6:30 p.m. Mr Bai can you do a roll call Board member Elizabeth Callahan here board member nuia dval Wilson here board member regene AER here board member bill gford here board member will Meyer here board member shanea saaka Gable here board president K tford here board member Arun vadani here here all right please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please take note that adequate notice of this meeting has been proved Ed in the following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board at 2:30 on January 5th 2024 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star Ledger tap into Som and the Village Green whereas the board has determined that one issue has is permitted by the njsa 10 col 4-12 to be discussed without the public in attendance and shall be discussed during an executive session to be held on Thursday May 14th 2024 at 6:30 p.m. M and any matter which by express provision of the federal law statute of the rule of Court shall be rendered confidential or excluded from the public discussion the nature of the matter described as specifically as possible without undermining the need for confidentiality is a training client privilege and Personnel whereas the length of the executive session is estimated to be 60 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall shall reconvene and proceed with business where formal action will be taken now therefore there be it resolved the South Orange maplehood Board of Education will go into executive session for the above stated reasons and only be it further resolved that the board hereby declares that its discussion the aforementioned subjects will be made public at the time when the Public's interest is disclosure in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from closure make a motion to go into executive session thank you board member eer all in favor all right going into the executive session e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right good evening everyone um I would like to make a motion to move up public speaks for any students that have signed up um if there any students that have signed up to do public speaks we want to I want to make a motion to have them speak first can I have a second second all in favor are there any students that want to speak okay can we let's get the up yes all right uh hi uh my name is uh will Clifford um I am a student at Columbia High School and I just wanted to make sure um that you know like I have many great teachers and I just want to make sure that they don't like like they don't go through all the trouble that Sanchez is going through right now um I have many different teachers who have helped me in many different ways um gave me a safe learning environment and gave me a safe learning environment for other kids um yeah that's pretty much it that's all I wanted to say thank you I was going to suggest if any of you want to grab some chairs we are within code so you can if you don't want to stand that there's some chair available chairs on the side please grab one and have a seat if you'd like to have a seat thank you all right I think then with that's it then we will move on to the budget presentation all right so tonight the structure of tonight is we're going to have the business administrator give an update on the budget uh we will then have our we'll then have our first public speaks um we're going to keep that uh oriented to the budget so any sort of public spe on the budget we'll have that then we'll go to the action portion of the meeting and then we'll have our second public speech which will be open um and for that we will give everyone 2 minutes good evening everybody the budget process begins with the central office staff and administration outlining and prioritizing the tools and compon components necessary to provide a thorough and comprehensive educational program The District's goal is to maximize our resources Infuse flexibility and provide tools to ensure an exceptional educational program a program that ensures a safe secure and healthy environment the school budget is a proposed plan to enable the leadership to successfully achieve these goals this budget includes approximately an additional $1 million in state aid the increase in state aid is fortunate for our school district but we also know that it can be decreased just as easily in the future this presentation is essentially a recap of how I the Acting Superintendent and administrators work together to build a budget we use past experiences and data to make our decisions tonight we're going to cover the budget development process and budget calendar projected Revenue enrollment expenditures and the tax impact the administration started budget meetings in November last year we collaborated collaborated to make a list of the next steps this involved identifying areas of opportunity to implement efficiencies and save money inside and outside of the classroom building level administrators also communicated their needs and wants at each school this budget was created to meet Our obligation for a thorough and efficient education it was also built keeping in mind that was not an option to have an impact on intentional integration or construction this is the same as last year one of the early steps is to estimate and identify what the possible revenue of the district is going to be in our January fft meeting this included discussing the tax levy state and federal aid and any other adjustments after projecting the revenue side of the budget we were able to identify what the district's expenditures would be as the expenditures are identified and we receive the official state aid notices the district can determine if there's a surplus or deficit to balance the budget the goals and priorities of the district are used as guidelines this includes using any adjustments if available and any projects that might require the use of our Reserve funds we start with evaluating Revenue the two main sources of the St the district's Revenue are the local tax levy and state aid the tax levy increase is $ 4,418 35 for the 2425 school year this is a combination of the allowable 2% cap increase as well as the allowable enrollment adjustment and Healthcare adjustment traditionally the district has budgeted extraordinary Aid at $1 million as this funding isn't awarded until July we've increased it to $2 million this year over the last three years it has been consistently over $2 million so we we believe this was a a safe increase the audited fund Balan is the remaining funds as of June 30th 2023 that must carry into the 2425 school budget before the pandemic the State allowed districts to carry 2% of our general fund budget as a surplus for the next year during the pandemic that percentage increased to 4% now that the Pand the pandemic is over the state lowered the percentage to 2% this budget does include the use of withdrawal of $1.5 million from maintenance Reserve this will leave us with a balance of approximately 13 $3.2 million for future use South Orange Maplewood school district has a has established a stable base with Reserve funds providing security for emergencies the funds from capital reserve and maintenance Reserve could be used to soften any impact of an emergency as well as close any budget Gap that might be left to balance the budget by reducing maintenance supply accounts or capital projects being supported by the general fund the district does implement procedures to maximize interest earning opportunities and does receive some tuition based students we are conserv in our budget concerning the state and federal grants as we don't apply for these grants until June we budget 80% in case there are reductions this also shows a decrease as the covid relief funds are being spent one of our revenues is also preschool Aid this revenue is outside of the general fund and can only be spent on preschoolers attending our montros school or one of our outside providers this is the operating Revenue that is currently being budgeted for the 2425 school year the district is currently receiving approximately $2.4 million in in debt service Aid Debt Service Aid increased this year according to the schedule of bond payments also included in revenue is The Debt Service fund balance the the district has a Debt Service fund balance of approximately $4 million that was used to reduce The Debt Service tax levy this pie chart shows that 78.9% of the district's budget is financed by the local tax levy and 6.7% of the district's budget comes from state aid this is important because when the state looks at the local fair share it calculates how much a district can afford to contribute toward the adequacy budget this number is calculated by entering a Town's equalized value and aggregate income into a formula if the state doesn't believe a community is collecting enough tax revenue they may decrease state aid enrollment this chart represents the history of enrollment in the district you can see that an enrollment has increased by 132 students from last year to this year this is an encouraging Trend that we hope will continue expenditures we're going to cover celery and benefits and contracted Services tuition transportation and some high level explanations celar benefits