e e e e e e e e e e e e e e Dr Schwarz well okay all right I think we can uh great call the meeting to order back into order uh and um let see you don't uh the Ridgewood uh board of education has been meeting an executive session pursuant to njs 10 colon 4-12 the minutes of this meeting will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists so we'll start back in our public meeting and please join me in a flag salute and pledge so I guess we'll um start with presentations we've got some retirement recognition welcome everybody I'd like to introduce right now we have a principal of Ridgewood High School Mr Jeff Nas and he is here to honor Nancy Riley who is retiring who uh thank you so much for your service Mrs Riley and thanks for being here tonight all right well good evening everyone this is a tough one so I'm gonna read a little statement and then I'm gonna talk a little bit more about you oh try not to make you cry n um but I might cry uh Nancy Riley is retiring from her position as a science special education teacher at the conclusion of 2324 school year after 25 distinguished years at Ridgewood High School and 36 total years of education Miss Riley entered the special education program teaching history speal teaching history special education courses in both stack and Mac programs before entering the science department for the bulk of her tenure in the science department she has been a member of many successful collaborative teaching Partnerships that have been exemplary models of inclusion instructional methods Miss Riley has always been willing to assist colleagues and Mentor novice teachers Miss Riley's passion for special education as a result of her sister aarin who has was born with Down Syndrome her experiences with her sister led to the creation of the special needs siblings and Friends Club that acknowledges these unique life experiences and provide students with a chance to connect with each other and spread the message for acceptance of special needs individuals Miss Riley is also very active member of the school Community through her participa parp excuse me participation in the in in interact club which she has really expanded with the help of Lyn feni um it's amazing the things that they accomplish each year and the number of activities that she gives um the students an opportunity to participate in she's The Unofficial cheerleader an event organizer of our fac of our faculty her enthusiasm for people and relationship Fosters a sense of community and camaraderie between staff members and all departments Miss Riley's commitment to the students and staff at Ridgewood High School is truly commendable she has demonstrated a tireless work ethic enthusiasm for Science and a passion for special education Miss Riley will be greatly missed as a teacher colleague mentor and friend we wish we will miss Mrs Riley the ve the very best is in and well-deserved retirement with her children and grandchildren um I just had a couple other little comments that I jotted down here because most recently um I mentioned this at the maroon Awards the other day we had um the HSA graciously sponsored us uh some Crispy Cream Donuts uh that were shaped like a solar eclipse with an Oreo in the middle and and uh but Nancy was responsible for that she found them but this is what she does she you know gets she hands me the bill and says Jeff find a way to pay for it and then uh but yes but the best thing is is it brings staff together and this is what we need at the high school um The Faculty meetups you know probably close to 25 years ago maybe probably 22 23 years ago we had a staff member Jack Elwood who passed um with ALS Nancy organized a five Cade walk not just with the the high school with the whole Community she organized the whole thing um in Basil's passing she was inter you know an integral part of bringing the staff together in many different situations and you know has a code word o for uh the local o um she's a person that brings us all together and we're going to miss her very very much we love you n right here I know I know I had to write something down because I would not be able to speak well and my thoughts would be all scattered so I am filled with a sense of profound gratitude and Bittersweet Nostalgia for many years I have had the privilege of calling Ridgewood High School my home and it has been an honor beyond measure to serve this remarkable Community reflecting on my journey as a teacher I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the countless experiences the Deep connections forged and the creative opportunities that have enriched my life working alongside exceptional colleagues and guiding the minds of exceptional students has been a source of immense fulfillment and I am forever grateful for the Memories we have shared however as the saying goes all good things must come to an end and so after much reflection I have made the decision to retire from Ridgewood High School while this decision fills me with a sense of sadness I am also filled with anticipation for the new adventures that lie ahead I want to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt gratitude to the district for its support and guidance throughout my tenure at Ridgewood I am tr grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of this extraordinary Community to my colleagues both past and present I extend my deepest thanks for your friendship your collaboration and your unwavering commitment to our students it has been an honor to work alongside each and every one of you and I will cherish the memories and pictures we have created together to my students past and present I want to say thank you thank you for inspiring me for challenging me and for reminding me every day why I chose this profession you have taught me more than I could ever teach you and I am internally grateful for the privilege of being your teacher and to my many club members of project interact and special needs siblings and friends thank you for your sincere dedication and tireless hours of volunteering never forget service above self remembering you have made this world a better place thank you board members for all you do especially Sheila Brogan who has been around longer than I have I have worked so many events with you and admire your hard work and dedication to the children of Ridgewood I always felt your support throughout the years and for that a special thank you as I bid farewell to Ridgewood High School I carry with me a lifetime of cherished memories and heart full of gratitude though I may be leaving this chapter behind I know that the lessons I have learned and the connections I have made will stay with me always so as I turn the page and embark on this new chapter in my life I do so with hope and excitement for the journey ahead I am certain that a part of my heart will forever remain at Ridgewood High School thank you Ridgewood for everything we have to do some pictures as and Miss zetti was not able to attend tonight so we are going to honor her at our May meeting h back and next we have our student representative report from Miss Sarah bronstein thanks for being here with us miss bronstein thank you for having me um I just wanted to personally congratulate Mrs Riley not only does her work with project interact provide me with much content but I know all the students in that club really enjoy it and love it and they're always so enthusiastic to tell me everything that's going on so congratulations um to begin and actually with project interact in town on the 21st there was the daffodil festival for Earth Day at vaness Square the green Club went to present to the town on permeability and the project indir volunteered and helped facilitate children's events and set up clean up the event I got to attend as a part of the League of Women Voters and it was such an amazing event there was homemade pretzels and all things sustainability uh the green Club had a very successful sustainability day at the high school there were many tables set up in the Campus Center which demonstrated and showed off different topics based on the environment and sustainability and many specific to Ridgewood some of the projects were about Urban runoff water test fast fashion composting and biking to school there was also a student staff Deputy Mayor and superintendent panel where students in the audience got to disc discuss sustainability topics with the panelist the League of Women Voters came to school last Thursday to have students that are 17 and 18 to register to vote for the upcoming Primary in next year's election this week starting tomorrow oh starting today actually ninth grade students will be taking the NJ State testing this is a reminder to students and parents that while the test scores will not determine class placement or anything beyond that it is a good indicator of how well Richwood is doing relative to the state so it is important that the students put in their best effort 10th 11th and 12th graders will have sleep which I've already enjoyed uh the class of 2023 Student Government positions were recently announced congratulations to all students who won and to all candidates who had an amazing run on Friday the 12th rhs participated in a vocal allies Day of Silence this Pro protested the harmful effects of harassment and discrimination against lgbtq students in schools students and teachers signed up for a Day of Silence Andor Ally ship where they then broke their silence together in the Campus Center at the end of the day rwood high school students had the privilege of speaking with students in Malawi on sustainability through perer Village I had the joy of talking to seniors in Mala about ways they practice sustainability and how we can better both of our communities I also wanted to take this time to thank the Ridgewood Education Foundation who have helped make these calls possible they're very incredible the AC capellas had their national competition last Friday in the city and did an amazing job they performed against I want to say eight teams across the nation and one from England Deca National qualifiers are traveling to anahim right now in California to present their projects AP exams are starting from the 6 to the 17th um rhs gives over 1100 AP exams and many seniors Juniors and even some sophomores will be testing that week primarily in the Campus Center and the learning Commons the new players improv show will be performed May 9th 10th and 11th in the little theater and Alps members have their Stony Brook Farm trip May 3rd 4th and 5th as for sports the Bergen County relays were the week of the 15th the boys track team took home first and the girls got third the track team also went to pen relays at upen on Thursday the 25th girls softball had their Morgan's message game on Tuesday the 16th Junior Sammy Lee made a speech on the importance of Morgan's message and mental health for athletes and each team wore ribbons in commemoration the girls softball team record is currently six and three in addition the girls across team had their Morgan's message game and so did the boys baseball team thank you thank you thank you m bronstein okay we'll open um for a public comment but just a reminder that we'll have three public comment uh opportunities this time this is the first that's about the general agenda and then we'll have a hearing about the budget and there'll be another opportunity for public comment and then of course always we end the meeting with public comment so uh just know that as you think about what it is that you'd like to speak to us about if you could state your name and address and uh just be cognizant of the the four minutes yeah thank you okay uh deod as a party uh former resident you want my old address uh but I still work here yeah uh and I'm here because of Nancy Riley um I I'm gonna start to cry um I'm just gonna tell you a little story that says everything about Nancy and first of all she had my Jack who you know had special services in Ridgewood from like you know three to 18 um years old and she had my son and she took care of the gro children so all of us you know um have benefited so my son you know had um quite in you know quite a a journey and didn't really like homework all too much so one night when I was checking Skyward and he hadn't done homework in three weeks and I was screaming my head off saying you know you're never going to graduate I was sending off emails to all the teachers you know letting them all know that giving them the green light on any corporal punishment that they needed to give and um so it was like about 10:00 at night and uh do I get a phone call and it's Nancy Riley and she's like now at the time we didn't even really know each other all I knew is that you know she had Jack and she goes dearra are you okay and I was like no I'm not okay and so she's like you know what I got you I got him he's fine and I and I'll take care of it and I was like and that was and she always took care of him and so just special teacher and really she uh project interact you know just you know for the kids that didn't have the friends you know she always brought them in she was like bring him down I got a shirt for him show make him show up I will do it she just really wonderful person so yeah anyway thanks thank you what a night for me to show up at the board of ed meeting for the first time in like 10 years congratulations thank you on behalf of everybody out in the world watching this on TV all the parents in Ridgewood how incredibly blessed we are have teachers like you we're so lucky uh Gail McCarthy 363 Spring Avenue um as a more than a decade long new players company board member and outgoing president I thought I would take this opportunity to thank the Board of Ed in person for your support for the new players program throughout the years I often see many of you in the audience uh in the hallway congratulating the kids outside and and I it means a great deal to the board to the parents and especially to the children um thank you for your hard work on this year's budget and speaking of budget um I'd like to get you uh help you get a head start on the 2526 budget I'm not going to bother you about the one you're you're hopefully passing um I often begin our September parent meeting by welcoming the new parents to the Little Theater which I like to refer to as my field right our field the little the the the new players company field right the little theater is a very public face of Ridgewood High School like the rhs stadium like Stevens Field and the condition of the building should reflect its importance to the community in addition to being used year