##VIDEO ID:Kgxkax88MiE## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e okay we'll start the meeting pursuant pursuant to the New Jersey open public meetings at njsa 10 4-10 adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the home News Tribune the Asbury Park Press the board office the schools and on cable vision channel 118 and Verizon files 24 and by filing such notice with the Township Clerk this meeting was scheduled for Tuesday August 27 2024 the board will take formal action on payment of bills and other agenda items Mr wiell the Oldbridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of this state establishes that members of the public including members of the board have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video record ing devices provided that the active recording does not interfere with the business of this public board meeting therefore the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board the board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely disavows any future use thank you m wi R call Dan tuno here jirano here Jodi here Francisco here lent Marquetta here maone here Slade solowski here we have a quum thank you would everybody please rise for the pledge acknowledge that death of Elizabeth Liz morile District secretary clerk Enola J B retired Madison Central High School teacher and Walter J Miller the second retired teacher and express the deepest sympathy to their family and friends thank you Cod of eics the board member will support and protect School Personnel in proper per performance of their duties thank you approval of minutes motion okay D second any discussion Rock call please danant tuno yes Jano yes ji yes Francisco yes lent absent Marquetta yes mazone yes Slade and solowski yes resolution one for approval of minutes passes good uh recognition can I get somebody to uh recognize the two retirees that we have sure um can we thank we would like to thank Carol Suarez and Jean dansy for 23 years of service to Oldbridge congratulations on your retirement and best of luck thank you roll call please I need a motion to move recognition miss a motion I need a second Jo second roll call please Slade is absent duno yes Gano yes jri yes Francisco yes Marquetta yes maone yes solowski yes resolution one for recognition passes thank you um superintendent report do we have one yes Mr President um when I'm asked about one of the Str of Oldbridge schools I often point to our professional development lot headed up by Dr hoker you know when I speak to other superintendant around the community uh the county around the state there's often a great deal of money spent on teachers having to go outside of the district uh to get the expertise that they need um to get the um information they may need leadership examples or outside speakers are brought in and many of them uh what we recognize here in Oldbridge is that we have real experts in the field uh within our own ranks and we like to have them show off what makes them an expert in education and together that's that's formed into our uh Oldbridge professional Learning Academy and I'm so proud to say that many many of these opportunities take place over the summer when teachers give up their own time and we know they need that time to um relax recoup regenerate themselves for the upcoming school year uh this summer was no different 24 workshops was offered this summer and they were filled up that was our staff coming in um to learn more about how they can better their craft and uh benefit how they can help the students uh in the classroom then on we had a summer Institute August 21st um through and 26th and we we had at that time uh 50 55 brand new teachers coming to the district uh preparing for the open we also had 150 teachers from their first to third year in education overridge um coming in to participate they learned about you know the first day of school and what that looks like and how they can meet their students needs right from the GetGo and even today was the start of our ilt uh summer Retreat that's our instructional learning team that's all the administrators supervisors director from the district and we'll be gathering for the next few days we review uh legal policies updates Trends in education uh affirmative action HIV some of the mandated stuff that you have to go through every year by law um we we talk about the negotiations how that how that's going and how that's going to benefit our our community going forward uh professional development how to TurnKey that into the classroom me mental health supports and how we can best support our students climate culture diversity Equity inclusion um some of the best practices in effective communication how to assist parents and members of the community um better utilize the tools and supports we have here within our our school district and we go through a lot of the curriculum updates and the attendance uh how to get the best out of our students and our staff with attendance and then on uh the third and the fourth we'll have more professional development for our our staff as our our staff will return we'll have a motivational opening keynote on the first day and the 3 and that will take place and then following that the the staff will take part in two uh on that day two two hour Workshop now some of them may have to do workshops based upon requirements um that are required by the state there's certain workshops that you have to train in every every year um and they'll have that or other staff members will have up to 45 workshops to fill in some of the other uh areas in which they want to again support their craft uh the planed workshops for 20242 school year include some of the following topic topics that will be offered as an inservice on the third and orridge profession orridge professional Learning Academy throughout the year and the inservice also I wanted to remind everyone that our website had an update this year uh it was launched on July 15 and a lot of those updates kept going and now if you look into it there's a new way to merge your calendars from your your phones your outlook U whatever service you're using on your phone you can merge it right into your school if you have children within three schools you can click on the three schools that have activities and emerges right into your your phone applications so that's been a a great uh step forward and a lot of that came out of policy out of our uh our board policy so I want to thank our board members that headed that up under our our care uh care committee and again first day of school for students will be on Thursday September 5th um they'll come in on on Thursday SE September 5th and Friday the 6th reminded everyone that alert went out today that those will be early dismissal days um as those students come in um that may be that may be good because we're looking like we're having a little Heat Wave coming up the next few days so hopefully that'll be uh good for us and again great way for our staff to um you know meet with students get get acclimated with the students get our students acclimated with the classroom but then our staff can uh catch up on some of the things that they want to do to really kick the year off right within the classroom and the last thing I want to touch on I want to thank my staff for all their support so far this year the summer um superintendent backpack giveaway we had 17 new families apply to us today um we've had 65 families prior to that so I think you know we're going to really reach our goal and give out um over 100 backpacks full of school supplies um that go out to families in need and that goes out through you know sometimes I just go to Five Below and buy backpacks there I go to different organizations get donations um this year the YMCA helped out a local realtor group helped out so even some of our own staff has helped out with some uh donations and the Oba so everyone again helping out the students in the community so no student come to school feeling like they don't have what it takes and what they need to be successful in the classroom um under progress towards goals one of the curriculum goals that we had was to build a work study program for um again this comes from the board and uh some support and ideas from the board to uh have a work study program for our students to do work around the community over the course of some around our schools to help get our schools open but again get the financial reward of working and having a job doing that um I'm going to post this on the this part of this report on the district website so you can see it uh some great pictures in there uh but through July 9th through 11th this crew of students were at orridge high school on July 6 July 17th they were at Glenn School July 18th they were at the grade n center July 23rd grade n Center they came to Central Administration on Ju 24th they M divit school on July 25th on July 30th and 31st at Madison Park School and August 1st um at Cooper school so they met with their uh coordinator they met with the principls in those schools leadership in those facilities and really did an amazing job from everything from um doing some help with some cleanout stuff to even you know painting some rooms and getting the schools ready uh for opening and again these are some life skills some work studies work skills that will benefit these students going forward and give them hopefully make a little change to get them ready for the school year so thank you and that completes the uh progress towards goals and the superintendent's report thank you Mr sardino any special committee reports no correspondence no correspondence but I will add um to to Dr or to Mr s's report in regards to the website while we did get a new makeup there is a new feature as well for all those that are interested in in looking at District policies um under the policies and bylaws there is a new uh search engine provided by Strauss SM where now um in the in the past it was all our um table of contents were listed there it was a link you had to click a link and then go through every policy to now to search now there is a uh keyword search where you can type in uh any keyword that you think is in a policy to find something um and it'll pull up every if you type in transportation it'll pull every policy that has Transportation written in it so it's a a better feature for the public to be more accessible for our policy so that feature is now live up on our website as well um there is no correspondence though we can move on okay