[Music] and to the [Music] [Music] [Music] for be our [Music] I'd like to call the order uh tonight's meeting May 7th Mr Jones can you please call the rooll Miss barve here Miss Bower here Mrs borov here miss Brody here miss ser joh here Miss Williams here Miss Winkler here Dr Kowski here Mr Murray here Mr President everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance yeah iedge ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all right okay we just had our executive session we went through personel Hib suspension and detention and our legal status update additions and deletions from the agenda are listed we're going to move over to the superintendent report Dr Mast so at tonight's agenda we have two very important topics one is the celebration of our partners in the PTA as as well as an overview of the referendum that we are working on for a September pass that's it thank you Dr M Mr Jones so we have a busy summer we're going to start work here and turning into this classrooms starting on this Friday we are almost completely moved out now a couple more people to move over to our new location um we're also you know installing the bleaches at the high school we're also Al looking at we just started our U into a new sound system at the football stadium so we just are meet with some uh contractors this week and we are hoping to have something ready to go for the June 20th meeting so uh pretty busy and getting ready for the summer thank you Mr Jones board president announcement the New Jersey open meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the Scotch Plains Family Board of Education has caused notice to this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted at the Board of Education offices located at 512 Cedar Street Scotch Plains New Jersey such notice was also provided in written notice forwarded to the uni County Hawk Star Ledger of the Township Clerk of Scotch Plains and the bar cler of Fanwood and the annual notice of regularly scheduled meetings as adopted May 9th I would now like to pass over to our student board reps one who obviously just came back from a Victorious game and yeah who has not come back from a softball game I don't think maybe so I just came back from a game uh we won 73 against GL in extra in so why I'm dressed in this but um last week we had youth day and there were 40 girls that came out to support the team and we spent about like an hour after the game like spending time with them playing with them and just really getting to know them and helping them love softball um yesterday we won to against spirly also an extra innings and other sports boys lacrosse won their quarterfinal round versus Cranford today 17-1 which is a big score difference in acros um track played track ran today uh golf played today and also girls across today right now we're in the midst of um AP testing at the high school which are the most fun two weeks of the year um in the theater Department um the production of Adams Family just got nominated for seven paper mill rising star awards um including best overall musical which means that we get to perform at the paper mill ceremony in June which is exciting and tomorrow is the spring choir concert and it's our last performance of the year it's at um 700 p.m. at the high school um and then for steper seniors uh the senior movie is going to be coming up soon uh yearbook distributions are I think June 6th and 7th uh senior prom tickets are on sale and only during the 7th and 9th through 9th during lunch and they're each $115 and then also senior project which is for senior the most exciting part of the year uh starts in two weeks after AP testing oh yeah lot of good stuff going on you forgot the most important date graduation ah yeah graduation too that one because we don't have another meeting before that so oh yeah there is that's on the 18th yep great thank you both very much okay we're going to move over into our recognition and instructional updates so the first is going to be recognition first recognition Dr M yes so as we do every year we're thankful to have the opportunity to recognize our amazing PTA the partnership between the district and the PTA is invaluable they put in countless volun hours throughout the school year to create fun memorable events for our students their families and our teachers we would like to recognize and thank our PTA for their dedication to our students and school Community as a token of our appreciation we will give the PTA presidents and Council a thank you gift and uh Mr Murray is going to read the PTA members that we're going to recognize and when you hear your name please come up Berner P Brunner PTA President Sharon Dowling is finishing her fourth year as the Brunner PTA president the incoming PTA president has not yet been announced baseball baseball Sports Cole's PTA president Heidi bogot has she is finishing her first year as the Cole's PTA president and will continue as the Cole's PTA president next year Evergreen PTA president Audrey kapitz finishing our second year as Evergreen PTA president the incoming president has not yet been announced thank you mcin PTA president Susan past [Applause] here finishing her second year as the M stay up right finishing her second year is to begin PTA president and the incoming PTA president has yet to be announced starting to see a theme school one PTA president Angela YZ work Comm work commitment but finishing her first year as PTA president will continue as school one PTA president next year netting ham Middle School PTA president Denise [Applause] salaka uh Denise is finishing her first year as PTA president and we'll continue at ninham next year Terrell Middle School PTA president Elise Hines uh family commitment finishing her second year um as Terell Middle School PTA president and the incoming president has yet to be announced Scotch Spain Fanwood High School PTA president Ratner Wright not here uh Rat is finishing her second year as PTA president at the high school and incoming PTA president is yet to be announced PTA council president [Laughter] here and going to be carrying a lot of flowers out of here finishing her third year as the council president and will continue as the PTA council president next year ptaa Council corresponding secretary Sonia panoro SI is sick finishing her first year and will continue next year as corresponding secretary and PTA Council treasur Coler is [Applause] here and Diane will be is finishing her second year and the incoming PTA president treasure PTA Council treasure has yet to be announced all votes are while you guys are taking a picture I just want to say we we really don't often get to praise you enough so thank you so much to the PTA for the incredible um B you know strength that you bring to all of us thank you and we have one more embarrassing moment so SRA can you come up what yeah oh we're going to embarrass you in your [Laughter] uniform we just want to thank you for your two years of of service and being one of our first um School Representatives the longest serving School rep that's right that's right and uh a mentor to Mac so uh big shoes to Phil Mac right so but congratulations we'll miss you good luck in college I'm sure you'll do well for your name and Scotch Plains and make us proud so thank you thank you cra [Applause] when you're on when you're on school break CRA come back and come to board meetings you can definitely watch them live stream I know you will and thank you to all the PTA what else would you do on a Thursday yeah that's right that's right and thank you all of those that were able to make it and those that who were not unfortunately we do really appreciate everything you do day in and day out even the stuff that most people don't see so thank you yeah thank you anyone else have any thing they want to share I would just Echo What U Mrs borov said that we are very fortunate in this community to have a wonderful community and that's represented in the PTA and uh we really appreciate the collaboration and and all the work that you do and I know everyone is we we all feel the same way yeah I want to say thank you as well I've kids at two different schools and I could set my clock to the emails I get you know with the updates um on Sundays and and I read them and I appreciate them and I'm so amazed by the multifaceted things that you plan you know from the speakers that you get to come into the schools to um you know engaging parents in plant sales and Pie sales and you know the coordinating week of respect and all of that so it's just there's so much um and I just want to say thank you to all of you [Applause] so with that for those that don't wish to stay please don't feel obligated but if you wish to stay please do we're going to move over to our next instructional update which is the building a future ready SPF so I think we're going to be getting up and Mr Jones you're going to be coordinating the presentation push this chair we to so you guys can get out clothing drive at netting Ham on Saturday starting at 9: I saw that I need this colle my stuff everyone thanks everyone for coming um we're go over our referendum and I just want to introduce first off who's going to be presenting tonight um and our I want to our architect in front of us here uh from press om so I just want to say we went through a extremely lengthy process uh to search for an architect it was uh multiple late night meetings uh uh different follow-ups uh different uh informal meetings at different conferences and uh we were proud to uh select pressent Architects to help us with this journey um and he's they're going to be here tonight to help us present um right here Greg to my left Greg sjin PR um pret s Architects and Rachel tan his associate is going to be working with who's been digitally working with us meeting with US Weekly on uh all the updates we'll be talking about tonight okay with that I will kick off the meeting with uh Dr Mass to take off the presentation so we are at an exciting point that will determine the future of SPF this will be the first of many presentations to educate the community about the September 17th vote Community feedback last fall was critical in helping us shape the referendum projects that we will learn more about this evening and back to Mr Jones so enrollment um see here TR we did a demographic study uh November of 2022 where we really identified the potential for an in increased enrollment multiple reasons really uh you know through you know our birth rate was significantly up from starting in 2016 births were up significantly from historical levels um in addition of course we had some housing developments going in uh that were also affecting um in addition to these numbers here in this chart we actually got a uh we asked our demographer to update the numbers based on um uh our