001Um, I'm going to call to order the meeting for the public hearing on the proposed budget for the 202526 school year and the regular meeting of the board of education May 7th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the administration building at 70 Conor Road, Colts, New Jersey. Uh, Mr. Morasco, can I kindly have a roll call? Yes, you may. Mrs. Cameron here. Mrs. Horowitz. Mr. Rico here. Mrs. Ramirez, Mr. Reignetta here, Mr. Scales here, Mr. Scarfa here, Mrs. Vulpy here, Mr. Wolf here. We have a quorum. Great. Thank you. Uh, pursuit to the Open Public Meetings Act, chapter 231. This meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press in a schedule of meetings dated January 16, 2025 and March 4th, 2025. notice of which has been filed with the deputy clerk
002for Colts Township and the requirements of posting of notices have been met. Uh Mr. Walsh, can you read uh the mission statement at the top of the uh agenda? There we go. The mission of Klank Township Schools is to empower and inspire students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute as responsible participants in their everexpanding world. Great. Thank you. If we could all uh please rise for the flag salute and national anthem. I aliance 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. [Music] Great. Thank you. Um U Mr. Or uh being uh you the board chair of finance, I'd like you to just uh basically introduce uh the
003presentation uh for for this evening. I assume um Mr. Morasco is going to lead is Mr. Morasco gonna lead the presentation. Okay, Dr. Arabic. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Good evening. Good evening. We have a little bit of a different setup and we have it set up this way um with our screen here and Mr. Morasco and I will be sitting at the day uh for purposes of the live stream. So this way people aren't looking at the back of our heads or not being able to see the presentation. The presentation will be available on the district website tomorrow as well. So, uh, good evening, President Vulpi, members of the board of education, uh, administrators, constituents, uh, community members who are here this evening to talk about, uh, to hear information about our proposed 2526, uh,
004pres budget presentation budget. Um, whenever we're talking about this, we often refer to our budget as our statement of our priorities. And you'll see that as a common theme as we go through this presentation. As uh, Mr. Walsh just read, we always go back to our mission statement. What is our mission is to empower and inspire students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents and contribute as responsible participants in their everexpanding world, right? So, how do you fund that? Well, first of all, how do you support that? What are the resources needed to achieve that mission to achieve that goal? We're all working together. Well, first you have a group of people who serve on a board of education who come together in conversation and work in collaboration with your
005administration and your staff and members of the community to make sure that what you're presenting has is truly that reflective of our uh values of our goals and uh our our mission statement. Um also recognition to our ad hoc finance committee. Although we serve as we've noted for the past year as a committee of a whole, we do have ad hoc committees and it is additional work and it is very tedious work. Um it's good work but it is it is a lot. So I want to thank all the members of the board of education who have given their time and energy and contribution to the conversations that have gone on regarding the regarding the budget process. Okay. And just some notes the the board of ed finance committee has been meeting with Dr. GB
006and staff and Vincent Morasco, the BA and for several months now um to put forward the best possible school budget for the 2025 2026 school year. Our priorities have remained consistent focused on the educational needs of the students, teachers, and staff. Ensuring financial standards are met within the school district by providing oversight and accountability for how the district manages his finances. Um we have gone through looking over the budget almost line for line seeing what the biggest financial impacts are when it comes to expenses and also when it comes to revenues. Um you know I myself and a few other board members recognize that running a successful business you have to look at all of those aspects. You have to look at the money you have coming in you have going out and if you
007can increase your revenue and lower your cost basis, it's a win-win on both ends and uh in this process we have done a little bit of both. Um the board of ed helped to achieve this by asking questions to challenge the status quo and exploring all options that are available. These questions centered around vendor relationships, management, physical plant need appreciation, short-term and longterm plant needs, etc. Remaining vigilant and monitoring for any financial discrepancies or issues that could impact the district's financial stability. We are facing an increase of potential students going in 2026 and beyond. This board of ed is trying the best to appreciate those impacts and help prepare the financial backbone to deal with student base. keeping the taxpayers in this town at the top of mind ensuring uh that their hardearned dollars are
008working for them within the schools. This board of ed respects the principle of other people's money and the board of ed will always work to ensure the best possibilities best possible use of fiscal resources. Uh recognizing some of the challenges that lie ahead rising cost of benefits will have a greater impact on future budgets. Aging fac will require more substantive updates and repairs. Influx of new students from town construction projects will place an impact on school. So right now we're looking at a couple well actually one proposal right now in the healthcare arena that will hopefully be able to some costs by a few hundred,000 and uh it's right now it's a possibility and we're doing more further research and hopefully that will come to fruition in the future. Thank you. Any other members want
009to chime in? Okay. Good. So, it's actually and the involvement of the board is essential in development of of the of the budget uh and not just in theory but also in board policy. It actually states that in policy 6220 that the budget is the financial reflection of the educational plan for the district. The budget shall be designed to carry out that plan in a thorough and efficient manner and to maintain the facilities and honor the obligations of the district. So therefore, the 2525 2526 school budget is in fact designed to support the thorough and efficient education of our students. What is a budget? It's the fiscal plan for the operation of the public school district. It's the detailed outline for how a school district allocates its financial resources to support education and operation. It
010reflects the goals and how those goals will be accomplished and funded. And it it is regulated. It's actually heavily regulated by the New Jersey Department of Education with oversight and input from the Board of Education. So, what does this cycle look like? It is a cycle because it's never ending because we'll we'll go into effect. It will adopt a budget and it will go into effect and be poised and ready to go by July 1st uh for expenditures for 2526. We'll be closing out 2425 in the interim and then we will start uh issuing p uh purchase orders, payrolls, all the things that go along with it. And then probably by November we will start planning for the 26 27 school year. So that's it never ends because there's always a process. In the interim
011over the summer, which will take place into the summer and into the fall, there's an audit process. The board of education has an independent auditor that comes in and evaluates, spends several months here in the business office looking at all of those line items, looking at everything, and then does a financial report at the end of all of that. So the board can assess from an independent perspective how the operations of the school district, the fiscal operations of the school district are in fact going. So that being said, what does it take? All right. And this is this all serves a purpose because it understands and it leads up to the background of of everything as which will lead into the more fiscal component of the conversation or the presentation by Mr. Morasco. It takes
012time, communication, and collaboration. A lot of time goes into the development of the budget both with the board, with the administration, with the staff. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that many of our administrators and uh program directors are here today who all are partners in the development for the budgets. They are advocates for students, for their buildings, for their staffs, for the departments, and certainly uh do not take issue with asking for what they believe is in the best interests of their students and staff each and every year. So I cannot thank them enough uh for their uh contributions and their tireless efforts in putting together the annual budget every year. Uh communication, maintaining transparency, I know that that is a priority of the district and I know that is something
013talking about things from a very transparent point of view. What this costs, how much it is, a trends that we look at, uh getting feedback and productive dialogue that aligns the needs and budgetary priorities and then collaboration. A lot of times it's about getting to yes and understanding that this is important and when things aren't able to be accomplished one year, what's the plan to accomplish them next year and prioritizing those needs. Okay, so this slide comes very early in the presentation because it is about the students. Everything we do here is about the students. We don't exist here without the students and so that's why they come very early on. So when we're talking about students, this is our enrollment from this year and this is our projected enrollment for next year. Um, when
014we advertise, as you'll note, uh, when it goes out for the advertised enrollments, our prek is not there, uh, is not part of the advertised budget. That's just a function of the Department of Education. But we continually see about a steady, if not increase, but as Mr. Scales has been uh, talking and Mr. Or have mentioned several times and we've talked about in Cal meetings as well as RAM meetings uh, throughout the past uh, several months with regards to affordable housing. We're always looking to the future, making sure that we're balancing the resources that are required now as well as setting ourselves up for success in the future as well for our students. Okay. Aligning goals. Everybody has goals. Districts revolve around goals. There's board of education goals. And hopefully, we're going to go through
015each one of these word by word. No, I'm just kidding. We're not doing that. But in terms of looking at the connectivity of it all, you'll see many overlaps. And that's a good thing. That's what you want to see in a district. So, our board of education this year has goals and those are about our facilities, communications and accountability. Student achievement is at the forefront and fiscal responsibility and all of those are detailed on our on the board of education website. Then we go to the district goals, right, that we set out based on needs, student achievement, governance, stakeholder community. You'll see all again a recurring theme. What's not included in here is from this there's also professional development goals for there's building school goals each year there's professional development goals individual teachers have goals
016administrators have goals. So those are all things all of these goals are aligned and we when the state comes in to evaluate our processes they look to make sure that there is an alignment through those things so that we're all working together to support our school community and for the benefit of our students. And then there's something in the background called our strategic plan. And our five-year strategic plan also leads in this. And it is no coincidence that goal one is student learning outcomes, goal two, fiscal finance and facilities, communications and partnerships, whole child and wellness and engaging staff. So again, it's another uh you know indication of how we're all everything meshes together working together towards to accomplish the same things. This puzzle right then feeds into the process of numbers because these things
017are all theories, right? These are all things that live in concept, but then you start to dig into them. Student data, and that's not just about test scores, right? That's attendance, that's social emotional needs, that's um uh how many students do we have uh uh participating in extracurricular activities? How many students do we have taking the bus? It's there's a whole lot of data that's always available to us and it's the data that we prioritize in making these decisions. Okay. So, what's in this budget? These are highlights because if I told if I would be completely dishonest if I said this is it, right? There's a lot of different components, a lot many different lines to our budget, but these were certain things that we wanted to point out as Mr. Mur as we transition
018into the actual fiscal plan. First of all, uh the 2526 fiscal plan allocates funds to maintain all current academic, social, emotion, emotional, and extracurricular programs. which includes our tip t and our uh services for ML learners. It adds a new being a writer researchbased writing program to our K to5 that was a data driven driven decision based upon the needs of our students. It provides all programs and related services to students with IEPs and 504 plans. We continue to offer high quality summer program, summerbridge, which is an important priority of this board of education because it was previously for the past three years funded by grants. uh we engage uh with our naval weapons station uh Earl community and support our military affiliated students and families as a priority and that is within our budget.
