[Music] I'd like to call the March 18th 2022 Lon Hill uh Township Board of Education meeting to order please rise to for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all adequate notice of this meeting of the Long Hill Township Board of Education was given as required by the open Public's meeting act as follows notice was sent to the echo Sentinel and daily record on September 18th 2023 notices were posted on the bulletin board in the first floor entrance of the School District administration building Gillette New Jersey notices were filed with the Township Clerk and notices were mailed to all persons who have requested individual notice pursuant to the open public meeting act roll call please Mrs Butler here Mrs Daly Mr Foster here Mr grov here Dr Mah here Mrs mclenon here M Nyquist here miss ruo here Mrs case here any Communications nothing to report okay um board committee and leaz on reports Karen okay uh a meeting was held for the Morris County ad Services Commission last week and it's the same thing we're doing the budget they their uh budget is different I think I've mentioned before they don't get get state aid they don't get any money from you know property taxes their budget is purely based on their uh the revenue they receive from membership as well as from the services they generate that the different districts are going to pay for uh the budget this year or the coming year is going to be $3 million less than the last year most of that comes from a decrease in the requirement for special education Transportation as well as special education services It's a combination things there were some students because of Co they extended usually they uh how should I say this uh up they get over when they get 21 they have to leave the system with Co some were given onee extension some were given two years extension so that required extra services and extra transportation and that's gone now the other thing too is um when the uh the whatever Fe fund came in to be distributed to non-public student uh schools associated with the covid relief uh it was administered through Morris County it's the Services Commission and they got a commission for it that's all gone so they don't have a commission coming in so that's really where the big chunk of the reduction came uh last Wednesday uh the finance committee met and we uh went over a lot of things several things would show up on your uh agenda um we did little A Brief Review of our goals and something that is on the agenda and also I'll mention um efforts that are underway with uh shared services with WatchON as well as possibly something working out with Hudson way where fees could be obtained is uh a step for the generating or Andor cost savings associated with our our our expenditures um one member of the board submitted questions for uh to George um want to thank Robin Adele and Dom who worked diligently to put that together I believe everybody had a chance to see the questions and the responses and there are no other questions that have are around for the about the budget if there are robins there you okay all right um next uh alphab best there it's this year is their contract is up Rob and approached them and they're very well aware that it's going to be an RFP situation and there's no problem with that with respect to Hudson way as I mentioned George has been in discussion uh they would like to have maybe five to seven students attend one science period at uh Central and either you know getting a fee but also they would possibly offer us if we could arrange it and if it works that we have takers to have a Chinese as an extracurricular they have Chinese uh they also requested that their students might participate in some of our extracurricular activities and there's certain legal things I guess that have to be checked out in regulations so if if if it's that possible it seems they're not screamish about paying a fee for that either so that's good uh with respect to the summer programs it's on the agenda for share Services agreement Watchung borrow uh where we will join together for our extended uh school year program they will provide their teach they will provide the uh the AIDS they will provide the transportation and it will just be healthier and I'm talking with Frank in the be uh it's going to be held at Millington and the classes will be merged I mean there'll be long hill and watch on students you know in class it's not going to be watching in one and Long Hill or another and the teachers will serve so there's a a possible C savings at least at the cost of our uh program uh Transportation uh year the CPI came out to be 5.81 and that's the amount or the percentage that the bus companies could raise their rates so watch and Long Hill and Watch Hill said no way are you getting 5.81 so they started out at two and they settled at four so we'll see some Savings in that uh was again one of those questions of uh you know double let you know versus the one you don't uh what was really uh imparted to them is they don't they want a seamless beginning and the drivers I guess it's been people have been very happy with the drivers here so that they have now uh if the drivers come back they said we have them the same drivers so it all depends on whether they you know come back uh subscription busing what was put in the budget last year actually uh less Revenue came in so Robin lowered uh the forecast for subscription busting Revenue this year and that's reflected in the budget uh with respect to the National School Pro lunch program uh it's possible that we could be going out for a competitive contract and looking at things that are uh available to us you can have lunch you can have snacks you can have breakfast Etc to start out it's only going to be considered for lunch the PTO is on board with this um the the RFP that would be provide we generate is going to have to include something associate with Personnel because you need somebody who's going to you know check what comes in get it appropriately set up and you know for the students and also uh we learned from more and that person also coordinates the volunteers who help out with the lunches so that but that expenditure for personnel will be