e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e good evening and welcome to the West Orange Board of Education public board meeting on Monday May 6 2024 I would like to thank all of you here in person and those watching from home for joining us tonight I would like to welcome my fellow board members as well as Mr MOA Miss Flowers and our student liaison Le laon uh Miss Flowers would you please take the RO call good evening roll call Dr Bryant here Mr ifer here Mr Stevenson here miss Vera here Mr Rock here thank you notice of meeting the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest are discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the ACT a written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board on January 8th 2024 that set notice was sent by regular mail to the West Orange Township Clerk and the editors of the West Orange Chronicle and by email to The Star Ledger that set notice was posted in the lobby of the administration building of the Board of Education and posted on the district website please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and the district's website at a future date please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance uned States stand naice thank you Miss Flowers in consideration of the closed and public meeting of April 15th 2024 do I have a motion to accept the minutes so moved thank you Mr Stevenson is there a second second thank you Mr ifer uh any comments hearing none Miss flowers please take the role Dr Bryant yes Mr ifer yes Mr Stevenson yes vice president Vera yes president Rock yes thank you all right next up good evening to our student liaison Lea Aban uh would you please share your student aison Report with us yes on April 2 4th the West Orange High School winter Color Guard had an outstanding performance at championships in Trenton and concluded their 20th anniversary season on May 22nd the spring choir had an amazing performance at West Orange High School and combined all the choirs at all grade levels West Orange High School had an art show showcasing all the students amazing art pieces ranging from studying 2D 2D and 3D Fine Arts and captiv captivating fashion photography architecture and digital design Edison Middle School put on their production of Matilda the Musical Jr on Friday May 3rd and Saturday May 4th Liberty Middle School put on their production of Mean Girls Jr from April 23d to the 27th Roosevelt Middle School put on their production of Once Upon a mattress from April 20 April 18th to the 20th from May 13th to May 18th immerse yourself in live music cultural displays delicious food trucks and familyfriendly fun at the love and unity Fest West Orange High School class of 2024 seniors came together in tarnoff gym for decision day last Friday to celebrate and show off their postgraduate plans um our senior prom is May 23rd at the Birchwood manner at 6 pm and tickets are now on sale for $100 thank you very much all right next up Mr Moore it is time for your report would you please share your superintendent's Report with us thank you president Rock good evening tonight in honor of Asian-American Pacific Islander month we have a presentation being made by our students at this time I ask our supervisor of roal languages Mr Felix blat to come to the microphone for introductions good good evening uh Mr superintendent the board and to the public uh my job at this point is very easy it is to introduce one of our wonderful students uh Miss vanisha janaki to come up to the podium please she will do be doing a presentation in honor of API Heritage Month good evening my name is vanisha jiki and I'm a senior here at West Orange High School I also a steering committee member for the local community group United Asian voices of West Orange many of you may be familiar with the UAV in our advocacy work as well as our annual cultural celebrations like the the volley and Lunar New Year Festival where we center student voices and talents tonight UAV is delighted to once again amplify the voices of students who will read poems by aapi Poets the first student is arang er is currently in third grade at Redwood Elementary School she is of Chinese descent and speaks multiple languages she's a native speaker of English and Mandarin Chinese but also has basic Proficiency in Spanish and shangai newth er enjoys dancing and has passion for painting and doing art projects and her dream is to become an artist yes good evening ladies and gentlemen thank you for taking the time to join us tonight as we discuss important matters that impact our community in the spirit of our discussion I would like to share a poem written by Janet Wong Janet Wong is the author of more than 30 books for children and teens and is the winner of the 2021 NCT award award for excellence in poetry for children a Lifetime Achievement Award that is one of the highest honors in American children's poet can receive Janet Wong tries to live by the Moto be the good which was the re the main reason that she quit her job as a lawyer she couldn't think of anything more important than working with kids Janet was born in Los Angeles and is of Chinese and Korean descent the name of the poem is you can do it right now you can do it right now by Janet Wong 2020 you can shout out a merch you can quietly pray you can read the news and share it today you can send the mayor of your town a note you can make a sign that tells people to vote you can talk to your family you can listen to friends there are different ways to reach the same ends to fight Injustice to show that you care you can do it right now from anywhere thank you for listening now I would like to introduce the next student Jason B Bona is a seventh grade honor student at Liberty Middle School who enjoys playing the cello basketball and volleyball he is third generation Filipino ameran and is the oldest of three boys Jason finds joy in Reading gaming and giving back to his community whenever he can thank you hello everyone uh thank you for coming here today to share with our community today I'll be reading a poem by a Filipino author known as Joseph o legaspi Joseph oosi was born in the Philippines and his family immigrated to California when he was 12 the author of poetry collections Imago threshold and seever several other CH book books he received poetry Fellowship from the New York foundation for the Arts and co-founded kundiman a nonprofit with the creative independent losasi said pursuing something creative leads to this amazing Brotherhood and Sisterhood and siblinghood with creative folks that's the best thing about being uh sorry being a creative because I would say 90% of your friends are creative they in turn bring so much Beauty and language and sunlight and darkness and drama into your life you feel alive all the time having all these people around you and I'm really thankful for it and now departure by Joseph o legosi we were not prepared for it America the land cut like a massive slab of steak our mother did not sit us down to explain and nothing was said over the black coffee and rice soup at the meal times my siblings and I approached our inevitable leaving with numb acceptance as many do under martial law days prior to the date things disappeared in the house the display cabinet taken away by an ant the wedding gift China wears in it sold except for the blue plates and Swan shapes that would not survive the journey the rice bin was given to a family friend knives to Uncle school uniforms cousins roosters divided among the men floral Fabrics divided among the women dried mangoes and stale squid candies for the neighborhood children a twin bed transported upstairs for my sister staying to complete college that Late July Morning the jeepney arrived as hired the hell dominion over the blinding Sky a zephyr funneled through the narrowing stre streets of Manila the steady procession of well-wishers in our house did not halt my father was handing out basos as if he were paying for our Sage passage surrounded by luggage and boxes as huge as baby elephants we were given a dollar bill our firsts as the Jeep KN drove off to take us to the airport leaving behind a throng of onlookers waving violently and a tearful older sister who years later would reenact this disc disappearing at this fading scene of a rooster Line Road of this fighting banana tree Lush Town speeding away lost in the kinetic gray cement and dark smoke of exhaust thank you and and now to introduce our uh next student um the next student is AMR oir ooshiro who is a sophomore at West Orange High School she has a year round she's a year soccer player and participates in the Asian culture CL club and ESL Club all while maintaining good grades aapi heritage month is important to her because it honors and commemorates the achievements of Asian and Pacific Islanders being Thai Japanese and prian representation is personal ter thank you good evening every good evening everyone um we who produce pearls is a newly released picture book illustrated by Amanda ping B pakaya born in Atlanta Amanda is a transdisciplinary artist educator and Community Builder now based in Brooklyn who amplifies marginalized voices the daughter of Thai and Indonesian immigrants Amanda's signature bright and bold palette and we who produce pearls bring to the bring to light the strength and power power within us all creating a mesmerizing stunning and magical Masterpiece that proves how we can shape our pain and struggle into one of joy and power written by Joanna hoe we who produce pearls is an Anthem that celebrates the richness and diversity within the Asian-American identity and serves as a reminder of our self-worth our Legacy and most of all our destiny an Anthem for Asia America we H produce pearls we who dream marked time by the moon a Heavenly Body containing multitudes whose many faces mirror our own and shine light on our season of harvest celebration renewal we who seek steer by the Stars on voyages across the ocean the traces of our travels flow in the veins of our exploration we are the history of this land we who withstand layer communities on top of community ities in neighborhoods that sustain life and solidify the foundations of this nation we who persist are the wealth and the rich Riches of the world we hold Empires upon our backs and wear crowns covered in Jewels we are the water that coaxed spring shoots from the soil we are the tracks that connected sea to shining sea we are the gold that fed the dreams of a generation we who shine have the power to define the legacies we leave the truths we speak today pin themselves to the heavens and constellations that will guide The Seekers of Tomorrow we who produce pearls wield our power with patience drawing from the strength of ancestors Who tattoo their wisdom on our souls we have always risen up stepped into