001Ready to start? We're They're We're working. We're good. Okay. Good evening everybody. It is Monday, May 5th, 2025. This is the Monro Township Board of Education monthly meeting. Can I please ask everybody to stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That should have been. Miss Allen, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez, here. Miss Bora here. Miss Depay here. Miss Fabiano here. Dr. Peek here. Mr. Piro here. Miss Ratner here. Miss Chararma here. Mr. Tfano here. Mr. Zikner yes. We have a quorum. In accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law, the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of
002this meeting to be published and electronic notice provided by having the date, time, and place thereof posted October 25th, 2024 and April 11th, 2025 at all schools on the district website, home news Tribune, Cranberry Press, and filed with the clerk of the municipality. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is our close session resolution. Whereas the Senator Byron Embear Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA104-6 provides that the Monro Township Board of Education may hold an executive session from which the public is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed from section 12B of the act. And whereas that the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subjects will be made public at a time when the public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy
003or governmental interest being protected from disclosure. Now therefore be it resolved by the Monro Township Board of Education that the board shall go into executive session to discuss the following items. Additional items may be determined and announced as needed. Uh pending or anticipated litigation and matters covered by the attorney client privilege matters involving employees in terms of their employment and contract. HIP investigation involving students other the superintendent evaluation and attorney advice on a proposed confidential agreement. Be it further resolved that the said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in close session no longer exist. Action may be taken on any of these items stated above. May I have a motion to go into second? Motion by Mr. Tufano, second by Mr. Payne. All those in favor?
004I. We will return at approx in approximately 1 hour around 7:15. Good evening everyone. Let me apologize in advance for how loud I am because I don't really need a microphone. So, welcome. For those of you who don't know me, you're very lucky. No, I am Dr. Chanley. I am the very fortunate superintendent of your children, and we are so excited here this evening to have you. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] I have three favorite times of the year and they're all about when we get to award recognition to your children. This evening is extra special because not only do we get to acknowledge how fantastic all of our fabulous Falcons are, but we get to start this evening with an acknowledgement of our employees of the year. So, we are so excited you're here to give
005them a round of applause as well. I will very quickly just acknowledge the people that should be acknowledged for this evening. Whether it be for the efforts that we put forth to have a lovely dinner for our employees or all of the wonderful plaques, certificates that we have here this evening. Countryview Farms is one of our largest donators and sponsors. I want to give them a quick shout out. [Applause] And I want to thank everyone that's involved from sound, audio, video custodians, secretaries, Mr. Morala who's our director of innovative programs and many other things as well as Miss Sinsky and Miss Callow. They were truly integral in making sure this evening came to what it's going to be. So a very very strong round of round of applause for them. And lastly, I'd like to
006acknowledge our board of education. We have our president and vice president here with us with Dr. Layman. The rest of our board members are sitting here. I'd like to acknowledge them for their support of your children because in my famous line, success is always a team effort. And on that no further ado, at this time I would like our recipients from Apple Elementary School, if you could hold your applause so we say all three names. We have our teacher of the year, Samantha Foggess, our educational services professional of the year, Allison Kurchas, and our educational support professional, Nancy Agnu. If you could please come forward. Thank you so much. [Applause] Representing Barkley Elementary School, our teacher of the year, Stephanie Yates, educational services professional, Karitza Barry, and our educational support professional, Dedra Zeni. [Applause] Thank
007you very much. [Applause] Representing Brookside Elementary School, our teacher of the year, Julie Freeman, educational services professional, Maria Deellis, and educational support professional Christopher Gross. [Applause] On behalf of Mil Lake Elementary School, our teacher of the year, Melissa Fletcher, educational services professor. Professional Dr. Dana McGee, educational support professional Angela Conover. [Applause] Perfect. Okay. representing Oak Tree Elementary School, teacher of the year, Gabriella Guerrera, from New York, they can't educational services professional, Lauria Wanti, and educational support professional Timothy Ferrano. [Applause] representing Woodland Elementary School. Teacher of the year, Erica Emmens. Educational Services Professional Karen QY and Educational Support Professional Matthew [Applause] Verdon. Congratulations. Representing our transportation department, educational services professional LSE Roa. next and representing central office educational services professional Debbie [Applause] Gillanella on behalf of Monro. Toucha Middle School teacher of the year Bonnie Krisco,
008educational services professional Sarah Lavine, and education support professional Tammy Goldstein. [Applause] Thank you. [Applause] Representing Tom Monroe Township High School, teacher of the year, Danna Dale, educational services professional, Casey Buffalo, educational support professional, Sue McCort. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay, if we can have a nice round of applause for all of our staff recognizes as we transition over and he's already Ready? I'm trying to stay far away because I'm so loud. At this time, we're going to begin with Let us see who our first people are. Oh, opening remarks. I love to have opening remarks. Your children are the best. Thank you for giving your children to us. I don't know what else to say. They are wonderful. They do projects
009that give back to the community. They work extremely hard in all of their endeavors. And I do not believe they do it only for academic or civic achievement. I think they also do it for the sense of self. That is something that we like to teach to our children. We want your children to grow up as good citizens and to give back because we know the value of giving to your community. So I'm going to give you a round of applause. And if my administrative team can join us and our board of ed. Thank you for partnering with us to create these amazing falcons because they are just truly amazing. And we're ready to get started. And there we go. I'm right here. There you go. I'm supposed to be far away. Okay. Hi everyone.
010Welcome to our uh recognition. Um, usually we do not have um we don't usually do it a young um this young, but something extraordinary happened this year. Uh, a little girl came to me and was sad and was having a tough day and she came into my office. We had a working lunch and we talked about how she was feeling and she told me she felt really left out. And so I asked her why and she told me and I said,"Well, what do you want to do about it?" And she's like, "I want everybody to know how I feel and I want to tell them how to what to do." So stand up standin is a powerful studentcreated group at Milleg School founded by an eight-year-old Mallerie Stanowitz. [Applause] She is a remarkable little girl.
011Mallerie, why don't you come down here and stand with your [Applause] friends? This is a big deal. Okay, so turn around so everybody can see your cute shirts that your mom made. I love this shirt. [Applause] After experiencing feelings of exclusion and witnessing classmates being left out, Mallerie was inspired to take action. With courage and compassion well beyond her years, she created this initiative to spread awareness about the importance of inclusion, kindness, and standing up against bullying through studentled presentations, meaningful conversations, and peer engagement. Stand up, stand in encourages children to be upstandards, not bystandards, and to create a school environment where everyone feels seen, accepted, and valor and valued. Mallerie's vision has not only changed her path, but has also sparked a wave of empathy and positive ch change amongst her peers. Mallerie asked
012a few of her friends to join her campaign. So, these are four of the six students that Mallerie chose. Mallerie Stanowitz, raise your hand and say hi. Yep. Jacob Bayak, Malia Stan, Avery Vogle, Brilen Pony, and Lyanna [Music] Chowy. Congratulations. [Applause] Okay. Great job, So, what we're doing, just so the children don't think we forgot them, after we make all of our announcements, they're going to get their certificates over to my left with Mr. Morala just to keep the program going. Oh, I want to get in there. Thank you. [Applause] that you Mr. Snder, would you come forward for elementary performing arts? Good evening, everyone. This is one of my favorite nights of the entire year where we get to honor our wonderful students in the performing arts. I can say for certain the performing
013arts here in Monroe Township is booming on all levels and we have many students to honor tonight who have achieved beyond what's going on in their rehearsal rooms across the district accolades at the region level, the state level, and even an east coast level. Tonight, elementary all the way through high school students in elementary school had the ability to be nominated for what's called elementary honors band and chorus at both the elementary and middle school sixth grade levels. This was by teacher nomination and if accepted got to perform with students from 40 other schools around the region in one day putting together a concert with the music taught by their teacher right here in Monroe. Starting in middle school, the students had the a the um ability to audition on a state level for region
014band, chorus, and percussion ensemble where they competed against students from the same 40 or so schools. And we were so fortunate to have several students accepted into those prestigious ensembles and rehearsed with renowned conductors in the field that came and worked with them and they put on a fabulous region concert all the way through high school where we had students compete at the region level 9th through 12th grade. Some of those students moved on and auditioned for the NJMEA allstate band and choir and orchestra. and we had students accepted into all the ensembles on a state level. This is the cherry on the top is for I believe the first time we had multiple students take it to the next level and be accepted into the all eastern band and choir which is about the
015highest accolade you can get. We have students in band and chorus that did that. [Applause] So needless to say, I'm a very proud supervisor. There's great stuff going on in Monroe. We will start with the youngest. We will start with Applegarth Elementary School. And I'd like to call up Dr. [Applause] Graciano for Applegarth. Congratulations to Nicolina Latillaa, Gia [Applause] Lombardi, Rachel Levit, Shishi Mukesh, Om Patel, Abide Pine, Aditia Sharma, Neva Subedar and Svanic Tanakella. Congratulations [Applause] Great job. More congratulations to the students selected for the CJMEA Elementary Honors Band. Amog Dyappa [Applause] Aaliyah Jaram Morrow, Ria Paturi and Trishi Ready Sudi. Congratulations students. [Applause] Mr. Sidler. Oh, congrat congratulations to the six Brookside accepted nominees. Yash Anand, Arjun Dubasi, Bella Conturam, Arian [Applause] Moante, Jazelle Palea, [Applause] and Corey Reinhardt. Congratulations [Applause] Dr. Chedda, here
016she comes. I'm very proud to announce the elementary honors chorus for Woodland Elementary School. Anya [Applause] Argawal, Juliana Burls, Ana Fitzgerald, Seahed Gil, Payne Habbery, Habberly, Maserella, Ella Montacana. I may have said that wrong. Uh, Marray Msad, Samantha Mora [Applause] Rodriguez, Emily Rosario and Arya Scurvetski. And here is our elementary honors band members, Lily Gurgus. [Applause] Ali Sadiki, Arya Severtski again, Alexis Steinhauser, and Amelia Wood. Good job, wonderful Woodland musicians. Good evening. Uh we will now uh go over and uh middle school music program. I am fortunate enough today to have our directors with me. So, I'm going to ask Mr. David Ratner, Miss Tiana Zerelli, Miss Nina Schmeeder, and Miss Lisa Constantino to come on up. And I asked them [Applause] up. I asked them up just so they could get the recognition they
017deserve for all the hard work they put in. So, first first I will have Mr. Ratner present for the CJMEA Elementary Honors Band. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Y of course. All right. Uh from our fanfare ensemble we had Bria Cleti Sanjie Ramkumar, Deepoak Bermetti, Isan Yol Ryan Ho and Sanjay Anan. Keep going with the Overture Ensemble. Come on up, guys. Grab your handshakes, your certificates down the line. In the overture ensemble we had Shria Sha, Akshara Jananandan, Aya Patadar, Rigveda Johnny and Vihan Pasala. [Applause] Who's next? And next, I'm going to ask Miss Tiana Zarelli to come up and present the certificate and call the names of the 2025 CJMEA Middle School Honors Band. I got it. Y thank you so much everybody. Um all right, these are the students who this year participated
018in the middle school Honors Band Festival. um they were nominated for their hard work and we are super proud of them. So without further ado, the students are Adapo Ederby, Sabal, Sud, Tanica, Aanarapu, Shiv, Devet, Ai, Jatana, Ria Kumakar, Danielle Kujini, Ana Kamat, Ara Gupta, Ruth, Vissri Hareskumar, Shhan Majigapu, Kish Katri, Joel Oriendo, Sraia Konapati, Umanath Kumar, Shrea Angapen, Sav Nandesh, and Amog Swaram. Thank you. Thank you. I have three more. I'm gonna be up here for a minute. Congratulations. Okay. Once again, Mr. Reelli will present to our 2025 NJ Region 2 Jazz Ensemble as well as our CJMEA Intermediate Percussion Ensemble. All right. Our participants in the 2025 region Jazz Ensemble are the some of the top middle school jazz musicians from across central New Jersey. Um so without further ado, Anbeny Adam, Ava
019Esser, Maya Pie and Charvos Reinvasan. [Applause] I'm just going to keep it rolling because I have two more categories after this. All right, for the intermediate percussion ensemble, we have again Anbini Admulam, Jackson Buda, Carmine Corona, Darren Gald Raj, and Kyus Laauo. Congratulations. Mr. Rei and Mr. Ratner have been very busy this year. 2025 CJMEA Intermediate Region Symphonic Band and the 2025 CJMEA Intermediate Region Wind Ensemble. Mr. All right, our two participants for the intermediate region symphonic band are AJ and Ava Esser. All right. And last but not least from me and then we will continue moving on in the program. We have the intermediate region wind ensemble Swanikbari Christy Magani and [Applause] Charville. [Applause] Congratulations. Moving over to our MTMS chorus, I would like to ask Miss Nina, Nina Schmeeder, and Lisa Kazantino to
020come up to present the students for the 2025 CJMEA Intermediate Regional Choir. [Applause] Okay, starting from the top, we have Mana Oroju, Parisa Ahmed, Aksheni Akula, Ishani Balaji, Carmen Chhatwa. I would just like to note that Carmen did this for three years in a row. So bravo to Carbon Dia Della Tahina Devkumor Jason Frederick Quatt Gajim Vana Gden Congratulations Nikita Ganesh Pandi Vidanti Kapare Jazelle Kapoor Hansini Katapali Angelie Menan Akshage otherwise known as AJ Narana Joel Nigela Congratulations Anvita Palori, Christine Rodriguez, Henzy Samuel, Asata Ashi, Shandai, Sonam, Sanjana Sabberman, Ryan, Tawari, Chris Vancada, and Govartini Venesh. And the rest are sixth graders with Miss Costantino. For our sixth graders, we have Adia Dadilla, Gerdep, Kaly Core, Moly, Maria, Isana, Matthew, Shaki, Mccandraj, Adia, Raja, Sana Sha, Kyash, Benot, and Maisha Koshik. Congratulations. [Applause] Nice round
021of applause. Dr. Higgins, you're up. Thank you. We're very proud of all of our performers at the high school. To announce our uh CGMA band participants, uh call to the mic Mr. Griffin, Mr. Marty Griffin, who is here. There he comes. Who we got first? Okay, this is CJMBA High School Region Symphonic Band. Eric [Applause] Crowley, Noel Chong, Lucas, Cypriaso, Sha Alvaranga, Edward Tinus. Congratulations. that way. Not anymore. Our 2025 CGMA High School Region Orchestra, Aman Patel. [Applause] Congratulations. Thank you. High School region percussion ensemble. Arouch Abilash. Noel Chong, Eric Crowley, Aiden Lynn, Preston Masigla, Arav Narwhal and the High School region wind ensemble. Preston Migla, Aiden [Applause] Lynn. Next, New Jersey Allstate Wind Ensemble. All State band. Eric Crowley, Preston Missiglet. [Applause] All State Symphonic Band, Aiden Lynn, Edward [Applause] Tinus, the Region 2
022Junior High Jazz Ensemble, Jess Carr and Kaylor, Edward Tustinis, Manvith Tabutum. And there they are again. Right, these were the two students chosen for the All Eastern band this year. Eric Crowley, Preston [Applause] Migla, we're not done. Right. Next we have the 2025 WGI Power East percussion regional champions. Third year in a row actually. Let's call them up if they're here. Arouche, Abilash, Aiden Barakea, Rayon Bora, Noel Chong, Eric Crowley, Aiden Lynn, Preston Migla, Arav Narwhal, Vicram Rangath, Advoc Civakumar, Sai Teal, Serena Valentine, Jillian Weissman, Congratulations. [Applause] Last one. We go. All right. And I'll read these. There's a bunch of names. Not sure who's here, but the 2025 high school wind ensemble students chosen to perform in the state concert band gala at TCJ. Here we go. Arouch Abilash Aditi Achari Tun Adoni Doan
023Audra Bigby Sha Alvarena Adricia Amares Sisha Amaresh Aiden Barakiva Matthew Basili Sedarth Chin Tali Brody Chong Lucas Cypriaso Emily Kuini Aani Gambala Isan Gandhi Hari Kamar Ganesh, Andrew Jakamini, Gavin Grauso, Ana Haram, Jacob Jerusitz, Sakshi Kale, Aditi, Kamath, Pernov, Kovi, Emma Quan, Ka Lana, Justin Laauo, Ava Le Young, Aniha Mathther, Arian Mathther, Schllo, Meghani, Kton, Mendy, Jaden Newell, Kyle Path, Ean Patel, Arian Paori, Anaurana, Anith Ravidron, Will Recttoell, Avika Sanchetti, Arushi Sarkcar, Puja Shukla, Hier Singh, Rihanna Situ, Natish Sungu, Manvith Tavutum, Edward Tinus, and Caitlyn Wong. It's a mouthful. Thank you. Thank you. That's it. If you don't mind, before we finish up, I just want to take a moment to recognize Mr. Griffin. After many, many years of leading, directing, and doing everything as a as a as a master percussionist here at MTHS,
024Mr. Griffin will be retiring at the end of this year, actually the beginning of next year after so many years at the high school. And we just want to say thank you to him. Thank you to everything he's done for all our kids. Appreciate it. Congratulations, buddy. Continuing with the high school, we have our 2025 CJMEA region 2 mixed chorus. Sai Bindda Bupati Raju, Emily Kini, Ivana Samuel, Serena Valentine, Lassini Kavori, Shaniah Tawari, Shifa Satia, and Kushal Padlori. Our region treble chorus. Sanvi Shingari, Tanya Kumar, Shria Sendatam, Gabrielle Sioci, Sanvi Tadi, Manazi Hugar, and Lashika Kana. Our 2025 allstate mixed chorus. Seahas Chada, Emily Kini, Sanvitadi, Serena Valentine, Shaniah Tari, Jacob Jerusvich, and Vincent Wilson. [Applause] our 2025 all state treble chorus. Sai Bindda Papatururaju, Ivana Samuel, Sanvi Shingari and Gabriel Siochi. and our 2025
025All Eastern Mixed Chorus. These are the two members that made it on to All Eastern, Sanvi Tati and Vincent [Applause] Wilson. At this time, I will invite my colleague, Dr. Nope, I'm sorry, not doctor. Sorry, got promotion. There you go. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Steve Barendika and I'm the director of athletics and co-curricular programs here. Uh tonight I am honored for the opportunity to acknowledge a great group of young women who not only excelled during the season but also in the postseason as they represented us at the cheer internationals in Orlando on March 15th and 16th. First, I will begin with our MTHs purple intermediate competition team. Um, they earned international uh intermediate, I'm sorry, all music large national champions as well as division high point champions. When you hear your name, please
026come up. Kayla Alexandraski, Colobby Bacon, Payton Badiaak, Jasine Bennett, Emily Bole, Riley Boyam, Valentina Callo, Jacqueline Sus, Sophia Dalier, Matteline Doyan, Ava Fehey Victoria Fjordiso Alexa Grippa Emily Jax Emma Kurbansade Lyra Luo Alexa Marquez Juliana Morera Alyssa Puglia Tori Shiner Bella Rojos [Applause] Elelliana Rosen, Addison Sheay, Francesca Sparrow, Victoria Sparrow, Avery Stern, and Allison Sanrando. [Applause] Next up, we have our MTHS Gold Advanced Competition team. They they were the advanced all music large national champions. Meredith Armstrong, Katherine Blendell, McKenzie Casey, Rachel Chicetti, Juliana Dow, Kobe Fernandez, Valentina Gonzalez, Jashkowitz, Isabella Grippa, Brinley Hoy, Thank you. Laya Kika, congratulations. Jenna Lugo, Angelina Mayo, Daniela Mayo, Nichollet Mayo, Alexa [Applause] Path, Gabriella Petrolia, Briana Prisbazooki, Summer Reneo, Thank you. Congratulations Juliana Scooty, Leah Scooty, Christa Traantana, and Delilah [Applause] Updale. Thank you. [Applause] I am just back
027to introduce Dr. Kelly Rosselle. I knew you were coming up soon. Okay. All right. I am going to introduce the recipients of the 2025 New Jersey Sila by Literacy. The seal of bi literacy is awarded to students who demonstrate proficiency both in English and a second language. Um, so the students who earned the seal in Spanish, Anthony Angamar, Tennapaguay, Rehea Bosra, Matthew Basili, Chia Bernal, Ramirez, Jada Coleman, Sumi Cordiero Barbarin, Needa Deepac, Stefano Espinosa Flores, Melanie Euphrcia Dominguez, Michael Ferrerero Zbrano, Leskin Garcia Vega, Martha Hon Ortiz, Melena Masera Steven Martinez Vidal Emilyn Marino Cruz Caesar Malo Encalada Edgar Molinos Cristales Jessica Moran Caro Oculin Prau Anya Rana Henry Rosales Marcado, Taj Sony, Daniela Vasquez Veta, Sarayu Beu, and Daisy Velasquez. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Great job. Next we have two students for French Shriram Kalori and
028Hamsika Yadavali. Duvi Desai for Gujarati, Ashika Gandhi, Anika Tanden and Sai Takali for Hindi. Ava Masio and Misa Udugan for Italian for Latin. Rayan Bora and Anuj Kakumanu Portuguese Alexander Cabrita [Applause] Tamal Anen Deavina Gerald Raj and Vippen Submaranian in Ukrainian Bogdan Malukin. And finally, we have two students who earned the seal of biiteracy in both Arabic and Spanish. Zayn Jabber and Janet Zenoon. Excellent work. Congratulations. [Applause] Yes. At this time, I would like to introduce Miss Danielle Dr. [Applause] Good evening everyone. Um, at this time it gives me great pleasure to introduce Mr. David Rothman. He is a representative from the Henry Rickas Holocaust Memorial. Okay. Thank you. You know, Henry Rickas was a soldier who in World War II helped liberate a camp. He came back here, he retired and he moved to
029Clearbrook and 40 years ago, we had our first day of remembrance from the time. What we have done is bring some survivors from the Holocaust to go speak before the freshman class each year. And we are so fortunate that after they listen to them, we then give them a challenge. Would you like to write an essay? They're not going to get a grade for it, but write an essay about what are the learnings that you had from learning about the Holocaust. What could it happen again? Could it happen in the United States? And third, if you came in front of a Holocaust denier, what would you do or say? We asked that. We got a number of essays back this year and three were not good, not great, outstanding. And we have their awards and
030want to announce them today if you will. Our three award winners this year are Sam Devonali, Suru Raala and Shawn Rosen. [Applause] Okay. And we have been challenged by uh uh uh the school superintendent. So next year we're not only going to have Holocaust survivors before the freshman class, we're also going to middle school as well. So thank you for the challenge. [Applause] Okay. If I could ask Dr. Higgins from the middle school to join me. I'm sure those of you may have heard, but we had a very unfortunate situation that occurred. We had um one of our students who had a situation where she wind up um engaging herself with fire and it it caused um her person to wind up going on fire in certain areas. And we um it's an unfortunate situation.
