001Ed and it will mark it at 7:30 p.m. We'll continue on with the agenda and the next item on the agenda happens to be the pledge of allegiance. So, if everyone will please stand. Okay. So now that the pledge of allegiance has concluded, we will I want to change the agenda around so that we can make it uh more accessible for public comments uh especially after the presentation. So we're going to jump to superintendent comments. Dr. Forte. >> Okay. Thank you. We have very minimal comments. We have our foundation golf outing at the null country club on the 16th of October. And just an update on when I'm going to be speaking around the town. We have tonight, then we have Wednesday at the senior status senior citizen center, Wednesday, October 15, 10:30 a.m. Then
002we have uh right in this room again at 100 p.m. Also on Wednesday, October 15th and then for people who need a weekend meeting, we have this Saturday coming up October 18th at 10:00 a.m. This meeting is being recorded and conducted virtually as well. And um this will be the only meeting that's recorded and conducted virtually. So this will be posted on the website and sent out in the Friday folder as well. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Forte. Assistant superintendent comments. Dr. Cullis, >> we have a few events coming up. The screeners project which is a an extension of our anxious generation book club last year. Uh, the first showing of the movie will be at Valley View 7:00 on Wednesday, October 15th. It's probably going to be in the library. Now, originally
003we said the gym, but based on numbers, we're going to move that to the library, but that's on Wednesday. And then the Growing Up in the Digital Age Elementary version will be shown at Lake View on November 11th again at 7:00. So, those two are scheduled. Parent conferences are October 29th and 30th. Uh signups open on Genesis the parent portal on Wednesday. This concludes assistant superintendent report. >> Thank you Dr. Cullis. And finally the business administrator comments. Mrs. Gowski >> one one comment. Uh the 2425 school year audit has been uh finalized uh with no audit recommendations and the presentation will be held uh in this room November 17 board meeting. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you uh Mrs. Grosski. So now we're going to backtrack uh on the agenda to special presentations. Today we
004have uh two presentations which will be the 2024 2025 HIV self-grading uh and then we'll also have the public presentation regarding the November 4th Board of Education funding question for the amount of $700,250. In future board meetings on October 27th, Dr. Dr. Cullis will be presenting the New Jersey SLA scores for the 2425 school year as well as the sustainable pro um green sustainable program leaders will be presenting uh will present on achieving the bronze award and then on November 17th as Miss Gowski mentioned will be the school audit presentation for 2425 school year. So I'll hand it over to Dr. Forte. Dr. Forte the floor is yours. >> Thank you. I'll start with our our self-grading for 2024 25 school year. The harassment intimidation self- evaluation. It's a thing that's legal from the state.
005Every year we have to look at our programs and assign a value to them. Then we submit it to the state and then the state sends us back our final score in the spring. So this is due at the end of the month. So, our three three schools, Valley View Middle School self-graded at 78 out of 78, Riverview self-graded at 76 out of 78 and Lake View School self-graded at 77 out of 78. These are the graded elements. um our HIV programs, our HIV training on the board of education HIV policies, our HIV stra staff training, curriculum instruction on HIV, HIV personnel, school level HIV reporting, HIV, HIV investigation procedures and HIV reporting. And that is all for that self-grading. Now, we'll move on to the presentation for tonight on the school vote on November
0064th, my 58th birthday. Um hopefully it'll bring us good luck. It is um a vote to um I'm going to hook this on for Okay. So, we are looking for funding to support our students and community and it's to renovate the second floor of the annex. And I'll get to all the details in a minute. Back in 202 uh 2023, we created a strategic plan with 120 stakeholders. Uh Dr. Fort, I'm sorry to interrupt you. >> Uh the presentation is now online. Sorry for that. So the in 2023 we created a five-year strategic plan and the big part of it dealt with the um people that were there, the 120 stakeholders. Um, this was advertised to the entire public through all different means, including the newspapers. And we had a good representation of different groups.