enrollment and how it's happened we've had significant amount of housing turnover and really most of our growth from enrollment is from that housing turnover not from developments and so uh we do have updated numbers actually coming in higher than this um that we'll be updating on our website after we uh scrub a little bit more a couple more uh reviews of the data okay so just summarize we're up you know 150 students this year U from last year fairly significant um um and the prior demographer report is expected that we go up 360 um we have done significant amount of research and we look for temporary solutions uh like using trailers or additional classrooms at middle schools or partitions split up rooms and some cases we have we have done that um we've also we're also moving out here so I know we preious we've talked about multiple times uh we're moving out of the central office out of Evergreen to create space we're moving to 313 South a um and we're going to create eight additional educational spaces here and additionally on the agenda tonight we'll talk about we're moving additional administrators um out of the high school into that space as well um but we know of course um things that we' looked at are not enough uh and with that I will turn it over to Greg somon to S to walk through our projects good evening my name is GRE sjan I with pet sjan Architects and um as per the earlier introduction we have been working with the district now for uh well over a year and when we started this due diligence it included many things it included meeting with Administration both Central and at the school level it included meeting with facilities team members at the middle and high school we actually met with students as well we looked at lists that were developed over the years of projects that were being contemplated throughout the district and ultimately we established a very long list of projects that the district was going to look at and consider for the purposes of a capital campaign and the list was very extensive and had to be narrowed down and the District through the administration and the board decided that the projects that I'm going to present tonight are the ones that they wanted to present to the community for a vote um it's not an all-inclusive list of everything that was identified over the course of a year because as you can see the investment that is being requested is significant already and that would have just made the investment even more ultimately um there are a couple of different ways and I just want to kind of give a background for everyone's benefit when we talk about capital projects there are a few ways capital projects can be funded one is through Capital which is an opportunity within your annual budget to put money aside for projects another is capital reserve where if there is savings achieved in your annual operating budget that money can be put aside into a savings account that can accumulate and be used for capital projects and then ultimately a referendum and a referendum is an opportunity for the district with the approval of the community to borrow money for 10 15 or 20 years uh and to be able to borrow that money with the intent of making Capital Improvements and then pay that off over an extended period of time it's very similar to anyone that would purchase a home that's not an investment that one can make in one year so a mortgage taken out for 15 20 or 30 years and pay it off over time there are several benefits to a referendum what one such benefit in this particular case is something I'll refer to as Debt Service Aid many of the projects that are on the list for this referendum are going to be subsidized by the state in some cases upwards of 34% and what does that mean well that means that the local share that the taxpayers are going to be investing will be less because the state is picking up a portion of it um I do share with all our clients that the state of New Jersey subsidy have been going on since 2000 and so you as a community have subsidized other communities referendums that receive Debt Service Aid because it's through our tax dollars collectively the state that this money is invested so here's an opportunity for you to bring some of that back into the community and get the investment made in yours the other benefit of a referendum as I already shared is the opportunity to pay it off over time 15 or 20 years on these kinds of loans the interest rates are still reasonably good relatively speaking um and obviously is part of the financial discussions the district does have Bond counsel and financial advisors that would help them through that and then another um benefit to a referendum is that because the investment is being made over a plus or minus 20-year period there are people who will benefit from these improvements who may not even be in town yet but the fact that you're borrowing and paying that off over an extended period of time when they move in and their children start using the school district their taxes will reflect a contribution to these improvements rather than making an investment in an annual operating budget that would be incurred in one year uh the cost of such projects is very challenging to take care of in one year obviously you know based on your annual budgets that uh money continues to be tight when you talk about all the expenses and the rising cost of a variety of things okay so with that said the um the projects that we're going to talk about tonight are separated into what I would called two separate categories um and the first which is has been identified as the biggest priority is the growth in population and how to accommodate that that particular category of addressing the population growth is reflected in one of three questions that will be presented to the community in September so question one is a total of 81 million dollar that includes not just the acquisition of this building that we will refer to But it includes the additions the renovations the professionals that have to be involved contingencies and the like um the building that is known as 330 South a in Fanwood uh was formerly a school used by the district sold quite some time ago and has since been owned privately and used as a private school that building happened to come on the market and so this is somewhat fortuitous in so much as build don't typically come up for sale that are conducive for educational use and so as was alluded to by Mr Jones the research that we had done which included trailers and expanding the existing buildings you know come with their own share of challenges you have environmental issues on some of your properties in the form of wetlands or streams as you all know parking is a challenge throughout the district circulation with pickup and drop off so this opportunity when it came up was researched extensively and was deemed an appropriate solution to pursue for many reasons which I will touch on momentarily put on second slide oh perfect so what you're looking at is an aerial view of the property in question um on the right side of your screen at approximately 3:00 is 3:30 South a which runs along the right side and you can see in the lower right hand corner where the Ingress and egress driveway exists to the current property there is parking along the front of the building and then you'll see two colorcoded references within this two-dimensional aerial view the um the blue is the expansion of the existing facility so we are doing additions for classrooms for a gymnasium and to accommodate the principal and the related Administration for the building while the remainder of the building the orange area um is the existing building which is getting a gut renovation and so um while the building does exist and there's a tremendous amount of value in an existing asset it's it's old it needs attention and so as part of this um approach we are going to completely modernize and update it that includes everything from a new roof to new windows obviously the incorporation of additional classrooms and everything else including mechanical systems are going to be upgraded so that we have a modern building within a an existing buildings uh onvelope we are also exploring adding a driveway that you can see at approximately 12:00 on the screen out to L Grand to help with the circulation around the property and just above that driveway a little bit further north of 12:00 you will see that the existing property does have both a hard and soft play area for the the students um there is no athletic field on this site but there are outdoor play areas for What will what the intent is to house a kindergarten through fifth grade now from a population perspective not only will you and have you seen uh on the website and some of the communications not only will this provide a school in Fanwood to support the neighborhood School concept that the district is reinforcing but by creating the area or by creating space in this new building for students there will be a trickle effect so that the um there will be some restructuring so that the kids will be in their neighborhood schools and by virtue of the restructuring space will be made available in the other elementary schools and the fifth grade will then be brought out of the middle school and into the appropriate elementary schools so that now there is space created in the middle schools the goal as part of this particular exercise is to remove the trailers but in Scot Fanwood also known as The Cottage and the Villa something unique to this community that I've never experienced before but good for you so again the trickle effect is for question one in particular is how can we address the population that is already here and the ever growing population that is expected you want talk about this please the plan is with the grand school to open at the start of the 2027 28 school year fifth grade would move to elementary schools freeing off the space at the middle schools and eliminating the need for the trailers students would attend neighborhood schools we don't know however which students would attend each school because it will be based on the population density around each school which could change before 2027 we also don't know yet which staff will work in the new building there will be an application process and clear communication to students parents and staff during the transition all elementary schools would provide the same quality learning experiences as they do now they all would now incl at music rooms art rooms and Innovative spaces that would provide flexible areas for student creativity and build it so now to go to question two so as I said the first category was population that's focused on the biggest investment in question one but then question two and question three are all around a second category of projects