##VIDEO ID:gTMVzPq4KIo## [Music] Unfortunately they not on my G tonight so I'm using my Yeti so it's on call the meeting to order start off with Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for which stands one nation under God indivisible for liberty for all ad notice of this meeting was advertised as Park Press and the beacon on January 11th 2024 as amended August 15 2024 by posting the notice in the fork of O Harbor Post Offices and by following copy the notice with the relation Township Clerk as required by the open public meeting act roll call please Mr Bell here Mrs armado here Mr conedy here Mrs Walker here Mr AR M here Mrs Claus here Mr Peters present all right be resolved that executive session be convened for the purpose of discussing confidential student matters including but not limited to and harassment harassment intimidation and bullying uh confidential legal matters including but not limited to the current case load and confidential Personnel matters the subject matters of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality subsides the length of the executive session is estimated to be approximately 60 minutes after which the board shall reconvene and proceed with business at 7:00 p.m. action may be taken motion motion Peters second second second all in favor I good evening as you can see uh Dr PR will not be with us tonight mrsk will be filling in and uh we'll start off the superintendent reports hold on put them on the spot that's right without my computer on usually I bring in hard copy and I didn't this time thank you board president Peters all right welcome to the August board meeting I hope everyone's having a great uh summer the weather certainly is nice uh last day and a half um one of my my I'm pretty good at telling stories I'm a former Social St teacher one of my the story of this time of year is that I've got friends I've had for call it 30 years every single summer since I became an admin ministrator which is now 21 years ago they go oh I didn't know you working the summer and that's really the anecdote of the day all the things that we've been getting done since to close a school um I call them like the unsung heroes of the summer months are custodians and I can give you all the numbers 650,000 square fet they empty strip wax put back together repeat every single classroom in the district the high school alone has over a 100 classrooms if you can imagine the work that they do shampoo and carpet carpets deep cleaning bathrooms our grounds workers which there aren't many of them uh and our maintenance guys we have 150 acres that the school district owns uh cutting lining seating weeding mulching this time of year they'll start mulching you'll see that if you come by our schools uh Transportation has to schedule over 160 bus routes uh and that takes them pretty much all summer uh our secretaries and our executive assistants some of them I call my second mother uh because they're keeping me on track uh all the things between student packets schedules new student registrations especially in our preschool program we're going to welcome 150 new preschoolers this year uh with the expansion of that program uh that program is certainly off to a great start we have a 30 person wait list right now we hope to absorb that next year uh as we move along uh and of course our awesome Administration you know 4,000 student schedules teacher schedules new student orientations which are coming up next week uh they hired teachers they hired par professional we probably have hired uh 30 to 40 prate professionals over the summer ordering supplies and equipment fall sports with the middle school and the high school has begun well before this meeting uh professional development for our staff they're preparing uh and we also hosted I want everyone to remember school is never out of session in Lacy uh we hosted 340 uh students um we transported them there some of our drivers are in the audience uh for esy and we had about 300 to 300 50 students at our extended school year program at the middle school so both of our schools were open for six weeks in the middle of the summer um and uh we had a great time with that um and I just want to remind everybody that school will open on September 5th full day of school not half days uh we're going to open with uh you know Vigor and Gusto and all those fun things uh as we go along um so we have a lot going on there uh and I want everyone to enjoy the rest of their summer I think it's about what the fifth is proba 15 16 days away do the best you can uh you know the weather uh certainly looks good right now and as we go along uh next I want to introduce uh Dr Timothy Dow and Miss Margaret Malloy uh Timothy Dow is our district supervisor in charge of grades uh 6 to 12 uh he's also our Ela uh District supervisor for grades 6 to 12 Miss Margaret Malloy is our six to2 Math and Science supervisor they're going to come to the podium the mic where you going to stand they're going to present our njpa uh scores our advanced placement scores and our access scores which are the exam that we give to our um uh other than English Learners um this is required by Statute we'll go through this again when we do our October achievement presentation uh with the timing of this exam which just started to excuse me of the ngj GPA started again two years ago uh the timing that the state puts on us that we have to present at our August meeting so there they're going to present it's kind of their first time doing it without me so I'm all excited so uh right here I am right here you know I'm not going to be quiet so all right so if the board wants to to scoot around or however they want to see it and we will of course post this under assessments uh on our website we post all of our presentations like this so that people can refer to them then go back to them uh and they can certainly ask us questions call our offices uh and we can talk about these different things so the floor is yours oh that's right I got scolded that when I was first start it too yeah you got to go to the mic is that's how you record you good evening everyone um we wanted to stand up in front because it feels uh I don't want to have my back half turned to anyone in the audience here or Margaret we don't want to have our backs turned but um you know it's important that you can all hear us and that we have the recording set up my name is Tim Dow uh as Mr zinsky said I am the supervisor of um the district supervisor of curriculum instruction for grades 6 through 12 I work specifically with our ELA teachers in uh 6 through 12 uh joined with me is I'm the math and science supervisor for so we're going to talk about uh a few major assessments that have occurred in the last couple of months in the springtime uh for our last school year in 2024 so first up I want to talk about our English language Learners they take our access tests every year so that we can see how they're progressing in our English language learning program uh our students range from kindergarteners all the way up to to uh high school students uh we get English language Learners at different times in their educational careers and so um it is important for us to make sure that these students reach their highest levels of language proficiency so that we know that they no longer need that language support services and can continue with all of their regular education here we have a chart we're going to post this this is really a spectrum of how well these students are doing you can see our biggest group is right there in grades two and three for developing the're right in the middle there that is a group that we are going to continue to work hard for in order to make sure that they're progressing properly uh this next slide for the sake of our purposes really shows the growth that we've had in the last few years that far on the right is for 2024 and you can see that we've been improving uh over the last few years uh we look to continue that Improvement moving on to the NJ GPA this is sort of the big one uh the state had been pushing for a graduation proficiency assessment for some time and they finally got one uh we have conducted it several times in several consecutive years uh it is um it is a measurement of Readiness for graduation for our students and it's administrator to all grade 11 students so regardless of what kind of math or Ela courses they're taking they all take this assessment it is based on for ELA the grade 10 New Jersey student learning standards and for mathematics it is aligned to Algebra 1 and geometry standards so students who take this assessment but do not meet those Readiness requirements uh can retake the assessment in the summer or the fall uh they can also meet a cut score from another assessment like the PSAT the act the SAT uh and also the acup place assessment um many students who the students who do not pass the NJ GPA or meet that Readiness score uh will often complete a portfolio uh and so I'd really like to say we've done very well with the NJ GPA and then also for the students who haven't met that Readiness score our portfolio appeal process is absolutely phenomenal want to give full credit to our teachers on that they work tirelessly with our students in order to make uh their graduation Readiness at the acceptable level it's um quite amazing work honestly a lot of blood tears that go into that a lot of great dedication from those teachers all right so here you will see um a comparison of ly Township school districts spring 2024 njpa results in mathematics compared to the rest of New Jersey state um so you'll see our percentage of students who were graduation ready just below half and our percentage of students who were not yet graduation ready um so we're continuing to work hard to close that achievement gap between Lacy Township School District and the state um but we are uh pretty happy with the progress that we've seen the these particular students make from their nth grade year to the 11th grade year um which we'll show you in a minute um here you'll see a breakdown of our subgroups um for Lacy Township School District the students that were graduation ready and not yet graduation ready alternatively we have our Ela scores here with uh 76.7% at meeting graduation Readiness uh the state is at 81.6 again we're continuing to close that Gap uh between where our students are at where the rest of the state is as far as the average is concerned um and here are the subscores in those areas so we have some highlights here on both math and Ela and some things that we want to continue to work on uh we are going to talk about the progress and the process that we use in order to work with students uh toward proficiency and work with our teachers uh we feel like we have really good indicators that that process is yielding a good harvest so here you'll see a comparison of our 2023 and 2024 math Readiness so our 2023 were our um Juniors from that year and our 2024 for our Juniors that just took it in the spring so you'll see that our scores are staying um consistent um we would like to see our achievement increase each year um but like I said we're also really Inc interested in looking at our students performance within the cohort so the comparing the same students which we're about to show you that slide sure 2023 higher percent it was by about 3% yeah okay so keeping in mind that those are two separate groups of students so the students that took the test in 2023 are a separate group of students that take the test in 2024 so what we're really interested in seeing is can we measure some sort of progress or some sort of growth with that particular cohort of