001ship board of education meeting. This meeting is being held in compliance with the Sunshine Law having been advertised in the press of Atlantic City and notices posted at the Township Clerk's Office, Maze Landing Post Office, MSPA Post Office, Atlantic County Library, as well as the schools of the district. This meeting is being recorded. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Anker, >> here. >> Miss Bachelor, >> here. >> Dr. Serino, >> here. >> Mrs. Durks, >> here. >> Mrs. Jackson, >> here. Miss McQueen, >> Mr. Rogers >> here, >> and Mrs. Bar >> here. Thank you. >> At this time, can I please have a motion to convene into executive session? Motion by Miss Jackson, second by Dr. Serino. All in favor? I resolved that pursuant to section seven and eight of the open public meetings act
002the public shall be excluded from that portion of the meeting involving discussion of legal matter attorney client privilege personnel and HIV. Be it further resolved that the discussion of such subject matter in executive session can be disclosed to the public when formal action is taken on such subject matter or at another appropriate time. Be it further resolved, the board may take action on items discussed in executive session. Now therefore, be it resolved, the board will be in executive session for approximately 30 minutes. Close executive session and reconvene in public session. >> Second motion by Mr. Rogers, second by Miss Jackson. All in favor? >> I. >> Can we please stand for the flag salute? Good night. Please take a moment of silence for private reflection. Thank you. At this time, I would like to make
003a motion to approve the minutes of regular and executive session meeting February 11th, 2026. I have a second. >> Second by Miss Anker. Comments or questions? >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Anker, >> yes. >> Miss Bachelor, >> yes. >> Dr. Serino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dirks, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss McQueen, >> Mr. Rogers, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Bar. >> Yes. Thank you. And at this time, I will turn it over to Dr. Z. >> Thank you, Mrs. Bar. Uh, at this time, can I please have Miss Lzinski come down to uh provide our reading challenge winner their their award for the month? At this time, can I have our representatives from the William Davies Middle School Student Council give their report? Here you go. >> Oh, got it. >>
004Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So, these were the past events from February. For the first time since 2008, the Davies academic team won first place in the annual Think Day competition at Mainland High School. We are so proud of them. The first annual Davies Fair was a huge success. It was the perfect chance for future students to find their passion and see where they'll make their mark next year. Next year here at Davies, our friendship friendship formal was a great night of dancing, music, and celebrating friendship. Shout out to our student council members and teacher volunteers for helping out with the food stand and set up. The annual Davies dodgeball challenge was a blast. Congrats to Put a K on it and the Davies Black Dragons for taking home the victory. The
005fourth annual Gail Luteriths basket auction was held this past Saturday. We were we were able to raise $28,000 that will go right back to our school community. A special shout out to Mrs. Peek for her incredible hard work in organizing this event and to the many volunteers who helped make the night a resounding success. This past Monday, March 16th, the Davies concert band participated in the NJMEA middle school band festive festive at Rowan University. Okay, now these are the upcoming events for March. This Thursday, March 19th, the Davies Choir will be performing at Rowan University to show off their amazing talents at the NJME Middle School Choir Festival. The Lenipe Players invite you to be our guests as they bring the magic of Disney's Beauty and the Beast to to the stage this weekend. Join
006us for a tale oldest time this Friday at 700 p.m. or catch the Saturday man. I'm sorry manity >> mat mat >> matinea. We got this. Don't you worry. >> Thank you Miss Marshall for that one. at 2 pm. Don't miss your chance to see our talented students bring this enchanted classic to life. Our annual ladies tea will be held on March 27th during Women's History Month. This program recognizes the contributions of professional women and inspires young ladies to excel in their chosen educational endeavors and and future career goals as well as educates young ladies on the history of women. Medical science students will be attending a field trip to the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia on March 23rd. This is an excellent opportunity for students to learn about the um evolution of modern medicine offering