which I call infrastructure So within the question two category there are improvements to a variety of the buildings throughout the district the goal of these um projects is to get air conditioning in all the buildings and spaces that are educational in nature that don't currently have them in the schools so under the heating ventilation and air conditioning category um you can see some of the schools that are up there that will get those kinds of improvements the second part of the question two is another infrastructure project and that is electrical system upgrading so um in some schools there is a deficit in the electrical capabilities as you can appreciate some of these schools were built decades ago and they were designed electrically with the needs at the time we have since encountered computers in our daily lives and the incorporation of air conditioning into any school will increase the electrical load and so many of the schools are going to get electrical upgrades and as part of the electrical upgrade to the building itself we're also going to incorporate additional panels and try to get additional Outlets into the classrooms so that simple computer usage telephone usage and things like that have some general convenience outlets for use and then lastly some of the schools are going to get upgraded fire alarms now I say some of the schools because in cases where uh schools have fire alarms that are current and working fine there's no need to replace them in one case there was a fire alarm project that we actually starting now and that is being funded through Capital but the goal of these projects being presented in a referendum is very critical and and the reason it's critical is because a um there's an opportunity to get up to 34% Debt Service aid from the state so the project is being subsidized where if you're spending Capital reserved or Capital you're not getting that subsidy the second thing is that while the administration whom we had a chance to work are excellent and Mr Jones has done a wonderful job over the years managing that capital reserve budget the realities are that there's only so much money that can be saved within the capital reserve and used and based on the amount of work that has been identified that can't really be undertaken by capital reserve alow so the goal is when these questions pass and the state subsidizes these and the money is paid back over time then the money that exists through Capital can be used for some other projects that maybe didn't make this list so again in question two these are the three infrastructure projects that have been identified these are the other schools that are also getting some or all these improvements they're listed they are on the website so again feel free to go online and drill down and take a look at the specific schools with the specific scope of the work and then because a picture paints a th000 words or a picture is worth a th000 words um the infrastructure projects in particular are not particularly glamorous projects and for these projects we're just trying to show the basic intent that when you have some Antiquated systems or underpowered electrical service Getting It upgraded to modern times is critically important um fire alarms have changed over the years and so making sure that a building is safe with a fire alarm that works and can be easily managed and monitored and then heating ventilation and air conditioning equipment obviously over the course of time um codes have changed for fresh air intake cooling loads have changed so upgrading those things all contribute to an environment that is conducive for educational use again here are some examples of both within a classroom and some rooftop equipment that can be expected as part of the propos and then lastly question three um which is important but when compared to the others was placed in question three because of the need to prioritize these things um there are uh roofs that have a certain life expectancy and the department of education does have a list of life expectancies as my father used to say nothing lasts forever um no matter how good the district is with their capital reserve I know that based on my Decades of doing this oftentimes this is a criticism of districts which is you know why did you spend time and money on keeping up the building well the realities are that when people were voting for budget and they would go down Capital reserves or Capital was one of the first things to go so it's not that they uh that these were not maintained in fact the district did a very nice job over the years but again roofs like everything else have a life expectancy and so uh roofs throughout the district District um are going to be replaced some have already been replaced some don't need replacement but the balance are going to be replaced that needed that were identified and again here's a perfect opportunity because we are you know pretty confident based on our experience that the state will come back with what they call their Debt Service Aid or their preliminary eligible cost letter reflecting a contribution of up to 34% for these projects we've done this long enough where we're pretty confident between the roofs and the infrastructure project that full 34% up to 34% will be contributed where on the new construction it's a little more complicated calculation we don't think it's going to be fully funded at 34% but again there's money that will that we expect to be contributed so again for the question three um all the schools are impacted and roofs are part of that turn it back over to Mr Jo Okay so got a lot of questions on you know what yes and no what happens if referendum doesn't so I'm just going to be very simple here and just literally read these um because I think they're worth reading to understand uh the impact of the vote um state to cover cover up 34% we keep emphasizing it because you know $160 million for all these project even 10% $16 million at the state would get so it's very very significant amount of money that we're talking about here um yes is Elementary School Fanwood bringing bring Bridging the two communities together neighborhood schools small class sizes to maintain the educational standards air conditioning all classrooms you know we did have the day off because of the extreme heat or in early uh early September this year uh dedicated Music Room art rooms Innovative spaces at the elementaries we have at a lot of the elementaries we've taken out the the music rooms and uh they don't have dedicated music rooms right now um No More Trailers in the middle schools those are over 20 20 years old uh and new roofs and electric upgrades electric upgrades that are needed in order to have air conditioning even just it shows how the old the electrical is that it can't even take new air conditioning um and fire alarms just to make sure we are up to standard uh the no vote you know no state aid so it's a significant um amount of money left on the table and the projects would have to be prioritized by life safety of course um class sizes larger would would T that are already creeping up would creep up even further funds diverted away for academic programs and support services to critical infrastructure needs dedic potential dedicated funding in the budget to fund some of these projects that we' have to put in we mention air conditioning uh no no more temporary trailers you know the the county comes and reviews those every single year and we have to do a walk through and there's improvements in costs and makes us worry that the county is G you know putting more pressure on us less dedicated uh spaces room you know we know that we have otpt uh in a lot of the hallways of the schools and the uh you know whenever fire inspectors come they want to they want to make sure all the equipment's out of the hallways we have to be diligent about that takes up a lot of times with teachers in their day in in and out of the rooms no dedicated spaces for TPT um you'll see that through all our elementary schools um delay replacement of roofs we can only do so many at one time we are we've increased our budget for repairs because we had to we've had uh multiple uh leaks at different schools and we'll continue to do it if we have to um and then of course the Aging electrical and fire alarm systems that um that we have that have we have to do with some of the fire alarms the critical ones we replace but some of the older ones some of the parts uh aren't available so it's difficult to find them when it needs to be fixed so just emphasiz again the state state a is critical and just to emphasize what Greg said again those infrastructure and roof projects we fully expect to get to 34% but something like a building where you're purchasing and expanding and renovating it gets a little more complicated and the state asked for a lot more detail and so it's a little bit harder to to um estimate how much it's going to go but no matter what it will be millions and millions of dollars to cover that expense for sure so you know with that I think looking here just to make it perfectly clear how the vote was going to work with the tax impact is we have so there are a waterfall the votes are a waterfall so question one um if question one doesn't pass we cannot do question two or question three if question one passes we can then do question two if it passes and then question three so if question three passes but not two or one we cannot do any of the projects and this was the reason behind this is because of the survey results we have um that were overwhelmingly uh aligned with smaller class sizes that the uh district office was the district in the community thought that this is way the way to handle the votes um we won't we don't know the TR the we know that the budgets are set for these projects it we not what's listed on the deck what's listed on the website no changes there um we don't know yet is the amount of state aid and that will come out we're hoping by the end of June early July and once those are updated we will absolutely put on the website immediately but what we've heard from feedback when we went to different focus groups is that there Community wants an estimate at least now why schools in so we can start our Outreach and these numbers here tell you the ranges Scotch playing for the question one $28 to $36 spending on the town per month question two 9 to 12 depending on the town per month and question three 13 to 16 um just to talk talk about the assess value um the assess value is is simply a a technical tax term it has nothing to do with market value it has nothing to do with how much your home is worth it's t it's really a way that the and I'm you know I'm not a tax assessor but it's a way they allocate tax dollars throughout the community and so um you know you you'll see relative