students which is what we're doing here um so this is our cohort growth in math Readiness from the school year of 22 to 24 so most of our students take the algebra 1 um standardized take test and you'll see their 2022 scores um displayed above um and then those same students will take the um 11th grade NJ GPA so you'll see that we had a 34.3% increase from when those students took their standardized state test score as freshman to Juniors which we think is some progress to be um proud of that's less than two years um of of improvement would the 2022 score would that be any reflection of during Co so is it safe to say that these numbers maybe are a little bit there they The covid Hangover as we call it affects everybody right was in school in 2020 certainly these kids will be a product of that as well yes so then the case is that they got back to real life and we saw it a 34% increase we can hope yes right right I mean these numbers be fudged because those are Co numbers and these are not this is maybe what it would have been in 2022 so can we really can we really how do you say measure measure a CO year vers a regular school year and then say we did a 34% increase in well keep in mind 2022 is a regular school year but years before that were not regular so you certainly could see that if we saw no growth we'd be in bigger trouble than we are with this certainly and like Margaret's saying Miss maloya is saying you know we're we're we're we're encouraged that we saw lots of growth okay in having regular school years which is of course all we we we all know that that was the super important thing to get back to regular school year so your point yes well made right and I I think that we're hoping to continue to see progress from Co you could say that Co is still impacting us right because even if students were in third grade and now they're going to be eth graders incoming eighth graders that that learning loss we're still making up for but our hope is that we're making up for it fast right because that's what we need to do okay you know we're we're always trying to find an Apple to compare to another Apple uh it's sort of a harder Tas than you might believe uh and so this is you know when we talk about this here's the njsla I'm sorry excuse me the NJ GPA the graduation proficiency assessment in 2023 and then in 20124 so two different groups of students you can see again here it's about uh you know four or five points um similar you know those two cohorts are kind of hanging together similarly with Ela with the same group of students from 2022 when they were freshmen to when they were Juniors we see a 41.6% increase and so uh Mr armado like that question is a really good one right we're trying to find the other Apple you know how could we really kind of compare right we always have the comparison against the state and that's one comparison you know here's our group of students how do they compare to the you know vast majority of the majority of students across the state in all all of those different ways students show up in high schools across the state when we look at this we want to see well what about this group all right okay so they're you know three and three points and change lower in in math than the state average right in ela were five points lower than the state average in in in ela but how did they grow and so this is really encouraging because our teachers and our students and our administrators have been working very very hard in order order to affect instruction the quality of instruction the quality of our assessments which I want to talk about next well let's go back a slide then because this resembles the previous slide then what do we attribute the the the step back in in 20 in 24 verse 23 regardless of how small that number is it's still a step back and we saw the same thing in math on the on the same slide so what do we attribute that we're taking something that happened in 22 where everybody was Co hung over and was saying look what we did since then which is a good number right so we're trending in the right way but then you show these slides and say maybe the trend isn't exactly where we want it to be well the purpose of comparing the 22 to the 24 is that we're comparing the same group of students these are two different group of students so sometimes there can be a variance in just the class of students and how they're achieving so um if we go back to the math our difference was 3.7% from 2023 to 20 24 with statistically that's not really a a big change right that could be just a handful of students um so it's it's more like we didn't really grow that much from 22 to 24 but again those are two different groups of students so it could just be a little bit of a difference in a class that's why we wanted to investigate further and see well how did this particular class do because we were also concerned that our scores did not increase from 23 to 24 would so that's why we investigated that particular class a little bit further and we went back to their most recent State standardized test in 20 22 which we were Co hungover but it was our first year that we were fully back in school we weren't remote we weren't hybrid um so it is our you know best valid data of test scores to be able to compare the same group of students and to see if we had any growth or not okay right so then you know Co interrupted so much we were talking about like do we want to talk about that again um but it's going to be something that's going to continue to come up right now we mentioned students who are entering 8th grade had you know critical growth years in third you know fourth grade um with covid for reading for math these kinds of growth indicators um and so that's why we wanted to see what the group looked like specifically um so we are proud of this growth in math and then this growth in ela because we did see a tremendous amount 41.6% is a lot we've been working tirelessly uh us using the framework for uh ntss it's our tiered system of supports uh we're working with our teachers twice a month in plc's it's really the maximum amount of time that we can work with our teachers in this way uh we are creating targeted interventions for small group instruction uh we're also creating common formative assessments this is really important because we want to know the score it's frustrating if we get to July and we get results back from State standardized tests we're sort of like how did we get here we want to have better indicators over time that are going to help us know what the score is before the summer comes around and we're implementing all of that and we see some of the progress that we started to to to accumulate here in those growth charts we also uh using things like iel uh strategically to Target uh skill deficiencies to bolster those skills as students work through various modules and curriculum that teachers assign that teachers work with uh and then also targeted lesson planning there's been uh another really great development we've had instructional data coaches in the middle school and the high school which are reflected in uh these scours scores that M Malloy and I report back on um these individuals are teachers they have done an absolute phenomenal job of helping their colleagues uh guide instruction and working in conjunction with both of us creating those common formative assessments making uh really fantastic lessons that are working to get skills higher for student proficiency grow uh so those are things that we're um very invigorated and inspired with uh to do to continue to do and to make that uh happen for our students so uh moving on to advanced placement summary uh you can see that our total AP students have grown tremendously uh since um 2020 2021 22 you know in the last two years we have increased the total number of students by 74 that's quite a lot you know that's um uh a little bit less than a third of one class of students taking AP courses uh the number of exams has also jumped up precipitously at 368 just from last year we're seeing uh a very big rise in the number of exams that are administered uh one thing if we're asking more students to take more AP uh courses and also more exams we're also proud that our average of students who have uh gotten a three or better which is sort of like the passing number has maintained at about 54% I want to make sure I'm reading this correctly I'm sorry if I'm prolonging your your presentation here but from what I can see it looks like we did a tremendous job during Co into the co hangover right am I right is that we went from 45.8% and the percentage of total AP students with scores to to 56% is that that's a positive right yes you're correct why aren we highlighting this kind of stuff to the community this is this is a good story to tell the big the big number here too is the number of kids who are taking so I I don't understand H number um this this should be something we should be celebrating especially through what we went through in 21 and 22 and that you could be able to produce that number and then to get a good spike in 23 and 24 that tells a very good story as opposed to the slides that we saw previously had me feeling a little okay why do we have that step back we're also one of the few high schools where our students have access to AP AP uh course loads from freshman year on so do you attribute those numbers in 20 and 22 to kids just being home and having nothing better to do you know no nobody's just we've done we've done we've done a three-year push to make sure that everyone has access and we've done a three-year push to make sure that it's quality instruction because that's why you're seeing good numbers like this that's positive that's what I think we're looking for as a board is that kind of positivity throughout the years and another thing too uh these are important numbers when it comes to US News and World Report rankings and other rankings uh like NJ monthly comes out with a ranking every couple of years they're not you know they're not consistent with their rankings um but we are specifically targeting students to uh you know make these programs uh a little bit Bolder and bigger well if no one said it congratulations that's good work thank you I'll pass it on to our teachers AP AP teachers are but I have a Qui question the percentage went down though from 62 to is that 53 yeah so we have more students which is great but the percentage went down so is that a positive you're also but you're increasing your number of AP kids with three plus so that number has gone up okay you've maintained since at least 2022 while increasing so many more exams so you went from 206 exams to 368 exams so you've added all these kids to the pot you didn't lose a step so you're saying the percentage went down because we had more exams other than 2020 our percentage has gone up or stayed the same that's the so I'm talking about 2020 from from 2020 to 2024 it went down you're saying because we had the exams no test we can't explain 2020 necessarily from 62 to to 45 probably a CO thing we also attributed it to we went on semester block so we went on semester block that seemed to really blow up the AP uh instruction so when we got off semester block we realized our problem we fixed our problem okay and then we continue to do well with recruiting preds in the program and making sure that our three plus number stays up or keeps moving up 21 we did well we always said block so in 2021 2022 we went to semester block because we were keeping the cohorts of kids together in case we got into a an outbreak so that we deemed especially and other reasons too not just AP we went back to the ab block and