return Yes we okay can I have a motion to resume public session so moved all in favor I any n or absens thank you all right uh please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag uned States okay right the board president's report so that's me good evening members of the board administrators teachers parents and community members thank you for taking the time this evening to join us for the April 2024 meeting first and foremost I hope that this evening finds you all well with spring in full bloom there's an undeniable sense of renewal and excitement in the air I trust that everyone had a rejuvenating enjoyable spring break filled with moments of relaxation adventure and cherish time spent with loved ones during the Spring holidays I am pleased to announce that the uh advertis ment for the superintend for the superintendent search has been posted the board has decided to partner with the nsba to to Aid us with the process we as a board have unanimously agreed that input from administrators teachers parents and community members is Paramount as we embark on this journey to make the most important decision as a district for the next five years um the month of May also kicks off the beginning of teacher appreciation week which is the week of May 6th I want to take a moment to express my appreciation and the appreciation of the board for the teachers of Robinsville thank you for everything you do every day you are the glue that holds it all together with spring uh while spring is traditionally a uh a time of joy and anticipation is also important to acknowledge the unfortunate events that may arise I must adjust the recent incident at the private school in our town my heart goes out to the families that have been affected the safety and well-being of our children are Paramount in any incident that compromises this is deeply troubling I assure you that the board of education is committed to the safety in our schools and I encourage any parents that may have questions to reach out to the district as we enter the final weeks of the school uh let us harness the spirit of spring to propel us forward with renewed determination to our shared mission of providing quality education to every child in our community thank you all for your unwavering commitment to the students of our district and I now turn it over to the rhs executive Council report great thank you and uh we have their video ready hello hello it is Daffy and LeBron and we'll be giving an update on the activities of our district for this April first up we have a high school the girls and boys across team both had their senior nights last week the boys won 1110 in overtime versus a talented Princeton team they're currently 6 and3 and the girls won 1310 over ster currently 9-2 winning their CVC division the girls and boys track team competed at the pen relays where the boys 4x4 team placed first in their heat ranking them eighth in the state as for softball they're currently ranked top 10 in the state with an 111 record the Multicultural club and Equity Club held their Multicultural fests there was food and activities while students represented various countries and their cultures arac organized our spring pep rally we had super fun Clash of classes games including musical trailers and a basketball tournament in addition the current flock Masters elected and introduced next year's flock Masters the spring musical was a huge success Chicago led by ktie Katz was an awesome and entertaining performance a huge congratulations to the Musical cast and crew for all of their hard work into making this year's show so great that's it for the high school up next is the brownford pond and Sharon thank you for your time now here are your Sharon updates on April 16th the second grade students were active listeners and participants during an assembly entitled kind Minds this interactive presentation teaches children how to identify their emotions engage in kind acts and build empathy increasing their understanding of how their emotions impact their behaviors and thoughts thank you to second grade school counselor miss Ricky Arty for organizing this worthwhile event on Thursday April 25th the students of Sharon Elementary School enjoy take your child to workday it was a heartwarming day as they welcomed the children of many Sharon Elementary School students they also loved hearing the memorable experiences of the students who participated in this event and here are some pictures of the children of teachers at Sharon thank you have a good one all right thank you thank you ex that council is always a great report so tonight we have um a couple guests first we'll start off with the RF uh mini Grant we have uh individuals from the RF here hi good evening um I'm Carlos CA I'm one of the trustees with the Robinsville Education Foundation and I have a son also that goes to to Aon school um but to the members of the Board of Education and administration I'm definitely pleased to have this opportunity um as a member of Robin Education Foundation to be here tonight with some of my other colleagues uh you know we had a privilege visiting all the schools I did personally you know and met all the teachers and the review process for the Innovative grants uh was definitely a great you know eye openening and opportunity and what we're allowing to do for you guys um our educators are so creative and resourceful and it's clear CLE that our kids are what really matters the most to the community um I could tell then you know while we were reviewing the ideas within the grants how important it was and the learning accessibility and the fund that they had and we're also excited to fund the Drone project for p school as well uh you know but thank you again for allowing us to support the schools and en Rich to students education so thank you again good evening my name is Amanda novic I am the secretary of the Robinsville Education Foundation as well as a parent of a third grader at Sharon and we as Carlos mentioned we are very happy to be here some of the Innovative work that our dedicated teachers are doing are um augmentative devices at Sharon uh microscopes for the high schoolers some Gaga pits in the middle school so you're going to see lots of new efforts in all of our buildings we're very pleased to present the district with this check for $2,322 192 [Applause] hi Des Daniels I also sit on the board I just want to make sure that the public understands that this funding goes directly to fund the programs that are not being funded directly through the um standard funding we go through programs um the grants are given to each teacher individually they submit applications everything is approved by the board and we're happy to be supporting on such a large level this year and thank you again great yeah thank you so much thank you very much we really really appreciate what you do for the schools uh I know the teachers look forward to getting the extra funds to to do some extra things in their classrooms the Drone sounds really really cool that should be a lot of fun for the kids so thank you for for all your efforts St thank you again uh we have some representatives from uh the back B uh Temple baps Charities I believe they are here in the back row welcome hello good evening my name is Nia Patel and I'm currently a junior at Robinsville High School hi my name is mar and I'm a sophomore at Robinsville high school and I volunteer as the youth activities coordinator at baps Robinsville today we're here to discuss the mission of baps Charities and our upcoming wathon event baps Charities harnesses the effect efforts and Collective Spirit of volunteers around the world to serve individuals families and communities and this year we would like to host an annual baps charities wathon in which this event is geared towards Gathering funds for a particular organization within the nearby community and this year our choosers beneficiaries for the wathon include robino Township Schools RWJ Hamilton and PBA to achieve our goal and maximize the impact of this year's wathon we are requesting assistance and raising awareness through diverse channels one of the suggested methods would be utilizing the school communication channels such as emails sent to parents newsletters