to how much a house is worth um you know a larger house will have a larger assessment than a smaller house and whether it's you know 100 or 200 or 300,000 um it's it's all relative and it's just how taxes are applied um so yeah so we do have a website on the website you can see you can type in your home your your assessed value um interesting enough on the website as has like Zillow there too so you can see that it's a it's a huge difference you know in between the market value and the assessment but you can then compare to this and to understand what your tax impact will be for you personally um and again I think um the total project cost cannot exceed $163 million if if cost all these projects we go out to bid if they go come in lower we will not spend the money and it goes back to taxpayers additionally if costs come in higher than 163 million then we will have to adapt our project scope and that's why Greg talked to the contingency funds that we have within these projects back to Dr Mass to wrap it up so if everyone could take out their calendars and put these keep dates in so August 27th is the voter registration deadline September 10th is your vote by mail application is due for September 17th vote by mail ballots must be postmarked and September 17th is the inperson voting notifications and times will be updated on spfk12.org future so just thank you for for attending and listening to this presentation more opportunities to come including a virtual Future Ready Community information session on Thursday May 16th at 7:30 and at this time Greg is here to answer any questions should the board have some I'll just say in the vision of transparency we certainly have had our opportunities to ask questions and sort of dive in so I don't want the public to think we're just silent right now um but I will speak for myself in in thanking you I think you mentioned how far the project went back and I remember um when you said a year ago it kind of felt like yesterday but when we were looking at the cost um with using the trailers or looking at other trailers or additional trailers and the impact of the the costs um longterm versus the refund the support from the state so um it's not that I don't have any questions I'm sure maybe others do but um I just wanted everyone to know that we we've certainly had our chance to dive in with you but I appreciate the hard work and that you guys have done I have a question the the dependency of question one has to pass for question two and so on and so forth is that a state rule or is that the way we decided to do that yeah that's the way we decided to do it and we' we've before going of course I mentioned that the server results that this this question one is most important but I think additionally we learned from other districts across the state that have done these types of questions um where they um sometimes they'll they want all the projects so they'll put it together but we saw that the cost was significantly high was high so we wanted to make sure that people had options to then vote through each one um and no you could do them individually sometimes though you you don't put the focus of where the surveys were and so we didn't want to just do just the one question we didn't want to do just one we wanted to make sure that people had options that if they wanted to do more they could but yeah there are you technically could do as many questions as you want and you could just do vote on any of the three technically yeah but I don't think you answered my question though Christopher I'm sorry um the the fact that in order to for number two to pass you have to have number one to pass yeah so you can't have number two pass and and just do question to oh yeah that's right yes is that that's what I'm asking is that a state rule or is that the way we decided that's the way we decided okay yes is it and I guess on the voting machine it's clearly marked that so that people know when they vote yeah and that those once we get the state funding then we work with our bond attorney on the actual question that will be on the actual ballot which we have not worked on yet but it will say that on there if you look to uh other districts uh I believe Madison just had a vote uh they they did something very similar where it was actually on the ballot so uh we'll make sure that's perfectly clear and when we have the ballot question finalized of course we'll advertise it here and we'll go through it in the board meeting and with all the board members as well to make sure it's perfectly clear okay because yeah see that could be confusing for sure okay yeah thank again it's early once we get with our attorneys and make sure it's completely done all the numbers are done we have all the information we'll work on the next phase I just want to point out that the entire Community was surveyed when when was that seems it all seems like it was yesterday um but a while ago right to determine right and and the feedback what was most important like you said smaller class sizes and these questions were developed around what people felt like was priority in our schools just to um emphasize smaller class sizes means maintaining the class sizes that we have grown accustomed to which yes yes right now we have some sizes that are are larger than we have seen in many many years I also just want to ask just for clarification for everyone you don't have to register for that for the zoom next Thursday or do you you could just attend yes yes yes yes the the link where how will the link be distributed I saw it I don't know if it was a PTA email see it no there'll be additional communication with the link yeah okay just we we also did surveys of course with students and different focus groups and throughout different it wasn't just uh you know one surve multiple Sur through different groups and stakeholders I just wanted to make a a couple of comments I wanted to thank uh our Architects because we have been in numerous meetings and committee meetings and and belabored things and asked lots of questions and so I appreciate their time and um I I I want to point out that with the 2% cap I mean I've always been proud that we have done a lot over the years I've been on the board since 2007 and we have tried to take care of things in this community um and do a lot of the maintenance and and so forth but you know it uh it's like maintenance on a home it catches up with you sometimes because we only had so much money we could put in the school district was cut a lot as you all all remember when uh in 2008 and in that era um the state has told us we're now fully well told all the districts we're all now fully funded we will not be getting any extra money from the state in the coming years and the 2% cap with Transportation going up I don't know 150% I think it went up over the last uh couple of years um all the other costs that have gone up um it's even hard to keep teachers um because of of of poaching of other districts and the shortage of teachers um so we we are um you know we're going to be uh working hard just to get our budget our normal budget not have a lot of extra money for smoke detectors and for all these other things so I don't know if the community really realized is that but um you know the Situation's just getting Tighter and Tighter for all the districts around the state with all the increases and we've had the 2% cap for a long time it's very very difficult and we're taxpayers too so we get it but I just want to say just add to your comment I think also what's really changed since then is is inflation when you look back the numbers to you know to add four classrooms to this space here when kindergarten was expanded um was the same amount of money as it is just to take this and renovate it so that those four classrooms were additions to the school so you got a foundational work uh bricks you know walls going up significantly more expensive work is now the same that was just eight years ago so the C the cost is exactly the same now to just renovate and you know put up put up some walls create spaces here so it's very different um cost structure than you had hisor MH thank you Sor you'll have to come back and see the new building that we hope I will close up you're going to college I am you're going to be 18 soon yes I have a right to vote and I'm going will be home September 12 yeah you will be in come back I like I like this thought process all right great thank you again presentation I'm sure we'll be hearing that um a couple more times which will be great so we're going to move over to our first public comment so in accordance with Scotch Family Public School bylaw 0164 0165 the meeting will be open for 15 minutes for public comment maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business functions or other board business will be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please State your full name in the town in which you reside please note boards use the public comment period as an opportunity to listen to Citizen concerns but not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross-examination between the public and the individual members be aware the notal issues brought before the board meeting will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information or by delegating the authority to investigate the issue to the superintendent or his or her designate so I will now open the first public comment section so if you have a public comment please step forward to the mic state your name in the town in which you reside Gary more Gary Morris Fanwood New Jersey um all right um just so you know I'm into math my daughter's a math teacher so some of this is going to be math um when you talk about the bond referendum I heard 10 15 20 what is it I mean how long are we going to be paying that additional cost is it is it 10 years is it 15 years that's got to be in order for you to come up with those numbers you have to know if it's 20 15 or 10 right now theoretically that's first thing um is there some way to get the itemized uh you know billing for the $81 million like what is for what how much is for the building how much is for the property do we know what Children's Specialized Hospital paid for that property um and again I'm just doing it on like Zillow stuff I we know internet's not accurate but my understanding was it may have been like $2.5 million doar for that property so seeing us investing $81 million into a property that may have been sold for $2.5 million is kind of a scary proposition um that's why I'd like to see what the breakout is of how much of that is improvements how much of that is um actual property cost because of course if the population goes down at some point just like it happened in the past we may have to sell off that property um do any of the numbers already