and contracted services this budget is anticipating contractual contract increases because the state requires us to perform a public bid every three years even though our custodial Services were bid last year we're going to rebid because of the additional Services needed for the additions from constructions on multiple buildings covid funds were paying for permanent substitutes in our schools those funds have expired and we'll be removing the substitutes from our schools to help reduce the burden of the loss of the permanent substitutes the district the district recently increased rates for for substitute paid this year to stay competitive you you will notice a slight decrease in the category with special services technology and curriculum this is where an increase for PA professionals is budgeted the district is continuing summer programs and the students are going to have access to tutoring the district the district does have programs in District to support special needs students our special services department continues on strategies to build programs out of District tuition had a slight increase however with all the tuition account numbers combined the over cost overall cost of tuition decreased this was led by a decrease in cssd County Special Services District Preschool funds are for regular Education Services only the preschool program is run as a full inclusion program The District reserve seats for special needs children to participate in a full inclusion Pro program and the district has to fund the special services portion of preschool education there is a transfer in the budget and it comes out of this category of the budget in the 2425 school year the transfer is approximately $1,525 th000 as you can see we did have a slight increase in funding for transportation this was mainly driven by an increase in Aid and loop payments to families who send their children to non-public schools we do this in place of providing transportation we will also be reviewing and exploring shared services and a reevaluation of all in District routes this spring in the school department category this covers a myriad of expenses however this expenditure did have a decrease as the k to5 math initiative was implemented last year special services technology curriculum maintenance and operation Etc in this group of expenditures there was an increase this is driven by the need to increase the investment for our par professionals expenditures versus Revenue this slide shows that tonight we do have a balanced budget budget challenges this slide shows that our budgeted fund balance reduced by approximately $4.2 million from last year before covid the maximum unreserved fund balance a district could carry or could maintain was 2% during during Co districts during covid districts were allowed to maintain 4% of unreserved fund balance this 4% allowance ended on June 30th 2022 during the preparation of the 2324 budget the state budget software calculated the amount of fund balance the district was required to budget the amount of the fund balance budgeted in the 2324 school year was a combination of excess Surplus generated in 2122 per the audit along with the unreserved fund balance calculation I mentioned earlier the increases in the following areas on the slide contributed to a budget deficit due to the challenges listed above the district is facing a reduction in force of approximately $2.7 million reducing projected expenses and increasing revenues assisted in offsetting the projected deficit as you can see on the left we have areas of expenses where we were able to have savings and on the right we have an area called revenue and this is where we were able to take some of our uh Healthcare adjustments enrollment adjustments and also increase our extraordinary Aid and there's also the increase in state aid tax impact this reflects the impact of our enrollment and health benefits adjustment on increasing the tax levy from 2% to 3.01% but with the additional Debt Service Aid the overall impact is 1.88% this is because we received some tax relief with interest earned on bond money as construction carries on the amount of interest earned decreases from the funds being drawn down due to the property re-evaluation in each town the average assess value has been updated however the net valuation taxable information is not available from the county yet or yeah from the county traditionally that information is not finalized until May when we have the information we will provide the final tax impact this is our Debt Service this slide shows our debt service payments and includes the breakdown of each payment highlights this is the third consecutive year that we had a lot of we have had a lot of Technology built into the budget to continue the district's commitment to technology infrastructure the district is participating in a lease purchase finance agreement this will ensure that the technology needs of the district district will continue to move forward you can see Chromebooks infrastructure for new construction editions laptops some security equipment and cameras Network wiring and classroom audio visual there are funds included in the 2425 budget to implement the Fergus recommendations and the curriculum and instruction department will have funds to continue the implementation of the K22 Ela curriculum thank you this concludes the presentation all right so we will have our questions reserved for the action portion of the meeting no no we're going [Music] to okay we'll do two questions now for each board member we'll just go around and um then we'll have public speaks and then action portion two more questions what Okay can start so so we'll just go around okay whoever is just raise your hand yeah record thank you than you Mr Burnside um I understand you know this is a very strenuous and complex process um so I appreciate you putting that together um it went by a little quickly I mean I personally have seen a draft of these slides but I think I'm going to start with this I think what we have discussed internally was the actual budget Gap like the deficit is $9.6 million and you factor in the revenue that that you showed the savings and that led to the 2. $2.7 million riff can you just I think it would be beneficial for the community to just really kind of understand that because I think it was a bit spread out in the presentation yes one second okay so the elimin I'm going to go category by category on the um savings and the of the expenses um so for the elimination of uh building permanent building Subs okay give me one second I'll re um broadcast the presentation I'm sorry it's not letting me reconnect but but yeah I'm going to go off of a slide number 20 okay so let me go off to slide 20 all right so for the reduction of expenses Andre increasing the re the revenue that assists in offsetting the deficit the first step was eliminating permanent building Subs that was a savings of approximately $600,000 now historically that was being funded through covid relief funds however those funds have expired or will expire so we absorbed that into the uh the general fund fund 10 now that's just not sustainable and this is why we're pushing that out of the uh the general fund can you can you define permanent building Subs yes they're not they're not the daily subs that you would just call up first thing in the morning and have come in they have a regular assignment so they they know where they're going to be every day and I just want to clarify because I think I I personally was also very confused for a little while but just to clarify as as you've all seen we have actually increased the rate for daily subs which is which is excellent um but so what we're talking about is permanent building Subs that we use Esser funding and a big chunk of that budget was due to health benefits that we were covering is that right yeah the eser funds were helping to pay for payroll and benefits got it thank you okay next up we're going to move some of the uh costs from our lunch monitors from the general fund to the to what's called an Enterprise fund fund 60 which is our food service fund we we we uh when we submitted our application with the Department of Agriculture this this spring we made sure had that in there and it was approved so we have Aids on all of our buses whether there's a special needs child that has an IEP driven that requires an aid um we're going to scale that back to have only Aids on buses when it is required um we've got a dental program right now that we've talked to our broker if we move to a self-insured program there's going to be a possible there's going to be a minimum Savings of about $100,000 also our tuition for the County servic Special Services District enrollment is down so we will be able to save approximately $150,000 there we looked at all the maintenance accounts and we're also using a maintenance Reserve um to help supplement those accounts so we were able to decrease the that the the cost of that by $600,000 so I sat oh she okay we sat with um assistant superintendent of uh curriculum instruction and also director of facilities um across the district our supplies are going to be cut and that's going to save us about $580,000 as well as textbooks that's another $86,000 and with the expiration of the k to5 math curriculum the upfront cost from last year it's already been implemented we're able to save about $774,000 and we're also able to decrease this the um budget line for professional development and that's approximately $74,000 on the flip side is our Revenue um above the 2% 2% tax cap we're able to exercise a healthcare adjustment which is approximately $700,000 we also have an enrollment adjustment of approximately $645,000 miscellaneous Revenue incre increase about $75,000 that's due to the interest being earned on our bank accounts and we also have semi which is for Medicaid El eligible students that's a number that's given to us by Trenton and that's an increase of $26,000 over last year I explained how we were able to Inc increase extraordinary Aid by a million dollars and then we just got an increase in state aid of $1,251 se8 board member second Gable okay thank you Mr Burnside so um I understand there are a lot of hard decisions here and um I just I understand that instructionally with the items being cut we would make due for the 2425 school year but obviously that's not we wouldn't be operating at an optimal level um so my question is how do we come back how do we rebound um from that point to get back to where we want to be to be able to function and run the way um you know our school district needs to instructionally I guess it goes without saying we're just going to have to do more with less but while we are saving this money we are allowing ourselves to have the revenue kind of catch up and and hopefully uh surpass our expenses it'll take time um this is kind of like a correction if you will and it will just take a little bit of time for us to generate the revenue and keep saving and then we'll be at a place where we we can actually start to thrive again okay um I have a lot of questions but um one is uh Transportation related so um are we going our numbers that we had last year from our bidding was I think what we said like 120,000 per bus or something we're our contract for next year are we locked into that same rate per bus that we had last year or do we have to rebid any new routes based on what will be um placements this year I'm just making sure that like there's not going to be a surprise this spring when it comes to our contracts and any additional cost with respect to kindergarten placements and any new routes renewal season is coming up we haven't seen any numbers yet I can't answer any of that so meaning currently our current Transportation the current budget we have for transportation could change we might need more money is what you're saying oh depending on our Sussex and and our and bidding so that was one area we really didn't have an impact on I mean I know I saw about $100,000 for Aiden Lou um oops sorry but that's that's pretty flat for that budget so it didn't go up it didn't go down we believe we will have enough money for a uh built-in CPI increase of approximately 5.8% okay yeah but we will be going to bid for there's a potential that we'll be going to bid just for some new Roots this year Well if if if everybody's renewal comes in super high we would have no choice but to go out to bid but right now we have the option to renew we don't have to go out to bid okay okay uh I can wait for my next question want to go for mayor sure so just um Mr BR I to get some uh more clarity uh I think for myself and for the public you know I'm looking at slide 19 which talks about our budget challenges uh and uh we list here a number of the items that have uh increased in cost uh and at the bottom there's a single bullet here that discusses uh the district facing a reduction in force of 2.7 ion can you explain in layman's terms what that actually means thank you uh board member Meers uh what that means in layman terms is that after we crunched the numbers and we did all the internal cutting we still found ourselves $2.7 million shy of a balanced budget which means to make make up that balance budget we are going to look at a reduction in force um presently what that means is that we're looking at having to cut 30 to 40 positions and that process will begin uh with the internal team following the conclusion of this budget where we are going to really look at first of all we're going to go back and look at our budget again and go to all our departments to see if we can get that number down uh and then uh we are going to make sure in making those particular cuts that we keep a nean eye for protecting our classroom instruction piece and it's going to be felt all the way from central office all the way down to the classroom so everyone is going to have to feel the brunt of that it gives me no joy to have to say that but by law we have to have a balanced budget and this the this is at this point this is the only way we can get to our balanced budget Whit letter thank you given the expectation that the amount of resources available next year will be limited and recognizing that the local taxpayers are financially stressed what analysis has been done during the budget development process of the major categories of expenditures to determine if the resources are being effectively and efficiently allocated have you identified Trends in the r of growth of expenditure and what have you gleaned from this work yes thank you so we do a lot of historical Trend analysis obviously um we compare budget to actual we're looking at what our current expenses are and what we're going to project to spend in each of those counts by the end of the year that's how we learn how much we need to budget for the following year one of the areas that we did identify and this has been a trend over the last couple years is our investment in special services and spec specifically the pair of professionals um we've got a uh an increase this year of approximately $1.56 7 million um we made that same a similar investment last year when we identified that Trend um that's the one area that uh we we noticed that we we're definitely putting a lot of investment into anyone else want so and you probably said this but there's so many numbers and so many different balances and reserves I just want to make sure that I and everyone else is hearing correctly so um the withdrawal from maintenance Reserve is 1.5 million correct last year it was 1 million so are is that all we have in our maintenance Reserve is 1.5 or we have more in our Reserve but that's what we're pulling out that I'm not quite I don't understand okay so we're going to so we're going to possibly make a withdrawal for $1.5 million that will leave approximately 3.2 million do left 3.2 3.2 million and we is there's a certain amount that we have to keep in our maintenance Reserve fund correct or no what's the deal with that um there is no minimum requirement what do we normally keep in our maintenance fund is there a balance that we' over the past have tried to maintain so since I've been here for 3 years it's been between 3 and 5 million and I think s right that please hold um oh sorry um po member Gord has to ask question ask your question Bo member Gord no and um I did just want to confirm I thought we had approximately 1 million left in the Arps or funds to be used by 9 uh 24 that I just wanted I don't remember what it is exactly off the top of my head but it has been budgeted and has been approved for uh this year to be spent acur thank you um this is actually related to eser funding so as you were talking about the permanent building subs and you know how that was Esser funding that we've gotten I'm just curious like there's always been like an end date right to the Esser funding and obviously we had to do what we had to do to get people back in the buildings and you know supplement whatever whatever we needed to to get back to normal I guess but can you talk about how like the offramp from that started and like when that started because I guess that's where I struggled a little bit because it's like extra Revenue at some point and it expires and so at what point do you start to think of well these you know we're spending this much on this that needs to go away that's a collaboration with uh curriculum and instruction and special services I know we knew that this was coming and I know we've scaled back like our summer programs coming up so we're still going to have summer programming it's just not going to be quite what it was there's a rule called supplement supplant when you do invest or not invest but when you do create a budget for some of these grants you have to make sure that you can't rely on them if it were to go away you have to be make sure you can either live without it or you can bring it back in house hey board member Whit letter you have a second question so um just said I guess a bit differently I do think it's important to note that if we do in fact take this $1.5 million this year from the maintenance Reserve that means that for 2 years we've withdrawn 2.5 million from the maintenance Reserve that are those are funds that are set aside for repairs and maintenance to our school facilities and so I just want us to think about that um because what we hear a lot from our community members is that our schools um are not in good shape and 2 and a half