Zoom so was I and there were issues glaring at us as a community that actually then you might have asked yourself why don't we have onetoone devices why is there no plan why does the Tech infrastructure not cooperate and work you have to ask yourself those questions to upgrade facilities within the scope of our architect's facility assessment which was presented publicly in November any the existing budget of what we had and then of course we want to remain within the 2% budget cap as best we can those are hard tasks for any Board of Ed for any superintendent anywhere especially with the way CA have gone up so the big question then becomes what does the budget include now this is driven by board and District goals some of it is from last year to this year number one the KHS security surveillance now we did budget 350,000 but I do want to thank Mrs Francisco Mr shivas because they received multiple quotes weed the best quote we possibly could that is up for approval tonight and with that flexibility within we're hopeful that um we can do one of two things either slide some of those funds over to the phase two technology infrastructure upgrade that you see and um or put cameras out to PR PRM Fields because you have none you never have so part of the security surveillance here at the high school is not only an upgrade but it's also out on our Fields there's nothing there we went down from one uh to two 54 passenger buses to one with a three-year lease purchase our K5 Ela resources is at 124 and I I know I'll sound like a broken record but I want to thank Mrs jeo she's right in the front row because before she was a department chair of vaa in the Arts and she was teaching a PRM she steered a conversation in my office with her staff about their concerns in the middle school with Ela and anyone who has children early in high school right now or in the Middle School you understand some of those gaps the second phase to that are the resources for K5 uh we're looking at the two sections partial roof replacement finally at Stonybrook now that was an SDA Rod Grant which you have to apply districts have to apply and if you're successful the community the taxpayers only pay 60% so we were successful on both Rod grants and um okay so number two face to technology that's not 60% that that uh okay that's a yeah that was that's the Kil roof at 487 the phase two technology infrastructure is 253 last year if I could just shoot yeah uh last year uh we were able to secure priority two funds through the eate which is a federal program which offsets some of the costs that were part of the phase one infrastructure so uh we were hoping that we were going to be able to uh get some money out of this year and uh they still haven't returned my uh email but I'll keep hammering them to find out what we can do because reality is we want as much money as we can get from other sources to support the things that we need and in addition to that we did apply for a half a million dollar security Grant last year and unfortunately we did not receive it while Mr shivas and I did not receive word that it was because of our socioeconomic status of our community I I don't know I I don't particularly agree with that but we did try so our surveillance our security will be year over-ear as best we can and then of course our onetoone Chromebook purchase for all of PRM and KHS grade n because what we found is that there was no continuity so the Chromebooks that you received is parents and I received in 2020 2021 there was no plan aside from the infrastructure aside from the plans that went with it so since technology is a driving force and we're committed to that in our edtech program um that's the that's the direction we are moving so the elephant in a room let me address it between last year 2324 and this budget 2425 the semantics reduced restructured not replaced that's where it stands 19 districtwide positions 8 in 23 24 this time last year and then 11 proposed up for vote tonight and not to seem Doom and Gloom because there is some sunshine at the end of the rainbow um what you have to understand is that your student enrollment on on top of other reasons which we'll talk about put you in a position to just tread water just tread water and then of course restructure so the estimated gross impact in the last two budget Cycles we're looking at 24 and a half positions and one contract and that contract was deemed we would end it and that was an administrative decision by our group last year because that position or positions were funded by Esser the APR monies and at the end of this year 30 those monies are gone we don't have it anymore so rather than lose any additional staff or have to look at programs because remember within this budget not one Athletic program was touched not one co-curricular program touched nothing now if I could wave a magic wand I would tell you I would love to do away with pay to play but we're just not in that position now since it's been here but when you redistribute some of those positions and you see that in the administrative restructure and with one admin assistant here at the high school where we're condensing offices that decision was made during this current budget process between Athletics and guidance for need that's where we stand now the reality there is that number does not reduce our taxes doesn't reduce our taxes that number is to make balance so a few things and if I'm if I'm off Mrs Francisco could jump in when we look at enrollment this should be the eye opener for folks and I not that I want to be the bearer of this bad news we haven't had a demographic study in this community for us as a board of education since 1998 and I'm and when I say some of these things I'm not blaming anybody I'm a let's go forward person let's not live in the rearview mirror ER but you need to have the facts didn't have one in I don't know since last century so that was a board goal this year if you look at the snapshot from 1415 somewhere around and I know the world was upside down in 2021 but we still have jobs to do boards still have jobs to do look at that drop by 2021 1651 folks you lost an entire building you lost an entire building in student population yet and to this board's credit and previous boards and I can't say that I've always been on the side of that with some of my boards in the past they continue to go to 2% to our community's credit and those 47% empty nesters because it's a pretty consistent balance nobody came out and asked why are you going to 2% when you lost an entire building those are things you got to think about so before we throw barbs at each other think about it that's fact and now you've kind of been pretty consistent and we need to go to 2% just to keep our head above water because our contracts those with the Kaa and the Kaa just out of the shoot are above 3% our health benefits increase 10% our transportation we're at the liberty of Transportation they could do whatever want with their cost and CPI so it's not just one factor but the icing on the cake is when you come to 2021 somebody has to stop the train so I've been part since some folks like to put things on social media I've been part of boards that didn't believe to go to 2% with a rising population it left me to just make decisions that maybe sometimes I didn't really agree with but that's the that's the job then I've been part of boards where your demographics are very similar to ours and the community was asking please stop going to 2% tough spots to be in but I've seen both sides of it I don't like any of it just like none of us like these decisions we have to make with regard to Personnel tonight but is a fact on our population so the state of New Jersey shared with Boards of Ed and superintendents and business offices that for 2223 and 2324 your Surplus your fund balance you could raise at 4% because they knew everybody had excess because the state was giving us money now most districts would utilize those funds for upgrades when I came here 2223 was already in play so that Gap into our former Ba's credit because I started asking some hard questions as you could imagine was already there so the restructure last year was not about um what everybody thinks part of it was full day kindergarten and so let me correct social media one more time had nothing to do with a position in Kill school please it was two of the admins that we reduced that we didn't need and that's my assessment and recommendation to the board and I stand by it okay everything else was just to try to make with the 2% but then the 900,000 again for this current budget was infused because quite honestly this community out of the shoot on the heels of 2021 2122 and interim and then me would not have been able to contend with this reduction this year plus last year but we knew we knew the admins knew I have constant conversation with Mrs suin and Mr strad we all have a good rapport with each other as difficult as this is so credit to everybody but that's where we are so further in the in the demographic study you see the projections of where we are right now and where we're going so this is where it becomes a very slippery slope and one that again I've I've been here before but I'm not going to lie it's not easy when it comes to finances because what you find is by the time you Trend to 28 29 the high school is under 500 we're already a small group one high school that's what we are but yet our K5 in our middle you see those sprinkles now that's not earth shattering but what it is is that when Mrs utel is asking us for an extra teacher on a bubble grade level can we do it or can't we for class size when Mrs ala is asking that it's the same thing so that's where we have to have a targeted approach as to watch the numbers watch a trend and manage the high school without losing Sports without losing programs without losing as best as we can more staff because I won't stay here it doesn't matter what anybody shares tonight or their comment I get it I will not give you an 100% that will ever be here we won't be here next year I hope not I'm going to be very creative in the next year and I'll share some of that with you but that'll be a community effort that'll be a CBA effort but if we're all vested like I think we are I think it's easy then and that's why I'm happy so many people are here tonight and then the last slide as far as capacity folks we have space and so let me um share with you one fact another fact that's out there that yes in February with the board's approval I called neighboring bton I did spoke to the superintendent didn't know he was leaving that's not my business but I made him an offer said I'd be more than happy to meet with your board or maybe our two committees meet of the board you name it let's have a discussion I think we can offer you that and then some and I did it for multiple reasons and that was the into the conversation so whatever else is floating out there nobody asked me but the board knew the admins knew staff knew some staff right so why did I do that I did that number one because I felt that we could offer botin that and then some compared to Mountain Lakes that's just what I think about us I did that number two because I already knew the capacity difference and Bo only has 180 students in the high school in Mount Lakes you still have room to spare number three and another major issue for this community and this district and budget you do not have Revenue so any jet Revenue driven from a send reive relationship in the high school could sustain and help and even enhance the high school that money would not have been used to matriculate across our K8 like maybe some other neighboring districts do that's not us that's not how I operate a fair and reasonable price for tuition but as you can see that superintendent left Mountain Lakes has a new superintendent and look we have to deal with our own barriers right now we we we can't you know but that's a fact but that's why and if somebody ever asked me I would have told them would have told them so now at this point I'm going to turn it over to Mrs Francisco and then we'll kind of go back and forth good evening everyone um I'll do my best to be brief uh you can see you know um everybody's concerned about the per pupil cost and how they continue to rise even though we have a um a bigger budget and you know and we have a smaller population but that's just it if you have a smaller population your costs are going to go up because you're you're spreading your cost over a smaller group of people so as you can see the difference between last year's uh costs 22 20 23 24 and what we're proposing this evening you can see classroom instruction has increased despite the fact that we have um fewer teachers throughout the district um your support services have reduced a little bit um your administrative costs have gone down uh Mr mango spoke about the consolidation of some administrative POS positions and that's reflected there your operation cost I believe is reflective of the the things that you've uh identified that need to be addressed and so there's um additional resources that have been placed into the operations area and you can see that we continue to support extracurricular uh look for economies to scale where you can the hockey program is uh the cost divided over three different school districts um this past spring you made the effort to maintain a Varsity Softball program by uh teaming up with Lakeland and I I totally understand because I came from a school district that did the same thing you couldn't afford to do everything on your own but you wanted to provide opportunities for students and sometimes you just have to share the cost and you have to be able to play in the sandbox so that's what we do okay uh they um I was asked this afternoon to uh do a pie chart so that you can see pretty colors and uh this this is basically where our um major uh how how our general expense budget is broken down we do have out of District tuitions along with tuitions to Morris County um the technical school that some students students uh take advantage of so you can see tuition costs are $1.7 million um we maintain our co-curricular program and that's at a cost of $1.2 million uh Support Services uh that's a big cost but that's your guidance that's your um um your OT PT your um instructional Pro um not classroom instruction but the the support the professional development that you provide for your your teachers so that they can keep their skills and take advantage of the LA latest teaching methods um there's there's a number of areas that cover support services and that's a uh a big chunk of change pardon the uh the flippant um operations Transportation um we saw on the last slide that the operations costs have gone up because there's been a number of things that have been identified that need to be addressed and transportation since uh covid has been very difficult to be able to predict how to um to handle it uh we do have transportation contracts in addition to our IND District Personnel um the uh State CPI this year was 5.81% so those uh existing contracts are allowed to grow by that percentage without having to go out to rebid if we went out to rebid my guess in my experience would be that your cost would be a lot more significant than 5.81% um health benefits Mr mango spoke about our health benefit increase that was 10% this year and um on top of the health benefits we also had um a significant increase in liability cover coverages um uh and our umbrella costs and I think it's important for people to recognize that just as you're dealing with auto insurance increases and house insurance increases we're dealing with the same issue the market is not healthy right now um a lot of carriers are leaving the state of New Jersey we are in a pulled program so there's always uh some leverage that you can use when you have have a significant amount of uh dollars and resources that you're going to spend but if you don't have it's supply and demand if you don't have the carriers that are willing to participate then you're going to have to work with the existing carriers to um to get a price um and special at instruction um we have um that's 4.3 million and that's our IND District um special ed components including our child study team and our instructional cost for our gened population of $12 million so that basically adds up to our general fund costs of is it 46,6 2,000 I don't see a total there but it should be ingrained in my brain but uh that's what we ended up with um and that's how it's broken up so this year yes we did get some additional state aid uh we have some Transportation Aid we have special education Aid we have security Aid we have extraordinary Aid now let me just explain a little bit about the $750,000 that we use as a revenue source for Extraordinary Aid every year um we that supports our special ed program and basically what we're in the process of doing now is you have to create a um a spreadsheet and you have to input information to the state of New Jersey and we have to show them how to support that we're supporting that $750,000 Revenue if they determine that we don't have uh eligible expenses then that becomes problematic we're not going to get that money back in the next state budget cycle the other caveat is whether or not the governor is going to support extraordinary Aid in the next proposed budget and how much the legislators will legislators will allow and then they go if there's money in there then they go to how many districts submitted applications and how to divvy up the pool of money that they do have so some years they might support if you have a million dollars of expenses that you've identified you may get 95% the next year you might only get 75 % and I've seen it as low as 43 so it's always a crapshoot we always hope that we'll be able to get that $750,000 back plus a little bit of a cushion because if not then you'll have a short fall on your revenue and so if you spend more than you take in that becomes a problem this becomes a deficit but when we incorporate the $750,000 then our total state aid is 3.81 14 and um um let's see the other Revenue um this is how it's broken down the tax levy is 4,880 984 that's what we're proposing with the full day kindergarten uh full day preschool program that they're implementing we're anticipating $140,000 in Revenue as opposed to I think last year was about 40,000 give or take uh other local sources um would be some uh rebates that we might get um from different uh from the insurance from workman's compensation because every year they do a um Actuarial calculation and we get some rebate money we also rent out the facilities and that rental income um becomes part of a miscellaneous Revenue stream um this year we're supporting the current uh the prop osed budget with $219,200 th000 was budgeted in 2223 the district actually received an additional 9,226 over that 750 and we kept it we didn't spend it out this year and we're using it to support the budget this year um we talked about the state aid and you can see the 97,1 125 which the state aid formula increase this year that is uh and then the extraordinary a is in addition to we're withdrawing from our capital reserve account the 1.3 million which is going to go for the Stony Brook roof replacement and so that brings us to a grand total for the current expense budget of 46 m624 182 the L and just another aside the local tax levy that we're proposing also includes our adjustment for health care which state allows um you hear that we're capped at 2% of a tax levy increase um every year the state determines whether or not they're going to give us any allowances over that 2% without having to go back to the public for any kind of um vote and this year we were able because our costs increased as did the state health benefits plan which we're not part of so they allowed us another 242,000 I believe in um which is reflected in the local tax levy and so if you look at last year's tax levy of 39 million $8 41,382 increase would have been $769 and $769,900 m880 984 to support your current expense budget um as Mr mango also alluded to you don't have a lot of um tax taxable commercial properties here to help you offset the cost of your property taxes and with um the socioeconomics and the um that the state determines we have no control over that 87.7% of the revenues in the budget are coming from your tax dollars and here's um a slide just to let you know um what the um increase in the tax levy was the it includes the allow allowable adjustments from the doe and uh what the impact is to your taxes um Debt Service your debt service apparently you had a referendum