wel to our Workshop meeting um we will begin with the president's report which I have no report this evening and move on to the superintendent report well then um sorry excuse me okay good evening everyone I'm gonna sa the majority of my report for downstairs because we have a number of students here this evening that we'll be recognizing which makes me very very happy but um we do just have a few events I think the board received invitations to the uh math Awards next tomorrow tomorrow and um we have band concerts a number of events coming up I'll let the student Representatives speak to most of it and if there's anything that um they leave out I'll I'll remind everybody down in regular so thank that concludes my report okay thank you School business administrators report we have Mr Cass with us tonight welcome you have a report yes one thing to touch upon um a broadcast came out last week um basically saying how districts who had uh a loss in funding from 2021 through 2025 uh would be able to recoup those funds um in our case it would be approximately $1.17 million um so um if now it's not an all or nothing so we can but if we took all of it it would so we currently approved an increase of 2.86 on our Levy um it would result in an increase of 4.50 against our Levy because it would be for next year's budget um uh when Jeff Mr Hastings comes back um you know Welden and all the administrators are working together to assess our needs programs that were cut things like that how we would actually utilize those funds if it's something we were interested in pursuing okay anybody have any questions so this is not this is is not like a like a state aid increase this is our this is an expansion of the amount that we are allowed to Levy our town again correct corre that is the relief that came out to the school districts through broadcast it allows school districts to recoup the loss in state aid there's two prongs to this allowance the first one is for districts who lost money and Aid this year we do not qualify for that first opportunity the second one is for districts who have lost aid from the 2021 aid number to the 2025 a number you take those two years 2021 2025 the difference as Mr Cass said which is 1.17 you are then allowed to increase your tax levy by that amount of money and your limitation is 99.9% so as long as you do not go up above 99.9% you can increase your tax led by that much so we are discussing what whether we should recommend that we do that whether you know what are the pros and cons of doing it of not doing it it would increase our base uh going forward and then therefore our 2% is higher but we also have no idea what our state aid would be and what we would be losing so we're we're being conservative in looking at what we should do here and also thinking about that increase to our taxpayers and how that would impact them so we're processing it we're reviewing our budget we're reviewing things that we cut we're reviewing things that we were not able to get in and we are still in the in the process of doing that we really don't have recommendation at this point me Mr Weinstein oh you thanks I'm looking up on the television I'm going over here my eyes all over the place um where did we get this from like where where did this come from what what department what group I believe the portion of it it's from the whole American Rescue plan it's not left over from that do a state yeah the Department of Education sends a broadcast to the school districts letting them know that this is now available this is an option we've never been able to go above the 2% tax thaty C right we never have been able to this this broadcast is giving us direction that there are two prongs that they are making available to districts the first one excuse me the first one I said we're not we don't qualify for the second one we do but this is this is what it means I was just wondering who I was I was more about who engineered this we re was the assembly I believe so was it was an assembly bill in April but it's been going through in response to districts that lost huge amount of money and it was two separate resolutions one for the first pro I mentioned and this one but the answer was to tax on the so the 4.50 that you mentioned Elliot that would be for next year the budget we just passed could amend amend the budget if we wanted to if that was the direction we were going to go this allows us to do that and the deadline for that would be right it's it would be July I believe is a date but I think with our meetings we would probably be discussing it in June if we choose not to do that does that have any effect if we do or not on next year's Aid the aid we don't know but it does have an impact on our what 2% is the following year that we can increase because you're basing it off of a different base amount of money if we take the money we'll have a higher base and 2% of that will be more if we don't take it 2% of all we have will be less than what it would be if we took it okay thank you but we have do do not know the funding formula that will be used to because S2 expires right provide us and we don't know the new formula um any