And we would sit in what's known as mediation and settlement. Um, if we get, let's assume we get through that, the plan is what it is. uh there will be what's known as a judgment of compliance from the superior court and that is um basically your approval of the plan. Yeah. So, so even if we're if we obtain compliance uh based upon the plan, would we still possibly be uh subject to any builder remedy suits? So what's interesting about vacant land towns is because that as you recall in that slide it's broken up into two pieces RDP and unmet need. That unmet need means that you've never really completely met your need. Um and so there's a presumption of of validity when you u submit a plan and it's approved by the court. You have leverage. Let's say you have you have an ability to say you've done what you've said you wanted to do.
However, my connection to Mr. Goffin goes beyond my role as a as an educator. I first come to know him as a parent, having received his support for my own child who has attended Butterfield since kindergarten and is now in fifth grade. Throughout the years, our family has faced various challenges and Mr. Mr. Goffron has been a constant source of support, offering guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear. His approachable nature, sorry, and warm smile have made him someone our family could always turn to, and that's a sentiment shared by many others in our school community. Mr. Goffron is the kind of leader who truly invests in the well-being of everyone around him. He is the glue that holds the school together, offering not only professional support, but emotional guidance as well. Butterfield Elementary would not be the same without him. His leadership has been an asset to the school, fostering a culture of care and respect that permeates the halls.
That doesn't however u exclude a developer to come in and say I have this piece of property and I want to be a part of your plan and I'm going to try to sue you. Um we have a good defense because we have an approved plan from the court but anybody can sue at any particular time. So you'd be defendable but not a cruel. Correct. Okay. Thank you. To put it another way, you have to sleep with one eye open if you're a vacant land town because at any point someone could pop out and say, "I'm here to help you." And then you have an issue that you have to face. Thank you. Any other questions from governing body planning board? Yes, sir. units. plan before the plan. The one before that was for 12 units, 12 or 11 units. I'm not aware of any other plans coming before the planning.
I feel strongly that Mr. Goffron deserves the opportunity to take on a principal role rather than being demoted to a PE teacher at another school. His impact on this community is immeasurable, and the staff and students of Butterfield Elementary School should not have to say goodbye to the consistent, supportive, and effective leadership that he provides. Continuity is key for the success of any school and Mr. Goffin's presence has been vital to maintaining that stability at Butterfield. For the sake of the school and the community that has benefited so greatly from his leadership, I urge you to reconsider any decision that would remove Mr. Goffin from his role. His dedication to the students, staff, and families of Butterfield Elementary is something that should not be overlooked. Thank you for your time and for considering the importance of continuity and leadership at our school. Thank [Applause] you Moren Patrees and after Moren Stephanie Johnson.
No, you you wouldn't be. So, it's in the middle of negotiations for negotiations. But if if the property is such that they can't build that, there's all kinds of problems with the with the uh uh they're going to take all the trees down. There's all kinds of water problems coming in. But with the 11 thing 11 sites, they're building five or six different uh drainage ditches that all drains down into Ranken Road. Yep. Now, if it's questionable for 12, what the hell is going to happen with 24? Yeah. How does it how can you plan for that if they haven't looked at it? So, I can't get into the details until the settlement agreement is finalized, which is is pretty close. Those details will be um allowed to go before the public at that point. I can say though because I've been part of the negotiations is that what I said to you before is compared to the 11 unit plan, we're seeing less impervious coverage.
Good evening Dr. Lopeman, governing board members, administrators, teachers, community members, parents, and students. My name is Moren Patrites. I am the grandparent of two former Butterfield Elementary School children and one current student. I am also an active volunteer at Butterfield for over a decade. I would like to thank the board for offering me the opportunity to recognize Mr. Alan Goffin for his leadership and for the impact his eight years as assistant principal has had on students, staff, and parents at Butterfield. Mr. Goffron exhibits enthusiasm and flexibility and fosters a community that supports and empowers each other. He conducts himself in a calm and professional manner. I worked closely with him during the CO 19 pandemic and observed his handling of very stressful situations when many of the staff were not able to be at work due to illness. Mr. Goffin promotes a positive learning environment and demonstrates his commitment to our children.