included in the in the RFB uh and then there are some standard things that are on the agenda all the time annual agenda all the time uh withdrawal from reserves for the Capital Improvements travel expenditures Professional Service expenditures approval of the ed services you know Mor County their rates and uh The Joint uh Transportation agreement with Sussex Canon that's it and governance will be meeting tomorrow may I add something to that go ahead Karen that was so quick and thorough actually considering everything we've been discussing in finance and now we're up for the budget I just think people need fair warning of this for next year with the bus contracts in order to reduce I know we've mentioned it before but in order to reduce the times that our children are on buses right now mostly people who are taking busing are receiving almost door Todo not everybody but almost door Todo and next year to reduce the amount of time that these kids are sitting on the buses and you have to reduce the stops so I think everyone has to anticipate that next year you're not going to have a stop right in front of your house and it's for the better it's obviously you're not going to have to cross any main roads the bus stops are all structured in the safest way possible but you might have to walk down the street but all in all we have our kids sitting on the bus less and um you know I know when I was a kid I had to walk a half a mile to my bus stop so this is it's not going to be anything like that but I just want parents to be prepared that you know for multiple reasons as far as uh keeping our bus cost as low as possible but more importantly for the best of all of our kids that are on the bus there is going to be some walking a few extra steps next year for for the sake of our kids okay any other questions thank you okay Crystal nothing this month okay Danielle um yes we did have a community relations committee meeting on March 12th um the minutes have not yet gone out yet so that will be coming out shortly and then I'll be able to go ahead and report okay and um we had uh oh I'm sorry we did not have a student achievement meeting since our last meeting um I did get the opportunity to attend the New Jersey school boards uh moris County um president and vice president's meeting which was on Thursday uh March 14th um in general it was um you know a lot of discussion from the uh local board presidents uh in Morris County about issues uh you know for school board leadership um but in particular uh topics included governance and also there's some um um you know rules uh and and the differences between choosing to have your elections in November or in April okay any questions for Ann okay Tom nothing to report but to touch on community relations this is our last meeting before the Sterling street fair so information will be flowing without it being from public meeting but about how we can person that and then what uh Essentials we need okay thank you Justin no report okay Melissa yes we had a um a policy committee meeting last week um it was me um Justin Crystal and uh Mr Alexis in attendance I apologize I sent out a draft of the meeting minutes to just the committee only but I did not get to them to the board and those policies you'll see are on our agenda but the good news is that there were really no substantive changes so the fact that you we'll still get the minutes after the fact but we were looking at grammatical formatting that type of stuff so um our next policy committee is on April 9th and that is at 8:30 p.m. via Google meet we'll review be reviewing another nine policies I'd like to thank George because because George is we usually the policy committee usually tries to take on the policies because George is busy being our superintendent of schools but to get us ahead a little bit or catch us up George is going to be taking on the review of three policies when he usually actually reviews all of them to start with but um so thank you for taking the initiative to do that and the minutes the minutes are in the the board folder wonderful you saw those yes everyone and um I'm happy that you all got to see them so uh I will be taking some continuing legal education classes as the legislatively AGS on to um hopefully catch everyone up by the next meeting but but I would like to point out that in Michigan Michigan was the first state to prosecute two parents of a school shooter both were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and the message from those two cases is that if you purchase your child a gun which I know is not common here but if you do not keep that gun safe if you ignore the warning signs from your child um regarding the please for help and your child's mental instability and um and your child goes on to do something absolutely horrific and a crime even though it wasn't any intention on your part your neglect as a parent can be interpreted as involuntarily it's it's not murder it's involuntary manslaughter so again parents be aware of your guns be aware of your children's please for help and be aware of um you know um how safe you keep your household because this although it's the first it's not going to be the last unfortunately School incident shooting that we and it's not going to be the last time a parent is held criminally responsible for their child's conduct um so that's that okay any questions okay Katie okay um there's no uh buildings and ground update uh as I wasn't at the meeting due to a family emergency um um in terms of the um lill Education Foundation we just have a couple um events coming up um we are currently going through a cookie decorating sale um you can um order the packets um up until April 12th and pickup will be in Millington at uh a private home on April 19th and April 20th um the times will be sent to you um if you decide to purchase um and also the tiger tracks Color Run will be held at Millington on Friday May 17th and we're still putting together the information but it should be a really great day and it's open to everyone in the district um and it should be a lot of fun and then we've approved four grants so far this year um and uh we we approved a Theater Arts um for for Central School um a video