001Okay, let me know when you're ready. Okay. All right, good evening everybody. Thanks for coming. I'd like to call to order the Board of Education meeting for the Committee of the Whole on April 15th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the Board Room of the Administration Building at 70 Conover Road, Colts Neck, New Jersey. If we could get a roll call, Mr. Marasco. Absolutely. Mrs. Cameron Present. Present remotely. She's participating remotely. Thank you. Mrs. Parlin Here. Mr. Urico Here. Yeah. Present. Mr. Rignetta Here. Mr. Scales Here. Mr. Scarpa Mrs. Volpe Here. Mr. Walsh >> Here. Mr. Whitburn Here. Okay, pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, this meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press and a schedule of meetings dated January 23rd, 2026, notice of which has been filed with the
002Deputy Clerk for Colts Neck Township and the requirements of posting of notices have been met. At this time, we have a very, very special guest in our community. Captain Smith is here with his lovely family. I'm honored to have him lead us in our flag salute tonight in honor of the military child. So, if you could come on up and lead us with that. Thank you very much. Okay. 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. >> Great. Thank you. People all have a seat. Okay, I wanted to just go over briefly if everybody could take a look. We have some information items at this time. With respect to Captain Smith's time,
003I want to skip right over to our proclamation this evening. I just like to make a few remarks. Today, I would have the honor of attending um Purple Up Day at Cedar Drive Middle School. I was ex- so excited to get the invitation from you and I appreciated being there. Uh first off, I want to thank all of our staff, uh Dr. Garabed, our principals, Dr. Rigby, and Mr. Mercer, uh the principals at the other school, and all the administration staff that made this possible, make our children, our military children, feel absolutely wonderful. It was their day and I was so happy to be there to share it. Uh so, at this time, I want to um you know, present the Board of Education's proc- lamation. April is the month of the military child. So,
004uh I like to uh appoint someone to read that proclamation. Um Let me see. Uh Mrs. Horwitz, would you like to do it? Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Proclamation, April is month of the military child. Be it resolved that the Colts Neck Board of Education hereby approves the following resolution. Whereas the month of April 2026 has been designated nationally as the month of the military child by the Department of Defense to underscore the important role military children play in the Armed Forces community. And whereas the New Jersey State Board of Education and the Department of Education aim to ensure through the policies established that all students are challenged to maximize their potential and to excel academically, socially, emotionally, and physically for college, career, and throughout life. And whereas the New Jersey Department of
005Education encourages school districts to provide support to children of service members as they transition between schools, to address their distinct needs, and prepare them to graduate as well-rounded citizens. And whereas the physical, social, and emotional well-being of children of military families is essential to their success and has a direct impact on the resiliency of military families serving our country. And whereas these efforts and support can improve the lives of military children and help pave the way for future generations. And whereas it is both fitting and proper that special recognition be given to ensuring military children feel safe and supported in our schools and community so that their parents can focus on the challenges and missions they face in the line of duty. Now therefore be it resolved that the Coltsneck Township Board of Education recognizes
006April 2026 as the month of military children in New Jersey. Great. Uh thank you so much for that Mrs. Harwitz. I just want to reiterate my remarks from this morning. The children of military families are very special. They give up, they sacrifice, and they live extraordinary lives and we appreciate everything that you do for our country as parents and military personnel. We This board is so grateful. I said it this morning. We are so grateful for our military and we're proud to have Naval Weapons Station Earle right in our backyard. And going forward as you know anything you folks need we will be there for you and we will make sure you receive those services from this district. I'd like to ask anybody from the board if they want to make any additional comments in
007regards to military and the Purple Up Day. Mr. Ericco. So I know nobody knows this but I come from a very long line of military. Dating pretty much all the way back almost to like the Crusades. I mean we seriously. I mean have our you know the whole 23 and me it's like that. So my uncle was in Vietnam. He was a lieutenant. He held the one and only air base there in Vietnam and he was shot at and bombed every single day on that base. My grandfather was in D-Day one you know so a lot of horrific things on that beach you know him his friends horrible. And believe it or not my grandfather was fighting against him in Italy at the time. So, I had two grandfathers. One was in Italy with the
008other alliance and the the axis of evil and my other grandfather was on Normandy Beach and but thank God Italy changed sides. Rightfully so when they got rid of Mussolini, but and then well before that I have my great grandfathers both fought in World War I. And then I'm not going to bore you with the rest of the wars, but Well, well thank you uh to your family service. I we weren't aware of that, but thank you as well. Yeah. Um anybody else want to make comments about our military Purple Up Day, our children? I just love the students from Laurel attending our school district. I think it brings that their life experiences relates relating to other students in our district. You know, let them know what a military kid goes through. And you know,
009the sacrifice they make. And I just it's nice to have our community you know, kids that attend school with your kids. I think it's makes our community a a better community for it and we're so grateful to have Laurel as part of our Colts Neck Township. Great, thank you Mr. Walsh. Uh anybody else? I know Dr. Garbe definitely wants to make some remarks. I'll say one thing. Thank you so much for your service and everybody else who who serves. I never had the privilege of serving. Uh this is my my little try to give back to the community, but I'm not putting my left foot in the line every day. So, I appreciate that and I can Jason come from a long line of military family as well on my um on my mother's side
010uh getting back to the Revolutionary War. So, uh I appreciate everything you do. Um you keep our country free, so thank you so much. All right, Dr. Garrabrant. Just briefly reiterating what I said this morning, we are so grateful to be partners with our families and to just hear that we continue to listen about the needs of the families and the kids and that's probably the best thing that you teach us every day is listening and responding to the needs and working so closely with Ida West Jones who was our liaison who comes to many of our board meetings, comes to every event possible and I think that partnership is so invaluable to what we're able to do and provides us with great insight as to what the needs are proactively and I think that's
011even better both, you know, we're we're not very seldom in a situation where we we are reactive. It's more about planning and being prepared for the different things that come our way in partnership and more importantly come your way and that's the most important thing for us. So, thank you. Thank you for being part of our school community, brightening every day, participating in our track meets like you did about an hour ago and doing well and, you know, taking that forward as a memory with you in your journey. We hope that we're a bright spot in your journey wherever it takes you in the future and that you know that you're always welcome as are all of our military affiliated families. Always welcome back in Colts Neck. So, thank you for all that you do.
012Thank you for being a bright spot in our school community. Just want to make sure Mrs. Chambers participant remotely. I'm not sure if she's queuing to speak or anything. Do you usually hear? I don't see her on the video. Okay. All right, so I don't see her on there. So, okay, at this time like I said, we have one more proclamation. I don't know if you have a minute for the second one. This one is also a very dear to this board's heart. We have a proclamation April is Autism Acceptance Month. At this time I'd like to have Mr. Walsh read that proclamation. If you could just put your mic on and put it closer to you, so Yeah, I'm sorry. All right, just bring it up to your, uh, face so people can hear
013you. Sorry. I've always loved the special needs community. It's I have a really friendly to the kids. Um, being a police officer in town all those years and walking the hallways to see their drive. I go out and meet all our special need kids every morning and walk them in. To me, they're special. Um, and it make makes our school community that much more special. So, and we do have a lot of friends with that have autism. Um, our special needs program is superlative. I think it's one of the best in the state. Parents move to Cold Spring Neck to have the resources and, uh, the great educators. They give them a great education. So, proclamation, April is Autism Acceptance Month. Be it resolved that Cold Spring Board of Education hereby approves the following resolution.
014Whereas, the month of April is globally acknowledged as Autism Acceptance Month dedicated to increasing awareness, understanding, and acceptance of Autism Spectrum Disorder. And whereas, it is important to recognize and support individuals with autism by fostering a learning environment and community that embraces neurodiversity and promotes inclusivity. And whereas, Autism Spectrum Disorders are characterized by a range of challenges and strengths impacting social communication, behavior, and sensory experiences. And whereas, raising awareness about autism is essential in promoting early diagnosis, intervention, and access to appropriate resources and support. And whereas, creating an inclusive and supportive environment for individuals with autism involves promoting understanding, empathy, and acceptance within schools, workplaces, homes, and communities. Whereat whereas the Colts Neck Board of Education acknowledges the importance of fostering understanding and support for individuals on autism spectrum and recognizes their unique and social
015emotional needs. And whereas creating inclusive and supporting learning environments that cultivate positive relationships, understanding, and empathy for all students, including those with autism, is integral to the mission of the Colts Neck Board of Education. And whereas the Colts Neck Board of Education is committed to promoting inclusive practices within educate educational settings to ensure safe, supportive, and equitable learning environments for all. And whereas collaboration among schools, families, and the broader community is essential to enhancing uh enhancing Oh goodness. enhancing awareness and understanding of autism and to furthering inclusive practices that benefit every student. And whereas the Colts Neck Board of Education recognizes the ongoing efforts required to advance autism awareness and acceptance, contributing to creation of a more compassionate and inclusive community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Colts Neck Township Board of Education hereby
016recognizes April 2026 as Autism Awareness Month in New Jersey. Great. Uh thank you so much, uh Mr. Walsh. Uh just brief comments on this as well. Uh I want to echo uh Mr. Walsh's comments. We're very proud to have, uh you know, all of our students uh that have autism attend uh this district. We're we're so proud of the work and their milestones that they reach here every single day. Um at this time, anybody want to make a comments on that particular resolution. Okay. All right, great. Um at this time that will conclude our resolutions for this evening. Captain Smith, I know you are a very busy man. I don't expect you to stay unless you want to stay for this 3-hour meeting. You're more than welcome to. The meat and potatoes are coming up.