007And one of the things, two of the really big things that came out of is number one, make sure you're ready for the additional students that come because of the uh construction that's going on and just the new um the turnover of class of uh homes as well. And it also was to keep our optimal class sizes. A little history. So from 24 from 2014 to 2025, the district has completed facility security and technology projects over $19 million. That was all funded with local reserves, energy savings, and grants. No referendum debt. So the district went about something called energy savings improvement plan. What that does is it allows us to leverage the cost savings of your utilities to com to uh complete some projects. This was mostly in the HVAC area and that really helped
008us when it came back to returning from COVID when we were one of only about 40 districts uh statewide that were able to come back for every student every day. In 2019, the Denver Board of Education becomes debt-free. Approximately 30% of the New Jersey school districts have no debt. So, we're we're in that group of 30%. In 2019, the district leased the former St. Mary's Prep to be used as an annex to Riverview to prepare for the expected additional students. No additional funds were requested. We conducted study in 2023 comparing what what would it be like if we built a building compared to renting. Our the way we worked it was we picked $20 million. Now $20 million is not enough to build a building the size of Riverview Annex, but we're just using those
009numbers. So 20 $20 million for 20 years is $30 million after interest. And that same amount of rent in 20 years is 6.6 million. It's a it's it's 24 approximately $24 million less to rent than it is to own. In May of 2025, we received our demographic study by Dr. Grip, who is a leading demographer in New Jersey. He um he showed that he did show that in the past 10 years we did increase by a 100 students. So in 20 from 2015 to 2025 we've increased by 100 but it also shows about another 250 expected by 2030. The separate proposal is for the construction costs necessary to renovate the second floor of the annex. Currently, we do not we don't have the second floor. It's there, but we don't use it, so we don't
010pay rent for it. It would be to improve the four existing classrooms. There's also a small uh cl a small group instruction room up there, the common areas, bathroom, storage areas for the employment of additional certificated staff andor non-ertificated staff, and the continued maintenance of the Riverview annex at a cost of $700,000. $700,250. Voter approval of this proposal will represent an permanent increase to the tax levy of 1.83%. So, how will the passage of this funding help uh question help Danville? It will fund the renovations needed to use the second floor. Right now, the second floor is there and it's fine. It just need it needs to be updated. electrical work, lighting, flooring, uh paint, probably some lockers, furniture, things like that. Um it will also help with the additional rent and other expenses, meaning
011the utilities. It will also help fund um to bring back some or all the positions cut from the 2526 budget. So this year, our district had to make cuts of uh five different personnel. So, we we reduced our the size of our staff by five um which drove up class sizes and this question will help us bring those back as well as help to fund the additional staff needed for the second floor at the Riverview Annex. In the following years, the funds will help um hire district additional staff and accommodate the diff the additional students to keep the class sizes down. So, what is the impact to the taxpayer? This this has an impact of about $79 to the average home in Dentville. Important information about voting. Registration for voting must take place by October
01214th. The vote is November 4th. Early voting is November 25 through nove I'm sorry, October 25 through November 2. Um there's vote in vote by mail dropboxes or in person. the vote for the um the lucky thing is in Dville our town hall is used for early voting. So from October 25th to November 2nd you can vote right in town hall. And that's the presentation for now. If I would be happy to answer questions from the public or the board, anyone who might have something to ask. >> Thank you Dr. Forte. Uh before I open it up to the public, I'd like to first open it up to the board. So board members, if you have any questions, uh feel free to uh the floor is yours. It was a great presentation. And the thing
013that's etched in my mind is the $19 million we've done to upgrades in our school system without a referendum. And that's pretty much unheard of when I first joined the board. Repandum was like the solution to funding window replacements and bathroom upgrades and things like that. So a job well done by our administration over the years. >> Thank you, Mr. Cass. Uh Dr. Dr. Forte, I think we've one of the questions we've gotten as um you know this information has become public is what is what happens if voted no? What is option B? Right? I think we've gotten this question before. So I just wonder if you can maybe talk a little bit about uh what the what the other options are or what would happen if the vote came back as a no. >>