uh special committee reports we're going to go over to negotiations I guess we finished that one up didn't we yes we uh we had a resumed meeting after the public meeting last week and the Oba and the board did reach a memorandum of agreement for a 5year deal so we go into the new school year with an agreement and the the board negotiations committee did a lot of work to get that done as the administration did and we thank the Oba uh Mr Lewis and the team for being cooperative and getting this done before the new school year came thank you I have some dates for it uh the Committees that had um set dates so people can start marking their calendars originally techn ology was going to be September 23rd uh we need to move that um so that date will um be changed uh special services committee will be meeting on October 1st the curriculum committee will be meeting October 9th Transportation buildings and grounds will be meeting October 10th Food Services committee will be meeting October 17th and the care and Dei committees will be meeting October 30th so September was very busy with uh back to school nights so we'll be meeting a lot in October Jen can you just repeat that please sure special services is October 1st curriculum is October 9th Transportation buildings and grounds is October 10th Food Services is October 17th care and Dei is October 30th and I know strategic planning was working with admin to come up with a date I don't have anything for athletics thank you Mr White you have all these dates for advertising well we we just got it now so we're working on it we had to confirm some times as well um strategic planning I know long-term planning we discussed last meeting at the agenda session that's to be determined we'll probably try to fall in October um but again we're going to play around with some dates and time so to be determined on that thank you also I have one more um the special education Advisory Group um their meeting is going to be on the 10th of September at 7 o'clock but it's via Zoom so if you go to their website you can just um sign up and get the link um also Marge do you have the date for the first SEPTA meeting I think it was September right but there's gonna right I didn't say because there's going to be another meeting the first sepa meeting is September 19th at 7 right yes at Glenn Glenn got yes I just want to point out that all of these are going to be put on the district calendar so if you just click the button for district you'll be able to see all of the meetings we're putting them out there for any that we have for the year and it will just stay tentative in case something comes up and has to change them but they'll all be marked off on the calendar thank you Dr H hearing of residents on agenda items only agenda items only Mr Lewis before you comment you'll see a new binder up there uh we're asking members of the public that before they speak whether it's during hearing of residents for agenda items or for all district issues please just write your name there as legible as possible um for minutes of the board um just again you name is really all that is necessary but I think there are two other categories in there whether it's contact information or um you know resident staff member um but please do sign in um it'll help with my minutes and just in case we need to get back to anyone for correspondence there's a written record thank you thank you Andrew Lewis Oba I just want to Echo Mr Parton's comments under special committee reports I want to thank the board members uh Miss Francisco miss maone Mr gardano and Mr Slade as well as Administration for their work on securing the new contract um I it's great to start the year on a positive note moving into the new school year uh we look forward to ratification continue to work because we're not done and a great year ahe thank you thank you anyone else good evening Richard Dunn I have a question regarding Finance items 12 and 13 I see that the the board of education has decided to spend over $6 million in capital monies and reserves um can you tell me whether or not a state Coop was used to save money for the district number one and number two can you please explain the disposition of the $10 million that was received for the sale of the Nike Base back in 2021 thank you Mr wedell after executive session after the closed plug portion anyone else yes thank you just state your name okay good evening my name is nahad Riad I have two kids in Oldbridge attending uh this school year they will participate in sports and um I would like to express my uh concern regarding uh eliminating the school bus the school buses this year because it will have an impact on my family I'm a working mom and also my husband works and we come home late I have to look for other parents and arrange with them to pick up my kids and it will be so hard so please I'm asking you to reconsider and um see what you can do and change the decision to accommodate with families with other families like us and I'm sure other parents agree with me too thank you thank you anyone else we'll try to answer the questions no the busing should wait until the later on because that's not on the agenda so when we go to hearing of residents on any District topic is when the speakers can do a busing thank you now you Danel you closed the public portions pardon we're going to close this uh that portion of the hearing of residents on uh agenda items only okay so I I do want to address Mr duns um in regards to finance items number 12 and 13 um these have been items that have been discussed since our pending adoption of the budget for 2425 we talked about it in uh March for tenative budget April uh May and a little bit last week as well um essentially just to answer the Nike Base first the $10 million so when the Nike Base was sold all the um funds for that sale went into our capital reserve capital reserve when you when we sell a property it can only go back to updating our school district from an infrastructure basis so we can't use any funds from the Nike base to fund payroll or purchase new Tex T books it has to go back to Capital Improvement of our school district um so that money is still in reserves we had um applied for a few grants last year um when when the state was doing Rod grants and we applied for HVAC projects in three schools um we were awarded them and would get some assistance from the state however that million that that money that's in our capit Reserve also gains interest every year so or gains interest every month so it is allowing us to continue to gr gain interest in our accounts to fund our general fund budget um but we cannot use that monies those monies for 10 million to fund the deficit that we had you know or the salaries of um stemming from negotiations or anything like that it has to go back to the Improvement or um upgrading of our facilities so with that being said this year out of our capital reserve we put on an in uh to withdraw 1,9 8 4,554 from that that pool of money um to do a a couple projects one is the Reconstruction of a retaining wall at overridge high school so in the back of the property here there's a retaining wall uh that is is concerned of crumpling and that crumpling would go down into a waterway that goes out to public waterways the D was involved in this after it was found um they have asked us to make their repair to that um retaining wall so those funds it really was something that we had to do in case because if we didn't address it it could crumple be a bigger issue down the road so part of the portion of that $1.9 million is to um do the Reconstruction of the retaining wall additionally there has been repaving and masonry in select areas in the district over the summer um that a lot of it has wrapped up $600,000 was allotted for that there is also on the docket for this year um um it just has to be at least a purchase has to be done for this year is upgrading some of our Elementary School Playgrounds a lot of them um have become a safety concern whether equipment's outdated or broken um so we allotted $600,000 to um repair where needed as necessary um some of our Elementary School Playgrounds so all anything that's in our capital reserve withdrawals um it has to be in our long range facilities plan which is essentially all the physical conditions that have to be improved throughout the course of a 10-year period so asphalt or masonry repaving is always in your long range facilities plan it's always in need in the district um elementary school prrs that has always been in our long range facility plan allows us to update Accord as is um as necessary throughout the years the Reconstruction of retaining wall it's something that had to get added to our long range facilities plan because we had to address um that project so that is our capital reserve monies that essentially is the funds from the Nike base and also additional funds that were built up over time when we go through our audit our 2223 or or rather our 23 24 school year audit where it just ended June 30th um any excess money we have that has not been spent can get reallocated to these reserves to build them back up for future projects specifically the maintenance Reserve so the maintenance Reserve is a separate Reserve not the monies for the Mikey base the maintenance Reserve is something that you have um each year and you can just do your required maintenance activities so our general maintenance in our buildings we have a separate Reserve that we we're taking $4 million out to essentially I believe require maintenance in the district is probably about $7 million we spend on unrequired maintenance four four million of that is coming from a separate account that gets replenished every year similar to what I just said about our capital reserve if we don't spend our our funding in 23 24 and there's extra money we can put them back in the reserves and the maintenance Reserve can be used to fund future budgets so that is the $4 million was as a result of our 20223 budget audit rather that's how much we had left in that reserve and we can now use that $4 million to fund projects or general maintenance in our 2425 school year now there there is $5,000 left in that reserve it was discussed and I believe it was on a slide in our um budget so that's what it is right now un audited though so after our audit if there's maybe $2 million left that was UN unexpended in the 2324 that $2 million can get put into our main maintenance reserve and that $2 million can be used to fund our required maintenance in the 