and social media as well as the website and that includes the PTA as the PTA plays a crucial role in school events and activities and with their assistance we can spread the word about this event to both families children teachers and The Wider Community as well as this we would like to promote this through a range of promotional materials such as placing lawn signs on school premises with QR codes in order for high school students their parents and teachers to easily register for this event and again spread this word to a wider audience and as part of our wathon initiative we not only want to include adults and parents but children as well and our students we would like to encourage students from robino Township to craft artwork celebrating significance of our local police officers and this artwork will be displayed during the wathon serving as a tribute to our dedicated Robinsville Township police officers and along with that any other forms of artwork to be displayed are more than welcome students also have the opportunity to earn credit hours by assisting with pre-event tasks such as registration and distributing walk shirts on the day of the walk to get every student every family member and every person in this community involved to support our community and in addition to the walk we will have diverse boots to unite the community with enjoyable and engaging activities such as Hannah photo booths and fun giveaways every Saturday we hold weekly ceremon at the baps shwam Mand the Hindu temple at in Robinson New Jersey and we request a board member to join one of these ceremonies to discuss the significance of attending the wadon and how contributions will support local schools to encourage participants last week we saw a police officer a couple of our police officers come in and they are one of our beneficiaries speak to the local sermones and that definitely did get people encouraged thank you for your time great thank you when is the the walk this year it's coming up isn't it June 2nd June 2nd okay um stop by my office you know where it is across from guidance um this is delr over there can schedule a time we can sit down and and plan everything out I'm going to speak for the board I'm sure sure everyone is more than willing to to help to approve helping you get the word out we have you can use our social media we have a lot of ways to to get things out and then make sure that you have the okay to put the signs on school property so whenever you can come by my office if I'm not there uh schedule meeting and we'll beet as soon as possible and we'll coordinate everything and move this forward so thank you for the time sounds like a great event thank you so much for your support yep yeah yeah happy to support so you know uh reach out and whatever support you guys need from myself as a board member other members whatever you guys need thank you thank you all right and lastly um as we move into the last two months or month and a half of the school year things uh happen uh in our schools and things are moving hot and heavy uh a lot of things going on um May 3rd this Friday oh thank you you guys already have Flyers made up I'm so impressed uh May 3rd is the amazing Sharon shines event out at Sharon the following week following week May 6th through the 10th teacher and staff Appreciation Week special thanks to our ptas who are actively involved in in getting things out for our staff and teachers May 8th there will be a preschool information seminar or webinar it'll be online um Dr wusi will talk about that in the second uh public conf comment but May 8th um the idea is to have all of your questions answered and uh get all that information out for our new preschool program uh we are closed for uh Memorial Day on May 27th June 10th through the 13th Robinsville High School final exams early dismissal for the high school June 12th through the 14th Pon and Sharon early dismissal days June 12th will be the road uh Pond Road Middle School moving up ceremony at the high school athletic Stadium all of our uh board members are encouraged to attend and you'll get a special invitation from Pond Road and then June 14th High School graduation at the stadium you also get invitations to uh come up on stage and to attend that event June 17th and 18th early dismissal days for all the schools June 18th is the last day of school and then on June 19th juneth the district will be closed obser observance of that holiday so and there are many things happening between all those dates and during those dates in our classrooms and across all three schools it's a busy time of year it'll go fast but thank you to our staff and our parents for putting everything together uh making the end of the year so successful uh and as you can tell the great students that we have are they never cease to amaze how amazing they they truly are so thank you thank you Mr bets uh liaison reports not seeing any uh the ba and board secretary report Mr McCree thank you as Mr Betts pulls that budget presentation up before I go there I'd like to say that uh we submitted a survey to all board members about availability in the summer um so I know some of you have vacations I know it's a little early but just in case you have those planned out but most importantly like the public to know as well we're going to be having about a half a dozen executive session only board meetings to interview the new superintendent for the long for the permanent superintendent search so uh it'll be a busy summer for us um but it'll be executive only and then we will also just received this afternoon uh from New Jersey school boards about um possible dates and times to conduct surveys with the administration with the staff and the community as well so we're going to get those dates together what makes sense uh for everybody and when we say the staff that means staff in each one of the three buildings when is when is an appropriate time for them um as we do that Community event I'll get with Mr uh um nandin about posting it out and having an event and and and bringing the public for that as well okay so more to come [Music] you want to lead or okay so uh thank you everybody this is the uh Public Presentation of the budget um thank you for for the public uh conducting the vote and passing the 2.75 million resolution um everything as we presented before is in here uh that was requested and what was voted on um 99% of the slide deck is the same as last month okay if the vote didn't go through this would be a much different discussion but typically uh most board meetings and and and public bodies you do your draft there's any changes you adjust it um but it also is a living document so every month we do transfers shifting money around remember we're doing this for almost 18 months out to end next June 2025 um any questions we'll go through it but I'll I'll I'll speed through this um great news question passed that what was what was on the ballot um and everything was kept and we talked about the Moody's ratings from from last year this is how a budget is developed same as before and here we are in in in in the process so tonight you're approving the final budget the most important piece is striking the a4f this is a special form that says this is how much to tax the public as in the local tax levy uh on your property taxes so that will be delivered tomorrow to the township the tax schedules when to make payments so they'll know how to make their budget as well um and to the county for tracking purposes um this was the guidance that we had received before no changes here um this will also be posted in the public and I will also post a userfriendly budget on our website as well uh within 48 Hours Assa this is our enrollment numbers as we said enrollment is declining um but what's not on here is launching the preschool expansion program so we expect 189 students to come in um we currently have some already with our preschool half day programs so we're looking at at least 150 more divided between Sharon Elementary and the Middle School uh with that being said the total universe is 300 we'll solve that down the road um for the following year after that but we're looking probably 300 students across the board now that means also teaming up with daycare