is there a motion to approve the previous minutes previous meetings minutes motion thank you Hannah do we have a second second by Jeff all is in favor say aye aye aye [Music] what was supposed to say okay with that the previous meetings minutes are approved and then that brings us to our first general public comment um item number five Kristen would you like to lead that sure thanks public comment can be made by phone at 877-853-5247 or 888-788-0099 and then entering meeting ID 935-8080-1941 or I'm using the web link and that is a2gov.org renters commission meeting um anyone who has called should press star 9 to raise their hand and anyone who is attending in the zoo meeting should use the raise hand feature we'll call on folks one by one um and you'll have three minutes to speak so we have a couple of hands raised um if you would like to address the renters commission for up to three minutes go ahead and raise your hand if you haven't already all right we will start with uh Zoom user the Parnell McCarter you have three minutes to address the renters Commission hello my name is Parnell um I'm in Scio Township but I have and currently a tenant and I also have been a tenant in the city of Ann Arbor itself for a good number of years um I'm calling about I want to speak about the gas ban proposal um and specifically in favor of it um and yeah I want to speak from my experience as a tenant and also as someone with asthma um because of my experience with asthma I am especially passionate about air quality issues both outdoor air quality and indoor air quality um indoor air quality can sometimes be neglected it's not necessarily what comes to mind when we think about air pollution but it actually is very important because it's where we spend most of our time and oftentimes indoor air quality can actually be worse than outdoor air quality um one of the culprits of that is gas appliances especially gas stoves you may have heard about that in the news recently since there is a growing awareness about that um um yes and so I think it would be a very positive step for the city of Ann Arbor in new construction obviously there's old construction and plenty of it in Ann Arbor but for new construction where we have the opportunity to write a new chapter for the city it would be a very positive development to protect future residents of Ann Arbor and their kids um from the air emissions that come with gas stoves and other Gas Appliances um obviously there are certain benefits also in terms of the climate in terms of not being part of the issues with fracking and the health harms that that causes as well um but even locally here in Arbor there are benefits that can be found in terms of improving People's Health reducing health care costs and in some cases even reducing utility bills since things like heat pumps tend to be a lot more efficient in some cases than gas furnaces thank you all right callers can address the renter's commission about any item at this time but there will also be another opportunity to address the renters commission for up to three minutes about um either of the action items on the agenda the resolution to support the ban of natural gas or the resolution in support of the carbon monoxide amendments all right next we have a zoom user Hannah Marie Elliott you'll have up to three minutes to address the renters Commission hello um my name is Hannah I'm a student at the University of Michigan I currently rent an apartment in the fourth ward um and something I've been kind of interested in um would be kind of re implementing the inclusion of utility costs in lease leases to allow students to make more sustainable based decisions but then also just kind of be more aware of their like holistic renter costs um and hopefully that would also kind of encourage landlords to make more sustainable uh decisions with like the technology and sort of utilities they use in hopes of lowering costs um something I was also interested in uh would be like the implementation of some sort of sustainability scale for venting options on Ann Arbor um just so like students can kind of be more aware um it could totally be done like also in um like coordination with like umicious off-campus housing division um and then just in general I'd be curious to like I'd be interested in seeing more um kind of like incentives whether that be monetary or other motivations for landlords to meet kind of local and then also sustainability standards but yeah just as a student I think it's important to have like sort of affordable safe and sustainable housing um I've been really happy with what annaber is doing so far but would just love to see more also thank you guys thank you Kristen do you mind if I just give some information to the commission and The Spectators including our last commentator um we I was contacted by council member Cornell uh to add the the resolution to the agenda but also she mentioned that she was working on that very particular issue so to our last commenter you may want to get in touch with councilmember Cornell about that and um also you can email us if you want to work if you want to bring some Commissioners on board to working on on that issue because I think that's uh great points thanks all right we have another hand raised caller with the phone number ending in one three four have three minutes to address the renters Commission thank you Kristen and chair Farah I'm Ken Garber I rent at 28 Haverhill Court uh on the gas ban resolution again Ann Arbor's direct greenhouse gas emissions are rising fast due to new construction 30 separate gas burning developments now underway or in advanced planning will put almost 24 000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions into the atmosphere each year for decades to come dwarfing the benefits from the city's three ongoing and planned solar projects just last week city council approved 320 new gas burning Apartments off Pontiac Trail city planners recommend approval next week for 78 gas burning town homes on Plant Road it's constant but few are paying attention reduced commuter emissions will offset only a fraction of the damage the a20 plan counted on the state to enable cities to require most new buildings to be Net Zero Energy but that didn't happen so we need this gas ban Dr Missy steltz and the city's office of sustainability and Innovations writes that quote this proposed change is in full alignment with the city's a20 carbon neutrality plan end quote you already heard from Parnell McCarter about the health impacts of gas stoves utility cost concerns are overblown a high efficiency air source heat pump is four times more efficient than a modern gas furnace High electric rates and low gas prices might might make electric heat more expensive not certain because the studies out there assume low gas prices which are no longer true and there are two mitigating factors first heat pumps double as air conditioners and they're much more efficient than standard units because heat pumps run refrigerant to individual rooms where heat exchange takes place they don't have to push cold air through ducts which is inefficient so cheaper heat pump air conditioning offsets any increase in Winter heating bills and second the state should soon pass the 2021 iecc energy code which will make all new buildings much tighter minimatic installation of r60 up from the current R38 and for the first time an insulating shell around the building Not Just Between the studs this will hugely lower utility bills some say a gas fan will drive development out of the city and that it will raise taxes there is no evidence for this in the 50-plus cities with gas ban ordinances to date such fear tactics are the same ones The Landlord Association threw against us in 1988 when we tried to pass rent control here I was treasurer of that rent control campaign and the Landlord Association buried us with this kind of stuff 30 more yeah I'm getting PTSD just from hearing it again uh this was one of the most traumatic experiences of My Life um so here we are in 2023 please pass this resolution we cannot keep locking in new fossil fuel emissions for decades to come thank you right if there are any other attendees who would like to address the renters commission can go ahead and raise your hand now all right no other attendees have indicated you can close uh public comment thank you Kristen that moves us into uh business item six we can start with 6-a the presentation for mental Housing Services yeah yeah on their way in perfect great thank you foreign let's see you all have the ability to share your screen if needed all right so tonight from rental housing we have joining us um the community services area administrator Derek delacorte and then we also have Lisha Turner Tolbert and Alicia is the building and rental services manager and then joining us we also have Chris McFarland and Chris is a code compliance official and the manager of rental Housing Services so we'll kind of leave it to you all how you want to format this I will I will start I guess the majority of this Alicia is going to handle for us obviously being the manager of building a rental I just like to say hello um Kristen uh obviously already indicated on the community services administrator Community Services manages all the Planning and Zoning building a rental uh we Parks and Recreation we also partner quite extensively with the Washington County Office of Economic Development and safety services and coordinated funding formerly coordinated funding we also do an extensive amount of work with the Ann Arbor Housing Commission as well as part of our service area so a lot of what we do is is Paramount to the first touch a lot of folks have with the city whether it's a park whether it's through building or an addition on their home whether it's through a new development so we spend a lot of time with folks who may be having first contact with the city and that certainly includes those who are renters in the community whether they be students or non-students um our primary focus is is and always has been the uh the inspection and registration of the structures and the properties um that's where the majority of the housing ordinance lies and and our process is focused on um Lisha has been involved with that for a number of years much longer than I've been here and and for the last I think almost six years now leash has been the uh the manager there of the building and rental department and overseeing it Chris recently has moved up um through the department and is has taken over the the rental responsibilities of managing the day-to-day operations of the inspectors and then what goes on in that part so I'm grateful to be here I'll be here to answer any questions we appreciate the opportunity and with that I'll turn it over to Alicia I know there was some questions and I think she's prepared to walk through some of that and then obviously all three of us can be here to answer any questions you may ask thank you but we did not prepare a slide or anything or a presentation um what we did do is we had a series of questions that was forwarded to us by Kristen what we would like to do is keep this meeting very fluid um and we'd like to answer any questions that you all may have of us um Chris will be very active in answering a lot of the questions he is doing the day-to-day inspection he has a team of six um inspectors currently that are doing the inspections I ran the program for a very long time upon starting with the city of Ann Arbor and I've been with the city now almost 14 years so I've been around I know a lot of history about the program from its um from the old inspectors leaving to new inspectors coming on board about the admin staff and things like that so I can certainly answer any historic questions but um we are certainly here to answer any of the questions that was on the um sheet that we were forwarded um and like I said we just like to keep the meeting very fluid a lot of the questions that was on the um information sheet that we had was very much around inspection process um the complaint process and basically how does one get in contact with the rental housing um with rental housing office and how the complaint process is um conducted so we could start there with how do you get in contact with the housing office and how the complaint process starts and um how does one actually um getting get results from a complaint or we can put the document up so I don't it's just totally up to you guys how you want to do that so would you prefer to go through the document itself or would you just rather uh have questions that you guys have on top of here you want to answer at ask us I think it might be helpful to start if Chris you could walk through what a what an inspection process looks like kind of from beginning to end how often we do them on a unit um what that process looks like in a general inspection and then secondarily maybe walk them through afterwards how you receive a complaint how you process a complaint and then how you respond to a complaint um use maybe just a generic situation and then those two things I think after those we can open it up to questions I think from my understanding Alicia I think you're exactly right that's where the bulk of the the interest was so Chris if you're prepared to do that that would be great yeah sure um so it all starts with a registration um which I believe is section 8517 of our code and the registration doubles as an application for a certificate of compliance uh once we receive that registration we do a review and we schedule an initial inspection for that property generally that inspection is going to be sometime 21 to 35 days from when we receive that registration um so I'll use an example I'll use a single family home because that's so simple um inspection starts in the car as you're parking um inspectors are looking at the exterior in the home we go to the door we greet whoever's there to provide us access before the inspection there's always going to be some property review we're going to look at history of the property if it's an existing rental we'll look at the permit record see what work was done see if there's any Loose Ends um and once we're at the site go to the door greet whoever's going to provide us access um we generally start in the basement um that's where typically we find the most hazards that's where the Mechanicals are so we start down there we walk the basement um we kind of adopt the policy of always turning left working uh clockwise helps us with consistency so walk down the stairs turn left into every room doing a first full circle through the room going through our checklist that we have on our iPads um once we're done with the basement we're going to go up to the first first floor same thing every door we come out of we're going to turn left we're going to hit heavy room we're going to do a loop in every single one checking plugs testing smoke detectors um checking any life safety devices that are on site actually physically testing them for the most part um then we're going to go up to the second level which is typically going to be your bedrooms um so same thing we go up there we turn left we do our Loops we check function of Windows um again smoke detectors making sure Plumbing fixtures are operating properly um things of that nature lastly we're going to walk the exterior of the home um where we're going to look for issues such as peeling paint um weatherization things of that nature after the inspection is going to come um an inspection report which in a perfect world is going to be a past inspection um if that's not the case then we issue a notice of violation generally those go out the day of the inspection sometimes the following day notice a violation we're required to give the property owner or agent a reasonable time to make Corrections that reasonable time is not to exceed 60 days for our ordinance there is some additional language regarding extensions for work that requires um major alterations subject to building permits or exterior work that can be completed depending on whether then we're going to follow up with a re-inspection to verify those Corrections have been made generally that inspection is scheduled at that that deadline we've given for compliance which can range from anywhere from 15 days to 60 days sometimes we'll have something that's a media Life Safety we may try to follow up within 72 hours to verify that's corrected so we come back we do our re-inspection uh we'll assume everything's or assuming everything's okay at that point we're going to issue what's called a certificate of compliance are good for two and a half years uh with a first time pass incentive for an additional year which could result in three and a half years um the inspection requirement goes hand in hand with certificate of compliances and prior to the expiration of that certificate of compliance they should be reapplying for a new certificate and then we would start that process all over again um once it's in the system or even times when it's unregistered we may have a complaint come in of some condition that's on site so we have instruction on our website and staff who handles complaints we have a complaint form that we provide once that Complaint Form comes into the staff who handles those she enters them into our bath office system where they then come to me they get assigned to an inspector we're then required to perform an investigation of those conditions within 10 days um that process is handled similar to an initial inspection where we will do the inspection if we determine a violation is present then we'll issue a notice of violation generally complaint-based violations are handled on an expedited basis so instead of 60 days we might give them two weeks depending on the nature and what it takes to prepare any questions I want to add in on that just for contacts and I apologize if this is redundant for some of the folks on the committee I know you've been diligently working to to learn the system and what we have at least I think we have 30 000 units in the city something like that that we try to inspect we have six rental inspectors on staff right now I think that produces anywhere um you know we're lucky if we keep that fully staffed for a full 365 days it's hard um to keep all six inspectors going um I think we average between about 5500 inspection slots a year 5500 and 6 000 somewhere like that when we're up running so when you compare that to the 30 000 units a year you see um it is it is not easy to get in all the units as often as we like um to do that one of the things we we work extraordinarily hard on is is to have a common understanding between the landlord and the inspector as to what's to be expected at the inspections if they are aware of what we're looking for and we are clear and and and and solid in our communication our hope is the more of these we can get to pass on first inspection the more units we see um our primary goal is the physical safety or the safety of the structure for the tenants who live in it and and that safety standard is set through code um we try to be clear about what's expected or what's required to be looked at as part of the code and then be clear in that in that information um our goal is that the landlords are understand what it is is expected and required and that it's it's ready to be inspected when we get there every time we have to go back out for a second inspection it's a missed opportunity to do a new first which is really based on those numbers you can see why would that be such a priority for us um the more we can get into that is why we Grant the extra year on the on the first if you pass on the first we try to make it a significant reward um so that we can get into more units which is our goal Ann Arbor is unusual in its ordinance that even in its multi-family it's it's it's multi-story multi-fit or multi-unit multi-story buildings we inspect a hundred percent of the units most cities about the most most cities do on a building like that is about 20 percent of the units when they go out and do inspections for exactly the the reasons we just talked about just the sheer numbers versus the number of inspectors that are are feasible to keep to keep moving so it's a little bit of the context it might be more than what you ask but I think it helps set what we're trying to do we are we are trying to get into as many of those structures they can to make sure they meet that ordinance to find safety standing um and that there is a common understanding between us and the landlord as to what's expected um so we don't have to chase them around if we're constantly showing up and requiring or asking new and and undefined things they have a tendency to run and hide from us um our goal is to create a relationship where if they know what to expect they know what's coming we give them plenty of opportunity and plenty of Education ahead of time we're hoping they want us in and we get in and out as quickly as possible all in hopes of getting into as many units as we can with those fifty five hundred or six thousand spots um should I see a bunch of hands up I'll shut up I don't know who calls on folks but like I said we are we are happy to answer questions it's what what we're best at so and if we if I could just before um I do want to touch on some of the questions um and give a little bit of context here also um the question some of the questions was this is this information available so first of all um the chapter that we actually inspect to is chapter 105 and that is a city of Ann Arbor Housing code so most cities inspect to a international property maintenance code we have not adopted that as of right now for us for the city um we have our own city code and that code was actually developed with a team of Volunteers in the building official back in the 60s and it's only been revised one time and that was back in the 80s so we are still using that code um that code is also um you can find that on in the municode system um online and um we have made some slight adjustments to it um Kristen Larkin before she left took some things out of it um and we've struck some things out but it's still pretty much intact from the original code also reports and um any kind of inspection reports any um permits that are attached to rental properties in a permitting system all of our permitting retention system is online so all of us all of our information is online either through our old system which was e-trackit or through our new permitting system which is stream so any information you want to find and we promote this with our um with the public to go out and look for certificates online look for certifications when you are um shopping for rentals um if you're looking for a rental house we used to have a partnership with U of M um with move before move-in we used to go out and speak to students and we used to promote to go out and make sure that your properties are certified rentals and the way to do that is to go online and put in your address and see if it has what we call a CR record and if it has a CR record look to see if it is current all that information is online um one of the questions was if it's not current what do you do you can contact the rental housing um office and you can ask has this property ever been registered if you don't see a CR record that's an indication and it's not registered um because if it's registered and has a CR record you can see the status be it current and it'll say certified or be it expired or it's either in process so those are the statuses that you would see online so those are some of the questions that was actually in that document um so I will just wanted to touch on that a little bit about the process um and as as far as the we also have a pre-inspection checklist that's online um that's part of our resource resources on our rental housing page so you can go on there and look at that pre-inspection checklist however we don't encourage people when you move in to actually go through and use that as like a move-in checklist this we want you to let us do that we are asking you to go out and make sure that you have a certificate or that the property is certified as a rental um we don't want you to put on a rental housing inspector hat uh not I just we we want you to let us do that that's our job so but the checklist is out there so that you can see what kind of and it's only it's only a a caption of what we would be looking for it's not Encompass is only a caption of what we're looking for you can't put an entire code into a checklist you can only put like maybe the more common violations that we find into a checklist so it's not inclusive of everything uh so those are some of the questions that was on the list so as we go we may hit a couple more of them but I just wanted to kind of put that out there so I like Derek said I don't know how we how who asked who who who selects the hand raising but we're opening now for questions I'd be happy to moderate and call on people if that makes things easier that'd be fine okay well thank you very much for the initial presentation there and walking us through what infections like that's very very helpful and we're extremely excited and grateful to have you here tonight all um all of you that's I I was expecting one person that's fantastic so thank you for taking the time uh so we'll go through the questions and we'll start with Nick okay thank you uh I agree thank you for an excellent presentation I learned a lot even though I have some knowledge of this area I have two questions um one I think it was Chris who raised the issue that the housing code is mostly unchanged from the 80s it's my understanding that there's a model building code or a model housing inspection code to what extent do we track that or to what extent does city council amend the code on its own or combination of both yeah so I'll start with the first part of that question um here in Michigan we use what's called a a model building code that model code is what we refer to as the I codes it consists of the international building code the international residential code International plumbing code so on so forth um the state of Michigan takes those books and amends them as they see fit and those get adopted Statewide um the International Code Council also publishes What's called the international property maintenance code um and as Derek um said earlier we have not adopted that code there are a lot of similarities with our housing code but there are some differences as well so that's that's not something we've adopted um locally here it's it's the housing code and if you look through our code you'll see the footnotes it tells you every every ordinance that resulted in a change in that code and you'll see some sections may have been modified every three years you'll find some sections haven't been touched since 1988.