We're seeing less clearing. How well they're taking all the taking all the plants down. Sir, I would just ask that you would wait to for the settlement agreement and for the concept plan and then we can go through it in more detail. I can't I'm not at liberty to get into the details. But you're talking about a settlement agreement without looking at any of the material. No, but that's the that's the burough council's responsibility. It's not Council has a look at a plan for it. There has been plans. There have been plans for building there. There are settlement agreements in the works. Yes, sir. That makes no sense. Anybody else from the planning board? Yeah. Yes, sir. Um, is it fair to say that uh that a that a builder's that the builder's remedy uh suits uh enable a builder to knowingly buy a piece of property that is not zoned the way he or she would like it to be zoned for a project that they have in mind.
Butterfield would certainly benefit from the continuity he would provide for our school going forward. I would request that the board hears our collective voice and allow Mr. Goffin to remain in his current position. Thank you. [Applause] Last speaker card, Stephanie Johnson. Hello. Um, oh, listening to everybody just made me emotional as well. While I may not have been part of the Butterfield family for very long, my oldest came in last year as a students. I now have two children at Butterfield. My now fifth grader would say that Mr. Cochran has always been an amazing help. She knows that she can go to him whenever she needs assistance. Um, I'm so sorry. Um, as I say, I have not been a part of the family for very long, but with everything that has happened last year and to this year has been a complete flip and a complete change.
It's the typical way of happening. Correct. And so, um, so then they sue. Yes. And that's what we call a builder's remedy. Yep. That's the law allows for that that's the stick. Um, if you're not compliant with what's known as the Mount Laurel doctrine or the Mount Laurel law, um, and you have, then you are open to a builder's remedy suit. And so, yes, so builders are savvy. They they know. I I will mention also, and I think this probably may have come up in other public um realms, is that uh vacant land towns up until about a couple of years ago really didn't feel a lot of risk that there was a builder that was going to come in. Um I think as you see the state of New Jersey, a lot of the vacant land in suburbia that has been eaten up through um development, builders are now looking at redeveloping.
My student as a fifth grader has struggled and the support that she had last year was not there. Um, with the new principal coming in last year when The position for principal did come to light. Like many other parents and staff, it was not given to Mr. Coin. It was a complete shock and a complete surprise. When I just informed my fifth grader that Mr. Cochran would not be at the school, even as a fifth grader, she stressed out, broke down crying. What's going to happen? What's going to happen with the school with my little sister and my little brother? are going to come in at some point. Think about her crying makes me cry. I urge you, all of us, many people are standing being his voice while he has been the voice for our students for so long, for eight years. I do believe that he needs to be the new principal of this school since the current one is stepping down whatever happened with that decision which I think is best for that school.
And so that's what you're seeing now is that you're seeing them coming to the smaller areas. So, you know, while it may have not been a risk 20 years ago, definitely seeing more of a risk as it as it relates to a Bel type of town that doesn't have a lot of vacant land. But yeah, that they have every right to do that and and they look for it. So, the implication of that is if we're not in compliance, this is a question. The implication seems to be that if we're not in compliance, then our zoning codes do not have a lot of teeth. Whereas, on the other hand, if we are in compliance, then our zoning codes do have, for lack of a better term, yeah, I mean, the the idea is once you have a builder's remedy suit, you're trying to settle that, right?
He needs to either be brought up or at the very very minimum remain vice principal so he can help guide the new principal that comes in. Starting a new school year with a brand new vice principal and a brand new principal does not make any sense at all. He's been there again for eight years to be the voice of the students and the staff, my children, all my oldest knew that she could always go to him. He was very nice. He can help students. It needs to remain that way. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you all. That I that is all the cards. Thank you for being very respectful and sharing your concerns with the board. All right, we're going to move on now to our consent agenda. Do I have a [Music] motion? Motion. Do I have a second? Second. Lisa Shante Rothschild. Hi, Ben Owens.
And you're and we're putting together a plan voluntarily. we want the the court to approve it and so we have legitimate zoning codes. If we and there's been a couple municipalities in the state if we say we're not doing anything um your zoning power could be taken away uh if we decide that we're just going to you know put our feet in the ground and we're not going to move and we're not going to settle, we're not going to put a plan together and be proactive. Uh that's a possibility. Yes. Thank you. You're welcome. Can I ask one more question? Sure. it just in my own research it seems that out of the hund the 564 towns in New Jersey uh over 160 of them are non-compliant that's more than one/4 right it are are why would is there a strategy of just not being compliant I mean like I know we're trying really hard to become compliant yeah and I know we're you know this exhaustive e effort to become compliant, hiring you, hiring the other experts, but there's a lot of work that's going into this.