2526 budget the issue has been over the past seven seven years with S2 the the funds were the reserve funds were very healthy and over the seven years because of all the cuts that had to be made we have dipped in and and really depleted all of our reserves this is really what led to kind of the deficit we had in the financial crisis that were really still in our reserves are are down to Bare Bones there's not much left and it's because things that come up such as the Sandberg gas um incident that you guys had um we had to take monies from those reserves and and use those reserves Monies to to address the situation so that unfortunately is what has led down to us using these reserves and not having as much funding available um but these are again items that we have had on the agenda um this 12 and 13 specifically is just the notion in or the motion in the 2425 school year to officially withdraw those funding those funding areas um and use it for 2014 2 budget it was already adopted and approved within the 2425 budget this just solidifies that we're moving that money out of those reserves to do the projects that we had in the budget thank you do you that to answer your question yes thank you as far as the the other resident I know we're going to go over in um the will of the uh the bo the public when they speak to any item on the not on the agenda but I I'll answer the question and or at least address the best best I can um you know when when the Board of Education was faced with some difficult chance choices we as our job as administrators is to provide them a cost of all those choices um where we're at as far as the deficit where we're looking at with the state aid cuts and where funds if allocated through um an increase in the the tax base as the law would allow how they could support some of those programs and I would say the the options that we provided to the board was like a six column option okay we went to 2% a tax increase it would increase include this and you know if we went to a 4% tax increase include this all the way up to the 99.9% that was eventually Allowed by law in June and even in looking at some some of that going to 99.9% there were difficult options that still were not affordable as a district because we still weren't able to operate the district at at whole what we had the prior year because of the increased cost to Health Care The increased cost to salaries The increased cost of inflation increased cost of fuel transportation all of those things um on top of receiving reduction in state aid what didn't allow us to operate as whole as we did the prior year um going this year so we went through the budget process and presented to the public in June the complete um budget breakdown and on slide 26 at the June presentation uh when the board finally adopted that kind of went through all the things that if going to 99.9% what it would save and some of the things it would save was all school buildings would remain in operation uh the moving of the ald high school to a sixth period day a shortened day was now abandoned we're able to have the full day at the high school uh the reinstatement of full day kindergarten on all locations all junior varsity freshman Middle School athletic Athletics will remain in place uh Elementary School related arts programs will remain in place no shortage of the elementary school day maintain two sections and grade one at all elementary schools instrumental music is was there to stay existing levels of effective School Solutions uh would remain remain in place Middle School summer program remain in place and hours of of Summer servant for guidance counselors would stay in place and these were all part of of that decision-making process um and then the next slide slide 27 and this presentation sat on our website throughout the course prior to the budget voting process and throughout the course of the summer um and it still remains there is the items that um would have to be reduced even if going to 99.9% and uh for the 2024-25 school the district may experience and have changes to the following after school extracurricular Transportation would be reduced um reduction of employees through attrition uh based upon enrollment and retirements uh reassignment of subject AA responsibilities because of those removal of positions and reassignment of Technology support responsibilities so see these are things that still had to you know had be that part of that difficult choice that board members had to make when they they adopted the budget now they could have made other choices they could have said well we're going to you know reduce AP programs at at the high school and then you would have a different group of parents and families being upset that well that option is not available to me or the option of going to half day kindergarten you know that would up up upset a large portion of the population it was just came down to the point where everything we wanted everything everything that we were used to providing to our public couldn't fit within that Financial constraint that the state had given us and the financial picture we were in with the increased costs and I think even the board members even asked for a lot of public weighin uh from members of the public on you know if we can't have everything what's the things that are most important to you and I don't know like I I after on the after school busing um today was my probably my third email on the topic um but lots of emails I received about you know the shorten of the high school day the obviously the importance I social media lit up everywhere with you know how could you not have full day kindergarten things of that nature um I know it was a tough tough decision it's not something we take lightly that we're not even going to you know look at other options you know it may not happen right now or within the next this budget cycle this year but I know other districts um have a pay-to-play model where students involved in extracurricular activities pay uh to to do that and that could offset some of that Transportation cost issues um but that that is something the board would have to adopt as part of a policy and part of practice um that we can we can look to but you know some of those same districts um I can speak as for my own pay they pay have pay to play model but still don't have transportation uh for after grw activities um so again it's not easy for the board members than the tough decision they had to make I commended them then I commend them now and I even commend them for a great job they did during negotiations to get that done on time um but you know it's it's not always uh flowers and awards given to board members for the work they do um as volunteers so hope that answer that question thank you Mr Seno okay moving on to policy I see nothing curriculum professional develop one [Music] through 1 through 10 can I get a motion to move curriculum and professional development one through 10 m motion J real second any discussion yes yes okay okay so back in um I want to say I think it was June maybe ends of May it was on the agenda for us to approve the teachers who would be rewriting the curriculum and when I abstained to voting I've heard backlash as I always hear um and last week we got the agenda and I saw that we were approving this curriculum wrote to Dr Tui he had sent me the the uh curriculum guides that the teachers adopted um going through these new curriculum guides just I had just some questions and um one is I'm reading that throughout the the guide that says about the uh C uh curriculum requirements one I understand that there are some state requirements but are there any local requirements that we are allowed to maybe not have to do I don't want to say fight the state but is there anything local that that we're allowed to basically like I guess overrides what the state makes us do um um another question was I saw that on a lot of the required curriculum it says individuals with disabilities and lgbtq how come these two totally different subjects are being umbrellaed under one and I and Elena and I actually just sat down with some of the the ladies from SEPTA and I had asked that question to them and they really don't don't watch it's being umbrellaed under the same thing either um I would like to know why we're pushing you know Dei lgbtq all of this stuff on every one of our children from keron all the way through 12th grade another thing is we didn't get these curriculum guides until two of us emailed requesting them how come these Warren sent to us when they were done being edited if you see the amount of uh material that these teachers covered which they did an amazing job but for us to have only a week to go over these this new curriculum is not enough time um so what I'm asking is is there any way to start when when rewriting the curriculum comes up is there any way to start rewriting the curriculum and let's say end of May giving it a dead line of middle of July early August and then brought to Albert attention I can't I don't feel comfortable sitting here and voting on curriculum when I didn't wasn't given enough time to go through it and actually see what the new curriculum consists of um and why wasn't even why did we have to reach out to even receive that um what else did I have I think that's it okay that was the end of my question questions but yeah so I just I don't know if that's something that you can answer today or through email I could try to address some of them and have anything where I miss off then uh Dr Tui can um and again this might be a Chris Parton question but I think the Dei lgbtq and students with disabilities they're all under the protected classes yes and that's why they lump them together because those are all protected classes that are placed into the curriculum by the state mandate not the oh it's not a local decision that is directly from Trenton and Tron from the federal government so I think that's why they do it Mr Parton do you have another reason why they would uh just just clarification on what you said there is a statute and it just came in just uh in March 2021 and it talks about rolling into all of your curricula and when I say yours I mean every school district in the state so it's not a there's no local discretion and it talks about uh it does talk about mental and physical disabilities special education religious beliefs religious tolerance disabilities and race and ethnicity and gender and sexual orientation it talks about Dei in the truest sense the the the everybody