001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag 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 may we have a roll call Mr Mr Gorski Mrs Kono here Mr cherella miss anelis here Mr Braverman here Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr Larry here Mr Masters here tesler here Bron here Adam board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted December 9th 2011
002one at all schools two the home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality and before we continue I'm sure that you've all noticed that Dr Hamilton is not with us this evening he is recovering from surgery and I know we all wish him a full full and speedy recovery and Dr Gorman will be replacing him temporarily at this time we will go to our student board members reports good evening several events took place this month um there were high school parent teacher conferences on November 29th and December 1st there was a half day on December 2nd due to the parent teacher conferences and SATs were given at Monro Township High School on December third okay to follow up the monra Township High School course performed at St Hench
003yesterday the course concert itself will be tomorrow at the Performing Arts Center at 7:00 p.m. and December 16th is designated as as the snow day uh there will be half day December 23rd and schools will be closed December 26th through January 2nd for winter break thank you okay thank you very much we will go to number six on the agenda the 2011 Henry rickless Holocaust Memorial committee essay writing contest I'm going to turn this over to miss Dr Gorman um I'd like to introduce Mr David Rothman who's been doing some great work with our students and Mr D philippus at the high school good evening thank you Dr uh Gorman uh I also want to thank she's not here right now Bonnie Burke who's been an advocate for our group and also Matty philippus who
004just makes the whole Project work seamlessly our projects what we do is because we the Henry rickus Holocaust Memorial committee is is dedicated to speaking of the holocost and keeping the issues of it alive and the lessons from it uh we run an essay contest every year right around June and we do it with the freshman class we invite some of our survivors who are eyewitnesses of History to give their life histories and then we invite the student body I should turn off my cell phone before I come um in any event when we invite them there to give their life histories and we hope the students take the opportunity to hear what they what they've uh just heard uh maybe learn a little further by going to uh the library and then writing an
005essay on one of four questions what would you do if you met a denier uh could it happen again could it happen in the US what would you have done if you lived at the time of the Holocaust and why is it important to even learn about the Holocaust thinking of all the distractions that happen in June you've got uh obviously finals you have summer vacation you have summer plans we feel good if 50 or 75 students respond we feel great if it's a 100 but 2011 was a home run 186 of your freshman last year sophomores now participated in this essay contest we are thrilled um the tough part was to read the essays all 186 of them we have six on our committee uh well-educated people who would give it a score from
0061 to five we gathered together after we read all 186 and then we took the look the ones that averaged out from all six of us at 4.5 or high to figure out who were the the top winners we came up with 11 I'm not going to take up all your time to read all 11 they be worthwhile I'm going to call up two of our students two of the student essay uh uh winners just to give you an example and then we'd like to give the awards to all 11 that are here the first one I'm going to call up is Victoria jet if you'd come up [Applause] [Music] [Applause] okay I wrote my essay on the teenager's experience in the Holocaust you have 3 minutes to gather your important belongings and head to
007the trains the soldiers voices ran through me as I suddenly realized I would never see my home again I ran into my room and gathered my belongings quickly and headed to out the door with the rest of my family as I walked out the door I realized I was no longer myself I would know no longer be Isabelle hour back the 15-year-old girl who dreams of being a Dancer the girl who loves music and fashion in school she is now gone and a prisoner is now what I've become as I entered the claustrophobic train cart I took my last look at freedom and last glance at sunlight for 2 or 3 days I closed my eyes and hummed music in my head to block out the world around me trying my best to block out
008everything I could hear the moons and screams of children as well as adults ringing in my ear 3 days later I felt the train stop and my stomach dropped I got off the train and gathered my belongings and met up with my family in the center of the camp entrance my father my mother my father and myself were all chosen to stay at this Camp du to our ability to make shoes and clothing juli and my four-year-old brother and Lucy my 10 year-old sister were chosen to go to another Camp I wiped away my mother's tears as she cried when realizing this was the last time she would ever see her children deep inside I wanted to run to them and protect them from any harm we watched them enter the train and take off
009we were then taken to our rooms once there an announcement was made telling us all the rules we had to listen to all orders work till we are told to stop we cannot ask questions we cannot wander around the camp I must go to The Sewing and Sho making headquarters and stay there all day if I get hurt or cut I must wrap it up with fabric and keep going I have to wait till there's an announcement to find out my next meal when my next meal will be only a few lucky ones got to take a shower my only question is why don't they ever come back as I lay on my wooden bunk to sleep I shiver and wonder what they will do to me after what feels like months my family and
010I were sitting in our room one day when a guard came and took my parents away I wondered where they were going I sat on my bunk and waited I waited all night until I fell asleep then the next morning I went to work and waited again I did this for a month then finally gave up something had happened to them something I would never know about every day as I worked I noticed people other than guards watching me one day I was pulled aside and asked to go meet someone they were scientists and they wanted to know if they could do a few harmless experiments on me for some research apparently they do this on all the teens in the camp though I haven't seen many so I agreed hoping that this would help