round by the new players company hundreds of students use it for classes the rhs band rhs Orchestra dancers despite this the little theater has received very little significant physical upgrade since its Inception the current stage we call it a deck is original to the rhs Little Theater it's pretty old um similarly I'll also speak for BF middle school and GW um all of the stages are terribly old and um in need of at the very least repair and perhaps replacement would be ideal um before someone falls through the stage um our audiences are required to walk very far for a restroom um Ada um I think the little theater is grandfathered so we don't have to follow those rules but a bathroom uh in the lobby uh would be incredibly helpful um at the very least maybe some porta potties like you guys some sometimes do for uh uh some of the sports teams um the carpeting is over 13 years years old in need of replacement and at the very least repair the lobby has not undergone any cosmetic improvements in over a decade uh and although we love them our sandwich boards are quite dated um so um and it's expensive and the board picks up the um production of those and the printing of the of the banners every year uh staff stiens have not been meaningfully adjusted in years so I've been on the board 10 years I've never come and asked person we tend to you know we try to work with the money we raise we rais a significant amount of money um over the years and we work with the hsas and we work you know just like everybody else in town um but um we felt at this time it's important to come to the board of ed um we have a wish list that uh our artistic director Kelly vanile and rhs Alm put together and presented to uh Jeff niyas and she requested that I also give you all a copy as you plan for uh the years to come um since 2010 the new Players Association has presented the Board of Ed with monetary gifts totaling close to $2.5 million so that's money that goes towards production costs Staffing scholarships Capital Improvements that we can take on without um having to come to the board of ed um uh so with that in mind we thought it was important to revisit the importance of M maintaining that building um similar to maintaining the fields and maintaining everything else that you all do um it is my hope as I pass the torch to the next president my friend Michelle mordi that improvements can be made I think most people who have sat in our theater listening and watching these students share their gifts with the audience will agree that the little theater is a treasure I would be happy to take you on a tour in my retirement before the next budget season is upon you thank you for listening and thank you for everything you always do for the children and our community thank you yes please do yeah with uh Miss Scot great good evening everyone I'm Laura McKenna 861 Bingham Road um in New Jersey we have one of the highest rates of autism in the whole country our rate are one in 35 young children eight-year olds are diagnosed with autism if you focus just on boys that number is as high as one in 22 um recently researchers started to group autism with similar disabilities like ADD ADHD dyslexia anxiety disorders and um putting it under one umbrella called neurod Divergence uh experts say that almost one in four uh people in the country uh 15 to 20% suffer from neurod Divergence in some ways um and it means so one in 35 with autism one in four are neurod Divergent that means that every class in our district has at least one student in that classroom Who brain is wired differently um it means that um every class in our district needs a strategy for dealing with the this group of kiddos whose brains are wired differently it means that we need new strategies in our classrooms to reach these groups of kids in every classroom from the AP classes to the self-contained classes autism in particular is tricky because it impacts every kid differently every person differently there's a saying in our circles if you've met one person with autism then you've met one person with autism um in general enal people are diagnosed with autism if they have a social communication difference if they fixate on particular topics and if they have sensitivities however those characteristics you know appear differently in everybody you could have one child who's like the Little Professor gives you lectures about Pearl Harbor and you may have another child who's completely non-verbal and needs a communication board to speak um some some young people seek out Sensations others avoid it some have a strong interest in math other kids it might be the Teletubbies or Pixar um because all these autistic kids are so different um researchers H have given up the old labels now everything is autism level one level two or level three kids are grouped based on their functional levels so um each type of autism needs its own educational Solutions level one kids these are the kids with normal to above average so you know Superior IQs um that is as much as 50% of all people with Autism have average IQs okay these kids should be in typical classrooms learning with their peers perhaps with an aid to support them in a typ typical classroom they should deserve the same access to learning Specialists that other kids have um they need IEPs they still need even if you've got no cognitive differences they still have autism so they have needs and they need IEPs to protect them and we need to have um a way of dealing with the Dual exceptional kids the kids who have these genius IQs Plus have the disabilities level two kids these are a medium functioning kids they can be educated in a self-contained classroom however these kids should never be stuck in one room for the entire day they should have the same access to the library art room Music Room cafeteria as all other kids they can be group educated with students with similar disabilities and the level three kids these are the kids who are non-verbal who have the more severe issues they need to be educated in a safe environment free from policy programs like that have restraints and seclusions so I would urge rwood to do three things I'm running out of time have another 30 seconds thanks so I would like first to educate I think all teachers and AIDS given the fact that autism andure Divergence is so prevalent in our society today everybody needs professional development in this area um just given the scope of the problem two I think the district should form a committee of Administrators teachers parents and community members to do a thorough examination of District P practices are we restraining and secluding kids are level one kids in a mainstream environment we should be looking at these questions and lastly thanks Shila um we should collaborate with other districts when we can to do um so that we don't have classrooms with one or two kids in it my son was at the the the valley program in Northern Valley which is regional and I was very successful thank you so much sure okay I don't see any um comments um offline online so um we'll move into the budget we no there is one nope yeah so we'll move into the um budget hearing oh no that oh that wasn't okay stepan hi there can you hear me yes I can let me turn on my video um well I I guess uh hello can you hear me yes we can hear you would okay very good um sorry you can't see my video but uh my name is uh Stefan kand Delina gay I live at uh 132 Liberty Street um I just wanted to follow up with you about a not for-profit in town called masterclass Athletics it was formed by three fathers with children in our school system trying to get them gym space to play basketball BB this is not um an organized like um competitive basketball type activity this is more of a wreck activity um over the last few months um masterclass Athletics again it's a 501c3 it's a Bonafide 501c3 insurance board Etc Bonafide um they've gone to the business administrator's Office of the Boe to get to request gym access and pay for it uh for the Bo's policies and procedures and they have not been very successful they have uh requested and requested and have not received any Communications about their requests um a couple of uh the leaders of this organization have asked for explanations to no avail uh so I just wanted to put this on your radar uh in the hopes that you could follow up and find out what's going on with these requests for Jim facility usage um and I'll just read for for folks who were not as familiar with this policy but uh from the use uh of facility policy it states that the district facilities belong to the community which paid for them uh for the primary per purpose of offering a full educational program for its children prudent use and management of school facilities outside of the regular operating schedules providing that such use does not interfere with the orderly conduct um of a thorough and efficient system of education allows the community to benefit more broadly from the use of its own property um so you know again if you could look into uh this matter of Master Class Athletics and their quest for gym space for children again not competitive right this is wreck uh this is you know let's um let's get them involved uh you know outside of the classroom so that they're better inside of the classroom again for kids who aren't really really competitive just average skilled kids um you know this is a program for them and and will really benefit them and everyone in the community I will add also as I understand it uh that their programming is very very low cost so it's not just activities for kids to keep them busy it's also you know from a parent perspective in terms of fees and charges associated with this programming is very very low cost very NE negligible so when you think about you know your grocery bill or your gas bill going up or your restaurant bills or whatever they are this isn't going to be one that keeps on going up it's going to be a relief uh for parents um that are interested in getting their kids into a sport um so thank you very much for time again my name is Stefan kandin I'm at uh 132 Liberty Street thank you very much um our superintendent here and I'm certain that we'll look into that thank you so much Mr superintendent did you have any comments that you wanted to Sure yes thanks thank you to all of our commenters here tonight thank you all of our commenters here tonight um appreciate M McCarthy's advocacy for us maintaining our art spaces particularly our theaters we uh would agree but we certainly could use some some maintenance and some up upkeep there uh thank you Dr McKenna for your sentiments uh we'll we'll review some of those those those thoughts we someone one of us will be back to you on some of your requests there um and then uh M uh and then Stefan I'm sorry I didn't catch your whole last name um and I want to do it justice so I'm not going to I'm just going to go with Stephen K right now but yeah thank you for reaching out um there were some particulars I was able to find some Communications on this uh we are overhauling as I indicated in my emails our facilities use processes um I understand that the that there were some uh there were some um uniquenesses to the types of requests that as I as it was being presented to me so we'll look at this again we actually are well underway with our review but someone from our offices will be in touch with you um if you want to send an email uh to um to uh my assist uh Lucy Papa Michael um or really anyone here you can send it to miss cot you can send it to me as well uh we'll forward it over make sure that you get some some feedback as to uh what you would need to do uh to be able to um use facilities as you are wishing great thank you thank you so now I don't see any other hands raised so we will um close public comment and um go into the public hearing on the 2425 five school year budget SO waiting for our presentation to appear all I'm seeing is my Bal spot there we go it's showing on my computer just fine all right technical expertise right there thank you for that good evening everyone this uh tonight's meeting uh includes a public hearing for our final budget and this is our final budget presentation Miss Julie Cotter business administrator will be co-presenting with me and I believe we'll have Mr Freedman our assistant super attendent also helping out with a few slides regarding some of our programming that programming commentary that we have for those of you who attended our uh preliminary budget presentation there's very little that has changed I think we just did a slight update on one of the bullets for the um for the public for the program slide so the information uh this will be a little bit redundant for those of you who were here with us before but we're going to reiterate it and of course open it to the board for questions and of course Miss Brogan will open for the public for conversation uh before we finalize the budget we have our Board of Education members listed in the presentation here and our budget objectives were this year were to maintain a budget U be able to maintain all of our programs uh while possibly uh moving our programs forward to some extent while maintaining staying within a 2% tax levy increase uh that was possible by by two initiatives despite the inflationary environment that we're in the first is that the state has been making Corrections with to the funding formula and we have been a beneficiary of those Corrections however I must offer as a caveat the fact that this is the last year of that uh state budgetary correction which means that next year uh we have no guarantee of increased state aid therefore our only increase will be on the will be what we can increase on the tax levy uh when we say the tax levy for those who are not familiar we're talking about all of the community members Property Owners as well as local businesses that pay into to the tax system in Ridgewood so we have stayed under the 2% uh we have not cut any programs we have not cut any staff um but moving forward into the future we are going to have to be more judicious so wow this is a this is a um this is a more a relatively undramatic budget presentation uh we do hope to give fair warning that over the course of next year I we're not waiting until the budget sees and all throughout the course of next year we really need to be talking about cost savings um I also just want to point out too that one of the reasons why despite the the very high inflationary rates that we're experiencing and all of our costs we've been able to stay in this rate is because uh we've worked very hard to um analyze all of the budgetary