Power shaped our space we are children of the celestial we catch the light and lead with Brilliance so bright we rechart the course of the world thank you um now I'd like to turn the mic back to venisha who will offer closing remarks on behalf of the UAV I'd like to thank a Jason and Amron who beautifully shared poems that amplify how Unity alley ship and buing our authentic selves are essential to a sense of community and belonging on that note I'd like to also share what is meant to me to have learned about Asian-American History and culture as a part of my West Orange curriculum not just as part of AI heritage month and not just as part of the edal educational programs led by the UAV now that I'm about to graduate I've been reflecting on my experiences as a student in this district one classroom memory that perfectly encapsulates the pride and curiosity stirred in me is my history of race class gender and ethnicity class where my teachers Mr Evans and Mr edelen often tell us anecdotes of the experiences they have had when welcomed into different cultures such as trying out new foods events and more one that made me feel acknowledged in the class was their love of Indian weddings and they are always curious to hear more about my perspective of issues impacting our society from my indian-american culture this is just the tip of the iceberg though learning about other cultures opens the gate to learning about the history of their communities as a result of the uav's the Val festivals we have been able to invite others to experience Indian culture so that they can have anecdotes of their own but also we always educate our attendees on indian-american History bringing out a better understanding of our community in our schools learning about other cultures in history through curiosity that can be fed in the classroom itself is the answer to True understanding in order to make all communities feel welcome and safe in a town we call home our future change makers should be able to learn about Multicultural perspectives in all of the communities that contributed to making their country what it is today including the AI Community thank you again to superintendent Moore and the Board of Education members for once again allowing students to celebrate aapi heritage month now I'd like to welcome Matthew Emanuel to the Podium good evening everyone and once again congratulations to all the performers my name is Matthew Emanuel and I'm a junior here at West Orange High School I'm also currently the president of Asian Culture Club and on behalf of Asian Culture Club I'd like to invite the West Orange Community to join us in celebrating API heritage month on Friday evening May 31st at the West Orange High School celebration supported by United Asian voices will include cultural performances and arts and crafts activities the event is free and open to the community and please stay tuned for updates on on or follow um Asian culture clubs Instagram at praising the Asian wohs and thank you so much well thank you once again to the students uh one more round of applause they've never failed to impress um their dedication passion to their culture or not only to their cultures but also to learning the other cultures is is really what West Orange uh appreciates we appreciate as a community uh we do as always have ways to go we are not perfect but we do strive for that ultimate affection and learning about others appreciating diversity um and and I just want to mention Matthew's he's a junior uh he also in is taking Italian has met the Seal of by literacy requirements for the following year when he graduates as as a senior he will uh graduate as officially trilingual um so congratulations uh I'm uh yes I'm sorry bilingual uh bilingual Italian and and English uh so thank you I I'd also like to touch upon uh some of the points made regarding it's always wonderful to celebrate and recognize those months those weeks those days of the year but more importantly or arguably more importantly it's important to recognize celebrate acknowledge represent throughout the year in entirety and thanks to the community thanks to the board thanks to uh our District administration teachers um and ultimately the students uh the district is working for and i' like to speak to a little bit of the ways that we are trying to continue to grow and be more inclusive and more diverse in the curriculum instruction um what I'm going to mention does not capture it all but I just like to give a a brief update as to where we're at um a small update as to where we currently are and what our Visions are for the future uh so again my name is Felix Plata I'm the supervisor of ESL and World languages uh and in recognition of Asian-American na native Hawaiian Pacific island month I would also like to um to uh to to describe it as I mentioned some of the uh some of the acts that we've taken over the last several years so over the last several years as part of the district's curriculum revision process there have been there has been an intentional Focus to develop and implement the curriculum that is inclusive and representative of our population our and our society as a whole includ inclusiv inclusive of aapi so to begin the language art uh I'll speak a little bit about the language arts curriculum language arts curriculum has infused texts that either are authored by or demonstrate an API experience such texts include round is is a moon cake a book of shapes by rosean thong front desk by Kelly Yang Long Walk to Water by Linda Su Park I am Malala by Malala Y yabai and life of P by Yan Martell and again that's just a few of the texts that we've infused Incorporated uh into our Ela curriculum in addition moving over to the math uh in our grade two to F two to five math program we've included in each unit a focus on the lives of individuals and their unique contributions to our society uh using math or Through Math these individ uals come from diverse backgrounds but yes they also include our API community so I mentioned them tonight now in social studies a great deal of work has been done in our social studies Department uh and our curriculum uh to include the uh API mandates and Beyond so some of those uh some of that includes at the elementary level the social studies curriculum has designated specific units regarding cultural traditions and celebrating a broad range of cultures including aapi in kindergarten grade 1 grade 2 and grade three those units include sections uh of several diverse texts including Grandfather's Journey by Alan SE the name jar by Yang Su Choy and Chinese Chinese New Year by Judith jangho Cohen now students at the secondary level study Asian immigration patterns to the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries as well as the accomplishments and Prejudice asian-americans experien in they study that in grade uh grade 6 grade 10 and and grade 11 now those contexts or or concepts are introduced at a great a great appropriate level um but we do address them we do speak to them and again as always we're looking to improve and grow uh as a district through our curriculum uh in Visual and Performing Arts as well as health and fiz Ed there's been a commitment also to promoting cultural responsiveness representation and exposure to diverse people Concepts music and individuals through the exercise music and art lessons uh some of uh just a couple of art lesson of those lessons include the introduction of API Heritage Stars uh in the fizzed classes when when um touching upon certain units in fizzed such as Naomi Osaka Troy palom Malu Kira Davis and Yao Ming during their uh again during their respective Sports units now in the high school in the high school's Theater Arts and master scene study classes the reading and Performing of monologues and scenes from from que Wing's play she kills monsters is included now our library science department also uh analyzes the collections at each school on an annual basis with a focus on diversity the collections are updated to ensure that materials materials are inclusive and provide support across all subject areas vir virtual book rooms are curated reading lists author visits uh and physical displays highlight the month uh and provide students and staff with additional resources which support the curriculum in all subject areas now World languages place of my my heart um so in world world languages the nature of our study is to uh study diverse cultures languages uh and to develop globally competent uh multilingual students uh so in in West Orange we we offer Chinese as a World Language beginning in sixth grade and offered through the high school these classes focus on teaching the language and cultures of both the past and the present this year uh our students as was mentioned before they learned about and recognized the lunar Lunar New Year tradition and celebrated during our Luna New Year Gala in February uh which with great support from United Asian voices of Westar so once again I thank you for your support as always uh and in this event students from across the district from sixth grade on and up organized and performed various aspects of the Asian cultures that celebrate the Luna New Year we partnered with um with local organizations and businesses for a wonderful event so in closing today and this month we as a district recognize and celebrate the contributions that the aapi community uh has has brought to our society uh has shared with our society and we strive to approve upon our vision of diversity Equity access and inclusion for these cultures the Asian cultures as well as cultures and groups throughout the school system so thank you to the board Mr superintendent and and to the community to our administrators to our teachers and of course to the why of our district our students you are our future you are what we do what we what we do so thank you and continue your good work and thank you very much before we before we move on the agenda I just would like to uh did you want to come up okay before we move on the agenda I just want to thank our students oh sure and if I can get a picture would be nice with our students with the board if that's okay um but I do want to say to West Orange um there's faculty back there I know we've mention teachers that make a difference and they do um but not just uh the teachers but the makeup of our school the diversity in our school and the and as you can see the Engine That Could is our students they're the reason why West Orange is a special community and um I'm I'll tell you what students I'm very lucky to get to be a superintendent of such a fine district and you displayed that today with your presentation so it's all right with you can we take a picture words e Robert stay I'll just give us a second and then we'll move forward in the agenda okay if I may