that thorough and efficient Clause is something that has been controversial in the past especially when it comes to school funding prior to the 1970s school districts were primarily funded just through property taxes the state had very little to do with state aid and giving money to local districts but it wasn't until the 70s 1973 to be exact a landmark New Jersey Supreme Court decision Robin silver Robinson vs Cahill where the Supreme Court of New Jersey said thorough and efficient the thorough and efficient Clause of the Constitution requires the state to make sure there is equal educational opportunity for all students regardless of where they live and in the early 70s that was not happening many would argue it's still not happening today so the Supreme Court said to the state it is your responsibility figure it out and so one of the things the state did was implement and people who were alive then and had a job probably remember the first ever income tax in the state of New Jersey and most of that income tax at the time was dedicated for the state to utilize for education back then and today approximately 40 percent of the state's budget is spent on education to local school districts in order to meet this thorough and efficient Clause that the constitution of New Jersey requires but for decades ladies and gentlemen it didn't work there were arguments over who was supposed to get the money how is it supposed to be spent why did some districts get more than others you heard of the famous uh another landmark decision Abbott versus Burke which created what we now call the Abbott districts these were the poorest districts in the state of New Jersey that the Jersey Supreme Court said to the state you have to provide more to these districts because it costs more money to educate poor students and so the Abbott districts were created and tons of money flowed into those districts oftentimes at the expense of districts who were just on the outside of the poverty level needed to be needed to be an Abbott District and so finally in 2008 the New Jersey legislature proposed the school funding Reform Act before 2008 the state wanted equality the state wanted districts to be treated equally the school funding Reform Act changed that to the state wanting adequacy and what does adequacy mean ing you have enough to do what you need to do to adequately educate the children in your District so they went from trying to provide everyone with an equal amount to basing it on the needs of individual districts but what happened was when they ran this formula this new school funding formula 180 districts were going to lose state aid and so they couldn't pass the law the law couldn't get passed so they did something in order to get this law passed they said okay we're going to give more money to the districts that the formula says need more money but the districts who are supposed to lose money not get any Aid We're going to hold them harmless that became known as hold harmless Aid which meant they could not get less money than they did the prior year and that was supposed to be a temporary fix so how did that how did that work with the school funding reform acted was it changed the the funding of schools to the Money Follows the students so ladies and gentlemen on October 15th of every year it's a very very important date for administrators for superintendents for business administrators that is the day that is uh we we count all the students in our district and we apply for um money for state aid through the Assa the application for state school aid and that amount of money is based on how many students you have in your District and the Baseline of that formula is that an elementary student costs according to the state of New Jersey an elementary student costs 11 000 and nine dollars to educate that's the Baseline so for every Elementary student in Clifton to give them an adequate thorough and efficient education the state says needs to be eleven thousand and nine dollars and then there are other weights added to students that will give a district more money to educate those students for example if a student student second uh first language is not English if they are an English language learner if a child has a disability if a child is in poverty because it costs more money to educate those children So based on the formula the poorer your students are the more money you'll get per student you'll get more money based on a formula for every special education student and so how the formula works it's very simple you count the number of students the formula Works itself out by how many language Learners you have how many special education students you have how many poor students you have and then and this is an important piece the state calculates what the local fair share is what the adequacy budget is meaning how much should the city that those children live in be putting towards the children's education and that depends on the local property values in that town depends on the number of rateables in that town because what happened in the 70s was the poorest towns couldn't raise enough money through taxes because they didn't have enough rateables there weren't enough businesses there weren't enough people paying property taxes so that's why the state had to fix that Supreme Court said that's not fair that a a rich town can raise a whole bunch of money through property taxes but a poor town could and so the adequacy budget is the count of all the students based on the school funding Reform Act the difference between that and what the local fair share is what the state says the city of Clifton should be providing and the difference in those numbers is what you get in state aid I want to make sure we understand that that's critically important to what we're going to discuss the rest of the night the adequacy budget the state calculates how much the district can afford and that becomes the local fair share and the sum of the costs educate all the students the difference between those two numbers is the amount of state aid that you receive however remember what I told you based on that formula 180 districts were going to lose state aid and in order to get the law passed the state held them harmless meaning districts who were receiving enough Aid never lost that Aid and then there wasn't enough what was supposed to happen was the districts that were receiving too much Aid were supposed to not get some of that Aid and the underfunded districts were supposed to be reallocated and get that money but for 10 years the state didn't do that for 10 years the state kept giving this um this whole harmless Aid until 2018 with the passage of S2 and the S2 legislation required the hold harmless Aid to be phased out over 60 years and the underfunded districts over the next six years to get more additional Aid each year for six years everybody with me so two starting in 2018-19 school year some districts started losing Aid but remember they had been getting more than they should have for 10 years everybody forgets that part and on the contrary a district like Clifton didn't get what they were supposed to be getting for 10 years so what that meant was over the next six years Clifton was one of the most severely underfunded districts in the state of New Jersey and then every year since 2018 you can see on this graph 2018 was the first year we got a big chunk of state aid you can see that here very clearly three and a half million dollars approximately the next year that went up to five million and we got another five million and 21 we got 15 million and 22.
now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session thank you thank you any questions or comments roll popping Mr Bach yes excuse me Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Katherine yes Mrs null Miss Lee yes this is Ryan yeah Mr Thompson motion carries [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] assistant thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] all right [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] risk-taking and responsible decision making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Dr Smith the floor is your recipient presentations yes yeah it's nice to go without the mic but um the mic helps um so just acknowledging first that we're at Marlton middle school tonight which is um a change of venue for a wonderful reason which is that lovely blonde Junior the demisi musical will be tomorrow and two two showings on Saturday and I'll give the times later and my superintendent comments but um that's why we're here tomorrow middle tonight that's why we see so much maroon in the house um and uh those at home can't see but one of the wonderful aspects of the space here is we have flags of the countries of our families of our basically our families and kids um heritages uh stretched all the way across the wall and it's just a great backdrop for everything we talk about because um you know at all times we're talking about our entire community so tentative budget presentation very exciting a lot of work has gone into this presentation through discussions from our Board of Education our finance committee our many meetings as a cabinet and our full administrative team curriculum Department special services department other staff involved to be able to get to this moment tonight and we're going to start with the um I'm going to start with a dead battery I think I'm going to start with separate proposal question number one full day kindergarten so the variable that's different this year from any other budget year is we are doing separate proposals we're doing two actually so the first one is full day kindergarten I'm just going to read it and this will be uh basically up for Community vote November 7 2023 so this year to provide tuition-free full-day kindergarten for all students shall Evesham Township School District be authorized to raise an additional 1.9 million dollars for General funds in the 24-25 school year these taxes will be used exclusively for free full day kindergarten approval of these taxes will result in a permanent increase in the district's tax levy these proposed additional expenditures are in addition to those necessary to achieve the New Jersey student learning standards it's so exciting to get to read that this is the number one District goal for the three years from 2022 to 2025 we determined using a separate proposal as the means to achieve it through board discussion Community discussion um and this also want to thank the um the Community Voices that came out last spring to help bring emphasis to this issue we are good at so much we do so much well in Evesham in etsd this is an area where we can do a bit better you know and this this is a great opportunity for um are all of us to take that step so there are only eight districts out of 600 in the state that charge tuition for full day kindergarten so that's a very small group um and we charge 5500 a year for full decay and that is set at that number because we want bullying kindergart we want our kindergarten program to basically pay for itself that makes sense the the the problem is that puts full day kindergarten Out Of Reach financially for many families you know and it is hard to to limit Educational Opportunity based on a family's income so this is fantastic it will cost annually about ninety eight dollars a year which is um I would phrase it as a can of paint and accessories is one way to think about it I definitely think there's nothing anyone can buy in Lowe's or Home Depot that'll increase property value as much as passing this question there truly are people who moved to the Other M towns around us because they don't have to pay extra for full Decay there so we will talk a lot more about this question as we move forward it's still not finalized until the final budget passes on April 27th that's when really when the work will start in Earnest but um the uh for now it just feels great to finally be at this moment where we're talking about it tonight moving on to question number two so mental health services so the reason that we held off and we didn't do the full day K question last November is because we knew that this budget cycle preparing the budget for 23 24 school year was going to be the most challenging yet right we weren't a seven year long Saga of state aid reduction we're currently in year five preparing our budget for year six each year has gotten harder because we can't cut what we already cut so we held off in case we needed to have a second question for things that we could we we need but would be too difficult to pay for out of our regular budget and Mental Health Services I'll read it but this is an area of extreme need everywhere and in schools to provide Mental Health Services for elementary and middle school students shall Evesham Township School District be authorized to raise an additional 190 000 for General funds in the 24-25 school year and then it has the same statement underneath that the prior question head okay and we would use that directly to serve kids this slide kind of tells the story of why we need to ask these questions so districts can only raise the local tax levy cap two percent a year now inflation right now is over six percent so that gives a little indication of how there is an Ever widening gap between what it actually costs for things and what districts can actually raise in terms of Revenue and the two numbers at the bottom that are highlighted we want to draw a particular attention to that lost tax levy Revenue almost three million dollars so basically what that means is that over the past years our district did not take the two full the full two percent tax levy that it could have it could have we could have just taken it but in good faith and being fiscally prudent because we are at the end of the day stewards of taxpayer resources we let those resources remain with the taxpayers and went without them had we taken that money we would not even be asking these two questions we would not we would be able to pay for free full Decay and the mental health services we did not need that money then we absolutely need it now so in good faith again we are coming to our community to ask for money that we could have taken previously but we didn't need it that at that time we def we definitely need it now there are districts all around us that are expanding preschool full day preschool using state aid because it's a state goal to provide free full day preschool we're going to miss that that opportunity if we can't get old AK for all our kids first a little bit of History you can see from this slide just our budget has barely budged in the past six years this slide tells the story of the law state aid so our state aid that we're getting is less than half of what we received just a few years ago and so we've lost we went from almost 14 million in state aid to just over 7 million that actual number here so for this the budget we built for the 23 21st school year was crafted despite the loss of 737 thousand dollars in state aid which um adds to that estimated total when the dust settles after the seventh and final year next year um when we go through we build the 2425 budget of over seven million dollars in lost aid if we translate that into positions budgetarily we figure seventy five thousand dollars for a teaching position that's step one teacher Plus benefits so every 1.5 million is essentially 20 teaching positions so six million dollars would be 80 teaching positions and we're losing over seven million so to to pull that off means fewer people fewer hands fewer hearts working harder than ever because kids need more now than they ever have and I just you know acknowledge our staff for continuing to provide Excellence every day despite that number dropped on us from the state budget goals same as they always have been these are the primary colors of how we develop our budget maintaining effectiveness of our Educational Services while costing less money adjusting staff positions for enrollment we'll talk about that a little bit later continued focus on student achievement of course because our mission is student growth and that's what we steer by with all we do including developing a budget and I'm going to pass it off to Mr Ashanti to talk a bit about the proportions good evening everybody this first slide is the appropriation side the expense side of the 23 24 budget and as as in past years you can see that Staffing the first line and benefits the second line is the majority of our budget it's almost 80 percent of our total budget um then operations of transportation that that's up seven percent over last year and a lot of that's due to that word that nobody wants to hear inflation but that's you know it's affecting us like it's affecting everybody else the uh things that we buy the surfaces that we um pay for are all up um then then the next line is the special ed um budget and that's that's up a little over uh a little under six percent and then goes on with all the other items which are relatively flat compared to uh um where they were okay so on this slide we're gonna we're looking at the uh current budgets that we have right now the 2223 and comparing it to the 2324 to see the increases and decreases um through the lines and you look at obviously the Staffing and the uh District uh budget at the top with the with the benefits um they've been pretty relatively uh the same slight increases in in both areas so we were really you know happy with that that really helped us balance this uh budget um the next line down the operations is transportation um is extra is up really a lot compared to uh last year it's up over a million dollars it increased to 22 percent and um part part of that is last year when we when we put the 2223 budget together what we projected the transportation's costs to be for this current year um came in a lot higher actually the the contractor did not renew the contract we had to put it out the bid again and uh the the bid that came back was much higher so that helped drive that uh huge increase in the differentials between the two years because obviously we had to you know include the shortage from last year on to this year's budget and also include how much we were going to project that the contract will go up again this year um so that's you know the the Big Driver there on the on that increase special ed if you look at the two years stuff like seven hundred thousand dollars that's up 17 uh compared to uh last year and then from there most of the other line items are relatively uh flat and minor changes the capital projects line which is uh the third from the bottom um that's down but we're just we're doing less projects and that comes from uh funds outside of our operating budget they're um funds that are set aside only to be used for Capital uh projects so this year we only have two projects so that's why that's down click twice all right um now the other side of the budget obviously is the revenue where where's the money come to pay for all the expenses um and this this slide we're comparing the 2223 to the 2324 budget um our miscellaneous Revenue was up this year we're projecting would be up 191 000 which is good um the amount the next two lines together combined together the amount of fund balance our budgeted Surplus we're putting much more in than we did last year so that that also helped balance our budget and then from there everything else is pretty much about the same all right so when you when you compare the revenues against the Appropriations for we're projecting for the 2324 budget um you know people say well we don't want any tax levy increase we want to we want a zero increase well for us that's the the first First Column for us to be able to to do that we'd have to cut another 1.3 million from the budget if we only want to go with a one percent increase we'd have to cut about 650 000 from the budget and then at our two percent that we're allowed to increase the budget that's that's where we're at where that that gives us you know the zero difference and then the next column of from that is um if we had any uh Bank cap which we don't or if there was any waivers which was like the healthcare waiver which we didn't qualify for this year so we couldn't raise any additional monies there so that that that's basically that's where we ended up our the last column our uh our uh balanced budget at all right so I guess the most important slide to to the the community as well what's it going to cost me you know all those numbers sound great but what's it going to cost me so when you look at the calculation now our budget is is a fiscal budget it's July to June where taxes are raised on the calendar budget from January to December so the First Column is the second half of our current budget the tax levy then you take half of that amount then you then the the proposed budget for 23.24 is the tax levy with the two percent increase to it half of that for the uh for the calendar year to get your 23 calendar tax levy so you add the two numbers together that gives you the 65 million 492 629 that gets uh divided into the rateables you look at what last year's tax rate is compared to the new tax rate the increases a little about two and a half cents and for the average homeowner what it means is and the average home assessed in Marlton right now is at 272 628 so the person that has a house in that range is going to pay 69.45 more a year when we do the final budget presentation there'll be a slide that will give you different ranges on on you know what your house values are but for the purposes right now because it's only a tentative budget we just use what the average home value is right now thanks Mr Ashanti so we're going to move on to uh non-staffing savings we always we wish we could pretty much balance our budget just through non-staffing because with 80 percent of our I mean our staff our greatest resource and eighty percent of our budget goes to Staffing salaries and benefits which makes it really really hard to to generate Savings in non-staffing areas especially when um non-staffing costs are increasing it due to inflation at such a high rate so uh four bus routes I'll talk about those in a moment eliminated and that is a savings anticipated of 120 000 which is a sizable amount given the circumstances we're in it also is driven by the fact that um and I've said it many many board meetings that we we will provide all training all licensing fees for anyone interested in becoming a bus driver for etsd it is extremely competitive right now and will continue to be well into next year and probably Beyond to find bus drivers and to even just be able to continue to bust the students that we have committed to bus means tightening our belt in terms of the courtesy busing that we do provide the second item activity fee increase bumping up a bit I would just point out for that that um I would invite anyone to reach out to me if they think they can find a more robust extracurricular program at elementary or middle school anywhere I'd love to know because if we could when we could see what they're doing and maybe add that too okay but there are districts some districts that don't have any Elementary extracurriculars and our elementary creatures look like Middle School extracurriculars in some places so there's a lot of value for that activity fee but we do need to increase it a bit so on to the the bus route changes so fans ant and I will share this uh entire Presentation tomorrow in my update my weekly update so everybody can see it we want everybody to be aware um this is the part of Woodstream that's a cross green tree from Van Zant um and we are in communication with the township including Township engineer and police about all these changes and we have been actually for for over a year now going back to last spring and before and as we as we had studies done on different changes around town as we tried to prioritize of course keeping safety in mind foremost always those 33 students represent a bus route so that's thirty thousand dollars saved um there may need to be additions right so like crossing guards different other improvements as we go through these changes and those are still being determined through our collaboration with the township the second piece for Van Zant is that Fox Chase