007a hands-on look at the history of healing. Kindness club is planning the dance through the decades dance along with the music department. The dance will be held Friday, April 24th after school in the Davies cafeteria. March 23rd on Monday. Lily Angelo is representing our school at the eighth grade dialogue at Mullica Township Middle. And that's all. Thank you guys. >> Thank you to Chica. All right. >> All right. Uh can I please have my uh Davies administrators that are here please come down to the microphone, please? And the first thing I'd like to talk about is something that I'm super super proud of. Uh Mrs. Tobin and uh her team uh were winners in the academic team think day competition. Uh so if you guys want to come down and talk about that for a
008second, please you want to kind of Yep. Thanks. Shout out. So our academic team took home championship. Is it Okay, first we have Emmy Sinski. She could Lisa Pierre Lane Germu Robelz Torres here Michael Williams Isaac, Leonitis Gonzalez, you didn't make it. Thank you. Andrew Woods, Ethan Russell, nice. Ellie Benonites Zuninga get Stella Schwarz and Jeza Corbin. All right. And now, Dr. Dr. Homestone, can you talk to us a little bit about the William Davies Middle School being recognized as a model school, please? >> Yeah, absolutely. So, we were honored and ch uh chosen to go down um and to the national model schools conference, which will be in Orlando, Florida, the end of June. Uh we were chosen based on a bunch of different criteria, looking at our data, looking at our MAP scores,
009looking at the information. We went through a series of interviews in order to get chosen as that model school. They went in, they looked at our website, they looked at our TDN news, they looked at a lot of things that had to do with our school and they chose our school based on all the bio the biometrics that they were looking at the data. Um, and they love the pictures. We shared with them the video that we had last summer that just talked about the transformation. So, it our session is called the commitment factor, our willingness to make a difference in the community. Um, and we were chosen based on that. So, we're excited to go down and put Davies and Hamilton Township on the map. >> Congratulations. >> We would like to present you
010with the banner that they gave us. >> Yes. >> Oh, that's awesome. >> Thank you, sir. Thank you. Awesome. All right. We'll go out of order for a second. How about we have our spelling be winner? Why don't you stay up there, Dr. >> All right. >> Come on, Isaac. >> Yep. >> All right. Talk a little bit about >> Yay. So, this is Isaac Germo. He is now a second year in a row. He won regionals last year. He went our school last year. He went to Scripts National Spelling Bee. He was featured on WHYY. He again won our school, went to regionals, and won the regional school, and he's on his way to head down the script. And WHY called this week looking to interview him again middle of April. So, we are
011super proud of him. Um, he he follows a legacy, his brother as well. Um, and he's an incredible young man. He just won our academic team, too. So, he he is a model school, a model student for our model school. That's it. Shark Patrol is on their way to find the staff of the month. >> Ready. One, two, three. Staff of the month. Staff of the month. Staff of the month. >> Staff of the month. Staff of the month. Staff of the month. Staff of the month. Staff of the month. >> Good morning. >> Thank you for >> That's right. They're they're the sher shark patrol and they're help to help us recognize our staff of the month. And this month we recognize Mrs. >> You want to make me cry about her to recognize
012her as the month. So, I'm going to read some some of the things that they wrote. They said, "Mrs. Korea is always willing to help others. She is very kind and generous and that she is simply a fantastic human being. These are the things that her colleagues said about her and I have to agree. I want to thank you for everything that you do. Thank you. So happy very important. Okay, I don't know if everybody realizes it, but we have some awesome teachers in our school and each month their peers, that's other teachers share who they think is doing an outstanding job and they want to recognize that teacher that they had a teacher who was chosen by her peers and that teacher is actually right over THERE IS MISS REALLY QUICKLY. I'd like to
013read to you what other teachers teaching her students. She always goes above and beyond to meet their needs, making each child feel seen and cared for without expecting anything in return. She's an outstanding teacher. So, thank you so much. Let's give her a round of applause. We also Nick, your prediction was correct. I predicted that like a Holy. I congratulations to all of our winners. Thank you so much. Um, also I'm saying that that the Hess teachers must be really working out because that was a lot of books she was carrying there in that on the in the cafeteria. Um, boys and girls that are in our audience, if you don't want to stay, you're more than welcome to stay with your parents for this riveting budget presentation that we're going to be pushing on.