model so it is required to roll that into all curriculum even all curricula even where it may not be Civics it may not be social studies uh so it's a state law uh whether anyone agrees with and loves or does not love that state law we've had this discussion before uh it's there okay um the other question about the timeline uh in a typical year you have access to it sooner I think if Mr Sakowski recalls the year of the health curriculum we provided him with the health curriculum in early August he didn't want to have the meeting in early August he wanted waited for the parents to get back from summer vacation and we had that meeting in a uh the end of August so typically um but remember we postponed the curriculum writing for a month so that set us back a little bit further this year so it really wasn't finished until the end of August and give it less time for the turnaround but normally it's really ready beginning of August and would give more time for the review okay hold on for voting purposes got hold on so I I can make my comments I also um would like to separate um for voting number eight so I feel like so Christina and I have a lot of the same sentiments um as you know we've heard oh we know we have all the same opinions um believe it or not we don't but we do agree on this um so last week I did bring up that um I wanted to be transparent when it came to discussing the curriculum um and I know full well from personal experience that teachers work really hard over the summer to write the curriculum um while they're for their time they're still they're working um so I am in no way diminishing their work or their time their effort that they put in so just want to preface this by saying that um my main issue here is I I just and I said this last week I feel like the approval of curriculum has been a formality at these meetings when in reality it should be um a focus it's literally the foundation of what we do as a school district it's the curriculum it's what our children are learning so to have to ask ask I we shouldn't have to ask for the curriculum um and yes we were given you know access right away but again that kind of put us at a week so maybe some of those curriculums were uploaded even with the you know Mr sadena you're talking about how it got pushed off a little bit sure got pushed off a little bit but maybe some of them were uploaded beforehand so maybe if we can all have access to that document and as they go in we can kind of say hey oh this went in today you know social studies went in today or Ela greed 2 got done today so that we can kind of keep up as we go along because to get it and have one week to look it and you can see the list on the agenda is just way too much um so I'm hoping that in the future we can come up with a better way where teachers have ample time to prepare revise add delete change and then the board has ample time to review um because right now for me personally it's just not enough time um I too have some of the same concerns um that Christina mentioned so you know I'm not going to reiterate them but their as young as kindergarten and we we had this topic when we were talking about the health standards and now we're just kind of seeing everything cross-curricular and I was actually kind of Blown Away too about um because I you know I paid really close attention to this and the climate change so I learned something new today and I'm going to see if I can find it to share with you because but of course I can oh so um New Jersey apparently was the first state in the nation to include climate change education across all content areas I mean I had no idea I didn't know that we were incorporating that into all of our lessons and all of our grade levels in all content areas um so to me I just I want to look at it further I don't want to just sit here and say yeah sure sounds good um I'm and I'm giving you my explanation so you know where I'm coming from um and then for each of starting in middle school there's suggested um novels do the teachers have to use them because then there's kind of this um statement in some of the curricula not all of them and it says any resource or material that falls outside the approval approved list included with the curriculum document must have administrative approval prior to use these resources or materials must also be noted in the teacher's lesson plan after approval is granted so I guess my question is why is that statement not in every um curriculum and are we actually following through on that um so yes so those are just my thoughts and why in good conscience if I feel like I'm doing my job as a board member I can't approve these different curricula this evening okay thank you so what we're doing is we're voting on 1 through 7 can and uh and 9 and 10 can I add to the conversation go ahead so it obviously we can't do anything about this year so next summer going forward I know like the board tends to not be active the you know over the summer but can maybe the curriculum committee meet in like mid August so that there's time for the curriculum or you know even earlier August to discuss it it at committee level as request as suggested um by fellow board members and kind of have it there so it's not just more of an individual to conversation anyone else sure again that's what we did in past practice we had the curriculum meeting in August prior to this and um that one year you pushed it Mr solowski pushed it back further um because he wanted the parents to be back for vacation they can be at the cor the meeting okay so we're voting on one through 7 nine and 10 roll call please one through s n and 10 Marquetta yes mazone yes Slade duno yes Gano yes JRE yes Francis yes lent and solowski yes resolutions 1 through 7 9 and 10 for curriculum professional development passes okay number eight we separated for voting purposes yep maretta no maone no Slade AB danant tuno yes yes Jano yes J yes Francisco no lent and solowski no resolution 8 does not pass thank you question for clarification so as of with that not passing what does that do for the teachers it'll be the same as with a another curriculum that was not passed recently it will just carry on with your existing version of these curricula until further notice so could I make a motion to put it for rev forther review next month's meeting uh review to go on to the curriculum meeting I believe we can discuss that's what I'm asking can this be kick back to the curriculum committee meeting yes yes and then but that's not till October so we're kicking this back till the October meeting or should we set up another curriculum meeting in September that's up to curriculum committee I think October is fine same okay 1 through 17 can I get a motion to move Finance 1 through 17 Jano motion Francisco will second any discussion roll call please all right skip lent Marquetta yes maone yes Slade is absent duno yes Gano yes JRE yes Francisco yes solowski yes resolutions 1 through 17 for finance passes thank you Athletics one and two can I get a motion to move Athletics one and two Dan will move can I get a second jel second any discussion roll call please Francisco yes lent Marquetta yes maone yes Slade duno yes Gano yes jod yes solowski yes resolutions one and two for athletics passes thank you non-certified personnel office one and two can I get a motion to move non-certified personal office miss a motion can I get a second please Francis second any discussion a roll call please J yes Francisco yes lent maretta yes mazone yes sled duno yes jodano yes solowski yes resolutions one and two for non-certificated personnel office passes thank thank you non-certified Personnel operational one one that's all we have there only motion can I get a motion to move it Zone a second Jo second any discussion roll call please Jano yes jod yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes maone yes SL is absent Dan tuno yes solowski yes resolution one for non-certified personnel operational passes thank you non-certified Personnel other one through 12 can I get a motion to move non-certified Personnel other Miss motion can I get a second please Francis a second any discussion there's an administrative correction on item number uh resolution number seven for a Mary and Drey um on the right hand side of the column LOD is listed as no um it has been changed to yes so we just administrator corre correcting the no to yes okay any other discussion or questions roll call please Dan tuno yes Jiro yes J yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes maone yes SL is absent solowski yes resolutions 1 through 12 for non-certificated personnel other passes certified Personnel one through 36 can I get a motion to move certified Personnel or 37 I'm sorry can I get a motion to move it Miss motion can I get a second separating number seven for who is the second Francisco yes separating number seven for voting purposes yes okay any uh discussion on one through 1 through 37 I believe well as I say I'm also going to separate 18 and 20 18 and 20 that's one vot as one 18 and 20 for voting yes okay so we will be voting on one through 17 19 21 separated seven correct seven and number uh 18 and 20 so one through six 8 through 17 19 21 through 37 right I will just say for item number seven uh there is a typo there it is supposed to be 2425 school year not the 20 uh 3 24 school year we will get that fixed in the minutes let's go through 1 through 37 okay so one seting separating the three items 1 through 37 less 7 18 and 20 right SL is slate is absent yes duno yes Giordano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes mazone yes solowski yes so resolutions 1 through 37 or L 7 18 and 20 passes okay now we're going to be voting on number seven roll call please s is absent Dan tuno yes jirano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes maone um wait hold on I'm trying to review this hold on yes solowski no resolution number seven for certificated Personnel passes we're going to be voting on number 18 and number 20 18 and 20 as a joint vote okay okay SEL is absent Dan tuno yes Gano no jri yes Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes Mone yes solowski no resolution 18 and 204 certificated Personnel does pass thank you non-certified Personnel transportation 1 through six can I get a motion to move non-certified Personnel Transportation 1 through six Dan I will move can I get a second please miss second can I get a discussion please any discussion no roll call please maone yes slate is absent Dan tuno yes Jano yes