>> Any questions, comments? >> No, I was just going to say I think it's great. You know, I think that um you know, storm water, storm drains, even just by attending your meetings a couple of times now, Rob, I've learned so much that I I'm afraid I had little to no knowledge about. And um certainly it all makes perfect sense when you start to think about bigger than or you just start to think. Sometimes we just have to start to think about things, right? And um and this is a great idea. I really uh really think it would be uh helpful to for people to be able to see these things. It because it starts to makes you think, right? Um so I'd be excited to to uh support this. >> Thank you for your work. >> So I had the opportunity to see the Girl Scouts do their thing last weekend.
The students have been very responsive making sure they show up um to their virtual mentoring sessions and we've had great feedback from the mentors at well as well that they've really enjoyed working with students. A lot of these mentors are scientists that can't leave their labs um but they still have want they've wanted to get involved over the years. So now we have a great group of seven mentors. We're working with these seven students and now we're hoping to double that next year and hopefully bring it to the othermies as well. Um and potentially bring on other partners in the future. Um it's been a great program. Again, it's been a free program for these students. Um they'll be a part of our scholarship program and also a special cash award for the students as well. So if you're around tomorrow morning at 9:30 and you want to join us, you're all invited um to hear these great students um present their projects.
So, any any one from the public, um they can ask questions or if there's any comments. Okay, now we see. Now we are on proposal for the discussion with the board. I would like to thank you and your team in the business office and all of the school staff involved in preparing the thorough and comprehensive budget. Nicely done. Thank you. We are now um We are now to vote for the final budget. So, I'm going to do roll call. Mr. Ball? Mr. Dawson? Ms. Casino? Yes. Ms. High? Yes. Mr. Incalcaterra? Mr. Genovese? Yes. Mr. Menas? Mr. Mosin? Mr. Volmar? Motion passes. Great. Congratulations. All right, well done. Thank you, Ms. Lee. That brings us up to item number three, our student board member report. Mr. Mosin, the floor is yours. Okay, so it is approaching the end of the year, so I have quite a long report, but I'll try to go through it quickly.
Um >> I need your pictures. >> Oh yeah, I do have pictures. I really should. Yeah, I'll I'll I'll send you those pictures. >> Thank you. Um, they did a really great job and and it didn't take that long, which I was impressed on how how quickly they, you know, basically they primed it and they did the back the the background and then they had the stencil and they I mean it it came out great. So, and that is >> picture of that. >> I do. So, that is it's it's in the um over by the the town hall sign um off >> Cherry Street. Yeah. >> So, um they did out back here. >> Yeah. So, I I'll I'll show you guys the pictures, too. But, um, but they they did a really great job. So, I am um I think that this project is is is awesome because I think it really will bring awareness.
And then last not least, of course, I just want to make a note about our budget that um I did mention how we've grown significantly. Uh we were at 150 students this time last year. Now we're at 226 students. Our goal by 2028 is to reach 400 students in Danberry. And of course, we'll do that through our community business partnership through other programs like we're piling this hybrid mentoring program, but of course, you know, our funding needs to increase with that. that. So, we are so appreciative of the D public school support and we've also really tried to of course be lean but also diversify our funding with finding new grants and new funding partners and right now we do we have grown our staff. So, it's myself as executive director. We have full-time marketing operations manager now. We also have part-time program coordinator. So, with that of course we're investing a lot in our program.
So, just bear with me a little bit, okay? So, for sports news, starting off strong, our softball team has had a very good season so far. The record is six and six, and some highlights include their nine to two win against Union High School, their three to one win against Somerville, and at that um match, Isabella Morisiac hit a two-run home run. And Isabella Murriziac is also nominated for New Jersey's top softball senior pitchers. So, you can go vote for her on nj.com. Moving on, our baseball team has had some highlights this year including their win against Belvidere last Thursday, April 23rd. Their next game is tomorrow, April 30th against Delaware Valley High School. Our boys volleyball team has had a good season so far with some highlights being their two to zero win against Timothy Christian High School and their two to one win against College Achieve Central.
I think you're right. I think people just don't kind of think about it, you know. >> Um, so I'm [clears throat] I'm happy to support I'm happy to support all of this. Um, and you know, wish you good luck. As far as funding goes for all the paints and stuff, where does that all come from? >> Um, it comes on the storm water enterprise fund. >> Okay. >> And it's we're not spending a lot of money. >> No. Okay. And um you know they they buy the white paint five gallon buckets and um we we got some colors and we've been experimenting what the best techniques are, but you know we've probably spent $190 or something like this. Uh right now we have the material to do quite a number of of drains. Um, one of the concerns Makita did, uh, raise the last time, um, was what happens after they fade or something like that.