lines and all of the uh past all the past spending and past accounts and we really budgeted judiciously um justifying uh almost every dollar that has been allocated so we also anticipate that while we may see we will we anticipate seeing some surpluses at the end of this year uh and we've seen larger surpluses in the last two years we anticipate a much lower Surplus production in this budget going into the 2425 school year so we'll explain the revenue changes and cost drivers which I just gave you a preview of and we'll talk about what the budgetary impact is at this point I would welcome uh Miss Julie cot our business administrator to talk about the process that she used to bring us to this point and she'll also introduce you to some of the some of the numbers thank you um so I just want to speak briefly on the um the the cost drivers that you referenced in the uh prior slide so some of the largest cost drivers in any uh school budget are related to salaries um this is again a negotiations year for our teachers and secretarial union health benefits comes in um a very close second our broker initially advised us that health benefits would increase from 9 to 12% in 2425 thus far the state has only confirmed that the increase is going to be in double digits and we have budgeted a 12% increase for this this coming year so we hope that that breaks well for us special education costs continue to rise with no cap on out of District tuition and more students have certainly been needing uh special services since the pandemic Transportation costs also continue to rise um renewal of contracts is set by the state using a particular CPI but in the last two years Transportation costs have increased at least 11% on all renewed uh renewed uh routes the cost of Public Utilities such as Gas and Electric have all increased far greater than 2% in recent years price uh and cost for other supplies everything that we utilize in a school district many of the things that you utilize suppes at home paper cleaning supplies we have outsourced vendors such as plumbers and Tree Service removal companies and all their costs are rising uh greater than 2% per year the budget process so every school district's budget can be thought of as a spending plan and it gives us guidance of what the coming Year's priorities are budget planning starts in October this past October of 2023 with a need for us to project what will occur and where we need to be as of June 30th of 2025 we use our very best efforts to anticipate uh where the district needs to finish in 16 or 18 months when we begin this process the process starts with departmental requests and they provide us with proposed budgets this year we held 21 separate budget meetings with those budget managers and those occurred during December and January every budget line was reviewed historical expend expenditures were analyzed and all of that information was taken into consideration when striking an amount on that line the information thereafter is refined and augmented through internal work among the administration and as additional information becomes available either through the Department of Education or our service providers data is then discussed with the finance committee until we Rive at the budget arrive at the budget that was presented and approved on March 19th on April 3rd the county office approved our tenative budget as it was submitted tonight the board will vote on the final budget Please be aware that no changes are being proposed from the tenative to the final that you'll be seeing this evening next slide please apologies so this enrollment slide did get a a little bit of an overhaul from our tentative um and what we have done here is we have used the figures that will mirror what has been provided in other budgets as well as those that are uh the values you'll see on the annual application for state school aid or Assa which shows us an October 15th snapshot date of our enrollment uh while the uh the the total enroll numbers have changed slightly from the tenative um the we see that General downward Trend and that trend is generally expected to continue this time I'd like to invite Mr Freedman to share about some of the initiatives that are going on in our program improvements sure this is uh pretty similar to the slide that we had up last time there's one thing that's not included because we were able to um purchase it this year and actually start before next year and that were math manipulatives so every Elementary classroom got a whole new set of math manipul manipulatives tricky word if you say it four times fast um so I took it out of that because this is next year's budget the other things that we're doing um you know supporting program development for K to5 Ela we focus on the science of reading we have work going on this summer with that and then all throughout next year with um some high-profile speakers coming in to do uh consultant work with the teachers um to help Kickstart that initiative also we're doing our k to5 math curriculum review and pallet is part of the five-year study you're going to see that in the Elementary classrooms uh next year and we're evaluating the district g&t program another uh announcement I want to make tonight and there's going to be a presentation more formally on June 10th but I didn't want to wait for that for a couple of reasons one for scheduling at the middle schools and two because it's just been a topic of discussion and we've done a lot of work with that and that's that the district um effective with the 2425 school year is going to go back to the traditional model of math presentation so what that means is we're going to um Algebra 1 geometry and then Algebra 2 so what you're going to see on June 10th is we have a pretty thought I think a very thoughtful plan of how we're going to roll it out and how we're going to support the students that are currently in in that um in in the sequence that we have now and how we're going to support the students moving into the new sequence which is actually the old sequence so we have a number of supports and we're going to be excited to present that Mr nembo is going to present that on June 10th but I wanted to let the community know that this evening to continue uh you know some offering new things which is always great um AP seminar English 11 the rap program cyber security engineering with Applied Physics the Epic program we're offering a new AP course in African-American studies offering a whole new program in real estate economics and politics which um so far has been very well received lots of students signing up for it in the initial um signups at the high school ASL 3 um American Sign Language has been a very popular elective at the and World Language offering at the high school continues to expand fashion design too and then in the Middle School we're doing a math applications 8 that's going to be part of the June 10th presentation as well as it's part of helping to fill in some of those gaps that we have found in the math curriculum then we're adding pop dance Legends in a in a cycle sense and also a middle school 101 course which is a new course that all students um in the middle schools are going to be exposed to and get to take and it's an introduction to secondary life so um the thought with the team is that you you don't just immediately become a middle school student um there's growth there's opportunities there's things you have to learn so we're helping by adding a course that will um put all those things in that you might not know on your own and welcome you to a successful secondary experience in the Ridgewood schools thank you Mr Freeman and now miss cot will take us through some our expenses the total school budget for 2024 2025 is 138 m5640 this includes proposed capital projects and we will discuss those a little bit later this uh slide is a detailed representation of costs as they are submitted in the department of education budget software and if you had a chance to look at the adverti budget that is on our website or was published in the Star Ledger on April 25th it will appear very much like this for the appropriation sections and now I'll go through and expound on on what is contained in some of these categories for regular programs instructions the salaries of regular education teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade substitutes instructional staff travel purchase services such as linkit learning A through Z brain pop and all General instructional supplies are found here for special education instruction it includes salaries for teachers and paraprofessionals and substitutes uh in classes such as lldd emotional regulation impairment multiple disabilities resource room and preschool disabilities the number also includes special at home instruction and related supplies and services the basic skills number of $779,000 includes teacher salary and supplies bilingual line of $68,000 includes teachers salaries and supplies extra and co-curricular activities uh here you can find allotted U funds for ACT activities and Club stiens related memberships registrations and supplies school sponsored Athletics um includ includes coaches and trainers the cost of officials equipment uniforms reconditioning of equipment memberships and registrations summer school coming in just under $100,000 represents the anticipated cost at all summer all scheduled summer school programs run out of District tuition of $9.1 million includes public and private special education out of District tuition as offset by anticipated Ida funds as well as tuition to Bergen County Technical Schools Health Services includes the nurses salaries substitutes nurses needed for extended school year or esy the school physici and General Health supplies speech occupational therapy physical therapy and related services are roughly $2.7 million includes salaries for all of these positions as well as outside purchase services such as translation services ABA Services consultations and related supplies other Support Services special education includes salaries for special education pair professionals substitutes nursing Services generally those are the onetoone nurses and other purchase Services guidance Services of approximately $3 million include salaries for guidance staff the related secretarial staff travel related supplies including testing materials speakers memberships and registrations the child study team includes salaries for CST secretaries the ldcs psychologists social workers case managers travel IEP software psychatric and other student evaluations and supplies including testing materials Improvement of instructional development of 1.8 million includes salaries for Department supervisors and their secretaries related supplies memberships and travel educational media and Library Services of just over 1.9 million includes salaries for librarians and median media Specialists instructional technology and clerical assistance as well as the tech coordinator also included on this line costs for the circulation software online subscriptions books magazines newspapers as well as general supplies instructional staff training of almost $500,000 includes purchased professional development teacher orientation training workshops and presenters out of outof District staff travel and registrations to attend PD General Administration includes the salaries of the superintendent the assistant superintendent their secretaries the treasur of school monies the public relations officer fees for the board attorney and special education Council Auditors Architects telephone and internet costs postage legal bids newspaper and other advertising superintendent and board memberships registrations and travel and general office supplies School administration of nearly 3.8 million includes the salaries for all principles assistant principles directors and their secretaries and substitutes postage professional memberships travel and office supplies business and other services include salaries of the ba and the business office staff as well as the Human Resources Director and HR staff it includes accounting and Personnel software payroll processing software professional memberships registrations and travel and office supplies including things like check stock 1099 forms envelopes and postage administrative technology includes some of the technology staff salaries technology office supplies internet service costs districtwide it security and software such as Gaggle and IT staff travel in and out of District required maintenance for facilities of $2,465 th000 includes the salaries for the b& manager in-house maintenance staff and any related overtime aom marks maintenance staff building maintenance services such as plumbers electricians roofers HVAC technicians Generator Service Pest Control Fire and Security Alarms elevator maintenance state inspections and registrations custodial services and the upkeep of grounds at 9 $9.3 million includes all of the aark custodial and ground staff and any overtime the work order software waste disposal Water and Sewer Property and Casualty Insurance natural gas electricity and custodial and ground supplies security includes the salary for the dedicated security specialist any outsourced security purchase Professional Security Services for sporting and other events and security security supplies uh you will also find the cost of the uh the SLO 3s here transportation services um include the salaries for internal Transportation staff payments in Aid inl payments regular education transportation special education Transportation Athletics and co-curricular transportation parts and servicing for the three small District buses and other General supplies employee benefits of nearly $17.4 million include the board share of dcrp which is the state defined contribution retirement plan Social Security and Medicare payments her which is the pension system for uncertificated staff Unemployment Insurance Group life and long-term disability payments medical prescription and dental premiums net of contribution tuition reimbursement cash incentives for benefit waivers and sixday payouts for retirees fees for FSA and Cobra Administration Capital reserves interests and the assessment for SDA funds of nearly $6.9 million include the three proposed capital projects having a local share of approximately $6.8 million the SDA annual assessment of about $43,000 which is a state mandated assessment for districts who have participated in the school Development Authority projects in the past and a small increase to reserves due to interest Community School the annual projected expense