reflect the state aid or is are all those cost increases in taxes is that basically um not including the state a and does the state aid come immediately does that get spread out over the length of the referendum um H are there any other Alternatives I know you've explored things I've looked at you know aerial views of the the schools and you know you're like well do we need that courtyard there I mean is I talked to my daughter she's was in the courtyard once her entire School career I know other people spend more time time in it I'm just saying you have these a big Courtyard in the middle of the high school what if that were made into two floors and in other words there's no alternative to to this and it almost comes across to some degree almost like a a a used car deal like you got to do this now or the price goes up and um I always um don't like that at the at the car dealerships um so again at you we have roof a lot of roof rep placements and things like that why not raise the roof is that is that how you do it I don't I don't know um but why not raise the roof in some places as opposed to um going for a brand new or renovating an old building and and making it and the other thing is class size ratios um how are the class size ratios and things like that from when we sold the building in the first place to how it is now and how does that compare to neighboring areas what is our class size ratio now um I've seen anything from 12 to 15 students I looked at my daughter's school out in California private school it's 18 and those people are paying $33,000 a year to go to that school so maybe there is some movement there where you could go a little bit bigger in the class classrooms I know you did a a survey but it's something to look at anyway I'm just I'm and I know I'm overtime sorry totally aware um I'm just really concerned for senior citizens okay they are on fixed budgets we all know we're getting killed with inflation right now okay we're all having to pinch around and figure out how we're going to do it constantly you're getting inflation is going higher than the raises so you're constantly literally getting uh you know uh a pay reduction every year how do you do that when you're on Social Security and is that going to is this increase in taxes have we done a study how many senior citizens are possibly going to give up their homes to a family that now comes in with more kids and we're going to have to build another school so at some point I think we we got to look at the the full impact of what might go on there um but again it is very convenient having a school there um but is is it is it the best choice at this point and how do we know that you know um as far as trends go that the the the baby boomer thing might be you know tailing off in the next 5 to 10 years thank you Mr Mars so just so we just so you know we're going to answer some of this uh Greg's going to answer some questions that you had posed we're not going to get into a back and forth debate but he'll answer as best as he can I do want to clarify a couple things one is first children doesn't own the building and never has they're renting the building so you'll never find them as ownership so that's part probably part of the reason why you never saw that um it's privately owned um and class sizes is I'm not going to comment on but I know that they're upwards of 20 not in the 12 to 15 range at all so I don't know if anybody wants a given average but I think it's like 22 20 plus around that we've seen invol so we're not we're not we're well below we're well above the 20 not below the 20 so I do think it's important for the public to know that we have explored like building on that's why speak I'll talk to the tax real quick Greg before you go so the cost assessment came from a 30-year Bond uh interest rate of 4.4% and we did a range of and so why you see the range of the tax impacts is we did a range of state aid and from 15 up to about 30% State AIDS and it depends on how the state does it that's why it's hard to say depends on how much they put we the those numbers State 8 is built into those numbers but that's why it is a range because it could be higher could be lower so the reason right so right now the ranges the goal was when we get the state aid numbers those numbers will be more concrete based on the projects yeah right so right now what you present thing is to get as much information out to the public as possible with preliminary those are ranges those ranges will become more firm once we get information from the state which we're expecting towards the end of the school year maybe earlier summer but I'll pass that over to you now to do your thing okay there was a lot there I have more and more senior moments as I get older so I may ask you just to recite a few that I don't remember if I miss something okay so as it relates to the $80 million approximately 10 10 a half million is going towards the acquisition of the bill um there was an appraisal done so these aren't random numbers I don't know where your $2 million came but there was appraisal a negotiation so out of that 80 million 10 million is going towards the purchase then you have other subcategories I I'll keep it kind of high level because again there's some detail that will ultimately be shared once we get the state aid but there's probably about $17 million of renovation of a 30 5,000 foot building we're adding 50,000 Square ft at approximately another 30 million 34 million based on what is a high per square foot cost to build in the public sector you pay prevailing wage so when we present numbers as it relate to new construction in New Jersey and the public sector people are surprised and rightfully so but it can't be compared to the home owners renovation but even that has gone up if you've ever done a renovation recently or even purchased a piece of plywood what used to cost 122 or $15 now cost 50 so the cost of prevailing wage per square foot has skyrocketed and so when we talk about 50,000 Square F feet being added to that building in the form of multi-story classroom a gymnasium and those related spaces that's out of that 80 million about 30 34 million then we have contingency the Department of Education mandat we carry contingencies and Christopher alluded to that that it's not a use it or lose it if you don't use it it goes back to the taxpayer but we know that anytime you renovate a building you're bound to uncover something even though we budgeted a gut renovation right we're not ripping down all of the walls around the school so we might encounter some other things that have to be dealt with so that contingency is in there then you have Architects Engineers attorneys administrative fees permit fees all those things so that's kind of at a high level how we get to the $80 million which I recognize is a big number but you can see that incrementally the numbers are not as big as the 80 but they're still big relatively speaking because this is a major investment we did look at many other options and you said you looked at Aerials so you're familiar with the streams you're familiar with the parking and so all of those things go into it this is one option of many right at the end of the day you could do other things you mentioned raising the roof um I'm not sure what the you did it better than I thank you so much um I also do the floss than my toit that out later thank so I guess my question is when you say raise the roof I'm not sure what you intended if you intended that well we can go up and construct Square footages the challenges with going up is that your buildings are already occupied and fully loaded and to vacate a space because you can't do construction over children's heads so while you could technically build up and it is a one solution to the many challenges of population growth you have to examine and possibly replace the structure because the structures are designed with live and dead loads and it's possible that the existing roof structure is only capable of supporting a certain load and when you add a second floor the loads go up not to mention the complication just mentioned which is the realities of trying to work over children or what do you do with those children for a year or more while you're constructing the beauty of this particular opportunity is that the building came up for sale there's nobody in it when the construction goes on and so the construction can take place with minimal to no disruption to the educational opportunity we've been working in schools for 35 years and one of the biggest challenges is always navigating the work while kids are in school because the summer window is very small and while you can do a couple of projects in that five to eight we window you can't construct multiple classrooms and things like that um talked about roof we talked about breaking down the $81 million um if your daughter is getting tuition of $33,000 a year in a California school God bless her because California is one of the most expensive places to live I don't know how that seems very cheap to me but that's not the area of expertise that I have what else oh the courtyard so um depending on the circumstances at any school Courtyards were designed for a few reasons but there are State mandates for example when you have an operable window or unit ventilators that often draw fresh air from Courtyards there is a 20 foot distance that must be maintained to the next set of um walls and windows so I don't know the size of the courtyards because generally they're challenging we did look at those but I would guess that a it's we've looked at them in other districts the challenge with building in a courtyard is how do you get material in everything has to be craned over the school because you can't walk Building Supplies through the hallways into the courtyard you have to maintain those clearances which are statutory and code requirements and ultimately while there is that Greenery there in our experience is not particularly conducive to building classrooms because of you have to now take some of the classrooms offline to get a corridor to access them if there are not enough means of egress in or out and so you have to build even more classrooms to cover the net loss of the ones that you need access for what was that is there anything else I missed there is one thing I want to add please the additional that we were talking about at the school for the gymnasium I do want to point out typical Elementary School gyms are not that large this gym is going to be as large if not as larger than the high school gymnasiums we have where it's going to help provide a community another community area so I just want to clarify one point yep and you'll clarify if I'm mistaken size sorry yeah so so so um the Department of Education created something called the facility efficiency