014So um the the law is pretty clear. If if this gets voted down, you can't do the job at all. like you have to wait at least one year and if you were able to find the money some other way or go out to another question you could do that. Um I guess some other solutions could be building something somewhere. We do own property on Nicole Drive. Um but I feel like um right now we're going full steam ahead with this vote on November 4th and um I guess we would have to regroup and figure out plan B if it doesn't if it's not successful. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Thank you, Dr. Forte. Mr. Capello. >> Yeah. No. Um, thank you. I think the presentation uh is excellent. I think it uh really clarifies some
015things hopefully for the public. Um, actually, that's one thing I'd like maybe if you wouldn't mind. We know this really uh you know in depth, but for the public, could you just talk a little bit about the last few years, some of the uh some of the constraints we've had with in terms of salaries going up and especially the healthcare benefits, what those increases have been like and how they've stretched our budget around the state and the country. Actually, health care costs have been um a big concern just for a lot of different government organizations and private. Um, we are dealing with a very large increase. If you're watching or paying attention to the news at all about New Jersey Public Employees Health Fund, um the state is coming up with a 31% increase starting
016January 1st, which is really unmanageable for us because we're we're trying to live within a 2% cap and a large portion of our budget being increased at 35%, it'd be hard to manage that. Um, we we have done a lot to to try to figure out how to deal with that and it's a lot of it has to do with looking shopping around looking for another another vendor. Um, and we're not sure where we're at with that. And we have gone in and out of the state health benefits since I've been here. We were when I first got here, we're private in the first year. We went we went to the state, then we stayed in state for a while. Then we got out of the state, went private, and went back into the state.
017Now we're looking to possibly go in private. Again, this is not common to Dville. This has been all around the state and it's pretty much taking up all of the time at our roundts because a 31% increase is is really not manageable considering we budgeted for around a 15% increase. So, it's it's it's very tough. We did have to to cut some teaching positions last year, a custodial position and technology position and all those do, you know, have consequences. So, um, we're we've been fortunate to have manageable and small class sizes and, um, that's what this vote will do, help keep us keep it down to the areas that we like. Our our board has a has guidelines in a policy. They're not they're not required. They're not mandated, but there's guidelines to keep the
018class sizes at 26 or below for most elementary. What is it? 22 for the primary, 23 for primary, 26 for the um upper elementary, and then 28, 29 for the um middle school. Thank you, Dr. Forte. Thank you, Mr. Cabelloo. Uh I'll conclude the board questions with one final question. Um I think you mentioned this in a prior meeting, but uh couldn't the developments actually cover the cost of this even though um uh you've presented on a slide the the amount that it would impact the taxpayer? Is there a scenario where the new developments would potentially help lower that? >> So when we did this, we had to pick a point in time. At that point in time, the buildings that were online paying taxes were included in what we said, our estimate. We we
019were we did get information from New Jersey school boards as well as our own finance department in in the township confirming what I felt was pretty much common sense, right, was that the more of these homes that come online, even though it does bring students, it also reduces the tax burden on everybody else because it's increases the value of the properties in the town. So to answer your question, um again, we pick the time and that's what it is, but we feel like there's a strong possibility that when those homes come online, it will reduce the tax burden to everyone else. >> Thank you, Dr. Forte, and thank you for the amount of work that you put into this. Uh I do think that uh myself and the rest of the board recognize all the
020hours that you have been putting in, you and the rest of the administration. So, thank you for all the work. Uh we'll now proceed with the next item on the agenda which happens to be the public portion which allows the public to then ask questions about uh the presentation and anything else uh that may uh appear in the agenda or germaine to the district. So uh I'll lay some ground rules um all questions if you can have them directed to myself or Dr. Forte and uh Dr. Forte and I will then decide if uh if any other board member wishes to uh address the question I I'll I'll make that decision then. Um when you do come up to the microphone, please state your name and address. Uh if you are online, uh we request