to run all Community School programing this year is 1, 383,000 state and federal federal funds include um anticipated Federal AIDS such as Title One title two title three and title four Ida basic and non-public Aid debt repayment the district issued Bonds in 2011 which expire in 2028 and in 2016 which expire in 2035 and those bonds are repaid with payments of interest in principle made each year here next slide this is a visual representation and it shows that all of the salaries and employee benefits taken together comprise just over 73% of the entire current expenditures next slide so in every balanced budget revenues must match expenditures and they do here as well next slide for uh for Revenue the source of any revenues for revenues in any school district are very limited um the local tax levy is the primary source of funding in Ridgewood representing just about 78% of the entire operating budget next Slide the other 22% uh come from about a dozen other sources and I'll go through those briefly um state aid and grants of approximately $7.3 million is represented by the red slice of pie and that makes up the largest source of non-t taxpayer Revenue this includes an additional $55,200 million is seen at by the orange slice and will be used to pay for the district share of Three Rod Grant El eligible capital projects the yellow slice represents miscellaneous income together with rents and interest which are anticipated to be $3,288 th000 this includes facilities use rentals Student Activities feed fees anticipated Insurance dividends and interest earned at the bank it also includes the anticipated revenues from Community School we are budgeting anticipated $3 million in extraordinary Aid which is shown by the green slice of pie extraordinary Aid assists districts with special education students that have high educational costs unfortunately at the time that the budget is struck we do not know how much we will receive the pink slice shows the next highest source of Revenue which is the use of our own F fund balance in the amount of 2,616 672 the dark blue slice represents tuition from other districts and individuals and is the next largest source of Revenue projected at $2.5 million the next source of Revenue uh is the anticipated Federal and local funds in the amount of $2,454 th000 this includes such things as title and Ida funds which fund Federal initiatives for improving basic programs supporting the development of teachers and principles supporting English language Learners and providing funding towards special education Support Services similar to last year we are supporting this budget by withdrawing $1.5 million from maintenance reserve for current maintenance expenses and are withdrawing $500,000 of emergency Reserve to offset the increase in health care cost these amounts are shown by the purple slice of pie the district also receives Debt Service Aid of approximately $135,000 and has a Debt Service balance it must utilize this year and in the amount of approximately $459,000 next Slide the district is anticipating three capital projects in 20242 all three have been awarded Rod grants for which the state will cover up to 40% of the total expenses the district is withdrawing from Capital reserves its anticipated share of approximately 6.84 million any Capital reserves that are allocated for these capital projects but not used will be returned to the capital reserve account use of capital reserves has no impact on the tax levy the capital reserve account is where money is set aside specifically to support the district's long range facilities plan the the proposed projects for next year include upgrading HVAC mechanical systems at Glenn Ridge and the high school next slide so financially speaking the 2% tax levy increase over the 20123 2024 budget comes to 2,644 440 the district was entitled to a health care cost adjustment of 53,5 $3 which it has opted not to utilize the district also has access to an existing $625 339 of banked cap which is unused taxing Authority from the past three years the district has opted not to utilize any banked cap in this budget Bank cap banked cap remains available for use for three years and then it is lost forever the use of Bank cap would increase the tax levy therefore as we stand the net change the tax levy equates to a 2% tax increase for the average home having an assessed value of $710,000 this will equate to an additional $25.96 per year or $18 per month which is less than 60 cents per day to look at it in a different way for each 100,000 of assessed value the tax impact is $254 per month thank you do the board members have any questions or comments oh um thanks for the presentation it it was very thorough thank you um and um it's gratifying that the that it has really not change from tenative to final I think that's always a concern when there's tremendous movement so it's um as as presented it was proved uh my question was in the last meeting there was some um uh questions discussions on the sleo so if you could just provide whether it's two SOS or three on the on that on that component that' be great there was quite a bit of discussion on that and the and what then we can anticipate for the upcoming school year we have two class 3 officers uh budgeted for the current year for budgeted for the 24 25 year I believe the confusion was around um some early conversations that we had with the uh police department and uh and the village around U us hoping to reach three so that way we could have one for each of the secondary schools which is where we would uh anticipate the most need um in terms of the class three officer being able to build relationships with students and help to bridge the divide that sometimes occurs between between schools and the police department um budgetarily that did not work out for us so we are at two but that was the reason why the village budgeted three with those early conversations I believe so we will have um two uh class three officers and no there'll be not an SRO be toting correct so there traditional SRO which is an active duty officer so it's a traditional school resource officer model is an active duty officer because their active duty uh their their compensation is much higher so we will not be working with the SRO next year we'll be having two class three officers we've been contributing $100,000 towards the full-time SRO we will be contributing $120,000 for the salaries of the roughly 120 for the salaries of the two proposed class three officers did anyone else have any questions or or comments I just wanted to uh comment and I know we're gonna We may hear from the public but um first of all thank you for your work um uh you know I'm impressed with the um amount of meetings that you had and your real diligence and looking at it every line um I know that you spent with Mary and myself over 3 hours going over this budget line by line and answering all of our questions so I appreciate that uh certainly um Dr Schwarz I I appreciate your work on on the budget and um you know I think this is a very solid budget I'm pleased that they you've been able to maintain all of our programs and our staffing and um have some creative opportunities in there to um just look at how we might better serve children with um uh exceptional needs and also um looking at providing that security link with the the class three officers I know I had some reservations about that but um I think in talking um through this with Dr Schwarz um my reservations have been eliminated on that one so um thank you for that uh so um really um good job and I look forward to you know every year we we sit in anticipation of this new budget and then begin the worry about next year and of course the worry is the um amount of our um what we used to call free balance our Surplus going into the bud budget um and we had worked for years to try to um decrease that amount uh but we don't know what um our outcome will be this year and um so I I'd like to say that we'll go forward for another year and we'll keep um close Taps on all those expenses so thank you for that yeah Mary I'm sorry did you have any question no nodding an agreement to say thank you so much uh for your time and and just how comprehensive everything was so at this point then um this will be our second uh public comment and this is really just about the budget the 2425 budget as um uh just uh just run through so um please keep your comments to that and if you have any questions we won't get into a dialogue but um I know that Dr Schwarz is really good about about keeping all those questions and so at the end of public comment um if we can uh we'll answer the questions if if you've asked us something that we're stumped on uh we will certainly get back to you right okay so I will open up for a public comment I do see a hand but it's very very small there so can you see that that first one oh hi it's Betsy cross thank you very much I'm sorry that the print is so small I could see it oh that's okay could just give your address and um yes I'm the person that lives in Wall Township right let me turn this one off on my other phone um so great presentation very informative compliments to um everybody involved I was just interested in a couple of breakdowns for employee benefits so could you let me know how much the breakdown is for just health benefits just dental benefits and just prescription costs because I'm trying to compare it to wall because they've budgeted more and if you I know you do break out other employee benefits in your budget if you could tell me what makes up other employee benefits you don't have a lot in there wall has a lot more in there and that's what I'm trying to figure out what what yours is versus theirs and if you know off hand or if you can get back to me um how many employees do you have on your health plan wall has 540 um I'm just comparing your school and a few other districts to wall um and yeah if there was any type of breakdown I think I did send it in um you know how many singles how many or two adults how many parent child how many your family you know that you can get back to me on but I'm just wondering a ballpark number of Ridgewood has X wall has 540 and then I was trying to see how many students do you have in the elementary schools in the middle schools and the high schools because that I wanted to compare against wall as well um Ridgewood spending almost $7,000 less per pupil than wall and I'm just really trying to get as much information as I can um to compare but great job on the presentation and anything that you can provide I would greatly appreciate you um M Mr Molton good evening uh Peter Molton 294 Westend Avenue um thank you so much to Dr Schwarz um Mr fredman and Miss cop for the the presentation and uh um details was also on superintendent coffee which was great to chat further about some of uh some of the budget as well um is something that we've uh discussed over the years is uh uh inflation and that uh we've been very very positive and you guys have done a great job finding ways um to balance the budget there again there have been uh items in our favor that have come out that were unexpected to help us with our budget uh this being uh a negotiation year and where inflation is and if you look at you know nationally how inflation is increasing in terms of uh employment costs Health costs uh those being the majority of our budget you we talked last year I think it if it was electricity and other resources that inflation is um not 2% not 3% if you include the state whatever the number had been uh a lot of the costs were and the board has discussed this and it's been apparent a lot of the costs were substantially higher uh than that 2 or 3% and my primary comment for this evening is not is not as much about um the hard work and uh detail in regards to keeping us at the 2% number for taxpayers this year it's really a matter of next year and what the board's um uh views and um really and thoughts will be in regards to um our taxes and our programming and that it's um very unlikely as it's been presented to us by uh the superintendent and his staff that we're going to be able to keep uh items uh uh and also contend with the inflation costs now we're going to have to again deal with a negotiation year so um so it's just it's really just something for the board to think about going the next year I feel like this this a number of years I feel like now is the time we start thinking about next next year in terms of our budget and so U wanted to make sure that that was considered uh the other was just a again under the we're trying to keep it at 2% this year is we're eating into emergency and not using Bank cap and that um again this year is what it is um but I'm just concerned that we're um we're kind of Saving Face and and we've done that for a period of time in regards to um uh Taxation and that we're going to see a substantial increase possibly in the coming years more than we would like because we want to make sure that we're staying under a certain number in terms of our tax increase and also not utilizing Bank cap so again just just um mentioning that as well thank you thank you Christina is that um I can't see that is it um Christina Millian oh thank you yes um Christina Millian 530 West Saddle River Road I just wanted to thank uh thank the board for this super transparent uh budget I feel like better understanding of everything uh going on and just really appreciate the efforts of everyone that helped to put that together um I did just have uh three quick questions um one I didn't know if um there was further discussion about the water filtration systems at the schools just to help try to um take posos out of the water due to the you know ongoing issues in our town and and if that's included in the budget and if so where um my second question was I noticed that there was custodial services and grounds upkeep for about 9.3 million and I was just wondering if Turf is bucketed in there and if that if so um is that just upkeep for our current Fields or is this a further investment in Turf that would be helpful to know and then um just the third question is um in the budget flyer there was a stat that said um you know 13 to1 student to teer ratio and um I have have children at Haw currently and um uh some of their classes are averaging there's about three kindergarten classes I would say the average size is about about 22 kids to one teacher and they have one teacher assistant kind of splitting time between these three classes and so I mean just from my own personal experience it feels like Haw might be at the top limit of students and so just wanted