facilities in town because we cannot have all those we don't have enough space for all those students so we'll be teaming up with them and that uh the positions are on the docket for hiring a director of Early Childhood to run the those programs as well as a secretary uh confidential secretary to do all those matters and registration as well and the staff that goes with it enrollment this is just more detailed uh it's too small to see but you can pull it up on a PowerPoint or the PDF uh when it's posted online that's our historical numbers here's our FTE to enrollment um you can see there was a jump over time uh for total enrollment uh going up and then leveling down um and then the Staffing positions going up and that was with the additional state aid uh from years ago being underfunded this is just ethnicity we just throw this up there to see what our population numbers are changing uh local tax deliv these are just some of the big ticket items that we talk about unavoidable right we can only raise about 800,000 um but there's a net difference between inflation and the cost of rising of of budgets and and and Staffing levels State a calculations we shown us before what's it going up um what happened two years ago or last year uh the numbers flipped um this was a no notice event for us we literally had two weeks to get the budget through um when they changed the the formula a little bit The Waiting factors and the value of the Town switched um this has been posted as well this shows us where we are uh why we were not cut because we're under below 90% adequacy uh the odds are highly um that we'll be above 90% and we'll be cut to following year there is great discussion amongst the politicians of changing the formula allowing you to go above 2% and and and but there are some detractions with it um I think there's a half a dozen discussions out there so we'll see how that goes uh but at if they if things are kept the same you're looking at u u almost a $5 million cut and like there's a bunch of legislation being thrown around in Trenton right now we'll pay attention to that bring that to the Public's attention once we know more but this all that going on yeah it it's all over the place but yes yeah preschool expansion Aid uh this is what we're very excited about this program 2.6 almost 27 million right now we've ordered a great many items already a lot of Technology uh playgrounds uh all funded by state aid okay not by the local taxpayer we do have to chip in a little bit because we're already paying that amount for the special uh needs in the special education department because those children now are together in three and four year old classes together so you're already funding part of that already Yourself by a few hundred, 400,000 and then the state chips in a lot more to fund the General Ed population to integrate uh next year it's going to 2.8 um these are the Staffing levels we're we're hiring right now uh we're trying to get as many teachers as we can right now because there's a as as the classes graduate um you want to get them before everybody else does and we'll put them on on payroll uh and some positions are here already but more to come in the future on that Capital Equipment uh standard stuff we we typically put in capital is anything above $2,000 for equipment I like copier some instruments are expensive some Promethean boards um special Light Equipment um some sometimes like Rift in chairs or something like that that would break um a new printer and some wrestling Mas that went bad that's it for us sometimes this is very very large and half a million sometimes it's a little bit uh low like this I consider this a low amount for a district of this size HVAC project we spoke about this it's going out to bid shortly hopefully will award at the June board meeting we basically pulled all of cap we pulled all of capital reserve um to fund uh this and there is uh a typo there um I'll correct that tonight um the state will give us back 40% after that project is done um and we can have numerous rounds of this we award in June but installation will be summer of 2025 so hopefully we don't have many maintenance costs uh between now and then reserves we spoke about this it's being depleted and going down if the public question had failed this is a you know what was in there I had to show this uh and what we backed out because we made a budget if it didn't go through and then we made a budget putting it all back again and this is what we put all back more details as we go through this has not changed revenues expenditures state aid history a little drop of about a million remember we had that one year 983 th000 infusion that went away um this breaks it down for expenditures and the piie chart where most of the money is being spent on and you can tell it's salaries and benefits we are in education and this is very typical you know of about 2third go to salary and benefits debt always a question when's it going to expire 20128 is the last large debt payment it technically doesn't fall off to 2033 but that's about 5 million coming off you can go out to bond in the future we've talked about this schools high school will be almost 25 years old changing carpets changing more hbac and at that point you know uh 5 million coming off means you can borrow 50 million 75 million with without affecting taxes if you go a little bit less it lowers it there's always that confusion when the debt comes off that we this district will have $5 million to spend on anything it wants and that's not the case that is absolutely not the case it actually if you don't rebond it is a tax cut and so if you look's point it doesn't drop to our operating budget it goes away it just goes away so you're in perpetuity what's going on right now is a lot of districts bonded for about 15 years or so they're all coming off right now so they're going back out again so you see a lot of traffic on the news about bonding and referendums being passed you're like why is everybody passing these because their debts falling off and if you don't take it it drops off so then if you do it a year later if you're just off by one year people are going to see their taxes go up it's going to go down and then go back up again like what what's going on if you came in the wrong site you know and not understand that or you just moved into town and you thought it was low and the next year it went up right um so you want to keep that those discussions will occur uh over the summer and the next couple years um we have to do another long range study or comprehensive faciliity study to see what the equipment is what's going to cost and go through the process file with the state that alone takes about two years so if it's coming off in 28 in 26 you have to make a decision what you're going to be doing um this is a little bit uh a chart uh made of you know the top line is the operating budget we call it the general fund from the property taxes the local tax levy and then debt so that's what Mr Betts was saying you take that to zero I can't put that up there and then you divide half and half and you come out up so I put the average home staying the same price average assessed home uh it went up a little bit by a few thousand um but basically a $80,000 home average assessment not what you can sell it for but we assessed will go up $383 next year okay and that includes the public question this is a chart in case you know where you fall on your taxes just pull up your tax report and it'll show what your assessment is this is a busy slide uh I think it's a very important slide but this tells us the property tax increase for over a decade and you see it was high these are the years where you can vote on it it dropped right we had infusion of money and state aid the average for those eight years is .4% while inflation was about four and a half why is it that much well it was about 2% for many years and then those two years these are the co years right it it went High adding the public question in there and averaging everything out it's still 1.2% over 10 years and inflation went down a little bit um you can do this a little bit you can do this couple years but if you do this for a long term you understand where that goes uh expired Bank cap and every