we're actually investigating new schedules for next year as well for 25 26 because we have new thinking that we think will make us even better so that's that's where you are right as a County Supervisor group right back to a uh Mr served on the board of that Ocean County um curriculum Consortium uh hosts an AP colloquium every year uh at at no cost the teachers uh go to OCC have tremendous professional development every October and so I give our AP teachers a lot of credit for taking advantage of that opportunity working with County Partners and then also representative from the College Board the makers of the AP exam uh and get tremendous professional development so we can also see you know uh some results from that effort as well I would like to highlight we've had um some some courses that have shown exceptional results this year um we have uh AP uh Art and Design calculus AB and BC biology computer science principles English language uh English language and composition English literature and composition I would like to as the ELA person I would like to just take a quick knot to our uh English Lit teacher um there were 15 out of 16 students receive passing scores in that class which I think is quite phenomenal that's quite phenomenal um in in a whole group of really fantastic courses environmental science macroeconomics and by the way the macroeconomics course is specifically designed for sophomore students so we are seeing exceptional results from our sophomores which by the way does not count on our state performance report or on US News and World Report all right uh US government in politics also doing a a phenomenal job same teacher for both of those social studies courses and United States history has also done a phenomenal job thank you awesome thank you thank you thank [Applause] you number I'm going to go back to the beginning right the waa access scores that's four one more back oh okay it's numbered on B just trying to get through that real quick I you guys the presentation I'm just trying to process Zer well let's just so it's a spectrum of students so the total number of students in each of those grades or grade bands is in that second colum that's that's number of students so we had we out of the 11 students let's take column four five you have 11 students they all landed in in a three a four and a five in those categories they didn't land in the lowest of categories when they took their exam that's why their zeros that's all all right thank you thank you very much um as they exit um we do every year uh I do a um a quick report on our um random drug testing program that we operate at Lacy Township High School uh we also uh just parents who don't know about it we also operate a voluntary random drug testing program for Lac St of Middle School uh Middle School is strictly voluntary parents can sign up every year uh and but the high school schol is a mandatory program if you participate in clubs Sports have a parking pass want to go to home caming uh you've got to sign up for the random drug testing program uh at the high school um at the urgence of our public we like to report out I can't publish these results because they would reveal students but what I can tell you is that the program uh last year we administered a total of uh 483 exams uh both between the um high school and the middle school these are urine tests that uh we do confidentially in the nurse's office uh and then we have a whole procedure which I am very happy if anybody ever wants to call me on random drug testing we wrote the policy that has been adopted by the state of New Jersey here in Lacy anybody who ever wants to call me about random drug testing I'm happy to talk to you about it I'm happy to give you as much detail as I can without uh revealing certain things uh but we Al the the point is is that we have a lot of kids who got help because we were able to identify them mostly marijana that's what stays in your system a long time we are seeing an increase just so parents know um we do believe that the legalization of marijuana is is fueling that number um so um you know it's something that we're mindful of we're watching very closely uh but it does exist and this is kind of our annual report I can't publish it because it would reveal kids uh but i' like to give that so that uh the taxpayer knows that were using their money uh uh wisely um so that's the end of my report uh president Peters uh thank thank you for the opportunity move on to public comment an audience member wishing to make a comment will raise his or her hand when called upon State their name address of affiliation intentions and make statement comments we address to the board president comments we made to one issue at a time comments limited to five minutes and five minutes only no audience member shall be recognized twice until who have wish comment have been recognized the portion of this meeting is for public common only there is no questions answered the purpose of this Bo meeting is perform our business in public everyone is entitled to a public comment if there was a question for the board there is an established Cham command anybody from public comment best man please state your name and address uh my name is darthy Bon fany and my address is 1901 Parkside Drive in forkid River I'm sorry I don't really talk in public much anymore so this is is a lot for me to do my name is Dorothy Bon fany and I have been a lacy resident since 1985 some of you up there grew up with me some of you know me from various things I have done through my nonprofit work in town some of you know me from volunteering from with the LA Alliance and the ptas and some of you unfortunately only know me because my 17-year-old son Daniel hins took his own life on November 26 2023 I would like to say that I am here to thank the board for their acknowledgement of my son Daniel and the other students who sadly lost their lives this year in our district at both Lacy Township middle school and Lacy Township High School graduations but that would be like thanking someone for doing half the work they were asked to do the way your board handled the graduation ceremonies this year for the students who passed away was absolutely disgusting not not only did you not honor what was promised to myself and my husband and the other families that had seniors and eighth graders graduating but you waited up until the LA very last minute to even tell us that you changed it because you knew that if the graduating student body had heard that you weren't going to give the families what they were asking for you would have a walk out or a refusal to stand at both graduations April 16th 2024 the superintendent told me me and my husband to my face in this very school that you would be allowing myself and the other families the option to walk for our children that we would have seating next to the stage you know where all those empty seats were during graduation um and that we would be allowed to walk up on the stage in honor of our children regardless of how they lost their life the students some faculty members and the community signed a petition with 3,761 online line signatures to be exact and an undisclosed 10 to 15 paper Pages full of 20 signatures each page which is roughly about 300 signatures to allow this to happen the senior class of 2024 wanted this for themselves to continue in their own healing and for us the families who lost our children but instead you decided as we were walking out of the media center on graduation day to walk out on the field we were told what was going to happen literally minutes before the ceremony started where you knew we couldn't contest any of it and then so sloppily handed our children's diplomas while we sat in the reserved handicap seating on the track field nowhere near the stage and e or even in the seats that were literally set up next to the stage for us the poor excuse of an opening ceremony that sounded like you typed in the question and I quote write me an opener for a graduation mentioning something about devastating loss into meta AI on the Facebook search bar that's literally what that sounded like also while I'm here to quickly mention the issue of assemblies that were put into place this year for mental health how is it that no one heard of any assemblies in the school in our district with the exception of one later in the year at the high school that was told to me by several different seniors that said it was more of an elementary school Harlem Globe trod Globe trod presentation than a mental health awareness assembly which is what I was it was claiming to be how how is this mental health awareness and also to add the students who were closely affected by these deaths I.E best friends close friends classmates teammates Etc who when they would put in a slip to see their counselor some wouldn't even get a call to come in and talk to their counselor until a month later which makes me dive deeper down the rabbit hole of wondering if there was ever a possibility that my son put in a possible request to talk to his counselor or even his child study team counselor and got no response either you should be thanking whatever you believe in that you didn't have any more students take their lives this year and I won't go into how things were handled with Miss Abigail Sly the sack counselor at the Lacy Township middle school or lack thereof handling or maybe maybe I should mention how Mrs Sly said to my 13-year-old daughter that if she continued to vent about a certain student to her that she would hang everyone but you already knew this since I wrote this email back in February 2024 and cced all of you up here today in it or how you didn't allow any of Chelsea Deal's friends I'm going to keep talking uh Chelsea's deal ma'am you can finish your very very important statement I believe that but if you would just please follow I'm almost done just take a break and we'll let you back up I'm literally almost done okay go ahead L thank you now how you didn't allow any of Chelsea Deal's friends decorate her locker in memory of her even allow a simple picture to be hung with her friends and peers on the class windows in the front of the middle school because per higher Administration and Compass we were told not to hang her picture or allow the students to decorate her locker either way I am extremely disappointed in the way all of this has handled this entire school year and not just the graduation and I know I have the families of those other children lost who stand behind me in that thinking as well you failed our children you failed our children's peers and you failed our families you tried to take the deaths of our children and shove them under the rug I beg to ask you the question what if it was your child what if you were in my shoes and your child died would you have wanted to be promised one thing and then told another would you have wanted your child's name and Legacy to be snuffed out and quieted for the sake of what Saving Face so you didn't have to deal with with it because it certainly wasn't to think about the feelings of the other students as I've been told that's the reason for the supposed abrupt change right before the graduation ceremony students wanted this they passed out petitions throughout the school the student body to sign they shared the link online they advocated for what they thought was a proper way to honor their best friends kids they've grown up with alongside for years in the school I have so much more I want to say but I'd probably be up here for a lot longer than I have been and my choice words would not be as nice as what they were so I'll just leave you with this