031It could happen. It could happen in any building. Could happen in any school. We keep in touch with the parent checking on the child. She's getting better and better, which we're very very happy about. But there were two individuals in that classroom when this occurred. And I I would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge as a community the heroism, the immediacy of not even thinking, but doing what needs to be done. Both the teacher, who I'm going to acknowledge this evening, and the student immediately came to the aid of the child. The student grabbed the um fire extinguisher and the teacher placed her own hands on this child to try and pat out the fire. Those two people here, I hope, are here this evening. One is our teacher of family consumer science, Miss Laura
032Kleti. Is she present? [Applause] And our student who beyond impressed me in in a sense of danger and and a sense of emergency. Iman [Applause] Sadu. I'd like to thank Dr. Higgins who was present on site who immediately called me and I joined him on site and we were very fortunate that the entire team of teachers and students knew what they needed to do under Dr. Higgins direction as well as working directly collaboratively with the Monroe Township Police Department and the Monroe Township Fire Department. And I have to give a shout out that on Wednesday the mayor will also be acknowledging These two heroes, they are our Falcon heroes. At this time, I'd like to say thank you for your patience while you sat through the entire program. At this time, we will be going
033back to the library, at which time we have to. Tonight's board of education meeting will then recommence. Thank you again and have a fabulous Falcon evening. Okay, good evening everybody. We are going to resume our um meeting here. So the next item on our agenda is the approval of minutes. So the first um minutes for us to approve are the public board of education meeting minutes for March 17, 2025. Motion second motion by Miss Ratner, second by Miss Bora. Um all those in favor. Any abstensions? Recusals. Okay. Next is the close session meeting minutes from March 17, 2025. Motion. Second. Motion by Miss Boris. Second by Mr. Depay. Are there all those in favor? I. Questions, discussion. Abstain from Mr. Zikner. Okay. All those in favor? I. Did you have a question, Miss Ratner? I
034was abain. I was just waiting. Oh, okay. Mr. Zner abstained and abstain. abstain on the portion um where conflict exists. Okay, perfect. Okay, then the next item on our agenda is our student board members reports. Good evening everyone. It's good to see you all. Um I'll start off with Barkley Brook Elementary School. So Barkley Brook uh has continued its collaboration with Parker at Monroe. Residents from the facility visited Barkley Brook School and part participated in a steam maker activity with a group of second grade students. Together, these students and residents planned and created SEAL badges using Tinker Tinkercad. Thank you to Parker at Monroe for this continued collaboration. During the week of April 7th, Barkley Brook students were encouraged to show kindness, gratitude, and encouragement. Each day there was a themed kindness activity including bringing
035in canned food items to benefit a local food pantry and showing kindness at home and at school. Barkley Brook School participated in the police unity tour fundraiser on Wednesday, April 23rd. Barkley Brook students and staff were invited to dress in their pajamas and donate $1 to their Monro Township Police officers who are participating in the 2025 Police Unity Tour. This organization raises awareness for fallen officers killed in the line of duty and some of our own township officers will be riding in their remembrance. April 24th was bring your child to work day. It was such a fun day to have the children of the Barkley Brook staff members join them for the day. Barkley Brook was honored to host Monroe Township's annual Arbor Day celebration on Friday, April 25th. Members of the Monroe Township Shade
036Tree Commission joined members of the town council district administration and two classes from Barkley Brook School to commemorate the day with the planting of a tree in front of the school. The students who participated in the ceremony each received a tube seedling to bring home and plant. It was a fun and educational event to commemorate Arbor Day. Next up is Brookside Elementary School. On April 11th, their fourth grade had a poetry day. The students enjoyed learning about all different types of poetry such as uh diamante and hiq by visiting each one of the fourth grade classrooms. Brookside was proud to support the police unity tour as well by having a pajama day on April 23rd and they raised approximately $300. On April 30th, their third grade classes visited the Envirromobile. Thank you to Monro Township
037for presenting to their students. The students had fun learning about the strategies for reducing, reusing, and recycling. And Brookside will be administering NJSLA testing from May 5th to 8th and on the 12th and 13th. Next up is Mil Lake Elementary School. Since their March meeting, Mil Lake has been buzzing with energy, meaningful student engagement, and strong community collaboration. They've had a truly dynamic and productive stretch filled with activities that reflect the heart of their school. Their studentled standup standin group wrapped up a powerful week of preparation and presentations focused on inclusion and empathy and they'll continue spreading their message by working with their first and second graders throughout May. We were also fortunate to welcome back our beloved therapy dog Maya Cara and students across multiple grade levels had the opportunity to read to her
038strengthening both literacy skills and emotional connections. Mil Lake proudly hosted another successful unified gym event where Monroe Township High School students joined them for an inclusive and joyfilled session with their students. These moments of connection highlight the power of partnership and belonging within our school district. Um the SEAL social emotional learning assemblies for March and April celebrated individual and grade level growth reinforcing their shared commitment to emotional well-being and student success. The dedicated Woodland Mil Lake PTO continues to work tirelessly saving the schools, planning for endofear celebrations, including student transition visits, field day, and their upcoming Mother's Day flower sale from May 5th to 7th. Their enthusiasm and support help keep Mil Lake thriving. Um, the school is also gearing up for the Mil Lake Woodland Art Show, which will be hosted here on May
03914th, here as in at Mil Lake from 5:30 to 7:30. The students creativity is sure to shine. And finally, they're thrilled to kick off their staff appreciation events with wonderful planning from Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. S and generous support from our PTO. We'll be celebrating our incredible educators and staff in style. Thank you to everyone who contributes to make Mil Lake a joyful, inclusive, and inspiring place to grow. Up next is Woodland Elementary School. The students there attended the monthly SEAL character goal assembly focusing on respect. Woodland students and staff celebrated neurodeiversity with fun and inspirational spirit days including a project that connected the high school with the wonderful Woodland school students and opportunities for their PALS program. Fourth and fifth grade classrooms had their students engage in Monunroe Day activities. The Monroe Township High
040School visited their school and collaborated with the PAL students as well. Earth Day was observed with the Monro Township public works department envirromobile and a trash-free picnic coordinated by the student council. A free assembly funded by the EPA and NJ recycling and litter abatement communities brought an educational assembly to the students regarding recycling and litter. All students participated in the math contest as well and support students supported the Monro Township Police Department unity tour with the PJ day as well. Up next is Oak Tree Elementary School. May 5th through 9th, they'll be celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week filled with an assortment of wonderful treats and activities sponsored by the PTA. May 12th to 16th will be World Cup soccer where all classes participate in soccer games to show off their new skills. May 19th to 22nd,
041the NJSLA testing will occur for grade three. May 27th, unified field day will take place. And on May 30th, the Oak Tree Field Day will take place. Up next, we have Monroe Township Middle School. On March 18th, the MTMS Wind Ensemble performed at the CJMEA High School Concert Band Festival. They were the only middle school group invited to perform at this 3-day festival and got the opportunity to watch some of the top ensembles from across the state. Furthermore, this is the first time ever that one of the middle school groups was invited to perform at a high school only event. And the best part is that they earned a silver rating for their performance, which is huge for a middle school group. The students were given very difficult music and they rose to the occasion
042to represent their school. Many years ago, a silver rating would have been a significant accomplishment for the high school groups. So, it's very special to be a part of this amazing era for the Monro Township School District bands. In March, the middle school hosted its annual eighth grade health fair. Representatives in the medical field were on site sharing health tips with the eighth graders, and they were fortunate enough to have eighth graders from Jamesburg, join them once again for this wonderful event. On Saturday, April 26th, the Mund Township Middle School teachers and builders club advisers, Miss S. and Mr. Fields took part in the Walk for Wishes event at the American Dream Mall supporting the Makea-Wish Foundation's mission to raise funds for children with critical illnesses. On May 8th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., the
043Mundtown Middle School will be holding its annual art exhibit where their talented art students show off their skills in a variety of media from traditional art skills to computerenerated art to 3D art. So, please join them on April 23rd, 25th, and 28th. The middle school held its annual LEAD graduations. This event celebrates the sixth grade successful completion of the LEAD program. Their proud sixth grade parents join them to celebrate their children as well. The middle school will also begin NJSLA testing tomorrow with the sixth and seventh grade leading off followed next week by the eighth grade. The middle school is proud to announce that two of their students won the nature poetry and photography contest sponsored by the Monro Township Public Library. First place went to Shinika Kakuru and second place to Sonia Chenani. Um
044and last but not least, Monro Township High School updates. Uh first a few recognitions. Congratulations to Shay Pala selected as this year's own foundation ambassador. Congrats to Charlotte Berton, this year's recipient of the NJPSA student leadership scholarship. And congratulations to Lance Slo um as the recipient of the Middle Sex County Secondary Principles Association Outstanding Student Award. Um as we celebrate teacher appreciation week throughout the school district this week, um the high school wants to take a moment to recognize and thank the incredible educators who make our school such a special place. Each day, our teachers bring dedication, creativity, and compassion into their classrooms, helping our students grow, not just academically, but as individuals ready to take on the world. Next week, uh this week, we all encourage everyone to join us in showing our gratitude.
045Make our teachers feel appreciated with a kind note, a small gesture, or simply saying thank you. We sincerely appreciate our teachers. Um, and also please try and join um over 1,500 participants in the 8th annual OM Memorial 5K run and walk this Sunday, May 18th. Next Sunday, May 18th, in Thompson Park. The M Foundation continues to fund uh pediatric cancer research and support community families impacted by pediatric cancers. Um, Siona, my other rep, couldn't be here with me today, so thank you for listening to me this entire time. I appreciate it. and have a good evening everyone. Great job. Thank you. Thank you very much for giving that report all on your own. It was as always very comprehensive and usually you get to split it. So, thank you very much for taking the time,
046Miss Ratner. I think Oh, there we go. Um, I also just wanted to give a shout out to Seash um for the Little Mermaid uh presentation. Not presentation production. There we go. uh she was Sebastian and she did a fantastic job as did the rest of the students. So, okay. The next item on our agenda is the presentation and public hearing of the 2025 2026 final budget. Dr. Shanny. Sure. Good evening everyone. Rather than turn around, I'm going to use my paper copy. Hopefully, it'll match. So, we had an opportunity. I'm not sure when. It was so long ago. March. It does that sound right? March. In March. Um, for many for those of you that may or may not know, we worked very diligently to um keep all of our current programs work within
047the confines of our enrollment for our staffing and not have to go out for an additional question. That being said, there was a presentation given back in September or October, which is normally quite earlier than we normally would do that. But for purposes of clarification and and making sure that everyone feels that they heard what they heard or needed to hear or needed to see, we took some comments regarding the size and the concern with things not being visible and we hope that we did a better job. So on that note, budget presentation which was done like I said in March 2526 we always begin with of course our acknowledgement of our Monroe board of education. It is always our efforts and our desire to work in consort for children and children should always be
048at the paramount of everything that we do. We also want to give a shout out to our MTBOE finance committee chaired by Miss Bora and then Miss Usha Sharma, Dr. Amanda Pek, Mr. Pierro, and of course, President Fabiano are all present on that because we like to work although we make the recommendations, we like to work in collaboration where it is appropriate with our finance committee. One more. In order to know where you're going, you need to have a desired outcome. Whether it be in education, business professional, it makes no difference whether it's public or private sector. You must have a vision statement and a mission statement because it's imperative that everybody is on the same page. We are hopeful that at the end of the vision statement and mission statement, which I'm not going
049to read to you, which is right in front of you, the bottom line are your children, our children. If the efforts and the work that we do collaboratively do not end in what's best for children, then we are not following our own vision or mission. So I think it's imperative whether it's financial, whether it's personnel, whether it's any area, we make sure that the end results and the decisions that we make are all about the kids. So in our executive summary, our Monro Township school budget for the 2526 school year was developed within the specific parameters set forth by the board's philosophy directive. We needed to meet the needs of almost 7,000 children. The budget should be professionally constructed to afford every student opportunity for exemplary education by well-trained, committed staff in a safe and
050secure environment. That's the personnel issue. Making sure we have the best leaders and then in turn the best teachers. opportunity made available through a comprehensive curriculum which offers diverse offerings in co-curricular clubs and activities. Sometimes you may or may not have heard the word adequacy. We are not adequate. We are better than adequate. The state mandates that your programs that you have must meet adequacy. Anything above adequacy is not needed. Well, in the eyes of every Monroe community member, community member, parent, teacher, administrator, anyone, custodian, secretary, our children are not average. And therefore, we will not provide them with average opportunities. And what that does is that is how we get to our budget. The majority of our programs are above adequacy. And we are very proud to say that not one program has been
051cut regarding anything that is appropriate for children. And lastly, the Monomero Town Schools District believes that our proposed budget continues to become more efficient as evidenced by successful county budget efficiency review whereas Monroe was exemplified for many best financial practices. The next key budgetary considerations of course we are required to make sure that we follow all the New Jersey Department of Education student learning standards, student teacher ratio, maintain the programs that we currently have. look at our aging facilities and what can be done. We're in the process right now as we were able to partner with the township and we were able to also get a rod grant that we are spending $10 million to make Appleg brand new. So, we're very excited that we are giving attention to our aging facilities and of course
052looking at transportation. We always want to entice the best drivers and have the best transportation department possible because as you have probably heard me say before, the first classroom is the bus. Timeline. Timeline was very different this year because we really wanted to know ahead of time if we thought we would need to go out for an additional question. We started in September 20, 2024, General Monro Township Board of Education meeting. We had the philosophy discussion. November through December, we had budget defense rounds, which I will very clearly explain. It's very easy. Basically, all of the budgets go out to the individual schools. We have meetings with the principles and sometimes vice principles who have already met with the supervisors because of course that involves curriculum and programming. We meet with them and we say
053what you want, what you need, what you must have because that's the way how you have to do a budget even if it's our own home. We all want to drive a fancy car. We all want to go to Italy. We all want to go to Disney World, but can we afford it? So, we look at those parameters. We additionally work with the director of pupil personnel services who in turn works with their her special education supervisors. We work with transportation. We work with facilities. Our facilities director, Mr. Tague. We look at all of these things and we make decisions and we make recommendations. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure the musthaves we have and the wants and the needs we have to the best of our ability. Sometimes you want something but it's
054not a mustave and therefore it's something that we cannot give. But we like I keep on saying we are very proud that the programs that we have provided for your children for our children are still there. Then we draft then we we get our state aid announcement February 27th. I was very excited that I had a I won't say I had a bet because that is not appropriate. I will say that I made a decision that we would not lose state aid like many districts around us because we don't get much. So I thought they would have mercy on us because we really get so little when everybody else gets so much. Why would they take anything? We only always get around $12 million, $11 million. So I had said to Miss Allen, I bet
055you, not really a bet for Facebook purposes. I did not bet in any way. No money changed hands. I made the statement, it is my belief, and you come and tell me if I'm right, that we will not lose any state aid. We'll get a couple of dollars. We got approximately $30,000 more. And I was very happy. But one of the things that made me feel very, very competent and confident as the leader of this district, working in compilation with Miss Allen and Dr. Layman, is that we have always worked within the parameters of monies that we've given because we get very little. surrounding districts get hundreds of millions of dollars and we get 10 and change, 11 and change, 12 and change. So because of that we have been expedient, we have been cognizant,
056we have been thoughtful in where the money goes, how we allocate the staff, how we must allow enrollment to be the basis for what our staff looks like. and we start to think out of the box to see if we could do things a little bit better and a little bit differently and perhaps save some money. So that is why I felt so confident that we put together a quality budget. March 12th and 13 draft budget review administration with the Monroe Township Board of Education and then as you can see so on and so forth general board meeting March 17th and this evening the general board of education meeting budget hearing and adoption. As you can see from the continued guid guidelines, as you may or may not have noticed without intentionally placing this on
057Cinco deaya today and last time I believe it was St. Patrick's Day, we do apologize, but we follow the constraints of what the state puts out of when things have to be done and that's why they were switched to Mondays. At this time, I want to thank you so much for your attention. I will be turning over the presentation to our business administrator, Miss Allen. Okay, so moving on to the next slide. Where does the money come from? Um, as you can see from the pie chart, the majority of our revenue, 85% comes from the local tax levy. This includes both the general fund tax levy and the debt service tax levy. Our second largest source of revenue, state aid, represents merely 8% of our total budget, and federal aid is less than 1%. 2
058point 2 2.8% is derived from tuition revenue which includes tuition from both Jamesburg and our enrichment programs fund balance at 1.9% is the excess surplus from the 2324 school year as certified by the auditor which is statutoily required to be included as a revenue source in the 2526 budget. The balance of the revenues consists of miscellaneous revenues, transfer from another fund, and transportation fees, all at less than 1%. So the next slide shows the general fund tax levy for 2526. We are allowed to grow our general fund tax levy by 2% each year plus any allowable adjustments. It is important to note that the 2% increase applies only to the tax levy and not the entire budget. The 2425 general fund tax levy inflated by 2% is 122.6 million. We have an allowable adjustment to
059the general fund tax levy for an increase in health care costs of 2.5 million. The healthcare adjustment applies to districts with a projected increase in health care costs that exceed 2% of the pre-budget year. The allowable adjustment cannot exceed the average percentage in percentage increase of the state health benefit plan that is determined annually by the division of pensions and benefits which is 14% for 2526. So simply put the increase above 2% up to 14% represents an adjustment for health care costs and this is calculated by the state budget program. The total general fund tax levy cap with the health care adjustment is 125 million. The next slide shows the general fund state aid comparison between the two years. Our 2526 state aid award reflects some changes to that the DOA has made to the
060state aid formula calculations. Our total categorical state aid increased by 33,612 to 12.3 million. And while this is a small increase, we were fortunate to not lose aid as many other districts did. We were initially informed by the county to plan on a 10% reduction and then we were told to plan on 3% reduction. So we fared better than expected. So I will briefly explain how the state aid amounts are calculated. So transportation increased by 151,000 to 4.1 million. And although we have a lesser number of transported students in total this year, the cost coefficients for the per pupilbased amount and mileage amounts used in the state formulas increased 3.9%. Transportation is comprised of two calculations basically one for regular education and one for our special education and it takes into account the number of
061students being transported multiplied by a base per pupil amount as well as a base mileage rate multiplied by average distance. Security aid increased by 283,000 to 964,000. Security aid is based on projected enrollment as calculated by the DOE. multiplied by a per pupil amount. The per pupil amount as determined by the DOE increased 45% for 25 26 to $140 per student and there is an additional amount of $17 added for lowincome enrollment. Um it should be noted that our projected enrollment chose a decrease which affects this calculation. special education aid, our largest amount, actually decreased by $400,000 for a total of 7.1 million. Why did it decrease? Because of a change in how special education enrollment is determined. Prior to 2526, this number was based on a statewide average. In other words, if statewide the
062special education enrollment was 15.9% of total enrollment, then each district would use that same percentage multiplied by their actual total enrollment to determine their special education enrollment. That amount is then multiplied by a base P per pupil amount um as determined by the state to be 23,172. Um and that has increased by 5.9%. For 2526, the calculation has been revised to use the district's actual special education enrollment numbers as opposed to a statewide average. Um, unfortunately, this did not work in our favor as our percentage is lower. Additionally, the total special education amount calculated 21.5 million is then split. twothirds goes to equalization aid of which we do not receive um leaving only the remaining one-third for the special education amount that we do receive. That equates to 14.3 million allocated to equalization aid and
0637.2 allocated 7.2 million allocated to special education that we do receive. The equalization aid formula has changed to a three-year average but does not apply to us. The lo the calculated local fair share which is based on district property values and income is 189 million versus our adequacy adequacy budget of 122 million. Um so you see there's there is a wide gap there. The next slide is actually not this slide um the schedule of um revenues combined. So this is a separate um handout or um something you can click on um and it details the sources of revenues for both the budgeted 2526 school year as well as the current 2425 school year as adjusted for comparison purposes. Looking at fund balance, we have excess surplus in the amount of 2.9 million to include as
064a revenue source. Again, this amount is certified by the auditor and is statutoily required to be included as a revenue source in the 2526 budget. Transfers from other funds represents an amount anticipated to be transferred from Falcon Care ECE surplus in the amount of 275,000. Um, we've already discussed general fund tax levy. Um, and then other revenue consists of tuition, transportation fees, and miscellaneous revenue. Tuition from Jamesburg is budgeted at 4.2 million, which is based on 275 students at 15,500. Enrichment programs are budgeted at 766,000 and include summer programs as well as afterchool programs. Transportation fees from Jamesburg are budgeted at 239,000 as calculated and certified on the DRTRS reported to the state. Miscellaneous revenues include interest income, use of building fees, integrated prek, tuition, athletic admissions, etc. and are budgeted to remain flat at