other questions uh I think I'm going to do this in the okay open at the end I'll come back to this so we can move thise Mr M Mr mcco I just I just need to point make sure that this is clear we have been previously allowed to go above a 2% Levy with with waivers if we are entitled to those waivers and Bank cap and Bank cap yeah so this is not the first time and I I'm just make it I'm taking my own opinion of this and slapping it on here because I think that sometimes this gets very confusing so for the Layman you know my opinion of this is that this is just a ridiculous way to try to solve a problem in a state where we have had a massive Surplus in taxes in previous years and instead of the state doing their job properly funding our schools like they should have in post pandemic they are now just trying to put it on the school boards to make this decision and to try to force us to go out to our town and take a bunch of money from the people who are paying their taxes here and it does not solve the problem and I'm I'm I so frustrated and irritated that this is the solution that the assembly has come up with for us and and and I don't believe that this is acceptable go ahead so um one is I don't I don't like the idea that the answer is let's figure out how to get all the taxpayers to do this I think that's a I don't think makes it I that doesn't feel great to me um I would one of the things that we had is we did have a discussion we did have the corespondence with um our Senator on on funding it was at correspondence I think it would probably be appropriate for us to address that letter to really kind of see why our expenses have gone up um according to the letter A little disproportionately to what everybody else has done I think we should probably do some retros persective looking at that to see what holds what doesn't hold and and because there's more money available to us I think both of those things being understood and what this financing is I know I know I'm combining two things here but it seems that did you see our letter did you I'm sorry to interrup you did you see Kelly's response to I did not see Kelly's response okay because we did response oh I didn't see the response yeah we gave a pretty and then we got another response oh I haven't been part of that so then that's my fault as as commit chair for that I did not see that yeah okay so so potentially we need to bring we can have to bring all this out into the into the discussion for the board as a whole or we can but and just so the board of of the whole is clear because this is introduced there were no Decisions by the committee to there was Private correspondence between our Senator and our school business administrator and our uh superintendent basis a meeting that the committee had had that we reported minutes out on they have been going back and forth discussing data samples that are being provided and questioning theil them which if should the board want we can just present all of that and I think this can be I think in June once we've had a chance to digest what's available to us what we would be recommending and Mr Hastings is here this wouldn't just be part of a report but it would be an agenda item yeah can can you make sure that's my fault I'm sorry I need to get you that I thought I did I apologize cool all right all right let's move on we will now go does that conclud your report yes okay we will now move on to the action items Mr yes uh I would like to present items sorry item 6.1 meeting minutes disc any comments questions or discussion regarding those minutes none okay going to do it all right um Personnel we went over okay financial management Mr [Music] Weinstein anyone here tonight 81 discuss renewal uh CP power demand response agreement any anything may want to on that is there anything yeah so yeah it's just a program that we participate in during the summer like JCP will contact us if um like they are concerned about possible power or power emergencies in the area they'll let us know they'll let our buildings and grounds guys now and they can turn off certain solar panels or whatever and it'll save energy and then we get a like approximately the last year we did it we got about $7,000 back so you know um but it's totally optional we can always just say um call request can you guys do anything help us out anybody have any questions I'll be ready next time thank you thank you Mr all right we will move on to instruction education Student Activities Miss Gilman thank you madam president there are one two three four items up for discussion uh internships professional development curriculum writing hours for new courses uh we'll be voting downstairs there's no discussion or question on these items anybody have any questions any comments our usual education uh instruction memos PD this was like this was all budgeted for right these hours yes anybody else okay we will move on to Old business is there any old business from the board no is there any new business I was just going to comment on the Junior Prom and just say what a wonderful job that Miss KUSI and all the advisors did and the students looked like they had a fabulous time even