good luck and congratulations Mrs zinsky on your promotion for Acting Superintendent here's to hoping that you do a better job than your predecessor and you put that $212,000 salary to work and step up to the plate and bring our children better support systems better education better resources and overall better school experience thank thank you for your comment [Applause] anyone else public comment please state your name and address sir James Flores 16 Hollywood Boulevard here forid River um m condolences to you sincere condolences I'm going to make this quick because this is hard but this is a separate subject but I understand what you're going through I want to thank the board principal King uh in in regards to the uh bringing back to coach Mahar as a lazy girl soccer varsity team so I appreciate that part you eliminate a lot of Anguish for these girls that they went through um true believe this initial removal of this state champion coach should have never happened in the first place totally unnecessary especially being this close to the season it was very suspicious move don't understand it still part of me thinks some sort of personal Vendetta um I went back talked to a few inart people just to understand um in my industry you know in terms of performance and how we you know base things and and make decisions but the bad part about this was that you know the girls suffer from this really when going through this process so I think we're moving forward obviously with the with the rehiring of Coach Mahar um but I just I wanted to come down because I feel like there this is an abuse of power when you look at it and look at behind the scenes um and again some sort of personal Vendetta I'm guessing I don't know what it is but I think that's something for you guys to investigate um unfortunately it's a black guy for our town and um you know for these girls too um I'll be honest I'm being approached local taxpayers asking me what's going on why is this coach being removed for doing a really good job I'm hearing from other towns in the soccer World right asking me why is this happening but it's just you know information for you guys to understand for me I mean I hope no other coach goes through this process here and L I hope the process is you know fixed going forward um my concern my daughter and a few others that spoke up I hope there's no no there be no retaliation they are in other sports as well um I did speak with King so I give King Credit he spoke to me I come to for anything but um so I'm going to keep it short and sweet thank you guys uh but still you know very concerning still going forward for my the ones who spoke up and obviously the programming that's that's out there for the girls and what they're going to iate and again my condolences to you so give me back a few minutes because of her speech thank you Mr [Applause] fls hi Lisa edworth 49 Hilltop Drive lenoa um I feel like I'm starting to sound like a broken record a little bit but I'm not going to let this go until I know what's going on with it um The Varsity letters for the Performing Arts students this is still an issue that has not been resolved I originally brought this to the board before the end of last school year I can't even remember what month now probably like April or so um what I have here that I wanted to read for you guys is the State Senate bill that I mentioned and I said that it was a bill that was passed in the legislature that these students should be recognized and given the chance to receive a for City letter so I'm going to read that I do have glasses it's state senate number 2398 from the state of New Jersey in the 217th legislature the synopsis is it requires a school district to adopt a policy allowing students in grades 9 through 12 who participate in certain inter Scholastic extracurricular activities to earn a varsity letter now I'm going to skip down a little bit be enacted by the Senate and general assembly of the state of New Jersey number one a school district that includes any of the grades 9 through 12 shall adop shall adopt a policy to provide that a student enrolled in those grades who participates in any school sponsored inter Scholastic extracurricular activity that includes competition in which the student competes against students enrolled in schools outside of the district may be eligible to earn a varsity letter awarded by the district now it's not saying that we have to give them a varsity letter it's saying that we have to make it possible for them to earn one so we need a policy in place and I gave you some ideas on how to do do that so this what the statement is is this bill requires a school district that includes any of the grades 9 through 12 to adopt a policy and this act shall take effect immediately is number two so this is something that needs to happen um there are some people who are probably a little bit more upset than I am about this uh and that it's taken so long and you know him my son who went to the state to help fight for your budget okay um not that he's even part of somebody that would benefit from this however he said well if you don't get it you go to the state because it's the law okay so I don't know and I'm not trying to be it just feels like I I don't know what's going on you know I keep asking and keep asking and keep asking but there's no there's no communication back that I don't know like now I know it's in discussions with Mr King and maybe being finalized but until I got to the meeting and I you know handed this to a couple of you tonight I had no idea so communication is important especially when somebody's you know asking the same questions over and over again just keep me in the loop so this way we know what's going on can I that bill number please 2398 I have a copy for you if you'd like thank you I have it good thank you for your comment anybody else pop a comment okay [Music] hello everyone my name is Jacob I'm a student here at Lacy high school it's hard to believe that I'm starting what will become my senior year in just a matter of days the the reason I'm here tonight is to discuss what is going on with the stiens for those who aren't aware I have officially lost three classes a language media marketing and Linguistics and two clubs there are 1400 there are 80 kids in interact and there is a four there is a $1,400 stien that needs to be that doesn't that isn't that isn't getting delivered and there is a 99.9% tax increase but what is that where is that money going and what is it saving for those who don't know I want After High School I want to study Linguistics and work at the UN and I feel like with the loss of that classes it is not giving me a proper jump on my college on my college education and what I pursue and what I want to pursue later in life so I leave you guys tonight with one question what is going on with the stien and what is the good of this tax increase thank you thank you for your comment anyone else public comment Heather scanland um 948 New York Avenue of Fork River but I'm also here tonight representing the Rotary Club of forkid river and Lacy Municipal allons uh Jacob started to open the door too to what I'm going to talk about tonight and that is the concern that we have over the co-curricular positions that are clubs stien positions that are being cut looking over the list we've discovered that interact is not on the list to be approved nor is Ada and I'm sure there's other clubs too that are very worthy of of funding I might add to Jacob um did mention the stien position for these clubs are at the lowest level $1,448 you have a lot of other positions that uh include a lot more now interact as Jacob said has 80 students last year these kids signed up and they've attended many meetings and they continue to to depend on um a lot of their their community service interact is an arm of the Rotary Club and like rotary their focus is on service and I stress service community service with rotary they help with our turkey distribution they help for two days over Friday and Saturday morning and a lot of these events are not just during the school day school day but they're dur on the weekends as well uh they also help with our elf program our doggy Derby I know the interact they go to the soup kitchen and the adviser takes a lot of her time on the weekends to to do this so they provide a lot of community service opportunities community service is really very important for students as well as Athletics and everything else and it seems to me in going over the list that you have very few clubs left on here to be approved that involve community service community service is important for their scholarship applications and it's very important on their college applications as well we also the for River Rotary Club also provides students to attend a Leadership Academy this year we spent we sent three different students over five days for them not to come back now to the club and be able to pursue what they've learned and it just doesn't make any sense also uh and there two of them were are to be officers co-presidents of of the club so and rotary also spends a lot of money on WE Ro uh scholarships we give $220,000 a year for high school student scholarships many of them do go towards interact not just interact though but our the most important criteria is community service how are they going to be able to get community service if they don't have these opportunities and I'd like to take a minute to talk about ADA which is the focus of the municipal Alliance as many of you know Ada Association against drugs and alcohol is supposed to be a club that helps preent prevent students from experimenting with drugs and alcohol we all know kids are going to do that but the idea of this club is to reinforce that not only do they have to pledge to be alcohol and drug free but they also help by spreading the message among other students they provide like pet P support so a lot of students in a lot of these students who participate in these clubs are not into Athletics so what are we providing for those students who don't have athletic programs to participate in so I would respectively request that these and other service clubs be reinstated thank you thank you for coming anyone El public comment sure hello everybody uh Steve solder 402 Cranberry Court um kind of a little nervous that I'm getting comfortable standing at this Podium at this point but I am back again to uh again bring up the topic and to approach you with some concerns about the elimination of the subscription busing program in our school district for this upcoming year um I live at my house with my two children and my wife and I remind my children every day that I see them please be careful and be safe when you leave this house because if you don't come home I cannot replace you I cannot replace you and the elimination of this program scares me and it aggravates me because it doesn't need to go it's a subscription program where parents like me are willing to pay to have it I understand that parents in the past historically have not completely funded this program and the district has subsidized and added money to that program but I'm learning more as I'm going through this last month and a half um I I I know know most of you know that I am also a teacher not in Lacy so I have time during the summer to delve into some other things and I've been able to do some research and with the help of some of you sitting at this table right now you've allowed me to understand more of this process and understand where this subscription busing program the money's come from okay so I get so I I understand more than I did before but I still don't