065$850,000. Um, we have discussed categorical state aid. We did receive an additional $300,000 for 2425 allocated from the state budget that we cannot anticipate for 2526. Um and then extraordinary aid is conservatively budgeted at a at a flat amount as there is no guarantee to the amount we will be awarded as that is applicationbased. Federal aid which consists of semi-reimbursements has decreased from 83,000 to 16,000. um and that is for the special ed Medicaid initiative and this is a federal program that reimbures um districts a portion of the costs of certain Medicaid covered services provided to Medicaid elig eligible special ed students. So total general fund revenues for 2526 total 146.6 million which is an increase of 4.1 million over the 2425 budgeted revenues or 2.87%. 87%. Special revenue fund consists of federal and state
066grants awarded as we have done historically and as advised by the county we conservatively budget 85% of the current year award as revenue. It should be noted that accordingly we also only budget for 85% of the grant appropriations as revenues must equal appropriations and carryovers are not budgeted. So this amounts to 1.4 million. The majority of our grant funding is for IDA which we use for out of district tuition. The other grants we receive every year are the title funds. Um debt service funds consist of debt service tax levy in the amount of 10.9 million and debt service state aid in the amount of 280,000. These funds are used strictly for the payment of bond principle and interest from previous bond referendums approved by the voters and refundings. In summary, total revenue including general fund,
067special revenue fund, and debt service fund is budgeted at 159.3 million for 2526, which is a 2.21% increase in the amount of 3.4 million. The next slide is where does the money go? As you can see by the pie chart, 49% of the budget is for direct instructional costs, which include regular education, special education, related services, and tuition, but does not include benefits allocated to the instructional staff. Benefits for all staff are shown separately and amount to 21% of the budget. Um facilities comprises 8% of the budget and includes required maintenance for school facilities, custodial services, care and upkeep keep of grounds and security. Debt service at 7% represents payments of principal and interest on our bonds. Transportation cost represents 6%, athletics and curric co-curricular 1% etc. So next is schedule B which shows a
068comparison of appropriations and I'm just going to touch on some of the highlights and that is a separate handout with um a detailed listing. So under the first section um regular programs instructions instruction you will note that there is a 16% decrease in instructional supplies um and the principles have done an outstanding job of reducing their budgets to what is necessary. There is also a continued effort, thanks to Mr. Feldman, to use less toner, which saves a great deal of money. Included in the other purchase services line item is the first payment of the new 4-year iPad refresh for the high school. In the past, the refresh was a three-year payment plan, and by stretching it to four years, there is a lesser impact each year to the budget. Thank you again, Mr. Felman for
069negotiating this deal where we are paying a lower per unit cost than we have in the past. Offsetting the first year payment is an anticipated amount to be realized from the sale of the old iPads. Also with within the same line item is the proposed lease purchase for 2526. So we typically include equipment items in a 5-year lease purchase in order to align the cost of the equipment to the life of the equipment. So some of the items we would include this year are technology equipment, textbooks, copers, musical instruments, and custodial equipment. The next sections, special education, basic skills, bilingual are fairly consistent and are driven by student needs. Out of district tuition costs are increasing by 25%. That amount is actually higher as we use the idea grant as well to pay for out
070of district costs. Um, moving to operations and maintenance of plant services, we are looking at a 20% increase in electricity costs. Insurance costs are expected to increase by an estimated 15 to 20%. Transportation shows some changes between budget lines. The transportation director has provided a budget where she's plans to revamp some of revamp some of the routes, bringing some of the contracted routes back inhouse. hiring some new bus drivers to run those routes as well as putting some routes out to bid with others than other than ESCJ. Um we discussed employee benefits and what is included um and essentially 2.5 million of the increase shown is offset by the healthcare adjustment. Um regarding capital outlay the 2425 budget includes amounts appropriated for the refurbishment of the special services parking lot. the design study for roof
071replacement at Mil Lake, the additional 300,000 state aid received for capital improvements, um, and the debt service for SDA funding, um, as well as some small equipment. The $300,000 is being used for a transformer, hot water heater, fire alarm system, and the Brookside Library project. For 2526, we are budgeting for the debt service for STEA funding only. We were able to do so because of the $10 million in Rod grant app projects at Applegart which are accounted for outside of the operating budget thereby having no effect and providing room for other necessary items. I can't thank the township enough for their $5 million contribution to increase to in to these projects um which we could have not done without them. also the ESIP program that the board has approved and will provide approximately $12 million
072in energy improvements without increasing our budget. And many thanks to Mr. Tag for all his work with these projects. In summary, total appropriations are budgeted to increase by 2.21% or 3.4 million to 159.3 million. So the next slide shows the tax impact of the 2526 budget. On an average assessed home of 336,000, the tax increase for the year would be $161 which or $48 for every 100,000. This represents a 3.23% increase over the prior year tax rate. So how is the tax rate determined? Moving to the next slide. Uh the tax rate is based on the relationship of just two numbers. The school tax levy divided by the ratables. Raitables represent the net taxable valuation of the township. It is important to understand that ratables are completely out of our control. The school board has
073absolutely no role in this. The higher the ratables, the the lower the tax rate. This chart shows the ratables for the last three years. As you can see, the ratables have increased less than 1% this year. Last year, the ratables increased 3.4%. In dollars in the prior year, the ratable increase was 254 million. The current year increase is 78 million. This is a 70% reduction. last year produced the largest increase in ratables in the last 10 years which greatly decreased the tax rate. In fact, I believe it's only been higher twice in the last 28 years. So last year was a phenomenal year for the ratables which in turn was great for the school tax rate and we had no control over that either. Um conversely this year reflects the lowest increase in ratables in
07411 years which has greatly increased the tax rate. So moving to the next slide. Um the second factor in the tax rate calculation is the school tax levy. The lower the school tax levy, the lower the tax rate. It is important to note that the township and the district run on two different years. The district operates from budget to budget which is July 1st through June 30th. The township is calendarear based. Thus the tax rate is calendar year-based. So what does this mean? One half of our school tax levy levy will always be deferred to the next year. So last year the voters approved a second question for a permanent increase to the tax to the school tax levy of 2.7 million. So one half of that was included in the tax rate determined with
075the 2425 budget whereas the full amount is included in this budget's tax rate. So this chart details the school tax levy on a calendar year basis and these are the amounts used in the tax rate calculation. As you can see the increase has grown from 2.1% to 3.55% last year to 4.17 this% this year. The next chart details the school tax levy on a school year basis. And these are the amounts that our budgets are based on and that appear in our budgets. As you can see, the school tax levy in our budget increased from 2.5% to 4.56% in 2425 and decreased to 3.79% for 2526. Um, and then the last chart shows the calculation of tax rate using the amounts from the previous charts. By dividing the school tax levy by the ratables, we
076get the tax rate. So taking all of this into account when comparing last year to this year you c you can see that we are not comparing apples to apples. In order to do so we would need to look at each factor of the equation to see the impact. For example, if the increase in ratables was the same amount last year that it is this year, the increase would have been $129 instead of $24. That impact alone is $15. Likewise, if we had had the same increase in ratables this year as last year, there would have been an increase of only $59 instead of $161. Um, and additionally, if the full impact of the separate question had been taken into account last year instead of only half, $78 would have been added and the combined
077tax increase would have been $184. So, by leveling out the playing fields, you can make a better comparison of the two years. And I hope this helps with explaining why um the tax rate is higher this year and what the impact of the ratables actually is. Um and that is that is the end of my presentation. You're welcome. Um I'd like to open it up to the board. Does the board have any questions or comments? just wanted to I just wanted to know um under grants it's less than 1%. Can you explain why we don't get some more money in grants and why it's so low for the grants? Um we typically we get every year we are basically um allocated amount for for title funds and for idea funds. Um there's really not a
078whole lot of other grants out there. Um we do have a grant coordinator um who who would be the one who would try to reach out and try to find more grants but that is what we typically would get every year grants be likely to just provide you a little bit more detail. So we do our director of human resources also in charge of grants and it's something that we reallocated when the positions changed because she had tremendous experience in our previous district. One of the sad situations very similar to the amount of monies that we get allocated is also we don't have a very high rate of free reduced lunch. So, and I'm not saying for all but many of the grants because anything I see sometimes it's an advertisement, it's a company looking
079to make money. Sometimes it really is a grant. I forward everything to her and she goes through every single grant that she ever comes upon. The majority of them we cannot uh we will not be approved for. However, there are some things although they may be smaller amount within the budget that you will see and a lot of times Dr. Layman will make the statement that is grant funded. So through professional development through various different um programs that we bring to our children they may be grant funded but on a scale that's so minute that when you look at $150 million budget the percentage is so low but it doesn't mean that we're not getting some grants. Okay. Thank you. You're very welcome Miss Rner. Uh yes. Thank you. Um, I really appreciated the the
080details from the readables because I know that was definitely something that, you know, needed, you know, warranted additional explanation because without knowing how it's calculated, it's hard to understand where it came from. So, I really appreciate all of the efforts um on that. And then I just had um a couple of questions. I'll go very quickly. Um the first was there were two line items that I um I just wanted to get a little bit more clarification on. Um, so on I believe it's the first page under general fund. Uh, it's regular programs and instruction and it says other purchased services. Um, and then page four under general administration um is also other purchased services um as the line items for the budget. Yeah. So under um other purchase services under instruction um that includes
081the iPad refresh payment um instructional equipment lease payment, trailers, instructional equipment repairs, technology um program license fees and uh mileage reimbursements for teachers and Comcast fees. Um and under general administration other purchase services um the bulk of that line is for insurance um errors and admissions general liability cyber crime student accident and also included is um legal ads uh travel and mileage reimbursement for the superintendent and board members um strauss and frontline for the absenteeism um and subs. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Um, and then, uh, just I guess two more questions. On the pie chart, there was something that, um, was designated as fund balance. Um, and if you could just elaborate a little bit on where that comes from, what that is. So, the fund B, let me just get to chart. Yeah.
082So the fund balance um we have to include of our of our total fund balance over anything over 2% of the general fund expenditures basically goes into there's a calculation and there's some adjustments but goes into excess surplus which has to be included in the budget as a revenue source um to be used against appropriations um and and the remaining amount can um stay as the general fund unassigned fund balance that can be used, you know, maybe in another year. Okay. Okay. And then just a final question. I know I brought this up at finance, but um for purposes of the hearing, um I know that there were community members who wanted to um I guess understand regarding Jamesburg tuition why it had there on in the budget it was a flat tuition rate um
083year-over-year even though there were uh enrollment increases. So if you can just explain that for the people that are here who may not have seen the the finance committee that would be great. So the budgeted Jamesburg tuition is based on 275 students at a rate of 15,500. Um there was a time when um Jamesburg would not was not able to pay their tuition. So there was an agreement made um about 10 years ago basically setting up a payment plan. So every year there's a calculation made with the audited numbers um to determine the actual amount of the tuition that occurred for the year um based on the actual enrollment and the difference is the budgeted in the budgeted tuition and the actual tuition is applied against or to the outstanding debt um and once that
084debt is paid off um the annual adjustment would be build or paid to Jamesburg for that budget year. So um yeah so it's there's always you know we have to we budget for one amount based on an estimate and then after the year end after we have audited audited numbers we go back and look at what was the actual amount and whatever the difference is just like with our private school um private schools that we pay tuition to um two years after there's always an adjustment either they owe us money or we owe them money because they go and look at the calculation of the actual expenditure compared to what they actually charged us. Thank you. And again, thank you to you and and everybody for your hard work on the budget. Thank you. Thank
085you, Miss Bora. Uh I also want to comment on the ratables. First, thank you for preparing the detailed appendix. And for uh community members who've had concerns with the tax impact, I encourage you to see appendex A where the budget information is on our website, which is what Laura was showing through. It's a very detailed presentation that explains exactly why it is $161. And last year, I want to remind everybody that we went out to a budget question, which means we went out to ask for to go over 2% levy. So, we asked for $2.7 million over the 2% levy. And that budget question passed. And yet, the impact was only $24 on an average assessed home. And we were relieved because we got lucky with the ratables being really high last year, but we're
086bearing the brunt of it this year where the ratables are, you know, historically really low this year. We are not going over the levy. We're at 2% levy and yet the impact is $161. It is not something that the board of education can control. Our responsibility is to just ensure that we stay within the 2% levy and not cut programs. And that has been the hard work that this board has put in and accomplished the goal with the budget that is being presented tonight. So, it's the best we could do under the circumstances where our state aid was a constant only $33,000 more. We did not get any more money for the equalization aid no matter how hard we tried. So, um we have to go to 2% levy to maintain our operating budget. So,
087thank you so much. Any other board members with any questions? Okay, then we're going to open it up to the public. Um, we're now on our public forum for budget items only. If there are any members of the public wishing to come up for the public forum for the budget, you will have four minutes to speak. Please state your name and municipality for the record. And to be clear, ladies and gentlemen, this is the budget hearing right now. Good evening, Bob Valentine. on Ro Township. Um I just have a number of questions on the budget due to the time I'm going to try to if you wouldn't mind going go through my questions comments and let you respond at the end if that's all right. It's basically coming from the view of the budget information
088you shared and the June 3rd 2024 audit. Um my first question or comment is I'm interpreting the amount you have in fund balance as basically reflective of the operating deficits you might have otherwise had incurred if you didn't did not have that money to put into the put into the pot if you will to make the numbers work for this year. Uh, I want to confirm that if my understanding about that is correct and if it is, my other question would be how much money is left potentially for you to apply to future years to help help cover any potential deficits coming forward because that's been an issue in the past in terms of deficits and managing those deficits. My next comment, the state contributes significant monies for benefits on behalf of the district that
089report in the annual audit, but they don't appear in the budget and they're quite significant. They're millions of dollars. uh it does appear on the audit but not in the budget. Um I'm curious as to why that is and uh because it really understates the total employee benefit cost for the district. Those amounts not being in the budget. Um there are business type activities reported on the audit uh at June 30th. Those activities had a cash balance of over $1 million. That seems to be the the falcon care and some other items. uh to the extent that I see that we've been transferring money from those activities to help support the budget. I'm just wondering how sustainable that's that is as a source of money going forward. This is down to a million dollars that
090you're putting money in this excuse me this year. Um I noticed that it appears that we're really very heavily relying on the tax rates to close would be a significant deficit in providing special education services. And you look at schedule B, the special education course alone are like $16 million and the eight is $7 million. To me, that's the big headline in this budget. I know it's something you've been talking about, but I think in terms of the conversation you're trying to have in the strategies that you've been doing, that should be the billboard, not the ratables. This is the big to me when I look at it's the big issue, but you can comment. If I'm not reading it right, please set me straight. Um, I know you talked about uh cost saving opportunities
091and maybe some revenue enhancements. I would just suggest it would be to your benefit to have a list in the handout of what you did. You know, you talked about different things you did, but they're really not quantified in a way that's easy to understand how much that influenced the budget. Um, and looking at your expenses, the regular instruction course seemed pretty stable when I look at 2024's actual spend compared to the budget, but I see some pretty sharp increases in all the other areas of instruction. So, I just would like to understand, you know, what's driving that? Is that a function of shifts in the enrollment, other factors? But it seems like there's some pretty significant increases in expenses from to the actual spend in 2024 to what you're asking for this year. Just
092there some trends there that maybe you could talk to us about. Um I know you spoke you did a lot of work. You spoke about the efficiencies you've tried to maintain and how the county reviews it. I just have a clarifying question. When the county does that review or you do your review, is does that include a comparison of data on our district compared to comparable districts to see how we fare and compare on certain key metrics and scores to see that it's kind of like an outside check, if you will, as far as are we comfortable that everything would we're doing we our perception of how things are really is. Maybe the county does it. I don't know the process the county goes through, but I'm just curious if you can speak to that.
093And last in the last 20 seconds I have um I'm a little disappointed that we didn't make some more progress on trans what we call transparency. A lot of the information was very similar in presentation and scope uh to last year's and there's a lot of good information in that handout but I think there's still opportunity. Uh there's no summary P&L statement for readers to easily see what we're taking in what we're spending and what the net is and what's act what other sources of contributions are coming in to make the budget work. um the the budget is close to the order format, but this is still quite aligned. There's inconsistencies how things are grouped and segregated. The extent that that would all be aligned be so much easier to be able to understand and
094follow, you know, what you're doing as you develop the budget and be able to make logical coherent assumptions about what's happening from year to year. Um there's no analytical data. And last thing, capital budget, is there a capital budget? I don't I've never seen a capital budget. Is that something that is presented and the other activities of this budget for those things as well? Thank you. Um, did you want could you do you want to answer could you Oh, do Well, first let me ask is there anybody else that has any questions or that would like to speak at the podium questions? Okay. Good evening. Chrissy Scurby, Monroe Township. I just have a couple of questions. Um, it was said, I believe, uh, Miss Allen, you said there you budgeted for energy cost increase. Is
095that correct? So, we're we're we're budgeting for an energy cost increase, but the ESA program is an energy savings program that's supposed to be saving us money. I would like some clarification on that. And I know you had mentioned that the state of New Jersey um gave adjustments for um health benefits and you did mention that the health benefit it it's connected to the state health benefits plan and I would just like to point out that when the board a couple of years ago um renegotiated the teachers contracts we went from Etna to the state health benefit plan. So that decision that was ratified by the MTE and the board of education has helped the district this year because we are able to take those adjustments and we're in that health state benefits plan. So
096we are able to take the adjustments accordingly. If we were in Etna, we would have been way over the adjustment level for than the health state benefit plan. So that has helped us this year as well. Um uh and and just a quick comment, I I'm always for um not making cuts to programs. I've always supported school budgets. I've never been a I've never been for cutting anything. I've never been for cutting staff. You could put it any way you want. This is the largest school tax increase in Monroe's history without a vote of the taxpayers. I'm not saying it's good or bad. I'm saying that people sat here on this board running saying you were going to decrease our taxes and you haven't and you can't because of the way the state of New
097Jersey runs because we don't get our fair share of funding. But to sit here and attack previous boards and previous administrators and the superintendent last year saying that she was not putting forth a budget that was fiscally responsible was irresponsible of the board members and those who ran saying they were going to reduce our taxes. So I I just want to point that out. You could blame the town, you could blame raidables. At the end of the day, you're putting forth a budget. you're in charge of that budget. And I'm not saying that I would want you to make cuts, but I'm just saying you put forth the budget knowing what you were doing was right for kids to not cut our programs. Um, and if you could answer how many more buses are we
098adding and and what is the cost for that? and also what is the uh balance in our cafeteria fund? Those are a couple of the questions that I have because on top of the increase in taxes, it's it's my um understanding from watching finance that you're also for the second year in a row increasing our lunch costs as well. So, what is the current um cafeteria fund balance? Currently, it is just under $700,000. Okay. And we don't have to pay the custodians out of that fund. Correct. We are not required to they're technically um they are the these are custodians that are working in the cafeteria, right? But we don't have to pay them and we didn't the only time we started doing that was when we were illegally had too much money in the
099fund and we had to spend that down. So, the lawyer had told us that we should pay the custodians out of that fund. we weren't paying them previous out of the fund. So when you're when you're saying you got to increase the lunch cost to pay for the custodians, it that's not 100% accurate because they shouldn't be being paid out of that fund to begin with. They technically um they can be an enterprise funding. Technically, you should be, you know, cost and and the um the cost should all be included whatever it costs to run that program. So that is there's that's that's a legitimate cost to run that program. Oh, absolutely. It's a legitimate cost, but it doesn't have to come out of the cafeteria than is being charged to the general fund. Absolutely.
