e e e e e e e e e e e e e e evening everyone we're going to get the meeting started if everyone would please rise for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance I pled ALG to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay call please M Harold here Mr Pico here Mr Valley here Mr Bardo here Mr yagnam Mr muscatello here Mrs sharpstein here we have a COR thank you sunshine law statement this is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meetings act Stan hope Board of Education located at 24 Valley Road Stan Hope New Jersey has caused this notice to be posted at the office of the Stan hope Board of Education nailed to the New Jersey Herald the municipal clerk of the burough of Stan hope the Stan hope post office and posted at the Valley Road school and on the Stan hope Public School's website setting forth the time date and location of the meeting and I have the pleasure of reading our new mission and vision statement which were approved at the last board meeting so the Stan Hope School District in partnership with the community commits to provide a quality comprehensive education for all Learners with equal emphasis on academic excellence and citizenship through values respect and service our vision is to inspire and cultivate a community of innovative curious compassionate and globally minded Learners equipped with knowledge problemsolving skills and the ability to preserve oops to persevere to make a positive impact on society and shape a better future uh an executive session will be held this evening for the purpose of personnel and student confidentiality formal action may be taken and with that we will move to presentation ations all right the first presentation tonight is the most boring of our four presentations it is the 2223 School self assessment for determining grades under the anti-bullying Bill of Rights uh so to give a very brief um explanation of what this is uh each year at the end of a school year uh school districts are uh expected to submit a self assessment uh and um submit to the Department of educ ation how many trainings we've done for teachers uh how many um opportunities we've given to students uh to learn about HIV the rules and the expectations um how many HIV investigations we've done how many have been founded um and all of that information gets put into our self assessment over the course of the following year the NJ dooe reviews our self assessment and then issues an actual grade the actual grade has always matched our self assessment um and for the 2223 school year we uh have a score of 75 out of 78 which is about where we've been for almost the last seven or eight years uh which is a pretty good score um the core elements that it measures are HIV programs approaches or other initiatives training on the board of ed approved HIV policy other staff instruction and training programs curriculum and instruction on HIV and related information skills HIV Personnel School level HIV incident reporting procedures HIV investigation procedures and HIV reporting um so 75 out of 78 any questions from the board no questions okay that being said we're going to then move on to our next three presentations um if you will join me Mr shin [Music] okay so our first our first today is uh we are vrs staff recognition award uh this individual um is a power professional currently working in our third grade program um Mrs olivo Miss Cassandra olivo uh responded to the student on a field trip that we were at um over at the susus County Fairground she responded quickly to what was a medical emergency uh she made sure that the child was comfortable while uh they were waiting for an ambulance to arrive on the bus ride home uh the students yelled again for Mrs olivo because we had a another a second student emergency in which the paramedics needed to be called um during that time she was able to assist the student um make sure that they were comfortable until the bus arrived back to the school and Mrs Frank and the paramedics were able to take take over um aside from from this incident or these two incidents on this field trip uh Mrs olivo is a uh consistent Force here at the school supporting our students um not just the one she's assigned to but all in the grade uh and I want to thank you for everything you do thank you for being here and congratulations for receiving the we are vrs award [Applause] [Music] okay um another uh form of recognition that we've done here in our school is the charger award for excellence this is a student award uh it just so happens that this student is being awarded for a very similar situation as Mrs olivo um I think it's actually been at least a couple if not a few years since we've last given the charger award for excellence to a student uh I'd like to welcome and thank Addison eavara in third grade you can come on up while I talk about you so at at the same field trip at the fairgr uh Addison also acted quickly uh she knew that something was wrong with one of her friends and it was her quick actions notifying the staff uh that there was something wrong and that somebody needed help that allowed us to quickly get that child uh the help and support that they needed uh Mrs joust who nominated her wrote that reflecting on this incident I cannot stop thinking about Addison and how much of a hero she is she is a true friend that is a kind and caring and she reacted perfectly in this situation because of her the student got the care that she needed Addison [Applause] [Music] job thank you Addison Okay the third one these are all the best presentations possible I love these These are the these are the ones we look forward to all right so the next uh round of students that I'm going to call up are our students who Retreat achieved honor role or high honor role for marking period three in order to achieve honor rooll students in sixth sth or eighth grade need to receive all A's and B's on their report card um in order to uh to achieve high honor rle students will need to have straight A's on their report card for that marking period um this is not just uh an amazing achievement for our students it's also quite an achievement for our parents and I can speak to this because I have a sixth grader and an eighth grader it is not easy to always get them to do what they need to do for school so thank you for your support uh thank you for assisting your children um as they move from Young adulthood uh eventually into high school um and without any further Ado I'm going to call our names I don't think that the majority of our students are here I'm going to read the names anyway if you do hear your name please come on up um and Mrs sharpstein will give you your certificate uh first Jack [Applause] banini parents feel free to come on up and get pictures yeah violet hanap [Applause] Juliet Hines Kylie [Applause] Hoffman Sadie Morales [Applause] [Applause] Olivia [Applause] yo Abigail Andrews Aiden Bruner [Applause] Amy deselen Claire Frank John galada Morgan copich Caitlyn ' Conor Emily Perry Joshua Perry Kathleen Pano [Applause] [Music] Tess Ro Sienna zapar Emily BOS Daniela [Applause] sampa Dylan Kelly arche kapi Dominic Lama [Applause] Amelia milanovic and Christopher [Applause] thoron all right so the next group of students whose names I'll read uh achieved high honor r again Straight A's for marking period 3 Faith Anderson Jacob Campbell Hannah [Applause] [Music] sharpstein Scarlet Stanfield yes Grace [Applause] wisman Ren light [Applause] [Applause] Kylie McDonald Tabitha Mueller Angelina robbles Alina twam Charlotte Harold [Applause] and Donovan vergano all right thank you everybody congratulations kids keep up the hard work we got one more marking period to go all right let's finish it up and get that fourth one done great job [Applause] [Music] everybody okay up next is our executive session can I have a motion please Mo second second got okay be it resolved that the stanh Hope Board of Education adopts the following resolution whereas the open public meeting Acts chapter 231 of 1975 permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas the Stan hope board of education is of the opinion that such circumstances presently exist now therefore be it resolved by The stanh Hope Board of Education County of Sussex and state of New Jersey that a closed session of the Board of Education where the public shall be excluded will be held at this time for the purpose of personnel and student confidentiality be it further resolved that the action of the board with regard to the above entitled matter shall be disclosed to the public at a later date and to the extent that the same is not prejudicial to the interest of the parties involved and would not result in a possible invasion of their right of privacy uh Voice vote yeah uh all in favor Iain no okay good we are going to go into executive session feel free to have cookies and water we will see you [Music] later 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 [Music] are we good we're good okay can I have a motion to reenter public session please motion second thank you very much okay we got a a Voice vote to reenter please all in favor say I anybody noain all right uh that takes us to correspondents uh there were two items one from the Department of Education on qac and the other on the preschool budget approval any questions discussion you want to add anything to those no um get Dr Carrick said that once she sends everything in she'll meet with me and unofficially tell us what our two sex sces okay that way then can't report out to the public okay so great that brings us to a superintendent report okay thank you so since our last meeting uh we've had five separate suspensions uh all in school suspension four students were suspended for a half day uh one student suspended for a full day we had one Hib investig ation which was confirmed um second item uh I put out on May 2nd uh an alert to the community uh boasting about our accountability score right on the performance report it's not something that I typically feel comfortable doing um you know but at the same time our our teachers our students our parents everybody's worked so hard um and so many people don't necessarily understand where we came from 10 years ago um that we were we were on the bottom of that list uh in the not so distant past um and for us to be at the top you know tied with the highest summi of score at 82 uh it definitely means something and I and I think it was a nice opportunity to show our community how hard everybody's working um and and you know to to give everybody that feeling of of comfort that you're sending your kids to a good school uh a school that takes Pride um in the little things and and that's in some cases what they're measuring so uh just congratulations to everybody uh you know in the community and in our school uh very proud of that um that does that accountability score measures uh for the record student achievement student growth College and Career Readiness uh School climate and environment uh my third item is we are right in the middle of uh njsla testing uh our middle school students are now completely finished uh with the exception of those who Jack's giving me the thumbs up yep with the exception of those who maybe were absent will do makeups next week uh our elementary students are 3 through five uh began today uh with their first unit in I believe language arts uh two units of language arts tomorrow and then two units of language arts on Friday and then that'll be a wrap other than makeups uh we have a bit of a different structure this year uh in past years our Middle School would test uh in the our elementary would test a unit in the morning our Middle School would do a unit in the afternoon and that would last for five full days this year each uh 6 through eight did 2 and 1/2 days and then 3 through 5 did 2 and 1/2 days uh and we'll talk to our teachers and get some feedback from students on how everybody felt that went okay um last week we had a lot of celebrating uh it was teacher uh appreciation week it was principal's appreciation day and school nurse appreciation day all last week uh there was food there was lots of food uh there was a lot of appre appreciating going around some celebrations some more food um thank you to the HSA they put together quite a spread for our teachers and for our staff uh and it was uh welld deserved and it was a it was a really nice week um kindergarten screening took place on April 12th and April 17th uh that was by appointment only for any of the students who are who were registered for kindergarten at that time to come in and just get a general feel for you know where they're at you know in ter terms of of Readiness coming into kindergarten uh kindergarten orientation takes place on May 30th uh to which we'll meet here in the gymnasium I'm sorry into the cafeteria uh parents will hear from uh myself Miss ealo Mrs Frank the kindergarten teachers and um the students will have the opportunity to go meet the the current kindergarteners future first graders who will tell them all about kindergarten life uh so we're excited about that uh our sixth grade camping trip was last week and it was again a blast uh we had a very small group this year but the kids still had a lot of fun Fairview Lake does a a tremendous uh tremendous job and Mrs Fair does a tremendous job um you know putting that together want to thank uh Mr Anderson uh who was a parent chaperon we we really didn't need parent chaperon except we had to a last minute fill in I think I asked him like the day or two days prior and and he was able to fill in and he did great with the kids um we had the best cabin right jack yeah definitely they were sleeping by 10:15 the girls were a whole another story um and we plan to continue that relationship with Fairview Lake next year for our sixth grade uh last Friday uh we had the governor educator of the year and Ed specialist of the Year luncheon at perona farms uh I was thrilled uh to spend that time with uh our teacher of the year Miss Piper and our Ed specialist of the year uh Miss Milan uh it was held at perona farms uh the food was great great company uh that's something that we do yearly um countywide uh so every single district and every single School in the district brought representation uh to this luncheon it was pretty special it was really nice uh congratulations to them um eight our spring concert and art show is May 23rd next week here uh in the cafeteria uh 6:00 start we expect it to run 7:30 8:00 uh even if you don't have students in the band and choir even if they're not performing musically I strongly encourage that you bring them out so that you can see the Fantastic art that our kids have uh have put together that we're going to display and one item that as I was reading I realized I didn't add uh this is the first week uh that we launched our full day preschool program uh I think so far it has gone very well we have some