019Add uh we are adding printed and vision mathematics workbooks to resources available to students in grades 3 to five which is a continuation of that practice from K um 3 to five excuse me a continuation of that practice from uh K to two. We are exploring our new uh p piloting new supplemental mathematics resources. Uh we are going to initiate a new extracurricular program at CDMS designed to promote leadership and life skills in alignment in alignment with J uh the junior ROC programs specifically the award-winning the nationally award-winning program at Colnneck High School. We are going to be adding one classroom teacher at Crest in grade four to account for student enrollment and to maintain low classes is K8 provide quality sustained professional development and training for opportunities for our staff. supply district-owned and operated
020transportation to our students. This is has been crucial very much to the success and the credibility of our district. Added to the credible narrative of our district, I should say. We are maintaining our facilities, implementing our preventative maintenance, and addressing capital projects. Upgrading and enhancing communications with a new website and communications plan uh uh platform. We're implementing a new board of education policy manual and digital platform and serve quality food that align continue to uh serve quality food that aligns with the district's wellness goals and we are continuing to get feedback from students on that process as well as we know. So those are highlights and that sounds like a lot but there's even more there every behind these things there's people right everything. So that's the the purpose of the next slide. These things
021happen with people, right? The programs, excuse me, we are in the business of people, educating people, working with people, working together as people for our school community. That's what makes all of the things in the prior slide plus all of the things that happen in the background happen for our students. And this is a projection. We are predict predicting approximately three less staff members. One in the area of um in the uh area of instructional assistance, kindergarten assistance or library assistance specifically three with a restructuring of our kindergarten assistance uh uh support in the classrooms and as well as one uh in central office support which falls into the category of administrative costs. So we're looking at a negative three. So we continue to increase, enhance, develop and do as Mr. Rico said increasing uh
022productivity I guess you would say utilizing resources while also uh decreasing and maintaining cost effectiveness. Okay. So at this time I'm going to turn it over to my colleague uh Mr. Morasco school business esteemed colleague excuse me as I was just reminded by Mr. Morasco to have uh to begin the more of the budgetary numbers component of the presentation. Without any disrespect to the first part of the presentation this is really my fun part. This is the fun part of the presentation. So I'll expect big applause when I'm done. Okay. So every year I start out with a um with this schematic just to show that this is the framework in which we create our budget. Okay. All the all the budgetary considerations and priorities that Dr. Garbeay summarized, they come together in this overview
023financial blueprint. And conceptually for those who are are new to this, even though I show this every year, the revenues are the financial resources of the district and appropriations are commitments of expenditures. And the board has to follow two basic rules. One is that revenues have to equal the appropriations, which is a balanced budget. And number two, the tax revenue must be within a statutory 2% cap inclusive of certain adjustments. That's the that's the law every year. So the balanced budget accounting rule applies not only to the general fund as you'll see later which um in our accounting world for uh school districts it's fund 10 and 11 and 12 but it's also this formula applies to uh the special revenue fund which is fund 20 as well as debt service which happens to be
024fund 40. So, some of the budget factors that um play into this overall blueprint, these are certainly one-time items and also economic factors um in preparing this budget. And it's also important to know that the board has achieved a Z increase in the tax levy. So, we know that we're going into the next school year with health care premiums um estimated up over 14%. We're also collecting less employee contributions from chapter 44, uh, which for those who may not know refers to a 2020 law that enacted changes to the health benefit plans that school districts must offer to its employees, including New Jersey educator health plan. And it also altered the the contribution calculation to the health plans. It's based on a percentage of salary, not premium. Um we have in this budget our year
025two of our EIP which has been a successful implementation thus far and it should conclude um the construction piece this year. So we have a 19-year payment schedule on that transaction and the offset to that annual appropriation of the ESA payment is the savings that we're achieving through energy reduction. So it's very it's very interesting and it comes at of course we spoke about this many times at a zero tax impact to the to the community for this project. Uh we also have have to budget um our public employees retirement system the employer contribution that has been trending to be um over a half a million dollars in the last I'll say four or five years. So we have properly allocated funds for that purpose. The budget includes capital expenditure in particular for the replacement
026of school bus radio communication equipment um as well as the ongoing required maintenance uh that we need districtwide. It includes funding for the summer bridge program which is locally funded as Dr. Garvey said which used to be funded through federal grants. Our charter school estimated tuition that comes from the New Jersey Department of Education has decreased because they are estimating two less students than we have currently. So that that is a reduction in the charter school commitment. Uh as you said our enrollment remains mostly static. It does impact the cost per pupil especially in an inflationary rising cost environment to keep in mind. And just as a note, the CPI um for budget purposes that the NJ DOE insists that you follow is a 3.57% CPI. In other words, estimating on certain inflationary costs, you
027would use that marker as a measure. Okay. Efficiencies and shared services. These are, as you said, part of the state mandate is to provide a thorough and efficient education. And these are just some of the measures that we took to achieve cost savings and efficiencies. So number one, we're utilizing impact aid reserves as you'll see later as part of our revenues. We're utilizing fund balance which is the accumulation of surpluses built over many years. Um we have transportation jointures that we will be approving. Um we are going to contract to offer four bus runs for Marboro school district district and in return we're going to receive uh revenue for that. We also have tiered busing to create efficiencies in the number of runs that we have and efficiencies in the number of vehicles and drivers.
028We use competitive bidding and leasing. As a matter of fact, we just had a public bid opening um last week on lawn m lawn maintenance services for next year. So that is a requirement of the procurement laws within which we have to operate. Uh we're part of energy cooperatives. It's called ACES. They are the ones that um bid electric and gas services for uh for the year with with a pool of interested parties and we get our best pricing through that. We're part of joint insurance funds for our health benefits and the commercial insurance package that we have and we operate almost daily within um looking for solutions through purchasing cooperatives. These are uh beneficial to districts to be part of all the ones that are offered out there because it it provides economies of
029scale when you're looking at a basket of goods to purchase that have already been bid out by that by that entity. Uh we have some shared services with the township. As you know, we employ uh class three police officers for our district. So that is a shared service with the township. They also assist with snow services and equipment rentals from time to time. We have in-house maintenance personnel very helpful for um having to complete a lot of projects that don't add to uh the cost of contracting out and we're very proud of the fact that we can handle a lot of projects inhouse particularly through the leadership of Mr. Moretta, our facilities director, our esteemed facilities director, I might add. Next slide. Okay, that takes us to what does this look like in terms of
030numbers. So, this is a this is our revenues, our general fund revenues. And as you can see from the start, we've we are proposing because it's a board goal to impose a zero a flat tax levy compared to last year. That tax levy makes up about 82% of our total revenues and the board um and well I'll speak later to the actual tax impact that that has on a on a taxpayer in the in the district. So, New Jersey state aid, I'll talk about that in a little more on the next slide in more detail, but that did decline slightly from the prior year. Um, you'll see that the categories of state aid, the district is supporting the revenue budget with audited excess surplus of $545,000. we are required to do so per NJO regulations
031uh to budget that excess calculation as revenue in the following school year. Um and that basically is a calculation based on the excess of 2% of the prior year prior year's general fund budget. Additionally, we're using a portion of restricted fund balance, which is in this case, it's the it's our impact aid reserve to offset tax levy revenue. And lastly, in order to balance the budget while keeping the tax levy flat, the district will use 204,000 of unassigned fund balance, which as I just mentioned earlier, it's the accumulated surpluses over time, and fund the budget. The other miscellaneous revenue category represents various anticipated and estimated revenues and it's up quite a bit from last year as you can see by several hundred thousand mostly from estimating greater interest on districts on the district's cash accounts.