017Um but it's up to you. I I know you're very busy. So, if you want to you know exit now, we certainly appreciate you coming and leading us in our flag salute. Hey, you sold me with 3 hours, but uh Yeah. I don't know what the protocol is, but if you don't mind if I can just real quick uh >> You can certainly. Yeah, please come up and speak at the mic so the public can hear you. >> tell you myself as a parent, but but all the parents that live and work in the neighborhood of May Shay Cheryl, we consider ourselves incredibly lucky to be part of the Colfax School District. Not only are your academic reputation, I mean, that as a parent, that's what I want, right? I want my kid to be
018prepared for college or life or whatever it is. And so, uh constantly, year after year after year, you guys score at the top. And And that's phenomenal. But it's it's the teachers, the administrators, the board members that have recognized the unique challenges that a military child faces. And you guys honest-to-goodness care. It's obvious how much you care and how much you put in to making sure that they succeed. And that means the world to us. It really does. So, please I appreciate all the kind words, but thank you too for what you do. All right. All right. Good night. >> Thank you very much. God bless you guys. Yeah. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You take some fruit home if you want, Captain. No, thanks. Yeah, I want to go
019back to the top where I missed like the comments. Yeah. Okay, folks. We're going to resume back in order here. I skipped over a few things. I believe we did the information items. Uh but if anybody wants to you know look at that briefly again, then we're going to open up the floor to comments from the public. If anybody has comments that they want to get up and share comments, concerns, or questions, you can do so at this time. I'm good. Okay. Tracy Diener, 5 Monticello Court. I'm sad that they left cuz I just wanted to tell him thank you and I wanted as a parent of two children in the system, I love that my kids are going to school with them. I think that that's incredible. It teaches our children to respect for
020the for those families and for those children. So, I'm sad that he walked away and that the family walked away, but I just wanted to put on record that I love that as a as a as an American and as a proud parent of my children for them to be able to associate and really, you know, learn from them, too. And I just wanted to tell you thank you. That's all. Yeah. Great. Thank you so much, Mrs. Diener. That's an an excellent comment. I just want to let you know, Mrs. Jones is here. She is our liaison and I'm sure that she will reiterate those comments back to Captain Smith, his family, and his daughter especially. So, that was very kind of you to recognize and thank you. Okay, anybody else want to make some
021comments um at this time? Okay, seeing none, we're going to close that. We're going to go right into our action items for approval. Um yes. Absolutely. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Garabedian for a second. Or as ever, how long you need. Um I just want to point out as we're going into the action item is a Cal meeting, so the action items aren't grouped by category, but I do want to call out as I always do, action item number three on the agenda this evening is the retirement of two individuals. Um and if I may start with the first one, it's Mrs. Veronica Zeno, um who is a an outstanding instructional assistant in our district. Um being an instructional assistant and some districts are called para professionals, whatever you want to call
022them, they're angels in the hallways. They work every single day with students, some with significant needs on a regular basis. And they show up every single day for these kiddos. And we couldn't operate without them. And the care and the love that they give to children every single day is just immeasurable. So, and Ronnie Gazeau is one of those people. So, we congratulate her on her retirement. 22 years of service as an instructional assistant. That is not just years of service, that is years of love of children. That she has worked with throughout the years. So, with all our respect and happiness and good wishes, we wish Mrs. Gazeau and health, happiness, and many, many smiles. And as much love as she gave to children in Coltsneck back to her in her retirement. So, congratulations
023to her retirement. A new one that came in Friday on the off the presses is Miss Miss Amy Desmond, who is a legend at the elementary school and in our district. 28 years as an elementary school She actually has over 30 years of teaching, but 28 of it has been at elementary school. A teacher with much dignity, integrity, and I cannot tell you the hundreds of students who have benefited and especially in the areas of reading and writing. In all areas really, but that was I she exudes a love of teaching all of those things and having children grow under her experience as a teacher has is really something special. And I know that students from many years ago and even the ones currently at this time will look back and remember the impact that
024Mrs. Desmond has had on their on their lives. So, with much happiness, regrettably, I have to throw that in. It is regrettably. We, you know, but with much happiness, health, and good fortune, just sharing of such a fun story of the type of person, if you don't know or haven't experienced Mrs. Desmond as a teacher, she had a milestone birthday a couple years ago. And one thing that I just loved about her was she wanted to return to playing the clarinet, which she played in high school, and she sat with Mrs. Chandler, the band teacher, to refresh her skills and then sat on the stage with her students and played with them as if she was a part to be part of the band. She did it on her own time as something that she
025just wanted to do, and that's the kind of person that Amy Desmond is and has been and will be for this for, you know, for all time to come. So, I wish her all the health, happiness, and good in her retirement. Great. Thank you for those wonderful comments, and yes, thank them both for their service to our district. At this time, anybody have any questions, comments on those 16 items? Questions or comments on the 16 items? Okay, if seeing none, I'll take a roll call. I'm sorry, I'll take a motion to move those items. >> Motion. Second. And roll call, please, Mr. Rasco. Mrs. Cameron? Yes. Thank you. Mrs. Horowitz? Yeah. Mr. Enrico? Yes. Mr. Rigney? I'm going to accuse from 4:00 to 6:00 due to my employment, but yes to all the rest. Thank
026you. Mr. Scales? Yes. Mrs. Volpe? Yes. Mr. Walsh? Yes. Mr. Wickberg? Yes. Thank you. Motion carried. Okay, great. Thank you, Mr. Rasco. Okay, we're going a little bit out of order here. We have one of our most dedicated student liaisons here tonight, Mrs. Emmanuel Diener. I'm going to skip I mean, I'm going to skip her to the front so she can address the board and bring forth any any initiatives or ideas that she wants to share with us this evening. So, if you could come on up, Mrs. Diener. Good evening, everybody. Um I have an update on the uh bullying project that I'm working on and um if you're unsure what I'm talking about, I'm I started working with Dr. Garabedian Dr. Rigby on a project that will uh um help not fully fix, but
027at least help kids start standing up to bullies and people who are not being nice to other people. And um so we started working on a survey at uh which like has which has um stuff on it about like, do you know what bullying is? Can you like tell the difference? Have you been bullied? Uh and to uh to like figure out like where bullying hits the hardest. Like, does it hit harder on sixth-grade females than it does on eighth-grade males? Like that sort of thing on the survey. And I also was recommended for a uh youth leadership group called Youth Time to Shine. That's a group that's uh that um is part of uh NJ Forest Compass, which is a organization that does free um presentations on bullying, tobacco use, mental health, physical health.
028And I applied for it and I got in. Um and it's all across Monmouth County students that are from middle school to high school, I think. And I went to the first meeting a couple of weeks ago. We made vision boards and not this week, but next week, I'm going to a like um a not a festival, but like Yes. What she said. Um Uh huh. Uh it's going to um talk about uh drug and tobacco usage. And I just recently uh received like word from friends that are in the elementary school that uh some students in the in the uh elementary school are getting like made fun of and bullied and uh I thought about maybe expanding the um project to the elementary school as well. I don't know if that's possible, but because
029like I don't want any student to be um like bullied and I guess it kind of starts at the younger ages than it does in middle school. And as most of you may know, I'm graduating this year, but I will of course continue to like email Dr. Garabedian and Mrs. Wolfe and Dr. Rigby about the um project to see how it's going and I'll of course come to all the board meetings um so I can stay in touch. Uh that's all I have for you guys tonight. Thank you. Have a great night. Well, Mrs. Deena, I'm going to I'm going to um have some remarks for you. First of all, I want to commend you for um basically going head-on with the topic of bullying. I I know it's certainly an issue for a lot
030of people and we certainly don't want to harbor any of that in this district. Um this board is very very uh um disappointed to hear any bullying would even happen here. Uh so I'm proud that you're leading the charge against this. I also want to say that um I commend you for putting out the survey to collect that data of exactly what's going on, so you know, you could you know, streamline, focus, and you know, see how to make your program better. Uh in regards to putting it in the elementary school, I think you should master it at Cedar Drive, see what works, and then once it's all timed up, I think Mr. Osman would certainly love to incorporate some type of um branch of this over at the elementary school uh starting with the
031fifth graders cuz I think they're obviously the most mature. So, I commend the entire program. I also want to congratulate you on your acceptance um uh and I think it's well deserved. You're a you're you're strong leader, and I want to let you know you're welcome to come back to this board after graduation, and the podium's always available to you, okay? So, thank you for all your work you do with the liaison program. Thank you. >> thank you. I um I believe I'm not fully sure. I'm pretty sure I'm the only student liaison that's been in the program for all three from the beginning for all three years of middle school. >> your tenure's been the longest, and uh you've been the most active, um and I believe your ideas and initiatives have uh have
032um passed the most, so to speak. So, we appreciate you, and I don't know if any other board member would like to commend her on all those achievements. If anybody wants to say >> get her. Thank you. I can say congratulations. You only have a few more years you can run. Pretty soon, you Yeah, you can actually run for the school board. Yeah. Yeah, but being in college is more important right now, but then you can come back and pick up a volunteer job. Think about it. What is the What is the Freehold Regional District? The 18-year-old was just elected? Yes, yeah. Yep. Getting close. Yep. So, yeah, keep that in mind. Not that we're recruiting you, but it's something Uh anybody else want to make a comment? No. I just wanted to reiterate what
033you said, but you know, in terms of listening, right? I think that one of the things that we did here is at the elementary school next year we're planning for and funding a leadership program at the elementary school, where we look at, you know, how we can be upstanders and things and, you know, working as an in an afterschool capacity. So, I don't want to steal the thunder of Mr. Osmond in talking about that, but that is something that's in the works and it is about navigating, you know, it's not just about kindness, it's the directions and interpersonal skills like all of this kinds of and cultivating that at an earlier level. Um you know, social media and all the things that come along with it. So, um so, that's a you know, that's a
034connected piece to it. If you don't get to see the you know, a project come to fruition at the elementary school, it's on the radar. Great. Well, thank you so much for your time and coming to speak tonight. We always appreciate you. >> yes. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh we are going to start the board liaison reports. We're going to start with Mrs. Harwitz uh for the parent advisory committee soon to be parent information forum. I'm sorry. Parent information forum. We have it actually printed incorrectly here tonight. I apologize for that. Let me just pull up all my notes. So, our next meeting is scheduled for this Monday, April 20th at uh 7:00 p.m. Um do we have a topic? I don't know if >> Wait, this Wait, this Monday?