Um and we are starting to do a little fundraising as well to help offset our costs. Um, in the next slide I'll show everyone. Oh no, one after that. Sorry about that. But it's okay. Um, I'll come back to that one at the end. But I just want to make a quick note about our scholarship awards breakfast that I'll share about in a moment. But before I get to that, um, like I mentioned, our audacious goal is to reach 400 mentor mentee matches in three years. And, um, this is, um, came out of our strategic plan that we wrapped up at the end of last fiscal year and really start implementing this year. One is really trying to develop and track um metrics. So, as I showed you before with the goal setting, we're really trying to see what is the impact that our mentors are having on our students and we're really trying to drill down more to understand that impact.
Some standout players include Carlos Hurtado who surpassed 100 career kills and Jamir Connor who has surpassed 50 service points just this season. So, congratulations to them. Moving on to our track team, our track team has also had a successful season so far. Their most recent meet was yesterday. It was County Champs and they had many standout athletes including Dawson Jean-Baptiste who placed first for triple jump and Dylan Jean-Baptiste who placed first for long jump. Jake Markey also placed second in pole vault. So, congratulations to them. Our unified track team has been developed a lot since last year. So, for those of you who don't know what that is, it is basically people from the track team mixed with our STARS program. So, we had our first ever home unified meet. So, that took place April 22nd and we went against Parsippany Hills unified track team.
Yeah. >> Um, you know, $6 or $8, whatever, the aerosol cans are black right now or, you know, >> it could be eliminated in in, you know, like 10 minutes. So, okay. um if we ever get sick of them uh or whoever succeeds uh me uh on the stomat committee, you know, they may come up with a different concept at some point in time and that's just fine. >> Okay. >> Maybe maybe use it as a contest, come up with the design and use it as a contest. >> Speaking of a contest, it's >> you know, and >> it's organization. It's it's the amount of time. >> Oh, I know. I I I I I don't know the woman who spoke before me, but I would like to interface uh with her and and I'll give you her, you know, uh Larry is working with me relative uh Larry Deong, the former art teacher at the school system and uh for years and >> um you know, the the paint is interesting to work with.
Of course, we have a lot of qualitative feedback. We're looking for more quantitative feedback. So, our quantitative data and that's what we're working on. Um we're piling the hybrid mentoring as I mentioned and we've um been holding additional mentor supports, mentor mingles, monthly mentor chats, really continue to support our volunteers because we know that they're giving up their time. We need to fill their cup so they can fill the cup of our students. Um and as I mentioned with the marketing and outreach u we've been doing a lot of that um to ensure that we are really engaging with our community. And then we can jump to the next slide now. So, last but not least, we do have our scholarship and awards breakfast coming up on Tuesday, June 2nd at 7:45 at the Amber Room. As I mentioned, it's our largest graduating class in two decades.
And it was very successful, lots of fun, lots of smiling and yeah. Our next and last unified track meet will also be here in Bound Brook, May 14th against Hillsborough. Moving on, two Bound Brook athletes, including me, Harrison Masson and Allison Cespedes were honored at a luncheon banquet this Monday as a Skyland Conference scholar athletes for maintaining high GPAs and being varsity athletes. Similarly, today two more Bound Brook athletes, Dawson Jean-Baptiste and Rachel Grzywaczewski will be honored at a dinner banquet for this year's Boundbrook Somerset County Scholar Athlete. This includes a plaque and a scholarship award, so congratulations to them. Finally, the Boundbrook boys tennis team has competed in many matches since the start of their season with some highlights being their win 3 to 2 against Warren Hills April 21st. And some standout athletes include senior Diego Reyes who won four first single matches so far since the start of his season, so congratulations to him.
It's it's highway paint and it's characteristics are different. So Larry was in my basement last week and we were blending colors and seeing what we could get out of it and he's into it. So he definitely without a doubt. >> He's working with her too. He's working with them. >> That's her. That's why I want to talk to her. >> The only thing I did want to say is if you were looking for permission on school property, you have to go to the school committee for that. >> And that we have. Okay. >> Yeah. We can't give permission for it. >> We're just doing the one, but at some point in time, we may want to do one at the other school where parents drop their kids off. >> Yeah. >> Prime opportunity for eye contact. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. >> Absolutely. >> Yep. >> Well, I'll entertain a motion.