waiver was almost $3 million cumulative tax avoidance was 16 million right now everybody can say oh I wish I had that 16 million what would you do with it what would you done with it back then what would you do with it today how do you forecast P the future it doesn't matter it's let's just move on um but this is the history and some people want to ask how what is the trend and what's the pattern and and this is it so I always tell people I've been in numerous districts a lot of baas say it as well a lot of financial people slow and steady 2% 2% 2% and you would have been it would have been a different story state of the budget reserves I'm almost done as we talk about reserves are almost depleted unlikely the amounts we need right 13 more million that we need for Capital you're going to have to do something else for that revenues we spoke about that with state aid you can't rely on it we don't know where it's going to go for next year this is the last year of the S2 funding formula okay um next year for 25 26 budget 2% is 900,000 okay expenditures for the tightest we talk about how tight we are we're efficient lowest cost per child in the county by far by far the next School District same amount of money would be many millions of dollars more right uh some of the districts we do compared to with our scores and stuff are literally spending 20 to 30 million more the same number of children um and I just have more details in there so how do how do we move on what's next how do we fix this um we have to acknowledge our expenses are outpacing our revenues uh we don't know what's going to happen with state aid Cuts but you have to fear for the worst but you know uh but try to take action for it reduce Staffing levels with natural attrition without affecting our programs right the public voted don't cut right don't increase class size don't don't cut this don't cut that you have to honor it but at the same time we have natural attrition because we're losing about 70 children in our schools and so with staff retiring and leaving there could be a couple of teachers here and there and save something um we'll have a budget meeting over the summer talk about some of these items right how do we how do we hold off until the debt falls off quote unquote how do we maintain our buildings how do we increase some revenues do we go back to the Strategic plan uh and talk about that I'm hoping maybe June July we speak about this depending on the timing uh and have a little more informative decision and discussion me messaging um and then my last bullet is we're you know Mr oldberg you were talking about stay informed and involved with political movements we don't know where this formula is going to go so let definitely Mark that for the uh Retreat The Retreat yeah yeah uh and a special thank you everyone thank you for supporting us thank you to the public uh as well uh it was a great I mean we're just talking about it if we had to do if that question did not pass it it would have been incredibly difficult uh for everyone our staff our children uh and the community as a whole um we had a new budget system to create this we have um a lot of data to put in here um and so thank you to the administration who put all all the budget managers who put these all together uh and and to our students uh for working so hard uh and and being a part of our lives and this is what we do it for um so thank you everybody any questions Nick so if I look at your slide number 29 and just so I have a I guess for clarity purposes so we're expecting our cost to go up by close to about 1 n and we're expecting our tax levy at roughly at nine so are you anticipating and obviously not having done significant amount of due diligence I'm just looking at high swag over here a short full of a million dollars all things stated equal I.E we're assuming same Staffing same um quote unquote enrollment uh assuming all things equal are you expecting a million dollar short next year no far more than that um so that math right now is salaries and benefits is our staff that's not contracted there's no inflation of systems uh it does not include uh the following years what other equipment is going to break and and what's going to happen um but um and curriculum as well but so you're looking at at least a million um but you know if the state cuts us 47 and that's a different scenario so I typically look at we said this last year about 2 million short um inflation is easing off a bit um but we're also a year away um we don't know what's going to happen but uh yeah I'm looking at at least two million short a two million short and what are you not including that maybe is that assuming Flat state aid Flat state aid two million short okay yeah I'd have to go dig you know I mean ask me again nine months from now then I'll have you more have more details um and we'll we'll we'll be more refined on that but it's so again not to put you to work right away I know we just got done with this uh if um if you can come up with some prelim for us to start looking at that ESS as possible that would be great yeah the retreat will we could tackle The Retreat yeah I think that's where we stay close to what's going on going on in legislation there's a lot of variables going on so we just need to stay informed make sure the and then as we're informed the public will be informed yeah along the way but it goes back to also you know just the um I would say the Prudence you know with within the budget looking at what how we're spending and what we're spending it on which Nick is what you and the administration do and we we were asked you try to do something quarterly so we'll do something quarterly at business committee and the business committee chair can present something or we do something a little more formal we'll play that along but I really think you know typically you you start out you don't say much you go through your budget September the teachers come in who really came back who's not coming back you get a little more refined you do a quarterly update and then this time of the year you're every month and then to the end of the year I am pulling reports like every week and then the last week of school I'm pulling reports every single day and squeezing things out and so uh it gets it's a little more logarithmic yeah as we go to Clos out the year and then you kind of start the process all over again so makes sense Nick can you help me understand with a new you know 150 kids coming in for preschool our numberers in the school but School were going down but now they're going up with the preschoolers does that help us with state aid funding so that helps the state aid funding for preschoolers only for preschool Aid and so those that program will be fully funded ironically fully protected right it's almost $116,000 a child we don't spend 16,000 a child um and it's that's why it's treated like a grant even though it's Aid um and has its own fund 20 accounts protected and we get inspected on that as well so as that comes in yes we are allowed to I think this is where your point you're going to we are allowed to put some Administration on there as a percentage like you're allowed to put a percentage of my salary and one administrator now a few years ago you can put a percentage of everybody and they're getting Tighter and more stringent and what you're allowed to put in there um and so we submitted you know for the 2.6 this year we threw in everyone's salary at I think 6.7% they came back like no no no no no it's one administrator per building and like okay fine and so we had to adjust those numbers um so it will give some relief to the operating budget but it's not going to give millions of dollars of relief okay U but what it also helps out is you know we spoke about making a playground for years now we don't have enough well now you're getting a brand new playground in both buildings about $400,000 each and the other preschool or we call it a 35 playground when that starts to get worn out and break you're allowed to use this money to to fix that as opposed to using the operating budget money right so they there are two operating budgets and the ancillary benefits of having that secondary operating budget also helps the kids in the other operating in the