standards FES in 2000 the purpose of that was to try to standardize spatial um spaces and their sizes so that there is an even distribution of funding throughout the state so that if one District wants to build a classroom and another District wants to build a classroom the funding calculation is on par with each other so when we talk about a gym there are high school gyms with bleachers there are auxiliary gyms each with a different square footage and then there is something called the cafetoria which is a combination at an elementary school of a cafeteria a gymnasium and an auditorium and those are typically smaller because you don't have the as great a need what we recommended and what was pursued is that the square footage of the gymnasium at the lran school will meet a regulation basketball court so that Recreation the community can use it we've often experienced where the school follows the FES which is a state issued document but you know you can't just blindly follow it you have to think about the ramification and after building it they say what do you mean we can't even hold a recreation basketball game because the court isn't big enough and I'm sure you've experienced that as you've been in some of the school so we recommended we increased the square footage a little bit but there are no bleachers in there so so one or two rows right not the typical on experience for a large fan base because again we're trying to manage investment with the practicality of construction and in this case the limitations of the site which are nice to have because it's less expensive than building from the ground up when you have to bring on utilities to the site and start with storm water management and parking from scratch but so we did increase the square footage of the gym with some minimal bleachers but I don't want people to to picture a high school gym no of course but we've been hear the community was saying we don't have enough space correct outside of that's exactly more good for recreational use it'll be good for not only the school teams but um again it's the intent is since you're investing to make it a little bit bigger you get a much greater use out of it did I address your question yeah thank you I'm sorry sir I have a question you said that the building if we can yeah anyone from the public that has a question if they canor that's the that's the only possibility anybody from the public that wants to make a public comment has to do so with the like okay I'll I'll address it with you at the conclusion the meeting that's fine would I wasn't going to say anything but I'm a dinosaur who's been in town all my life and when M Grand was sold or closed I believe I hate to say this myself it was 40 years ago and we were the district not only closed with grand they closed Shaka Maxon they closed old school one which is no longer there and new school up on planfield Avenue and quite frankly the board couldn't give those buildings away no one wanted them the Board of Ed used to say we're in the real estate business trying to do something with all these empty buildings and we were not the only District going through that at the time it was you know in this all area because of enrollment so the price that may have sold L Grand sold for was probably minimal because no one wanted it quite frankly and no one wanted any of those schools so just little bit of the history thank you you're welcome thank you for coming other public comments anybody else want to come to the mic for a public comment at the very end yeah Scott um I actually didn't bring any preparative ARS because I was prepare to speak kind of thing uh but in just seeing the presentation I just wanted to make two points I think the clar gentleman gave just now for example um should be essential in the presentations that you make going forward right because I think uh the public in General is going to want to know a lot of these breakdowns right like the first time that you mentioned oh well $10 million to acquire the property like oh right well that makes like that starts to make sense right uh when I first saw the number around the 48 million for roofs right I'm like $40 million for roof on eight schools but I'm sure that there's a breakdown that we can provide for folks around that to kind of get the rest of the population of the of the town to work that out um you know and in general uh you know as a taxpayer you're always like oh I don't want to pay any more tax this kind of M hey the projects need to uh need to go forward and get uh and get done um you know uh the the structure of the question that I think you had mentioned before around like hey one has to pass for two to pass for three to pass uh feels wishy-washy and I think that there's going to be a lot of people that are going to be like oh well why do we have to do that you know like other referendums from the past year or two people like why can't we just vote on this one because we want this but we don't want that kind of thing so we just need to make that clear for the overall populace kind of thing of like hey you know you can't have it sliced up it's got to be all in one kind of thing so those are just some helpful thank you very much other public comments I just want to add to the the enrollment U so when this buildings so you're talking the three buildings were when they had them because it was a baby boom and you know obviously there was a a lot of students enrollment and then it sort of dropped off when they sold those schools in the ' 80s we have the historical enrollment we're actually above those numbers now so it sort of makes sense that we're needed to get need more space and let me just comment that it's not it's not like you have to an everything has to pass not all three questions have to pass for to get anything question one has to pass before you can get anything for question two or three right I'm understanding that correctly yeah and I think I appreciate the the feedback I think the details and you know I know that our Architects have been through this a few times and I'm assuming that the presentation that we're going to be seeing with the public is going to include um some of those details so it's helpful and and I think the thing about the questions is there's no way that we can come up with space if we don't get question one we can continue to patch roofs when they leak you know on the budget and so forth um so if two and three don't pass we'll just limp along and do the best we can um and and we won't have air conditioning and the buildings and the electrical systems will look like you saw and so forth but one is really crucial to not having classes that are you know yeah 30 plus I app big classes sorry Nancy sorry I appreciate the feedback um that that you gave as well for what you feel like would be helpful for the public because I've heard other people ask well why can't you just build on annexes like we did for for the kindergarten classrooms why can't you just like Mr Mars said build build up so I think the way that you explained it was very helpful and so I think other people would benefit from hearing that okay any other public comments before the next public comment which we will be coming up on the end towards the end of the meeting and I'll just encourage the public to keep sending emails to to Future at spfk12.org um because we are answering every single one of those emails that come in and they add to our frequently asked questions they add to our messaging they help us get the information out like tonight was great because we can now now we'll adjust our presentation we'll adjust the website to all this feedback so um keep the questions coming thank you okay uh committee report did you close I did um I have one we have I know we have curriculum I know we have community relations well I'm ready I can go okay okay the curriculum committee did meet last week um one of the best parts I think sonali is seeing this of being on the curriculum committee is when students come to present to us and we see some of the really Innovative projects that our students are involved in so we had that opport opportunity last week we heard from the um beamline for schools team b4s team um and I'll explain what that is it's a group of nine students and this um initiative was actually um sought out by one of our students at the high school who saw a who saw an advertisement to enter a physics competition um that is organized by CERN a European laboratory for particle fys physics um so went to the guidance counselor said I'm interested in doing this project the counselor sought out a teacher who would support it so Mr quacken Bush um is physics teacher at the high school um took up this Challenge and worked with the nine students to come up with a very impressive we received a copy of the um the proposal the um but um The Proposal was entered and if um it's selected this the student St will um if their experiment is selected then the team will be able to go to Geneva Switzerland um and present present there I believe um so the proposal is titled changing Isotopes through proton anti-proton Annihilation um and they gave a very impressive presentation to us um about the progression of this project and how hard that they all worked on it late nights um so they will learn in June if they they won if they're one of the three presentations that was selective and whether they'll get to go to Geneva this summer and if they do win I hope they get to come back and present to us in the fall so we can hear about that experience um but why I think this was an incredible presentation is that number one a student initiated this and um which is incredible and secondly uh we really this is yet another example of how our staff really supports the strengths and um passions of our students and just you know it was something above and beyond didn't have to convene the team and spend all these extra hours working on it um but Mr Quack and Bush you know did that so want to thank him for that okay so that was one agenda item second one was um we heard an update from um Dr Liz McKenna just on summer reading assignments um and how the summer reading assignments were selected did what they um how they're used to learn about students um so we saw that whole list the third agenda item was um an update on the SPF boost the high impact tutoring Grant which we've been talking about over the last many months uh Dr McGary discussed that um the tutoring program is concluding 190 elementary students were able to benefit from the nine weeks um of tutoring and their map scores will be assessed to identify the impact of the tutoring and parents will receive a survey but we had some um informal and anecdotal um feedback already that it was very helpful for the students and the fourth agenda item was um an AP African-American