021that you raise your hand um to state that you wish to make a question or comment and then the uh person um at the controls will then um or we will acknowledge you through the through the microphone and then you would then have to unmute yourself. And when you unmute yourself, you would then state your name and address as well. you would follow the same protocols as if you were here in person. So, uh, we will now open it up for public questions at 7:49 p.m. I'm Charles body 73 Mount Pleasant Turnpike and I just found out about this. I was very interested in it. I'm wondering right now what is the statistics that of your classroom density versus your guidelines? >> I'm sorry. Could you uh >> you know you just went over the
022guidelines and the number number of students in the various classes that you wanted to have the maximum of. Where do you stand with that right now? >> In all but one grade we're below what we're asking. what we're below what we were talking about the guidelines and one grade in one school we're above it or at it >> right now we have uh I think there's one two there's at least three new developments I'm aware of Franklin Avenue Franklin Road and Route 10 and they're building out quite quickly have you've received a lot of students from these new developments and how does that balance out with the needs for the classrooms. >> I wouldn't say we've received a lot yet, but we have received some from all of them. All of the ones that are
023online. There's there's another one coming online down on Route 53. We that's not open yet, but all the ones that are that are that you see either partially built out or or completely built out, we have students. It's not a real high number yet. What? That's where the demographer comes in and that's where he's predicting the 250 additional students over the next five years. >> Dr. Forte, can you just those 250 students that's explain the developments that were used to come up with that because I think that's important too. >> Okay. So, the developments that were used are all the ones that are online. So, it would be the one next to Mars Nolles, the Toll Brothers one. It would be the one next to where um where Alexis Diner was. It would be the
024one on Route 10. That one. It would not include the one next to we're like on Route 53. That would not be included. It also wouldn't include the the other proposed the other two that I'm aware of that are proposed that have not been given permission to go ahead yet. Um, so only the ones that are actually built or being built are included. >> Okay. The one on Route 53 is is building out quite quickly at this point and I would expect it won't be too much longer before they'll be renting at least part of it. So, how do you take care of that? Is how do you into your figures? >> So, there's 60 units in there and they're rentals. We we don't expect too many. According to the demographer, we're looking at less
025than 10 students from that from that unit, from that entire property. So, that's not really high up on the concern. Also, the the where it is is actually a positive thing for us because those kids can go to Riverview and that's the reason why we're trying to expand Riverview to make room for the for the developments that have to go to Lake View because they're on the other side of town closer to where you live. and each so the way the demographer sorry is okay if I speak um it the demographer looks at each development and looks at whether it's a rental whether it's um uh going to be sold um whether they're market rate or affordable how many bedrooms they have and he has a whole formula to figure out what he would predict
026from would come out of those uh buildings That's part of the demography study. The challenge is is that there's so many new developments and they really until they pull a permit, we don't actually know. We can guess based upon reasonzoning and things we hear at the meetings what they might be, but it's hard every time we go back to the demographer, it's more money for him to run a new report. So, sometimes we pick and choose. Okay, let us know what we think's going to come out of here. But some of them tweak a little bit as they kind of move forward and the sizes change or the bedroom mixes change. Uh but it's a pretty sophisticated analysis to determine what he thinks is going to come out of each of these developments as his
027best guess and he's been fairly accurate thus far. Although we've still got a lot to learn as we move forward with these developments because they're state numbers so they could be slightly different for Denver than they are in other districts or other other areas in the state. >> With respect to St. Mary's I thought I saw somewhere that you had to uh refurbish the roof. Is that correct? >> In our lease, we have a we have a 65 35 split. They pay 65%, we pay 35%. We over the summer, we completed a it's a partial roof replacement, but it's probably about 75 80% of the roof has been completed. It's already done um this summer. Yeah. And just to further expand upon that, as a result, the the lease was reduced over three years uh