main operating budget a little bit a little bit Yeah but in in this in this with this example but they never would have had this second playground EX exactly right so Nick um so Amanda mentioned about the preschool numbers and I understand that there's separate um budgets for that but is there projections for increase enrollment with the new developments that are going up in town because I know there's a couple uh new developments so I didn't know if there was any no they don't have those projections so the these numbers are based off of I don't even know where they get it from I think they pull it up the census um you know you know but I think they pull it from the Census um and they they're pretty close um with this new projects coming in whatever gets approved comes in We'll add that to it um interestingly you don't have to wait until the Assa strike date of October 15th to say I have these children and then you get the funding next year when you submit the plan you just say I think there's this many more kids coming in and then you get the money which is not normal right so we know there project opening up we expect this amount you get that numbers from the town because they have to present a community impact statement on these large projects you add to it and then you get the funding for it now if it doesn't come to fruition is a different story but at least we have a backup so when you do get investigated or should I say audited by the state I didn't just make a number up I have it I have proof of and a process for it um so as it grows you do that now at the same time we don't have the space for it but they will go to whatever uh Child Care Facility you they get they approv no I was talking about of K through 12 um age students coming from new developments being in town how that could affect our numbers so that um it's a little bit more complicated it will affect our numbers you are allowed to wave and go above what they think the state looks back fiveyear average so they guess the amount for next year and lower your state aid because our numbers are going down if we know there's a project coming you're allowed to do a waiver to add more to it now mind you we don't right now the numbers are a couple, per child not the full 15,000 cost of a child 4K 12 um so we know that there's another development I think is what you're referring to Jeff and yeah I guess um we know that because our enrollment in the last few years has been trending down and because of that we're losing state aid funding you know in that formula so if that Trend continues and all of a sudden we have an influx of kids we're actually getting like double slammed by it because the state's kind of projecting that we're been trending down and affecting our our um state aid rate for that but now reality is we have a lot of new kids entering our district and just that squeeze is that's what I'm worried about so if they're enrolled by October 15th that's a strike date they'll be added to the count for the following years now if we know there's more children coming in and we've got proof of that of something we are allowed to go up I've never done it but I know there is an option to do a waver for enrollment um so we can look into that but as of now I don't you know it's I've seen 10 15 20 children coming in but I'm losing 70 I'm still that negative and you've seen no proposals from the town for any new developments officially officially no but they're not they don't have an official gotcha yeah they they have there is no uh LW thing they have to tell us so that's why I would be nice if you know we talk to each other and but if there were somebody on the planning board then it'd be great um but once again like the true number is when they get a permit not when they get approval at the planning board right when's the permit when are you going to finish that construction and the reality is Mr Betts and I are really Transportation drives around and there's a new development coming and you stop over and you ask the the GC you know how many what's coming in okay all right this is real and then you get with the township yes they just got approval they think they're going to finish this dat okay let's pull a report how many kids but if I see 10 homes or 15 net negative I need for our numbers at 70 you're talking at least 100 units going up so the next time we talk to the township we'll see if they can forward you any of those if they have it but once again we need to have real when's it being constructed like but we should it's a small town we we know when that's being constructed because you have by the time they started by the time they finish you're looking at a year right so we were very we were watching that for um spring you know different um um the one the one no the one across right a um um behind no uh or Co social is on the yeah on the opposite side of town center Town Town Center South yes sorry about that thank you um we were watching that you know what was it supposed to be it was supposed to be you know adults only and then children started coming in and we found out they changed the requirements so we were tracking that um but as well but yeah um you yeah yeah so I my favorite questions on are usually uh next predictable but um the revenue building so are do we have any unique requests that we haven't seen before like for school use um that come through have come through just thinking through rental I meant that we haven't rented that we've denied or well that are coming through that maybe are different from what we've dealt with before some sort of trending upward trending I know like for example Lego robotics League we've used it I wonder are they going to do a continuation is there an opportunity to kind of see what other Lego leagues or robotics there might be uh I'm not the the trend I saw from from my numbers uh Brian Murphy or building grounds would be the best for it but the numbers we saw was you're standing in it this room being rented it barely if ever was rented um we started fixing it up and then it you know we have plans to fix the screens up so we're renting this facility as well because everybody wanted wants the high school right and we're making good amount of money there but then it's like can we rent other facilities so this is going up um and so it's already pre-wired it was paid facilities rental money so we're looking around 30 something thousand new projection screen new monitors tied in so the wiring is done now we're waiting waiting for the projection devices so it won't be as many items here and then they can use that for the rentals as well another rental that came in um is Cricket so Cricket a Sharon Elementary um they've given a donation we have money in the pot we will dig it they will pay for um the contracted piece to build the pitch so we'll Dig It They'll pour the rest we'll rent that facility out and then it's not much but wait you're paying to make it with us and you want to rent it and that's a that'll be another pitch in the community um for them I'm sorry that was part of it I'm sorry so that is something new that we thought about um they really wanted to to do Cricket and they're they're hurting for spaces um and we found a spot in between all the little leag so little league rents at think 5:00 p.m. we rent we end at three so they want to rent in between and use every so we're trying to maximize our spaces um there are other Revenue ideas not for today but we'll do it in summer but of course the problem is some of these revenues ideas take funding and we're lacking that funding right or take resources and man-hours that we don't have the capacity so we have to pick those loow hanging fruits and maximize and and move forward um but yeah you're welcome you know in terms of R new ideas I don't know if it's like a like an issue here in Robo but I know know I'm in the township that I work I have to budget uh like half a million for students who go out to like to the votex and to the charters I mean is there an idea of the number that we spend here for soon as we may be it's in the budget uh we have to allocate a little extra every year because they tend to go up um at 10% so we have a budgeted number for special needs children that special needs we actually have