point out out an item on the agenda that deserves some recognition and that is the appointment of our director of special services will be filled by miss Connie salamino Connie's been here a long time Miss salamino once held the position not long ago when she graciously accepted the huge undertaking of implementing our special ed preschool program at the Betty metalina Early Learning Center ladies and gentlemen we are very fortunate that miss salino is eager to return to her former post so at this time ladies and Gentlemen please help me give a warm welcome back to miss Connie salamino thank you very much I have to honestly say going after that incredible presentation of our students is definitely a tough act to follow we are so blessed to have students like that leading the way for us I want to thank Mr Moore in the board for this incredible opportunity I welcome it with open arms as I enter end my 20th school year here in West Orange but I would be remiss without thanking the entire department of student support services for the incredibly warm welcome back that everyone has given me and working in line with Dawn riro amazing individual and looking forward to working again with Kristen gogerty you couldn't ask for a better team but to Echo what Mr Moore said and this is where I'll cry my bmec family has been one of the most incredible life-altering experiences that I could ever have when we started this preschool offsite we had no idea where this journey was going to take us and thanks to all of you and our families we have built something incredible and it will continue to grow and be something special so for all of my preschool families I am your Forever preschool principal thank you and again I am grateful for this opportunity and for the ability that I have to continue to give back to this amazing School District uh Connie did you want to take a picture with anyone special with your flowers or or you just uh with the board and me too the board thanks no no e no want okay all right at this time I will offer the uh final budget presentation so um some of this presentation if you remember the original presentation you've seen a lot of these slides before we will of course get to the slides where um positions are cut but before that just to remind everyone 13 schools there's our enrollment at 6,000 as you can see you can look at your school see where enrollment lies and again we'll go over our budgetary goals to continue to provide funding to maintain a safe environment in all buildings increase the support of student achievement while optimizing District spending and review and evaluate District expenditures to identify opportunities for efficiencies and financial savings that this Slide the revenue comparison shows where the change occurred where we received a deficit a cut in state aid and just to tell you how the budget was impact it was a decrease in state aid coupled with annual increases in expenditures that created a substantial budget deficit that some of those expenditures are your just your natural gas electric um raises and things that went up and you can see and I don't know if it's quite clear but you can see the expenditure columns where they where we say where we have our different areas in which we spend uh and you can see uh where we um have increased and the increases are in the four column as you can say so for instance salaries are up a, 600,000 and benefits are somewhere at 2 million so the districtwide cuts well how we balanced the budget we made Cuts in supplies and equipment we've cut our outsourced Contracting Services we had to cut overtime our substitute custodial cleaning St Services which some of that was outsourced as well we re re we renegotiated our health care benefit plan so that we can realize some savings but we had about 24 districtwide staff reductions most of it was taken by retirements designations not being replaced some non-renewals and how we will um work on those holes were through transfers to fill some open positions so here's a list of the reductions a reduction span from one prechool principal supervisor of technology engineering position one librarian position one technology position six High School teaching positions which varied between math English and science one multilingual learner teaching position two academic support teaching positions two Career Education Middle School teaching position One World language teaching position one central office administrative assistant position one high school clerical Aid position one special education teaching position three Elementary School teaching positions and two Middle School fizzed teaching positions so there's the general fund and there's where our tax levy increased at the 4,200 Mark and the impact to the taxpayers of West Orange would come in at about 2.77 here's our budget approval timeline by March 18th which we did the preliminary budget presentation to the community was submitted to the county for review April 24th the county approve approval of the budget by May 6th today the public hearing for adoption of the final budget okay thank you and uh I know there'll be question questions but that would conclude the presentation of the budget board you can return back to the days absolutely e that uh so so before we move on to the remainder of Mr Moore's report just want to open it up to the board if they any questions about the budget uh presentation well we'll have time for commentary later if there's any questions we'll we'll take those now no anybody okay then uh thank you Mr Moore finish up with the last title our hi report for the month at this time I present the HIV bullying report since our last board meeting we've had two Hib investigations I reviewed uh and summary and some I reviewed the summary of the both investigations and one was founded the other was not I concur with the findings of the anti-bullying specialist thank you and that concludes my report thank you Mr Moore and and thank you to the students and Mr plaa for the other presentation that was terrific it's always great to hear our students perform um from the rest of the board do we have any committee reports no report all right then I'll move on to my board president's report uh which will consist of okay uh two items so first uh and Lea mentioned this before the district is promoting a week of love and unity May 13th through the 18th uh reach day highlights a different event for our students to participate in to promote love unity and kindness Monday is be a hero students can wear a superhero t-shirt Tuesday is dress in tie-dye Wednesday is unique day spreading cultural diversity Thursday is pajama day Friday is school spirit day the overarching message is everyone belongs and should feel included uh big thanks to Carl Brer founder of love and unity and our director of Fine Arts luk quato for bringing this program to our district uh and second I wanted to again speak a little bit about the state aid situation just to add some context to Mr Morris budget presentation spoke about this at the last meeting so some of you may have heard this before uh but for anybody that wasn't here last meeting or anybody at home that's joining us right it came as a shock to us and to many others that when we received news that we were losing $700,000 in state funding initially we're all kind of confused about why that was um and so after learning some more about how the state funding formula Works wanted to share with everyone here just so you understand a little bit more about how we got to today and then what this means for the future and and add some context to this year's budget so the state funding formula you we think about funding as one number but it really comes in kind of four big buckets one of those which we'll talk about last is Equalization Aid the other three are special ed categorical Aid Transportation Aid and security Aid those three are pretty simple there's a number there's a formula but essentially if your enrollment goes up they go up uh and also if you look over the last few years those were not funded at 100% so for the last seven years the state has slowly been increasing those three buckets of Aid uh and so coming into this school year before the aid Figures were released we expected that to go up at least a few million dollars some some some amount um for context that's about a third of our state funding it's about $10 million last year the bigger portion is Equalization Aid which was $23 Million last year and that is essentially what you could call need-based aid for school districts so the the promise of cifra the school funding Reform Act is that if the district collects puts up its fair share what the state thinks that we can collect through property taxes the state will then fill in the rest of our adequacy budget what they think it cost to educate our kids to to help us fill out our budget we historically have done that we've collected our fair share uh but the the problem comes in how that's calculated so the equalization Aid is essentially the difference between two numbers the adequacy budget is a number where the state says based on a big formula this is how much we think it should cost to educate all the kids in West Orange it's X and that the local fair share they calculate is y that difference is what we get in Equalization dat last year again that was $23 million out of those four buckets of Aid what happened is that Equalization aid went down $3.5 million the other three special ed transportation and security went up or should have gone up 2.8 so the net what we see is our budget went down $700,000 which doesn't sound like a whole lot until you take into account that we're expecting about $3 million in those other buckets of eights there's kind of more money that we were expecting that got pulled away the reason why that Equalization aid went down uh is because of the way those two numbers are calculated so the adequacy budget essentially goes up for two reasons one is enrollment enrollment went up slightly so it went up a little bit because of that the other is because of inflation so the state calculates inflation cost and what the kind of normal cost of Education increases by uh and last year was about 6% so if you kept everything the same it would take about 6% more money to fund the exact same program same position same everything without changing anything and actual dollars or adequacy budget increase $9 million that's what the state calculated to say it would take an extra $9 million give or take to keep everything exactly the same now if our local fair share kind of went up at the same rate that wouldn't be a big deal but instead our local fair share went up 12.6 million and again the difference between the budget and the local fair share is your Aid so if the budget goes up this and then the