understand why we are eliminating a pro program that is not a multi-million dollar program it's not even a $500,000 program or a $250,000 program we are eliminating a program directly pertaining to student safety for a mere $100,000 maybe a little more especially since it's being subsidized by people in the town now a survey was put out at my at my request I don't know whether you know that or not I'm the one that prompted the idea hey let's put out a survey and we did or the board did or the central office did on December on uh June 27th and it was one of the most poorly written surveys I've ever seen in my life it did a huge disservice to the whole subscription busing program okay it threw out a number of $100 per child for subscription busing for this upcoming school year when when the last number was $230 I paid $230 for my son last year and now we're $1,100 per child and the survey only asked would you be interested in subscription busing it didn't even take into account that there could be multiple people multiple children in one household that would be using that bus it's not $1,100 per family it's $1,100 per child so if you have two children like I do $2,200 where did that come from where did that number come from and I'm finding out recently that even some board members didn't even don't know where that $1,100 came from where that number comes from I'm finding out a little more and I'm understanding a little more and I understand there's a lot of variables go into that number but $100 is in my opinion grossly exaggerated the survey did not explain where it came from the survey did not take into account multiple children per family because in the end it's going to matter how many people ride the bus if we're helping to pay for that bus the more people that ride that bus the cheaper that bus should be now I understand there's also another component of free and reduced programs and that has to play into it as well I'm I'm understanding more about that as we go ahead okay and I also understand as of this afternoon that the survey that the new survey that is going out that was supposed to go out last Thursday and didn't and then was supposed to go out Monday and didn't is now going to go out the end of this week so I am hopeful for that survey I am hopeful that we'll be able to gather the information that we need to really try to figure out how much will it cost per family to run this bus I understand that it's $35,000 a year to put a bus on the road in Lacy Township $335,000 to put a bus and that's that's if the district paid $35,000 you're going to get money from us to help pay for that so we are eliminating a program that's not even a bank breaker three buses $100,000 two buses if I wait can I have more time yeah you can come back after uh at the end yeah at the end thank you so much appreciate [Applause] I'm GNA pick up where he left off I'm Lisa Bole 108 Trenton Avenue North so I was here last month and I talked about the same thing the busing situation and this is no disrespect I'm a single mom again myself interrupt you but TR not North it is behind Forever Young daycare behind where Forever Young daycare right next to the I'm just trying as you're speaking I'm trying to position that address yeah so it's literally behind Forever Young daycare I'm the house behind for every everybody knows where I live um so you're just before the parkway on the right right before the parkway correct yes is that a dirt road or is that a paper Road P okay so um if my daughter walks to school which I I am not opposed to by the way I'm not opposed to her walking middle school or High School ma'am Middle School okay um it will be what 6:30 in the morning it's 27 minutes walking we just this last time she'd be walking on Lacy Road granted there's a sidewalk but she's got a cross not walking across Lacy Road on Lacy Road sidewalks crossing over Manchester she can't go through the apartments there she could absolutely go through the apartment she by other the cut through she absolutely could 45 minutes 45 minutes walk there is no crossing guards it will be dark some days it will be rainy and weather would blah blah blah blah blah I am by myself right we talked about this like you I'm an education I'm a high school administrator I work in Red Bank I leave my house at 5:45 in the morning I don't have a husband I don't have someone who can get my kid to school I just don't have it my concern was last time and my concern is again this time the survey went out and that's lovely I didn't get a survey and we were told that survey went out to everybody affected the survey did not go out to parents of fifth grade students moving into sixth grade there was not a summer rollover I know how schools operate I understand that I I didn't get a survey because my daughter is in fifth grade not in sixth grade yet at that point when the surveys went out I was also told that I could spearhead this thing and i' be someone would be in contact with me now we're almost like a week and a half away from school starting two weeks and I still have no more information about how my daughter potentially could get to school so do I keep her home for the whole entire year what do I do that's you would have to arrest me because that's not allowed I would have to become a a part-time uh worker at school that's also not going to happen it's only my income in my household we're being put in a really terrible position I'm sure I'm not the only single mom out there who is worrying about Howa their kid is going to get to school this year and I think about it every day it's literally keeping me up at night I don't know what I'm going to do I still have no solution I'm freaking out we're like literally a week and a half away and I have no idea how I'm going to get my kid to school I said to you last time parents I talk to people we'd be willing to pay $500 I I think that $100 astronomic to jump from $230 to $1,100 ridiculous but there's a bunch of people just like me who had no idea that a survey even existed we didn't even have an opportunity to voice our opinions that's that's just sad that's just sad anyway that's all freak out over but I just I we we need a solution and just I'm willing to pay $500 I I think that that's reasonable thank you I've got we've got to figure it out I thank [Applause] you uh hello my name is Cooper I'm a junior at Lacy Township High School and I'm here to talk about how I was just informed about a few hours ago that the Lacy Township School District will no longer be providing funding for interact club for the upcoming school year uh I've been a member of this club since freshman year and I'm not only saddened but I'm also disturbed by this decision our club has helped to provide thousands of dollars in scholarships for Lacy students over the past few years we've been able to give back to students and we've been able to give them access to volunteer opportunities across New Jersey and I've taught them the importance of public service we have provided thousands of items to food banks not only in Lacy but throughout Ocean County and throughout our state as a whole students who participate in public service beginning at a young age are more liky to give back at their communities at a later age it would be an understatement to say that this has been one of the most successful and impactful organizations at Lacy tonship high school not to mention we have bridged a path for students to be involved with the Rotary Club of forkid river which has been giving back to Lacy Township and wear toown for the past 50 years by defunding this club you are you are eliminating students of opportunities across New Jersey and limiting supplies for families in need as a member of the intera club I strongly suggest that you rethink your decision on this matter and help Lacy students Thrive and also like to mention that I was just informed that the Surf Rider Club will also be losing funding for the school year and I'm the vice president of that club and I've had I've heard nothing of this and I've just was made aware of this now so thank you thanks for coming anyone else pop a comment Mr sensor Regina Des sza Sunset Drive Sunrise Beach I understand the first referendum meeting that was held on August 6th was not recorded for the public at large to see hear or listen to is that correct and I understand tonight's meeting at 5:00 also was not recorded asking for up to $86 million on a March 11th 2025 referendum and trying not to let it be televised how sneaky is that to have your referendum kickoff meeting out of the public eye only the people that attended know the details discussed two weeks ago and tonight what did I promise this board more than once in the last few years since I left left office I guess you all forgot I will fight any referendum in any way I can the 99.9% tax increase put a lot of people over the edge too much money in this district has been spent and allocated to non-maintenance issues and that is why I'm so upset years and years of infrastructure neglect are now coming to a head money always geared to personnel and benefits clearly this district is running into a bankruptcy situation failure to keep up infrastructure shows derel of Judy I'll never forget when I was on the board we were told the high school boilers were ready to blow up and they got replaced within the budget although it should have been done much sooner before they were potential death traps that's just one example there were a lot of untruths set forth to the public in 2009 with the previous referendum we were told the roofs were replaced under warranty when the truth was they were repaired under warranty to handle the solar project now the RO GRS are in Jeopardy because they were not properly secured or replaced in 2009 to handle a 20year solar panel project Mr Peters please don't cha uh challenge my observations and conclusions because you have never read all the materials as I have done since 2009 the only mistake I made was believing people's answers to my questions without seeing enough proof bottom line is roofs were repaired and maybe one was replaced during the solar installation in 2009 the public was promised those roofs were going to last the entire life of the solar project and now they didn't so why should we believe anything the board tells the public now is the truth the public was lied to backwards forwards and sideways by the former business administrator and superintendent and board for the previous referendum we were also told no expense to the taxpayers because srex were going to cover the bond payment 3 years after the project went in srex tank like a rock this is no one's fault but no one asked the bonding company to have an early call date for payback if you don't understand something you're signing or have the proper amount of time to do the job of board member correctly then you shouldn't be sitting there to bond for 19.8 million and then have 8.2 million left over with no provision for early payback is the fault of Acacia financial and the board no one seems to have enough business and financial Savvy to handle these Financial details at home on a residence people generally replace a roof 20 to 30 years if the roofs here were not properly fortified to handle the proposed 20-year life of the solar panels whose fault is that I would say we got a lot of baloney with the project from darara Rabino and Ray Angelini the solar installers people of lacy do not believe this snow job that this money can be borrowed at no expense to the taxpayer it's a lie they simply want to trade off one Bond payment for a new Bond payment with 5 years still left on the solar Bond so energy was generated