about 2008 yeah so um one you had two two long-term uh debts and one one just uh was completed being paid for in the spring and so now um the one from 2008 was refinanced at a lower rate and we will start paying that down now W and on top of the fact that we have uh that debt um was refinanced you're also now getting more Debt Service aid from the state of New Jersey because of the refinancing so so um the average increase is $182 14 and so you see a little bit of a variation because the um the uh Debt Service Aid increased and before thank you Mrs Francisco and before we back up and we come to the uh the podium I just want to put this out there to everybody and I say this because again unfortunately I've had this experience before the positions that have been reduced that are on tonight's agenda that money those finances they are not part of this budget they were not part of the preliminary budget adoption so if you come forward and you can you're right you ask the board or you say could you do this or could you do that understand this then that would mean if the board even considered it we would have to go into a private section into executive session and discuss other positions that are building admin after months along with my office and committee meetings with the full board separately have already vetted an agreed on that would impact other staff that didn't have a conversation on the day before spring break a month ago we had that conversation with staff because we want to give folks a head start okay now up front we have Mrs Thomas who has our curriculum and instruction Mrs davidman who is special services and guidance and Mrs tretta who is um Ed Tech math 6 well this year K12 soon to be 612 Mrs tdos will be taking the Reigns in the K5 so if you have any questions that are specific if you come up or comment they're going to help and they're only doing that because there's so much out there about schedules and class size so when you're looking at Dr at data and driven remember something and this was hard for our admin team and fairness to them to come to learn a schedule any schedule High School Middle School elementary schools do not drive or dictate a school budget when we're talking about personnel and overall cost you could see the numbers the budget and your student enrollment drives the schedule so there are some items that I think in the the next year we start working together that we'll be able to do especially in the area of Transportation within the confines of the CBA but between the middle and the high school for the following year to help alleviate some of our transportation costs we could also look at contracts because we're finding a lot of other contracts that are out serviced when we're looking at buildings and grounds and maintenance that we should be able to handle more inhouse um but you know that takes time there's a lot that's been happening and we had to get our hands around this it's not all doom and gloom there will be tomorrow there will be next year we just have to be very concerted and understand that our finances were just making it and we shouldn't be in that position to start so I thank you for listening I know it was a lot and Mrs Donaldson I will turn the meeting back over to you thank you okay so um I'd like to make a motion to amend the agenda um because the public comments are after we approve the resolution so we have a motion to move the public comment before we resolve to approve the budget sure motion second okay all in favor okay okay so we're going to now go ahead before we the board approves we're going to open it up to public comment because it uh would like to hear if anybody has any questions or comments on the proposed budget before the bo the board goes and votes for it so you are welcome to come up to the microphone right now if you have any questions or comments on the 2425 budget for the school district you can come right here to this mic right there sorry hello all my name is Cole prior and I the valoran of the class of 202 24 at kelon high school first off I'm going to thank the KHS staff Administration Board of Ed and everyone else that makes this school and District the best that I can possibly be and who have consistently provided me with the opportunity to be my best self however I come here not just with the usual admiration but also with fear throughout my four years at KHS I've benefited greatly from our numerous robust science programs that have made this school oneof a kind programs that may not exist for my younger peers and friends at Future years at this school I'd like to start with one of my Fondest Memories from my experience here it comes from our barcoding life's Matrix program for context in barcode we were not only taught the intricacies of Hands-On biology and lab work but we were also taught important life skills in fact we're always encouraged to jot down our procedures in our own lab notebook apparently for our College interviews at the time I admittedly didn't understand why we did this but I did it anyway because I trusted my instructors well fast forward 2 years and I'm on my interview for the University of Pennsylvania here we are discussing my science research throughout high school and we get to talking about barcode something Clicks in my head and I show my interviewer my old barcode notebook which I have here today fast forward another few months and will be attending pen in the fall so you can probably assume how well that worked for that reason and many others I feel strongly that the non-renewal of those who run our barcode program would be a massive loss for future Generations at KHS withholding them the same foundational experiences that I was lucky enough to be given another valuable experience that I gained during my high school career was attending the New Jersey governor School in The Sciences program last summer there my peers were valoran from top ranked schools such as the Bergen and new Yorkies and yet they were particularly impressed with the work that I have done at little old KHS which could not have been possible without our science research Club led by Mr Manning our school with only a fraction of the students as we saw here today as other schools can easily exceed the best schools in the entire state of New Jersey I'm proud of us the work that we accomplish and our school's ability to defy expectations time and time again especially with the help of our beloved science department whether or not we have these opportunities in the future we will not lose each other nor the happy memories that we have and I wouldn't trade these experiences or memories for the entire world and now it's my time to pass the Baton thank you to the science department for giving me every opportunity to succeed my family for driving me all over the place in the pursuit of science my peers for always being there and the ks board of education for letting me speak my peace thank you thank you Cole well done Cole and Cole we have no intention of letting that go away so thank you for speaking so highly about it hello my name is Zach Kessler I'm a sophomore uh just like Cole our science programs have been very integral uh to to me here at KHS stem kns barcode mrev US USA by Olympia club and very importantly science research Club as a little kid I remember being Amazed by the giant high schoolers volunteering at stem nights teaching us about fascinating and complex ideas but in a way that we could understand now I get to be one of those giants volunteering at stem nights as I see younger students eager to learn I can't help but imagine the happy memories that I have from Once being their age in their position stem Knights have been an incredible opportunity for us for us Giants to give back to the future generations and more importantly for us to spark a lasting in interest in science and Kenan youth just like the Sparks we were given even more than stem nights Mr Manning science research Club has easily been my most important extracurricular and probably my most important anything at KHS it's difficult to imagine how different my life would be if I had never let my brother drag me to my first SRC meeting SRC allows us to become real student scientists learning professional lab techniques and processes and helping us get published as official scientific authors while Cole is leaving KHS this year I obviously won't be throughout this year I've become more and more invested in our science programs and I've been looking forward to all of them next year both as a member and hopefully as a role model to new members they've all given me so much both in science and in life without patting myself on the back too much I'd like to say I've become fairly experienc in SRC I've learned how to work well with others I've become exponentially better at communicating I've learned how to be a role model for younger students and how to ignite their fascination with science I've made so many connections with my peers both older and younger with friends and with teachers every single one of these programs has had an enormous impact on my life and they've all been operated by Miss Trevi I couldn't possibly overstate how thankful I am to miss Travi for making all of this possible both as a program administrator and as as a direct leader she's been an incredible role model mentor and at times a friend to me in the past two years here I can guarantee that without mvis programs I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am today as a student as an official scientist and as a person members of of the board and of the audience thank you for your time to all faculty members thank you for everything you do for the school and its students to miss Shi and all the programs she's made possible thank you for everything you've taught me all of the opportunities you provided me and the impact you've had on my life and so many others Through The Years thank you thank you Zach thank you Zach um my name is jayv Kang and I am a junior here at kelan high school and I've have taken over eight AP courses and many of them being science courses I've taken multiple science courses such as AP biology AP Chemistry and AP Physics and being in the classroom myself I can guarantee that these classes are not possible to complete the required content um without the loss of labs with the loss of labs a near 25% of science time in this school we won't be able to complete the content and given that students pay over $100 a year for these tests for each AP test how does the board plan on guaranteeing that the students will be able to go through all the required content with the loss of lab time with the reduction of near 25% of the science time so we're we're not reducing Labs that you guys are going to have Labs okay it's just going to be restructured but nothing's going to go down degrade science is going to be maintained the the Legacy that MD Trevi created will continue here we are just going to improve on those processes to try to make them better because what she started we can we can always make things better so nothing's going to get worse at all please we are invested in that 100% thank you for coming up uh well I'm Nathan schz I'm a senior here at KHS I'm graduating this year but I still wanted to come up just to speak about Mrs Trevi as well and to honor all that she's given to us both as a district and as students so on behalf of my fellow students I would like to start with asking the question since you've mentioned restructuring a lot and mvi does run a lot of the important clubs that have been so well crucial to a lot of our development within the science department so I'm just starting curiosity how do you plan to move those clubs into different duties like how are you going to have them handled by other faculty that are already paid for within the budget that you've proposed that's a good question Nathan so later tonight but actually in the next 15 20 minutes when we open the section of our public agenda under the B section you'll see a new job description 612 science department chair so one of the science teachers teachers whether that be in the middle school or the high school that are currently employed that have the appropriate certification and there are some and a few um that have been trained under Mrs Travis's guidance can apply no different than Mrs jeo last year when we did not replace that supervisory position we made that 612 and then we had a K5 and that was Mrs tados so the district in that restructure as unfortunate as it is we utilize staff which was also part of the surveys that upon my entrance that were shared with the board from the buildings about teacher leadership so we found quite a few leaders within the district now was this part of any grand plan absolutely not but as obstacles present themselves we have to Pivot and make best use of what we have all right that was a strong answer sorry I did want to ask that just to begin okay that's a great question uh but I did want to continue just anyway to ask that you do all that you can to try to keep Mrs Trevi on the budget just because I know she's been a great great part of all of our careers at kenel and high school um I've known Mrs TR since my freshman year I met her through USA bi Olympiad as Zach and Cole mentioned even though it was over Zoom uh she still spent every week training the handful of members of the club to take this National exam and by the end I a Humanities kid freshman was able to get an honorable mention and I've only gone up since then to semi-finalist and I owe that completely to her I did not know what I was doing going in so I just want to speak to her sheer effort and grit and determination that she's put into this job and given to her students I think that that's really a good service that should be protected even if she does end up being replaced I want to make sure that that replacement does still give the students all of that same service that she has so passionately provided but I also do want to of course ask you to make every effort to keep her on the budget if you may during those years working with Mrs Travi I've had the privilege of working as slide her through science research Club Stony Brook stem nights uh I didn't do barcode but I've heard many great things and I did do science research club which has a similar sort of procedure where you complete a experiment and then you're published in the National Center for biotechnology information at the end which is nationally recognized and quite honestly a lot of probably what got me into college let's be honest but I would like to just say that we come out of that with a lot of more qualifications than we came into it with and that's a very valuable resource to students here a very valuable resource for them to have both for future Labs I know a lot of the students go on to to use this experience they've gathered to get into college research way faster than a lot of students from other schools do and that's a great privilege that we've had access to these past few years and I just want to make sure that future students have those same opportunities uh I love this school and this community with all my heart I cannot imagine if I had gone anywhere else and I do want to thank you all because you've definitely put in a lot of work in trying to make this work with the least impact on clubs and sports and activities that we all hold so dear I just want you to all think about the impact that Mrs Trevi has as a unique individual on these clubs because she just puts so much into them and I want to make sure that they will continue to run regardless of whether she remains on the budget so thank you for your time thank you Nathan hello um my name is Mohammad Al MOS and I'm a junior in kinan high school currently taking two AP Sciences AP Physics and AP chemistry um I'm standing here more to express my gratitude for Mrs Travi because beginning my freshman year entering High School I did not really care for science I didn't care for school that much in general I just thought as long as I did my work got good grades I'd be fine but it was through science where I thought I felt that I had to Excel and it was through science where I found passion I did not know Mr Trevi as well as most of these students here but I could with 100% certainty say say that I experienced the positive effects of her generous work done in this District Mr VI has been a staple in our science Community she has allowed students of all ages to explore science with various programs and events such as stem KN night and barcoding of Life enabling the enabling the students to love and understand the subject as well as the world without her I frankly cannot see the future of science department being as great as it is with her she shows passion and love for Science and the students she works with frankly it is through my science teachers all of them phenomenal where I found a drive to excel in school mostly science as I stated before and I'm positive all of them will be dissatisfied with her leave with the absence of Mr VI I cannot see the science department Excel as well as it has with her I cannot see my science teachers happy as they are with her and I cannot see the future of the school Excel as it has with her I understand this actions I understand the action done by the board members are enacted for the benit of the District but I hope you can understand my frustration and I'm sure my words may not retract the actions but as vice president of the junior class student council I feel that I must use my voice to represent our frustration for if these actions would not have frustrated the majority of these students I would not be standing here thank you for your time thank you for your comments hello everybody I'm Julia bubo and um I'm a junior at KHS and I'm just here to represent the student body so obviously in recent times there's been many talk about the budget cuts in the KHS halls and as a representative who listens and cares about the students opinions I'm here to represent them the main concern is seeing beloved teachers let go while we understand budget cuts are necessary and while the idea of saving money may seem top priority we must ask ourselves what's the cost if those who directly contribute to the enement of our learning experiencing being let go how does this serve the primary goal for Education how does this help the students who should be at the front fear of every decision made I recently started a petition against these cuts and the overwhelming response from our community speaks volumes over 500 signatures just over 500 signatures s i just not numbers but voices voices of concern voices of solidarity and voices demanding accountability we must confront the inevitable question that arises from these Cuts will essential classes like math and science become overcrowded and overwhelming for our students will the resources necessary for our education be readily available will art classes vital for creation expression remain accessible to all as a student myself and one with the IEP I understand firsthand the important importance of of a manageable class size larger classes diminish the opportunities for personalized instruction and affect education we cannot Overlook the border inluence of these Cuts Beyond class sizes what other challenges are going to Prevail overall will these changes have a positive effect on the students these are not just theoretical questions they just we just want answers and more importantly they demand action our Collective voice has a power to change to ensure that our educ system remains focused on what truly matters the students overall as a student a Community member and a friend I'm here to stand up for the future of kenalan students thank you thank you J thank you Julie if I could okay before we take our next public comment I want to ask Mrs trumbetta Mrs tretta would you come up and please share because Mrs tretta has been intricate with our guidance department and our staff so far and building next year's schedule based on the numbers you want to share what class size is please so just briefly um as we've you know been working on schedules and stuff we've just been streamlining our process and and looking at you know student requests and um just making sure that we're creative and aligning things um with you know the Staffing that we have so as you saw in the demographic presentation our numbers have gone down so when you divide you know as the numbers person when you divide those numbers um by you know normal class sizes you know between 15 to to 20 students um the amount of sections required um only you know right now we have seven teachers in math so the