jri yes Francisco yes lent is absent marketta yes solowski yes resolutions 1 through six for non- ctivity personnel Transportation passes thank you supplies equipment and services one [Music] through I'm sorry I I missed Transportation okay Transportation one through five can I get a motion to move Transportation yep J Dan will make the motion Miss second any discussion on that voco please maretta yes maone yes SL is absent danant tuno yes Jano yes jod yes Francisco yes L is absent solowski yes resolutions one through five for transportation passes thank you Mr wed supplies equipment and services one through nine can I get a motion to move supplies equipment and services dant will move can I get a second please Francisco will second any discussion I just like more information on number nine okay like in terms of uh the 75 an hour 70 an hour it's a different certificate a $75 $75 an hour is a registered nurse uh $70 an hour is an LP PN LPN can only assist with one student at a time where as assigned to one student and RN can work with any group of students okay I was just comparing it to like the nurses in general and all the other schools LPN don't traditionally work in schools LPNs can come in assist and be assigned to one student okay but yeah but that's what I'm asking it's like a special situation yes okay thank you okay can we get a motion to okay I need a roll call please 1 through n all right so danant tuno is the motion seconded by Francisco roll call lent is absent maretta yes Mone yep s is absent danant tuno yes Jano yes jri yes Francisco yes solowski yes resolutions one through nine for supplies equipment and services passes thank you Mr wo misscellaneous 1 through S any discussion motion to move one through seven I believe right M second any discussion roll call please Francisco yes lent is absent Marquetta yes maone yep SL is absent Dan tuno yes gardano yes jri yes solowski yes resolutions 1 through seven from miscellaneous passes thank you board secretary and board business none nothing hearing of residents on any school district issue anything to do with the school system just a reminder again if you could sign in thank you very much hi good evening uh James schacker Oldbridge president um I wanted to start off by thanking again this uh Board of Education uh for the work that you did last spring when you voted to raise taxes to save all those programs saving all day kindergarten uh the jobs uh some sports programs full day high school I know it was a difficult Choice uh and I'm very thankful that you did that um I'm also very thankful that this board of education uh acted as one it was very refreshing to see you all rise to the occasion and work as one unit to solve that problem as difficult as it was um it would have been easy to split into factions it would have been easy to use that crisis for partisan political game but you didn't you stood together uh and all of you every one of you up on this stage save one uh voted to raise taxes in order to save those programs it was a difficult decision and I'm glad that you Rose to it and I thank you for that um in doing so as superintendent pointed out last spring you made it very clear to the residents who were here uh who read the transcripts or who watched the video that in doing that it still wouldn't be enough and um you know I know a lot of residents here have busy lives and they may not have been able to be in a position to be informed at that moment uh you know summer comes along people's minds go elsewhere there's other things to do so I know a lot of people are realizing for the first time exactly what some of those consequences are I suspect you'll be hearing a lot about that tonight and in the days to come so that all having been said um you know I was wondering if there was some way to perhaps form a committee to explore different ways of potentially bringing back those programs this year uh I do think that the board of education is much as possible should be responsive to the needs of the community as those needs are brought to your attention and uh you know like I said there's going to be a lot of people a lot of information on social media people who are very unhappy with this is affecting a lot of people's lives so um I'm afraid that you know we'll get back to this next year is not going to be very helpful to a lot of people I'm not saying there's something that can be done uh but would the board be able to explore what can be done fairly quickly um to see if there's some kind of way to help the uh the uh parents in this community Comm who this burden will fall upon um one more thing I just wanted to point out ironically on a potentially related note here um this boort of Education spent an awful lot of money paying those teachers to write that curriculum and um this board tonight just decided to take all that work and essentially throw it in the trash bin I want to know how much money did this board of education pay the teachers to do that work which is now lost thank you I got to push the button case you remember I'm always short um first of all I'm glad I hope everybody had a great summer I want to talk about can you just state your name maray C Wix do it during the time clock or wait if you sign in we'll reset it for you thank you and an email too not necessarily necessary but if you can and want to provide it sure okay um so I've been a resident for overridge 45 years I know we dealt before with not having a late bus and then it came back I know part of it was the budget cut and I did my little research so it started back in 2019 with the pay per play um program and come to find out where one of the last towns that have the courtesy bus so because it's not required it kind of wasn't part of the budget but I want to find out about the paper play program like how long does it take who would Advocate who would facilitate it how how long would it take to implement it because I know usually we don't start Sports and clubs to after school to like around October so I don't know if we're working with a tight time frame to get it done so I was hoping we can do something like that because I don't know if it's something that the Boe does is a part of the transportation committee and I don't think I caught when the next Transportation committee was scheduled for the see September 10th October oh October 10th is there any way to get a pushup earlier to try to get it started I'm just saying I tried I was looking for stuff like I even looked for Grants and it was like the electric bus Grant but we had to own the bus that was 15 million for three years then there was the grant where they could do a walkway from Sal but that was part of DP and it was due back in March so I was looking at different options the only other question I have is about the curriculum for language learning disabilities is it grouped into multiple disabilities for like the middle school cuz I I didn't see it listed and I didn't get to go through that curriculum yet to find out if it was grouped in there all right thank you thank you anyone else hey everyone good evening my name is Jeff inlin I'm a lifelong OB resident um regarding the curriculum I like to applaud for the curriculum not getting passed um I appreciate it um if we're going to do it we should do it right and no reason to rush it um yes money well money is spent but if it's not done right we shouldn't be moving forward with that so good job on that appreciate it um now back to the busing um sorry about that so regarding the busing um you know the busing is a big issue for a lot of parents that are work Works far um I work in Jersey City uh so I know about um the whole Transportation issue and I'm highly against the whole thing that passed and Mr sadino I I appreciate you explaining because I actually missed that meeting U my kids actually had a baseball game that night so I didn't go but you know like when you mentioned about that meeting um the words of reduce after school busing I mean reducing it does not mean like eliminating it so if that's the text that was in in there I think it should have been clear enough that everyone understood that we're going to eliminate the busing the after school busing not reducing it because that means like lowering it down maybe set of 10 buses you get five buses something like that or maybe the kids have to wait longer I don't think that's appropriate um it just seems like you know how come nobody really cares about like all these parents that are working all the time we're paying our taxes you know yeah the teachers didn't you know the teachers didn't want their jobs getting cut we don't want the programs getting cut but who's working for us like who's helping the parents that you know the our parent I mean we as parents we are we're paying the taxes for our kids to have a good education I am a orridge resident I'm an orridge graduate Mr C he was my former teacher so uh I was in his class in shop classes um the shop classes here are great um no reason it cut them it should never even been in discussion to cut them figure out where the money's going figure out how to cut the money from being spent wasteful spending just stop already how come we're not finding this out early on like why why do we wait till May to say oh the state's going to cut our money like how come no one's looking at this before May because you know every Year's a budget every Year's funding money gets cut every year we should have planning in place we already lost the the the bus depot because they make up for that gap of money so didn't anyone expect that hey it may happen again and again and again so we cut money this year or money was cut this year taxes were raised what happens next year anyone looking into that we need to you know put like two three years out and focus on what's the next thing going to come we can't just plan year for year I know we have yearly budgets but we got a plan ahead um a couple other things um um let's see as far as the the the the sports so I mean I'm thankful that you know I live closer to Lombardi so my son plays football it's it'll be tougher to walk down thort after a practice or play but at least it can make deal the parents that live across town on major roadways I feel very sorry for you um it's it's going to be difficult um you know I don't think Oldbridge should ever have to deal about worry about the the sports getting caught because it makes the town look bad like how could how could like people say like or doesn't have a sports program I mean how you know like other towns