studies Grant update that SPF received one of the 25 grants to establish the AP African-American um studies program and um we can use the grant fund to look at K to8 programs um and how the students are exposed to African-American history we can use it to purchase resources um and professional development for our staff any questions on curriculum okay M Williams you want to do Wellness thank you Mr Murray um so the Wellness in equity affectionally known as we committee met last week and we had kayn France who is a student assistant assistant Specialists who joined us and talked about the exciting things that they were doing in the school district um workout Wednesdays which is a whole school wellness program and um engaging the students with the staff and in and connecting with them and looking to expand this to other schools in the district because the students are really loving it and I just want to also highlight that may is mental health month and there's a c a direct correlation to mental health and exercise and connecting so looking forward to the other stuff that they will be um sharing with us um our next meeting um will be in September and that concludes my report thank you m Willams any questions excuse me she's got a report oh um I have the Student Activities and Athletics um and we um discussed a few things I learned a lot more about um AI cameras and what we use them for in our sports teams um but we do use AI cameras um and streaming for our Sports on Multi levels um a for people to watch the games on but also um players use them actually on like for getting into college and for looking at film and I'm sure you guys can school me on this but um apparently so just so you know everyone about four or five years ago we started working with an organization a company called huddle and at the time it was about $4,500 um and we um approached them about we have a few new cameras to be fixed and about going forward and we received a 16,000 quote to renew them so that was rather High um and um so Dr Miller did some research there's um nvs vid spot which is much lower um so they will not only provide us with the three new cameras but a portable camera and new Endzone cameras and they can do it for about 8,000 per year um over 130 districts in New Jersey use them um the difference it would require a monthly streaming fee per individual of $12 so um we just asked Dr Miller to go back he's going to do some um revisiting once he shares some more information on the percentage of community members who are live streaming um but stay tuned for that one um we re uh highlighted uh Dr heis heisy I'm going to go through in addition to what our student representative said but a few of the highlights that he gave us model un was doing extremely well this year um we talked about um Club Inc was has been recognized by Scott Spain Township as one of our largest clubs um FBLA has a summer program um this year smack this year he usually does a Relay for Life um this year they're doing a flag football um fundraiser so that's kind of a exciting um un uh we had a uh Union Latina which was represented by many of our Hispanic students who went to rariden Valley exploring transition from high school to to college for Hispanic students um but we we talked about Esports extensively on how tremendous it is and and really on how many different leagues they're U participating in and how um uh our supervisor has gone above and beyond and then the final uh agenda item we had was the field and building dedication policy um which we um will be as well revisiting as for just relates to um the naming of um and honoring of people so we're reviewing that and I actually had one other thing which is that Thursday night is our 2024 Hall in Fame Hall of Fame indu induction um I believe it's 13 people and the last induction don't know why alumni IND induction was uh in 2018 and I've clearly spoken enough um I do have updates Ryan was able to get those viewership numbers for us for tonight um so the the highest we had was the Westfield football game which was 60 views then the second was Cranford game which was 27 then South Playfield was 13 and JFK was 11 uh the average length of time watching the stream was 2 minutes the average length of the game is two and a half hours uh and also for basketball the highest for the Cranford County game which was 31 number two was the Del Barton boys lacrosse game which was 19 and then it goes down to you know that's the second highest was the 19 and then goes down to 13 for one for one of the games average length of time for those games and this includes uh basketball Lacross uh was 10 minutes uh and the average game length of the G basketball game is 1.5 hours okay no I really appreciate thank you very much for getting that to us and and obviously us understanding that there's other um factors that we have to look at um which we discussed but you know is it one you know how many families are really you know is it you know grandparents from the same family but that is all very important information and certainly will lead to us making our decision any other committee reports community relations no no we have a meeting this week any others no okay superintendent um curriculum okay so number one out of District placements and two move that the board approves the 12 hip cases discussed in the April 25th meeting where five of those cases were found to be H do we have a motion so moved do we have a second second do we have any comments or questions all those in favor I I opposed motion carries um just real quick um I we didn't go enrollment report because Mr Jones gave an update on the enrollment earlier in the meeting so I just skipped over that item apologies uh Personnel move that the Board of Education approves the my my recommendations for personnel on the report that we discussed this evening in exac so move we have a second any comments or questions seeing none Mr Jones can you please call the rooll Miss barve yes Miss Bower yes Mrs borov yes Miss Brody yes Miss serani yes Miss Williams yes Miss Winkler yes Dr Kowski yes Mr Murray yes motion carries uh pass over to the business functions Mr Jones um the related service I just want app point out the added district and the related services are 2425 the next meeting June 20th may be most of our June our 2425 but because the uh these Services a lot of them start over the summer that's why we have them in this meeting um athletica bid Awards just want to talk about some so we I got to approve the vendors in the amounts but some of the things we purchased for this were you know t-shirts pom poms for cheerleaders a new mat um socks arm bands for boy soccer um tennis balls some uh you know uh some uh practice uniforms uh boys tennis school book uh uh score scorebook that they have to use every year footballs you know mouth pieces knee pads uh some shorts uh things like that uh girl soccer um you know uh socks a trainer board goal shop practice um volleyball uh targets ball carts things of that nature Bas softballs yep softball softball we have yep softballs lineup cards protective screen ball caddy um track starting block those types of things these are the types of items that we that are that are purchased through this bit um next item so employee health insurance you know unfortunately um you know 13.2% rate increase um and for Delta D we are switching our Delta our Dental back to Delta Dental 11.9 um so extremely challenging to uh cover these costs um and we you know their initial bid their initial numbers came in you know 16 16 and a half% so we got them down to 13 but um the amount of use we've had in the plan is has been elevated now for two years and um some we were denied um from different uh groups where we can join uh there's these funds where you can join to try to lower your costs we because are our experience um we were denied to join those groups um in addition uh we had uh multiple companies not bid because our experience was High um and so we're sort of stuck with this these high rates here so um we are looking at um different items for next year to try to address this and we're looking at looking at that now um but yeah so these are very uh High increases um four is our cost for here for the um to convert this uh into classrooms um and so is the next one uh number five so I just want to point out so in preparing for this space we had did we did uh testing so we did a water testing we knew we had some water intrusion in some of the rooms um and we did uh additional testing to see how it was and so now the project here is the scope has got has gotten larger and so the PSA um it's going to be a two-year project um first year this Su this summer we'll um try to put I would call it you know to make sure to lessen the amount of water intrusion on the walls um and then next next summer which we'll start immediately after we finish this project we'll go into a second phase which would be to actually if you if you look at the outside there of the school here there are um um the walls aren't there there's basically a right here yeah so right here you see these aren't really walls um they I don't want to call them window panels window panels yeah um so yeah so um the yeah and so there's a lot of we're going to of course put as much uh on the outside to stop water from coming in as possible but uh really what we have to do is take those out and we have to build walls um to stop the intrusion of water um so uh yeah so when it comes that's why the additional cost for the Architects to plan that and and get ready and we're going to bid that most likely um or at least assign the project uh and hopefully uh early fall so that we can get on the count get better pricing and get on the calendar of contractors right away um so we can start as soon as schools out okay High School concrete steps we've talked about this uh previously just to award the contractor um this is at the high school the back steps um that are there um we have a donation of a car um for the auto shop um library book disposal um so 313 South da we are going to uh expand our footprint in that space to uh create space to the high school and we'll be bringing over uh additional administrators up to 10 additional uh employees to that space to create more flexibility to high school um number 10 is fire drills number 11 is Staff training we have a motion we have a second second um I have a question Mr Jones so just on the insurance stuff the our ratables are based on number of open number of claims is that is that how that works number of claims from the prior year is how the insurance companies Bas their rate for us going forward yes yes any other questions no all those in favor I I opposed motion carries approval of minutes uh move that the Board of Education approves the April 25th board minutes we have