by name roster in the spreadsheet um and what school they're going how many We Believe are going to go and how many are coming back we have the same for votech um we track them for that and then we extrapolate well let's just say two or three graduated we expect two or three more to come in and based on the class um and then we um we also track dual enrollment right so we so we how many kids are going do we need a second so we kind of limit that to one bus um so we have those numbers I don't have them I have to pull it up for you but um I I don't want to guess on the number but it's it's bigger than you think you know the number is bigger than you think but we also don't pay as much as you think because they also get state aid funding we don't get the state aid funding for the votech so we chip in a little bit more for them and then pay for transportation and so some counties charge very very little and they just send all their votech kids some some counties charge charge a lot more and then they manage it as a magnet school so some counties are very good at magnet schools and you know the county I'm talking about and academies is that you think that's something worth kind of looking into in terms of the re so it's part of the Strategic plan to look atomies it's over a two-year project um to review all of that we have met a couple of times already for a committee of Administrators and some staff as well and and and one teacher um and we're reviewing that we have plans to go visit a few sites uh and then what kind of programs to bring in and so you know is it going to be an internal soft internal launch first and then the following year go external you know do we have the Staffing levels you know it's there's a lot more complications to it but it could be um but you know typically you know I mean it could be a massive generator of Revenue and if it's done right they have to maintain a certain GPA they scores um um you're bring in your top students create a big program and you could generate you know you they charge a full rate so you know you're looking at 15,000 a child and so Arthur we talked about this in the business committee probably right before the budgeting cycle started and we said let's get through the budget cycle and then let the administrators put together a proposal for what that would look like after we get through the budgeting period we next time is going to be focused on all of this so we're we have to go and then it's like you make the program it's not me my my job's little you need administrators to run it make the program it's a heavy lift what can you generate depends how many children you bring in 10 or 20 spread out over three four grades you don't have you know that's there's a school nearby who does it they only take three kids per grade and they generate almost a quarter million what's three kids per grade like you're not hiring new staff or you can bring in you know 50 kids in per grade and generate many millions but you have to decide as a community what do you want what scores and standards do you want to keep right because I have seen it Go the wrong way as well where it's just about the money not about the quality and so it needs to be a win-win for everybody but in the end someone's going to have to run this and it's a lot of work and so um you know and I agree I've seen it go left too yeah so we have to have those restraints put in there because the last thing you want to do is launch a bad program and then you get a reputation and then you kill the program it has to be done right and it's going to take us some time I don't foresee a program like that launch and as a strategic plan qu you know talked about it even if it is a fullblown let's all do it I don't see it going for at least another year and a half so yeah and some of these programs we're already doing it for our kids our you know our top tier children they already have this track so there it's it's it's a little more complicated but yeah anything else for Nick thank you very much everybody thank you next okay uh can I get a motion to open public comment so moved all in favor any Nays or extensions no okay we'll open board uh public comment for 30 minutes each member will have three minutes at the podium the rules of the Quorum are in the agenda please adhere to those and those online apologies but you have to be here to provide comments so I open the floor for agenda items only good evening nin canani Robinsville um thank you very much Nick for this uh slides and the paper that you gave us it uh it really helps and um I was going to ask you about this is the only agenda item and on your agenda on the section of personnel on the section of of director of Early Childhood um a um very disturbing Google search brought up some information up that I'm sure you received it in your email and you have I'm going to cut you off you're talking about a potential employee and and someone is innocent and proven until proven guilty absolutely and there are two sides of the story Absolut and I have complete confidence and evidence that if you go further you're going to be defaming the person no I I'm you to stop right I would never do that the only thing I was going to ask is is there going to be any more investigation that's all I was going to ask Mr Bates and that's it thank you any additional public comment for agenda items only not seeing any can I have a motion to close public comment on agenda items so mov all in favor any n or extensions okay um can I have a motion to approve the minutes from the March 19th uh regular board meeting and the April 22nd special meeting so moved all in favor any Nays or extensions all right committee reports uh I believe we have Miss Leman on the line yeah I'm going to do the report for line Arthur's gonna read for me okay all right whoa thank yeah so I'm going to do the uh at policy committee uh report uh we met on the uh 16th of April uh board members Leman and myself D'Angelo Mr Ray um were present along with the superintendent assistant superintendent and Miss defasio we went over new business uh we discussed remote access to board meetings um executive sessions uh committee voted in favor for allowing uh board members access to Executive sessions except uh when a guest is appearing in front of the board um we discuss the uh assistant director of curricul the assistant director of curriculum and instruction um update uh candidates were in their second round uh this is a replacement not an not an additional administrator uh they gave us also a preschool update um like was already stated the you know Furniture curriculum supplies playground equipment have been purchased uh interviews are under the way uh the goal was uh for registration to take place in June you know there's a lottery system for prechool rosters being planned preschool program will likely run from 9:45 to 3:45 red will be offering before and after care and their summer program uh Robinsville PD will work with the district to ensure SRO are available beyond the typical Pond Road Pond Road hours to accommodate the potential preschool program hours um and uh Sprouts refund checks are being mailed uh this week and then last thing for the school performance report uh Mr fio and uh our assistant superintendent shared the ELA and math proficiency data which is now available uh from the state which reflects the TW the 2022 23 school year does not account for this year's schedule changes um additional class time for laa and math or the professional development resources that teachers began using this year uh the data does show that Sharon students did not meet proficiency targets for ELA or math Pond met the ELA proficiency within one standard deviation but did not meet the math growth Target Robinsville High School uh met for met for ELA proficiency but not for Math and that's all from the report thank you any questions for policy uh Personnel the Personnel committee met on April 23rd uh nty and Anthony were in attendance uh Jay and myself were absent uh started off with talking about the monthly Staffing spreadsheet was reviewed by by Miss Tremor uh committee members had opportunity to ask questions and about appointments approvals resignations ratifications and resending off offers of employment