no we're not Jordan is out he's traveling and Candace said Candace okay so we could start good evening welcome to a meeting the Mountainside Board of Education in accordance with the state Sunshine Law and state regulations adequate notice of this meeting was provided by mailing a notice of the time date location and instructions for accessing the meeting to the Union County local source and the Westfield leader fing the same with the burough clerk posting the notice at the main access door of the Mountainside Board of Education building and on the Mountainside Board of Education website these meetings are reserved for board deliberation and review of items contained within the agenda the board reserves a right to vote on action items the board welcomes the participation of interested individuals we encourage questions about specific School practices instance and events to brought directly to the school administration public comment will be permitted at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only each participant is asked to give his or her name an address prior to making a statement in addition time will be allotted at the end of the meeting for public comment on any item speakers shall limit their comments to three minutes roll call please Bill Dylan here Michael Goodwin here Dana qu we to see Petro here Jordan Heyman Vivian poopo here cesano Carmine Venice here at this time can I please get a motion um to go into executive session motion second all in favor opposed motion carries we will return in one hour thank you e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening we are returning from our executive um session it's 7:46 I apologize we're a little late um we will continue with the rest of our meeting if we can just stand up and the flag I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for [Music] all can I please have a motion to approve our minutes from our April meeting so second questions or comments roll call please Bill Dylan yes Mike Goodwin yes Dana c Petro yes Vivian poopo yes candano yes Carmine venis yes there's no correspondence at this time I'm opening up the floor for public participation on any agenda items that we are voting on tonight please come up to the podium state your name address seeing none we can move on I do not have a president's report so I'm turning it over to our superintendent okay thank you so we are going to begin with our noetic math competition friends I just have to make sure I get drop on the floor me one second there we go there we go all right so we had our second session of the noetic math competition and I'm going to have Mrs chrisa foi who has been spearheading this step up and share a little bit of information and then we have some certificates to give good evening so in this past April so we had a fall contest and are now our spring and we had 79 Mountainside students compete in our national noetic learning math contest and as we know it's a national mathematic contest um for elementary and middle school students grades 2 to8 there were 39,7 students that representing 803 schools across the country that took part in this spring contest I am honored to present our Awards to our top 10% of participating mathletes we have isan I'm so [Applause] proud go back go back this is our National Honor rooll title and again top 10% in the nation and we have James Deanna congratulations our National Honor Roll winner no I also want to recognize that we had 25 honorable mention winners um and that's titles awarded to the top 50 % um of our participating athletes we had 16 in the fall and we're up to 25 so I'm so proud of them too and this I'm just so happy to do this just coming out and doing the contest you're a winner I tell the students that whether you have zero correct or whatever it's still it's an opportunity to give it a try and I'm so excited to do this again next year I want to thank you for bringing this to us um the pandai has actually communicated with me and we got together and and I'm so glad they brought this to me and now it's here and I want to continue um so thank you congratulations to the kids what a great great job what is the two medals so we also have Team Awards and National Honor role so the two medals so there's also team Awards and what's the team so it depends on how many it it every grade level is a team so I have a grade two team a grade three team a grade four team five six seven so grade five the team one yes so James also had a team award got it yes of the team got it excellent congrats so very very proud of all of you and congratulations we look forward to seeing you continue thank you so much for being with us and really very impressed with your with all of your mathlete abilities and what you are doing so congratulations excellent okay I'm going to switch quickly turn the floor over to Mrs velin who is going to share with us some information about Beachwood and where Beachwood has been throughout this year okay conratulations sneaking out I'll scroll as you go how's that sound um that would be perfect okay all right sler so I had left this note for myself last year um more pictures and what I do every week like Mrs jenss has put out this family newsletter which is Laden with photos so I tried this format so we're going to give it a shot and if we don't like it we'll do something else next year but it is laid in with pictures um and so and I'll be able to share it with everybody afterwards and I I wanted to say this is one of the hardest things to do to to kind of give a year in review in about 10 minutes and I know I went long