001out of executive or have been out of executive but we are now restarting the meeting at 7:30 and the next item on the agenda is the pledge of allegiance. Can everyone please rise? Okay. Uh so we do have a pretty um busy spring and summer. So today will be the final budget presentation and hearing for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh but before we start that um I'll also make announcements for the next set of meetings. On May 12th, Dr. Grip will be joining us virtually to present the updated demographic study. Uh so for my fellow board members uh the study is available in uh Dr. Forte's email that he sends out every um two weeks. So you could find a copy there. On May 19th there will be the presentation of the 2025 Dville
002Schools Persons of the Year awards. Um May 25th will also be an executive session in the format of a board retreat that will have conversations about our um not goals cse evaluations. So, if board members, if you haven't uh looked at the um evaluations, if you can please make sure that you'll have that ready by the end of this month. So, it gives me some time to review it and prepare for it. On uh June 9th, we'll have the New Jersey school boards here to present the goals recap, uh our self evaluation, and then help us set goals for the next school year. It'll also be in a format of a board retreat and the meeting will start at 6 pm. So both days it'll be an early start. Uh if you can ensure that
003the board self-evaluation uh is done online as well through the New Jersey school board's tool that would be great. Uh I was able to go through that and I made it very simple. Um, also keep in mind that uh if you have ideas for future goals or for goals for the next school year, whether it's district level, cse level, or uh board level, uh please send me emails. Um I'd like to go through that with during the governance committee meeting so um that we can talk about that and start preparing. And our committee meetings are going to be on May 8th. So it looks like IMP will be at uh 6:30, finance will be at 4:30, and governance will be at 5:30 on May 8th. So okay, I'll turn it over to the administration for
004the budget presentation. Thank you. Previously, Dr. before they had done this, but this year he gave me the honor to present the budget to you. We begin the budget process um early October and we consult with the school administration as well as the finance committee. We look at past trends uh to determine our future needs and um anything that will be projected in the future. Some of the highlights of the district uh goals are keep class sizes within the board uh levels, to maintain current programs, and to continue to address students achievement and mental and uh and and wellness to the staff and the students as well as to maintain the facilities and be physically responsible. This slide provides an overview of the increases uh that highly impact our budget. uh labor costs and health
005benefit costs are one of the highest uh increases that highly impacted uh this 2526 school year budget followed by the special education cost in transportation and technology we okay this is a visual representation of the operating budget if You can see the big portion in blue, $25 million is associated with strict strictly with salary followed by the portion in red, $10 million is associated with benefit for the staff. So between salary and benefits eat up a a at least 90% of the uh tax levy and other revenue sources. This is a breakdown of the revenue sources um comparing where the funds arrive from. We allocated 2% of tax levy in the amount of 717,000. We also utilize some bank cap that we did not utilize in past years. We took advantage of students and health
006adjustments as well as increase in state aid in the amount of $23,000. This visual representation of the revenue sources provide a good representation of the biggest portion of our revenues which is tax levy. uh about 86% of our tax sources derive from tax tax levy followed by state aid in the amount of 3.6 or about 8% of the tax uh revenue sources that we receive. So even though we utilize almost $2 million in increases in tax levy between bank capabs to balance the 2526 schoolyear budget. It was a very challenging budget. Uh among those adjustments and cuts we have two positions K through five. two staff members, custodial and technology, some adjustment from full-time to part-time, as well as some supplies for maintenance, instructional, and other um programs districtwide. Additionally, the DALA program in the
007past was fully funded by the school district. Next year will be fully funded by parents tuition. I wouldn't mind highlighting a couple things on this slide because I think this is super important that everybody understands that even though we've raised the tax levy by over 6%. We're still in the need to to to make some reductions. Now, all of these cuts are not actual people because they're through resignations and res resignations and retirements, but we are going down to K5 teachers, so one in each building. We're we're cutting a custodian that we have, but again, it's not an actual person because somebody somebody resigns, so the other person will take their job. We're not replacing the retiring technology person, which is a pretty big hit because it was a spot where we're looking to take
