e e good evening everyone the executive session of the Wayne Board of Education regular meeting for January 18th 2024 was convened in the conference room of the Wayne Board of Education 50 NS driveway New Jersey statement of complying setting forth daytime and location was read in accordance with the requirements of the open public meeting act and a roll call was taken the meeting was recessed and is now being reconvened I'd ask everyone please stand for the flag salute followed by a Moment of Silence I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you everyone please be seated Dr toac so this this evening we'd like to get started by recognizing our board members for their service while Wayne is a community with many volun who support numerous charitable organizations service on a school board is a kind of community service that requires a level of commitment well beyond what is required of typical volunteers it's really difficult to understand unless you've actually served as a school board member the responsibility of delivering educational programs to 7,700 students making sure our schools are safe making certain that every classroom has a qualified teacher and that all the instructional supplies and resources necessary and making sure that our schools provide for the educational needs of all students and balancing those educational needs with consideration to taxpayers but wait there's more but you get a sense this is a tall order what we're really talking about is the oversight of a $180 million organization that is also one of the largest employers in New Jersey is an enormous responsibility and something our board members accept willingly and take very seriously for members of the public there is no time like the president to recognize our Board of Education trustees and say thank you for their efforts particular Mr pavlac is coming on his 20th year anniversary so he's been a member of this board of education since 2005 congratulations Mr pavlac on your many years of service to the community and L this board of education this time I'd like to turn things over to Mrs Richman who has a proclamation to read whereas the New Jersey school boards Association has declared January 2024 to be Schoolboard recognition month a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members and whereas the Wayne board of education is one of 581 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and overseas operations for public school districts and whereas the Wayne Board of Education Embraces the goal of highquality education for all New Jersey public school students and whereas New Jersey's local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in Pre kindergarten through 12th grade and whereas New Jersey's 5,000 local Schoolboard members who receive no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators teachers and parents for the betterment of public education and whereas School boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students including those with special needs and whereas Boards of Education provide accountability to the public they communicate the needs of school district to the public and they convey to school administrators The public's expectations for the schools and whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which rank among the nation's best in key achievement indicators such as the national assessment of educational progress scores the preparation for college through advanced placement offerings and sat assessments and now therefore be it resolved that the Wayne board of education does hereby recognize the services of the local school board members throughout New Jersey As We join communities Statewide and observ bring January 2024 as school board recognition month and be a further resolve that the Wayne Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local school boards and Public School staff toward the advancement of our children's [Applause] education so due to the the referendum presentation and the time that will be required I'd like to forego the superintendent report although I am required to deliver the Hib report so I'm reporting the following data related to harassment intimidation and bullying incidents in the Wayne Township Public School District there were six incidents of Hib that were investigated since my last report and two of those cases were found to be actual cases of HIV thank you we'll have our student representative tonight Katherine good even even before winter break Wayne Valley was visited by various choir alumni alongside current chamber choir members they walk through the hallway singing holiday carols for each classroom they passed in the spirit of the holiday season many organizations at Wayne Valley arranged donation drives the auto program held an animal shelter donation Drive led by Advanced Auto student Lizzie D this is the second year she has organized the event the auto program is proud to have been able to give a substantial donation to fwa rescue of Wayne the girls basketball team collected gently used shoes cleats and sneakers at the Wayne Valley versus Way Wayne Hills games this drive was also in support of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society team raising for research the Wayne Valley swim team gathered new socks for his Helping Hands an organization that aids the homeless and the less fortunate they ran the drive at the Wayne Valley vers Wayne Hills meet Juniors anley Phillips and Ali Roth were both chosen to be the 2024 Visionaries candidates for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on Wednesday January 10th Wayne Valley students wore Orange in support of their fundraising efforts Wayne Valley held a Technology Expo at Anthony Wayne Middle School which gave eighth graders the opportunity to meet High School Technology students and learn about the various technology programs available at Wayne Valley representatives from the photography program Wayne AO the engineering program the graphic design program and Wayne Valley TV came to the Middle School to demonstrate what Wayne Valley technology has to offer congratulations to head girls and boys vol volleball coach Jason kuch who was inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic coaches association Hall of Fame coach kuches athletic history is impressive with multiple state county and League titles girls basketball star Olivia isacon has been named the 2024 National girls and women in sports day Award winner by the njsiaa congratulations to her for her hard work the Wayne Valley wrestling team won back-to-back meets with a score of 46 to 27 against demerist and 48 to 24 against Pam Adam Su and sha vandelinda both had two pins and Adam januk had two Tech balls the boys basketball team is on a four- win streak they most recently won 50 to3 over Piscataway with senior Anthony appelo earning 23 points girls basketball is on a comeback with their 52 to 45 victory over Kennedy senior Captain Olivia Isaacson earned 23 points and both Alexa and Sophia benaquista won 22 points combined the girls fencing team won a close victory over tenek with a score of 14 to 13 All State super Karina Festa won her Match 3 to Z and Franchesca djovani won hers 2 to1 both the boys and girls winter track teams made it to the conference championships and the sjcc Invitational the boys finished second place in the conference and the girls finished third and here is the report for Wayne Hills High School the following Wayne Hills students have audition for the north Jersey area band Helma masie Joe Catalano Julia Juliana steer Aaron Schwarz Brandon hang Ian Quan Annie tangutur and Marcus nees this year Wayne Hill's Deca increased its membership from 54 to 125 student members last week 118 students competed at Ramapo College in various business related events about 30 students move forward in business roleplay events while an approximately 20 students will continue to compete with written papers or presentations the state competition will take place in Atlantic City on March 4th to 6th and approximately 60 Wayne Hills students are expected to compete for their chance to make it to Nationals ICDC on April 27th to May 1st in Anaheim C California in addition to the business competitions seven of Wayne Hill's Deca officers participated in various ethical leadership campaigns and a community service project which raised over $1,000 for Oasis heaven in for women in Patterson New Jersey these successful campaigns awarded these student officers with an opportunity to attend the DECA International Leadership conf conference in Anaheim California in April we are very proud of all of our competitors and looking forward to sharing more wonderful news soon as part of the Wayne Hills SDA gives back the officers and captains sold Hearts to raise money for Childhood Cancer they have also decided that $1 for each ticket sold at the SDA show will be donated to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society student Visionaries please join us for the Wayne Hills SDA SDA shows on February 29th March 1st and March 2nd also the Wayne Hills captains and officers are going to a workshop on January 18th where they will learn a dance from the wicked show basketball Stars Sienna Shuster of Wayne Hills and Olivia Isaacson of Wayne Valley were selected as our 2024 National girls and women in sports day Award winners Wayne Hills boy swimmer Li William LeBron set the 100 meter butterfly School record with a time of 5618 seconds thank you thank you Dr Tobak for okay everybody ready yeah ready okay ready okay so I'm very proud to serve as your school superintendent for the past 10 years and during that time I've come to learn so much about the community and its school system your schools are a point of Pride and to this day virtually every Wayne resident said is that they move to Wayne because it's a great Community but mainly for the school system that tradition continues with a new generation of parents who have children in our Early Childhood Center that continues to grow in Leaps and Bounds we interview so many teachers who go away to college some cases well out of state but come back to work in Wayne when we ask why they're interested in working in Wayne they almost always share that their dream is to come back and provide a new generation of students with the same kind of great education and school EXP experience that they enjoyed when they were students as a community you have a proud tradition of supporting an excellent public education system and your schools are a foundation for this community in turn the Wayne schools have served the community well our schools have been a platform for for success for so many of our graduates we're happy to have reached this important milestone for a project we've worked on for many years tonight we're going to hand over years of work from the Board of Ed the administration an architectural team and host of other professionals to you the residents of Wayne and you will have the opportunity to decide on the future of the school system joining me tonight are some members of that team who will participate in this presentation first of all Bill business administrator Bill Moffett Mr M facility's director Lauren Tibbits assistant superintendent Donna rman and of course members of the Board of Education both past and present we here tonight okay so times change in the Wayne Township Public Schools have also evolved from a small system supporting a largely agricultural Community to one of the state's largest and most successful suburban school systems in a thriving community that is the economic Hub of P County more change is coming with new construction of highdensity housing that with nearly 3,000 new housing units will increase Wayne's population and our school enrollment so we have a strong school system and our goal with this referendum is to pass that strength onto future Generations who will benefit from this great public school system okay okay thank you that's huge okay so let's get started um so a referendum is a very exciting thing for any Community it's something that comes along once every generation maybe twice but it's something that doesn't happen every day okay so it's very important that we share information with