numbers align for six teachers in math so those are the things like right now we have six teachers in English so six teachers in math makes sense um so as we're looking at our numbers and and looking at student schedules um and aligned with the demographic study the numbers you know we can't we right now we have class sizes of we're looking at classes of eight and 10 and we're not using our resources wisely so um that's that's kind of where we're at as far as numb so we're we're not looking at class sizes of 30 or or 35 or things like that we have class sizes of like eight and 10 right now so we're we're kind of we're trying to schedule a little bit better um for the numbers that we have and and use the the staff that for the the numbers that are um that we have in the school district right now so sorry oh hi every everybody I'm Lauren Thomas I'm the director of curriculum so I just want to thank all the students for coming up you spoke so clearly intelligently very respectfully and I really value um you guys coming up and sharing your thoughts but I want to assure you guys among everybody and everybody else here we are not getting rid of any programs our science department is one of the strongest programs here we are not getting rid of any classes we are not getting rid of any clubs so it's my job to continue to to promote that and ensure that you guys will receive the same instruction and the same um opportunities that you have in the past so you have a phenomenal science department I see a lot of our staff here today we have a science department teacher right here in front of me you have a lot of strong teachers in your science department so with that position opening up the chair we're hopeful that somebody will step up to the plate and continue to drive these excellent programs so thank you um hi my name is Alissa benitz um I have a first grader so I'm not as in tune of what's going on at the high school um I did want to ask know lot of the conversation was about transportation in the budget have you guys looked at private transportation and asking the community to pay for transportation such as other districts do no we have not gone down that road at all okay and then um I just have one other question to you know we looked at the enrollment and how you're planning for like 29 it's going to be low in the high school but it's so much higher in the elementary school what are we doing to preserve the children that are in the elementary school and get them to the high school because there seems to be a big drop off there um and I feel like losing all these classes not classes but you know having a reduction in all of this is only going to it's going to affect the current students but it's also going to force more people to leave and it's just going to continue a vicious cycle okay so if I may good question and um while not popular and again I shared with the ass Association the other day when I met with them that no matter what said and not that what you said is divisive at all but again we have a very good working relationship but the fact of the matter and the reality is because of where we are and everything that I discussed earlier throughout the budget process and Mrs Francisco we have to live within this budget right now so Boards of EDS superintendents Bas wherever they are you're living in 2324 so our books close June 30th our Auditors will come back in they'll let us know where we stand because I can't emphasize enough just to hold weight is very challenging right now and the last thing I want to do if anybody in this room or anybody in cyberspace wants to go Google nutly have at it we don't want to be there meaning in the red so um after that we'll take a look at where we are and I had a conversation earlier today with with a parent that uh luckily you know made a phone call and it was good it was positive that where nothing is off the table as far as next year but we already know with this budget where we stand Mrs utel and Mrs ala have already expressed their concerns are right there on the shelf and that becomes the balancing act like you said because your your child's in first grade if we see that dip that continued decline in the high school so how do we continue to maintain that Integrity based on the numbers and the budget because a high school no matter where you are is always the highest driver but yet our class size is at the elementaries and maybe trickle a little bit into the middle school so that's the slope we're on but we are not turning our Blind Eye and um if we have opportunities if other opportunities present themselves um I know there's been a lot out there and I'll get into it in in my my separate update wasn't part of the budget but it's all part of the budget and the sense of um you know our hiring practices it's if you're in a position like our own homes right we all have our own budgets if you're in a position where you can write that check and get that home equity loan at 10% God bless you most people aren't so if you go back to the feasibility study or the demographic study and you see that stop Gap in the 2021 year with that dip that's where the break should have been head and so we're not in a position to just replace at the top of the guide now we're a teacher College I know I'm old old school it's a teacher College State lot of teacher colleges all around us knock on doors we bring them in and I have to tell you with every staff member we hired some of them came in with a little bit of experience they were willing to come here at this at the top of the at the bottom of the guide at step one like I started somewhere once and like all of us in the crowd over here started we're not in a position to just come in high and that's what we can do so if somebody goes kind of like I know there was a lot of chatter out there especially here in the high school about art art was originally on the table the district did receive a retirement on Saturday I immediately called the board I immediately called Miss Mrs Suffin I immediately called Mrs Francisco and scrubbed it and said okay with this balance now we do have to replace that position in PRM but at a much different rate and the health benefits can we manage this for one more year and we did that was our Ceramics program here at the high school I think for to answer your question though this is next year and we have a tremendous I have just an amazing administrative team we have a great relationship with the Kaa and the Kaa and if we have to move teachers or Flex as the populations move throughout then we'll respond to those needs but we're very we'll pivot and again this is the budget for the next year based on the numbers we have right now but we're not losing the numbers of the students now will be the numbers when you're because we're going to go down in the next few years so when your child gets up we're going to be where my son was in 2021 with the same amount of staff so we're not actually going to be low staffed for when your child get I'm not worried about just my child though I'm worried about everyone in the room child but I'm just saying like it seems that I just sat through this presentation and a lot of it was based on years from now right we looked at a population chart it was based on years from now it was not just this year so the budget was based on this year that was just a projection of where we're going it was not based the decision for the budget is based on this year not on the future okay it was based on this year okay I don't know then why we were talking about what the population is for years to come then if we're looking at this year's budget and I think it's just kind of confusing it out okay thank you okay never mind you didn't can I I hello okay we have another another 15 minutes for public Comet because we do have another whole meeting and it will address a lot of these issues as we go through some of the discussion so Mr manize Mrs Donaldson will be brief I actually planned to speak during the public meeting um but when you were speaking to my students I I couldn't help but feel the need to address it might might be in my case a misunderstanding and so I want to ask the board if they're aware from of certain information uh are you aware that meline Trevi is the only educator in the state of New Jersey who is certified by Coastal mine Coastal Marine biolabs that's a mouthful to Ser to submit to the barcod life database and that her dismissal from this school means that we have no more individuals without Authority so meline Travi is the only educator in the state of New Jersey certified by Coastal Marine biolabs is a biology lab in California that controls the barcod of Life database therefore is the pro barcode of Life project that our school participates in she is the only one in this state who has the authority to submit to that database in her absence our students are not allowed to participate in that project okay but I have faith and I have confidence in you our teaching staff and our Administration that we are going to find a way that we could partner with wherever she's going or we can solve this problem and and if that's an a problem that we yeah we'll work on that that's not we're not excuse me I have one last question uh for the board are the board members aware that the science research club which participates in the Waxman students college program at Rod Cru University uh the program that I presented here back in October uh has limited seating our entrance to that program was because of Mrs Travis's connection and it ran for free at this school at no cost to the school because Mrs travay donated her own personal equipment for the students to use in next school year without that equipment we must take a sabatical from the Waxman student Scholars Program to basically create our own stock and so hopefully in 25 26 we can continue the program was the board aware of that fact thank you that's all I to say good evening to Mr mango the Board of Education yes of course good evening to Mr mango the Board of Education parents teachers and fellow students my name is Sophie Kempa and I'm a junior at Kinnelon high school I'm currently involved in Kinnelon science research Club barcod of Life program and I'm proud to say that I'm the co- captain of the bi Olympia team my involvement in these science programs has left me with SC seven research Publications across multiple highly regarded scientific databases including the National Library of Medicine and with awards for my scientific achievements in fact this past Tuesday I had the opportunity to present a protein modeling project at Ruckers University this opportunity would have never been possible without the Waxman student Scholars Program and the science research Club at our school without the help of M Travi who established these programs I along with many other students would not have had the same opportunities to be better prepared for college and my eventual career in science I think it's important that our school continues to support Hands-On learning and extracurricular opportunities within the sciences and other areas it is very unfortunate and disappointing to me that future students won't have the same opportunities that I had let us appreciate these tangible ways that help students learn and let support aspects of that education that will allow them to succeed and thrive in their future careers thank you thank you okay that's that's the last comment for this part because we're going to have you can come up in the next part of the meeting since this and talk about the budget item then too okay because we need to get on to the next meeting so if you could please please hold your comments to the next section I'd appreciate it do you does anybody need to take a recess before we move on anyone okay all right I'm going to finish Okay so we've had the public hearing of the 2425 School District now we're going to see the adoption of the 2425 School District budget be it resolved that the Board of Education approves the final budget for the 20425 school year as indicated in the agenda with the adjustment for the health care costs the maximum travel as per code the travel and related expense reimbursements the capital reserve and the withdrawal from the the capital reserve account for the Stony Brook roof as indicated in the agenda can I have a motion motion second okay Mr Francisco we pull the board for approval of the 2425 school budget Mr Eisen manger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr petracelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes okay um all right that's it for this portion of the meeting we'll take a five minute recess and --------- okay we're going to ahead and uh start up with the second part of the meeting and we're going to go right to routine matters okay um we have approval of the minutes so as you can see and Mr mango stated this in the beginning of his budget presentation um we met several times in March uh we actually had four public meetings and the first one was a preliminary budget meeting which Mr mango in initiated in the district is where he shows you what the staff has come up with as sort of a skeleton of where we're going and that was shared at a public meeting for the public to attend and ask questions at um and then we went into the tentative budget which is State requirement where we approve tentatively what we're talking about and we set the date for this approval meeting which is today and then we had our second public meeting uh we had a special one again we talked about budget and then we had a regular one so we had four public Mee meetings and this is our fifth and they were all about the budget so just to draw your attention that we were busy um I'd like to make a motion to approve these minutes motion second and any discussion from the board on the minutes good nothing okay Barbara could you pull the board please for approval Mr RIS and manger yes this is Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes Sarah hi everyone for those who don't know me my name is Sarah gar and I'm the Board of Education representative and I'm going to be sharing some updates from our four schools and hopefully bring some light into this room so firstly to start off from Keel thank you to Kesha for your support of our kelan elementary schools between our Tricky Tray book fair family engineering design nights and so much more we're always grateful for your limit Limitless support of our students staff and programs congratulations to the many kindergarten and second grade winners of our recent poison prevention poster contest we recently celebrated our PA professionals administrative assistants and libr media specialist in K Cisco and we thank them for all that they do on a daily basis to support teaching and learning in our pre- through second grade classrooms we had an awesome Prismatic magic assembly on April 16th which took students on a kindness Quest thank you to Dr vul for giving this amazing experience to our K through Cisco students thank you to our K through five families for attending our recent skate night at Floren Park Roller Rink all proceeds will benefit our upcoming field day our first graders had an incredible experience visiting the longo planetarium at County College of moris which was a great opportunity to learn more about our solar system to Stony Brook congratulations to our fifth grade students who were accepted to play in the NJ SMA Elementary honors band Festival on May 4th Ella mclen for flute Michael Wang for trumpet Jonathan Dennis for trombone and Cali Ferguson for percussion cman s ni for clarinet Ryder Regan for baritone and Di Dylan utter for percussion were chosen as alternates our fifth grade students participated in creating clay pots with Gloria the Potter and our third grade students enjoy their trip to the m molo H Hall Musical Hall Museum in moristown New Jersey thank you to Kesha for it's a live science assembly on Tuesday April 23rd our students loved it Stony Brook celebrated administrative professional stay by recognizing Don Kenny and Michelle bordon bordonaro are amazing administrative assistants our Stony Brook student council members took a trip to burrow Hall and the DPW on April 25th they learned learned about our community and were able to participate in various activities thank you to our Stonybrook families who are participating and take your child to workday on April 25th Stony Brook also welcomed 37 of our own staff members children thank you to Kesha for hosting our third grade Spring Fling dance on Friday April 26 6th NJ NJ SLA testing begins on Monday April 29th for a thir grade and PRM students see the calendar for testing dates our ston Brook student council car wash will be held on Saturday May 4th from 9:00 a.m. to noon please come out and support our student council our second Kesha sponsored family engineering design night will be held on May 7th now PRM PRM held career day on March 28th our seventh and eighth grade students got to hear from people in a variety of careers about the work that they do we thank all of our presenters for taking the time to share their experiences with our students and we are grateful to our counselors for planning and facilitating this event the PRM peer mentors went to Keel this week to teach lessons about kindness to the kindergarten students we thank our advisers Mrs mlan Miss stuns and Mrs alal and the keio staff for making this experience possible the sixth grade class committee has partnered with the Seeing Eye in moristown to raise awareness and money this is an initiative that we at PRM have participated in for over 10 years each year the class committee collects donations during the school during the lunch periods last year we were able to donate $500 which went to the training of a German Shepherd named niik we are asking the kinon community to spread the word and make a donation to this great cause any questions can be directed to Mrs eer the sixth grade class committee adviser also last week PRM participated in Autism Awareness Month students and staff were asked to wear blue from head to toe for a blue out day students in each social studies class were asked to sign their name in a puzzle piece to show their support for autism and the acceptance of everyone sixth grade class committee would will cutout and hang up all of the puzzle pieces to demonstrate that we are one school one Community the PRM science research Fair will take place this Friday students in the e8th grade science research class will be presenting the projects they've worked on throughout the year the eighth grade class photo will be taken at the beginning of school on Wednesday May 8th the e8th grade trip to G Gettysburg and Philadelphia will take place on May 9th and 10th field day at PRM will take place on Friday May May 17th and last but not least KHS KHS recently inducted new members into the National Honor Society and honor Societies in Math Science Social Studies World languages business English art and music 16 KHS students won awards for their score on the national Latin exam this year over 100,000 students Nationwide took the exam students in the KHS student council peer leaders and give back Club volunteered at Groo a farm that provides Fresh Foods and vegetables for people in 22 States struggling struggling with food insecurity KHS us will host an inter intergenerational prom from May 2nd on May 2nd from 4: to 7:00 in the new gym this event brings senior citizens from the community together with KHS students and staff for an evening of Music dinner dancing games and prizes and one more last one that was just added uh KS hosted a three Onre basketball tournament these past two weeks and had our Championship Game on Wednesday all participants donated to the njasc state charity hugs for Brady it was a great turnout during lunch with 12 teams the championship was held on Wednesday with Team CHD and team Titanic at overtime with Team CH winning 24 to 21 thank you to all the referees scoreboard helpers physical education teachers Spectators and basketball participants for making this a successful event for the third year in a row thank you for listening and if you have any questions please please feel free to reach out [Music] thanks Sarah okay superintendent update thank you Mrs president and welcome everyone anybody who is new just joined us for this meeting and I want to thank you Sarah for that update very nice and also to our student body I want to Echo what Mrs Thomas said you spoke beautifully and eloquently and um I wish it was under different circumstances but but uh a lot of respect uh both ways for how you feel and then also the respect and the courtesy you