035This Monday. You can decide. I decided with Dr. Dareback. I mean, we we kind of talked about a topic or but >> Yeah, we're going to send the agenda out. We're going to be revisiting some of the recommendations that came about with regards to transitioning programs and >> having more of an open forum. >> Correct. About talking to kids. All right. Sounds good. Um do you want me to go into the PTO stuff? Yes, please. Yeah, go right ahead. Um eighth grade photo montages uh any submissions need to uh be submitted by May 1st. There's a second grade event in the primary school cafeteria May 29th at 6:30 um to 8:00 p.m. And lastly, the eighth grade dance is June 12th from 7:00 to 11:00 at the Cole Street firehouse. That's it. Great. I just
036want to backtrack back to the uh parent uh information form. Uh we discussed a little bit about that uh um initiative about having the eighth graders kind of welcome the fifth graders. Yeah, I I think that's a fantastic I forget who uh brought that up. I'm sorry, my mind's um is drawing a blank, but one of the ladies brought that up. I think it's a fantastic idea. Even though we do have that little bit of a um you know, an open house for them, but being one-on-one with like an eighth grader to walk them through what's expected. I I think it's exceptional idea. This way they go in in a more confident manner to the middle school uh knowing a lot more uh by their mentors. So, uh thank you to whoever um uh brought
037forth that. Okay, moving on we have the Coltsneck Township newsletter. Mrs. Camera, once again, she's uh participating remotely. She's going to do her report. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Um March 24th, the spring newsletter was emailed to families. Um just reminding residents who do not receive the newsletter via email that you can go to the school website, Coltsneck Township schools. We have a link to subscribe. It's under the Board of Ed tab, newsletters, and I am encouraging residents to subscribe. Okay, and that's all for my newsletter. Okay, great. Thank you, Mrs. Camera. Going right into the um Coltsneck Township arts, sports, and extracurricular activities. Mr. Regnetta and Mr. Wickberg. Anybody have comments? Uh yeah. Yeah. Um right now uh there's a track and and field clinics going on at Coltsneck High School uh uh for grades
0383 to 8 uh uh Wednesday uh Wednesdays um starting Wednesday starting tonight uh Wednesday night starting tonight. But, I believe you can still sign up uh uh happening next week uh through uh May 20th. Uh they're going on. It's $120 Uh and and they're taking 35 participants. Again, it's for track and field for grades 3 to 8. There's also Colts Neck cheer program that's going on for girls that want to cheer at the Pee Wee games. Right now summer practices are going to begin on July 20th for aerial gymnastics portion of it and I believe at a different price. But this is for ages of 5 to 10 will be Wednesdays 6:30 to 7:30 uh and then ages 11 and up will be Wednesdays from 7:30 to 8:30. And then team practices will be get
039again same time until July around July July 20th Tuesdays and Thursdays will be for 5 to 6 year olds uh from 5 I'm sorry Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 to 6 for ages around 6 years old 6 and 7 and for 8 to 10 year olds will be Tuesdays from 6 to 7:30 and then for 12 to 14 year olds it'll be Monday and Friday from 5 to 7. Those will be the team practices for the summer and for the fall the team practices move to Friday nights and the 6 to 7 year olds will be 4:15 to 5:15 Friday night. The 8 to 10 year olds will be 5:15 to 6:15 on Friday nights and the 12 to 14 year olds will be Friday at 6:15 to 7:30. And the first scrimmage will be
040on August 15th so they could cheer at the first scrimmage and the first game will be August 23rd I believe. And they can also will be cheering at that as well too. Uh the seasons will begin again mid mid-August and it goes through mid-October and then possibly farther depending on playoffs. The registration closes on May 10th May 10th so go to Colts Neck ayf.teamsidelines site.com to register. And that's about it for now. Thank you. Great. I thank you Mr. Orgnati. Would you like to add anything Mr. Rickberg? Uh yes. Yeah, sure. There we go. Um I wanted to thank Mr. Willis and Ms. Fitzner for the uh the spring course they held. It was It seems like a forever ago. It was only a couple weeks. But it was It was a It was a
041really great show. I want to thank them, the faculty staff, and custodians for setting up the room and you know, putting it all together. It was a good show. Yep, great for Thank you for those comments. You know, we want to Me Me and Mr. Walsh had attended also the band performance and it was exceptional. So I echo the comments of Mr. Rickberg. Um I just want to remind you guys keep on the back burner. We do have a pending meeting with the Sports Foundation leadership one more before the end of the year. We have not sent the email out, but I figured we'd wait closer to maybe the end of May. I don't want to wait till June because it's going to be hectic with my daughter's graduation and other things. We get very
042busy in June. So by maybe mid-May to late May we'll be sending out an invitation to meet with them to tie in up you know, their request for next year. Okay, moving on to the Colts Neck Township Committee, Mr. Walsh. We both attended, President and myself. And go over the highlights of the committee township committee meeting. They gave a proclamation to our drug alliance organization headed by Anita Teddallace who's given countless years of service to educating kids in our district and our schools on awareness of drug and alcohol dangers, pitfalls of going down that road. And there's a proclamation just recognizing the impact of alcohol related injuries, deaths, and crime associated with alcohol. And National Donate Life Proclamation was read. Uh important highlighting importance of registering on when you get your ID, driver's license, be
043a donor. You can possibly save six or seven people with given your gift of life to another person. Um They had a couple ordinances that tighten up the ordinance for a cottage food operations, which I was pretty unaware of running a business from your home. It's regulations on that and certain people can come so some you know, certain people can the whole They're really uh >> wants dog hair in there in their cookies that people your neighbors are selling. It was important they updated it. Motor motorized bicycle ordinance was updated. These now these kids flying flying around in the parks creating havoc on e-bikes and scaring the heck out of horse. People riding horses on our beautiful trails. They can ride into the parks accessing the roads into the parking lot, but they don't want
044them riding in the I would say they shouldn't be all over our parks and our trails so Um their suggestion was they're going to start posting signs and the police department's going to enforce it. Uh the big thing at the meeting was the amending the zoning ordinance for the three developments that our Superior Court Judge of Monmouth County imposed in our township. Um they had to amend the zoning law laws to meet the court order, which was given out on March 9th. One of the subdivisions uh apparently is um restricted deed restricted. Long story short, if the township governing body didn't pass this ordinance, it would open up our township to developers building everywhere and anywhere. Basically, to keep our immunity, the committee township committee one voted no and a couple, you know, rest voted
045in the majority to um keep us safe from losing our immunity. The township is vigorously going to appeal that decision and it could take a couple years in the courts. The impact of those development those court um court-imposed um mandated affordable housing obligation for round four could be up to 865 units. How is it going to impact our Board of Education? It could possibly see Rob probably tell better than I can anywhere from 3 to 400 plus students. Um I'll talk about that long range, but that was that was the big one of the the committee uh township committee. They had to um endorse the amended fourth round housing element and the fair share plan uh for the court. The committee reports our police department I'm proud to say being a retired officer in Colts
046Neck Township have is going to receive its accredit accreditation again. It's a big achievement for our police department to be accredited by the Chiefs of Police. Um basically, their their their department's really squared away. Policy procedures. Um every facet of policing, how it affects the community, and their police actions are are uh have to pass a rigorous testing. So, it's a big achievement. They're going to be recognized on May 13th. I think the next Township Committee meeting. I'm not sure. Anyway, Chief of Police Danny DeVito is going to come with other chiefs in the um state and Monmouth County and give a special recognition to our police department who's doing a fantastic job. Kudos to Chief DeVito, his command staff, and all officers in particular. The other I'm Madam President, can you remember any other
047important things? >> No, I think that covered absolutely everything that was said. >> Ticket, by the way, starting May 1st to May 31st. They're going to be out there enforcing seat belts. Um Pretty much like we give recognition. The town recognized our DPW for taking care of the trails and parks. We have a great Department of Public Works. And that concludes my report. Yeah, I think you Yes, uh one moment. Uh I want to um just commend our Colts Neck Township Police Department for the um recent accolades they uh just received. Um I'm sure this whole board uh feels the same way. Um the officers and all that they sacrifice as well. Um I remember Kevin serving. Uh their job is certainly not easy. Uh they deal with a lot of BS um regardless of
048whether this town is as rural as it is. There is a lot of stuff that's always going on, and I just want to thank each and every one of them uh for their uh dedication to our town. Uh Mrs. Camera, um would you like to have some input there? Um yes, thank you. I just wanted to talk a little bit about the e-bikes. Um I completely understand that students on e-bikes should not be riding on horse trails. Um I'm glad Mr. Walsh brought that up. However, I I do think maybe the town might consider adding those designated bike lanes to promote safety for everyone. I know as a driver on there's many narrow roads and I do find some of the current conditions concerning and I want students to have a safe way to bike
049around town. So maybe it's something that the township maybe in collaboration with the Board of Ed we can work together to create some bike routes that connect our schools and parks to our neighborhoods. It might be something we want to consider and you know for long-term planning. And I do just want to reiterate that our schools have been and will continue working with the police department educating our students on e-bike safety and local regulations. So you know we we can continue enhancing safety. So that's all. Thank you. Great. Thank you Mrs. Camera. Yeah, maybe Mr. Walsh at the next meeting you could mention something about working together with making the roads safer somehow with e-bikes. >> course trails you can have bike bike trails. Yeah. Okay, maybe maybe something to think about and you know
050present something to them. Thank you Mrs. Camera for bringing that to our attention. You're welcome. Okay, actually you done Mr. Walsh? Okay, all right. Moving on to the Colts Neck 250 celebration. It's back to you Mrs. Camera. Great. Thank you again. So the last meeting was Thursday October 9th. Dr. Garabed and I both attended. I'm going to start with some of the school events that we're doing and then I'll move on to some of the towns. So first I just want to remind our families as well as Colts Neck High School families that the calendar contest is on. Dr. Garabed had updated the flyer for the township's contest. It's also on the Colts Neck Township Schools website under USA 250th. It is not just for our students but all residents. So I just want to
051be clear that that was something we discussed at the meeting and it's all Coltsneck residents. Um any any child can enter you even if your you know son or daughter goes to private school. So, seniors will be receiving $200 and will get the cover. Our K-2-11 winners will receive $100 and the checks are being donated by the Coltsneck Historical Society. Um likewise, we have our Board of Education video contest under the same tab, so I encourage families to go out and get your kids involved. Um we also discussed at the committee actually Dr. Garabedian told us about a patriotic themed field day similar similar to our patriotic Read Across America week. Um we are still working on hanging those 1776 flags to be placed at each of the schools. Some have been sold out, so
052I know that's something that um our administration is still working on. And we were informed at the meeting that many of the township's 1776 flags were stolen. So, just want to let the community know I find that really unfortunate and wanted to um make sure everyone knew. On the Board of Education USA 250th tab, we have links to township events, Monmouth County events, the Monmouth County library, national events as well. Okay, now moving on to the town. The two next township events are occurring in May. So, the first one is Wednesday, May 6th. It's lawn tour. Ticket prices are $50 per person and it's sponsored by the Coltsneck Business Association and the contact person is Connie DeMaio. There will be two charter buses that have bathrooms. It will run from 10:00 to 2:00 with a
053half hour um stop at each spot. They'll be going to Stillwell, Synergy, Stone Hedge, and Fox Breeze. And I believe Dr. Garabedian, I'm not in person, but made flyers um for this event. The buses will rotate um that way there's not too many people at each of the farms. You can purchase tickets via a QR code, the um Colts Neck Business Association website, or through social media. And something new we found out is that at each farm there will be some kind of snack or drink. So, it really sounds like an amazing opportunity and I I hope many people are able to take advantage of it. The other May event is the Memorial Day parade. It's hosted by Recreation and Parks Department. It will continue just like um previous years with the bike decorations and
054the Colts Neck High School ROTC and the marching band. Some new additions are again the 1776 flags along the parade route and they are looking into a 1-mile fun run before the parade uh again with a 250th theme. Um the other thing I do want to mention is unfortunately we couldn't pull it together for this year, but we are looking um for an eighth grade trip to Washington, D.C. So, um it's very exciting. Dr. Rigby is working on this. Uh we're hoping it will be a new annual trip in honor of the 250th the semi quincentennial celebration and we're looking at it being tentatively scheduled for November of 2026. Um we're just getting still getting some feedback from parents making sure they're interested. So, the last thing just a reminder to join the Colts Neck,
055New Jersey 250th page on Facebook and Instagram to see all of the town highlights. That's everything. Great. Uh thank you, Mrs. Cameron. I have some remarks. I had found out um through Dr. Garabed that we got a huge positive response for the eighth grade trip. I mean, it was exceptionally welcomed uh from the parents. So, um I'm sad sad my daughter's not going. I'm not going to lie. And that that would have been a blast, girl. Anyway, um, I am so proud that we are moving forward with the uh, the following classes. I'm so happy we could we could present this to them at least. So, thank you, Dr. Rigby, Dr. Garbe, for making this happen for future classes. It's going to be amazing experience for those kids. Um, and just to let you know,
056Phyllis, I do have the little flyer I'm holding up uh, that Dr. Garbe made, um, with regards yes, uh, with regards to the uh, the barn tour. So, if anybody wants to take a look at that, it was very well done. So, thank you. >> Right. Um, actually, just so you know, it uh, Sue Fitzpatrick made the I'm sorry. Dr. Garbe did not make the flyer. >> not make it. I did not make it. Sorry about that. She did not make the flyer. I'm not sure who to give credit to that, but it wasn't Dr. Garbe. Sue Fitzpatrick. Sue Fitzpatrick made the >> Fitzpatrick. Okay, I'm sorry. Sue Fitzpatrick made the flyer. Correction. Thank you. Thank you for not taking the credit for that. Um, okay. Um, okay, that that concludes your report, Mrs. Camera?