million dollar is significant so when we can't put it to work for our buildings and we're using it to balance the budget um I find that concerning especially if we we will only have 3.2 million left but um my question is related to special services so we're talking about how specific budget line items under special services continue to rise pair of professionals transportation and what you know I'd like more clarity around is that while these expenses are going up the district has significantly reduced the per pup spend for our special education students historically that per people spend has hovered around 21 to $22,000 annually um in 2223 the per people spend was almost $22,000 and in this year's budget due to cuts the per people spend was over $5,000 lower so it was around $16,733.34 um and what will the per people spend look like in the 2425 school year for special ed students as well as for gened students so I don't have all that information off the top of my head um but what I do know is that when there was a report out we have the highest special ed spending in the county so if if it did decrease it must be an increase of special ed driven IEPs I I don't have a lot of answers there there's a lot of research that I would have to do that goes behind all those numbers so from that reduction of $5,000 you're not sure what it was attributed to we're not going to do followup questions like that we're just GNA okay I just it was he didn't really answer the question so I just follow don't interrogations please any other board members have any questions board member Meer just following back up on the um the discussion uh in the I've lost my version of the presentation here with regard to the cuts to the curriculum and instruction items you know obviously talking about this reduction in Force is is tough enough but looking at reducing items for core instruction can you discuss the process that the district goes through does um does cni staff do they have involvement in discussing how to make these cuts and whether we can afford them educationally yes so many times I sat down with the assistant superintendent and Miss Bodner and I also sat down with Dr Gilbert and we went over how this is going to work and with the K to2 Ela curriculum rollout um we already piloted it last year so this is just a continuation of that curriculum roll out and for about $128,000 we'll be able to finish that roll out forone so what I find interesting is that our transportation budget is going up by the costs are going up by 365,000 which is driven mainly by Aiden Lou what that means is basically we're paying for kids who are in private school to go to bus take the buses and that's about 1,000 bucks per kid so we what we saying is that about 320 over 310 odd PE kids who are going to private school who we are funding and strangely enough at the same time our enrollments have gone up year on year so I mean I normally it's like you know they're inversely correlated right so that's the only interesting I thing I find I don't know if you have any insights on that no I my first inclination was maybe we get to keep those kids on our books but we don't um there would have to be uh some uh some research done on to figure out why we would have to maybe do a survey ask the families why that's happening all right um Callahan all right yeah um so I guess can you talk us through I I think in this right we talk about the expenditure chart showing that we're increasing spending in special education particularly in special education with power professionals but then it's also listed as a challenge so I guess could you just talk us through how do we square that where we're both talking about how we've increased spending in there but that it's also listed as a all and I guess like where does that leave us on the question of par professional and our investment in special education broadly as it relates to making these [Music] Cuts I guess the easiest way to explain it is we've got more children needing more needs and we're addressing those needs we're putting approximately 1.56 7 million into more PA professionals we're not neglecting any other areas really um we we still are taking care of otpt home instruction Professional Services for child study team so we're it's an overall investment and special education um yes it's a uh it's a challenge just because we do have a pretty high number there 1.5 million um but we do believe that uh we're doing the right thing all right I'll just one more question yeah I guess just at what point um did the administration realize or and see that the deficit for next year was you know even at 5 million because the news that the deficit was so significant I mean just crossed our desks at the end of February and you know obviously there's a lot of emotion because it's it was um very concerning to say the least and so you know one of the things that I would just want to understand cuz we're back where we were last year at this time when we had found out with very late notice that there was a $4.5 million deficit in last year's current budget I know this is for future but that you know likely would have changed or mitigated behaviors um in terms of our spending over the last you know I would say close to a year so I guess I'm just trying to understand like how we got to this place and while maybe the board wasn't made aware like what has been done by the district over this last year to help us mitigate spending significantly um to to only have it be what it is now I just um I feel like just like more color around why we're finding out about it so late all right well we did see this coming and the fft committee was notified of the rising cost of par professionals and Healthcare and several meetings starting as early as December of 2022 with healthcare costs and ed services increasing more than 2% annually there really are so many areas of the budget they can be reduced without affecting other critical areas right cahan yeah so I think we know our district is facing many challenges um we have competing priorities maintenance of facilities launching new initiatives and curriculum instructions supporting our Fergus recommendations um just to name a few um I know we've also talked a little bit about our investment in special education but obviously within that we know there are also challenges so I think particularly in The Last 5 Years there's been so me such a different landscape in education with covid coming out of covid I think uh board member eert kind of touched on some of the funding that we received as a result so I think if you could just provide maybe some context about that landscape um and what assumptions kind of we're basing our budget on and how have those assumptions potentially changed over the Last 5 Years knowing that these have been a unique set of circumstances and how successful we've been at kind of making those accurate assumptions um before before now I'm really not sure what the question is yeah I think just providing some context around the the landscape of how we're making some of our decision making knowing we've had things like Esser funding I think Regina talked about what does the off-ramp for that look like when we have particular funding that we know has an expiration date um and how that's impacted our decision making and our um ability to make assumptions about the budget so when we do the budget for any kind of Grant specifically the user funds for for covid we we know that when we're making those budgets it's not going to be something that's going to be absorbed into the general fund or it just supplements it we're not supplanting it we're not pushing everything out there and putting ourselves in a position where we know we won't be able to afford it when the funds expire all right sorry so just a general comment I mean you know maybe it's not clear to everyone is that we don't have a hole in this year's budget this year's budget is fine we're chugging along we moving fine with this budget what has happened is gone through a process of looking at what we will spend next year and looking at that and finding a hole so we actually fixing the hole so that there are no holes one year from today so current so so people should understand that this is a budget for next year not this year there's nothing happening this year so curing spending today is not going to help next year I mean so so you you need to understand that I mean of course yeah sure we can you know whatever doesn't matter it's a budget it's for next year not this year sorry boort M Meyer thank you um just another nuts and bolts question because I think one of the for us certainly one of the most really difficult uh parts of this is talking about this reduction in force and I imagine a lot of folks in the community are going to be uh experiencing that as well Dr Gilbert to the degree that you are able to shed light at this point um what does that what does that look like in practice yes Mike on there it is um so thank you so the decision making process during the reduction of force will involve us priori PRI prioritizing instruction and minimizing the impact on classrooms while preserving essential Educational Services like our social emotional programs we will be analyzing