showed the board I thank you for that um so the best part of any of our board meetings ever is students and that recognition so tonight we do have one recognition award and that uh will call for Mr buer PRM assistant principal to come on up Mr buer good evening everybody and thank you all for being here this evening I am here to present the Middle School leadership award the Middle School leadership award is a prestigious honor that recognizes one student in each Middle School in Morris County whose academic extracurricular and Community leadership has had a positive impact on their school environment and who also serves as a role model for others this is certainly true of tonight's Honore who leads by example every single day we are very proud to have Jillian Kahala represent PRM as our recipient Jillian will also be honored at a county dinner next month in which the honores from each middle school and Morris County will be in attendance once again congratulations Jillian mom and dad you want to come on congratulations okay so congratulations again to uh to Jillian and her family and Mr buer thank you very much for coming on up here so just a a few quick stes May flies by and we do have a revised calendar for next year and that's the Rashana holiday and it'll be observed on Thursday October 3rd so that's under the dsection tonight for approval we're bringing back for the first time I believe Mr sud you could correct me if I'm wrong since 2018 the intergenerational prom so much thanks to Mrs sapio and her advisor ship and our student council because that was derived in student council Mrs sapio and Mr suda for all their hard work if you want to stop on down you want to say hello it's May 2nd here at the high school we're having our first diversity Derby day here at the high school on Saturday May 18th and that was uh the origin there are two of our students they're both sophomores salani Mattel and uh kathern Fritz steered by the adviser Mrs girth this is a step towards Special Olympics and Unified sports coming to our district and and this is a big step because this is a heavy lift uh it's going to be a great day so much thanks to them and uh anybody here that wants to volunteer and give their time it'll be for a few hours on the field you're more than welcome to join us our very own Sarah gar uh wrote a book and uh God bless her with that and yes and she will be presenting at an assembly in Mrs utel School in Stonybrook to the fifth grade students on Monday May 20th so another fantastic date for our parents high school specific and our students are here we will be conducting a reunification drill and that will be on Thursday May 23rd before the Memorial Day holiday now we typically conduct drills schools are required to conduct drills so our evacuation site the local one is the DPW so Mr shivas much thanks to him and the high school admin team along with Chief Na platano and the DPW we went over things we uh tablet topped it's been throughout the school year what we're really looking for is Lifetime action so it's not that something's wrong but when you think about security right away everybody thinks to the worst case scenario which God forbid is an active shooter that's a very very minuscule percentage of it happening but what about everything else so I think we kind of learned from the bomb threat the false bomb threat two years ago that happened yet if you're not ready if you're not trained if you don't practice if you're not timing if you don't do those things how does it operate so really this is just tabletop and when it's over we'll discuss it further with law enforcement and DPW we're going to tabletop summer and it'll actually be a Prelude to next year when all of our schools practice reunification across the district but I promise parents you will be well informed it is just a drill we're not asking you to come to the school or to the DPW or reunification site it's for us in return for you and for our students I I thank you because I know sometimes doing drills who wants to do what I get it but um when things happen you have to act and you have to know with muscle memory and practice so um that will come off on Thursday May 23rd and then of course luckily we did not get hit too hard with Mother Nature this winter and we didn't have any water main breaks or you know outings of electric for too long or power loss and the give back day on the revised calendar for this year will be this come uh this coming Friday will be Friday May 24th before the Memorial Day holiday so look for that as well so that's some good news and so 23 24 project facilities update just a quick update on where we are our pre-bid roof replacement walkthroughs of Keel and Stonybrook took place they kicked off this past Monday Mrs Francisco and I and Mr brassette uh met with our district architect and various contractors at ke and Stonybrook the actual bid is on May 14th and we're looking to move this fast especially with the calendar year ending June 14th two weeks full before the 4th of July holiday we want to be moving at a good pace so um I'll keep you updated on that but both of those are from our Rod Grant applications the K School HVAC rooftop unit replacement this is the second one now we have six on that building they're all original so not to bore anybody but um in December of 22 Mrs ala was hosting uh triple holiday concerts it was a pouring rainstorm and it was raining on our parents and grandparents and our staff and our kids not accept so that rooftop replacement was replaced this year in the fall we identified it we managed it that unit and the leak it was causing done now this one is the second one and these are things that we have to tackle so you know if two went it's only a matter of time before the next foro um but that's where we are there and um PRM gymnasium Auditorium sound system upgrade the challenges that we faced In This Very Room you face them for various reasons and PRM um we also found in that um Mr Miller found across the across the way that the paging system wiring much like we found earlier with security in the year here at the high school 40 years old does not work so he was good enough he went out received some quotes we've edited through the board you'll see that under the a section as well to upgrade in the PRM gymnasium now the next one uh I have to thank Mr Cella and then I want to thank Mr damont because um and if you don't know Mr damont he's one of our maintenance workers and he Twilights as one of our extra drivers thank God that we have one um Mr Cella asked me to come to the PRM locker rooms and I did and um you know much like if you go to our faculty Lounge here if you go to our students bathrooms here you go to some of the student bathrooms in PRM it's a problem it's a problem so uh you know I took that back to the board where we started talking and receiving quotes for water fountain that's a simple one it's original from 1967 you're talking about the water filtration much like we have in the other buildings that quote was $9,250 new Locker installation in both the boys and girls a little different we're looking for other quotes and because our and I hate to sound like a broken record our demographics we no longer need 400 plot plus Lockers in each locker room we don't have that many students so we're looking at downsizing that receiving some other quotes and seeing if we actually can do this if it's possible benches seating I think that's an easy one they're original as well and then in the girls locker room specific if you walk up the steps there's literally tiles off the wall and all the way up into the girls locker room it's not acceptable just not acceptable so um I think some of these projects we can handle in-house and some of them we can't so that's that's the idea that again after tonight in June 30th when we close out the 2324 budget and we meet with our Auditors what do we have what do we don't we're talking class size I'm sorry Mrs tajo I don't me to point at you but you're sitting right there but then I see Mrs ala Mrs utel um it's some of our elementaries back into our elementaries you know what can we handle what could we not and for anybody and I I know class size came up earlier we do have a board policy it's very it's vague it hasn't been updated to since 2009 and um you know I I think maybe that's something Mr Eisen meiger and a policy committee will review and not that we're going to lock in specific numbers per grade level size um because that then becomes a slippery slope when we're already on one financially but I think it's I think it's good practice to really look at it and have those discussions because that hasn't happened um so that's where we are there summer projects I know broken record KHS security surveillance we did budget that that came out of cap Reserve last year uh as you know or you don't we did have a change in the business office literally right before the holiday and so that kind of slowed things down Mr shivas sped things up after that when Mrs Francisco came with the board and received those quotes it came in well under bid that gives us some flexibility on how we can manage those dollars um across the way the two sections of partial roof replacement over at Stonybrook that's long overdue and for the staff specifically of Stonybrook in the 300 Wing thank you for always being honest um and one section over Mrs ala's building in K school and then obviously the phase two technology infrastructure upgrade at Cisco Keel and Stony Brook last year last summer we did phase one this is phase two and all of this is derived from board and District goals over a two-year window so nothing happens in a vacuum I you know I see a lot of the same faces I really don't know if it's necessary at this point I do not want to be Doom and Gloom to continue to go over the enrollment the information is out there the information was placed in public it's on the district website you could find all of it um the numbers are the numbers they're not going to change tomorrow and again the good news is capacities and seating and you know something that Mrs Francisco said earlier um when you're talking about revenue and then she brought up some of our co-ops one specific softball this year there was no way that as as long as I could there was no way I was going to lose a program we only had seven student athletes so you had to look to do something and luckily Lakeland we found a partner and they jumped on board I think that something we have to keep our mindset on as we go forward and this is more High School based and it's more board and maybe even the municipality the burrow when we're talking about our recck programs and sustainability because where we are even when we level back off 10 years from now forever who is here 10 years from now and we're back to where we are you're always going to have a problem in a group one balancing your athletic programs it's easy with you know other clubs like I had mentioned earlier uh salani and Katherine Fritz for Ability awareness they have 45 students in that pilot program like our our student body boom but when it comes to sports it's a different Arena than we used to be um you know with three Sports and everything else or those that just want to play one sport and customize in it and so I think I think this is something that another reason why I did contact Bon just so you know because it's not just filling our seats it's not just offering programs to neighbors um and revenue it's also sustainability of all our programs because the the level of time that it took to have softball take place is monotonous so we don't want to live in that window like anything else the board's going to vote in a few you know considerations for constructing present and future budgets we're looking at you know our a current Administration it took time from October of 22 until July 1st of 23 and that's fresh lens from all different eyes and experiences and then falling back on other experiences of our exis existing admin bringing it to the board student enrollment is a denominator there's nothing we can do about it but I want everybody in this room to know you have more than enough staff administratively and instructionally trust me on that all you have to do is look at some neighboring districts our size we've been very fortunate and we're still fortunate this is a great place to be but right now there's difficult decisions to be made Financial facilities technology security is a priority but that doesn't come out of the Personnel line while instructional and Co and extracurricular programs are must and that's why in this budget you do not see any law and I did share earlier thanks to Mrs suin and Mr strad and the Kaa we were able to strike multiple sidebar agreements in the last 18 months to bring new stien positions and some that were kind of like on the shelf and nobody was taking part of helped the board out and they did and that's what it's about it's about talking real at the table hiring philosophy instructional administrative clerical whatever you want to call it sustainable salaries now I was trained the old school way that you do not move until you talk into the superintendent's office the superintendent's office checks and balances with the Board of Education checks and balances at the end of the day with the ba you doesn't matter the Personalities in a central office anywhere or what exists you have to communicate you have to know what's happening and you have to know that you can budget for something you just can't hire in a silo that's not how that works and then of course in the future and they're coming accurate Financial impact K Kaa central office contracts we have to know where we are you have to have scattergrams you have to know your projections so we're not here again two years from now that's my goal so everybody knows after tonight I'm already into 2526 because 24 and 2 2425 is there and then it's we have goals and objectives and now we have to move towards 25 26 so again for anybody that missed it Boards of edge superintendent Bas we live in three budget Cycles simultaneously the current 2425 2526 come October we hit the ground running it's not easy and trust me they don't teach you that in college elephant in the room that's where we are so if I'm standing here telling you yes we restructured some yes we totally abolished some others and others we pivoted or didn't replace I'm telling you based on our student enrollment you are still perfectly fine may not be popular and I know why you're all here because of this but I do have a job to do because if I couldn't balance this budget then what because for those staff members and I shared this at the meeting the other day that we're here I don't know maybe it was 20 years ago or so there was a time when kelan went into the red and had to borrow money from the township to pay their bills and that's why I referenced nutly no disrespect I know a lot of good folks down there but things happen you have to be financially smart and sound always just like your own home budgets now let's talk about some positives if you look at it that way so job descriptions tonight under the B section we have a 12-month admin assistant for guidance in athletics it it used to be or currently is part-time for athletic director which really doesn't function well in the athletic office and guidance was 10 months after discussion we thought it'd be best to merge both that's why you see that under the resolution tonight and it'll be a competitive search it'll be advertised anybody who is qualified is welcome to apply but it'll be both and it'll be 12 months Mr buer who I thoroughly congratulate and I very very proud and happy for uh we'll be accepting his resignation and PRM said for us but very happy for him in the next step of his career as principal um that job description has been revised and up for approval to 10 months the 612 science department share it's new it's restructured again I think everything that our student body and Mr Manning had shared um will all be part of that search from staff who are here and have been trained under Mrs Travi that will be competitive no different than the ELA ones District summer custodial positions now I'm glad again we have our student body this is new this is for our young people so anybody who wants to make $15 and change an hour for eight weeks over the summer and is willing to move furniture paint walls I know Mrs ala's Auditorium needs a paint job anything like that get out of the house get off the computer get off your phone stay off social media come on in give us a hand burn some calories we need workers so Mom and Z moms and dad in the crowd or anybody that's watching in cyberspace you want your child out of the house send them our way it's work so that's to help our crew and move things so um that'll be posted internally lead Grounds Maintenance and Mrs Suffin I apologize it took 18 months to get this off the ground that was part of the last CBA that will be posted um and then District power professionals again not to sound like a broken record but in the position control roster what happens is sometimes positions get lost so this all this is is a fine tune this isn't losing our people this is fine-tune let's define when we're talking about special ed what these positions are everybody will will come through Mrs davidman will handle that if you're a oneto one if you're a classroom if you're a shared but then what is new is kindergarten okay so not it's the kindergarten once you hit 25 by Statute you're required to have a kindergarten a we're not there but what we found and um you know Mrs ala expressed uh quite a bit and uh Mrs trombetta and Mrs Thomas and Mrs todos and Mrs davidman could all attest by being in that building and doing observations there's something going on with the younger population as they come through to kindergarten kindergarten is not the same anymore certainly is not the same when I was in school in 77 there are some stuff so we think a good way to try to to combat that that is to give a little bit of assistance to those teachers and so that's new and that's all positive so amidst everything that's happening there's plenty of positive it's just moving past tonight um unfortunately and I thank you for your time I hope I didn't bore anybody um thank you for coming out [Applause] okay um thank you Mr mango we're going to move on to committee reports Finance facilities and security Mr Myers all right yep uh so we did meet on April 16th discussed uh a number of items some of which are up for approval today so I'm just going to kind of go through here we discussed security cameras um the committee recommends uh D Tech uh as the company to move forward with so that's up for a today uh we discussed the reun ation um we discussed uh security book cases and um expecting a quote sometime soon on those um we discussed the locker rooms and Facilities as Mr mango already mentioned um some data transfer uh looking from front line to real time uh we also got a really nice update on the school's uh new uh website design uh very easy to navigate um so that's going to be coming out soon uh would have looked fantastic um looked talked about um Horizon Blue Blue Cross which is going to be added to the May agenda we also discussed the rooftop unit um which is also on the up for approval um some job descriptions uh the PRM audio systems which is also for approval and some additional job Scopes so that's about it thanks Carl Mike Personnel negotiations uh so on the Personnel committee we actually spent most of the time talking about the job descriptions that uh Mr mango just uh shared um I I'll just also mention that from past person committee meetings that there were just for the sake of the conversation tonight there are a lot of stomach churning conversations that happen in Personnel about how we move forward so I I don't want you to think that the you know the board members take this in a cavaliere way by any stretch of the imagination and you noticed uh up there that was I think uh Mr M one of his first bullets that said we want to maintain our academic uh and extracurricular kind of programs and that was very important to the board so you know how do we do that in the best way possible so that wasn't just this past Personnel committee that was other Personnel committees so just want to say three months of it yeah many months so probably the last couple of years we probably spent more time in Personnel committee than in in my time here so just want you to know that we're not taking it lightly thank you thank you Mike education Student Activities Mrs PR hi so we met um sorry just recently and one of the