Hi. Carolyn Lopez, I Patty Catra, I. All right, moving down to our action items. Mr. Beckett, discussion and possible approval of the personnel schedule. Thank you, Vice President Coutra, members of the governing board. Dr. Lman, you have the personnel schedule in front of you tonight and I do have a couple introductions I'd like to make after we take action on it.
Why are60 other municipalities saying we don't have to go through all this work? Or maybe they're just trying, but they're not successful. No, I I would imagine there are some, and I know of a couple that have chosen not to to participate in the fourth round, and and it's a risk benefit. uh you know, is it is there enough of a risk to put us in a place where we want to put a plan together? Are we just willing to deal with developers as they come along? Um the risk, however, is even if you want to deal with developers as they come along, a judge could basically say, I need a plan. I want not I don't want you just dealing with the developers. I want a plan for how you're going to provide for affordable housing. Technically, you need a housing element fair share plan in order to have legitimate zoning.
I'll take any questions that you have at this point in time. Board members, any questions? This is always a interesting time of year when contracts are due, that kind of thing. Um, I'm going to steal Vice President Coutra's question this meeting. How you feeling? How you feeling about about where we're at with contracts, Mr. Becket? I am optimistic, not even cautiously at this point in time. I'm pretty excited about seeing um we we were just offering some wonderful benefits for people to return 5%. I've not heard any other district in the state offering 5%. Most of them are two 3%. Uh we just are seeing a good good return on contacts. Still some time yet for our professional staff. Uh classified staff were due today, but we had a great turnout for those as well. Again, I'm sleeping. Okay. Thank you. Good job asking. Well, I have one more question.
So it it is a requirement of municipal land use law. Why folks aren't necessarily complying with going into the program is a policy decision and it and and it's obviously different for each municipality, but they're taking a potential risk of dealing with additional builders re or builders. So council of sorts for for whatever town that's that's ignoring this is is choosing Yeah. to accept the risk by not pretty much. I mean, I don't know all 160 towns in their in their situations, but that that's I would say generally across the board. Okay. Thank you. In this process that has just been created by the amendment to the Fair Housing Act last year, 440 of the 560 odd municipalities have elected to participate. That means that there's over a hundred that have elected not to. So there's there's a fair number that are rolling the dice.
Oh, you're all right. That's okay, Mr. Yeah. Okay. Uh, how many open positions are we still anticipating? Okay. I I will have to get you that number. That almost changes on a daily basis at this point in time. So, well, I see I see an awful lot of, uh, new hires that will be starting the school year. And, um, that's awesome to see, although, you know, I always hate to lose people. Um, so any motions? Motion to approve the personal schedule as written. Second, Lisa. We have a motion and a second. Shante Rothschild. I, Ben Owens. Hi. Carolyn Lopez. Hi. Patty Catra. I. Thank you. Member Catra. If it's okay with the board's blessing, I would like to go ahead and introduce a couple of people tonight. I want to start with Mr. Matthew Mayo, who will be our new district director of athletics, activities, and access.
Thank you. Yes sir. How how does the settlement of the M andd site with regards to density impacts us going forward? We obviously increased our density up to 15 units per acre. Does that help us? I mean it it it's a good precedent. I mean it for a townhouse development. I think we, as I said, we spent a lot of time on the layout of that and making sure that it wasn't o overly developed or or feeling like it was too big, too much of a building mass. And so, it gives a good example of what 15 units an acre looks like and and is acceptable to the governing body and and uh to the planning board. And so, uh it's a good representation. Uh now, it it could there could be a different type of unit too. So multif family housing apartments u may look a little bit different which you know may change the density a bit but I think it's always about how you fit that into the community car the neighborhood character and how does that how does that dovetail into what's existing around it um and not necessarily um dealing with things that would in my opinion be uh you know not sound planning which ultimately could help us with the high tide possibly Um, does a paving um moratorum apply to builder's remedies?
And then a familiar face. We're going to ask Elizabeth Allison if she can stand to be recognized. She is being transferred from her present role at Pumabute as principal to the new planning principal at our Sarrento K8 school. Thank you, Mr. Becker. Thank you. Next item is discussion and possible approval of the district benefit plan for school year 2526. You're back. Thank you, Vice President Couture, members of the board. You have the renewal in front of you. Uh this is again another positive factor for this year. We're very excited to be able to uh see the district picking up the the cost for the increase for our employees. 14% obviously was a was a hit, but we were a little surprised that that we were in that that situation, but again, Mr. Harmon has done his magic as he seems to have a a great act to do.