neighborhood that's next to the slide I just showed those students are also on the other side of Greentree from Van Zant and there is a cut through sidewalk that they can take to not have to walk out towards whole Tech they can take a shortcut through to get to Greentree directly from Fox Chase jaggered so this is uh area of dominions that's south of brick and west of Evans and you can see in the lower corner of that slide there's a crosswalk across Evans that goes to Arendale which currently has a crossing guard for high school students so uh and and those kids can we use that and of course that means again in conversation with the township talking about crossing guard hours and things like that just below that still on the west side of Evans south of brick is the other section that's a that's contiguous to what I just showed that's 24 students at 24 plus 8 is about about a bus route about another thirty thousand dollars in savings um Briarwood so we have 33 middle school students which is about a bus route they um not Elementary so the reason why just middle couple reasons but when students walk when they exit Briarwood there they reach Tomlinson Mill there's a sidewalk there they can walk down that sidewalk and again we were talking with the township about different improvements which will certainly include um a safe way for students to cross and they can move across staying the entire time on sidewalk so they're on sidewalk along Tomlinson Mill on the Briarwood side then they cross perpendicular across Tomlinson Mill and they step onto sidewalk on this on the MMS side of Tomlinson Mill and then they stay on sidewalk the whole time as they walk down Tom Munson Mill hang a right into the MMS Zone and just follow that sidewalk all the way down not having to cross the parking lot in any way around to the school for mes kids would have to cross that entrance to wear MMS mes kind of complexes which is why one reason why we're going incremental and just looking at middle school for next year I was just reading a letter from a student an mes student actually wishing he could walk to school he'll be disappointed but he'll be at MMS before long and onto Staffing reductions so we started we actually had meetings we did something a little different this year we we had meetings with staff to talk about Staffing impact before this budget presentation and the reason for that this year was those separate questions which were the first two slides in the presentation um we're going to have and did during those Staffing impact meetings had a program in them okay and you can see there's a line through two positions Ms FCS that stands for family consumer science so that was in the second separate proposal question we were able to take it back out it was in there because it was going to be out of our budget and it was going to be out of our budget because we were projected to lose 938 000 in state aid we lost about 194 000 less than that still still lost over 700 700 000 but it was less bad than anticipated we've also had um more breakage through retirements than anticipated which have allowed us to put FCS back in the budget which is a wonderful thing that's why it has the line through it okay and I want to just on that note thank um as I stated at the beginning all the different um folks stakeholders who've been involved in developing the budget and for that item in particular I want to thank etea for providing some feedback that helped us with our thinking about how to be as strategic as possible with that adjustment the um the Middle School general education I'll talk about in a second we'll kind of go through all these pieces the reason there's a line through five paraprofessional positions is also because of that 194 000 Less in stated reduction and the uh additional breakage that we got so we talked a little bit ago about adjusting Staffing for enrollment that was one of the three goals on an earlier slide we have done that every year a sizable chunk of each Year's budget has been looking at class size and unfortunately but necessarily that is meant class size increases in elementary each of the last two years when we started that process our class sizes were lower than average for our surrounding districts and now they are on average not higher but on average with surrounding districts but it has gotten to the point where our Elementary class sizes in certain instances may even be higher than some of our Middle School class sizes younger kids need smaller class size more so for our budget this year we are achieving some savings with an incremental New Direction in sixth grade to Macy and the highlighted number there 206 so the way our middle schools are structured and this is uh rare because we have a house system it's wonderful both middle schools have two houses so it's almost like four schools four buckets you could think about each of those houses has five sections so ten sections per grade per Middle School 206 divided by 10 is a class size of 20.6 which rounds to 21 which would actually be less than fifth grade fourth grade third grade second grade which isn't right it's not so that will change and I'll talk about that in a second before I switched off this slide you can see MMS in two years is projected to have an enrollment of 208 so what we are doing for DMS next year in sixth grade we will learn from it as we do with everything we do and it will probably end up serving as a model for what we might need in future years at either School so what I'm talking about is and this is a sample I just want to make sure that's really really clear right sample sample sample we're going to eliminate a section in each house so each house will now have four sections instead of five what that does is the four remaining teaching positions in the core content areas in each of those houses our teachers our core content teachers teach five sections so they will have a free section every day and they will use that to pick up a section of the eliminated position and again those arrows are just samples this is we are we have worked this out vetted this and it and and it works in multiple different ways key variables are teacher interest certifications and other factors you know and and I would say among that the chief is uh probably teacher interest you know because this is new right we have many teachers that can teach more than one subject but maybe have not ever or in a long time so you know it actually is we talk about turning challenges into opportunities this is the epitome of that an opportunity to you know kind of embody that to teach is to learn and to grow it's um it reminds me as I look at it like I taught seventh grade about 25 years ago uh language arts and social studies in Eugene Oregon great little Middle School Shasta Middle School I also had a section of PE health class of 35 kids that's just to illustrate like there's a reason why jerseys there are many reasons why Jersey is number one in education um you can imagine one of them would be if you had to teach a class of 35 kids um four subjects in a day um I loved it though I loved it wouldn't you know those are things I look back on finally I did go on the website for that school recently because I couldn't remember the names of the houses they were named after mountain ranges in the in the Pacific Northwest and uh the houses are gone the houses are gone uh they are now more of a traditional Junior High model which is a budgetary move most often it's one that we are trying we have avoided with a move like this so by doing this because we have talked every year about our house system we can achieve savings by modifying it of course the most savings would be achieved by just flat out eliminating it but because of its value and its place in sort of what we try to do for kids using that team model we've preserved it but it means getting creative a bit like this um so it's very exciting to see what's going to come out of this um and uh you know just just uh anyone who's ever taught more than one subject knows that by doing that you're able to teach what you've always taught so much better right uh horizontal articulation between those subjects we're able to embed like frame the learning and language arts better for kids because you know social the social studies and praying it better in math because you've taught science because those disciplines are in effect artificial right the world doesn't like in in the job world in the everyday adult world no one says okay now I'm going to do math for 45 minutes a day and I'm not going to do it again the rest of the day you do what you need to do to get the job done whatever it is you're doing this embodies that a bit a bit better um so it's and it actually just one of the positives of it look we you know here tonight we're actually talking about curriculum right we're talking about teaching we're talking about pedagogy through a budget that's a positive um and uh so we'll we'll you know keep working the details through through our team meetings with this but again um very exciting so far and um it may serve us well in future years special education so if we go back to this slide uh there are there were four positions listed there and this is again about class size so um within certain classes there is a class size within the class size in certain instances so when we have students who have in-class support in their IEPs their individualized education plans the cap the maximum cap on the number of students with that support with that program placement in their IEP is 10 in Middle School we traditionally have had 12 in class support teachers per Middle School we've run the numbers we can make it work with 10 it would mean for example instead of having foreign class Support classes with a sick students each we only have three with eight students each it's always staying under that Max cap of 10.
six as a 12-month principal James Jake Elliott contract from July 1 2023 to June 30th 2026 for a 10-month contract Don Miller contract July 1st 2023 to June 30th 2027 for 12 months and Melissa Smith contract for July 1 2023 to June 30th 2027 for 12 months a second Greg Meyer yes it's got little Camp hi Lisa Schumacher yes trace and search yes or motion carries and that concludes our action items for this evening and the whole thing is left is a motion to return a second I will thank you thank you that might be my last meeting all right all the favor all right like these are amazing it is 9 27 thank you for joining us
spring Sports begin this Saturday March 18th and can't wait to see what happens so this and next the spring musical The Adams Family will be premiering on March 22nd in the CHS auditorium at 7 30 pm and that's actually one of the reasons why Monaco's not here tonight because she's at rehearsal right now and they're you know finalizing everything and and getting everything ready for the big day and um yeah Castle's just been working really hard so you can come check it out on March 22nd 23rd or 24th at 7 30 in the CHS Auditorium the future Business Leaders of America Club will participate in the state competition tomorrow at Naugatuck Valley Community College FBLA is a business Club at CHS focused on growing entrepreneurial skills leadership and community service they've been working on their state events for the past few weeks and they'll get to Showcase them at the tournament CHS will host a challenge day on April 3rd and this day is basically a day where it provides an opportunity for students and staff to build empathy understanding and compassion within the school and last but certainly not least Juniors Alex Kalin and Noah susil put together a Leukemia and Lymphoma fundraiser at Apple Valley bowl last Friday students from CHS and Dodd got together for a night of bowling for a great cause and over 500 was raised for cancer research that night and that's all the announcements for today thank you um are there any questions oh go ahead thanks Michael um how is the um keep the bathroom clean initiative going I've seen some things in the paper what's your take so far on huh what is your take on it but the the name of the project is I'll take yeah so yeah thanks for asking um so far since our presentation we did on on February 15th um things have been really improving and um the the boys bathroom Improvement Squad bbis um it's received it's received like a lot of uh of positive feedback like students are really appreciating you know the fact that students are you know taking initiative everything's student-led um bathrooms are getting cleaner they're getting you know less vandalisms happening you know they're getting better and there's been over like the past week there's been a few issues but you know change is slow or no some change is you know slow but we're continuing to like progress for for better change and um a better bathroom experience for everyone and so it's definitely definitely improving which is a great sign thank you yeah um seeing no other questions from the board uh Michael you are thank you for your service this evening and you are free to go all right thank you so much Mr grippo have a great day everyone wonderful evening um up next uh call uh Miss ham for the Doolittle School presentation this way sort of yeah all right um I have the pleasure tonight of um introducing or presenting the school partnership award and introducing this year's recipient um Tracy Hershman who is nominated by Amy O'Brien who is the Doolittle school principal and we have many wonderful parents who help us out at Doolittle School however this year Tracy Hershman has stood out Tracy is the son of Doolittle and has been very involved in the PTA for the past four years she is a generous supporter of our school fundraisers and volunteers whenever she can be there she's even stepped in to help out his school lunch Aid when she's when it's needed this year she's been instrumental in getting the Doolittle School up and running again the school's school store was open before the pandemic and parent volunteers could come in at lunchtime to sell school supplies to students during lunch waves this year Tracy opened up the school store during recess waves one or two times a month it's been very very successful not only have the children loved it but it's become a very lucrative fundraiser uh bringing in about 400 a month for the PTA she has stocked the store with quality items and gives her time to do a little twice a month to open the store not to mention the time she spends purchasing and organizing the items this year she has even instituted a kindness Awards certificate she asks teachers to present certificates to students who demonstrate kindness in caring in the classroom students are awarded a gift certificate to the school store to purchase anything they would like for free we're very grateful to have Tracy Hershman at Doolittle thank you Tracy for the time you have given to the students and adults at Doolittle School [Applause] thank you excellent thank you we've got time [Applause] foreign [Applause] thank you Miss ham and Dr Solon for that great presentation and award we'll move on to uh the Audi audience section of our agenda um I just would like to read something before we begin um the board welcomes public participation and asks that speakers limit their comments to three minutes speakers may offer objective comments on school operations and programs that concern them to protect the impartiality of the board we will not permit any expression of personal complaints or defamatory comments about Board of Education personnel and students nor against any person connected with the Cheshire Public Schools such issues should be brought to the school administration which is always open for commentary and phone calls the board will not respond the comments during made during public comment except to clarify issues when appropriate District administration will follow up at a later point in time that being said um if anyone has any public comment this evening that they wish to express please line up uh to the microphone and um you have the floor and please list your name if you wouldn't mind hi do I need the microphone okay hi my name is Stephanie cocho do I have to get my address is that is there like a not real white okay so um first of all I just want to say I don't want to be here I didn't ever think that I would have to um come to the Board of Ed and voice my opinion about certain things so I just want to know I don't want to be here I want to be home I work full time so um this isn't really my thing but I wrote down some notes just to kind of keep it straightforward so um my name is Stephanie kocho and I am a mother of a second grader at Chapman Elementary School tonight I would like to bring up some concern I have about that safe School climate survey that the children had to fill out there's a section on the survey that says I am a and the responses are boy girl non-binary gender fluid and prefer not to say I understand you guys can't answer questions tonight but I hopefully you know as the parents we can get some answers soon so I will be emailing you guys just the questions that I have for tonight um so the first one I had was I like to know why these responses were added to the survey so Dr Solon you actually emailed my husband last night and mentioned that the survey is required by state law and it was filled out um or yeah to be filled out but in 2018 Cheshire decided to add these responses to the specific questions of the survey um however I was sent today the 2021 survey and the K through three so my son is in second grade so that's what I'm thinking about on the k-3 the gender choices and the survey were only boy girl and not and prefer not to answer so I just strongly feel like the parents should be notified when something like that is changed on forms that they have to um fill out second I wanted to know about an opt-out form so I did find an opt-out form on ctfamily.org and um I just wanted to know if Cheshire honors these forms and if they do how the um teachers realize like which student opts out and which student doesn't because I don't know if they're even going to know those things um the third thing I wanted to know is since we're talking about children that are really young you know four to eight mistakes do happen so if a child accidentally clicks the wrong response and does say non-binary and they meant to say boy or whatever happens they're so young um is there further conversation with that student I know you guys said that it was Anonymous but my son did say he did it on his iPad so I don't know if you guys can tell who does it or whatever and then if it is more conversation like are the parents aware and then my final question was I think the biggest question of all is what happens if the child does have questions so you know they're confused by things children are curious in nature especially at such a young age so I understand that most of these children are going to see boy girl and collect that and move on but for the ones who are curious and do ask questions I want to know who's explaining what non-binary and gender fluid means to these young children and then how they're explaining it I think that's the biggest thing for the parents and I know there's not a lot of people here tonight but I think it's because a lot of people don't know no one knew about this survey I reached out to all of my mom friends and a lot of them couldn't be here tonight which I was bummed about but they all were shocked and they were just as upset as I am um so I'm kind of speaking for all of them so in conclusion I just want to say that this is something that I feel really strong that parents should be explaining to their children at the time that the parent feels that it's appropriate so such a young age I don't feel it's appropriate so topics like these are confusing to everyone and they're new and in my opinion I just think that it's not appropriate for the school system to be explaining it to my children so that's all I want to say thanks thank you you're welcome so you guys can't answer any of the questions right you guys don't do that I could add some okay information maybe when other people spoke older picture okay hi I'm Olympia brucato thank you for you know spending the time with us this evening I wanted to thank you for your time um I think Stephanie said it you know perfectly well there's really not much more I can add to what she said but um I just wanted to show my support um I love this town I you know I think the treasure Public School System you know I I just want them to keep their focus on reading science math and I also wanted to add this and I don't want anybody to take this as an accusation but we're just having an open conversation but um I think sometimes even my daughter will Express that she feels a little bit uncomfortable when these questions are put out on the survey I don't know if Cheshire probably doesn't have any choice you know maybe you're you're bound to these surveys or maybe you're compelled to disseminate them and um but I just wanted to say that um I think those kind of conversations when you you know be asking a child you know what their gender identity is it shouldn't really be kept between the parent and the child I I would just be more comfortable having those conversations with my daughter I mean up until five years ago they had books out in the library saying you know you know your body is changing when you go from you know 10 years old to 13 14 when you hit puberty and they gave parents books about how to have these conversations with your kids because it's really an awkward time for them so if you have any power or ability to do so if we could just you know keep the survey simple because having these kinds of questions can be and all I would just say is use five years ago relative today where we are in in the world today is it just seems kind of perverted so you used five years ago relative to where we are today almost as a litmus test and I think we could all agree that would be a little bit weird and I mean I I personally feel that you know um those kind of questions coming from somebody other than a parent is just a little strange so I I just wanted to say that I just wanted to be up here you know thank you for your time and I wanted to give support to Stephanie and and the other parents that are expressing concerns about this and um you know if in the future if we can have the ability if they could there could just be transparency between the Board of Ed and the parents and let us know what's going on and if there's an ability to opt out at that so thank you for your time hi I was asked by some parents to be here today um because they couldn't be here finding out about the survey last minute so according to Connecticut General statutes 10 222h I understand that you guys are required to have surveys but this survey is supposed to be about bullying in the school system and when you read the statute for this particular survey that you guys are instituting it specifically says included in the survey that contain uniform grade level appropriate questions that collect information about students perspectives and opinions about the school climate and the school and B allows students to complete and submit such assessment and Survey anonymously so I'm not sure how it's being done anonymously in kindergarten first grade second grade third grade and asking questions to a first second or third grader about their gender is very confusing um I did have a parent tell me that their third grader didn't know what those words meant asked the third grader so how did you respond I asked my teacher my teacher said she couldn't give me any direction um and so that student chose one of the funny names instead of picking male or female so I don't know how accurate that is if these surveys are supposed to be anonymous I don't understand why we even need to ask gender on them and I'm not sure how it's being kept Anonymous in a kindergarten first second third grade level being done on an iPad so I just wanted to bring that to your attention I have the state statute here it's pretty open-ended so you guys can have there is flexibility for what kind of questions you need to ask on this survey and it should just be generally targeted to bullying in general and I don't think it matters what your gender