2025 BUDGET HEARING PRESENTATION

001the Camden City School District Advisory Board of Education's May 13th, 2025 2026 public hearing. It is 5:37 p.m. The meeting is now called to order. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or act upon. In accordance with the provisions of the act, the Camden City School District Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 10th, 2025 and May 11th, 2025, posted on

002the district website at www.canitieschools.org. board published on the board's designated online media outlet newspapers, the Courier Post and the Philadelphia Inquir, filled with the Camden City Clerk, filed with the Camden City Clerk, and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice. Please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcast on local TV and the district's website at a future date. Roll call, please. board secretary. Board member Kamacho, present. Board member Galashaw, present. Board member Garcia, present. Board member Hudson, board member Jackson, present. Board member Merricks, present. Board member Perez, present. Board vice president, Alvarez, present. Board President, Nandi Nelson, present. You have quum. every last one. At this time, we'll transition I I'll ask the board to transition down to the front row and we will begin our

003budget hearing presentation. Thank you for joining us for our annual budget hearing. I want to begin by walking you through how this portion of the meeting will be structured. First, I'll provide a highle overview of the proposed budget we submitted this month. Then our school business administrator, Miss Hanisha Taylor, will guide us through the 202526 budget, offering a more detailed breakdown of our financial plan. After both presentations, we will go into public comment portion of our meeting. Uh, and there are two um lists for public comment. uh there will be one specifically for items related to the budget and then the second list is for any other item that may have been covered. So again, thank you so much um we appreciate and thank you Mr. Do um for your collaboration on that. And so

004after both presentations, as I shared before, we'll go into public comment portion to best answer any questions with responses following Miss Taylor's presentation to ensure we address everything as thoroughly as possible. Once public comment concludes, we will then move into our closed session. So we know that tonight's conversation doesn't just involve numbers. It touches people, relationships, and the heart of our school community. We come together during a difficult time, one that feels deeply personal for many. I want to acknowledge the grief, the frustration, and the concern many of you are feeling this evening. This has been an incredibly challenging chapter for our district and for every staff member, student, and family affected. We see you. We hear you. and we do value you. And as we move into the next slide, just as a reminder

005of our district, before we begin, we want to make sure that we all are reminded of what grounds our work. The Camden City School District will provide learning environments where all students are valued, accepted, and prepared to positively impact their communities, uh their lives, the community, and the world. Our mission is not just a statement. It is our compass. Every conversation, especially the hard ones, like tonight's must be rooted in our commitment to our students and the future we want for them. These guiding principles have shaped the tough decisions we've had to make. They remind us to lead with care, to strive for excellence, and to remain transparent and accountable to our community even when the path is hard. Next slide. And so followed by our mission statement, we also believe in the following guiding

006principles for budget decisions. And this is what um was used as we had to make difficult decisions. one, pursuing long-term sustainability while remaining centered on students and then trying to ground our decisions in data. As we navigate tough financial realities, we are making difficult but necessary decisions to secure the long-term stability of the Camden City School District. While we fully recognize that some of these changes will affect the classroom experience, our focus remains on doing what is necessary today to preserve the strength and the integrity of our schools for tomorrow. Every decision we make is guided by these principles. We are centering students even when the choices are painful. And sustainability goes beyond finances. It's about ensuring our schools continue to be places of learning, growth, and opportunity well into the future. Being data-driven means

007we're looking at the full picture. Student needs, student enrollment, available resources, and outcomes to ensure our choices are thoughtful, equitable, and aligned with our commitment to students and families. So, the next slide goes into how did we get here? Over the next few slides, I'll walk through how we arrived at a $91 million shortfall. This slide captures our largest financial challenge and is the basis of our significant and impactful budget for school year 2526. If you take a look at this slide, experiencing budget shortfalls has been an ongoing challenge for our district. This is not new. In fact, I raised this issue during last year's annual report to the New Jersey Department of Education. This year, however, the shortfall has reached an historic high of $91 million. And while this isn't due to mismanagement as

008[Music] evidenced as evidenced by our growth as evidenced by and while this is not due to mismanagement as evidenced by our growth in Cusack fiscal and the low number of audit findings. I inherited 27 audit findings and we are down to three. The reality is that we must take serious action to ensure the district's long-term stability, including a necessary reduction in force. ARP provided one-time funds that helped us stabilize during the pandemic. We use those funds to maintain staffing levels, so to support learning recovery, to expand health and safety measures, and to avoid deeper cuts during a time of crisis. But ARP funds were never intended to be permanent. That funding ended this year and we are now left with ongoing obligations, positions, programs, and supports, but without any continuing revenue to sustain them. This

009funding cliff adds more than $51.1 million to our current shortfall, our current structural shortfall, and makes a turning point where temporary relief must give way to long-term sustainability. In addition, we still do not know how much grant funding we will receive moving forward uh from the federal government for title funds, which adds another layer of uncertainty as we plan for the next school year. Because of this, we must begin operating within our actual recurring budget without relying on one-time or unpredictable sources of funding. Next slide. And this also helps to explain how we got here. If you take a look at this slide, you can clearly see how the shift in student enrollment directly impacts our budget. Over the last several years, spending on charter and Renaissance school tuition has increased dramatically, rising from $157

010million in 2020 2021 to over $221 million projected for 2425. This trend has accelerated to the point where it has created a structural imbalance in the district's budget. As more as more public funding follows students to charter and renaissance schools, we are left maintaining facilities, staffing, and programming for fewer students in our districtrun schools. This is not about blaming families for their choices. We understand and respect that families are doing what they believe is best for their children. But as a district, we have a responsibility to acknowledge the financial impact of this shift and to make necessary adjustments to ensure we can continue delivering for the students who are still in our care. Any sustainable plan for the Camden City School District must reflect these enrollment and funding realities. Our goal moving forward is to

011realign to realign our resources in a way that is both fiscally responsible and maintains a student centered approach. Next slide. One of the most significant and ongoing challenges we face is declining enrollment in our public district operated schools. As the chart shows, our enrollment has dropped from over 11,600 students in 2013 2014 to a projected 5,94 in 202526. a reduction of more than 50% over the past decade. While the overall number of school age children in Camden has not decreased drastically, a growing number of families are choosing charter and renaissance schools over our traditional schools. This trend coupled with declining birth rates throughout the city has had a direct and compounding impact on our budget. In New Jersey, funding follows the student. Meaning that as more students enroll in charter and renaissance schools, the associated

012funding follows them, reducing the revenue available to support district-run schools. The reality is we are operating a system built for almost twice as many students as we currently serve. That includes maintaining buildings, staffing levels, and programming for an enrollment base that simply no longer exists. This enrollment decline is not a new challenge. In fact, as I shared before, it's something we've spoken about very publicly, including during the annual report to the state in March of last year. But we are now at a point where the financial consequences are unavoidable. The decisions we are discussing today are not just reactive. They are a necessary step toward rightsizing our system to reflect our current reality and stabilize the future of public traditional public education in Camden. Next slide. So, it's important to take a moment to highlight

013how we've used our resources strategically in recent years to better serve students. And many of these dollars came um from the ARP ESSER funds. One major success has been the creation of our in-house transportation department. By launching our own bus fleet and hiring district bus drivers, we've increased reliability, cost efficiency, and safety for our students. We also implemented a co-teer model in classrooms which provided additional support and improved student outcomes particularly for the students who have diverse learning needs. Through teach Camden we've invested in our community by supporting paraprofessionals in earning their teaching certificates to position them to teach traditional classroom intraditional classrooms in our schools. We are also encouraging them to obtain endorsements that would ensure they have the required credentials to fill some of our hardto- fill positions, especially during a national teacher

014shortage. And finally, we worked hard to maintain steady staffing levels to provide consistency for our students even as our enrollment declined. Next. So, so that is what we face. But what do we do about it? And here is the action plan. So, the next few slides will highlight key elements of our proposed action plan. Steps we've taken not only to balance this year's budget, that $91 million deficit, but also to support the long-term sustainability of our district. As I said before, these decisions are difficult, but they reflect our commitment to using our resources in the most responsible manner that we can while continuing to center students in every choice we make. Next slide. So, as we prepare for the 202526 school year, we are navigating one of the most difficult transitions in recent memory, particularly

015particularly in our district when it comes to staffing. Our overall staffing is projected to decrease from 1,618.5 full-time equivalents this school year to 1,331.5 next school year. That is a reduction of 287 FTEES across the district. Those are position reductions. When it comes to people impact, which is what we're all most concerned about, 113 of those 287 positions um that were cut mean that those individuals directly impact are impacted um by the fact that they will not have uh employment with the district effective June 30th. And again, of those 113 people who are affected, who are deeply affected by this reduction, 32 of those individuals are central office staff. About 16% of that team. 77 of those individuals impacted are school-based or non- central office positions, making up roughly 6% and four part-time roles, which

016make up 27% of our part-time staff. We were able to minimize some, just some of the impact. 34 staff members were placed into other available roles. Four individuals were not renewed due to performance and that had nothing to do with the reduction and 97 vacancies were eliminated to avoid filling positions we could not sustainably fund. We approached this process with care prioritizing the protection of classrooms and studentf facing services wherever possible. Still, we know these numbers represent people. There are colleagues. There are mentors, there are friends, their family members who have made meaningful contributions to our schools. This is not a moment we take lightly. These decisions were driven by the need to stabilize our long-term finances while continuing to center students in every choice we make. Next slide. So due to a significant budget

017shortfall, excuse me, Morgan Village Middle School will no longer operate as a standalone middle school. This decision is part of a broader strategy to realign resources, reduce costs, and move toward a more sustainable school model. Middle school students will transition to one of our existing preK through 8th grade family schools where they will continue receiving a highquality education. Those schools that will receive the students from Morgan Village are Cado, Cooper Point, Davis, Dudley, HB, Wilson, Vets, Forest Hill, which will be expanding to serve grades 6 through 8, and York, which will be expanding to serve grades 6 through 8. We understand this is a major shift for the Morgan Village community. That's why we're developing a detailed transition plan which includes staffing, scheduling, transportation, and direct communication with families. We will be working with families

018one on-one that's already started to ensure thoughtful placements and appropriate support for every student. Some staff will be reassigned with the support of our DTLR team. While these changes are difficult, our focus remains on doing what's best for students while being fiscally responsible and ensuring long-term sustainability for the district. Next slide, please. Also, as a part of our overall restructuring plan, we are relocating Rise Academy to the Morgan Village building, which will now serve as the home for both Rise and Star Academy. This transition creates a unified 7th through 12th grade alternative education campus designed to better support students who thrive in smaller specialized settings. Colllocating both programs in one building allows us to maximize the use of district facilities. It allows us to consolidate operational costs and provide targeted academic and social emotional support

019to students in one centralized space. This move will result in meaningful cost savings while continuing to meet the needs of our alternative education students. We will work work closely with the current rise and star academy leadership teams to ensure a smooth transition with alignment around school culture, supports, and structure. Ultimately, this plan strengthens our commitment to alternative pathways while being fiscally responsible and responsive to the needs of our students. Next slide. This slide outlines the leadership restructuring taking place across the Camden High campus which includes Camden High, Creat Creative Arts, Big Picture, and Brim Medical Arts. In our current model, each of the four schools has a dedicated principal along with one or more lead educators. Moving forward, we are transitioning to a unified campus leadership structure. The entire Camden High campus will be overseen

020by one principal and four lead educators. Each school program, how is that possible? Each school program will continue to have lead educators in place to provide day-to-day instructional and operational support. The new structure will look like this. one principal over the entire campus. Four lead educators total across Camden High, Creative Arts, Big Picture, and BRIM. This change results in cost savings, but more importantly, it aligns with our goal of streamlining leadership while still providing the necessary oversight and support at the program level. We are confident this model will allow us to maintain high standards for teaching and learning across the campus while also contributing to the long-term sustainability of the district. We will work closely with campus staff to ensure a smooth transition, including clear role responsibilities, collaboration structures, and consistent communication. Next slide. In

021addition, the additional proposed actions that were taken to uh address the deficit are on the screen. We've reduced contracted services. We reduced vacant positions. We reduced overtime expenses. We have changes in use of title funding. and we have re are re-examining building usage fees. And so at this point, I'm going to turn the remainder of um the budget presentation over to our school business administrator, Miss Hakeha Taylor, who will walk through, as I shared before, some more detailed elements of the the budget presentation. Thank you for your continued um focus, continued patience, and for being here. Good evening. So, understanding the budget, the budget development as early as the middle of September 2024, the executive leadership team began discussing the 2526 budget. Next slide. These are fund source definitions. tax levy, which is the amount

022of revenue raised through property taxes to support Camden City School District. State aid, which actually represents 90% of our funding sources. There are funds received directly from the state, which are uh predicated on enrollment and a district's socioeconomic status. fund balance which will become very important as we move through these slides which is surplus funds or money left over from a previous year or a previous budget. Capital reserve are surplus funds from prior year budgets that are earmarked or set aside for capital improvements. extraordinary aid. That's state aid for special education costs that exceed 40,000 per year per student and 55,000 per year per student for private school. And then Simei or special education Medicare Initiative aid, federal aid for services provided to special education students eligible for Medicaid reimbursement. Next slide, please. This is

023a budgeted fund balance graph. You will see from years 2008 and 2009 through 2025 2026. As I mentioned in the previous slide, fund balance are surplus funds left over from previous budgets. What we highlight here is the peak that you see in the current fiscal year 2024 2025 and it's the use of $51.1 million in budgeted fund balance which were actually unused ARPS esser funding 2008 2009 it was below 10 million and these were budgeted fund balances used each year to complement or balance the budget. So, as you can see from this graph, Camden City School District is not accustomed to spending or using $51.1 million in budgeted fund balance, highlighting that this was a source that was not common or normal. They were ARPser COVID fundings that were unused um at year end June