tired three-year-olds who have been dismissed at 10:30 until this week who are now being dismissed at 2:30 uh nap time doesn't involve a lot of napping but they have some quiet uh some quiet activities for them we have some new staff who have hit the ground running uh and Mrs mcneir has been uh tremendous uh with this program as I think many people know we uh have intentions of opening a second preschool class next year uh so that we can bring some additional General Ed kids in uh tuition free uh so next Wednesday or Thursday I can't remember the exact day we have a full day slated uh for preschool teacher interview uh so we're excited and hope to find the next uh Valley Road preschool teacher where we can create a department right Mrs mcneir has been a department of one her entire time here it'd be nice to find somebody for her to collaborate with um unless anybody has questions that is it for me did we have anybody that was vocally unhappy about not getting a lottery spot I mean if you're in a lottery and you don't get your spot I think it's pretty expected that they're unhappy but nobody reached out to complain okay all right thank you guys appreciate it hearing no other discussion Miss haral personel curriculum School climate and culture meeting update was a busy time of year mostly for Mr Hegman and the staff not for the committee um there's a lot of renewals on the agenda tonight that the committee is in favor of um both for certificated and non-certificated teachers as well as paraprofessionals there's a recommendation for summer custodial positions as well as substitute teachers and AIDS renewals for the upcoming school year we discussed the awards that were given out tonight so I don't need to go over that we saw that live that was pretty much it but we're really fortunate a lot of good people um that I highly recommend we say yes to thank you questions okay moving on Mr muscatello Business Services facilities technology um this there was a fairly quick meeting um there wasn't very much to discuss as much as it was uh Steve reporting out um the district went out for uh Professional Services the rfps for um occupational therapy insurance agent of record order of record board attorney architect board counsel and before and after care uh those are PS are back but they're being reviewed now and the appointments are scheduled to come in in June um Steve did inform us that the boilers have been removed and that they are started to at the time we met for the committee they were in the process of placing the boilers in I asked if I could come in and visit and I came in the next day and I was shocked that the boilers are gone the new gas boilers are in place they're piping them I I think you guys seem to be well ahead of schedule with with that project they're waiting for us they're waiting for for us to give them the building unfortunately we can't give it to them until we're done with it um right so right so great and we also I know I had raised a question a few times about the location of the oil fuel oil tank as to where the gas lines are going Steve the gas company had come in and identified where the gas is going to enter the building and it's not near where the oil tank is so that doesn't seem to be an issue anymore and then we had uh a pretty long discussion on regionalization there was the regionalization discussion for I would say the majority of the of the committee meeting that's it any questions thank you okay and uh for policy I know uh Mr Valley wasn't able to attend uh we actually only had one what the second reading yeah Mr yes Mr was not atend either so um yeah I had one policy on theend but I had got an update on it so there really was no policy discussion there was no policy discussion that brings us back to you Mr moscatello for negotiations uh negotiations are moving along quite well um we we've we've accomplished a lot in in two meetings we have a meeting scheduled for the 21st um hopefully it is just cleaning up some language and buttoning up and our our hope is that we walk out of that with a a memorandum of agreement and uh we will be able to start the school year hopefully with with a contract thank you okay and then ed services back to you again um you know it's the same thing we're we're moving along closing out to school uh we just had a water main break and we had to add a day on to school um also we are in the process I went up to there this morning uh to interview a finalist for the uh ba position and he he appeared he was excellent um but again small place small town you're not getting people with a lot of experience so this is a person who is working on a certificate and he'd be hired with a mentor for a while but it looks isn't it he has an accounting degree so he he knows the numbers it's now getting him the training for the ba position um so uh we we tried to uh look for someone to do a shared services with but the applications that were coming in were um salary demands were even high for shared services you know what I mean there were one lady was approaching the 170 you know what I mean with minimum not I'm not going to say minimum experience of six years which there's not a lot of experience to be requesting those kind of salaries anyway so we we're hopefully at our board meeting in June to hire our ba and we'll be back in business or in business administrator again all right that brings us to my report um I don't have too much to report most of my time has been spent with negotiations and then what I I do want to do because we do have public here is call attention on our agenda um the board will be having a discussion under administrative action items about the committee we'd like to form or well we're going to discuss forming regarding a feasibility study for regionalization but public session actually comes before that discussion so I just want to state that the uh motion this evening is a vote to form a committee to discuss a feasibility study which is a step in the regionalization process the board actually can't commit us to regionalization that goes to vote for a town if we ever get to that point uh but the Netcong district has initiated these conversations lenp Valley is involved in those conversations as well and an invite has been extended to Stan hope and Byam as the for dist dists involved to have these discussions the main reason it is happening now is because there is a change in law where the feasibility study is now paid for by the state instead of by the boards of education so that's the big change and again because the public session comes next I want to make that clear but the board will be having a discussion about it under our administrative section as well so you'll hear more about it after our public session as well but we are happy to hear about it so are there questions for me before we move to that public session hearing none okay so that does bring us to public session number one for agenda items if anybody would like to speak please come up and state your name where you live and if you have any group affiliation if you're here representing some other group please let us [Music] know nobody we good okay all right I hearing no body from the public who' like to be recognized that'll move us on to travel and workshop reports any questions we had three one from Miss Calo miss mcneir and miss Frank good okay that moves us to the minutes for approval from last month can I have a motion please motion second thank you okay uh