C recording camera um so they can record the performances they can also use it for other things at the school um there's walkie-talkies that we also approved which allows the uh stage crew to communicate and it gives them teaches them skills on um to support um uh production so that's exciting and then we uh approved the newor museum trip for the fifth graders so we'll be funding the actual trip and um also um the uh the support staff that is required to go um and then finally um for Millington school there's going to be um sensory inclusive resources for the whole building so it's a um kind of a resource you know different things that teachers can um it'll be stored in in a specific area and teachers as they need to um accommodate students they can borrow something from the the closet or whatever and see if it works and then obviously use it if it works and if it doesn't um they're not it's not just sitting in their classroom so it allows for uh teachers to um kind of experiment with the students and see what works for them so it's approximately $5,000 we're hoping to get some more applications um and we're happy to uh fulfill our mission which is to support our schools so that's it thank can can the Color Run be a bris walk well the kids do the running oh we don't have to no but oh that's brilliant but the that's brilliant no no no there's no running by if you want to run but the adults some adults can even throw the the Colors oh that's even better yes especially their sponsors they they the sponsors also are allowed to toss some color so yeah it's a lot of fun Brant idea it's all safe and actually this is a very good point the color that is it's a it's a very safe powder that is machine washable so even if your kid comes home head to toe covered in dye um they're perfectly safe and it comes out in the wash so I'll believe that when I see it Katie but I I'll take I don't think that should deter anyone though well no but also um you the you can purchase a t-shirt when you sign up and they can wear that so then you don't have to worry about it damaging anything and something's going to go around about this for everyone to sign up oh yes yes yes yes yes okay any other questions for pting okay um superintendent report thank you I I don't have a typical report but um because there's the resolution about um authorizing Robin to submit the tenative budget to the Mars County uh Department of Education Office I just want to say a few things and some of these were mentioned last week in the uh report on progress toward District goals and in Robin's highlights um but I'm very pleased with how the budget turned out and uh for a few reasons one um when you think about it the the budget is really well aligned with the district goals and the board goals which in turn of course arose out of the Strategic plan um we've placed a serious emphasis on the instructional needs of our students and the professional development of our faculty we've added a steam teacher at the middle school I'm very excited about that and made an investment in instructional resources including I ready uh and an instructional consultant to assist us with the mtss process uh next year budget makes a significant investment in technology I talked about this last week and allowing us to move much closer to the full one: one uh districtwide uh implementation of our technology plan we have our onet to1 Chromebook initiative fully implemented currently um but now we're turning our attention to iPads for our K1 students also in the budget we have funds reserved to transform the media center at Millington and an outdated technology room at the middle school into flexible Innovative learning spaces that will inspire inquiry creativity and collaborative problem solving and thanks to the additional state aid we found a way to continue with the summer Institute um we also have the new website platform coming soon and we're pursuing as we're mentioned in the finance minutes uh two shared service agreements to save money the whole budget process as Robins told us starts you know in early fall and it goes on for extended periods of time um the finance committee has been wonderful in terms of the questions they've asked and the suggestions being made the entire board has been very supportive Robin has pulled this whole thing together with dom and Adele and Natalia and everyone's assistant in the business office um but I also want to mention the administrative leadership team because we we asked them uh more than once to go back and look at certain priorities and to kind of rethink and reassess those priorities from what they needed um to run the schools and to focus on our students so they did that um and so we have a kind of a new look to the budget and I'm very pleased with it I just want to thank everyone for that thank you um okay business administrator's report okay I'm going to go to the podium because I have a couple slides I'd like to show you all great okay so tonight we'll be asking the board to approve the 20 2425 tenative budget so that we can send it to the Morris County Superintendent for approval the budget being presented is 22 m938 N9 and it represents a 2% increase in the general fund tax levy as Mr just said the business office superintendent and finance committee members begin budgeting early November through late December we developed the budget by analyzing historical and current actual spending and revenues but we also gather information from Administration and outside sources as well we talk to our insurance advisers to our auditor to collaborating districts and also we look at the state sources the budget development is designed to sustain enhance our current programs and Main our maintain our District's facilities the board has diligently reviewed the 2425 budget scrutinizing both revenues and expenditures for our district along with our Capital Improvement plans every board me every member of the board had the opportunity to submit questions and these questions along with responses were shared with board members ensuring transparency and Collective understanding of our budgeting decisions I'd like to now share a few slides with you that you haven't seen yet okay this slide