things that we talked about is how we have the KHS varsity head coach position available for both boys and girls so we are starting the interview process on that for sorry soccer yes um we are going to be working on that I think actually we um already started so we're moving forward to the final rounds um we talked about the reunification process we've talked about the surveillance quotes um we also talked about something very exciting which is our website for our district is being upgraded ated thank you so much Mrs trombetta um that launch is actually going to be happening momentarily I I believe it's imminent it should be happening in the next week or two the roll out um you're going to be very impressed with it you're going to love it it's going to be encapsulating for all five schools it's going to have current information athletic academic it is going to be a go-to place for all of your information it's going to be very userfriendly and it's going to have all the wonderful pictures of the student accolades um that have been going on that we really want to celebrate our students so thank you Miss trumbetta that's really exciting we're very excited about it um there will also be Board of Education information and all the meetings and the minutes and the agendas everything that you need to find will be on there it'll be much more user friendly um we also talked about um the possibility our Allied Health program is phenomenal um we have amazing technology we have phenomenal teachers um and right now we're currently helping six students with it at kinan high school so what we have talked about the possibility of this has not been approved we've just talked about it is um bringing in outside students to kind of share our resources and our wealth of knowledge with other kids from other towns uh through Morris County vocational and Technical School um that's just a possibility something that we're thinking about but we really have just such a tremendous wonderful program it would be really nice to open it up to more students um grief counseling um last year was approved for all the students um here in the high school so we've talked about different ways that we can incorporate it into the curriculum I think it's very important to do so um we also talked about the summer Learning Academy this is a phenomenal program that we've been able to have over the past couple years in the lower grades um it's not esy it's different than esy it's where if a teacher or a parent really feels like they want to support their students skills over the summer fight regression and just kind of work on extra skills um they're able to sign their child up for this program and with our Esser funds no longer intact because of covid this was actually going to stop and Mrs Thomas who was amazing um reached out for a tutoring Grant um and we were able to have some extra money for a tutoring grant that we had this year so we're going to be able to keep our Learning Academy this summer which I'm really excited about for all of our students um and so it was a really great meeting we covered a lot thanks Kelly um I was just wondering if Miss Thomas because we have been talking about some of the things we've had to cut I don't know that everybody's aware about some of the things we've stun and if you could just come up and piggy back off of K Kelly we're instituting a kindergarten screener like just brief some of the initiatives the the um algebra offering instead of going to an online course that we're going to do for math in the summer so if you just kind of do a quick overview of that yep yeah so that was a good start so uh we have implemented a lot of things across the district Mr mango mentioned allocation for K5 resources very much needed so we've been working on that building our foundational skills at the K5 level with phonic resources very much needed and we are continuing to build the program so Mrs Pella just spoke about our Allied Health Program um I did receive some more information just yesterday so this is a really exciting opportunity to work with Mars County votch and that's going to continue to build that program there bring in more students it would bring in tuition um so I think we already have this fantastic program so why not open it up to more students so that's really exciting we should be really proud of that um our summer programs we've built uh Mrs trombetta can probably speak a little bit better to this but um we have two simultaneous things going on we as you know or if you know if you have students in the Middle School um our jsla math scores we would like to boost them that's some that's a goal of ours that's something that we want to work on so we have built a program during the summer Learning Academy so we will have math um instruction for students in middle school if they would like to participate in that um Mrs trumbetta is also running an acceleration program so in order for we have a lot of students here are very interested in accelerating and math so we're going to be able to provide an opportunity here in house because in the past students have had to go to a different district for that so now we're going to offer it in-house which is really exciting um so those are just some of the things that we've been building um more to come but um like Mrs Donaldson said we've all been working really hard at um enhancing our current programs that's our job is that we want to take our current wonderful programs continue to build and enhance thank you m Thomas okay policy Mr eanger we didn't have a meeting that's right I forgot you guys didn't have anything so you didn't meet um okay delegates New Jersey school boards Association I didn't have a chance to pull it together I'll do it for next time okay thanks um Morris County um so in April the Morris County chapter didn't meet but there is a meeting next week scheduled for May 2nd and it is um Senator Duram uh honoring the school board members who were nominated by their boards by their years and so um I just want to share some information with some of you uh regarding Mrs donalson our board president who was nominated by this board um so for those of you uh who don't know Mrs donalson has five children of her own and she gives a lot of time um a lot of us are relatively new to the board and she's a mentor for us she's always available by text by phone call to answer questions um and she doesn't hesitate to do research to ask others um in order to get us answers for things that she may or may not know uh just to speed up the process and help us have a better picture different points of view before we make you know before we meet and um make some decisions um she led the return of the C civics class in Pearl Miller and and kinan high school which is in the works she's been an advocate for lots of different opportunities for students whether it's music and we made um some progress this year voting for additional music band support financially uh for the high school um supporting um solutions that residents parents bring to her um having five children involved in various activities you know she's working within the community she's a liaison to the Town Council um brings us some of the considerations that are really important for us as we move forward uh with regards to the town um and she feels strongly that um that the students and the the families here are what Mak Kon you know home for her and her family so we um we all feel strongly that her leadership uh under her leadership we've been able to to support more opportunities for students musicians artists and athletes and um it's no doubt that her experience as a helicopter pilot for the United States Coast Guard in years past has helped her to prepare to lead us through uh through these times so thank you to to Mrs donalson and that'll be May 2nd I guess I'm going to the meeting May 2nd thank you I have no choice okay um Jonathan legislative rep nothing okay um and education services Kelly anything the next meeting's in June okay all right community relations at Kaa next meeting is May 6th Thanks Jen uh um we haven't done anything with the booster or k cares yet oh kares has anything happened with K carees uh next meeting is the April 30th okay and the Education Foundation and um the booster we're still we're getting closer actually I think booster club actually has an executive board now and I do I do owe um them a phone call and then I'll put you in touch with them Jen okay all right now we're back to um petitions and hearings for uh citizens on agenda items only you're welcome to come up 3 minutes each and we're going to we'll see how long how many people we have um try to keep it to a reasonable time and those who didn't get to talk the last time please come on up hello okay I don't need a mic but that's all right I'll use one uh good evening I am Tina suin and I am the proud president of the kenalan Education Association I am speaking tonight tonight on behalf of the Kaa in regards to the reduction in force that is on the agenda for approval tonight while the association understands that there is a need to be fiscally responsible we also ask you to please consider and remember that we have set a high standard of Excellence here in kinan those standards make this a very attractive district for parents students and teachers alike the board meetings are proof of this Excellence with continued recognition of student achievement in the classroom on stage and on the athletic fields our students perform well and so does our very talented staff this recognition happens time and time again and can only continue by maintaining a highly effective staff professionally Kinnelon attracts teachers of the highest caliber a natural consequence of our student achievements at the end of last year we were in the same position and the Kaa reluctantly understood the need for a reduction in force we are now here for a second year and truly hope that this is the final reduction of some valuable positions our teachers parents AIDS custodians and support staff are the most important resources that we can provide to assure our students have an outstanding experience in the kelan public schools we encourage the Board of Education and central office administration to continue to do their best to strike a balance between being fiscally responsible and ensuring that the students have every access to the resources possible to continue to achieve at a very high level the Kaa will continue to work closely with the Board of Education and the superintendent offer office to make sure that our students are a number one priority I believe strongly that everyone in this room tonight would agree that our students are and will continue to be the driving force behind our decisions thank you for your time thank you [Applause] Tina hello again hi Mr Manning I'm John Manning uh I've taught science in this district for 10 years now I do not envy the position that you find yourselves in and I respect your duty with what you have to do and so I hope you respect my duty to say what needs to be said tonight that's a duty to Echo the sentiments of Mrs sutman and that's a duty to inform you that the Personnel items that you are voting on tonight pose risks for the quality of Education in this District it is heartbreaking to have to say goodbye to some of my trusted colleagues especially when one of them I've considered my mentor for almost a decade what's even more sobering to me is the prospect that next year the opportunities that I've become accustomed to offering my students May no longer be possible and I think why a lot of us are here tonight is not because we don't understand the decisions that need to be made but because the methods betray the legacy of what it means to get an education in this town and the fastest way that I can articulate that is the story of William William pales for those of you who don't know who William s was he graduated from kinan high school in 1970 and he left and he pursued a career just like anybody else that career took him to NASA and in 1985 for four days in October Colonel William pales orbited the planet Earth on the space shuttle Atlantis now custom for an astronaut's first mission you bring your College colors on the shuttle with you but Colonel William pales brought a banner from kinan high school not unlike the ones that hang in our [Applause] gym and I think that's what's missing from the discourse here people and experiences as Educators we have a duty to pave the road for the next William pales and there are so many fitting candidates who are here with us tonight now regardless of the decisions that are made here tonight I hope we can all agree on one thing that when the young people who decided to spend their nights with us go out and change the world when that kinan High School Banner makes it to the moon or even further that we can all Endeavor to say this they did all of those great things because of their time in kinan and not despite it thank you Mr Manning it's obviously it's obvious you're a great teacher thank you good evening my name is Anna Diaz and I have taught Spanish in the kinel school district for over 25 years the changes in class schedules for next year will have a major impact on the world languages program over 20 years ago the district to World languages in Cycles at the middle school the new schedule wants us to return to that time the decision then was to move away from cycles and expand two- yearlong instruction for six through eighth grades the need to better prepare our students for advanced World Language instruction and the desire to enhance articulation with the high school were the reasons given to expand the program then and those needs still continue therefore I am concerned that the change in the world languages program will be detrimental to all the gains we have made we have met District expectations increased Student Success and have consistently scored high on AP tests we have also consistently heard from our graduates and their families and how much World Language instruction has meant to them some of our proudest moments have included students who continue studying World languages and today have Incorporated these skills in their careers some students have taken on jobs where a second language made them more competitive many have expressed their experiences in Spanish through emails letters and conversations showing us how they continue to use the language in their daily lives some have come back to help tutor middle school students and have become positive influence on future Generations professionally we have been contacted over the years by other districts seeking advice on how to improve their AP scores and asking us why we believe this has worked for us proudly we spoke of the commitment and Direction our this has made over 20 years ago to move to full year 6th to eth grades and much more forus articulation between middle school and high school sadly we will not easily be able to report that in the future thank you for your [Applause] time excuse me just one moment excuse me just one moment I just want Mr Su before I say what I'm about to say I want you to know I'm trying real hard to give to keep to my word I'm trying very hard okay folks this is exactly what I said at the onset everybody has the right to public comment but the fact of the matter is what was being offered which is fantastic with two not one but two languages for year-over-year in our Middle School you can't afford it so to even Mr Manning's Point everybody thinks it's simple you're welcome to come on up and run for for a board of bet now in the schedule change which also creates equity in the middle school next year in a balance and allows us to utilize staff across the district and maximize certifications saved a language okay folks like I don't want to dive that deep but I could come back and say plenty I don't want to that's not what this is about we have worked months to save as many programs as we possibly can but when you're looking down the barrel of a million dollars or more it's it's very hard you only have so many places to go so I don't want to say anything else tonight about where you could start looking and where you could start bumping because as I tell our B building uh admins I was one I was one and it's not pleasant it's terrible the staff knows it I know it but I really don't want to go back and forth like this because this does nobody any good and it's not as if the board is going to change their vote because if they do remember it's somebody else could be somebody else who's sitting here we got to make up that month that number and that dollar amount it's not popular it's not pleasant so I'm going to ask you really nicely you have PL of Staff if some programs have to Pivot that aren't even required by the state of New Jersey that we've been running financially that you can't afford right now not forever for now that's fine I would I would like to just also that we we had to come up with over the last two years almost $2 million and and the staff the administration's done a f fantastic job and we had to make changes is to maximize and be efficient and not lose any programs that's what we're doing and we can pivot if we find that the student performance isn't where we want it to be with the exception of what Mr Manning said about the barcode of Life which was only mie Travi in the entire state of New Jersey mind you she was the only one and we paid for her to have that and she had it and it was great but there were some things we had to Pivot to I understand that we are going to continually assess the performance of our students and not change any programs or any expectations of performance of those programs and if we have to Pivot again then we will and we'll adjust and we'll tweak it and we'll continually review how we're going so that we continue to excel that's the goal here and stay of responsible to our taxpayers because we're all taxpayers 47% of this District people live here don't have kids in the district and they pay taxes for it and they do it willingly we never have a problem passing the budget at 2% nobody ever questions it but those were some of the difficult decisions that the administration had to make and the board worked very hard since really the the beginning of the year trying to understand the process and question do we really have to lose that can we change it how can we alter how can we be creative and work with the staff and they've done a fantastic job the administrators have done a fantastic job relooking at schedules how we can maximize people we're going to actually be able to use language teachers in the elementary school to help with kids that English is a second language how awesome is that like we're being able to Pivot in ways that are really creative and that's your that's the administration and the staff doing that and that's amazing to me because they have that is because they have their kids the students are number one in their mind and I think that's fantastic Okay so let's go three more three minutes let's come on up but I wanted to just Echo what Mr mango said that we had to face some difficult decisions and if it doesn't work out and what we're seeing isn't getting us there and the kids have student counsil Mr mango meets with them they can provide us feedback we tweak it we adjust it's not forever it's a pivot we had to make we reassess it and then we we try and change it again and improve it and if you parents see something my emails on the website email me ask questions email Mr mango any one of us you have a concern you you resonate with something that I have a passion about oh my gosh please reach out to me and we will we can we can hear you there's been some great ideas from parents bring them love it okay go ahead next Michelle Kesler I'm a parent in District can you hear me uh Michelle Kessler parent in District um first I want to go off script just to address that sometimes we do need to get to a line item level of detail and you're saying that there's a lot that that you can share and we would very much like our questions answered um when we're up here it means that we don't necessarily have the answers um and thank you for inviting parent comment because I think there are also things that we see that you may not being a certain subset of the population um so I am here to speak about the importance and impact of our District's curricular and extracurricular academic programs and staff and how your personnel and program reductions are already having a negative impact on our children and our town reducing expert experienced staff across the Departments hiring only young inexperienced Personnel