local fair share goes up this suddenly that difference is smaller and that's where we lost the funding the reason for that is the way that the local fair Shar is calculated which is based on two numbers right you start with really simple thing and you got to dig into this bottomless pit to try to figure out what's going on that local fair share is calculated based on the equalized valuation of property in town which apparently went up 7.9% or about half a billion and then the total income of everybody that lives in West Orange which went up 15.7% or about $400 million now on paper what the state is telling us is that suddenly we're rich I don't really feel that way I don't know about you guys uh but on paper we have a lot of money that we should be able to collect and if that were true we wouldn't need as much Aid the problem is all that money is out there on paper but we can't collect that right in the budget presentation Hayden indicated we would raise the the tax levy 2.77% that's essentially all that we're allowed to collect that comes to about 4 million the increase again if you keep everything the same is roughly $9 million that's kind of a Statewide average so if you look at our budget could be a little bit different but that that's you know a big gap there and so essentially the the problem that we have today is that because that income and local fair share went up or Equalization aid went down and now we're trying to fill in what the state did not give us and so while you know Hayden presented a slate of Some Cuts to staff and we prefer not to make any of those cuts the kind of reality is that without that money from the state that's the only way to balance this budget um the other kind of piece looking forward is that that local fair share is somewhat random right when you look across the state some places went up somewh down there's really no way to tell what's going to happen next year could be this is a blip and next year looks much better it could be that this is not a blip and next year looks worse and and part of that's going to depend upon how the state acts over the next year whether they revised this formula and how the equalized valuation and how the district income change between now and then so that that's a little bit of context we'll comment more on the budget itself when we get to that in the uh in the agenda later but coupled with Hayden's presentation thought it's important for us all to understand how that's calculated and how we got to this point where we're essentially trying to fill in money that the state should have given us and that we expected to come in way back in January uh so with that would conclude my report and we will move on to public comment we will have questions from the public on agenda items only any Community member who would like to make comments or ask questions please come to the podium at this time please state your name at home address for the record then begin your comments please limit your comments to three minutes we have any members of the public here in the audience tonight wish to make a public comment Lisa tuo 15 Carter wrote during the April 15th Board of Ed meeting the necessity for sacrifices was emphasized since my last interaction with the board I've observed a posting of 32 instructional and non-instructional job postings and the renewal of non-tenured teachers despite the information from the budget presentation to the contrary conversations with other departments reveal no staff reductions while some positions have been Consolidated there remains untapped potential for reduction where the impact of school based staff is not as keenly felt undoubtedly you've seen emails and feedback echoing the concerns about eliminating the library position that's not aligned with the best interest of our students as principal Mr Moore can attest to the transformative power of a robust Library program having witnessed it firsthand let's examine the cost effectiveness of this decision while the budgetary impact may seem significant the cost broken down per student is $160 a student let that thing sink in $160 the effectiveness of our program and Equitable asset access excuse me access to students are at risk our students have diverse needs some thrive in sports others in the Arts many rely on Library resources eliminating the library position aligns with more with districts that are struggling to provide quality education have we reached that spot yet significant savings can be achieved by leveraging the over nearly 1,000 Educators for profession development instead of Outsourcing to an expensive external providers to the tune of $79,000 which has doubled from the last school year these outside sources yield limited instructional value additionally we must address the instances of wasteful spending such as replacing recently installed overhead productors due to malfunctions re-evaluate the online tutoring app paper which fails to meet student needs because the online tutors do not know the material and leave the students without answers to their queries also the lime item for facilities acquisition and Construction Services for 10.1 million we are a school district not a construction company if we can't afford $10.1 million don't spend it this year this is not a budget that reflects Dire Straits but one to borrow from sound educational practices and to one that has not been clearly defined our schools are integral to our community identity and directly influence property values neglecting School library funding jeopardize our students children our children's future perpetuates information poverty and compounds existing learning disparities consider the students who lack transportation to the public library for them our school libraries reent represent the only access to resources we must remain accessible to all students particularly those without resources from home I'm going to ask you to to please wrap it up your time is expired presenting budgets without adequate Library School Staffing undermines fiscal responsibilities as Educators we engaged with every student serving as its teachers and instructor hi my name is Molly Eisen I live at 242 Gregory Avenue and I'm a special education Ela teacher at Edison and I just wanted to kind of piggyback off of what Miss tuzo said especially about the professional development so we've been hearing the deficit is $700,000 and according and again I'm no math teacher my students will definitely tell you that uh the in the budget it's about $700 and as someone who has sat through a lot of PD this year with my colleagues we often found it to quite frankly be a waste of time and money you know we were trained on the new New Jersey learning standards which my department has been talking about for the past two years so for former teachers who kept saying oh I'm just like you I'm in the classroom no you're not you haven't been teaching for 5 years because you know we teachers do our research so we research these people who were talking to us was quite frustrating and it just boggles my mind that you know we have this deficit you're spending basically the deficit on PD but you have amazing teachers in West Orange who are willing to do the PD for a lot less so it really seems like that could be a way to help solve the problem as well and especially save our library media specialist jobs you know I'm a special ed teacher my students are reluctant readers and the LMC is a happy place for them and the thought of you know not having Miss Bois there full-time next year is honestly devastating not just to the staff but to the students and knowing my kids going to Liberty in Roosevelt are not going to have that wonderful experience they have with Miss Bois is incredibly disappointing so just you know think about what could the $700,000 be be spent on someone who had been in the classroom in years lecturing us and admittedly saying I don't know when we ask them questions or doing what's right by our kids good evening uh my name is Jessica Dio I live at 69 Kirk Street I'm here in support of the school library media specialist positions in West Orange I believe strongly that each school should have a full-time certified media specialist leading their Library program I'm a homeowner in West Orange I'm a member of the New Jersey Association of school librarians and perhaps most importantly here I'm a parent of two Redwood Elementary School students and I've seen the vital role that Librarians are playing in their lives my children look forward to uh going every week going to the library with Miss Boyd and learning about Multicultural lessons as well as developing their love of of reading and literature um the guidance of these highly qualified professional media specialists in our district is essential for our all of our students um I had the unique experience um having completed my masters of information at recers recently uh during my Graduate Studies I was able to intern with Miss Bois at the middle school at Edison and I could witness firsthand with both my you know my student hat and my parent hat on the level of dedication and uh and care and professionalism that Miss Bois and her colleagues bring every day and I I don't think so and in addition so as our children grow older my children will be going into Middle School soon um the media Specialists will continue to be essential in teaching them how to be critical consumers of information uh we have an overwhelming media landscape and they'll need guidance in eval valuating sources and avoiding like fake news and falling for things that are coming at them in this world so these skills the media literacy skills are essential for our children to become responsible citizens of our Global Community these media Specialists are on the front lines delivering these lessons every day so School liers are not only places to do research and explore carefully curated literature again um chosen to uh show our students not only mirrors of their own experiences but Windows into the lives of others and really to help them open up their worlds but for many students there's safe spaces in difficult times and especially during awkward Teena uh pre-teen teenage years those safe spaces are are these Havens are essential and limiting the times that our libraries Avail are available with our our school librarians um it worries me uh so cutting the number of librarians for the middle schools will make it impossible for the remaining media specialist should deliver the same high level of service that our students get now and all of the school communities in all three schools will suffer from this um so thank you for your attention I I understand you have difficult decisions to make but I implore that you recognize the essential role of these media specialists in our educational landscape and act accordingly