to better understand um where the 13 to1 stat came from and of course I'm flagging this as a parent but in total fairness it also um you know it doesn't set the teachers up for Success if their classroom sizes are massive either so um those are my three questions and and thank you all uh for your efforts here I appreciate it thank you very much Mr loving good evening just to clarify the um answer that was given uh to miss quack with respect to the class three officers is it my understanding that the class three officers would cost $60,000 each and if that is so I'm just wondering if the village would be willing to fund one of them completely that is pay 60,000 in addition to what they were willing to pay to support the class three officers so I'm wondering if the opportunity exists for us to go to the village and ask the village to uh fund one completely so that we could wind up with three officers thank you very much thank you there doesn't seem to be any more hand raised so we will um would you like to um you have any thoughts yeah thank you I'd be happy to acknowledge some of our guests tonight um for starters Miss cross thank you for attending our board meetings in your interest and your kind words um just a couple of of of suggestions first of all um a lot of our data can be found on the um like our information about our schools can be found in the performance reports so you don't have to wait for our board meeting to get some of that information you can certainly find that on your own um but with respect to some of the more specific numbers around employee benefits allocations and employeers are enrolled I would recommend that you reach out to miss cot or business administrator um she may ask you to just complete uh some sort of an information request or records request just to stay in keeping with what we typically expect from folks when they're asking for information but if it's a if it's simp enough that we can just give you that information we'll just we'd be happy to do that for you so thanks for being here uh Mr molt appreciate you joining us appreciate you joining the coffee as well uh you're you are you are one of our most dedicated so thank you for being here um I appreciate your commentary and your acknowledgement of I think you painted a pretty accurate picture of the the challenges that we're balancing and facing I wasn't sure uh when I was listening to your comments if you were uh making a point about any kind of directionality about the course that we should take or if you were just trying to highlight the uh the difficult situation that we're going to be in but if you did want to clarify that for me please feel free to shoot me an email um Mrs million you answer you asked a couple of questions there so I'm just going to I'm going to speak to a couple of them first of all um with respect to facilities and our budget lines for facilities we're not currently budgeting anything uh for any kind of new field or New Field space at this time uh we are budgeting to maintain the current fields that we have we're also exploring a feasibility study uh to look at all of our properties to get a census to what our ability to use those properties are um but right now we've not taken any kind of position about expanding turf or or or frankly removing the current Turf That official Turf that we have although I know that that's a topic that's of concern to many in the community and our board included um with respect to the budget flyer I was just trying to see if I could confirm that in the performance reports myself I know Miss corus was was helping out with that so we're gonna have to get back to you I think and let you know exactly where that number comes from please keep in mind that that does also include um all many of our education professionals um that that go into that specific number that we submit we make submissions to the state uh where we submit all of our information about all of our employees and they're certificated that number comes out as a teacher student ratio but sometimes there are other uh professionals that are included in that such as child study team members um and other kind of education Specialists so I that's not a that's not that's not a firm answer we'd have to confirm that to get back to you but that's often why when you look across schools that number seems so much lower than what you might see in say a traditional uh Elementary classroom but we do hear your concerns and we do look at our Elementary class size as we evaluate them closely uh throughout the year uh make sure that we are um finding a good balance between being economically responsible with our class sizes and responsible to our students and our staff as well miss kot did you want to give an update I know you've been uh staying on top of our water filtration topic absolutely so um we are excited that after a couple of um failed attempts we have found um water filters that are compatible with uh the Water filling stations that already exist in each of our schools a purchase order went out today for 50 units so we will start as soon as they arrive we will put those into um into operation and see how they go we'll we'll test those out for several weeks and then hopefully uh Place another order before the end of this school year so we can use some of this school's years funds um to ensure that we have a stockpile of those thank you Miss cop that's great news thank you for that and thank you Miss Millian for your kind words and then Mr loving thanks for joining us um and thanks for your comments uh just to be clear the the board share of the salary the the the arrangement that we have the tentative Arrangement which we have to memorialize yet is that the board would cover the salary for the s for those class three officers and that the the police department would cover all of the other related expenses such as training uh equipment vehicles um and uh and a variety of other uh elements that would need to be funded that are related to specifically their employment as officers they will be employees of the RPD but just to be clear for those who might be concerned the only way that these agreements work is that we have uh really a shared responsibility for uh ensuring the quality of the program I've been supervising these types of officers for quite some time within my schools um and never had issue with um making sure that we have excellent quality officers in our school and and the uh always found my police Chiefs uh including um Chief Lions to be uh strong Partners in that respect that said never hurts to ask I'd be happy to raise that question with them I know though that the change in the SRO to the class 3es does represent I believe a little bit of a burden to them unless they have some sort of a change in staff because uh they still have that class 3 off that that SRO uh on their staff they're just not being Subs ized by us anymore so that might also represent additional cost to them so but we will have additional conversations I appreciate your sentiments and and I'll raise that with them next time I see them okay that um that ends then the um uh public hearing on the budget and under Finance we will be voting on The 2425 uh budget so um did you have a a report Dr schores I did just have a brief report a couple things that I wanted to share first of all as usual I always give a plug for the superintendent coffee at this time so thank you to everyone who joined us on the 25th I did just give a budget overview I I more or less gave the the preliminary budget version of this presentation um and then uh and then of course we gave the final tonight I appreciate everybody who joined us and we had some nice conversations uh with a few folks who who are with us um and I just want to share that our May 16th Cofe will actually be the state of the schools address I had hedged uh when talking about that date and prior meetings because this is our first run through and I wanted to make sure that we could deliver on what we were saying that we would so I think I said tentatively we're planning for May 16th but at this point it appears certain that we'll be able to move forward at May May 16th uh we we're well on our way with with our analyses and uh we also have our surveys that have gone out so our students have been surveyed I think we were pretty high on that percentage rate Miss corus I think we are well over 70% for the district is that right over 70% of students participated so that's a pretty solid uh that's a pretty solid participation rate um we have our staff have their own version of the survey uh that they've been that we're collecting right now I don't have a status update but that was only released last week and then uh we have parent surveys that will be going out shortly in full disclosure I don't know that we're going to be able to do the most robust analysis of the parent surveys and the staff surveys in time for the state of the schools address we may um but traditionally I focused on the student uh perspective because I know that that's generally of greatest concern to folks but if we can get some additional analysis with the parents and with the uh with the with the teacher with the uh The Faculty members uh that would be will include that as well but if you're not familiar with the concept of the state of the schools address we're going to talk about um various performance metrics that we'll track ourselves such as our njsla scores SAT scores some AP analysis but we'll also dig into the rankings and rating systems that I know are very much on folks Minds uh there's a little bit of chatter this week I know I believe a US News and World Report announced their 2024 rankings and in response I've just been doing a little bit of extra digging and something that I was just reminded of as I was going through them is that they're they they have a pretty robust um technical manual that explains all their ranking systems I think it's really thought-provoking I think they they do they put some good time into making those rankings but in their robustness uh they require an additional year to actually process so right now the 2024 rankings actually are constituted by 2022 data so there's actually a two to threee lag so we're going to be looking at 2022 data in our rankings throughout the 24 25 school year so it's just important to remember what year we're looking at when we talk about those rankings so we'll unpack that along with many other ranking systems including Niche and school Digger um and uh and and we'll show you where we we'll do we also show you where we stand and why we think we are where we are and uh and lastly we'll show we'll do an analysis of the student experience through student responses to surveys so if any or all of that interests you please join us on May 16th we will be here in person if you want to get a seat and and and be in the same space uh but again of course we will live stream just like we're doing for this board meeting although it will it will be a public meeting it won't just be I'm sorry it will be a it will be a um a general meeting it won't be a public board meeting so uh so board members you're welcome to attend but of course we ask you don't discuss things uh while we're in while we're here together but uh it's a great opportunity for commity members there'll be there'll be and there'll be opportunity for qu Q&A and just back and forth conversation with our participants both virtual and in person and then lastly uh I want to share just a cool initiative uh that has been that that the district has been able to be a part of um we have and I thought I had it in my notes here but I must have put it somewhere else I want to get the name right um it is the it is the Ridgewood partnership for Community well-being uh and it has been started by a few folks in the community particular ly spearheaded by Dr Karen ladimer uh who is uh who's a resident and a medical doctor uh and the idea has been to try to bring together various groups in the community who have a collective interest in ensuring that we are doing everything we can to promote the well-being among everyone here and uh we've had some initial sessions Miss mcau was there at those sessions U Mr fredman has been there as well I was able to attend the first one uh I know the the why is involved I know at least uh one of our local um uh houses of worship is involved and they're looking to expand that as well but I wanted to share that also with the board just so that you all know that uh that I'm certainly allocating some of our resources to contributing to this because I think it's a shared interest that we all have and I think that taking an evidence-based approach is really important as well and I I really feel that that that's there and uh and there's a proposal to start something called The Lighthouse initiative which would be an informational like an ongoing informational campaign to share evidence-based practices and evidence-based um information around how to pursue wellness and how to be well so uh so it's it's it this initiative um overlaps with a lot of other initiatives but I don't think there's quite anything like it that involves um such just a such just a voluntary coming together of of such groups so I'm I'm involving the district uh at this point in time if if we reach a level of official where we're uh where we're actually um uh making contributions to notable contributions to this group especially any kind of financial contributions um then that would be something I would come back to you for for resolution but in the meantime I thought I would share with you as board members that this is something that we're that we're we're contributing to miss m did you want to share anything as Wonder as a board member only my total support for it and I think you gave it a really great um summary so I'm very very excited for it so great do anyone have any questions about that um actually this is the second time I think we've been hearing about it so it's wonderful that there's been some movement I um it's it's not a it's not an organization it's more an initiative so it's not a one you know it's not a 501 Z3 or anything like that it doesn't qualify for it it's a campaign with time horizon or is it just a one-year effort multi-year effort what's the commitment here that would be expected what are the early phases so and and Mr freedan actually said in for my last meeting so if you want to round it out but but my level investment involvement is really just uh the intention of of information sharing and brainstorming sort of like a like a just a voluntary think tank at this point okay um but it may very