032Part of that is because we've moved we've managed um cash efficiently. We've taken advantage of what's called the New Jersey Cash Management Fund and have been um collecting much greater interest. Uh the rest is from four bus runs we provide to Marlboro. As I said about 139,000 is anticipated. We collect onetoone device fees for students to use Chromebooks and technology. That's roughly 30,000 in anticipated revenues. We have approximately a 100,000 anticipated from the township fuel billing because our entity uh buys the gasoline for both the district and the township because there's there's one location within the township that receives gasoline and we're using it for our buses and the township uses it for their police vehicles etc. So we bill them back for the amount of fuel that they use. And lastly, it also includes
033um excuse me, we're anticipating about 8,000 of that miscellaneous from facility use and tuition also from a student who is attending one of our special ed programs from another district. That's roughly $127,000 anticipated. So that's the picture of the full revenues. the state aid. Just to kind of drill down to that number I previously spoke of spoke of this shows the district's categorical state aid that the state grants every district according to the school funding reform act as amended. It it originally is from 2008 but as you know over the years there has there have been several amendments to that funding reform act. Um and this is what is a result of all those calculations that come for our district. So while there's a total reduction from the current year, you can also see that
034there were certain increases like you see in the special ed and security aid categories. Okay. Now we now we get into the other side of the ledger so to speak which are the appropriations, the commitments of funds for eventual expenditures. And this shows compat comparative categories uh of the budgeted appropriations. And I'll I'll describe each category so you get an idea of what's actually going in there. So first one is instruction and this is the general education program which includes basic skills, bilingual co-curricular activity, clubs and bands, athletics and this year it includes summer school which was formally funded through the federal American rescue funds and that is roughly I want to say 57,000 and change uh dedicated for that program special education. This grouping includes the collective instructional program for students with IEPs as
035well as out of district tuition and that contributes significantly to an increase in appropriations um because we are up in the number of students that we will be or that are anticipated to be sent out of district for a particular program. Okay. Uh support services. This category includes attendance and social work, health services, speech, OT, PT, and related services. It includes our one-on-one aids, guidance, child study teams, curriculum and instructional and staff training. And then within each of these categories that I just mentioned, um some of the common costs are are salaries, right? number one, stipens, sub substitute teachers, purchase services, and all the consumable supplies and materials within those programs. Moving on to operations of maintenance and plant. This includes custodial and maintenance salaries, lunch aids, grounds and maintenance, utilities, property liability, auto insurance,
036contracted services for repairs and maintenance, and all of our security costs. to name a few. Uh security involves all the licensing involved for involved for the access controls, uh our monitors themselves as well as the surveillance cameras that we have expanded upon throughout the district over the years. Lastly, um oh, moving, let's see, where am I at? Operation maintenance school and central administrative costs. Thank you. administrative staff. Uh, it includes, excuse me, administrative staff, which is central office, principles, support staff. It includes the New Jersey School Boards Association memberships and trainings, legal advertising and mailings, audit and legal fees, all our communications, meaning our service with optimum light path. includes central office software, the accounting, budget, payroll, student information systems, and professional liability insurance. Continuing on to the last few categories, we have employee benefits.
037This includes the employer share of social security taxes, pension obligations, workers compensation, insurance, medical prescription dental insurance, tuition reimbursements, unemployment compensation, and all permissible retirement benefits. Transportation. This includes our vehicle fleet maintenance, uh the physical vehicles, our our driver salaries, our bus aids, our regular specialed and athletic transportation routes, as well as aid and loo payments for people who choose to uh send their child to a non-public school district and receive the aid in L rather than the transportation that we are allowed to offer. We also have our capital outlay included in the general fund. It's coded under fund 12. This includes any equipment as well as any facilities construction activity. And for for next year, we're estimating that we have about 83,000 of that 128 is for bus radio equipment replacement. We have very
038old um communication radios in our bus fleet and we talked about this in the budget development and we are budgeting for a full replacement there. It also includes uh $40,000 of what's called a state assessment for the school development authority. This is something that all school districts um have to pay annually who have had previous bonding within the state and it's a static number that the state continues to impose on all districts who had had previous uh state bonding that the state had assisted in paying years before. So, it's it's an assessment essentially that we can't avoid. Um, and then there's about $5,000 that you have to represent for capital reserve interest in this section. Um, as I said, uh, the charter school enrollment is estimated with two students less than the previous year. So
039the respective tuition is 29,000 for next year. So overall the uh total general fund budget it's decreasing by less than 1% uh even though cost drivers continue to increase particularly in salaries and benefits, commercial insurance increases, increased pension obligations and just other employer costs of employment. This is my favorite slide because it's a pie chart. Every good presentation has a pie chart and an esteemed esteemed pie chart that's very colorful. So, this is just again showing you all those appropriation categories that I just spoke about pictured as a percentage of the total pie, the total budget. So, as you can see, if you add up support services, uh, special ed, general ed, you get about 60% of the budget is providing direct student instructional services, which is where the money should be. It should be
040going to the classrooms. Okay, we're nearing the end, but this is our tax levy comparison to the current year. And there's two components of tax levy. The general fund and the debt service fund. General fund tax levy was the revenue stream I discussed earlier. The debt service relates to voterapproved pre-existing bonded debt or refinancing. um over the years that we must annually service like a mortgage, meaning principal and interest payments. The district's bonded debt will actually expire in February of 2027. So there are only two more years of annual debt service that the board has to budget for. So again, the tax levy in the general fund is a flat increase and we have used Nope, I'm sorry, that is um really equates to uh a total budget that is only a 012% increase over
041the prior year. What does this mean in terms of tax impact? So the last column, the tax impact, it's always expressed as an increase or decrease relative to the prior year. Okay, so the tax rate is the total tax levy requested at $24 million divided by the tax base which is called the net valuation taxable of all ratable property in Colts neck township and the tax rate is based on every $100 of assessed valuation. That rate is then applied to an average assessed home value, not market value. That's very important. So what you see here is that the combined total tax rate with the general fund and the debt service fund is 0.5809. That is a decrease of seven cents from last year. So as you could see however as you even when you have
042a lower rate that is applied to increasing ratables as well as increasing average assessed valuation of homes. There is a mathematical increase to the tax impact. As an example, total tax rate of 0.5809 means for every 100,000 of assessed valuation, there would be $580 in school taxes. And you can see the past history of the ratables, how they've rapidly increased than the last couple of years. And it should be noted lastly that um the board of ed tax rate equates to approximately 44% of a resident's total tax rate and I think that's the last one. If there are questions, our contact information is here and just know that um in addition the so the advertised budget was published on Saturday. We will have a userfriendly budget that um statutoily has to get posted on our
043website within 48 hours of this public hearing. And please feel free to reach out to Dr. Garave Bay or myself if anybody has questions. But thank you. [Applause] first. Thank you, Mr. Morasco. And again, thank you the members of the finance committee as well as all the administrators, board of education members who have given a lot of time and input and asked qu great questions. You know, it's a process. It's a relatively newer board and we've enjoyed sharing the process and the experience and information about the district and everything that informs you know the the the compilation that ends in in the annual school budget. So thank you Mrs. Okay. Um I just want to make a couple of comments on this. Uh first of all um I want to thank uh the finance committee
044um Jason Rico as chair uh Phyllis Camera um Mr. Scarpa and Mr. Kevin Walsh. I I appointed all of you because I knew that the four of you um you know uh would be able to handle this job and I knew uh that you would get to a zero tax increase or as close as possible to that. I know that the meetings were sometimes uh contentious and uh it was very difficult um you know producing this budget. So, I want to uh thank you uh from the bottom of my heart for all those hours and hard work that you all put in. And I want the taxpayer to know that um we hear you loud and clear. The seniors, the single moms, uh even the rich people in this town, we are watching your dollars.
045Um we are not uh you know, we're not overlooking anything. Every little scent counts here. And I'm proud of this finance team. And I want to I want to thank all of you for the time. Thank you. [Applause] Uh, also I want to bring this up. Uh, you know, I got an email um, basically from the New Jersey school boards boards about what's going on around the state. The fact that I'm so proud of this budget. Um, I want to just go over what things are going on around our area. Um, Homedale uh, is having a increase of $600 average tax increase. Um and it was quoted that it was not sustainable. And uh there were 40 members of the district uh unions protesting the move to outsource um uh you know outsource board of
046education and services by the board of education. Lacy Township uh adopted a 7% tax increase. Um we have another school district uh K through 12 uh with a $5.7 million funding gap. Um, we also have a school budget tax increase that was rejected by the Tom's River Board, a 12.9 increase. Um, I'm sure you guys have also heard uh through the media that Middletown is having uh a lot of issues. Uh, they're looking to be possibly closing uh three schools. I don't know the ins and out of it, but just from what I heard, I never want that situation to happen in this district ever. Um, so I just want to make sure that everybody is clear on how serious we are about our budget and the way our money is spent. So once again,
047I'm proud of uh the way this turned out and I thank you all for um your commitment. Thank you. Um Okay. And I I also like to encourage other government agencies uh to look where you can cut. There's plenty of fat out there. You just got to look deep and get it done. Um, okay. Moving on. We are going to, uh, I want to take note of the information items. Uh, number one, the superintendent on the HIP. If everybody could take note of that. Uh, then we are going to move right into comments from intending constituents. Uh, just to remind everybody at the beginning of the year, I put in place two public comment sections. The first one will be on um uh the um items that are on the budget and then we also
048have one later on in the cow presentation uh if you want anybody wants to get up and add at that time. So if anybody would like to comment, they're welcome to come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record uh and you may do so at this time. Okay. Uh being there's no comments, we will close the public comment section. Um I would like to get a motion. Uh we're going to go right into the action items, which they're just a few this evening. Um I'd like to get a motion to move items 1 through eight on the agenda. Second. All right. Uh any questions or comments on these uh items? Uh Sure, Mr. I'd like to thank the uh finance committee and our president and uh and Vince and Dr.