have all these Sports programs and football baseball basketball and overt sorry we raise our taxes we can't afford the the the programs anymore we can't afford busing I mean it makes us look really bad really bad I think you guys got to do better across the board thank you thank you anyone else Rich D again and I just have a few questions regarding shared services I know that we're here talking about monies that are required to reinstate busing shared services has always been a Hot Topic here in the Board of Education and I know that this Board of Ed gives back a tremendous amount to the township for their services so I would like to know if there is a liaison committee with the township to try to figure out a fair and Equitable solution to our financial wos uh I know that the ethicare uses our buildings I know that we pay I believe for DPW for a bus depot and or bus repairs things of that nature and I'm not sure what we're getting back from the township um for for any kind of shared services I know that security I know that we pay in ordinate amount of money uh on a yearly basis and the township pays uh very little for our security uh when it comes down to special 3es and sro's so there's a lot of things we need to work together so has there been any kind of consideration of putting a liaison committee with the town to try to figure out what works for our uh for our our residents and also have we discussed as a board going to the Town Council asking them when they give ta tax Pilots out and tax abatements whether or not they can do a community benefit um you know every time they give a pile out there should be a community benefit that goes back to the Board of Ed and a lot of towns do do that because I am a developer in the urban centers here in this great state of Jersey and uh we always have to pay $200 $500,000 to the board of ed for certain services and for certain things that the Board needs so I'm not sure if there's been a collaborative effort and I would like to know whether or not that's been the case thank you it's on of books share services not yet not yet yeah state your name please okay hi my name is Brooke Richards Patterson um I have a um upcoming sixth grader coming into uh Middle School I am a single parent um I work I don't get into town until almost uh 6:00 p.m. my co-parent also works actually even later than me I I had to move mountains to get my son to football at 6:30 this evening I can't even imagine having to figure out how to pick him up um you know I do uh commend the Board of Ed I I don't disagree with any of the decisions you've had to make or that you were faced with um but I do agree with the consensus here is you know I'm willing to pay you know and honestly you know nobody wants to see their taxes to continue to go up so if that means for the next seven years I have to pay for late busing I'd rather do that as a temp temporary fix then have my taxes increase some more um so I would like to agree and suggest volunte attend the Committees chair committees to try to figure this out sooner than later um because even though we've saved all these programs how many children are realistically going to be able to attend them uh when they have working parents and busy parents I mean I don't have any other family that lives around that can help I have you know friends parent friends and stuff like that but I don't know that they're going to be signing up for the same things you know I want to sign my son up for um and as far as transparency I do want to commend again the board for um putting this curriculum on hold before they until they have all the answers um and also Mr silakowski when we um had that opportunity as parents uh to speak on that Health curriculum um there was a huge turnout so much that it couldn't even fit in this room so I would love to see more of that and I don't think that there was anything wrong with holding off for parents to come back and having say in that because I'm so thankful that that was turned off turned away it was completely inappropriate to have terminology such as anal and oral sex introduced into the third and fourth grade curriculum so that's just my uh two cents and I appreciate your time thank you anyone else good evening um my name is Tamar Hassan and I have two boys one from my boy is go moving to the high school and another one he in eighth grade in Jonas so Middle School uh I'm talking about my problem then I I don't I can I finish my work at least at 4:30 and my husband finished at 8 b.m and my kids is Athletics and they like they they love to to to join all the sport now I can't I don't have any family here in Oldbridge it's only the it's friend and they can go every day to move to pick up my kids from the school and when I came to old bridge I'm new immigrant I was I like to be here because I know the everyone here they like to keep the kids doing the sport you know that I have my kids is it's very like they like the sport and now we have very big problem I'm sorry for my language but I have very big problem and I need to help me for this and I came for to to Bay outside to to take my kids play a sport outside if you can like think about the about the late bus you're going to help everyone here and thank you thank you anyone else hello everyone this is Kiran venkatesan I just want to Echo the same thoughts from quite a few of us here about the busing um I'm sure you know this is going to affect or impact quite a bit of parents especially uh many of us are working parents and the schedules are you know so weird that I don't think we can help our kids to pick them up at uh after the Athletics right so yes you know and another thing is taxpayers do not have to pay for these increased uh amounts so we probably have to come out by with the pay by use or some other means so that it doesn't impact largely everyone and whoever needs this let them you know Avail this uh facility actually and coming to the curriculum uh I really appreciate uh you know the board of head not passing that yes there were uh significant efforts probably put by our valuable teachers but it's very important for us to thoroughly review it and my take on this is this cannot be coming in summer and teachers working so hard in summer and then giving even a month if it may be uh to review this the list of uh you know the subjects or the topics are quite a bit I don't think the board of head even if I were in the board of head I would not be uh having enough time to thoroughly review all of this rather I want to suggest something to the board to put in a process in place right what is the Change review the change I don't think the changes are going to be so many rather than you know reviewing the entire curriculum you know or the updates you know ahead of the curve like you know when the school closes or whatsoever the new statutes you know uh given by the state of New Jersey should be upfront you know led to the board so the board is uh you know having a visibility what are the upcoming changes right so that they keep a watch they do some research and then you know when you come back to the time when you know the teachers are presenting here are the changes so we can meet the end and then we can make progress so maybe you know it's a process related thing so I would appreciate if you can look at it because it's going to repeat again the same you know again everybody's going to get busy come next summer we're going to have similar situations so probably a process change would help there and um some of us commented about the strategic planning I think I brought this up in the last week's session as well uh we have a very good Vision very good strategy put up uh the document is available for everybody in public like Mr s said much of the documents are available open to the public and so is the vision 2028 so the things around Vision 2028 which is really helpful for our kids uh need to be tied to to what has been progressed and to the funds as well so probably you know whenever we are going to have that October time frame you know that committee meeting probably you know it will be a good visibility how much have we spent towards that strategic plans and what are the pending plans how was our funding going to be Associated to some of that that will give more visibility to everyone uh as to are we on track to achieve that Vision or are we under budgeted or you know how do we solve this together right um and yes you know the state funds are now zero right I mean when I say zero uh not enough to cover but at least you know it is not at a Equitable funding that we had so far and now I think uh we are going to have the same scenario from year on so like somebody here pointed out yes now is the time to start thinking about next 3 years next 5 years and that Vision 2028 should align to this strategic planning so that would be my request and also list down uh what are the other priorities that we may have especially around student enrollment right uh the student enrollment when I looked at the records or the reports has been like up and down but I think we need to really start planning for the next five years forecast there's a lot of young families I see moving into the town and uh there are going to be you know kids you know uh going out as well as there is a intake you know coming in so in that strategic planning I would want to look at uh what is my growth rate looking like and for which grades are the students are looking like and what are the strategies and the vision for those middle schools or the elementary or the high schools and what are the funds so we want to really draw a full circle around many of this these are just some points you know I observed uh thank you thank you anyone else [Music] good evening my name is Anna OVA um I have two children that are attending Oldbridge High School uh I'm a single mother I moved to Oldbridge specifically because I was told what an amazing school district is and we've been here for two years both my children love him my son um the first year that we were here he actually stopped me I was walking him to the school bus and he said Mom I never thought I'd say this but I love the school out here now we're from We're from Brooklyn New York so the school is definitely very different we love all the teachers uh all the after school programs are amazing and it's excellent that you are all able to save these programs but like one of the other parents' concerns was is if you save all these programs how are the children going to be able to attend them if they