potentially reducing programs eliminating eliminating class offerings increasing class sizes staff leaving because they are unhappy so we hear on and on these are taking a step backwards especially since we are such a small District we need what we have and if anything more not less if we expect our students to have a fighting chance to compete against all those bigger districts to get accepted to top colleges and the like your cuts are already slashing and buring the quality of Education in kelan respectfully some of which you did not even you weren't aware of until today in how and we have heard you say clearly in public meetings since the beginning over the last 18 months that we can expect more as recently as the March 3rd meeting and that this is just the beginning so I think you'll also hear people are are very concerned for that this would take countless years to reclaim if it's even possible this will undoubtedly impact our school statistics in our performance reports for example you can watch the AP category undoubtedly reflect our loss of two favorite expert history teachers cause families to stop moving into our town or slow it down and hurt our real estate values specifically regarding our stem education I know we've talked a lot about MD chvi but please humor me stem is the last area we should be cutting we know how essential stem skills are for careers now and increasingly into the future of all subject areas it's what evolves them at the most rapid pace and where schools need to regularly update most so it's mindboggling that Maddie travay our science supervisor is losing her job let me assure you that this will be our loss I have two stem driven kids who have come through our district a freshman in college and sophomore at KHS so I'm intimately familiar with what we offer and our remarkable staff our district science department is so high quality because because of the programs that mty Travi has brought to our district through all the grade levels and because of the way she operates partnering hand in hand with some of our exceptional science teachers like Mr Manning Miss Kowalski and Mrs rymond and because of her personal Hands-On involvement with our kids throughout the school year and the Summers she inspires the students as well as us parents I would I have another minute if you are willing thank you um here is a mention of just some of the programs stem nights summer robotics programs the science research courses that the students get dual credit with Sunni Albany as well as in Industry experience three extracurricular programs from Rucker University that enable our students to work with cutting technology to do genome mapping and actually get the results published science research Club barcod life in the Waxman summer program the US bi Olympiad and much more our understanding is that we will lose many of these existing programs upon losing mrv not only will the teachers be spread thinner but also for some like the Ruckers program M Travi herself holds the seat and that will transfer with her to her next District as well as the expensive equipment that we've received for free before concluding I must also bring attention to the very poor thing happening in our computer science classes we lost our dedicated experienc computer science teacher instead of replacing with that same experience level or more she was replaced by a lovely math teacher uh asked to do computer science learning at the same time as the students we need actual computer science teachers it's computer science it's the number one arena for careers in summary our schools are here for the 3 a academics Athletics and art this is what it's important to our students day-to-day lives and our town overall for our stem kids these programs and Personnel are what is making their High School careers and how in other cases it's how in other cases it's Athletics and arts these programs are their sports team or their band or chorus what's happening right now please do not eliminate these differentiating programs and the Personnel our kids rely on and deserve please do not damage our district in this way thank you thank good evening everyone my name is Jordan Dodie a senior here at KHS and the KHS executive board president I just have a few com I did not prepare to speak tonight but after listening I have some comments and questions if that's okay so I appreciate the board's concern with the bathrooms and the facilities at all of our schools however I think it's more significant to focus on the curriculum and specific activities within the school for example the technology Students Association is an engineering robotics organization that I happened to be vice president of last year this has since been defunded and does not exist at KS anymore um I'm a part of a lot of student council organizations and able to hear from some fellow students in New Jersey about the robust programs they have for engineering and Robotics and it saddens me that our school cannot continue to give those opportunities to upcoming students additionally I have a question um about the phase two of the technology uh production at all the schools except for KHS as a student here on dayto day there's students complaining about either service connection or the spec the specific technology that we are provided by the school that we must use I'm confused as to why KHS is not included in that phase two update actually phase two uh phase one was KHS and PRM last year Jody okay is there any more updates coming for the high school right now yes as the most other than part of this part of this budget for the high school specific is all freshmen will have brand new Chromebooks that's part of the phase in so are the brand new Chromebooks replacing the Chromebooks that the seniors will be giving back that's on all on a rotation by Mrs trumpet's office that's where it's handled okay thank you you got it hi Nancy Bosch I am the Elementary uh media specialist at ston Brook School as well as being a Kinnelon resident um I know we've heard a lot about Maddie tonight but I couldn't let you hear just all the senior all the the high school kids and Mr Manning without hearing a little bit about the elementary proc perspective so I just I wanted and I wanted to uh to bring that in I also have to make a correction um Mrs TRV when she got the uh the barcoding um that was she got that in 2012 when she was with high point as a science teacher and when you talked about the Allied Health Program I've been hearing a lot about the Allied Health program that's something that Mrs Travi has worked very very hard on and has been um the liaison um to talking to them so I just needed to make that point it and and that is my point that while we do have to make make really hard decisions and I mean I have a leak in my library I I know we need some roof work done for sure um so I know we need to make some hard decisions but sometimes it's about the people and not just the position Maddie is just incredible uh Mrs Travi um she's been the motivating force behind the science and the social studies curriculum in the elementary um she not only implemented the mystery science program that the kids love um but the new social studies curriculum she brought brought stem nights you've heard about that she was instrumental to the goal program she brought not only helped with like curriculum but she would come in and run some of the curriculum herself she did things like bring the the Bonnie seed cabbage growing experiments and the Butterfly lessons so that the teachers did you because it's very timely the way you have to do some of these things and she was able to do those things for them um she she sent me to go teach elementary coding for goodness sake um and and brought the robotics program down to the element program what I'm trying to tell you is having somebody who is so ingrained and so knows the curriculum of science so much that from K to 12 she was able to to really focus in on what was needed here so that as the kids go up they're prepared they have exactly what they need and that was something that Maddie Travi was able to do and I'm I'm not so sure that we're going to be able to find somebody with the exact same uh skill set as Maddie Travi it was she's just she's a really really special person and you you've just you it's just I have to express what an IM an immense enormous loss Maddie is going to be to this District okay thank you Mrs BOS I appreciate good evening my name is Marie Levy and I'm a junior at Kenan high school and I will also be speaking on behalf of Mrs Travi I have been part of the barcode of Life and Science research programs led by Mrs Travi since the beginning of my sophomore year I've also volunteered at the stem nights she organized which were great initiatives for volunteering interacting with younger students and sharing our knowledge with them as I'm starting my college applications this fall the science research and barcode of Life programs have been some of my most promising extracurricular activities our school was the only one in New Jersey to participate in the barcode of Life program and won in a handful of schools partnered with Ruckers for the science research Club from these programs I have six Publications on distinguished scientific websites and they have significantly helped me on my AP exams getting rid of these opportunities May sabotage the chances of future stem Majors such as myself as well as many of my peers and underclassmen the strength of these extracurriculars made this school stand out in its stem department and they Prov provide exceptional College preparation Mr Manning has told countless stories of his Student Success in College due to the skills they learned from these programs due to Mrs Travis's efforts in funding and organizing these programs many students have benefited immensely from their experience in real life applications of stem they have been a great way to not only gain extraordinarily useful knowledge but also to form connections with my teachers and other students with similar interests to mine I been extremely grateful for the these opportunities and I would want future kelon students to have a chance to experience them along with their benefits please reconsider your decision regarding the cutting of these programs and their funding they have provided Priceless and irreplaceable opportunities thank you thank you hello my name is Tina XU and I am a junior at kinan High School this year I am speaking today to address a concern that has been mentioned before many times and a concern that I have for the future of this school so as you all know Mrs Travi will not be continuing her career at KHS however she established many major stem-based programs that students at other schools do not have the opportunity to experience like the science research Club her expertise in Industry connections gave me and other students unique exposure to real science practices but letting her go means that most of those opportunities go with her therefore I firmly believe that letting her go is a mistake I cannot help but wonder what will happen to the future of ks's stem programs now here's my point of view I joined the after school science research Club at the beginning of this year not only have I gained experience and knowledge from the labs we conducted but I also learned what it was like to work in a real life lab setting moreover I have two scientific Publications in the National Library of Medicine which makes me a published scientist now without Mrs Travi and her work I would not be where I am today being a part of the club was and I hope will continue to be a truly educational and extremely eye-opening experience I also worked the stem night at Pearl AR Miller Middle School and I vividly remember seeing one kid's eyes light up when he got to play with one of the robots which Mrs Travi provided to us as a result of a partnership with another organization I ask you what will happen to the boy's potential interests in stem I ask you tonight and I ask you to ponder upon it again tomorrow and perhaps tomorrow as well is it truly in the best interest of Kess to let Mrs Travi go of course I do not know the whole story but I know enough to believe that this is not the right choice thank you for your time thank you good evening everyone my name is Sonia hosner and I am currently in 11th grader here at KHS these past 3 years I have devoted much of my time to the extracurricular activi is offered by the science department my involvement in these clubs has earned me a total of eight science Publications in the National Library of Medicine and the barcode of Life data system as well as many leadership positions including president of the science National Honor Society co- captain of the USA biology Olympiad team and the lead student position in our science research club last spring I was selected as a sole representative of Kenan High School in the Waxman student Scholars Program summer Institute at Ruckers University my experience at the summer Institute prepared me to direct college level labs and assist my peers in becoming published scientists as well the privilege of earning these Publications will serve as an advantage in the college admissions process and prepare us for the next level of Our Lives it brings me great disappointment that the future of KHS students will not have access to the same opportunities I was given I remember attending the St nights as a student of K school which is where my passion for science developed years later I have been volunteering at the semites witnessing the growth of young minds as they are introduced to science stem nights run by Mrs travay provide invaluable opportunities for young students to explore and engage I urge you to reconsider your decision that will affect the continuation of such programs and I would like to add that I have heard that you would your goal is to maintain the established programs we have at the high school but without Mrs chavay this will not be possible as she is the one who has brought these programs to the district and you've heard her qualifications for the barcod of Life program and the Waxman student Scholars Program and how much of it has been because of her and will not be able to continue this without her thank [Applause] you hi I'm Mary Stern um a mom and uh I just have a letter though that I urged my daughter she's in the middle of finals at RIT but uh two of her passions are science and art and so I urged her to write a letter so this is from her she said hi my name is Caitlyn and I'm an environmental science major at RIT I graduated from kinan last year I love the Arts and Sciences Sciences it's one of the reasons I went to RIT the art and science classes offered at KHS helped me to get where I am today being able to work with clay and Ceramics has led me to considered a minoring and Ceramics in the future also all of the science opportunities offered by the school were the reason why I chose to pursue a career in stem I am currently helping at a research lab and next semester I'm going to be working there the science class is an EXT curriculars I did at KHS have elevated me in the eyes of the professors and helped me make the dean list in Honors College I hope science and art are continually valued in Kenan to help students like me when they get to college so that's from her that's my high achieving daughter but I'm also here to talk about all the other children who are not high achieving who are already struggling and I see the scci the counseling department being cut the counseling supervisors being cut and the teachers being spread then and they're wonderful teachers we're not saying you're not doing a great job none of us want your job that's why we're here and not there but these teachers are like our family I owe so many of them such a debt from elementary all the way up through high school just exemplary teachers for both of my kids and they wouldn't be where they are today without them and I just worry that the teachers that you have if they're spread too thin all of the children that aren't High achieving are going to kind of be left behind and what's going to to happen to them there's already not a counselor for the Middle School the the little kids you know my kids went through a hard time in first grade second grade third grade and there wasn't nobody to help them because they didn't have a account they didn't and still don't have a counselor for the elementary level so I just urge you it's great for all the kids here but I just urge you for the the young there are three guidance there are three psychologists in our district of 1600 for the little kids though there's a oh there is now okay there's a school there's a counselor keil we we have okay so maybe that has changed but I just and we also have psychologists we have two social workers we have a very robust support staff if you saw the budget what was the amount of money we spend on support staff would you support staff was 208 20% of our budget goes to support staff almost and that's fair and and please I I I just want to try to keep the meeting under order but that's fair that's a fair question and we will do a better job in trying to Define what those things mean um we will definitely work on that 100% thank hello my name is Albert a and I'm at the Kenan High School I thank I thank you guys for allowing for me and others to be heard however I do want to address some concerns which is the future 15 18 years ago my parents moved to kinan because kinan High School had one of the highest ranking um educations however now this our ranking has been on a decline and I'm really concerned at the fact that we've been cutting off valuable teachers such as Mrs Travi Mrs Travi has provide has provided lots of opportunities to us high schoolers and even to younger students she has provided us um the code of life science research club and stem nights and even for the younger people that I participated at stem night that us high schoolers we enable younger people to be interested in pursue science which is great but the fact that this is being cut off is that it's going to hurt our education I believe that Mrs trii she is irreplaceable with her position um I don't think anybody else can replac her thank you for for your time thank you very well said thank you honey hi hi Alysa reinitz again um I just wanted to come up and say that I think a lot of the parents are here tonight because there's a feeling that currently there's a lot of things that are not being done the teachers are currently being spread to thin I mean there's a sixth grade Spanish class that's learning online they don't even have a teacher so for the teacher to be cut even further I think there is a very big sentiment of concern um and then also I know that there's many times where my son who goes to a special service doesn't get pulled out because that um person is too busy because she has to now see the whole school instead of just you know she used to have a split role with somebody else and now it's oh I'm too busy that day or I can't do it that day um I don't know if you guys are all aware of all of this but this is kind of what I think is really driving the concern that if we're going to stretch teachers even thinner and ask them to take on being the chair of a department or things like that what is going to be we're not the first of all the only reduction in staff is at the high school right but that affects every student in this District whether it's at the high school or not it's going to affect every student at this District okay well you were talking about Keel though I'm talking about people already being spread very thin within the district and then there's going to be more but there's they're but they're not what about the music department at was at not okay do you want to do you want to speak to do you want to speak to I mean I'm just asking questions isn't that the form I'll I'll speak to excuse me one second Dena I'll speak to ke music and I also spoke about the middle school too if you remember that part of the question I know we avoid questions like before so oh I'm I'm sorry I answered you directly you just didn't want to hear my answer so now transportation and looking into different cost for that but you just said no we didn't do that parttime music right yes that's part of the reduction you have two full-time music teachers now our music staff all have the same certification so we have two full-time at Stonybrook we have two and a half at PRM and we have one and a half which I'm still trying to figure out we don't have the other half kind of come back over right here in the high school so