though the weather was not very cooperative and uh I know the hard work that goes into it and I congratulate students and staff very nice where was it held at our school at the high school in the courtyard from what I understand there's going to be some uh artistic work done in the courtyard in the future by our art teacher and they're going to put down some mosaics and really do a nice job on that courtyard very nice yeah nice to hear that exciting anyone else any new business all right at this time we will take public comments um on any item um is there anyone here that has any public comment okay Madam president Madam president there are no virtual commenters but please give me a moment to check the auditor Madame President there are no commenters in the auditorium either okay thank you Mrs Conway all right may I please have a motion to Second see all right see you downstairs thank you --------- good evening everyone it's great to see you all here Welcome to our May uh May 21st regular meeting at this time I'd like to ask you to please rise for the flag Sal I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for all okay um board president report I have none this evening so we will go right to um our student Representatives report welcome thank you all right so after nine months of hard work from our teachers and students our AP testing was conducted over the last two weeks and is now over with I believe that there were 23 total exams held throughout those two weeks which is a very broad range of subjects and a great success for our school in offering those programs along with that the junior prom on Saturday was a success after the last AP test which is perfect timing although being being interfered by by some rain it was still a very fun night for everybody then on Saturday May 11th the a new mental health Team along with some coaches for our Sports was trained by act and act certified which is essentially me CPR training but for mental health and these student athletes were chosen by their coaches to represent a new program that's being started next year which is called The Hope Squad and they will be essentially student therapists that will be available to be reached out to by other athletes if they need to talk about things that are bothering them in their lives then Senior activities that are upcoming run by Mrs Hannah are very very abundant right now so Mr Spartan is Thursday at 7 o'clock which I believe I've talked about here before but it's essentially an opportunity for senior boys to show off their talents and their personality I know brow over there is going to be there right BR then senior prom bids are currently being sold I believe that takes place sometime I mean I know it takes place sometime next month but I do not remember the date right now then June 6 thank you and then Senior picnic and Senior Sunset which will be held on the turf are also coming up next month so sending out the seniors with some fun activities while they're nearing their graduation date awesome all right so of our sports teams are starting their uh state playoffs so baseball we have a game Thursday home against Point burough um girls acros plays Robinsville on Thursday boys lacrosse plays Summersville Somerville on Thursday and softball plays midn North on Thursday so you know we had a good season now we're we're getting into the the competitive playoffs so it should be fun um our Visual and Performing Arts School has a Capstone class and seniors have been um putting on one act plays and they're presenting them May 31st at the high school and then our National Honor Society induction ceremony is on June 3D and that's being paired with the Alish excuse me Oly Danish gar toy drive for Cancer Clinic of New Jersey W good very good thank you both you're always so thorough I learn a lot from you guys thankas can I just say one thing um I just wanted to mention because uh Michael Ching did speak about it and he did speak about the ACT training and I just think that in the world of of honoring students that we all should know that Michael actually is the person who brought the ACT training to Ocean Township High School it was his idea he spoke to some of our staff and he did bring it um Miss Todd who's also in the back of the room that'll hate me for saying this was also somebody who helped us get the training um done done at the high school and I just think mik Michael is being a little bit um shy about letting the world know but I will do it that he that's fabulous congratulations thank you for bringing that up um okay we will now move on to our superintendent report Miss welding okay thank you good evening everyone it's wonderful to see a packed house here tonight for our board meeting and we're very excited to recognize so many of you out here in our audience I also would like to thank our two student representatives for their report and in addition we do have the math Awards tomorrow evening at uh for our 6 through 12 students we also have the spring band concert coming up on May 23rd we have the Tois spring chorus concert for grades 67 and 8 May 29th the OTS spring qual concert is also May 29th and we have the fifth