have a household like mine where I am a single working mother or a household where there's two parents who work late shifts not everybody's able to accommodate the schedule uh both my children are in sports my son is in football my daughter's in the wrestling she does cross country she's taking advantage of every single sport available every season Fall Winter Spring she signs up for whatever sport is available to her the late buses are vital in all the children being able to attend these programs Athletics programs are vital in the development of all youth you know like this is some it's it's just as important as English is just as important as science it's their physical development it's their Social Development where are these kids going to go after school they they there's nowhere to go out here are they going to be running around you know in the neighborhoods doing nothing or sitting at home on their screens it's important that we all get together and I'm also one of the parents that is willing to pay for this because I think it's extremely important not to eliminate the buses um thank you thank you anyone else hello uh my name is Jennifer carreri um I actually have resided in Oldbridge my whole life all 43 years I actually went through the whole entire oldridge school system and my mother was a single mother and she relied on the late bus raising three kids by herself working in the city not being able to get home in time for us now here I am I have three children in the system two of three that go to Oldbridge my upcoming eighth grader he is on the soccer team and my husband and I both work at least an hour away and we will not be home in time not just for the sport I'm going to bring something else up I don't know if Samberg does it but jonasa middle school offers a homework club my son has an IEP yes he gets extra help during the day but he looks forward to that homework club because it gets him ready for the week with all of his assignments and projects by cutting that and it's not just my son I know plenty of people from SEPTA will back me up right now that have an IEP that are looking forward to that extra help is just one of the things it's the sports it's the tutoring clubs it's the play practice I'm even going to say it now it's after school detention too so how are these kids getting home and it's not just about the kids right now we have friends neighbors that are the bus drivers in this town they look forward to that overtime they're losing that money now also so you're now hurting our kids and now you're hurting our community with their employment so I'm not trying to fight I'm just trying to look for a solution is there a way that we could just have two days out of the week for a late bus and the other three this way parents it's enough time where we can maybe put a spreadsheet together that parents can meet up where they live in the community and help each other with a carpool can we meet somewhere halfway two days late bus three days pay to play three days carpol that's all I'm asking just somewhere in the middle thank you for listening to me anyone else okay I see no hands uh we are gonna have a I okay so um the curriculum was tabled not lost so we we might even approve it without changes we might approve it with changes but the work put in is definitely not lost and when it comes to the budget uh I've been working with state legislators years before trying to pass bills to get Capital funding to be spent on general education purposes I did get a bill and it didn't pass but that was years ago and so I tried that before and when it comes to late buses in New York City you could pay 290 and go across an entire burrow of course there's other subsidies but I think think we could do something similar might be around the same point or if it's like $5 each way or whatever price we come up with or it could be a public project similar to the project at the GNC if we have a lot of parents that have the same desire we could bulk up and have this done and especially if you're in high school you should be making connections and car pooling and if you're 16 you should be working you know and trying to work forward for yourself to make things happen and that's it for old business thank you Mr J anyone else I do okay uh so did you want me to answer any of those questions when you close it or you just going to go on to Old business well we'll try to answer the question let let's just usually it's like Mr Sido answer those questions understand but if you want to go you ladies first you go first no go right ahead floor is yours uh um all right there's a question about the high school LL curriculum guides that were eliminated this year uh that was done so because uh when they get to high school it falls under the general education curriculum so they're kind of they're not they uh they don't need to stand on on curriculum they go as part of that um so I hope that that answers uh that one question Mr finlin I I think you left but love the shirt um questions about transportation and and and the budget one you know I think we've gone over hundreds of times that this board this District Administration doesn't wait until March May June to start planning um for the budget for the next year we do our best guest scenarios based upon previous year's Trends um I demonstrated dates uh at I think the June meeting um we had 36 meetings over the course of last year alone starting in uh the end of September beginning of October planning for the next year's budget process um as far like Mr Gano said this is not new to this District where myself personally I've been to legislation I've and testified a committee um and Senate and um halls trying to get the funding formula public so that we can know prior to when we have the information so we can budget appropriately and school districts are not held behind the rear of of budgeting that is a process that is ridiculous at best because no one could even budget when um again we are $160 million business and we find out in the end of February what our budget is whether good bad or different whether they're going to give us more money give us less money or leave us flat alone we found out in February and we have to pres we have at the end of February and we have to present a tentative budget by mid-march so think of your $160 million businesses out there and they find out their budget and they have to turn around within two and a half weeks a budget for the next year that's the way the state operates it's it's it's ridiculous in doing so um one of the things they they are clear about is that what we've described is as courtesy busing and there's no funding for Courtesy busing that you get relief from the state or or aid from to do that um only mandatory busing so any busing that does not bring your child from door too for educational purposes within the window of the school day is considered courtesy busing uh Mr figlin said that the act the let the language was not accurate that it says red not eliminate I'm saying that that's inaccurate what he's saying because we did not eliminate after school transportation because elimination of after school transportation means that you would have no bus to take you to the football game no bus to take you home from the football game there no bus to take you to any away events that would be a total elimination of after school uh Transportation that's not what's happened it's a reduction of after school transportation during covid there was an elimination of after school transportation there was no buses to take you to free hold to play a game no buses take you home from freeold to play the game all of those routes are still going on it's only to and after um in school events so I would suggest to the board and I know this board is sensitive to this and something we've we've talked about any relief that we can find um so you know some districts do the pay to play you can't do a pay per route you can't say well and I think it's a great idea trying Mr J you can't say well it's 250 and the kid's going to pay 250 today to get on the bus because what happens when the kid doesn't have the 250 or a kid says I didn't know I was going to stay after school and I'm going to stay the bus driver is not going to one sit there and collect change while we're trying to get the kids home and then say well you don't have money I'm leaving you here um it's there's no way to do that the payto playay model might be the best way to do it if there's no funding around we're talking around half a million dollars so it's not like we're talking $50,000 $60,000 half a million dollars is a a large bit of money in operation of a district um so you know that is something we'd have to look at I would you know I think the the board said they're willing to have a special committee meeting on it whether would help tied together with Athletics Transportation um uh that might be a good place to start we can come in there with some ideas on what what the revenue would be and how it would help help with that situation and I know my team will be ready and willing and able to do that as far as going here um I agree Mr Jano at this point the curriculum is tabled so we don't know what of the elimination of cost and what effecta would have and you may again correct um pass the curriculum a as is um we we should only see and we'll find out in O in October um talking about the building of curriculum you know it's it's a budgetary issue and it's a a state issue where they tell us when the curriculums can be upd to what curriculums are due for updates and we have to budget for them and plan them and sometimes as you saw this year we weren't even sure if we'd have the budget to update the curriculum that we're looking for but maybe one solution is that I'm thinking out of the box here is that we do like we do at the calendar if the if the state will give us enough window to do it we update a calendar for two years in advance you vote on a calendar this year you didn't vote on the 24 25 calendar you voted on the 25 26 Calendar so where curriculum is available maybe have the the Educators write that curriculum updates for two years in advance not curriculum that's going to go in place when they come back after writing it that school year where the opportunity allows for to write the curriculum for a year in advance um that would give you plenty of time we don't have to wait for parents to come back on vacation you can hold a curriculum meeting in October and review any writing that is done um over over the