in a district our size when we're looking at economy and efficiency we're looking at shuffling down so the decision was made by Mrs utell and Mrs ala to split both music teachers who are both full-time but with the same population on their schedule and that's there's nothing wrong with that but I'm also thinking about the whole concern as a district when there is children who currently don't have a teacher for a class so so PRM that was a lead subtitute they're learning from a computer can't speak to yeah we've tried to get a subtitute and this that's a leave replacement that's a that's a leave replacement and you're right and we did I just think though as parents like that's the stuff that's driving us to be here tonight that there's classes that currently don't even have teachers and then we're looking at teachers being cut and there's just not really line detail of explanation that's also a scheduling issue which I told you we've been creative and trying to affect that so that that doesn't happen so in what's going to happen is the scheduling is going to change and so that we cannot have that unless of course I can't foresee people leaving um medical or maternity leave finding those leave Replacements is the chall challenge we're having the same problem with Calculus right now we had an emergency leave replacement and we had to fill it with our teachers who stepped up so it is a CH that's an ongoing challenge that has nothing to do with people leaving but but so that that does happen however specific to this instance the change in the schedules is going to allow our staff to fill those spots which what we have based on the number of students enrolled does that answer your question and if you have more and you want to talk of after please come up and talk to us and we can I'll talk to you okay thank you okay after Megan fishbeck we're not going to take any more questions because we're okay all right never mind we'll do one more that's fine it's just getting it's it's 8:40 okay hello my name is Nur musbah so as a family of six my parents moved to this town because of the school's reputation they sought out high quality education and that's what we expected to get from the kennel and School District soon after moving we became a family of seven now I'm not the parent of a special needs child but I'm the big sister of one we recently found out about these changes and received no solid information on what the next year will look like for my brother and other students like him at Keel and you keep saying you have to move the old school way but my brother's only eight and we mooved the new school away for him as we strive for inclusivity and equity and education it's imperative that we recognize and address the unique needs of students with disabilities these students required these students require specialized attention and support to thrive academically and socially but you know that you also know a low student to a ratio often results in insufficient attention giv to each student and limited opportunities for personalized instruction you definitely know students with disabilities already face signif significant barriers to assessing quality education including discrimination stigma and lack of resources and I know you know removing qualified special education teachers only in intensifies these inequalities let me be unequivocally clear forcing special education teachers out is not just a cost cutting measure it is an act of Cruelty it it is a betrayal of the trust that students with disabilities and their families have placed in you it is an abandonment of your moral obligation to provide every student with support and resources they need to succeed the dis dismissal or pressure to force out teachers to force teachers out sends a troubling message about the PRI your priorities as a society you are willing to sacrifice the needs of some of our most vulnerable students in the name of budget cuts and administrative convenience instead of Cutting Corner cutting Corners we should be investing in the resources and support systems necessary to ensure that every student including my brother receives the quality education they deserve it's my job as his older sister to prot protect him I will not allow anyone to make a number out of him nor should you that's it hello my name is Kelly Simpson I'm a resident of kenalan we're new to the area I have three small children um intending to send to the public schools here um it's just in the audience to get a feel of what's going on it's obviously abundantly clear that there's been a lot of decisions parents are upset while you guys are also working hard and you know there's tough decisions to be made um as you stated before that you're operating in three current three current cycle uh time periods with the budget so what's abundantly clear two two things that are true the town's upset the parents are upset seems like students are upset teachers colleagues Etc as you guys are too OB I can see that the other thing is true is that this deficit didn't materialize out of thin air so my question is moving forward and I and I hear that this has happened last year and my guess is this is a tip of a pyramid what's going to be to come because we can see the books we're going forward as you stated as everyone stated and I'm sure people are also aware so in order to prevent and perhaps have a work together a collaborative approach with the community and the Educators perhaps we should look back look back at the books 5 10 years how did we get here how are we going to prevent this from happening who's going to be next and how can we get there and that's more of my question where can I access that where's the books where's the deficits I'm new to the area New York Virginia my husband but and this isn't only Happening Here I see it all over so let's work together be more transparent I think is a good place to start to prevent it uh just real quick that's a great question and a great process um everybody's always open to joined the citizens advisory committee so you could send my office an email you want to join those meetings are typically because of the budget tonight we had to cancel that meeting they start at 6 6:30 here and then we roll right into public meeting okay thank you I'm TR we're trying the board and I very hard to not play Monday Morning Quarterback yeah because that too could then upset folks that maybe liked other people or other but we're not doing that but what I had shared in the um the budget presentation and then under my report was if you if you take a look at the demographic study and when the numers seven years in in the 2021 school year were down an entire School 340 students someone somewhere should have stopped spending money because that's an entire school that the town lost but we kept replacing adding listen I'm a parent here too just like all the board members nobody likes this it's terrible but but that's it didn't happen overnight to your point and that's what we're working towards to stop Gap everything we possibly can going forward yeah Andy back that just last comment just off the top of my head it's what's the cost of say Transportation how many million very high thank you so the deficit was we just you just by reallocating replacing getting rid of however you want to call it I would really 2.5 million that's seven million if you did a survey or engage a community perhaps we could have work together maybe Shuffle Transportation parents drive their kids to school I don't know that and that's and that's why the science and people are driving our car ping and that's why I said in the the staff knows we've said this in public too whether it be through committee or public meetings that we're looking at the high school middle school schedule specific not not minutes or extending or what have you but just how can that work and thanks to Mrs Francisco because she had more years of experience than I do um when it comes to transportation to unrap that and say hey maybe this is something we really have to engage with our community to look at tearing kind of like with Fairfield and um neighboring uh who else goes over there no no no we that just came as we're scrubbing things we're trying to see other areas yeah other now in November we did no I'm sorry not November January a a presentation took place here because it was a board goal about what would it look like if we brought transportation is back to us so we didn't have to worry about uptick and cost but we are also looking at that now thanks to Mrs Francisco that what does that look like if we combine the routes middle school high school with a 10-minute separation take your pick which way they drop off now the research says that high school students should start a little bit later I don't know look I know it's not easy I know it's not easy I'm just saying like as someone new I don't I don't have any emotional connection I don't have kids I'm just here and off the top of my head like look at the books I engaged I would really encourage anybody that wants to get involved or to come to the citizen advisory committees okay they do meet every every three months no everyting every meeting at 6 6 pm. before the public meeting every every public meeting at 6m it meets before okay lovely thank you yeah yeah absolutely but anybody please we would welcome you to come to that meeting and and bring your ideas and and your concerns it's a smaller group and you just meet with the staff and they he presents and there's one or two board members and we can have an an open dialogue conversation and it's a really great time for you to come and bring your concerns and have have an open discussion with us we're there an hour before the meeting starts and normally there's like two people so just it might be best too to put the information out so you don't like there's no Monday Morning Quarterback people are being upset like you know where did this deficit come from and thank you yeah got it the information has been out a lot Mrs fishbeck hey guys how are you how's it going don't you want to jump up there I know I know I feel like I'm standing in the wrong spot um I have been you know trying to parent and stay out of board business um but as a parent I just felt like I couldn't keep sitting back on this one um so I just want to speak about meline Trevi and the value that she brings to the district um and I know Jean that you've said a number of times to the kids that we're not cutting any programs nothing's going to change it's just a minor pivot other people are going to fill those roles um but what I have learned tonight some of it I already knew and some of it is new information to me so thank you to Mr Manning um I knew that she was the only teacher who could do the barcode of life in the state I knew that she did not receive that training through us I know that that's not an easy thing to replace we can't just send someone off for a week this summer and all of a sudden we have one or she wouldn't be the only one in the state that has that certification right it's a very difficult very prestigious accomplishment that she's made um I think we all need to be aware of that and that that is not a program that we're going to be able to replace um in any sort of short-term way that won't impact our students significantly um also the Waxman scholar program um I that's the one I learned tonight I knew about the program I did not realize that it's her seat on the board and that it's her personal equipment that she's been sharing with us and that that will prevent some of our students from participating in that program so I'm hoping that some of this information if it was new to you guys on the board I know you feel like this is a done deal I know how long those meetings are I know how much you must have discussed every single person and administrations and budgets and the you know the ba and all of the Committees but I really you do have an opportunity here you've asked for parents to come and speak to you you've asked for students you've asked for staff to come and speak to you and you've said that when people do that you will listen and we don't have all the information that you have I I also am fully aware of that but I think you also didn't have all the information that we all have and that's okay but now you do and so when you know better you can do better it's it's not too late to think about it to make a different decision to reconsider what positions may maybe maybe there are some other positions that we would just have to sacrifice I'm not I understand the importance of reduction and Forest and balancing the budget um I would also like to say for a lot of the parents who didn't um come until 7 o' I know there's like a little confusion about is the 6 o' CL meeting public is it not which when does this meeting exactly start um that we have two seniors this year who got into Ivy League schools and both of them spoke um at the six o'cl budget meeting and they both credited Mrs Travi and particularly the Waxman scholar program and The Bard code of Life program for helping them get into those universities and they're the only two that I'm aware of students that made it into the League this year from Kenan high school so I really want you to consider that when you make this decision well we had four last year and I don't know how many did that so we have a great tradition of sending kids to excellent schools across educational disciplines and though I don't diminish Maddie trabis she was has a great legacy here I mean I'm just to set the record straight we have done across disciplines in this school we have done an excellent job in sending kids to Great Schools we have and this year it's two and the both of them credit so I just want to you know I just want to make sure that everyone's clear I did hear it the first time thank you Megan okay thank you okay that's that's it for public comment um all right agenda items now now the work if you are ready for this Finance of facilities security committee Carl and I apologize Megan I really didn't mean it to come off that short I'm sorry all right okay Carl all right so Finance Securities uh finance and securities committee agend items 1 through 16 uh represent uh the committee's recommendations they be vot voted on as a group um one two and three are approval of the treasury secretary and uh report and a budget transfer uh four is the board certification uh board certification of line items five is a bill list uh that I'm not going to read verbatim but you can see it in the in the thing uh accounts uh agency fund the Student Activities account cafeteria account uh agency account and some others we got number six here uh number six is uh approval of reimbursement uh seven is uh accepts the uh April 2024 emergency drill report uh number eight is approved a membership in New Jersey State uh inter inter Scholastic Athletic Association uh number nine is what was mentioned earlier which is the rooftop package on Keel uh number 10 is approval of contract of the GL group uh 11 is an approv a contract with open systems uh OSI uh number 12 is the approval of contract with DCH uh 13 is the appro uh approval of appointment of uh class 3 uh special Law Enforcement Officers 14 is the approval of revised agreement with the Educational Services Commission Morris County 15 is the approval of 2425 joint Transportation agreement um 16 is the contract renewal with Jordan transportation and that is all I have a motion to approve motion second any discussion for anybody guys Kelly you have any discussion anything no okay can you pull the board Mrs Francisco Mr Eisen manger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes Personnel Mike uh so agenda items number one through 11 are the personnel and negotiations committee's recommendations will'll be voted upon as a group um number one is unpaid days number two two is uh the um there are some retirements um and leaves one resignation again Mr buer um congratulations to him on his new position um and then we have a on page six as a bunch of leaves of absence number three is the resolution to abolish the positions that we've been discussing tonight um number four is uh appoint or just one appointment really for a leave replacement teacher number five is uh the appointment of the uh staff for the 2425 school year that's listed there number six is transfers uh and you'll see the list of the transfers there number seven is the 2425 custodial maintenance holiday schedule and that's a personel attachment so all the attachments are there for you number eight is the the various payments that you see on page eight and page nine number nine is the again the rised job descriptions that we've been talking about the you know as we've gone through number 10 is the um co-curricular list on uh attachment K and then number 11 is the approval of the substitutes that you see listed there have a motion a motion to approve second okay discussion anybody um I I do just want to kind of throw out there for discussion I know it was kind of a surprise to the board that there was going to be programs by the science supervisor that are not there and you Kelly and I started to have a little bit of a conversation at the at the break so um I think it's worth you know at least having that conversation um all right let's uh it's it's board discussion time so I I just want to kind of say that so so I just kind of want to put that out there because you know as I was saying before you know we the important thing was we weren't going to damage programs by our reduction of force so a little bit of a a blind side for me on that so um so yeah I just I just want to have that a little bit of that discussion um so I just I'd like to know more information and maybe perhaps Mr Manning can provide some I know we have Carl as a chemist um I'm trained in molecular biology and biomedical engineering so my understanding is that the um code of life is basically amplification and sequencing of small Snippets well my question is is not around what it is um of DNA I understand sequence of DNA um publication on websites my question is are there other programs or opportunities for a teacher to be certified this is a a private program that stores information on the NIH website but the problem Mrs Leonard with things and this is not a science thing is it's who you know and what was beneficial about Mrs Trevi was that both as a teacher and an administrator uh between uh parts of her career being at monfil parts of her career being at High Point um being a supervisor being a teacher being here uh she has a broad network of former Educators College professors industry scientists that she's come across she eats sleep sleeps lives breathes so sence my question is around the opportunity for a similar program Coastal Marine biolabs no longer trains people as I understand it right but that's just one um that is just one you the the um you are not going to create or build a similar program without incurring cost the benefit of MD Trevi was that she gave us these opportunities without the district spending more money there yeah to answer your question there are opportunities out there we need to reach out to the right people and we need to be willing to expend finances for that privilege so the the material the materials were within our budget so it's for for all of the assays kelon does pay for um all of the enzymes all of the the the assay materials and I understand that there was a program that's already established I'm just my I'm looking for potentially Solutions yes um and so that's my question is you know um to give you a number how's that uh to let's say uh revive and and get back into the Waxman program um I I've been working with the faculty at ruers I have uh some connections with them now and perhaps I could take that over um in order to operate that program without Mrs Travi it is not just the assays and the chemicals it is the equipment that we need centrifuges incubators uh I won't bore you with the other technical details um I need to spend to the next year and a half recovering about 15 to $20,000 worth of equipment what was the equipment in our school was the equipment in our school they were on loan for Mrs Trevi so yeah she would bring them she brought them to the school they were hers she loaned them to the school they were her property yes and she had them in in your classroom uh they were stored in classrooms when they were in use yes over the Summers Mrs Trevi would take them back to her house for sa did they use them during the school year or was it just during the summer programs it was during the SRC after school programs okay uh and it was during the