057Yes, thank you. All right, thank you. Moving to Cosenza Township Township Seniors, uh, Mr. Walsh. Okay. I'm qualified to talk about it. Okay. I mean, a senior and all. Okay, the next meeting is May 6th at the Cosenza Inn. They have upcoming trips. April 16th is a guided tour of the biggest Hindu temple in the United States, and guess where it is? Robbinsville, New Jersey. I never knew about it. It's got 10,000 statues in there. It took 10 years to build, 12,000 people to build it. It's got the biggest elliptical Am I pronouncing this right? Some dome. Biggest in the country. I think it's uh, something to behold, I was told. So, they're going to be out there going on April 16th. They have some upcoming trips. They will say the date for June 16th
058at the good times roll the shore club on August 20th 1770s 1776 Surf Light Theatre. I think that's in LBI, Long Beach Island. I believe so. Um I just want to highlight Well, there's one senior turning 100. Joe Mack, happy birthday. Oh, good for him. Happy birthday. Senior member. I'd like to really uh give thanks to Mr. Colby in the recreation department. He does a They do a tremendous uh um programs for the seniors in town at the recreation center. Monday through Friday they have uh body sculpting class classes, fitness dances, line dancing every day of the week for them to go down and keep in shape and keep active and keep social. So, kudos to Mr. Colby. Uh the recreation department who is going to run another fantastic uh summer rec program out of
059our schools. And that's pretty much it for the senior citizens. Uh great. Thank you, Mr. Walsh. Um Mr. Scarpis is not here, um but I I want to reiterate the purple uh the purple up day uh in regards to celebrating our military children. Just reiterating one last time, we had a fantastic time. Thanks for everybody who participated to make that happen. And we appreciate all of our military uh children attending our schools. Um going right into the state and county school boards. We have a couple of things. Uh nominations are open uh for the New Jersey School Boards Unsung Superheroes in Education Award. So, this basically will be nominations for um the support staff, bus drivers, aides, food service workers, security guards. Uh these nominations, I encourage people if you'd like to they're uh nominations
060are due by June 30th. Um and awards will be recognized at the New Jersey School Board Workshop that I always uh speak about that's in October. It'll be in Atlantic City from October 19th to the 22nd. If you guys want to follow up, it's all in your emails. May 8th, we have a virtual spring conference. This will feature multiple training sessions, which will include training on Robert's Rules, school finances, chronic absenteeism. Once again, it's virtual. It's $129. It'll be from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00. That information is also in your email. And just like I said about the AC conference, that workshop is being advertised already for the 2026. That's open for registration and hotel accommodations. That will be at the Atlantic City Convention Center. That will include the state and county school boards. We are
061going to move right into the Committee of a Whole Work Session at this time. We are going to start with the ad hoc affordable housing committee report. Mr. Scales, I don't know if you'd like to start. Mr. Walsh, you could comment. Yeah. All right, great. Thank you, Mr. Scales. Dr. Garbaccio, give some color on sort of the progress you made with item number one there. Thank you. So, recently Mr. Walsh had requested that as a superintendent you start to look into things and and think about it differently. Leading conversations. So, I had made two specific outreaches. One was to the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, which is my professional organization for the state, superintendents or anyone who has a chief school administrator certification directors, assistant superintendents, whatnot. And made a similar inquiry. Made an
062inquiry related in through affordable housing through a different lens. And it's through the lens of school school funding formula, as we know, which is in desperate need of revamping. And how school the school funding formula is projecting or is measuring up and or adjusted based on municipality affordable housing mandates that have are happening throughout the state. And the answer that I got was very honest uh from NJASA, which is the conversations among that group have not taken place yet because the research that is out there is based most mostly upon and it's more recent. Um but it is on the educational value of affordable housing and opportunities they're provided to families when they're able to go to schools that maybe they would not normally be able to afford homes in. So, that's nothing new in
063in educational research. So, I posed another the same question to our District 11 um Senator, Senator Gopal, who gave a very honest answer back and it was similar to NJASA, which is there is not a connectivity of the conversations of legislation that funds schools and affordable housing mandates. Those two organizations are not having cohesive conversations. So, it is a prime time to really bring forth conversations about All right, how can we looking at this because just and forgive me, I do have about it's a short 27-page report that I'm putting together for the board about things. Um but in general, one of the things I'm not going to read all of it, Mr. Eurico, but one of the things I am going to point out is that the concept is is that, you know, affordable
064housing has the potential to increase enrollment, right? It has the the potential to uh add in uh different demographics, different needs of students, so on and so forth. It what what it doesn't track in terms of the and those are all real things. And those are all we know, based on the information that have been provided, the largest impact that we're going to feel first on is going to be at the primary school. That's something that we've had. That's something the demographics will say that is likely within the first 1 to 3 years that the largest impact will be found there. We also know based upon our utilization capacity studies that the primary school is already at utilization and capacity. You know, it's it's already there. So, for purposes and what has been happening, I
065don't want to talk too much up about it, but in terms of behind the scenes, we've had conversations about what do we do next? Because while it the projections are not like, "Hey, tomorrow we're having 400 kids here." That's not a reality. That's not what's going to happen. But, over 10 years, is that something that we're going to see growth? Absolutely, that's going to happen. But, in reality, the revenue that we will see is not going to catch up to the immediate need, okay? Because if we have a child that moves in in two years, a student with disabilities, significant needs, additional funding, we won't be able to account for that child until the following year. And that's only one child. So, that's how that will also work out. The other part of this that
066districts like ours, and Mr. Morasco, and jump in at any time, that make us unique, not unique to the state, but you you unique for our demographics, is that affordable housing increases ratables. So, state funding is also based upon the wealth of a community. So, you can receive students through affordable housing and actually get a decrease in state funding. Because they're not talking to each other. They're not related to each other. And that's a conversation I want to connect. Following that through the pattern of things and saying, "Listen, as school leaders, you know, we get it. You know, we get it's a municipality minute. I get the law. Understand all of that." But, if it's an opportune time where legislative school legislators at the state level are talking about a much needed reform school funding
067act, right, and updates to that, then now is the time to do it because there are districts like I I shared with them an article from Princeton. You know, there were two articles that basically came out a week from each other. One was the budget presentation where they captured and recognized a shortfall, right, in their budget even with revenue that was being brought in through a pilot program, right? And then in a week later, it was an announcement of another round of affordable housing that was in Princeton. So, when you look at things like that, those like the articles are talking about the same thing in different ways and we're not connecting those conversations. So, proactively understanding two things. Now, the students that come come to us will, you know, they will um increase our
068adequacy budget, right? Because you have more kids, you're spreading your expenditures over more kids. That's a visual perceptive enhancement for us, right? Because that infamous taxpayer's guide to education spending, which does nothing but compare expenditures in disproportionate ways, but that's another whole story. I'll talk about never at a later time or whatever when you want me to, but in anyway, that it it's something that um it doesn't grasp the immediate imminent need of planning, which is why at this stage of planning and talking about our buildings and grounds, looking at it through a long range, you know, that all right, 1 to 3 years. Our measure of growth is going to be at the primary school for the next 3 years. That's what's going to happen as soon as they're housed and stuff. That's what
069we're going to be looking at. So, we have to be able to look at what does that mean from a restructuring, what does that look like from And these are those conversations that you know, conversations under finance or we're looking at all right, how are we going to be tackling some of our larger projects, how are we going to be looking at managing some of the things because we are going to have to be prioritizing, you know, the capacity builds. Now, I think it's about like 360 is the worst case scenario is what I've seen. I don't want to say that, but I think in terms of Correct me if I'm wrong, but based on all the projections based upon the calculations of demographics and all the Rutgers studies and different things like that. That
070is a number that keeps going out. So, when we're compiling data, that is the number Well, it's not you know, we It's not a number. It's the the only number is when you and I have got it. No one else has got it. Yeah, so that is a that is a number that we look at based on a formula that is widely acceptable and used, you know. So, that's the what's what we look at for that. So, the way we look at that is that, okay, what does that look like, you know, and who are those kids and what are their needs? And that doesn't take into effect we were just talking with with Ida and you know, we know rotations are coming up and in July and those are unknowns, you know, we and
071what what did you say and and not to put you on the spot you're like, you're going to be getting some more like this year before the end of the year. So, those are all things that we've become accustomed to and growing and everything and it's not we're not unique. It's falling everywhere in districts except where enrollments are down. You know, um that's not happening here. We're not in we're not in that situation. So, now is absolutely the time where we have to be talking about how we're funding our programs, what we want our district to look like long-term because the long-term effect is from 1 to 10 years. So, what do we want students 1 to 10 years from now to be to experience here in this in Colts Neck Township schools. That's the
072decision and how are we going to prioritize the facilities, spendings, the allocations, the programs, and what it's going to take knowing that nothing is getting less expensive. Right now, nothing. You know, when you're looking at at and including transportation costs, everything, you know. Those are your big tickets. You Those have sat on finance for a couple years. Those are You know the big ticket things that come out. You're like, sticker shock. Every year. So. Reality, well, education educational aspect of the educators' input into the affordable housing mandates has been non-existent. Right. Okay, so the idea is, yes, receive the child, receive the family, and give them a great opportunity. The irony of this mandated housing is the financial impact on our school district. School districts all around us and clean this town soon are going
073to be on life support. We're not going to be able to afford our normal operating budget to sustain three to 400, 500 students. Let's be real. Let's be frank about what's going to happen. This is going to cost our township millions of dollars to add on to the schools or build a new school. This forced mandated housing is crushing every community in state in New Jersey. Why do we have board members in Coltsneck Township? Why are we sitting here? Cuz we really care about our kids' education. Our school district is one of the best in the state. Our mission set as board members is to ensure that our kids maintain the highest level of education. We still have to deal with the financial impact of it. As a board, we have to prepare early. Not
074the the time is to act now, not 4 years from now, 5 years from now. The community, I want you to hear. It's going to cost millions of dollars 3 to 4 or 5 years from now to maintain a quality of education. There's no escaping that. The Trenton is enforcing these mandates. The activist judges are mandating these roundabout obligation imposing on us, our town. They don't care about the financial impact of our residents. They don't care. Correct. Who's going to pay for this? Our taxpayers. As a community, as a board of education, regardless, we have to be prepared. We have to act. We have to have a a plan in in effect. Like you said, that the primary thing you're going to see the primary students affected first. We're already at capacity. I'd say 2026,
0752027, we're going to have to move students from one school to another. I mean >> Possibly. I don't think that that's something that we I don't I think that we have to look at again, it's about utilization, too, not just about capacity. So, we do have to be looking at it for I'm not at a point where I'm making a recommendation to be redistrict restructuring the district right now. >> I'm confident you as superintendent will advise us as a board. >> Absolutely. That's part of what we need to do in terms of That's what this is for, right? And this getting together and talking to other superintendents and educators take the lead on how this this mandated housing housing is affecting our the quality of education for our students here and every other community. So,
076we have big challenges ahead. We have big work to do. >> Big, a lot of work to do. And we need to be in a partnership with our township committee or our township government. We need to work very closely together and ensure that we're meeting all the needs for our students presently and our future population. But, thank you superintendent for the work you're doing. I really appreciate it. >> Thanks. Any questions on what I just kind of was talking about? Like I said, I'll share. I think that the bottom line into what what you reiterated was having more conversation with Mr. Marasco as well, is looking at it is that the an a very I don't want to say a dominant factor that's not talked about a lot with school funding is the wealth of
077the community that factors greatly in. And with ratables that increase with affordable housing, and if trends still continue the way they have been for Coltsneck, the we will look at it is that our local fair share, the community, the state will look at our district as it does now and says, "The community can afford to educate its students." And our category and our No, no, no. Meaning No, no, no, no. That's what the state says about Coltsneck. That's why we don't receive a great deal of of categorical state aid. It's because of our local fair share. And that's what state aid does. State aid offsets that com- that that I guess um com- complex kind of figure in their head of saying of what a local fair share is from a formula perspective. >> Socialism.