is when it comes to bullying so I just thought I'd put that out there thank you thank you good evening my name is Amy Borden and I am a Cheshire resident I have four children in the school system here one of the things that I wanted to talk about tonight I never thought in my entire life that I would have to show up at a board of ed meeting and basically argue how many biological Sexes there are because the questions that are asked on this survey where it asks for whether you're a male or a boy female or girl non-binary or gender fluid or prefer not to say non-binary and gender fluid seem quite subjective to me a matter of opinion to either the child's or the teacher and when the child doesn't know what the answer to that question is or they can't clearly Define it because it's probably above their age range and maturity level and the absence of a parent they then have to rely on the teacher so the parents would like to know what the definitions for the Cheshire public schools are for non-binary and gender fluid that's one of the first things secondly I just want to point out that these changes that you're making without floating them around in the public in advance of doing so is it's dangerous in terms of liability I don't think I really need to comment further on that but I think that the climate that we're in right now people are losing their uh patients and some of these things are going to start moving to class action lawsuits that are actually crowdfunded so we don't even have to come out of pocket for it but we can get definitive answers from courts on where they stand with these issues because they are children and they're minors and they're our children they are not subjects of the public school system they are our children and they're minors so we guide them through these subjective times in their life and these subjective questions about gender and there's a difference between biological sex gender and identity and the parents and the public and the schools and coaches and everyone in society help to shape the identity of a child but it should never be done in the absence of a parent's permission or notification or in involvement and I think that the parents feel really left out when the survey was changed without some sort of uh Advanced hearing like this or I'm not sure if you guys have a committee or a group that tries to stay ahead of these issues because they're infiltrating our society faster than we anticipated a year ago when we were discussing these types of things I was told that this stuff was not in Cheshire Public Schools and some of you ended up with the word yet and so now here we are it's time to deal with it um I know that I'm probably closing in on my time but I I don't want to have to have conversations with my own children when they come home and ask me what other means on a survey when they know and I know and scientists that follow biology and Anatomy know that sex is binary there are males and females and then there are hermaphrodites that are both male and female which is still binary so it's binary right down to the one anomaly of society that has both so I think you guys should think about that because we're teaching children facts that are not facts we're teaching them ideology we're confusing them they don't know how to answer these questions then they're being taught what they mean and it's confusing them and it's confusing Society in fact in Connecticut you can change your gender or your biological sex on a birth certificate is that document worth anything anymore if you can change any component of it except for the day you're born and the hour is it really worth anything I implore you to please do your research on the definitions with this stuff intersex gender cisgender identity biological sex we forgot that one I hope we're still teaching it that's all thank you good evening my name is Karen Schnitzer and I live at carrier woods and I'm here as a neighbor of the new school in the North End that will be built and also as co-chair of coalition for sustainable Cheshire and only incidentally as chair of the environment commission but in you know for transparency there it is this may be a little bit more than three minutes but I'll do my best the building of a new school comes with a lot of promise and possibilities I would like to promote these few ideas a butterfly and pollinator Garden I propose a garden full of native perennials and shrubs to promote and support our local native butterflies bees and other insects with food and shelter such a garden will also support the beautiful birds that come north to raise their young this Garden could also be designed as a rain Garden to collect rainwater runoff and keep the 10-mile River clean this Garden should be designed and planted by people who are knowledgeable about native plants native meaning native to Connecticut neighboring states or at least New England as opposed to California once installed it can be enjoyed by the school children and used to educate them about the natural environment secondly I would like to propose a vegetable garden this can be a triple win first it would be a shame to let the prime agricultural soils here go to White go to waste is it possible that the architect can leave an unexcavated area of these unmatched soils for school vegetable garden the children can learn Hands-On where their food comes from and how to grow it and the produce can be used by the school or given to the local food bank and food pantry the Coalition for sustainable Cheshire is gathering more information on these two kinds of initiatives and there may be grant money for one or both and I know that we would like to give a short presentation to the board of ed when that information is gathered Nature's Classroom the site of this school is currently home to Abundant Wildlife turkeys use the fields as do deer Hawks other animals the lowlands nearby are home to Turtles frogs and salamanders I know I would like this but how about some outdoor seating an area where the kids could sit and enjoy nature listen to the birds and personally I would face those seats away from the school so they can watch nature um also as this is currently a beautiful Natural Area great care should be taken when designing and building this school I know they're going to do that I just want to support that idea and emphasize it this area is home to screech owls barred owls warblers Timber Doodles fireflies and other wildlife the design should show consideration towards wildlife and the humans living nearby lights should Point downward and be shielded and should be warmer in tone leaning towards yellow and lower temperatures not blue and hot temperatures light can travel many feet into the forest and when it does it disturbs The rhythms of life artificial light at night also known as La I'm sorry a-l-a-n can prevent successful reproduction of fireflies and other insects Alan can cause Birds to sing more hours than is natural exhausting them it can harm frogs and salamanders and people this surely should not be the outcome of building the new school and I saw that they had picked a an architect who looks like they will do a good job um and I would like to support that and uh and those are my ideas and thank you all for your time and consideration thank you um is there any additional public comment okay um saying uh Dr Sol yeah I'd be happy to reply on both points first uh Schnitzer actually right now there's a meeting going on downstairs that I would typically be at on Thursday uh every almost every Thursday we meet uh the Next Generation School building committee to uh consider you know the the design of the building but that won't be done in isolation as you mentioned tecton was just selected as the architectural firm for both locations Norton and the new North End we've seen schematic designs already that were very rough in nature designed quickly to kind of illustrate what the layout could look like and The Architects uh thankfully every architectural firm we brought in but certainly tecton spoke to many of the issues you just mentioned now the process for the full community is that right now they're discussing owners Representatives uh they'll subsequently discuss construction managers that should be wrapped up by the end of April after that occurs there'll be meetings with stakeholders in the community about design considerations uh kind of like you just highlighted so stay tuned that'll probably happen in the late spring and over the summer and certainly we'll put out a lot of information about that is uh we're very excited to be able to move forward and offer these new facilities for our community and for our students with respect to the questions about the survey just to give a little bit more history and context the survey was mandated by law in 2012 as was mentioned there is a significant flexibility on our end there are a list of of questions which are included gender uh could be modified which happened in 2018 to include additional choices and I know there was a question that perhaps that didn't occur then but on our website you can see um the the we've had the data up there we perpetually put the data up there and it may be confusing if you look at a smaller building like Chapman that uh the selection of non-binary might not be labeled you can see a green sliver uh for students because it's not a significant portion of the population but that does exist uh in our buildings for K through three that being said you know it's a situation that students self-identify but the the question as to whether or not gender is necessary I mean that's something that we're exploring uh before the next certainly before the next Administration in 2025 you know my personal regret is we didn't send out more information in advance uh at this Administration so I apologize for that but um I want to clear up a couple of other questions opt out actually uh there's not a blanket opt out per se for all things necessarily so we if there were to be a survey we would notify family and then the opt-out provision would kick in that that process is actually being revert reviewed by the policy Committee in an upcoming meeting um the uh further conversation with students the the questions are the the responses are Anonymous we we don't know who responded what we do ask about gender because if we found that all girls felt unsafe in a certain situation or boys felt you know bullied in a particular place or whatever we would want to know that there can be gender differences I don't know that those exist so significantly and k-3 is they might in older grades but uh we'll look at that and certainly you know I don't know that I'm wedded to the idea of having a gender question in k-3 unless the data were so profound that boys or girls said something but I don't know that to be the case necessarily and we'll take a look at that obviously if students have questions uh like one of the speakers said you know we don't necessarily answer those questions first of all it's extremely rare um in our experience that a student would ask a question about gender most students pretty readily identify with one of the choices and just select that if there is a question then um we indicate like the the speaker said that you know we we're not providing answers on this if there's persistence and I I'm not familiar with the situation where that has occurred we would direct the student to speak with their family and I appreciate that you know not every family is ready to have that conversation uh as a father I I appreciate that I understand that um so yeah I think I I covered most of the stuff uh you know uh again um sorry one point about our definitions of what gender means we don't have definitions of what genders mean uh students self-identify and uh they select the gender that best reflects them so um you know we'll share more information we'll currently you know this is a work in progress and again I apologize for not sending out more information in advance of this Administration uh the the results from past surveys are on our website um either collectively or by building and we've posted those results perpetually since 2012 when we started giving the survey on our website so if there's more questions certainly you can feel free to direct them to me I'd be happy to respond to anything again as some of the speakers noted you know I'll reply to questions and again it's a work in progress and we can we'll continue to reevaluate and make sure that we have a good situation for our kids and get the information that we need to make sure that all of our students have a safe and positive experience in our schools foreign thank you Dr Solon um I would also like to thank uh every the board would like to thank everyone who came to speak this evening uh one of the reasons why I think it was back in 2019 that we moved the audience section uh from I think uh issue number six or seven to number three and so is that if um a parents or citizens had a reason to speak that they wouldn't have to wait here all night while we go through our regular business to speak um so um I'm glad that uh you all came tonight to to discuss and uh make your opinions known on this issue um I'd also like to say that um the policy committee um had we had actually an advertised it for about a month ahead of time uh in November we spent about two hours with our school attorney where we uh we ask questions uh I think it was Sam and I actually who are in that meeting um asked questions of the attorney uh about parental rights and about transgender issues so there's a two hour video that we have uh posted on our Cheshire Public Schools website that you can review and hear the answers from our attorney as to what state law says on many of these issues and some of them are surprising some of them might not be so I would encourage you to review that as Dr Solon said we'll be reviewing uh further policy to see if we can clarify uh anything that we can because the uh the uh the law that uh that guides this uh survey is does give us some leeway so we'll be reviewing that uh in a future policy meetings uh that being said um sure yeah go ahead um thank you everybody for coming out tonight and and um Jeff thank you for feeling all my questions I um you know this this kind of dropped early well just after the curriculum meeting but I I just two points that I would like to make and I you know we can read the law differently but but but the whole idea of these surveys is to get to the essence of bullying and and the climate of the school and as I go through the surveys and I haven't seen the high school one or uh the middle school one but um you know I just I think that's key you know the law does identify over a dozen different characteristics of bullying or targets of bullying and I just get the sense if we identify one we should be asking about all of them um you know because I was suddenly looks end of bullying when I was in high school in in grade school and you know it's it's painful I get it um and frankly too sometimes the teachers are bullies and do we have can we capture that in a survey um I can remember my the biggest bully to me in fourth grade was my teacher because she couldn't she was upset because I couldn't do division you know they're there and human nature is human nature I I'm not blaming her I grew up but but I think what we need to do is with these surveys is is focus on the atmosphere we're creating in the school and not necessarily try to dig down at this stage to what is the specific cause of bullying because if you've got an adult there that the student can go to then we find out one-on-one where that problem is so that's that's all I've been trying to say and I I hope we take that into consideration when we develop the next survey so thank you okay um if there is no other further public comment going once going twice are you saying that K through three is a time when a child is going to identify as non-binary or gender fluid or I mean that seems a little young to have those conversations so I don't think it is age-appropriate um at that age they don't even have hormones running through their body at that stage to understand where they're going to identify and there's one thing about physical I'm a male I'm a female to sexuality that you know those are two different conversations so there's gender and then there's how you identify sexually and that's what those questions are and K through three is not an appropriate time so are you saying that you believe that K through three or even K through six which is where those questions ask that's appropriate time to ask those questions to Children um I don't think the board nor myself have ever made any public comments about that subject at all uh what I'm saying is is that we're going to be examining the survey and the policy around that survey to see uh what levers um the board has in being able to give that survey to our students because finding out about you know bullying is very important to us and getting that data is important because um students are bullied on their sexual orientation as well and uh again that is an issue that we will examine to see how relevant it is I mean I mean male female or I do not yet or prefer not to answer I think that would leave those questions to the parents where they belong um those conversations should be with parents it was added so we're just asking it was published without that wording and the parents don't want that wording in the absence of a definition that you weren't able to provide so it confuses the children it confuses the teacher and it confuses the parents and then you have kids and we just want to go back to the way it was just take it off the surveys leave do not prefer but do not prefer male female check both if you think you're both check all three if you think you're male female and other and that that is something that we're going to be examining and uh uh like I mentioned before the November policy meeting um examines a lot of those issues as well from a legal point of view so um you can uh also watch that very extensive uh uh testimony from our attorney and the questions that we gave our attorney uh and I think you may find a lot of answers there as well statute for this particular service and I've read it as well okay so it doesn't yeah so right yeah and we're we're going to examine that yeah a lot of things not even learning okay well we're not really supposed to have any question and answer um if you have additional public comment public comment is still open if you'd like to make more comment you can if not um you can send you can email questions to us uh and then we can answer them that way so we can answer them in writing for you okay come on up from the microphone in terms of bullying is there a policy in place that if a child does experience bullying is there a sequence of events or who can they turn to if they experience any kind of bullying in school yes do they go to the teacher do they go to the to the principal there is a there is a series of steps and events there's also a form um that uh parents and or students can fill out anonymously or um they can put their name to it to trigger a series of events as well so that that can be documented okay and the definition of bullying had changed I believe in 2019 to be one event it doesn't have to be a series of events it could just be one event as well okay okay any other commentary all right very good we will close public comment thank you very much for coming this evening all right uh we will move on to committee reports and uh Miss ham curriculum oh thank you um okay so we do have two motions I'm going to go through the minutes first and then um I'll hand the emotions over to you to read and or do I do I read that but I have I have motion I mean or I can read them I'm happy to read them but whatever makes you comfortable um okay so first of all we just met this past um Monday right um and that date was March 13th and we did approve the minutes um had a few items of new business uh first we heard about the signs of suicide program that um is being implemented at at Dodd Middle School um and uh principal Mike Woods and Jessica tressout and she's the counselor school counselor just gave an overview of this program um and basically it focuses on training and managing reactions we're not asking anyone to diagnose that's nobody's job at the school but simply to identify signs um and then what steps you should take um if you yourself are experiencing um suicidal thoughts or you feel you your friend is um so the mental health staff will present the signs of suicide lessons to core classes of 20 23 to 26 students in all materials and videos will be made available to parents and there will be opt out resources available as well upon request um we then moved on to the educator evaluation plan and um Marlene Solano provided an update of the work of this year's educator evaluation committee they're going to bring in Kim Marshall who is famous for the Marshall Plan um but um it's the same one it's just throwing food everywhere no but it's um they're meeting in anticipation the state is obvious as we all know is revising the guidelines for educator evaluations and um Dr Marshall I think he's the doctor is is noted for an approach that Embraces or features frequent informal observations with face-to-face feedback at each point as opposed to these less frequent formal observations that just to unnerve everybody um so we'll continue the committee is going to continue to meet and gather feedback and we will hear recommendations coming up um we heard of a new field trip to join three others I think we have spoken over the years of Costa Rica Puerto Rico and Iceland most of which got uh put in the back burner because of covid and now we're adding Germany um these are four trips that will take place well three of them will take place during April break next year and then the German trip will take place in August of this year and it is a uh exchange course exchange trip so our kids go to Germany this year and the German students will come to the U.S next year um and again we'll take up that motion afterwards as because they are out of country field trips and we must approve them um we heard from Dr Mary gadd who reviewed the recommendations for the CHS scheduling committee right now the committee is recommending that they keep the current schedule for 20 23 24 which is a block schedule and pilot shifts in the frequency of times of classes to shorten them up a bit but still maintain the um a lot that time that allows for a lot of interaction between teacher and student so um and then Marlene and Kevin updated us on the lovely right to read Act and the waiver has been submitted and now we're just awaiting um word from Hartford whether or not it has been approved um and it was quite a quite a report uh but the results as far as I could tell and I think Ann would agree we're pretty encouraged we're very encouraging in terms of what the the program the k-3 reading program accomplishes and that was our meeting so we do have two um motions before us the first is picking up um we actually um reviewed two textbooks and moved for board approval after Community review um of these textbooks and so the motion reads that the Cheshire Board of Education approved the purchase of the following textbook calculus early transient transcendentals 8th Edition and then comparative government stories of the world as recommended by the curriculum committee so do I have a second okay any discussion I just want um clarification the textbooks are digital because cengage seems to be a digital platform hardcover books were available for sorry both hardcover books were available for Community review and we looked at those at curriculum committee okay thank you any additional discussion um all right seeing none um all in favor unanimous of those present thank you okay so our second um motion is that the Cheshire Board of Education approved the participation of Cheshire high school students in the following educational field trips with the understanding that there is no cost to the Cheshire Board of Education first trip is Germany August 6th through 19th 2023 um second is Costa Rica April 5th through the 13th 2024 Iceland um from April 6 to April 12th uh 2024 and Puerto Rico from April 6 to April 12 2024.