049Garvey for all the hard work that they've done in uh in keeping a zero tax increase. Um I remember last year there was a former member on this board who didn't think it it would be able to happen could happen and I clapped back and I said that I had every confidence in this board that it could happen again especially with the leadership of our former President John Cameron. But you guys had have taken his lead and ran with it and I know he'd be very proud of you guys. So, thank you so much. Thank you very much, Mr. Like the comment. I think we have to be one of the only school districts in the state of New Jersey to have two consecutive zero tax rate. So, it's an accomplishment from our board along
050with working with our administration. So, we should be very proud of it. We have a great school district, great teachers. So, we achieved um everything we took an oath to to make sure our kids had the best education, but we also uh very mindful of our residents and our taxes. Anybody else like to Okay, we'll take a roll call. Okay. On Yes. Local action items. Sorry. Local. Yes. On action items one through eight. One through eight, please. Mrs. Cameron, yes. Uh, Mrs. Harowitz, yes. Is now present. Mr. Rico, yes. Mr. Regetta, yes. Mr. Scales, yes. Mr. Scarpa, yes. Mrs. Vulpi, yes. And Mr. Walsh. Yes. Thank you. Motion carried. Uh, great. Thank you, Mr. Oscar. Um, okay. We can take note of the uh communications listed. All right. Once everybody's through with that, we will
051move right into our board liaison reports. Uh, we will start with uh Mrs. Sarah Harwitz on the parent advisory committee. Thank you. Um, we have our May meeting this Monday, the 12th at 10:30 and 700 p.m. in the admin building and the agenda will be out later this week. Great. Thank you. Uh, and also the Col PTO. Um, there's quite a few things. The teacher and staff appreciation week is in full effect. This year's theme is big top circus. The school's uh, admin building and bus depot have provided decorations to give it the circus feel. Monday um was donuts and coffee. Tuesday was fresh popcorn. Today was hot dogs. Tomorrow is dessert. And Friday is uh lunch will be served. Uh flowers purchased from the flower sale we will be distributed on Friday. Um for
052the CR students, the school store will be uh the 15th and 16th during third, fourth, and fifth grade lunch periods. Um for eighth grade families, the lawn signs have been completed. Thank you for those who have ordered. Graduation ads are still available for purchase. Uh please RSVP for the eighth grade dance. Also, um additional or any information regarding ice cream social, baby pictures, and so forth. That can all be shared via the PTO email. If you're not receiving the emails, uh it's not too late to join. Just visit coltsnight pto.org. May 31st is the second grade carnival and there's still time to register. Uh June 19th is the fifth grade moving up party during school hours. To volunteer or donate, please visit the PTO website. And lastly, the final PTO general meeting and volunteer breakfast
053will be June 4th at 9:30 in the admin building. Great. Thank you, Mrs. Horowitz. I'm moving on to the Colts Neck Township newsletter, Mrs. Camera. Okay. Um, our second newsletter went out April 23rd. We've received encouraging words of thanks from many Colts neck residents who appreciated the updates and our team's commitment to transparency and student first values. And I want to thank the community for their support. And looking ahead, our next newsletter will highlight Kevin. Oh, wow. Great. Okay, that's all. [Music] Um, okay. Okay. Uh, Mr. Reignetta, the Colink Township School Arts and Extracurriculars. Thank you. Uh, tomorrow we have the girls, uh, soccer triyouts. Today was the boys soccer triyouts, but tomorrow we still have the girls soccer triyouts. Uh, located at Five Points Field. uh those born in 2016 to 2018 uh their
054uh trial time will be 5:00 pm to 6:15 p.m. Those born 2013 2015 their trial time will be 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m. And those uh who were born 2012 or older uh parents, please email Alberto Mel at albertofcamoth.com. Um as well, please email him as well too. So again, Albertofcmoth.com uh to try and sign up uh as well to if you can still sign up with one day left. Uh please, if you are uh going, please arrive 15 minutes uh prior to your check-in so you can be ready. Um the boys there's a boys basketball spring basketball clearance that are going on right now uh at Connor World Elementary. They started this month. They're there were $150 for nine sessions on Mondays and Fridays uh from May to June. Again, uh grades uh 2
055to 8 and being coached by the Coulseneck High School staff and uh basketball players who won the state championship. Uh please email Steve Russell at s Russell at uh frsnd.com. That's sr usllsd.com to see if you can still sign up. Uh, also, uh, Saturday, June 7th will be the fatherdaughter dance, which will be held at Trump National, and that'll be from 4 p.m. to 8:00 PM. And for all of these, please go to coltsnnecksportsfoundation.com for more info and to sign up and for emails. And also lastly, uh, this Saturday will be the, uh, flag football playoffs starting this weekend. And, uh, I will be coaching with fellow board member Brian uh, Scarpa, and we're gonna try and get our first win in the playoffs. So wish us luck. Thank you. Uh thank you Mr. Regetta.
056U moving on to the Colts Township Committee. Uh Mr. Scarpa and Mrs. Camera. Um Rob and I attended the April 30th uh township committee meeting. And here are some key highlights we'd like to share. A proclamation recognizing Arbor Day in Colts Neck Township was presented. In honor of this, the environmental commission organized a sapling giveaway to encourage residents to plant and care for trees in our community. Um, thank you to Tom Pacico and the Colts Neck Nursery for providing the saplings to make the um, event successful. Um, a representative from the Daughters of the American Revolution addressed the committee highlighting efforts to identify and mark the graves of Revolutionary War veterans. Um, notably she was there asking to honor revolutionary war patriot uh, Tobias Pulis by officially marking his grave which is in. Um, so
057that was really interesting. And the last thing this was brought up by a resident talked about ebike safety. During the public portion, residents and committee members raised concerns about electric bikes particularly particularly used by our students. So their issues were that um some of the riders are failing to stop at intersections. They're wearing headphones or earbuds while riding. Some are not wearing helmets and they're traveling at potentially dangerous speeds. So some of the discussion centered around the possibility of enacting a local ordinance restrict or regulate ebike use particularly among you know our students. So while safety is a priority um I believe a ban or an overly restrictive ordinance is is not the best approach many students rely on these you know bikes to get to friends homes recreational activities or after school activities so
058our town has limited walkability transportation mobility is a key for some of our students especially middle school for independence so rather than penalizing all riders um as a school board I thought maybe we should promote responsible use through education and possibly infrastructure. So maybe um partnering with the chief of police bike safety workshops at our schools. Um maybe creating some kind of student and parent pledge programs to promote the safe riding habits. Uh we obviously want to encourage our students using helmets signaling restrictions. Um again working with the township to identify maybe a proposed designated or groups around traffic areas and invite maybe police officers or safety officials to speak at the assembly. And I do encourage residents who um want their children to be able to continue riding ebikes to directly contact the committee
059and get more information about them. Okay. All right. Uh great. Mrs. Camera, thank you. Uh Brian, anything from you? Okay. Um All right. The Colts Township Planning Board uh subcommittee, Mr. Scales and Mr. Walsh. Yep. You go first. Um yeah, so with opportunity and privilege to serve as a ad hoc subcommittee to the planning board. Um, Committeeman Rosetta, we we uh welcome your your uh work and effort and along with our school board. The upcoming Great school district. Long story short, we're working hard together. try to plan. Kevin, can you put your mic on, please? Sorry about that. trying to look at and target um inclusionary homes such as senior citizens, mixed use or veterans with dis disabilities or veterans that are homeless and try to honestly try to impact try to decrease the impact
060of students coming into this district. Um, so we're looking at the we work together and really enjoy working with the planning board and specifically the township committee and I think we're we're going to achieve that. Um, hopefully with in a, you know, through a strategic plan going forward. So, yep. I echo uh Mr. Walsh's comments. I think um it's you know it's it's obviously a hot and emotional topic in town and I want to um really thank uh John Tibia as well um for his leadership and putting the the subcommittee together because what it's doing is it's bringing all stakeholders um from around the town. So could there potentially have been um something discussed prior to Lavana Square? There's a big possibility that there could have been if we if the predecessors on the town
061had put a subcommittee like this um together. And just to kind of echo what you've said, Mr. Walsh, and sort of just the the subcommittee in general is um want to make the public aware, I mean, again, nobody has ever said anything negative or anyone is against affordable housing whatsoever. Obviously, it's a a paramount part of um just our community in general. What we're trying to do is we're trying to make sure that we are prepared. So, working with the consultant uh from the planning board, she is is going to take our recommendation and put together a quick one-pager just like we have done on what we think the tax sort of burden would be on our district in the future. She's going to do something similar so the public can read something very simply
062to see what the impact would be from affordable units to what our obligation is to what a durational adjustment is called and to what is our actual obligation and then more importantly what essentially um is our exposure right so if we don't submit the proper plans to the state what is our actual exposure so I'm excited to report that our um next meeting will be on on the 29th where that report will be done and then it'll be presented to the township committee I believe on June 9th. Um and then that's where we our voices will finally have been heard. So excited where we're going and people are listening and now we are prepared for what could potentially happen to the town. So Y want to participate and make comments that we're all part of
063one community. So we're all stakeholders in that. And I think the more we're open and transparent about what's going on with affordable housing, the better for our whole town, our whole our whole community, particularly the kids in our district. You're here. That's it from us. Thank you. Uh great. Uh thank you gentlemen. Um moving on. Uh Mr. Walsh, can you um cover the Colnneck Township seniors? Sure. They had a meeting today in the meetings are the first Wednesday of every month. You know, with the money we're saving next year, they're going to afford to go on all these trips they go on, which is a good thing. Um the trips aren't cheap. They're going uh to Kate May Zoo on May 15th in a lobster house down there. They're having uh they're going to see
064Top Hat at the Surf Light Theater, which is really good. I think it's an LBI. And they're going on a river queen cruise on July 10th. A big trip to the Grand Canyon of the Pennsylvania. I never heard of it. It's called the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, which is overnight trip. So, um, we also encouraging our seniors to be engaged with our school district and Dr. Riby really worked well. You know, thank you for the work for trying to get the seniors in to see our kids play sports. So, I know it's just the beginning, but hopefully we get a a bigger turnout attendance. Appreciate your work. Okay. Sorry about that. Uh, moving on to Mr. Scarpa. U Mrs. Ramirez is out today. So, if you can um take over for her. Sure. Thank you.