all of you we want to make sure we get it right and we also want to assume that some people may know more and others may know less so we're going to start with the basics first of all what is a bond referendum so um it's very simple voters have a choice right it's an opportunity to finance projects to the sale of bonds so investors buy them property taxes buy them back over time and allows communities to make big improvements much like a mortgage allows you to buy a house or home equity loan allows you to fund improvements on your home so let's talk about something you may not know about in New Jersey all taxpayers contribute a portion of their tax dollars every year to a fund that that is maintained by the state of New Jersey which is used to provide financial support for communities that approve referendums for school construction renovation and repair work a rep a referendum represents an opportunity for Wayne taxpayers to get back some of those tax tax dollar from the state for example Bridgewater Raritan taxpayers approved their referendum and they were able to get back 42.2 million from this fund for security vestibules Roofing and windows after voters approv a referendum in March of 2023 Closer To Home Clifton taxpayers were able to take back $55 million from this fund for security vestibules restroom Renovations window replacements HVAC work after voters approved a bond referendum in 2021 in our case the board of EDS spent months and was very careful to select projects that would allow for a maximum of state aid and in our case a referendum approved by voters would allow Wayne taxpayers to take back $39 million from this fund to support School improvements in this way the Board of Education was able to multiply the value of every dollar contributed by local taxpayers okay so we're going to get a little bit more into the actual facility work and what we are attempting to do with this proposal okay so obviously the strength of buildings and budgets go hand inand so it's very simple if you buy a 60-year-old home then most people would assume that a 60-year-old home will require additional work maintenance require more of investment that comes out of your day-to-day budget your family budget whereas if you buy a new home or a home that was built in recent times or a home that was recently renovated then you probably can operate with the Assumption if you buy that home you're going to spend a lot less in terms of Maintenance and repairs out of your day-to-day budget so with that in mind what I'd like to to do is turn things over to Mr Moffett who will talk to you a little bit about how buildings will be improved good evening to continue with the example of uh home repairs and how it affects you individually um I'll just kind of go over some scenarios right and I'll tie it later to how the school district operates so with a homeowner if you have uh repairs or or things that are Necessities um you look for funding sources right so you look for your own income right you look at maybe savings and maybe some special programs they have out so if you need a new heater it's busted uh you're most likely going to take it out of a checking account right and that's really from your income you have it there it's pretty close to accessible you write a check you spend 100$ 300 $400 to buy a new heater from your check-in account the second area you might have a problem with your windows maybe they have to go maybe they don't have to go but you're willing to maybe buy the whole floor the whole uh house new windows for you know for efficiency purposes so you might want to take some savings money right so you have your checking account you have your savings that you you put a little bit away every year um and then maybe one day you're like hey I could use solar panels on the top of my roof I can generate some uh energy myself uh maybe there's a program maybe there isn't uh but maybe the state of New Jersey passes through the town and has a program you decide to use that there's a program you can use maybe use their money the state of New Jersey offers uh money for solar panels maybe it's pscg something like like that so you take advantage of that to fund that right so it's three different areas right so the fourth area is really the longer term maybe you want a second floor maybe want a new garage pool or whatever you might take a home equity loan you might want to just take a 5-year loan a 15year loan depending depending on it maybe it's a longer term maybe you uh put a 30-year mortgage on your house right you could do that uh again that's a long-term thinking so that's kind of what we do at a school level we we look at the same type of approach to what we need to do so it's a small smaller project uh if it has to do with maybe um I don't know um a you know small amount in total uh maybe it's just a repair of a sink maybe a plumbing upgrade for a bathroom again those are something that we would then maybe take out of our operating budget right so that's really every year we have money to spend we allocate a certain amount for the facility department they decide hey it's something that we could do quickly we could do it inhouse and we need the resources and labor to do it so we do it so we start thinking about how to match the projects to different areas of funding right same thing as you do in the home um Federal programs right uh you have uh pandemic funds from say the federal government they they made a lot of money available to the pandemic we were able to identify larger projects a little bigger than a sync uh we were able to identify that and uh fund that out of the pandemic resources again they were federal dollars um and uh then we also can look at our reserves right right there like a savings account so you maybe you need to have a new emergency generator at one of our schools it's a little bit more uh for than we can afford out of our operating budget so we decide hey let's take it out of the reserve again these are funds that we put into reserves a capital reserve maintenance Reserve over time and we decided to take a deduction and withdrawal and we used the pay so those a four the four legs of the table right uh referendum is a way to do a longterm approach to dealing with a large amount of of prodct projects or a large project right so that's the the approach we've been taken here so we again we've looked at a lot of these projects we've been doing along the way either it's from our operating budget special programs like pandemic funds state funds federal funds that are available special programs um our Reserve money we've been able to utilize and now we have that long-term like that 30-year mortgage we're looking at a referendum so again these are uh these are really supports Investments that we make in our existing plant and facility a lot of what we have funded here tonight we do have a couple other areas that aren't just uh you know maintenance and expansion and uh repairs and upgrades um there are a couple longer term approaches that are involved in the referendum but again with these Investments we protect District assets and ensure a use for the future generations of our children and we maintain that safe comfortable learning environment in in moving forward as we move through uh time I'll turn it over to Lauren to kind of kind of hone in on some of the areas that uh we're approaching so in speaking with security about security vestibules um enhancing security starts at the entry points of all buildings with expansion of the district security vesu scope and assistance of Debt Service Aid all schools that do not have them would be able to be addressed in pness the preservation of pness school which was constructed in 1924 consist of exterior work including a new roof repairs to the facade to address masonry so brick and mortar work and windows throughout the main building as well as the Early Childhood Center the interior spaces of the Early Childhood Center were renovated in 2020 over the past year the district has begun interior Renovations of the pris building which will continue into the following year these alter ations include all three levels of the original building restoration of pness will permit use of the rooms for instructional Spaces by providing the areas of expansion not recently available the district will continue working towards preserving pness during its 100th year anniversary okay so I'd just like to take a moment to talk about the second bullet so um expanding The pness Early Education Center to a prek-5 school that served Rising enrollment so we'll talk a lot about that um in a few minutes but Wayne is a long-standing history of maintaining a system of neighborhood elementary schools the pris school is strategically located in an area where lots of development is about to occur Avalon Bay is moving ahead with their project at the Valley National Bank complex and with that will come 55 Town Homes plus many more Apartments the town homes we certainly expect to generate enrollment in our schools pre shopping center is also likely to be further developed and both those projects like I said are very short distance to pness school so in other words that could become neighborhood school right now pris school is a district school it's not zoned for attendance for anyone else but under these circumstances those areas are easy to get to easy to walk to and would be the equivalent of the same type of schools we have throughout the rest of the community neighborhood elementary schools um also expanding pness school is the most cost-effective way to address increase enrollment in that part of town okay so let's go to the the next slide all right so we just want to talk a little bit about facilities and the importance of facilities in a whole variety of things I mean first of all the pride of the district the the environment that our students learn in of course incredibly important um how our staff members feel about their workplace um obviously people really get a sense of their workplace and how they feel about it from the facilities they work in and the care that is offered to the employees when you talk about maintenance you talk about repairs when you talk about providing the best facilities we also work in a competitive school choice program right um in the end for different reasons you have a variety of different schools that draw students from our our school district so you have private schools you have um Public Schools you have County Technical School you have a whole host of different options that students have when you move to Wayne as far as your education goes and if you look at this set of rankings this is our most R recent rankings on n.com you could see basically a school district that has lots of really great things we're ranked very highly when it comes to just about every area except one right so if you're someone looking to move into Wayne and you're thinking about the school system well there's one thing maybe in the in our rankings that holds us back a little bit and maybe that's something that you know with with a maybe a little more improved movement with some more work on our facilities we can increase our ranking but um I think that that's just something to consider something to keep in mind and something that really does matter when it comes to facilities those do play a role in our rankings and where we stand against other communities which I know is very important to residents of Wayne okay so um the benefits of timing Mr Moffet so timing is Big um couple years years back uh it seems like a decade ago but it was before the pandemic the board had identified a a time where it was right to to really consider a long-term approach so they they as as a board just really had some goals right so the first goal was to take advantage of the time and the timing is basically the fall off of debt they wanted to minimize impact to taxpayers so they wanted to add that to the mix and they also wanted to maintain the financial stability that they that they created over the years so they wanted to make make that a clear set of goals that we did moving forward that we we accomplished and the benefit of time is you you get to address this long-term approach uh which is that 30-year