good evening this meeting will be called to order this is a regular meeting of the Oakland Board of Education adequate notice of this meeting has been provided a schedule of regular meetings of the Board of Education was adopted at our or organization meeting in January and schedule has been posted and maintained um at the school office and and the retrospect and carrier posts and now on a roll call Mrs Fel here Mr STS here Mr Rando here Mr McMullan here Mr tab be late Mr schaer here P here please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance flag for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for [Applause] all thank you I'm going to ask Miss balen to come up for the teacher of the year presentation might be running away right now comeone up here you're not getting away from me well for those of you who do not know this special lady this is Mrs Jennifer Godel and she is a first grade teacher here at Oakland Public School she is our teacher of the year for this [Music] [Applause] year uh with that she is also our District's nominee for the Governor's educator of the Year award so we wish her the best of luck with that so I'm just going to read a little something that Miss G I already saw so maybe she won't cry too much but this is what we plan to insert into the yearbook to honor her this year so we have Miss G here she has been described by others as an exceptional and dedicated teacher who values her students and is always looking for ways to grow her teaching practice I couldn't agree more the relationship she builds with her students and their families always extends beyond the school year she has an extremely Pleasant cheerful personality and it is contagious on any given day you will see her former students running up to her for hugs in the halls in addition to being committed to her students Mrs godal is also dedicated to our surrounding School Community she serves on multiple School committees and she is an active me member of our PTA over the years she has volunteered her free time to organize and Lead many schoolwide activities such as Field Days spirit days pep rallies go I could go on and on with that Miss G is truly a special educator who is worthy of this recognition so with that being said here's your official certificate thank you and I also must say that Miss JW is going to go down in our history books because she is the first ever Ops haulk mascot thank you to our PTA for the beautiful costume so you might see Missi flying around our Halls possibly Thursday in our HW costume and when I say when she puts her mind to something she gets it done she might come to me with a solution to or I should say an idea and we say well how are we going to make that work and if the first idea she has doesn't work then she'll come back with a second and a third and a fourth until we find a way to get exactly what she's trying to do done um so I respect her for that she does so much for the school district and our surrounding Community we love her as much as her students do and I hope she's here for a long long time to come thank you Miss [Applause] G I'll easy Miss bonen do you want to come back up um now we're going to present the instructional oh okay M Solway is going to come up for our in structional assistant of the Year award thank you good evening good evening can you hear me okay so we have congratulations to Oakland's first instructional assistant of the Year Mrs Michelle Richardson she told me that I can't say this next sentence but I'm going to say it anyway Mrs Richardson has been a part of our Oakland School Community for almost 40 years [Applause] Mrs Richardson Mrs Richardson goes above and beyond for her students not only caring for them but helping them grow both academically and socially nothing Ruffles her feathers she is always calm cool and collected Mrs Richardson is also always willing to go the extra mile in addition she's an amazing support for her classroom teacher as well we are happy to acknowledge her and our very grateful for having her here in Oakland for so long congratulations here is your official [Applause] certificate thank you both very well deserved Oakland is lucky to have you both thank you um we're going to move into the gifted and talented um program presentation um there will be an opportunity for public comment if anyone is here to to speak on um our teacher of the year or instructional assistant of the year uh in a few moments so we're going to move on now to the gifted and talented program so Mrs Hennessee [Applause] a little about how students and also students program our goal is to help develop analytical creative and for students ad to model to student abili test it measures verbal nonverbal and qu abili that stud all have little Le way also ch we have both of our Windows here today so kind of a girls versus boys competition do right first awesome [Applause] were we problem right it all right now we have our awes simar a little pap us thank you so much um to Mrs Hennessy and the students appreciate it I'm GNA log back into my computer um does anyone have any questions from Mrs Tennessee about the program before we move on a board members said us sorry no all right super thank you so much I appreciate it we're going to move on to um Committee of the whole uh is there m to move into Committee of the whole second moved and seconded all in favor I all right we are now in Committee of the whole um I've asked Mrs Coleman to um give a peas well I'm sorry to discuss uh the recent bill that was passed last week um about um State a m colan yeah definitely not a presentation I don't want to follow that and now I'm going to bore everybody in the room Finance now um so obviously no um surprised to anybody we had a rough budget year in Oakland this year um last week There's a flow of activities at the state house and at the end of it the governor did signed some legislation which did provide some relief to school district that law state aid um and Oakland was one of them so I'm just going to