thank you good pardon me good evening uh my name is Patty Richardson and I am an eth grade ELA teacher at Liberty Middle School when I saw the number of one library media Specialists position being omitted I have to tell you I am heartbroken I pride myself on doing a really good job and I work really hard and so do my colleagues and in order to do that I tried to create an environment that is rigorous for my students my students read every day they write every day we take the first 10 minutes of class they get to choose the book that they want to read and they get to respond to those books I cannot begin to tell you the amount of reading that my students have done this year without Mrs tuzo in our library these students will not have the access to these books that they have had all this year if we want rigor in our classrooms how can we provide that if we don't have the resources I'm here to speak on behalf of those students who are not the athletes where all sorts of money is allocated for them to be successful there's money allocated for kids in theater and musical programs but for our students to be successful and feel like they have a a have some value these books enable them to do that what about the kid who is struggling who needs to be able to identify with a character in a book we're taking that away from them because they won't have access to these libraries the middle school is the most most important time where we really need to guide our children they are trying to figure out who they are why should we take away the one thing that is going to give them some semblance of security please I don't envy your position it's the worst but I'm sure you can find some way to move money and keep our library media specialist at our building so that I and my colleagues can continue to do the good work that we do every day it's Teacher Appreciation Week the best gift you could give me and the rest of my colleagues is to keep my La meter specialist in my building thank you hi my name is Josh gold farbin I'm an eighth grade teacher at Roosevelt I'm a lifelong West Orange resident taxpayer and habitual voter I'm speaking to you about the upcoming change to the health benefits for employees of Westar and schools for the record the board was informed of the shift proposal in February but we were not informed until the April meeting why were we not informed of this possible change in March furthermore we did not receive any details about this change until last week that's when we received the difference that's quite a long time from when the proposal came out this is a change that impacts our health and that of our families this change is set to take effect on July 1st giving us and the njaa very little time to conduct a thorough analysis of this new plan this change is being done because of the financial shortfall which I understand but it is upsetting to me that the personal the Personnel cuts and Healthcare changes seem to be the main Solutions put forward by the board to save this money the side-by-side comparison of our current and the proposed plans are identical mainly identical so why is this new plan less expensive I suspect the savings comes from the prescription plan we will be switching from Ben card to Express Scripts a company that the Better Business Administration is quote unquote advising consumers to use caution when considering doing business with Express Scripts uh Better Business Bureau has received a pattern of consumer complaints alleging delays or failure to ship correct prescriptions or medications failure to accept returns or medications which were shipped in error failure to issue refunds uh debiting credit or credit debit or credit cards for prescriptions not shipped and poor customer service end quote here are some reviews of this company my Dad's medication was moved from escripts to this Pharmacy no one told us and they run you in circles and sit on medication for months if someone needs a cancer Med the patient may die before they get it all this company doesn't care about people only the bottom dollar they wouldn't approve a medicine for me that had been on for over a year I wouldn't have this company if I had any choice in the matter these are not Anonymous they do have names addresses attached to them and these are all from April of this year I cannot get my prescription from Express Scripts and I can't get any refill from my local pharmacy because Express Scripts is saying my order was shipped when the site clearly shows it was not the script was sent over a week ago and I got no notice that there would be any delays in filling it now I'm out of meds no one will help me that's from Christie in Harrisburg Pennsylvania that was April 18th I could go on and on there are literally thousands of similar reviews about EXP scripts these reviews are not outliers for this company they are the norm for Express Scripts I recognize that money is an issue as a taxpayer I appreciate that every dollar needs to be spent responsibly but the respons but the reality is that we are scared and many of us feel that our health may be compromised by this switch I respectfully ask that you pause the implementation of this plan until teachers and the union have had an appropriate amount of time to analyze it thoroughly thank you for your time good evening Sharon Ortiz L Avenue and 18year teacher at the high school um I appreciate the cost saving measures of the board in order to meet our recent shortfall um I do have to to join in with the gentleman that just spoke however is we did compare the insurance and it's appears to be on paper equal what we haven't been given at this point are the in network doctors so people need to know whether or not their doctors are actually in the plan to know if it's actually equal and to have a look at what the uh the approved drugs would be um I I also heard a lot of uh talk about the switch from Benard to Express Scripts Express Scripts does enjoy a very bad reputation so I would implore the board to take another look at them as our carrier for prescriptions um he was correct in saying that 91% of the people that have that plan they gave them a one star rating and this is out of thousands of ratings so it's it on Surface seems to be quite inferior also there are multiple lawsuits going on in different states for price fixing and collusion with Pharmaceuticals and all kind of things um going on with that particular company so that might bear a second look um just to make sure that in addition to the fact that they're not delivering people's prescriptions we don't get involved in the class action suit as well again I thank you thank you thank you for the cost-saving measures oh I just have one more thing one more thing and bored um if you indulge me I I saw on the slide that we were trying to cut back on overtime uh particularly with maintenance So to that end are we looking for a permanent solution again for the Betty Melina Center so that we are not paying so much overtime to the maintenance guides go on Friday nights and break everything down for the church and then come back in again on Sunday also overtime and put everything back up again so is that something that we can look at as a cost-saving measure that in addition to the rent thank you so much hi my name is Jessica harell and I live at for Gavin Road I have a second grader and a third grader at St Cloud and and I am an educator by trade I've been a teacher principal now I work for a oh District now I work for a nonprofit that does professional development and we hear so often like how hard the work of the board is I'm telling you I know because I've seen it and lived it and it's also one of the hardest times to be a teacher ever like ever and the work that I'm doing at my kids school all I hear from the teachers is how hard it is my kids are at one of the best schools I can ever have been in I worked in new Yark Chicago New York City and Denver and I've seen the struggles of teachers and we shouldn't have that here we have the resources what I'm hearing is uh how do we save money and one answer is get rid of teachers but another question we could be asking is how do we keep the really good ones one of the best teachers that I have ever seen in 20 years in education has resigned from St Cloud I don't know entirely why but somebody should be meeting with her and saying what do you need that we can keep you with our kids my son has a ton of needs he is an incredible kid who has absolutely been able to be himself in in her room and the conversations around professional development and all the things it's really hard and we have to keep asking why one of the other things that I want to really lift up is the continued use of the ftis and panel Assessments in our schools they are not evidence-based and yet our teachers are spending time using these assessments with our kids so we're training teachers to use useless assessments instead of asking our teachers what do you need and how can we help being active in the PTA and a leader in the diversity council at SC Cloud we try really hard to do that from the bottom up and it sounds like a really good opportunity to have some office hours with teachers and to ask what they need because they are our biggest asset in this district and I know that you know that because you wouldn't want to sit on a board unless you you know like if that wasn't a thing you knew you wouldn't want to be there so while we're cutting PS we need to also be advocates for the people who are on the ground doing a job that very few can do last plug completely separate as part of love and unity St Cloud is hosting 27 local children's authors on the blacktop on May 14th from 4:30 to 6: and we would absolutely love for all of the elementary schools to join us in that and we extend that invitation thanks is there anyone else for sorry anyone else for public comment right seeing none uh public comment is closed Mr Moore would you like to respond to some of the comments that were made or questions yeah okay um there's a few things I wrote down that I think is worthy of pondering and we will ponder a little bit more but I just want to um first come to an understanding that the transparency that that we are facing a financial deficit is not like you know that's real and going into next year uh you know you need to have some funds for emergencies and um as I as we would not be in this position nor would I want to take any job from anyone or any position nor do I want to do a lot with a little however that's the reality this is you say you envy and I get that you envy but I'm in the reality of it and this decisions no matter if we took anyone's position here I would say that it's all worth the same it's all the same it's worth it and it is a deficit to our kids it's called a sacrifice the taxpayer in West