mortgage again right it's it's been able to plan for the future Generations your children what the the the generations behind us right so uh over time the board has realized when they budget that there are restrictions in in the in the growth of the budget and over time it's a called the 2% cap what it has effectively done is pushed a lot of Maintenance and required maintenance small projects larger projects out of the budget because there's such a need to use the the 2% the remaining 2% to uh deal with salary and benefits so naturally what gets squeezed out of the budget ends up being the facility areas and other support areas but facilities is big uh that's why when we talked about the four table the four legs of the table it's very important to really conceptualize it because that's when this makes makes a lot of sense um this ongoing concern of this the push out of these various different projects over time has a negative impact because you're constantly in like a fire hat or fire engine mode where you're going from one issue to the other because it ends up being an emergency rather than either emergent or a planned change or upgrade um so you end up getting caught up in a cycle and again with foresight we decided as a board to take advantage of this opportunity that we had um again to Min to minimize the impact U and to maintain that Financial stability um and just deal with some of the these areas that are highlighted here specifically the enrollment changes in the future that we anticipate um and again it's Anthony Wayne again that was our last U construction largest uh middle school I guess is back in 200 uh 2004 was when it was done um and that's fallen off now so this is the time to take advantage of that so if we go to the next um slide so then the referendum to take advantage of now we we have these areas that we get to look at and we'll go over in more detail in the presentation but I'll just highlight too uh as up on the left side on the bottom there is site work so uh what we've learned uh we went and part of a review process with some board members we would go each each day we would hit a school and look and the common issue that we noticed on our walkthroughs is the drainage issues at most of our sites so there is money set aside to deal with a lot of drainage issues at various locations here here in district one in particular is on the next side is the Anthony Wayne Uh stabilization that that that's how we are approaching it now this is an issue uh where there's this longterm crack in an area that's close to the stage and the kitchen area if you're familiar with the with the site if you're going into Anthony Wayne it's to the left of the of of of the property on the building side and we've been monitoring that over time so what uh referendum money will allow us to do is to continue to monitor this possible settlement issue uh that we're we're still trying to uh understand better so that we can address it so it may have an impact we don't know yet it it's a lot of research that we anticipate to to uh uh perform on that site and the funding is here in the referendum to do that and if we find that there are areas that need to be addressed or remediated there are resources within the referendum to address it immediately so uh that is something that I just wanted to highlight before we go into the next uh series um and uh just to conf confirm that Anthony Wayne if there's something that we uh identify we we'll address it immediately so with that I think I'm going to turn it over to new HVAC heating ventilation air conditioning control controls installation a districtwide program will increase the ability to troubleshoot proactively observe existing systems reduce reactionary response time address issues prior to a failure and enhance the quality of the environment by establishing better monitoring of occupied spaces these systems include room unit ventilators building heating plants such as boilers and HVAC rooftop units building wide controls are another step towards helping manage and improve energy consumption and ex and an extension of the Energy savings Improvement program which is also known as esep the district has previously capitalized on the program which is a state program by relamping all the schools with an LED lights and installing updated boilers in multiple schools the district white control systems are currently eligible for State Debt Service Aid in all locations and the purpose behind it is to be able to monitor the school the schools in each room from the main from either um an on-site building location or from the district facilities headquarters or even offsite in order to maintain and conserve energy and improve and enhance the quality of the environment that the students are in this is one of the um most important slides in my mind when we started the school year in September Dr toak used our thought exchange software he launched an exchange to assess what was um on the mind of parents as their kids were returning to school we had 790 people share their thoughts remember we were watching it light up um the the eight thoughts that Rose to the top um were all about safety concerns and we know U we talk to parents every day safety is always on the mind of our parents our teachers and our students uh they hear and they see what happens in the news and um they're very much aware of all of the practices we put in place we partner with the office um of emergency preparedness we have changed all of our protocols you know as parents um you cannot get in our schools without an appointment we ask you to leave things outside um we're very very diligent about making sure our buildings are secure and safe every day uh on this slide you see in 2015 there was a referendum that failed by 22 votes um to build um security vestibules at each school um through our own budget and the hard work and diligence of the board and the superintendent um we were able to also take advantage of grant money and we have built security vestibules we've been chipping away at Wayne Valley um we have it at Anthony Wayne Middle School um JFK um those are our most recent ones Ryerson is still in progress um you know many of the schools were built over the years and and we had to prioritize based on the proximity of the main office to the front door so we had recommendations um from the New Jersey Department of Education when they came in we looked at you know who is getting in and how close are they can we see them at the door and some of our schools you can't you're walking down a hallway so we had to think um about that a lot um we still need vestibules at George Washington Middle School AP Elementary School Fallon Elementary School Lafayette Elementary School panak and Tunis so this is something that would be funded through this referendum and we would be able ble to accomplish this work um within two years which is really really important um you can see we started in um after 2015 and we've been shipping away so what is a building envelope this is a a main uh focus of the referendum um an building envelope includes facade walls roofs Windows foundations and they're the primary barrier between the interior and exterior environments throughout the district many school roofs have exceeded their useful life no longer are warranteed or insufficient in protecting the building as an asset these deficits lead to Interior leaks which hinder student learning experience and produce conditions that are well below optimal levels new windows roofs exterior brick work will safeguard the building and at the same time promote an environment mental sustainable sustainability and Energy Efficiency and again all these building um envelope projects qualify for State service Aid um with the referendum some other additional improvements that we haven't touched on yet at Wayne Valley high school and Wayne Hills High School which were constructed in the 1950s and6 60s although they are equipped with elevators at each location they no longer meet today's standards and require significant upgrades and expansion in order to adapt to the accessibility needs of today adapting existing buildings to our everchanging environment also includes significant site site work at build at schools such as Lafayette which is heavily impacted by flooding conditions which infiltrate mechanical spaces the renovation of Wayne Hill's kitchen and cafeteria not only impacts the kitchen and food service operations but the existing building plumbing and ventilation systems which require modernization these large scale projects will enhance the school's ability to support our students and communities and these projects as well qualifies for Debt Service Aid which is a substantial percentage of the cost supported when you receive the aid so as you can see some of the funding for the overall referendum is targeted to athletic facilities at both of our high schools they are in need of an upgrade um just think about gym class right because it's a shared space people sometimes forget that is a PE class I guess a gym class is where you go change and go do your Sport come back and go back to class and then after school um you may have a team uh that you participate in and use the same locker room so it's a shared space so uh just wanted to highlight that um so with that it's uh you see an interior team rooms are going to be renovated lockers are going to be upgraded as well as related spaces like uh bathrooms that are supporting those areas uh funds will also be designated for both sets of exterior bleachers at both schools that's both visitor and home so we're going to be uh replacing in kind uh the bleacher site will be modified as necessary because there's probably going to be a grading change so we're going to address that the funds are available for that um Valley we're considering reorienting the space uh and flipping uh the the bleachers the home side uh flipping it on the other side um and we're also looking at an upgrade for utilities as it relates to the Press boxes so those are all part of it and that last uh component is uh there are HVAC aging uh parts and uh systems that are going to be replaced as well this slide details the expansion to prnis school uh as you know um prnis school was renovated during the pandemic we opened up our Early Childhood Center uh we opened up with 70 students um year two we had 109 students we're currently up to 2011 students we have 20 evaluations in place which could bring us to a approximately 220 students we've tripled in size um we have 112 special education students that we're servicing there uh there's 21 classes running in 13 classrooms some are halfday programs some are um a couple days a week we have 54 staff members we're we're really proud of the work um it keeps attracting more and more interest from the community it's really a premier and state-of-the-art preschool um the vision we set is a vision that we we met um we set a very high standard and I think uh we exceeded it so um it's really important that we keep um opening up additional classroom because the need from the community is there we're also still exploring ways to bring extended day options for working parents um their significant interest again we would need space for that we would need a cafeteria um this expansion would include 24 additional classrooms so for the First new Housing Development that's projected to go up we would be able to house prek through five students we would open up new classrooms for our preschool um and we would have lots of space for small group instruction related Services um and just meeting all the special needs of our students okay so now we're going to get into a little bit more about the funding of these projects okay so what I'd like to do is just talk to all of you for a few minutes about how things work in a board of education what the administration considers when we recommend projects so always always we do everything we can to reduce the impact on taxpayers we save as much money whenever we can we stretch every dollar as far as we can possibly stretch it so in this particular situation you have some things that are very favorable when it comes to Public Finance you have one situation where other people are