grade band concert on June 4th just a reminder to everyone that we also are closed school is closed this coming Monday in honor of Memorial Day and we are one month from graduation our eighth grade and 12th grade graduation will be held on June 21st on Carelli field so we'll have more to come on that in our at our June meetings but I did just want to remind every one of those important dates as well okay this evening it is my privilege to be able to recognize some of our Spartan students for these Great accomplishments um we're going to start out with the students who have earned the New Jersey state seal of biliteracy and who have met the New Jersey state Ela graduation pathway requirements if there are administrators in the audience that are here to help give out certificates or who helped these students reach this great accomplishment I ask you to please come forward so that you can help give out our certificates and I'd also like to start out before we call the students I'd like to recognize the teachers who worked so hard to get our students to this great achievement some are here this evening some are not if you hear your name please come forward we have Mrs laaser Mrs Tavon Mrs Chu Mrs acarino Mrs basalone Mrs rzi Miss chorman and Mrs White thank you for joining us thank you for and thank you for all that you do I am going to read all of the names of students who are recognized whether you're here or not I still think you deserve that recognition if you are here please come forward this way and you will be handed a certificate and and we're going to um coordinate over here in front of the step and repeat Banner are we ready okay here we go carada Aragon Moya Ricardo barana Andrew Brower Lindsay corella Rose Angel through Roman Lydia Diaz Martinez yeah don't sit back down stay stay up here stay up here yep you can stand there and if we have to wrap around this way we can Lydia Diaz Martinez that okay Len Dillis St gisha aniri Gandhi r gerve Eric Gomez Emmanuel J B Joshua levit Nomi Meer David Mendoza Freedom orales Flores Juan Ortiz Osorio Julia Perera Bailey Mar Salazar fipe Ramirez Pao Ramos Fernandez Jacqueline Rodriguez Guzman Jane Rogers Alejandro Sanchez Ramirez okay we're going to ask all students and teachers and administrators to pose for a picture over here on the in front of the banner maybe we should move that maybe we should that we're gonna have to make two rows right we're gonna have to make at least two rows it par you can come up too if you'd like to take a picture you're welcome to come up into this area here and take a photo good great job all right hold the pose right keep holding it all right one more time activation are you okay pleas okay next we'd like to to recognize one of our staff members who is walking away please come back up Miss C Cecilia Villa she helped organize much of what you just saw but she in her own right has earned an achievement she has been elected vice president to the New Jersey teachers of English to speakers of other language of other languages New Jersey bilingual Educators executive board which is informally known as NJ Tel she has been elected vice president and this is part of a six-year commitment will that will end with her as president of the organization this is a tremendous accomplishment pres vice president and president of a state Association like this we want to congratulate Miss Cecilia okay next we are going to honor students who have participated in the 2024 National Italian exam and have earned either Merit certificates or bronze silver or gold Awards I also would ask any administrators that are here that helped supervise these areas to please come forward and I'd like to recognize the teachers who helped get the students to these wonderful achievements again Mrs AAR miss basalone miss rzi and miss rzi all right I think and we have Mr Jackson here as well so thank you for all your hard work and now I'm going to read the students names again I will read all of the names if the students are here please come forward to receive your certificate and then stand here up front by the banner okay Brandon ABA dearco Eric randar Travis Don Mia fantino Mariana Garcia tles Sabrina go Charlotte Hanks Benjamin Jacobson Ella H Isabella laor Matthew maow Mela Murphy Joel ronz Gloria smart William suo Todd dein B Wagner Rachel Walsh Jack Bell Alvaro AR Moya CH Catherine Dison Ryan Hennessy Zoe Archer Jade B backin Sophia Higgins Kaye Diaz and floe Farrell okay if all the students teachers and administrators would gather front of the banner parents again you're welcome to come on up to take a photo good looking good keep holding the post congratulations students and we have one more recognition this evening about a week or so ago ocean SEPTA our special education PTA held their annual awards ceremony and first I'd like to just recognize SEPTA for the wonderful work they do for our students and particular this award ceremony that recognizes the staff who work so hard every day to meet the needs of our students and to help our Spartans on their way to their legacies we really appreciate all that SEPTA does for our district they honored Miss Christine rotini at