briefly explain what I know of the law um and how it impacts Oakland there's still a lot that has yet to be um told to me from the state but at the last minute um the governor found found $ 44.7 million um in direct state aid that in lie of having the states apply for stabilization grants and I'm sorry for my air quotes it's just how I talk um when I'm a little upset with people but so he found the 44.7 million so we don't have to apply for state stabilization Aid we automatically will receive it so that's good news what's frustrating is that at the last minute he was able to find that $ 44.7 million instead of just giving it to school districts in the first place um so now it leaves towns in kind of a strange uh spot because um we've already done our budgets and we've finalized our budgets and we've submitted our budgets to the state and we've signed our our tax certificates with the with all the towns so the first part of of the laws basically um stating that we would get the money and that at some point um during the month of June we are going to have to resubmit our total budget um we're in that uh we have to and the reason we have to do it in the month of June is for the second part of the bill which I'll explain certain school districts will be allowed to revise their tax levy and they're requiring that to be done by July 5th probably before the second set of property taxes tax bills go up so what does that I mean probably in the month of June I'm still waiting to get more information from our County Office of Education but probably in the month of June you'll see another agenda item basically revising the Oakland budget for the new Total um and you're going to say well what is that uh we've received an additional 284,000 so we basically we we um we were cut 600,000 we got 44% back um so that's good news um there you know the governor giveth and the governor taketh or he giveth with strings so the strings are that um we will receive the funds but then he has commissioned prob poor CH of word um he has requested that the commissioner of Education study and report back to him how school districts spend this money because we don't spend it on education I guess um so that has yet to be told to me how it's going to work they told me what Revenue count I can use I'm assuming they're going to have me track how I'm spending this money so the finance committee of the board I'll presenting it to you basically where I think it best fits in the Oakland budget and we're going to do our best to plan uh for the future with with these funds the second part of the bill which unfortunately does not apply to neither Collingswood or Oakland and I was hoping it does is if you were a school district that lost state aid between the years of 2021 and 20 2 the governor is allowing you to increase your local taxes right now we C at 2% it allows the local school district to go up to 9.99% to try to recapture some of that lost a so you're going to say what does that mean for Oaky absolutely nothing because he picked 2021 and between 2021 and 2025 we did see an increase in state aid but a massive decrease in one year between 2025 and 2024 but in 2021 so for callings wood Oakland neither one of those applies so my argument to the state is still the 2% property tax cap um just not keeping up with um inflation and and the costs that we all are living with um The increased cost but the um the two the the ability to increase taxes does not apply to us um and why 20 21 I was explaining this last night uh to the Collingswood board I really believe that when he ran the state aid funding formula in this year if you watched any of the budget presentations that was The Wealth number that they used when they ran all the local state aid for all the local municipalities in the state of New Jersey they used a 2021 um individual tax information of of the town so basically the value of your state tax returns he used 2021 so I'm assuming maybe that's why they used at 2021 or maybe it's that in that year when they did the math 2021 was not monetarily uh too bad for them but and either that ask a quick question yes sorry that wealth number is that a number you can look up somewhere I opened it when I got it so feel free to open it okay and when I did OA it um that doesn't sound right Oprah it but when I did do an open public records act with request of the Department of um treasury um they were able to provide that information and it was incorrect by way but they did provide it but is that something that someone could do without doing an Oprah request like could you go online and find that information I want to say yes I know you can probably look up your I don't if they would give you the totality of the town okay that's what I that I'm not 100% sure you can get a lot online okay but I don't know if they give you the exact because when I did the opal request to Trenton I asked for the the wealth number for the town that was provided to the Department of Education in the calculation of Oakland state8 gotcha so I I didn't want I wanted it at I wanted the same number they provided to the Department of Ed and not like some random year I wanted the year they used and what they provided to the Department of Education so okay thank you but anyway so that is the that is not my presentation but we did the good news is 284,000 so we we are able to plan a little bit for a soft Landing in 2025 I do encourage our communities to continue to advocate for our schools um so that we are not lost in the shuffle the governor's final budget address um he has to be done by June he heard us he did provide additional state aid it's a shame that he had to hear people scream in order to do it but we have their attention and I think we need to continue continuing to fight and and contact your lawmakers and just let them know that you know we're a Tiny Town we're doing it right we should not be penalized for doing it right um and fund the formula thank you and just to be clear even though we got a little bit back we're still