course of that time and you have months to update it before it goes into into affect the following year that doing so but you may have to pay more that first year because you have to update the curriculum that's due that year and any curriculum that's due um the following year um that may be a window to to fix that that problem and can assist us along that way and I think that may be advantageous to all parties the problem is why you'd have to do it that way is because the experts are the teachers they're the ones who write the curriculum they're here till the third week of June teaching kids and then we want to have them turn around and produce a document to give to you so you you can review it in the beginning of August and it it just it's not a lot of time in turn around for people who who are knocking themselves out working hard for that for those 10 months leading into that so that may be a solution that we could look forward to um that that will fix that I don't know if any of the districts that do it but we could be the first to do it um shared services meeting I think Mr solowski you addressed that we're looking to get any any shared services meeting we can the book so we we have that um Mr V I'm going to Mr V again plan um at the demographers report is part of that um so if you need access to that I can give you that so we don't just do the Strategic plan without a demography report we have a demographers report that gives us enrollment predic predictions for I think it's 10 years no it's more I think it's 10 years 10 years down down the road and that was part of the planning and strategic in that strategic plan because we saw that at the second day we'll continue to lose a little bit of enrollment but at the elementary so a lot of these new developments going in um we'll see an increased enrollment our elementaries that'll eventually feed into the middle schools and the high schools um going forward in the next 10 years so that I think as that one and if there's anything I did not touch upon just at the end of the meeting raise your hand I'll come over to you and I'll reach back to you through email if I can answer any of your questions okay good thank you ladies it's all yours thank you so as a current Board of Ed member and someone who voted on the latest budget I would like to address some of the concerns regarding the late bus situation as a working parent I understand how important the these buses are to many families in our town and for many years Albert provided these Services however at the end of the day it was a luxury not a necessity facing one of the most challenging budget years we knew that making decisions would not be easy speaking for myself I spent hours reviewing the district's finances looking for ways to save money I vividly recall numerous meetings and emails where people expressed their willingness to raise taxes in order to preserve the programs we offer here in Oldbridge however as a school district we cannot solely focus on Athletics we must also prioritize academics as well this meant we had to evaluate which Services were essential and which we could afford to cut though we did with the community X raising taxes to preserve important programs there were still cuts that had to be made and these were never hidden from anyone in the public during the budget hearing Dr Hulker presented a comprehensive PowerPoint detailing the programs that would still need to be cut including the Lepa service not one person raised concerns during the meeting nor did we receive any emails objecting to the decision the general s sentiment was one of relief that taxes were being raised and programs were being saved transportation is a significant portion of our budget as doc as uh Mr citadino said it was about 400,00 000 that late bus and cutting the late bus service helped preserve many of the programs that people advocated for as well as saving numerous jobs that were at risk I understand this has been an inconvenience for many and I am truly sorry for that but I also realize that we can never please everyone in the community as a board I believe we made the best decision in the best interest for everyone in Oldbridge with that being said hearing everyone's concerns regarding the late bus our transportation meeting in October we add and come up with something as a community as a board that can accommodate you know families working getting the kids to and from Sports at home thank you anyone else yes I would like to um just re reiterate a couple a couple of points um so regarding the curriculum I would just like to say that the teachers's work is not lost the money is not lost it's going to head straight back to the curriculum committee where it belongs um I also want to say that just like I think you put it really well Mr cadino in saying that we are sensitive to this topic with the after school buses I mean we're parents too we have kids who are in the system and are in the same spots as a lot of you and your children are so we are sensitive to this and I look for forward to working with everyone and really really hoping we can come up with some type of solution but also like Christina said at the time I we we did do what we thought was best and also with the information and the um I guess you know either support for or against there was all support for raising the taxes keeping what we needed we didn't really carear much otherwise so we tried to take that into consideration and we also know that that changes and clearly it is so moving forward hopefully we can all come up with a plan and lastly um I just want to say thank you to everybody who does get up and speak because it is not easy to get up there and to voice your opinions and so it's important that we hear them so thank you anyone else yes um I know Mr sadino kind of touched upon it um at the request of the public I'll try and talk to um Administration the committee members and transportation to see if we can have a separate meeting to kind of discuss it um we know it's a need um but we also as you've heard over and over it's a financial decision um but just want to let you know that your energy coming you know is heard and we'll we'll bring it back down to committee level um I don't know if this is the end of us talking for the evening or whatever so if that's the case I just want to welcome back all the staff and students and good luck to all the fall athletes thank you anyone yes I'd like to just say welcome back to everybody um students and staff and administration have a great year and getting back to shared services I will be reaching out to the Town Council and try to set up some type of meeting okay and then I have new business when we get to new business go ahead okay so if we can't do the paper play uh I recommend each Elementary School and each Middle School like I said band together as parents uh try to form your own communties and do it privately if we can do it publicly because we like you said if we do it publicly we have to make sure every kid has the opportunity no I'm not saying we can't do pay to play I'm saying we can't like pay per ride like you can't say well yeah the late bus is $250 and hand it to the driver on your way in U it has to be like everybody who's in a club and this the way other districts do it everybody's in a sport there's a rate that You' come up with as a board and has to has to go online and submit those those those fees to that now if you're participating in those then that'll offset the cost of the transportation yes like I said just in case every Elementary School PTA could probably set up a group that could do that as I said before if you're in high school you should be making connections and networking with the upper classman or as I said working and possibly buying a used car and uh once again if you're already graduated uh take your AP well you can't take AP anymore but take your clap exams take 18 credits live at home save up for next generation and that's that's the most important thing and of course third Thursday we have our football game at Lombardi it's purple out so once again we'd love to see your support it's at Lombardi field at the Carl Samberg Middle School at 7 pm purple out thank you anyone else uh is this new business pardon me new business old business and new business so new business business first is this new business yes or no okay so considering um the Mr cino's contract is expired uh next year and all the um achievements that we've incurred under his tenure um also including in that is the uh superintendent of the Year award um I know publicly we can't do it but I would just like to take a straw pole vote as to um how many board members would actually be okay with moving forward with an extension Beyond next year I don't think so can we do a straw po vote no board board members can discuss this if you so choose you can't do a formal straw poll no no board member can call for a straw poll vote but if anybody wants to speak to Mr Marquetta point you can well I support uh contract extension considering all the accolades that we've incurred underneath his uh tenure um the superintendent of the Year award um all the accolades could be found under um Mr sadino uh X page uh I retweeted it so if you're interested just go look at his page thank you new business okay I would like to discuss some new business the other day my wife grabbed a hole of me and I said what do you want she says let's take a walk so I took a walk from the top of the hill to the bridge over here and she says take a look at this I'm looking at it and there's mold all over the bridge all I'm asking is that somebody go out and clean all this up or painted because that's these kids walk over that bridge every day and they're breing all this in take a really you have to take a look at the bridge my stomach turned when I saw it and I remember when that bridge was installed 10 or 12 years ago are you talking about rust or mold mold there mold on that bridge you got to cut some of these trees back so the sun gets in there and burns all that up and probably repaint it that's all I'm saying all right thank you for bringing it to our attention you got to the meeting anything else on the new business or old business okay we're going to go into uh close session I thank everyone for coming I'm looking forward to a productive year for all the parents and all the students have a great evening a motion can I get a motion to go out of Francisco a mo J second you got it good night folks Francisco Jano all in favor all right thank you