shows our budgeted per pupil amount for 2223 our District's commitment to fiscal responsibility for our community while ensuring quality education for our students is evident through our per pupal expenditures which Falls within the middle range when compared to other K to8 districts of similar size in neighboring towns and Morris County the total tax Levy increase for 2425 is approximately $362,000 over the prior year the tax levy is derived by dividing the total tax levy by the assessed valuations which are provided by Long Hill Township the amount is then multiplied by the average assessed home value that is also provided by the township for the average home having an assessed value of 5,960 five I'm sorry 5963 $57 this equates to an additional $220 per year or $18.34 a month the last slide that I'd like to share with you shows a graph of long Hill's historical look at the tax levy over the past 15 years the green band on the graph represents the goal to maintain a tax levity the community can afford while PRI prioritizing the delivery of highquality Education to our students so I'm very happy that again we're at 2% across within the green band thank you thank you there any questions any questions no thank you thank you Robin Robin are there any comments from the public on agenda items okay at this point the Board of Education I know um I know I see him at at this point the Board of Education welcomes comments from any member of the public on agenda items only please note that as per board policy number 1120 a total of 15 minutes is allocated for public comments at any single board meeting in order to Pro provide residents the opportunity to comment individual speakers are limited to 3 minutes each at any particular board meeting the board May extend these time limits at its discretion any questions should be directed to the board president and depending upon the nature and complexity of the question it may or may not be answered during the meeting by the Administration if so the response would occur after this public portion of the meeting has concluded everyone has the freedom to speak but please be advised that anything said in public may have legal ramifications and there is no protection regarding statements made by the public please state your name and address before you begin great thanks everybody hi John pz uh Blue Star Drive I have and I sent comments last week um so I have one daughter who's in prek and another daughter who is three uh will be turning four in September three really quick uh comments the first is one just actually a thank you I appreciate it is work to come out here thank you for serving our community and going to to serve in an elected capacity that's wonderful thank you for what you're doing number two I I know I sent comments last week related to um expansion of prek and the the idea of Universal prek Enrollment and enabling that within our town um I just want to bring that up again unfortunately I didn't submit comments uh in time for tonight finished a meeting and said you know let me just come over and and share that again I really want to emphasize I think there is value in universal prek making that investment hope is not a strategy I do not think the state will ever fund Universal prek that is investment that I think our town can make I'm you know another fellow taxpayer within our town that's an investment I would be gladly make as a taxpayer within the town this is not sour grapes that my daughter one of my daughters now will not get into it that's fine we'll we'll accom accommodate that for our family we've already made plans for it it's not that but I really want to make sure that we continue to pay that forward so that's my second comment of that is important to me uh within the town I'd love it for the board to to continue to emphasize that and then my third comment is actually related to allocation strategy I do think if we're going to have a prolonged period um where there's going to be uh underc capacity in prek that we really take another look at allocation strategy within that that there's a more comprehensive look I don't have answers for what that looks like but I do think that that's something that going forward if there's going to be dozens of individuals with uh potential students who do not make it that there is a comprehensive allocation strategy beyond the lottery potentially thank you again appreciate all that you do thank Youk you okay moving to resolutions uh financials Karen will you move in financials numbers 1 through 11 um excuse me that Danielle you need to abstain from one of them yes uh number six sure okay so okay so moved any second okay question any questions yes thank uh on number one it talks about our NE our our May meeting being at 5:30 uh I know this has happened in the past people from the public will show up at 5:30 but we're in exec session when it gets out to the newspaper can we make sure that they they know that a regular board meeting is scheduled to start at 7:30 well can we not do so it's the retreat is open it's not an executive session but if we were going to say that 5:30 p.m. I don't know Mr Alexis 5:30 p.m. is the retreat with the board meeting starting at 7:30 yeah we it just I think is written here on the agenda right we can clarify that in the message that goes out when the agenda goes out I people have shown up yes okay thank you any other questions okay roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs daily yes yeah uhhuh okay but we'll yeah I'm St sorry Mr Foster yes Mr grov yes M Dr Mah yes Mrs mclennon uh yes Miss Nyquist yes Miss ruo yes Mrs case yes uh Chris will you will you move in personnel number 12 go move second any questions roll call please Mrs Butler yes Mrs Daly yes Mr Foster yes Mr grof yes Dr Mah yes M mclenon yes Miss Nyquist yes Miss rubo yes Mrs case yes uh Danielle will you move in policy numbers 13 through 17 so moved second any questions question question uh policy number 355 and I did read your notes so I have the answer that it's covered in 51 31.6 um I was just in in the notes it says that it's it's better handled there but I was just wondering uh if we remove the word tobacco and I don't remember what the title