100And that's the way it used to be. And then if I could just get answers to my questions on the buses and Yeah, the buses. Um we are not including I don't know if you meant we're not buying any new buses this year um for the first time in a while in many years as far as I can remember. Um but we are I think what you might be referring to is that we are that we are trying to bring back um buses um in house. So in-house routes aso as opposed to contracted routes. Okay. And that's that's accounted for in the budget. And if it's voted on tonight, we'll be going away from contracted routes. Not all of them, but she's trying to get as many as she can back in house. Approximately how
101many do you think that would be? Do we do you know that? Do you have that? Don't quote me. We had 22 to my recollection of out of routes, not buses. The actual routes this year. 36. 22. 36 this year. Last I heard it was 22, we went down to 19. And now I asked her being new, which is a good thing because you don't you're so used to doing the same thing all the time that sometimes you can't think out of the box because that's all you know how to do when you do the routing. So I said, try and have an opportunity not to look at the current routing, but look at how you would do it differently. She thinks at a minimum she's going to be going down she's we're looking to
102hire six new bus drivers and her goal would be to be at a minimum of bringing back 15 or so routes. We might still have some routes outside but her goal is to bring them back. The other way to save money is also we currently go through ESCJ and we pay a managerial fee. She has now looked to be able to go directly to the outsourced bus companies and eliminate that fee. So the cost will also go down. I I applaud the administration for listening to the community and for bringing the contracted roots back in house. Thank you. That's for the safety of the children and and thank you for this budget because I I would have hated to see us make any cuts to any programs and as I've said before this is a
103testament to the fact that it is very difficult to stay under the 2% cap and not raise your taxes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak on the budget? Ask all of your questions and then we'll answer them at the end. Michelle Armin Nathaniel Street. Um, I I do want to compliment that the uh this budget is a little bit more comprehensive than it was in March and I thank you for uh adjusting to that, but I think Mr. Valentine made a lot of great had a lot of great questions and I don't need to reiterate them. So, is someone going to answer all of his questions because I think they're um succinct. uh they're probably better than the any of the questions I could
104answer and I think it would be uh very important especially since this is a hearing on this budget that those uh questions are answered. So can I get an amen on that? Yes. Yes, we can. Will will they be answered all of them? you might have to ask them again because well that was what I was afraid of that he was put aside and dismissed and then the questions were not going to be answered and I think he wasn't okay that was my p perspective because I haven't seen anyone's uh questions not get answered and then other people have come up so um if he can be invited back up and ask the questions again because again this is a budget hearing this is a very important is 150 what $6 million. I think um
105those answers should be um you know exposed to all of the community. Thank you. Yes, you please come back up. Just you know I didn't feel dismissed. I know you said you were gonna get back to me. So thank you. Yes. It's okay though. And but I understand have a lot of questions. It's this format is very constraining. It's not the way I want to do it either. So, I appreciate the courty letting me come back up. Sure. So, I I'll go through the questions again and maybe we can talk about it. Um, I was I started by talking about the fund balance numbers, right? Those are numbers that you're taking from equity putting into operations to help balance the books, if you will. Yeah. And and as I said, um, part of that a
106portion of the fund balance has to be included. So, it's not like we have to put it in there and balance it. We have it has to be in. I have no question about that. And then the other portion um that we that does not have to go into the budget remains in fund balance as an unassigned unreserved amount. The reason for my question yes is I was looking it looked like in two in the year ending June 34 we lost about a million3. I'm interpreting the fact we need to put in fund balance. Uh you had to do it but I guess I'm really trying what I'm trying to get to is to understand what is the pure operating gain or deficiency for the in the budget if you take out things like the
107fund balance you have to put in. If we looked at 202526 revenues, 202526 appropriations, what is that number? And then the reason I think it's important is goes back to not so much this year, but going forward, how are we in a position where we have what I would call a structural deficit where each year you're going to be having to erode your fund balance to help make up numbers. That's why I think it's important. That's why I wanted to raise this question, right? And I would have to say that that would be the amount the $2.9 million that's in in there for excess surplus is the amount that is I don't want to say a plug but it's the amount plug. So everything else is you know the actual revenues and um appropriations and
108you may recall one of the me talked about looking forward a little bit beyond just next year and that's why I'm raising this question is I don't know how much more you have available to cover if you will. I mean, I know you have to put it in, but the question would be if you understand how much you're truly losing each year from current current operations, what's left to put in it. And it really it's it's 2% that we h it's the 2% that we are allowed to keep, right? The excess goes into excess surplus. In theory, you could use that. So, we can only keep 2% if we if we could keep more, you know, if we can't. So, not that you want to, but you in theory. Yeah, we can't. You can't you
109cannot you cannot keep more than 2% in the general fund. um un um unreserved unassigned fund balance. So maybe I'll ask a different way. Are you concerned looking forward about your ability to to be able to balance the budget without having to tap into to those into the fund balance, if you will? Um I I can't say. We don't know how things will go, you know, with the economy, but for this year, we were able to do it. Um Okay. And unfort you know, and like again, you can't build that up. I you're limited to what you have to do. Um I second thing as with the employee benefits. Mhm. on the you know the order to stay puts in all those dollars. So yeah. So you're talking about the on behalf benefits you get
110correct and those show up in the audit report as both a revenue and an appropriation. So it's it's a it's a wash you know it. Yeah. And those do not get in they are not required to be in the budget. They do not get shown in the budget. And the only reason I raised that as a question is because if you want to understand the true cost of providing benefits to everybody in the district that numbers would see to be a part of that number. Right. And that's yeah that you only see that in the audit report and that comes out like in the fall of you know it'll come out this fall for the next for the So that's something you don't have that number right now. You have it even put in if
111you wanted to. No it's not something that you're supposed to put in your according to the guidines you have to do. Okay that's okay that's interesting. Okay I talked about the activities the business activities the and you know how how that ability you're helping that's helping to cover some of these shortfalls and is that viable going forward. Right. So what we have like you had mentioned the Falcon Car ECE programs um and we are putting in $275,000 of anticipated profit. We don't I don't expect to make a whole lot more than that in these funds. They haven't been making as much as they used to be. You know, since co a lot of people do don't need these services. Um so I think that's that's a conservative um safe number to Yeah. I'm not Yeah,
112I'm not challenging the number. I'm just looking at and saying, can it really be relied upon going forward, years forward to help cover the budget? That's what I'm a little that I was a little concerned about. That's why I wanted to ask the question. And you might not be able to answer that tonight, but just something I wanted to make sure I brought out. It was just helping to make the numbers work, but there's not a whole at least at the end of 2024, there wasn't in June, there wasn't a whole lot of cash left in there. Correct. Okay. Um I told I don't need to repeat that. Um, oh, and the, um, the trend in instruction course versus special education. I would know if you had any thoughts about that if anybody wanted to
113weigh in that, but just I was looking at the trends in spending and those trends are going up and just, you know, just a a concern, especially given what's not getting adequate funding to begin with. I'm happy to talk about that. Okay. Um, with regard to special ed um, funding for programs, um, as you're probably aware, uh, under the IDA, uh, this is not the talk that I want to have, uh, in in the in the context of a budget, but under the individuals with disabilities education act, the school district when programming for special education is not supposed to consider cost as it relates to students. So, um, you know, kind of we have that to deal with, but also we have increased costs in out of district placements statewide. Um, and so they're really
114we're kind of between a rock and a hard place because we we are obligated to provide the services and at the same time we're not supposed to be thinking of the cost which I don't know who operates that way. Nobody wants to stay in business. Uh, but but unfortunately the position that the districts and it's not just Monroe but every district in New Jersey has to operate that way. And so to the extent that programs and services can be brought inhouse, I know that they're all being looked at. Um but to the extent that, you know, we can't bring them inhouse, we're at the mercy of right out of district placements. I I just think it's more about, you know, messaging and communicating around the budget. You know, ratables inevitably are going to go down
115and change. It's not they're not going to be a straight bullet up year after year after year. This is like a critical issue that's really impacting finance. So, I'm just really trying to encourage the board to maybe make give more focus on that, especially in talking with the legislators and strategy and all those kind of things. Okay, thank you. I think that was everything. Thanks very much for your patience. Thank you for coming back up. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public wishing to come up to speak about the budget? Vanessa Force. I live in Monro Township. Okay. I um this has to do with the budget. It's um there was an issue concerning the superintendent's contract. Does that affect this is No, it's not about the budget. But it does because
116she was issued a raise. No, it's only about Does that It's a question. It's just I'm not I'm asking if it's affected in the in the has nothing to do with the budget. It that's that was the question. No. Okay. So, um you're addressing there. I see that you we've already talked about I was going to bring up the um the busing as well because with the accidents and everything that increases our insurance and things like that. Okay, that was just a question. So there was no change. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak about the budget? Okay, seeing none, then we will close the public forum on the budget hearing. Um Miss Allen, you have a resolution to read. Okay. Um, be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board of
117Education that the 20 202526 general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 146,649,000 and a general fund local tax levy in the amount of 125,159489 and a special revenue fund balance budget in the amount of 1,43975 and a debt service budget in the amount of 11,221-264 and a debt service local tax levy in the amount of 10 million 940814 whereby the 202526 budget totals 159,31059 and be it further resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education includes in the budget the appropriation of surplus in the amount of 2,9642 be it further resolved olved that the Monroe Township Board of Education includes in the budget the adjustment for increased costs of health benefits in the amount of 2,537559. The additional funds will be used to pay for the additional increases in health benefit premiums. Whereas
118the Monroe Township Board of Education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state amount aid amounts are for 2025-26 the categorical special education aid is 7,19385 and for 202526 the categorical security aid is 964,518 and for 202526 the categorical transportation aid is 4,15596 and for 202526 6 the debt service aid is 280,450 and whereas the Monroe Township Board of Education has estimated estate aid amount pursuant to application and for 202526 the estimated extraordinary aid amount is 397,484 and whereas policy number 6471 and NJAC6A23A-7.3 provides that the board of education shall establish in an annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for travel and expense reimbursement for the 202526 school year. Now therefore, it be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district
119travel maximum for the 202526 school year at the sum of 165,500. And be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded. And be it further resolved that members of the Monroe Township Board of Education authorize and approve a transfer of $275,000 of anticipated retained earnings from the proprietary Falcon Care Fund Early Childhood Enrichment Program as a revenue source in the 2526 general fund budget. And whereas due to the priorities of student and staff safety, maintenance of current programs and staff, and capital improvement needs as set forth in the board's budget philosophy resolution, the board is budgeting to maximum spending authority. Now, therefore, let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrative board secretary file the required
120documents with the executive county superintendent. Is there a motion? Motion. Second. Any comments or discussion from the board? Okay. Can we have a roll call, please? Miss Allen. Yes. Um, okay. Miss Alvarez. Yes. Miss Bora? Yes. Miss Depay? Yes. And a special thank you to Miss Allen and her team for doing a great job. Thank you. Um, Dr. Peek, yes. Mr. Piro, yes. Miss Ratner, yes. Miss Chararma, yes. Mr. Tuano, yes. Mr. Zikner, yes. Miss Fabiano, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. And as it's already been stated, thank you, Miss Ellen, and your team for all of your work on the budget. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. The next item on our agenda is the public hearing for the employment contract for superintendent of schools covering the period from February 11th, 2022 through June 30th, 2022.
121Are there any members of the public wishing to speak? If so, you have four minutes to do so. Please state your name and municipality for the record. Good evening, Chrissy Scurby again, Monroe Township. Um, I just want to clarify what this is. This isn't the superintendent contract. This is the acting superintendent contract. Correct. Yes. Uh, this is a contract actually that is from two or three years ago that the commissioner of education for one reason or another, which I'm not going to get into here, right, wrong, or otherwise, would like the board to essentially approve an old contract from a number of years ago, which has no force and effect on anything that is happening in the district. Correct. And I just want to for um transparency, there was only one acting superintendent contract and
122that was dated November 2021. Yeah. Okay. Correct. I mean that is correct. So I believe that's the contract that there were there were no illegal contracts that the board passed for Dr. Chanley. What what was done was it came out of a complaint filed with controversy and disputes through the department of education and the complaint was not on any contract. It was claiming that the board of education did not hold a public hearing to extend contracts. There was no public hearing. I was the board president because we never extended her contract. The board never voted in February or May to extend a contract. What we had to do as a board because Dr. Chanley did not have her um standard certificate because nobody does until they're a superintendent. She had to be entered into a
123mentoring program with the state of New Jersey. That required every 3 months the Department of Education to renew their approval of Dr. Chanley serving in that role. The board of education had to reach out to Kyle Anderson, the county superintendent, in February and again in May and ask for their approval to have Dr. Chanley continue under that contract. Her contract in November 2021 signed by former board president Michelle Armeno was for a time period from November 2021 until such time the board of education appointed a permanent superintendent. That was in July of 2022. So, I just want to make that clear because the board president's husband has several times said that the board gave illegal contracts to Dr. Chanley. That is not true. The complaint was never about the contract. The complaint was about a
124public hearing that didn't take place. I testified um la last summer, two summers ago. It they called me to testify in the case and I tried to explain to the judge, correct, we did not have a public hearing because we did not extend a contract. Others testified with erroneous and false information. The judge ruled that she believed we did give two contract extensions. There was no proof of that. There were no contracts that were extended again. There was one contract November 2021 signed by the previous board president Michelle Armenino. This board never had another acting contract. I don't know how this board is voting tonight. The only person who sat on this board during that time period was Mr. Tfano. I don't even know how you're going to take a vote on something dating back
125to 2022. Um, and if you do abstain, which I would expect you would because you weren't part of those negotiations, I would not see that as a vote of no confidence. It's already being said by people in the community, Mrs. Ziz, who puts it on her page all the time, that if the board doesn't pass this tonight, it's a vote of no confidence. I wouldn't see it that way. This is a moot contract. It's a moot point. And honestly, it's a shame that when this decision came down that this board did not go back to the commissioner and contest what was done. Thank you. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak? Okay, seeing none, then we'll close the public hearing on the employment contract. Um, is there a something we have
126to read? Is there a resolution we have to read or do we just look? My recollection from the commissioner's decision is that the board just needs to have the hearing, which it's now done, and take a vote. Um, and to be clear, the commissioner did not indicate in in the decision that board members should vote in the affirmative, the negative, or otherwise abstain. It's up to each board member to vote how they want. Okay. So, is there a motion? Can is there a motion to motion? Second. Motion by Miss Boris, second by Mr. Depay. Um, any discussion from the board? Okay. Then, Miss Allen, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez, abstain. Miss Bora, yes. Miss Dain, abstain. Dr. Peek, yes. Mr. Piro, abstain. Miss Ratner, abstain due to conflict. Miss Chararma,
127abstain. Mr. Tfano, yes. Mr. Zikner, abstain. Miss Fabiano, abstain. Motion does not pass. Um, there were three yeses and seven abstain. Yeah. Um, again, as I said previously, this is a contract from a number of years ago. uh the the effect of tonight's vote uh really has no force and effect. Um does not affect uh Dr. Chanley's employment whatsoever. Um and so that's that's all I have to say about that. Okay, moving on to the next item on our agenda is our committee reports. Madam President, can I make a comment? Um Sure. There's a lot of people waiting. Could we as a board move that afterwards and do the public forum first because it's really Yeah. So the committee So the committee reports we aren't reading they're um I know but there will be some
128discussion on the policy for the discuss we can have that during the pol during know the public forum discussion committee we're not No we're not voting on that we're not but we that's when we talk about things right would it be possible then for us to discuss that during other board business we can still have that discussion Yep. So, we're going to move through the committee reports. The committee reports sounds good. Yeah, we can put our committee our committee reports are posted on the district website. They're here um at the link along with the videos. So, let's move along to the next item which is our public forum for agenda items only. Any member of the public wishing to speak, you have four minutes to do so. Please state your name and municipality for the
129record. Hello, my name is Logan Stanley Zawaki. I'm from Monroe Township, New Jersey. I go to Woodland Elementary School and I'm a fourth grader. I am speaking because I want Dr. Cher to stay at Woodland. She solves problems and is a very kind person. When I'm at Woodland, I feel safe because Dr. Cher is the best person I know. I like going to school because she's is there for me and everyone else too. We feel special because we are recognized at her school. If you take Dr. Chedda away from us, we would be sad because we love her as our principal and she loves us too as her students. The right thing to do is to keep her at Woodland School. Thank you for listening. Board of Ed. I am Leo Zwacki and I live
130in Monroe Township. I am a third grader in Mil Lake School. I am moving up to Woodland next year where Dr. Chedda will be my principal. Dr. Chedda is one of the most kind-hearted principles I've ever known. Her leadership is strong and powerful, never disappointing anyone. I am looking forward to so much with her. Dr. Chhatta's school is filled with excitement and joy. My brother Logan comes home almost every day telling fantastic news about how Woodland is amazing with her. She puts hard work into all of her activities for her school. So, I can't wait to see what she's planning next year for all of her new students. She treats everyone equally, students and teachers. Dr. Dr. Chedda has a goal to move forward, to always try her best and never look back. She puts
131a rainbow in everyone's cloud. If Dr. Chedda was not the principal, things can go very wrong. She is like a star of hope and luck. If she leaves, people will be unhappy and feel sorrow. They will not be focused and will learn less. Dr. Chhatta is a warm heart. She deserves to be appreciated by anyone listening to this. She is a sparkle of hope for beginner students at her school. Don't take Dr. Ted away from us. She is a hero for Woodland. Thank you. and I'm a student at Woodland Elementary. I am here today to ask you to please approve Dr. Cheddar's contract for next year. Dr. Cheddar is an amazing principal who cares deeply about all of us. She wants us to grow into well educated, well-rounded kids. She organizes fun activities like outdoor
132picnics where we learn about recycling and she holds monthly assemblies that teach us important life lessons like perseverance. Lax assembly helped us feel more confident about going into our MAP test day. Dr. Chedda is always is always friendly and kind. She even visits our classroom to make sure we are doing okay and staying on track. She knows every one of us by name. She has always has a smile on her face and she makes me feel safe in our school. I love Dr. Chedda and really hope she stays as their principal next year. Thank you for your time. Hello the board of educators. My name is Dash Nigley. I am in fourth grade at Woodland Elementary School. Dr. Chenna makes me feel safe and confident. She is there for my good days and bad days.
133When I'm feeling feeling down, she tears me up by making me have a special bond with Dr. Chedda and feel so ched. And so Dr. Chetta stays at Woodland Elementary School. She is the best principal ever. She is so sweet and makes me happy and she always greets us in the morning. That's why you should keep Dr. Cheda. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, my name is Landon and I'm fifth grade student at Woodland Elementary School. Dr. Chedda has really made a big impact on me in my time at Woodland over the past two years. I will admit I haven't always made the best decisions. And when I didn't make the right choice, instead of yelling at me, she talked out ways to fix my mistakes and how I should change the situation next time. Dr. Chedda
134has taken the time to plan fun events for all of our students at women like the the schoolwide outdoor picnics, extra recess, and the walking club in our schoolwide monthly growth awards. Every morning, Dr. Chedda is outside of Woodland greeting all of the students by name, getting us excited for school. Having a principal who listens to you and makes you feel important is why I love Dr. Chedda. and I would hate to hate for other students to miss out on having her as a principal. Please, Monroe School Board renew Dr. Chedda's contract. Point of order, please. Can I make a point of order? Sure. Point of order. Oh, do you want to move the We're going to be here. I mean, I think it's absolutely wonderful that everyone's coming out to support Dr. Jeda. I
135mean, it's it's great. It's absolutely marvelous. Uh, and so we're going to be here until maybe 1:00 in the morning. Is there any way we can just go to vote on it? Yeah, we can't. We can't limit the public forum, though. Okay. I I just I wasn't sure. That's fine. That's fine. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Okay. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Katie Arnold and I'm a fifth grade grader at Woodland Elementary. I'm here tonight because I want to talk about someone who has made a huge difference. It's my difference in my life and in my experience at Woodland School. Dr. Chedda. I was born with spinobipithida and I'm in and I am wheelchair dependent and that makes things harder for me in some ways. But what really matters is how people treat me as
136an individual and how they make me feel. Dr. Chedda goes above and beyond and takes time to make me feel positive and treats me just like she treats all the all of the students at Woodland. I recently had scoliosis surgery that required me to be out of school for some time. After being home for a few weeks, I started to feel sad and I was missing school and my friends. My mom reached out to the schools to see if we could come in for a surprise visit for with my class. Dr. Chedda met us outside so excited to see me and she made me feel so good about myself at the moment. She made me feel like I was truly missed in school and that mattered. She took time out of her day to not
137only come with me to my class, but she also pushed me to my class. She stayed and watched my class excited to see me and then pushed me back. She expressed how happy she was for me and how great and told me how great I looked after the surgery and how she couldn't wait for me to come back to school. She has been there for me and comfort me comforted me when I was having a hard day whether emotionally or physically. She has been one of the first to respond to respond and be there when I have bus issues. She always made sure I am included in in all school events. Dr. Chedda's caring positivity attitude positive attitude is event and in the way she is with all of us. She makes us feel safe
138and important. She encourages us and gives us the confidence to do better. She visits our classroom and is always interested in our work. And she truly listens to us even and even ask us for ways that would improve our school day. Because of Dr. Chedda's kindness and support, I I believe I learned to believe in myself more. I'm not afraid to ask questions in class, and I'm excited about my future in middle school. Dr. Chedda isn't just a principal to me. She's someone who's made who has made a lasting impact on my confidence and my school experience. Even though I am graduating this year, I hope you all see how special she is and I ask that you continue supporting her work to make Welden the best place for all the future kids coming in.
139Thank you. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Hello, my name is Alexis Steinhauser and I'm a fifth grader at Woodland School. Tonight I want to talk about someone who is really important to us to all of us at school. Our principal, Dr. Cheddar. A principal isn't just someone who runs a school. They are the heart and soul of it. Our principal is someone who helps us make our school a better place to learn, grow, and be our best selves. First, let me talk about how Dr. Chedda is always there for us whenever we have problems in class, need help with a school event, or just someone to talk to. Dr. Chedda is always willing to listen. She knows every student by name, and she takes the time to make sure everyone feels safe and respected. We can all
140trust that Dr. Chedda has our backs no matter what. She visits us in class all the time. She spends lunch and recess with us. She learns our favorite Tik Tok dances and laughs with us. She greets all the students in the morning and at the end of the school day. Dr. Chedda has always helped me with my anxiety and made me feel better. I am the student council vice president and I owe a thank you to to Dr. Chedda. She encouraged me and gave me the strength to write a speech and stand up in front of the whole school and speak. And tonight, even though I'm nervous, I'm willing to stand up here and speak about Dr. Cheddar because I know she would stand up for me. Dr. Chetta makes the school a better place
141and goes above beyond being a principal. She helps organize events, encourages kindness or supports our teachers. In conclusion, Dr. Chedda isn't just our principal. She's a role model, a friend, and a consistent source of support. She makes Woodland School a better place where we feel safe, valued, and inspired every day. Thank you, Dr. Cheddar, for everything you do for us. We are lucky to have you leading our school, and we appreciate you more than words can say. I hope that the hardworking volunteers of the board of education will see how special Dr. Chedd is to the students, parents, and staff of Woodland School. Thank you. Hi, my name is Chloe and I'm in the fifth grade at Woodland Elementary School. Based on the torture my orthodontist is putting me through, I will be speaking slowly.
142I'm here tonight to represent all my classmates and students in the entire school. Dr. Chedda is more than just a principal. She she is a friend to she she's a friend to everyone in the school. She always has time to listen to our problems, big or small. Dr. Cheddar is caring, understanding, and always ready to help. My classmates and I all feel safe and happy under her leadership. I had an opportunity to read a book with Dr. shadow that helped build a very strong connection between us. Last March, I Last March, I competed in a schoolwide cahoot. I took first place. Dr. Shadow is my biggest fan at the moment, which I'll never forget. She knows how to build relationships beyond their day-to-day academics. Dr. Shetta is a principal with a heart of gold and
143dedicates her life to nurturing the growth of us students and within school. Please keep Dr. Sha as our principal as her leadership makes a real difference in our daily lives. Thank you. I'm not I'm not speaking. Good evening everyone. John Zwaki Monroe Township. My youngest wanted to come and support. She's not speaking so she's just with me. Um so thank you for your time this evening and for providing the opportunity to speak. I'm not I'm here not to rehash the past, but to highlight the real measurable impact of a leader who deserves to remain at Woodland Elementary, Dr. Cheddar. Let's talk about the results. Under Dr. Cheddar's leadership, Woodland Elementary has seen consistent growth in key academic areas since her appointment. Recent MAP growth data reveals that the school consistently performs well above national norms
144with a median achievement percentile of 62% in 2025. Additionally, our students showed growth in ELA and mathematics with 7 to 11 average growth points from fall 24 to spring 25. These high achievement levels are matched by meaningful gains in equity. The percentage of students in the lowest achievement band drop significantly from 11% to just 7%. A clear indicator of the school's success in closing gaps. NJSLA scores in both mathematics and ELA show a large majority of our students meet or exceed grade level expectations. Uh disciplinary incidents have been reduced by at least 7% each year, showing a clear connection between her her leadership and a safe, respectful school climate. Principal observation scores for Dr. Chedda have all been effective or highly effective on the Marzano rubric, our district district's evaluation model. This didn't happen by
145accident. It happened because Dr. Chedda leads with vision, consistency, and an unwavering focus for what's best for our kids. The environment at Woodland reflects this. Staff morale is high. Parent engagement has increased. In fact, parent teacher participation during her tenure has gone up significantly. Over 72% of families attending conferences this past fall. She doesn't just talk about values, she lives them. She is visible. She listens. She holds everyone, including herself, to high standards. and the results are undeniable. Rehiring Dr. Te Dr. Chedda isn't just the logical choice. It's the right one for continuity, for progress, and for the emotional and academic well-being of the children in your care. This community is not asking you to take a chance. We're we are asking you to recognize proven success. We're asking you to vote yes because Dr.