paying for the project right in the end ultimately there's $39 Million worth of state aid that is available okay that's one thing that really helps when it comes to our taxpayers the other thing is we look for projects that pay for themselves projects like window replacements projects like door Replacements projects like roof Replacements and you heard from Mr Moffett and from Mrs Tibbits there's a tremendous amount of work that really adds up to the different types of projects that pay for themselves over time so ultimately you get your money back and some way or another you get your money back with Energy savings so that's also an important factor there is a unique factor that exists right now next slide that has to do with Anthony Wayne Middle School okay so in 2024 we will be making the final payment for Anthony Wayne Middle School in the amount of about $2.6 million and after that point we will fully own Anthony Wayne Middle School bonds will be paid off and those funds and the use of those funds will be unencumbered in other words that that's money that's available um within our budget and it's something that can be applied can be reinvested okay so the idea is that there's another there's an added bonus to everything I've been talking about is that there's the ability to Simply take that money reinvest it in these new projects and by doing so you reduce R the impact of these proposed projects the referendum youu reduce the taxpayer impact and so that's something that is enormously helpful that helps keep the costs down and it also in combination with all the other things I had just mentioned make it very favorable to move ahead for the community it's really some of the best circumstances that you can find when it comes to a referendum what are the circumstances that you would have for an ideal referendum really most of them exist here in Wayne right now especially with the expiration of debt for Anthony Way Middle School okay um Bill you're going to come up so if you look to the right side there you have a pie chart right that that's very uh specifically oriented to what I said earlier about one of the four legs to a table right you're combining both now only you have local funds which are taxpayer funding of 130 but you're also we qualify for uh 40 cents on a dollar uh this is something that the state of New Jersey has uh has a program where we're able to apply and uh and we were successful in in uh going through a long what our what we consider a long-range facility plan overview because we uh as Dr Tobak stated uh as an Administration we went back to hone in on those projects that we already knew uh as we reviewed the program uh that it would be eligible and they were a lot of Maintenance and Repair projects uh so we went meticulously through each school and identified projects that would be eligible and rolled them into to a a overall referendum that uh has a bang for the buck because that's really what the board wanted they wanted to focus on uh leveraging their funds uh to get state aid and and we were successful to do that and it's all package ready to go um now I I think I was quoted recently about saying you want to spend other people's money first I'm a firm believer of that um and let me just explain what I meant by that is uh as a federal taxpayer I pay income tax right federal income tax go that goes to federal government you hope to get it back right as a community uh the state of New Jersey again they they raise taxes how do they do that again income taxes and uh state sales tax right so that goes to State coffers um and then you have the county they have property tax a portion of their property tax they take the money uh and uh you try to get that money back so this is a way to do that right so um that's of people's money because I'd rather spend Federal that we've already kind of paid and contributed as a community try to get that money back uh either in a form of federal subsidies or or programs or in this case the state of New Jersey so all the state taxes that we pay the income tax and and the state uh sales tax we're kind of getting back so we wouldn't normally get it back if we didn't apply for it and and receive this type of funding for a referendum so that does subsidize what we we're looking to do here as a community um so it is all packaged uh up for us it has been reviewed by the Department of Education they've approved it theyve given us a official approval letter um and we can move forward as part of the referendum and and it's just a way to really uh stress to the to the audience here and people at home is that it's ready to go now it's been it's a pre-approved if you like to look at we got a pre-approved loan or whatever you want to call it and uh we're ready to go and that's all part of what you're going to be looking at today um and when we talk about um State projects and um you it's funny you get prepared for a presentation like this and a board member someone on Administration says how many projects have we done with other you know other funding sources and what I've said is State programs maybe federal programs uh and I kind of did a quick Lauren and I and Cheryl uh Li dig back in my office we ran 45 projects since I I arrived to District which is 2018 2019 I'm just going to highlight a few and just tell you the sources so there was uh State security money um so we were able to identify projects for that so we were able to do the uh security veses at Wayne Valley we were able to do the security veses at johnf John F Kennedy and security vesal Anthony Wayne that's a way to utilize those funds and that's what we do that's part of how we address our Capital needs right um from our reserves capital reserve another one is uh when we went to block scheduling that was funded through our capital reserve again the use of saved money that uh we have as part of that table right four legs on a table um we did some Renovations at the early childhood Center capital reserve so we have a new Wing we renovated it we were able to relocate the preschool uh program and we could expand a kindergarten and we used the capital reserve for that the Next Generation science lab program that was instituted well before I was here we continue to do that every year two projects of hills and Valley where you hit in one high school again capital reserve um maintenance reserve a relatively new Reserve that we've instituted since I've been here AP partti roof it's about a million dollars right there just that one maintenance Reserve Ryerson Elementary School not only is it a maintenance Reserve we were able to get leverage because there's another program the state offered it's called Rod Grant regular operating District again it's uh acronyms out the you know uh state is good with acronyms but this is again another program unrelated to what you're seeing here part of The Debt Service Aid it's a rod Grant it's a grant funds that's supported maintenance Reserve we're doing that and that's a partial roof that's over million Federal pandemic funds again you just throw you know you kind of look at it and then it hit you uh we were able to do four projects right there but it's it was over $2 million uh we were able to do Wayne Valley High School we did hvbc repairs and controls there we did James Fallon controls uh for their heating and air conditioning units and we did univent Replacements District white again other people's money right uh esip which was mentioned earlier and it's a Energy savings program state of New Jersey uh the the really two rounds of EIP money uh we were able to relamp right save energy and the savings for that energy we were able to hit uh and do boiler replacement projects at thunis JFK Ryerson a George Washington Wayne Hills round two we did relamping again to increase savings we were able to do a boiler over at Valley so these are other areas that we're not talking about tonight but when you think about how we're trying to leverage everything we have and use all those methods to fund these type of improvements uh we're doing that and we're uh 45 projects in so we're very proud of that so with that I think I will flip the page and uh that's where we are now um only four projects out of all the projects in the referendum did not get approved by the department to be eligible for any type of funding that's it the two team room renovations and bleachers that's it the four projects there for $39 million again it's ready to go and it's part of the referendum if you go to the next one the tax impact uh average house 20 $230,000 370 a year that's an annual increase separate tax levy that once the referendum is passed there's a separate tax levy as part of our budget um and that repays the principal and interest uh the first bullet is you really need to look at your tax bill to see to kind of get a better sense of where you stand uh because you might not have what is the average assessed value in town um so try to get re acclimate yourself with that I'm sure it's one of those pleasant things we all do as homeowners when you wait for your tax bill but uh you can also check and you can enter some information in or at least get some information as a reference point on our website that'll be available soon um and again uh I think I'll turn it over at that point to Dr Kack okay okay so over the next few weeks we have a variety of ways that we would like to keep the community informed about what's happening with the referendum how we can answer questions that people might have so you could see the first thing is a website that should be available for the public next week it's in the final stages of development and proofing but it will be finished at some point hopefully by the middle of next week at least that's what I'm hoping for we also have a community Forum that's scheduled for 700 p.m. Thursday February 15th that's an in-person event at Hills High School live streamed and recorded um the event itself will be um produced as a talk show so it'll be like a live studio studio audience participation we have a variety of guests who are knowledgeable about the referendum including Architects financial advisers a variety of people who will be able to participate in a community forum and talk about the referendum also we have our social media we'll be running a social media education campaign to help people understand a little bit more about the referendum and the different parts to it because there's a lot lot involved and we also have a thought exchange so in the next two weeks we want to hear directly from the community the whole Community anyone who is a Wayne resident or even if you're not a Wayne resident for some reason and you wanted to participate in a thought exchange you would be able to do that and share your thoughts about the referendum um so those are just some of the things that will'll be doing to help educate the community and make sure that anyone who would like to know more about the refer referendum has ample opportunity to learn um Bill you're going to talk about key dates for voters right this is pretty this is pretty quick February 20th is the vote registration I I do understand that the the local um clerk has advertised so they will give instructions on how to get a mailin application specifically but you're going to need to get that all squared Away by March 5 uh I do want to stress there's no early voting that's probably the only thing that's unusual meaning you don't have that option uh as you do normally um March 12th is the vote um and is going to utilize the same normal polling places so where you've gone in the past you continue to do that there's no change in that um and if there's any any question on forms that you're having you know access issue and you as uh we have mentioned they'll be available on our website uh so if you can't find forms at your local either the county uh clerk's office or the town clerk's office uh you could get them on our website okay so to wrap things up um the date of the referendum March 12th is just around the corner and we're very excited to share more information about this community um wide event as you've heard the referendum calls for a tremendous amount of infrastructure work that maintains our buildings the projects included