okay thank you that's helpful the second question I have is when you um give a violation to what extent do you work with the city attorneys who help determine how that's going to be ultimately handled um or do you when you hand it off to the city attorneys are you dropping out of the process at that point this so it really depends on the situation um our code does require for us to you know give them the opportunity to make those code requests code Corrections so um if we see something might become challenging or difficult we might get some counsel from legal in the meantime but a lot of the times you know they don't really get involved until we determine a ticket needs to be written to get compliance and we stay involved throughout that process uh we're in court we're in breakout rooms we're part of those negotiations okay terrific thank you so much did we try to stay out of the attorney's office as much as we can we got them out of the process altogether we would but they get very very angry with us when we show up in court without them I wish I could stay out of here I mean you want to hang out with Riser he's a lot from a standpoint I as far in addition to what we do specifically the international property maintenance code I would love for that to be our guidebook um because it is an independent uh code um and it is updated constantly by the ICC it stays in conformance with other communities Keeps Us consistent with other communities Ann Arbor's had a history of going on its own for years um and it's funny because anytime we have brought up the IPM the international property maintenance code there's this look I have abject horror from both sides of the issue whether it's tenants and and locally and elected officials and the landlords because both of them are sure that by adopting it somehow they are going to come up on the short end of that new code um at some point we hope to and have worked in the past and continue to work towards we would love to bring that to council um as at least the component we utilize to do our inspections there is a lot in our housing code now as you are aware and a big part of the reason you're here that deals with non-inspection issues non-physical structure issues um that talk more about leasing and contractual issues and and things like that um where the city of Ann Arbor plays a very proactive role differently than other communities um at some point it's my hope that we will have a set of codes that deal with that specifically um and are Consolidated and talk about those and then the ipmc which is what we would use to do the inspection process physical structure process um it's not necessary um I think the process would simplify some of these things but it is also scary for a lot of people because they have grown so used to the the housing code and how it works and are fearful that the their knowledge and understanding of how to use it work it apply it um will be lost so it's something we hope to maybe come to talk to you guys about in the future so I didn't want to take an opportunity to or miss an opportunity to bring that up while we're here sorry I'll interject every now and then it's what I do no thank you Derek that actually addresses one of my what was going to be my question so it's good to know that I think we're probably going to start looking into um the International International Property Management code and see what this commission feels about it um and if you do do that that is something either Chris or someone from our staff I'm pretty sure and I'm going to speak for Alicia here we could have Chris or someone come and walk you through what that code looks like how it works compared to what we do um I think that would be a helpful conversation and I think it's one we would be I'm going to say that's one we we would love to participate in with you guys when you're ready to take a look at it I'm going to add on to that too since it's relevant to this meeting um the 2018 version of the international property maintenance code began requiring carbon monoxide alarms and existing buildings yeah that's probably where I came from and Chris I mean I would ask that maybe take a look at it and if we can provide copies to the commission with or they're free to the public yeah all ICC books are all free without a login account so that's one one nice thing maybe we'll follow up with that and we'll we'll trust Kristen and the chair to let us know if that's a conversation you guys want to have in the future great thank you very much um I think we would like to have that conversation uh so I have a few questions here uh first first of all um you mentioned uh Chris the complaint-based inspections and how you prioritize those and I've spoken to a number of tenants who want to make complaints but are concerned that if they make a complaint uh that the inspection will give away who made it and will negatively impact their ability to renew their lease or to get a good price Etc they're afraid of retaliation in other words so what is your process specifically for complaint based inspections and do you try to keep it on you know discrete until you've found that there was a violation no we're required to notify the property owner of the complaint so we do that prior to the inspection takes place um we're certainly not going to suggest to the complaint came from um a good handful of complaints do get Foliage so I assume that information is available to property owners but it's it's it's a common thing that I've heard as well about the fear of retaliation yeah we we hear that on a regular basis not just in rental but other things we do not advertise who the complaint came from we will share what the complaint is I believe and Chris correct me if I Wrong our staff is taught to direct them to foia that um which is then reviewed by the attorney's office if it if we're if they are legally required to disclose it as part of foia then we have to it's not something we offer up in the field or answer that question um if we did it was some if our inspectors are it would be something we'd like to know about um but generally when we show up on a complaint basis landlords jump to the Assumption even if they don't foia that it came from the tenant I can tell you that from experience based um the landlords who call us will immediately assume that it was the tenant and they will say well that person and then they will launch into an explanation as to why the tenant shouldn't be listening so we get that a lot um sometimes it goes smoothly but we teach our staff not to give that up or to talk about that unless it is for you it's just it works better for our inspectors it keeps them out of that Loop brings the attorney's office in if there's a problem and then we make sure that only information that's disclosable through foia is what's made available and that information is not available online so complaints are even though we you can get the Complaint Form online that information is not available online so they would have to foil you that information and we do send that information to the clerk's office they send it to the attorney's office and they redact information but again you know depending on how specific the complaint is and the situation um especially if there's been an already communication between the tenant and the landlord um it's very limited what we can do to keep the landlord from knowing exactly who made the complaint but they do not get it directly from us it's good to know thank you and a follow up on that do you have an estimate of how many foia requests and this is probably a question for the for John or another City attorney I'm not sure but do you know do we know how many foia requests are made for uh information regarding complaint base and I guess complaints housing complaints I I wouldn't know uh Zachariah I'd have to check with Matt Thomas or I'd have to check with Jackie down there just foia request with respect to landlord tenant complaints well what I can do is Lisa those would probably come to you or Chris to get that answer uh we did a bunch of them or no we have not gotten a ton of them um I would if I had the gas off the top of my head um we made it 20 25 a year um we don't get a ton of complaint-based foreign I mean how many foias do you get to to disclose the how many four years have you seen come across your desk to disclose the complainant uh out of that out of that we might get 10.
last year we got 12 million and this year we got 22 million which brings us according to State calculations and it's a year early according to the state of New Jersey we are now fully funded when it comes to state aid and that's an important piece because next year it's like a cliff there's no big chunk of money coming in but look back in retrospect at all of what our kids missed out on our kids and our staff missed out on and this is just going back to 2013. we could go back to 2008. you see that red if we were fully funded we should have been getting 90 million dollars in state aid for that many years our kids have been shortchanged by the state of New Jersey according to their own funding formula by a staggering 503 million dollars this is not a made-up number this is 503 million dollars that according to the state's own formula should have come through Cliffs and what would our district look like today I wouldn't be able to stand up here and ask you for a thing if we had been fully funded since 2013.
I left this slide in just struck through because this kind of gives people a little window into like all the ripples that would have come out of eliminating this program we have talked each year about how at some point programs might be touched as we continue to get affected by stated reductions obviously as you can see this year became the closest ever so close to that it was in the budget until like basically last week um the and all those ripples you know and you think well is it that's a lot to go through for 150 000 in savings and absolutely correct it absolutely is a lot to go through but when there's when when you're we're living on the margins to the degree that we are right now those sorts of steps are necessary it's like why are we doing a separate question for mental health services for 190 000 it seems like so little but we don't have 190 000 for that you know and we need it so yes we are doing a separate question for that because it's that important and we know that next year we're going to lose another 230 000 in state aid projected plus the extra money will run out all the federal uh relief money that districts got which we got a lot less than other districts as Can Be Imagined because our stated has been reduced um and it will run out and we've been using it for for those services so this slide is maybe the toughest slide in a way and the question will come up and and I I have full faith that about the separate question both separate questions will pass because they are important and they do help kids and if it doesn't appeal to people even on sort of the the moral ethical level on the personal financial level it's also well well worth it the uh but nonetheless we need to just Broach that conversation a little bit right now in anticipation of the inevitable question what happens if it doesn't pass how you know how would we pay for free full Decay through a regular budget because it's set at 1.9 million a year so that's a lot of money right we were just talking about family consumer science which is 150 000 a year so these are just some possibilities with some dollar figures just to give people an idea of what um what that represents um I would say I mentioned earlier about limiting the Middle School House system 525 thousand dollars uh that could be a standalone change it's one we're reluctant to do right we haven't done it um the other two changes would have to happen in tandem so fifth grade centers at middle schools can't happen unless we had more room at middle schools especially at the Macy because demacia also houses to Macy Elementary School and to close to Macy Elementary School would mean needing room for where those students go which means getting fifth grade out of elementary schools big that would be big right we don't want to do that um don't even want to talk about it but feel behooved to mention it because more information is more awareness and we want maximum awareness for the ballot questions ultimately backwards design what we don't want is we don't want anyone anyone anyone coming and saying if I had only known you know but only known so just those are some selling properties for development country farms Cambridge so those are the two properties um that we have been in conversation with the township about purchasing for a few years um it's it's a hard thing to put on a ballot side I I I one point live next to uh a place that was going to get developed and you know I I can remember going through that um in my role now I mean it's it's hard to not put it up there because at the end of the day it's what is our mission is our mission to have land that is we have to maintain and mow but which doesn't actually serve kids or is it to provide free full day education in kindergarten for our youngest youngest children you know investing in them as much as we can as early as we can so it pays dividends every year of their Journey with us a Level Playing Field for everybody other steps the last bullet that's a big umbrella right it's a big umbrella I would just mention like one tiny little example just because there's that white space is just so empty it's calling out for a little example um would be uh busing for after school activities right so some districts don't provide but they have after school activities but kids have to parents have to find their own way to get the kids home you know we provide that busing that's not going to get us the 1.9 but that's a that's something that not every place does um budget timeline March 20th budget due to the county office April 27th we're gonna that's our regular board meeting we're going to combine it with our final budget approval meeting kind of like we combined our regular March meeting with our tentative budget approval meeting today and then the big date November 7th general election day etsd separate questions vote um really really like just so excited that we're that we're talking we're finally talking about this and getting this process started and if I jump back because that is ultimately like kind of the end of the presentation but just to end where we started um you know the opportunity to um not a lot of communities have such an authentic meaningful concrete opportunity to talk about Who We Are and who we can be and that like whatever that question says the question behind the question is who are we as a community and who can we be as a community what can we be as a community that's such an important powerful question and to get to ask it in a way that can ultimately benefit kids I can't imagine a better scenario it's not theoretical it truly is it's visceral and impactful for thousands of lives um and uh I look forward to all of us trying to answer that question together over the next six months as you work towards passing that question and on the speaking of the word question any questions Dr Smith thank you I thank you for this presentation um all the time that that you and and your team is put into this not even just this year but over the last several years all right that we've been impacted greatly by State a reductions and yet we've done you have done and your team has done and everything in in the power to try to make that impact not fail and I I'm very impressed by that a couple things really um just had a a question for you in terms of question one uh about question um when we talk about that one of the fears is probably going to pop up is the idea of if this gets passed what happens to my kid are they going to go to the school in their full day kindergarten school that be the school they're going to go to first second third fourth fifth grade I'm so glad you asked that because I actually wanted to mention that so there will be no there's at this current time there is no rezoning needed okay for a free full day Okay so I knew that would be a fear yeah because rezoning scares people yeah and the idea that their kid can be uprooted it it's good to have that out there to know that a vote for full day kindergarten does not mean a vote for redistricting their child at that correct correct and we've we've looked at this it's um it is you could say so we remember recall um last year at this time I was talking about Barton run would be attending mes starting this past September right we did that which was had multiple purposes but did have kindergarten was one of the reasons for that and then we moved a few classes from jaggered to Rice again to free up some some space that jaggered VanZant is currently our tightest school for space but can also accommodate free full day kindergarten awesome um second thing and I think this is more of a comment than as a question when I look back at this at this uh look back at this presentation and I think it's on slide it's an early slide I think it shows it shows the increases and it shows increase in particular transportation and it shows it at a 22 increase um I I just want to uh when I say this every year so I feel like you know this is still something that's really important to me and I I don't know I'm not really addressing you Dr Smith as might be addressing the public more uh but it's it's important if you're somebody who has the skill set to drive who has the skill set to drive a bus I should say that has that license and has that ability to do so all right and there's no reason not to apply for this we have a 22 increase in transportation that in all intents and purposes has nothing to do with us all right it has more to do with a a contract that was canceled on us that we had to go back into rebid and off costs that are out of our realm of what we can deal with we are hot Tied by a private entity but every time that we have the ability to hire a bus driver correct me if I'm wrong on this one that actually saves us by reducing the costs on that end correct so so when we every Transportation if we hire a driver it means we have to Outsource fewer routes if we reduce routes in terms of what we're like with the transportation changes the increased walking that means fewer routes that we have to Outsource now that's assuming that our driver pool is staying consistent correct but the whole time through we're constantly in competition with companies and and to your point about the uh the rates increasing like we live on a fixed budget you know our budget can only increase two percent a year in local tax levy cap that's it a private company that that can can raise its rates on us to pay for their increased wages for their drivers so we're competing against Private Industry in that sense and are always going to lose like a company can out pay us for let's say support staff positions you know um like the and you see we see it throughout Society where hourly wages are increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey's increasing companies can increase those wages and then pass the costs onto customers through increasing the price of their goods or their services we cannot we can only increase the tax level two percent a year so we're always going to lose in competition against private bus companies yeah so you know I just and I appreciate that because I just want to drive that point home uh and I I'm always a believer that it's better to have homegrown and I believe it's better to have your own people in your own Fleet and have them serve the community have the people in this community be hired to serve the community I think is always more important and I think it's important also to the idea that it can help us reduce this so and I said this is not a a comment towards you Dr Smith it's to anybody who's actually listening to us uh and is listening to this presentation online that if you're someone with a skill set that can handle this job please and if I can just just add to that for a second I'm so glad you brought that up because it really ties into another topic which is just staffing needs in general you know so so we've done we did our first ever District staff District job fair this year we've talked about um staffing needs a multiple board meetings over half of our staff live in Evesham so so when you were saying about the chance to serve the community you live in that's lived out on a daily basis by over half of our staff and for many of our drivers and I'm thinking of their faces right now um they are grandparents of kids in our district they are parents of kids in our district they are driving for us because they care about serving the community that essentially serves them and that is sounds a bit rosy-eyed but it is ultimately the a greater reward in a lot of cases than um making an extra x amount somewhere else why thank you Dr Smith I I thank you for putting this together I thank you for this presentation and uh answering and my questions and my statement so thank you any other questions okay we'll move on with our agenda like I said this uh presentation will be shared um with everyone via my update tomorrow thank you speak up and to also limit your comments to one time in Republic comment period is there anyone good evening how are you good evening hello hello my name is Brian whiskowitz first vice president for etea I would like to thank the board and Dr Smith for working with us to reconsider the proposed cut of the family and consumer science program at both middle schools Dr Smith as you mentioned it was discussed with us at building level Staffing meetings this month this cut would have had many negative trickle-down effects for our students it also would have eliminated a class that teaches our students important life skills and quite frankly one that they truly love thank you for meeting with us and reconsidering and I look forward to continuing to be a tough judge at Future muffin Bay Golf competitions thank you there'll be another public comment section at the end at this point we're going to move forward with the approval of the minutes I would like a motion to approve item 6.1 6.2 and 6.3 do I have a motion Mr Canton Miss Lee any questions or comments regarding for the minutes Mr Block Mr Beckham excuse me it's fine I get of all time sorry yes Mrs capella yes Mr physicaro yes to six more abstain from six two okay Mr Kathy yes Mrs null yes Mrs Lee yes this is Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes Mission carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item seven superintendent's report and administrative items do I have a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.6 this capella Mr Thompson before we get into questions and comments I will give the floor once again to Dr Smith thank you Mrs Ryan I will keep my comments brief this evening as I talked to plenty during the budget presentation I can't resist though plugging two exciting District Events first to Macy Middle School's great Swiss Musical Legally Blonde Junior with three performances tomorrow Friday at 7 pm and then on Saturday next week on March 22nd 6 30 to 8 PM in Tennessee this event is designed to promote the overall health and well-being of adults and children alike students and their families will have opportunities throughout the night to learn about healthy eating participate in Fitness or mindfulness activities to read to our district therapy dogs they are serious celebrities and talk with various Health experts covering topics such as Dental Health Mental Health Nutrition child anxiety and more hope to see you all there one last note related to Wellness March 16th this is an auspicious day as it was three years ago the very first day that all schools in the state of New Jersey were closed due to the pandemic three years ago today and our district administrators teachers support staff leapt into action to make that worst scenario of remote learning as rewarding as possible throughout that spring and then when we came back in person in September 2020 at the earliest moment possible with full days of school and live stream instruction from day one and throughout and it just again every day I'm grateful to all of our staff for their incredible work throughout the entire long period every bit of effort that then matters so much to kids today and everything in their lives and I just feel everybody's who is involved in that should feel good for the rest of their lives about what they did because we know those experiences have impacted our children in ways that will linger for years to come with that knowledge I'd also like to reinforce for all of us staff families in our community the importance of showing kindness and keeping a Calm Mind we can be sourced to Wellness for each other through how we treat each other through the kindness and calmness that we share and model thank you any questions or comments on the board regarding the superintendent contract okay see none of our properties in the sufficient team Mr Bach yes Mrs yes Mr President yes Mr yes thank you any objections from the board to moving forward with the consent agenda okay seeing the United motion to approve all items included in sections eight through eleven Ms capella Mr Thompson any questions or comments regarding items eight through eleven I just want to acknowledge the Evesham Education Foundation there's another two requests this month thing we had requested funding last month for some of our summer programs and also some mental health support so the money that is raised through their events or directly to our students this month we are asking for which is wonderful frames for the art show eyes on art and then also for two active boards so I do want to acknowledge that group they were very hard and thank you to all the community members who participate in their events thank you Mrs Noel anyone else on the board have any comments or questions regarding items eight through eleven okay seeing none roll call please Mr efficiency Mr Bach yes Mr yes yes Mrs little yes Miss Lee yes this is Ryan yes moving on to committee reports does any committee chair have a report they wish to share this time Mr physicara I'll be extraordinary brief with this for finance and operations because we just spent the last hour really honestly discussing finance and operations but I want uh you know to just talk a little bit about the work that went into this and we spent clinics and operations you know just talking to Dr Smith and Mr rashanti get on a constant basis about the budget and we're getting to see the process for you know a couple of life and again um you know this this committee I'm very proud to be on this committee and the people that have served on it and very proud of what we were able to do here because again I can't emphasize this enough I mean the amount of state aid cut we were talking about this year 50 over the last several years all right and this is where we are bloodletting as possible and I'm profoundly proud of them so my my committee report is the fact that we have in the last several months been working on this diligently and in particular to Dr Smith from the super Shanty for president any other person would like to give a committee report this time okay I would just like to give a thank you to the board and administrative team for all the work on the budget but also at the last special Board of Education meeting we set aside two hours but we were there for three and a half hours doing the important work on a Saturday so um I would like to thank everyone for giving up their time and being so diligent in your dedication to making sure the best is for our kids coming forward so thank you all right moving on to new business we don't have any new business we do not have any old business and now we'll move into the second public comments the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your questions are comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we asked using superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you're living your comments to three minutes per person and also this section is meant for one comment per person is there anyone any questions okay name and address please go from there because seeing the changes that would be made would be really painful to this District so will we go back and talk about it as a Township I mean we've done so much of talking to the state and gotten very little for all the budget changes thank you thank you you're welcome wait we've talked we've told them we need money yes um so we will look at it whatever you say is each district each ham leads to find his own path forward and about what a separate question doesn't pass is plenty two just under the umbrella of all um sometimes districts assess how the book turned out the outcome they do that data to drive their decision to move forward you know so um you know what's the what's the market um keeping in mind at the same time you have districts are only going in the direction of visual website and eventually I mean right now um they're expanding people and um it's painful to see that and it's like hearing people having a great time okay right next door and not being able to go I mean because they're getting money from the mistake to do it all right so um our kids deserve that our Tech communities maybe even in conversation with those other eight districts right I am you know Financial hard place like we are those places the ones I'm thinking of so that still charge tuition you know um and locally here in South Jersey it's us and Morristown So yeah thank you yeah thank you thank you thank you any questions or comments from the board questions eliminate Middle School houses to 525 000 close to Macy Elementary six hundred thousand dollars the fifth grade centers at middle school so that's moving on fifth graders to the middle schools 225 000 that is 1.35 million dollars we are still 550 000 short if that happens right what does this say they say the valve question has to pass how do we do that with the community right as a board we cannot and will not say that you should vote Yes right without the question we can only tell you to go vote so performing the community outreach committee right the community outreach board is on multiple times to talk about the ballot question we've met on a Saturday as a whole board to talk about the valid question the next step is really to involve you all in the community to be able to get that message out to ensure that everyone is informed enough to be able to make an informed vote to come down with yourself I'm looking forward to that and I'll just say on that note Mr Canton um I'll put it in my update again tomorrow but I shared an update earlier this year about anyone who's interested in being part of that committee to get the word out um so the original Club we're always that that offer is always on the table anyone is interested um just reach out to me and I'll share that reminder again tomorrow um and we will there will be more information coming out soon to the folks who've uh you know you know showed interest to be part of that effort and we're thankful for them now and we're thankful for them every stage of the way through to November 7th okay at this time I need a motion I'm going to ask for a motion to go into our second executive session whereas an njsa 10-4-12 allows for our public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas Board of Education of Eastern Township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are accepted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of the closed session and approximately 9 45 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 can I have a motion please Miss Noel second Mr Thompson is this right no action oh yeah I know that was coming next any questions or comments okay roll call please Mr Bob yes this is Apollo yes Mr physicara yes Mr King that's this is no yes this is yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thomas yes motion carries thank you we'll see you all approximately 9 45 and at that time no action will be taken by the board foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you foreign um [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you 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do I have a second okay any discussion the dates are a little sorry the dates are a little off here come on Iceland there's one one that leaves on a Friday one will leave on a Friday before spring break the others span spring break and then obviously August is summer break so on the top it says Iceland April 6th to the 13th but then on the bottom says April 6th to the 12th if you look at on the agenda the motion has the 12th is all I'm saying oh okay so how long is the actual trip did you just did yeah if you look at Iceland 16th 13th and 60 to 12 there's two different okay yeah okay because above it it says the 13th so I just want to make sure we have our dates right here oh I see you mean in the link the link that we have this says 62 13th and then if you look right about the motion is the six through the 12.