with their ocean SEPTA Excellence award so I'd like to introduce up her principal Miss palea and Miss once again to recognize her would you like a picture would you like a picture go ahead just once again I'd like to conrat congratulations to all our students and staff what an accomplishment we really are very very proud of you all I want to thank everyone for coming out this evening and invite you to stay if you would like to hear the rest of the board meeting business but if you have other things you'd like to move on to now would be the great time to make your departure you're very welcome congratul conrat thank you for all your hard work yeah there you go you need your mother in there too why change now Suzanne you you congratulations have a great night congratulations she's taking a picture to very sweet okay everyone we're gonna get on with our meeting and I'm gonna ask our school business administrator if he has a report this evening nothing further to add Madam president thank you okay the following are a series of motions to be read by the committee chairpersons all motions have been discussed at a recent public work session some motions have been approved at a public work session and the minutes for the approved items are posted on the district website at this point in the meeting we will now conduct the first of two public comment sessions the first session will be open for public comments on agenda items only the second session will be at the end of the meeting and can be on any topic would anyone from the public like to comment on any agenda item at this time anyone in the room no okay Mrs Conway is there anyone in the queue no Madam president there are no commenters uh no there are no commenters at this point thank you okay we will now move on to our action items Mr McCarthy move to approve item 5.1 can I have a second second all in favor I I hi I all in favor I hi hi any oppos motion passes okay thank you Personnel Miss McGovern yes I move to approve item 6.1 through 6.6 may I have a second second Mr Dalton yes M dams Miss Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes M McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mr Tarico Mr Weinstein yes Miss paramis yes motion carries no um i' like to say something um i' like to change my vote on item um 8 point um 8.13 from the May 14 20 24 meeting I'd like to make a motion to resend 8.13 from a meeting on Tuesday 814 2020 uh 24 do I have a second second great um now I'd like to make a motion we gotta call the r okay Mr Dalton yes Miss Dam Miss Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Miss McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes m t Rico Mr Weinstein yes and Miss pamis yes and then miss pamus um I'd like to make a motion to reapproved 8.13 from the May 14th 2024 meeting to approve Personnel for the 2425 school year as noted in the agenda from that meeting second Mr say h thingss Mr Dalton yes Miss danam Miss Gilman yes all but abstain for my family members and their supervisors just a point of inquiry the motion on the floor is for uh the agenda item from the meeting from last week correct correct St Mr McCarthy uh I would like to refuse myself from this uh I came here because of uh well I first I was at the high school and then they said I had excuse me just for one second Miss via will help you right yes right there yeah right over there in the back thank you go ahead Mr Cass govern yes Mr Schneider yes Mr Alo Mr Weinstein um yes but i' like to I'd like to abstain on my voting for my family members and their supervisors and Miss Paris yes motion carries thank you Miss McGovern just as a point of procedure I apologize Madam president uh I I did not recuse I abstain from that vote yeah obain okay would we like to student no okay I didn't know if we wanted to call his name and let me take a picture okay no no we're okay all right we will now move on to financial management and Resource Services Mr Weinstein um thank you madam president I'd like to um move for approval um 7.1 to uh 7.10 second Mr dton yes M Dan Miss Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes M McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes Mr Taro Mr Weinstein yes and Mr Paramus yes motion carries thank you Mr Weinstein instruction education and Student Activities Mrs Gilman certainly Madame President I'd like to move one two three four five items for approval 8.1 move to approve and affirm our superintendent hi report 8.2 move to affirm out of school suspension report 8.3 move to approve internship 8.4 move to approve professional development and 8.5 move to approve curriculum writing hours second Mr dton yes Miss Dan Miss Gilman yes Mr McCarthy yes Miss McGovern yes Mr Schneider yes m Rico Mr Weinstein yes M param yes motion carries thank you Mrs Gilman this time I'd like to ask the board is there any old business Miss Gilman yes I do thank you Madame President like to read this on behalf of Jeff Weinstein and myself can you pull the mic closer to yourself during the public comment portion of our may4th board meeting Alex Haye spoke of the status of an Ethics complaint filed by Mrs tar Rico insinuating that the school