028to um uh to deduct our portion, right? >> It's okay. Uh you're welcome to return uh if uh once you have that question. I mean do you have another question now? Thank you. If you could just write your name and address on that form as well. So uh do we have any individuals who are online that wish to uh ask a question? >> Not yet. >> Mr. Buddy, if you put your email address on there too, I'll email you that study we were just talking about. No one yet. >> If the um percentage that you're asking for is not very large, but it is forever. Uh what do you look forward to in the future? Do you expect that's going to go up? Is there someday in the future you're not going to require this
029at all and you'll get rid of this uh proposal? How do how how is your planning with the finances in that manner? >> Okay, so here's this has been like to deal with this goes back a few years. We've been dealing with it actually since I've been superintendent. Over the years, we've completed a bunch of projects. We wanted to get the kids out of the trailers. That was a big deal. We wanted to get rid of all substandard space. These are all like steps. Um then the next step was taking over the annex. The next step, what we did this summer, we added two classroom bathrooms at Riverview that allow us to have more kindergarten classes because the kindergartens need a bathroom. This phase is going to be the next phase that we feel very
030strong will handle us till 2030. We may need to down the road do something at Valley View, but we feel very strongly according with our with our demographer and our internal staff that this plan that we're coming up with right now will help us with the K through five population. We do we think that we're going to need another question? That's a hard one because if I can answer you in the next five years, I'd say no. After that, I really wouldn't be able to answer that because we don't have the information of what's going to happen after that. Um, we might need to do something at Valley View that might create like a referendum to build something, but that would be something down the road, and that would be because there's not room up
031there. We don't want to put kids back in trailers. The whole town doesn't want to do it. The board doesn't want to do it, and we don't want anything unsafe or anything what's called substandard in Dville. So um so I feel very strongly that this plan will help us with our K5 population and we shouldn't need to do anything larger than that. >> We also don't want to look at building an entire building when we don't know if we would have enough students to fill it because it's a very expensive endeavor and we aren't positive how many students. We know some are coming but we don't know if it's enough to fill a building. >> Correct. And that vacant piece of land up in Union Hill, it's been there for a long time. So, thank
032you for the opportunity to ask the questions. Thank you for the presentation and u I hope you have success. >> Thank you for the questions. Yeah. >> Is there anyone else from the public that wishes to ask questions or make comments? And if there is no one else online, we'll go ahead and close public comments at 7:58 p.m. Thank you for uh attending. If you wish to continue on and stay with us for the rest of the agenda, you're more than welcome to. However, if you wish to excuse yourself, we have no objections. So, >> thank you. Thank you for being here. Okay, Mrs. Adelis, can you walk us through all business, no action to be taken? >> Sure. Um, at the next meeting, myself or someone else will go through the following resolutions. The
033reports for September 2025, treasurer of school monies and board secretary reports, the education reports for September 2025, and the minutes for the September 8th and September 22nd meetings. Could I get a second? >> No action. >> Oh, forgive me. No action to be taken. Thank you. All right. The next section has to be new business happens to be action to be taken. So, Mr. Capello, if you can take us through personnel, I would be happy to. Uh, if there are no objections under new business personnel, I would like to move items one through six as a block. One includes our usual list of new hires, resignations, additional pay, retirements, uh, and salary and adjustments. Uh, number two is, uh, we're rescending, uh, an, uh, resolution from 9225 for a personnel item. Number three is we're
034approving the revised list of staff for the enrichment programs at Lake View and Riverview schools for the 2526 school years. Uh number four, we are approving employee an employee for leave of absence under FMLA. Number five is we're approving the revised substitute list for 2526 school year. And finally, number six, we are approving the updated master staff list uh for the 2526 school year. >> I'll second. >> Thank you very much. Questions or comments? Uh before we proceed, I just want to let the folks online if you did wind up having a question that you didn't get a chance to ask, we will have a second uh public comment section at the towards the end of the meeting. So, seeing that there's no questions on this part of the agenda, roll call, please. >> Dr.
035Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Delis, >> yes. >> Miss Estonino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Capello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kim. >> Yes. Under instruction and program. Dr. Moore, if you can walk us through that, please. >> Uh, yes. I'd like to move for approval the following resolutions under instruction and program. Under number one, we have the uh AAP New Jersey School Health Conference. Item number two is a donation of $10,000 from the Denville Township Social Services to help defay the cost of providing free lunch to students. Item number three is to approve the attached list of field trips for 2526. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Questions or comments? >> I want to thank the Dville Township Social Services for the donation. That is a
036very large sum. So, it is greatly appreciated and thank you. >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Delos, >> yes. Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. >> Uh, there are no actions under governance, so we'll proceed with finance. Mr. Anderson, if you will. >> Sure. If there are no objections under D finance, I'd like to move items number one, two, and three as a block. This includes a agreement with Atlantic Health Systems Behavioral Health Assessment Center to provide uh back to school clearance evaluations for the 2025 2026 school year at a cost of $250 per evaluation. Item number two is for the board to approve the agreement with behavioral behavior therapy associates to
037provide behavioral parent training for a student up to eight training sessions at $195 per session. And then finally, item number three is for the board to approve the agreement with Kid Therapy LLC to provide feeding therapy evaluation for a particular student. Total cost not to exceed $535. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Questions or comments? >> Um, could you explain a little bit about the behavior therapy associates uh training? Is that uh one-on-one training or is that a classroom? That's for a That's for a student's parents, so it's at their house. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Seeing no other questions, roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Delis, >> yes. >> Miss Asterino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >>
038Mr. Dim, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, can you walk us through operations, please? >> Be glad to. Item 1.1 under transportation. I'm asking for the board to approve Wendy Grant to be trained as a school bus driver by the Dumble Board of Education Transportation Department. Item 1.2 is for the board to retroactively approve the following school bus emergency evaluation drill reports. Lake View, we had one on September 19th at 9:00 a.m. Riverview School was on September 18th, 9:00 a.m. at Valley View, September 24th and the 25th at 9:15 a.m. in the Valley View parking lot. Under building and grounds, I'm asking the board to approve the Denmold Township emergency services to use the structures on the board of education property at 46 Nicole Drive for training. The township will follow all statemandated training protocols, including
039public notification. Training is to be completed prior to November 9th, 2025. Item 2.2 is for the board to approve the attached lease agreement addendum with St. Mary's Church. >> I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Roll call, please. >> Dr. Moore, >> yes. >> Mr. Delos, >> yes. >> Miss Eststerino, >> yes. >> Mr. Cass, >> yes. >> Mr. Anderson, >> yes. >> Mr. Capello, >> yes. >> Mr. Kim, >> yes. Okay. The next side uh the next section on the agenda is new business, no action to be taken. Uh I encourage any board members to share any committee um items that they wish to share as well. So Mr. Capello uh personnel if you will. >> Absolutely. Um at the next meeting I or someone else will be moving us uh through personnel items.
040Number one currently includes uh one retirement sick day payout. Number two includes uh employee employing approve uh an employee for an unpaid extended leave of absence. Number three is approving reimbursements of paid mentor fees to staff members uh listed below. Uh number four is approving Barb Galab for staff development workshops to provide mandated dyslexia training. Number five is to approve the Dan Danielson group to provide evaluation training to Morris Catholic High School staff at a cost of $600 to be paid by title 2 funds. And number six is the board approves unpaid leave to a staff member uh for uh New Jersey FLA. >> Any questions or comments? >> I just have one I just wanted to make one thing clear. Uh number five um if the public is uh wondering why there is training
041for Morris Catholic High School staff. Um my understanding and you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe those title two funds we act as a pass through for those two because the government can't necessarily give that money directly. So that it comes through us. >> That is correct. Uh this is a grant, federal grant monies that it comes through the Dville Township because we are the holder and the Catholic school is in our town. So we they pass through the funds through the Dville public schools. >> Thank you for pointing that out, Mr. Capillo. Seeing no other questions or comments, we'll proceed with INP. Uh Dr. Moore, if you will. >> Uh yes, either myself or someone else will move for approval. The following resolutions under instruction and program. There are no workshops