um we don't get a whole lot of foyers for complaints uh typically and and that's the other um typically we will work with the landlords and say you know you pretty much they know if they're wrong and we'll work with them and say it if it's a if it's a complaint it's a complaint if they if they're if it's wrong and that's a violation we walk them through it and we pretty and we're we got a pretty good compliance rate with them complying with us um after they get a phone call so we don't get a whole lot of them wanting to know who turned them in they pretty much know when they get the phone call from us what's that what's going on so we don't get a whole lot of we don't get a whole lot of oh yes we do a good job Alicia and her staff do a good job trying to talk landlords off the lunch letting them know hey look complain or not this is something we were going to find at the next one um you know retaliation retribution against tenants and stuff like that that's only going to make things more difficult with you going forward um it doesn't mean it doesn't happen um you know like most things almost all most of the folks we deal with want to be in compliance um we tend to be and work with them better our goal is compliance not enforcement um across the board whether that's in the building or the rental field enforcement takes a ton of time and energy in comparison to the results we want people to comply um and we've tried to work with them that and let them know that compliance is always going to go a lot farther um it doesn't mean we don't get the complaints it doesn't mean we don't have the bad landlords it doesn't mean we don't have folks who um take issue with Lisa and her staff but they do a pretty nuanced job when we get these things of trying to make sure people understand hey we got the complaint let's just fix it and we'll be on our way and and a lot of times we'll we'll do an inspection or renew a CFC or do other things that work in the landlord's advantages while we're there to extend it to to try to get to try to make that a more palatable situation if that makes sense Alicia always jump in and correct me when I'm wrong too please that's great we don't get a lot all right we work very hard to just get them into compliance we don't get a whole lot of people to foia thank you that's that's helpful and one last quick question uh you mentioned a number around 6 000 inspections per year yes is that six thousand one more time so that's six thousand about slots that give or fully staffed that we can have now weather gets in the way of those um you know days off when we're short staffed that happens um so rarely do we get to that full but when at full capacity filling all of our slots we have about six thousand here right yeah right okay thank you and we'll move on to Jamie yeah thank you um so there was a mention of an immediate safety concern um and I'm thinking more so in like the um like the regular inspection process not um if a tenant has made a complaint um if an immediate safety concern is found and this might fall more on the landlord but I'm just wondering if there's any obligation um to notify the tenant if there's an immediate safety concern or um if you're aware of it might not fall within the scope of the housing code but um no not I mean a lot of times they're they're going to be present but if if they're not if we're coming back in three days there wouldn't tend to be but if there's an immediate there's also the dangerous building code that applies to all structures whether you rent them out or not so so things can be posted which puts the tenant on notice that something's a Miss yeah that's that would be an even escalated situation yeah and then I'm gonna jump in and say um safety is a difficult word in what we do because it is it is not a it's not we deal with this is it is it meet the code or does it not everything in the code there isn't a list of higher safety or lower safety things in the code that being said we have a trained staff that if there is a danger to someone in that structure we do things um it may not be as quick legally as everybody would like but they are immediately in contact with Lisha with Chris with John to do something to make sure that anybody who is unsafe and again I'm using it but like John said dangerous there's definitions in the building code and the rental code is to Define dangerous buildings and other things across the line but really making arbitrary decision on what's safe and what isn't is difficult it's either it either meets The Code Compliance or doesn't it I'm struggling with my words a little bit to to to to explain that but safe is a word that gets thrown around a lot um and it is one that is difficult to Define and that individuals have different opinions on what is safe and what isn't safe um so we work very hard to try to make sure that all of the situations anything that would require someone or would be that a tenant should know about that we find a way to transfer that information to it but there is no Christmas right there's no legal obligation we are dealing with the owner of the property they are the ones who get the certificate we are inspecting the structure they are the ones obligated to to meet the requirements of the code so it's difficult at times sorry about that uh go ahead Jordan thank you for the answers hi guys um I am one of the two landlord members here so I first wanted to start with super positive feedback we the last few inspections we've had the inspectors have been awesome I feel like we're getting to a super consistent point and we're getting things scheduled quickly so um we're just really happy about that so thanks for all of your hard work there it's it's obvious to us as landlords that a lot of effort has been put into that um so we're really grateful a couple of things I guess that I um I'm wondering regarding communication like I I guess I don't I don't understand looking at it from a renter's safety perspective and my role here is on the renters commission even though I'm acting as a landlord representative like why aren't is it just that we don't have enough bodies like why aren't landlords notified because I I have to track you down to schedule it and so to me if I'm a bad landlord and I'm not doing it my tenants are more at risk so like why isn't why can't we work on that part of communication like what are the barrier years so that landlords could know when they're expiring um and those kind of things or like if something changes if code changes like thinking about this carbon monoxide detector thing um thinking about the early leasing ordinance like what how can we help you get resources so that landlords could get notified for those kind of really um renters renters tenants rights important things so I I'll touch on the first part of that um something which is new um that we haven't had before that comes with our new software stream is reminder emails um so we have that system configured that it will allow you to renew us uh a certificate up to six months before it expires you're going to get an email letting you know that that's possible and then we send a couple follow-up emails along the way as well at uh 90 days 30 days and add expiration so that's that's going to be huge um because there have been a lot of honest people just didn't know um property managers that have 90 properties that it's hard to manage that's no excuse but it's out there so these automatic Communications are going to be a big impact um as far as communicating new ordinance ordinances I'm going to let Lisha take that one because that's something that she tends to handle more so um and I'm so glad you brought that up about the communication because that is something that we have been working on for years but um it is written also into our code that and it was written this way because there's more of you all than it is of us so um I would while I would love to have a staff of you know 50.
however while we were being underfunded by the state we also weren't putting in our fair share of taxes now I know a Clifton citizen when they open up their tax bill every year believes they're taxed enough I get it I'm a taxpayer myself but the fact of the matter is according to the state calculations the state expects you to go to two percent every year to meet your adequacy budget and our adequacy budget State recommended is that we should be getting 155 million dollars from local property taxes we are only collecting 18 million dollars eighteen and a half million dollars below that now that is through no fault of anybody what the boards of Education in the past did I completely understand what they did was several years went to a zero percent because we had gotten those chunks of money and some board members and I can't argue with them felt got this money how can we raise taxes we just got this money from the state that we we've deserved we've been long overdue but because of all those years of zeros you'll see here ladies and gentlemen 2017-18 less than a one percent increase 0.875 increase in the tax levy then three years in a row of zero last year would have been another zero if not for the last uh ditch efforts of the board and because of that and again I understand why but because of that the state going to the state of New Jersey we're fully funded on their end but they're going to tell us but you're shortchanging yourself on your own property taxes you are under adequacy by 18 million dollars because of this if anybody have any questions about that before we move on it's very important that I want to make sure that we're all on the same page and understand the context by which we are coming here to you tonight if anybody have any questions about this particular um part of the budget presentation Mr Brunswick thank you Dr Robert Posey is there any way to get back any of that 500 million in arrears or more since we only went back 10 years um no there's not the state when they passed S2 that law in 2018 said it would not be retroactive the only way we could recoup any of the funds and it's not from the state it's from our own taxpayers is by going to bank cap which Mr UC will explain later tonight I want to show you another to me a very illustrative um I'm going to come back to this number but a very illustrative chart this is the average homeowner tax bill if you own a home in Clifton you probably get this once a year on a little postcard and has a nice little pie chart and it shows you the breakdown how much of your taxes goes to the municipal side of the government how much goes to the county how much goes to the school we have been hovering around 47 percent of that for ever every municipality in every part of the state of New Jersey the majority of your property taxes go to the local school board for the schools this is not unique what's actually unique about this is that the school board's portion of the pie is much smaller than the Paseo County average and the state average why is that important it shows that not only have we been fiscally responsible you can say we've been fiscally irresponsible the say a county average most districts over 50 percent of their tax bill goes to their board's event Clifton 47.
oh gotcha so okay so the Martian the motion I'm sorry my sheet has yeah for Iceland it has six through the 12th is that the correct date no no it's the Thursday we can commend the motion through the 13th thank you okay all right I move we amend the motion okay so I shall Now read the amended amended motion is um that the treasure Board of Education approved the participation of Cheshire high school students in the following educational field trips with the understanding that there is no cost to the Cheshire Board of Education Germany August 6 through 19 2023 Costa Rica April 5th through 13th 2024 Iceland just make sure I'm reading this April 6th through 13th and Puerto Rico April 6th through 12th do I have a second we have a second is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all in favor unanimous of those presents Sam did Sam if I could just answer your question about the hard copies of the book there will be hard copies in the classroom but there will be individual subscriptions for online for each of the individual students face does that conclude your report yes thanks thank you um okay we'll move on to finance and um I will uh always uh with great Glee uh hand the report over to Mr maciano thank you good evening everyone I have reasonably good news and short reports tonight on finance and medical benefits starting with the finance report we've got through the month of February of 2028 so we've got eight months down um we are in good shape on our budget despite the fact that we did have increases in electricity rates and um cost of fuel and heating oil you know fortunately the warm winter and the lack of snow has really helped us on our budget so as of um now we will be increasing the non-expenditure or the cap on a non-paralleled expenditures from 50 to 70 percent you know as we get into March and April those are really the months where we start finalizing our accounts starting cumbering for the purchases that we've held off on with the cap that we've had at 50 percent prepare for summer projects so as we get through March and April as we provide the finance reports we'll refine our um you know final budget you know expenditures more closely but we are in good shape I'm very pleased you know to report that we've we've not had any further surprises other than the spike and utility and fuel cost rates this year on the medical benefits report the claims for the month of February were 769 thousand four seventy two so you know we had a million dollars per month budgeted that was the expected claims averaged over the year we did expect claims to start drop when we hit January as the new HSA plan year began and it did so for the month of February the Reserve balance actually increased by two hundred thirty nine thousand eight thirty six uh that marks three months in a row that we've actually increased the reserve fund instead of depleting it so on a year-to-date basis the net change um from our starting Reserve balances it's down about 73 975 pretty much in line with what we expected we had budgeted so that we would not increase the reserve or decrease the reserve if we budgeted properly and the claims came in as expected including stop-loss reimbursements we would end the year with a Reserve balance where we started about 1.3 million so we are tracking that way and hopefully that continues so as we ended February medical benefits Reserve stood at one million two hundred sixty one thousand oh thirty three so that's 1.26 months of claims reserve and we hope the trend continues where we are below the million dollars per month in claims that's the finance and medical benefits report that's great news for this month right um um I guess my only question is it's not even medical benefits related um since our last meeting I think uh the lunch the school lunch program I think beginning March 1st I think went to free lunch for all again yes according to parent square and uh right and um so I was wondering if if we were if we had prepared um any funding to to help pay for all of the lunches from March for the end of the year is there a fiscal benefit to our budget or no impact at all and we're going to be net zero for the rest of the year no impact to the operating budget right because Food Services it's completely detached from the operating budget Food Service manages its revenues and its expenses in its own you know within its own budget the only responsibility the board has at the end of every fiscal year is if there are unpaid uncollected balances that that parents owe the food lunch program those by state law have to be reimbursed back to the Food Service program so you know one of the things that we did see when we stopped the free meals for that short period of time from January 17th to March 1st that there were unpaid balances that had accrued pretty quickly and we will work to get those balances you know back down by the end of the year but basically by June 30th whatever is not paid to the Food Service program has to be reimbursed to the by the Board of Ed so we'll keep you posted on that but we'll we'll continue to work with the parents that do our bounce interestingly the way the free meal legisl legislation was passed doesn't allow us to go back and use some of the funds to reduce those unpaid balances so that does not seem to be an option unless that changes you know we're still responsible to you know through our food service programs to collect those monies and get them repaid to the program and uh is this being done on a reimbursement basis and if so is are the reimbursement rates uh more in line with you know when our lunch program stabilized after we had that incident um that are the reimbursement rates in line with that or did they change at all no the the reimbursement yeah it is done by reimbursement so we say lunch is free but the Food Service program has to go out and procure the food pay the labor rates keep close track of the meals that are available breakfast and lunch and then we submit those counts monthly through the state and get reimbursed so that it is a reimbursement process even though it's free lunch so um you know the process of doing that all happens in the background the students aren't aware of it right now the reimbursement rate is still higher than normal because there's an additional 70 cents per meal that is being received as part of the USDA program that expires at the end of this year so the reimbursement is certainly adequate to cover the higher cost of food and it's been coming down you know as well as the ability to obtain the products that we need it's improving it's not certainly it's not back to pre-pandemic levels but you know that's a long answer to yes the reimbursement does cover our labor and food costs right now it's great to hear thank you are there any other questions for finance committee great where do we stand on it just can you give us a ballpark on what the um the the UN paid balance what what kind of around 11 000 okay which is relatively High we've never had an unpaid balance that High I mean yeah yeah but the reason I didn't you know I I'm not trying to hide the number we have to work to collect it and we'll bring it down I mean it's not unusual that we had a balance that we have to work down every year not accusing no no I know you're not accusing I just want to explain it um if there are no other questions that will conclude the finance report um and we will move on to Personnel committee um so that would be Tim is uh anyone else running the Personnel uh committee I could just give a quick update okay great great yeah this is this is really pro forma uh it's something that you know we've done year after year uh and uh it's an unfortunate reality with our uh budget cycle that we're required to notify uh any teachers that we may lay off before May 1st um and so this is just a motion before the board that we will not renew the Any teacher who has an interim contract so an interim contract might be we know that a teacher is out on maturity leave for the year or sabbatical or something like that and we hire them on a one-year contract but we still are required to non-renew them at the end of the year the next uh set of non-renewals is for uh generally teachers in the first year of their employment or could be multiple years depending on the budget year and how things look we and the number of teachers that we're talking about we are not renewing non-tenured first-year teachers at this time and then when the budget is resolved we will likely then hire them all back uh but if we don't on renew and the budget comes in dramatically lower and we have to reduce positions we'd be contractually obligated to retain them and so that's why we go through this vaccination every year I was just going to say Mr chair I'd be happy to make these motions I think that would be great go right ahead uh the first one I moved at the Cheshire Board of Education pursuant to CGS 10-151 authorizes the superintendent to non-renew the teacher contracts of all certified professional employees serving under an interim contract subject to CGS 10-151 at the end of the 2022-2023 school year is there a second okay any discussion on the motion seeing none at all in favor unanimous of those presents great go ahead second motion for non-renewal of non-tenured teachers I move that the Cheshire Board of Education pursuant to cgs-10-151 authorize the superintendent to non-renew the teacher contracts of non-tenured certified professional employees under contract for the Cheshire Public Schools as recommended by the superintendent subject to CGS 10-151 at the end of the 2022-23 school year and further to authorize the superintendent to communicate written notice of such non-renewal to the affected teachers is there a second Faith oh we'll give the Sam this time any discussion all in favor unanimous of those present thank you I believe that concludes the Personnel committee okay great um I'd call on Mr merkelly for the planning committee but he's downstairs this evening giving oh Mr maciano thank you Mr grippo the um this is an update of the planning committee meeting that was held on March 7th and there were three topics that were discussed the first and uh probably the most lengthy portion of the planning committee meeting had to do with the capital budget that the board I'm sure remembers just passed last month The Five-Year request was 52 million 825 500 basically to do the the maintenance and long-term improvements that are needed at the schools that will remain after the new two new elementary schools are built um we talked about alternative ways to finance the infrastructure projects was was basically the discussion that was held the um back in 2015 the town and Board of Ed work together and um basically generated an energy performance contract that enabled the schools to do eight million dollars worth of infrastructure Improvement so we replaced the electric heat at Highland and over at the high school and did a number of other improvements swapped out of fluorescent to LED lighting and the Energy savings basically paid for the cost of those improvements over a 15-year period of time so it was a financing structure that was paid for by energy improvements so the question at hand that the planning committee discusses can we do something similar by bundling some of the capital projects adding energy improvements and if not paying for the full cost of the project at least to phrase some of the cost energy improvements plus some of the more traditional financing that we do through issuing bonds and so along those lines we did have a guest from Johnson Controls you know which is a con a company that does do energy performance contracts um made a just a presentation to the planning committee members and talked about various funding options state and federal government programs as an example Cooperative purchasing energy performance contracts and and the more traditional Bond and loan programs and at the end of the discussion what the planning committee decided to do was to continue to go down this path of pursuing our options and ECG engineering who served as the owner's rep in the First Energy performance contract worked with amaresco and board and the town and we're still a customer of ECG engineering because every year they help do the measurement and valuation to make sure that we're still benefiting from the energy improvements I was asked to contact ECG engineering which is now called energia we are working with the planning committee to have energia come in and make a presentation along the lines of the services that they provided back in in 2015.