there was small electric savings but not nearly enough SRE profit to cover the cost of what ended up being a $112 million solar project you got to fight on your hands thank you for your comment anybody else want a public comment [Applause] you must be Cooper's mother no I'm not oh okay no she's not I'm Cooper's friend's mother um deie Cooper not Smith car street for River um I was not planning on speaking tonight but I did just find out about the cuts in the clubs um I have my fourth child going in as a junior this year I have three that have graduated and over the years my kids have been involved in different clubs um I am so disheartened that these clubs are being cut they are based around community service we are um we need to bring more kids to serve the community and learn how to serve the community if they learn at a young age they tend to spend their lives serving their communities in various organizations this is a good habit that they need to start early these stiens for these clubs are absolute peanuts in the big scheme of things and it serves an an enormous amount of students in this District so to cut these clubs that are so important to so many kids over such a minuscule amount of money to me is atrocious there are so many different things that can be cut I could give you a list by the end of the day but these tiny little clubs that serve a couple hundred kids in this school and it's teaching them how to give back to their community and feed the Homeless and clean up beaches and do so many good things the fact that this is what we're focusing on cutting to me is absolutely appalling so um I have a daughter that was very very involved in interact she is now going to be a senior in college she is still giving back to the Rowan Community to her sorority community and she learned that through interact so that is carrying her through and it will carry her through for the rest of her life and that goes that goes to be said for a lot of kids in this community um so that I've said my peace thank you very much thank [Applause] you anyone else public comment please St your name and address uh Bob risk at 317 Cedar Avenue um just talked along the lines the same thing with the buses that we were talking about before um I have two daughters one going into Middle School one going into the high school and in case you guys don't know Cedar Cedar Avenue is the one that's three names in One Manchester Cedar and South Street I I invite you guys to come sit on my porch and watch the tractor trailers the Wawa tractor trailers that come from Lacy road to to to WWA on Lacy road to the Wawa on route n or the dump trucks that go by there or the reason why I have to back in my car and my driveway because I have a hard time pulling out every morning around school time I mean not to mention the traffic that's the cut through from Lacy Road people coming off the parkway going down you know my street to get cut through to Route N9 to go into Ocean Gate or rest of Bayville or rest of that I just don't understand I mean why and if if you're going to pull the buses then why isn't there there should be a crossing guard then on on my corner street of Dugout and Cedar I look we looked at the map South Street which is a half a block to my right is on the busing map why is not my house on the busing map I mean it's right next to what's that park there Hebrew Park that that that right that I am two houses away from the entrance to Hebrew Park but yet my daughters don't get a busing a bus if they could walk like I said literally a half a block to my right and get a bus why can't I get a bus on the corner of Dugout and Manchester and and Cedar Avenue I just think it you know I should come to these things more often we find out how much we're going to spend on roues and $212,000 for the superintendent I just found out got skits tonight turf fields what's the sense of spending money on the turf fields or the roofs we can't get the children to the schools to enjoy the turf field or to enjoy the roof on why spend that money if we can't get you know the the students to the schools to enjoy these things that's all I just think it's ridiculous and appalling and and I didn't I wasn't afforded last year the option to pay so I didn't know that that was $230 you know we we just found out about that survey not that long long ago but again $230 $1,100 that's ridiculous I mean not that you know I can't even it's hard for us to even afford the the $500 you know even if you guys brought that back but I just don't understand why I just don't understand it makes no sense to spend all this money on all these other projects but you can't get the kids to the school to enjoy these projects same thing you're talking about cutting money on these fundings for all these other extracurricular activities but you can't get the students to the EXT ex curricular activities that's all thank you for your coming thank [Applause] you anyone else public comment yes ma'am wait she's coming please sit your and address my name is Heather salmon I live at 319 Cedar Avenue um and I just want to continue with what was just said about the uh the issues of not having busing in that area um I have a child in middle school and the path that she would have to walk to get there um is not consistent with sidewalks it's not consistent with safety um Manchester Avenue is considered a county road I don't feel safe I I don't feel secure at all um knowing that she would have to the the the routes that she would have to take the multiple even even different options that she would have I don't feel any of them are safe um the current placement of crossing guards wouldn't be sufficient for her or anyone on that block including some of my neighbors as well um so I really just don't see how you guys thought that was a good idea and I wish you would really reconsider um specific areas of town where safety would be a big concern for students to get to school thank you thank you for your comment anyone else Mr bck yeah that's fine hi my name is chrisy McGovern to 11 Cedar Lake Point in Fork River um Tiara Lake Point Cedar Lake OH Cedar Lake I'm sorry um two things I I did not even find out about the interact thing with uh cut Cuts before I got here so um both of my girls are are in that program as well it is a great program and I hope that they will maybe reinstate the funding for that um and then also uh just wanted to say that we are very excited that coach Mahar is going to be back you know as the coach and thank you for your help with that and uh some of the some of the players not a lot of the players but some of the players are up there can you guys just stand up for a moment the players and they are thankful thank you so much thank you Mr bidnick I'm going to have to come back up because I have part one and part two and I know it's probably going to go beyond five minutes absolutely okay uh the first part is hand delivered a letter to our board president dealing with the cease and desist letter dealing with harassment and threatening behavior Dear Mr Peters I'm writing to formally demand that you immediately cease and desist from engaging in any further threatening or harassing Behavior towards me on August the 6th 2024 at approximately 8:00 pm. following the special school board meeting you rudely interrupted a conversation I was having with acting school board superintendent will zalinski during this unwarranted Interruption you proceeded to issue threats against me regarding a conversation I had with board member Linda Walker a conversation to which you were not party too your statements in which you threatened to cause me harm if I ever communicated with a member of the board again are wholly unacceptable and constitute harassment under the New Jersey Law your contact is UN conduct is Unbecoming of a public official and demonstrates a disturbing lack of professionals and self-control it is imperative that you understand the seriousness of your actions under New Jersey Law harassment is defined as any communication with a purpose to harass another in offensively coar language or any other manner likely to cause anyone annoyance or harm your conduct on the evening of August the 6th clearly meets this standard furthermore any attempt to intimidate or threaten a member of the public retaliation for exercising their right to free free speech is a violation of my constitutional rights and abuse of your position as board president this letter serves as formal notice that any further conduct of this nature will result in immediate legal action including but not limited to seeking a restraining order against you as well as pursuing any and all other remedies available under New Jersey Law please be advised that this is not the first instance of your inappropriate behavior towards me your repeated verbal outbursts in response to my legitimate and factual criticisms of board actions only serve to further demonstrate a pattern of harassment and intimidation it is regrettable that it has come to this but your actions lead me with no other recourse I trust that you will take this matter seriously and govern your conduct accordingly I expect the school board to address this issue promptly and take the necessary steps to ensure that such Behavior does never occur again should you fail to comply with this demand I will have no choice but to pursue all available legal Avenues to protect my rights and ensure my safety sincerely Richard bidnick sad thank you for your comment Mr s would you have to go back up please thank you sir I'm sorry just real quick anybody else PA before he goes back up okay all right so once again thank you uh Steve solder 402 Cranberry Court um I I I wanted to share some information that I've gathered over the past uh couple weeks through um various Oprah requests with Lacy Township the state of New Jersey and with the uh assistance of the um administration at Lacy EMS and Lanoka Harbor EMS um I believe that knowledge is power and I believe that you need to know some things in making decisions about the subscription busing so I've compiled some information that I want to share with you um in the last 10 years that would be January of 2014 until uh July 30th of 2024 we have been living in a Township where these summonses for speeding violations has gone up 35% we are living in a Township where where the summons is for careless driving New Jersey statue 39-4-97 has up has gone up 88% we are living in a town where the summonses for reckless driving New Jersey statue 394-9961 per in Lacy Township the summonses for cell phones and handfree violations are up 50% in the last 10 years the number of suspicious persons complaints is up 70% and the number of registered Megan Law violators is up 31% in the last 10 years Auto pedestrian accidents combined with Lac EMS and lenoa harbor 20120 there were 13 2021 there were 16 2022 there were 24 and 2023 there were 27 autop pedestrian accidents Okay so now you know and in front of all these people you'll never be able to say that you don't know because now you know the knowledge is in you forever all right and because you do know God help anything anything anything that happens to one of our children walking on the roadways driving their bikes on the right because of the subscription busing that was taken away that is now could be deemed as a reckless action on your part because you know it's a blatant disregard for safety you're making a decision that is putting our children in this situation and I think you need to carefully consider what you are doing I want to present this information to you so that you know and this this information is available you can do Oprah requests