008advantage of something new. Um, also this year we were not able to find somebody to teach family and consumer science at Valley View, so we just put it on hold. We kept the money in the budget, but when it came down to it, it was one of the things that had to go. But with some creativity, we were able to take a current staff member who is a staff assistant who has a college degree and was willing to work with Dr. Cullis to get certified as a family and consumer sciences teacher. So, this teacher is going to be transferred to Valley View to be part-time. Family and consumer science is teaching two periods of eighth grade. So, at least the eighth graders will get it next year. And hopefully we can make it more the
009year after, but next year we'll have eighth grade and the other part of her day will be take uh being an aid like she is now. Um and also we have a retiring staff member at Lake View in um um a secretary and we have somebody that somebody else that might be getting shuffled around. So again, it's not any particular people, but I think it's really important to highlight some of these things. Um, and there's several other cuts that we had in supplies, some even even putting off some purchases of buses. And I guess I guess the worst part of this conversation is and I think it's really important to get out there though is that even though we're raising the tax levy by 6%, making these cuts, we're probably set up for another difficult
010year again next year. Um, if you're if you're reading what's going on around the whole state, I mean, I'm reading it every day more and more. There's there's positions being cut and some extreme examples. I've seen buildings being sold, assets being sold. Um, we're not at that point, but but this this thing that we've been talking about for years and years, somehow or another, we used to make it work. This year, there's no way. Um, also it's very important to know that while we're cutting this, we are in the need to hire another special ed teacher. And I want to point that out because I've been talking about this for a while that some of the special education costs are rising at a rate that is going to impact the regular ed program. So, at
011this particular time, we're cutting we're cutting two K5 teachers and cutting a position from full-time to part-time. at the same time hiring another special education teacher because we're it's required. But as I put pointed out to you in that major concerns document, the the the rising cost of special ed um between out of district placements and such and just the needs has really is really starting to erode what what's going on with our regular program. Thank you. And I just wanted to note the DAL program was a grant-f funed program and we was partially funded by parents last year and this year it is fully parent funded. Thank you Dr. Collis. This budget also includes funds um to maintain and upgrade the facilities utilizing capital and maintenance reserve without placing an additional burden on the
012taxpayers. Some of the um projects that we have coming for the 2526 school year involve replacing the roof at the Riverview annex, paving the parking lot for Riverview and Lake View, network upgrade, and some district-wide uh repairs uh that are needed. And all utilizing capital and maintenance reserves. [Music] This slide represent uh the calculation of the tax levy for the 2526 school year. And if you notice, while the tax levy money increase by almost 6% or $2 million, the tax rate to the taxpayer decreases and that's due to the assessed valuation in Dville. The property assessed valuation is increasing. Therefore, the tax rate is decreased. The annual tax impact to the taxpayer will be $140. That's for the K through8 school district. That is a $39 decrease from last school year. [Music] This slide represents
013a breakdown of the revenue sources uh being again the tax levy the largest uh revenue source followed by state aid in the amount of $3.6 million. It's very small but this is a breakdown of the operating expense categorizing into various areas covering both uh instructional and administrative aspect of the budget. Uh the regular uh program is about $10 million followed by health benefits about $10 million as well. And this is very tiny historical data um that we put together and it's just uh about 12 years of historic historical data and that you can look at it and let us know if you have any questions but you can see the difference in tax rate and assessed valuation and increases for the last 12 years and I would take any questions. any board members uh that
014wish to ask uh Miss Gowski questions if I might. Um I I don't have any questions. I um guess first I want to thank Dearis and the team uh Dr. Forte, Dr. Cullis. It this was a lot of work. This was a a hard year. [Music] Um, and it's never easy when it's one of the first times I've been on the board that we've had to reduce staff for a program. And as Dr. Forte said, I want to make it clear that we're not eliminating any current personnel because of, you know, changes to their situations or whatever, but we've never even had the uh chance to reduce the amount of staff. We're always looking to grow the programs. So, it's definitely a really really hard one. Um it's the last thing that anyone wants to