um I we just don't have the staff to communicate to folks and have you all you know and have everybody tell everybody hey you're expiring you know you know you're expiring expiring so this new software will do that um we're also going to try and we're going to try this is um all new software but we are going to try to send out um Communications as well about ordinances changes and things like that that are coming also um the only other vehicle that we had was to update the um pre-inspection checklist and send that out and say look at the highlighted um areas and these are the things that are changing but we're moving to a paperless World Digital World um so we don't have that now so with the new um email Communications that are going to be coming out we're going to try to also append to that maybe some email um notices that says hey did you know that we had new ordinance or a code change and stuff like that so I have mentioned that to our I.T Department to just see if we can get some kind of emails also to send out when we have updates we've had them so few and far in between but now that we are talking about making small adjustments to our code uh maybe we'll have some other stuff that might come down the pipe so this will be our first um this will be uh a trial so I'm I'm kind of working with her to see if we can actually get some of those things out to you guys the other option would be to put it on our a it's a gov delivery for everybody that's on gov delivery that subscribes to any of the rental housing updates uh we put it out there when we actually released our new software and uh so we're gonna see if we can see it get it on there and it'll probably be on our rental housing page as well as update as well so those are kind of going to be some of our tools that we'll use yeah so I'm so glad to hear that that's really great I'll get on to that as well um since you asked the question about carbon monoxide um a new Warden and such as such as that something we would do if it passed would be um we send out an email an inspection um notice email and it includes some information on you know what's expected in next steps we would include an update in that email as well so let's know it's known up front in your initial inspection notice yeah we made the great decision to swap over our entire permitting and inspection software not just for rental but for building yeah I know for everything we do across the city this does all of our site plan review all of our Engineering in the middle of covet yeah um which turned to what should have been an 18-month process into it's going to have your process and it has really slowed our implementation um of it but it is designed to be incredibly or it is designed to be more proactive okay that's that's great to hear I will say that it's been really hard for me to search is that going to improve like I'm I'm having a really hard time finding certificates of occupancy and um so I guess for me user wise like it's really challenging to find um and to direct parents and students that I work with to find the certificates of occupancy and Stream So I guess I'm wondering if there's um maybe like a search video you know if there could be like a two minute here's how you search for these kind of things like something that we could get out to our renters to our student networks um those kind of things might be able so just kind of a tidbit on that that it's seeming a lot less user-friendly um for searching so I don't know if it's just no that makes that makes perfect sense one of the big things one of the huge decisions we had to make was whether to to take all the I'm sure everybody anybody who's dealt with the software the biggest decision are you going to take all the old data yeah and and our old data was so a lot yeah no no I get it difficult it wasn't just a tough volume of it it was very difficult so it's not so we do need to make sure that we are working on making sure there's separates our attention yeah I think I'm still feedback still having trouble with the new stuff though um so I don't know maybe a little search video on like specifically because this is the issue and this is what you guys are recommending which attendance is to like look up the certificate of occupancy so if there's a little primer we could get it out to our networks and kind of have it as available on you know the U of M side on our renters commission site to that would be super awesome uh we'll follow up and make sure that you guys get that because I think we have that in our in our library oh great um so I will make sure that I forward that to um Kristen and make sure that you guys get that that would be great thank you so much and then just two other small things um uh actually only one other small thing this is like so minor tidbit but um caulking the toilets to the floor we just had a friend that had a major Water emergency because of that because they didn't know it was actually leaking and it ended up causing like twenty thousand dollars damage to her house and so I'm wondering if anybody can explain like why we've decided that is a better thing than not and so for you guys I'm sorry my wild animals are very wild out there but hopefully you guys aren't hearing them too much the um the toilet uh per the code have to be cocked around the bottom of the toilet which means that if a toilet would just naturally kind of like have some leakage onto the floor which is gross but you would see it and you would probably say to your landlord versus now if it's caulk the water can kind of seat down under so I'm wondering that's a very Niche thing but just wondering if I can get some insight on that um specific piece of code so that that is a Michigan plumbing code requirement that fixtures are caulked to the floor um and it's a sanitation requirement because that water that overflows or maybe that liquid that was misdirected will seep underneath that toilet and it can never be cleaned isn't that the water that's then coming through the ceiling in the bedroom underneath like I guess that isn't that the same dirty water that then would be coming through the ceiling if it and it has nowhere else to go other than through the ceiling well I can I can tell you as a licensed Master Plumber that a properly installed toilet will not leak okay all right thank you and I think I think at the core of that answer is if it is in the plumbing code AS we've talked about before we don't have a lot of local control over code you know it's it's we would love to um well to Catch-22 if every Community has a different code and a different set of requirements it's very hard for it to own properties to be a landlord a renter or a building inspector or a plumber in any other city but it doesn't allow us to make many individual adjustments there's I can tell you there's a lot in the code I disagree with um but since we adopted or the state adoption Forest we have very little flexibility in it I think um I think that's the probably the more straightforward answer to that question great thanks and thanks for being here tonight yep yeah thank you and I just quickly did you mention Derek that you were did the rental Housing Services did have uh the plans to transfer data from each racket to stream or is that not going to happen it won't be transferred into it but everything we have we're working with our RIT department so that they're separate search portals for it it's being taken packaged up and then there'll be separate search engines to get at it um and that's similar rental uh building all of our different functions it proved to be much more easier and accurate to do it that way than to try to input it into the news right we will so e-track it will be around for a while to the public and then um we have a separate Stream So if we have an opportunity um we can I can maybe show you guys how to do a search on stream but um we will we will keep that separate because like Derek said we didn't want to run the risk of taking a contaminated system where we have a lot of duplicate records and stuff like that we didn't want to take those things over to a new system so we will keep the e-trackit system online for the public for as long as we possibly can and keep that infrastructure in place however our stream system a lot of um new people a lot of the new records for uh for Parental housing we started in stream so you'll see 22 documents in stream because we called a lot of people and said hey register now and stream and so they register for their new renewals in stream gotcha thank you very much and let me add to that we've got a lot of property owners and managing agents that have chosen to apply for certified properties on stream because they prefer it they want to take advantage of the auto Communications they want to keep everything in one spot so we are encouraging that um but we prioritize uh working on the properties that need inspection so sometimes they sit on the back burner and then we can replicate that issuance that it had in traffic so that's been super nice to see as well thank you yeah that doesn't look a game changer uh so we'll move on to Nick thanks I'll try to be quick but I was curious when we were talking about enforcement one of the issues that I remember dealing with was um too many people in a house beyond the um occupancy limit of six and landlords allegedly would tell the tenants um eight of you can live here only six can sign the lease and if the inspectors ever come hide the mattresses in the Attic and that's one of those issues that kind of both parties were incentivized to keep them quiet right because the tenants wanted cheaper rent and they didn't mind you know um a little extra crowding to get cheap per rent or to live with their friends and the landlords of course um could maybe get away with a little charging a little extra for age rather than six what have you and so what's the status of that is that still an issue is that something you look for is that something you only look for if somebody notifies you or is that a debt issue now uh Chris and I were talking about one of those today well I'm not going to answer Chris I know I know our inspectors look for it um but I think it's it's it's exactly as you described the difficult part we have with a lot of things is we we Chris and his staff all this we know a lot um we know a lot of what goes on um proving it is different and is more difficult we have a we have a lot of things that go on that we're quite confident we know are happening and John John will go to Great Lengths to make sure that myself or me um our staff I remember that to go to court or to write a ticket we have to prove it we can't just know it um and that is that Nick that it falls specifically into one of those categories I I'm sure it goes on all over the place but our inspector in that brief window has to not only see it but be able to prove it or someone has to be able to prove it and provide us proof and often it's not it it can't be enough that the neighbor says well we know this person lives there we know so-and-so's girlfriend is there sixth night of the week um we don't know if they pay rent or not but we know they're there six nights in a week um you heard us talk about the number of units we have in the amount of inspections sitting and investigating a unit is very difficult in comparison to getting into more units and making sure they're safe we deal with that all the time I'm not doing a great job answering your question where rare it happens it is an issue there's a lot of them out there that we're aware of um that people aren't being necessarily 100 truthful with us um taking the time to prove it is difficult at times Eric you guys do I mean so for you guys like at an inspection if they have a suspicion we have a couple of units that are like two units in the same house or something like that so it'd be kind of confusing and we are frequently Asked can we can we see the lease and we only have six in our units so we don't ever get in trouble but um yeah it it is something that they do ask to see the actual written lease and we'll match that up with the beds and the appearances yeah I mean if it's apparent If a landlord is is silly enough to give us a lease with the wrong number of tenants on it compared to bedrooms and sleeping space that would be great you know I mean if they if they are if they are able or turn that over without knowledge that they're you know violating the ordinance rarely do we get that kind of um compliance or do we get a genuine if they're willing to put more people in there and take the rent knowingly rarely are they going to give us a genuine lease either so I will say I will say that when I first started in 2009 we had a lot more than that we had a lot more of that um between 2009 and I'll say between 2000 and maybe 13.
the state average almost 53 percent Clifton 47. our slice of the pie is smaller than the state average there are some districts West Milford 60 percent bring wood 58 percent and I'll come back to this because this is an important piece here prior to to the the administration receiving our state aid numbers for this year when we were planning budget planning without knowing what we were getting we anticipated that we were going to have to come here tonight and ask you to go six percent Bank cap and one of the reasons for that was because of this number here 14 million 251 263 dollars this the this number is the increase is fixed cost that we have no control over that's already in addition next year to what we have this year Mr UC is going to get into more detail about what these items are but we knew coming into this that we needed an additional 14 million dollars we were expecting seven from the state thankfully we got more I'm not asking you to go six percent Bank cap okay I'm thankful I don't have to ask you that but you're gonna see because of the chronic underfunding all those years that we have vast needs vast needs that after this year we're not going to be able to catch up because our state is going to remain flat this is this uh same same chart as I showed here um about the percentage of the tax bill that goes to education this is the same information and a different kind of chart for us visual learners [Music] so ladies and gentlemen tonight um I believe our district is at a Crossroads I hope that I have showed you that through no fault of our own through no fault of previous Boards of Education that we have been chronically underfunded there is absolutely no way to catch up we'll never catch up to what we should have had now meanwhile there are districts who were not only fully funded but we're over funded for an additional 10 years they're the districts you hear about now that are losing Aid Jersey City big one 30 million 61 million Thirty One Million was last year where my children go to high school the Freehold Regional High School District lost 6 million when I say lost and I just go back to these are my own kids my own tax bills I know my taxes are going up because they the only way to make that money up is to raise taxes I go back to for 10 years when you're overfunded were you given that back to the taxpayer I don't think so you were hiring additional staff and you still have those additional staff and you probably have more staff than you need and so it's a yeah it's a shock but it's it's a rebalancing and had the school funding reform acts formula been funded appropriately since 2008.
so this conversation is going to continue to go forward the timing is really good because we will be meeting with the Town Council sometime it's probably going to be in May if I had a guess although no firm dates have been set on The Five-Year Capital plan so you know certainly think that that's a good initiative if we can find a way to do more of our projects more quickly and the example that we used was was Doolittle which we knowing we need a new roof about about three million dollars we need to replace the single pane windows that's about 2.8 million dollars um and we'd like to upgrade that building to have full HVAC air conditioning so can we bundle those three things add some solar panels or some solar somewhere on the property to help defray increase decrease our energy costs to help pay for that project so to be continued but that was the the bulk of the meeting we also talked about Doolittle and Highlands solar carports where we do have Xerox approved we there was no action taken on on that item and then we talked about phase two of the Next Generation School modernization plan um and and just to summarize that the discussion was really about how do we now that we've just recently been approved to build two new elementary schools and we're working you know to find the architect and the owners rep and the construction manager you know is it too early to start talking about phase two and and the decision was it's not too early to start having the conversations so at the next planning committee meeting the planning members will start by looking at what the original School modernization recommendations were for phase two and then start you know take those discussions and let them lead where they may as far as phase two of school modernization and that's the minutes of the meeting thank you um I'll I guess well you know I have to ask this question now um for phase two um did you discuss were you looking at a seven eight but that I guess we're kind of like we'd be committed to a seven eight at that point right because we would have way too much capacity otherwise there was there was no detailed discussion okay I wasn't sure around that okay let's get the ball rolling right at the next meeting yeah at the next meeting planning committee I'm sure we'll we'll take that up and the phase two recommendations were um just put them out on record renovations to do little and Highland renovations to Dodd Middle School renovations to the high school humiston and Boe offices are to be determined so that's what was in the report but that will serve as the starting point for discussion at the next planning meeting thank you and that date hasn't been set but it will be sometime in April we hope yeah Adam and just personally because um I wasn't present on the board when school modernization so I wanted to kind of take a look at their notes and what they've done all the research ahead of time and then we move forward with discussions so that we don't lose sight of the fact that this wasn't a one and done at the beginning it was looking at all the schools eventually and how do we phase it out you know so that it's we're not forgetting anybody so to speak thank you uh any uh additional questions all right well uh we'll move on from the planning committee um there are no other standing committees at this time because uh policy was postponed um so I guess we will move on to the approval of the minutes when anyone like to make a motion go ahead faith um move that the Board of Education approved the minutes from the meeting held on February 16 2023.
