001All right, good evening everybody and welcome to our legislative advocacy and community engagement meeting for April. We're going to jump right into our agenda. The first item on our agenda is just a legislative update from the state. I actually did forward today to the committee the updated capital watch. Which is the newsletter sent out by the school board association with updates on different pieces of legislation that's going to affect education. So I'm just going to sort of skim through it. Everybody has that link. But just if there's any big changes or approvals, I'll highlight them and if there's anything that anyone else sees, feel free to bring it up. So the first thing they're seeking amendments. There was a bill proposed about the financial literacy instruction and sort of changing what would be allowed as
002part of that graduation requirement because right now which honestly I think is fantastic. We have several different options that students can take in order to get that graduation requirement done. From what I remember the initial bill was really streamlining it so that some of the things that would qualify now would not qualify. And then there's districts also that sort of use other classes to help with that that you know would no longer qualify as well. So this has not been brought to the floor yet. It was approved by the Senate education committee and then referred to the Senate budget and appropriations committee. Senator Gopal and Senator Nick Knight were the sponsors. But school board association has said that they're seeking amendments to it probably for some of the same concerns that we sort of had
003brought up when we spoke. So just as a point of clarity for that, our interpretation is that some school districts will offer the required two and a half credits for financial literacy through other courses other than personal finance. Some districts will have a half year two and a half credit personal finance course married up with another course. May not be taught under the proper certification. The good news is is that all the courses in the minor county school district that grant credit for personal financial literacy all feature the two and a half credits embedded in the curriculum that they would be looking for. In in one instance that course is being taught out of the business department under the family consumer science certificate. However, historically the state of New Jersey had allowed consumer science to
004be taught in the family consumer science. You may recall that economics and this type of learning consumer science historically was taught in home economics which originated in the family consumer science department. So that'll be the one not that we'll look at if they start the exam certification. But I until that point we would we'll monitor it but we feel pretty good about the state of our programs here in this district. Any questions on that one? All right, so there was a bill about school security that did pass the assembly almost unanimously that would require boards to adopt a policy on the use of surveillance systems with artificial intelligence capabilities. My guess is we're going to start seeing more policies dealing with this. We have our overall like the AI policy that we had passed. But
005now it's probably going to trickle into certain things utilizing AI and then modifying that. But that was passed in one of the houses. So that's a little bit further along than the ones that have just been in the committees. Um Let's see. I'm just sort of scrolling through. I'm I'm in staffing and labor issues now. If there's anything before that anyone sees, feel free to bring it up. Um Let's see. There are There's the mercury free flooring that's awaiting the governor's signature. This is under student health and safety. We sort of spoke about that. It has passed both houses now. So it just needs the governor's signature governor's signature. Which would require schools, community centers and child care centers to be certified mercury free. Um See. There is a bill A3882 that requires public schools
006to post the link to subsidized school meals application and certain informational videos related to application in a prominent place on the website. So I actually just looked at Miss Forest when I read that because she and I had actually had that exact discussion. I don't know if you want to talk about it at all. It's just that we so people don't don't know the process, you know. And some people aren't you know good at computers or for whatever reason they just you know they can't follow instructions. It's just so um if they have it online, they can get help with it from someone else to apply things like that because in in Monroe we the numbers are very small. Right. And I I do think that our numbers in general would still be on the
007lower side compared to some districts. But I do think that there is a percentage of people who A may not even know that they are eligible because the reduced lunch honestly the income is higher than I would have expected when I went to look at it. Or you know perhaps you know don't feel capable of filling out that form. In which case of course they could ask for assistance. But of course we all know sometimes it's harder to ask for that. We had done something within I think it was last school year where now parents need to either um fill out the school lunch application or just opt out saying that they're not interested in completing it. So they're at least aware that this is something there. But you know I've always said that I
008feel the more people who apply that are eligible can only help us because it could potentially make us more eligible for for grants. And it also does impact slightly like it's not going to be a huge change. But what we get from those you know from state in terms of state aid because we for a student that's on free and reduced lunch is calculated a little bit more. So I feel like whatever we can do to increase that number would be fantastic. We do have a potential solution for that. You may recall last summer every summer um our district posts on the website student options for these state offered debit cards for students that may suffer from financial need. We could and we make that available to on our district website and through our direct