02430, 2024. Next slide, please. How did we address the $91 million shortfall? So, superintendent talked about how we got here. How did we address the $91 million shortfall? As you know, $20.9 million was an increase in state aid. We also had budgeted fund balance use of $13 million. We increased our estimate of extraordinary aid. We increased additional revenues. So, uh, capital reserves and maintenance reserves. We reduced personnel by 26%. I think that [Music] says the tax levy increase for 2526 is a 5% tax increase of $780,000. Next slide, please. [Applause] Here is a comparison of 2024 2025 versus 2025 2026 revenues for the general fund. As you can see, there's an increase in state aid. The state aid funds include extraordinary aid and non-public transportation. And that's the being the 24 million versus the 20.9

025million I mentioned on the previous slide. Next slide, [Music] please. Here is a state aid breakdown year-over-year 2024 2025 or the current year versus what we're projecting for 2026. Again, there's an overall state aid increase of 20.9 million or 6%. Next slide, please. The general fund appropriations for 2025 2026 are outlined in this pie chart. School-based budgets are around $71 million. General current expenditures, so that's regular instruction, etc. $117 million. Adult education is around $121,000. Capital outlay or capital reserve projects are three million. Renaissance and charter schools tuitions are our largest expenditures. You'll see Renaissance schools at 163 million for 2526 and charter schools at 63.6 million. And I'll take a moment here to say as we trudged through this challenging budget process, one of the things we did was we pleaded with the county

026in order to project lower amounts based on historic trends for charter schools. So that is one of the levers that we used to balance the budget and was approved by the county. Next slide, please. [Music] This pictorial shows you tax levy history from 2008 through 2026. The taxpayer investment in Camden City School District, you may notice, um has remained flat or was flat uh from 2008, 2009 through 2018, 2019. And in fact, um years before 2008, 2009. I believe the taxpayer investment remained at 7.5 million for about 13 years. Next slide, please. And this is an overlay. So at the bottom you'll see our tax levy which it was around 7.5 million for uh 13 years or so. So you'll see that at the bottom of this graph and you will also see it overlaid

027with our charter school and Renaissance tuition growth um which has skyrocketed. Our charter school and tuition has grown 170% over 13 years while our state aid has increased around 70%. Next slide, please. Here we show what a 5% tax levy will cost the Camden City homeowner. um ratable base and average assessed home values reported on this slide uh were reported by the Camden City Office of Assessments and Camden City Business Administrator on 47 and 410 respectively. The average assessed home value is $57,700. The annual tax increase based on this proposed budget is an increase of $34.65 65 cents per year for the average assessed home value of 57,700. Next slide, please. And this is our final slide which highlights our total budget for the 2526 school year. It's a budget of $472,28,430 which is made

028up of $417,768,659 in general fund and special special revenue fund of 54,259,771. I would highlight that BAS were guided to budget more conservatively for special revenue federal funds for the 2526 school year um than we normally budget due to the change in the federal administration. So while we normally would budget at 80% of the current year's federal awards, we budgeted and were directed to budget at 70% of the current year's federal awards, further reducing our revenue sources for the 2526 school year. And with that, I will turn it back over to the superintendent. The board may transition back to the deis. That concludes our budget present. Miss Beaman or Miss Yera, if you could share the public comment list with us, we'll be okay. Thank you. Thank you, board secretary. At this time, we will

029prepare to go into the public comment session, and I'll turn it over to um our uh acting general counsel to um guide us through how we're going to govern that portion. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Good evening. The Campen City School District welcomes the attendance and comments from all members of the public at its meetings. This public comment period is your time to present your comments to the board and the state district superintendent. Um, this first se section is going to be just comments related to the 2025 2026 budget. We will then have a second public comment session towards the end of the meeting where you can present your comments regarding anything um else on the agenda. Um each person who signed up to comment will have three minutes to speak. You will be

030notified when your three minutes are up and you cannot yield your time to another person. When it is your turn to speak, please state your name and address for the record and please address your comments to the state district superintendent or myself. Please be courteous to your fellow community members and keep your comments within the time allotted so that everyone has the opportunity to speak tonight. At the end of the three minutes, the microphone will be silenced and your comments will have concluded. Please conduct yourself in a respectful manner. The first amendment is not absolute and the board can prohibit language that is inappropriate in accordance with board policy 1121. We may interrupt, warn or terminate your statement, question or inquiry when it is too lengthy. If a member of the public speaks about a

031staff member, interruption may be necessary to caution the speaker of the danger of slander. For anyone whose comments or actions harass, intimidate, or threaten the safety of any person, we will provide you with a warning or immediately end your comment time. We may request that any person leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum. We may request the assistance of law enforcement officers in the removal of a disorderly person when that person prevents or disrupts a meeting with an act that obstructs or interferes with a meeting. We may call for a recess or an adjournment to another time when the lack of public decorum interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. And finally, we may wave any of the rules when necessary for the protection of privacy or to maintain an

032orderly operation of the board meeting. After the public comment period is closed, the state district superintendent or her designate will address your questions to the extent provided by the law. All right. So, first up we have Woodro Wulmarmac. Good evening board. Madame Superintendent. So, my question is and and to get this right, you're going to give me another chance to talk about the other things not budget related. So, I'm on both list. Okay. So, regarding the budget, I saw that we had a 472 million fund, but I didn't see anything about expenditures. So, I'm trying to see where this gap is. No gap. Okay. We will address all the your questions and comments at the end of year the end of everyone. Okay. And also when I was looking over the budget, it looks to

033me that the operating budget for actual was million and then for next year 2025 estimate was 417 million. And I'm rounding these But then when you look at the expenditures for this year, we're at 58 million. So again, I'm still looking for that 90 million gap. And also on top of that, if you look at for next year, you know, general fund versus expenditures, it's like 417 million to 470 million. So, we're still operating at a shortfall, which in my logic that means you're going to cut people again. So, just help me to make sense of it. Thank you. [Music] All right. Up next is Kevin Walters and after him will be Carmela Dtoma. Yes, this section is just going to be related to the budget. Yeah. How can you limit the public to speak

034on? So, we're going to if you have something to say, we're going to have a second public comment session towards the end where it's going to be anything related to anything on the agenda. Right. You can do whatever you want. If you want to speak now, you go ahead. [Music] So, okay. Good evening. Now, everyone, so here's the thing. Fraud is really a terrible word to use, right? But this board has been fraudulent in its operation. And here's what I'm saying. You are scapegoating the charter schools when you let them in. You open the door for the charter schools. Now, some of you may not be a have been a part of that from the time. So, but you know, like everything you get blamed because it drips down. All right? So, you are complicit

035as well. What are you going to do to make sure that there's a moratorum on any further charter schools in the city? Right? Because as far as the state of New Jersey goes, the schools in New Jersey are great, but they are only great in the cities where there are no charters. So charters have never been the answer. But you all let them in, not you specifically, but you complicitly because you have not voiced your opinion or any sort of recommendations for what to do next. So that's where the fraud comes in. Yes, staff have been cut, but you knew that also this position right now was before co you have kicked the can down the road in terms of the finances. All right. So what are you going to do as a school board

036to make sure this stays a regular traditional public high school? What are you going to do to make sure that the east side school when it's finally built, those buildings are sold to the charter network? What are you going to do? And you got to do it now because 15 years before the charters were allowed to come here, someone told us they were coming. Dr. Walter Farrell told us they were coming. And you let her come here. And as much as I love you, uh, Superintendent Mako, you were part of that, allowing Muhammad to gut us. But I love you for hard criticism. You can take that's what happened here in the city of Camden. Look around. Cherry Hill is close to us. They don't have any charter schools. They don't have any charter schools.

037Oh, what are you going to do now? Superintendent Molmes, you on your way out. I am also in retirement. Thank you, Lord. What are you going to make sure happens when you leave so that whoever is still here working will still have a job and charters are gone because charters you have an opportunity now to not allow another charter school to be built in this city to continue to rob us of funds. That's your job. All right. Up next is Carmela Dtoma and then Jose Delgado. Good evening to our superintendent and to the board. Thank you for allowing me a few minutes to speak. Um I teach English at Eastside High School. I'm very proud teacher there and I'm really proud of our school this year especially. Even with all the changes and having to

038relocate, our staff really came together. And I have to say, I think I saw miracles every day. But it was not by accident. It's because all of our uh all of the services, the the teachers, obviously, the faculty, student-based, climate, and culture, all of the groups that touch our students individually come together I'm happy to know that our test scores have come up. I work really hard for that. Um, but thank you Dean Aan for the times when I had students who were having a bad day and I would say Dean Aan help me out. He would pull a student out, have a really good conversation with them, and I always said my send them back in when they're ready. And he bring them back in. Now, that wouldn't have happened. I would have had

039a continued disruptive class and no learning would have taken place. So when I tell you it's a village, I mean it. Now I'm going to back off and and thank you to our student base who have been angels on earth to our beautiful children who need them all the time. Now I come from Florida and I'm going to be real personal here. Um, I left Florida because I watched over 30 years the destruction of our public schools down there in a state that was growing by leaps and bounds. Our public schools were decaying. And it was by no accident. It was a polit it was politically intentional to destroy the public schools. And they did it in a very insidious way. I don't mean to name politicians, but I was involved in politics there as

040well as working with the teachers union and I was a product of public schools myself. And when I went to my high school, it was one of the best. And then it slowly creeped down. This is how they did it. They started first of all by allowing charter schools in. And they and it was the beginning of the end of Florida's public schools. I came up here after fighting the good fight and losing. I admitted defeat and my family, we came up here so that I could teach in a state that valued teachers and valued education. I expect you guys to be very wise about what is happening. We begged our school districts down there to go to Tallahassee, which was our state, our state capital, and fight for the public schools and stop the

041encroaching charter schools where teachers did not have to be certified, where they didn't have to take the tests that our students had to take that were made especially hard to make public schools look weak and to make public school educators look incompetent. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Our students our students. [Applause] [Music] Up next is Mr. Delgado and after him will be Christa Varga. [Music] Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Um, I wasn't going to say this, but I think it's important. Anyone who tries to put the blame of what's happening in this district on the superintendent is not only missing the target, they're shooting in the opposite direction that they should be. We are here, as many of us anticipated in uh 2013, we would be in this position. I said it at the last board meeting when

042there was a a real board of education. Uh a governor, a a a Republican governor and a boss of m in South Jersey, George Norcross created the situation. They put together a portfolio management plan. A performal management plan basically said that the school district would remove be removed as the manager of education of the children and that it would be taken over by other people and the district would just become another provider. Now who how did this happen? A governor, a polit a Republican governor, a Democratic political boss, state and city politicians. Some of them who are still in office not only didn't uh protest, they also enabled the public schools to be taken over. Some of them are still in office as you and and the other thing is that the the state the

043the issue is not education. That's the excuse that they used. Oh, the test scores the test scores. They were after the money. It's like everything else in life. Believe me or it's hard for me to say this. They're after the money. Now, they control over 50% of the money that comes into the district based on enrollment. Getting up here and blaming directly or indirectly the board is wrong. The advisory, they have no power whatsoever. That's another symptom of the state takeover. They take away control of the school by appointing an advisory board. They have absolutely no power. They only have one thing to do. Produce two reports a year. They've never done that. So, I hope that all of us begin to realize that what's happening here affects children. Also, let's talk about the children

044who don't speak English in this district. They're the most unrepresented children in this district. Many of them do not get the services they should be receiving. We're cutting 12 13% of instructional monies. The bilingual program is getting a 48% cut. So, as usually happens, a lot of people that don't speak up, a lot of people, we have supposedly representation on this advisory board, I have never heard them say one word at a meeting. I love a lot of them. I know some of them, but they've never spoken up. And that's all right. Thank you, Mr. Delgado. Up next is Christa Varga. Then it will be Keith Benson. Then Karen Belli Luke. Good evening. My name is Christa Varga and I'm a proud certified school nurse at East Side High School, formerly Woodro Wilson High School.

045East Side High School is truly a bilingual high school, welcoming 101 new students from out of the country this year alone. And that's so far. It's still only miday and all require extra support. Each bilingual student represents additional resources and additional time that it takes to translate and assist each family in every aspect of their school success. East Side High School found its groove this year as we transitioned into a swing space at Alfred Kramer School during the demolition of our old high school and the construction of $105 million replacement building. Despite classes being held in trailers in the parking lot and buses back and forth to the Croc Center and the North Camden Community Center for physical education classes, the students and staff have rallied and have persevered through the challenges and the changes.