065Uh, you know, I know I know we have uh planning a uh field trip in the fall. We are going to work with with the folks that are responsible for that for the naval weapons station. So, more to come in that space. Admittedly, I've been very busy with the finance committee. Uh and just a note about that uh uh a tremendous amount of work uh by the talents both on this board and the administrative staff to get this through. Uh you'll see an environment of a 5% decrease state aid. That's not chump change and that's impacting all the jurisdictions. So we have to respond to that. So this board really came together the finance committee really came together and the administrative staff led by Dr. Gar to really say okay what can we do in
066this restrictive environment? uh communications. We can always do better with communications. Always. So, but our mission is to always be listening, learning, and developing. And I'll say always, that's that similar to your approach with cycle. You know, this is what it's all about. But this these meetings that led up to this two and a half months of finance meetings really highlighted the true talent of both the board and the administrative staff to get the job done. You will see a litany of of efficiencies that are baked into the program. and we can do even better. So, there's a lot to come. We have a lot of expenses to come in and long both short-term and long term. We're going to address it, but we have the right team of dedicated staff and board members to
067tackle that. So, kudos to this team. Uh, and I think uh great. Uh, thank you, Mr. Scarpa. I'm going to move right into this Dayton County School Board's um updates. Uh uh we have a AI conference uh coming up uh on Friday, June 6th at 9:30 a.m. at Mercy County College. The registration would be $119 if anybody here wants to participate. Um May 30th, we have a virtual uh spring conference that's also 9 to3:30. That registration is $99. It will offer uh 20 sessions containing the most requested topics from workshop 2024 such as school safety, mental health, board governance, and career education. Uh once again to reiterate, uh the New Jersey School Board's workshop for 2025 will be October 20 uh 20th through the 23rd. Registration is still open. Uh the early bird special is
068still available to June 30th. if anybody is interested to please uh register. Uh lastly, uh nominations are being accepted for the 202526 board member of the year. Uh you must have five consecutive years of experience and must hold uh a certified board member designation certificate. Um so none of us are qualified. Uh um the deadline for nominations is July 1st. Uh that's all I have for the state and county school boards. Um at this time we are going to move right into uh the committee of a whole work session. For those people who have not attended, I see some new faces here. Um we have been working as a cow committee of a whole uh for about a year or so now. And what that means is we do everything in front of the public.
069Um you know we did do a finance um ad hoc committee obviously because of the uh excessive hours but uh going forward we always do anything we present it to the public we discuss it in front of everybody so it's completely transparent. So uh at this time we're going to start moving into our committee of a whole work session. Uh we're going to start our report our ad hoc affordable housing committee report. Um Rob if you want to take over for that. Absolutely. I'm going to be a little redundant to what we had said the uh committee um there's nothing for us to report um essentially we are in a holding pattern um until we find out what the marching orders are from the town committee so once everything that I had just explained prior
070once that is presented and then the town puts their stamp of approval um on what the rest of round three and round four will be then we will know as an ad hoc committee what we need to do to be prepared so we will simply just be waiting for those final numbers and final report. And once I get that report, obviously it's made to the public, but I'll also bring it to the board as well for us to discuss and go through it. Um, so we're all on the same page. So, it's all I have today. Great. Nice and short. Thank you. Um, okay. We're going to move on. I don't think, uh, Mr. Walsh, we have anything for the buildings and grounds. Correct. people listening current state where we're at right now. I did
071not expect that, but okay. Yeah, I know. Yes, I was not prepared to uh to speak tonight, so I I'll do But I eat and sleep uh sleep and drink this stuff, so I'll do my best. So, we're about um 55 60% done with solar. The elementary school is completely done. Cedar Drive is about half done. The primary school is the biggest part of the project. I'm sure you guys all see it if you drop off your kids, etc. That is about 50% done at that school. So, um the front is about done. We're moving to the back now. Uh the back will be each uh hall as you guys have already seen and then along the back as well. Um excuse me HVAC HBAC all the rooftop units were delivered over the spring break.
072You guys saw the pictures of the cranes and everything. I'm sure Mr. Masco and Dr. Grab share that with you. Uh we started tying them in since spring break. So uh controls being added to it. Um we're probably mo I was told today we'll be done completely by Monday. So by Monday all HVAC in this district will be up and running as a part of the EIP. So, we will be officially be 100% air conditioning by Tuesday of next week. Of course, you know, things could happen between now and then, but that's what I'm being told now. Um, obviously, whenever you're turning on brand new units, you think they're brand new, there's no issues, but there's always issues when you turn on especially new things. So, um, we're tweaking as we move along, you know,
073checking pounds, making sure Freon's loaded and all those kind of things. So, um, I would say, uh, for HBAC will be up and running by next week. Solar um is expected to be done by June 25th, which is actually the end of the prediction for the ESIP project as a whole. It'll go into about 19 months since we started, which uh I don't know about you, Vince, seems a little bit longer than that, right? Yeah, way longer than that. But um yeah, so we'll be 19 months in. Uh just a reminder, all the HVAC that's currently being installed has um is conducted with uh blue lights to kill all infectants that come in through the room. Um ionizers, they're all MURF 13, which is now the indoor air quality recommended air filter in each unit.