in the referendum Are No Frills projects they were selected among all the possible projects because they qualify for state aid um with or without a referendum I think we would all agree that roof work replacement of Windows and Doors things like that that's all work that has to be done at some point anyway if the referendum passes this work comes with a 39 $39 million discount without the referendum the full cost of the work would be covered by taxpayers with a 2% cap that would be difficult for the district to do to keep up with the amount of work that does need to be done um for over all these years um we we have maintained our buildings we have done a really nice job to create improvements when you're talking about Acres of roofs um Plumbing all this other work over time facilities that are 60 years old require attention and that's what we're looking to do here um as we turn the decision over to the community which is really what's going to happen right now right the referendum is an opportunity for the community to act on its schools and so at this point we're going to as I mentioned we're going launch the website and um in addition tonight for those of you who would like there are many more flyers that are outside they're available if you'd like to take some home share them with people that are interested in the referendum we'd be happy to provide more we also have an FAQ that we've started we will continue to develop an FAQ over time as we take questions and there's enough of them then we will provide answers so that people in the community hopefully by the time March 12th rolls around will have ample opportunity to learn about the referendum and have all their questions asked so I think that pretty much concludes our presentation for tonight like I said this this presentation is really just the beginning right there's a long way to go ahead but this is a good start it provides the community with a tremendous amount of information about the referendum and what it is that we have planned and what it is that um you have the opportunity to act on Mr pavlac would you like um to open the floor for board members to ask questions yes sir Mr pakis thank you for the presentation I thought it was very good um for clarity and for the public um can you tell us the total amount of projects that were approved uh I believe it was 67 62 62 projects so so that constitutes 62 projects yes and another thing that I think uh a lot of members of the public might be confused about and I I know there's definitely going to be somebody with this question the assessed value I think when people hear oh they're saying the average house is 229,230 29,000 the person that has the $560,000 house that's probably where you are the 229,230 well you know based on the the assessment you're probably looking at $370 a year probably approximately 2% increase dollar de yeah was up Mrs wch I just want to thank the administration for all the work for not only this presentation but all the work that went into um putting together the referendum and I have to say I'm super excited for the open form the way you laid it out Dr Tobak that sounds amazing to me and I hope everyone in the community takes the advantage and opportunity to come and ask your questions I think um that would be great so thank you so much Mr B so my first question is around the 370 on the uh average assess value does that include the Anthony Wayne rolloff or is that net impact or gross impact that we based that on the average over time so there that would only really benefit the first year but we decided uh to as to focus on the 370 is without it if you could say but it's the average over time it's how you pay each year that's roughly how it would be so 370 each year but this year they pay normally over the past 20 years that we've had we've been heing off Anthony Wayne how much they' been paying over that period of time well that's that's the average so it's like 370 over time right 370 over time average the first year payments actually less than they would have been paying over this period of time I think that's something that we can clarify a little better for people as they look at historically how much they have paid and how much things will change for them going forward um the other thing that I wanted to say as a comment on this if you look at the number of storms that we've had lately and the amount of water that gets put into our schools not just from the rofs but from water runoff and all of those things as well that's why the building envelope is so important to us once water gets into a sko you're not just paying for the roof you're not just paying for these projects you're paying for renovations inside of the school you're paying for repairs to equipment that increases more than even the 39 million that we are trying to save by passing this as well at the same time thank you Mark Mr fa I'm sorry hi thank you for the presentation it's I I learned a lot about it so I have a question about and kind of piggybacks off of what Ryan was saying about the um the storms because that's something I've seen you know where I'm getting water in certain like in areas of my house where I haven't seen it before and it's um you know we have issues with settling and things of that nature let's say the referendum wasn't to pass and all of these projects like you have a catastrophic situation where a roof collapses or you know something or like Anthony Wayne and there's a big problem where that has to be dealt with how would you figure out like how would the board come up with the money to do something like that without having the benefit of this as a situation like how long would it take to potentially raise enough funds to be able to do this wish list well not even a wish list but the the required stuff I know we have that 2% cap and the majority of that's eaten up at other places so like how would we actually manage something like that without this so I I don't want to create a like a doom and gloom scenario that's my nature hope for the best plan for the worst no I understand um but it would be a very difficult situation you have reserves you have a significant amount of reserves if the um if the amount of funding um exceeded those reserves then you cut your budget you reduce your budget whatever you can the expectation from the Department of Ed because you would declare an emergency right and with a declared emergency the department of Ed allows the board a lot more leeway to pull money from different areas to cover those those those kinds of damage um you have insurance so if there was a so an insurance um insurance company might be able to help out with some of it you might cap out depending on how catastrophic the um the damage is so the district is in position to deal with different types of situations that you would you might be able to consider catastrophic however that would have implications for years down the road so words any kind of Reserve that you once had any kind of project all the different things that we spoke about when it comes to funding projects internally going on with science labs with that project working on security issues any of the things including staffing issues you would have staffing issues and staffing issues in the sense that you would have you would have to probably let go of Staff which depending on the circumstances sometimes those those cuts can be painful so there's a variety of things that you could do uh but none of them would be pleasant so ultimately a could snowball into making things much more difficult and you know ultimately impacting quality of the education that we can offer so there's an impact on the school system it's hard to say exactly how much or how far it would go um we had a situation at um Scot kofax where we had we had a major problem with a a broken pipe okay the broken pipe was leaking during a break there was no one who knew about that broken pipe a lot of that was covered by Insurance um but it didn't exceed our insurance coverage so we we were fortunate in that respect you've had um what is the name of the district Kathy gainers um so you have examples like creskill high school right Cresco high school was closed for years due to a lack of funding that um resulted from a flooding situation so you've probably read about that you've heard about that cville high school right that's been a it's a very difficult thing so it really does depend it depends on the extent of the damage it depends on other circumstances limits of insurance things like that thank you so um for another point of clarification for the public this is not a permanent increase in property taxes correct it's going to so this is going to be an increase in property taxes for the duration of the bom so 20 years or 25 years then it goes away just like the Anthony Wayne bomb disappeared right right right now the assumptions are either it's a 2025 right now the financial adviser is suggesting a 25y year payback again and there's options over time where you can refinance it I think the board has taken advantage of refinancing I think Anthony Way Wayne debt where they were able to re really reduce it after they they floated the bond and it's all how you structure the debt and um to build on what uh Mr Bell asked uh that average home in way the $370 a year does that include and going back to the Strategic timing we're I think we're in a really good strategic place right now where we have an inverted yield curve so that means interest rates are high for one year two year 10 year 20 year interest rates are lower so we're going to have a 20-year Bond let's say at 4 % if we invest That 160 million that we received in proceeds we could put that in a CD or something like that at 5% or 5.35% or something if we lock it in for like a year or two we will receive interest income so that interest income is not included in the $370 per year right okay you're going into some hypotheticals because we haven't structured the debt but normally and I think if if you talk to bond Council they would suggest there's a way that you could reclaim that interest in various different ways uh whether to pay down existing debt or to utilize it for uh over budgeted projects I should say under budgeted projects right so if you go out for a project and say it's a $2 million project that we estimated and it say it's 2.5 million there's a way that you could also utilize interest funds that are generated with what you're saying is on deposit as you before you use it and as it just generated you would claim that back to cover that over uh budget situation does that help yeah it's not really hypothetical I know Franklin Lakes is doing the same thing so Franklin Lakes uh did a bond referendum and they invested the the money yeah I think I met when when we talk about hypotheticals it's about how you structure it I know the board has wanted to minimize impact on taxpayers so they you could also and and that's what Mr Bell is suggesting is that we considered to soften the the increase uh over time to minimize the impact which was do a diff a shorter payment I'll say in in the the year in the Gap right so you you would just step up payments and then you'd level off but again I don't want to lose people it these are how you structure your debt you could do that over time like you said if the yield curve changes in the next month or so or before we sell bonds it might change with the market this is Wich oh well Mrs okay Mrs WI yeah I just wanted to mention um we we heard miss rman talking about Safety and Security was on top of everyone's mind and a lot of these projects would support those uh wish lists from the parents I know uh I've been big proponent of the bleacher so that's one big or two big safety projects there and all the vestibules and all that stuff so I want um everyone to kind of keep that in mind all the things that we're trying to do is only to help for the security and safety of the students and St staff and I think we need to put that out front thank you Mrs regosa I'd like to thank the administration for this awesome presentation on the referendum and I'd like to um ask all the parents it's a lot to take in but I'd like to ask all the parents please come to the Forum bring your