046We grew closer as a school. We've achieve achieved improved attendance rate across the grades, improved test scores, improved immunization compliance, reduced medical exclusions for missing immunizations and physical exams, and generally improve the culture and climate that you can feel in the hallways, classrooms, and throughout the school. This will all shift with the removal of key staff members at East Side High School. Our family operations coordinator, Mr. Rodriguez, our school-based youth director, Miss Moore, our lead educator, Mr. Marcato, our dean Brown and Dean Avent, our operations manager, Miss Young, a few of the teachers, and East Side High School second nurse. These team members at East Side High School who help make it happen for the staff and students every day. They're pivotal in creating a safe and supportive and caring environment for our students to

047thrive, to come to school, and to stay in school. The roles affect the metrics of student and safe staff safety, security incidents, attendance rates, graduation rates, test scores, health outcomes, immunization compliance, mental health and crisis support, and connections with families and the community resources to support them. This is a budget meeting, so I'll switch from the qualitative data to the quantitative metrics. East Side High School currently has two full-time school nurses to support our staff and students. Next year, it's proposed that East Side High will have one nurse and one nurse will be pulled to another school. Districtwide, 7.5 positions have been eliminated for the 2526 school year. So, there will be no coverage. That means that a nurse cannot cover field trips, cannot cover each other's absences. Parents will have to pick up their

048child from school or 911 will need to be called when the nurse is out of the building. And for East Side High, that means a nurse will be not be in the building when the nurse needs to travel with a medically fragile student to offsite physical education classes. How many positions were eliminated in Camden's charter and Renaissance schools? Up next is Keith Benson. And then Miss Karen Belli Lee. [Music] Uh, good evening. I want to first start off saying, Brother Nelson, brother Gallister, I have enormous respect for y'all. Um, so that being said, I want to go forward. Um, this superintendent is one of the most dishonest people I've ever met in my life. If you all y'all heard that presentation, you'll hear why it was a bunch of lies and nonsense. And we'll get

049to it. I was recently the president of the Camden Education Association from 2017 to 2024. And for years, I and many others have been trying to spread the word on how awful the former superintendent was along with Camden Enrollment in the system that he brought in 2015. I would have hoped that things would improve since his departure, but they haven't because Camden Enrollment has been permitted to stop students from enrolling in our schools. Despite repeatedly over seven years, I and many others pointed out to this superintendent what Kimon enrollment was doing to our schools with documented corroboration from building principles. I showed how Kim enrollment stopped students from enrolling in our schools which cost our district thousands of students and tens of millions of dollars over the years. And this superintendent did nothing to stop

050it. Nothing to stop the clear threat to our district she leads. And it never made sense to me or many others until this. How many of you board members, educators, and community knew that our superintendent was a sitting board member for Camden Enrollment from 2018 to 2020? How many of you knew that our superintendent from there served as president of Camden Enrollment from 2021 to 2024? The organization that costs us thousands of students and millions of dollars all while she in public bemons the loss of students and millions of dollars in annual funding as if she has no idea why. How many of you knew the superintendent's husband was on the board of Cooper Landing Square Renaissance Schools Facility Inc. from 2016 to 2018? And then in 2021, our superintendent sold Hatch to Kip Cooper

051New Cross for $1.6 $6 million supposedly to pay for bleachers. And here's why a transaction was so crazy if not outright corrupt. She sold our public school building to Kim Norcross where her husband was was a board member for 3 years for a single $1.6 million payment, a transaction that cost this district hundreds of students and nearly $14 million a year each and every year. So after all these years and after all the school closures, after all the layoffs that have been that have been announced, I asked myself, but I think I already know the answer. Who has a superintendent really been working for all this time? So surely she hasn't done a thing, as far as I can tell, to protect our enrollment. In fact, she worked with the entity that cost a student

052while publicly at least complaining about losing students. She surely hasn't done a thing, as far as I can tell, to protect our budget. In fact, she worked with the entity that worsened our budget budget situation every single year while publicly complaining about the deficit. Long story. Thank you. Up next is Miss Karen Belli Luke. All right. Up next is Miss Luke. Sir, your time is up. Thank you. [Applause] After Miss Luke will be Michelle Nelson. Good evening. Karen Belli Luke, CA, 41 years in education. I thought I seen everything. This I cannot say I am surprised. After sitting in negotiations, there were red flags. Anytime we raised red flags, we were told that you would figure it out. Well, we definitely can see the way you figured it out. To cut jobs and positions that

053impact our students instruction and safety. I know to ask for these jobs to be brought back would be outlandish. No one can expect you to pull 90 million out of thin air. But I believe that there are some positions that do not have direct impact on student instruction and safety. When I first came to the district in the 80s, when we had three times and four times the number of students and schools, we had three times less the administrative staff downtown in the superintendent's office. We need to see a reduction in those positions that are not directly impacting students and instruction and safety. Security, teachers, clerks, attendance officers, family operation coordinators, nurses, they directly impact students instruction and safety. Maybe if you had some more careful in your planning, East Side could have been placed

054at Morgan Village, which was built as a high school. Rise Academy could have went to Kramer once again, not thinking, just acting without planning effectively. We need to do better. Our students deserve better. Thank you. Up next is Michelle Nelson and then Vita Neil and then Jessica Manino. first. All right. Good evening. So, I am a parent to a fourth grader at HP Wilson who had hope in the success of the Cammy City School system. I am also a member of the parent advisory committee at my daughter's school. My questions to you are, what systems will be in place to bridge the gap between family, community, and education? With all of the supportive staffs being cut, what will be in place to manage in-house conflicts, classroom behaviors, and family crisis or emergency support? We have

055the beautiful option of having a school choice in the city. Some of the questions I asked when I voted my child into HB Wilson were, "What do you do to manage teacher burnout?" And how do you manage and handle behaviors? I asked that question for obvious reasons. students distractions, academic decline, teacher burnout, students being behind in lessons and ultimately behind academically, which which is one of the things that her father and I are trying to prevent. We're now deciding if it's worth leaving her in the school system or allowing her to go somewhere else and it wouldn't be the Renaissance schools in the city. We're losing hope. Up next is Vita Neil, then Jessica Manino, and then Gary [Music] Free. Good afternoon, Ryan Neil. You know, for the most part, I spent the last 8

056years being an information portal for this community, telling you people what was coming. I watched parents go to the basketball game over there and not even have two sit over [Music] here. I want to ask you something. Is the union here? Shout out. I said, is the union here? Shout out. If you think we going to sit back and take this shortfall, that's campus history. I went to school where the teacher struck. They struck in my school year. And you know what we going to do? We're going to come together as a community and we're going to go to Trenton who made this mess and get the bag the bag of money. See, first of all, you can sit up here and bring Katrina McCall and these individuals up here, but they not the people

057that's instituting all this. She is a state superintendent. It was the state of New Jersey that tried to put these women in our schools and find African-American communities and we were the only idiots that accepted them. Now, we going to take the same idiots to help them come here and help get rid of them. 55% of our budget goes to the Renaissance schools. Well, since the state wanted them to come here, let them pay for them. Let them pay for them. Our community is failing education all the way around. Every school in the city is failing your children. Your children cannot read or write. Give them a book. Tell them to read it. Everyone has failed the children, the community, the parents, the teachers, and the employees. Everyone has failed our children. There's no supportive

058services here. I mean, we got the president of the school board sitting here saying that he tough in the parks for our kids. He was given 750K. And guess what? a park ain't even open. Or he can be on Facebook with Rolex telling us we ain't on his time. We ain't on his time. What we need is a federal investigation of all Title One money of all fally funed programs and all these people that sit up here on this stage. We coming to get you. Cuz in order to get the bag, we got to get you. All right, up next is Jessica Manino and then Gary [Music] Frasier. Heat. Heat. [Music] Good afternoon. My name is Jessica. I'm the FOC from HB Wilson and behind me are my fellow FOC's from schools throughout the district.

059Although the decision has been made regarding our position, the needs and the needs our roles met will not go away. We need to start shifting our conversation and attention towards the students and families in the Camden community. Some of us lost our jobs, our ability to pay our bills, provide for our children and families and exercise our passion for helping people. But that conversation is not for right now. Right now, I want to take the time with my fellow family and operations coordinators by my side to emphasize in front of the school board and community how every single family who has a young person attending the Camden City School District is losing too. Who will be Oh, go ahead. Sorry. Who will be readily available to support with these resources to lend a listening ear

060when the world seems too much and come with solutions and a plan of action to get things done together? Who will bridge the gap between school administration and the families? Who will speak up for families who are not in the rooms where decisions are being made on their behalf? Who will listen to the needs of our families and facilitate parent academic workshops, keeping them informed and feeling confident in supporting their child's education? Who will give up their lunch each and every day to sit with a group of students during their lunch period because they're struggling and they need a safe place to land, even if it's just for 45 minutes. Who will be consistent smiling face waiting with open arms each morning as we all every single morning no matter what happened the day before.

061Who is going to be readily available and willing to use their own money to get our family food, household supplies, or clothing for families who are in need. Each one of us standing up here, that's this whole team and the ones that can't be here. We do that every single day. That's right. Student and family support services within schools are not a luxury. They are necessary tools for success. Every FOC standing up here with me will, and those who are not with us tonight, exercise every ounce of effort for the next couple weeks of our contract, making sure families, students, and staff know how much we care for them, how much we believe in their resiliency and ability to come out on the other side of this exactly who we know and they know they

062can be. There's no strings attached for us, nothing to gain, simply because we care about the importance of continued mutual respect and love for the families we pour our hearts and soul into every day. Amen. Amen. [Applause] Amen. All right. Up next is Mr. Frasier. And then the rest it was unclear about whether you wanted to speak about the budget. So Christine Schneider, is she here? Okay. If you want to speak about the budget, you'll be up next. So I want to get this straight before I start. We gonna have a second time to come back doing the public portion. Or is this it right here? What's that? So is this part here and part of the budget and then we have the public portion. Correct. Cool. Correct. Y Okay. Well, good evening, superintendent and

063those members of the board. 10 years 10 years of dealing with uh this fight here in our in our city for our children's education. And I remember not long ago in 2013 when we were fighting for Landon Square and all of a sudden the Urban Hope Act came into fruition. Now, Superintendent, you may not have been here during that time, but you certainly came in during the tail end of it after everything was already implemented and put in place by Donald Morcross. Here we are today in 2025 and we're sitting here talking about a shortfall, $91 million. Superintendent, you've been the person in charge, state appointed. See, the problem I have with this whole entire thing is that the state's been under we've been under state control for the last 13 years. We fought for

064you guys to have an elected school board. You wouldn't have it no other way had we not sued this district for the right for us to have that elected school board. And we feel that this school board has not done its due diligence. It starts at the top. We know that politics have been played. The shifting of seats because of sexual misconduct. the amount of money that you have received now $750,000. [Music] We're talking about a deficit. We're talking about what about some of your pay rate your pay scales here that sit on this board or work in administration. You guys saying you're putting students first. How I remember when we had one enrollment and we had choice for better school superintendent. Remember that? Remember when they launched a whole campaign that you said our

065our children simply wanted to go to charter and renaissance schools. How was that possible when you guys orchestrated the urban hope act put it in place and then put a whole team together? Ni you are a part of it while we while we for public schools you guys lost choice for better schools. As quick as we were trying to save our schools you were taking our children out of schools. That's the real truth. when you talk about the per pupil spending that we hear today you guys are 46% over the state average but I'll get into that later as I address this board bottom line is superintendent what do you intend to do cuz I mean obviously it's over for you now you're going to go sit in a hard position in this state how

066will you delegate for where you're sitting at here for us in Camden as it relates to our students you say you're not giving up on our students you say you have a a a plan for them then show us right I do not see a plan for our children forward. There is no plan. You guys, you know what? The same plan you guys are implementing right here, it's right on AI. You guys are not doing your due diligence by us. A mortorium needs to come on these charter schools. A forensic audit needs to come through this entire school district. And that's who we're going to turn our attention to. I'll be back to really get you in the public portion. All right, Miss Schneider. [Music] [Applause] There is a white Kia SUV uh in the

067handy uh handicap license plate that is blocking someone who is trying to depart. Again, a white Kia SUV, handicap license plate. Thank you. Before you start, after you is uh Miss Reed, Na Reed. Okay. Good evening board members. My name is Christine Schneider and I am a second grade teacher at Forest Hill Elementary School. I would like to address the board regarding my position being eliminated this upcoming school year due to the budget deficit. I would first like to say I love working at Forest Hill. Receiving notice that my position was being eliminated was a huge shock to me. I put 100% effort, dedication, and commitment into my job each and every day. To say I'm upset is an understatement. I love my kids, and I love my work family. I'm a teacher who is

068working for all the right reasons. Seeing my students succeed and creating a safe, warm, and engaging learning environment is and has always been my top priority. Camden's enrollment has decreased throughout the years. I'm a firm believer that when parents and students feel safe, satisfied, and happy, they would stay in the district rather than enrolling in a charter or Renaissance school. Having the right staff in place helps keep families here. It is my opinion that the district should look at merit as well as seniority as staff when looking at eliminating staff. I don't think you understand the full impact that this has on the future of our district. Eliminating positions in our district is a disservice to our students and families that we server that we serve and support. I simply don't understand how it can

069get let a budget get this far in the deficit. I really appreciate you taking this time to listen to my opinions and my feelings. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Miss Reed, I'm right here. Okay. And after Miss Reed is Josephine Bar. Good evening everyone. It saddens me to come to this uh microphone and speak, but I'm here. Okay. Um, I come with different reasons. I'm a FOC at Brim School. I love my school. My babies that have been with me have came from Head Start. In fact, this whole campus pretty much came from Head Start. And I'm a Head Start employee of 20 years. So, these are my babies. Okay? Every day we deal with obstacles that these babies bring to us. And the only question I have is who's going to sit in this office

070and listen to these babies obstacles. I have two children right now. One mom died in December. Another mom died at 10. The 10year-old that lost their mom still goes through issues. Who's going to come and deal with that child when they have a bad day? When I told them, pardon my French, they said the f word, Miss Reed, who's going to care for us? I can't give them that answer because I'm not going to be here. So, I want to know if some of y'all are going to give them that answer. If some of y'all going to come out of your offices and come work with the kids, some of the people that you chose to keep here in these big positions, or are they going to come and sit in the FOC chair? I

071just want to know. I need to know before June 30th. I need to know. I need to know that when I leave my Head Start babies that they're going to be good. And I don't know right now. I don't trust none of y'all. None of you. I don't care how you look. I don't trust you. And I don't trust that you're putting our kids first. It's false advertisement. Even when I worked at Head Start, when they would have me out there hitting that pavement to get them kids in there, they would say, "We provide transportation." Okay. But the buses are breaking down. Parents are missing work to get to school. I meant to get their kids the parents are missing work because the kids can't get picked up from the bus because it's broke down.