009mailing system. We can do something very similar with with that. We have a mechanism in place to do something like that. All right. Any other comments questions? All right. Um just going through this. Let's see. Transportation. There was the support of authorized A3-A-3887. School board association supports authorizing the use of school bus monitoring system establishing certain enforcement procedures and penalties for violations captured by the school bus monitoring system. Um I we have that already. So I guess this would just be essentially making it a state wide um mandate so to speak. Um Then there's under like miscellaneous there is two four S-2457 which is something they supported. It's excused absences for students participating in college visits uh visits to post secondary technical institutions and military recruitment related activities. I thought there already was something like
010that. Yes, so there's state approved excused absences that are very limited. And then there's the flexibility for the district to define additional uh excused absences. So that's where and there's a lot of overlap between that in terms of excuses generally generally interpreted as it's excused. We have a lot of excused locally excused absences relative to some of the districts but also the state approved. The state approved absences are very narrow. Okay. So I I think it's really they're looking at expanding more than just college visits. They want anybody looking at post high school opportunities to be to be looking at it. So vocational opportunities or other things like that. Yeah. Apprenticeships specifically career and technical engagement things like that. Yeah. Um the next one that I wanted to highlight was S1815. It's a solar energy
011grant program in BPU. It says establishes solar energy grant program in BPU to provide grants to public schools for solar energy projects. Appropriates $15 million. Um I found this interesting just sort of because what was you know on the the buildings and grounds agenda. I don't know if this is something where it hasn't been approved yet. It has gone through the Senate environment and energy committee. I feel like this might be something to keep an eye on. There's always you know a chance that it could line up um for us for solar. Um And then just at the bottom it does discuss a little bit about the state budget proposal and some of the different things. It has increased preschool aid which doesn't help us because we can't apply for preschool aid. And just mentioned
012some new initiatives. Um, had read that the, um, commissioner has said that the there is more needed in the funding formulas, which I will take Listen, it's not like it's not like we haven't heard this before, but I do think that's more than what former commissioners have said. So, at least it's a step in the right direction. Um, it also They have said that they want to, um, continue to develop the user-friendly dashboards, um, on the website so that people like average person who isn't necessarily involved in this can see how the formula works, which I would like to see personally. Um, and the allocations change each year. Um, so that's sort of quick highlight. Um, I don't know if there was anything else that you had seen, um, that was worth highlighting, um, but
013if not, we're going to move on to the next topic, um, which is just a quick, uh, discussion on community engagement. Um, I'm just going to turn over to Mr. Aldo real quick. So, um, throughout the course of the month, uh, and having conversations with stakeholders in the community, there seems to be an appetite for more information regarding school district activities and happenings amongst the community outside of the traditional opportunities offered. Um, a lot of there are a lot of our community engagement initiatives tend to be reactionary as opposed to proactive. And we want to take a look over the next couple months about ways that we can address that. So, we had suggested for a while, uh, really over the last couple years spanning multiple administrations, about bringing back opportunities, but not just bagels
014with board, but school district opportunities to reach out to community, um, engagement. This can be done in a variety of ways through, uh, various student service groups, athletic initiatives, and other types of adult education opportunities. So, um, we had talked about not just targeting senior communities, but it's a terrific place to start. Um, and this was not necessarily starting within the wake of all of the, uh, passion and interest in the comings and goings and happenings of our district, but also over the last couple, uh, really in the wake of the the pre- the most recent referendum campaign, um, there was a desire to learn more about how the district functions, its various initiatives, how it supports the community, but also neighboring communities, and what our role is in the larger mechanism of New Jersey,
015um, education. People are paying a lot more attention now as well since education policy and funding has been very topical. And there just seems to be, uh, the only sort of information seems to be the wonderful, uh, world of social media. And we're looking to provide, like we did with our new website communication and processes, we'd like to provide a more, uh, personal and engaging opportunity. So, over the next couple months, um, we'll look at some opportunities and how we can do that without interfering with traditional operations of the district. Um, just to add to that, I do think that, um, programs like the like the work-based learning programs where we had residents coming in and sharing their, um, employment experiences and things like that, um, um, you know, that had been sponsored by the
016MEF and we had alumni that were here as well. I feel like, you know, that's really helpful. Um, I know I brought up, um, I don't remember when it was like a while ago, I think, but there used to be, um, years and years ago a senior prom, um, which was like seniors in the community along with the high school kids. Um, I remember my grandmother who, you know, sadly passed away over 10 years ago now, so that like that's sort of when how long ago it was. Um, you know, she would get dressed up in their square dancing dresses and, you know, they get to see the high school though and be part of it and sort of, you know, interact with the high school kids. Um, you know, it seemed like a really
017nice opportunity for both. Um, but I do think that, you know, to Mr. Aldo's point, whatever we can do to sort of work with the community, um, and interact with them not just when there's an issue, but because we want to share with them what we're doing, um, is fantastic. So, um, I know like from a district perspective, you guys are already they're sort of brainstorming ideas as a board, whatever we can do to support that, um, whether it's helping brainstorm ideas or just supporting what's brought up, um, I think would be fantastic. Any other comments? I know there's a general meeting for, uh, the Monroe Education Foundation coming up at the end of the month. It's a great place to start, you know, if you know, you know, if people come out and then