neighbor make an evening of it hit the diner afterwards this is important this is our future this is the future of our students and we're sitting up here uh asking you to help us help you this has a lot of good um safety features like Mrs WK said this does include the bleachers we've been talking about that for the last few weeks so please please come to the referendum and bring your questions thank you I too would like to say thank you for the presentation um it was very very detailed and uh very informative part of being in a community is you know these things have to to be addressed and as a community um you you think about how this will affect the educational system here in Wayne and the safety and so many other things that many parents myself um and just talking to people have felt concerns about so I think too it is a great idea to come out to the community Forum Community forum and ask your questions everybody will have questions don't be afraid to ask I think everybody here is very open-minded the administration too we want to hear and we want to get some feedback so um thank you again and thank you all for coming tonight too appreciate it and thank you for dedicating today as the uh board ofed member dayk you thank you that was sweet awesome Mr G Dano thank you uh first thing to the administration great job of the presentation I really appreciate what you've done and the time you put into this I've been on this board and off this board for four years and one of the things that I've seen a lot of emails a lot of uh personal contact from the community and we are very cognizant about our Rank and where we sit in the state and where we sit in the country where we sit in the county how we rank in sports how we rank in academics uh you saw me go and ramble on about all the great things we have here in Wayne um and we made it to tap into thank you sir appreciate I put my name on that one I appreciate it but the one thing that keeps come back to them is they said this is such a great Community why aren't we even higher how come we're not in the top 60 how come we're not in the top why aren't we the top school in the state and in a lot of ways we are and I'll be the first one to go up against some of those private schools and say I'll take my teachers and my students against your guys anytime here but when you look at niche.com and that's just the reflection of a lot of them academics a sports A+ teaching a facility C+ so the thing they always asking me is how can we do things better what can get our ranks rank higher you now see it we're looking at the one thing that we can really plug up and really improve on here and putting us up to a b putting us up to a B plus of facilities God knows how high the rankings would be because we're so phenomenal in everything else this is what we call a glaring need in an educational community and it's one that we can fix and we're saying how do we do it it's right there so please come out ask your questions at the community forums and one of the questions you answer yourself is how high can we go we'll know at this referendum of How High we can go thank you anyone else I thank the administration for the hard work they put in this has been a long road that we've been on we've been talking about this for a long time and it's time to stop kicking the can down the road um we look at as t as Miss tippet said we have a school that's a 100 building that's 100 years old we had a window fall out of the building the other day all right um and again I I don't want to play Doomsday what if what if but when we look at it we look at the increased class sizes or enrollment that we're getting over the past two three years that we had our demographic study never took into account all the people who moved here during covid who have children who weren't in preschool we lost those numbers because when they do a demographic study one of the things they look at is where children were born and where they live so when we had a lot of people coming in from New York Pennsylvania wherever those children were not accounted for in the last demographic study so that skewed the numbers a little bit where they were telling us we'd be on a decline now we're on an incline one thing and over the years we've looked at different options okay how much to build a new school secondly where you going to build it if you have to buy the property to build it you're adding a couple million hopefully that it onto the price of the building so that's not feasible there's no way we're coming to the taxpayer saying listen we want to spend $100 million on building a school not feasible we looked at other Alternatives we looked at vacant Office Buildings say yeah easy just put classrooms in not so easy because the state requires certain specifications for classrooms for bathrooms for science left labs for fizzed for gyms they require certain things and it's not that easy just to take an office building hey smack up some walls here we go it's not the only option we had was pregnant school and it is an option that we have no other choice but to do with increased enrollment you have the building that's going to happen Avalon Bay on Valley Road will be occupied in 2025 that's not far away folks and that's why we are trying to be proactive here with this referendum because we know we're going to see the impact of that the other issue that we have all the building occurring in this town is a affecting three or four elementary schools directly those elementary schools are at Max already you have art on a cart you have music on a cart you've lost music rooms in schools to have a proper educational classroom for children rightly sub so when we look at it yes uh we're asking you to spend $300 a year on it but I say what are you getting for it you send your tax dollars down to pay County what are you getting for it don't drive on the roads there's a pothole on Olden road that your car is going to sink into what are you getting for it we can show you what we're getting for it every June when you look at where where our kids are going to school you're seeing the return on your tax dollar quite clearly you see the rankings where we are when we look at the test scores and believe me I'm not a big test score person that's a snapshot of a child in the moment that's it it doesn't tell the whole story but you look where we were post pandemic to where we are now we are blowing districts away and as Mr Gano said you know we if you you compare us to these top districts in the state yeah we're up there because when you look at a lot of those top districts in the state what are they thereo they high schools that have a criteria to get into Bergen County Academy P County Tech Mars County Tech Sussex Tech all those schools you have to apply to and be accepted we take everybody we don't have a choice and we provide everybody what they need educationally and we have a lot of children who have a lot of needs today and rightfully so we need to be at the Forefront giving the every child what they need to succeed so I I say to you this is not a Cadillac that you're buying here this is a referendum that is addressing dire needs of our buildings look at hathorne couple of months ago that facade fall off the front of a school 300 two or $300,000 to fix it we don't want to be there and this is unfortunately is our only Avenue not to be there right when you have a 2% cap you don't have a lot of fudge room because you have a lot of fixed costs that you don't control so I ask everybody in this community come out ask questions come to the community Forum you want to know how it's going to be built you want to know what it's going to be the architect answer the question you want to have the conversation like Mr pakus and Mr batteri and Mr Faber had about money come the financial people will be there this is our time in waying to shine I had somebody say to me the other day well you're raising my taxes yes unfortunately I am but I'm also raising my taxes and the eight and the Seven other people sitting up here right now their taxes too but we're a community we're a community that comes together when there's a need we're not asking for some big elaborate you know uh building to build or something like that you look at Anthony Wayne it's coming off the books it's coming off the tax roles so we have a unique opportunity but we also now have to fix something there the school's 20 20 years old a lot of our buildings have been pushed off and in the days when school budgets were voted on and were voted down and it was kicked to the Town Council they were cutting anywhere from 1.75 to $2.5 million out of our budget you never make that back up in your budget so you're always behind the eight ball what was the first thing that got cut the big ticket items don't fix the roof just patch the roof all right don't don't do the Excavating can't afford it we'll put some pipe on the ground or do something just to make it work for now and we'll get to it how many projects do we all have oh we're going to get to that do we ever get to it no not until we get to the point where hey it doesn't work anymore or I'm having real major problems with my house so I ask everybody please ask questions we have the the Q&A it's going to go up online you're going to we're going to have the community Forum ask questions right please this is something where we need to bring this community together you have a unified board up here now that is going right to the point and doing the right thing thank you Mr Moffet revisions to the agenda just one addition to tonight's agenda under emergent school resource Finance we will be adding number three approval of standing committees that action reads as follows resolve that the Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approve the following committees membership and meeting schedule effective January 18 20124 through January 2 2025 that's at the organizational meeting and that is the only addition to tonight's agenda thank you this time will'll open to the public for agenda items only this portion of the meeting is open to Citizens for comment on agenda items only residents are asked to State their name address and subject matter comments may be limited to 3 minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student the board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business do I have a mover move Mr janana Mr B anyone from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item good evening Suzanne put up 23 tuxedo Drive Wing um thank you very much the presentation was excellent everything on the list is worthwhile uh my concern is a lack of publicity for this going out to the community at large those of us us that are involved in the school Community will know about it but that does not Encompass most of the township um I think some type of written communication whether it's an oversized postcard should go out to every single taxpayer in town and I want to sign for my yard I would have wanted a signed for my yard six months ago in fact I'll take three or four signs because in order for people to respond you have to let them know and I'm sorry we're in the 11th hour before this referendum so vot gets voted on and my concern is that people will not come out and vote for it just because they really don't know about it thank you thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item uh my name is Gabriel nazziola I live at 1260 ratzel Road in Wayne uh some time ago I I have attended some uh courses at Purdue University in the insurance business and there was a lady Professor there who said that uh if you want to communicate effectively you have to establish a familiar frame of reference to that end uh couple of things so that you understand who I am other than just a taxpayer uh I did serve for nine years on a board of education in Belleville New Jersey and I quickly tell you it's like night and day from what I've seen here at last two years I served at as president uh I was an insurance salesperson for for uh 40 years and the relevance of that is that if you want to make a presentation you got to be a pretty good salesperson and you have the job of selling this 169 million point8 million uh referendum and I think think if you want