072It reminds me of this program. You're saying students first, but how are we putting the students first? I need to know. That's the topic of my thing. I need to know by June 30th. I need to know whoever is still here making all this money. Who's going to come and help these kids out? Our high school babies are suffering. Who's going to come and help these babies out? Another thing on May 24th, we were having a big event, a painting s a paintton Mother's Day event where we had superintendent as our special guest and it was going to be all the high schools. Unfortunately, I got to say it's been cancelled because FOC's is are too emotional to give their all into an event. We trying to sit up here and figure out how our

073babies are going to make it when we leave. So, on June 30th, I need to know by email or something. I need to know. All right. Up next is Josephine Bar and then Elizabeth Rodriguez. I need that. Good evening. My name is Josephine Parr and I am a jazz specialist at East Side High and I've been teaching at Cam for 27 years. I just want to share a little story with you. One bitter cold night in January, I was taking my 12-year-old daughter and her friend to the mall. I walk in the mall and I see one of my favorite students who's in the the special needs class and he's walking by me and I said, "Hi, Braden." And I gave him a hug. I didn't mean to say his name, but I and he

074said, "Miss Par, can you please give me $2 to get something to eat?" And I said, "Sure." I said, "But why are you carrying this bag?" And I noticed it was a hospital bag. I'm saying way too much because I should have said his name. I apologize, but he was hospitalized for an emergency, a crisis. They let him go and they told him to go to the mall for a warming spot. That mall closed at 9:00. Where was that baby going to go after 9:00? I called my principal and she called Mr. Rodriguez who was our FOC. And Mr. Rodriguez met me at the police station. Mr. Rodriguez met me at that police station in 20 minutes. Took him to the shelter. The shelter put people out at 7 in the morning in the bitter

075cold. Who showed up to pick that baby up? Mr. Rodriguez was there at 7:15 in the morning and took him to his other job that he was working on Saturday morning with the other kids he was working with and held him there with him until he could take him back to the shelter. And Mr. Rodri is our FOC and East Side High has been working feverously to get him in and out of different shelters that keep putting this baby out and no leadership help. Also, Dean Aette, I called Dean Aette that night and he gave me support. He talked to the student. He talked to the young man and he came in the next day and bought him some sneakers out of his own pocket. There was no money in the supply. There was no

076money in our office to provide for our kids. So, what I want to say is I was supposed to talk about JAG, but I just had to tell the best story. But who is going to be there for our kids when we don't have JAG? JAG and jobs for America's grads. Our kids need support. Who's going to be there when the FOCC's are gone? Who is going to support our kids? Our kids are capable. Our kids deserve love. They deserve support. And when you take these programs away, who is going to do that? I'm holding these books right here published by my students. They are capable of learning. They're not getting the writing they need. They're not getting the support. All right. Thank you. Your time is up. Miss Rodriguez, you are up [Applause] next.

077My name is Elizabeth W. Rodriguez. I'm the FOC at K School. I work as a community school coordinator when we were making less than 29,000 for over 10 years. And my question is this. Why are we wasting ink, paper, or your saliva saying we're putting students first? Who is putting students first? Who? You're letting go of the behavior specialists, climate and culture, FLOC. What's going to happen next year when parents need to eat? They need places where to live because they have been put out of their homes, their electricity have been shut off, and we go crazy amongst each other. And calling each other, hey, I need $300. Who has clothing? Who has this? Who has that? When children's die, we have call amongst each other. Oh my god, this family, they don't have to

078for the funeral expenses, we all go crazy and we go and we make it work somehow. And who's putting student first? Wait a minute. Now we're making a lot more money. Yes. But how about the 10 years I put in when I was making less than 29,000? I feel in my heart I'm putting the students first. So who is putting the students first now when behavioral specialist climate and culture attendance officers that knock on doors? Where are the students making sure? Because you know why DCP they don't want to knock on doors anymore for a few years since co they said oh no because of attendance we don't knock on doors. So, how we're going to go to that home, make sure that that child is doing well. Attendance officers, FOCC, come on, I got

079your back. We knock on the door. We go anywhere. North, South Ken, anywhere. We put our lives on the line for these people, for the community. And who are the future? Our students. Who's putting them first? They're not right now. Because trust me, you explain that there's millions of dollars being lost to charter schools. a lot more billions and a lot more students are going to be gone. If I have a child right now, you think I'm going to want to take my child to a public school where you're not going to have attendance officers, behavior specialists, climate culture, I'm going to be afraid of taking my child because they're not going to have they're not going to have resources. They're not going to have resources when they're pulling each other's hands. They're kicking them

080on the floor. Where are they behaving specialist? They run. We all run together. That's right. Yeah. So, what's going to happen? All this money being gone. Where are the millions of dollars of people that are making 180,000, 200,000? Let them go. Let those go and you're going to have a lot more millions. You want to find the money, find it. It is there. Those positions that are not needed, the ones that do not go home and knock on doors, the ones that are not up in the middle of the night, All right. Thank you, Miss Dickerson. I'm not sure if you want to comment about the budget. Is she here? Oh. Okay, first of all, this is low. I guess I'm the tallest person inside this room. This ain't working for me. Thanks. Not ready

081yet. Just got to get my notes. One second. Uh, good evening everybody. Ranch Dickerson. Good evening. Good evening. Um, shout out to everyone who's here tonight. Thank you for being here. Um, Superintendent Mcomes, I need you to go find your boxing gloves because you started off with box and gloves saying you fighting for this district and it feels like you threw them away in your closet. I need you to get them boxing gloves back out because we supposed to be fighting together and you look like you're not fighting for us no more. Y'all remember when she had the box of gloves out saying she was fighting for this district? I need them box of gloves to come back out. If we're not attacking you, then who are we holding accountable? Okay, so I got a

082couple questions budget-wise. What is covered under improving services cost budget $166,000? What is covered under expenditure for education media service libraries for 808 $865,000? We don't have librarians no more. Um undistributed attendance and social workers. We no longer have attendance officers positions. They were abolished. 170K was sent out for that. What is community service aotment? 240K was sent out for that. I just got questions about this budget because there are some things here y'all have not said that we need answers to. And this part I want to answer. I want to get answers for that. But I want to go a little deeper. I want to talk about New Jersey QAC as it relates to the budget. So, superintendent, your job was to get us back into compliance for New Jersey QAC. And based on

083your last report, you said that we were 2023 24. This is public documents, y'all. It says that we were at 91%. Okay. So, in instruction and programming, we are 65%. We need 80 or higher. Fiscal management we need. We are 91% governance 100% operations 100% and personnel 100%. But I'm going to go back to fiscal management. How do we get to 91% compliant when you announced that we were a $51 million deficit a little bit ago? Now we're at a bigger deficit now. I got questions about that. And then under the other areas as particularly instruction and programming, you were supposed to make sure that we were covered under curriculum items and some other areas. And it seems like we can't achieve that because we have so much money going out of the district to

084renaissance schools that we can't achieve we need inside our public traditional public schools. So, I'm only speaking about the budget right now because I just got questions about NJQAC in a spirit of we only have one job for Kansas City Public Schools to get us back compliant under NJQs and it hasn't happened and many of you are not answering the question. Last last thing I want to say, I want to talk about who you hired as Dr. Walker. How would you how did you get the role of firing and laying off so many people and you haven't been in this district that long? I also want to talk about the people who also got rift of the salaries that were allotted to the people who you bought on board for your cabinet. They have you

085have a hundred people on your board. I want to know why that happened. That's in your in your area, too. So, I just had a few questions and I need answers to um I'll do the rest of the other on. All right. Thank you. Your time is up. Mark Solic, are you here? Mark, what' you say? Is Mark here? Okay. Sabrina Dormer and our last speaker will be Alicia Figua. [Music] Hi, my name is Sabrina Dormer and I'm a history teacher and senior class adviser at Brim Medical Arts High School. With a loss of nearly 300 employees across the district, my question to you tonight is how will you as a board and as a district ensure that our students don't lose the vital resources they deserve from their schools? It seems that the only

086people left in this building is going to be teachers, a principal, and four lead educators. But a school is so much more than just as teachers. And our students receive so much more than just an education in this building. With this massive reduction in staff, who will absorb the critical responsibilities our support personnel once had? There must be a plan, a real plan, not just more words, not just vague ideas, and certainly not just more work piled onto the shoulders of already overburdened teachers. The current proposal places one principal in charge of four schools. I watch my principal, Mr. Quake, work tirelessly from the moment she arrives until long after everybody else in the building is gone. That that it just turned off. Test. Oh, it's back on. Okay. She's Mke spends all day running

087around putting out fires, addressing student and staff issues, and she has to hit a record number of steps every day in just our one small hallway and brim alone. How could one principal possibly manage the needs of four schools? I mean, it's probably like a mile walk in between these schools. I can't imagine that she's going to run around all day, every day in between these four schools. It's just not possible. I don't know. Dr. co very well and I have no doubt that she's a highly capable woman but even the most capable leaders need support to succeed. What supports will be in place to ensure that she is not set up to fail but to succeed? Our FOCC support our most vulnerable students. Who's going to do that? Our deans ensure that there are

088consequences for student action so that we can maintain a safe structured learning environment. Who's going to do that? Who's going to take on those responsibilities? What is the plan? Because without one, it seems as always that the burden will fall as it always seems to do on teachers. Teachers are already doing too much. The district is already struggling to retain teachers. As you pointed out earlier, if you haven't walked through a school hallway recently, let me just tell you that morale is incredibly low, both with teachers and with students. Teachers may still have our jobs, but without the vital support systems we depend on, next year is going to be impossible. And both we and the students already know that. Um, I'm asking for preparation, for action, and for a plan that values our students

089and respects the people who serve them every day. We cannot continue to do more with less. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] Good evening, board members and superintendent. I do apologize. I get a little nervous talking in front of people, so I'm just going to read from my phone. Um, as you all know, I always like to bring positivity to every situation, and I'm disappointed that that's not what I'm doing today. All in all, we still have to work together to make change. And I hope that you all able to take my comments as constructive and understand that this is not a personal attack, but an action of care for our students and families. I am truly disheartened to see the dismantling of our district schools. My role is to be the voice for our families. And

090as soon as the post about the cuts and layoffs was shared, my team began speaking with families. We have been having conversations to understand why parents are considering enrolling their children in other schools. While parents invisible supports all schools, we deeply respect the right of families to choose what they believe is best for their children above all else. During these conversations, parents have expressed significant concerns regarding the lack of adequate support for their students, especially now with the FOC layoffs. These issues include ongoing problems with bullying, insufficient resources, a lack of parent support, and the feeling of disenfranchisement. Parents have shared their frustrations with leadership. Despite their efforts to voice their concerns, no meaningful action has been taken. Furthermore, undocumented undocumented families have expressed feeling unsafe sending their children to school and it is concerning

091that nothing has been done to address this, especially given the potential for the district to apply for virtual learning options. Additionally, I believe it was it is irresponsible to have the same individuals who poorly managed the previous budget now overseeing the new one. The inclusion of a third party auditors years ago would have been beneficial and in the current circumstances it it is even more critical. It is time for accountability across the board including the state. While I understand the limited capabilities of the school board of superintendent silence and complacency on these critical issues can be just as detrimental as complicity. And to add on from what the FOCC's was saying, I too was a child that it really touched me when the one individual talked about the child in crisis because I had visited

092crisis quite a few times and to be very transpatient, I had attempted of taking my life as a young teen and the support of the schools and the support of people like the FOCC's is what kept me around and kept me going to school and eventually led to me getting my master's degree in public administration. So please make sure those supports are in place because these students need them. Some students don't have anything at home like me. I didn't have parents at home. I lived in horrible circumstance and our kids to these days still deal with those things. So even though you guys are getting rid of the FOC's, I suggest you strongly reconsider appropriating funds for that specific issue. Thank you. All right. Thank you. I will now turn it over to Superintendent Mcomes

093to address your comments and questions. Good evening everyone. So first again um as I said at the beginning in the top of the presentation, thank you for being here. Thank you for being present. there were a lot of questions that were um asked on the budget side as well as in general given what we are going through as a district. Um so please allow me to take the time to um go back and instead of giving just a quick answer or a quick response to really um think about what has happened in this room this evening um in in a in a positive way. There's nothing negative about it at all. Um, I understand that everyone is hurting. Um, and so I don't want to go say anything that might appear to be defensive because

094it's not about me. Um, as many of you have said, it's about our students and it's still about trying to figure out how to put them first. So, it's my hope that your advocacy today, um, which is being, um, it's not just here, right? People are taking a look at it. We have individuals from the media who are here as well. Um, your voices have been heard, your voices have been amplified, your we hear exactly what you're saying. I hear you. Um, and I see you. And so again, instead of me providing any empty promises because that would not be fair to anyone at all. Please allow us to have the opportunity to discuss um what was shared. Um, again, I just want to make sure it's really clear. We were in collaboration through the

095development of this budget which was very challenging. Um we were in collaboration with the county and with the state um and were given specific guidance that we had to rightsize uh the positions that were um expressed today. And thank you to every FOC to every teacher to every dean everyone who's here especially those who lost their positions and those who did not. Thank you for having the courage, not the courage but the fortitude um to come and share today and being vulnerable. We were given the guidance to rightsize. Um we went to the table and spent hours and hours and said, "Hey, listen. This is all we've been able to come up with out of this $91 million shortfall." We go back. We'd be sent back to the table. You've got to cut deeper. You've

096got to cut deeper. You've got to cut deeper. And this is hours and hours and hours over months. And we did everything possible to not have to let all of those cuts weigh on the shoulders of the individuals who have given their time, as you've already said. You said it better than anyone else could say it. Um, and their dedication and their hearts to our young people. And we were told, you have to rightsize. there is no chance of you getting special um funding or emergency aid. We've been down that road before. Um and we kept going back and kept advocating and kept going back showing the attendance data. We know the chronic absenteeism rate in our district from since before the pandemic and after it. We know that even though we've come down, we've