last time so I I am really going to do my best to stick to the time and and and go through it so really I wanted to start with this has been a year where I feel like Beachwood is just operating on all cylinders the teachers have hit their strides our blend of whether it's it's uh with be being new postco whatever you want to call it I feel like we are really jelling as a staff our students and families are settled in in what are the old favorite Traditions are New Traditions they know what to expect it's the word on the straight and it's very interesting when there's only a a pre- a second grade school it goes so fast so I'm already old news in my year three to most people I may as well have been there forever and in a lot of ways that's really nice for me um because it feels it feels very complete so it's just been a phenomenal year so I kind of started the the way this goes I I've got a bunch of headlines and each and every one of these bullet points could be uh a 45 minute presentation in and of itself uh and and that would probably be only about half of the topics I would really want to talk about so again we're going to go through the highlights a big one is Beachwood cares this is something that has really grown roots for us and it is our character education seal kind of homegrown approach cares is the acronym for cooperation appreciation responsibility expressing emotions and self-control and all of these skills are being explicitly taught through our weekly Friday seal time and brought to life through through these Mission challenges each Acro each letter of the acronym gets a two-month focus in which the teachers are focusing on lessons there are some uh opportunities for parents to participate and some massive projects that the whole school gets involved in um we've streamlined all of our theme days because our kids and families love them but helping them be a little more consistent we've got tie-dye Tuesday on the first Tuesday of the month and Beachwood spirit wear on the final Friday and then throughout the calendar year we're chalk full of all the special events and uh young Kennedy Goodwin wins the prize I could have done a spreadsheet I mean a a slideshow of just all Kennedy theme days um academically and I do have a couple slides that are non-photo slides um which are really focusing on our big academic curriculum piece which is the 95% group phonic program so I am extremely excited to share some stats uh in a place where we can see a huge impact from that program and we knew we needed it with the phonics and we kind of fudged it last year with the Homegrown explicit program that was really spearheaded in good theory this same OG theory that 95% group is based on with two of our special education teachers Julie Lima and Paige primmer so we were doing like our own kind of uh ogs program last year and this year so the data points that I'm going to share with you are comparing pre explicit phonics to current explicit phonics instruction and how specifically it is impacting our our aim program which as you know is our basic skills um we've had the introduction of some so so when we're looking Mrs Chris aoli and I will look at the numbers when we have our data to figure out who is meeting that eligibility criteria for extra help and those kids who are the near misses um like in that kind of 40 to 50% tile range we uh are inviting them into before or after school academic programs to support their literacy or math skills um that has been a wonderful addition we also have sports club with Mr Gormley going strong Art Club is back we've created a go green club that we never had before we have a chess club that we've never had before um it was so popular we don't have one we have two um we have partnered with the PTO Green Team uh to create the Beachwood Ark which stands for acts of restorative kindness this is going to be an area of our back fields that is rewed um and allowed to flourish and will be an an outdoor learning space and and and our Green Team Club is going to really take ownership over what is there to help teach their peers so we're very excited about that new project um we have we started this last year but we have an Arbor Day ceremony where that is performed by the kids it's a representative from every classroom uh and we we now have an area of trees that are lining our front area and that is in collaborate or we benefiting from a county program there of course all of the amazing PTO activities um have been really well attended by our Beachwood families uh we have created a new partnership I met with Miss pupo remember back uh with um why am I forgetting name right now with the seniors with the seniors but Kim morak yes and Kim morak and we were able to bring that to fruition we found a really meaningful connection with our read Across America week and invited seniors into read as well as some members of the Mountainside Police Department this year that was brand new for us um oh I forgot to put in how many people participated in the noetic math competition I'll fill in those ex's Natalie maybe you have those for us right now 26 second graders on the spring team and I think there were only 13 um 11 okay so we we had really doubled more than doubled I got that math um giving back throughout the year there are so many charitable uh projects that we participated in Green Drop which we've been doing now for several years around Thanksgiving the angel tree which has been going on for years uh new from last year and spearheaded by our PE teacher Mr Gormley is the Superbowl caned food drive um where students