014But if you do want to go, now is your shot if you guys want to take off. Okay. All right. I'm now going to introduce to you our business administrator, Mr. Venziani, who's going to do our budget presentation. So tonight on the agenda, we're going to be um approving the submission of the 2627 budget to the county office of education. So some of our highlights um are listed here and our focus is on fiscal responsibility and cost control and strateg strategic investment in our students. So just to take a look at our resident enrollment and this is the number um the enrollment number the state looks at for our state aid. So, um, we had a little bit of a dip the last couple years, um, but we're looking at, you know, just a slight
015reduction, just a few students, uh, proposed for next year. I do want to point out this does not take into consideration our preschool students as that is funded separately. So, this screen looks a little concerning. However, I do want to mention that um our grant numbers uh have to be budgeted at a 25% decrease for our typical grants and we'll look at that a little more in depth in a second. But also um right now it's showing that grant number is higher for the last year, but that's because of our um preschool construction grant that we received for the six classroom addition over at Shainer. Um that was 5.7 million last year. So, um, that's why that number even still looks like a positive even though we have the reduction. Here's a look at directly
016at our state aid. So, the state did give us a 5% increase in our state aid. Um, I just want to note here the extraordinary aid on this screen is uh estimated um for both the current year and for next year because that is an application that we do to the state in the spring and that's for special education students that are uh their cost to educate them is between 40 and 55,000 per student. So that's a separate application project. So we'll apply for that late in the spring and then we would receive that money the following year. So this is the breakdown of the grants that I had mentioned a minute ago. Um as you could see all the grants with the asterisk is bud budgeted at a 25% decrease or higher. Where you
017see it's higher than the 25% that's because we may have had carryover from a prior year. Um, so those additional carryover funds are not budgeted for next year. Um, and we wouldn't know that until the end of the year whether or not those funds were spent. And again, you see there the preschool aid um that the preschool aid is a grant from the state and that's based on um our enrollment for preschool. So we are budgeting uh the six new classrooms. So that's an additional 90 seats which is why we received such a significant increase in the preschool um for those additional seats and preschool grant funds can only be spent on preschool. They cannot be you know uh intermingled with any other general fund expenses. So, this is just a summary of our other
018educational expenses we have. Um, some of the uh increases, significant increases and decreases that you're seeing is a result of reallocating staff to needed positions. Um, and uh we're beginning to see some savings in the transportation lines now that we operate our own buses and we uh bid out our own routes instead of going through greater eggs. So, we're starting to see some savings there. And um due to uh the increase in salaries and benefits, which I'll talk about in a second, we're forced to be as efficient as possible. So, that's why you see a slight reduction overall in the total educational costs here. So, this is just a summary of the salaries and benefits. Um you'll see the benefits line is a proposed 19.5% increase with salaries at 3.4% overall increase. And I'm going
019to go a little more in depth on this on the next slide. So on the revenues here, I pulled out the grants because that doesn't give us a true picture of what our uh revenue looks like. Um so it it this is going to look at mostly the the state uh our state aid and our local tax levy. So factoring in those um numbers, you'll see that we're looking at a 2.1 or a $2.1 million increase in our revenues, which is about 3.5%. However, our total salaries and benefits are increasing um a little over three million. So that's where the strain is on the budget right now is that salary and benefits line. Um, one thing to point out here is that the r the percentage of salaries and benefits as a percent of the
020revenue is continually increasing which is concerning because that's uh, you know, a huge portion of the budget and we're really can't do too much with benefits as that's a national thing. Um, so the increases in those the health benefits line is, you know, something that's continually straining the budget. But with that, we are looking to be as efficient as possible everywhere else in the budget. So, this is an overview of our debt service and our tax impact. So, uh we did um pay off some bonds we had. So, that's why we're seeing that reduction in our total debt service. And then we have the to local tax levy there. Um, in this year's budget, we're proposing uh healthc care uh tax levy adjustment of 723,000 above the 2% and that's uh due to the increase
