Do you have any questions about the finance? Good job. Thank you. On utilities when you say it's down 3,000 is that just because it's not winter anymore? Or less heat? I don't know if there's any reason. It could be a lot different things. I mean you're thinking gas, you're thinking water, you're thinking electricity. Oh right. So, that's all of them. Yeah. For every bill. Yeah. For the district. Usually when you see one go down then another one >> [laughter] >> Right? So, when we come into summer the gas goes down, but electricity goes up. Right. But I just wondered cuz you know, we're talking a lot about utility bills around. So, to say that it went down at all was I'm good. And then just a few updates. First had a great time welcoming back the district today after spring break. So, just excited to get around to all of the schools this week and and see some kids and some staff.
Um all these courses meet the requirements for state reimbursement. Normally, we kind of give you what we have received in the past. Uh the state is changing how they will be reimbursing us for summer school. It will be per pupil rate, which they have not shared with us quite yet. Um the administration recommends approval for the 2026 Crown Point School Corporation Summer School programming. Thank you, Mr. Gianfermi. Board members, you heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of 2026 Crown Point Community School Corporation Summer School Program. May I have a motion? So moved by Ms. Bazan. Seconded by Mr. Angel.
We had some great discussions, and people worked really hard, and our big focus was getting those master maps aligned. Uh we found that there were some standards that were on the maps at all. Um and with the checkpoints that Mrs. Brown and I um explained to you 2 weeks ago now, uh we found that we really needed some realignment. So, K2 had a much easier job because they were able to kind of make some shifts based on their professional um discretion and what needed to be taught when. Uh where grades 3 through 5 really had to align to those checkpoints. And so, we did that. Uh we even stopped calling uh places on our uh master map quarter 1, quarter 2, quarter 3, and we would just went with checkpoint 1, checkpoint 2, checkpoint 3. So, we really wanted to make sure that our students were set up for success, and that we knew exactly what they needed to encounter before those tests.
So we hope that you will take out these two amendments that we find uh very troublesome. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Let's see. We have uh Lasman Shane. Did I say that correctly? >> Sorry if I don't even worry about it. Yasm mean Cheney for the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women. It's Spanish like tortilla with Hawaii. Yeah. See? Um okay. So I am here uh standing on my written testimony in support of this measure and thank the committee for your consideration and support. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Linda Elento on Zoom. >> Not available on Zoom. Chair. >> Okay. Uh Annalie Rodrigz on Zoom. not present on Zoom. >> Okay. In support, uh, Inger Stonehill on Zoom in support. >> Okay, there we have it. >> Hi. Okay. Sorry. Hi, Anger Stonehill. I um stand on my written testimony and um in in support and I just like to say a few other little things and I I know keep it under a minute.
They have wonderful things about you know what did I miss yesterday? Here's a picture of the teacher with Superman. Um so it's you know a way to really inspire people. Um so our other intentional things so we have messaging. The other piece that I talked about was the attendance intentional supports which is that trifecta of counselor, teacher, mentor. um we really need to build a good positive communication with parents. That's a major essential part to our targeted support and through communication. And then what I want to highlight is four and five. Those are those building based initiatives where we're trying to inspire students. So um they're looking at like attendance boards. So we can kind of have a March Madness chart to see who's getting better attendance in what class. We could have um an ice cream social happening at one school. There could be brag tags to really show improved attendance um and a way to make sure that we're giving the students a sense of you know developing that being positive about their growth.
Because again, I'm not getting answers correct from people here and I'm not getting any information from the board and from our superintendent. First of all, my first thing I wrote it down this time. You don't have to do uh Who who's tough shed? $10,000 for tough shed? What's that? It's on today's proposal. What's tough shed? Can anybody tell me? Cuz I'm still waiting for a response on that one. Number two. Dr. Tomko, in your budget um do you have anything that's for a slush fund for you guys? Cuz I keep hearing from you in the past meetings about a slush fund. Well, I don't know about you, but when I have a budget crisis uh I'm not going to go spend money that I don't have. I have to cut. I have to tighten the belt. I'm not spending money that I don't have. The taxpayer is not the burden to you guys.