bring in cans of food and place them on the table for their favorite team and that really gets them enthused um our first grade had learned that socks are the most needed item in homeless shelters and and pulled that into our read Across America with a fox and socks Charity Drive um and we had we exceeded this year our goal for the kids heart challenge this is something we've now done for the last three years for with for the American Heart Association our goal was I want to say our goal was 20,000 and we we are just shy of $30,000 raised this year and it was you know again it's one of those things where you build it and they will come in year three of this the kids were so excited and there was so much participation and it it has just turned into this wonderful wonderful schoolwide event and before she moves on Mrs verling last year was nominated and recognized as principal of the year through the American Heart Association with somek you thank you yes that was very very excited and unexpected I had no idea that that like we had a little idea but didn't really know and I was I was very surprised um and each grade level has really focused on ensuring that there are some of their own TR tradition so there are special activities just for Peak that those families can be excited about and in first grade and in second grade whether it's a holiday celebration or it is uh a learn a celebration of the students learning having those opportunities where families can be meaningfully involved and invited into the school you know they're volunteering for all of these activities where the there is they're they're the most wonderful untapped resource and and again having these events that can be expected everybody knows what to expect and what's involved and and and there's just been a tremendous response to to any ask that is coming from us here at school and that makes us incredibly lucky so those phenomenal phonics so the dark green is the is prior to our explicit phonic instruction so it's the 20021 2022 school year and the light green is current and I can't wait till we even have our end of year I always you know I'm doing this a little premature because we really see the massive growth in our students by that end of year um so so comparing the same data points of our our reading aim students there were 23 total two years ago 18 this year in the fall in the winter there were still 23 two years ago currently There are 16 the big number is that last one where only five students had been dismissed 23 it's not the same 23 so we we run this in Cycles um where only five students were able to exit the program um in this year currently 10 students have exited the program which is always the goal of of our support programs um and I promise nobody's being kicked out prematurely um you know this is completely data driven all right so this was the one I was really really excited about looking at the percentage of students who were dismissed from fall to winter so really looking at the students who started with us have been receiving that intense program in their classroom each and every day through the programming as well as that additional support where it is targeted based on the students individual need only 22% had been dismissed over over that that the winter really is that's the second cycle over the year so 22% compared to 50% right now this year and of the percentage of students remaining in AIM still at the end of the year right now we are only at nine% of our total first and second grade population so this program has been a tremendous tremendous help to our reading and I cannot wait to see how it impacts overall on our I ready all right the rest we're going into slideshow so we can move through this pretty quickly um Beachwood cares these are our missions we had the kindness Cafe kids made cups of they were carrying cups in like the little shop instead of carrying Cubs all right and now we're going to go through the calendar year we're coming to school we we got our theme days this is we'll keep going this is the ice cream social getting into the groove with our Partnerships in the classrooms building that classroom Community jelling as a class theme days that's a tie-dye day Beachwood spirit wear Fridays we had an awesome assembly that was brought by our the the PTO for the week of respect we were joined by the firefighters this is the Fall Fest the poster contest the poster contest winners eating their pretzels those are the winners my assistant principles they get to be assistant principles for the day and have the honor of of dancing and helping out at arrival this is Mrs ketta love our counselor during the week of respect this is Red Ribbon Week we were joined by the Mountainside Police these are our kindergarteners having their we are readers parade Halloween parties moving right through the year um these pictures are thanks to the Watts Foundation of course we're always looking for Creative funding sources and we were gifted book sets of favorite stories so that every kid can have the same copy of a book and the kindergarten teachers took it a step further and put on a caps for sale show for the entire Kindergarten we ordered two new sheds uh through gifting to house our outdoor recess supplies charitable giving Green Job angel tree this is our school oh no this is our our winter con Winter concert we were a little packed we're g to do that in Deerfield next time how was in the hallway we learned we we you know we'll try anything once in the it was uh it was tight it was tight it was a little more than tight but uh we'll do it