our programing our prog programmatic needs as well as look at our our class sizes then we will look at our core values and beliefs on diversity equity and inclusion and to drive our decision making we are committed to the fairness guided to the selection of positions affected ensuring that the cuts that we have to make or be strategic to protect the interest of our students and the sustainability of this District we will be using the last in first out principle because that is the fairest principle that we can use to take away from any biases going into what those decisions look like um and the it's just going to be a very very uh difficult ruling process but that's kind of outlines how we're going to go about it but I also want to emphasize that regardless of what happens on this particular V vote I have asked our budget team to meet with all of our department leaders get off those budgets let's look at them again and see if we can find any type of cost savings or anything that's going to help us save the positions all right so then that'll conclude our questioning I guess we'll move on to the board president's statement the school board meeting is a business meeting in public and not a meeting with the public often times it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education takes action with very little comment in many cases a unanimous vote before a vote is placed on an agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools uh if the superintendent of schools is satisfied with the matter it is the superintendent of schools is satisfied that the matter is ready for to be presented to the board of education is then referred to the appropriate board committee members of the board committee work with the administration and the superintendent to assure the members full fully understand the matter after the committee discusses the matter it is then shared with other board members for consideration only then is it placed on the agenda for board discussion and action at a public meeting we will now hold our hearing of individuals individuals and delegations um and for this for this hearing we're going to only have budget related uh matters and then we're going to move to the action portion and then we'll have our second uh hearing of individuals and in hearing of individuals and delegations so thank you for coming and person and dialing in by phone this evening the South orang neighorhood Board of Education certainly respects that you've taken the time out of your busy day to address the border at tonight's meeting we value public involvement in our school district and we are eager to hear what you have to say the board does have time limits by policy and it will be enforcing those to enable as many people to speak as possible this evening each individual will be given two minutes to speak please do your best to stay within the time afforded to you the first public comment period is usually limited to to 1 hour and the second public comment period may be limited to 30 minutes all put shared with the board of education is taken very seriously and will inform future deliberations and work by the Board of Education and his committees one so um Elizabeth [Music] Baker good evening my name is Elizabeth Baker I'm a 22-year resident of maple W and the parent of two recent Columbia High School graduates I'm here to speak about legal costs and judgments a line item that was not included in the budget presentation tonight and that has siphoned resources out of our children's education I'm a board of educ I was a board of education member for six years and as president of the board for three years I sought to have the district do the right thing in the first instance by our children and community members rather than waste money and pay for its failures when lawsuits investigations and damages ensued I was the author of the ACT access and Equity policy the 504 policy and other civil rights policies that required the district to treat all children and stakeholders in our schools in a respectful proactive and supportive manner throughout my time here in the district and on the board I've witnessed firsthand that when the district and the board failed to act competently and do the right thing the district and our children pay at least twice they pay from the initial harms that they suffer and they pay a second time we all pay a second time when precious Financial Resources administrative time and energy are squandered on legal cost damages compensatory me and compensatory measures that should have never been required in the first place the district and some boards prior to this board have seen themselves as victims of these processes and costs rather than owning their responsibility our Collective responsibility to do the right thing in the first instance since I'm sorry can I have my time sorry there is a direct connection between the budget and the reason everyone is in this room tonight the district and the board have an obligation and an opportunity to finally start doing the right thing with respect to the high school principal whose rights have been violated repeatedly in this room and throughout various processes in the district over the last year you have the opportunity and the obligation as board members to take charge to lead at this moment to make sure that you understand firsthand not secondhand the actual evidence to set the record straight and when future requests are made to you and they will be made to you to take action with respect to his employment and his livelihood that you own that responsibility that you know the facts directly that you probe respectfully but robustly the legal advice that you're given and that you own the obligation to do the right thing rather than complain or whine or try to excuse yourself that we did what we were told we had to do you always have the opportunity to do the right thing I applaud our children our students our teachers who've stood up tonight and this past week at their own potential Peril to do the right thing we've elected you to do the same thing and we hope that you will thank you we'll now move on to the action portion of our meeting all right yeah are there any more are there any online comments for the budget or or did you sign up oh sorry can you just clarify this is only for Budget matters no no only for we will have a second public speaks after the vote is taken by this historically and a line item in your previous budgets i' like to com all right I signed up online and on your list my name is Nathan Marino Nathan Marino father of a fifth grader at Boulder my family moved to this District because we were enamored of its diversity community and reputation for Quality education since moving here we have encountered administrative inaptitude a complete lack of focus on academic excellence and a board routinely Paralyzed by infighting in December when walking through his school my 10-year-old happily discussed the holiday of Hanukkah with a friend another boy overheard the conversation and project and proceeded to subject my son to a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse after reporting the incident we were instructed by balin's principal that one the facts my son had recounted were confirmed and two despite this the district would not deem this an incident of harassment intimidation or bullying because the incident and here I quote did not take place in a classroom when we asked if a non-jewish student would have been treated the same way we were told to file a police report to pursue the matter further and here's the budget issue given your well documented history of mismanagement I cannot claim to be surprised by the outcome particularly given that you have historically budgeted tens of thousands of dollars to service providers under the professional development budget who regularly deride core aspects of Jewish identity as racist or genocidal what happened to my son was not an isolated incident and it was the natural outcome of your spending practices your Myriad failures have left me no choice and my wife no choice but to remove our son from this District at the earliest possible opportunity I Can't Make You Care but I do hope that when each of you goes to sleep tonight you will be haunted by the thought of a 10-year-old boy coming home crying because the system you administer and set up that was supposed to protect him and children like him did absolutely nothing each of you is accountable and each of you should be ashamed all right we'll move to the action portion of our meeting for your consideration tonight I have resolution number 4585 can I get a second second we are now in discussion devlon so um um as Regina said you know um this is a really big gap and um I spent today really trying to go through all the documents um really thoroughly um you know it was 10 million now now 9.5 million and so I'm apologizing in advance if my questions seem mundane but I just want to make sure that I have a full understanding of of of of our budget in the budget process so um for example um line number 740 other revenue from local sources we we had budgeted 438,000 last year this year we have zero and I just want to understand why one what is the local sources from revenue and