097got a long way to go when it comes to making sure our young people have those barriers removed. So, we advocated for attendance officers and and I'm going to say um that everything that was said that was pertaining to the the um excuse me, please give me a minute. the FOCC's to the deans, the examples Miss Parr gave, everyone, and I'm just calling her name for just a moment, but everyone collectively, everything that you said I agree with 100%. And I understand it is very challenging and very difficult. I'm not a person to give up hope and so I am still not giving up hope. And it is my hope that the advocacy that is expressed here with everyone coming together collectively regardless of what was said or how was said it was said not

098worrying about personal attacks or anything like that cuz it doesn't even matter. I'm not important. What's important is that we continue to move forward and thrive as a district because we are thriving. We have come a long way since the pandemic and the hits that we had to take during the pandemic. And we know that that's because of the human resources that we have. So again, I know there were a lot of questions about what went into selecting individuals, which categories would be rifted. We had to keep digging to preserve teachers in the classroom. We have only 18 teachers, and 18 is too many, but 18 teachers that unfortunately lost their positions like our teacher from Far Hill who talked about it today. and we were able to not increase class sizes. At first, we

099had to increase class sizes. This was a whole process and that was crazy. And then we were able to find out ways so that we could figure out how to not increase class sizes. Uh and so it it was a very challenging process, but we were able to close a $91 million gap. We are still working on a plan in order to share because some of you shared I think Miss Reed is here still I'm not sure you know what is what's going to happen. Thank you Miss Reed. What's going to happen next? What's going to happen to fill the gap created by the incredible employees that we are proud of in the Camden City School District. Both are both can be true at the same time. um the fact that we value you and

100the fact that unfortunately we were placed in a position where we were told you have to rightsize and if you and you have to present a balanced budget just like every other school district in the state of New Jersey. So I am going to stop there and say uh that we are going to make sure that the plan is very clear for how these critical supports um are going to still be able not at this in the same way but to to be delivered to our young people. Every question that you asked, we're going to go back. And I'm not, as I said before, going to give a surface superficial answer cuz nobody wants that and I don't want to say it. I want to be able to make sure that the recommendations that are

101made to this board are fully vetted and we can move forward um from there. But but please please please if nothing else please know that I I I'm trying to say this and and I'll close it and that way we can turn it over to the board that um this is one of the the most challenging um situations to be placed in. Right. Because if I'm honest and I have been honest, I never wanted to leave. I was committed to be here for as long as it took and I was asked to leave. So it's not so so one of the things that I want to make sure it's clear. I said that if there was an opportunity that opened up and I didn't have a choice, right? It was either resignation or moving some

102to do something else. I have to do what I need to do just like everyone else has to to uh make sure they can support their families. And so I understand how difficult it is. And I'm going to leave it there um and just say that it has been challenging. This these decisions were not made lightly and we are still working to figure out what we can do to make sure that these rifts and these cuts um don't impact our students in negative ways. when we know that the positions will never ever the people will never ever be replaced because you are the resources that um are so critical to to our district. Um and it and and again and the last thing I'll say, I'll close on this for real this time and and

103turn it over to the board president, is I've said it before. I said it when I spoke to principles. I said it when I spoke to other staff members when we had to deliver this news. It's it's one thing to to look from the out to be on the outside looking in, but it's another thing to know what it's like to be a child who was who our sole income was on my mom's paraprofessional salary. Um, and so we know it's difficult and it's challenged and that's what makes it even that much more difficult for us in this position. So we worked around the clock to minimize the people impact and we went from numbers that were closer to 1554 down to 113 which is still too many. And so I just want to you

104know just cut it there and leave it and say this is painful for all of us. This is not a game. This is not a joke. Um, and it's it's it's very difficult to hear, but I understand in leadership, you listen, you got to be accountable and take it, but it's very difficult to hear that there's a thought that somehow the last seven years that's that, you know, that we've worked and toiled as in addition to all the other years being in the district uh for 30 years that it was, you know, for not to to just be a part of some political game. That's not true. And so I do have to say that um because I I have children and they may see this somewhere a and it's not true. And so I

105have to stand in truth and share with you that the truth is this hurts. And the truth is that this pain is painful. But the truth is that this hurts more for our young people. And so that is that's where I want to leave it for right now. I'm going to turn it into the hands. Your your questions will be addressed. Your questions will be addressed. But I'm not going to try to do anything superficial and I'm going to turn it right now into the hands of our board president so that he can see if the board has any comments as well. So, thank you, Superintendent. Um, so I'm going to start off by saying uh this is definitely a sad time and a sad situation for all our staff. Um, everybody works hard and

106I want to say thank you on behalf of the board for all that you do. Um, you know, I don't think one is more important than the other, the staff, the families that was affected or our kids obviously that will be affected presently and in the long run. um some of the things that the superintendent said, uh we are in this position and we are in this role. And again, I think everybody that shares that comes up and expresses, um regardless of what's being said, um I don't know how we move forward without support staff. I don't know how we move forward with without deans, FOCC's, um any of the staff that were taken away. Um, you know, we spent time saying we need more supports and now we're removing supports. I don't I don't

107know how that actually works. $91 million is $91 million and to lose that amount of staff and programs. Um I'm uncertain on how we move forward and I just want to express that because again so again we won't move forward follow our board decorum. All right, Gary. We got our people. Relax. All right. Thank you. So again, if people talking while I'm talking, we'll stop. That's fine. We'll stop. Your wife. So again, if G if the gentleman in the audience won't stop, then I'll stop and we'll stop as a whole. I would like us to continue. So thank you. I would ask that everyone follow our board policy 11:21 following reasonable decorum so that we can continue to move forward. Thank you. So again, I mean, if we going to move forward again, if we

108can move forward with respect, thank you. So, as I was saying, I don't see how we move forward. Um, I know the superintendent and her team will be sharing a plan. Um, but as we've talked and we've had many conversations just trying to figure out what we do with with the loss of that staff with with the loss of staff um, you know, I can't see personally um, how we fill that void. Many people have mentioned um, in conversation, you know, I don't hear the board. So, just so you know, uh, the board asks a lot of questions and have conversations and a lot of times that's not during a board meeting. So, what I will say is I've heard people and you don't know what's being asked if you're not present. So, it is

109a valid question. So, one thing that I've spent some time doing is listening to staff is listening to staff and receiving questions and concerns. Some of the questions are questions that we have as a board. Some of the questions are staff, some of the questions are community members questions. So, some of the questions may be repetitive. So, I apologize, but I want to share those with the superintendent so that when you report out, we can also get responses as well to these questions. Why did it take so long for the district to notify people that there were layoffs coming if they already knew they wouldn't have the money? So, again, this is the last time that I'm going to speak about the interruption. Respect is important. All right. It's going to happen. Do it. All

110right. Go ahead. President Di to find another job. That's not cool. Everybody's moms. Everybody relax. [Music] What objective criterias were used to determine which positions were eliminated and which staff were retained? Was it the standardized rubric or evaluation framework used to assess employees? And can this be made public available for review? If the district is losing $51 million in ARP funds, where did the other $40 million come from? Who was involved in the final decision-making process? And what safeguards were in place to prevent bias or personal influence? Were any retained employees related to or closely affiliated with senior district leadership? And how were potential conflicts of interest mitigated? How can you ensure the safety on the Camd High campus with taking so many of the necessary supports? Is the district trying to make all four

111high schools on the Camdai campus into one school? Did any administrators recuse themselves from RA RI if decisions involving individuals with whom they had personal or familial ties? Was an independent or internal audit conducted to ensure the R RIF process was free from favoritism or retaliation? Were any formal concerns or grievances submitted by staff regarding the fairness or integrity of the process and how were those addressed? Was an equity review conducted to evaluate whether certain demographic or employee groups was dis disproportionately impacted? What opportunities exist for affected employees to request a formal review of appeal of their RAIF status? What steps would a district take to ensure future staffing reductions are applied transparently equitably equitably and without the appearance of targeting. You got it. So, those are my questions and at this time I'mma pass

112it over to the next board member. I'll pass it over to board member Jackson. Good evening everyone. Um, so my questions are also directed towards the superintendent. These are my own personal questions and not necessarily questions that I've gotten from anyone else. Um, I want to know is it wise to remove mostly black male leadership here on Kim High's campus? Um, and what black male role models do we have to replace them? Is it wise to remove parent support, individuals who have reinforced discipline for our students, social emotional learning tools and resources for our district? How long have you known that the district has been in a $91 million deficit? Why wait until May 1st to issue dismissal of employees just because you can? Did the board have a vote in your decision or was

113this presented to us on three ones on April 17th and our usefulness as an advisory board wasn't put to use? These are my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Questions. Thank you, board member Jackson, board member Kamacho. Oh, good evening everyone. Uh, one thing I would like to say just to try to echo what Mr. Delgado mentioned earlier, we're an advisory board and we're here to provide advice and although unlike a board of education, we don't have or make have the authority to make any binding decisions, but we contribute and we are striving for that. Uh we provide advice and guidance, but we need clear communication and transparency. The challenge is to provide guidance when transparency is sometimes clouded and not clear. So sometimes we get the same information as we're getting the information,

114you know, as far as tonight. Uh, a few things, you know, that I find is the ARP money. It was mentioned earlier tonight that it's a one-time fund. My question would be, well, as a onetime fund, why would you staff, why would you utilize that money for staffing which has to have sustainability? in your mouth. Yes. It was also talked about our lower enrollment and and what I look at rather than just say we're getting lower enrollment. The question I ask myself is what are we doing to curb that? That's right. We talk about how 13 and 14 we had 11,660 students and now we're down by half. We seem to kind of put the uh I I don't want to say the blame, but we kind of say it's the charter schools and the

115Renaissance schools. And when it comes to things like that, I kind of look at as a business. What are we offering for them to come to our schools and not those schools? Keep going. And looking forward, one of the concerns that I have as tragic as what's going on now is my question is where do we go from here? What current actions are we looking? What plans what I say called stop the bleeding right now and create sustainable school district that can be effective and financially efficient for our staff and most importantly our children to bring trust back to the to the Kansas City school district. I also look at it as right now we went from critical to we're on life support. Now the question is we're going to be here next year. We're

116going to be here next year. Yeah, I will. I will. I came back to the city so I will be here. So with that being said, my question is we can sit and we can use the passion and and I tell you right now I appreciate everyone's passion whether it be anger, whether it be a motivation, whether what it has to be, but it has to be circled and try to get a resolution cuz we got to get healthy cuz as long as we continue to to be on life support, we're going to be here next year with the same situation, same conversation. Uh, so those are questions and concerns that I have as a board member. Thank you. Thank you, board member Kamacho, board member Perez. First of all, I want to thank everyone

117and as everyone or at least a lot of people have said here, this was not taken lightly. Um, I have a great grandchild who hasn't even started school, who I had these great dreams for a public school because my best mentor, my own my my life-changing mentor was my first grade teacher who followed me through school. And I'm sure that a lot of teachers out there have done the same thing for our children. So, just the mere thought that my great grandbaby might not have that same opportunity scares the heck out of me. So yes, we need to continue the fight, but we need to fight together, not against each other. We need to educate, especially the new moms who have children, what is the difference between a charter school and and our school system.

118I don't think that there's enough education. And I know that speaking as a bilingual person, I can tell you that when I ask the people that don't speak English, do they know the difference? The answer is no. No. So it's all of our responsibility. Yes. It takes a village, not just half of a village. It takes us all working together. If we start dividing, as Kamasho said, next year it could be worse. Thank you, board member Perez. Uh, Vice President Alvarez. Thank you, board president Nelson. Good evening, everyone. Um, I just want to begin by um just thank you you all for allowing me to sit on this board. Um, this is an honor for me and I don't take this lightly. Um, my proudest position is being a Camden City resident. Um, not only

119that, I raised my three beautiful children in Camden City who attended these schools. Um, I want you to know that Camden City, I feel your pain. Camden City, I hear you. I see you. Um, thank you for everyone who advocated today. Um, just know that I will continue advocating and um, I'm here for you all. [Music] Thank you, Bo VP Alvarez, board member Galashaw. Um, I just want to say many of the questions that you all have asked today are the same questions that I asked when I first heard. So, um, I was getting calls about some of the things that was going on and I didn't know anything about it. So, when it when it finally came out, most of those things was accurate. So, one of the questions I asked were, why weren't

120we included? Why weren't we informed? and what's the plan going forth, how can we survive? So, I spoke with the superintendent as well as her team about um my feelings and also I feel like I didn't come up here to be on the board just to sit up here. So, I asked her, can we be included with with everything going forth? So, I echo everything that everybody is saying here today. I'm product of the campus school system and I want us to continue and I don't I don't want to see um the path that we go on to continue. Thank you board member Galla Shaw. Board member Merricks I want to thank you all for coming. Um we do hear your concerns and it's very concerning to us. Um but my question is what do

121we have in place for um the retiree the retirees that will retire in the next year or two that's holding maybe a position that two or three people can have and and us letting go important positions. um could you make it clear to the public of uh how does that look and what does we have in place for that like a senative or something like that for the for early retirement so we can um hold on to positions that's my question thank you board member board member Garcia good evening everyone I would like to also thank everyone for being here tonight and expressing your concerns I myself don't like what I hear and I don't like what I see. I express concerns. I hear you and I fear you. What do we do about it?

122Other questions that I had brought to the attention that we was in discussion. How was the process done in making this election? Were any key administrations was their salaries cut? Uhhuh. Keep going. How did we get to $91 million deficit shortfall? COVID monies. I also asked the question, were there any retirement packages offered to those that can retire so that maybe it wouldn't be such a harsh retire? How long did we know about this budget? Were the unions involved in the decision-m as far as what the decisions were going to be made, who was going to get cut? So, and then the thing is that it was brought to our attention not too long ago as well. So, we were also I was also in shock to hear about the 91 91 million shortfall. I

123was not too happy about it. I hear you. I hear your concerns and it also affects everyone. Your it's people's livelihoods, their jobs, their families. It affects everyone. My next question would be who monitors the budget and advise the board as far as the superintendent when there's a crisis going on? Why would this keep going on and on for a couple years for 91 shortfall? It couldn't have been just one year. It had to be more than one year. So, how do we get to this point? Now, the thing is, how do we correct it and how do we move forward to have the children first? Thank you. Thank you, board member Garcia. Uh, that concludes uh, superintendent for the board. [Music] He's absent. He's absent. Mr. Hudson's absent today. Um, thank you, board president.