well morph into something more um and that's where I'll keep you all posted regarding uh especially if there's anything that would be like some sort of an official um some sort of an official membership or or or commitment by the Board of Education Mr frean do you want to elaborate yeah I would like to elaborate a little bit I've also had additional conversations with Dr ladimer and some of the members of of this initiative and I think the intent is very much for it not to be a one-off but to be an ongoing um initiative that brings together the different parts of Ridgewood and using all the resources and expertise that all these different buckets provide um and additionally this isn't just for youth this is for the totality of The Human Experience in in Ridgewood and um so wherever these resources can help to find the best way to distribute them to advertise them um and to you know use what what is here but very much not not just to one-off so it's not necessarily school-based it's really you said for the whole Community if there's any um information that that um that it that would be helpful to you said like beyond the schools like adults seniors it's just for whoever's in the community that is looking for um mental health support or access or resources that's what the purpose of this is correct yeah like Dr Schwarz said it's still in its uh nency but um but it's very much Beyond just the schools although we're a huge part we have a lot of the r of population here um but yeah yeah and I see I see a real benefit a distinct benefit to the schools in the fact that you know the research is really clear that the that the uh the role of the family and the parents is is really integral to the success of the child and we we don't we have we a certain number of levers that we can use to engage families and engage parents but um but I also try to be mindful as a school district that we do stay focused on our educational Mission I think in today's environment sometimes there's such an enthusiasm for caring for the well-being and the the psychological well-being of Youth that sometimes uh sometimes um uh we create a false dichotomy between like academic performance and like well-being and I think that we we have to make sure that we stay focused on the fact that as far as our schools are concern concerned our top priority is ensuring that our students are learning well but they have to be well to learn well but the our kids experience and our kids well-being is closely related to their family experience as well we have them for a significant part of the day there's a lot that we can do for them but we can never take the place of parents so to the extent that we can help come together to forge a common Vision within our community about what well-being is and it's not and we specifically we had some conversations that I was I was privileged to be a part of about differentiating between like um mental health versus well-being and we're very particular about choosing the word well-being because there are already a lot of mental health initiatives and whereas mental health is a component of well-being this is really more about everyday well-being it's not just a conversation around you know I'm I I need I need help because I'm struggling that's important and that's part of what the lighthouse initiative is but but for me engaging as as the as the leader of the school as as a school district I see this as a tremendous opportunity to help raise awareness around what we actually know about what makes people well and and further what makes them Thrive I know you've heard me talk about Martin Seligman in his research and one of the reasons why I love his model is because it does not create tension between the desire to succeed and to be successful and to be and even academic Excellence which I know sometimes we have some interesting conversations around the tradition of Excellence but it's okay but you can pursue Excellence you can strive and work hard to do very well in the tasks that you pursue um without NE necessarily that being a detriment to your well-being quite the opposite if you're thriving then you're feeling well you're performing well um and you're resilient so we want to try to help kind of bring together uh information that that that keeps everybody well centered and share that out that that's what I that's what I hope that we can do as a school Community as a partner in that group um I had a question on you did I cut you off will you finish the okay so um in terms of the state of the schools uh to the extent that parent survey data and the teacher the staff survey data would be available you would share it if time doesn't permit would that information then be um for the parent and the staff survey would that be shared uh at a subsequent um of course yeah yeah yeah we course share that out with the community in some way shape or form because I think if we're collecting data we always want to be transparent about what it shows one of the real values to of all this data outside of the state of the schools though is that we we um we we take it and we disaggregate it by school and then within each school we disaggregate it by subgroup and by grade and then we give that data to the schools and then that then becomes a primary basis and starting point for that school to develop their own action plans around Improvement so and every school's going to have a slightly different story you know they're going to have certain areas where they're strong certain areas where they need to improve and then they can start developing their own custom local plan plans they can also uh work with their local faculty so they can feel ownership over their initiatives and their efforts there as well so and they'll they'll receive the faculty the principals receive the faculty the parents and the students and then of course that information can be turned keyed to work with the staff so that way we develop a common understanding that is again recognizing the unique differences the unique needs the unique attributes of each of our school sites it's done every two years right no it's every year every year so you would have longitud at all point right okay yeah and and you know educators are right many educators are rightfully skeptic skeptical of um using test scores all the time especially the state test scores because there's just so many different factors that are at play Within those scores there's still a very reliable and very important metric that we need to use but I find that when you that when you're counter that but one of the main arguments that people have against the the more concrete performance metrics is that well it doesn't tell the story of the whole child and so our point is to try to tell more of a story of the Child by looking at their actual experiential uh reporting so like they we're collecting data on their experience and then we're looking at data with their performance and then we can kind of try to see if we see any Trends so for example is there are there subgroups are there cohorts of kids are there intersections of kids where they're not performing well in school and they're not having a great experience in school because that's a great place for us to try to connect those dots so so but again those stories although there are common common themes those stories can be unique school to school okay so now we'll go to consent items regular and routine issues um attend a attendance at conferences you need me to move that or okay great I move a attendance at conferences are there any questions yes go ahead Miss quack here yes Miss MC yes Mr Mamud yes Miss bro yes B Administration you move that I'll second are there any questions wee then miss Quark yes Miss MC yes Mr Mamud yes Miss broken yes curriculum instructions I move curriculum instructions would someone like to second second are there any questions or okay Miss quar yes Miss MC Mr Mamu yes Miss Broan yes on human resources which is our next we have um an addendum so um I will move the um Human Resources with the addendum and the addendum is on your tables um I'll second these are the renewals for the Raa Rea and Reas staff as of April 29th Miss ber may just speaking to the record to be clear that the addendum item D2 replaces the original agenda item D2 so the list the attached list is slightly different we we we identified that there was a uh a faculty member who was missing so we wanted to make sure that that was rectified great um so I I I move human resources and we've got uh um our honores um to mention um the I think it's uh June 6 uh for our teacher recogn recognition am I wrong on that date um at thef to recognize our outstanding teachers I believe you are correct about that let me confirm that in a second it is very good sorry I'm just trying to find that oh D1 got it thank you all right so and I just want to thank uh for those of you who are not familiar with this award uh every year there is a process whereby teachers can be nominated for the governor uh educator of the Year award and so many districts such as Ridgewood uh basically make their nominations their own award and then the individual uh employees have the option to also pursue the governor educator of the Year award so they're nominated for the governor educator of the year but they are the recipients of our uh teacher recognition program whereby uh they receive a stipend uh by the home and School Association and by the board for use in their classroom so it's specifically for classroom use um but this is a real honor and we're really happy to uh to to give um uh to give some acknowledgement to some of our staff uh who have been recognized so first we have Education Service profession professional Kate Kilby we also have H at H elementary school we have Erica Lisa at Orchard Elementary school we have Shay tan at Ridge Elementary School we have jacqulyn Sullivan at Somerville Elementary School we have Ross deman at Travel we have Steve pollin at Willard Elementary School we have Kelsey Parish at Benjamin Franklin Middle School we have Benjamin ran George Washington Middle School we have odalis romano and at Ridgewood High School we have Douglas Doug a day congratulations to all of our recognized teachers it's always a wonderful night so make sure that it's on your calendars I think I'm not sure if invitations went out yet so um and I did want to also recognize um uh four retirees so that makes uh I think as I counted them up 14 retirees this year all with um pretty extensive service to the to the uh uh School District but uh James donlay English at rhs with 16 years service to the district Mary Lou handy grade six social studies at George Washington with 25 years Nancy Riley as we celebrated her tonight at 25 years Ridgewood High School and Susan silvati at uh a grade eight science at George Washington 25 years so when I was looking at the the retirees um the all but uh James um have been in the district somewhere between 21 and 35 years of service to the district so it's quite an accomplishment um and we thank them for their service if there are no questions on human resources we can go ahead and vote Miss Quark yes Miss McKelly Mr mmud yes Miss Broan yes and finally we have Finance um and there is an addendum on finance approval of the agreement with SD game day athletic training uh Services I guess it had just been uh left off the uh agenda uh it was actually a late edition um we had been hope we have uh we have need over the course of the Year from time to time for additional athletic Training Services and uh these this this group had been used in the past but we realized that there was a miscommunication and that it didn't they needed board approval so we're approving them at this point in time please note that this is a retroactive approval it's from uh 820 8123 to 63024 um but this is It's a good service it's used only on a substitute basis from from April 30 oh it's not okay then just go with the res follow the resolution yes I was I'm sorry I was read a shortterm leave of absence taking place so this needed to get on this agenda in order to fill it uh with your approval great thank you for the clarification um and just um recognition of uh the restricted donations um we have have uh a generous donation of $2,000 to be used to purchase new playground equipment for Glenn school we have um a donation of $3,200 in total for to go towards the scholarship um award to honor Jack B stroker Bridgewood high school girls lacrosse um $95 to be used to pay for the extra cost of hiring a charter bus for lacrosse games located in Morristown uh New York football Giants $1,500 to be used to enhance the wellness program at BF Richwood High Schools girls lacrosse again for 1,00 658 to be used to pay for the extra cost of hiring a charter bus for lacrosse games located in Cole Springs Harbor New York and Somerville pause dad's night for $3,556 which is a gift in kind of a Promethean board for Somerville elementary school so we thank everyone for their generosity um if there are no question questions on finance we'll go ahead and um need a motion oh I'm sorry I move Finance sorry someone like to second that I'll second Miss quack yes Miss mcau yes Mr mammood yes Miss Broan yes so now we have resolutions and motions not included in the consent AG agenda which is um the adoption of the 2425 final budget as approved by the interim executive County Superintendent of Schools our resolution um is really and the uh totals reflect what we've already U shown tonight I should we do this um maybe one by one would somebody like to move approval of the 2425 budget I move thank you all of them are just we're gonna just do this one one a would someone like second second Miss quar yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss Broan yes B um adoption of the 2425 maximum expend es for Professional Services I understand that the um finance committee just did review those yes these are maximums um so it doesn't mean that um it will be expended to that level uh this gives some flexibility uh there is uh an anticipated increase built-in to perhaps some of those lines and so um this is this yeah we reviewed it would you like to move it sorry special resolutions okay so we're moving B I'll second Miss quack yes Miss MC yes Mr Mamud yes Miss Brogan yes C and D are about our travel uh and related expenses it's really it's the same monies that's being talked about in both resolutions so just to be clear on that um and um I thought we could just take those together so I would move C and D second Miss quar yes Miss mcy yes Mr Mamud yes Miss Brogan yes and the t uh e approval of our tax payment