we have two items here the April 24th public hearing and regular meeting minutes and the executive session meeting minutes this is a voice vote all in favor say I I any no I but abstain from number two and I also need to abstain I was not present last month from both okay that moves us on to these administrative action agenda items can I have a motion please don't moves a second please second thank you and this is what we were talking about item number one is to form the committee I know we'll have some discussion on that in a moment but this also includes items two and three uh which is what Mr Mr Hegman spoke about regarding the self assessment for the anti-bullying B of right Bill of Rights and the um anti-bullying anti-bullying Bill of Rights act so both of those items are on here as well uh so I'd like to open this up to discussion uh from the board if it's okay I'm going to start with Gil he just prepared a very brief summary of how we got to this point so that we're all on the same page and then we can talk about this motion as a board thanks um I I asked to do this because in our previous discussions um the terms moving fast or this seems rushed and and I could fully understand that to any board member who wasn't here for at least six years or so or seven years that it would seem like it's a rush but just to give a little history as to how far back we went and the amount of work that has gone into this I thought it would be best for all of us to hear it all at the same time uh interest started around 2017 there was a lot of talk out in the state about organizing and getting uh reducing down the number of districts at that time it was almost 600 school districts originally the talk was trying to get it down to 21 which were County and that fell apart really fast and then they came out and we're talking about having a process for regionalization um in 2018 uh the board decided to move and enter into discussions only to gain information so we formed committees with the other towns and we met several times um in July of 2018 uh a group of us met with the county superintendent and the county ba to see procedures and the finances of it in August we met with uh Senator AR Rojo uh we discussed um his role at at that time the finance chairman um and he was not aware of a document called impediments to regionalization that was a document created by New Jersey school boards that outlined why regionalizations don't move forward and there were about seven items in there uh funding um contract negotiations uh how do you handle District debt and they identified all of those problems and yet the state had no Solutions or ideas how to handle it um in October of 2018 we had a presentation by veto gaglardi uh he was the attorney who handled the regionalization of the South hunon School Districts and they completed that regionalization uh then in January of 2019 uh we had a meeting with Senator Steve Sweeney and Senator or Rojo in right here in in the cafe we had a meeting with them here at at stanh hope school going over their ideas of regionalization and they were uh very pleased with the all the movement we had made and the work we had put into it and we had brought up the um issues with the impediments to regionalization he asked us if we would get a committee to come up and for us to come up with solutions to that uh which we did uh we had a committee we worked on that we we um made recommendations for that we sent it in and I'll come back to that as we move forward through this then in 2021 I'm sorry then later on in uh 2019 sorry end of 2018 going into 2019 we decided to move forward with the first part of the feasibility study this is the four districts all agreed we would move part the the has there's three parts to the regionalization there's a demographic study there's a facility study and then there's the cost analysis we decided to do the demographic study we had to fund it on our own so we we formed a shared Service uh it cost each of us I believe was $88,000 to have the demographic study so the demographic study cost $ 32,000 it was like $8,000 in total total was it in total looked 000 each okay didn't remember the the actual figures but we got the finalized pin we got we got our demographic study we discussed it not everybody was happy with it it gave us some information we moved forward with it with that as we were going on we were still working on moving towards a regionalization um um process in March uh in March of 2019 uh I'm sorry May of 2019 is when we got the feasibility study back uh then demographic study demographic study demographic we I apologize a demographic study I'm reading off my paper here we started working on forming an RFP to get the feasibility study done the other components completed uh we worked on that and I believe Byam was the point on that they were the uh ba for that and we worked through the shared services working with them we prepared that um we were ready to go out with that the end of September we were proofreading it at that point we all all four districts had agreed to do the feasibility study we were going out to do it we had the RFP prepared I got a letter on September 27th from the president of Byron Board of Education saying Byron would have to pull out and the reason they had to pull out is uh their B their ba decided to retire and they were advertising for a business administrator and could not generate an application nobody wanted to apply to a school that was considering regionalizing so they pulled out and the law at that time said if a district pulls out it stops dead right there nothing goes further than that so that's exactly what happened we tried for about a week or two to resurrect it come ideas with helping them with the ba Etc and it it it fell apart there in that was in 2019 uh in 2020 there was new legislation being developed the state got hold of our paper that we wrote for impediments and they started building some of those into legislation we got excited went back to the table we were working real hard started again to go again for um doing the feasibility study they passed the legislation and they couldn't tell us when the money would be ready and nobody nobody on on either board wanted to move forward until we were guaranteed the money was going to be there to pay for this so so very quickly this is one of the um solutions that had been recommended right was that the state needs to fund the regionalization studies because the boards of Education can't handle that right we were all under our S2 cuts at that point and we were losing money so nobody was going to spend money to fund these studies so that's what he means when he said the state agreed they would fund them but they didn't tell anybody when the money would be available correct so we were waiting until we had official notice that the money would become available in order to move forward with any additional studies and it was months I mean we waited months and they were still waiting in regulations and the the enthusiasm just stopped okay and then legislation was passed again in 2022 this time with bite this time with money this time with regulation this time with d timelines this way with I'm not going to say all of the things that this group wrote for for the impediment taking over the impediments of regionalization but a lot of them were put in there so right now if you decide to you want to regionalize the state will fund 100% of the feasibility study if you