summer workshops that we had for barcode of life as well so they did that during the SRC you correct okay thank you it's so it is surprising that the school with the budget that we have of 40 it was 42 million per year doesn't actually 46 million doesn't own that equipment so that's I'm just looking for the information and potentially you know if we need to purchase this equipment a school of this caliber should have that equipment to be perfectly honest we should not be dependent upon someone you know to bring to give you this is just to give you a reference and and I do want to shout out the HSA the HSA has uh also been contributing to science research club and the barcode of life to help us out we get roughly $3,000 from them every year yes yeah so I mean I think that's kind of the the road so I'm sorry go you want to go Kelly because so so I'm just going to say that uh so I'm just going to say the road I was going on is that you know you know I thought that was something that was important to me that we were going to you know obviously preserve our program so if there is an alternate way of doing that so our kids can get those same experiences then I think that's fine too and again I'll just reiterate the point that you know we agonized over kind of the Personnel decisions right it's like you know we have to kind of meet what we need to meet and you know we did the best that we can to kind of come up with the plan that we have so it's not like again just want everybody to know wasn't a Cavalier type of a decision was a decision that was kind of thought out very thoroughly and again with very long meetings so I just I just kind of want to mention that um and and just say I think the commitment of this board is to is to maintain the experience that we want our students to have so would you be able to provide us a list of the equipment that uh she has had on loan for us thank you Mr Man and the the barcoding thing that the barcode of life that's her certification that she got on her own that she brought here teacher at High Point okay but if we wanted to do that potentially we could find a way cuz we had students come from other schools that did it with us right you said at the the break so if we if if we wanted to offer that I'm just trying to say in Dana's point I don't want to lose programs I I didn't realize to the extent that I do recall when Megan got up that that was something I forgot that she was the only person in the state I remember when you guys presented in the summer your summer research and what the kids the students had published and I forgot that she was the only one that had it so I'm just trying to think of how you know to be creative and to Dana's point and Mike's we don't want to cut any programs even though we have to look at the fiscal responsibility of what we're doing um so I'm just trying to think out a lot about options okay thank you anybody have any other discussion Kelly anything John ju and just the way it's presented here is we're I'm sorry I'm under the weather forgive me um we're removing that particular line and then reinserting supervisor of six to 12 right so what we're doing is we're eliminating the the science supervisor K through2 like we did the math and the ELA and creating a 6 through2 science supervisor um that's the change right so we eliminate the one and then we create the other right but the the problem is that Miss Travi is the only one that has the barcode of life so right right well she's on the board of the Waxman though that wouldn't be something that's unique to her I mean it is unique to her right now what's that right okay okay good question [Music] um the district had three K12 supervisors one mathematics one Ela one science the position of K12 mathematics last year that was my first selection that was uh Mrs trombetta Mrs trombetta now is doing both Realms 612 math along with all the Ed Tech and platforms components Mrs todros is taking under her guys the department chair now before I was ever in District and before I think a lot of this board was even in play there were two Department chairs created just for the high school that was history and business and World Language I believe when Mr Ayo moved over the world the um department chair history position was not replaced because history is his wheelhouse and he can hand that adequately in a high school and Mr sapio does a fantastic job with World Language when the supervisor for ELA last year after the budget passed decided to take a director position and congratulations to her because that's the chain up a decision was made here to Branch out to two Department chairs so what that really means is per the CBA in the collective bargaining agreement the board has to follow suit so that means it is a $6,000 infusion into their existing teaching salary they teach two classes and then they have supervisory and administrative role the rest of the day and so there's different advisory models the last one was science and as you've heard up here unfortunately at nosam um those were all discussions now like I've said many times tonight like a broken record of of course there's always a grapefruit that you could throw but it has to be on the same line item and I just don't think that that would be a wise move yes so so here's here's what you're asking I'm gonna explain it to you in English you'd like no that's okay you would like to keep that position that position is not part of this budget so in order to maintain that on the line right on that administr of cost and line item because I wouldn't look to lose any more instructional staff because we heard a lot of that here tonight it would have to be administrative so you're asking me tonight and asking therefore the board to reconsider but make a change within the administrative existing structure here's the problem no no that's what you're asking because we don't have the finances for that okay no that's not so yeah no no no it's an existing teacher it's an existing teacher who has a less schedule I'm sorry right now that will run through curriculum and instruction with our building principles and we will manage and figure that out with all the things that you heard no so six yes 6 through 12 yes okay can everybody just the the supervisors are teachers who teach and then they also they have a lighter teaching load so we're not hiring anyone new and then they also act as a supervisor from the curriculum perspective so they're the experts in that math or the experts in ela or in this case would be science they're also teaching but they teach a lighter low so this way we don't hire anybody else we give them a little stien to take on the additional responsibilities of being the curriculum expert but they work with the curriculum director and the Ed director and Ed Ed technology because a lot of this is Technology based through the central office so I I'm hoping that's clear so instead of hiring someone new we're taking a current teacher and using that teacher and they are applying teachers that have a supervisory certification or applying for the job an instructor of their because only someone who the day well we're not losing the teacher still teaching using we're using that's correct we are restructuring things and and listen folks okay where so we're actually in a board discussion right now we we asked Mr Manning for some information so I need to bring it back to where we are on the agenda I thank you for your questions that those were to clarify do you know what there's another point for you to come up for comments once we're dis sir we're we're in the middle of the meeting and I would like to just get back to the agenda okay and and there's a time for you to come up and talk to me and and the rest of the board okay so we're we're talking about for the board members we're discussing the uh the changes in the positions and the one and uh that Mike brought up that there was some information that did just come up from the meeting that we weren't all aware of so is there any other discussion on the board do you have any need any other information for us to go through the with the vote no okay all right so M Francisco can you pull the board for number for agenda Item B Personnel negotiation committee right Mr isisa manger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr patrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes okay we're now to item C education and Student Activities Committee Mrs parella sorry I've lost my place okay um sorry okay uh for the education and Student Activities Committee agenda items 1 through eight will be voted on as a group number one an outof District placement as evidenced and attached to a number two the revised extended school year schedule number three the 2024 summer Learning Academy Number Four 3we summer math academy at PRM number five the Advan the independent study for a student in Advanced Digital Communications at KHS number six the independent study and ap3d Art and Design drawing number seven the transition class field trips for the uh 23 24 school year that's going to bring us to the end of this year um number eight um the following field trips for KHS nope that's not KHS that's the whole District so that's um KHS National Honor Society and Stony Brook fifth grade moving up day okay can I have a motion to approve motion second any discussion on education okay see none Mrs Francisco could you pull the board please Mr Eisen minger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Meyers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr Petrelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes item D policy John item number one is the hi report for April 24th um you'll notice there's three second readings and two first readings the policies um are all second reading and we talked about them last time um same with the regulations the two new items are three and four and there are calendar issues one is the give back snow day um for Friday May 24th that would make it a 4-day weekend in Memorial Day um and also adjusting Rashana on the 2425 school calendar to have a day off on th Thursday October 3rd I have a motion to approve motion second okay uh any discussion on that this is my brother's birthday okay M Francisco could you pull the board Please Mr Eisen minger yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Forman yes M pelli yes Mrs Donaldson yes okay we have nothing under Committee of the whole unfinished business do any board members have any unfinished business that you want to bring up no okay new business um okay you wanna you want to take you want to just you want to do a motion Dana already read it so um we have a motion to motion okay you want to Second what all right Tina you do it oh you want me to all right nomination of Jean Donaldson has Mars County School boards Association 2024 Irene Lefay excellence and boardmy award resolved whereas while a kelan resident of of Kinnelon um in the county of Mars Jean D Jean Donaldson has served a total of four years on the kelan board of education whereas the kelan Board of Education recognizes and acknowledges Jean Donaldson's noteworthy contributions to the education of students and a continual focus on improving student achievement for all students in the district whereas the kelon Board of Education recognizes and acknowledges jeene Donaldson's exemplary lead leadership on the board and in the community as a School Board of Education member and Jee has consistently demonstrated leadership skills that have benefited the board and School District in measurable ways Jean's dedication to the articulation and execution of board goals is apparent by her regular meetings with the superintendent business business administrator she is respectful of the time of board members and communicates in an organized and timely manner the agendas are clear for subcommittee meetings which occur regularly and run smoothly whereas the Kenan Board of Education recognizes and acknowledges Jean's active involvement in school governance at the local level and the mors county njsba levels and her commitment to collaborative teamwork and serving um beyond the school board Gan briefs board members on the broader Community issues that may impact schools and budgets she's a liaison between the kinan Town Council and a board of education Jee leads monthly school board meetings in an orderly manner she engages with the community members who share comments feedback and criticisms in a fair and objective manner our public board meetings are positive and atone and engage the community by publicly honoring teachers students and organizations within schools the sentiment among board members is that our work under her leadership has resulted in progress resulting in more opportunities for students musicians athletes in the district whereas Kon Board of Education recognizes and acknowledges Gene Donaldson's commitment to personal and professional development her experience as a Coast Guard helicopter pilot has contributed to her ability to deal with many things critical at a time while preserving the ability to REM remain poised and deliver the best Solutions possible now therefore be it resolved the Kenan board of education does hereby express its appreciation to Jean donalson for her dedicated service leadership and contributions to the education of the students in our district be it further resolv the kelon board education secretary submit the nominations of Jean Donaldson in this resolution to the Mars County School boards Association for consideration for the 2024 Irene Lefay excellence and board Mission award thank you thank you g thank you for then thank you very much guys okay correspondents do we have any correspondents do we have to vote on that yeah there was a motion sorry okay huh all right um can you pull the board for can I have a motion to second I thought they did yeah I can't I think they did over there Kelly and Dana okay thank you you can't see on that all right uh Mr isaminger yes Mrs Leonard Mr Myers yes Mrs Pella yes Mrs Portman yes Mr petracelli yes Mrs Donaldson sure why not um okay correspondents do we have any correspond do we have anything online no okay thanks guys okay sir um oh he left uh well petitions and hearings for Citizens for non-agenda items or agenda items come on up I'm here with good news tough night yeah tough night um but I I just want to thank you vort I I want to read this because it's got specific information um I just thank you for for listening um we had some some members come up very passionate thank you Mr Manning um so I just want to highlight that we we we do have outstanding staff and I thank you for listening and and hearing what we have to say so okay a couple of months ago Miss uh during Mrs pella's education committee report and you may already know this just humor me if you pretend you don't um she huh you kept your word he does keep his word okay thank you so so you're going to hear for the first time it makes me very happy okay during Mrs pella's education committee report she talked about a grant that our member Rebecca Bas Basinger was applying for from the njaa I had the fortunate opportunity to take a look at her application which was quite extensive so I'm excited to share with you that Mrs B Basinger has been selected to receive the 20242 njaa Frederick l hip foundation for excellence and education grant that's why I had to write all that down her project called The Chill Zone a zenan and Wellness Center will be funded by The Hip foundation in the amount of $9,99 we are extremely proud as the association of Miss Bas B I can't say her last name baskinger and excited for the students of kenalan to have this Center in our schools thank you that's great news thank you [Applause] Tina okay um board member comments who wants to go first anybody have anything to say Jonathan you're sick you sure you don't what to talk uh Jen you want anything I just um want to say I appreciate uh every student every parent every teacher staff who um came out tonight who Express their concerns their feelings their questions it is really uh important for everybody to engage together for us to continue forward to make good decisions um to make find Solutions in tough situations I've been there I've was a parent that used to come quite often um and express my concerns and questions and and um it only enhances our ability to make the decisions uh so I really want to say thank you but also please continue to engage with us in you know whatever way uh you're comfortable with you know by writing us emails by attending the concerned um no not concerned citizens advisory committees by attending these public meetings uh really we provide the best product for our students when everybody is involved so I I just want to thank you and encourage you to continue Kelly um I just wanted to bring it back for a second to the amazing PRM girl tonight that got that Accolade for the PRM leadership award that was actually a really big deal and I know that there was a lot going on tonight so it kind of got brushed in the middle so I just wanted to again congratulate her um I I'm actually really really elated that we had the turnout that we had tonight um I want to thank everyone for coming especially our students I know it takes a lot to come up and speak and you all did it in a very articulate and respectful way I love that our citizens came I love that our teachers came and I love that our parents came um I just wanted to let you know that what brought us to tonight to these decisions to the rift I know that's why everyone's here is months and months and months of the school leadership meeting with the administration meeting with us and the decision that we made in no way diminishes anyone's Legacy or anything that anyone has contributed to our schools and to our students it was just that difficult difficult decisions need to be made and I can't expect any of you to understand the decision that we made tonight and I think that's mostly because when you're looking at what we're doing you're seeing the trees in the forest but we're really seeing the woods and so we're really not looking at the same thing when we try to understand it um I live in town I've lived in town for 16 years well we're looking at the whole school um so coms yes and that's exactly what I was going to say I live in town I'm always at a baseball field at a meetings somewhere everybody has our emails they're on the website so if anyone feels like they want to talk more tonight or want more answers or have more questions like all of us are available and we would love to do that um it's hard in one night to feel like all of this can be resolved and maybe it can't but I think that communication always makes things better and I appreciate that everybody came out um what is more important to us than our children right and your children spend more of their waking hours here at the schools than anywhere else so you have every right to come and ask and question and want to know what's going on with your children and our job is to answer you and we are very happy to do that um I know I'm speaking for myself I'm very happy to do that um I am the education chair I'm also the special education liaison for this board so if you wanted to speak to anybody on the board about special education I'm very happy to do that it's a passion of mine um and I think the biggest thing that I want you to take away from tonight is that our administrative team has worked tirelessly tirelessly and it's always because of the kids you know I went Mr Dave mango has been at football games basketball games softball games baseball games he was here for the choir and band concerts he was here at every single National Honor Society induction why does he do that because he cares about your students so while sometimes it seems like we're at odds I promise you that we are all here for the kids because we want what's best for them um and all of us here are parents and you know so we have skin in the game too so I just wanted to say thank you so much and have a good night okay thank you Kelly Carl do you have anything I'll just keep it short I I I basically agree with all the words that have been uh spoken tonight and I think I really appreciate everyone coming out um you know it's uh it's really great to hear so much advocacy for a single person and I think everyone can Aspire whether they're a teacher or anyone's uh walk in life to have that level of support um and that impact on everyone else so uh it's great to hear um and that's it have a great rest of the night Dana um I am happy as well that uh everyone is here tonight if you have the chance to look back on pre-recorded video e e e e e for