Orange I'm one of them but the taxpayer in West Orange yes I don't I I have to pay taxes are high here we want to pay but there's just so high we can take the tax levy we do as a board have to be conscious of that as we want to keep our students coming to us we want to make our community affordable and at the same time there is no job one over the other in terms of position forgive me if we're if you think I'm speaking out of context when it comes to the Librarians because I understand how important they are that's not it but the math teacher is the ESL teacher is they're all important positions there's no doubt about that so sacrifices in a deficit hurt everyone not just some so yes you're going to hurt but so will I making that decision but so will you as workers because we're at a fiscal deficit in term terms of the health care we when we first looked at the budget the number of jobs that we had to um look at was somewhere in the 40s and we were able to cut that down tremendously through retirement through resignations through different things that wasn't easy because we had to find the money and yes we made it an attempt we will look at that we gave it to the board and unfortunately we didn't get to that in a timely way to get to that point it was something we thought of because we were desperately trying to figure out how to cut not make sure we don't cut that many jobs so we did look at it and I take both Josh and Sharon's uh point we'll write it down we'll call the health benefit people and see because we're not out to hurt people we we want to make sure that we can do it but we want to keep jobs and if we're to and if we stayed with it or if we keep that then there may be more positions lost and we don't want to do that that's just the reality to it with the health care but we will look at it again we will look at it are we asking our student teachers and I thank you Jessica for bringing that up they do work hard we've always been a hardworking group I was just there a year ago with them I was on that side I understand and we do we're a caring Community we're caring Educators those Educators and the reason they're advocating for that the Librarians is because they're care and they want the best for the kids that's not deny I understand that unfortunately even at our best there comes moments where we're at a point where we have to do something different and that's where we are I don't want people to walk away angry and thinking that none of this is pondered you don't care you've done this no one no we tried to do it with the least the least hurt in terms of employment is there movement that has to be made yes do people have to schedule differently perhaps do you have to um do a little bit more are classrooms going to be increased yeah they are I do think that I took the point on PD I like feedback from the teachers and I think that that has been expressed and more feedback has come since I've seen ever in this district from teachers to central office so we have to build upon that this is our fir this is my first year our first year working like that but if you didn't like PD or if PD doesn't seem to be working and teachers feel they can do a better job of delivering that PD I love that idea I don't hate that idea because I think we have the people that can work that idea I'm not against it but I do think though with respect to people that did bring us to PD in our district that work with us as our colleagues it would take a meeting and it'll take a little time to show and propose the idea from our teachers to people that handle the PD portion of our district so that they get a chance to review it see if there's certain things they look they need see if we need to call in um you know um experts to help us with areas that we may not be able to plug the holes in but it isn't lost your words and some of those ideas are good ones we'll jot those down we'll take those into consideration but a lot of that is going to be moving forward that's what you have to understand a lot of that is going to be moving forward we will utilize those ideas we will try to make some of these things happen I cannot promise you that the next budget won't be tough again um this was unprecedented for us here at West Orange I wouldn't ask for that in my first year that's for sure but it's here but going forward forward I could I don't know what to expect I'm not sure if the trend continues and if it does then we will have to take a look at that do I want to decimate any of our programs none and that includes the library it is important it is part of who we are no we're a school we believe in literacy that's not where this is going but it is a shared responsibility amongst us all in a community such as for the board and you as staff that we will share in this sacrifice there's no question about that so I am sorry that it hasn't been the Perfect final budget I do apologize for that and hopefully I'm hoping that our next go around with the budget we have realized some money I'm hoping that our state aid will come back to some degree but know that um what you've expressed I have not only listened to but I've employed some of it early on and what you said today I've jot it down and U we'll go back and take a look at it um so I just want you to know that you're heard um I'm not sure that I'm going to land on perfect for you but I will give you a good effort and I will try to uh minimize as much damage as I possibly can in terms of uh lead leading us through this deficit all right thank you thank you Mr Moore I'll save budget related comments for later when we get to to that motion on the agenda uh I just wanted to briefly touch on the healthcare piece since there were some questions um and I can perhaps provide a little Clarity on that um so on as Mr Moore said the the estimate that we got the renewal rate we got from Edna and Ben card was astronomical and and simply but we could not afford that budget uh benar was going to go up about 30% which was the current prescription provider um the shift proposal that we went with maintains the same schedule of benefits so like you said on paper uh it is exactly the same and so you may think so how is something the same going to be cheaper uh what's different about the shift from what we had previously is that it's a pulled Insurance Fund so you can in New Jersey as a uh School District essentially three ways that you can handle Insurance one is to go directly to a health insurance firm so that's what we did before we went to Etna went the Ben card signed a contract and they looked at our employees and said based on everybody here here's your risk pool and here's your rate and that it can go up and down based on what happens to the people that work here in West Orange in just that tiny pool uh the other thing you can do is self-insure where we essentially do that ourselves we pay out claims we see how much it costs and then we hope that claims are low enough that our our rates don't go up uh the good thing about a pooled Insurance Fund like the shift the other option being the school employees health benefits program is instead of just looking at at our district it spreads the risk across all the districts in that fund so the shift is a group of other school districts throughout the state it is a select group you cannot just uh join because you want to like the school employees health benefits plan so so they screen districts essentially coming in based on their risk pool so if a district has a lot of claims in the previous year they don't let them in it's a great thing to get into because it means that we're now going to be spreading our risk across other districts that are paying lower rates and we're going to get to kind of spread that around uh it really sucks for the people that can't get in because they're stuck paying higher rates based on the experience of their employees in their District um so so in that sense it is you know kind of too good to be true and that it's the same thing for cheaper um now the the the network Miss Ortiz had asked about just to be clear it is the same at the network so there is no difference in who is an in network or at a network doctor so there is no concern about that I know there's always concerns about Healthcare it is a very private thing and people are always worried when they hear Healthcare is changing what what does that mean for me uh the one difference is it is a different uh Pharmacy benefit manager uh like was mentioned Express Scripts is the pharmacy benefit manager that works with the shift now when you talk about Healthcare right a pharmacy benefit manager works the plan that is provided for them so if you look across the country across the state there can be any number of permutations of the plan that they provide so the experience of an individual customer may may be that provider or may be the plan that they have with them um now the plan again is going to be the same uh it is our hope that the the service you get from them will be the same as well if it is not I would encourage you to reach out to Brown and Brown because they're here to help you and definitely to reach out to miss flower so that the administration knows if there are issues with that piece of it the administration of the plan we absolutely want to know so that we can address that uh because there should not be and again I know there's hesitation there's always fear around it uh but this is there were a lot of options that we looked at some would save us more money uh but as a board we felt that they would not deliver adequate care because they would either be a par Network or a subpar provider uh and this is what we settled on as the option that would save us enough money to balance this budget reduce and mitigate our risk moving forward and have the least amount of disruption for employees because they maintain the same at the network um so with that yes Mr just uh to suffix that and to add some context for the community of West Orange of the more than 500 school districts in the state do you know the number or the percentage of those school districts that are in the shift plan I don't have that off the top of my head but I'm saying I'm asking the question to make it clear to the community that we're not doing something that's outlier yes I mean that there are significant number of school districts who beginning July 1 we're entering into a plan that um a good percentage of school districts in the state of New Jersey are enrolled it I think that's an important context for the community that uh this superintendent has not recommended something to the board that is outlier to um our health insurance plans given that it is a is a state plan that is utilized by many districts throughout the state I would also I know we are somewhat breaking with our protocols here but I