146Chedda has already shown us what's possible. Vote yes because the data supports it. Vote yes because our children deserve consistency and excellence. and vote yes because as board members you have the power to affirm a leader who has done everything right here in Monroe Township. Thank you. Hi, my name is Trisha Brady. I live in Monroe Township. I am reading this letter on behalf of a non-tenured teacher who wished to have their words heard tonight in support of Dr. Chedda. Dear board members and decisionmaking team, I am writing to express my unwavering support for Dr. Orcelina Chedda's continued tenure as principal of Woodland Elementary School. As a seasoned educator with extensive experience across multiple schools and under various principles, I can unequivocally state that working under Dr. Cheddar's leadership has been the most fulfilling and
147impactful experience of my career. Her exceptional leadership characterized by professionalism, empathy, and vision has transformed Woodland Elementary into an exemplary institution, and I respectfully urge you to retain her in her role. Dr. Chedda possesses an extraordinary ability to recognize and nurture talent as evidenced by her thoughtful hiring decisions. I am deeply grateful to be among the educators she has selected as this opportunity has profoundly enriched my professional and personal life. Under her guidance, my confidence in teaching skills have grown significantly. Thanks to her unwavering support and commitment to fostering a collaborative environment, Dr. Chedda actively encourages input from staff, listens attentively, and integrates diverse perspectives to enhance our school's mission. Beyond her professionalism, Dr. Cheddar has cultivated a safe, inclusive, and supportive atmosphere for both staff and students. She is approachable, compassionate, and serves as
148a trusted confidant, ensuring that everyone feels valued and heard. Her ability to connect with students, whether through engaging with them at their level or serving as an inspiring role model, sets her apart as a leader. Likewise, her open door policy empowers teachers to seek guidance and grow professionally. The prospect of losing Dr. Chedda as our principal is deeply concerning to the Woodland Elementary community. Her departure would represent a significant loss for our staff, students, and the broader district as her contributions have elevated morale, strengthened our school's culture, and positively impacted our community. Dr. Cheddar's leadership exceeds all expectations and her absence would have a profound negative effect on our school's trajectory. I respect respectfully implore the board to consider the overwhelming positive impact of retaining Dr. Orcselina Chedetta as principal of Woodland Elementary School. Her
149proven track record and dedication to excellence makes her as indepensible asset to our district. I trust that you will make a decision guided by President common sense and the best interests of our school community. Thank for Thank you for your time and careful consideration. Sincerely, teacher Woodland Elementary [Applause] School. Hello everybody. I'm Michelle Costa. I live at 13 Evergreen Terrace, Monroe Township, New Jersey, and I am a teacher at Woodland School. This is Ken. Okay. It is with great enthusiasm that I stand here before all of you in support of Dr. Orselina Chedda. She celebrates not only our enrichment students, but also champions our neurodeiverse population with equal dedication. I have been a special education teacher in Monroe since 2003, a parent of a child who attended Woodland School under Dr. Chedetta's incumbency. I'd be
150remissed if I did not add a personal touch about my journey here and how I view our work in Monroe. I have a daughter who has autism spectrum disorder who flourished through our schools. She's one of my greatest teachers because she has helped me understand not only the children I teach but you. You all as parents. And I believe we all share the same goals. I believe that we all want what's best for our children. All of us. As a result, Dr. Cheddar's work at Woodland resonates deep with me because she understands the power of education for all children. all children. During her time at Woodland, Dr. Trea has also led transformative initiatives that reflect her deep commitment to student and staff well-being. Through the wellness committee, students learn strategies for emotional regulation and self-care.
151Dr. Cheddar also provided her staff with bath bombs and smoothies and apples to show her appreciate her appreciation for us. She also led our neurodiversity committee where students explored brain function and collaborated on a mural with the high school. Additionally, she helped launch club code, a computer science robotics program. And she chairs the abot committee which focuses on character education and goal setting. Each month, our school we focus on a core value like perseverance or friendship or honesty. And Dr. Chetta gets up and personally speaks and teaches the children what these core values mean, what it means to be a good human. And then the kids go back and they set their goals. And then this is my favorite part. Okay, so my favorite part is the students who engage in this. She picks two
152students per class and then she rewards them with her time and she gives them art room and STEM room and plays outside with them. I mean, that's a big deal. Furthermore, Dr. Chedda's leadership in special ed has been equally impressive. Now, I must tell you a story, one of many, but this one stands out for me personally. One of our students was having a difficult moment transitioning from home to school. Something we might call behaviorism as an extinction burst or a meltdown. As I approached, I noticed a child was sitting in the hallway, arms crossed, head down, refused to get up from the floor. Dr. Cheddar was right there speaking to the student with such kindness and patience. I walked over and asked, "Can I help?" She smiled and said, "Of course." After some visual
153prompts were provided, we were able to bring the child back to engage in non-preferred activities. Once the student was able to self-regulate through the strategies, the child was given a reinforcer by Dr. Chedda. And Dr. Cheddar was so cute. She was holding it and the child was playful with Dr. Cheddar, right? And she goes, I eat too. And Dr. Cheddar was so great with her. And we both sat on the floor across from one another. And I glanced up at Lena and I smiled to myself. And that tender moment, my heart was filled. My eyes teed up and I was just so proud. I reflected back on the beginning of my career and how people in society were afraid of people with autism. I was reminded how far we've come as humans. It hit me
154again yet another thought. In my career, I was able to witness a principal sitting on the ground playing with a student who couldn't speak wise. She didn't mind and she she was just it was beautiful. The timer went off and as we left, Dr. Cheddar told me how blessed she was to work with these youngsters. In that glimpse of time, it was unequivocally noted by me that Dr. Cheddar would do anything to improve the lives of her students. I'm almost done. Additionally, I must share with you a secret. Dr. Cheddar comes into all of our classrooms across settings and grade levels all of the time. She knows all of my students by name and can tell you their stories. She smiles and dances through the room talking to the children, what they did over the
155weekend. She's always visible in a completely non-threatening way, but more curious and excited about the children and how can she can support us as teachers on a day-to-day basis. If you came to our building, Dr. Chedda would be waving to parents at bus duty. Okay? She would be walking a with a student who has no friends outside on the playground. No friends, but Dr. Cheddar was there for that student. Doing penny wars were a PTO president. Okay. Or coming up with the next big idea to make Woodland great. From what I've observed, Dr. Cheddar treats all children with dignity. So, in final analysis, Dr. Chedda demonstrates what it means to be inclusive, informed, and deeply compassionate educational leader. She has built something sacred at Woodland, a place where every student, regardless of their ability, background,
156need, feels safe, seen, and valued. And I give Dr. Chedda my highest and most heartfelt recommendation for principal to continue to shape our schools. Her leadership is a gift to our district, our families, and to the children who will one day look back and say to themselves, "I became who I am. because someone like Dr. Chedda was worthy of seeing me. Thank you so much. Hi, Karen Beski, ESL teacher for Brookside and Woodland schools. I'm here to express my strong support for Dr. Chedda. At the last board meeting, I saw comments suggesting that she lacked community support, and I'm here along with the others to respectfully counter that narrative. As a traveling teacher in this district, I've had the privilege of working with many administrators. I can say with confidence that Dr. Chedda stands out
157for her visible leadership, collaborative spirit, and tireless dedication to staff and students. She is present, hands-on, and always working to support our school community. Dr. Chedda has fostered a culture of academic ex excellence and continuous improvement. She promotes a growth mindset that's reflected not just in our attitudes, but in our student outcomes. I encourage the board to review the success we've had under her leadership. Our progress is real and measurable, and much of that is thanks to the collaboration of built through Dr. Cheddar's leadership. I appreciate that this process tonight exists to ensure accountability, but I urge you to reflect on whether in this case the process is aligned with that goal. Dr. Chedda exemplifies the qualities we should be championing in our leaders, integrity, collab collaboration, and results. In researching the role of school
158boards, it states school boards are responsible for hiring and evaluating the superintendent while the superintendent and their team manage daily operations. Board members are expected to act on the superintendent's recommendations. In this case, Dr. Chedda has been recommended for renewal by the superintendent and her performance has been consistently strong with no significant concerns or disciplinary issues during her tenure. I understand that board decisions carry weight and complexity, but I respectfully ask that tonight's vote reflect the data, the superintendent's recommendation, and the voice of the community, and that all outside gossip and allegations from previous work be is be excluded as they do not reflect Dr. Cheda's job performance in Monroe. Nor can we prove nor can we prove those allegations from random members of the community. At this time, I'm going to ask some board
159members some hypothetical questions, and I do not expect answers, just some honest reflection. Mr. Depay, I've had the privilege of attending classes with one of your children. I know your family values education and leadership. If your child were in Dr. Chetta's position with a strong recommendation from a superintendent and no performance-based reason for termination and strong support from staff and community. How would you feel if a board member abstained or voted no and cost them their job? Mr. Piro, we've worked together before. I have respect for you and I know you were in a similar position not too long ago and your past job performance was also shared to social media without insight. You most of all understand should understand what it feels like to be unfairly judged. However, I ask you to pause tonight
160and think about your own child in the education field. How would you feel if their future were decided without a clear understanding of their performance or potential? Mr. Zikner, I understand you have a background in an ad administration and that you value data and informed decisionmaking. With your standards for leadership and accountability, how do you reconcile abstaining or voting no for Dr. Cheddar after reviewing the data and measurable progress as well as listening to all the staff and community support to Miss Fabiano, you've shown professionalism and composure in a challenging environment. As a fellow educator, how would you feel if someone told you that despite a tr strong recommendation from a superintendent, outstanding evaluations, and strong results, your job was at risk with no clear justification. I don't believe any of you would sit quietly
161while such an injustice was taking place against you or your family members. In closing, I often lean on my faith to guide me daily, and recently this message was delivered in my morning devotional. So, I'll leave you with a Bible verse that reminds us of the power and responsibility of our words and decisions here tonight. A good person's mouth is a clear fountain of wisdom. A foul mouth is a stagnant swamp. The speech of a good person clears the air. The words of the wicked pollute it. Dr. Chhatta has made a profound impact on our school. I trust that tonight you will clear the air with clear wisdom and not muddy the swamp. I trust I trust that you will lead with fairness and in the best interest of our students and that you will
162not lose a leader of Dr. Cheddar's caliber. And I must say, my husband asked me to say everything's better with cheddar, Iggy Rasmusen, Woodland School, and also a Monroe Township resident. I am here to respectfully and wholeheartedly request the renewal of Dr. Cheddar's contract. In my time working under her leadership, I have witnessed firsthand the dedication, integrity, and vision she brings to our school community. Dr. Chhatt leads not only with skill, but with heart, and that combination has made a real and lasting impact on both students and staff. Since she has assumed the role, there have been academic improvements, community partnerships have strengthened, and there has been a noticeable boost in morale among staff. These are not just statistics. They represent lives changed, confidence restored, and a culture that encourages growth. Dr. Cheddar provides stability,
163consistency, and forwardthinking leadership. And we need to continue building on this momentum. In my 15 years at Woodland School, I have been privileged to work with outstanding administrators and I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of a team guided by Dr. Chedda. She is committed to excellence and the well-being of our school. I urge you to consider what her continued leadership means, not just for those of us who work with her daily, but for the students and families who rely on her strength of our school. Thank you. [Applause] Trisha Rutherford, teacher at Woodland School. Good evening. My name is Trisha Rutherford and for nearly two decades, I've had the privilege of serving as a teacher in Monroe Township. My journey began at Woodland School where I've witnessed the leadership of four principles and nearly all
164the vice principles who now guide our other elementary schools. With that experience, I can say without hesitation that Dr. Chedda is one of the most exceptional administrators I have ever had the privilege to work with. Dr. Chedda is not only a remarkable leader, but also a deeply compassionate individual. Her commitment to the success of every staff member in our building is evident in all that she does. She understands that student achievement is directly tied to school morale. And she actively fosters an environment built on support, respect, and motivation. Whether it's asking us how our weekend was or planning something silly and fun at a faculty meeting, Dr. Chedda takes the time to connect with her staff and offer encouragement when it's needed most. As a member of both the school goals committee and the SEAL
165team, I've seen firsthand how Dr. Dr. Chedda actively participates in our discussions and planning. She truly listens to our ideas and consistently concludes our meetings by asking how she can support us. Under Dr. Chedda's leadership, our school community has thrived. She sets high yet attainable expectations and inspires both students and staff to reach them. When we succeed, she celebrates us. When we fall short, she collaborates with us to find solutions. always at a as a teammate, never from a distance. The data we have collected from na map testing over the course of Dr. Chedda's tenure clearly demonstrates Woodland School's exceptional progress. This is not a coincidence. It is a direct result of Dr. Chedda's clear vision and her ability to motivate the staff in our building to strive for greatness. In addition, for the past
166two years, Dr. Chetta has spearheaded a schoolwide theme focused on growth mindset, a first for Woodland School. We hold engaging monthly assemblies to energize our students about upcoming character traits and rewards, celebrating our growth winners with special recognition. You will find Dr. Cheddar right alongside the students participating in our schoolwide dance parties, extra recess, or lunch with staff members. But what truly distinguishes Dr. Chedda is her genuine connection with our students. She understands their individual challenges, recognizes their unique strengths, and embraces their diverse personalities. She knows every single student in our building by name. You can find her greeting them on the buses in the morning or saying goodbye in the afternoon. She joins them during recess and regularly visits our classrooms to see what they're learning and engage in conversation. This connection is truly
167reciprocal. The students don't just know her name, they know her. They know her interests. They know she cares deeply. And they know she's their their biggest cheerleader every single day. And when they make mistakes, as children naturally do, she guides them with patience and purpose, helping them learn, grow, and take responsibility for their actions. Just last week, for principal appreciation day, my class wrote letters to Dr. Chedda highlighting her impact. We've all read these generic letters before. You're the best. You're so nice, etc., etc. These letters were different. They genuinely expressed gratitude for making Woodland an amazing place to be each day. I have a few of those heartfelt letters with me today to briefly share. Dear Dr. Chedda, thank you for being a great principal. I like the way you are so nice, positive,
168caring, and you have amazing ideas. Thank you. Dear Dr. Chedda, you are the best principal out there because you always do the right thing. You always boost our confidence during hard times. Dear Dr. Chetta, you are one of the nicest, most sweetest people I have ever met, the best principal ever. You're always in a good mood, and I love all of your outfits. I'm almost done. In closing, I respectfully urge you to reconsider your decision and reappoint Dr. Chedda as principal of Woodland School. This decision impacts not only the 60 plus dedicated staff members who come to work inspired by her leadership, but more importantly over 200 children who depend on Woodland as a safe, nurturing, and empowering place to learn and grow each day. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Jamie Nukem and
169I'm the school counselor at Woodland Elementary School. It is an honor to speak in support of someone who represents the heart of our school community. Dr. Orcselina Chedda, principal of Woodland. She exemplifies what it means to be a leader in in education. She provides both physical and emotional safety for our students, a foundation without which meaningful learning cannot occur. Her steady presence and thoughtful approach create an environment where children feel seen, supported, and secure. She provides consistency and collaboration among staff whether it's in daily interactions or challenging moments. Her ability with to listen and respond with care strengthens his trust that is so vital in our school. Dr. Chedda is also deeply responsive to parents. Her openness and respect for their voices build unity between home and school, reminding us that we are all working
170together toward the same goal, our children's well-being and success. She greets our students by name and she knows them. not just their academic records, but who they are. As a disciplinarian, she is firm but fair, setting clear expectations while maintaining deep compassion. Her leadership allows me as a school counselor to do my work more effectively. We compleiment each other in a way that brings order, stability, and care to our students lives, resulting in the availability for them to learn. Most of all, Dr. Chedda is a caring presence at Woodland School. She leads with both strength and heart, and for that, we are truly fortunate. Thank you. Good evening, Doug Dale, Monroe Township. I'm here tonight to support Dr. Lena Cheddar, Woodland School Principal, and I I asked you all to vote and renew her contract
171and follow the recommendation of the superintendent. The last time I was here, I spoke about the many reasons why Dr. Chedd is worthy of continuing to be our principal. After listening to many people who will speak to her character and leadership and who have, I hope you understand that what you have heard about Dr. Cheddar from the rumor mill or the handful of misinformed Facebook posters is untrue. I also ask that each of your vote is your own and not based on influence. When it comes to district personnel, as you should know, the New Jersey School Boards Association guidelines say that the school board's function is not to control the district's day-to-day business. Only the superintendent is accountable to the board. All other staff and members are accountable to the superintendent. The association states the
172board can the board can appoint, transfer or remove employees only upon the recommendation of the superintendent. Dr. Chedda is listed on tonight's agenda is being recommended for renewal. But by voting against the recommendation, you're not only undermining the board policies of the evaluation process, but undeniably you are writing your own rules and inserting the board where it shouldn't be in matters of personnel. This language comes from section 18A27-4.1 number 1A of the administration code which are the laws that state that of the state regarding the board of education's role in personal actions. So voting against the renewal is also illegal. Equally as important, the law states that the board shall not withhold its approval for arbitrary or capriccious reasons. Every New Jersey school board, including this one, follows Robert rules of order. The guide to
173parliamentary procedure to ensure that the business at the meetings is fair and efficient. It stays on track, that records are kept about motions and voting, and that allows everyone to have a voice. Motions and voting must follow strict order to be in the right place on the agenda, and to be stated in the right way to ensure that the voting members understand the motion and decisions are made correctly. The vote in question here with Dr. Chetta is not only illegal in terms of New Jersey state law, but it also doesn't follow procedure because the board cannot call a vote or vote for a non-renewal on its own. What it does do is sets a bad practice for this and future boards to feel that they can arbitrarily single out employees against a superintendent's recommendation for
174any reason or no reason at all and fire them. That's not how it works. When it comes to voting, the use of abstaining from a vote can be used for two main reasons. You should abstain if you have if you don't have enough information on the vote of which you can either ask the table or postpone the vote to another time so abstaining members can get the information needed to make an educated vote or you can use the debate discussion part of the motion to ask questions on the vote to hold the vote at that time. The other reason is to abstain is because of conflict of interest where the member should personally benefit from the vote. Having a child who goes to the school or works at the school in question is not a
175conflict of interest here. And by removing yourselves from the vote, it limits the number of eligible votes and changes the outcome dramatically. Mrs. Fabiano, respectfully, as chair of the board, you have the responsibility to consider two points that will have a lasting impact on this district. Either way, you can let this illegal and unprecedented action continue, which will surely open up the district to multiple lawsuits now and in the future to be paid for by the taxpayers, me, which is what you all got on the board to stop from happening. or you can perform the duty of the chair by following Robert's rules, the guidelines of the New Jersey School Boards Association and the New Jersey Statutory Laws and advise the members of the board to vote accordingly following the recommendations of the superintendent because
176a vote against is illegal and absolutely out of order. Thank you. Eric Marazine, Monroe Township. Uh currently I have two second graders that are in Mil Lake uh and I own a local school. Uh ladies and gentlemen of the board, today I stand before you to advocate for the reappoint of Dr. Chetta as principal at Woodland Elementary. It is imperative that we prioritize our children's education to ensure strong leadership in our schools. First, I understand that some of you may hope this issue will simply fade away. But let me assure you, ignoring it will not serve our students best interests. It appears that for some, this has become a power trip rather than a commitment to our students education. Abstaining from a vote, as some of you did, is a cowardly avoidance of your responsibilities
177as board members. If you believe in what is best for our children, you must be willing to make tough decisions. Under Dr. Chedda's leadership, we have seen significant improvements in test scores. This is not just a statistic. It reflects the hard work and dedication she has instilled in both students and staff. Yet, it seems that some board members are more interested in sending a message to the superintendent rather than focusing on what truly matters. the well-being and education of our children. This disregard for Dr. Cheddar's contributions and quite frankly her life is troubling. Dr. Chedda has received impeccable evaluations throughout her tenure. If we dismiss her now, we risk sending a message that this district is not a supportive environment for dedicated leaders like Dr. Chedda. Let's not forget that any future principal will also
178be recommended by the superintendent. So what message are we sending if we do not back Dr. Chedda? Now Pete, Charlie, Gail, Katie, and Carmen, I trust you will not make the same abstensions during this next vote. As we saw last meeting, there can be last minute changes of hearts when it came to Mrs. Garcia, who was also supposed to be wrongfully terminated. Hopefully with the volume of outreach from the community and stakeholders, you will change your mind and do the right thing for the students of this district. We must unite in our commitment to our students and stand behind the leadership that has proven over and over again effective. I urge you to reconsider and reappoint Dr. Cheddar, not just for her sake, but for the sake of every child in Monroe Township. Let's do
179what is right for the students in our community. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Iris Glassber and I am proud to be a substitute teacher in the Monroe Township uh school district. I'm also a resident of beautiful Monroe Township. Over the last two years, I have worked in Woodland Elementary School many times. Everybody knows me there and I always feel welcome. I have also had the privilege of meeting Dr. Oscelina Cheddar. I have witnessed firsthand some of her interactions with staff and students. She is a true professional and respected by all. I have worked in many schools in numerous districts. It's an honor to tell you that Dr. Cheddar is by far the most dedicated principal that I ever met. Woodland Elementary School wouldn't be the wonderful school that it is without her in
180charge. Why is Woodland so wonderful? Woodland is a small school and everybody knows one another. It's cozy and thanks to Dr. Cheddar, we all feel like it's our home away from home. Dr. Cheddar's leadership fosters an environment where everybody is treated with respect, kindness, and a feeling of camaraderie. Furthermore, Dr. Cheddar makes Woodland a place that's conducive to children learning and feeling good about their accompl accomplishments so that they can reach their full potential. Thank you, Dr. Cheddar, for making such a positive impact on everybody's life. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Nadia Guloska. I am the mother of autistic son and uh my son has a problem transitioning on the beginning of the school year every year. So it just will be heartbreaking to let her go for my son and for me after all
181that work she done became his best friend. And every single day I'm witnessing her to open the door, my stuck door in my car to let my child go to school, to say, "Hello, how are you?" And the same thing when he goes home, she's always there. If I'm late, she's with him until I'm calm. And anything happens in school, she's calling me right away. and we chatting and we solving the problem and only person with the biggest heart and tons of energy can do this. Sometimes I'm envy her how she can do this. So if you if she will go it will be really really heartbreaking for many people. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening, Christina Zawaki, Monroe Township. First, thank you so much for letting us all speak. I know it is a very
182long evening and I know you're all probably very uncomfortable, but thank you very much for listening to us. Second, I am so proud of all those kids. How to say it? My mom and teacher heart are like bursting. I'm so proud of them all. It was a beautiful thing to see. Um, everyone was smiling and that was really nice to see as well. That being said, uh, I know that it is fair to say that sometimes people enter a situation with their minds made up on certain topics because of the feelings of a few. Today and always, I ask that you not do that. I'm asking that you please keep an open mind, listen to what all of the staff members, parents, and students that are here tonight had to say and have to say
183because that line is still pretty lengthy. and then please make the right decision for Woodland School. There is far too much at stake to ignore the voices of the community. Dr. Chedda is not just a name on a contract. She is the heart of Woodland Elementary. As we've heard many say, her leadership has brought stability, care, and high standards, and the school thrives because of her presence. Students are excelling. The MAP scores prove this. Teachers feel supported. faculty meetings, daily interactions, and the conversations this evening prove this. Parents trust the building that their children walk into every morning. And thank you because we just heard a parent prove this. So why are we here? Why is this even a question? When someone does their job well, when they exceed expectations, and when they create an
184environment where children feel seen, safe, and inspired, why would we consider removing them? As I stated in the last meeting, numbers don't lie. And I have no doubt that you've seen and reviewed the data of proof. You've seen the evaluation, all fours and above. You've seen the outpouring of support. What more is needed? Let's stop for a second and think about the message that this sends to the staff, many of whom are here, who give everything that they have to this district. Removing Dr. Chedda, despite overwhelming support and a proven record of excellence, would not only be unjust, it would be deeply demoralizing. It tells our educators that no matter how hard they work or how much they accomplish, their futures here are expendable. It sends a message to our children, the children who have
185had the grit and the gumption to push past genuine anxiety out of love and respect for Dr. Cheddar. Children who took the time to write their own little speeches in order to speak in front of you this evening. It tells those children that leadership doesn't have to be earned and it can just be taken away. We can't let our educators feel like they're expendable. And we really should not let our children think that hard work and leadership are fleeting. You have a choice to make. And with all due respect, the right one is quite obvious. Vote yes. Actually vote to keep Dr. Chedda because an abstension strips away a potential yes, leaving contracts hanging in the balance. Make no mistake, abstaining isn't neutrality. It's a conveniently quiet way of saying no. Remember the oath that
186you took to make meaningful decisions for this community. And unless you have a genuine conflict of interest, one that is formally verified by legal counsel, abstaining is truly unacceptable. Vote yes for the children who thrive under her leadership and guidance. Vote yes for the teachers who rely on her. Vote yes for the hundreds of people who you've seen in the petition who made their voices heard. Vote yes because leadership like Dr. Chedda is rare. vote yes because I promise you when you do vote yes, the community will not forget that you listened to what's in our hearts. Thank [Applause] you. Hello, my name is Angela Siglia. My daughter is in fourth grade at Woodland Elementary School. I must say that this is the first year that I noticed my daughter was more than just a
187student in statistic. This year she was definitely known by name and welcomed with open open arms, much love and support by Dr. Chedda. We met Dr. Sheda before the school year had started with the ready to rise program for students who were behind. Before this year, I struggled for years with Delila's academic uh ability in Mil Lake Elementary School. I was always concerned that she was behind, but was always told that there was nothing to be concerned about. So instantly, I felt like I was being a crazy paranoid parent and that this was normal. Well, until the beginning of August 2024 when I received a letter inviting Delila to Ready to Rise program, which started a couple weeks before the school year started, we dropped our children off and Dr. Chedda introduced herself to each
188and every one of us parents and students and explained exactly what the program was about and what the students were going to be doing. She explained that this program was to help students to strive to be better and give them the resources to be more successful with teachers, games, programs at the on the computer. Since day one, Dr. Chetta made me feel like my daughter and my crazy thoughts were valued. Since Delila has started elementary Woodland Elementary School, she continues to be in the title one program where she gets the extra help she needs for math and ELA. Delila has been able to successfully do well in math and doesn't go for the extra support anymore. Since the beginning of the year, Delila has been succeeding and improving her scores in math, which she has
189brought up her score 7% from the fall to now in math. And with ELA, she has brought it up from brought up 4% since the beginning of the year. Without these programs, my child would still be struggling. I was truly devastated that the board of education did not reinstate Dr. Chedda's contract. Dr. Chetta is a very valuable woman to our children's education. She welcomes every student in the morning with the biggest smile by greeting them outside and get dropped off and picked up rain or shine, freezing weather, sweltering hot days. I love how Dr. Chedda knows each student by their name and acknowledges each one of them. Also, this is the first year in a few years that I felt that my child mattered, was valued, and was heard. For a few years now, my
190daughter has been bullied for her red hair, freckles, and sensitivity. If she ever tried to tell someone, she was told told to not to tell and it was frowned upon. She felt that even she felt that she wasn't even allowed to have hurt feelings and just to let it go. This year, Delila had the same thing happening and stayed silent because she was so accustomed to being told to let it go and that it just um it didn't matter. Dr. Shada had gotten a hold of a note that was supposed to be given to Delila from another student that was making fun of her and stating that no one liked her. Dr. Chhatta spoke to the students and let Delila's feelings be heard and told the students that bullying would not be tolerated. Afterwards, Dr.