to sell it you have to give a little bit more information although your presentation was excellent uh I think that one of the overall things that people should always keep in their mind is whether you talk about town taxes or state taxes or federal government taxes they're all from our little pocketbooks they are dollars so please don't don't be misled by the prefaces of state or federal uh on the issue of assessed values uh you've stated here the assessed values are $229,450 and I would suggest to you in a point of sales is that probably the reason you lost this thing last time is because people will know that that's not a real thing by that I mean averages lie they don't tell the truth if you were to perhaps modify your presentation to include the fact that we probably have I don't know 2 3,000 condominiums in this town and those Condominiums fall in a spectrum of values that are way way different than the average home and I think every one of you know that so when you talk about assessed values and you talk about 229 473 that's misleading by my own in uh example I moved into Wayne about 21 years ago and my taxes got to a point where they were $229,700 a year now you try to figure out how many $370 amounts are in that it's just it doesn't equate uh so I had to move out had a sell you know it's like having a mortgage on a house you don't have a mortgage so I moved to somewhat smaller house but I'm still paying over 14 Grand uh my point is that you should make your presentation identify the number of Condominiums and show what they're paying on average and then show the rest of the one family homes I think that would go a long way to make people understand what the reality is now you've indicated that we did this Anthony Wayne project 20 years and the last year's payment is going to be $2.6 million uh and it was a 20year project I don't know uh sir can you wrap up your three minutes are up oh my on you can come back you can come back back up we're going to have another open portion all right I'll come back thank you sir anyone else from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item seeing no one a motion to close second Mr pakas Mr Jano all right let's move on to the agenda do I have a mover on the agenda i' like to move the agenda and whole Please Mr Jano Mr B any discussion on the agenda see none roll call Mr Bill yes Mr Faber yes Mr gardano yes Mrs alandre yes Mrs regoso yes Mrs wch yes on all and abstain on L2 Mr Pacos I recuse myself on L2 and then yes and Mr pavlac yes motion carries now open the meeting to the public for General comments this portion of the meeting is open to Citizens for topics on any topic residents has to state their name address and subject matter comments may be limited to five minutes per person members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or student board Bears no responsibility for comments made by the public comments guarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business do I have a mover move Mr Jano Mrs regoso uh jeez let's see oh oh what was the 20year cost of the Anthony Wayne Uh project and I think it would be fitting if you included as part of your presentation in the Forum that you indicate what that cost was for the assessed average assessed value uh and to compare it to the $370 that you've projected now uh oh yeah there somebody mentioned there's something mentioned about a stabilization of Anthony Wayne Uh that sounds to me like something went wrong with construction and before we go out and pay for it ourselves maybe we should do what everybody else seems to be fond of doing these days sue the sue the contractor find out why we you know why should we pay when they can pay or some insurance company could pay uh it's I think it's the greatest thing that you're doing here to get some of our state tax dollars back instead of just whacking us for the 62 projects and charging us directly that would be short of an abortion I think uh just one General comment if I might uh and please don't try to judge me as to a conservative or or a liberal but uh probably one of the most important things that have happened in our country these days is to assure the citizens of our country that our elections are sound and proper uh most of my life there was only election day you didn't have any early voting days I think I guess with this the the speed of life these days that having days before for people to go to vote not everybody just can make it you know on one day so that's a good idea but I understand that's either prohibited or you haven't chosen to do that as a part of this referendum but you have done something else that I think is the most destructive things that have ever happened to an election and that is mail in ballots now I'm not talking about absentee ballots where there's a specific procedure to get one and to how it's handled when it gets back but when it was from some Avenues reported that we had 26 million more votes than we had registered voters in the last election uh I I would attribute that largely to mail and ballot thanks for your time uh I think you guys are doing a great job thank you sir how you all doing I am Rob Sardi um Skyler kfax Middle School I am here to introduce myself I know I have emailed all of you I've emailed the admin I've emailed the board members just letting everyone know that I've been recently appointed as a president of D Wayne Education Association um I just find it fitting at the first public meeting to come and just kind of introduce myself to everybody that's over there and tell you a little bit about me and where I'm coming from for the past 25 years I've been a teacher at Skylar kfax middle school and yes the kids will um tell me like wow you've been teaching since the 1900s and that is true and hurtful all at the same time um the relationships that I've developed with aate staff and the parents and the community it just brings me a sense of joy and pride and also gives me the strength to do this next position the confidence that that Community has in me I want to bring into Wayne as well I mean bring to all of Wayne I'm enthusiastic about collaborating with all the stakeholders in our community to further Propel Wayne as an educational leader in New Jersey listen I I recognize that our roles as Union leadership as central office and board members you know they might lead to disagreements from time to time I just know that it's crucial to always remember that we're all coming from the same place we're all looking for what's best for our kids educationally we're here for their well-being and I just want to reiterate that over and over again um throughout my tenure I've seen things change you know I I've seen educa I taught with a slate chalkboard when I first started and didn't have a computer and now you know now there's smartboards stuff that are over there but things that have concerned me is just the way that we engage with one another when we disagree and I want that to change I I acknowledge that we're going to have different viewpoints and I just want you all to know that I am committed to fostering respectful discourse I we can dis we can disagree respectfully and I and I I've done it I've done it my entire teaching career um I just want you to know that I'm always going to be here to listen to hear you to have that conversation and I want you to know that I'm I'm going to be open to that Wayne has constantly been a leader in education and I believe it is time not only to uphold but extend that role when we do have those moments of disagreements yeah listen I might be firm I might be passionate but no utmost I will always it will always be rooted in the utmost respect because what you guys are doing up here giving up your time for Z all the time for what you guys do with just as I think of you know the possible delayed opening and stuff what you guys get through in central office we're all here for that same reason um there might be times when we kind of falter in standards of like where we want to act I just ask that we give each other Grace for that you know if our passions get away from us we just give each other Grace we're human beings I appreciate all the work that we do collectively for our community and that's everyone that's admin that's the that's the board that's the The Faculty that's our parents that are doing this at home because you know that learning doesn't stop when they leave it's it's at home as well I really look forward to a productive and positive year and again I'm always here to talk to listen to help move the district forward and after that presentation I do feel that this referendum is something that is needed here listen I teach in a building where where there was that flood in Skyler I was there when there was you know electrical issues my principal has um every time it rains it it it floods her office that's not a conducive place for kids to learn so I do in order to move the district forward I I do believe that this is necessary um so I am here for you guys at any time to have that conversation so thank you for your time appreciate anyone else from the public wishing to speak oh Suzanne pot up 23 tuxedo drive here again um my family moved to Wayne about a little over 40 years ago and why do people move to a town well Wayne has Parks the why boys and girls club Little League pal it's close to routs 46 and 80 easy transportation uh our Mayors have been great the current one they're everywhere Little League openings store ribbon cuttings fire department and first aid Squad dinners special events over here at Town Hall and uh that continues life is terrific in Lane but why did I move here we moved here because my husband worked for IBM and they gave him a list of towns in New Jersey CU we were moving from Long Island and we looked at the school districts we looked at the education versus the taxes and Wayne had the most bang for our buck when it came to education and dollars to Donuts that's why people moved to Wayne it would upset me if this referendum doesn't pass I have three grandchildren that will attend school in Wayne Clifton passed $168 million referendum their median household income is $50,000 less than the median household income in weight we we have a lot to be thankful for I think we can do as well I hope and pray that we do as well what happens if we don't I'll be the Doom and Gloom person you can hate me when I'm done I I class sizes will have to go up maybe we'll only have one high school that could be a bonus we only have to redo one set of bleachers maybe we'll have a 10th 11th and 12th senior high school and they'll have a eighth nth and 10th school we may have to take one of our middle schools and make it into like a super five to take the pressure off the elementary schools that can't handle the higher enrollment so we can come up with all sorts of Creative Solutions but the one of the reasons we have two high schools in Wayne and one of the reasons they didn't go to a one high school model back in the 90s is for the students twice as many students can participate in Wayne public schools by having two smaller high schools than one gigunda high school and that plays into the quality of life for the students and the families in Wayne I don't want to give that up and I don't think anyone else should either yes we're going to be impacted by new Housing Development this referendum gives ourselves a great chance to deal with it and move forward and be better not have to come up with alternative choices as I've mentioned just now the thought to me is just horrendous that this does not happen in March that people don't come out and support it $7,400 that's $370 average taxpayer and I'm sort of in that average category but I know my house has overd doubled in value several times in the last 40 years and if I pay that $7,400 over the next 20 years I know I'll get more than that back on return on my house if this referendum gets passed down the road when I when I finally have to pack it in move on go to the nursing home down the road so please thank you for the work and the time and I'm asking please to the public to support the referendum good night thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak B second Mr G Dana any old business do