decide that you want to move forward with your regionalization and you want to take it to a community vote the state will fund the complete cost of the election which is I was shocked it's about 20 grand a community you know what I mean so that that that was a lot of money they made a lot of uh improvements on once you regionalized that there would be funds available to help you through a trans transition period that will help you um um through uh getting things aligned between whatever districts regionalize helping to align your technology helping to align your curriculum they're making money available for that and a lot of changes with state aid uh there was a point that um once you're regionalized they would redo your state aid and there was a chance you get less state aid well they revamped that whole thing and that if you took your total state aid among all the communities that would be your lowest okay it would not go lower than that could go higher but it wouldn't go lower and there were some other things in there that they've made uh some concessions to for for moving forward with regionalization so what we're asking for tonight is for us to form a committee to meet with the other committees from the other three districts to discuss whether or not to move forward and say we want to do a feasibility study so we can gain information current information that we could talk about as boards and then we can talk about with the public to see the direction and give um timely information thank you thank you so a lot has happened in a long number of years uh to get us to this point but like I mentioned ear earlier net Kong is the one who has reinitiated discussions their board president has been reaching out to the board presidents of the three other districts and asking that we form these committees the Committees will be comprised of the board president vice president the superintendent and the ba as needed for any financial information that the districts may need to present the other reason we're asking to move forward with the committee now is the application reopens in July for the funds and the funds are issued on a rolling basis first come first serve for the feasibility studies the other major change in the law as you heard Gil mention is when Byrum pulled out last time because of the issues with their business administrator that stopped the conversation for all four districts that is no longer the case any one District can initiate the study and it will still cover the other districts even without our input uh so while that doesn't seem like the most friendly way to do it what they realized is not all districts had the resources to get involved all at the same time so it wasn't intended to be unfriendly it was intended to propel momentum so that people could still move forward given that the state was coming in funding it and actually recommending the contractors as well who could do those studies um they have a list of approved contractors who do those studies so um again tonight we'd like to ask for that so that we can sit at the table with the other boards who are present um lenp and neong both have approved this motion by room has not yet approved the motion to form the committee they're being invited the same way that we are um so you know we would like to be able to participate in those conversations from my personal perspective uh but that's the vote we're going to have as the board tonight is is how everybody feels about sitting and forming that committee so I'd like to open it up to other members of the board for conversation sure I just want to say thank you for the overview and um you'll certainly respect hearing that and learning more about the process that has spanned the past few years and the history with uh what's occurred at the state level um I would just say respectfully as as the fourth most senior member of our seven member board just a couple years in we are moving very fast for this makeup of the board uh the first time that this was brought to our attention as a current board uh was about 60 days ago uh within the past 60 days I've I've thought a lot about things had some some conversations and um recorded a few points that that I appreciate some time to share uh this evening uh but at the top of the list for me is is my feeling that we have gem here in Stan hope it's it's not a perfect Community it's not a perfect School District but we have phenomenal leadership phenomenal teachers and we're seeing phenomenal outcomes on the part of our students as as we now rank among the top of school districts in susic County I think of a quote by dick vitel if you're familiar with college basketball you know dick vitel he's famous for saying don't mess with happiness and I think we're running that risk with this conversation I think the community of Stan hope is extremely happy with our schools I think individuals moving into this community love the idea of living in a gem of a walking wooded District which is extremely hard to find people who live here know that they have options to choose when they identify places of residence for themselves and their current families or their future families being in a walking wooded district is a reason to live in Stan hope I also think we must acknowledge we already are a regionalized community and it's something that we take great pride in we're regionalized through lenpy Valley Regional High School in grades 9 through 12 for our community it may just be the perfect balance for us where we have the benefits of regionalization and a high school environment where our eighth graders going into ninth grade have an opportunity to look forward to the chance to meet new friends and have a totally new type of experience as they're entering into high school I'll speak briefly as a former Middle School principal I know middle school students get sick of each other but I'd much rather them them be sick with each other in sixth grade as they're going through Middle School than to feel like in sixth grade well this is what the rest of my my formative years of education are going to look like and have that merger take place then what's different about high school I if you already have been in school for however many number of years with the same students even prior to high school I think this is no small matter um and it's one that warrants a lot more discussion and contemplation on the part of our current board than 60 days um and a key point for us is identifying that presently we're we're 100% stakeholders of our children's education pre k to 8 if we were to regionalize we would be 24% stakeholders 24% of the voting population of this District we take great pride in what's occurring tonight with our microphones and the live streaming that's occurring in the the broadcast Booth of our new stem lab we take great pride in the facility upgrades occurring throughout our building that's a result of the tremendous support that we have in this Gem of a community that when we ask the taxpayers to go into their own Pockets to support our school and our kids they were happy to do so if we pass that referendum by a strong majority and we're reaping the benefits today and in the years going forward I'm confident that if we were regionalized we would not have passed that referendum so I don't think we can make an argument that regionalization would automatically result in some more opportunities for our kids it might actually have the the opposite effect um