015do um in this district that I've ever seen. I I know it's the last thing that Dr. Forte, Dr. Coulson, and Demaris want to do. Um but obviously where we are is needed and I think Dr. Forte said this and I think I've said it every single year. You can't have some point. It's going to break the system. 80% of our budget goes to salaries and benefits that go up well greater than 2% when you've got a 2% tax levy cap. We've been very lucky with um S2 to be able to gain additional state funding over the years. We got a little bit extra this time, but not quite as much as other years. We've had to le uh leverage all of our um extra waiverss that we can and bank cap. Um so to
016Dr. Forte's point, it's there's nothing else to tap into next year in bank cap that we will be able to, but to make sure that we're maintaining the highest level of programs that we can, I think we're doing the right things. Um, this was looked at very very closely, I think, this year. Probably as not that any other year is not as close, but obviously when you're talking about cutting programs, you really have to make sure that you're not missing somewhere that we could potentially try to save. So, I appreciate everybody's work towards it and um I do believe it's the um the right thing for the taxpayer and the students in the district. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Uh I'd like to add on to what uh Mike said. Um I I I want to
017thank the finance committee as well as the administration Dearis and her team. Um the finance committee spent a lot of hours uh in meetings discussing this. So uh I want to thank uh every single one of you uh for your commitment to it. Um, to follow up what Mike was saying, the the dam I believe, if I'm going to use a metaphor, the dam I think uh is is um weakening and I do believe that we are um going to see some stressful uh budget cycles over the next couple years as Dr. Forte, you know, so forewarned. Um Mike's example of the the 2% cap and yet the the wages as well as healthcare going up is is real. Uh we're probably going to we're we're approaching another cycle of negotiations in a year or
018two. So, you know, we'll we'll be uh faced faced with that and still have to um manage the budget with a 2% cap. So, uh and we need to be competitive. Uh as Dr. Forte said, there might be there's some resignations um that we're going to be seeing today. And so, somehow we still need to be competitive on top of that. And this on top of as well as funding our own upgrades. Uh you know Mr. Cass and Mr. Anderson are are um um frequently say that we are continually updating our assets here, our buildings through our savings, through our budget, through our reserves ourselves. So we we are not currently um we don't currently have any loans. Uh we're not leveraged in any way. So uh we took that onus upon the you know
019to our budget and not put that burden on the taxpayer. So um with the new developments that are coming up with the new uh demographic study I am nervous. I am nervous to see what that demographic study is going to look like. and what that might mean in terms of space um as well as future enrollments and future class sizes. So, uh this will be an interesting next couple years um you know a challenge but I'm sure that we as a group and as a community will overcome. So um thanks again. Okay. Um, sorry. Yeah, please. I wanted to point out something else. If if the board is done, um, all right. So, after all the doom and gloom, the positive thing is if we want to do it, we can do a funding question
020and we started the process to work on it. It would be a commitment from the board right away though. This is not something we can keep talking about and talking about for months. It's we have to make a decision because the final thing would have to be to the board to the um county this summer. So between now and the next board meeting, we need to have some meaningful conversations. So um what with your permission, Mr. Kim, I think we're going to talk about it with the finance committee. See if the finance committee is interested and then I'd like to have a a a if the finance committee is interested, I'd like to have a public discussion about it at the next board meeting to decide what we're going to do and if if this
021is something that we have uh you know support for. Yes, definitely. Please do. Um I also want to um during governance reach out to um legislators and see if there's anything that they can do on their side to change uh some legislation to help out um district school districts. So, okay. Was that it Dr. Forte or what? Um, yeah, it is. It's it would be a um it would be a really uh for me personally leaving after the end of next year, it would be it would be great to be able to leave a little bit with a little bit better of a fiscal fiscally sound nature. And I think that's the only solution that I that I can think of. So, it'll be on the fin uh uh finance ops committee for the next