down 400,000 yeah just shy 400 yes um okay thank you does anyone have any questions about that from the board yeah really quick the so you said the loss over the last three four years was so that's like the gross number between um CU we lost what the 800,000 this year almost and then but we gained over that two years ago right so he said if you lost State a between 2021 and 2025 so take your 2025 St to compared to 2021 if you went the wrong way if you went negative then you are eligible we didn't because we've we've actually seen a consistent increase in Oakland every year because with a wonderful prek program you know and you see it the houses are flying you know our enrollment there was 2 years ago our enrollment spiked up um and we're we're keeping our kids right people aren't aren't moving around so I was surprised because we've seen an increase and then we were not on the list to be cut because there is that S1 list where certain school districts were notified that you're well you know you're way overfunded we're going to be cutting you for the next five years we were never on that list it was complete surprise to us um but yeah we it doesn't apply unfortunately anything else on the board anyone else have anything for committee as a whole all right hearing none is there a motion to come out of Committee of the whole so moved second moved in second and all in favor all right moving ahead to section four it's the list of um upcoming important dates uh there's a lot of PTA PTA activities um I'm going to skip them for now because I think we'll talk about them later yeah um but you can see uh everything listed there um that's coming up in the next month or so uh moving on to section five is there a motion to approve the minutes from our April board meeting so moved second moved and seconded all in favor I all right any opposed all right uh board minutes are approved all right section six uh this is our first public comment section um so this is for agenda items only so if you're here to talk about um Miss G or Miss Richardson um that was your opportunity to speak we ask that you please stand and state your name and address and keep your comments to five minutes or less is there anyone that would like to come speak yeah come on up come on this way the people at home can hear you uh my name is Emily marmian I live on 97 K Kendall Boulevard and I go to Kongo Middle School uh Dear Miss G I remember almost everything from kindergarten I remember when you showed up to no's pool party at the end of the year I remember trying my V my very best to fill up the mar marble jar for a party and I remember looking up to you as the greatest teacher ever even though it was your first year and this year paid off winning teacher of the year you've dealt with Me Sam and had annal twice yet each time you've seen to give me and my siblings the best year the best and most fun year of Education you never failed to make me smile happy and learn the best of my abilities hi um my name is Nora ws and I live at um 63 Kendall Boulevard Mishi has always has been my favorite teacher and she will stay that way she has influenced me to the point that I don't know where I would be or who I would be without her I remember every day after school I would make sure I asked her if she would be in the next day I did this because I was scared without her the minute I knew she wouldn't be in the next day I started to panic she made me comfortable and happy and I want it every day to be that way she was the kind of teacher who made things fun but still taught us she has always been my teacher of the year no matter what anyone else said thank you for always being there for me and everyone you deserve this and I am very happy for [Applause] you thank you girls for making me can board members can board members say cry absolutely yeah goad go ahead so I have to keep this brief because mg and I make each other cry but um I think I want to share what Nora said and I too used to ask her every day if she would be in tomorrow uh maybe for a different reason and she had my son two years which in luuka years is like eight years but I asked her every single day if she would be in because I knew he'd be okay if she was and now I got to stop thank you for everything thank you all um does is there anyone else who has um a comment on something on the agenda that they'd like to speak all right moving on we're going to move on to section seven and the superintendent report so this is all the boring stuff that nobody wants to hear about so we will uh we will get through it really quickly uh section seven uh .01 is the enrollment report April of 2023 we had an enrollment of 275 as of April 2024 we are at 269 and it is attached uh 02 03 and 04 are the attached uh safety drill reports uh suspension report and anti-bullying report um and those are all three attached moving on to section eight U Mrs Coleman for the board secretary report let's hear it for finings all right 8.01 is a listing of your um April monthly budget transfers 8.02 are your monthly financial statements for the month of April 8.03 is a listing of other purchase orders that have been issued for Oakland School District 8.04 is listing of all the warrants that pending approval tonight will be paid tomorrow morning and that is it great uh moving on to section nine for the finance committee report good evening um for 9.01 we're looking for an approval of transfers listed in uh 8.01 Beth and just uh announced uh 9.02 looking for the recommendation to the superintendent um for the board secretaries uh certification uh 9.03 the board certification of no overe expenditures 9.4 approval of secretary and Treasurer reports listed in 8.02 that Beth Ander announced um 9.05 is the recommendation of the superintendent for the purchase orders on 8.03 um 9.06 the move on the recommendation of the uh superintendent of the warrants uh listed in 8.04 uh 9.07 is the 2024 2025 School tax remittance schedule uh 9.08 looks like we're um uh on the last year of the 5year