a motion Mo second second comments or questions or extensions all those in favor I opposed motion carries new board business other board business liaison reports I have a brief one from cpeg um I was unable to make um last night's meeting or Monday night's meeting um which was last night um but they approved their executive board um so I'm sure that they will be updating um their website shortly the next meeting is June 3rd um and um they're are online and their website is filled with extremely useful information thank you other reports I a Garden State Coalition of schools hasn't met since our last meeting but we have a good number of people who are going uh in two weeks to the annual meeting so that's exciting and the new assistant commissioner is the featured speaker so acting interim um any other pleas in reports any Union County reports or nothing no okay Workshop Workshop reports reest to attend workshops none okay we'll move on to board motion resolutions M Brody it's my pleasure to move that the Board of Education adopts the following resolved Community Counseling Center Inc resolution whereas resolved Community Counseling Center Inc has been a valuable resource in our school since 1974 and whereas resolve Community Counseling Center Inc is dedicated to providing quality and affordable counseling advocacy and educational programs for children adolescence and adults as well as to individuals couples and families and whereas resolve Community Counseling Center inks highly accredited staff of psychologists licensed professional counselors marriage and family therapists and social workers helping students families and staff with a wide range of concerns and whereas resolve Community Counseling Center in collaborates with Union County public and nonu schools and whereas resol Community Counseling Center Inc offers confidential inperson counseling as well as teletherapy and whereas it is appropriate to recognize the value of resolved Community Counseling Center Inc celebrating 50 years as a driving and dynamic Force serving the mental health needs of our students families and staff now therefore during this Mental Health Awareness Month the scotch PLS Finwood Board of Education congratulates and commends the resolve Community Counseling Center second and we would like to invite Gail to come up and um Deb broy and Evan to um hit the floor and Lisa if you could snamp a picture that would be really good noers that's cute thank you thank you all thank you very [Applause] much make it official Miss bery made the motion do we have a second second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries thank you okay that was the resolution second public comment so in accordance with Scott train Family Public bylaw 0164 0165 the meeting has be open for 15 minutes for public comment maximum 3 minutes per speaker speakers addressing superintendent items business function other theboard business will be heard first if time remains speakers May address other matters speakers please State your full name in the town in which you reside board use public comment period is an opportunity to listen to CI and concerns but not to debate issues or enter into question and answer or cross-examination between the public and individual members be aware that not all issues brought before the board will be resolved that evening boards May respond to public comment by seeking additional information by delegating the authority to investigate the issues to the superintendent or his or her designate I will now open up the second and final public comment section for 15 minutes please come to the mic state your name and the town in which you reside Gary Morris Fanwood New Jersey um I had a curiosity does that East do the E Sports get included in the streaming thing I don't know if that was um like the sports streaming no no totally so the the streaming is for the public for the sports games Athletics for a letics hey don't don't not call those people athletes I'll tell you no but they saw that I'll I'll remind the board to wait until public comment is finished to respond okay just I'm just curious and just just to put it in perspective um you know it was great last week seeing like the parents and everything supporting these kids doing that um my son actually has a friend who literally makes $15 million a year playing games $15 million a year trying to talk my son into doing that too but no um not going to happen um anyway um so for any parent out there that thinks this is a waste of time it can actually be uh an interesting career um I also wanted to say something um I guess uh I don't know if you heard that s did not win the thing but I thought it would be a really cool thing if we brought him into to one of these meetings and honored him maybe get them some gift cards to local places or something like that I think would be really really cool and I just wanted to share a a personal story um I was really vested in this because it brought me right back to uh when one of my sons was going to mcin there was a there was a custodian there named ecam I don't know if anybody remembers him very special man and and you will relate to this because you're all about the drop offs right you know the pressure of the drop off right you're you're in the line and you're like get out of the car just get out of the car hurry up there's somebody behind me and my son would not very often would not get he was just he was attached to you know his mom and not wanting to get out of the car and ecam day in day out would come over to that car and open the door and make my my son feel at home going to school and it's that kind of a thing that was not his job right but he made he made that effort and those those are the people that are special and I just got the sense that this guy S I don't even know him but I just got that vibe that this is that kind of a guy and I really think we should do something to to honor him I and uh I think that would be awesome anyway thanks thank you Mr Morris any other public comment okay seeing no one I'll close this portion upcoming schedule meetings so we have um Tuesday May 21st staff and student recognition in the Evergreen new gym and then we have our final board meeting of the school year in June 20th Sor um same time not sure location as of yet and good to the order I have something um so being seeing as um we've officially can say we were moved into 313 some of us we've started getting the ball moving we're still unpacking okay but but but I don't know if anybody's driven by but Scotch Plains Fanwood Board of Education building is officially mentioned on 313 South Avenue so Amy and I thought it would be appropriate to bestow upon you representing [Laughter] Fanwood wow from the Ames from Fanwood from Fanwood welcome to the neighborhood [Applause] thank you very much that's 07023 I figur I figured you could look up and you don't have to remember it all the time if you see it that's right and it's teacher appreciation week so I wanted to say we appreciate you teachers yeah like Seanie said in the curriculum meetings I think every time we meet for the curriculum committee not only our students but our staff they they go above and beyond to make it special for our kids so you know thank you for all that you guys do and I know that it's a lot of hard work so we appreciate it's so nice all the schools have like the Letters Out like the big words like Cole's theme is you rock so it's nice to see that not like Burger Kings you rule go is you rock yep got it that's the theme they're all Monday they were supposed to dress up as rock stars oh really very cool Burger King SL the commercial is on it's on every commercial in between every sporting event you don't watch sports watch commercials I made it to the Art Festival last week and it was fabulous as always the hard work that all the teachers to collect the pieces bring them set them up hang them up and the Creations were just beautiful so I always enjoy looking around at the art festival and it was packed yes yes okay since we're not not meeting again until June 20th I just want to wish all the graduating seniors the the the best congratulations to them and their families and uh enjoy the prom be safe and um and thanks again to CRA for her service to us and being the first Junior rep and congratulations to you well you're not on June I I have two things one just a clarifying point though we are here at at 07023 physically um we have maintained our mailing address so we do so still officially Scotch planes just our mailing address yes and secondly um we have been very focused on the different Heritage months throughout the year um this is Mental Health Awareness Month in May it is also Jewish awareness month as as well as uh South Islander Asian awareness month and haian and haian and Haitian okay and um Dr McGary if you could just speak to how we're gathering information um sure like we do with many of our heritage months um we have a padlet that was created for teachers to share resources um to provide artifacts of the work they're doing um already there's a really wonderful preschool PowerPoint that has been shared um focused on um both of the month Asian-American and uh Jewish American History Month um and and and some really interesting connections between the two as well so thank you for um letting us know that because I you know not being in tune all the time and daily um I I think I just learned that I think we reached out and and to know that the different resources that are provided um because we very briefly touch on these Heritage months or um we you know might do a resolution but um for the Public's sake I think it's really important that that we share the vast amounts of tools and then I'm sure there's a debriefing afterwards where we discuss what was successful and how to Pilot things throughout the year in the district and then roll it out lengthwise so thank you for letting us know any other just to be consistent it's crazy out there at drop off so just be careful out there and to add to that if your son or daughter are riding their bike yes oh my they need to wear their helmet oh my not ride on the back of each other CU I saw that today oh dear yes one one student to a bike all students need to wear helmet I've noticed a lot of helmet helmetless children on my drive on the way to ter the nickname for helmets the Highlander is usually a bike mess yeah and a lot of them not wearing helmets it's very concerning but my son won't let me roll down the window and say anything to them go back and remind our students that the nickname for helmet is rain buckets like they really want to protect their brains yes oh bra brain buckets yes go to the order do we have a motion to adjourn second second all those in favor I oppos we are adjourned thank you everybody have a great night