022week. I think it's next week. Next week. and then I'd like to put it on as a discussion item for the board meeting on the in May 12th. Sounds great. Look forward to it. Mr. C, could I just ask quickly? So, you're talking about timing. Um, it would have to be submitted by this summer and that would be so it would be a question on the ballot in November. We're we're working all that out. We we'd like we would prefer to use November because you don't have to pay for the election. If you use any of the other dates, you have to pay which is 30 or $40,000 is a decent amount. Um, we just have to find out the legal logistics of when you can do it. And it would, this this thing we're
023talking about would be something that would take effect and help the 2627 budget. Nothing to do with next year. This this is the way it is, but we could do something to impact the future budgets. Got it. Okay. I look forward to the minutes for that [Music] meeting. All right. Moving on with the agenda. Uh, superintendent comments. Dr. Forte, do you need a minute or are you ready to go? I think I'm ready. Give me one second. So, our anxious generation um I felt was very successful. We averaged a hundred people at each meeting between the virtual and inerson attendance. Um I I I got some good feedback about the um panel conversation the other day. One of the feedback it seemed like one of the themes in the feedback was that they were uh
024they liked the diversity on the on the panel. Like there was some experts, there were some parents, you know, people on people from the district. Um so I was really um happy with that. We are going to work on some type of a an event for next year. See how that goes. Mrs. Watkins is interested in that and um more to come. But I I was really happy with the way it went and um it felt good to get that that the group that whole group together and have open conversations. Persons of the year have been out. We have somewhere around 60 60 people that applied to this that replied to the survey. Um I'm going to be meeting with the team which is the presidents of the PTA, the president of the um foundation,
025Dr. Cull and myself. We're going to pick the persons of the year and we'd like to um award them on the 19th of May at the board meeting. Um, oh, really nice nice thing that happened with Morris Nolles, which is really goes to our strategic plan is um the Morris Nolles um high school boys lacrosse team along with the Riley family who's Mr. Riley is a um is the coach of Morris Null's lacrosse. his child goes to Lake View and they ran a fundraiser for the Lake View um preK and they're donating $3500ish dollars. It'll be on the next agenda and I thought that was really nice that it was a cooperative effort between the high school and our district. Um don't forget we have a half day on May 14th and we have a
026long Memorial Day break. We have the Friday and we have Friday, Monday, Tuesday. So May 23 through 27, May 27th is uh give back day for the snow. And that's it for for lack of snow days. Um this is uh that's it for my for my comments. Thank you, Dr. Forte. Assistant superintendent comments. Dr. Cullis, the kindergarten registration update. As of today, we had 71 registered at Lake View, 68 at Riverview, flexible zone 15, and the total registrations are 152. We had the families come in at Lake View and Riverview the last three days, so two days last week and Monday today um to turn in all of their paperwork. We have organized a day for the families in the flexible attendance stone to bring in their paperwork here at the uh town hall uh
027so we can get that going. And so far it's been going smoothly and we'll just keep you posted on our numbers. Our Kogat test results will be posted in the Genesis parent portal. That's for grades 2 and 5 on Friday, May 2nd by 400 PM. The sixth grade parent orientation and course information. So that's our transition group from fifth grade to 6th grade. So hopefully uh as many parents as possible can attend that. A lot of really important information is given out on that night. It's Wednesday, May 7th at 6:30 in the Valley View Gym. The Treps night at Valley View is Thursday, May 8th at 6:30 in the Valley View Gym. And Valley View Band concert is on Tuesday, May 13th, also in the gym. So, spring is a very busy season. We started
028our testing uh season. It opened, the window opened today, but testing actually starts tomorrow in Denville. So, we have a lot of things going on between testing and field trips and so many eventing events. So, it's a very exciting month. This concludes assistant superintendent's report. Thank you, Dr. Cullis. Business administrator comments. First, I want to thank the finance committee for all their hard work and support during the budget planning and process. I know it wasn't an easy discussions, but they were always very supportive. And also, thank you for everybody that who submitted their ethics forms. Everybody's done and submitted, and we're just waiting for the ethic commission to approve it. And uh if anybody's interested in going attending the New Jersey School Board Association conference this coming October, please uh let us know. Thank you.