why don't we have any this year so the okay the local sources are grants that are donations so it's the PTA it's the if they get a a public service Grant it's not a Federal Grant or a state Grant so at the time when we're doing this budget we don't know if they're going to spend it completely by June 30th so if they don't it automatically we automatically move it into next school year it's not lost it's just that we can't take that 400,000 and move it over because they may want up spending all of it and then then there's nothing there so um it's not an unusual practice it's something we've always done so it's not you know it's not lost money or anything like that right okay thank you about money so I'm traditionally given a choice between maintaining buildings and keeping teachers we always pick keeping teachers that's just natural so given that we have 3.2 million in the maintenance reserve and going against uh other another board member talked about maintenance can we not pull another $700,000 out of of the maintenance reserve and use that to offset some of the layoffs that we having so I'd like to say yes but um in theory no so if we were to pull out another 700,000 and that would make the number 2 2.2 2.2 million we would have to make sure our maintenance budget is two at least $2.2 million because they will look at that so off the top of my head I don't know what the those account numbers total to they may only total to 2 million and if we're going to pull 700,000 we've got to put 200,000 more into the maintenance line they're going to look at to make sure if you're takeing like I said if you're taking two having revenue of 2.2 million of Maintenance they're going to look at the maintenance account and make sure we have $2.2 million but like I said I don't know what the accounts off the top of my head look like in theory you could but you at a minimum we would have to do our due diligence and make sure there's at least that amount of money on those account lines I hope that answered your question okay oh okay so my my second question is uh can you can you remind the board what the cost for implementing the Fergus Implement Fergus implementation plan for this year is yes I sat down with Dr Gilbert we went through the recommendations um we have 525 $5,000 budgeted in this in the 2425 budget for the Fergus recommendations so again kind of going the unpopular route of actually I don't know if it's unpopular whatever is is trying to protect our teachers can we not reach out to the settlement party and figure out if we can postpone this settlement by one year and use a 525,000 to save the instructional staff at least I'm going to defer to Patrick on that one um that would have to be a larger discussion in an executive session with your special councel that represents the district in that lawsuit um it's not something that's been previously discussed or raised so we have no direction we have never even approached that subject with them to see if if the party would be interested nor have we looked into it to see what it would look like in terms of breaking down what that 525,000 is allocated for and whether it could even be used for something other than the Fergus implementation so it would be a much larger discussion to figure that out but I'm hoping that both these discussions that we have can be done between today and the final budget so that way you know we can squeeze every little dollar we have out of there so because I mean this is not nobody's having you know good time passing this budget right now so I just want for a point of point point of clarity the the 525 so uh that's been allocated is what we estimated based on the plan that we were putting together in order to implement it if this board wants us to go back and look at that number to see if there are some adjustments we can do I'm happy to do that but I don't want people to think that the lawsuit told us that's how much we had to do uh with the law we're trying to make sure we live up to the uh the tenor of the lawsuit in terms of doing what we are been asked to do and the team got together and that is the cost right now on what some things we want to put in place but it's on the table so if the board is asking me to go back with the team and look at that number uh in the in the interest of trying to save some bodies uh I'm happy to do that so just bouncing off of that two things one um you know I obviously I'm not happy about about the Rifts and the cuts um and I'm very concerned about our most vulnerable students in our district which are students of color and our special services students um but that said I do know that we do need to think very creatively um to to problem solve and so just wanted to for the community as as well to understand like tonight you know the intention is that we're trying to pass this preliminary budget but then the final vote on this budget is April correct I forgot what the date is late April and then so technically in between today and April even though this is the preliminary there can still be conversations we can still be problem solving and trying to make potential adjustments until that final April date because we're not voting on this again next week right that is correct the final budget hearing will be on April 25th Meer so this budget discussion is happening in the shadow of the board of school estimate meeting scheduled for Monday uh and the uh Bond that's being proposed there Mr bste for the clarity of uh everyone here could you explain what relationship uh that vote on Monday has with this budget here and the degree to which the money the district will be paying out uh on that Bond uh is uh related or not related to the the fund that teacher salaries come out of thank you so so these are mutually exclusive budgets you've got fund 30 which is the construction Bond and what you're voting on tonight is fund 10 20 and 40 now 40 is our debt service which is also connected to fund 30 for the construction Bond um that that's they're not really related at all okay and in your in your budget presentation uh in The Debt Service item is there a line there that talks about the um encumbrance that we'd be looking at from the vote on Monday yes we did anticipate uh an interest payment if in anticipation of it passing if it does not pass um we can revise The Debt Service um tax levy if if it if that's what happens then we can reduce the tax levy amount for The Debt Service portion of the levy got it but that amount uh has nothing to do with the money we have available in that uh fund 10 right correct they're two different yeah it's yeah absolutely anyone else wh letter um one of the things that when we were looking at the budget highlights that wasn't there uh was related to any like new student achievement initiatives um are you aware of any investments in this budget that will be contributing to those goals just the K to 2 Ela um roll out continuing that's all I know unless Dr Gilbert has any no I think what's not said in there is that um the the amount the the things that we did not cut out of cni so um we can do a thorough analysis with our curriculum and instruction assistant superintendent but you know we still have things they're still working on the roll out of that that particular program is for the phonics work that's going on and we still got our math uh work that's being implemented that's in there um I think the this particular piece that was cut out was just like the first part of the implementation of our kmth initiative and so U many of the academic programs that we're still working on are still still functioning for cni to roll out so uh phonics the math initiative uh we're doing some work with uh science and other things of that nature so some of those academic of forces are still in play think the Fergus recommendations keeping that investment is really important because these are new initiatives and we should always make sure that we're budgeting for student achievement like that's what our tax dollars in my opinion should be a main priority of where those tax dollars go um just have a question related to that um the I know one of the things we also talked talked about investing in for next year was um having a improved data what bank I don't warehous yeah data warehouse thank you and so is that was that going to be connected to Dr fergus's recommendations and or is that in our budget for next year because it's so needed for the district especially when it comes to tracking our student achievement right so I can give you just a quick uh rundown of some of the analysis that's that are located in the Fergus recommend in the the money that's allotted for the Fergus recommendation there from some professional development dollars uh one of the things we've been working with Dr Fergus is on building some uh infrastructure pieces like you know what is our data services going to look like what is our professional development uh uh foundations going to look like what are the functions and things we have to put in place to insulate so when we start making the necessary changes it's going to hold so we still have some Consulting dollars that we have to put in there because you know we still have to build something internally to sustain that um it