we also uh went through non-renewals um went through the process the district must comply with for all non-renewals um that was reviewed by m tremer Mr defio and druki U the committee provided the process and the timelines associated with non-renewals of Staff third item was job descriptions for director uh registar so a recommendation was made by the committee by Mr Betts Mr fasio and Dr bki to amend and create a new job description to better suit the expectations of the leadership of the preschool program due to the size and budget associated with the program the recommendation was was to develop a director of Early Childhood Additionally the job description was amended to confidential Administrative Assistant registar to account for the sensitive nature of information collected and the budget access for this role This Confidential administrative assistant position mirors other administrative assistance for directors in the district both positions are completely funded by the preschool expansion Grant fourth item was ESS recap uh an update was provided by m Tremors on the number of substitute teachers entered into our system through ESS it was explained that while the number of substitute teachers continues to increase in the system the number of subtitute requests has also continued to rise resulting in a flat fill rate uh Mr mccre also uh for I didn't get that Siri's talking to me uh Mr mccre gave an update on um the ba and assistant superintendent contracts a recommendation was made to the committee by Mr mccre for an increase of salary at a rate of 3.5% which is lower than the rate of non-affiliate salaries the Raa and the rpsa the option for healthcare waiver would also be added into these contracts non-affiliate salaries a recomendation was made by the committee by Mr mccre for an increase in salary of at a rate of 3.9% the rate is historically determined by the prior years's uh increase for the Rea and then finally Health waiver update a recommendation was made to the committee by m mccre to include a health waiver for all non-affiliated staff as well as all members of the RP SAA this recommendation is considered a win-win as it will increase the amount of waiver money for the staff while saving the district money on each member waving their health benefits old business discussed was the waiver discussion as well um a discussion will take place on a or should have Tak uh I believe took place on April 25th for with the Rea to determine if they're interested in to join the health waiver option and then there was also a Personnel update by Mr Betts um on a Personnel matter thank you thank you uh businesses myself uh the business committee met on April 26th uh from the the committee uh I was in attendance um and from the administration it was uh was Mr mccre uh Mr Brian Murphy Mr Betts Mr fio and Dr wusi uh we we met to discuss uh various maintenance items for all the schools uh we discussed the grants that Nick disc that Nick presented tonight um we also talked about the facilities rentals Nick stole some of my thunder here um but we are you know we discussed the new aori Auditorium floor at rhs it's a really big upgrade for that uh you know Auditorium so we're really excited for that one and for the cafetorium here at Pond um so you'll be seeing a lot more upgrades you know throughout throughout the year um we also talked about the summer projects that we're going to work on while the kids are out of school uh discuss the preschool Aid funding um as far as uh we talked about the various grants that we're going to continue to apply for to try to you know help out the district and we discussed trans uh Transportation uh items as well and that was and the next meeting will be on May 24th any questions okay community relations hi everybody I'm I'm going to read for community relations our meeting happened on April 10th 2024 at 6 p.m an attendance was Ragu Brian bets uh Nadia Benda Arthur Howard Dr Steven wisnoski and Christy defasio uh the committee discussed student and staff recognition and requested an Administration to have more students and staff nominated uh for appreciation across the district and we discussed when to do that uh during these meetings the second actually has to do with the strategic planning committee so I'll explain it a little bit uh the committee discussed communication distribution processes and learn that the upcoming parent Square implementation will solve for um I don't know about you guys but we get multiple um different information from a lot of different sources and so parent square is a new program that we will be using the tech committee is going to give you more information because I don't want to steal text Thunder um but it was something that we discussed the strategic planning committee and it's a a big win the next thing is the committee requested um that Administration engage senior citizens especially veterans in our local community to come into more school activities to bring Generations together and help the community move forward together the committee also discussed providing education sessions to community members at large on school budget and other board related activities we also discussed the teacher appreciation week and we're not going to give away any secrets um and we discuss related activities to honor them thank you ad hoc security um we met April 12th uh in attendance was Jay glot uh Anthony Ray Arthur Howard and myself additional attendees were nick uh mccre Dr wuki Brian Betts uh John leair uh the principls the rsos and uh the principls rsos gave their updated reports on the state of the schools um we talked about in Old business the various IT projects that we have ongoing for the security of the schools as well as the facilities um we discussed potent again potential grants that we've recommended to the business committee to pursue um the we we reviewed the preliminary audit for the that was done for all the schools a full presentation of that will be given at the end of May Nick I'm not sure if we've nailed down an actual date for that yet but I think we're getting close to the security audit uh presentation it'll be complete at that time okay yeah they just sent us the draft yesterday so is it the 24th we'll be doing that I think at the next meeting yeah okay perfect thanks Nick um we discussed all the various Security Options and needs for the preschool Aid fund uh that'll be and funded through the preschool Aid um new business there weren't any and again the next meeting is on May 24th um special education hi everybody um so we exchanged notes we did not meet this month um in our first point is that there was an IEP 101 session for parents held with Claire corus virtually on 417 at 7 p.m. Miss corus shared valuable information with families on how to best prepare for their students IP meeting this was planned in conjunction with our Robinsville parents of special of kids with special education needs or formerly known as CAG we're changing our name um the second bullet is our department is working to plan for the end of year activities and providing the support necessary for students to participate fully in the school experience instructional AIDS continue to demonstrate a desire to care for our students well beyond school hours and we're just so lucky and finally uh esy or extended school year that's just for special education students I think people sometimes get esy confused with summer school they're different so esy preparations are well underway esy will run July 1st through August 1st this summer Mondays through Thursdays thank you last but not least technology thank you Peter uh we met on April 11th in attendance was myself Jay Peter Anthony Ray Ragu in addition to Brian uh John leera direct of Technology as well as uh Steve we uh talked about the distributed and Tennis system to increase Communications to the rpt um we're looking at the request for rpt and see what is the total cost and see if we can appropriate some of the costs with the RPD um we talked about our ups Replacements uh things are in budget and at this point some of these systems are temp plus years old so we're talking about getting those replaced we reviewed our overall it budget uh significantly reduced the it budget by at least