078So, that's what there's that's basically what this is cuz it takes the wealth of of the community into config- configuration. So, that's not going to decrease here. It's only going to get more and it doesn't necessarily translate into that of state aid, which is the conversation that has to have take place. Well, we're not receiving our fair share for sure. There's nothing fair about this fair No, and I think you affordable housing. There's nothing fair about it. But, like I said as a board and communally, we've got to make sure we do the right thing for our kids' education. You, you know, you've been eloquent about it. I mean, you know, as a superintendent of a very successful district, the probably the most successful in Monmouth County. Um you know, I'll commend you for what
079you what you've done and and we got to see, you know, some of the communication back and forth. And I'll be frank, like the amount of time that you put in to message those people and then the responses that you got, especially from our senator, is unacceptable. And I think we've we've put in some plans in place, right? With operation district safeguard. We've got literally put the math out there. Now, the math's been out there for about a year and a half now, right? About what the impact will be. And like you said, it's public information. It's not difficult to just say, "All right, here's the square footage of the town. Let's times it by the ratable." It's It's so easy. And the fact of the matter is is that nobody is is listening, number
080one. Number two, nobody wants to take ownership. So, to the the politicians that actually have the meat and potatoes to send a bill to the Senate to challenge what we have. It's not about affordable housing. I think what's happening is that there's a lot of liberal leadership right now in Monmouth County, especially where our our district is. They're afraid to say the term affordable. So, I want to be clear just as my position of the the chairman of this committee is that this has nothing to do with the affordability controls. It has nothing to do with the affordable housing. It has to do with over development. So, if it's if I need to change a term to get you to do your job, tell me cuz I'll I'll be honest. You have till July 1st
081to give a plan to the district to let us know what we need to do to work with you. And if we don't get it from our senator, we don't get it from our township committee, we're taking over and we're going to take over what the direction is going to be and the resources that we need. That is what Operation District Safeguard is. I know who to reach out to. I know where to go, how to do it, but we sit on a board as the the Board of Education. We're we're not the ones that are responsible for taking action from a legislation perspective. But, if we don't get that response, we're going to have to. And then what what's ultimately going to wind up happening is the the politicians that are in our way
082are going to be held accountable and they're going to look terrible and they're going to lose their notoriety in town and their credibility in town and then they won't have a position come the next election cycle. So, >> us. That's it. >> Silence is not Silence is not acceptable anymore and we're going to be We're not going to be reactive. We're going to be proactive. We saw what just happened. We were joking about it before, Sarah. We saw about Edison. Um Edison one of was a successful district. They just got destroyed and they want to put in a tax increase of of double digits. So, it's not It's not like we're making something up and it's not like we're discussing that oh, this is this is something that just happened overnight. We've we've said this
083now for a year and a half. We have the plans in place do something about it. We got a great superintendent lead that fight in making sure our district is Yeah, I think it's about >> I'm fiscally in shape and the kids are getting the best education. >> Yeah, and it's about opening a dialogue and I think that's what I what we did receive back that there's an open dialogue and communication and and expressing a concern and you know, asking and requesting and sitting at that table and saying listen, I'm learning with you, you know, as I admitted I admitted to them this is something that based on the past couple years we started with demographic studies, you know, years ago and looking at it when the first rounds were announced and having conversation with
084the town committee at that point, you know, those types of things. But the nitty-gritty of it, you know, it's a learning process. You learn a lot as you research it and you go down the rabbit holes of learning about more and seeing this way and you know, now you when you're not when the first thing that came to mind was about well, how is it being adjusted addressed the funding formula? And that's a question that I think, you know, deserves answering for among school leaders. Yep. We have a community that has 3 years of zero tax increases. Nowhere in the state does this happen. All around us is collapsing. The school systems are collapsing. The schools are going to be closing. Uh thanks to Mr. Morasco's business administrator for having stewardship for the past 10
085years here making sure we're in good shape. The money was tucked in the right places. Thank you to the school board members. Most conservative school board probably in the country. They have great fiscal oversight and uh conservative values. Um we don't spend what we don't have. It's that simple. >> Correct. And basically it's you don't spend, you stop spending. When you don't have enough money, you don't get things. Yeah. I don't buy steak when we don't have money. It's just simple. >> town and have a school district where boy, that oversees our schools. I can tell you that. That's for sure. That concludes my affordable housing committee report. But again, thank you though Dr. Gerber. I don't want it to go unnoticed that again, you're the only one speaking up. You know, this is it.
086People just you have to respond. When we ask a question, like follow follow our lead or you'll be left behind. That's it. Bottom line. Doctor, I dare to say you're the only superintendent in the state that's Yep. Putting this out right now trying to get a a round table to No, my colleagues throughout the state have been very vocal about their financial impacts in their district and business administrators. So, I think that having, you know, conversations and their recept being receptive, both the legislator and, you know, the legislation and and being receptive to saying let's put the two conversation marry the conversations together. There's no conversation on Google pal. I did not Well, no, he did reach out and, you know, he did respond to me. He was the one who actually responded with a
087lot of the educational research that existed, but that but opening up a conversation. Yeah, but but reading the information and um future open dialogues, you know, cuz one of the things I mentioned in the conversation was about pilots and saying like listen right now the law kind of talks about that boards of education have to advocate for information. >> on his part of funding? Uh >> funding. Was there any communication >> Not yet. Not yet. I mean, there's been conversation about he has spoken uh with our superintendent's group, come to our monthly meeting uh regarding um consolidations and efforts and things with school funding uh with the new administration. Uh you know, sitting and kind of listening to what that's going to look like. Um I think the ship's sinking in Trenton and there's a
088lot of schools that going to go down with it. Uh bless our our school community. That's all I can say. But I think open to recei- to receiving those suggestions. Like one of the things that, you know, I circled back with to him was also being able to say, let's look at specific things that speak to us that are mandated by like let's talk about Aiden Lou. Right? Let's talk about those kinds of things as things that can be switched to tax credits as opposed to expenses on family on school districts. Like let's start to maneuver some of those things. >> Fortunately, it's a little too late. A little bit too late. It's funny like we, you know, when you you look at like They they call them Scalesisms cuz I always have to say
089something stupid, but the the problem is is that literally what you're doing is put into perspective. Like what all all of our legislative leaderships doing is they're rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. That's what's happening. Everything that they're doing is not working. And it's too late. >> They don't know what to do. >> just moving and shuffling things around. That's it. So like honestly, like and I mean this with wholehearted respect. If you were to to reach out to a senator and you ask for a direct question, and then that person responds with, "Well, here's a you know, a citation to a book you should read up on." No. When we message you and our superintendent messages you, give an answer with information. That's all. Not speaking and putting words in your mouth, but
090I would like to see more information because we're asking for it and no one's giving it and there's no ownership, there's no leadership, and it's got to happen. And I think the response and and just to clarify cuz I know I shared the exact con- the conversation, which was, you know, I you know, it is there a conversation that's taking place? Is there research available? That's what I asked. And the research that I got was what was available. So that I think was an In fairness, I think it was an honest response to the the question, which then prompted me in a very, you know, me kind of way to ask another question. And so then you got a response back to the question. So So but that's the dialogue. That's the opening of the
091dialogue when you're asking the questions and then you're able to get a response. And so, I'm very optimistic to keep the conversation going. And you know, hoping you know, to be part of the conversations just as for even just for you know, large There's been districts as to your point, Mr. Walsh, there's been districts that through S2 funding, through the formulas, for various reasons that are are financially decimated being decimated. Just the beginning. This is just the beginning. >> looking for referendums. What happened in in Is it Was it Ocean Gate that they passed a referendum to keep the school open? Yeah. And it it went down. So, they're closing the school, the only school in the town. They're closing and they're going to redistrict to go somewhere else. And that's something that's that's If
092for communities, people feel sad for that, you know, because those are traditions of walking to school and there's different things that people admire. So, that's the part where And what did they say? just a It's not just a business deal. A school district is not just a a business deal. It is a part of a community. And and and it has to be looked at as such. It is the largest congregation of citizens in a town every single day. Every single day. There is no great thing that happens in in a in a community where the most little citizens come together every single day. Amen. So, that's something that has to be at the forefront of of of funding conversations. Literally the largest budget in town, most amount of employees. And what's what's a shame?
093You know, the collateral damage of this whole affordable housing, unfortunately, is all the division that it's caused in this town between everybody fighting. You know, it's just a shame, but again, our focus is our our kids. I guess they had a good education. We're prepared on the long range planning committee. And we're ready for that those when those kids hit the doors. This is a shame. Sorry. This is a shame that Trenton wants us to do so much in so little time. We have to do We have to have so much new communities in this town, new housing developments in this town in so little time. Uh it In the last few years, we didn't have to do this. It was It was put off to now. And it This is just another example of
094Trenton putting the the cart before the horse. I mean, I work in I work in the Trenton government, and they they put the cart before the horse all the time. They don't do their research, and the people who do the research don't talk to the individuals who it's actually going to affect. I see this all the time. And it And it it it it pains me, and it makes me very mad. And with all due respect to what you did you reaching out to Vin Gopal, it's unacceptable the answer that he gave you. And it's just incompetence, or it's intentional. It's one of the other. And neither is acceptable. I agree. Here, here, Vinny. Here, here. Funny, he always has a lot to say. He has time and effort to put in to the media
095commenting about my leadership on this board, but yet when it comes time to his performance to defending and fighting for us, he is nowhere to be found. Uh he's really a pathetic uh politician, and I'm sorry that he's representing um the schools of Monmouth County. Um No taxation without representation. >> Cammarano if she's uh listening. Um Yep. Did he ever get back uh to the questions that you had provided during that seminar? No, but if you remember, it was the school board Yeah, the school boards. that was supposed to get the answers and and email them Okay, so the All right, so do you think it would be fair to ask Mr. Tihan call? The NJEA >> it would be fair to ask Mr. Tihan if any response was submitted by him to the school
096boards? Yeah, oh, I think that would be very fair, and I think even just the follow-up to see if the questions can still be answered if they haven't been would be very fair, cuz I I would be very interested. I actually have to go back in my notes and see what I asked cuz I no longer remember. All right. I uh you know, I'll be I'll stand corrected if if that's the case, but I could almost bet on it that he has no response to those uh to those questions you submitted. Um Okay, moving on. Buildings and grounds, safety and security. I think we covered everything. Okay. However, due respect to Mr. Morasca, the the electrical uh Sure. switchgear room. Sure, I could give a quick uh couple of highlights from that. We had um
097two job meetings up to this point. So, as you know, we're preparing with um you know, physical construction coming up on on that project to replace the the main switchgear there. So, just just a couple things to highlight. Um all the equipment is on site. It's been secured behind the elementary school and um the contractor, which is Manor 2 Electric, they want to begin their uh trenching work trenching work in the near future to run conduit and uh that may happen. All the markouts uh from the utilities has occurred up to this point. Um We know that the um the actual equipment itself, there's a lead time for switchgear of about 16 weeks. So, this work will definitely be going on um in in the summer and even the latter part, um but they're aware
098of our of our scheduling and you know, everything is is being done to do this work, you know, around our schedule. And it and ultimately, once this equipment is all installed, they do a complete transfer of of power. The utility shuts down our power and everything is being coordinated with the um the solar company to shut down the you know the solar at that time and do a smooth transition of that of that power. Um That's basically it. There's um you know more stuff. >> transformer needed on that? So, we don't know yet. That's a determination made by the utility company. They actually send an engineer out and make that determination. If we do, it's not a huge factor in the overall project. It'll It'll happen and our district will ultimately get reimbursement for that.
099Okay. If JCPL needs determines that there's you know a load issue or something that needs a needs a new transformer. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> So, stay tuned. More job meetings to come and at some point, you know, we might request some committee members to be part of that if if needed. But uh it's So far everything's great going smooth. >> It's It's in its initial stages. Yeah, we saved a lot of money in that bid, too. We did. >> was what? Right or initial um approval of the project was for was for just over a million dollars and you know the uh awarded contract came in at I think 560, something like that. So, we'll have some funds going back to our reserves. That's That's what we need to do before uh June 30th.