191Dr. Chedda called and informed me which I had no idea of which was this was being done and it made me feel even better that someone like Dr. Chedda was there to console my daughter and make her feel safe. With Dr. Cheddar, Woodland Elementary School is a safe haven for both students and parents. I personally had some issues with Delila at home with and reached out to Dr. Cheddar for some advice. At this point, Delila is still very close and feels comfortable enough to express herself to Dr. Cheddar. She spoke to Delilah and gave her some guidance and continues to check in with both of us. Dr. Chedda gives off good vibes, great support, and is all about being a part of that village and raising our children. Because of Dr. Chedda, my do daughter
192Julia loves going to school and is more confident. Dr. Chedda is one of a kind. She is patient, selfless, considerate, gentle, loving, and so adorable. Not considering not considering her for the contract would be extremely detrimental for my daughter Delila, myself, and many other students and parents as well. Dr. Chedd is the mama bear we all need for our children when we are not there. She is the fight we need for our kids to strive. Thank you for your time. Hi, I am Lauren and I'm from Monro Township. Lauren Genta, excuse me. Uh, good evening board members. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak today. I stand before you as both a parent and a proud member of the Woodland Elementary School community where we have been fortunate to experience something truly special
193under the leadership of Dr. Chedda. From the moment Dr. Chedda has arrived at Woodland, it was clear that she brought not only vision but had brought heart. She had created an environment where teachers were excited to come to work and students were inspired to do their very best every day. Whether it's in the classroom or in the halls, Dr. Chedda's presence was felt. She was outside every morning greeting the children as they arrived to school and at the end of the day she's out there waving them goodbye. That level of personal commitment to our children is rare and an invaluable quality and a leader. The positive impact that Dr. Ched has had on her school is tangible. The moral morale, excuse me, of both staff and students has risen dramatically under her leadership. Test scores
194particularly of our children's MAP scores reflect this transformation. In 2005 25, our children tested in the top 62% well above the national average. That's a direct result of Dr. Chedda's focus on fostering a positive and supportive learning environment. But it's not just about test scores. On a personal note, I'd like to share my own experience. When I approached Dr. Chedda about a concern in my son's classroom, she responded with incredible care and professionalism. Not only did she address the issue swiftly, but she followed up over the course of several weeks to ensure that the matter was resolved. My son noticed the extra attention and he had shared with me that Dr. Chedda uh had been in the classroom with him again that day just checking in and making sure that everything was good. That level
195of involvement, that level of dedication to each and every child is something that these parents cherish and it's not something that we take for granted. Dr. Cheddar has done exactly what Woodland has needed. She's created an environment where both education and life lessons are intertwined in meaningful ways. Our children are learning not only academic knowledge, but they are learning the values of respect, kindness, and perseverance. As a parent and a member of this community, I can say with confidence that we are extremely satisfied with her leadership and the profound impact that she's had on our school. The Woodland community clearly stands proud beside her and we're ready to continue to support her as she continues to lead us forward. I urge you to please recognize extraordinary contributions that Dr. Chedda has made to Woodland Elementary
196School. Please keep the best interests of our children in mind and please vote to approve Dr. Cheddar's contract. Thank you for your time. Lindseay Rodner Monroe. Um, I prepared some words, but to be honest, my son, I'm also a proud mom of one of the students that got up here, and I think that I probably couldn't do better than what he did. And I have to say that, um, he he admitted he hasn't always made the right decisions, right? He's a kid. Um, but his conversations with Dr. Chedda and, you know, he's also not the most he's he's smart, but he struggles academically. Um, his discussions with Dr. Chetta have resulted in him having the ability and the confidence to get up here and speak in front of all of you. I don't know if
197many 11 year olds or 10 year olds could get up and speak in front of a room of adults. I know that there's a lot of adults that didn't have the confidence to get up here and speak in front of you. So that is a direct result of her and the confidence that she instills in her students and how she teaches them to be a leader and to rise above. So, I I want to state that I also have two letters from non-tenure teachers that I'm going to be speaking their words because they do not feel that they are safe to get up here and speak in front of you as a board because they feel like their jobs would be in jeopardy because of what has been um portrayed in this town and that's
198really rather embarrassing. Dear members of the board, I am writing to express my wholehearted support for Dr. Chetta and to emphasize the vital role she plays in the success and spirit of Woodland School. I respectfully ask that you reinstate her contract as principal of Woodland School. Dr. Chedda is an exceptional leader whose presence and dedication shape every corner of the school. She fosters a culture where staff feel supported, valued, encourage and encouraged to grow. Personally, I have experienced this firsthand. Dr. Chetta has always welcomed my ideas allowed allowing them to come to life not only in my classroom but throughout my our school building. Her trust in my vision has empowered me to be a more effective educator and contributor to our school community. One of the most remarkable things about Dr. Chedda is her
199consistent visible presence. Her daily presence in the hallways, her genuine interactions with staff and students, and how she knows every child by name and remembers something personal about each of them makes her an irreplaceable part of the Woodland family. That kind of connection is rare and invaluable. It creates a culture of belonging that motivates students and unites staff. If we lose Dr. Chedda, we lose more than a principal. We lose a vital part of Woodland. Her leadership is the reason our school runs smoothly and her absence would leave a noticeable void in the lives of our students and staff. I respectfully urge you to reconsider and reinstate Dr. Cheddar's contract. Woodland needs her respectfully a Woodland teacher. I am writing, "Dear members of the board of education, I am writing to express my sincere appreciation
200for the exceptional leadership of Dr. Cheddar, principal of Woodland School, and to share how her guidance has positively shaped our school community. Under Dr. Dr. Cheddar's leadership, Woodland has become a place where staff feel truly supported, empowered, and motivated to bring their best to work every day. She creates an environment where collaboration and innovation are encouraged and where each staff member feels valued and confident in their ability to make a meaningful impact. Her leadership not only um inspires but instills a deep sense of pride in the progress and success we are achieving together as a school. Dr. Cheddar leads with integrity, compassion, and an unwavering commitment to the students, staff, and families of Monroe. Her clear vision, student centered approach, and thoughtful decision-making set a standard of excellence that benefits our entire school community. Whether
201she is mentoring staff, fostering family engagement, or implementing innovative instructural strategies, Dr. Chedda consistently goes above and beyond to ensure that both students and educators thrive. The culture she has cultivated at Woodland is one of respect, purpose, and high expectations. As a result, our staff is not only motivated, but also more connected and proud to contribute to the shared mission of providing an exceptional education for every student. Thank you for your for your continued support of Woodland School and recognizing the profound impact of such a strong leadership. Dr. Chedda is a remarkable leader and it is a privilege to work under her direction as we continue to move forward. All I ask is that you have the respect to listen to the students, parents, and teachers that have taken the time to be here, do
202your civic duty, and vote appropriately. Thank you. Hi, my name is um Robin Barrett. So, I'm here today as a parent, community member, and most importantly, as someone who witnessed firsthand the difference a strong, compassionate leader can make in a child's life. Dr. Chedda has been the heart of Woodland Elementary School. Every morning, rain or shine, she greets the students and waves to the parents, not just with a smile, but with warmth and genuine care. She knows their names and their interests and they see her as someone they could trust. I myself find it very comforting when I drop drop off my son and I see her there in a sometimes scary world at least dropping off my child at school don't have to be one of my worries. Last month I was on the
203line to pick up my son and almost everyone was dismissed and I didn't see my son. I asked her if everyone was out panicking inside and she got right on the walkie-talkie and she knew my son's name and she told me he was in the last day of robotics after school which I totally didn't see that email. So um this is um this is the person running a school that I as a parent and I'm extremely satisfied with. There was a difficult situation after that involving my son and another student that had him upset and feeling anxious. He didn't want to come to school anymore. Dr. Cheddar stepped in not only quickly but fairly and thoughtfully. She listened to him and involved us and came up with a resolution that made my son feel safe.
204The next day, he was immediately back in school like nothing ever happened. And that right there signifies what an amazing principal you are. I believe the school is better because of her leadership. Removing her is a disruption to a school community that thrives under her leadership. Let's keep Woodland a place where our children feel welcome, protected, and seen. And that starts with having the right person at the helm. Um, so I am from Brooklyn and moved five years ago and and you know I moved to Monroe because of the school system. Um, that was my main priority, finding somewhere else to live out of Brooklyn. I have now a 19-year-old, a 9-year-old, and a seven-year-old. So, we didn't experience middle school yet, but uh my daughter stepped in as a freshman in high school. My
205son, this is his first year in fourth grade. And in Brooklyn, we don't have sister schools. They go elementary from kindergarten all the way until what we call junior high, middle school out here. And I was kind of nervous because that's like a it's a change every time, you know, like you get through third grade and then you change to a whole new school. And I just want to say that you have made that transition so smoothly. I am genuinely so happy every morning I see you. There's not a day I haven't seen you. And that to me matters. And it should matter to the board of education that all the parents are saying. I feel like I just repeated what every parent got up here and said, so please consider her reinstation. Thank you.
206Hello, Jennifer Clawson. I'm a parent of a fifth grade student at Woodland Elementary School. We stand here today united in our fight to reinstate Dr. Chedda as our principal. Her sudden dismissal has left a void in our school community. A void that cannot be filled by simply appointing a replacement. Dr. Chedda's dedication and leadership for three years has been the heart and soul of the school. Her dedication to our children is unparalleled. She's fostered a nurturing and supportive environment where every student feels seen, heard, and valued. Her leadership has transformed Woodland School into a thriving community of learners achieving higher test scores. Our school has scores that continue to show growth in both ELA and mathematics. More importantly, Dr. Chedda builds relationships with her students. This has been the case for both of my daughters
207who have mentorship under her leadership that I have come to value and appreciate. She has become a member of our family simply by the way she regards my daughters. As a mother, that is critical. The uncertainty surrounding Dr. Chedda's dismissal has created anxiety and disruption for both students and staff. Children are worried, teachers are concerned, and the overall morale of the school has plummeted. The stability and positive learning environment she's cultivated is now threatened. We need her back to restore that stability and reassure our community. My own daughter has been disrupt disrupted by this decision as she thinks of her principal as the best. She just recently giving her special falcon purple and yellow roses as a gift for principal's day. We urge the school board to reconsider its decision. Reinstating Dr. Chedd is not
208just about restoring a position. It's about restoring faith in our school system, upholding fairness, and prioritizing the well-being of our cha students. Let us show our unwavering support for Dr. Chedda. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Plet Valaro. I'm a special educational paraprofessional here at Woodland School. Tonight, um I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the outstanding leadership of Dr. Cheddar. As a staff member, I have seen firsthand and witnessing the dedication and the positive attitude that impacts our school every single day. I am so blessed that I work at Woodland and this district and I just wanted to say that she is amazing inside and out. Thank you, Erica Emmens, Woodland School teacher. Um, I uh sent emails uh to the board members and I wanted to personally thank uh the
209board members who took the time to uh write back and be on the receiving end. And of course, my email was in favor of Dr. Chetta um and her contract renewal um and everything positive. Um but I'd like to use my time tonight um to uh speak on behalf of Mar Margaret Hoskins, also a special education teacher at Woodland School. She could not be here tonight, so I'd like to read her note. To the members of the board of education, I'm writing to express my support for Dr. Chedda, who has demonstrated exceptional leadership, commitment, and presence within our school community. From the start of Dr. Chedda's tenure, she's embodied the qualities of a dedicated and student centered leader. She's a constant visible presence throughout the school day, visiting classrooms regularly, engaging with students on the
210playground, and even supervising bus arrivals and dismissals. This level of involvement is rare and truly impactful. By being consistently present in every area of the school, Dr. Chedda not only builds trust and rapport with the students and staff, but also gains firsthand insight into daily operations and needs. This allows for responsive leadership and proactive approach to challenges. It's clear that she cares deeply about creating a safe, supportive, high functioning learning environment for all. I believe that strong, visible leadership is one of the most important factors in a in a successful school and Dr. Chedda exemplifies this every day. I respectfully ask the board to reconsider their position on not rehiring Dr. Chedda, but to recognize and support her efforts which are making a real difference in our school community. Thank you for your time and
211continued dedication to our schools. Sincerely, Margaret Hoskins, special education teacher. And again, I'd like to thank the board for acknowledging my emails and um being on the receiving end. And I hope you listen to some of the comments that I wrote about. Thank you very much. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Bill Lutz. Um, Monroe Township resident. I've got uh I'm here in support obviously of Dr. Chedda. I've got two kids um that are in the Monroe Township school system. My son's in second grade, my daughter's in the fourth grade. Um I can tell you that my daughter's had an uphill battle academically throughout the years. Um, one big thing that kind of sticks out in my memory is the daddy daughter dance in second grade. She had no friends. She just had a really
212difficult time communicating and kind of getting out of her shell. Um, and a lot of that changed when she got into fourth grade. Um, I can't attribute all of that to Dr. Cheddar. Obviously, Miss Emmens has been a big help, but what I can say is that she's been at the helm for all of that. Um, seeing my daughter grow through this year has just been something short of incredible to me. Um, I do a lot of homework with her. Just seeing her grow both academically as well as gaining friends and just getting a lot more confidence in what she does throughout the day. It's just meant a lot to me. Um, the other thing that I wanted to talk about is earlier this year, our family just had a big house fire. Uh, we'll
213be displaced for about a year. Um, and it was a big shock to everybody, all of us that lived in the house. But, um, one of the big things that we just wanted to make sure of was that our kids were okay. There was a big outreach for for us. There were a lot of donations, a lot of, um, you know, gift cards and things of that nature. But what was really meaningful to us is that she took the time to reach out just to make sure that she was okay. You know, making sure that everything was fine. So, um, again, I could go through all the stats. I actually had a prepared speech going through a lot of statistics that everybody who came up before me kind of nickn knocked all all out of
214the park. So I won't bore you with any of that stuff. What I will say is just you know from personal experience she's been just a complete anchor for my daughter as well as this whole entire school system and hope you guys consider extension. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Margaret Nesby. My colleagues are Ray and Cheryl. Um, sorry, Ray and Cheryl. We are here power professionals school elementary school as a community member to support Dr. Tedar's leadership. Dr. Tedar has demonstrated exceptional leadership commit presence with our school community from the start of the time as our principal she has embellished qualities and dedication to the student administration. She as constant, always visible throughout the school day and engaging with the students at lunch and on the playground playing basketball with the wrong shoes.
215She is also involved in everything 100% every day. Dr. Cheddar is a roll up your sleeves type of educator who that works to put students in staff first always. I believe she is the reason our school continues to grow and shine as a community hub for a part of a beautiful Monro Township schools. As long as standing members of the professional team, I urge the board to reconsider their decision and renew Dr. Cheddar's contract. Lastly, I hope and appreciate the time to dedicate to the board of education for our school district, and I know you'll make the right decision. Thank you. Good evening. Kevin Higgins, principal, Monroe Township High School. Um, you've heard from a lot of different people tonight in support of Dr. Chedda, students, parents, par profofessionals, substitute teachers. I think it's important
216that you hear from some administrators as well. I think it's fitting tonight that we're having this discussion at the budget hearing. Uh I would like to start by thanking you all for your continued investment in us. And when I say us, I mean everybody, administrators and teachers and staff and students. We're not here tonight talking about a 22% increase in taxes. We're not here tonight talking about closing buildings and selling land. We're not here tonight about cutting programs. We're here tonight to discuss the contract of a beloved teacher in the district. I'm sorry, a beloved principal in the district. I ask that you continue to invest in this community by approving Dr. Chedda. Again, being recommended by the superintendent. I'm honored to offer my strong support for Dr. Chedda's reappoint as principal of Woodland School.