I I I think just we really have to be careful uh in in not rushing into this matter um and for for for those reasons stated I I think that that we are uh our best not to pursue this at this time I don't think we've had enough discussion on our part and I I come back to that that idea don't mess with happiness I think our community is is thrilled with the school I really do and and and I don't see a reason why we would put the Train on the tracks for this discussion at this time certainly not within a 60-day time period where our board first picked up the discussion uh I think our responsibility as custodians of the district um as as individuals responsible for the future of the kids that live in this town and as the the largest employer in this community we have a responsibility to really take our time and consider uh consider the impact that putting the Train on this track may have and personally um I don't think it's in our best interest or our kids' best interest to do so at this time you bring up some interesting points and I thank you for that as well for you Gil and I have been around for a good part of this process not all of it but one of the things that you say that really stands out and I'll tell you the reason that I feel that we should be at the table for feasibility discussion there those conversations are going to happen whether we're there or not as a board member and a Community member as a parent I have child still in the school a child up at the high school I can honestly say that I would like representation regardless of where it goes whether or not we regionalize to me is a very different question at this time in looking at it as the feasibility study if the committee whether it just be neck hung and lenpy has those discussions they're having it but they're having it about the four towns if we don't have a voice there then we're silenced and now we're getting in my opinion secondhand information so regardless of the outcome number one I happen to feel that all information is good information because in order to make an informed decision for myself on behalf of people that elect us into these positions I want the updated information it may be that the updated information says wow regionalization isn't right at this time it may be that there's information that comes out of the feasibility study that says Wow regionalization might be right I will tell you as a parent of Charlie in eighth grade Sid went through middle school I love this school I like our small class sizes Charlie's great has 25 kids with the exception of about five that moved in in the last year they are the same faces that she has looked at since kindergarten when I tell you and you know with Middle School experience it is extremely difficult if you don't have your people what when you hit middle school so while yes I like small town field it's one of the things that Drew us to this community I think there's a lot of Merit to merging at a middle school level because when they hit high school with Byron being the majority of the kids that are at lenpy friend groups are already formed PE people know each other if your child does community Sports you probably know a lot of those people my girls don't do community Sports they do a niche Irish Dance Sport so while they've grown to know some kids from other districts for them going up to the high school yes it's great meet new people but I think there's something to be said for opportunity to merge when everybody's awkward and Lord knows Middle School everybody's awkward but my biggest reason why I'm interested in wanting to do the visibility study we have the same teachers for our kids and while they are great in Middle school if your child and I'm very fortunate my child meshed well with all of the teachers that's not the case for every student so let's say John Smith he doesn't have a great rapport with a language arts teacher or a science teacher he's faced for three years right now with that same teacher now John Smith doesn't like coming to school and he doesn't have a lot of opportunities to me an advantage of potentially regionalizing in more opportunity for more teachers so maybe your sixth grade teachers aren't the same as in seventh grade aren't all the same as in eighth grade the other thing is in some of the districts especially Byron being larger their kids right now have options for electives that our kids don't have and I think that's also one of the things that for a kid who might not be school minded in I love math I love science I love reading but maybe they love art or they a passion about band or something where the opportunity to have more options gives a bigger Middle School feel I honestly don't know where feasibility is going to shake out but for me having the voice at the table to at least have representation gives us firsthand information so that when we come back as a board we don't have to hear it Through the Grapevine where something might be misinterpreted and at least we know that the people that we sit on a board with who are on that committee can report back firsthand what they heard so that's something to consider I appreciate that I do just want to just comment on my perspective on on the middle school end of things I totally see that when I I I recall this being a discussion as a member of the community years back and hearing talking about regionalization and you know my first thought was those middle schoolers how how they might benefit and just the idea that oh I could see yeah maybe like a Regional Middle School to complement the Regional High School and maybe we all keep our our little neighborhood base town uh elementary schools um I I don't think that would be possible uh for our communities I don't think given the significant differences in demographics between our three towns that we would be able to maintain a structure where each individual Town sustained its own elementary school because the state would deem that to be unequitable um and even if a feasibility study showed that or even if we started uh a regionalized uh District where maybe we still kept our elementary schools through a certain grade level town-based and we had this Regional Middle School and the Regional High School I think it would would fall apart uh at the first lawsuit that said uh my students are not going to an equitable my child's not going to an equitable school as another District our our districts our three towns are different enough demographically that it would not hold up to that test so I think when we're talking Regional ization it would be true regionalization prek to 12 meaning that there we would be buzzing students at very young ages to ensure that we had Equitable school districts across the board and I just think that we need to throw that out there and uh I need to share that perspective I'm quite confident that uh regionalization would mean regionalization all the way down the board even if a study or somebody's opinion at one point in time said I otherwise uh we'd be one lawsuit away from changing that forever and we wouldn't be in charge of that decision either we would only be 24% of the voting population and likely 24% of the representation on that board that was responsible for the district so just just comment on that I I hear what you're saying but we got to take a step back we're not talking everything you're talking about is what the feasibility study gives you so we're talking about information we know nothing about