also includes work towards we got our Workforce diversity Workforce that's working part of that plan is for the recruitment as well as the retention of educators of color right so part of the dollars in there are things for building like Affinity spaces for our Educators looking at how we build Affinity spaces for our young people and so come in in all of those dollars those are some of the things that we wanted to put out to say you know this is going to get us get us going and and get started and so um the in the the the the data warehouse piece um is not quite in there because we're actually going to eliminate some other things that we're working on in order to house and pay for our data warehouse so that's going to be like a a flatline or a a a wash cuz we're going to be able to take care of getting a new data warehouse through removing some of the data things that we have now that we aren't using all right that's all guess we'll take r one more okay one more question sorry um I guess it's more of a comment than a question but um you know I think we one of our goals in fft last year was to track um to you know one of the public speaks points our legal bills and um we also talked about looking at school by school budgets making sure that now that we you know we have this integration um in place that every every child is getting that equal share of um of resources and so I guess I am now asking a question but um one I I I hope that this year we can continue on those goals in fft I know we started a legal tracker Mr burnsa I know it took a long time to put that together um but I think it's really important um that we continue to look at our legal bills and the trends and understand and if there are things that we could be doing better in other departments from a cni perspective from a special services perspective to to reel that in um and the only way to do that is to really dig into the the data of our of our bills as well as our um what's the word I'm looking for settlements thank you um and so I think he say I'm talking to myself now but anyway so yeah so one is um so with that said have you looked at the school by school spend based on this budget for next year and if not is that something that can be looked at over the next couple weeks as we're evaluating this budget thanks I remember correctly when we discussed an fft we were waiting for the intentional integration to be complete before we could do a nice Equitable school by school analysis and yes it can certainly be done when that's complete I guess I just have a question just kind of Peggy backing off with that idea of looking at legal expenditures um how much will the audit of special services factor into that that that audit like I was looking at the audit of those costs so we were talking to that auditor um we believe that should be like a second part to the audit this this first part is just it's going to touch that but the way he explained it is that that's going to be a deeper dive that's going to be a that's going to be another RFP because it's probably going to be quite a bit of money well worth it though board member e um thank you um it's it's just more of a comment and I you know there there's been a lot going on not only in just the past week um past couple months um you know I just want to go back to where I was last year same time um you know as a pretty brand new board member being thrown into you know a budget approval process which you know I'm I'm always the first to say budgeting and and the finance stuff is not certainly not my area of expertise um but I really just want to continue to underscore that we I would really love to see a revised budgeting process going into the next um into the next school year um you know I know that it's challenging I know that you know state aid numbers come in pretty late um but it quite frankly was very difficult to receive some of the documentation just a couple days before this meeting sitting out here spreading out all of the information trying to really understand because there are implications as we've discussed right if this doesn't pass what happens and you know the ideal situation is that you get to your preliminary budget is really pretty much your final um and I I just want to underscore the importance of that and I you know it's something I advocated for I know that a couple of other board members did as well and I think especially as we look at this specific time around the fact that we have that you know 9.6 million do deficit we've been able to get it down however that includes a riff and so it's um I feel like I'm in the same spot but actually in a more difficult spot so um you know fft like if we can figure out a a better process and a more improved process moving forward I think that would be beneficial to all thank you right Callahan thank you um so not really sure to be honest if this will be a question or statement but I I feel it's it's important for me to just name um you know I know other folks have said that this tonight I know that none of us sitting here feel good about this I know for me personally um both as a board member and quite frankly as an educator um I'm really sensitive to the impact of the information that we're receiving tonight uh particularly about a reduction in force but not limited to also thinking about reducing some of our budgets around professional development around curriculum and instruction when we've lifted so many things and have so much work to do um and so I think some of my broader concerns really here are around some of the the tension between some of the goals that we're talking about um we're talking about wanting to reduce our legal bills as a goal but also potentially reducing par professionals right um those two things are really hard to coexist right we can't reduce par professionals while improving services in house for our kids while also reducing the likelihood that we may have to in fact send kids out of District to receive some services and so I think when we're having some of these conversations you know another thing that's coming to mind is as we're reducing you know we're talking about a reduction in um our Workforce r large we're also then talking about folks who will remain here who will inevitably bear the brunt of that and have an increased workload on top of what is already a barely manageable workload already and I have concerns too then about morale concerns about retention when those things are already really really challenging and so there's really no easy answer to any of this but I feel compelled to share some of those broader concerns both in the short term and the long term particularly we in the middle of a really sensitive time in education when educators are incredibly hard to retain incredibly hard to hire and so my fear in losing some of these jobs is that once gone we're not getting them back um and so I just wanted to say that publicly because I have some major concerns and while I understand the ramifications of the decisions we're making here tonight about the budget and the Practical implications of passing it I also have incredible reservations about what this means for our district thank you all right we'll move on to our vote board member Callan incredibly reluctantly yes board member dval Wilson echoing everything Liz said this sucks yes board member AER also very reluctant yes board member gford yes board member Meyer uh only seeing no other better option presented tonight yes board member sacka Gable yes board president ellesford [Music] yes board member VOD Lani yes board member Whit letter yes motion passes all right we will have our second hearing of individuals and delegations so I just start with these first two right Paul Stefon good evening hello happy Pi Day my name is Paul Stefan I'm a South Orange resident former teacher I wanted to talk about uh the recent events surrounding uh Mr Sanchez and what I think it means for our district um I know the board is not at Liberty to discuss Personnel matters or matters involving individual students and the public does not have potentially all the information but I think some things are clear first if the board received a report that was not properly vetted and approved the right thing to do would have been to get it properly vetted and approved rather than to have it sent to the police department and if the allegations against Mr Sanchez are true it should not have taken 10 months to investigate that and take appropriate action so in either case as I see it there's been a real failure of process um and I hope that's something that the board is uh going to work to amate I think it goes without saying that when there's serious allegations made against somebody that needs to be investigated carefully and promptly and doing so is a benefit to our students and to our uh District staff and employees um you all know that we have a vacancy in the superintendent position in the principle of CHS um board member Callahan just spoke about retaining Educators it's important to retain the right people and to attract the right people but people also need to feel that they can operate in systems that work and I hope the board is going to work to try to create and better those systems uh for the benefit