029Great. Thank you, Miss Kowansski. All right, it is now time to open it up for public comments. Um, it is currently 7:57 p.m. If you are online and wish to ask a question pertaining to the agenda or um, district related questions, feel free to type in your name, address, and your question online or raise your hand. Okay, it is 7:58 p.m. We'll go go ahead and close public comments. Uh if you do have a question uh you will have an opportunity uh during the second public comment section later in the agenda. Next item on Kim. Yes. Can can I make a quick comment? Yes, please. I forgot to bring this up earlier in the the um presentation of the budget. Um one of the interesting pieces about the budget is that some of the piece
030some of the parts that affect the individual taxpayers are not not controlled by us i.e. the evaluation for the town. So, we had some interesting dynamics this year that I just wanted to share with the board because I thought it was interesting to maybe understand and this might be interesting as we think about the demography report coming up. There was nearly a 30% increase in the number of properties that were considered farm regular and a 25% increase in the number of properties that were considered farm qualified, which are interesting. I'm just not I'm not sure necessarily and what that's related to. If that's individuals that are trying to find ways to get tax benefits of labeling their properties farm, I'm not sure. Um vacant land was down, residential was up about 2%. Uh well, it
031depends on if you look at the valuation or the number of properties. Um commercial was up significantly. It was the biggest thing that actually helped us. If you look, we actually had a bigger increase in the budget and a lower impact on the tax versus last year. And the reason for that was primarily because the commercial valuation went up nearly 6%. So just a little bit if you guys want to take a look at it. I just played around with some of the formulas and whatnot that Dearis had sent over. Thank you for pulling that from the town. It's really helpful to understand as you're thinking about talking to individuals that might have questions about the budget or what the impact is for them. is it was because of these valuation ch changes it actually
032was a little beneficial to the individual taxpayers um because once again I think it was 3.01% where last year it was a 4% effect on the average um uh tax impact percent increase I think that's on the average home or overall that is right it's not on the home so um anyway it was just a little bit of an interesting fact that you know once again to Dr. Fort's point, it's there's gloom and doom when it some of this is negative, but there was a little bit of a positive when it comes to uh some of the effect on the taxpayers. Great. Thank you for that. Um the information. Yes, I totally forgot about that piece. Uh was that information in one of our folders? Um I can share that. Girl sent it out email.
033I don't know if it went to everybody, but I we can send it out. Yeah, I believe it was finance committee, but I can share that as well. Y great. Thank you. And did those numbers include the new developments? It includes anything that's evaluated property in the town. I believe that's being used for the 20, you know, this upcoming year's valuation. Is that correct, Mrs. Growski? So, it's comparing last year's to this year's. It's the properties that are online basically as new developments, I believe. Thank you. Okay, moving on with the agenda. Old business action to be taken. Mrs. Adelis, can you walk us through that, please? I sure can. Um, I move uh to approve the following resolutions under old business. Uh, A, resolve that the board approve the following reports from March 2025.
034The treasurer of school monies report and the board secretary reports. Uh, B, the education reports report of student enrollment for March 2025. The report of health office March 2025 HIV VV 242506 HIV VV 242510 Hib VV 242511 HIV VV 242512 and HI LV 242504 U as well as see the minutes for the March 10th meeting the special meeting March 18th and the regular session meeting for March 24th. I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Miss Delos, yes. Miss Asterino, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. New business action to be taken. Mr. Capella, can you walk us through personnel, please? I'd be happy to. If there are no objections under personnel, I would like to move items 1 through 10. Uh item one includes new hires,
035resignations, retirements, employee leaves, extra pay, salary, and adjustments. I uh point your attention to the addendum. We're adding item U uh to the uh to number one. That's a new teacher hire. And uh also u we have a retirement um uh Carol Tmensky. So we congratulate her. Uh continuing on, items two through 10 include uh FMLA leaves um various leaves actually uh pretty much all the way through number 10, which is a uh approval of a new substitute. I would just say with the Sorry, would you I just need a second from second. Okay, thank you. Please go ahead. Yeah, I just wanted to say we have two new staff members around here. So, um, can hopefully in a few minutes here, congratulations to Hi Gabloff and Maggie Hosler. I'll go ahead and wish uh
036those who are leaving best of luck and to congratulate uh Miss Tammenky on her retirement as well. If there excuse me if there are no further questions or comments, roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Mr. Adelis, yes. Miss Eststerino, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. Dr. Moore, can you walk us through instruction and program, please? Uh, yes. I'd like to move the following resolutions under instruction and program. Under item number one, we have um the approval of uh dis of the discard of the attached listing of items from the Lake View Library. And item number two is to approve a presentation on walking safety to the Valley View students. I'll second. Thank you. Questions, comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Miss Delos, yes. Miss Eststerino, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr.
037Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. The next item on the agenda is governance. So under number one policy, we'll be re um approving policies 5142, equal access of student organizations, which is a new policy. Policy 8110, attendance areas, also a new policy, and policy 0155, board committees, that was revised to include the governance committee for first reading. Uh number two is a resolution that I read uh during our last meeting that is for um the impact of housing development policies on district enrollment. This is a a resolution that we that I hope to approve and then forward to legislators um local legislators as well as u state legislators. Finally, resolution number three is to approve the affirmative action team to conduct a needs assessment in the creation of a new comprehensive equity plan for 25 to
03828 led by Mr. John Englishman. I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Mr. Adelis, yes. Miss Eststerino, yes. Mr. Anderson, yes. Mr. Capello, yes. Mr. Kim, yes. Mr. Anderson, can you walk us through finance, please? Sure. If there are no objections under D finance, I'd like to move items 1 through six as a block. That includes our normal checklist as well as um the final 2025 2026 budget. Um, we have in the past read it in. I don't know if we want to go through it all. I'm okay not doing it. Um, and then it also includes a resolution for providing milk for our students. Um, uh, Simply Gourmet as a commercial vendor for the lunch program for 2025 2026 school year. And the B, uh, the board approved
039the attached casualty and liability insurance broker statement. Um, and the board approved the attached service agreement for -ate procurement number uh in the agenda for the 2025 school year 2025 2026 school year in the amount of $4,500. I'll second. Thank you. Questions or comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore, yes. Miss Delis, yes. Miss Asterino. Yes. Mr. Anderson. Yes. Mr. Capello. Yes. Mr. Kim. Yes. Uh, Mr. Cass is not here today. So, Mrs. Eststerino, uh, would you walk us through operations if you don't mind? Sure. Um, I move to approve the following resolutions under operations. Uh, transportation, the attached list of field trips uh, from Little Learner Academy for the school year. Also, building and grounds. Dville Township Board of Ed approves the attached MOA and CCM for 2526 school year. Um Dville Board of Ed
040approved the attached quote from Tri-State Flag Pole and gifts in the amount of 5,49 paid for maintenance reserve. And this is to paint and repair the flag poles districtwide. I'll second. Thank you very much. Questions or comments? Roll call, please. Dr. Moore. Yes, Mr. Adelis. Yes, Miss Asterino. Yes, Mr. Anderson. Yes, Mr. Capello. Yes, Mr. Kim. Yes. Okay. So, for good of a cause, committee reports correspondent discussion items, uh, which includes board meeting highlights and classroom space consideration, possible discussions, as well as others. Um, we'll start off with board meeting highlights. Uh, Dr. Forte, uh, do you have some suggestions to start off with? How about these? Um, the board approved the 2526 budget. We'll add the link to the PowerPoint. The board approved the pedestrian safety program for Valley View students. And that Dr.
041Grip will present the demographic study on May 12th. Awesome. Thank you. Did you receive a lot of entries for the uh persons of the year award as well or should we make another announcement? We had more than 50, so it's decent amount. Wow, that's fantastic. Thank you. Could we also add the donation from the high school? I think that the boys worked really hard that that's going to be in the next that's in the next meeting. Okay. So, that could go in the next be approved yet. Okay. So, we'll wait till the last next. Go ahead. I was just saying there was no there was nothing in the agenda about that. Okay. No, I was just confused. Okay. Yeah. I was just announcing it, but it'll be approved at the May 19th agenda and we'll
042put it on there. Excellent. Um before or in between our executive session and the start of the official public session, um there was some conversation about HIB and how HI at the from the state level seems to be missing the mark and I was just wondering if um we could we can sort of officially have that conversation here and wanted to sort of get the thoughts of uh some board members uh on how they felt about the HIT process um in general. Um I'll start. Um I think that and having been a teacher for many many years, I think that while HIB it was introduced with the best of intentions, it has become quite restrictive in what it addresses and the way in which it um quantifies and qualifies what constitutes as a HIP. And
043I feel as though the state is genuinely missing the mark. And if we're looking to make students feel safe and protected, we may need to have that discussion where we further expand what constitutes as HIP that they can't be so isolating. Is it okay if I Yeah, I mean kind of just to tag on to that, I think the other piece that I I see and we think we see often is that there is a disconnect between what the community and parents think HIV is and what it actually is. And I think that causes a lot of um unfair expectations and unmet expectations. So I you know to me that's a big part of the problem is the communication of what HI really is and what it does and what it means is just not