into your field next time yeah Polar Express read Across America we [Music] those are our special guests these are our students from the green Club creating our arc sign this is our fabulous Beachwood Garden going strong we're getting ready to plant on Monday this is our kids heart challenge day it ends with a student teacher balloon toss contest for the closing ceremonies it's a ton of fun is our Arbor Day ceremony and just this afternoon was our kindergarten concert amazing all right and that's it the rain yes all right how' I do a timing I wasn't I wasn't exactly timing [Applause] myself any questions from mle quick M so fantastic results right but I know when I'm putting together these presentations you got a thousand things and they're they're like you're like there's that one thing that kind ofit like I wish I had I could have added this or that right so we're sitting here a year from now what do you want to make sure it's up here that you weren't able to get in there this year is it yeah you have unlimited resources you have unlimited time is there anything that we should be prioritizing to make this even better to make this even better that's a great question [Music] um well what's challenging for me is that there's so many different directions to look at so to zero in you know to provide an overview is is really where the challenge is what I'm feeling is that I wish I could really drill down into each one of these different categories um what what what I would love to do is take it almost year by year and and be able to focus a little bit more so on a specific on a specific topic that maybe would be of most interest okay to to you all because I feel like I know it but I'm you know I want to present to you what would be the most beneficial for you what what what do you want to know about Beachwood that you don't already know thank you thank you okay very nice thank you very much Mrs Jing we appreciate it as always I love the pictures that was the takeaway from last year more [Music] pictur and there's no shortage of them yeah which is wonderful and so much appreciative I you know we appreciate everything that we do and the growth that we see in our youngest students across the year is really amazing when we realize that we are here in you know we are here now in may almost June and as you were talking about you know they celebrate that they're readers and they parade through the entire school because they feel and they know that they are readers and that growth that we are seeing um for our students across the board and thanks to Mrs verling and our te teachers and our staff um for all of their efforts that they've put throughout the year I mean go backing one thing and I didn't have I didn't have great photos of it but one thing that I really wish I could show you guys is the magic that is happening in the classroom the way those kids look at their teacher and how their teacher is engaging them so that they are they are the the the learning I mean when you walk around that school it is such a source of Pride I had a parent do a tour with me just this afternoon who is you know has uh a gifted child they're unsatisfied with the school that they're in now and to walk around and point out not all the extra things but just really talking curriculum and approach and knowing the skill of the staff it it it is it is a source of Pride and something that I think our families they feel like they got the best teacher you know and and most of them feel that way which is the most wonderful measure of a staff you know they all feel like they goty perfect yeah it sounds like the the the people there are are some of the biggest assets um of the building right so we saw the kid you a couple teachers were sprinkled in there but I think we know um what an amazing job and that's what brings those smiles and those scores um to the Forefront so I challenge you right we're in the middle of strategic planning so how do we how do we keep that or go from great to excellent right um you know you you bring up a great comment um sometimes in that strategic planning stuff we focus on the gaps we need to fill but then how do we reinforce like what's really special about a place be it so thank you for sharing thank you very much Mrs ver thank you gonna give this back to you because I will forget [Music] it all right thank you um update wise Mrs verling as she said today was the kindergarten uh concert they got it all in right as the first drop started to fall and it was fabulous it was outside it's done behind the media center everybody brings their own chair it's just a very relaxed atmosphere and so so appreciative and Mr wise always does an amazing job I mean he's he's getting into concert season with next week will be the first and second grade concert as well as the middle school concert so those are backtack next week here at Deerfield followed in just a couple of short weeks with uh the third to fifth grade con conc in June and throw somewhere in there the middle music in the Parks and the Teen Arts Festival and we've got a whole lot of busyness going on um njsla testing we are about halfway through thank you to Mrs chrisa foi as well as Mrs goldbeck who have spent many many hours prepping and preparing and uh really making sure that it runs smoothly Mr litwa and Mr Gonzalez uh who M Francisco who helped with the technology side so it's really been working out um and doing the makeups and I think today did we start fifth grade today so we're working our way down um fifth grade started their testing and they are testing this week so really