schedule you I second Miss CLK yes Miss M yes Mr mammood yes Miss Brogan yes and finally F which is the um authorization purchases with approved State contract vendors uh and this is about our technology I move that second Miss quar yes Miss mcau yes Mr mmud yes Miss broen yes approval of bills Mohammad I should not okay um can we table it you have to um there probably things that need to get paid um I know in the past see if this is acceptable to the group that we have given approval on the bills with the understanding that you would go in and okay we need to do the reminders then absolutely so would that work um if we go ahead and approve on the [Music] um on the caveat that uh Muhammad will come in this week and review the bills and sign off yes okay so I move then um acceptance of the bills based upon the fact that you will review Sorry Miss quar yes Miss MC yes Mr mud yes Miss Brogan yes can I ask you something on this um so it was a um an approval with contingencies so if I just want to know if something were to happen where a bill um had you know required additional research or should not be paid then at the next meeting what's a process um it would become a voice check if you if you found something that shouldn't occur then would we would avoid the check and then it would be you have one here like from April 19th I think um okay that may have been a loss check or something but you would just avoid the check okay so then you know we'll just do the approval conention upon everything you know checking out and if something were needed investigation or should really be voided then the process will be you know just come at the next meeting yeah I mean certainly let us know when you're at reviewing them we'll take care of it from there and then it'll show up automatically once we void it in the system it becomes part of the um bills list print out and it'll come out as a void all right great thank you okay uh board member announcements just a couple I had um if I can get my my little note up doesn't want to open technology don't you love it anyways I think I remember what I wanted to say but I I did want to um congratulate our uh Bridgewood high school music department for two um really wonderful concerts uh over the last couple of weeks uh one was the orchestra and chorus and um last week it was the band and um The Joy the students had in performing was you could just feel it and the connection our staff H have to the students and the way they had thoughtfully chosen what pieces to present to their to the public it was really masterful I thought and of course it's in a wonderful space at Westside Presbyterian Church where the Acoustics are great and so they even are sounding better than they normally sound so uh congratulations to to them and then um on just a uh there is for the high school um again they're doing uh jazz in the woods uh which is at The Brick House on uh May 19th I know that you've enjoyed that too um hu uh so um yep so uh that will be fun and that is May 19th on a Sunday at six o'clock um so please RSVP if you plan to go and finally um there the health department again being a great partner and talking about Wellness um supporting teens in reducing their stress and ours as parents um a discussion with psychologist comedian and author Matt uh Bellis is on Tuesday May 7th from 6:30 to 7:30 at BF Middle School auditorium and that is for the for the parents he will also be talking with students and that um is funded through a grant the health department received so we thank them for their um you know their they really their support of great programming this year and working with um Dan kelde on that so and finally um congratulations I noticed that um in May hu uh New Jersey school boards has you listed for both a certified uh board member and a master board member on the roster and you'll get your plaque and whatever so um good work and congratulations yeah you're welcome yeah uh we'll go to uh committee reports and we'll just go down if Finance has any uh any um to report we we really uh spent some time and I'm very grateful for the administrators um Miss Cott and Dr Schwarz for spending the time with us to go over the budget in great detail and also um some of the you know subsequent questions we had it was addressed and that's that's what you see in the agenda the different maximum levels and how we presented it um we had other questions on as we um look at some of the interactions between facilities and how it might impact of the um on the financial side um that will be just an ongoing process to always kind of circle back it so thank you great thanks uh facilities um uh Mr Donnie and I um met on April 17th with Dr Schwarz and Julie cot and Damen Smith and our architect Architects um and um you know we are also looking at um the hbac projects what that entails at Glenn and ridge um and there are variety of sort of solutions that have been discussed uh but if we go with a a a uh boiler and forced hot air and univ ventilators we're looking at do windows need to be replaced at these two schools we these are projects that have been on the to-do list so this is not new information but it is you know how do we afford it um and um can we do it all at once so that's an ongoing discussion no uh specific recommendation has come out yet uh on that um we already talked about the posos uh filtration and uh excited to to hear that that purchase order went out today because we did discuss that um we had some discussion of our our field status at Brookside and Orchard Orchard is still closed but the remediation um and some seaing and ation has happened we have been able to do that Brookside I'm not sure the status of Brookside as of today but there was a water uh the Water company was working on some main replacement and some dirt was um Disturbed and and um tested so I'm not sure where that is yet on Brook side I don't know if I don't know status updated this that's fine yeah um and then um our the wood shop at the high school the dust collection system uh that looks like we were gonna we were were moving ahead with that the plans have been um revised or redrawn and I think it will go out for bid and the materials that we need or the uh mechanics that we need won't be available really until the fall and so this will be a um and the high school's already been spoken uh with about um needing to displace students maybe for a little bit as they do some of this work but it looks like that can be accomplished um without great um troubles so um I it was a long meeting but it um I think we continue to unearth um good discussions um curriculum I guess Mary you're there you're the curriculum so we had um a very robust curriculum meeting um a lot of which um Rich covered in discussing the budget we talked about the new social Institute contract which is going to be really helpful at the middle school it also has a parent uh education component so I think that's going to be very helpful for our community um you know we have a new AP course African-American history um American Sign Language three with American Sign Language Ridgewood High School offers six languages which which uh I understand is not too common you know so that's that's I thought that was something worth mentioning um we approved uh a great deal of uh textbooks that are going to be uh for the new engineering courses for the tell me your story uh thing that goes on at the high school uh with some really great reads there that I want to read and um generally and and more conversation uh regarding just structured literacy at the elementary level and incorporating con you know appropriate content a new social studies curriculum so that as we're working on specific ways to teach reading and writing to the kids we're also incorporating you know content that they're learning in school not random content which actually then helps boost literacy I think I did that somewh you're nodding right so I kind of did it justice um so uh it all in all it was a very good meeting it was really great so there's lots of good things going on um and um I I I'd say policy but do you want to just uh we'll just move that to discussion items because I know the two policies that you're recommending uh and that you worked on at the meeting are under that and so this would be um our first discussion and then it would go to uh first reading and then second reading on these Sheila just before you know I always give an update on cpeg oh sure which which um I just got a little bit of information about that so they had another sensory friend friendly dinner tonight they have a uh they've uh voted on their slate of officers for next year Jamie Davis will continue to be president um tomorrow night there's a virtual parent panel uh regarding transition to middle and high school so that's something that if people are interested in they should take a look at and then um just there was a great meeting in early April uh about tips to void summer slide and if you didn't see that and you want information or anything regarding the cpeg events Ridgewood cag.org thank you okay discussion items the revision uh to bylaws and policy and so you have a revision to regulation 9120 Public Information Program and then bylaw 0174 Legal Services um did you want to make any comment on them or um the the second one on legal servic is something we've spoken publicly at Great length uh and I'm and I'm happy that we've come to a hopefully and I hope the rest of the board agrees to a successful um resolution on that uh it was really helpful to have um the board Council presentent to help guide that particular component and this was also um I think it it captured the desire of uh the board to have access to sound legal advice but still uh providing um transparency for all of us so there's no duplication of effort that there's recordkeeping so no verbal request will be honored so all the components that we wanted to make sure that no one um office or officer is the gatekeeper to access for legal services so I think I hope that when you look at the changes that it captures that uh and I and and we're we're very comfortable with with achieving that balance and the key difference one of the key difference was um the component that was added which is that in consultation with the board counsel that these requests will be sifted through rather than just everything just going and being you know that will help manage the cost and also make sure that um some of the questions may not be appropriate and so who makes that determination would not be any one of us but it would really be on the person best qualified to do so which would be the board counsel so it really I think um addresses uh the needs uh of of of the board great thank you for your work on that did you have any comment on the regulations because regulations usually are just a uh you know A administrative taxy I think the change to the regulation was just to specify that we wouldn't be advertising private businesses essentially um yeah seems fine okay just question on the uh the legal services one said that we did consult with our attorney on this and the indication that like other schools operate like this one curious um what he said was that uh different boards have different ways to basically um contain the cost but still provide um adequate access appropriate access uh so when he you know what you see in in the language is is vetted by him and a lot of it is to be frank quite standard uh the only thing I think that is like the departure for us is the fact that we have this path to um for each individual board member there is a path to get access but it won't be blind access that it will be um uh filtered you you you written to the superintendent and then in consultation a uh we'll see where you go from right right because some sometimes there can be questions answered by your staff and you would right yeah so that that was the that was the kind of the guardrail that was put in place understood so that will go on for um first reading um and and I if I could just provide a quick clarification on the other one is the distributions there's the um the regulation that's there uh there's a line that's in bold that was added as proposal and I think we do need to all think about this and talk about this but it's basically trying to identify a phenomenon that's happening that's well meaning but it's bit problematic whereby groups that do have free access to our facilities will sometimes part with the vendor and then they'll basically register the facilities under the fact that they're they have privileged status but then effectively they're not there it's just the vendor who's engaging in the practice not not stigmatizing anyone not you know we recognize that everything that everyone is doing here is all in the name of kids but it creates problems for us with regards to supervision it kind of It kind of uh it it uh it's it um it kind of usurps the way the structure of this Poli polic is designed to be and it does create Sometimes some appearances that aren't necessarily best uh in the fact that certain vendors are getting privileged access so uh so we we we came up with a solution that was to basically prohibit with a distribution like if we're going to handle a distribution for say a community group that's serving kids per the policy but they want to do it with a vendor they can use a vendor as part of their function but the distribution that we're sending out can't make explicit references to that vendor so it can't be like a workaround to be an advertisement for the vendor so but I think we need to think about that in terms of because I I think this is a I think this would be helpful but I do think we need to think about it from both sides like where where might this create a problem so I would encourage you all to just brainstorm that and just wonder if maybe if we're being in our enthusiasm to clarify this if we might create some other types of issues so helpful to that would be uh probably to give us some examples of where you you feel that um it is it has happened or um and then any issues that might have resolved from it it when I did read it I was it interesting that it was here but I saw that it was publicity but then there should be something underlining in your facilities usage too right and that that's so that's a whole another and I know I don't need to get into that tonight how much do you have yeah well and to be clear we've been doing we've had we've had now two deep dive sessions into facilities use and so I please expect that I'll be bringing you a report on what our outputs have been and we may very well have some recommendations