074Before we only had Murvit, so now we're up to the modern day standard. And we're also now providing fresh air, which is mandated under Ashray. So regardless when the units are running or not, there's still fresh air being pumped into the room, which is of course uh better for everyone and now is mandatory whoever puts in new HVAC going forward. So uh that all started during COVID with air quality and everything. And that was such a hot topic. Um I would also, if I have a minute, sir, if it's okay with you, I'd like to thank everyone here who's been dealing with this project for the last two years with us. Um, it's not just Vince and I. Uh, there's been a lot of headaches, good times, bad times, and I just want to thank
075everyone for working along with us. Um, I want to thank everyone for who's been a part of it because like Dr. Garve has said a couple times, the biggest project in this district since the referendum of 1998. So, uh, kudos to all included and, um, I can't wait to get all the bugs and the buzzes and bugs and whistles out this summer and when we start September, be done with the ESIP and be ready to rock and roll for the next year. Appreciate the summer rec camp. Is that going to be impact? Oh, no impact at all. I'm being told June 27th they'll be out of here. Um, obviously we have to, you know, we have to do signoffs. We have to do a final walk through and make sure that everything's up and running
076before we can sign off and send the final checks and all that, but um, no, we won't impact summer uh, camp or any of those things at all. Great. Thank you for all your hard work. You're very welcome. Thank you, sir. Anything else? And Mr. Walsh, if I may, um, I think there was a question at the last meeting that Mr. Scarbor raised about water testing and, uh, Mr. Moretta was kind enough with Mr. for to put together uh a really a nice summary of everything and uh I'll include that in our board update for the week which kind of outlines what we do on a monthly regular basis so that we can um the board can assess that and review that as well. Okay. Uh anything else, Mr. Walsh? Okay. Um Okay, moving into
077uh communications. Okay. So, uh for a firm um currently working with um DCO has been not just you know a good partner with our ESA but has really been wonderful with regard to communication educational program and so and so forth. So under communications I just wanted to share with um Mr. Scarpa as well as the board that we are looking at doing a major press release with them and that is attached in there. We work uh collaboratively myself with Dr. Reynolds u Mr. from we sat we talked with them with their PR person so on and so forth and the I um I can also share with you that they've done this before with their others this is national news that they put out they use their channels from across the country to put out
078about the savings that we've had our project so on and so forth so if there's um we're at a point of saying if there's anything that the board would like to add a quote or anything from the board president at this point otherwise they're just waiting on us to give the final stamp of approval so that we can release we'll do both both um local as well as national which which will be very great press release for us and and sharing all the good that we've done with our facilities. Okay. So, I think from a timing perspective, they're ready for us to go. So, if the board could kind of review that, if we could maybe look and if there's something you want to do, if we could get that back to them like next
079week. Okay. That would be great. And then we can send it back uh and they can start distributing it. You know, we'll make uh we'll make it a priority. Okay. Perfect. Thank you. And then um we have a if uh Mr. Paso is here. Uh, and I'm looking over to make sure that he's still able. There is an update. We're doing a big overhaul. There's a big u visual overhaul, I should say, which will look different, but there's so much behind the scenes as we know uh which ends in the front of product and Mr. Capaso is leading us through uh a complete transfer of our website and communication system which started as a conversation last fall early last fall last summer's inquiries investigation is now worked to the point uh for launching. So, Mr.
080capac sharing an update on that with us. So, um it's not just the website and communications, it's actually adding another application. It's having that app um accessible to the entire community here, which is going to be huge. It's going to be a gamecher. One of the things that we've discussed in previous communications committee um and analyzing our website is what's the purpose of the website? Is it to bring people there or is it better for us to send the information to the public? And that's what that app is going to provide. Um so, I have a standing meeting with Final Site every uh two weeks. Actually, this week we just started going twice a week because we're starting to do the um the uh information integration so that when we start syncing our Genesis and
081SchoolFi accounts so that um we have the correct um uh email addresses and phone numbers for communications, we want to make sure all that's lined up. We're looking at a June 26 launch date uh for both the website as well as the app. They kind of run concurrently because the app is kind of mimicking the website. Um the communications we're very lucky that we have overlap with our current product as well as uh final site so we can do checks with um our old program making sure that the new pro program is working. So we're hoping to roll that out sooner. We're looking at towards the end of May um starting this past Monday, May 5th. Um excuse me. The uh final site started scraping and pulling the information off of our website that we
082currently have. The anticipation the anticipated completion of that is next Friday the 16th. Um and at that point I have a standing meeting on the 19th with Katie, our our rep, um to start going through layout and making sure that everything's migrated. Um Dominic Petrillo and I have been working very closely kind of figuring out a better way for us to host um our content and our information and allow us to better provide um that content on the website so it looks better than what we currently have. And one of the things that we haven't been able to do that we're kind of um brainstorming and figuring out what we want to do and how it's going to look is the incor incorporation of multimedia with our website. Um we haven't really had a lot
083of pictures. Haven't had any video. This new website is allowing us to do so. Um so we already have plans on uh incorporating pictures and video from graduation end of the year field day things so that um events so that when we launch it, you know, at the end of June, we'll have those newer videos and pictures to splash right on on the website. So that's where we're at. Thank you, Mr. [Applause] Capaso. Oh, sorry about that. I was reading something. Um, okay. We're gonna move on to curriculum. Um this uh seems like a little bit lengthy, but I'm sure uh we will tighten it up as best as possible. Sure. Um NJSLA testing is underway. Um Dr. Reynolds provided me with the these statistics. As of today, um May 7th, there are 21 students
084who are not participating in NJSLA at Cedar Drive Middle School compared to 52 last year. There are seven students who are not participating at um crests compared to 18 last year. Um ELA has been uh testing has been completed. Next week we're starting with mathematics um grades 3 to 8 grades 3 to 8 will be taking it um May 12th, 13th and 14th. Grades seven and eight algebra or geometry on May 12th and 13th. And then the following week, grade five and grade 8 will be taking science May 19th and May 20th. Okay, moving on. Um, the district is conducting a brief community needs assessment survey as part of federal funding requirements under the elementary and secondary education act called ESSA. Um, the survey gathers input from community members to help identify priority areas and
085guide budget planning. So, we're asking the community to um complete the survey that will be sent out this week. Um the district celebrates and recognizes that May is mental health month and there is a list of activities that our schools are um participating in between spirit days and mindful coloring pages and taking a dance break. Um there's a walkathon. So, there's just lots of wonderful events this May. And I'm sure I'm assuming it's going out to the whole community as well. And um and then I will now Sarah uh will take over um for the middle school Holocaust Studies and Assemblies. But before she does, I'm going to just pass this out to the board. This is everything that our um our school district already does. So, it's wonderful. And I know Sarah has one
086more addition that she would love for us to add. Yeah, I know that we briefly discussed it, but um as I mentioned, I'm part of a 3G group for grandchildren of Holocaust survivors. Um one of the um one of the great things that that we do is we have our members discuss um give a presentation about their grandparents um what they went through during the Holocaust. And it's it's a really amazing free um assembly and it's typically for seventh and eighth grade. A lot of local schools have done it. Um and hopefully we can incorporate that in September. I know it's too late now, but hopefully we can do that September, October. Thank you. All right. Um the next thing was something that I saw that was in the budget. So, I'm very excited and
087I was hoping Dr. Garbay can share. We started with a inquiry into some kind of JOTC whether it was a club or maybe eventually turning it into a possible elective class for Cedar Drive Middle School and um so the floor is yours. So I had a wonderful conversation with it was actually a recommendation from our uh naval weapons station school lison on Ida West Jones who's here with us tonight um to investigate the CC cadet program. I don't know how many of you are familiar with this but it is a really interesting program. I had a a great conversation with Lieutenant Commander Richard Bowman who is the regional director for the CCAT program and it's actually uh a program that is run outside of the school day. uh it's run uh it's an opportunity for
088students which the perfect grade levels are six through eight for the cadet program it although it they he actually said please don't please refrain from considering a feeder program because it actually expands and they have found multiple opportunities they they connect and partner with he actually knows major pens and is sad to see him go like we all are but um he said it is something that they actually expand beyond ROC there's uh what it is is They meet once a month for students who sign up. Uh they meet once a month a and they actually spend Saturday night into Sunday at different areas including Naval Weapons Station Earl and then there is a summer program where they learn uh that's also available to them as well. So it is completely run by the Navy.
089it is completely run as an opportunity for uh students for leadership and different opportunities that they have in um so I'm learning what um where that conversation left was uh Lieutenant Commander Bowman is is is more than happy to meet uh at a time with you know with with board members andor and administrators to kind of learn about the program in its totality because right now I asked him is the cost for the program the initial setup for students is about $29 $99 plus a $99 fee um with it and there are districts in New York that are starting to pick up the cost for that but mostly you know it goes over in there but it is a really interesting and cool program because it's different it's training but it's also life skills they
090learn culinary they're learning all different types of things so it sounds like um he said it's equivalent to that of like eagle scouting or scouting or something like that for those types of programs so I'm really interested in exploring it and I thank uh Ida for bringing that to our attention and we're still navigating some things at our the most most recent change event. I spoke with Major Penzac. He did say he had some some ideas. We are playing email phone tag with each other and as well as he's also transitioning his program. So, um he he I think we're waiting to hear back from him now that it's kind of like a tag your it component but we are following up. And then I have a phone call in again to the principal in
091Wall just to kind of touch base as to where they are, how their program went for the year. So he knows that I'm looking for that feedback to see how their program went, which again was mostly a class. So we're looking at I'm trying we're trying to get different ideas and maybe make a a compilation of them all and kind of create a unique program for us. Yeah, this is so exciting. So thank you and thank you as well. This is this is great feedback. Um, the last thing, so hopefully I'm quick enough, is that I found out that the New Jersey Crant Conservatorium um has granted districts free trips to Sandy Hook, provided that each class that attends completes two activities. Um, one prior to the trip, it's very simple. It's just a video.