contract with neutr serve um and 2020 9.09 is going to be the 2024 2025 lunch rates and 910 we're looking on for approval of 9.01 to 9.09 thank you is there a motion to approve those items so move moved and seconded uh on a v call Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr McMillan yes Mr tab yes Mr Schaefer yes Mrs bushka yes um moving on to section 10 for the curriculum report Mr schaer hi good evening everyone uh item 10.01 and 10.02 came in um after committee uh but item 10.01 we're uh looking to approve uh the student uh to be placed on home instruction for medical leave effective April 11th and that will uh end on the last day of school uh June 18th item 2.02 we are looking for tuition reimbursement uh for Maria other for $1,125 item 10.03 we're seeking approval for the 2024 uh summer steam program which is will be paid with Esser funds I believe uh we had 22,500 in those funds that we need to uh spend completely so that will go to the summer steam program I believe there were about 70 students that attended last summer we're hoping to be around that same number again uh this year uh priority is given uh for students who demonstrate the most need and then uh remaining uh seats are filled in uh item 10.04 we are looking to approve the following um extended school year summer programs you can see all of the positions listed there uh item 10.05 we are looking to approve the following uh summer child study team and related service staff for IEP meetings assessments and case management um for the remainder of the year as well um so we are seeking approval on items 10.01 through 10.05 thank you is there a motion to approve those items so moved second moved and seconded uh any questions from board members hearing none on a roll call Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs fael yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr McMillan yes Mr tab yes Mr schaer yes Mrs butchko yes all right moving on to section 11 the community relations and policy committee um are you doing this or is bethan doing this okay you're up not wearing your wedding gown sweetheart remember we had a debt we had a bet all right I got this okay so um all right um Mr tab callings wood report yes good evening everyone uh Collingswood uh we actually had two board meeting meetings uh this month first on the on May 13th which was to approve uh faculty and staff contracts for the 2425 school year um that was a special board meeting so didn't have a full agenda um last night's meeting uh had two presentations first one being uh the accordian Club who performed for everyone in attendance it was really cool um also Dr McDow uh presented uh looking ahead to 24 and 25 uh that included uh curriculum instruction and extracurricular updates um some uh uh points of note uh for our middle school and high school students um at kwood Middle School they'll they'll be shifting to readers and WR readers and Writers Workshop model um we have two learning acceleration courses at the high school one for ELA and one is an integrated math course for algebra and Geometry 1 um well cultures uh or languages uh culum is being updated for Spanish and for German um AP African-American studies will be offered in the fall um there will be an additional mtss coach at Collingswood High School and uh point of Pride for us in Oakland that uh all buildings and collegs will will be looking to uh follow our lead on our morning PLC um and adjust their uh instructional day um after uh seeing how successful it's been here in Oakland um uh student reports just that a group of uh csw high school students were able to visit the Holocaust Museum um a committee of the whole um discussed uh the state funding updates uh much of which Miss Coleman covered tonight um let's see as part of the superintendent report we have uh some Emmy Award winners at collinswood high school our uh Panther TV students attended the Atlantic Emmy award ceremony we had five nomin ations and uh received a talent award for our programming um future dates of note uh one biggie uh for our Oakland Community is the uh sixth grade parent orientation night which will be on June 6th um at 6:30 p.m. uh so definitely to all our current fifth grade uh families definitely want to come out to see that um have a donation of 250 backpacks uh containing headphones composition books pencil cases and other supplies um for students uh which is great um curriculum committee approved uh uh class trip for a sixth grade uh accelerated math class to visit the pop shop and work on their uh math skills there um and then uh in the Personnel committee um uh two two fac faculty members were approved to receive stiens for Special Olympics Unified Schools Grant um and four teachers were approved uh to Mentor uh student teachers for the upcoming school year as well um and that is all from Collingswood right Mrs Rando PTA report okay so the PTA meeting this month was May 7th um teacher appreciation week was a hit thanks to the help and generosity of the Oakland and Ops communities the teachers were very spoiled every single day and we can't wait until next year um nurse week was 56 to 512 shout out to the amazing Ops nurse team nurse Jen who came here for this announcement nothing to do with her daughter um and nurse Mary on May 10th we had muffin Muffins with Mom that was a complete success uh the gym was packed lots of PTA dad volunteers were there Matt speed um did professional photos and a shout out to the Ops teachers and staff that arrived early so that the moms could enjoy the event thank you fifth grade committee is busy at work with the fifth graders the best send off to give them the best send off to Middle School ever there are schedule of events to follow um as follows May 31st is fifth grade blue and gold night from 6:30 to 8:30 and all are welcome to attend and cheer on the fifth graders on 630c is SP sponsored a fifth grade bowling party on 64 there's a fifth grade skate party June 10th is a pizza party with Miss Balden and teachers during