018talk about all of the things that And they also have their fundraiser on Saturday. It's the, uh, comedy night. Um, so, that's awesome. Um, All right. The next thing that I put on here was the district to district networking for advocacy. Um, this is like a really fancy way of saying that I think we should work with other districts because, um, I do watch board meetings in our surrounding areas, and it's honestly a topic that I have been hearing is like we should work with other districts because there's strength in numbers, and this is something that we've said for a while. Um, but I feel like as much as like New Jersey school boards I've seen, they have a governmental relations committee and they have employees there, there isn't necessarily that direct board member to
019legislator connection that I think is really needed because I feel like we need to have a much larger presence of boards working together throughout the entire state, probably the entire legislative roster, to really under- have them understand like this is not just a one district problem or a one legislative district problem. Um, I don't know how we necessarily get started in doing something like this. I did see, um, the it would came up as a suggested page, um, where there was a couple of districts had created a social media page that was about a fight for fair funding, and there was a lot of like great information on there. Uh, I believe they were South Jersey districts. Um, so I don't know if that idea of doing maybe something like that, even if we start
020off as like a private group for the school boards, and then we could make it something larger, um, because I feel as much as we can fight for, you know, certain reforms on our own, we're we're one district out of 600. So, I think the more we can do to make that a larger number, the better. Um, but I also don't feel like we shouldn't necessarily take as all the resources required to do something like that just under our district, either. Um, you know, like I'm obviously happy to play my part in doing whatever I can, um, but I was just sort of curious what I other ideas >> Like we know why like South Brunswick and East Brunswick and different towns around us I would really like to start seeing >> In fact, to
021find out what type of funding they did or didn't get and whether they might be, uh, you know, willing to join a group that did not get any money funding. So, that would take some investigation into who who got money, you know, and maybe I'd like to know why personally as a board member. I wish the state would say, "Well, so-and-so got the money, you know, this is why they got it and you didn't." And I'd like to know why we didn't. I mean, they just deduct and don't tell you why. So, >> a way to find that information out? >> So, there is, um, on the state website, there's a list of all the districts and how much aid they've gotten this year versus how much aid they've gotten last year and what the
022changes are, and they're it's broken down by category, right? So, like we can see that there are other districts that have gotten equalization aid, whereas we have not gotten any. But it doesn't show the calculations and why that's so. Well, it doesn't ex- it doesn't explain it on that. Um, I think perhaps like there Well, there's there's two thoughts I mean, there's a gazillion thoughts in my head, but there's two thoughts on this. So, the first is we start to network with the districts in the state that have a high senior citizen percentage in the in their community because there has been a push for modifying the school funding formula for districts like that because that is the primary reason why we do not get equalization aid. Um, but I also think that, you know,
023to your point, there every district has different needs regarding school funding because there are some that never had it like us, there are some that lost a lot with S2. Um, you know, and I think that there are also other considerations though that every district is dealing with that we could also work towards advocating for, whether it's, you know, health care costs or energy costs or certain other things that, you know, like trans- special out of district special education is another big one. You know, I I learned that like East Brunswick, their biggest issue after health care is actually charter schools because they spend like $7 million a year in payments to hockey puck, but they have like you know, there's like 450 students or something that go there, and that's not regulated. So, like
024we can't they can't necessarily get more in terms of aid, but they have to keep puck to raise their rates. I don't want to say whatever they want, but on a much higher number, and they still have to pay that tuition. So, like that's a big issue for them. We also do have to make those payments, but it's not as high as what they're dealing with. But I feel like sort of finding those different points of advocacy that maybe affect all of us would be the other way of doing it, aside from the very, um, detailed issues in the formula. Um, I just don't know how we go about starting something like that, so that's why I felt like maybe finding districts with that high senior citizen percentage is the first step, and then we
025can grow from there. Are you looking just for Middlesex County or the whole state? >> state. And I think that's actually a better way because then you can get more legislators. And you're not going to get any more, I don't think, senior areas in Middlesex County than here. There are a lot more down south in South Jersey. And and even Senator Gopal, he's is he Ocean or Monmouth? I don't know. He's both of them. So, I mean, those areas have more seniors than Middlesex. I think this is the only one in Middlesex County. But, I was telling Dr. Lehman, I read an article and I should have should have brought it. Ron Rios was speaking about how Middlesex County is of course AAA rated and that they are going to start doing things for magnet