100If I may for mayor I just wanted to ask No, I just wanted to It's not on the agenda, so I apologize for that, but I wanted to It's been in our updates. Uh they We back if you recall in the fall early in the fall, we had a an elementary pump go, water pump that we actually very strategically had a truck come and supply water to the building while it was being repaired, all those kinds of things. I just want to commend Mr. Morasco who submitted an insurance claim and was able to recoup a significant amount of money Uh from the insurance company for that claim but in the end I believe it was 41 about $41,000 42 43 41 43,000 dollars you know of the of cost back through and it was very
101time consuming so I just want to thank thank you for doing that and following through with that being able to recapture that piece of it. payroll and accidents that's that's why you need to be adequately insured. Yeah that was great news. I remember asking you and I missed it. I didn't see it in the report so yeah that is great news. Okay if we're finished we can conclude with that we can move on to communications. Yeah absolutely I was I was expecting you to take over for that. So I have something from Mr. Capasso that I know he shared with Mr. Scarpa prior to the meeting for the update just a couple things regarding communications as of April 7th the Coltsneck Township schools mobile app had about 273 subscribers encourage your friends and neighbors to
102subscribe to the first to be the first to receive important notifications and have district information right on your at your fingertips on your phone. When published I know Mrs. Camera referenced and gave an update for the newsletter the Colts Chronicle in addition to being sent to our subscribers meaning our families and our staff members an additional 18 community members who are not do not have students affiliated with the district have signed up to the form on that was placed on the website and it's actually up to 21 so 21 community members have signed up and will be added to the distribution list so that's a nice community outreach for our newsletter and then the as Mrs. Camera pointed out that the BOE American history video contest is still underway and we are constantly monitoring for
103submissions as well as the calendar contest so that's just an for communications. Awesome. Thank you for reporting out for Mrs. Scorpa. Okay, we're going into curriculum. Mrs. Camera, if you'd like to start your report. Okay, thank you again. So, number one Excuse me, my Hold on. Okay, is planning for the 2026-2027 school year. So, I had sent this to board members already just to look over. It's a recap of some of our curriculum programs and applications. So, in terms of the applications that are included in the 2026-2027 budget, we're continuing with Frontline for professional growth, our Atlas Rubicon for our curriculum, which is available to all parents online, LinkIt for our data warehouse, our Savvas Envision Mathematics program we're continuing I'm happy to say with both volume one and volume two workbooks for our students.
104We're also continuing with the Savvas social studies program that I believe is that new last year? I thought that may have been something that we had voted on last year. Dr. Gaber, was that am I correct with that or Am I mistaken? Okay, that's right. And then we have the Zaner-Bloser handwriting program that's updated now to include grade five per the New Jersey Department of Education requirements. Moving on, we have some of our 2026-2027 federal funding title one after school programs. So, that includes in the middle school a winter math intramural program. It includes at the elementary school Mission Mastery, which again is math and literacy bringing these subjects to life. And then we have again at the elementary school Brain Boosters, which again is in a focus on NJSLA reading and math scores Um
105to help students that who are progressing to meet these, you know, to meet these requirements. And also what's wonderful is included in the 2026-2027 federal funding in Title I is applications such as ST Math which we had introduced last year, our Touch Math that was new to last year, our S'mores newsletters that all our administrators I've seen taking advantage of sending newsletters to the communities. And Delta Math which is a program for our middle school students that really targets remediation. Okay, so that's everything for number one. Any comments? Uh seeing none, you can continue. Okay, number two is the NWEA math benchmarking. So Dr. Sorry, Dr. Reynolds recommended that the Board of Education maintain the MAP testing for the 2026-2027 school rather than transitioning to I-Ready. Um the NWEA MAP remains a more cost-effective and
106reliable tool. So I am happy to see that. I do want to just mention, I've mentioned this numerous times, it's just my opinion, but I still do question the necessity of of either of those two assessments in our district that already is equipped with multiple evaluation tools. And it is something, you know, as we continue um looking at budgets, it might be something down the road that we might want to move away from. Um you know, math testing does again it does you know, it does support meaningful data. I'm not taking any of that away. I just again feel that we can get this data of of who, you know, it is a data point for our enrichment students, our basic skills students, our different tiers through our Savvas program and our being a reader
107program. So, that's just a personal opinion. Um all right, any um comments from the board on number two? Yeah, on what is the cost on that? It's cost-effective, but what is the price on it? Do you know? >> I don't have it this time. And we talked about it at the last meeting. Um the NJ Map was was um sorry, the the Map testing was significantly cheaper than the I ready. If you remember the first grade teachers were piloting the I ready program. What's the other one? >> that was 66,000. I don't remember offhand what the Map was. I don't have that in front of me. But >> just walked in. She said it's about 11,000. So, yeah, it's considerably uh reduced from that the other program. So, if it and if you agree that
108it's worth, you know, it definitely does its job at uh you know, the assessment and rating the students. I I I don't think the 11,000 is that, you know, Well, it's per it's per um per grade, I believe. Yeah, but still isn't the the other one 66,000 per grade? So, yeah, that's a huge building. Yeah. Um Just one in one comment. >> Yeah, Mr. Uh Scales wants to comment on something. >> just the the one comment just if if no one's aware, there's a significant lawsuit against I ready this month. So, yeah, so So, yeah, let's just move on from that. Thank you for bringing that up. I was unaware of it. So, um okay, Mrs. Cameron. Yeah, we're we're fine with the the Map one. Okay, number three is a 2026-2027 piloting a new
109middle school math program. So, the district will pilot Math in Focus program. It's by Big Ideas, which we currently use in grades six to eight next year. It is a student-centered program emphasizing real-world connections, mathematical discussions, and problem-solving. Additionally, the district plans to expand its partnership with Big Ideas Learning at the high school level by introducing big ideas math for algebra and geometry. So, this initiative will strengthen our alignment and ensure a consistent um mathematical experience for our students as they transition from the middle school to high school. So, that I was very very pleased with personally. Okay, any other comments on number three? Yeah, that's great to hear. I'm glad you you approve of that. Thank you. Yeah. Um number four is our 2026 summer bridge program. So, the board is proud to offer
110its fifth free I want to say that again, free summer bridge program for students. This is an in-person 3-week summer learning experience for students currently enrolled in grades K to 8 that focuses on language arts, mathematics, and science. Um as of April 9th, there's 108 students who have registered. We have 16 in musical theater, 17 instrumental um music students, 75 have registered in the academic programs that I referred to earlier. Registration closes on April 24th. So, parents you can still get um still get in if you're interested. Um the bridge program will be scheduled on Monday through Thursdays from July 6th through July 23rd from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30. All classes will be scheduled at the Conover Road Elementary School including classes for primary school students and middle school students. On April 29th, the summer
111bridge and extended school year dates will be included on the board meeting agenda. And again, uh just to remind parents the registration closes on April 24th. Okay, any comments, board members? Yeah, I'd like to uh >> comments. Mr. Walsh, go ahead. I'd be a pro I um a proponent of expanding that program next summer. This is a big obvious obviously a big interest in our communi- you know, student community, parent community. And the program works. It's very successful. Um making sure they had the skills that they may have missed in that current grade, reinforcing them before they go to the next grade. The the the band component of it is great. Got music and arts. So, I'd be uh in favor of expanding that program next year, actually. Adding another week or two. Just crunch
112some numbers somewhere else. Um I I I definitely think the board is uh as we voted on this, we're all supportive of this. Mr. Wickberg is absolutely thrilled cuz I remember he uh he was definitely an advocate of this program. So, I uh I'm so pleased that it's going forward and I agree with Mr. Walls. >> a way maybe that we can I'm sorry, I didn't interrupt. Uh to expand it to uh like a sports sports section of it as well? Maybe down the road? Um I I don't know. It's really based on academics this year. >> You just expand what? Like you know, we have the sports proponent of it. Yeah, we have like the musical theater proponent of it, we have the music proponent of it, and academic proponent of it. Maybe a
113sports proponent of it. I mean, it depends on the interest of the the competition piece of it. You know, I know that they usually take a little some breaks of different things going on, but you know, every- everything can be talked about. >> Just say something to look into. It's a winner. So, you know, I think we should support it. We fully support it and expand it. >> Yeah, it's a credit to Dr. Reynolds and the team and our code all the things like that. The one thing that was brought forth by a staff member, just to plant a seed for next year, again, not necessarily for this year, is that there has been um you know, conversation, professional conversations of whether or not the board would like to us to explore uh for the
114middle school students potentially a lot of programs. In other districts, focus more on the elementary school and almost making our program a tuition-based program if other people wanted to attend. Um what for the 6th, 7th, and 8th? Yeah, you know what? >> would be awesome for algebra. I would love to see that and I would pay for it. So, that's what I'm saying. Yeah. No, I mean for my own daughter, she certainly could use that. I mean she >> Which would increase her academic performance, right? I would hope. Yeah, I think the kids in eighth grade going to high school Freshers would definitely I think the whole grade would would benefit. All right, we can put that on the table as well. Yeah, just something for future thought. >> Also another suggestion for kids who
115aren't enrolled in the school, maybe offer them as well too at a price at at at a fee maybe. Yeah, that's >> Oh, yeah, that's what I was just saying. Yeah, to to make it like uh Tuition based for the you know, the elementary school the the specially as Mrs. Camera has pointed out in reports that the the lower grade levels, you know, our our primary school lower elementary's are you know, packed as it is and we try to be um you know, uh responsive to their needs in staffing, right? That's why we usually don't post and select staff until after >> that we know the the students are committed. um to going. But that being said, you know, we can look at anything moving forward. I do agree the program runs great. It's successful.
116Oh, and by the way, uh Mrs. Camera, I'm so sorry I forgot to mention this um earlier. It has uh 250 Americana theme and everything. The t-shirts have that kind of thing going on this year. Yeah. Yeah, so Yeah, so sorry, I forgot about I don't know. I'm sorry, I forgot. Well, the the only thing I could see being not negative, but the older grades, no one wants to be in summer school in eighth grade. I I think it's a great idea and I certainly if I had the opportunity would utilize it, but I'm not sure what the district the kids are probably going to hate us, but you know, I don't know. Well, let's leave it on the table and we'll further dis- the discussion with Mrs. Camera at a later date. Um but
117yeah, if you can continue, Mrs. Camera, with number uh five, I guess. Okay. Uh number five, I'll introduce and then I'll hand it over to Mr. Scarpa if he wants to add on. It's a financial literacy with the Naval Weapons Station Earl, a partnership. So, Mr. Scarpa proposed partnering with Naval Weapons Station Earl to incorporate Navy Federal financial education presentations. In February, Dr. Reynolds met with Liz Bufano. She is our middle school financial literacy teacher to discuss this opportunity. And beginning this year, all seventh grade students will take a financial literacy course and some of these sessions are now going to be added into the curriculum. And it also works with our with the upcoming finance park trip in June. So, now I will defer to Mr. Scarpa if he wants to add a little
118bit more. Um Mr. Scarpa was unable to make it tonight. >> Oh, I didn't know. Okay. So, I'm glad that I was able to talk about it. I'm sure that he can, you know, discuss it in more detail at another meeting, but at least now he knows it is happening and it was a wonderful proposal. So, I do thank him. Yeah, I will definitely reach out to him tomorrow morning cuz I remember when me, Dr. Garabed, Mr. Scarpa did our tour, this had come up during that tour because they had a building there and they had mentioned to us. So, he was very eager to bring this to our district. So, I commend Mr. Scarpa for this fantastic idea working with the Naval State Naval Weapons Station Earl and bringing this right to our own
119doorstep. So, thank you, Mr. Scarpa and Mrs. Camera for reporting out on it. We appreciate We appreciate the notification. Um yep. >> Shadow number six? Okay, thank you. Um so, this is very exciting. This is the Revolutionary New Jersey Partnership Program. So, under my request, we also had a parent reach out about this as well. Dr. Reynolds has registered our three schools to participate in the Revolutionary New Jersey partnership program. The Freehold Regional High School District and many other surrounding towns in Monmouth County are part of this. So, this is New Jersey's state educational initiative for the 250th anniversary of America's Revolution and they are encouraging all schools to become a revolutionary school. So, schools that join the program, they receive several professional and instructional perks. Um they receive statewide events, local and both statewide
120events that commemorate the 250th anniversary. We get advanced notice for kickoff dates. We get access to standard aligned materials, a field trip directory of local historical sites, more resources. A lot of this will just be adding to our website. There's also opportunities for professional development for our teachers and collaboration with historians and educational experts. And we get to use the official Revolutionary New Jersey school logo. So, it's all positives and um I'm glad that we were able to join. And it's just really exciting. A lot of these things we're already doing, but it's it's great to be an official official partner with the state in this. Great to hear, Mrs. Cameron. All good things. Um so, that's the end. Does Does anyone want to talk about this one in any more detail? Uh no comments
121at this time. Okay, so I am just I am going to leave the meeting now. I'm at my son's basketball banquet. So, I am I'm going to leave if that's okay with everyone. I'm just letting everyone know and I'm going to hang up and I will listen to the rest of the meeting on live stream. So, thank you all. Thank you for participating, Mrs. Cameron. We appreciate you giving us the time. Thank you. All right. Good night, everyone. Yep. Good night. Okay. Um all right, that concludes the curriculum. We're going to move right into finance. Um uh Jason, do you want to start us off with anything on this? Well, we pretty much already took We already took care of number two, and then the financing opportunities, we we heard from Phoenix Advisors, right Vince?