ethics commission has found Jeff and I guilty of acting unethically as Miss Hayes and Miss Taro well know that is patently false we consulted with our attorney David Rubin to write an appropriate response to comments made at that meeting in order to set the record straight and allow us to continue undistracted from our work as elected board members here are the facts Miss Tarico filed a 12count complaint against Jeff and Irene former board presidents the school ethics commission dismissed roughly half of these counts on their face as being without any Merit whatsoever for the remaining counts the commission has made no findings of guilt but merely ruled on a hearing before an administrative law judge to make a full record of what occurred that hearing has yet to be scheduled we are confident once the evidence is presented we will be fully exonerated and the complaint will be seen for what it is a waste of taxpayers money a distraction from the business of the board and a stunt by a disgruntled board member thank you Miss Gilman is there any other old business is there any new business from the board no new business okay is there any public comment from anyone in the room all right Mrs Conway is there any public comment from anyone in the queue yes yes Madam President we have one commenter Alex Hayes please go ahead thank you m hay please go ahead is she muted Mrs Conway she is not I've unmuted her can you hear me yes yes we can hear you now now you can hear me sorry about that um uh okay well that was an interesting um speech so um I'll have to digest that later um I logged in three minutes late to the work session earlier and you're already on the fifth item out of 12 so I I don't know what I missed in like three minutes but um when you were talking about the legislative committees discussions with our lawmakers and AIDS next year and going above the 2% um so I'll look forward to the recording of this um when it's posted so see what you all were talking about up there just a note you can't really hear what you're talking about upstairs it's very difficult um you all have microphones in front of you right now but upstairs it's like an omnidirectional microphone so perhaps you can look into another way so that everybody can be heard we can hear the paper shuffling more than I could hear some people um so I also wanted to say uh good luck to the Tois track team for the All-Star meet that is tomorrow in hell um but most importantly what I wanted to talk about was this week's story in the Asbury Park Press um talking about the 2022 to 2023 calls to Police from local um school districts and of course the AP focused on momth and ocean counties um you know talk about how police are called more often to schools since the pandemic um and they basically called Data from the Department of Education um and while the article doesn't go over hibs um or some of the other categories um you know it was discussing how violence calls um at schools have been going up 14% across schools um and OTS Ocean Township High School un unfortunately was at the top of a list that I don't think any of us really want us to be at the top of um it said that the most weapons related police calls in Ocean mammed counties the number one spot was Ocean Township High School with eight and it also said Ocean Township High School tied for fourth for most violence related police calls for schools um violence related whereas the one I spoke to earlier a second ago was weapons related so I guess my question is um when you look deeper at the state data um and they talk about 40 incidences I believe at the high school and 15 I believe at Tois and the state data is more in depth than the asur Park Press and I do believe it encompasses some data that superintendent Welden has already presented to us um but it kind of Pates paints our district unfortunately in a negative light especially um the high school so that's unfortunate um so I'm just wondering besides the obvious behind the numbers you know what are we doing to reach out to students with what interventions and deterrence programs um you know might we be ramping up in light of this um is there any kind of discipline uh readjustments or looking at how we discipline our students um or enforcing discipline so um a couple of parents have come up to me with um the article and are quite shocked that the high school was named at the top so maybe um we can get more information on that at another time and I guess that's it but I will close in saying um uh I don't really know how you perceived um my comments the other night because you stepped out of the room Miss Miss Gilman but I was reading from the sec's opinion remanding the 15 counts to the oal I made no mention of any guilt I said they found probable cause to send your 15 counts with Mr Weinstein to the oal so point of clarification there um I guess that's it thanks thank you Mrs Hayes is there any other uh public comments in commenters in the queue Mrs Conway no Madame President there are no further commenters okay thank you so much okay I'd like a motion to adjourn the meeting motion second okay thank you meeting's adjourned thank you all for coming out