having the kids show and put forward their best efforts and confident that we will have h a very positive outcome as we have seen before so a lot of different things our eighth grade came back from Washington DC they had the trip last week and everybody had a great time the weather somewhat cooperated but not the full-time um but it didn't stop them from really enjoying the they went to Arlington and they did their tour of all of The Monuments they had opportunities to go through a number of the Smithsonian museums um and do a number of other tours so it really was a very very positive trip for them and as always very much appreciate the the support that comes from the board and from others for this trip to happen every single year for the students um so as as we really run it's just everybody's blinking and we're starting to Twitch just a little because it's the middle of May which means that in a heartbeat and a flash it's going to be June and we're going to be finishing up the school year so really very happy with all of what we've been working on a lot of effort going into finishing up between testing we will be starting our Benchmark testing as well for our end of the year so that's our I ready and our linkit to give us our pieces of information we're gearing up for our um last year of our summer Learning Academy so this if you recall has been funded through Federal funding for some of our students of need um who are our aim students and some of our other students some of our special ed students we have invited many of them to join so we're finalizing those rosters um we'll probably land at around around 25 to 30 students who will be participating this year um and as we've done before we try to really make it a whole environment so that they are not only getting academics but we also have a component where there are stem projects problem solving as well as we have a staff member who's going to be doing some team building activities so joining some groups together we'll be pairing as well with our extended school year students so that they are also getting an opportunity um and we have found that this is really a great opportunity for so many of our students to find their own voice in these smaller groups and really feel like leaders and get opportunities to really participate so we're looking forward to that program starting up rather soon is that K through five I can't remember it's so summer Learning Academy is students going into first grade through into SE six grade into okay so Rising first graders into Rising sixth graders that's yeah I couldn't remember if it was that or just the you we we are able to we've been very fortunate that the funding has allowed us to do that um unfortunately I don't anticipate that that will necessarily be able to continue in the future just because of the grant funding right that you know the the struggles that we're all facing yeah at this time um and then the other piece to share with you is our annual self assessment for um determining our grades we every year have to do for the anti-bullying Bill of Rights and the bill anti-bullying um act we need to self assess in each building um where we stand on things like our timelines are we following our HIV timelines are we utilizing programming such as the Beachwood cares are we doing programs to help support some um student mental health all of those pieces and we give ourselves a score on rubric the maximum score you can receive is a 78 and Beachwood received a score of a 72 and Deerfield has also a score of 72 um some of the areas for us really to work on are some of the professional development opportunities um and really finding those that align with what we need so opportunities to enhance some of that are some areas that we will continue to strive for but very pleased with where we stand on that self assessment um and the fact that we are meeting um all of those benchmarks that we need to um so that is what I have to share um oh one other thing please with uh in addition to the music programs that Mr wise and Mr Rosen Bloom are going to be doing we also have our school art shows coming up so the evening of the middle school so next week the evening of the Middle School school um concert will also be the whole school art show that Miss Tisha is very very busily working on putting together um and I had the opportunity to to see some of the work and it is just amazing what our students are doing and then our dear our Beachwood art show is going to be towards the end of the month um and then we also are in the process of planning our third grade orientation so Mrs jenss is um has a save the already out for that and that will take place in June it takes place after school so all of our third graders come in they get dropped off as if they're arriving at school so the parents come through the front Circle they drop them off they will be greeted by student council members and they will have their own session and then the parents will get to meet with some of the teachers and have their own session so it's really a good opportunity for an orientation for our students for them to get a sense of of uh Deerfield as ready to make that transition okay just one quick follow up on the uh noetic mathram you know I really love the addition we've done in the gyms with the recognition of our teams when they Excel have you considered in any way potentially I don't know if it's a banner or something like that where these kids that hit whatever the threshold is the 10% whatnot we begin to capture that right so the academic part of recognition like I