of the policy is if it's just smoking PR prohibition it is U so if it is then uh can either tobacco be removed so nobody smokes anything or marijuana be included so that while it may be better covered in 5131 it's not ignored by somebody who sees it only in 3515 well I think um I absolutely see what you're saying and we all we all look took a close look at this I think by virtue of the fact that it's not in 3515 does not you know what I did to also be careful was I I I did the search to see where it would come up in different policies to make sure if anyone did the search it would come up so I think what we were looking at too was to align it with the policies that are are on the njsba and so we it was more for Simplicity purposes your comment was really good and it was well taken but it was it was more of for future committees When Future committees come forward and they're doing the same work that we do do we want to confuse them even though it's dealt with somewhere else so I mean if that's something that the board wants to do I think we were just looking at it for administration purposes it would be easier just to keep them the way it is but your your comment was well taken we we all agreed that we could absolutely put it in both places but you know I think it was just you know what let's leave it the way it is where it's the cleanest okay as long as it's prohibited and it's absolutely prohibited say well it's medicinal yes so is liquor if you back in 18 and we discussed that as far as the medicinal use and whether you know what to extent that covered and and we heard what you were saying and it's absolutely prohibited and I think the other policy covers it much more in detail that prohibition okay great thank you okay just to add to that we didn't want someone seeing it in this policy and thinking that that was also the extent of the coverage of it so to leave it in the other policy where it was addressed in much more detail just a question um aren't certain types like isn't something that's considered drug prohibited anyway on on campus or is there any that that's the substance um substance abuse policy the the five you might know it 5131 yeah okay so it's outlawed anyway so it makes sense that I I just want to yes yeah okay any other questions but again I I see his point yeah okay roll call please M Butler yes Mrs Daly yes Mr Foster yes Mr GR yes Dr Mah yes Mrs McCannon yes M Nyquist yes M rubo yes Mrs case yes okay any items for discussion and finish business I just want to ask in u the president vice president session that a law now or is it just still being discussed uh it I mean it appears it changed uh the law is allowing you to to hold an April uh election and it's seem to have have maybe gone through quickly the change but um first of all it's cost prohibitive because the local Board of educations would be funding that election so you're paying for it where when we use the November election then you're they already have the elect the poll stations and everyone a place um but it also uh just created some complications in terms of term limits so that um we would have terms that were coming up for election in November and then it would be cutting short the terms for the people who were du the next November to the April election so you could potentially have six brand new board members within four months so New Jersey school boards may be um maybe lobbying or or working on that a little bit and bringing that point to the um legislator because I think in the past when they did it they extended the term limits right um well it had a lot to do with budgets it had yeah it went only from we were all it was all April yeah then they extended it Juno to November so it it did change yeah it seems that for districts that may be going beyond the 2% but they don't have waivers to do so that there's limits with this second question where you can go to the town for additional income uh an increase for certain types of projects I don't and that some districts felt that was better done in April so that they would get the response in April so that they could plan accordingly for September and for the summer whereas if we were going which we're not but if we were going to go to the town for an additional increase beyond our budget Beyond what we're allowed through the waivers and the the uh the different funds that we're allowed to pull from and we are leaving that on a November ballot then we wouldn't know until November if we had the monies or not so the solution there is if you're planning a year in advance um but the nice thing I guess at the moment is this is not applicable to conversations we've been having So I listened I learned but um but it was not something that pertained to us at the moment yeah it was interesting I think you get a better turnout in thir in November there was some conversation about that too but okay they mov it from people there's one or two districts in Morris County and I can't remember who they are uh do still do oh they there were there were one or two who did it um and there's reasons I I think that different towns have different reasons for it yeah is this something that you want me to look into as legislative chair or is it being covered I I think it I don't think we need to personally already signed into law it is a law but we have a choice as a board we have a choice um and for for me uh and I I think um the uh finance committee and is aware of it one of the main issues with the choice is that there's a a cost associated with us having the election in April we would have to fund all the you know polling stations and and I I'm not sure of all the cost but why would we fund that without another reason you know there has to be a reason driving I think that change in funds so Kim do you want me to research this and just provide a memo to the board um or are we fine with knowing it's just in November right now that the way our town does it yeah I mean I I'm you you could put something together to say where like the state of where things are that would be fine okay any other business okay any comments from the public okay can I have a motion to adjourn someone second second all in favor any opposed exensions thank you