026schools, which may be who knows if transportation could be taken in a helping us take their their students to magnet schools. It didn't go into detail, but it listed a lot of things that they're looking to do in Middlesex County. So, some of them were related to school districts, also. So, um it just sounded like Middlesex County has their commissioners really have their hands on this county and I think we're very lucky that they do and they see the problems and they also mentioned school funding. In the article, it was right in there, school funding toward the end, helping schools in your in Middlesex County, taking care of magnets. So, I mean, Yeah, we can even approach them, too. Leslie Yes, Viscomi and Santini Ares from North Brunswick. And I don't know where the other
027ones are from, but we can definitely get a hold of them and see Ron Rios, I think. I think he's Woodbridge or Woodbridge. Woodbridge, yeah. I mean, we can even have them come here and talk to them what they can do for us. And explain some of our concerns. Exactly. All right. Um I want us to move on to we have 3 minutes, but I I do feel like we should try to pinpoint what direction we'd like to go with this. I do feel like it's important for us to do something um just because we need to have that strength in numbers, which we just don't have as a single district. >> to be tough getting them to to comply with you, I can tell you. I tried it with another district. Everybody said yes,
028yes, yes and when it came down to doing it, it was all nobody wanted to go. So, you can't go like you said, strength in numbers and you know, you got to get a real really good commitment from these people. The districts that are suffering like, you know, Yeah, I will share with you the the page that I had seen, which was a couple of the southern districts that I felt like was it was really exciting to me because they had a lot of the things that we've been talking about. Um but again, I just, you know, don't know if that's a an official board capacity thing that we could do or if it's really more of like private citizens that are advocating. Um which sort of brings brings me to the the last topic
029really quick. I know we have 2 minutes and I want to be mindful of our other committee that's coming in. So, it's just the advocacy and community involvement. Um I will say it's no secret that there is, you know, there's division in our community, but I honestly feel like there's one thing that we can all agree on and that's that we're not getting enough funding. Um I mean, I'm sure there's other things we can agree on, but I do think one thing that we can agree on is that we don't receive enough funding and that there needs to be changes that are made. Um you know, I've heard from people on, you know, both sides of the aisle, if you will, like people that are Democrats, people that are Republicans, they want to help know
030how they can help. And, you know, I know that probably almost a decade ago at this point, there had been a huge group that had gone down to Trenton to advocate. Um I've heard that there is interest in doing something again like that and I feel like that would be a great showing of a like a bipartisan, you know, community involvement where we're all working towards the same goal. Um I had taken a quick look at like the state legislative calendar. Um I don't know if it's something where we want to look at like a state board of ed meeting because that involves more of the Department of Education, which creates the formula, or we want to look more like a you know, budget committee hearing or a Senate Education or Assembly Education Committee. Um
031but I do think we should organize something because I really do think that the interest is there and I don't know I don't think it would hurt and I I do think it shows that we are all working together for this common cause. So, yeah. What you're saying is all true, but trying to get people together to do it is quite difficult. What are the legislators telling us? Excuse me. They didn't want people, they want, you know, information. They want spreadsheets. They want this. They want a pamphlet. This is what they want. I mean, I don't know who told us somebody here one of the senators was telling us. It was Senator Greenstein told me. If you're going to call me, fine, but I'd send me. Send me paperwork. Right. Send me something where you're,
032you know, you're really losing here and it's it's hurting that. That's what they pay more attention to. So, I don't know if going down there in numbers and might gain notoriety publicity wise and that could push it, too. You don't know. You know, the people said, "Well, what's going on? I mean, they put all these people that had to go down there." I don't know. You know, so uh I'm sure it's not a direct correlation, but I do know that when the state gave us increased funding, it happened after they went down to Trenton. And again, I'm not saying I'm going to be called because they went down to Trenton, but I Um I was just going to say over last couple years, I think, from a district perspective, we've been spread real thin and
033in our advocacy, I feel like in in when sometimes we're we're looking at legislature and then some instances we're looking at the DOE. And I think as a school district, um particularly from administration and a teaching standpoint, um we we we sometimes get a little bit out of our lane. Not our lane, not that we're not welcome in that lane, but outside of our area of expertise of what we can offer with respect to advocacy and how it impacts teaching and learning. And >> [clears throat] >> sometimes I wonder how those messages resonate with the legislature versus Department of Education. Um so, when directing resources of the district and as a function of this committee maybe versus citizens and administrators maybe versus rallying the teachers and the administrators, um they all may look like different
034things. Um and I think over the last couple years, we have called on all of those movements um as opposed to maybe one singular focus, which may be watering down our advocacy a little bit. I mean, there's no good solution for this unless somebody really steps up in this new what's her name, Lao? director of education. She's going to get in there and step up like she she did have a nice piece in an article. Like you said, she wants to jump on this right away. Saying and doing are two different things. They had the same for years they were going to take care of this funding formula. And we still sit. Yeah. Nobody seems want to do it. I hope the heck she is coming here to do it. You know, Yeah. All right.
035I do want to be mindful of our committee, so I'm I'm I wish I was ending on like a happier note, but um thank you everybody for coming. Um I do think it's important we continue to do the work that we've been doing. Um and of course we're always open to any ideas. Um and have a great night. Great. Thank you.