don't know if it's a banner I know like and then I know that there are some sensitivity of um a certain age you don't like your name called out specifically but I just you know how do we bring that to life so that when visitors come in here they they see they see that and there's a sense of Pride um for them I think that's an excellent idea and something I'll chat with Mrs Chris AI about as well as Jing and take a look at how we want to recognize that and I don't think I mean I I don't know what what what goes too far but if but I think when we're at that point that they're hitting some a threshold that is at that National level yeah that there's absolutely some ways that we can give them some I mean like I think when I the high school that I work in um like they have um plaques like so it's not these big gigantic I'm thinking for the older kids do you know what I mean they may not want their name because then you they may be like oh but um like plaques that are hung up throughout the hallway um you know our main hallway by the office and stuff with like a little plaque but it'll say they're accomp you know what it's for and then their names are similar we have we have those for our teachers of the year yeah and our support staff so something something mean it just seems to be such a small amount like they these couple of these individual students stand out and Excel to such a high degree that um however that comes to life I mean uh just would be something to be interested to look into absolutely absolutely thank you for the idea how long would they stay up no it's like a plaque yeah stays up good question I don't know right we have some traditions around here where things stay up forever like the murals you know I I I don't know right there's it builds I mean when does it become a relevant right well we just leave like like I know for us we'll leave open spots on the pl and then it's and then you just write the students name and the year that they accomplish like so if it's the no etic math competition that's the plaque and then you have blank areas on the plaque and then each year you just keep adding students names we love Traditions here so I don't [Laughter] know absolutely I think it's a great idea and one that we can absolutely explore perfect thank you thank you J right now moving on to our business administrator's report so yeah I want just want to point out a couple things on the agenda so one of the resolutions on the agenda is asking your approval to um increase the revenue from interest on investments by $120,000 um as we've been talking about uh out of District transportation is we are short in that line um due to cost just beyond our control um we have known that that was we were shorten that line but the state does not actually allow us to request an increase and to do that until after April 1st um so that's why we're asking for that now um so we the budgeted amount was only $2,000 we've taken in way more than that at this point um so rather than appropriating from fund balance that's the recommendation um the other item that I just want to point out is a renewal of food service contract with maos um it's the same terms as as last year um the increase in their fee was one and a half% which which was the index rate that's all it could be um and they're guaranteeing a $1,000 return but so far this year we're getting more than the $1,000 so I assume that will continue question on that so on the first one will the state let us know if that's acceptable for that transfer is that how that works so it's after April 1 right so now I will send it to them for their approval and how quickly will they give us their app if they don't respond in a certain number of days then it's an automatic approval okay so they may actually just not respond sometimes they do that okay I don't anticipate that they would not approve it okay but they would if they didn't approve it they would come back right away I I will submit to them the paperwor that they need which is like our last month's report and everything so I don't I don't anticipate it being an issue and that's all I have okay any questions oh wait till we get to the [Music] fin okay I do not have a Berkeley Heights aasis on Jordan is not here and I'm sure he fill us it two months worth of uh notes next month okay just make sure you're ready all right can I please have a motion to approve under Administration items one through five so move second questions or comments roll call please Bill Dylan yes Michael Goodwin yes Dana cro Vivian poopo yes candano yes Carmine Vin yes I please have a motion to approve under budget and finance items one through 15 and I just want to point out 15 the last sentence should be deleted it's not actually covered under Grant funds second questions comments yes I talk me off the ledge here um so we just got done with the budget for for last next year and a significant portion of that one of the biggest ISS concerns gaps whatever is busing at a district placement um and now here first of all excellent job with the Investments because the fact that we've gotten so much of a revenue stream to cover the loss is fantastic because it doesn't seem like we're having a significant impact to to the you know we're taking our revenues and we're just reapplying them excellent job but as I look ahead this this I I didn't make the correlation so how does this transaction impact next year's budget and are we planned on so we just added 120 right and I know all of our all of our uh year-over-year comparisons was that against a lower number and now we're you know now