think there are a couple of points that it's important to mention one of the uh individuals at the podium mentioned that that there's a $700,000 deficit I'm only doing this because um sound bites can't drive conversations and the reality is is that we're not dealing with a $700,000 budget deficit we're dealing with a $700,000 um cut to state aid and that $700,000 cut to state aid is down from a 34 million dollar uh in state aid that we received the previous year so the reality is the swing in state aid exceeds $35 million and I think that this superintendent uh the business administrator and their uh Associated staff uh in my estimation uh have surgically proposed Some Cuts to maintain a level of quality education maintain jobs and for those that say and I'm not speaking specifically those that spoke at the podium but anyone that says they don't envy the superintendent's role the reality is that this superintendent like superintendent across the country have three major constituencies students employees and taxpayers and the reality is is that um as a taxpayer who serves on a board of education the priority always has to be the delivery of highquality Education to our students and I think that the superintendent the business administrator and those that work to uh preserve jobs under the presumption that it serves children in our community have done um think a more than sufficient job of protecting high quality education or at least the presumption that the maintenance of jobs in turn means that there will be a adequate delivery of high quality education instruction to our students that there'll be minimal disruption to that uh I don't get into the specifics of the individual cuts that is for the administration to do that but it is not to to suggest that there's a $700,000 cut to the budget uh is out of context this District had a $35 million swing in money that it did that we anticipated to receive that was not received and so anything to further develop uh the delivery of curriculum instruction or services to the community through our schools was uh exponentially affected so the number is not 700,000 I think it's important to have that context for the community uh so anything aspirational that the district wanted to do anything aspirational was not in this budget uh again these decisions are not easy decisions but I just want to again reemphasize that we're looking at $35 million not 700,000 and although it was not um very visible on the slide Mr Moore alluded to it in his comments uh which maybe there there should be this kind of an explicit way year-over-year there are structural deficits that school districts uh face we had a nearly $2 million increase in salaries alone a increase to health benefits so Euro over year the district faces structural deficits that at least in my tenure on the board and as I look previous to my tenure that was often uh mitigated by state aid that mitigation did not occur wasn't even flat cut by 700,000 and so uh we're somewhat relieved because what we feared was going to be much worse is less worse than what we initially anticipated when we got that shocking news that we weren't getting the 30 or $ 35 million that we had been getting year-over-year for the last few years that not only were we not getting $30 million they were telling us to find another 700,000 I think the community has to understand and recognize that because that's an important number to understand all right we have other budget related comments when ask the board to save them from we get to the motion on the budget but but thank you yes I I only made that comment because it was made during this public commentary time I didn't want didn't want it to be lost on those in panel here today understood Mr te thank you all right uh with that we will move on to our resolutions uh we will start with uh res may I have a motion to approve the person items A1 through A7 so move thank you Mr Stevenson is there a second second thank you Mr I want to congratulate the following retirees Cheryl Butler our director of School counseling for her 13 years of service Colleen grandinetti a learning disabilities teacher counseling for her 33 years of service Diane Talman a second grade teacher at Washington Elementary for her 25 years of service and glattus exom a parttime bus monitor for her service thank you for your service to West Orange students and our school Community best wishes to you all as you join the club where every day is Saturday is there any discussion on Personnel seeing none Miss flowers please take the role Dr Bryant yes Mr ifer yes Mr Stevenson yes vice president Vera yes president Rock yes thank you right next may I have a motion to approve the curriculum and instruction items B1 through B2 so moved thank you Mr Stevenson is there a second second thank you Mr ier uh is there any discussion seeing none Miss flowers please take the role Dr Bryant yes Mr ifer yes Mr Stevenson yes vice president Vera yes president Rock yes thank you all right next may I have a motion to approve the finance items c special services item a 1 through3 and business office items B 1- 29 so moved thank you Mr Stevenson is there a second second thank you Mr ier uh is there any discussion on these items including the budget would you like to continue Mr St well you know look the budget vote is the most important vote that board members take right because again it affects those three constituencies that I mentioned earlier students taxpayers employees um and I think often times there is not uh a context that takes the merger the Confluence of those three constituencies in a way where everyone is satisfied to the decisions that a superintendent has to make and his recommendations to the board and we have had budget presentations in the past where uh members of the community come and talk about the Perpetual increase in tax levy year-over-year uh and we take those comments seriously uh so this is not a uh a situation where this board I believe not speaking for my for my colleagues but seeing the work and the attention that they give to the recommendations of the superintendent this is not something that is taken lightly the 2.77% tax levy to the taxpayers in West Orange is the fourth highest tax tax levy in the last 10 years and so if Mr rock is correct in his analysis of state aid if the analysis is that uh we are in a situation where the situation Remains the Same next year I don't need to indicate to the community it's it's it's self-evident based on Mr Rock's presentation and based on a $35 million swing that we may possibly be in the same position next year and that's simply the reality of it uh and I think the community has to be aware of it and the community has to begin to ask itself uh in those competing but should not be competing constituencies of employees uh students and taxpayers what is our threshold as a community that's a that's a real question and so uh for me we take those recommendations from the superintendent very seriously uh we hope that there is a fix to the state aid formula that benefits West Orange and allows us to deliver the high quality education that we all hope and aspire to that there State a to preserve the the the jobs of those who work in our district and contribute their their time talent and treasure to our community we hope that there is is a to uh deliver the aspirational programs that continue to uh we saw those students present tonight and other communities can talk about diversity and talk about their presentation of it we live it those student presentations today were indicative of that this is a phenomenal Community with phenomenal schools uh and we are striving at I believe as a board particularly under Mr Moore's leadership to ensure that our students get what they need the board is conscious Mr Moore is conscious uh we have rolled out under uh this Administration and the prior Administration a new math curriculum at the at the elementary school level a new Ela curriculum and there has been the resources put forward to that to support student achievement and I think we all again were very shocked by what we saw but we also have to deal as Mr Moore said those who Envy his position uh can Envy it all day he lives in the reality of it and has to make hard decisions uh that really give to all of those constituencies in a way that helps U preserve the academics and the education that our kids deserve helps to protect the taxpayer who wants to see that we're being fiscally responsible and also to looks at those who we've invited into our community to serve our children that their jobs will not be in Peril because there is instability uh and a lack of consistency with with state aid that's a lot to as as a taxpayer I'm speaking as as a taxpayer now as a board member that would be a lot for anyone to uh undertake year after year and so uh hopefully it's better next year but I'm honest enough to say as a parent of two children enrolled in our schools as a as a taxpayer in this community and as a elected member of this board of education that I understand that there very much may be a reckoning that we all may have to face and face it head on with decisions which will not be popular and decisions which uh this board will have will will have to look at in a way that uh helps support our children help support uh and defend the decisions to the taxpayer and also too helps maintain the ranks among our teachers and administrators so that they can do their jobs in a manner which serves their children thank you than you Mr Stevenson any other comments Miss just want to go back to some Mr Stevenson said earlier that this is not a aspirational budget you won't find aspirational things in there I want to rewind the clock a little bit to January because we we started this budget process before we got the news about the state aid and at that point our first budget meeting was aspirational and we met with Mr Moore we met with um Miss Flowers and they said we met with the administration we met with the leadership and and people throughout the district and said here's what we need now it's going to cost this and we don't know that we can afford all of it but these are the things that we need to to do better for our students and to be aspirational and we're like okay great hopefully state aid will come we'll get some increase because of the last few years we've got that maybe we'll have to whittle that list down but we anticipated being able to get some of those things right the news that we got in February essentially switched us from that Paradigm of an aspirational budget to one where we're trying to balance a budget a few years ago before I was on the board I remember one of these budget hearings Mr rodstein my predecessors on the board made an observation and he was looking over the last 10 years of of increases