042listed under number one. Under number two would be to approve the attached list of field trips. >> Thank you. If there are no questions or comments, we'll proceed with governance. Um I'll I'll go ahead with this one. Um under policy, we will be going through a number of policy uh for second reading and adoption. Uh that is included in the agenda there. Um and for first reading and adoption are uh revisions to the code of conduct, the use of electronic and recording devices and student use of privatelyowned technology. Um I wish to also make an update with regards to our governance committee. Uh we hope uh for the next meeting to give the board members updates on board goals. So all the board goals that we had set by the end of last year uh
043will provide an update on uh what we have been able to or a status update with uh with regards to our board goals. So, um, uh, I think I will mention one, uh, I am part of the Morris County Legislative Advocacy Committee. And that committee is basically, uh, to reach out to, uh, local, uh, legislators and discuss key issues. And the three key issues that the board or the committee has decided to address are the HIP law um HIB law which where a lot of districts felt that it was outdated and there was a number of issues. So um any any conversations that we have had as a board um it appears that a lot of the other districts are having similar conversations which was uh very enlightening. Um the second topic that we are
044uh looking to have talking points with regard to legislatores uh is school funding. So you know the issues with health care and the health care costs and uh some of the gaps that some of the districts are experiencing and finally uh challenges and opportunities for improvement for special education. So those will be uh the three key issues that this committee will be looking to uh address with local politicians. >> Okay. Uh the next section, finance, Mr. Anderson, if you will. >> Sure. Uh at the next meeting under finance, there'll be uh at least three items to move. Uh so far on the agenda is typically our typical uh bills list, which will be item number one. Item number two is for the board to approve a donation to Lake View and Riverview from the dental
045office of Dr. Nadi Treasure uh in alignment with Orthodontic Health Month. Donations spec uh are going to be specifically goodie bags with a toothbrush and a pencil to bring awareness to orthodontic health uh offices working with the school nurses on the project. So, appreciate that. That's great. And the third item would be for the board of education to approve the attached uh 2627 budget calendar. Um in addition, I'll uh mention a few items from uh the uh committee meeting. Um I'm going to just call out a few uh bigger items or really one that I think I want to kind of hit on which uh is the uh the projected gap uh from the new health insurance rates taking effect. uh the projected uh health and health benefits from 20 uh July 2025 to June
0462026. Um that is uh there's a shortfall of approximately $6277,000. However, um there is a plan to cover all of that based upon Dearis's uh work in determining and in the uh minutes of the u uh committee meeting you can see specifically where those uh gaps are going to be filled. Obviously, it was a it's a huge ask and lift for Dr. or Mrs. Garowski and the entire finance team to uh work through and make sure, but we're cutting in certain places to make sure that we can uh make sure we close that gap or shortfall. Uh so, appreciate uh Mrs. Gowski and the finance team uh ensuring that we are able to cover that, but obviously that's been a a challenge for us. >> Thank you, Mr. Anderson. I echo your thanks. So um
047okay, Mr. Cass operations if you will. >> At the next meeting, I'll be asking the board to approve item number two on this agenda, buildings and grounds, to approve the attached uniform memorandum of agreement with the demo police department for the 202526 school year and the attached memorandum of agreement with the demo police department for the sharing of live stream video for the school year. As of today, there is nothing to move on transportation. Could be next meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Gus. >> Okay. Uh for the good of the cause, committee reports, correspondence, discussion items such as board meeting highlights, uh board member scheduling for school public events and classroom space considerations and anything else gerine to the district. I have the highlights is the presentation on the vote for November 4th, the $10,000