our actual cost $120,000 more than what we had budgeted so no no no the budget was based on knowing that we were running short in that in that line item okay now having said that we still know that we could run short again next year because of you know a lot of things also not within our control but we're we should know that pretty early into the school year again and we'll have to adjust again if that happens to be the case now I did increase the revenue from interest income for next year because I knew we were we had extra money there so otherwise we would had to make more cuts to the budget so we're not going to have too much extra Revenue next year in that line because I actually already did that you're anticipating a more positive Returns on our on our interest of this yes because instead of having to make more Cuts I knew we had Revenue there that we could budget for next year yeah um so I did I didn't increase it to the full amount but I increased it okay um but yeah so we I did increase the the budget for out of District transportation hopefully we won't see this again but you know I can't say that for sure to be honest because it's it's depends on it depends on a lot of things I mean we could have somebody move in to District we could have something happen on expected um but all of these roots pretty much get rebid every year um and they're also contingent on other school districts and who's on those buses from other school districts um so there's a whole lot of moving Parts but we are doing lots of things to try to contain the cost so just uh I heard I heard um I I think we often we often assume that there's a like a cap of how much a bus R could increase CPI 5% you just said that these get rebid so on these routes so let me explain how is so there is a cap on some bus routes y some being the important part here so when we're increas when we're renewing our bus contracts with dorham um which we just did those can only go up by the state set cap or I they call it a CPI it's not really a CPI but that's what they call it um and that for next year was set at 5.81 okay now that makes no sense because we've got a 2% cap on the tax levy how could you that part I get right and how do you not give us a waiver for that like that just seems like common sense but whatever so those contracts we are set with how much can go up okay but still there's a gap obviously these other the out a District transportation that all goes through Union County most 99% of it goes through Union County Ed Services Commission so what they do is they look at other districts and see who has kids going to what schools is what they're supposed to do they don't do this great to be honest um and they're supposed to combine the kids as they can um and so you might have you know a kid from Westfield and a kid from Springfield and a kid from from Mountain Side all go into the same school and you if there's three kids from three different districts that bus route gets divided by 33% each school got it okay um but they may or may not renew their contracts on using the index rate sometimes the bus companies won't renew the contracts sometimes the root changes so they have to go out to bid sometimes you know the other a kid can pull out of the you know if in the scenario I just gave if a Westfield kid now pulls out of that contract you're now splitting at 5050 um the problem I have with Union County Ed Services Commission is they are supposed to really be coordinating Transportation that's that's actually what our contract with them is called coordinated transportation they tend to just put one kid on a bus and send them on their way um which is why we're spending $100,000 for numerous Roots because we have one child going to a school um and then we're not sharing with anybody so we're one of the things we're trying to do is to coordinate that amongst ourselves ourselves okay without Union County um the hard part of that obviously is the needs of the student vary yeah which is good to know right because I think we talked about at the previous meetings around trying to control anything that we can control and and by taking on a little bit more of that Administration it means more on our employees right right and there's more responsibility there however we're beginning to control a thousand variables externally which is what other student from what other District that lives in uni County may be on this bus or may not be and the negotiating power of that uni County Serv Services I get what you called it right yeah all all that yes okay yes and one of the other things that we're also looking some of the other districts that have buses that transport yeah if they can transport for us we're looking at that too okay um so so we've got a lot of things working but go go ahead if say transportation and there's a cap on that amount you could use in that line item when if you're over it what do they do well in in if it was like a Durham contract that I was kind of BU way over cap I I well I wouldn't do it that's illegal I wouldn't do that I I couldn't I mean I could I guess I put on an agenda sometimes have no choice well no yes if if if the bus company said to me I wanted 10% increase and the cap was 5.8% then I have to go out to bid again um yes and the and I know what happens when you do that because I mean that that's always the problem right because the 5.8% is a ridiculous percentage compared to the 2% C so you tend to want to say let me go out to bid and see what I get there's there are no bus companies out there so what you'd wind up getting is Durham with a