for how to update our use facilities policy to make it align better with what our I think our intentions are and as the um board Council pointed out when we were talking about this uh about the PO uh about uh the regulation is um that you don't want to inadvertently in inad by um by providing um you don't want to create you don't want to provide an unfair uh vendor privilege or access that was the whole point and in inadvertently by the set of situations it situationally could be presenting itself as an advertisement or an endorsement or providing uh an unfair vendor privilege so that that was the point of that so if you feel that you want to provide us some information and not move that uh into the next agenda and hold that for more information and discussion I I think the discussion for the first reading is beneficial I'm just I'm just flagging that as like something to think about as we move it to First reading because you know if if something comes up between now and first reading we might want to pull it at that or or or revise it right I wonder I wonder I wonder if you include uh something that says basically unless exception provided by Administration this way there's a there's a system where nothing goes out by default but if there's something that legitimately should be going out that's affiliated with the schools or program or whatever that thetion or whatever authoriz say this support I think the issue the board councel had was when you provide that exception then the onus falls on the administrator who provides that exception so that is not what you want to and just to be clear I mean I I don't being given the opportunity to Grant exception is not blessing to me so so I think that I I think the best way that that we can engineer policy is to really think through the the like clear rules that make sense and maybe create a few if then scenarios built into the policy and but it called them out because what what ends up happening in a in a and let's be real we have a wonderful community and we great things happen here but it's because we have a very willful population so when somebody wants something to happen you know they will be quite persistent sometimes and and I would say a significant part of my time this year has been dealing with a backlog of people who want that special attention and want that exception or that exemption or people who've been getting an exemption that we can't justify further so and it's been it's been challenging I know that Miss cot's been dealing with it with me and uh and I know really everybody that everybody here has been dealing with it and trying to be fair to people and not not upset them while at the same time creating rules that that are that are that are fair to everybody so um and don't require a constant consideration and consideration and consideration so I appreciate the acknowledgement there do you think that you wanna I guess you don't but does it make sense to hold this until you finalize what you want to do with facilities so that they are you know enforced and understood hand in hand I think the facilities is a separate policy a separate set I think there's a little bit of overlap but I totally understand just this off and handle it I would describe it as I think it's parallel I would call it overlapping okay so I think I think I think what we do here will have implications has similar implications with with facilities but they don't necessarily step on each other's toes so I thank you for the suggestion but I think I think I'm comfortable moving this one forward yeah all right I think the the board counsel there was some question about whether when it had been updated he thought it you know it one document seemed to was like 10 years old or something and so this is a regulation that really um should be brought up to Cod anyway but you know great certainly there's always going to be exceptions but sometimes when you make a policy so specific tied to certain exceptions then you sometimes wor yeah so fa I thought this was the feeling I got at that meeting was that this was comprehensive enough and it had been updated appropriately to for most to to provide um the job they supposed to do which is provide the policy and the and the and the um the guidance that we need right yeah yeah I appreciate that thank you okay um so we'll we'll vote then to uh sec to First reading at the next uh board meeting we have no minutes to accept he something um M pan if you don't mind um I want to ask um Dr Schwarz to it it's a question uh not for now but in terms of the um in the facilities with Orchard and Brookside um if you could share the steps of what is required to open Orchard it was not clear what would what who makes the decision what are the steps that would qualify for that field to be opened that was not clear and what would you know reach that stage I guess yeah so so so right now there's there's a there are two primary uh factors um I'm sure there's others but there's two primary factors impacting Orchard the first as everyone knows is the remediation and that was a big question mark um and that was uh because it's hadn't been cleared us until recently what our ability is to actually do maintenance work on that field um we at the time that I arrived here there wasn't anybody on site who could speak with with authority on that topic fortunately our new Architects Engineers um were're able to contact we're able to to to drill down and figure out that we had a licensed site remediation professional who is there specifically to advise us on these processes and they clarified that actually uh any work that we do to the to the surface of that anything within the top 18 inches that that that that improves uh the The Greenery on top of it it actually helps with the remediation process so once that was done uh we knew that we could move on to problem number two and problem number two is that the field just has not been properly maintained this is part of an ongoing issue that I've been working with with Aramark aramar as many of you probably know really launched a complete overhaul of the uh of the administra of their administration of the of their services so we have a new management here um they've been much more responsive and much more receptive uh they immediately got some irration in place but uh but they're taking responsibility for for for and I'm actually going to defer to miss Kai here in a second but uh but they're taking responsibility for remediating these spaces but we have some pretty really dramatic uh patches there that are that are quite D quite quite dangerous for playing organized Sports on it's probably fine for kids just running around playing tag a little bit but if you're trying to feel the ball like like in a competitive place like with 100% energy there's a high risk for injury so I believe I I was copied on an email about sod going down to try to rectify that and that's all turn over to you Miss cot so the um desire to put side down is there um there is some difficulty in locating a vendor um who can do it um and that is where we are as of 14 hours ago they are seeking a vendor uh the first one was not able to provide a quote for whatever reason and now we have another company that we're looking into I do have uh an update on Brook side which isn't spectacular if I may though I mean once you put the side down doesn't mean that that the field would be open it has to take and yeah so are you I mean in reality it won't be open for this this year I don't know I don't have the knowledge to say that but I understand that it does take time for sad to right and grass to grow and right to take effect so first you got to get a quote and then you have to find out when they can actually to approve the right so for whatever reason the original vendor declined to quote um they're working on on they have a name and they're trying to get someone to okay but we don't know even if we approved it if it came today and we approved it today whether when they can correct do it do the work okay so we just there's a lot that remains to be seen yeah that's in early stages okay um with respect to Brookside unfortunately um psng was was working in the area and they ended up damaging the irrigation system and um they are going to it but um I don't know the timeline for that either so that was um the most recent update I received uh six hours ago well it does sound like um going back to Orchard that you know with the sod and everything getting the vendor the quote the approval the actual um uh implementation of it once that's all done who or what office what metric does it need to meet before it can be deemed open like who makes that call is it Keith Coke is it is it Dr Schwarz like who what is there like a checklist like okay sad is done let it take like six I don't know what it is and so so so I'm I'm just Googling how long sad takes so I mean I think it's like if it's your yard and you're like you know just G to water it and mow it it's like 14 days but if you're looking for Deep Roots it says it's it looks like it's a couple months so the point being that I do not have my doctor in sad uh or or or lawn care so I think uh yeah um so uh so I think what we're going to do is uh I think so I would be deferring to some professionals on this so I don't I don't I haven't gotten a recommendation on this just yet I think the most important thing I can I can I think it's a reasonable statement to say that sad is going to be ready sooner than grass seed so if we can get some s down on these bare patches that's the best the best case scenario in based on what the what the internet is telling me um or at least the top top headlines of the search uh even if it is in the like in the ballpark of 60 days which would be about two months there should be some rooting so I mean that seems to be the fastest way to go about it um there's probably some discretion but I would trust somebody with a background in tur in natural Turf maintenance to be able to advise that but I would say you know I would say it's it's it's not going to be ready as soon as they lay it down but I don't see a reason why it wouldn't be open in the fall and maybe not the summer but again I'm not an expert we'll get somebody who can tell who can advise us so it would really fall to um the athletic director maybe after it's done and with you in consultation with you to go over and say you know this is playable like who actually yeah who actually once it's all done and let's say after some parameter who is the ultimate Authority that say okay open for business or not open no I mean technically I would be the right that's I mean technically technically the authority is me and I would be inclined based on the fact that I did see the field and it was I'm comfortable saying that it would it's not safe okay um that uh that really that I would be able to make that call but but but I can't won't be able to see the roots and and it might look pretty good but but with some rain and with some tough play you know you could see some lifting you could see some tearing I I I I don't know again I've not worked with it so I would that's where I would say I would prefer to work with um work with somebody who had some expertise who could advise us on a timeline our Architects and Engineers are pretty knowledgeable in this Spa in many spaces and at least they can find the professionals uh who would tell them otherwise so maybe Miss cot if you could ping our our our the GM Vos and uh and get some guidance from them maybe they have a uh someone with CHF engineering background who can provide us with some guidance we also have agreement with manelo so right I'm sure they would have some understanding horiculture grass to to be clear Turf just describes what you play on so there's natural Turf and artificial turf so if I say Turf it doesn't mean I mean artificial turf any other no no thank great thank you um is there we we will have to go back into um executive session so um but before that we have is there other is there any other business and then I want to do comments from the public no other business then we'll go to comments for the public this is our last comment period for tonight and we have uh we we have no one in the audience so uh and we see Mr loving uh good evening boy a loving 34 two South Irving Street again I just like to follow up on the question I had asked about the class three security officers uh I appreciate that Dr Schwarz is willing to ask Chief Lions about funding the entire $60,000 it does not hurt to ask so let's try asking and see what happens um it does concern me however that the a comment that Dr Schwarz made about um not working the $60,000 not working in this Year's budget it's $1 138.5 million budget uh $60,000 is a pittance uh school security is extremely important as evidenced by the fact that the one Village one vote uh petitioners that was one of the topics that they pounded on people that not having voters in the voting booths in the schools except one time during a year would increase school security uh there is a petitioner of that group that is a member of the council so I believe that that person at least on the council would support providing additional funding to increase the security in the schools and I urge that that person be contacted uh and maybe some help uh being gotten from her again a $ 138.5 million school budget we're asking for an additional $60,000 to fund an additional class three officer I think that's a smart move and every effort should be made to get a third officer in the school system so that we can have one in each middle school and one in the High School uh a district not too far from us veralon has armed police officers in every single one of their schools seven armed police officers we've got to get to that point eventually let's start to do it this year when the village is willing to provide the funding for three class three officers uh the ancillary equipment for them the training and the intill equipment so please do whatever you can to try to get that third officer in thank you very much thank you doesn't seem to be any other hands raised so I'll close public comment and oops sorry I hereby move that the board go into executive session pursuant to njsa 10 colon 4-12 to discuss matters pertaining to Personnel the minutes of this closed session will be released when the need for confidentiality no longer exists might I have a second second all in favor all good night everyone and we'll be back on in a public meeting our next public meeting will be May 20th but our state the school report will be on May 16th so both dates are important thank you