092And then following the trip, the teacher asked to complete a survey. Um, so it is I just think a wonderful opportunity. I don't know if our district can take advantage of it still because I know it's many but if we can I think we should and it really goes with you know the third fourth and fifth grade curriculum which is what it's um here for and um learn more about it on the website but it's you know just something to throw out there. So Mrs. Can I did you when I was looking through it in the website, thank you for sharing that. Is this is that something it's I didn't see was it only for this year or is can we carry I think I saw that it it wasn't just for this year. So
093that's what I'm hoping for. Okay. That I don't know for sure but that would be wonderful. Right. I just I can call I'll call. Perfect. I'll follow up with that with the organization. What a wonderful opportunity. Yeah. So thank you. Great. Wow. Mrs. Camera that was that was very quick. Now now now I feel bad I even said anything. All right. Thank you. No, we do. Uh, and just just a quick note before we move on to the next group. Uh, just a special thanks to the teachers and the administrative staff for getting the messaging out there about the NJSLA testing. That's a big component. uh by those numbers that's a 50% in or decrease in those not taking it. That's a substantial mark as we go up against the uh blue ribbon status and
094we've been trying for this for quite a while and we're in NA unless we hit a 95%. So just kudos to the teachers, administrative staff, principles, vice principles to getting the word out there. Uh regardless of how they do on the exam, they have to take the exam. So, uh, that point is not missed and we appreciate that. That's a fantastic improvement in one year. Thank you. Y, very good. Great. Uh, Mr. Scarpet, thanks uh, for recognizing that. Thank you. Um, moving on to finance. Uh, I assume we spoke enough about that. Uh, we're just going to run through the presentation again. Is that No. Nope. Or not. Um, okay. I just didn't want to miss anything. Um, okay. We're going to move right into policy. U Mr. scales. Yeah, absolutely. Um yeah, so three
095things to discuss today. Um number one, we have drafted our first version of our Colts Township Board of Education parental bill of rights. Um so we all as I had stated last meeting um was sent out the first version. Every board member had a chance to provide their feedback. So, thank you all um for providing your feedback um as we create it. Um you know, with I would say I'm not I'm not shocked of some of the responses that we've received from the general public for it, which the same thing that they're fighting for. Um is the same thing that affords us the opportunity to create something along these lines. So, what I wanted to do is just address what the Bill of Rights is because a lot of the comments came um to us
096without anyone actually seeing or opening or reading the document. Um so, just to level set, as I mentioned before, the Bill of Rights is it's the exact reason that we have a Constitution of the United States, right? The Bill of Rights is crafted with intentional vagueness in order to make sure that as society grows and as the Commonwealth of our district grows that we are all holding every party accountable to the law. A lot of comments that we received were that this is actually inputting more politics into the district and I wholeheartedly disagree. What a bill of rights and a constitution does is it removes politics because it does not give any one entity within a governing body power over the other. So if we look at some examples that we have um in the
097state of New Jersey um without asking parents, without asking staff, without asking administrative things were put into law and distributed without any sort of communication, without any sort of reasoning and why. A lot of other boards um had challenged a couple of different policies. had they had a parental bill of rights, they would have known what the level set of the law was. So essentially what we're doing is we're working backwards, right? So typically a constitution and a bill of rights is written and then you have these amendments and then you have policies that are drafted on a bill of rights and a constitution. What we've collectively done is we've taken every federal law that exists, every state law that exists, every policy that we have as a district, and we're going through a policy
098holder shift in our district. So, it's also afforded us the ability to Dr. GB and I to go and re-review all the policies that we have. One of the main concerns that we hear and again out, you know, as a campaign to get on the board of education, we knocked on every door in Colts and we listened to the families. We listened to the parents and one thing that they wholeheartedly asked us for was I'm confused. I would like someone to summarize what my rights are. And granted, my face is in policy every single day, right? So, in my profession and here in the district as well. So, I get it because I read these policies. But if you look at go to this link and click on that and then draw down to this
099section and go through that section, a parent gets overwhelmed. So they had asked us to draft something that summarizes everything that's out there without changing the law. That is exactly what we're doing with this parental bill of rights. I had mentioned during my ad hoc committee report that we summarized a tax implications to the district positive feedback because what did that do? It provided uh one sharable document that was easily sharable and easily digestable amongst all of our residents. I mentioned a second one that the town committee is going to adopt and a consultant on the ad hoc committee has adopted as well because it was a great idea for us to summarize what the impact was to col community. So lastly, what this will do is it will summarize again all the current federal,
100state, and district policies that are out there that exist and it summarizes it into a digestible document. So all parties in here, if we look at it, it's basically very similar to the federal government. We've got different branches in the federal government, judicial, we have that kind of something similar structure here. We've got students, we've got parents, we've got administrative and all these entities need to work together. So what this does is it underscores the importance of teachers working with parents, parents working with administrators and the PTO working with the committees that we have. So essentially it draws everyone together to have one document to look at to refer to if anything is in question. And the brilliance of the United States of America is that every law is up for interpretation. And that's what
101this does. This essentially affords everyone the opportunity to interpret the policies that we've written as a district and the federal and the state laws. So parents don't have to go and dig it and submit OPER requests to find this and find that and then not get the proper responses they have from um the government of the United States, government of New Jersey and our district. It holds us accountable and it holds every other entity in our community accountable as well. So with that, if there's any questions that you have um that we already haven't brought to me, I will take any of those that have as a board. Um I just wanted to make a a comment on this. Um we had a couple of communications uh this afternoon um about you know why we're
102not getting feedback. Um you know when we work as a committee of a whole uh basically nothing is done once again I said prior uh nothing is done behind closed doors. Uh Mr. Scales brought this to our attention. He requested it to be put on the agenda and we're here to discuss it. um we give ample time for anybody to get up and speak and put their input as uh constituents, parents, uh people that oppose it. Um so tonight is a good chance if anybody wanted to say that. So um I just want to make it clear uh in the communications that everything is done with complete transparency and we'll be continue to do so. Um and Rob, I appreciate all the work that was put into this uh bill of rights. I'm confident that
103this will go through two reads and will be passed by this board. So, thank you. Very welcome. Uh, anybody else have any questions on this particular item? Mr. Uh, Rob, um, I want to thank you for your hard work on this as well as, uh, President Vulpi as well, too. Thank you so much for this. Um, for those here tonight or watching at home or who have emailed us, again, I want to just uh, what Rob had mentioned that we're not passing anything new tonight. All these policies have already been put in place and we're just putting it in one place that parents can uh reference uh one accessible place which will hopefully be on our new website easily accessible on our new website. And uh if there's anything regarding uh anybody who has questions
104about parents not being not that they shouldn't know something. Well, that's in regards to that would have been regards to policy 5756, which was already repealed almost two years ago. So, those of you who might be protesting that you're pretty much two years too late to the party. Um, again, I want to thank you for this and putting this all together and taking our feedback and um I look forward to this being passed. Thank you. Uh, great. Uh, thank you, Mr. Regetta. Uh, anybody else like to make a comment on this? Uh, I also like to address um Garden State Equality. Um, as president of this board, I will not be intimidated by any letters or threatening accusations of our actions on this board of education. I will not tolerate it. Um, moving forward, Rob,
105if you can uh move on to the next um, uh, bylaw. uh 0155.2 um slightly less friction bylaw 0155.2. Uh what we're doing here is just a you probably noticed this was this came up earlier in the year. We added the affordable um ad hoc subcommittee. What we're adding here um is Kevin and I's role as liaison with the uh town committee and the COA um COA subcommittee. So any questions on that? It's pretty straightforward on that aspect of it. Yeah. If there and again we can work behind your feedback to Mr. Scales and if not it will appear as a first read on um May 21st. May 21st. Yes. And then last um this is the memo we had brought up during the last one. There was just a slight update from um the
106Department of Education. Um I take my interpretation of it and it's open obviously for discussion now. My interpretation is that nothing had changed. Um so again the original memo is just to codify with the federal government that we are in compliance um with title six because the state has stated they will not fill out the appropriate form to again codify again. They're saying they codified it a few months back during a presentation. So again, I don't want any we talked about our budget today, how successful it was. We talked about the the lack of state funding. So what this does is again it it removes politics and it allows us to have a level set that if the federal government wants to fight with the state, they have to do it themselves and we are
107going to codify that we will follow federal law, we will follow state law and then if anyone wants to fight about it, they fight amongst themselves. They don't come and fight with the So, two cents on that. I don't know if you you have anything to add about that. I was going to say I think the direction from Mr. Scales would be whether or not we want it to be a memo or it will be a resolution that is passed and become certified get sent somewhere. I leave that to the discretion of the board regarding um you know that statement because I know it was prepared as originally as a memo. Yeah. But if we want it to be done differently, just let us know. I mean, no. So, that's why it's memo. Got it.