higher rate because they know they're they're not going to be bidding against anybody so whatever their daily rate is now now they can increase it as much as they want so then you you you have to go over yes and take it from another item if you go out to bid yes correct because that's a mandated you know if it's a mandated Transportation you would have to take it from a line item that wasn't mandated right you know class size or whatever you know but you're trying to stay within the cap though right but it doesn't help right okay yeah I was just wondering so the question it's kind of a little bit further on BS because we know how tight things are going to be next year and you had mentioned that we'll have a better idea as far as the transfer and everything for next year come April 1 or what have you what when do you have any idea what you know when that would happen would that happen at the end of this year that we'd have a better idea to be able to start planning for it because my biggest worry is that we had to wait and obviously see how this all planned out and that there's a really it seems like to me at that there's a high probability that we could we could be missing the number again next year and we're going to be put in a similar situation where we don't have the funds at least now we're covering ourselves but next year we probably aren't going to have that luxury so my my my Wonder is how much time ahead of time will we know to be able to try to move some things around to make to put ourselves in a position where we're not caught off guard or it's coming out of left field we should have a good idea around mid October so that's when we would get the September bill um we might know a little bit before that um we may get something from Union County we can we can try to get something from Union County to tell us you know how much does each rout cost um and at that point we'll have a pretty good feel this it's not we're not talking about a hundred kids here so it's we have a good feel but again what could happen is kids go in and out during the year so those are right they're never they're never right those numbers change about $120,000 next year that's you know yeah one last question have we made more money with interest rates being as high as they are yes so it's definitely helpful to have high interest rates well if I understood that's basically covering yeah yes some of this right so that we're not taking away rather transferring rather putting those back in right they're going back out least we're not going deeper into our process right looking for a positive note yeah yes yes okay all right any other comments or questions roll call please Bill Dylan yes Michael Goodwin yes Dana to C Pedro Vivian poopo yes Canda shano yes carine Dennis yes I please have a motion to approve under Personnel item items number one through n motion yes so mov second comments or questions roll call please Bill Dylan yes Michael Goodwin yes B to C patro yes dvan poopo yes cesano yes Carmine Venice yes can I please have a motion to approve item number one under curriculum second questions or comments I have a question this is the amount for the this the amount we paying to for the bus services for the day yes okay and the change was when we originally approved it we had um spoken with Garwood so again talking about our transportation pieces Garwood has one large bus and this is a very local trip so we're trying to see when we have smaller trips or local trips to utilize somebody like Garwood and their school bus they had originally said yes um to two trips unfortunately something came up in their own District so they were not able to fulfill this one they're fulfilling another one for us um but this one they were unable to so we had to go back to the price quotes that we had originally received from private companies and this was the lowest that we had received yeah and this specific trip um brought in no there was no fee for the students to participate no okay nope crazy it almost doubled yeah yes and it is less than three miles away from here next time we can all take them this is the reality of Transportation that's what every district is facing yep wow any other comments or questions roll call please Bill Dylan yes Michael Goodwin yes danro yes Vivan poo yes candano yes Carmine venis yes can I please have a motion to approve under policy item just one so moved second any questions or comments roll call please Bill Dylan yes Michael Goodwin yes D we to see Petro Vivian poopo yes candano yes Carmine ven yes do we have old business moving on new business oh new business okay um I was at the county meeting last week and I was sitting between Berkeley Heights and Garwood and they all have similar problems back my boy as I'm sitting there listening to them and it was interesting but no one had a way to solve yeah talk to the state ways to solve it she's not in our hands did I have this many awesome kids in math and awesome kids two so there you go something for you to brag about next time okay any other uh new business okay committee reports nothing nothing for me okay oh he had a big one last month it's only two weeks right it does feel like it's been longer okay at this time I would like to open up the for public participation on anything you would like to discuss please come up to the St Stadium to the podium um state your name and address see none we're moving on I believe we don't have to go to Second executive session so can I please have a motion to adjourn motion second all in favor I oppos motion carries thank you and have a great night