you Lacy police all right or the state of New Jersey all right I wanted to share that information with you so that you understand the situation that eliminating this program is putting our children into um I also want to say to Mr sininsky congratulations on your new position all right um I understand that the uh former position that Mr zalinsky held the assistant superintendent is not going to be filled at this time he's going to be assuming a dual role with a stien good for you all right but that means there's money there's the money for all the stiens that people were just talking about tonight and there's the money for the subscription busing thank you thank you thank you for your [Applause] com M SC I'm sorry sorry I didn't see your hand up earlier it's scandin bar Pines uh just very briefly um I just would like to um offer my opinion that the referendum meetings that you intend to have for the next several months 5 o'clock is a very bad time uh people are coming home from work they can't get here at 5: you really want to encourage the public to support it I think you need to make your your times for this convenient for the public to get out and get the information uh if you don't do that then people who are going to you know the people who turn around say you're trying to hide something going to have a case but if you make it a time that's available to everybody then you can get you can get your message out thank thank you finish um to the mom who lost her child I just want you to let you know that I send my condolences I feel terrible about the way you were treated it's a terrible thing going back to the referendum information um how much did we pay for the feasibility study for this referendum from what I understand it's to the tune of like $30,000 from what I've seen it's filled with errors and omissions and it's obvious that no one had proofread the document very unprofessional to say the least which also into itself says a lot about this whole referendum project if you can't even present a professional study that isn't riddled with errors and omissions and misspellings then this is a real concern I have no confidence at all in this study I mean it's quite embarrassing the first roll out by the board a few weeks ago was also embarrassing and it lacked it with transparency I'm still waiting for the answer to my questions dealing with the soft cost of this project broken down by all three elements of the referendum question nobody could answer this question at the meeting a few weeks ago I find this not only very odd but quite troubling especially with this board's record of dealing with bonding issues I am of course referring to the botched solar panel bonding of 19.8 million that was way over bonded and which we the taxpayers are still on the hook for today this board cannot be trusted with this past history in this department especially since the person who signed that bonding agreement is still sitting on this board right now the school board also hired a PR firm to use propaganda on the public to try to persuade which I would consider only a fool to support this $92 million project in Sp spending on the facilities for our current schools it's a hell of a lot of money the district is going to have a $7 million whole for the next year's budget alone and they want to do a referendum which makes no fiscal sense they are counting on the state to make up 40% of the payment but the state can reneg on this at any time just like they Chang the funding formula for our schools the state is not a reliable partner especially dealing with Lacy schools I do want to know why hasn't the school board started applying for the school regionalization efficiency programs the DCA Awards grants for school Regional regionalization studies it aims to help school districts to explore merging with ning neighboring districts now this makes total sense instead of doing a $92 million referendum S2 was designed to force districts such as ours to merge with other districts it not only makes fiscal sense it makes total academic sense regionalized schools can offer our students so much more than we ever could if the district cared about education and the taxpayers which it claims that it does it would be doing just that isn't it time that this board started doing the right thing for once doing the same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different outcome is called Insanity it's time for a new Direction and big change thank you very much thank for your [Applause] comment okay we're going to close board I'm sorry didn't you ever to speak M okay Regina descends the Sunset Drive Sunrise Beach Mr bidnick already mentioned one thing at the 5 to 6: p.m. meeting tonight it was revealed that the board plans to add one more item to the referendum the turf field now bringing the grand total of the referendum to $92 million which I feel is absurd and I forgot to mention that I had inquired about Dr pereira's Little Golden parachute for un sick and vacation days it was $42,000 in case some parents are wondering how money gets moved around and goes to different places thank you for your comment all right we're going to close public comment board committee reports Miss Claus sure uh we had our finance meeting on August 8th it was myself and Alternate Mr Peters Sharon ornsby and Mr zinsky uh we talked about the hbac project Miss ornsby led the discussion on the status of the HVAC project at the high school the units will be set in place August 14th the installation will take place over the next two weeks so I think today uh it was turned on uh prek project update Miss ornsby led the discussion on the status of the prek project at M Pond the project is well under the way and projected to be completed on schedule there are inspections completed the week of August 12th discussions followed uh we spoke about the referendum at length uh we T also talked about um it was a topic I wanted to talk about the board office space um i l a discussion on possibly uh renting out the board office um uh to someone else just to uh have some reoccurring Revenue so we're going to look into that for the future um Finance we talked about policy finder update Miss Orby let uh updated the committee on the status of the policy finder contract thean still working to find coverage for the district Yonder um these are the pouches for the uh the phones um Miss ornsby led a discussion on the Y pouches that the district is considering purchase to use at the high school and the middle school U Miss orens be updated the committee on the donations that the district has received and we are still waiting for one more standard operating procedures um that's on the agenda tonight uh she led a discussion on the standing operating procedures manual the plan will be subject of a resolution on the August agenda purchasing manual uh Miss Orby led the discussion on the purchasing manual the plan is the subject of a resolution on tonight's agenda Food Services uh we have a new cafeteria Cook miss ornsby led to this the discussion on the new cafeteria cook she will be the subject tonight on the resolution food service standard operating manual Miss ornsby led the discussion on the food service standard op operating procedures manual um and that is also on for resolution tonight we did discuss Transportation uh the subscription busing and morning care um as Orby led a discussion for morning Care at the middle school um what we talked about and things may have changed because it's been a few weeks um to have um a stien for someone to come in in the morning um which would cost about 15 or 16,000 we would need to fill that classroom um which would we would need about 32 students and that would cost the parents $487 for the year so that might be another option um if there's no subscription busing the parents can drive their students into the middle school they can walk to the high school if needed um starting most likely at 5:30 a.m. um I guess there's a survey going out soon um we're working on it yep it's being worked on Transportation standard operating procedure manual miss or we led the discussion on the transportation standard operating manual and the plan is on for the resolution tonight we talked about facilities use of facilities and that is all and uh Miss Orby if you can just put on for discussion for next meeting uh the clubs again we just have a discussion thank you Mr Conor policy please uh policy was on Monday the 12th of August uh it was myself CLA Mr Bell and Dr Perera um where did Lisa go told you before um hary letters uh principal King is finalizing a I want to call it a policy because we already have a policy in there more of a guideline um for us to what review um as far as uh policies uh revised uh grading system um for the standard base report cards um uh policy 0141 for member uh number and term um presses the number and term for members and um filling a vacancy timeline uh policy 01646 remote public support meetings during a declar uh emergency has been uh abolished that was in regards to the uh covid uh emergency and since it's over the policy's gone um policy 2200 percent content uh and revised remove a list of referencing uh njsl s standards um to be more uh in line with the other changing programs uh policy and regulation 2423 for B lingual uh education uh the recent amendments address the services multilingual Learners um that were previously called English language Learners um so just an update on that wording uh policy and regulation 24314 uh prevention and treatment of sports concussions and head head injuries um the division of Educational Services of student Support Services released a new model policy um so have all been Rewritten to align together policy 5350 student suicide prevention uh revised um to include new uh State statutes um as far as training requirements um and requirement of any staff to be trained to warn and protect when they have information um and policy and regulation 7610 vandalism uh and updated um to replace he expand list as defined um to the regulation guide uh to moves the specific list of violations and includes certification to law enforcement um depending on the crime policy 8420 emergency and crisis situations uh provides all students and staff shall fully participate in each fire drill or school security to conducted um new language from njsa 18a 417 uh requirements updates that way um policy 9181 volunteer coaches and Co curricular coat curricular activity advisor and assistants um HJ dooh updated uh guidance for TB testing in schools and how to be screen and then policy 9323 notification of juvenile offender case his position just other um revision um Havey cist of protected categories which is enumerated and although the list does not include all the categories listed list is addresses a laundry list of them um and a confidentiality statement has been added in there as well uh and that was pretty much it um there was nothing else as far as co-curricular Safety and Security ltaa or anything else and uh the next heating is on September the 11th at 4:15 thank you Mr Cony Miss War please give a h curriculum report okay I said right didn't I you did uh curriculum met on August 6 at 2:30 in attendance with Mrs Amato um Mr myself and uh Mr zinski uh the first thing we discussed were um the the summer program that finished up uh Mr zinsky shared some of the details of the summer program over 300 students attended however this will be the last year of the federal funding for this program so we're investigating um doing a paid program that may be feasible next summer uh list of approved field trips there's a list we're voting on it number 33 under