217Dr. Chedda is a dedicated and visionary leader who consistently puts staff, students, and community at the heart of every decision. Her leadership is characterized by integrity, inclusivity, and a tireless commitment to educational excellence. Under her guidance, Woodland School has flourished not only in academic achievement, but also as a nurturing environment where both students and educators are empowered to grow and thrive. Dr. Chedda's deep understanding of curriculum and her support for innovation makes her an invaluable asset to the school community. Rehiring Dr. Chedda would be a continued investment in the success and well-being of Woodland School. Thank you. Good evening. These pedestals are not for shorter women. My name is Samantha Mloud and I am the elementary supervisor of curriculum and instruction. Thank you for listening to all of us tonight because I know that it
218is late. As both the current curriculum supervisor and the former principal of Woodland School, I'd like to express my strong support for Dr. Lena Chedda. While I have great respect for the decisions made by the board, I feel compelled to share my perspective on a colleague whom I have come to deeply respect and value. Dr. Chedda built upon the work that Dr. Lehman and I initiated at Woodland School, resulting in a smooth and effective leadership transition. She's a highly collaborative leader who works closely with her colleagues to foster ongoing growth for both staff and students. Dr. Chedda is an instructional leader whose impact at Woodland has been both measurable and meaningful. Under her guidance, the school has shown growth in both language arts and mathematics. Progress that can be directly attributed to her dedication to
219collaboration in high quality instructional practices that I have witnessed myself. The data I have reviewed clearly supports this progress and I would be happy to share those results with you at any time. As you prepare to vote tonight on Dr. Chedda's contract this evening. I respectfully ask that you consider the data and insights that I have shared. Thank you for your time and thoughtful attention. Good evening. Don Graziano, principal at Applegarth School. Thank you to the board of education for allowing me to make a personal statement on behalf of Dr. Lena Chedda. I've been in the Monroe Township School District for 30 years and have always had a tremendous respect for our board of education. Your role is not an easy one and sometimes challenging decisions must be made. I'm also aware that I'm not
220privy to all the information with which you use to make your decisions. Yet, the decision pertaining to Dr. Chedda hits a little differently. Prior to receiving numerous ab extensions in the voting process at the last board meeting, I had not heard a negative word about her performance. I've worked with her personally on a weekly basis and have always found Dr. Chedda to verbally demonstrate a deep commitment to her students and staff. She strikes me as the kind of leader who tries hard to build culture in her building, often through thematic activities that foster unity, engagement, and a sense of belonging among students and staff alike. Her joy in leading her school and desire to improve student education are qualities I've come to recognize and admire. As a member of our administrative team, Dr. Chedda is
221a true team player. Sorry, it's late. I'm tired. She works collaboratively with her fellow principles, always bringing a spirit of openness and collegiality to the table. She welcomes new ideas, offers her support generously, and contributes positively to district-wide initiatives. I always appreciate her contribution to our leadership group. Dr. Chedda constantly talks about how much she loves working here in Monroe, even over these past two months. If mistakes were made, barring anything egregious, is it possible that they could be addressed with fairness, clarity, and opportunity for growth? This is how we educate. Leadership is about making decisions that are wellconsidered and fair. In my experience, when a person has strength in their convictions, they do not abstain in a vote. To me, an educated vote means you've reviewed the facts. You've spoken to those who know
222about performance and those with whom you consult are objective reporters. As our official official governing body, I have faith that you will make the right decision. But I hope the decision is one that considers the children at Woodland School and the families, the staff, and all the colleagues that support Dr. Chedda. The tribe has truly spoken here tonight. Please hear them. I just wanted to ask first is there anybody else coming up to talk for Dr. Chedda because we have like another thing we want to talk about. So you can go ahead if they wanted to go because I don't want to stop the momentum. So if there's somebody else who wanted to speak then go ahead Dr. I want to take the time to thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. I
223want to use these few minutes that I have to share some facts and information about myself and our amazing school. Ours is what I refer to as the wonderful Woodland School. I say wonderful because of the students, some of which you met tonight, and because of the staff, they are here with me. And because of the Woodland community that we serve, and they're here tonight with me as well. I also want to make sure that I clarify that in March, my colleagues in my community were not here because we felt our work in data would speak for itself. Additionally, I was following the guidance of NJPSA. Today though, my wonderful Woodland community is here in purple and we're ready to celebrate our successes. I'm one of those individuals who knew exactly what I wanted to
224be when I grew up. I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to show others that education was the pathway to success. I'm a first generation Italian American. My parents came here to this country for better and for more. And I'm proud to say because of their dedication to education, all of my siblings, I'm one of five. Two of them were here tonight, have higher degrees. I'm the first to earn a doctorate. I share this to explain why my career and why these folks are sharing what I've referred to as our family approach. We listen to one another and we work together together to solve those concerns. I learned firsthand and early when I became a high school mathematics chair at the early age of 25 that the best way to build trust and transparency
225is by being an actual participant in the community. So I roll up my sleeves. I put my boots to the ground. And every day I'm out there with my team ready to make Woodland wonderful. In my capacity as principal, as the instructional leader of Woodland School, we've created a community of shared learning and shared responsibility. Our staff is provided with planned professional time to bring this mindset and shared approach to fruition. Our students are included, and you've heard about it, by participating in our growth log system, and our monthly assemblies. Our monthly growth assemblies, our collaborative opportunities support all of our school objectives, our social emotional objectives, our professional development goals, our AVID advancement via individual determination goals. We're the only elementary school with that distinction. And my personal leadership goals, having all stakeholders on
226the same page, builds a healthy learning space, familiarity with our goals because we truly are growing together. As for our academic environment, you've already heard about it. Our school when I started was one of the lower performing schools in all of the three grade four five buildings. After our 2025 spring map data, we either meet or exceed our other four five counterparts. It's exciting. These are a result of the collaboration not just with the professionals of Woodland but with the entire school district including some of my colleagues who spoke on my behalf this evening. I believe in this work. I believe education is the level playing field. I believe that all children if given the opportunity will reach their potential. I've been 23 years in education, 19 in educational leadership. I came to Monroe to
227make Woodland School better and I've had the opportunity to do that. My ask of this board tonight is to follow the recommendations of my outstanding supervisors, Dr. Shanley and Dr. Layman, and to allow me to continue to serve as the the Woodland community and continue to lead this wonderful Woodland community. Thank you. My name is Robert Schwarz. Uh, I'm an attorney. I represent the New Jersey Principles and Supervisors Association located here in Monroe. My office is here in Monroe for the last 30 years. And tonight, I'm representing Dr. Chedda. Um, I appreciate the fact that the board is revisiting this issue after having um considered the issue in March. Um, I'm a great believer in process because if the process works the way it's supposed to, we have some predictability. The world is very unpredictable.
228We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. But again, if we have a process that works, we have some predictability. What's the process here? The superintendent evaluates all the principles, observes all the principles, comes to whatever conclusion she's going to come to with respect to their performance. With regard to Dr. Chedda, she's given her evaluations since she came here in Monroe and all the evaluations are either effective or highly effective. And based on those evaluations, she has recommended renewal. She recommended renewal before March. The board uh didn't have the votes in March to accept that recommendation. I'm hoping that tonight you have the votes to accept that recommendation. The process is supposed to be based on the evaluations. The process is supposed to be based on the recommendation of the superintendent. If we don't
229follow the process, as some people said here tonight, we're undermining everything that we stand for. If the message is that irrespective of what our performance is, we're still not going to be appointed, then what's the point of striving? What's the what's the point of doing the best we can? I I sat in I sat in on the award ceremony that you had a little earlier today tonight and you were awarding to students recognition for what they've did whether it was with the band whether it was with cheerleading and why were you doing that? You were doing that because they worked hard, they achieved and they had the support of their adviserss and their teachers. What we're asking for tonight is the same thing. We have Dr. Chedda who's worked hard, who's turned the school around,
230who's created an incredible environment. This is a testament to the environment in that school. And she's worked with the superintendent. She's gotten the recommendation for renewal. Just like you support the kids tonight in in the award ceremony, we're asking that you support the superintendent's recommendation and you support Dr. Chedda, if you if you vote tonight to um to give her a contract for the 2526 school term, I want to emphasize it doesn't mean that she has tenure. She started here in August of 2022. 2020 2022 2022. She doesn't get tenure until August of 2026. So if you renew her contract for the 2526 school term, you have a whole other year to listen what to what the superintendent says about her performance, to listen to what the community says about her performance if you have
231any concerns regarding that performance. You have an whole other year to assess her performance. So there's no real reason not not to accept her renewal for the 2526 school term. People talked about continuity. You know, and I know that if her contract's not renewed, there's going to be a lag time at the at the Woodland School. You're going to have a new new person there. That person is going to have to learn the ropes all over again. And who's going to suffer? The community and the children. The community and the children. So, what we're asking for tonight is for continuity to accept the process, to accept the superintendent's recommendation, and to accept what this community has said about do Dr. Cheddar uh for the last hour or so. She's a wonderful principal in a school
232that that she's labeled the wonderful Woodland School. Thank you very much. Thank you, Sarah Shama, Monroe Township. Um, I have not been here in several months, but uh it seems to be that when I do show up, it's like always some kind of crazy like event. And so I am here for a different purpose. But I do have to say, Dr. Chedda, that when Tar was in your school, he did love your school. He had a great experience with you. You are a wonderful human being. I'm not really sure what happens and how this all happens, but God has a plan. So, everything will work itself out, but and I do I do have a good feeling there's going to be a unanimous yes. So, that's that's my good feeling and maybe my prayers. So,
233the reason that I am here is actually because of the rehiring list. Um, unfortunately, I did not see Coach Lee Vidovski um included on the rehire list. For those of you who may not know Coach Vidowski, known to many as Coach V, he is both a seventh and eighth grade resource teacher and the head coach of the Monroe Middle School wrestling team. His role in our school community goes far beyond his job titles. Over the past two years, he has been a cornerstone of the growth and success of our wrestling program. When Coach V stepped into the head coaching role, it coincided with the expansion of the program to include sixth graders. That year, under his leadership, our team had an incredible season, finishing second in our conference. But his impact wasn't just measured in
234wins. He built a team culture based on discipline, encouragement, and personal accountability. Last season, despite the setback of not being assigned an assistant coach, Coach V took on the full responsibility himself. He never once complained. Instead, he showed up every day and gave 100% to our student athletes. He prepared and supported them, helping a few wrestlers, including my son, Tar, qualify for the GMC Big Small Conference Championship. Coach V's influence on Tar has been very has been truly profound. In sixth grade, Tar won the GMC title, but lost in the final Big Small Conference match. This year, he faced that same opponent in a critical rematch. When the match got tight, Coach V just said one thing to him. He said, "You could be the first three-time GMC champion at Monroe. Now go get it
235done. Those words lit a fire in T. He came from behind to win the match and earn the GMC championship at 70 lbs for all of Middle Sex County. Afterwards, thanks. Afterward, he told me, "Mom, I couldn't let Coach V down." That kind of motivation rooted in mutual respect is something special. I haven't yet told Tar that Coach V may not be returning. I'm still hopeful that this decision can be reconsidered. Coach V is more than a teacher or a coach. He is a mentor, a role model, and a bridge between the middle school, the recreation program, and the high school team. He fosters continuity and collaboration that benefits athletes across our entire district. At the heart of every strong community are the people who invest in our children. So like Dr. Shetta and Coach
236Vidowski, who guide them, challenge them, and inspire them. Coach Vidowski is one of those people. He is an asset we can't afford to lose. I respectfully urge this board and district leadership to find a place for him within our schools. Let him continue the work he's doing, not just for the sake of one team, but for the betterment of our whole community. Thank you. Hi, my name is Steve Mjukovski. I'm also part of the uh the Woodland family. I can tell you I have four kids who've gone through Woodland and my Sophia love Dr. Layman. Um, and all my kids speak so well of you, Chedda. Dr. Chedda, and I had no idea this was happening today at all. Sarah told me about uh, Coach Leadosski. So, I'm also part of the Monroe wrestling community.
237Um, and I just want to speak on behalf of uh, Coach Leadowski and to reconsider rehiring him. Um, being a wrestling coach, it's difficult. Part of it is the wrestling, but then a really big part of it is the character. When you're dealing with middle school kids, um you have some of them that are highly experienced. They've been wrestling since they could read. And then you have other kids that want to try it out. So my daughter Eveina, who is an eighth grader, she's an eighth grade girl that decided she wanted to try wrestling. And coach Lee from the very beginning of the season, he reached out to me and he and I talked, texted every single week. We talked every morning like 6:30 in the morning before she had a match. And he wanted
238to make sure that I knew what the plan was and what the matchup was to make sure that she was in the best situation to grow. I've seen my daughter change tremendously. Um, Eveina is a pretty smart kid. She's in the advanced stuff, but I've seen her character grow a lot. Her image of self change a lots and also just joy. Um, I think when you put a lot of hard work into something, you get so much joy out of it. And she continues to wrestle. She wrestled on Saturday. She lost every match, but she she smiled. And she's convinced her older sister now to also wrestle. So, two of my girls because of coach Lee will wrestle for the high school next year. And then and I want Coach Lee Vidowski to be there
239when my little one Isa who is a fourth grader, Miss Chetta, has a chance to be in the middle school. He's an excellent coach. He's an excellent communicator and he's someone who develops kids character. Yes, he knows wrestling, but he also knows the other half of it. So, please reconsider and rehire coach Lee Vidowski. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we we are going to close the public forum and we're going to switch on the agenda. We're going to move the assistant superintendent's report down so we can get to the superintendent report so we can vote. Thank you, President Fabiano. Um before I even begin, before I even begin, I just want to let you know that um our attorney, Mr. We did hand you out the addendum and that really is just a part of
240the nine member vote that goes to BW. Okay. Do our technology issues which you are all aware of from this weekend. That was one of the um things that were inadvertently removed through the technology issues. So now you have it in front of you. Okay. Okay. So I will keep this short and sweet. I don't I normally provide a lot of information. I will just start out by saying I want to thank the entire Woodland community for coming out. Um, as you well know, my recommendation is my voice, and I I spoke a lot at the last meeting. I'm not going to do that again, except to say my recommendation is my voice. I think extremely highly of Dr. Cheddar, who I hired with great sincerity, and who I continue to embrace and I continue
241to support. And I will leave it at that. I think enough has been said. We didn't have an opportunity to meet in the month of April, but we've had numerous activities going on. our board um our student board representatives do a incredible job, sometimes better than myself and Dr. Layman um in just sharing all the wealth of things that go on. I did want to just give a shout out to the fact that the M walk-athon, it's the 8th annual is coming up again and I believe it's May 18th. May 18th. So for those of you that have an opportunity to come out, I I come out, I sign up, I most certainly do not run. I stand, I talk, I chat, I walk. You can do the same. We're very very fortunate here that
242we have entire we have unbelievable community members that come out for different reasons. And I also just wanted to make mention because it was not mentioned on the students report. We did have an incredible presentation of the Holocaust. Um we did give some awards this evening. So um I did send out a community message regarding Yamhashawa which is the um the day of remembrance and we continue to support opening the minds of our children. I had the great pleasure of going and introducing as well as participating and being there. I know Dr. Layman was as well as well as many of our other supervisors. So I I did feel it was very important to mention because it was an incredible opportunity for our children to hear firsthand and I must say that the gentleman was
243101 years old. One of the gentlemen that spoke. It was amazing. Okay, before I begin, we have two retirements. One which we did give a level of applause which deserves another to Mr. Martin Griffin, a teacher of music for 24 years here at the high school. We wish him well as he continues to fly to his next endeavor. And our next retiree is Kathleen Sizzik. She's a teacher of basic skills for 24 years at Mil Lake School. On that note, I will begin for my approvals and I'm going skip to nine. Um, we can go to the nine. No. Do we want to go? We can go. I am going to nine. I apologize. I can go anywhere you want. Oh, yeah. Go to the nine number vote. That's fine. Yeah. Just making sure I'm
244doing everything right. Okay. Personel. So I'm going to go to personnel. As everybody saw, the lawyer did hand down an addendum as I spoke on. We are at the point where I am now asking under the nine member vote personnel. It is recommended the board approve the attached personnel items AK through BW. Motion. Motion. Second. Motion by Miss Bora, second by Miss Ratner. Can I get a point of order? Are we doing both the personnel nine member vote and the personnel continued nine member vote? That is correct. And the form and the sheets that you got in the Excel spreadsheet. Okay. Designates all of the nine member personel entire nine member. Okay. Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board? Miss Bora? I do have a comment um specifically for BU1. I'm loving the
245sea of purple. I have faith uh my faith in community is renewed today. Thank you everyone for coming out. Thank you for the hundreds of emails we've received and I did speak a lot last month. I am just going to say we've gone through a month of anguish as a town, as a community and I'm hoping that this board is going to do the right thing for the students, the staff and the Monroe community today. Thank you, Mr. Defono. Uh Dr. Cheddar, I just I wanted to say um how embarrassed I am that after all the love, inspiration, and and and just I I can't believe how much the community and your school loves you, your staff, and I I'm I'm embarrassed because um after all that hard work and like I said, all that
246love and admiration that you have to sit there with anxiety and tears in your eyes and with counsel and worry about your position in this town is it's embarrassing and I I hope that no matter what the vote is today that you never change the person that you are because the world needs people like you in it. Miss Allen, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez. Yes. So all abstain on BU1. Miss Bora, yes to all. Mr. Payne, yes to all. And can I make a comment if you don't mind, Dr. Cheddar? I know. Um, you can ask my husband and my children. I'm a very tough parent with my children. Two of them are teachers and they're tough with their students. And I really don't change my mind that much. I'm
247kind of like a tough Hungarian. But after reading all the emails and seeing all the people here tonight, I have to say that I'm giving you a tremendous yes. [Applause] Mr. Puro. Uh, yes to I'm standing on BU1. Miss Rner. Um, yes to all. I need to um abstain due to conflict on letter BK number five for Mr. Ratner and then BW for Mr. Ratner. I don't have a number. So, um, Miss Chararma, can I just say a comment first and give the my answer? Dr. Dr. Sa thank you so much for your wonderful job. It was lovely evening to see all these lovely small kids and still they are here and of course the school teachers and other principles and administrators that you did a wonderful job and I hope and I believe that
248you will continue to do the wonderful job. So my answer is a big yes for all. [Applause] Mr. Chano, of course. Yes, 100%. [Applause] Mr. Zikner, Mr. Zer. Okay. Um, Dr. Cheddar, um, I'm going to keep this short and sweet. Um I also don't change my mind often but this turnout was just amazing and um so as as far as I am concerned you have an enthusiastic yes yes to all yes to all motion passes. [Applause] We need to We appreciate you. Let us finish our meeting. Thank you. We're we're going to continue on with the meeting. So, Dr. Chanley, yes, I will be happy to go ahead. Dr. Chedda Mazle Maz. Yeah. Under personnel nine member vote letter BX, it's recommended that the assistant superintendent of schools that the board of the board reappoint
249the following certificated staff for the 2526 school year. Motion. Second. Motion by Miss Boris, second by Miss Alvarez. Any questions or comments? Oh. Um, I know. Yeah, we'll wait. Mr. Zagner, we can wait, right? Yeah. One minute. We'll wait. We'll wait. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. We'll wait. No, he's fine. He can't. Charlie can't hear. Yell loud. We got to go. We have to go into a second close session. you guys conflict. You want to ask? Um, ladies and gentlemen, if I can just ask if we can take the conversation outside because we would like to continue on with the meeting. I I mean, we heard B. Well, we we have the motion on the table to vote on BX and his Yeah. So, It's letter BX. BX on there's a motion
250nine member vote. Charlie, there's a motion on the table to vote on letter BX on the agenda. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Are there any questions or comments from the board on letter BX? No. Okay. Can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez? Yes. Miss Bora? Yes. Mr. Depay? Yes, Dr. Peek. No, that's not a 10 member. That's not nine member vote. What would you have? Um, Mr. Piro, yes. Miss Ratner, yes. Miss Chararma, yes. Mr. Tufano, yes. Mr. Zikner, yes. Miss Fabiano, yes. Motion passes. That to me, we're going to go now to the 10 member vote. Under personnel, it is recommended the board approve the attached personnel items A through AJ. Motion second. Motion by Miss Ratner, second by Miss Bora. Are there any questions or comments from the board? Miss Ratner,
251just a very quick comment. Um, I just wanted to give a shout out to Mr. Griffin. Um, I don't and my boys don't believe me. I was a music teacher for a decade before they were born. And I actually had the pleasure of working with him doing marching band competitions. I would be the coordinator. He was one of the adjudicators. and you know he's built a fantastic program here over the last several years. Um and so I just wanted to thank him for all his work. Okay, Miss Allen, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez, yes to all. No to O and AG. Miss Bora, yes to all. Mr. Depay, yes to all. Dr. Peek, yes. Mr. Po, um abstaining on letter M and standing on. I'm not off tomorrow. Oh, I'm
252not. I thought about it. What? Oh, you're going to stayain on AG. Okay. M N A G. Is that M N A G? Yes. My fingers. Okay. Um, Miss Ratner. Uh, yes to all. Miss Sharma, that's my I'm gonna say no to O and AG. Yes. You mean um yes to all and no to O and Ag. O and AG. Okay. Um Mr. Tufano. Yes. Mr. Zikner. Uh yes uh exception is O and um was it and I think it's AG is it and AG AG. Okay, thank you. Um, and Miss Fabiano, yes to all, no to O and AG. So, AG does not pass. And we have one, two, three, four. So, um, O does everything passes except AG. Okay. Is it Dr. Chanley board action apologize? Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, under board
253action for a 10- member vote. It is recommended the board approve the attached board action items A through N. Can I make um a motion to I don't know if I'm supposed to do this before or after. for a motion just to table uh letter F for our 5430 and 5440. Um just so we can So does this motion come first or does that motion that's him? I don't know. Okay, just show me where I am because anybody second she wants to know she said she make a motion to table this before or after. Uh recommended she can do it now. from cash. I will make my motion to table that so we can discuss that policy. Can we comment on that tableling part right now or do so just for public records? The reason
254we wanted to table 5430 and more specifically 5440 is because there has been a lot of um uh emails from the community about taking out the weighted component of national honor society. Um, so we are changing the requirements to make it a little bit more selective, which is good for the school district, but we should continue to take in account the weightage and that's what the community is asking for for students not to be discouraged to take honors and AP. So that was not how the first read came and this was up for second read and that's the reason uh we're asking to table this so that it can go back into policy. The administration has been in conversation. They would like to propose a different recommendation which can be discussed in the policy. Why
255are we taking 5430? There was no there was no discussion about ranking class. I agree. I'm sorry. Just 5440. Just 5440. Because 5430 is just class rank. Yes. Right. May I do I need to withdraw 5430 from my table? We're just going to clarify that motion is to uh table F as it relates to 5440 only. Yes. Yep. That would be the motion to table F54 5440. No, Miss Ratner already made that motion and Miss Bora already seconded it. So now that was the discussion so we can move. Roll call. Yes. Unless anybody has any any more comments on it. No comments right now. We'll talk about it during policy or curriculum or both. Roll call, please. Um, Miss Alvarez, yes. Miss Bar, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Dr. Peek, yes. Mr. Piro, yes. Miss Ratner,
256yes. Miss Chararma, yes. Mr. Javano, yes. Mr. Zikner, yes. Miss Fabiano, motion passes. Now we have repeat myself. Now you have the motion. So that was motion. Okay. Now the regular the regular motion. regular motion A through N which includes uh F uh two and the one underneath it 543. So Miss Bora, you made that motion. I made the motion and seconded it. Seconded it. Okay, Dr. Pek seconded it. Okay, comments. Great. Roll call, please. Miss Bora. Yes, Mr. Depay. Yes, Dr. Peek. Yes, Mr. Pero. Yes, Mr. Ratner. Um, and yes, I need to recuse on letter A for Dr. Chanley and Mr. Snider. Okay, Miss Chararma, yes. Mr. Tfano, yes. Mr. Zikner, yes. Miss Fabiano, yes. Motion passes. Okay. Lastly, under a nine-member vote for board action is recommended the board approve the attached
257board action items O through V. Motion. Second. Second. Motion by Miss Boris, second by Mr. Depay. Questions or comments? Okay. Okay. Can we have a roll call, please? Miss Alvarez. Uh, so just to clarify, is letter I. We're voting on nine member through V. Letter I O through. Okay. Yes. Yes. Okay. Miss Bora. Yes. M. Depay. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Miss Ratner. Um, yes. I need to recuse on letter O for Mr. Lurri and um on letter P I need to um the conflict for field trips under Mr. Rner. Okay. Miss Chararma. Yes. Mr. Tfano? Yes. Mr. Zikner? Yes. Miss Fabiano? Yes. Motion passes. Okay. Um say thank you and it's been a very fulfilled evening and it is teacher appreciation week. Our teachers and staff are fantastic. Thank you. Dr. Dr. Leman, do you
258want to give your assistant superintendent's report? Yes. And I'll make it quick, but I always I appreciate you moving my report after the superintendent report because I it was always going to be that thing between needed to get them and then the vote in between, right? So, I just wanted to uh congratulate and thank our teachers. It is teacher appreciation week. Last week, we recognized our assistant principles and uh vice principles as well as principles. The nurses are being recognized shortly. Earlier in the year was the uh pair of professionals. So, everyone that works in the district, they're the true heartbeat. They're the true backbone of our district. And uh we couldn't do what we do to serve our students without them. So, thank you for your support. Thank you for everything you do. And
259I have one uh exciting partnership to highlight today. And it wasn't talked about yet because we talked about a lot of things. Um, but we're excited to announce that the Mono Township School District spring concert series will kick off next Tuesday at the middle school and continue through the work uh, first week of June. So, keep an eye on social media. You're going to get all the dates if you haven't seen them yet. Um, but this year's series features a very special milestone in our musical community. For the first time ever, Jamesburg Middle School band students will join our Monro Township Middle School seventh and eighth grade band students for a combined piece at the seventh and eighth grade spring concert on Tuesday, May 28th at 7 o'clock in the middle school. This collaboration is
260made possible through the efforts of Mr. Snider, our music supervisor, Miss Tiana Zerelli, the seventh eighth grade band director, and Miss Dunk of Jamesburg. And both of her uh JMS music teachers marks the beginning of a what we hope to be an ongoing partnership between the middle school music programs and help maintain a smooth transition for the Jamesburg students as they transition uh to Mono Township. Thank you. Of course. Very excited for that concert. And that concludes my report. I forgot to add one thing though. Tonight was a celebration and we should acknowledge that we did have all of our employees of the year this evening celebrated and it was it was wonderful and most of the board members were able to join us. So I did want to say thank you very much. Hey
261Miss Ellen, your turn. Okay. Um it is recommended that board action items A G through A through AG be approved by consent roll call under a 10 member vote. Motion. Second. Motion by Miss Forest, second by Miss Alvarez. Are there any questions or comments, Miss Ratner? Um, I just really quickly um just wanted to um I don't know where it went just for it's I'm I'm good. We can move on. If I think of it, I'll bring it back up during order for business. Okay. Okay. Okay. Miss Allen, can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez. Uh yes to all recus myself on AA. Miss Bora. Yes to all. Miss Depay. Yes to all, but I have to abstain on your bill list because I have a relative that's been subbing here and
262also on AA where it pertains to me for the school board's convention. Okay. Um Dr. Pek, yes to all. Okay. Um Mr. Pero. Okay. Um Miss Rner, sorry. I have a couple of abstains, so maybe I'll be back. Um, I need to abstain um for myself on letter A for the um schoolboard association workshop. Um, and then Oh, I think it worked. On the bill list, I need to abstain um on checks numbers 06381, 06330, 06382, and 06737. And then I need to abstain to conflict on the addendum for 06874. Okay. Mr. Pero. Yes. Thank you. Miss Chararma. Yes. Mr. Tfano. Yes. To all. No. On FR5440. 554. No. No. No. That's that's I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, wait. Hold on then. That's not the right number. Okay. The uh Oh, no. That's not I'm
263sorry. You're right. I'm in the wrong place. Okay. I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. Mr. Zikner. Yes. Okay. Miss Fabiano. Yes. Motion passes. Um, it is recommended that board action items AH through AI be approved by consent roll call under a nine member vote. Motion second. Second. Motion by Miss Bora, second by Miss Alvarez. Questions or comments? Okay. Can we roll call, please? Yes. Miss Alvarez? Yes. Miss Bora? Yes. Mr. Depay? Yes. Mr. Piro? Yes. Miss Ratner? Yes. Miss Chararma? Yes. Mr. Tavano? Yes. Mr. Zikner? Yes. Miss Fabiano. Yes. Motion passes and that concludes my report. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the board president's report. Um very very brief. Happy teacher appreciation week to all of the educators here everywhere. Um I for one appreciate you and all the work you do. Um not
264only for my kids but all of our students each and every day. So thank you. Um Mother's Day is Sunday. Happy Mother's Day to everyone. I know kind of gets lost in the shuffle. Um and then um also I just wanted to comment on the student and staff awards this evening. It really was a wonderful evening. I was very happy that we got to honor the student and the teacher that um were simply heroic in the event that happened at the middle school. Um so it was great to see them both and congratulate them. So it was really a nice evening. Um and that's it. That's it for my report. So we're going to go on to other board business. Are there any board members wishing to speak? Miss Bora, I just want to quickly
265speak about two events that I attended um in the past month that I haven't been able to uh talk about. Work-based learning event here in high school. It was amazing to see the alumni panel there. Uh I do have a high schooler who participated, got great advice from um alumni and um you know, local business owners. So, um, kudos to the staff for putting an event like this together and I, um, look forward to what this will become in future years. I also, this was a community event I felt. And the other community event I attended was, um, the partnership between Barkley Brook and the Parker House. I went to Barkley Brook for an event where Parker House residents visited and did a STEM activity with second graders. And it was it gave me goosebumps.