And one of those biggest challenges was that there was a real dir and absence of really coordinated planning across the system. And so a lot of folks uh come to me, you know, you have up here in your plan, you know, something like school links. These were structures or places that were there for a long time or expectations in districts. We were at the starting line. There was some groundwork that had been done, but we were at a starting point. And so I just want to name that the work being developed uh requires a lot of coordination and is is really I'll be honest with you very difficult in that it's it's cross departmental and it's requiring a lot of uh focused kind of slow work versus quick uh unmethodical actions which is really what we had before and what the audit yielded which is that if you want to go far you have to go slow as a team and work across across the system.
The high school restrooms is awesome to see. I too I was here for a little bit and just to hear kids come out and they were they were in the boys. I was so excited that the boys noticed and were like it's so nice and had a few kids come up to me just seeing him in the hallway and and commenting on it how much they loved it. So, that's that's exciting and happy for them. Um The the Eagle Eye magazine is officially out. So, yeah. They will >> [laughter] >> Do we know that kid? I I think he's awesome. He's not a kid either. >> [laughter] >> Um So, super super excited. Morgan has worked really really hard and just really proud to show it off. So, we will get copies out to the buildings and to the businesses in town and get it up on Parent Square so all of our families can see it digitally and it's already on the website.
Are there any questions or comments? Uh Mr. Gianfermi, I'm sorry that you the state once again failed in getting this information to all of us, to you in particular, uh what the reim- reimbursement schedule is going to be, but um it looks to me like this is going back to the super old schedule of summer school, where it where it's credit recovery, right? Correct. None of it's like elective courses anymore. Am I if I'm seeing your chart right? Uh you are. Okay. And then is do you do you know, and I know the money hasn't come out yet, but um will there be a a minimum number of pupil enrollment for those subjects for that class to be a go? There would be. I I don't want to anticipate we wouldn't get enough for those. The government econ and health courses usually run a couple hundred students as they're taking those courses off of their schedules, so they can open them up for more advanced courses.
Um but you can see a a small glimpse of what one of those master maps look like. Um the math and the reading look the exact same. Um we have green, which are our essential standards, white are our non-essential standards. Um but the biggest improvement, in my opinion, to these um was the usability of of these documents. Um teachers need to plan, and we need to use our resources, but the DOE is very cumbersome. Uh the site the website to get to all of our um information that is very useful for us to use. So, um all of those uh blue words are all hyperlinks. So, they're linked to the frameworks we shared with you a couple weeks ago. They're linked to the specifications, which are exact sample questions, so teachers know exactly uh the level that students need to be working at, and then all the resources are on the right-hand side.
So I just want to say and listening to everybody I kind of want to cry but here we go. Harassment in our schools is too it it's too minimized and handled inconsistently. People are getting hurt as we have seen. So how many more educators have to carry that fear? How many more have to suffer in silence wondering if if anyone will listen? And I'm here to say that has happened to me and I'm still suffering. So it leads to a lot of stress, burnout, people leaving the profession because of this. So, I just feel this bill and I've been trying to get, you know, I've been working on this, working on this for the past couple years to get it through so we all are accountable and it does help uh bed parents to be able to talk so everybody's on the same page. So, I just urge you to support this so we don't have to feel alone.
So those are the main parts of our action plan. messaging having that trifecta of counselor teacher mentor support parent um communication and then those internal building initiatives. So what do we do? We implement these caps. We are regularly monitoring and adjusting as we are going through and then you know in a couple months we'll report back to you to see where we are. So we will do review report. Thank you.
We're not here to supply you with money. We voted for you. You're supposed to be protecting the taxpayers. And holding people accountable for not doing their job. Uh number three, uh Ms. Petiri, uh last time we talked to you did you you mentioned something about the you mentioned the teachers' contract and they were paying teachers extra for extra students. I went through the contract again. Did not see a word of that in the contract. Was that negotiated after the fact? And if so, who negotiated it? I think it's Dr. Tomko. No, that's why I said Dr. Tomko will have to answer that question. That's executive session material? The public shouldn't know when he made an addendum to the contract? Well, I was under that contract for 3 years. It wasn't in the contract that I had and it's still not under the contract that's in for the public to see.
So with that, I'll open it up for questions. Um you can see tonight uh there was a lot of information, but we really want to make sure that you are able to lean into did it make sense? What was missing? What are the things that you you would hope to understand more? And um we we welcome your feedback. Thank you. >> Um I have a Thank you everyone. Lots of updates and I know lots of work is happening. Um, and Dr. Kavat, you're referencing the curriculum audit. Is that right? >> Yes. >> Okay. I'm just making sure I'm talking about the same thing. Um, there's a from that audit we learned there was a lot of work to do. Uh, and so a lot of work is being done and as we think about this through a systemic like a systems view. Is there a way that we're memorializing or publishing our curriculum?