122Yeah, we we we had a we had a meeting. >> the meeting. >> And um Phoenix Advisors presented after that meeting uh a hypothetical analysis, if you will, >> Okay. of of what a potential bond referendum um could look like. In other words, well, to be to be specific, we said we have debt falling off in the 26-27 fiscal year. Correct, it's 1.6 million. >> at at the end after that year, so for 27-28, how much bonding could the district conceivably go out to do and yet still maintain that same tax impact to the taxpayers >> from the from the So, it's a >> that's falling off. So, it's a wash. >> So, they went and did an analysis, rough analysis, and if you want me to share that figure, what they said we could
123potentially go for about a $34 million amount amount of bonds, amount of bonding. Now, when when we look at what our total long-range facilities plan is at this stage, we have to sharpen some pencils because some of those costs that are in there are are dated a little bit. But that would be Well, I don't want to go too off track. So, the purpose of that meeting was to discuss what financing opportunities does a district have to address all these long-term needs? Now, granted, we we did things that benefited taxpayers. We we just did a, you know, $10 million ESIP. We're coming to the very closing out that whole project. Um but that was a no tax impact to the community. And there are still things to do, right? We we took some of our
124own reserve money over time that we built up and put $6 million towards that whole ESIP project. HVAC, we added air conditioning, all that good stuff, which will be talked about pretty soon. in the public meeting. Yeah, that's coming up. So, there are still things to do on our long-range plan. Things that could not have been addressed in the ESIP because it was not a is not a energy savings type initiative. For instance, the rest of the roofs that still need work. We all know about that, and that's millions of dollars when you look at the square footage. That's just one example. Our LRFP consists of original replacing original windows at the elementary and Cedar Drive Middle School. A lot of the stuff, frankly, is from past referendums that we that we failed to pass.
125So, we've been, you know, sitting with these things to do and addressed a lot of it with the ESIP, but there's there's still more things. So, to get to the point, we had this meeting with financial advisors to say, "What else could we do?" This is one method, and it's a method where generally speaking, a school district gets the most bang for your buck because the state is still offering debt service aid. When you go out for bonding, you typically will get 34% of funding from the state for eligible projects. They have to be eligible, and most of our things are because we know that from the first two attempts that we made. So, uh so, that's one method. We also talked in that meeting about possibility of doing a 5-year capital lease on on
126some items where the collateral is the equipment, and you know, you go for 5-year terms. 5-year lease back. Another another thing is um specific incentives that are out there. And I'll say for uh for energy type replacement of mechanical units. In fact, um Mr. Moretta and I are having a meeting tomorrow with with DCL to discuss uh what's called a direct install project where where a district can replace like kind equipment that has aged out and needs replacement, and you'll get incentives in order to do that. Uh utility company generally or the contractor itself will will give a certain incentive or or fund part of that, and a district may have to handle the the rest of that. So, we spoke also in that meeting that I think the board expressed um interest in either
127doing one or several of those methods >> A combination. And and some of that again is the is the planning on how much, you know, reserves were projected to you know, have going forward. As you know, we made some you know, difficult decisions in this budget cycle with with the use of, you know, budgeting >> We made the decisions and we thought about our taxpayer and our township and those difficult decisions. So, um at any rate, it was certainly an informative meeting and you know, I would think that we should probably, you know, schedule a lot a lot more meetings between finance and buildings to A big, big part of this, Vince, is as you we all know is planning for a future growth of students from from the mandated affordable housing. So, not only
128are we taking care of our existing needs like roofs and windows, but a lot of that money may go to infrastructure build-out for accommodating future growth. We're going to be ready as a school district by doing by having these meetings and getting a plan in place. I think between a possible referendum um maybe a little bit of what we have in our reserve accounts and with uh the 5-year leasing you know, I I think between a combination of maybe all three of those I think we'll be able to satisfy all of our long-range facility plans. And I think the school Correct. Part of that discussion and financing really we may we should be partnering with our township committee, township government. We're going to be issuing just an idea. Yeah, yeah. I Just a thought. >>
129That that >> bond issuance of Robin and me. >> Yeah, that would that would be kind of like a last resort type deal, I would think. Um I think number one would be a referendum that wouldn't be anywhere close to 34 million, you know, don't want to give um our taxpayers heart heart attacks with this huge number here. Number one number two but but it's good it's good that we know that if we if the 34 million, you know, was passed, we would be able to keep taxes the same with zero impact to the taxpayers. That's obviously a huge positive. Um and it's good to know that. I don't think we'll need that much between what we have in our, you know, a little a little will come from our reserve accounts, most of it
130will come from the referendum and maybe some that qualify we could do the five-year lease back when it comes to our, you know, our equipment. Um so and I think I think a combination of all three of those would be very advantageous to us. And the interest rate is a big factor in that, Vince? Is that right? >> we have a triple-A bond rating, right, Vince? They assume an interest rate with these analysis like I think they use a borrowing rate of 4% and it and they look at a typical 20-year bonding. 20-year bonding, you know, 4% we get the best rating cuz we're triple-A. We have the best bond rating you you you could possibly get. >> Yeah, they they would probably wouldn't when they would probably we would probably have to have a
131um uh bond rating meeting which we did when we refinanced our debt. Um not a difficult I think important point we should point out to the whole township everybody listening out there is we're not going to wait not going to be in a position where you have to tax people 16% next year, 20% the next year. We're looking at a comprehensive financial plan put in place to take care of our kids. >> Right, correct. I believe that if A, the referendum is very conservative, and B, we have a game plan with a 5-year lease back on equipment, and then C, having some funds from our reserve account, I think if we pull from all three of those resources, it'll alleviate taxpayer burden, number one, and number two, it'll help us with our goal with the
132long-term range facility planning. So, we'll be good to go. I think a great question, too, that the board has asked of administration has been like, "What else do you see happening here?" And in addition to those fundings, we have, you know, big aspirations for upgrading our science labs at the middle school that are original. So, it's sometimes it's hard sometimes to look at that and say, "All right, we we we need roofs. We need the things that aren't, you know, necessarily the absolute translate into the learning environment." Yeah, absolutely with the long-term facility plan. For sure, we know that the woodworking program, right? >> That's on there. There's different projects. To your point, that's the most important thing. The education of kids in the classroom. I'm talking about everything else. Thanks for bringing that up.
133>> Yeah, you know, but definitely do looking at it through the lens of, you know, what else can we do to offer whomever is sitting in our seats. Right. Right, and how many of us, and what else can we continue to provide that is going to, as Mr. Skelly said, be a highlight for our district. And those educational opportunities are there with this as well. I know there's nothing special about, you know, spending four or five million dollars on a roof, but without a roof, you're not going to have anything. You know what I mean? So, like so, yeah, so I mean, first things first, obviously we have to take care of the mechanics of the school that house and provide shelter to the children, the staff, and the administration, number one. And those are
134all the big ticket items. Those are all multi-million dollars. And then after that, if you know, if we can improve the wood shop, if we can update the science labs, if we can um you know, put in a bubble for the sports team, if we could do all that thing all all those revenue opportunities >> all those goals. Yeah, there's revenue opportunities there for some of them, but >> background we can do that and we can and you know, that's something that we could do possibly with our reserve accounts, you know? But obviously for the millions of dollars when it comes to the roofs and it comes to the windows and it comes to um all those other high-end mechanicals that we have to upgrade here, you know, that's going to I mean bulk of
135that is going to be with a referendum. Similar to you said Correct. It's going to be a referendum and then and then any mechanicals that we could do a five-year lease back on um we you know, we would take advantage of that and and do that and and we would be uh you know, and then obviously our bond rating is the best. So Just say a board of education is not kicking the can down the road where you're taking action now. >> No. No. No. I think it's important it's important to address too why the the previous referendums did didn't pass, right? And I think it's it's important that one of our goals as a district as a board is transparency and communication. And a part of a successful bond referendum is your communication and
136how you present that to the taxpayer. So everything that you had mentioned as far as money coming off, money coming going on, there's a little bit of of marketing involved when it comes to the communication. As long as as we do it the right way Yeah. >> and people are transparent, they hear how we do it, there is no impact to the taxpayer and we achieve the goals we need Our kids are worth it. It's We live here. We moved here for a reason. So if we're going to we we need to invest in our our children. And there's a storm a coming. Yep. It's here already. Well, it is up to the taxpayers ultimately, but I agree with you, Kevin. I don't know if your senior base does, but I do. I got I
137got to talk to communicating to the senior base. So So, two things to to add that I think might be helpful for for the board and I I would definitely encourage the the committee to set up our next meeting because when you talk about a referendum, there's a there's a very strict timeline and there's only certain times during the year that you can do you know, run a vote. To your point of transparency, we're talking about Well, the whole town to hear I encourage you to come to our meetings cuz we're we're planning we're going to put this in action. This has to happen. So, that Yeah, that would be one thing and uh for for the board to quickly begin talking about, you know, a a timeline if that is of interest or if
138that's one of the financing components. The other is let's sit down and, you know, really get into some of these items on the LRFB, what's priority, and then obviously we'll have to kind of look at the sum total and that may require some you know, um professional help to determine current current pricing cost for, you know, science labs, I don't know. Right? And um and you go from there. And to your point, it might only be uh I don't want to say only, but a number that's significantly under $34 million of a of a cap. I don't want the public to hung up on 34 million. Yeah. Really, that's No, it's it's a high high Yeah, that's that's just How much debt create? What we really need I think we'll we'll figure out having a
139This 10 million I believe in. So it could be close, it could be a little under, it could be Until we sit down and look at All right, so let's take that 34 number off the table. There is not going to be 34 million dollars. Yeah. But I think these different opportunities are certainly worth looking at. So next steps more on how we on this meeting tomorrow regarding direct install because that could be something as well. So next steps, we'll set out some meeting dates and coordinate with the chairs and say, "Okay, let's put some almost a schedule of meetings because to Mr. Marasco's point, there are some pretty tight timelines if we're looking to do something that actually replaces debt that falls off at the end of next year. There are certain times when
140you can go out to referendum for a vote. There are There are sometimes, you know, 3-month 90-day lead up to submission to the state for them to return things. There's a lot of strict things that we There's a lot of work to do. >> why don't I I put an email out tonight and well, Jason or Brian could do it and we'll set it up this coming week. Yeah. We can start it right away. We can start it right away. >> committee and we'll get a date right away within the next within the next 5 days. Perfect. Just to kind of draw up a rough action plan of what we want to do. Okay. All right, that's fine. If if like a presentation can be done for the town Oh, of course. That's all part