266It was beyond incredible that little media room with little tiny chairs had had um you know the entire a spectrum out there and our educators are doing a great job in in building that community relationship. So I was um very honored as a board member and as a parent for the other event to be able to witness the great work that's happening in the district. In the other board business because we couldn't have this discussion earlier. I would like to touch on the policy discussion that happened in the policy meeting on um public forum and share my views because I'm not a committee member. Um I I really really feel we should not be going over four minutes no matter what changes we're making. We are one of the districts that does four minutes. Majority
267of the districts and I've been going to the NJSBA workshop every year and attended these sessions on how public forum should be handled. 3 minutes is what most districts give. So even if we were to you know change the format of this we should not go over four minutes. Um it if the aim is to hub the public and allow them to go first by all means we can take out which again I have my hesitations again we can make it not specific to agenda items but for that also we have to limit the first public session to 1 hour. uh we are here to do business and if we make the public forum open to anything not just agenda items it delays us from doing business. So if public really wants to speak to
268something that's in the agenda, that's why we do it first so that we can then do business and for non-aggenda items, I I'm I want to emphasize I am I am the largest advocate you can find for public participation. But I do also want to remind people we have a chain of command. We have accessibility to board members outside. We have emails for board members that you can write to. So a public forum is not your only way to talk to the board. It's your last resolve. That's how it should be treated. If you want to be part of, you know, if you want to make an impact on our decisions, you have a say even without coming to these meetings. It's great if you come to the meetings. It's great if you listen into
269the meetings, but the first public forum is made agenda specific to allow us to do the business. Today was um as gratifying it was of a community event, it did it was almost two and a half hours of public forum. So I feel like keeping it agenda specific will help us conduct business and you know sticking to four minutes if and maybe limiting it to an hour if you want to open to non-aggenda items and then if you've not gotten a chance in the f first public forum then unfortunately come back again for the second public forum. And I think that was kind of where the discussion I can stop. We're not making any changes. We're keeping the policy as it is. No recommendations. We're not speaking to public because I want to reiterate to
270the members. The only Yeah. The only thing that's changing is the committee reports aspect, but everything else is staying. Access the committee reports. I kept trying. Yeah. We can't I couldn't find them. I was saying I found two of them. the other four. I think there was some technical and I personally as a as a committee chair was only able to send my reports in at 2:30 p.m. today and I don't know if it was too late. So, but I was I can easily comment the technology issue that we dealt with. Miss Linsky, I have over and over again said how incredible and wonderful she is. For whatever reason, I'm going to call it corrupted file. I don't know if that's the right term, but you know when you have a corrupted file in a
271document Yeah. And all of a sudden, no matter what you do, that particular section is corrupted. No matter what Rashima did, I was standing over her trying to work with her. She called tech support. She couldn't make it happen. She went home, reached out to um board docs. I sent that to you to show you. She tried. She couldn't make it happen. Saturday night, maybe 1:00 in the morning or so, she's like, "I'm still typing, Shar." She retyped the entire sections and then when she tried to upload it to Board Docs, it showed that it was successful and it was not. So, I don't know if this is the case. I will personally look at and discuss with Mr. Feldman. I'm going to assume perhaps the board doc's uploading of the committee notes may be
272that case. I'm not saying it is. I don't know. I'm saying that it has been a nightmare and we knew by public 6 p.m. on Saturday it had to become public and that is why she did it the way she did it. Can and I I just want to so I'm my comments are based off of the meetings that I watched the video meetings. I have not been able to read any minutes. So I'm going to take this over to the next thing. I know this was the first time and probably the wrong meeting to try this because we had to we didn't have any time to spend on that. There are times when I'm not able to see the videos and those reports are important and I may not be able to see it
273the day of the board meeting. My board agenda review is, you know, with I don't want to give excuses, but as a as a person with a day job and children and so many commitments, we find our time to do our agenda review. And that's why the agenda comes thankfully on a Friday so that we find some time on the weekend. If I'm expected to then again log in before I come in for the meeting to read the reports so that I know what's going on, it's a little extra ask of the board members. And I understand the concern is that our meetings are too long. Can we find another creative solution to it? Yes. Go ahead. I have a suggestion. Why don't we all print out copies for all of us to have in
274front of us? I I like that idea. Perfect. Yeah. As long as I'm doing the work while I'm here and there's time that I could glance through it, right? It's not, Miss Rner. So, I I I like that idea. I guess my concern then would come from community members who wouldn't have necessarily those copies because sometimes there are people that ask questions about what has happened in the committees that perhaps haven't watched the videos of those committees and you know as you guys know like I've always tried to watch all the videos for the committees where I'm not a part of this month I was fortunate that I was at all the meetings so I didn't really have to worry about this. Um but you know when I when I looked for the minutes the
275the minutes for the two committees that um were present one was um for lace and one was policy and it was attached to those committees agendas on board docs like so um I don't know again like it my gosh it could have been just that they weren't able to be uploaded. I'm not sure. But I just I feel that we I I definitely think meetings need to be more efficient. I definitely think some of us definitely not me talk too much. Um but I I do think that we need to find some way happy medium. You need to find a happy medium for the public. And then just because you had mentioned this the public forum part I have we've discussed this at least once maybe twice since we've been on the board. My thought
276has always been, you know, I'm a I'm a parent of three young kids, right? I know a lot of other parents of young kids. We saw kids that have state testing. Luckily, that was an agenda item. So, you know, but I want the public to be able to participate earlier. I also do understand that this is a business meeting. My I would definitely not want to limit the time. So, if it's a choice between those two, then let's leave it separate. Four minutes, four minutes. Um, but that's always been my support was let's let you know we have a a very large senior citizen population who maybe doesn't want to drive so late at night but they have something they want to say. You know, I don't want them to have to wait until 11:00
277at night to speak. Hopefully they don't have to, but in those times like I think this is the first time our board meeting has gone this late in a long time. Um, so hopefully that doesn't happen often, but that's sort of where I was coming from. Um, and then just the only other thing I wanted to mention is I know that the delegate assembly is coming up. I know Miss Depay is our delegate. However, for all the board members, if you are interested in getting your certified board member or master board member certification, you do need to attend a delegate assembly. You don't need to go in person. You can register online and um view it remotely. Um but you do have to do that in order to obtain those certifications. And it's this Saturday,
2789:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Actually, 8:00 a.m. for breakfast, 9:00 a.m. for I'm doing it virtually 9 to 12. There's only three resolutions this Saturday, too. Go ahead, Mr. Zgner. Yeah, I I just want to comment that this this was an unusual uh situation that we had, and I think the way you handled it, you should be commended. And I I I really mean that because people really had you had to let them express themselves. And I think you handed it properly. And I don't think if you look at all the board meetings since you've been president, I don't believe that you've let people speak a little bit longer but was only a few seconds. That's few seconds does not make our board meetings real long. That problem is one in terms of we need
279to streamline. We need to be creative and come up with a way to streamline and there streamline the board meetings. And I've said that before there are some things we can do. We can look at it from a creative perspective and come up with some solutions that all of us all of us would be very happy with. I think we all want to get home at a reasonable hour. This this situation I mean I I thought I knew I couldn't do a point of order but I tried it. Um, thank you. You know, I already had made up my mind, so that that wasn't the issue, but you had them let them express themselves and and the support, you know, that was so important. That's human nature and you had no choice. So, thank you.
280Thank you, Mr. Zner. I appreciate your kind words, Mr. Tuano. Yeah. I just want to announce that on June 14th, the booster club is throwing a car show uh at the high school. Uh there'll be food trucks and vendors and hopefully a lot of cars. Um it's to raise money for the students. Um between 10 and three. So I hope to see all of you and your families there. And if you spread the word that would be great. Thank you. Okay. Just one quick thing I forgot to ask. Someone had mentioned the high school sign is not is isn't working again. I wasn't sure if this is accurate or not. I I don't think it has the high school. It's been broken for some time. So it just still has not been corrected was the
281concern that Okay. Yeah. Um Okay. So the next uh public forum, we have a public forum. Um anybody wishing to speak, you have four minutes to do so. State your name and municipality for the record. Good evening, Chrissy Scurby, Monroe Township. I want to thank the board members who changed your vote and had a change of heart and uh voted to approve Dr. Cheddar this evening. Um I know our district is better for that decision. Um but I guess we have to fire somebody at each meeting. Um it's really unfortunate what you did to our director of security this evening. Um I guess we'll be seeing this next month as well. Um I I don't understand what this board is doing with constantly trying to fire employees. It's really not a good look for us
282here in Monroe. And when you change the if you're following Robert's rules of order, if you're going to change the agenda, you're supposed to in the beginning of the meeting, you're supposed to um let the board know that you're supposed to take a vote on changing the order of the agenda. Um I think it was really unfortunate and I wondered why you were doing it, but now I see why. You wanted to fire Mr. Selby after you reapproved Dr. Chhatta. It was really unfortunate that that's that's what this board did. And as far as the committee reports, u I don't believe that policy had been changed with a a second read. And Gazala, I I have to uh I have to reach out to you on this. You fought with me for transparency. We are
283going back to the days of no discussion at board meetings and and not having real discussions. I don't know. Why didn't we Why didn't we want to discuss what happened in committee meetings? Did we not want to tell the public that Applegarth School might not open in September? Are we trying to keep that quiet because we didn't want to do a BG&T update? You are here as elected officials. I'm sorry if it's late. Resign your position. But to say that you don't want to discuss what went on in committee meetings so that the public knows and has the ability to come up to the first public forum and ask questions before you vote. That is opposite of transparency. That is opposite gazal of everything that we tried to change. We are reverting back to the
284past. It is long nights. Tonight you could have been home probably by 900 p.m. if you didn't try to fire Dr. Jedha, that's on you. That's not on the public. They came out to support her because they did write in and many people didn't get a response from the board. They read on social media, we we we didn't approve Dr. Chedda because she didn't have as many people as Mrs. Garcia come out and speak for her. So, what did we do? We organized a massive amount of teachers, staff, administrators, and parents and kids to come out and speak on her behalf because that's what you said you wanted. So when that happens, you can't then say, "We don't want long meetings." You invited what happened here tonight. You didn't invite I know a few board
285members answered emails, but not all. They felt like their voices were left unheard. So Gazalo, when you say there's other ways that they could reach instead of coming here, it seems that only when you come here to this podium, this board listens. So I would say that I wouldn't agree with with what you were saying. It should work that way, but it doesn't. And I would really hope that you would reconsider discussing what goes on in committee meetings. That is the foundation of what this board in Monroe Township has been doing for several years for transparency. Why wouldn't you want to have discussions with your fellow board members? This is where you do your business. It's a business meeting. You have those discussions here in public so that everybody can see your discussions, your deliberations,
286and we can ask questions based on that. Anything other is going back to a board that's not transparent. Thank you. I just want to be clear. Nobody here has said that we don't want to have a discussion about committee reports. That has never been said. You stopped Mrs. Bora tonight. She wanted to have Your time is up. You can sit down. Your time is up. You can sit down. I will. Thank you. Your time is up. No board member has said that we will not discuss committee reports. And there is nothing that is hidden. There is nothing that is not transparent. The videos are live. Our committees are live. Anybody can watch them at any time. Our reports will be available are available for the community to review. This is an evolving process that we
287are working on to streamline the process and the community is not being shut out in any way, shape or form. We will have discussions on committee reports. Most of what comes up in committees is on the agenda for discussion. There are things that come up in committees that are not that we absolutely should continue to discuss as a board during that section of the agenda. But at no time did any board member up here say that we will not be discussing what's in committee reports. I just want to make that perfectly clear. Are there any other members of the public wishing to speak? I just quickly Bob Valentine on good evening again I'll be very brief. I just want to just say this simply I I not and respectfully disagree in terms of the public
288forum. I think personally the town and the town council is five minutes and five minutes. I'm not sure why you're not doing what the town's doing. Um I I think there are opportunities you could look at to try to streamline the meeting. Some of them I've informally shared with some of you individually. Um I like to bring my questions forward here because it's not just address it to you, but I want the members of the community here to listen so they so I hope they get a greater knowledge and appreciation what we're trying to do. when I come up and ask a question. I'm really trying to help the people in the community might not be brilliant some of these things and you think about the like the budget's a good example I've been on
289this and the town council too all the tremendous work Laura you and your team doing all the hours that go into that I have four minutes to ask my questions you know like there's a disconnect there to me that I think the public forum is a valuable part I do I do understand and respect I don't want to be here either Craig I I'm going to shoot me um but I think you have to I think you have to you know I think I I think whatever your problems is, I don't think it's so much the five minutes and four four minutes and four minutes. I think you got to take a look at how you schedule events, how many things you try to do in one evening. And I know your time is very
290valuable and you're very busy people and I respect that. But I think at times you try to pack too many things into one night. And I hope as you look at everything that's something you'll consider. Thank you. Miss Fabiano, can I just say something? When I go to Middle Sex County School Board's meetings, I asked around to the other districts and I think we're one of few that actually videotapes and puts our committee meetings out there and does minutes. They all went, "What? You do what?" And I was like, "Yeah, we we videotape so everybody sees it." So, we're one of few that does it. So, I commend this district for doing it. So, uh, Miss Fabian, I forgot one thing on my other board business. I just wanted to give a shout out to
291Dr. Chanley. What happened tonight would not have been possible if Dr. Chanley had not shown the leadership she has shown to put Dr. Saha back on the agenda and I want that to go on record that Dr. Seda did not have a second chance if this leader here had not taken the risk despite some indications from the board not to do it. So I want to commend you. I want to thank you for your leadership and um you know this this community needs to know that tonight happened because you took that chance again. Thank you for that. And to Mrs. Dain's point um you're right, we are definitely one of the only districts but it has happened through the actions of the past board and trying to get transparency. I have been involved here when
292the meetings committee meetings used to happen in that room. You had no space to sit. You couldn't see what was going on inside. was never recorded, no minutes. We have changed the way we do business to to really be in touch with the community. And yes, today's meeting was an an abnormal meeting in a lot of ways, but a lot of discussion on important things did not happen. And I I know it's invol evolving process and I'm going to support you with that. But I think what what we did today wasn't ideal. We should definitely go back and have a discussion, you know, through emails and find out what would be the next best way to do this. People need to know the key points that the committees touched on even though they might not
293be on vote, but they're like the example Mrs. Scurby brought up was great. The apple god situation and uh from cor from uh finance the change in lunch prices. People are not following the agenda. They would hear it in a committee report being spoken out loud. They're not looking at videos, right? So, uh, it's something that we can work on together as a board for sure. Okay. So, we bring that back to policy to discuss a little bit more. Perhaps we have to go to, uh, second close session. So, I have to, do I have to read the resolution again? Okay. So, we're close session resolution. So, where is the senator Byron Mair open public meetings act? NJSA10 col4-6 provides that the Monro Township Board of Education may hold an executive session from which the
294public is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed section 12B of the act. And whereas the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subjects will be made public at a time when the public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental interest being protected from disclosure. Now therefore, be it resolved by the Monro Township Board of Education that the board shall go into executive session to discuss the following items. Additional items may be determined and announced as needed and that is the superintendent evaluation. Be it further resolved that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in close session no longer exist. Action may be taken on any of the items stated above. Motion
295um we motion by Mr. Tufano second by Mr. Pay. We do need to appoint an acting secretary inate Miss Alvarez to do the acting secretary. We have to um to the public the amount of time that we're expecting. So, an hour is give or take about an hour. Um, did did I get voted? Yes. Miss Alvarez is the acting secretary. Yeah. Can we just Can we just have a roll call on that? Oh, can we have a roll call on Hold on. Freeze. I need a roll call on Miss Alvarez as the acting secretary. I'm sorry. Roll call or do we want Yeah. Yay. gays or naysay. Uh you could do it by uh voice vote. All in favor? I I Any opposed? Any opposed? Any abstensions? Maybe I guess you got to go home,
296right? Well, I don't have to. I mean, I do. Hey, the board has returned from executive session. Uh we need a motion to close executive session. Second motion by Miss Bora, second by Mr. Piro. We need a roll call or Okay, I got to do this right. Wait, hold on. First by Gazala, second by who? P. I think it was motion by me or P. Okay, motion to roll call. I seconded it. You made the motion. Who made the motion? Pro and Bora. Okay, sorry. Okay, I'm going to take a roll call. Uh, myself, yes. Gazala, yes. Mr. Payne, yes. Dr. Peek, yes. Mr. Piro, yes. Miss Chararma. Yes. Mr. Tufano, yes. Mr. Zikner, yes. Mrs. Fabiano, yes. Okay. Um, to return to Oh, we need a motion to return to open session. Guys, I
297can't read this. Motion to return to open. Okay. Mr. Tfano's first. Second by I think I did. M. Depain. Sure. I think so. Okay. All those in favor? I I Any oppose? Abstensions. Okay. Um there is nobody here so we don't need a public forum for close session items. But I'd like to make a motion, please, if I can, Madam President. Sure. I make a motion to place Superintendent Chanley on paid administrative leave effective today because of what we heard tonight. Second. Motion by Mr. pain second by Miss Alvarez. No, you got to work no sit down. This is what they want to do. You got to vote no. I'll vote. We can't. Every vote counts. Oh, I know. But this is their plan. It's not This is ridiculous. Okay. You think she just Miss
298Alvarez? Yes. Miss Bora? No. Mr. Payne? Yes. Dr. Peek? No. Mr. Piro, yes. Miss Chararma, yes. Mr. Tufano. Absolutely not. Mr. Zikner, unfortunately, yes. Mrs. Fabiano, yes. Motion passes. Our next public board of education meeting is Wednesday, June 11th at 6:15. Um, to close the meeting. Is there a mo motion to adjurnn? Motion. Second. All those in favor? It passed. All those in favor of clos. Okay. Okay, have a good evening everybody. Have a good evening.