108Okay. So, just how however the board would like to proceed. Yeah. Um, and yeah, that's it for those. The last thing is just the update for Strauss Esme. Uh, and to school boards, we're still in that process. We met as an administrative team yesterday and everyone has their binder. What? Where's the binder? Oh, you want me to get it? The two binders in two. Which one do you want? Um, so I I actually have gone through I'll note in the update this week, I've gone through the bylaws, which is now section 9,000. I noted to Mr. Scales some of the changes. So, we'll just proceed in looking at it. remember that our stress estate policies are intact. We're in that transition. So, we found I founded three or four discrepancies of what appeared in current
109bylaws which now are going to be, you know, put on. So, we'll follow that same format where language that was um omitted from the new version uh by school boards will be included and then we'll share them accordingly updated throughout. So, um and we'll proceed. We're on going through administration next. So, stay tuned. question. Uh great. Uh thank you, Mr. Scales. Um we have uh nothing under negotiations. Uh nothing under transportation and we'll wrap it up with the uh personnel information items. Yes, these are just uh anticipated as I do every if there are any questions just reach out. But these are the anticipates and and as uh Ms. camera said the summer and gearing up are now the times when we're you're going to see quite a few things not just from the after
110school activities but uh with the passing of the budget we'll see the postings for the retirements vacancies those kinds of things that are going forward for uh into the school year. So um stay tuned for all of those things as well that are happening. Okay, great. Close that. Um okay, we're going to open the floor for our last public comment section um basically on all subjects tonight. you could uh come up to the podium, state your name and address for the record. There you go. Hi. Um my name is Aldo Petrino. Um I'm actually a resident in Malbor. Uh former board member. Um, I just wanted to honestly congratulate you guys on how well you're working together and that massive like task that you guys took on with the budget is honestly it's impressive. Um,
111you know, I know my first year on the board, we tried um, you know, we we basically made an attempt just like you guys to we attempted to actually try and cut $1 million from the budget. Um, and it was no easy task. And then the next year being faced with the um increases in you know health insurance and like all the increases that we were seeing like across the fixed expenses for you guys to pull off 0% two years in a row is honestly it's um it's inspiring and cul's lucky to have like all you guys doing this work. So just want to say great job guys. Uh, thank you very much for coming out tonight and acknowledging our success. We really appreciate that, Mr. Patruno. Um, anybody else like to get up and
112um make a comment on uh all subjects? Good evening. My name is Mallerie Rearen. I live at 165 Lair Road. Um, actually, I want to start by thanking Mr. Walsh for mentioning the uh Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. I've never heard of that. I Googled it. Looks intriguing. Um and then I personally had some questions about the Bill of Rights. Mr. Scales, you I appreciate your explanation. Um for why you guys undertook this. That was one of my questions. I had not known that anybody had asked for it. I haven't heard any parents ask for it. I know I personally was not something that crossed my mind. Um, and it seems like communications wise there are three other parents in the district that have objections or concerns. So, in the spirit of transparency, it seems like
113it could be a really great thing to send a survey out to parents. You guys just did a survey on math workbooks. So, I think that if you really want to get a sense of what parents in the community are looking for, this could be an opportunity for another survey. Um, I did have other questions. Obviously, we don't I'm not expecting you to answer them, but maybe it's something that you can think about and address at other meetings. Um, I know a lot of the policies or a lot of the items in this do exist in policy already. So, there may be some things that exist and I just wasn't aware of it. One of the things that stood out to me was the section on consent or decline for mental health services. I know
114there's an exception for emergency situations, but I also know that sometimes sensitive conversations can start with a student and maybe a counselor needs to evaluate whether it's an emergency situation or not. There might not be time for them to tell that student like, "Let's put this on pause. let me go get consent from your parents. Um, I personally think that's maybe an area for clarification in that statement and not just making it seem like a counselor would always be contacted right away. Give give the counsel or sorry, a parent would be contacted right away. Maybe give the counselors a little more wiggle room on that. Um, the section 3.3 gender identity. Um, that section seems a little contradictory. You do tell parents that they'll be notified if a child wants to change their pronouns or
115their gender identity at school, but then you do end the section with saying that New Jersey laws will supersede this. So, it's not very clear. As a parent, it's not clear to me. I think that eyes are also on our district. We've already gotten that letter that you mentioned from Garden State Equality. I think if that language, if you guys pass that language, I think we have to be honest that there could be a possibility for lawsuits. Um, I'm curious if you're budgeting for that in the budget that you just demonstrated just so we are ready if that happens. Um, section 7.3. Again, this might be something that already existed and I didn't know it, but it mentions that parents have the right to to visit and observe classrooms and activities. I hadn't heard of
116this before and it just kind of struck me that um if a parent is coming to observe their child, like are you getting consent from the parents of other children in the class? Like, are we sure that other parents are comfortable with, you know, someone coming and watching their kid in the class? I also wasn't sure what that looks like from a practical standpoint. The parents coming to observe, do they have to do the same training as like parents that want to participate in class activities? Um, and then I really I just wanted to encourage you to get stakeholder engagement with counselors or teachers or staff and parents just to make sure that all everybody's transparent. Everybody understands what the limitations will be from this or maybe things are broad enough there aren't limitations, but
117you guys really pride yourselves on transparency. So, I don't think it could hurt to get as much stakeholder input as possible. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Mrs. Reen. Your comments are uh always appreciated. Thank you. Um, anybody else like to Sure. Sure the light is still on. Okay. My name is Eleanor Glazooi. I live at 60 Laurelwood Drive. I am the parent of two school age students, one of whom is currently in sixth grade in the Cedar Drive Middle School. I'm speaking tonight to share my concerns about the parental bill of rights that has been shared with the community as a draft in a portion of your agenda and I thank you Mr. Scales for giving some more feedback about that. Never in my years as a parent or working in higher education did I
118ever think there would be an embedded undertone nationwide and within our community that people who are working in higher education are doing so with some sort of agenda to undo the values kids are learning at home or that educators are operating with devious intentions and do so in the shadows ignoring the interests and rights of children and their parents. Unfortunately, this kind of fear-mongering mindset that parents need to take back their rights has been encouraged and spread by organizations with which many members of our current board have aligned themselves, like Moms for Liberty and Gays Against Groomers, just to name a few. These rights are there. They always have been. There are portions of the parental bill of rights that are clearly no-brainers and things where teachers, administration, and staff do each and every day.
119The doors of communication go two ways. And I can assure you since kindergarten, my kids have always been fortunate to have teachers who reach out when things are going great and their areas of concern. And I've been able to do the same. As parents, my husband and I have always made it a point to engage with their children each day to find out what they are doing, hear about how their days have gone, listen to stories about fun things they were doing, or needing to run the dreaded mile and the sheer exhaustion at the end of the day. God, I'm still hearing about it. Anyway, I have never felt that communication has been limited. I have felt I am part of a team to help my kids grow, see them succeed, and also give them
120the kick in the pants when it's needed, as kids sometimes do need. The parental bill of rights, however, implies that avenues to communicate are closed. There are no opportunities for ongoing conversations to share concerns or the good our kids are doing in class. These days, we see a growing number of people who feel a need to insert themselves in the classroom experience by literally attending classroom sessions to provide feedback and critique the work our teachers do. These are the same people who find a need to heavily critique and criticize meeting materials, reading materials used, or assert their personal opinions in individual values on curriculum and outcomes with extremely limited backgrounds in education or with time in within a classroom space as a professional. It's possible welcoming parents to a classroom to observe their student means
121they are observing other students which is completely inappropriate and may even be a furpa violation. And I say this as a registar at a college fura is a big deal. As a parent I cannot stand behind something like a parental bill of rights which in name in theory implies that parents do not have rights. We do. We always have. I cannot stand behind something that is a passive aggressive undertone that implies our teachers, administration, and staff are doing wrong by our kids and are not passionate about their success. As a parent, I need to respect the fact that while I have a master's degree, a teacher, I am not. Not but the people doing the job each and every day do know what they're doing and how to bring out the best in my kids,
122whether that means academically or as growing intellectuals and good human beings. Thank you to our teachers, our staff, our professionals for all that they do and thank you for hearing me. Thank you. Thank you very much uh for your thoughtful comments. Thank you. Um anybody else like to take the podium? Okay. Uh seeing uh no more uh comments, we're going to close the second public comment. Um and we are going to um uh open comments from the board for any new business at this time. Um so it's teacher appreciation week and I just wanted to thank all the incredible teachers. Um your dedication, passion, commitment to our students um make a lasting impact every single day. So thank you for being the heart of our schools and you are appreciated. So thank you. Great. Mrs.
123Camera, uh, thank you for recognizing that. Thank you. Um, anybody else? Okay. All right. Seeing no new business, um, we are going to, um, move to make a motion. We have one executive session um, on the agenda tonight. Uh, it's just confidential personal matters. It'll probably take about 15 minutes. Uh, no action will be taken. uh the live streaming um will uh end and we will not uh be rebooting the live stream at that time. So I just need a motion to move into executive session. Uh Brian second. Okay. Uh thank you all for uh coming and participating tonight. We we appreciate it as a board. Thank you. All in favor of that motion? I opposed. Motion carried. Thank you. Thanks for coming.