044has just not been communicated well to to uh to to parents. I mean you know for a long time as a board member I had a lot of questions about it and I still have questions about really what it is and when it you know when it applies when it doesn't. So, I think it's interesting. I um I pulled up what is the goal of the Hiblas, right? Let's like start at that because I think that we often get wrapped up in so many details when we go through these HI reports. Um so this is from the New Jersey School Board Association. And the anti-bullying bill of rights act was signed into law in 2010 to help prevent, report, investigate, and respond to incidents of harassment, intimidation, and bullying of students that occur on school
045grounds or in certain circumstances off school grounds. So if you think about those different pillars, I think we need to think through that. Has it done a good job preventing? I I would actually make the argument in some ways it really has because I think even students know about it, right? So is it always going to fix everything? No. Is it perfect? No. But I think it has done a little bit of a good job to at least prevent some of it, I think. Right. Very hard to determine. Report. This is where I get go crazy on it because the reporting is the problem because it just goes nowhere. It's like so great. We reported it and it sits in a file somewhere that I don't even know where it is that I'm not sure
046even who looks at it later, right? Um investigate and respond. I think at the end of the day it's those are interesting too, right? Investigate. Yes. I think in some ways the law has helped us investigate a little bit better or at least at least give some format to the investigation. Um respond that's what's interesting too I think how we respond to it. I'm not sure what the right answer is on response right and and do we respond differently to him than we respond to something else. I don't know if that's the case either. So and I think that's the hard part to Mr. Capello's part point is that from a maybe this is a message we need to get out to the community that it it you know whether it's statecertified as hib or
047not if it's affects a student we work very hard at the district to make sure that that student feels safe in the school. Um so I don't know that's just but I agree the law gets really really complex with the reporting piece. the reporting is really really difficult and I think it it some ways is very restrictive in some ways is very difficult to determine and you know when we have to bring a attorney in to determine some of these the way to read it and re understand it I think we're missing the point of what we're trying to get to. I I couldn't agree with more. I think from my perspective um there might be this sort of impression that if something is reported as hib then a response will happen. However, if something
048is not reported as hib then it's either swept under the rug or there's no response. And for me, I find that um sort of headscratching because I do believe that one way or another, as uh you know, Mike said, we want our children to be safe. So, it shouldn't matter if it's HIV or not. It shouldn't matter if it's um um I mean, let me take a step back because we definitely want to make sure that we sort of teach the right things. uh you know because there are some things that are just simply unacceptable. Now if it is sort of uh misbehaving you know or sort uh you know just um just doing the wrong things at the wrong time then there's still consequences and you know I don't know if we're communicating that
049as well that there still is a response we just we need to um whether the state classifies it as one thing you know that and we have to report it that's one thing but from a district side you know we do our due diligence that's required by the state, but we also make sure that we keep our children safe and that we make them feel safe. I think that's uh so you know I I almost feel like this is not a separate thing but it's all-encompassing and oh by the way this happens to be hip as well. We want to our first and primary goal is we keep our children safe. If we have to report it as harassment or intimidation or bullying, we do that because that's a reporting feature. But we we our
050primary focus should be the uh prevention of whatever that behavior is and then the response that you know to ensure that there's uh protection and safety. No. Um yeah, sorry. I I just wanted to add one thing because you raised something that actually I didn't I don't think I articulated well. I think it's kind of hib is we there's been a value associated to hib from the victim side that if if it isn't hib then it's a loss for the vict for the for the victim and if it is hib then it's a loss for the the perpetrators I you know so again I think that if we can take that out of it and I think to your point Mr. Kim, it's it's it shouldn't be considered that everything has to be HI for
051me for my for me to feel that my kid is safe, right? I mean, I think that's and I think that's kind of where we've ended up with this law. Um, so thank you for you. I think you really helped articulate that. We have a letter on the website that we created a few years ago. We've updated it. I I just sent it to our team to look at it again, update it, put it back out. Maybe we even include it in every opening packet, something like that. um that talks a lot like what is the HIV law? What what exactly does that mean? What maybe we need to add something about what if it's not HIV? What what happens then? Something like that. Um so we'll address it that way as well, but it's