124Thank you to the board for the questions that were asked. Um, I'm going to do my best to answer all of them. Um I know some of them we've already discussed um but some of them have not been discussed. So I I understand um wanting to make sure that it's clear um where the accountability lies. So I'm going to start with the first question. Why did it take so long for the district to notify people that there were layoffs coming if they already knew they wouldn't have the money? And so, um, I think I tried to share a little bit in my, um, summary to the the first set of public comment, the the public comment portion that, um, this wasn't done in a vacuum. It wasn't done, um, with just my executive executive leadership

125team and myself, but the county BA, the county executive superintendent. Um we have two highly skilled professionals who are from the department of education who are assigned to um oversee and support us in all fiscal matters um as well as um interaction with the commissioner and the department of education. Um so the reason that it took so long honestly is because we were trying to do everything possible to not have to um have layoffs. So, as I've said before, we would cut around the edges, cut the programs, cut the vacancies, cut anything that didn't have to do with people impact, take that back and say, and and it wasn't enough. And so, um, that's why it took so long because we were trying to do everything possible to avoid having to lay off. But then

126we do know that we have to give, um, not notice of a certain amount of time. And so then we were up against having to give that notice. So, we did wait till the very last hour because we were working trying to save jobs. Um, and so that is that is why that's the honest answer. Um, the second question, why is there a director of middle school sports? Um, a central office position that could be swapped out for an inschool position. Uh, so there is no director of middle school sports. There's a specialist who oversees middle school sports. that's not a director uh level position. Um, one of the things that we looked at is in having to make so many cuts, how could what could we do to ensure that student engagement, especially in

127the middle school ages where we know it's so critical to make sure we have our students um in school every day and fully engaged, what could we do? And so that is why the middle school sports program at um has been a program that we've seen when individuals and students are involved in the sports at the middle school levels that their attendance is better that um they come to school because they want to be involved in the sports after school that they u learn how to play together as a team. So in trying to figure out you know what could we keep that's going to also be able to help us to impact attendance that that is one area but it's not a director level position it is a specialist position. Um what objective criteria

128were used to determine which positions were eliminated and which staff were retained. we utilize um for the collective bargaining um units, whatever is in the agreement, we utilize that to determine um you know who is going to get bumped out um when it comes to seniority um rights etc. And so the objective criteria um to to use um that we used was first making sure that we did everything possible to not impact those supports for students. So teachers, FOCC's, deans, climate and culture coordinators, those were the areas that we did not want to touch. So the objective decision-m came with prioritizing those non um personnel areas that would impact students and that's that's exactly um what we did. Um in addition to making sure that we were following the collective bargaining agreements, was a standardized

129rubric or evaluation framework used to assess employees and can this be made publicly available to review? So when it comes to um the different categories so there were only a few groups where there was um elimination of the whole group for instance for FOCC's um 100% of FOCC's were reduced um when it comes to deans climate and culture staff 100% of those individuals were reduced so it wasn't like picking and choosing over from uh one for instance FOC over another because the whole um team was impacted um and etc and so in those areas. So there wasn't a need for objective uh there wasn't a need for a standardized rubric or evaluation framework for those areas because the everyone in the position unfortunately had to be eliminated. When it comes to some of the other

130positions where we were able to keep two attendance officers out of the the seven or eight that we had, um we had to look at seniority because that is a um union affiliated position. So, we had to utilize the the rules that are in place through the collective bargaining agreement. If the district is losing $51 million in ARP funds, where did the other $40 million come from? That was already discussed in the budget presentation. Um, and so that information is available. I won't be repetitive. Who was involved in the but I won't be repetitive, but what I'll say is um something that may have been said, but I don't know if I underscored it. There's a structural deficit that the district faces year-over-year. Uh, and so that deficit is in the range of about $35

131million. The only reason we didn't have to come together like this before and we had the painful painful um situation of having to close schools before but we did not lay off staff members. The staff staff members follow the students to their new district school. Um this time we again because of the structural deficit it was not um we had ARP funding so we could sustain positions. we didn't have to cut. We were trying to do whatever possible as a district because we know that the Camden City School District is one of the biggest employers in the city of Camden. So, we were trying to do everything possible to make sure that we could not that we could hold out and not have to cut people. Um and so um that is you know something

132else that I wanted to make sure I I underscored who was involved in the final decisionmaking process and what safeguards were in place to prevent bias or personal influence. And so again um it what the decisions were not made in a vacuum um if I could have made the decisions that I wanted to that I kept saying how are we going to survive without FOCC's? How are we going to survive without deans? How are we going to survive without attendance officers? How are we going to do that? These are the questions that were asked consistently and the answer was given. You have to rightsize. You have to right size. You have to go back and you have to right size. So this was not something that I I again um I am the state district

133superintendent, but I don't have absolute power. So this is something that was discussed and we were told consistently go back and rightsize. Uh and so that that's so to avoid bias or anything in the process. It wasn't um a situation where myself or my executive leadership team had free reign to um make the decisions that we thought and we knew were best for our district for the district. And so um I I'll leave it there. there was no um bias or influence because we were not doing this alone. Were any retained employees related to or closely affiliated with senior district leadership and how were potential conflicts of interest mitigated? Um so I'll say again as I answered the previous question, the answer is no. There were no it was it there were so many positions

134and so many people um it wasn't uh an intentional we're we're keeping this person or that person or any I think this question gets at close affiliation or or personal relationship or family relationships that did not factor into the decision-m we made the decisions that were um the best that we could make under the circumstances. How can you ensure the safety on the Camden High campus? we're taking so many of the necessary supports. Um that is a very very good question and we are going to work with the leadership on that team not in September but as soon as we are able to um this year to ensure that we are prepared and that campus is ready um to move forward in this d in that direction and we will be presenting things to the

135board and to the public um at the June meeting but did not want to be insensitive. It's kind of hard to talk about how we're going to move forward and I caution my staff and I talked to the board president how we I don't I don't think it's sensitive to talk about our PLA path forward um until we can make sure that we're treating the people who lost their positions with dignity and respect and not looking as if we're ready to move forward because it will never be the same without without those individuals. So there will be a public presentation on the path forward, but when the time is right and not right now um so close to the time that people have received this terrible news. Um is the district trying to make all

136four schools on the Camden High campus into one school? No. Each school on the Camden High campus will still retain its identity will still retain um its u magnet uh if it's a magnet and the comprehensive um and it will each they will each retain their own school code. Did any administrators recuse themselves from RIT decisions involving individuals with whom they had personal or familial ties? Um I think I addressed that already. Um and the uh and the other questions that were above was an independent or internal audit conducted to ensure the rift process was free from favoritism or retaliation. Um the process was done and I did not state this. Our labor council u Mr. Lewis Les who is here still here this evening with us um was involved in many of the budget

137meetings too most of the budget meetings as well. So that as we were going through and reiterating and reiterating and coming back to the table, we had counsel at the table to make sure that we weren't doing anything that was outside of either the collective bargaining agreement or the proper procedures or manner in which we have to figure out which positions are cut and which are not. We even had them at the table to um along with u Miss Zimmerman to to make sure that if there were positions that were in code that said hey we have to keep those positions then that's what exactly what we were able to do. So we did have guard rails in the process. It didn't make it any easier but we did have guard rails. Um, were any

138formal concerns or grievances submitted by staff regarding the fairness or integrity of the process and how were those addressed? Um, to date, I am not sure. I'm going to turn this way. Um, were Okay. So, I'm turning to I'm sorry. I was turning to our chief talent officer, u Mr. Theresa Ree to see if there were any complaints that were sent to her. There have no been no direct complaints sent to me. Um, and so to date, I haven't uh seen any of those. Was an equity review conducted to evaluate whether certain demographic or employee groups were disproportionately impacted? Unfortunately, no, because it it was about closing that gap. And so, it was about positions, it was about dollars. Unfortunately, it was not um driven by our need. We know that we're doing everything possible

139to recruit. We have had hiring bonuses in the past etc. to make sure that we c we can ensure that our students are seeing themselves reflected in their educators in their administrators. But that was not a part of this process. It was about closing that very large gap. What opportunities exist for affected employees to request a formal review or appeal of their RIFF status? anyone at any time who has a concern um about their risk status. We share this when we um had to deliver the unfortunate news to staff members to um employees from the district working with each Rift individual. Um we did share that if there were any concerns there is a mailbox. What is the mailbox? DTLR communications. DTLR communications. Camden at camden.k12.nj. us. And that information was also given to each

140um impacted individual so that they knew exactly how to elevate their grievances. And so that process is still in place. What steps will the district take to ensure future staffing reductions are applied transparently, equitably, and without the appearance of targeting? Um we will continue to make sure that we are not doing uh having those kinds of decisions made in a vacuum. Um and making sure that we have the legal individuals to support us as well as um those others the highly skilled professionals who are in place and employed by the department of education. And so um we will that's what we will do moving forward and that's what we did during this process. The final question from um our board president, why do we have a senior director of alternative education when they have one

141school that is part of Camden High and East Side and an experienced principal who knows the program. And so in restructuring um our Rise Academy and moving um it from its current location um to Morgan Village Middle School um we know that we already have a senior director of alternative education first of all in place and we know that that person is very um helpful in making sure that we're thinking of outside of the box ways to ensure that our students who are most vulnerable, most in danger of not graduating have the supports that they need in order to um make it across that finish line. And so with this new structure, we are going to have the the principal, but also the senior director um instead of a lead educator um at that uh

142location in order to make sure that we're able to uh move things forward. And so the principal will continue to do um what they they already do, but also and and the senior the senior director is already working on the same campus as um the principal for um Rise Academy. So it'll just be moving them both over to the um the new location. And there were a couple of other questions. Um, again, I know this is not going deeply, but for the board member questions, I want to make sure I can um get to all of them. Retirees, Miss Merrick, you asked about whether or not there's an early retirement option. And something that I had shared previously um with board members is that um we did explore and investigate an early retirement option with

143our labor council involved. And that requires legislation and that legislation would have to go past um the state in order to um go through the whole process of being um legislated and we were not in the position uh at this time due to the time frame in order to make that happen. So that was not um we do not and also to incentivize early retirements you have to have funds in order to incentivize and we didn't have the funds to incentivize either. Um and so that that's why we did not um explore we did explore but we're not able to move forward with that option. Um board member let me go back. I'm sorry Jackson um is it wise to remove black male role models? Absolutely not. It's not wise to do. And that's not

144w that's why this is not a w this this is not wise. None of this is wise. None of this is wise. It's um it's it's necessity. Um it's about the money. But no, it is not wise. As an educator, it's not wise. As a human being, it's not wise. Um, and as a product of this school district who I was impacted just like our beautiful young people now by those people who just stepped up and did what was necessary to fill in the gaps that might not have been there at home. None of this is wise. Not any of it. But I do remember someone tonight and I don't know who said it. I can't remember. I think it may have been all board member Perez who talked about unity and and moving forward

145to make sure that um to make sure that something can be done to set the district up moving forward so that we're not back here again. And unless the structural deficit is dealt with and this is something that I've talked about I've talked about it at nauseium unless that is dealt with um year overyear and we've done a fivey year projection a preliminary 5-year projection so that so we know that this year when I look down the column it says we're whole meaning no deficit but that's because we had to use $51 million from ARP funds to do that but we were able to not lay off. We thought we were going to have to lay off last year, but we were able to dodge that bullet and now we're here. We won't have we

146are whole for next year. It doesn't feel good at all, but there's a zero deficit for the upcoming year. But then when you take a look at the next, we're back to 34 million. We're back to 4040 million, etc. So unless there is something that is done whether it's legislatively whether it whatever needs to happen it has to take more than it's not about one person I'm not talking about me I'm not talking about any of you I'm just saying it has to take um a more collective approach and I I you know I I appreciate um Rancha I appreciate and I say Ranch I don't want to say Miss Dickerson because I know you as more than that but I appreciate your reminder to me about the boxing glove us and we will fight

147and we will win. Well, we have been fighting and we may not. It may not look like we're winning, but we should have been wiped out a long time ago given the plan. And so, we are. And that's this is I'm just saying what has to happen is that fight has to it can't be one person. And I'm not saying it is. Don't get me wrong, cuz I'm not that. But it has to be it has to be strategic and it has to be based in um not attacks but based in attacking whoever has the real power. I'll leave it right there cuz it's not it's not I'm just saying and that's many levels and many layers and so I'm I'm going to um stop there but it's going to require that unity. Um how

148long did the district know? I think board member Jackson shared and as I shared we elevated this to the state board of education la education last year during the annual report the mandated annual report to the state board of education and we began working on uh this in January um when we realized that you know we thought we could cut these things and cut all this and cut these services and cut here everything that was listed on that slide and still that did not amount up to what was needed and so we since January but this is not the first time that we said it in a public forum and it's not the first time like it's not the first time it's been said so please it's not the first time I have to say

149that that way because I have to be honest like everyone is being honest and and you should be with and transparent with how you're feeling I have to also be honest with everyone on up here and there that this is not a surprise. So, let's not say it was a surprise and let's not say that one person had the control and the ability to be able to turn that around, but that doesn't mean anything because what matters most is that we figure something out so our young people don't have to be subjected. So our system of education doesn't have to be subjected to this again when the structural deficit that we already know is coming when it comes. So it's one thing to not we know it's coming. So something has to be done or

150else it will be here. We will be here right we will or else we will be in this situation again. And to address the rest of the board members really quickly one-time funds. Yeah we use them because we were directed to use them. board member Kamacho. We were directed to use them by the county office to fill the $51 million gap. We were directed to use our funds because no one had a solution for how this district would be able to s survive. So, we did what we were directed to do. Where did where did we go from here to stop the bleeding? I think I addressed that 5-year projection. I addressed that. And then when it comes to who monitors the budget, um again I think I addressed that as well and we talked

151about the structural deficit. So I know there are other things that we're going to go deeper into. the board president um called for a retreat to be able to go into these pieces with the board um in a different kind of a setting to spend time figuring out, hey, if we know these projections moving forward, then what are we going to do about it now so that they have the confidence, you have the confidence to be able to make sure that this is not a repeat situation. Um, and so, um, those are the answers that I have right now. Um, again, at this time, I think what, uh, is called for next is for me to turn this over to the board secretary so that we can recess into executive session. Thank you for listening.