lunch June 13th is the fifth grade pool party some other PTA dates town townwide yard sale is June 1st from 9:00 to 2 with a rain date of June 2nd registration is still open so you can get registered for the yard sale through May 29th and over 50 homes already registered in the oak fire department will be selling hogies that day donut with that is scheduled for June 7th on the front lawn um 7:45 to 8:30 PTA is looking for some volunteers if anyone is interested they can reach out to Donna gach or Oakland PTA gmail.com Spring Fling is June 88th from 2: to 5: in the burrow parking lot across the street two new board members for the 25 26 school years Treasurer is Lisa angeletta and secretaries Matt speed the last meeting of the Year changed so that parents can attend blue and gold night the new date is June 5th at 6:30 and the board members the new ones will be sworn in that day thank you Mrs butko for the AMAC report um I have that the Dare program is confirmed including the bowling event uh for fifth graders um AMAC is looking to spend the rest of their grant money so be in touch with Miss Balden about that next year's Grant has been approved um and AMAC also co-sponsored um a Gaga pit that the Eagle Scouts installed in the um Veterans Memorial Park VFW yeah Park um and I don't know if the floor is in yet so they had asked the other day that you not use it yet but I think it's coming soon so that's it all right and I will do the what report am I doing I'm sorry o f okay so o f is uh considering a request from a teacher um in O Oakland Public School for a grant uh for preschool and president Kim love is convening a meeting of The Oaf board to discuss future fundraising ideas in light of um our budget situation um in Oakland and then I will finish Mrs Marian's report under first reads of policy in 11.05 um the committee discussed policy 5841 we had some questions about the um what board discipline would be in the final paragraph of uh this policy and after some discussion um you know with um excuse me after some discussion about discipline which would have been brought to the board which only includes much more serious offenses they agreed that we had the word may be disciplined and that was adequate um and in second reading um the committee re the committee reviewed all four policies up for a second reading that are on the agenda and they didn't have any other questions um you have a chance to review them as well and let Teresa know if you have any questions great thank you um is there a motion to approve um the policies in 11.05 and 11.06 so moved second moved and second and are there any questions from board members on any of those policies all right hearing none on the roll call Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr McMillan yes Mr tab yes Mr schaer yes Mrs butchko yes um section 12 miscellaneous um 12.01 is uh last month's hibs report and um is there a motion to approve that item so moved second moved and second any questions from board members hearing none uh is this roll call or yeah on a roll call please Mrs Ezekiel yes Mrs Fel yes Mr STS yes Mrs Rando yes Mr McMillan yes Mr tab yes Mr schaer yes Mrs buchko yes all right section 13 uh this is our second public comment section uh this is for any item that anyone would like to bring before the board please stand state your name and address and keep your comments to five minutes or less thank you does anyone have anything they'd like to bring before the board at this time oh oh hi I'm Riley Shannon and hello I am Eloise Emmons and I wrote an essay why oh um my address is Oakland New Jersey had um 77 of Oakland New Jersey um I wrote an essay why Miss Zuki should not be cut from Oakland Public School missar Zuki should not be cut because she is nice good at teaching and is great with kids last but not least if you get rid of the young teachers the old teachers will retire in in a few days anyways you could said months um Claire r that part [Applause] m m z should not get should not be cut because she is nice for example Bailey said one day Mr ziki on thanks and on Thanksgiving she made a nice breakfast and she also and she also wrote M um a post that said things that were nice about us um another example said by Mia Mr ziki made me laugh when I was tired and sad this explains Mr Zuki is really nice and kind Missy is good at teaching for example said by Maddie she helps me cat catch up on work and and another example said By Me Miss Z helps us and we are ahead she has improved my grades and many may agree people people oh wait this explains Mr ziki is is good at teaching Mr ziki is good with kids for example said by Riley she can she can relate to us because she is younger another example said by elani she can relate to us because she's not old like other teachers okay and also said by Serena she she understands us she understands teaching technology only 10 10 years ago she was 10 years ago she was a kid so she can relate this proves that Mr ziki is good with kids and you should not cut her because some people wanted her as her teacher in next year you should not cut me Si ziki because because people that were are old uh wait never mind in all miss miss in all Mr ziki is a great teacher and you should not cut her because she's nice good at teaching great with kids so that's why Mrs ziki should not get cut [Applause] thank you girls that was wonderful did a great job um is there anyone else have a public comment at this time all right hearing none is there a motion oh no do we I know the board has to go into a Clos session so they're going to go in a Clos session and we'll all leave and then yeah it'll be over okay all right so meeting adjourn for public and we're going to St back here yeah okay um so meeting to um close a public session and go into executive session is that first yes yeah motion oh is there a motion to do that sir so second second okay you done second all in favor hi hi thank you also thank it thank you everyone for coming out tonight thank you everybody send me come