141of it. Absolutely. There's there's And there's not only that, there's, you know, an opportunity there's an opportunity to, you know, for the further in advance you to be communicating our largest turnouts are back to school night. Maybe there's a lot of to There's a lot of marketing that goes into, you know, saying to a public, "Hey, we have debt falling back. We're looking to replace it. You know, it's it's not going to add additional blah blah blah, but this is what you are getting." You're saying that could be scary for the town like Of course it is. Of course it is. But helping them to understand the process, it's the understanding of the process and what it does. Correct. Absolutely. All right. Um is that it on finance, folks? Okay, we're going to move let's
142briefly get into policy here, Mr. Scales. It'll be No, it'll be quick. Yeah, Dr. Garabed, we've got a date on here for new policy manual adoption. It's in bright Yeah. It's in bright lights. I think we're at a point now where I'm going to put some finishing things on from administration. Um I'm going to make a recommendation that um where we are, I'll update the links that are that I I've I've had continually on with the new policies that are uh in the update. Um and that we make a recommendation that the new policy manual for the board that transitions everything to to school boards as we've been planning and preparing and revising and reading and all the things. We adopt the manual at the May 20th. That be That is because it gives us
143a good about 3 to 4 week turnaround for then school boards uploads it into BoardDocs for us. And then we can continue the work on the policies. Anything that we find we want to continue to do, but it just transitions us to the new platform with the new policies, and we're not working in two different places. So, um if if you're amenable to that timeline, it's really an adoption of the new policy manual is really what the resolution comes to. And with the a detail of what like a small detail of what each section is, and then that starts the ball rolling with it. Um you know, the they're all linked in there. So, I'll be giving more information to the board about what it looks like, but that's that would be a recommendation we
144move forward with just adopting the manual a manual and then revising as we continue to go along as we always do. The review is easier once it's in there. Correct. Just hunt and search is Right. Right. Which is right now we're working off our PDF documents, which is not user-friendly, you know. So So we want to get that up and Yeah, it's a little So we want to get that up and going. So if that's okay with everyone, that's how we I would like to move forward with that. And you want the me to do the second one? Yeah, please. Okay. So we are amidst the admin team is engaged in the cell phone policy. Um the revision that has to be take place prior to the start of the new school year as per
145the legislation. Just want to point out key requirements for school districts that will update our policy 26 23, right? No, 26 what am I Sorry. 2363 >> Thank you. 2 Thank you. What tongue twisters I am. That is actually pupil use of personally owned devices. It's actually now turning into student use of internet enabled devices. This policy really honestly relates back to like a bring your if there was ever an opportunity for bring your own device to school, which we don't do. We don't have the people bring their own device because of all the networking and security and stuff that has that we we want to manage be able to manage that. That being said, this is now going to be expanded to any internet enabled device that is owned by a pupil, which includes
146cell phones, which includes smartwatches. It includes a lot of different things. There are some key components that the administration is working on that have to be in reading at the guidance into the new policies that are adopted. One is age-appropriate restrictions. We don't currently have that. They want restrictions that are placed on each grade span, not just a blanket one, and it has to be outlined K-8. A daytime restriction. The law actually requires that on the non-academic use of internet enabled devices on school grounds during the school day. So our policy already says that they're not supposed to be used. It has to be reiterated that they're not able to use them. Storage solutions, so we are able to continue with the caddy project as as as we've been doing. And what that looks like,
147network control that districts are encouraged to establish network based restrictions. We already do. And if we ever um find that we have to change the passwords get someone bound it and then we so we move it but we people cannot come in and access our Wi-Fi. It doesn't happen that way. Um so we have that has to be included and then a communication plan which is a formal protocol must be established to communicate these rules clearly to students, parents, and staff. So, whatever we adopt will be put in our student handbook. So, as we do every year and we distribute that every year. So, those are just some certain certain things. The exceptions and accommodations that also must be included are health and disabilities. We know that we have um you know, different students who
148use devices, communication devices for different reasons, um health reasons. We have uh students with monitors for uh health conditions that are used every day. Those are exceptions and we need to list those within the policy. Um emergencies uh that we do have to outline emergency use in the policy of what it looks like and how it looks. Um instructional uses, if there's ever a time where uh teacher we don't really encourage that or use it where there's like a Quizlet or something that people want to use Quizlet, you know, and it we they very rarely use it through their Chromebooks but they it does have to be outlined. And then student caregivers on a case-by-case basis it has to be outlined students who act as caregivers for family members or vice versa. We can outline
149that but it's already in our policy. So, we can take some of the similar lines. So, our our this core policy has a lot of the factors but just the things that I mentioned there will be incorporated. So, it's in draft mode. Obviously, it will be presented to the board for final review and adoption but that will need to move forward. Um currently right now school boards does not have a model policy that came out on it yet. Um so, I'm hoping that we can just kind of take what we have and adapt it. >> to me. They don't have it yet. I went back and looked at it. It hasn't come out yet as an alert. It might while we're working on it and then have some good things we can look at. Yeah,
150so that's just the update on where we are with it. That concludes policy. That was good. Thank you. Uh, great. Any comments? No? Okay, negotiations I know they are being worked on with finance committee so we're skipping over that. Transportation, we got an update with the bus Um, cameras? >> We did. The second the second round of cameras were installed. They're in. I included pictures in the update. They're in there the back so and remember this was to address if it flies by on the front end we get it in the back end and the rear camera. And it's uh Yeah, they got them good with the imaging. >> It's it's very clear a very impressive imaging technology. It really is. And so just letting you know that it was completed and thank you to
151the board for thank you to the board for supporting it. Any new violations Um, we actually the week of the 9th we got two more with the installation of the camera. And one and both are crystal clear. So. Everybody stop for the buses in town. Stop for those buses. Uh, the board can have we we can have a a policy about public shaming if you wanted to. You know, I'm it's just it's not it's about safety. It's about you know, however we want to do. I think that you know, that we've done the initiative. We're communicating and then it's just again about that communication out there and and being able to say it's here. So I think that we can do our totals. That might be a running total thing that we can we keep
152track of it so that might be something that we could very easily add in the transportation. Keeping totals of things. You know, that might be a good thing as well but you know, I anything that helps keep our kids safe. That ticking tab like a yeah. Yeah. I think the one the one thing that the one most recent one which was really concerning was actually on the passenger side. So it was where the students yes and and that's one where you know it's not even as if the kid was was student was crossing the street. It was on the side of where the kid was where the student was entering the bus and that's something that's just so like infuriating. >> the police department for investigating this. >> Naya all the things that he go
153goes through and Audrey Spader who really does take a lead in managing that with Nicole and it's just been really beneficial a good partnership learning process and everything so. I don't know that one with the kid right there that should be public shaming. I would vote to public shame that person. That's horrible. That that really And it's awareness. I I just don't understand their their thinking you know. You can't ever be in too much of a rush like that just can't can't happen. Too much to risk. At least like I said well money well spent spent. Thank you Mr. Walsh for pursuing that. Thank the whole board. Excellent. Yep thank the whole board. We all voted for it. Excellent. Um okay personnel we don't really have anything there. Um we're going to open up the
154floor to public comment our second public comment of the evening evening. Anybody would like to get up and share um some questions comments? Anybody? All right seeing none we're going to uh close public comment. Um I'm going to go right into new business. I do have something for new business if you don't mind if I could go first. Okay my neighbor um Jen Winkelman. Um I'm sure you've heard her name. Uh our kids have gone to school together for years um uh since kindergarten and and she is a fine phenomenal volunteer. I mean she's been on every single PTO thing I've ever done when my daughter was younger and she has continued her service uh for all these years. So, she bought uh she had reached out to me uh last week and mentioned about
155an incentive that they do over in Shrewsbury, and she asked me if I would respectfully bring it in front of the board. So, what they do over there, um they adopt a school motto uh that changes every year um with the outgoing outgoing eighth-grade class. So, the eighth-graders come up with the motto, and uh the boards or administration or both, they pick uh five out of all the submissions, and out of those five, the whole school gets to vote on it. Um so, she sent me pictures. I know it's kind of pointless. No one at home's going to be able to see it, but uh basically in front of the school, like let's just say Cedar Drive, they make a banner of that motto that's been voted on, and this year uh Shrewsbury's district had
156"Be Curious, Not Judgmental." So, that's what was voted on. I think it's a fantastic, you know, idea and uh initiative. Um you know, Mrs. Winkelman wanted to see how the board received it. I told her I'd be presenting it to you tonight as an idea. Um I I know we only have a couple of months left for our eighth-grade class, but if it's something that we can decide on tonight um to move forward, I could ask uh you know, Dr. Garabed to see if uh Mr. Rigby, I know he's got a long list of stuff. I mean, Dr. Rigby has been fantastic. The amount of stuff that I throw at him is and he just does everything with a smile. I I just my heart is so happy when I see Dr. Rigby. I almost
157I'm almost scared to see him, like he's going to kill me with all these things. But, um if he's willing to do this, I I think it's great. I I don't know if we can make it for the eighth-grade class. Um I don't know, maybe the PTO can sponsor this. I don't know how much a little banner would be. Yeah, let me see. I can reach out to um their superintendent uh Brent Mcconnell is the superintendent in Shrewsbury. He's retiring in June, and I can find out exactly what it entails and how the process is and then bring it forward to the board. Great. Okay. Okay, this is what it this is what it is. Um no, it's it's basically you know, like a professionally made banner and then they it goes out with the
158eighth grade, but I don't know. I think it's a great idea and we'll see. Um when when I reference about all the stuff I give to Dr. Rigby, you know, between the eighth grade class to DC and we're we're having our big meeting with the student liaisons coming up. Um I was going to actually put an invitation out uh to somebody who would want to join It is tomorrow already? Oh my god, good thing you reminded me. I will be there tomorrow at 11:00 and uh I'm so excited to meet all the new liaisons, see their ideas, put together some type of plan for them and then they will be presenting at our budget meeting the same night as our budget. So this way they will have a big audience um to bring forth, you
159know, uh you know, a little biography about themselves, why they um basically answered the survey to serve on our board and come up with some fantastic ideas. I'm so excited to meet them tomorrow. So uh if anybody can make it and would like to join me, I'd like to extend the invitation to somebody. You let me know by uh tonight or tomorrow early in the morning. Okay, so that's my new business. Um I'd like to open it up to anybody else who has any uh com No? Okay, everybody good? Uh okay, so if we don't have any uh new business, I am going to um we're going to move into executive session at this time. I figured it's going to take about 30 minutes. Uh obviously, no actions ever going to be taken here and
160um live stream is going to be uh concluded at this time. Um the reasons as listed on this agenda, we have negotiations C N T A A and we have some confidential legal matters we will be uh discussing. So if I could get a motion to move into executive session at this time. >> Motion. Okay, great. That concludes our meeting for this evening. Thank you all for attending. Oh. Yeah, sorry. We're having a mic malfunction. Okay, formality is is everybody in favor? >> Yes. Anyone opposed? >> Anybody not wanting to return to executive session? The motion has passed. >> Thank you thank you guys very much. Have a good evening everybody. Okay. Do you need this? Need these? Yeah, I have the folder.