152Yes, I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry. We have more com public comments. My apologies. take care of that first. [Music] Thank you. Please forgive us. This is a different We haven't done it this way in a long time. So, we want to make sure we're doing the right way and that we have not excluded anyone who wanted to um speak publicly. I think we um did address everyone and we allowed them to be able to come up for public comment, but did we miss anyone? We're going to allow them to come up to speak about anything else unrelated to the budget. Um, so we're going to ask if you want to speak about anything unrelated to sign up again and we're going to go into executive session um during the time that you sign up. We'll

153come back and then we'll do the second public uh comment portion. [Music] Therefore, be it resolved that the Camden City Advisory Board of Education enter into a closed session to consider the following matters. Investigations 8:00. [Music] So, we're going to go into public comments now. Um, and then that way we close, we end the meeting in executive session. So, thank you for allowing us to course correct. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for your flexibility. Um, I'll turn it over now to the board president to lead us through the second public comment portion. Did I say secretary? My apologies, too. My apologies. I said the board president. I meant the board [Music] secretary. Whoever signed up and would like to speak for public comment, please address the microphone at this time. You have three

154minutes. Okay, this is a pretty fiery meeting. Um, so these are now I'm speaking as an instructor here. My name is Woodro Wack. I do robotics and engineering. I joined Camden 1996 and I seen a lot of stuff. Um, field trips. Students are supposed to receive lunches during field trips. I've spoken to everybody in food service and they never get it right. So every time I have a field trip, I have to go up because the the lunches aren't there and they're like, "Oh, you're on the schedule." Oh, you're not on the schedule. It's ridiculous. Like, so I'll just bring all these things to you so that you know they exist. And if you ask anybody who runs a field trip, they're going to tell you the same thing about getting lunches for the students

155during the field trip. Um, so are they valued? I don't know. NJSLA. So now let me talk about testing. So the students took a science test, they took a algebra 1 test, they took an algebra 2 test, they took a geometry test, and they took one English test. So in my mind, I'm thinking we're math and science focused now because the curriculum doesn't reflect that. So how do you expect them to do well? Algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, and science is weighed heavy. Okay, we we got to do better. We got to do better. Um, if my child had a substitute teacher, I would ask them the next day, "Do you have a substitute teacher today?" Because I had a problem with a substitute teacher more than two days. Like, that was a problem for

156me. We've had students here who haven't had a chemistry teacher for 2 years. like how can we produce a tech billionaire? You're not. We're not going to do that. They have to have these instructors. We got to do better. Um question since we're going to move the the Rise Academy to Morgan Village. So, are we going to sell that building now? that old brim building. I just, you know, we gota we gotta we got to do something about that. At least have a conversation. And then my last piece. All right. You got me. [Applause] Good afternoon. Um, I want to start by saying something. I said before, we're here because of legislation. This was planned. This was planned. The Urban Hope Act, the takeover of the school districts, the Renaissance legislation, the the portfolio management

157plan. This was what is expected. What is happening here means that the plan is working. It's not 100% but it's almost there. And I think people when you say what do we do strategic legislation created this situation to get going. So uh and the board advisory board you can meet as many times as you want anytime you want anywhere you want. You have to meet one time officially but you can meet anytime in small group committees or you can go into the community and have meetings. I prepared a report on the bilingual program. I was going to share with the superintendent, but she's been busy with the budget. Um, I'll sit down with a bunch of you if you're interested to find out what's happening with the the kids that don't speak English if you

158really care. Anyway, you know what this is, madam superintendent, I would like to speak to you as a teacher. Many teachers tell me, "Administrators are always teachers no matter what. You could be the commissioner. If he was the teacher, he's still a teacher." This is the This is the U trailer at East Side High School. It's 10 ft by 60 ft. There are kids going to class in this in this trailer. There are hallways that are wider than this trailer. The hallways here are wider. What they did is they took a hallway, put a roof on it, and called it a classroom. This is what it looks like. It's 10 ft x 60 ft. It's one by it's the ratio 1:6. The literature says it should be 2:3 or 3 to four. 3t wide, three

159uh 4t long. This is not a healthy environment socially, healthwise, instructionally. I've talked to the principal, had a very wonderful meeting with her, but the kids are still there. So, I'm asking you as a teacher, not as a superintendent. Look at this. Would you like to teach there? This is good for for small meetings, small group children, offices, storage. They've actually started storage. There's storage in here also while the classroom is going on. So, I'm asking you, I know the year is almost over, but any day that kids have to put up with this is wrong. So, I would appreciate it if you at least look into it. I think that decisions were made that did not really take into account the the emotional and the educational needs of these students. And this is it

160right here. Thank you very much. Madame Superintendent and Board, the $91 million deficit in Camden City School District is a result of a combination of factors, including long-term structural challenges, decline in enrollment, intentionally, increased payments to charter renaissance schools intentionally, the expiration of temporary federal funds, rising fixed costs, and an inadequate state funding formula. We can attribute that to increase per pupils cost in this district that is higher than the state average. The district's $31,818 per pupil cost is 46% higher than the state average of $21,840. To address the deficit, the district is implementing budget cuts and layoffs across various areas as opposed to offering budget reconsolidation and transparency to educators and students as well as principles and support support staff many of which are APS, lead educators, FOCC's, deans, etc. The district proposes one

161principal at Camden High School and the dangers that surround around that causes increased workload and burnouts, limited time in each for each grade school, decreased instructional leadership effectiveness, which leads to less focus on instruction. With divided attention, one principal might have less time to focus on curriculum instruction and teacher development within each grade or school. The district's plan to reduce personal expenses by more than $23.8 8 million through layoffs and other measures. What measures are they that the state has not already used as a means to justify its utter failure to the students of the city of Camden? The fact of the matter is there is no short-term or long-term plan. In fact, there's no plan at all. So, here's a proposal. Call for forensic audit to investigate specific concerns about fraud and misuse of

162funds as authorized by the New Jersey SA18A7A-57 for districts meeting certain dis um deficit criteria. Publish the audit um findings publicly. Turn the detailed budget for the upcoming and fiscal year online for full public review and accountability. Host community forums to discuss the deficit present budget details and solicit input for stakeholders. maximize state and federal funding by aggressively pursuing any emergency fund opportunities from the state, highlighting the urgency of of the situation and the district's commitment to responsible financial management. Develop highquality grant proposals for all available state and federal funding opportunities, particularly those focused on supporting high need districts. Charter renaissance collaboration dialogue and transparency by engaging in open dialogue with charter schools and renaissance schools to explore potential collaborative initiatives and ensure transparency and funding and resource allocations that joint planning and coordinating that

163you guys could do. You can explore opportunities for joint for joint planning and services such as transportation, professional development and shared programs. I hope you guys will take this into consideration. I do have a little detailed layout for that superintendent. I'd be more than willing to sit down with you and talk about it. Well done. So, I'll try this again. Um, I don't know how many of you guys are familiar with what one Camden enrollment what one Camden or Camden Enrollment actually does. All right. So, if you're not, I'll give you a cliff's notes version. In order for students to enroll in our schools or any school in Camden, specifically even Camden public schools, parents are forced to use this program. Right? And when they try to register their child for a school, they're given

164quote unquote openings or available seats. So what parents have been seeing for years is that certain sections in different schools are closed entirely. For instance, at uh Shark, for instance, going back a couple years ago before Superintendent closed it, they were kept for only two classes for third grade, which means any parent who wants to put their kid in sharp for third grade. That's off the table. Our schools can't grow. That's been going on for a long time. At Eastside High, they had like two classes for their whole ninth grade class. So when the superintendent says, "Oh, sorry." She was a board member for Camden Enrollment and now she's the president of One Camden. This was brought to her attention by building principles and the union president at the time for years. When you don't

165have students, you don't have money. when you made aware that yo this program that you're part of is cutting from cutting our enrollment from from growing you're costing us millions of dollars each year which makes it completely disingenuous when she comes and complains about having a deficit she knows how this is happening I begged her please do away with Camden enrollment that has not happened so please when you guys go back in the close session ask her why she's doing this still after almost a decade. Ask her why she sold Hatch to Kip for $1.6 million with that school is costing this district $14 million a year. So, I know I said a lot and I still have some time left. Those are the questions you guys have to ask because that is how we'll

166solve this problem. That's how Renaissance schools had their population sore because our schools were not allowed to grow. She was a part of that. Please don't ignore that. Thank you. Sir, what was your name for the record? Dr. Benson. Got it. Can you state your name for the record before you speak? Sure. Yeah. Rancha Dickerson again. So, um, everything has been said I agree with. And I also want to say that I this process had no inclusion. Uh, superintendent, you held a press conference and announced everything, but you never like you didn't talk to the community. You never talked to us. You never did anything that include us in this process so we could have been helpful in a decision-m. We are the community. We are the decision makers. And that's for the school board,

167too. Like, we weren't included. Y'all feel like y'all didn't get it. We didn't know. We're finding out by email and by text and by by whispering on social media. No one talked to the parents. We are the client. We're the client of the district. Our children are your investment. Right. Okay. So, I do want to talk about Morgan Village. I think that y'all treated Morgan Village like trash can juice. Yeah, y'all treated Morganville so bad. It was the only sixth to eighth grade school that we had inside this district and y'all did not pour into Morganville. What you're doing right now by pouring so and pry or whatever it's called over there and setting our children up to believe that they are in a prison. We don't need that in our district. We need to

168focus on building that in every school. If you keep you make a space for children to feel like I could just go to this school and that's how I'm going to flourish, they'll never get reaclimated into being decent humans and decent students. So if you take Morgan Village away from us, there are students going to get used to going to a school like that and never get used to being in a school like this or another school that's building them to be better in character. Um the other thing I want to say is uh I just want to talk about Dr. Walker's role. The role superintendent, the role that Dr. Walker is playing is very evil because she doesn't know us. She doesn't know our community. So she has a high salary. She gets to

169rip people rip people at the same time and have no type of empathy at all. So telling people they got to go from say a lead educator back down to the classroom, it's no empathy. It hurts. But you get to sit with a cozy salary of over six figures and you can just rip people. I would prefer for you to be able to have somebody that talk to the community and also talk to our educators in this process to make sure that they got a chance to hear from someone who cared about them, who mentored them, who was there for them. Because we our people want to retire from this district. Your folks can move on. They can move on tomorrow and say, "I found a better job somewhere else." And there will be no

170ties. But our people suffer here. This is painful solutions. The same way that you cut the building principles here. Cut your cabinet. We don't need all those people inside that cabinet. Our district is smaller. We got about 17 16 public schools. We don't need an assistant deputy assistant this assistant that senior this senior that. We don't need it. If QAC is the goal, cut your cabinet because we need people who really going to focus on it. if we really love these children. Everybody got to get uncomfortable with being cut and also experience the emotional toll of being able to for not being able to retire from your the job that you love. And last thing, buy buses to take all of us to attend a state board meeting. That will show transparency. If you want

171to fight back, invite all of us to come with you and we can all tell the story. So, it won't be on one person. It's on all of our battles. We've been out here fighting as long as you've been fighting. [Music] Hello. Um, just say your name for the record. Yep. My name is Colleen Hall and I am a teacher over at Davis School. I have a couple of questions, but I also want to mention that Miss Rancha asked a question last time around and I'm still waiting for the answer. It's a QAC question that she asked and it wasn't answered. It was the 91% correct. Yes, I'm still waiting for that one. Um, on top of that, how are how many specialist positions do we have and what are the need for the specialist

172positions? Uh, the structural deficit of 35 million that keeps coming up. How are we tackling that? Because right now it sounds like we don't have a plan even though we know that it's coming. Then we're sitting back in the same situation that we're in right now and it's like, well, I warned you because I said it in a meeting for 10 seconds. That really doesn't sound like a plan. So that's my question on that one. Why can't we get an itemized budget online? Who is working on grant proposals and how many do we have in the pipeline? How much of our budget goes to marketing and advertising our public schools? How can we set up a system where we can guarantee that our questions are being answered? Cuz I see the time clock, but is

173there something where we have the question and then highlighted that it was answered because I felt like some of the questions weren't answered. Thank you. That's it. Good evening. My name is Ayana Bell. Um, I just wanted to say that so I've been working in Camden City School District for the past 10 years. One of my biggest accomplishments was coming back in my city and serving my city because that's what my father instilled in us. Not only I, but my two brothers, uh, I'm formerly my maiden name is Dickerson. Rasha is my sister-in-law. My two brothers are also educators here in the city. My family built this city on their back. I loved working at my job. I loved working as the health and social services coordinator for the last 10 years at Camden Big