a million dollars uh majority of those cuts were focused on physical security of our infrastructure this is something we um discussed we need to have further convers ations because it is uh impacting physical security of our students so that is something we're going to be discussing more of we reviewed the need for preschool uh as it pertains to the new preschool so again this is uh purchasing of devices for the preschool program roughly about 200k pures we talked about our cyber training program and ensuring that uh each employee takes a cyber training program um so that is something that's going to be ongoing we talked about our process for copers in a network to ensuring that there's appropriate levels of security uh and auditing so that is something that we're going to be working on to ensure there's no Act of uh cyber crime we reviewed the maintenance of our Chromebook process uh so anytime a Chromebook is uh accidentally broken uh what is the aspect and how can we uh look at uh our parents to say what that cost is to get um cost back from those broken items we also talked about mfas so at this point mfas only available for administrative staff the board made a decision to move forward to ensure nfas on all emails to ensure security and posture of our employees at whole and we also discussed potentially extending that to the student population for security and safety of them as well uh we also talked about Jay can you just Define mfas for everyone multiactor authentication or two-factor authentication uh if you have not familiar with that please email me I will respond back to you letting you know what that is uh we also discussed implementation of uh various tools uh in supporting our parents uh at this point we're investigating those tools to make sure they're safe and secure and doing uh due diligence on that before we put them forward uh last but not least again uh launching of a potential program which will allow students to virtually receive a pass again we're doing a fullon vendor assessment of these tools and Technologies before we can put them into implementation A lot happened uh that's what I have from Tech thank you thank you Jay okay monthly resolutions the superintendent recommends that the Board of Education approve the following action items a through C can I get a motion to approve the monthly resolutions so moved second roll call please oh any discussion on the agenda items nope Miss banduka yes Mr Gadi yes Miss Hill D'Angelo yes Mr Howard yes Miss Leman M Le again yes thank you Mr nandon absent Mr Ray yes Dr yes and Mr alberg yes thank you everybody thank you any old business any new business all right can I have a motion to open public comment oh wait T do you have something you're really hard to hear hang on one second try again I just took out my earbuds hold on a second that is that any better much better yep okay I was able to attend um the opening day of the cricket Association um along with a few other board members and I was given a plaque that I meant to bring tonight and it was done by the kids in um in honor of the um our what is the name of the organization Robinsville cricet Association RPL RPL yes sorry about that so I wanted to bring that along I want to make sure that that goes into to um the administrator's office or the uh central office it's beautiful it's a a beautiful canvas that represents the um organization and um their thanks to the school and for the support that we were able to provide by being part of that day so I just wanted to make sure that I mentioned that thank you T that's great thank you it was a beautiful day and it's a great organization so many people were there and it's exciting to watch they still don't understand the game but it's exciting to watch awesome any other new business no all right can I have a motion to open public comment on school on school related matters so second all in favor any n or extensions all right let's open public comment for again three minutes each for a total of 30 minutes the floor is open same rules as before hi everybody Dr wusi the assistant superintendent um there's just a couple things that I wanted to talk about first of all um you know when we do these hirings it's always kind of like a faceless name that is there but tonight it is not so behind me is Megan I'm gonna ask Megan to stand up uh we had an opportunity to find a new assistant director of ela is she standing up I can't see I did all right good and so let's welcome her with a round of applause and say thank you just so you know the process we had um uh you know 30 35 um applications we did a paper screen of them I think we interviewed 16 people we had a second round interview that was task based that we brought down to a handful down to the final interviews and um you know Megan brings a wealth of uh knowledge to us she was a high school English teacher for a number of years and she's an administr a current sitting administrator so we couldn't be happier so I wanted to say congratulations and thanks for coming tonight the other part is uh I wanted just to thank everybody for helping us with um our uh the administration for our preschool program tonight we were able to hire the director of the preschool we were able to hire the the registar for the district um a an instructional the uh inrs coached for the program um I just want to highlight the Yan's work that Mr stasio is doing we had probably 30,000 interviews this last month um and they continue because starting tomorrow we're interviewing uh teachers um we needed to interview a whole Litany of of of positions um so I want to let everybody know we're moving in the right direction but now that we have the core team in place that's going to be able to run as soon as they're able to start here we could pass this over to them um but in the meantime we are going to invite you to a webinar on May the 8th at 6 o'clock it's going to be in very similar style to all the webinars that we do there'll be a a chat feature to ask for for you to be able to ask and have your questions answered to us um in that we'll talk about as we said earlier that we are going to have a a system for um people to apply and then once we get more applications than we have so seats available then we'll look to have our our Lottery system we'll talk about that in place we'll talk about the different locations that the uh preschool program is going to run next year the times Transportation food um and we'll have an opportunity to have our new director of preschool join us and introduce herself to the community as well so once again we will be sending out an invitation tomorrow yes okay tomorrow and um we'll make sure that that invitation goes out through all of our chain and then we're going to reach out to the town to have the town help us because we want to broadcast this L loud and wide because we want to get as many children into the program as possible look at that it's like it's like I know what I'm doing here so is does anyone have any questions for me before I sit down for for that no the only last thing I just want to tell parents out there I don't know what camera to look at but we understand that you want this done as quickly as possible you know we we both have children that went to gards or went to other schools and understand the timelines involved with that and we promis that we're moving just as quickly as possible and really we would hope to have word back to parents but before the end of the school year so that's really our hope all right so we hope to see you on Wednesday thanks thank you Dr winki any other public comment can I have a motion to close public comment so moved all in favor any n extensions okay um can I have a motion to open execu the second executive session to discuss the intern process all in favor right any n or extensions so during this session there'll be no action taken it's just a review again no action will be taken during the second executive session this evening thank you everybody so the meeting will be still ongoing but we're going to be cutting off the feeds uh wrapping and closing this area up no action will be taken it is strictly for executive session for the interim process um so have a good night everybody and thank you for coming thank you