I'll get to you in a second new business okay I I would just um I could respond to some of the questions that were asked if you like so Mr put we do have um social um sorry we do have um basically a public relations firm that is working with us and we do have a plan for direct mailings to homes to all residents in the community with QR codes and all sorts of ways to find out information about the referendum so every every home in the community will at least be getting a postcard maybe two depending on you know the recommendations and and what we see down the road okay um gab so we could take some of your recommendations regarding um you know like how information is presented but the other thing I'd like to mention is that um as far as the elections go and how they're run the Board of Ed doesn't make any determinations about that okay so that's really that's out of our hands the Board of Ed notifies ultimately the county we want to run an election and the rest is is out of our hands board member comments Mr pakus so I wanted to remind everyone there's a early dismissal tomorrow uh grandparents parents Guardians um teachers and staff um early dismissal tomorrow in case this is the first time you're hearing about this um I wanted to thank the previous boards uh that were part of this Bond referendum to get us to this place where we are right now um and even uh the just uh recent board it was a challenge to say the least to get to where we are now for a March 12th referendum I mean a few months months ago I think the board flipped out that we heard it might go into next September so thank you to to the previous boards so we can get to to where we are I hope uh everyone watching and everyone in the the community here was listening to Mrs pup um what she said I mean she hit the nail on the head is Clifton a better Community than us I don't think so they voted yes is Cherry Hill A Better Community than us I don't think so they voted yes we're talking about the future of our school system here the worst thing that could happen on March 13th the day after the March 12th referendum is to hear someone say I didn't know the second worst thing that I think could happen is if someone says I voted no because I didn't want my property taxes to go up that is probably one of the dumbest statements that someone could make because your property taxes are going to go up like it or not I don't like paying high property taxes trust me I don't but there's two choices here High property taxes and a lot of pain in your pockets strain on the schools strain on the staff 40 plus kids in the classroom property taxes are going to go up or or higher property taxes we get to collect interest income we have a plan our schools will will benefit everyone's going to be uh admiring Wayne and we'll be part of uh Clifton and Cherry Hill it's it's it's that easy property tax is going to go up also um uh the gentleman um Mr Mr Gabriel I guess uh mentioned you know the $39 million so it's as if we were paying our Rich Uncle Phil you know a few nickels here and there few uh hundreds of dollars over the years and now your Rich Uncle Phil our Rich Uncle Phil is going to give us back $39 million do you want $39 million back from a rich Uncle Phil yes I want $39 million back from my rich Uncle Phil so vote Yes for the referendum so you can get your $39 million from your rich will Phill right um so we as a board this board last year's board the board from two years ago we took a tour um we saw the schools we saw we saw Anthony Wayne Middle School's cracks we saw the old windows that are not energy efficient um we boil this down to need to have items not nice to have yeah we did look at some nice to have items that would have taken us to almost half a billion dollars there's no way I was going to vote for a referendum for half a billion you weren't going to vote for half a billion dollar maybe a few people were going to vote for half a billion dollars because they want the really nice athletic complexes and stuff like that we're not doing that we're doing need to have items so you need to vote Yes so we'll be getting the word out the community forum is February 15th 7 p.m at Wayne Hills High School it's going to be streamed it's going to be recorded um you know the timing is very strategic we did everything we could the administration did everything we could to get this on the ballot for us the community to go out and vote on March 12th for the future of our school system for the future of our property values our property values have gone up over the last few years let's keep them up so uh with that I'm going to thank thank you I just wanted to make a point of reference as um I Heard everyone speaking today uh I know we have many in our community we have many Starbucks lovers um and the reason I'm saying that it's really less than your Starbucks coffee a day that's what we're talking about 61 or 62 projects that will improve the quality of the teachers and the students and it's less than a cup of coffee a day so I want to leave with that on that note and also I wanted to to welcome our new board members again and this is their 18 days U or 14 days in since they were sworn in and they're ready to rock and roll so uh uh I will leave on that note but thank you thank you anyone else Mr Faber so when I sat up here uh during candidates night and I was asked about the referendum the answer that I gave was I really couldn't tell you I couldn't tell you if I would support it or not because I didn't know what was in it so now after being on the board for two weeks and being that this has been a tremendous priority and getting to see what's in it and what's got to be done and really taking the time to understand the ramifications if it's not done and all of the points that everyone has made here I mean the school district is one of the anchor points of the value that we all benefit from in our homes and if that level backslides even just a little bit that you're going to feel it in the value of your home so while you may save the $370 a month you could be losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on the other end so the tradeoff of the short-term spending versus the long-term ability to sell could be dramatic so you know I appreciate that everyone had the faith to vote for me that put me on and I'm trying to reach out to those people and say well now after seeing everything I could say that I do support it and it really needs to be done so please take your time look at everything you know understand what the you know what the whole process is and please go out and vote for it thank you anyone else Mr Bell thank you um so Mr Gabriel first I completely agree that making sure that you can put this in the context of your own tax in the community that you're in whether that's Condominiums single value value homes having multiple families within your home and so on is a great way of being able to get this on the basis that people can connect with um I think that's a that's a good thing for us to be able to look at and think about how we get to those different communities and put it in terms that they are thinking about um I also agree that looking as as I asked Mr mofet at the time looking at what the net impact is if we've been paying 370 a year so far and we're going to pay 370 a year going forward then we're good we're not asking for anything in actual fact from listening to Mr mofet we're actually going to buy you some Starbucks next year if you vote for this right um because it will go down for the first year and then go up slightly the year afterwards because there is a small dip in when we're not actually paying for the first installment until a little bit later on um so I think there's some good to be looked at from being being able to draw that comparison of where things are going and actually get across the fact it's not even 370 that you're going to feel the impact of 370 will go towards paying off this um I'd also like to say it's great to hear that the president of the we is supportive of the referendum that was fantastic you chose a good meeting to come out and introduce yourself and throw support straight behind the referendum um really pleased to hear that make sure that makes it into the paper Ferris um um and the other thing that I want to say is you know we heard a lot today about the storms on the skools The Ice the rain the water the flooding the work that that means for the systems that we have Windows falling out of uh a building um and so on as well like these are the things that if we don't now proactively fix are only going to get worse over time some of these windows in the schools are over 50 years old they they have problems with them they are going to continue to cause problems they cause problems all the time where they don't open they get stuck they crack they need Replacements they need repairing the maintenance staff we have are amazing they run around playing whacka mall with this stuff all day long where they could actually be doing things that proactively keep us ahead of these things as well the benefit to being able to to push this forward is we reduce that whacka mall and it's not just that we solve that problem we can use that manpower to get ahead on other problems too there are so many benefits to getting the maintenance sorted out so that we are in a good place going forward and we can build on that school system so there are many reasons everybody's come up with a different set of reasons everyone's come up with a good set of reasons there is no reason to be able to go back and do this other than the fact that as Harry says we don't get to enough people they don't realize they don't understand and I think we have to be able to take that to the point of pushing as hard as we can so we're asking for everybody's help here to get that out to everybody come to the community Forum really understand where it is that we're going ask questions email whatever it is you need to do get the information out get your questions answered get comfortable with what it is that we need to be done because it will benefit everybody thank you anyone else Mrs regoso just uh just a couple shout outs to all the athletes for winter sports have a great safe healthy season um shout out to our facilities I know you guys are working really really hard our custodians our bus drivers uh we've had a little bit of a uh crazy winter so this week and I know you guys are doing everything you can to get the children to school shout out to the Wayne Police Department for uh your eff efforts to get our children to school I hear you guys have been putting many long hours in um getting families you know safe to where they're supposed to be and um that's about it everyone stay uh comfortable tomorrow for the snow and you can take care of yourselves uh one last thing Katherine could you read the uh donations please we have three donations tonight all from January 11th 2024 the first one one is to James Fallon Elementary School from the James Fallon PTO in the amount of $200 to be used for transportation to James row pool for the fifth grade field trip the next one is to John F Kennedy Elementary School from the JFK PTO in the amount of$ 1,4 480 to be used for all grade level field trips the last one is to Pines Lake Elementary School from Pines Lake PTO and the amount of $1,788 to be used to purchase 320 copies of The Lemonade War for the one book one school program thank you um just I don't want to reiterate what um my fellow board members said but this is an important time for our school district and it's a time as I said we need to all come together and I think we can and I think we will and I know we will I don't think we will I know we will um we do have to our facilities Department who's been working working pretty much around the clock for the last three weeks between the rains the ice the snow everything they've been a Yen's job to all of them and I really do thank them um and we do have an early dismissal tomorrow again um so to everyone I thank you for your time and thank you for the time coming tonight I know you all could be someplace else but we do really appreciate when you are here and thank you I have motion to adjourn motion Mrs regalos Mrs L