um than we do now and I'm gonna say it would be it's because of the increasing build and number of units available in the city um the new shiny apartments that are coming online um and just a sheer amount of space that people have to choose from now and so um we had some Notorious landlords that were good at chopping up houses and literally putting kids in rooms that were the size of closets um and now they don't have an opportunity to do that anymore so I think through education I think through people having a opportunity or a variety of places to choose from now um you have the parents now that are saying no my child is not staying here um and so we don't have as much of that anymore you still have some folks that are doing that but we don't have as much of it so we have a select group of people that still are trying to to do that but you don't have the buy-in anymore that you used to have um so we don't have to chase people down anymore um and we don't have to we don't we don't have the phone calls it's complaint based now when we when we have these um situations it's now strictly complaint based when someone thinks that something's up and this just doesn't look right or somebody sees an ad and sends it to us and says hey they're advertising for seven bedrooms and they're only supposed to have six so that's now what we're how we how we get the information it's no longer just on inspections where we're seeing that or we're getting it now a complaint based yeah let me also say um that six occupants is a zoning requirement for multi-family zoning districts we also have restrictions within the housing code that require certain amount of space per occupant so whatever is more restrictive will apply and we're making a point to list that number on certificates of compliance as well so it's it's open and available information thank you um now I have like two more questions and if you know any other Commissioners want to ask questions I think we're probably getting to the end of this session but um my first question is uh regarding one of the one of the submitted questions about the rights and duties booklet um so it says here and we've discussed before that uh if a tenant does not receive the rights and duties booklet that's required to be given to tenants uh it can be reported through the complaint process um that I uh it was asked here I'm reading were there any issue fines issued in the past year and the response was no there have never been any tickets issued the courts are responsible for issuing a fine so what what is the process like um for you know did you notify the court uh the courts that there is a violation so that they can issue the fine or um I'm just curious so it's a it's a violation and we write the ticket and then we get in and then we submit the ticket and actually John will go in to um to conduct the ticket um and then the courts was is actually the ones that would determine the level of the fine um and I think John can speak better to that as far as how they determine um but it's up to five hundred dollars if I'm not mistaken um so they did they actually determine uh rental housing does not get the proceeds from that so we don't that that doesn't come to us at all um but we just issue the the ticket because it's a violation is part of our code um but then the courts just determined the the actual fine so let me say things a little bit about enforcement and the first thing about enforcement is education getting the word out there that this exists and then educating people if they haven't done something that's in the code why haven't they done it um nowadays landlords and tenants get uh the information concerning tenants right that booklet they kind of get it emailed to them under eight five twenty five and we all know that our Charter uh written back when that Matrix printers existed requires that they be printed in certain color paper be used for sections and it's um you know it's in the charter and I know you folks have talked about that but if we got a complaint that we didn't get the booklet because that's on that Complaint Form I think you know that Zach is like hey landlord did you know I had a conversation this week with a landlord that said did you and I asked them if they provided it they say no we didn't do that I said well you know you have to you have to give them a a copy as well so I I don't know if most tenants want that electronically or if they want it in paper they're supposed to get it in paper and I can see that but with respect to the enforcement of that step one would be hey I know you emailed it to them but you're also supposed to give them a paper copy did you know that and if it's like oh we didn't know that we'll send it we'll start doing that we'll change our way because all you got to do is come down to the second floor and we'll give you the damp the books whoops we'll give you we'll give you the books to give you your tenants so so we it's it's our it's our printing it's our paper here they are send them out so if they say oh we're not going to do that then then enforcement takes a different angle well here's your ticket we'll talk about this in court in front of with a judge so education is step one um and then you kind of go from there yeah I do I do appreciate the education has to be step one and if there's repeated violations then you escalate there but um I'm wondering repeat it or they say yeah we don't do that we're not going to do that yes recalcitrants would be a factor too okay gotcha uh so uh since and Define has never been issued or at least not in recent memory um it sounds like well I'm not aware that an infraction has ever been written for the failure to provide a booklet or that there's been a complaint I'm not saying that I don't know that we've ever gotten a complaint about not getting a paper booklet do you know Chris or Alicia we've gotten a complaint but we've never issued a we've never issued a ticket at all um what are the the landlord atone for it and provide it yes um they came down got a ton of books from the clerk's office um and I for my from what I can remember um Washington Apartment Association even came down and got a ton of books and rectified that whole situation so we've never had to issue an infraction at all um we did get a complaint though okay that's good to know and so if uh there were a situation where you told the landlord they said yes I'll do it and then you get another complaint the next year and in that instance would you think you would consider issuing a fine or would you issue a ticket that would gravitate toward it unless like oh or different it you know the landlord or the office staff they didn't know now they just systemically don't do it because they don't want to spend the postage then they're that's more likely to Warrant an infraction and when uh someone was saying the infraction we would write a that could be a ticket for that in the finesing cost would be uh meted out by the court and that's they would determine that that would be a sibling fraction okay thank you uh and my last question at the moment um uh is regarding uh compliance sorry uh combustible Appliance Zone testing Kaz testing um and landlord reached out to me wondering about this uh so they were wondering if they were you know what kind of tests are required uh in around areas with with uh combustion appliances you know natural gas water heaters and and heaters Etc so uh is there currently a part of the inspection that deals with uh testing or I guess determining um the safety of combustion appliances we we require a furnace clean and check document to be completed by a licensed mechanical contractor for uh both forced air furnaces and boilers okay so if there were an area that was not properly ventilated uh even if the furnace was clean and they could prove that uh could that do you think that could pose like a a health hazard I think that's a yeah but um you'd have to Define not properly ventilated yeah they they Chris why don't you why don't you talk about the difference between a boiler and who can check that in a furnace who can check that and what do they checked for it and what do they certify in that document because that might shed some light on this question yeah so um our furnace clean and check document one of the most important factor is that we have a spot for them to tell us what the carbon monoxide test results um and what a typical contractor does is they open up the access door um to the actual plenum and they put a CO detector right in there one that actually has a numeric reading which is typical um and they will actually see what levels of Co are coming through um we expect to see Zero and that's going to be an indication of if there's a cracked heat exchanger or not um we also look at uh the gas valve they look at the gas control valves the the gas shutoffs the the venting itself making sure that it's entirely intact um that pretty much covers your typical furnace so boilers can be a little different your average single family boiler that clean and check can be done by a licensed mechanical contractor but in an apartment building anything over six units with what's actually defined as a boiler over 200 000 BTUs those actually require estate certification in periodic inspections at the state level those are commonly referred to as csd1 tests and depending on the size of the boiler and the occupancy those CSV ones are sometimes yearly sometimes every three years it's a three-year license in the state so that's one of the things we do with State boilers is we make sure that it's got current state certification as well which is of most importance thank you Chris I appreciate that I I'll have to do more research myself on on the uh current test for furnaces Etc and touch base with the landlord to see exactly what the what answers they're looking for does anyone else have any questions but uh and at the end here as long as there's no question but one if there's more questions on gas-fired appliances in the inspection process again I'm I don't think I'm speaking out a turn here Chris can make himself available or one of our staff who specializes in this directly to that landlord if they'd like to have that conversation or to you um it doesn't have to be a back and forth uh conversation we'd be glad to participate it in directly whether it's on Zoom or make ourselves unavailable in the field to do so um it's something we'd be we'd be grateful to participate in that conversation um second from an overall standpoint a lot of what I heard today and I think it it rings true with what we're trying to do you know five or six years ago Alicia took over the the whole entirety of the building and Rental program with one goal in mind and that was in part to revamp the rental system and how we operate to be more Forward Thinking to be more proactive to partner more with the rental Community to be uh more consistent and and to be um predictable in our process and wrote and how we do things so and in our hope that it makes things boring um but it also helps us gain that compliance is what we want um covet came and threw us all sideways especially the rental program um Alicia and her staff deserve a ton of credit for even keeping it up and running when a lot of cities just shut down through that period and figuring out a way to get into properties but it sent us sideways and set us back a number of years um and when you throw the the change in the software our goal and this communication and we are appreciative to be here is to find ways to to do more education to be more proactive to simplify the process and focus on the things that are important both from a safety issue and other issues um we do struggle with getting involved as a from a rental standpoint in the landlord tenant issues um because our system our entire process is so heavily set up to inspect the structures to focus on the safety of the structures the places where the tenants live and the residents of the city live and to make sure those are safe the landlord-tenant relationship issues are something that's we're all kind of new into getting into and we understand those are important as well but we're we're doing our best to work with John but really what we want to do and what we hope in this partnership going forward from our staff standpoint is to find ways to do better education to be more proactive and to work out a process that is is beneficial to everybody especially when it comes to the safety of those structures so I think we're back on track now with that um I think we're doing a better job hopefully I can't tell you I've lost the landlord that was on the picture here but uh I can't tell you how much appreciative I am for those comments that means a lot to us we don't hear that often and it's what we are striving to do and to improve that relationship and our predictability so we appreciate the time here and if there's anything else we can do we'll be glad to come back and answer questions or have more as you can tell we love to have detailed discussions on this we love this stuff so if there's anything we can do it'll probably be Alicia and Chris in the future they're better at this and and know a lot more about it than I I do but we appreciate the opportunity to be here and thank you and I did while we were chatting um I did kind of go online and just look to to see on stream um so I don't want to take up too much more time here but if you there is a help guide so if you're having problems with the stream um search engine there is a help guide and it is a PDF and if you go in there and just type in search it will give you um Step by steps there's pictorials on there to show you how to do a search but it is pretty it it's it's not too bad um but you do have to make sure that you have just under the search engine or under the search address or bar um you have to click exact phrase and then that will give you like if you if you type in the address it'll give you everything that is attached to that address and like I said for rental housing stuff look for CR and then it'll highlight like CR and then those are certified rental records um so you just kind of have to know what the um prefixes are so for us for short-term rental is Str for uh rental and CR for building permit is BLD g c r or whatever so um there is a help guide on there for you and if you have any issues please contact us we're our rental housing department our building department be more than happy to help you thank you I appreciate you looking at it and that that search bar too also uses predictive tests uh predictive text and all of our addresses are stored in there so you you get a couple in and it's going to start to ask do you mean this property this property and um certified rentals are in what we call the license module so that screen will default to permits you'll have to go to the left side and click licenses yeah thank you for having us thank you very much and before you leave I just wanted to say uh thank you again and one question we didn't get to but and I don't expect an answer now but um one thing that we will do eventually want to hear from you probably over email or if you come back is how can the renders commission help advocate for you for rental Housing Services to make sure that you all have the resources and the rules that you all need to make sure that you're functioning as best as you can but thank you again yeah thank you for that that's that's very kind we appreciate it yes very much thank you thank you thanks for coming thank you all right now um thanks everyone for the awesome questions I really appreciate all that um I'm wondering if we could take a 10 minute break perhaps um and come back at 9 17.
this would be a much different District ladies and gentlemen so let me talk about this Crossroads for a second PTI is a significant portion of our budget let me be clear I have no problem with a student choosing to go to pcti for a particular program that they offer that we don't if their parent wants them to go for whatever reason their parent has I believe parent has the right to direct the educational upbringing of their children but what I have a very difficult time with ladies and gentlemen is the way pcti is funded in the 22-23 school year we will pay almost 8 million dollars in tuition acti in Passaic County 87 percent of pcti's budget comes from the local school districts in Hudson County one percent comes from the local school district where does the rest come from the county it's a County Vocational School now Hudson County is an outlier I admit but in Bergen County right up the road 49 percent of their County vocational budget comes from the local districts Paseo County we're paying almost 90 percent of it what's the point the point is the county is in doing their fair share now and let me back up because it's not going to reduce your taxes if the county pays more money right but you know what it does ladies and gentlemen remember this chart that shows we're 47 if we weren't paying 90 of pcti's budget that would be even smaller more important than that that's money we would be using here for our students for the needs you're going to hear about tonight from my team so there is a fundamental flaw in the way the County vocational schools are funded it's a fundamental flaw and last week I was with the commissioner of education at our Passaic County Roundtable and we brought this up and our answer was it's a county decision you know so we need to Lobby our legislators for a state decision there has to be some sort of minimum has to be a minimum that the county has to chip in it is not uh Fair like on the playground it's not fair it's not fair that we're paying 90 while other local school districts can send their kids to County vocational schools for half that another reason why we're at a Crossroads there's another two million dollar Charter School increase there was a moratorium on um approving additional students to go to charter schools for a couple years while it's gone um classical which one Classical Academy great people I know the superintendent principal very well great guy but they got approved for additional students um which whether or not they're actually going to meet what they said they're going to get for example if they say they're getting 100 students that comes right off the top of our state aid we have that has to be budgeted we don't even see that money and then if they only get 50 we'll get that money back you know a year from now a year later but that's budget so so charter schools have gone up 2.3 million dollars 2.35 2-5 excuse me two five again I believe that a parent has the right to direct the educational upbringing of their children however I'm not sure what that charter school is offering that we're not I'm really not I really don't know what they're offering them or not increasing enrollment give you one number June 30th of last year June 30th of 2022 we had 650 ell students English language learners 652.
I'm going to have to abstain so I'm not sure what that's going to do nope not a problem okay is there a second there's a second can we have a point of order on people's abstaining because we need all votes that is on if the full committee is here in Quantum and votes I believe we're all set even if she abstains from the vote yeah she is a voting member she did not choose to vote for it right if if the other three of us vote in the affirmative then it's the if it's okay if only two of us voted in the affirmative then it would be a fail I understand but I do believe we could have some clarification you don't you don't have to necessarily abstain because you weren't at that meeting is that correct well and but um staying I believe is also a voting action so it's not like you're not voting right so um so that being said um did we have a second on that was that and did you second okay we had a second okay um all in favor of the motion just two oh there's two oh well that's okay surprising oh and two of them we were not here um then the motion fails and so yeah so we will uh have to do we have to vote on tabling it do we have to fit you don't have enough people I don't think to table it would get him with tables okay so it just gets tabled okay all right then we will we'll table that make sure it gets to the agenda for our next meeting so we can vote on that um if I recall it was not a very exciting meeting but that's okay uh we will uh we will move on uh as Mr White said we'll blame the uh the quotes that the parent-teacher conferences today was that or the uh put training tomorrow right wasn't the day after that that's right um okay so we'll I'll put an x on that one instead of a check mark um Miss Harrigan do we have any correspondence I have not received any correspondence Carol I would clarify that we received a we did receive as some of the folks mentioned tonight emails that they'd sent we received a few uh pieces of Correspondence questioning the survey we received another piece of Correspondence in support of SEL activities and you know basically recognition of of uh different ethnicities genders Etc but those will be available in in our minutes right but the board didn't receive those they they came through the um email today yeah actually there's one just a minute ago too so I have the board hasn't seen necessarily right those will be shared though with everybody in available in events thank you that'll be part of the record yeah okay absolutely very good thank you uh we'll move on to the of course the always most exciting part of the evening is the superintendent's report oh well thank you very much Mr grippow uh I have actually quite a bit of exciting stuff to share tonight uh first uh the school business committee partnership committee that we've had uh for many years has kind of revamped a little bit we had a little bit of a Hiatus during the peak of uh school modernization and are back in force with kind of a different approach in the sense that we're had previously been grounded in sharing information basically with members of the business Community this uh new approach is more of a workshop format designed to have exchange of ideas and support the growth of both the schools and the business community and the first Workshop that we're going to hold is in early April around uh the trades mechanics construction and Manufacturing and uh we want to provide a brief overview to some of our business partners about re opportunities our students already have but then solicit from them strategies to support student interest in those fields maybe things like over the summer they could do a one-day Shadow or a couple of days what other ideas do folks in the trades had what inspired them to get into the trades and then uh how do we educate our parent Community as well and Cheshire uh the vast majority overwhelming majority really uh move on to four-year colleges or universities and some people think that maybe that's off the table if I want to go into the trades and having conversations with people like Doug Johnson from Marion manufacturing or Jason Viennese from Richard Chevrolet you know that's that is absolutely not off the table if anything it might support your path through college or university so uh we're excited about that uh Workshop in April and May we're gonna meet with local Realtors we did that once several years ago it was very successful very popular and we look forward to doing that again as well uh speaking of Realtors we have seen quite a bit of population growth and uh the enrollment projections for next year particularly at the elementary level uh were adjusted based on the amount of growth that we saw but Highland for example was projected to be 878 students that is super high our current enrollment however is already 852.
if you uh that's only if you all want though do you think uh is anyone interested in that yeah show of hands thumbs up if you want thumbs down if you just want to keep going I just want to fly I have to hop off at 10 so I'm fine with a break but just fogging that in case we need Quorum for something I also have to leave at 10.
on October 15th when we do our count for state aid we had 1092. three months today we're pushing 1200. actually one of the reasons why we got more state aid this year because they funded the formula you get more money for a student who is ell because there's more need and you need more staff and there's testing and there's you know everything that goes along with it state is giving us more preschool money which is wonderful except where's the space where are we going I'd love to um look into renting some vacant buildings it's a lot of money we can expand we have so many great ideas that's money and after this year there's no more pot of gold so I hope that I've made the point tonight and not even really sure what I'm asking you I just want to make sure that we understand why we are where we are tonight and why after receiving additional state aid we're going to ask you for a little more and my team is going to get into more of the details of what our needs are I didn't mention inflation been to the supermarket lately inflation is up six percent in the last year cost of consumer goods are up six percent but it actually started before that so that trickles into everything that we do if we remain flat when we budget zero percent we lose money at the cost of everything else goes up and some educational things have gone up triple that amount and finally ladies and gentlemen um I want to give us a pat on the back here in Clifton for administrative costs what does that mean administrative costs are calculated it's the amount of money we spend on Administration me my team principals directors divided by the number of students it's how much money you spend per student on Administration in the group that we are in district-wise with comparative districts 92 districts our administrative costs is 22.8 percent below the state at below the average and amongst the state administrative costs we are 31 below the state average for administrative costs what does that mean that means we do more with less it means that yes I have two assistant superintendents but according to this I should have four more I'm joking but the reality is we have approximately 60 administrators based on this number just to get to the state average I should probably this District should probably have 18 more administrators to get to the state average and that's why when you go to a place like Passaic and Patterson there's not just the principle in every school there's a a vice principal an assistant principle there's more supervisors there's for for administration of the district and guess what I'm not asking you for that I just wanted to Pat us back I think we're we might be asking for a vice principal at one of our schools so um at this time I think I covered all the things I wanted to cover and I want to turn it over to our esteemed business administrator Mr UC before I give up the microphone does anybody have any questions about anything I talked about Mr Santiago so just looking at the percentage of tax bill to education come back to that real quick so we have the Clifton average which is lower than the county average and lower than the state average so obviously that also means like our cost per pupil is less than the county average and the average I don't have those numbers Mr Santiago but I would think that that is an accurate assumption yeah thank you yes sir okay Mr thank you for your kind attention Mr Lucy [Music] so good evening good evening everyone I'm like you see the district business administrator I'm taking I'm going to be continuing the presentation I want to be clear this presentation is a public forum on the budget overview for 2324 that would have typically happened in the finance committee but based on the committee and the board they requested to have this special meeting so the full board can hear the discussion have a discussion about the budget furthermore next week the board will be voting on a preliminary budget which is just a submission of the budget for compliance purposes to the Department of Education the final budget is not voted on until the regular board meeting on May 4th which is the public hearing on the budget so budget adjustments can be take place between next week after passing the preliminary budget and up until the May 4th public hearing to reiterate what Dr robertosie said the administration was expecting a state increase of around seven million dollars which would have been in line with being funded by the 24-25 school year but it seems the state went to fully equalize the formula in 2324.