048donation, and just a reminder because this goes out Friday, that the last public session info session is um October 18th, Saturday at 10:00 a.m. at Lake View Media Center. And to remind everybody, we have uh Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. and we have um Wednesday also at 1:30. And then we have um Thursday night at the foundation and then Saturday at Lake View 10:00 a.m. Yeah, I should be able to attend the Saturday 10 a.m. one. Any other board members? >> Yeah, I know. I Yeah, I have something actually. Um I had I think I forwarded it to everyone. I know I forwarded it I think to Mike and James. Um if you may have seen in the news, Monontlair has gotten themselves into a huge hole. Uh basically it seems like a whole bunch of
049money went missing and now they are faced with budget questions of either raising uh a special um like a request for funds to fill the hole or they're going to take a loan from the state which comes with a state monitor. Um it's a disaster. It's a mess. I understand the superintendent and the uh the board uh the um the business administrator are gone. Seems like things went very badly. The uh auditor didn't do their job. Um, I raised these questions with Mike and uh, James and Dearis. Uh, Dearis gave me and gave all of us a very clear understanding of what we do now, which I think is, you know, very bulletproof. My only question is, is all of this um, specified in our in our policies? In other words, for the future, are
050these things that maybe we should put into policies? One good example, I think, which is a great way of doing business, is that the auditors are rotated each year. There's different people that come to the district. I think that's a tremendous control. Um, but is that something we should put in board policy? So, I think there are a few things like that, not for today, but more for the future. So, that was my question. Is this something and I see that we have policies that we're looking uh at for internal controls and accounting. So, this feels like it may be a time to look at some of that. Um, and again, I only know enough about this to be dangerous. I'm sure we are doing everything we can now for something like that never to
051happen. I'm more worried about what could happen down the road. >> Thank you, Mr. Cabella. I think that's a fabulous idea. Is that something that maybe could be uh discussed during finance committee? >> Yes, absolutely. Uh Mr. Kraki, I think you you had put those uh in because so maybe we can add that to the agenda for the next finance committee meeting. We could talk about which ones may be um options to put into uh policy or if we already have them. So, um, I'll start taking a look through, but please any recommendations on on what the administration thinks would be reasonable or acceptable would be great greatly appreciated. >> Thank you. Any other board members? >> I just wanted to add that uh I know um Dr. Fort has mentioned it a few times,
052but from the board, I did want to mention the Denver Education Foundation has their golf outing and tricky tray this Thursday, October 16th. It's at Null West Country Club. Uh the golf is a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start, but the reception is at 6 p.m. That's a tricky tray dinner. Always a great event. I would encourage any board members that are available to uh please sign up. I will uh send out the link. I don't know when their cut off is for signing up for the dinner. Um, but it's probably either today or tomorrow. So, um, if uh, and if you have any questions, you can certainly shoot me a text or an email, but I'll send out the, uh, link for purchasing tickets if you're interested. It's always a great night. They're a very, very
053supportive organization, and a lot of, uh, um, folks from the community come out to support, uh, the schools. So, it's always great when we have board members there. >> I'm sorry, Mike, what was the date again? It's this Thursday. 6 PM is the uh dinner and it's at Null West Country Club in uh Peripany. Thank you, Mike. Uh if there are no other comments from the board members, uh we'll go ahead and go ahead and open it up for the second public comment section at 8:17 p.m. Uh just as a reminder, if you wish to make a comment, please raise your hand and you will be called on, in which case you can unmute yourself. Uh and please state your name and address for the record. All right, seeing no no one online and no
054one here in person, we'll go ahead and close it at 8:15 p.m. Uh there will be a need for a second executive session. However, after the executive session, we will no longer be uh voting on anything important and as a result or we won't be voting at all and as a result, we'll adjourn immediately after the executive session. So, Mrs. Estino, can you >> might you might be voting on something if if the conversation goes that way. >> Okay. So, uh in which case then we will open it uh back up for it to be recorded. Um Mrs. Asterino, can you please take us into executive session, please? >> Absolutely. I move to convene in executive session in accordance with the section 8 of the open public meetings act. The purpose of this closed session
055will be to discuss negotiations, legal, security, and personnel issues. Minutes of this session will be made available to the public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. All in favor? >> I. >> Any nays? Any abstensions? We are now in executive at 8:19 p.m. and we will come back out of executive uh when our meeting is concluded.