what the hell we're talking about we don't know that that's why we're asking this board to let us go forward so we can get a feasibility study done so we can talk about regionalization right now there's nobody here who has any idea of how it's going to be organized what's the best way is it going to be K to2 those are all kinds of different things you can do the state has opened it up so wide now that you can pick any kinds of configurations you want that they will study and come back to you we're we're we're falling into a dilemma we did in 2018 we're asking questions of how the end result is going to look like until we know the information about what to discuss to see what the end result is going to be this committee is not not about regionalization this committee is about gaining information on regionalization everything you said in your in your commentary I agree with but that's why we do a feasibility study to see is it possible to do what we want to do and incorporate this so that we have exactly what Jen talked about instead of having 12 kids in band you have 40 and band instead of having no after school activities you could have five or six activities you know what I mean but those are all things that the feasibility study can give us this is not a discussion about regionalization you need to know what's in the feasibility study before if you've seen if you go online there are feasibility studies out there from districts that have already regionalized South hunon is one um there's some big ones going on right now even in I think um K atini I think is looking through it at one and there's one where I think it's in uh Somerset County big district there I forgot the name of it but a lot of it's going on and I I I don't want to get at this meeting hung up on what regionalization is going to look like we don't know that anything anybody says here is pure guesswork what we're looking for is permission to go forward to get information for free that we can bring back to this board and we can give to our community and say this is what it looks like guys this is what it's going to cost this is what it's going to save this is what this is what it what we can come back with we need to get that information right now we we we're not doing that because we're deciding whether or not we want to go forward to get information so I think we need to understand what we're voting on tonight it's just permission to go get information so we can bring it back to you you could look it over and then we could ask the questions to The Experts how do you how do you do this if this is what we want how do we do this and um I I I I just think the more we try and talk about what the regionalization would look like I believe the more we are getting ourselves down a rabbit hole so and and I'll add very quickly you know we did have a demographic study done we did share it out with this particular board who may not have seen it right we got very lucky this year with an increase in state aid this would be a very different discussion that we've been having if we did not get that state aid right we would be having different discussions about how to maintain our position and maintain the programs that we do have and unfortunately now one of our neighbors bym is facing those conversations right so these tables turn all the time and they turn constantly a year ago we were having those discussions and that demographic study pointed out that every single one of us is facing declining enrollment an extensive declining enrollment Stan hope school was at 364 students a few years ago we are down to 305 this year lenpy Valley Regional High School is less than 600 students there is legislation that has constantly been pending in trening to mandate K12 districts it hasn't passed yet and this isn't saying it will pass I have no way to know that but what I'd like to know is what that looks like and I'd like us to be in control of those decisions instead of the state I'd like to be aead of the state in making decisions about what looks good for our town our people our students and again unlike some other things that a board does have full control over we actually we don't have the control the community does so if we're negligent in bringing that information to our community I feel like that's a bigger issue which is why I'd like to be at the table to talk about what those options look like and I completely respect and and think you probably do know quite a bit given your role outside of this board about equity and about distribution and about what a larger District looks like I don't have those insights but I can promise the feasibility study will consider all of that will consider the law will consider equitable distribution right and I agree we all love our small school people who are here might like the walking district for some of us it was a bit of a shock that we didn't have buses I came from a larger town was a little bit of a shock right but I agree there's a lot of people who like that small town environment and these nice paths that the kids can walk on and get to school right half of Town can't do that though right and we hear this all the time from the other sides of town that live across 183 in Brooklyn Stan Hope Road where we have no transportation and no options for those children other than parents to drive them to and from so all of that flushes out in a feasibility study right and again that's the permission we're asking for this isn't about do we or don't we regionalize this is about do we get a study that tells us if there's a benefit what the costs are and what the cons are because it will show you all of them the demographic study started to lay out some of that it wasn't all sunshine and Roses by any stretch it was not but I do know declining enrollment and state age are two huge things that we have to constantly consider and keep on top of we got lucky this year six months ago we weren't having that conversation no okay no I guess here here's my question the more I think about what you said and I do value what you said in a lot of ways and you certainly have more insight when it comes to school things given the nature of what you do since the feasibility study is going to happen whether we are a part of it actively or not what do we gain in your opinion by not being present at the table because maybe that's the part that I'm missing I think time and effort I think I think could be devoted elsewhere even regionally talking about hey what can we do to partner and support each other in other ways that are not a formal regionalization I think that focus on the part of the board and on part of our team uh would be really of of Greater benefit to us um with respect to the inevitability of a feasibility study that's something I struggle a little bit with I do understand that any District can initiate that study and it will occur with or without the will of other school districts that are a part of it um I think it's a fa request if our board is not interested uh that we ask not to be included in a Fe ibility study that we do not agree to I would say if Byam also has not signed in I would you know would have equal concern for them being included in a study that they haven't agreed to I I I respect that the leadership of each respective school district is representative of the the community that it serves and can speak uh informed uh about whether or not they want to participate in a regionalization study or be included