174Picture Learning Academy. I'm sitting here fighting back tears because I'm hurt. And I'm not hurt because of the finances. I'll be fine. I serve a good God and I know that I'll land on my feet. I'm going to be good. But I'm hurt because I took some days off because I was so my heart was so broken on the 30th when I had to have a meeting with my principal who was actually my former 10th grade teachers at Creative Arts High School, my alum where I'm alumni at. And now he's my boss and he had to tell me that he was laying me off. It broke my heart. It broke his heart. He didn't even want to have the meeting. So, I came to say while I was out, my phone was ringing. My phone

175was going off with students reaching out to me, Miss Bell, I need to talk to you. I need your help. And I didn't want to come back in this building because my feelings were so hurt. My heart was so broke. I didn't want to come back. But I came back cuz I know that the kids needed me to come back. And when I came back, she told me, "Miss Bell, my mom is in the hospital. She had a heart attack as well as I'm graduating and I don't know what I'mma do." So, we called Camden County. We called some different schools for her to get to. That's one story. Um, while I was talking to her, a former student came in and he told me, "Miss Bell, I just graduated." I thought about him and

176how he connected with the Daylight Foundation with Tracy Hall, which is who is at FOC in the district. And not only did she help him mentally, she helped him physically graduate from Lincoln University. I thought about a student while I was in the building and you guys put Camden High School on our side of the building and the student was being nasty and disrespectful to me and I called and told Miss Fussle who is the dean at Camden High. Miss Fussle came back 20 minutes knocking on my door with the student. The student apologized to me sincerely until this day me and the student are he respects me every step of the way. I think about Miss Hall where my own son, my baby that came out of me, the only one attend Creative Arts

177High School and runs on the Camden High track team attends and he talks to Miss Hall and Miss Hall feeds into him every step of the way as the health and social service coordinator at Creative Arts High School. I know Miss my time is up, but I will be back on the 20th because I have a lot more to say. Heat. Heat. Thank you for your patience. Um, and thank you for uh the comments that um just came forth. Again, as I said, for the first round of comments, I will um do my best to answer questions. If there are questions that I need to dig into or connect with other staff members, I'll be able to do that so I can give you a full response. every question won't be answered this evening um

178because it's it's nearly impossible for me to do that in a way that honors your question and honors you by giving you a full response. Um I'll go through a couple real quick. So u Mr. Wac I think he had to leave um with uh difficulty getting food during field trips. We'll make sure that um senior uh director Brown is aware of that. I'm sure she already is and is putting something into place, but we will look into that situation. um with regard to the NJ JSLA and the curriculum um that you uh shared which was mostly math and science driven and not reflecting the math and science curriculum. um please give me the opportunity to look into that um to get a deeper sense and understanding of exactly what would be provided and we'd

179hope that you would be able to support us in ensuring that we have that teacher input needed as we develop and continuously develop our curricular areas moving forward. um students without a chemistry teacher for two years. We have many hard to fill areas. Um and that is one of the reasons why we put in place our paraprofessional program to help uh support par profofessionals to become teachers. But we also work with NJCTL. And so the division of talent and labor relations under C chief talent officer Ree has been trying to find innovative ways so that we can get chemistry teachers, physics teachers, those hard to fill areas. Um, believe it or not, health and PE teachers is coming up as an area that many are not going into right now. Many students are not going

180into um, schools of education. And so, we will continue to um, recruit, do what we can in order to make sure those hardto- fill areas are filled. Um, what is going to happen to the Pride building? So, the Pride building will not be sold. Um, currently we have our transportation depot at the Pride Building and we will also be able to um expand the the kitchen areas because we also provide food to more than just the district but also to other um school types in the city. And so we are not uh selling the Pride Building. We need the Pride Building, but we need to expand our operational capacity in the Pride Building. Um Mr. Delgado um you reminded us about legislation. Um, oh, I'm sorry. I just wanted to say something cuz nobody said

181anything about schoolbased. I do apologize, superintendent. It's real quick. Um, I wanted to know if the schoolbased budget can re I wanted to know if the schoolbased youth services budget can be uh relooked at because the three leading ladies that support the school are being laid off um and mainly for their benefits. So, I wanted to know if their budget could be relooked at so they can still be able to support the students. Um, this year alone, um, I've only been with Camden City School District for two years, but I've been working at education for 11. Um, I had 37 incidents at East Side High, and Miss Moore was the only person who supported me. I sent emails, I sent texts, Miss Moore was the only person who would pick up at 11:00 p.m. to

182help me support the students. So, I wanted to know if the schoolbased youth services budget could cover their benefits. So, although all of us may be gone, those three leading ladies can stay. Sorry. It just was in my spirit to talk. Thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you. Thank you. Thank you so much. And and that's why I allowed it because I know um that is not even in in your character. So you you um had something to say and so thank you. Thank you for what you shared. Um and we will address that. Um thank you Mr. Delgado. I'm not sure if you're still here, but um again, I will connect with Mr. Delgado on the B bilingual plan. Um he is right. We were focused on the budget, so we didn't have time to meet

183and the modular units at East Side High School. Those units were approved um and so they went through all of the inspection requirements and their temporary spaces so that students um can uh have more space than being in the building or or on the stage. So again, we have conducted walkthroughs. I've been in them. The county office has been through. The school's development authority has been through. Um but again, we will work with the team at the school to make sure that those modular units are meeting the needs of our young people. Um Mr. Frasier, yes, we can connect. Um can you pass can you are you willing to share what you read so that I have all the details? Thank you. If you can make sure it gets to um one of the staff

184members. Um yes. one principle at Camden High. As I said before, that is something that we have to really work um together um to focus on to figure out how to make sure that that is best for all. We don't want um the principal or the lead educators there to be burned out at all. Um although I have great confidence, I still want to make sure that um they have the supports that are needed in our within our um uh existing power. Um calling for Okay, so yes, you'll send me the other pieces that way. the forensic audit um and collaborative planning and all of those pieces that you shared. I just want to make sure I get those in detail. Dr. Benson, if you are still here, I'm not sure. Okay, if Dr. Benson

185is still here, um again, um with the urban hope at Camden, uh there has to be a common enrollment system. And so, um we are complying with the urban hope act for that to happen. any of the issues or situations or concerns that have been elevated and raised by staff. We work with our analytics team each case by case to find a solution and those concerns have gone down. The question um about my role on Camden Enrollment the when Camden enrollment which one Camden which was Camden Enrollment was founded and established with the um onset of the urban hope act in the Camden Enrollment uh charter. if you will, the the state district superintendent is the president of Camden Enrollment within that system. So that is the case even though the executive director uh Miss

186Mason runs the organization the name is still in the documents and so regardless of uh how not a part of or not involved I am that is something that is in the document because of the position that I hold. Um and so Miss Dickerson Rancha, thank you so much. Um inclusion, thank you for the reminder. It's not all just about one person fighting. Um and you know, a bus to go to the state board meeting. The next state board meeting is June 4th. Um and that is when the annual presentation will be given. Um so again, I any any voices that are not mine. So, so people don't think I'm trying to um, you know, pull one over on the state board as well because I'm under scrutiny with them. You are welcomed. It's a

187public meeting. Um, and you're absolutely welcome to um, go and support um, Morgan Village Middle School. Okay, we talked about supports there before cutting cabinet. Um, the cabinet that I have now exists of the smallest cabinet that's ever been in the history of the district since state intervention. Um, and so we have been cutting that. um over the past few years. And so there are five people that are on the cabinet. Um but I I hear I hear what's being said and what's been said not only by you with regard to that, but others as we're um looking at these difficult cuts. So thank you for for elevating that. I did just want to put out there that we have been cutting the cabinet and we will look at um you know other ways to

188find efficiencies as best we can. Um, Miss Hall, are you still here? I'm here. Miss Hall. Hi, Miss Hall. Miss Colleen Hall. Um, the CQAC question. I'm sorry for to Miss Dickerson as well for not answering it. Please help me cuz I'm forgetting a little bit, but CQAC is the gateway into and out of local control. And as was shared, you need an 80 you need 80% any district um needs 80% in each of the five areas in order to um have a board that has local control. And so we have come a long way with our QAC scores in each of the area. We are at 9% um in instruction and programming at the beginning of state intervention and we're moving in the right direction but we haven't achieved 80 yet. In the other

189areas, as was indicated, there were times when we were at 90 and still are um 92 in operations and we were at 95 in governance and and above 80 in fiscal and um unfortunately when you achieve those bars and those cuz that takes a lot, right? There's um uh visits from the county, filing the paperwork, doing everything that's necessary. Um it's hard to sustain that especially when you achieve like the 90s and you achieve like those high areas and then you're not given local control back in any area and then it just it's it's almost like you have to continue to um to keep that high bar which is what we should do and which what is what we are doing in many areas but it becomes difficult to sustain and so um we do

190not have 80% or above in each of the areas yet. But what I can't remember what the heart of the question was like why not local control if we did achieve those high areas. I I that is something that's been shared um as well with the state. Um that question um Miss Dickerson Bell mission thank you um thank you for for sharing your heart. Thank you for sharing the um very real experience that you've had um because that helps us to be able to also understand the deep impact that you and many other of your colleagues who were reduced um their positions you weren't reduced but your positions were reduced um how difficult that void is going to be to fill and it won't ever be filled. Um, so we will definitely um look to

191hear from you again. As you said, you're going to come back and share. Um, but please know that we um value and appreciate all that you do as well. Um, I think those were all of the questions for right now. The undocumented students I had asked earlier about about what we do as a district for about the virtual learning option. I'm sorry, the virtual learning option for undocumented students. So, that is a question that I brought up um with uh one of my check-ins with the Department of Education and that so for undocumented cit uh students, I shared originally when um the unfortunate and uh and very yeah, I'll just say the unfortunate um executive order came from the president of the United States and we began to have work with M schools and we

192began and you know that as a district. We put procedures in place so that if ICE came to any of our doorsteps, every single person um who was at that front office area knew what to do. When um we put those things in place, they are still in place. And one of the questions that I asked was, hey, we have students who are at some of our schools who their families are afraid to send them to school because of ICE. Can we have the ability to provide them with virtual learning? And we were told no. And so you must have a waiver in order to do that and we did not have that waiver either even when and I I'll leave it there but that is what we were told. Um and so um that's

193to answer that question. Thank you. You're welcomed. Schoolb base. Thank you. Is he still here? He came up to ask the qu. Okay. So schoolbased services the question was asked. Can we look at that budget area again? We looked at that budget, that area over and over again because that was one of the last areas that we wanted to pull back on. And so we have been working um Miss Nefessa Wiggins um who is the project manager, did I get it right? um for school-based youth services and who's doing a great job with leading that work um has been in comp in conversation with DCF as well as with myself and my team in order to figure out what we can do to save the supports the contracted services that are part of school-based youth

194services because we did not have the funds to match the inind um um contribution. we have it for some of it, but not to retain all of the district staff. Um, we have been in conversation about that. And so, I know, thank you for doing your due diligence there, but it it's it's been kind of a layered approach. So, please stay tuned for the full um for what we're able to share um once we finish digging into all of those areas for school-based. Um, and and I will hopefully have that relate to um to the gentleman who asked a question. And that is all for now. This conversation does not end now. But thank you for staying. Those of you who were able to stay to hear the responses. Um again, what you have shared

195is not taken lightly. This is not a joke. This is not a game. Um and so please know that your words did not fall on the ground. And we will the board will make sure I'm sure that we continue as well to um discuss what we've experienced, heard, seen, felt um in this meeting today. So, thank you for being here and for advocating. And I'm going to turn it over to the board secretary now who'll lead us into um our business office approval on cancel that regular school. So, this is a regular meeting. So, this one this is not the regular meeting. I'm sorry. Is that still on the books? The 20th. Is it on the books now? Yeah. Oh, it's cancelled already. So, it should be the 27th combined. So, we had this meeting.

196It was combined. Um, it's a special meeting. So, because it took because we did not have our budget approved by the county until last week, then we advertised and did we need what we needed to do 4 days in advance, I believe. Made the budget available and then we are up on May 13th. We converted our work session into a special board meeting. So that is where we are today and combined those meetings. So the next meeting would be the June board meeting. Yeah. And it will is is it on the website? I'm sorry. Please forgive me. But is it on the website already as a cancellation? It will be on the website tomorrow. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yep. So, we'll move at this time I'll kick it over to the board secretary for the

197business office items. Superintendent, there is an amendment to agenda item 15.10 um entitled removals of non-tenured staff serving in non-certificated positions. Superintendent, if you can uh make the motion to strike Shane Flack from item 1510 and to add Daniel Murray to item 1510. Superintendent, do you make the motion? You want me to make the motion? You're making the motion as a state superintendent. Motion. Okay. Call for a motion. You're okay. Um, and does it carry, superintendent? Yes. Perfect. So, we are amending agenda item 1510 entitled renewals of non-tenured staff serving in non-certificated positions to strike Shaunie Flack and to add Daniel Murray. I will now um turn it over to superintendent for board agenda approval. Thank you. Thank you so much. That's the first time we did that. So that forgive the the less than

198graceful handoff. Um in accordance with powers vested in the state district superintendent according to NJSA 18A7835. I hereby approve all May 13th May 13 2025 board agenda items including the adoption of the 2025 2026 school year budget. If nothing more, board secretary, please call for a motion to adjourn the meeting and we'll be re we'll be convening into executive session session. Yes. Therefore, be it resolved that the Camden City Advisory Board of Education enter into a closed session to consider HIV investigations and personnel social emotional learning and staffing actions. The board will now go into close session for approximately 1 hour 15 minutes. The board will reconvene into public session at 159 10 o'clock. Is there a motion to go into close session? Thank you, board member Garcia. Is there a second? Thank you, board

199member Perez. All in favor? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. We will return at 8:46 to adjourn the public meeting. I'm sorry, 10 p.m. I got to go. I'm to leave my man too. I got to go. My son got to go. He has [Music] to come on downstairs. Thank you so much for your Is there a motion to motion? Thank you, Garcia. Thank you. All in favor? I oppose. Any attention?