And we're also going to be celebrating one of our our longest um serving mentor, Kathy Berice, who's been mentoring for 35 years consistently with DSABC. Uh she started off um she's working at one of our business partners, Branson, who's still one of our business partners to this day. So, you'll hear more about her story and some of her um graduates that she worked with will be in attendance as well. But I hope all of you can be there and really see the impact and understand and um you know see that these connections really are making a positive difference in our community. And that is all from me. I'll leave you with this um quote from one of our graduates last year that I feel like just truly encapsulates what the program does and what we're trying to do is truly help people um support them in all aspects of their life.
Moving on to school news, so first we have Smalley. So, Smalley Elementary School hosted a TikTok night where lots of students came to party, have fun, and listen to fun music and dance. They also had their first ever play, The Wizard of Oz. They did three performances during the day for students to see and one at night for all their families to come watch. It was very well attended and the kids did a very great job after four months of rehearsal. Smalley's also having a family STEAM night this Thursday, April 30th, where families will come and complete a STEAM challenge together. Moving on to the high school, Boundbrook robotics has been very active in the community outreach and activities. So, some of their recent activities include participating in the BAE Systems Bring Your Child to Work Day. Um so, students um participated through modeling with Legos, programming Spike robots, and building paper airplanes.
I will I will approve the um storm water drain painting project um being conducted by the storm water committee >> and DPW. So thank you to DPW. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I thank you very much to thank you Rob for all your work. We appreciate all your help. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Okay, moving right along. Uh, old old and new business. FY27 budget, including operational override, update, vote, and accept the FY27 budget at this time. So, shall I turn that over to Michael? And and thank you, Rob. Appreciate it, buddy. >> You just pull that uh the warrant just pull that sheet up. So, uh, just to give you an update on kind of where we are in terms of the process, uh, we did meet with the finance committee, um, and, uh, they recommended the the budget, [clears throat] um, the override budget, um, which you do have here.
>> Thank you. >> Um I just want to say I'm fairly new mentor um just doing it the past six months and you don't realize as a mentor what you're getting out of it and I didn't expect that when I started it. So, I have to say it's been an amazing experience so far and I'm so glad I did it and I know there's other board members that also and it's just I know for my experience it's just amazing. So, thank you for what you do and for um getting me involved. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. No, really. And any wants to be a mentor, I'm more than happy to work with you. I know Kate's been mentoring this year, too. So, thank you. I know many of you have been involved in different ways. You know, Sean's mentor Minnie. We talk so like I know many of you from many different hats that I wear here in town.
They also showcased their innovative robots at the Warren County Tech Showcase April 27th. And today, they participated at STEM Education Day with um the Somerset Patriots. So, they've been very successful this season. Um moving on, so the graduating class of 2026 continues to be accepted and committing to universities. Um this includes Northeastern University, Rutgers, Moravian, Fairleigh Dickinson, Boston University, Rowan, Caldwell, Ohio State, and many, many more. Moving on, the student council, in celebration of spring, is hosting a spring spirit week. This um is actually this week. It'll take place April 27th to May 1st. May 1st is commitment day, so seniors will dress in college and workforce related attire. And tomorrow is the spring pep rally, where students will come together to celebrate the warm weather, spring sports, and overall share school spirit. Moving on, the um annual prom will take place May 21st at the Park Villa in South Plainfield.
This is part of everybody's warrant. Um, we've gone through the numbers quite a bit. Um, I can either do that, I can go a little bit into the process. I know there were some questions about, you know, why is there a town meeting vote or, you know, how does the town meeting vote work visa v the ballot vote, etc. I can go in that direction either. Uh, how about I go ahead >> to talk a little bit about the process and uh the article and how all this was chosen to >> Sure. So um anytime uh you do an override you need two there's two mechanisms that come into play. First of all there is the vote to raise the taxes above the two and a half limit and that is the ballot vote. So you have to do that through a ballot vote. You can't through that do that through a town meeting vote.
So, thank you again um for being part of us and for your constant support. >> Thank you, Alexis. DSABC is a huge part of our success network here and what we're trying to do. And um you've been instrumental in growing the program, but also serving helping us serve so many more kids. So, we appreciate you both and your team and all the work that you're doing to grow and match more mentors to our to our kids. So, thank you so much. >> Okay. Awesome. Next up, adult education program d uh director, Dr. Rick Rayusi. Come on up. >> Evening everybody. Uh, as Cara mentioned, my name is Rick Rayusi. I'm the regional director for adult and continuing ed here in Danberry. So, our mission at Wii Race, which is the Western Connecticut Regional Adult and Continuing Education Program, is to foster lifelong learning, right? Um, not only do we offer statemandated programming, which we're going to go over in just a moment, uh, but we're also expanding into workforce readiness programs and preparation programs.