in a regionalization study so I think it's a reasonable request if our board is not interested in moving forward in that direction that we ask our neighbors not to include us in their studies if we're not interested at this time okay fair so we could ask but I guess my concern is if we ask and it if that what the board decides and it falls on deaf ears the study still happens only now we don't get firsthand information we get second hand information or where we could be present to ask questions that could benefit or all of our community now we have no voice and we did it to ourselves and I and I agree with you on what you're saying about certainly regardless of regionalization finding better ways to partner with our neighboring towns and things and I think we do a fairly good job of that now where we have needs and we've we've shown that even with the latest janitorial I guess for me that the biggest thing really just comes down to being present because again if you were to be a part of the committee or you were whoever I know all of you we've worked together I value more of what you bring back to the table than hearing it from people from other boards whose interests rightfully so are directed to their town so so that that I guess is my biggest concern with and again because it's not a vote to regionalize or not and that certainly a town thing not a us thing I guess I feel like it's kind of like when a list of books goes out and people say let's ban these books and I'm over here going but wait why I didn't get to read the book how do I know it's bad but you're telling me it's bad but oh wait if I could go to the library and read the book myself I can determine that for myself and and I guess that would be my concern is even if if the board said no we don't want to participate and the other towns go well great we're still including it because we feel it's important to have that information now we've lost our chance at a voice at the table and that to me is a bigger concern yeah give Tom and Carmen I'm sorry Matt and Carmen a chance to speak to I don't want to keep the conversation back and forth here please well thank you all for your thoughts I really appreciate everything uh said here um I will address this in the sense that as a relatively new board member um this is a great conversation that we're having formally as a board and I really appreciate it I wish we had a lot more of them um and that's why I feel that this is rushed even despite that great little timeline uh it's very new to me um and I don't feel that I am properly equipped to feel comfortable forming a committee and having a seat at the table I'm okay with not having a seat at the table and somebody else bringing the feasibility study to us I'm perfectly fine with that um and I also feel that as a district that Prides itself and being involved with the community and putting the community in in our mission statement I don't know that they this current Community has had enough time to digest the lack of formal conversations we've had about this particular topic um so therefore uh those are my thoughts I feel that it's something I would like to continue discuss with our board and with the community and then from there I would feel comfortable uh continuing discussions but as of right now I don't feel comfortable moving forward with this particular topic Carmen would you like to add anything yeah I I always have to say something please although I'm new to the school this school board I've been around the block about six times already in different schools and I've seen how kids who are cuddled into one area when they have to move out into another area and see other kids as to what they're doing they have a hard time coping with it I think by having it we ization it'll give all the kids even in the other towns a chance to see how the other the other people operate you know the kids I mean and in today's society which is always changing every second of the day the main thing that we're all here for is the children that's right I mean I'm 74 years old and the things I've seen over the over my lifetime would probably turn everybody's hair here gray like mine I don't have any hair Carmen well your eyebrows or your beer but what I'm saying is that we're just we're just looking into something you should always look into something you you should always test the water before you jump in the pool that's the that's the way I'm thinking um I don't have a problem with doing that i' like to get as much information as I can before I have to make a decision so whichever way it go tonight I know which side I'm going to be on thank you I appreciate that would anybody else like to say anything before we move [Music] forward no if in that case Carissa roll call vote please okay Mrs Harold yes Mr Pico yes Mr Valley no Mr vardo no Mr Mr muscatello yes Mrs sharpstein yes but like to clarify for um Mr Valley and uh Mr Lardo is it no to everything or just to item one are you approving the anti-bullying that Bill of Rights just item one no just number one okay thank you thank you and then yes to all thank you okay with that we are going to move on to Personnel action items agendas 1 through 8 may I have a motion please so moved second thank you any discussion I give everybody a minute to refresh themselves and read through it after that long conversation we also have addendum item number nine on there sorry see that aim item number nine [Music] hearing no discussion are we okay to move forward with the vote Yes okay carold yes Mr Pico yes Mr Valley yes Mr vardo yes Mr muscatello yes Mrs sharpstein yes motions car thank you very much uh Business Services action items 1 through 16 addendum items 17 and 18 motion please don't move second second thank you give everybody a moment to read through and please let me know if there's any discussion can I make a quick comment to number eight uh number eight um is ultimately how we are funding the majority of that second preschool uh program for next year uh we've been given um verbal permission from the county office and from the preschool people at in Trenton that we can carry over $100,000 of our current preschool a into next year which will allow us to hire a new teacher for that [Music] program any further discussion questions hearing none go ahead vote please okay Mrs Harold yes Mr Pico yes Mr Valley yes Mr vardo yes Mr muscatello yes Mrs sharpstein yes [Music] carry that brings us to the new business section does anybody have any new business they'd like to discuss no how about old [Music] business hearing none public session number two anybody in the public would like to be recognized now is your chance thank you just because the microphone will pick it up on our live stream and just turn the microphone on tap it it's red so it's off thank you uh Anthony ricardi for Laurence AV in stano um I just want to express my opinion that I agree that um with a lot of what you said Mr Valley but I also agree that more information is always good you can't make an informed decision if you are not part of the conversation so uh I'm glad that this committee is uh moving forward and I look forward to the information that comes from it um and I'll be following it closely thank you thank you anybody else okay hearing none that is a motion to adjourn motion please motion second second thank you very much everybody Voice vote all in favor of adjournment I I any NOS no all right thank you very much everybody I appreciate it