of our administrators and our teachers and most of all our students thank you Ray Beck my heart is is so heavy for our school district educators are absolutely terrified high school kids are baffled and parents are just outraged that once again machinations and Mischief are at the Forefront of our attention rather than attention to educating the children our children that we've entrusted y'all with I hope we can finally say we've hit rock bottom how we get out of this mess I don't know what I do know is that this Board needs to do everything in its power to ensure a beloved administrator is able to disentangle himself from the nightmare he finds himself in it's a nightmare that you all bear some responsibility for I want to urge each of you to be courageous to Center the humanity of both victims in your our actions not just abide by the rules and all their vague and Labyrinthian bureaucratic demands this isn't just another day in SoMo where careers are casually ruined uh by board members and Shadow actors I can't believe I even you know this this is someone's life and Liberty on the line I can't even believe I have to say that but I'll repeat it Frank Sanchez Liberty is on the line even if we don't need him his wife needs him his children his three children need him if there is any way that you can advance this investigation toward a just resolution we urge you we demand of you actually we beg you do what is good and what is right thank you we'll move on to our online public speaks first is Carrie Gordon hi can you hear me hello yes yes hi uh my name is Carrie and I'm a parent of two children at Columbia High School I know the focus tonight is on the budget if our government properly funded Education and healthc Care instead of bombs we would not have this huge budget deficit with what with that said I wanted to speak briefly about the Ramadan letter because there was no need to issue an apology or in the manner it was done you have a resolution that affirms that you will teach the truth and a district policy on controversial issues that with the format of your apology you have failed to uphold the international criminal court of justice has ruled that there's plausible genocide taking place in Palestine and preeminent scholars in the field of Holocaust and genocide studies such as rad seagull who spoke at seen Hall University the other week has called this a textbook case of genocide we also know that the United States has given billions to find Israel's bombing of Gaza Israel has bombed over 100 mosques in Gaza and destroyed 80% of the infrastructure and killed tens of thousands of people the majority of which are women and children there's also a siege that has cut off fuel water fuel and electricity this would all definitely make celebrating Ramadan very difficult as many Palestinian Muslims live in Gaza these are facts people can try to dispute it but this genocide is well documented and many trusted human rights groups have confirmed these facts it isn't typical to mention Palestine during Ramadan but this year as Muslims fast for Ramadan they can't help but think of those starving to death in Gaza and they can't help but think of the lack of food to break fast in Gaza at the Crescent Moonlighting in Maplewood this past weekend they also spoke about Palestine Palestine isn't only a Muslim issue my family is Christian Palestinian a priest in Gaza said that if all those that call the call the muslim prayers are killed that the call to Muslim prayer would be heard from the churches please in the future don't let yourself be bullied and follow your own policies and resolutions sure the Ramadan flyer facts and thus might have caused discomfort to some but referencing Palestine is not antisemitic mentioning the [Music] Gen next is Fara chugal that community members is not online next is Tia Swanson I'm actually here in person um and I don't have much to add then um to the eloquence that we've already heard tonight I signed up basically because I wanted you all to know the extreme upset in the community um I think I felt generally sick to my stomach when I heard that Frank Sanz had been arrested um for doing his job on our behalf um and then to find out that perhaps um the report that led to his arrest was given to the police by members of this board um is extremely I don't even know what to say but doesn't say anything good about our community our sense of treating each other with respect and giving each other the benefit of the doubt and putting our faith and trust in those we hire to do the jobs and giving them the benefit of explaining um how they go about their jobs so I just want you as a board to know the upset and also to do all in your power since it seems that it may have begun here to clean up the mess if you can and are able to um it seems that there is a report that has cleared him of wrong doing that you may have and if you are able to get that to the prosecutor's office I don't know all the ins and outs of the legal system but I do think that you need to do to reiterate all in your power to clear Frank Chan's name and to show the world that this is not the kind of community we are that we are people who can give each other the benefit of the doubt thank you next we have have Megan Durk that Community member is not online next is Shannon cuddle that Community member is not online next is Sun Jackson she's right [Music] here um so I am a student at CHS and though it is opening night of the CHS music musical so my peers could not make it I speak on behalf of them when I say Frank Sanchez is a wonderful man who does not deserve this adolescent people like me love to make fun of authority figures such as teachers and principles it's like a form of therapy something that gets us through difficult grades and bumpy roads during school however Frank Sanchez is the one guy I haven't heard any kid poke poke fun of no matter how immature we are as kids we've always respected Mr Sanchez a lot he sees something in all of us personally I'm a freshman at columia so I haven't had much experience with him but one of my best friends has my brother Jarrett Jackson Jarrett is a senior going to college to study film this summer Jarrett loved Mr Sanchez when he imagined himself graduating this year he imagined Mr Sanchez being there to cheer him on one of the reasons my brother is pursuing film is because of the wonderful adults in his life who have supported him such as Frank Sanchez Mr Sanchez has acted in multiple of my brother's films just to be their to support him that's one of the reasons he's wonderful he sees something in every student so many principles look at the students of their school as a unit a group of people there for their work Mr Sanchez however saw something in every student such as my brother he cares about all of us so much if he sees a student struggling with a film project for school he'll be their actor if he sees someone on edge he'll give them space to calm down if he sees kids risking their lives over a fight he'll want to break that fight apart he cares he cares and he is a rare gem there are many people who are leaders but he is a leader thank [Music] you and that concludes our public speaks member Kahan I just want to say that we have heard and acknowledged we've had an overwhelming amount of feedback from the community tonight and in recent days demanding a thorough investigation we'll see for no you people have made comments after Public public speaks before no you can't it happened last year well I don't know what last year absolutely not we've had comments let's just the the pro the process that you guys used last year was that people did not comment after public comments definitely I recall that the the historic what occurred was that the superintendent used to address public comment after public comment he was the only one that addressed those things next we're going to move on to new business does anyone have any new business all right the Board of Education will meet in public session on Thursday March 21st at 6:30 p.m. in the district meeting room at 5:25 Academy Street in Maplewood New Jersey immediately following the opening of public session the board will move to go into a closed session in the superintendent's office at 525 Academy Street in mwood New Jersey as well as using an online video conference platform to discuss Personnel matters with the any client privilege legal negotiations and other matters that may arise and require discussion to be announced at a later date immediately following the Clos session the Board of Education will meet in public session estimated to be at 7:30 p.m. in the district meeting room at 525 Academy Street in mwood New Jersey in person utilizing an online video conference platform which will include hearing of individuals the community can view the meeting by following the steps which will be listed on the agenda if there are members of the community who would like to attend the meeting in person please note that mask and social distancing are optional in accordance with the guidance received for the local do and the CDC action will be taken and with that I'd like to make a motion to close a meeting at 9:46 p.m. and joury all in favor I all right we are adjourned at 9:46 p.m.