to the tax levy said you know we go up and we go down but we all always kind of hit this 2% but the costs always seem to go higher than that you know how is it that we actually balance this budget and he made the observation that every so often some kind of day of sex Machina came along and wow here's some money you know first if you go back OAS it was chapter 78 and Public School Employees started contribute a certain amount of their salary back to the district to pay for their benefits and that plowed money into the district for budget for a couple years and that supplanted the 2% increase to make it balanceable and then the state started to fund the school funding formula right it it made this formula in 2007 for a long time we didn't get any money or very little of it and then wow here's 5 million this year here's 10 million this year and the first two years that Mr Stevens and I were on this board it's like great we can just get everything we need and then the federal government came along with eser and said here's more money right all these things came along and these are the ways for the last 10 years that budgets have been balanced uh we always knew that at some point that would dry up and things would get tougher we didn't expect it to be this year um so so we kind of knew that in the future there would be tough decisions to be made you know once we found out that we'd have to make some of those this year we looked at Mr Moore's leadership to to try to find the best way to balance all the prior that we have and that is to maintain the best tools that we have for our students to look to the long-term future of this District which includes our facilities you a couple meetings ago we had the architect come and there was a laundry list of things that need to be fixed are things you can't push down the road like a roof and if the roof caves in and it starts leaking you got a problem things like a boiler the boiler stops working because we don't pay for that well we got a problem we have no heat you know you only have to look next door to Montclair to see what happens when you don't pay for facilities upgrades because the stairwell in their High School School collapsed a few years ago right we could take the short-term solution take that facility's money put it into salaries and benefits to preserve those 24 positions we some version of them but that's irresponsible right it's just kicking the can down the road and saying you know we're going to bet the future of our schools and our students on the hope that we get money somewhere down the line knowing full well that it's probably not going to get all that much better at least not so much better that we can afford $200 million in facilities upgrades so the the budget that Mr Moore has presented does a fine job I think of balancing what we need to do you know it's unfortunate and disappointing that we have to eliminate some positions but I think they've done a good job of spreading that out as best they can throughout the district right yes we're losing one media specialist but we're not losing a person right it's a loss through attrition and we're able to spread around the the resources that we have to ensure that all students have access to libraries while they're in the Middle School you we're losing a position here a position there but we're not gutting any particular department or or placing undue emphasis on any any one piece of our Academic Program now maybe next year we get good news and the state says here's more money we can fix some of these things or or be aspirational again but but we have to make a choice today to to balance a budget that can see us through next year and put us in a position the year after and the year after and the year after that because I won't be here forever but I know that Mr Moore will be here for some time uh some of you have long care years ahead of you and you will be here for some time and we have to look to that future uh instead of just looking to tomorrow so with that I support this budget and there's any other comments we we'll take those from the board just very briefly uh last year my first year on the board I voted against the budget I think we lost I know we lost three to two uh this year I'm supporting it I don't like it it's there's a lot to not like obviously um but the process is different this year it's more open it's you know more I want to say I don't want to say combative but back and forth in a good way and I feel like I can honestly say that everything is being done of course to protect and support our uh students and our teachers when we go to the visit the schools every month I I I just fall in love with these teachers uh every time but we also have a responsibility to the people who live in town and last year I felt we did not do a service to them it was a disservice I felt the process that we had in terms of passing that budget but this year is different so I don't like it I'm not going to go through all the reasons I don't like it uh a lot of them were said tonight but at some point we have to number one bite the bullet and number two we brought in Mr Moore for a reason because we have confidence in him I think he's done a tremendous job on this budget and uh I support him I support the budget and we'll hope that we get some friends in Trenton next year to do the right thing thank you seeing no other comments Miss flowers please take the role Dr Bryan yes Mr ifer yes Mr Stevenson yes vice president yes president Rock yes thank you all right next may I have a motion to approve reports item D1 so mov thank you Mr Stevenson is there a second second was that Miss ver second vice president ver second that sorry Mr uh any discussion all right uh hearing none Miss flowers please take the roll call Dr Bryant yes Mr ifer yes Mr Stevenson yes Vice president Vera yes president Rock yes thank you all right uh that wraps up our work on resolutions thank you very much to all my board colleagues next up we will have petitions and hearings of citizens for any agenda or non-agenda items that you wish to discuss you will have three minutes to speak please approach the podium at this time and state your name and address for the record Teresa Nyro hey Avenue school and I will say I was watching this from home Madison New Jersey got in my car snatched my hair back put the dog in the kennel and went screaming from my house telling my husband I'm leaving he thought I was divorcing him but that's not what I was doing so it's true at the April 15th board meeting and mind you this was sudden we are all still reeling from it I can hear my colleagues during their lunchtime calling their doctors I will focus on Express Scripts the new prescription plan and will refer to them as es going forward the 2024 formulary drug list provided by es quote States quote inclusion list is not guarantee coverage what does that mean this is our list this is what we cover but there's no guarantee you will get coverage okay es has numerous complaints filed with a Better Business bureaus Bureau it has a C+ rating benart had a minus with an alert message alert scare me they are advising consumers to use caution when considering doing business with es due to the following allegations and my colleague already stated these allegations but I'm going to repeat them again delays or failure to ship correct prescriptions or medications failure to accept returns or medications which were shipped in error failure to issue refunds debiting credit or debit cards for prescriptions not shipped and poor customer service on consumeraffairs.com 93% of 3,755 reviews are negative receiving one to two stars 93% of 3,755 is a pattern not a few disgruntled customers these reviews are from veterans police officers the elderly and parents trying to get medication for their children many of these medications are life saving medications please look it up where's the doctor on the board they also refused to listen to doctors a doctor actually said that those pharmacists are bold Faith Liars because they claim they can't they claim they can't get a hold of the doctor what a shame here are a few reviews Heaven quote and I apologize how is this company still in business do they simply run the cheapest lowest quality possible prescription mail order your time is expiring I ask you to wrap up yeah I'm going to in a sentence or two pleas in a sentence that appears to run on foreign call centers and Robo calls and win the lowest bid from companies that wish to spend as little as possible on employees prescription benefit plans so my last thing I'm going to say which I have a lot more and I'll be back at the next meeting because I made a mistake I was a coward tonight I was a coward and I've never been a coward in my life thank you we'll we'll see you at the next meeting but your time has expired is there anyone else for public comment uh seeing none oh sorry take your time it's okay good evening an alied 63 Woodland Avenue I just want to say thank you all thank you all for bringing Connie back to as the Director of student Support Services I like homegrown I know Connie didn't grow up in West Orange but she's West Orange and I truly truly appreciate it that you put student Support Services back in capable hands Christian gogy thank God she's still without District she's a gem D robero I say this because I have six children Mr Moore helped raised my six children with me because my husband traveled a lot they're all grown and accomplished adults all with IEP all with student support services so student Support Services that's my home that's my home and I thank you for making it secure and Hayden you got I got your back no matter what okay okay I know this budget it wasn't easy it was put in your lap and I think you're handling it all of you have handled it as best as you can I really do hope though you reconsider about the liberians because books are knowledge we all know that and especially with special education students they like to go in into a library and the library and talk to them and show them new things please if you could just reconsider keeping the librarian and maybe cutting I'm not going to say what you should cut but cut it okay thank you thank you thank you good night now anyone else for a public comment seeing none thank you very much our next board meeting will be held at 6:30 pm on June 17th 20124 the meeting will be held in the West Orange High School library media center we will not be going into executive session after the close of this meeting there will be no further business discussed and no additional action will be taken may I have a motion to adjourn motion thank you Mr rer is there a second second thank you Dr bran uh all in favor I I all right thank you all for joining us tonight our meeting is now adjourned we wish you a good nights e e