021in healthcare costs. Um, and that's an adjustment that the state allows when your health insurance um increase is over a certain threshold and the state makes a calculation for that. Um the proposed budget uh results in a $67 annual increase to the local uh assessed home of 165,500 um which is about 3.49% increase. I do want to point out here that um the local the state uh calculates a local fair share and the local fair share for Hamilton Township is around $33 million. Um our proposed local tax levy is uh 24.6 million so well below that. Um which equates to us uh as a state indicates us as being under adequate. Um which you know essentially means that we're running efficiently and fiscally responsible you know and only um you know going after the local
022tax levy for what's absolutely needed to run the district responsibly for our students. And this is what the budget resolution is on the agenda. So it's a total budget of 74.7 million with a la local tax levy of 24.6 million. And I just want to thank uh the community and the board of education members for their support. All I have for my presentation. Any board members have questions on the budget? >> No. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. From my superintendent report, uh, good evening. Just as we as we move forward through the final stretch of winter and begin preparing for spring, I want to take a moment to reflect on the work accomplished across our district from midFebruary through today. This past month has been one defined by focus, collaboration, and a continued commitment
023to doing what is best for our students. Throughout the district, our administrative teams have been deeply engaged in planning for the 2627 school year. This has included thoughtful conversations around staff placement, program alignment, and ensuring that every decision we make is grounded in student need. These are not simple decisions, but they're important ones, and I'm proud of the level of professionalism and care that has gone into this work. We've also continued to strengthen our systems and structures to ensure we're operating with clarity and consistency. From reviewing student report uh support practices through refining communication protocols to aligning expectations across buildings, the focus has remained the same, improving outcomes for students while supporting our staff and the important work they do each day. In addition, this month brought meaningful opportunities to engage with our community. The
024PTA gift auction was a tremendous success near raising nearly $30,000 that will directly benefit our students through field trips, passion grants, and expanded opportunities. Events like this do not happen without the support of many. I want to extend my sincere thanks to our staff, administrators, parents, board members, and community members who attended, donated, volunteered their time, and contributed in any way. Your support makes a difference and it does not go unnoticed. I'd like to also recognize Mr. Venziani for his work developing a balanced budget for the upcoming school year. The timeline between receiving state figures and presenting a responsible student centered budget was incredibly tight. His leadership, attention to detail, and commit commitment to fiscal responsibility ensured that we could move forward in a way that supports our students while remaining mindful of our community.
025Before I close, I would like to take a moment to recognize someone who has dedicated her career to this district and to public education. As you will see later in the agenda, uh Melanie Lamonteer, principal of the Shainer School, will be retiring at the end of this school year. Melanie has served this district for 25 years as an administrator and 35 years as an educator. Over that time, she has impacted countless students, supported generations of families, and helped shape the culture of our schools in a lasting way. Melanie has led with care, consistency, and a deep understanding of what it means to serve as a as a school community. Her work has left a foundation that will continue to benefit our youngest learners for years to come. On behalf of the entire Hamilton Township School
026District, I want to thank her for her years of dedication and service and wish her nothing but the very best and her well-earned retirement. Give her a nice round of applause. And some important dates to remember, March 31st through April 1st will be parent conferences. April 3rd through the 10th is our spring break. We will have our next board of education meeting on a on April 15th uh right here at 5:45. The next PTA meeting will be on April 20th. April 25th will be the PTA day at the rides at the Playland Castaway Cove. If any of you guys haven't done that, it's an awesome trip, an awesome an awesome day for the students. On May 5th, our Davies band con spring concert is right here uh right in the Hess auditorium at 7 p.m.