new business tonight um these this is a list of field trip locations that will be board approved however due to budget cuts many of those field trips uh won't occur this year but there will be voted on just in case we get money and we go um student parent handbooks we're also voting on board uh number 29 um student parent handbooks uh we the curriculum committee reviewed them we have preschool staff and student handbooks the elementary the Middle School High School Technology and transportation we also discussed um wait a minute okay we also discuss the substitute handbook program of studies for Lacy high school and Lacy middle school they're both being voted on tonight um the program of studies are really important um parents especially should um if you need to look it up it is online right program of studies yep uh it'll be posted probably shortly because in those uh handbooks you have um wealth of information including sequency sequencing credit attainment and graduation requirements for each class as reported tonight Mr zinsky reported about the random drug testing um and then we had Mr Dow and Mrs Malloy discussed the NJ GPA results and the AP scores Mr zinsky shared a copy of the virtual emergency learning plan that details how we would continue to educate students if they were required to stay home this is required by the federal Esser requirements curriculum text materials um will be approved tonight um is on the agenda we also discussed a memorandum of a memor of agreement with the committee that details the proposed relationship the high school will have with the prevention of teen suicide organization staff members will be trained in the curriculum which will be implemented largely in the health classrooms we discussed two courses that are going to be offered at the middle school this year history of New Jersey and narrative through film study want to um applaud uh the esy program with uh new supervisor Elise spafford uh did a wonderful job running the program Mr Bond and Mrs kovski have received positive feedbacks regarding her leadership technology I'm not going to read all of them they've been very busy from um desktop purchases Imaging um Chromebook purchasing delivered inventory Network printers being delivered uh rebuild of print servers and a a array of other things and that was our um curriculum thank you our next curriculum is September 10th thank you speak uh briefly regarding the uh superintendent search the new one uh we had uh four companies apply for our superintendent search uh Mr valinsky will be filling in uh we're looking to hire a new superintendent July 1st first next year um we narrowed it down to two companies and myself Mr arato and Mr Bell on that committee interviewing uh corporations we brought two companies back for a second interview and then we did a final interview and a final vote and uh we approved the company that's a local superintendent has ton of years experience in Ocean County knows a lot of people in Ocean County and um he lowered his price drastically for us knowing that our financial situation so uh next move on we have a kickoff meeting with this gentleman and myself missla and Miss Amato are on the actual superintendent uh search committee uh this gentleman last time uh he worked for mopin manisan I'm sorry manisan thank you uh manisan they have was it 85 applicants remember South is that what it was about there was 85 applicants and this gentleman goes through all the applicants reads them through all the uh their surveys and their uh resumés and their applications narrows it down to 15 candidates his top 15 recommendation top 10 recommendation and top five recommendation and gives us the bucket to choose through we do have the opportunity to read every application if we want to in case one pops out in our committee's head rather than what he presents to us we have the opportunity to do that to go through the applicants by ourselves through that and uh our first meeting like I said is going to be Thursday to uh the pop off meeting to go through everything on what's going on with that um that being said superintendent report uh no just post comment uh just uh my only comment there is that if uh you see somebody of our 12-month employees please thank them uh there's still a lot to do uh prior to September 5th um there's a lot going on uh We've made some serious adjustments this year with construction over at mil Pond as part of our bathroom project so if you see any of our people please thank them uh and uh they're working tirelessly to get our schools ready to go our Administration everybody so um you know here's to uh we'll see you in September and we'll hopefully have a great opening of school year thank you board member con Mr conned no uh H Pera isn't here but congratulations on your retirement thank you for the uh year and a half um I've been here uh and that's pretty much it right now Mr Bell thanks nothing for tonight Mr nothing for me miss m I just want to thank everyone for their comments and we'll look into what you guys have said Miss Walker I just want to um thank um Dr Dow and Mrs Malloy for their presentation tonight um I also want to thank all our staff maintenance grounds I hate to list them because I'm AF you're going to miss one I don't do it's tough there's so many of them maintenance grounds secretaries bus drivers staff Administration um and I want to thank in advance the teachers because I know from being in their shoes once before I know you're in your classrooms already setting up and getting ready for September um so we want to thank you for volunteering your time to do that and getting it ready so when the kids walk in their classroom is shining and ready to uh you know learn so thank you I also want to congratulate Mrs Dr perir on her retirement and wish her luck in her future endeavors thank you m Claus sure um yeah I just want to encourage everybody to come out and um attend the referendum committee meetings um I know we're going to be doing tours so please um come and join us with that the one good thing about the referendum is you guys vote so you know everyone can come up and say you know what you like on it what you don't like in it but in the end it it's up to you so if you want to do one two and three one and three one and two whatever um you know that that's up to you people so I think it's a great opportunity to see what this town really wants for this District to move forward and that's all I have thank you and to tie on to that uh those meetings are going to vary from all different times we understand people working what not we're going to have some uh hopefully some Saturday meetings possibly um I'd like to possibly do um professional day meetings when there's no students in the building so are seniors can come during the daytime possibly because I know some people don't like driving at night we're going to be giving tours of the of the schools and the FI and the building showing what we want to repair and what we want to fix and again we're not ask for all brand new buildings we're just asking for new roofs to keep this the this the structure safe and waterproof and a little more comfortable for the students that's all we're looking for we're not looking for you know jacuzzi on the 10th floor and all that stuff in the pool whatnot but um other than that that is it resolutions man man how's it going I'm getting old I'm like thank you we got cheaters oh let's go you're the best thank you meeting minutes A1 can I have a roll call please we need a motion I'm sorry motion please motion second Ru call please Mr Bell here Mrs armato yes yes sorry I didn't even notice that either sorry Mr con what yes I have to stand on the special meeting uh thank you uh Mrs Walker yes Mr Rado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes yes page two uh A2 list of bills for August motion I have a second please second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs arato yes Mr conned yes do see if there yes Mr conned can you look at that please yeah yeah yeah thank you fre2 955 136 and 289 299 28330 thank you uh Mrs Walker uh yes uh Mr armato yes Mrs Claus yes and Mr Peters yes I same on A7 out of District tuition please thank you can I have a motion please page two and three A3 and A4 for transfers motion please motion second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes Pages 6 through nine student tuition I'm sorry page 3 through six Finance facilities A5 through A10 can I have a motion please hold on and then we have as amended uh number six we're adding under um the third group of um projects we're adding the new Synthetic Turf field and lighting at the Lacy high school fhd number 5299 s um it's on your green sheets can I have a motion please motion I'll second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes Pages 6-9 student tuition Transportation A1 to a21 can I have a motion please motion second I have a question can I ask sure um um number 19 regarding student transportation we have can can someone put this in a way I understand it what is he tell me are we losing students or are we gaining students no we share Transportation so sharing transport correct yeah yeah so we do transportation for the um V students so okay yes all right thank you what we do is we we all picked a run between the three of us so we do it we'll sh share and it's no cost to us but they take our kids we take their kids okay very good thank you no extra cost to us good Mr am I'm good yeah can I have a motion please Page 6 through 9 A1 through a21 we have the motion can I have a second have it roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes but obstain on number 20 I haven't seen it okay thank you Mrs Walker yes m Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes motion passes can we have a motion please Pages 9 through 10 a22 to a33 I'll move it second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peter yes Pages 10 and 11 policies and regulations 834 to 835 motion second rule call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes page 11 got a Hib on A36 have a motion please motion I'll second it Ru call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conedy yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes page 11 B donations can I have a motion please motion second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conedy yes Mrs Walker yes Mr rato yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes page 11 C programs and curriculum could I have a motion please motion second roll call Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker I have to abstain on Georgian Court University but yes on the rest thank you Mr rato yes Mrs Claus yes Mr Peters yes Pages 12- 19 D certified Personnel D1 through D7 can I have a motion please I have I have a question sure what number for the stiens just have just a general question I just was curious there's so many variations in what people get paid stiens how how is that determined does anybody know that I don't know TR I believe yes contract contract by contract it could be link to service there's numerous factors could be how long they've been in that position okay okay can I have a motion please motion second rule call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes and I'm going to abstain on number six um Nicholas madsky and number 13 Nicholas madsky thank you Mr rato yes Mrs Claus yes and Mr Peters yes motion passes uh page 93- 24 e noncertified Personnel E1 through e13 can I have a motion please move second roll call please Mr Bell yes Mrs armado yes Mr conned yes Mrs Walker yes Mr armado yes Mrs CL yes Mr Peters yes motion to yes second all in favor evening you