So, if you get a chance take a look at that. In my superintendent update in the magazine is about the parent engagement survey that is coming out. So, that will be released by School Perceptions through an email to all parents. All staff as well. So, there will be if staff happen to be parents they will get two surveys. Highly encourage them to take both. Um and that that will come from School Perceptions on March 30th. It will be open through April 17th for people to be able to take it. And then they of course analyze the data and send it back to us and we'll do a presentation and a report on it. But I encourage please tell your friends and and family to to complete that survey for us. It helps It will be a final stage of us finalizing our priority plan. As you know the board we had a few sessions on adjusting the priority plan.
Um credit recovery, there's always kids that need that. Um so, yeah, I I we don't anticipate having the numbers for sure, but we would definitely if somebody if there was 10 kids, we would run the course. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Move forward to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Nay. Vote carries 5-0. Thank you, Mr. Gianfermi. Move on to action item I'm sorry, moving on to item 6.01, policy conversions, first reading, Mr. Kewa. Thank you, Mr. President and board members. I bring to you this evening six different NEOLA policies that we would like to convert to ISBA language. Um I've given you the updated draft and the old draft for your review tonight, and those are in the areas of prepayment of invoices and claims, reporting child abuse, fixed assets, material loss and theft, collection and forgiveness of debt, and board member compensation.
We also went through Do you see those bulleted points? Those are scaffolds of instruction uh starting at those below levels that of proficiency that which we explained uh 2 weeks ago, up to um those above levels. So, teachers can really see that progression of of how they're supposed to or should be uh teaching their lessons. So, that was a big key point um that we started the school year with these. Uh there is not a week that has gone by that someone doesn't mention how useful those are and how much they help them teach and how much more successful they feel having those um kind of revamped. So, that was a really big really big process. Uh so, starting in the school year, uh I was at every building um almost every week around some uh meetings, of course, but my goal in that being visible was being out and being around.
And I am happy that the DOE or the attorney general is offering this pilot program that will help, but we need to have something more in place so that we're all on the same page so that we all can be accountable. So, thank you for listening to me and um yeah, I think that's under a minute. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> Let's see. I have several others in support. Um, several opposing. Let's see. 16 opposing, 20 in support. With that, anyone else wishing to testify? I'm sorry, I missed somebody that's on Zoom. >> Hi, Lindsay Chambers on Zoom. >> Okay, Lindsay. Thank you. Go ahead. >> Chair Kim, Chair Elephante, Vice Chairs, and members of the committee. I stand on my written testimony and strong support of HB1-188. It is clear that employers, particularly government agencies, must do more in light of the growing number of attacks targeting public employees.
Any questions? >> Okay, next up is our the presentation of our 2627 budget. I am pleased to share, as the board members already know, we received a additional $2 million in state aid, which will allow us to not only maintain the staff we have, but to continue with the educational program, the great educ educational program that we have that addresses the needs of all of our diverse students. Now, we all know putting together a budget like this requires a lot of hard work. So before we actually start the budget, I'm going to thank the people that were involved. We want to start, of course, with the governor and the NJ DOE for recognizing our needs and making sure that we got that additional 2 million. Uh Mr. Januzi and our board of education, uh especially our operations committee, um Mr. Zubco, the chairperson for the operations committee, being so engaged, asking the right questions, um, giving right ideas, giving direction.
Okay. Uh I asked Mr. Labou, I asked you about the per pupil. What does Garfield spend per pupil? And then I asked what was per pupil for the money that we're shelling out for the charter schools? Cuz it seems like there's a big discrepancy in what we pay people that come to school here in Garfield and what we pay to people going to a charter school. Do we have those numbers yet? Okay. What's next? The extra expense Does any Has there been any kind of cost analysis in what it's going to cost to open that new school? It's down the road, guys. It's going to be here before you know it. Have we done anything? Has there been any any Have you talked to PSE&G or anybody? Or you're just saying, "Oh, look, they if they're going to build the school for us, let's build the school for us and we won't worry about it down the road." Again, you're supposed to be protecting us.