027and bas 6 will be a board of education meeting and not in here but Friday and Saturday is our performance at Hess of Beauty and the Beast and I got to see a little bit of it yesterday and it is phenomenal and I really hope everybody comes. It was an amazing production. Thank you. And this concludes my superintendent. >> Thank you Dr. Dto. At this time, we will open public comments on tonight's agenda items. There are two opportunities to address the members of the board. The board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents as long as remarks are not personal or discourteous. The public comment portion of the meeting allows the board to listen to community members and hear their opinions on school policy and operations. The first public portion is reserved for persons
028wishing to speak about agenda items only. The second opportunity following the action items is when residents may address the board on any school related issue. Each speaker is asked to limit their comments to three minutes and you are not permitted to yield your time to another. The public comment portion of the meeting during both sessions will not exceed 30 minutes. Upon being recognized, persons wishing to speak should stand and identify themselves by name and address. Move to close public portion. >> Seeing none, we will close public comment and open board member comments. Are there any board members that would like to comment? Dr. Serena. >> Hi. First thing I want to say is congratulations to the PTA and everybody who was involved in the basket auction. It was an amazing time. Um, I'm going to
029tell you, I didn't win, but I still had fun and there were so many baskets out there and it was so well put together. Um, and and I just think it was a fantastic time. So, I would recommend if you didn't go, make sure you're there next year because it's a lot of fun. Uh, and while I was there, I want to echo Dr. Zitto. Uh we saw a little snippet of um Beauty and the Beast by the Lenipe players. They were so good. So um they're really working hard. So I would recommend just everybody kind of trying to get there at night or maybe a matinea or whatever. Um it looks so good and the kids are working so hard and they have great leaders uh working with them, directing them and all that.
030Um, I also want to congratulate Davies on being a model school. That's quite an accomplishment. Um, Dr. Holstrom and her her amazing admin team really have worked hard. Dr. Zitto has really worked with them and I just think it's an amazing thing. They're going to go to Orlando and they're going to share how they achieved this greatness at Davies. So, um, I just want to say congratulations. Well done, and keep up the great work. >> Mr. Rogers, >> I'd like to echo uh comments about the model school achievement. Uh the district has come a long way but you know every month listed in as part of the agenda discipline reports and the discipline reports for uh for Davies it's 10 pages long and there are people on there with 40 plus offenses. The uh H
031school isn't quite as bad. The problem always seems to be centered here in Davies. It has been was before it seems to stay that way. Uh the repeat offenders tell tell Superintendent, tell us what you do to to weed out the the repeat because the repeat offenders are the are the are the core of the problem. >> So, Mr. register. I'll tell you that we have um an amazing staff here and and really our job is not to weed out the offenders. It's really just to work with them to try to get them to um to, you know, to do what we need them to do to be successful students. Um I have some guidance counselors here. I have some staff members. They do a phenomenal job. I I I can't say enough about what
032they do to try to uh help us with our, you know, be proactive. Um we are having um them push into classrooms and do model lessons on the kids on on second step which is our seal curriculum. Uh we do a lot in our schools to make sure that uh we're we're not only working in the schools but we're going out into the community and talking to parents. We're having workshops for parents. Uh just the other day uh Mrs. Decker had a meeting with special education parents to go over things that we could do with some of our students as well. There's a lot we're doing in the community. Um what we're seeing in Davies is not uncommon for middle school. There there does seem to be a rise nationwide in behaviors in in the
033middle school. Um but I will tell you that from where I've come um years ago to where we are now is dramatically less. Uh numbers in in you know within triple digits going down to what we have now. Our numbers of HIVs as well has gone down tremendously. and it's really from the proactive action that's been taken by our administrative team, our staff, our guidance counselors, our child study team, um, and really aligning what we're doing. So, I I hope and you know that it continues to decrease. Um, we're being as restorative as per as possible to make sure that we're talking to the students and and hopefully changing long-term outcomes for our kids. and we'll continue to look at our data uh see every summer we have workshops that we look at to see
034uh what we can provide to students we do a needs assessment to see what we're focusing on actually our last committee um for curriculum we talked a lot about this Mr. Rogers and about uh discipline and what we're looking at. So there's a big focus on this and we'll continue to do so moving forward. >> Any other board? >> Just wanted to make a comment also about the um the auction. It was really nice, really successful. Sorry Sher did win, but it was really nice. And I just wanted to um offer another congratulations to the academic team. Well, um, job well done. And that was it. >> Just to, um, there's a lot of great things happening. Just to echo what everyone said, the basket auction is always a great night. There were students there
035helping run presence, and that's always awesome how the community comes together. Performing arts night here. So many talented students taking a night to to share what they can um to share their talent with the community. And thank you to Chris and his team for putting together a budget um that is able to maintain what we are what we do provide for students in a time that's not the easiest. And then also um Dr. Holmstrom was recognized this week in celebration for women's history month at our township committee meeting. So what we're doing in the schools is being seen in the community and recognized. So congratulations to her. But she of course credits everyone that she works with, not just her. So, thank you to Davies and the educational community that surrounds her for all the
036great things. All right. And at this time, we will go on to our committee meetings. And Miss Bachelor, can we please have the personnel policy committee report? >> Thank you. The personnel and policy committee met on March 10th, 2026 at 6:15 p.m. virtually. In attendance were myself, Laura Bachelor, Ashley Dirks, Ryan Jackson, Dr. Zitto, Mr. Benziani, and Mrs. Lucid. At the meeting, the committee discussed new hires, leaves of absence, retirements, and the proposed budget for the next school year. The policies on this board agenda are up for a second read. Our next meeting will be April 13, 2026 virtually. I motion to approve all items in section 10. >> Second. Comments or questions. Section 10. >> Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Anker, >> yes. >> Miss Bachelor, >> yes. >> Dr. Sino, >> yes.