052I think it's a good conversation what you're talking about. Yeah. ju just to make it clear um because there's there's two factors that that I think are really really important um for the parents to know is that there's hib and then there's harassment, intimidation, and bullying. And we've said plenty of times that students have been harassed, but it's not HI, right? And I think because they're using the same language um that parents are assuming that if it's not HI, we're saying that their child wasn't harassed or their child wasn't intimidated or their child wasn't bullied when in fact they could have been all three of those things and it not be a HIB by the definition that we've been given. And that's problematic when you're using terms two ways. But I think that's why it
053it has to be repeated over and over again because if a parent is hearing, yeah, I get it. you know, there's these consequences, but you're saying my child wasn't harassed, and I know that he or she was, and we agree with that. There have been plenty of times where we've said that uh someone has been harassed, but it didn't meet the definition of HIV that was set up by the state. I mean, I think that's a great comment and I don't know if the legislators because I think the legislators in good faith uh they had good reason to create this, right? There were tragic incidences where um you know, young students would take their lives because they were bullied to the point where they just felt no need to move on, which is tragic. We
054want we want to avoid that. And I I keep feeling like we're losing sight of that whether the state defines it as hip as as do Dr. Moore articulated so well. It shouldn't matter. You know, we we want to make sure that there's no tragedies and we they're safe. And so, um, yes, I think there there might be from a governance standpoint, and this is something I've been thinking about through a number of conversations is, you know, can we start reaching out to the legislators and say, "Hey, listen, we're struggling with this because you have this created, you created this structure, this reporting structure that almost sounds like um, you know, the children are not being harassed even though they feel like they are being harassed. So, um, and you know, maybe we could ask
055the legis legislators to help clarify that. I also want to task our committee to maybe look at some of the policies and see are there any policies that we can maybe clean up so that the administration and the and the school district could have better tools and just sort of u maybe tweak how they run these uh reports or these investigations so that you know communicating. Okay, we want to make sure that, you know, little Amy is safe, you know, or, you know, um, John is safe, um, Jimmy is safe, you know, whoever it is, that's our primary goal. We want to stop the behaviors. Oh, by the way, we have to do this reporting to determine if it is state defined as Hib, but we will still make sure that your child is safe.
056And I think that's sort of um one perspective or one um goal that I would like to sort of have um in terms of our board, you know, like let's look through the policies and see what we can do uh to try to help clarify that for the administration. So great, thank you for uh entertaining that conversation. So, okay. Um are there any other questions or comments for the good of the cause? Uh just uh briefly um I wanted to uh make mention about uh I do the Lake View PTA and um I I say this to them periodically. Uh it's it's only four years since my first uh child entered school and I remember I had no idea what the PTA did. I mean, uh, I half the things that I ascribed to the
057school were actually funded by the PTA and, um, it just kind of floored me to see that. And I I've always struggled to figure out how to how to articulate that. But I I just wanted to mention briefly a couple of the things that, um, at least on the Lake View side, um, that they they contribute to. And, um, one of the large numbers is is the, uh, the academic and cultural enrichment. So that includes the author day, the field trips, and the world dance. And they contribute $15,671 for that alone. Um there's uh the the t-shirts that they give out. There's a Veterans Day celebration that's several thousand. There's uh staff and and teacher mini grants that are several thousand. Um the sunshine committee is several thousand. when you when you tally this up,
058it's a huge contribution to the to the school that um given our the state of our budget um wouldn't happen uh without them, without them raising money, without them uh volunteering their time and uh you know before uh I was a parent I'm sure I considered many of these things to be you know school initiated and school funded things and it just um it's just worth highlighting on you know a number of occasions reminding people of of how much the PTA does do uh for our kids. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Moore. That was very well said. Okay. All right. If there's no other uh comments for the good of the cause, we'll go ahead and open it up for the public to uh ask some questions or uh have some comments at 8:24 p.m.
059So, seeing no one in the chambers and no one left online, we'll go ahead and close it at 8:24 p.m. There is no need for a second executive. Great. Um so, motion to adjurnn. Second. Thank you. All in favor? I. Any nays? Absentions. We are now adjourned at 8:24 p.m.