037>> Mrs. Dirks, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss McQueen, >> um, no. >> Mr. Rogers. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Bar. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Miss Bash. Welcome and congratulations. I'm sure Mrs. Suzinski will want a picture in the hallway. So, thank you. >> Okay. Finance and Operations. Dr. Serino. Um, our committee met on March 10th, 2026 at 400 pm virtually. In attendance was myself, uh, Cheryl Serero, Nancy Bar, Dr. Zitto, Mr. Venziani, and Ian Nelson. At our committee meeting, we discussed building updates, including the preschool edition and various improvements across the district. We discussed the plan to install the replacement HVAC units at the Hes school over spring break and the budget for the 2627 school year. Our next meeting will be April 13, 2026, also virtually. I motion to
038approve item the items in section 11. >> Second. >> Um, comments or questions? >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Ank, >> yes. >> Miss Bachelor, >> yes. >> Dr. Serino, Mrs. Dirks, >> yes. Mrs. Jackson. >> Yes. >> Miss McQueen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rogers. >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Bar. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Dr. Sino. All right. for curriculum. The committee met on March 12th at 5:10 PM. In attendance were Dr. La Hawk, Miss McQueen, Miss Anker, Dr. Zto, and Miss Bryant, and myself. At this meeting, our committee discussed the discipline practices across the district and the need for a needs assessment to determine how well our school code of conduct aligns with our student needs. We also discussed how we will handle professional development opportunities for teachers over the summer and discussed changes
039to programs and instruction for the 2627 school year and also the proposed budget for the next school year. The next meeting is April 13th virtual. I would like to motion to approve items in section 12. Second by Dr. Serino. Comments or questions on section 12? Roll call. >> Mrs. Anker, >> no. >> Mrs. Bachelor, >> yes. >> Dr. Serino, >> yes. >> Mrs. Dirks, >> yes. >> Mrs. Jackson, >> yes. >> Miss McQueen, >> no. >> Mr. Rogers, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Bar? >> Yes. >> Okay. At this time, is there any members of the board that would like to comment on an item or topic that has been previously discussed for old business? Is there any new business that a board member would like to introduce this evening? Seeing none, we will open
040public comment. We will receive comments from the public in accordance with the board's policy on participation at a board. Well, and I was just wondering if um we were talking about the cost of health insurance and the cost of employees, why are we hiring more administrators or is it existing positions? question all of them. Okay. Um because it doesn't seem like it was but I guess I'm wrong. My name is Ian Brown and I forget my address. I would like to thank the board and Dr. Zitto for your continued support with Agents for Change. I saw it go through on the agenda tonight and I was very excited to see that. Um, everything that I hear is that it's kids first and I see it firsthand. The kids come into Davies from Hess and they
041run up and hug the teachers that work the program. The kids are excited to be junior counselors. They asked me in September when the junior counselor interviews are going to be. So, I just want to thank you for your continued support and I love to see the program continue. So, thank you. >> Any other public comment? Seeing none, I will close public comment. And can I please have a motion to adjurnn? Motion by Miss Anchor. Second. Seconds. All around. All in favor? I opposed. Thanks everyone. Have a greeting.