011me get more information about what's going on at this Camp the day the experiment started they fed me a nice breakfast well nice for this camp and got everything set up the scientist somehow gave me a disease to see how I would react to it when they realized I was immune they let me rest in The Labb bunks and started with the same thing the next day the experiments went on for months and they were painful the a whole set of different shots every day sure weakens a person after about two months of experiments I was finally done the months of pain and misery brought me nothing nothing but less energy and longer days these days and months stretched on and on and nothing changed the pain never stopped and the hours of Labor never
012ended sleep was not enough it only made me weaker another year goes by and things only get worse working hours extends the heat worsens as well as my Pain more people disappear no explanations as to why my thoughts linger my mind aches thoughts of what might be going on run throughout eventually they come for me the saviors they take me away from this miserable Camp back to Freedom it is then I discovered that my the past two years what the past two years of my life had been my little brother and sister murdered at a death camp my parents murdered for no apparent reason I was alone no one to care for me until I met Jonathan he was at the same camp as I and he too lost his whole family we are both
013the same age and we immediately fell in love now we are 78 years old and still in love two beautiful children to call our own they hear about the horrible tragedies we've lived through Jonathan and I will always have to remember those years of misery and the loss of everything and everyone we loved I will still never be Isabelle hour back the 15 year-old girl who dreams of being a Dancer the girl who loves music and fashion in school she is now gone and a prisoner what I've become and always will be I am now Isabelle maggot a wife of Jonathan mother of Two and a victim of the Holocaust though I'm lucky to have survived I am cursed with the horrifying memories of those horrifying years forever thank you thank [Applause] you amazing next
014person I'm going to call up is Sarah Muhammad and before before I do I'm an insomniac and I read these when I'm awake which happens to be 3:00 a.m. in the morning and I'm running through 186 of them and this one I stopped when I was done Sarah okay the question I answered was why should people become educated about the Holocaust okay imagine close your eyes and just imagine your father's being worked to the point where his hands and legs can no longer move so he is killed your mother with warm tears streaming down her face as her baby is shot your brothers and sisters not being able to do work so they are burned alive imagine sleep is impossible because you don't know if your family is dead or alive your bones become Fragile
015with the backbreaking labor and scarse amount of food you share a closet sized room with 50 other people the truth is we could never try to we can try to imagine these pure Horrors in our mind but we will never truly understand just how appalling these events actually were to this seems like a bad nightmare to the people in the Holocaust this was sadly a reality there are countless amount of reasons why we should study the Holocaust there's a famous quote those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it I believe that this quote is extremely fitting to describe why we should learn about these tragedies if we are not educated and do not learn from our mistakes nothing will prevent another genocide from happening some people believe that this day and age
016nothing as large as as the Holocaust can happen however ethnic cleansing is still happening in different parts of the world it may seem that the United States is much tooo liberal and free and would not allow something like this to happen but the Holocaust did not start out large one idea of hatred escalated and this one idea killed over 11 million people history does indeed repeat itself and becoming educated about these events such as the Holocaust is the only defense we have to stop it think about your life at home the majority of homes unknowingly make comments that are derogatory to a certain group of people based on their religion race nationality and more why do we do this why do we judge why why do we hurt other people for our own laughter it
017may seem like nothing words can't hurt people next time you go to make a comment like this realize that words do indeed hurt people and words are what triggered the Holocaust every human is born equal no matter what they look like or where they came from we are all equal no one is better than anyone else because we all started out the same it may seem like no big deal but in reality it is although there are several reasons to study this event I feel that one of the main reasons is to feel the pain and have sympathy for those who went through it many of the survivors lost their entire families and loved ones to the brutality I would like to quote Anne Frank a young girl who faced the horrors herself in spite
018of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart I find this absolutely breathtaking for a young girl to have said this after losing everything she ever loved to these murderers we must feel their pain and struggles and appreciate everything we have because we may not know when it will be taken from us it may be heartbreaking to remember but we must never forget the Holocaust [Applause] amazing again I'm going to call up two of my committee members Ronnie Rothchild and Lori gang and they'll hand out the awards to all 11 thank you hi my name is Ronnie rickless Rothchild I'm pleased and proud to say that my father Henry rickless was the one who started this committee around 1982 he was a liberator at daau and W went around to high schools
019in the area to speak about his experiences that he had witnessed at doow and to explain to the students what he had uh seen I'm very pleased that the program that we present has the survivors coming to speak to students to give them their accounts of what happened and what they saw and to give them lessons of what cannot be learned from the textbooks and also to teach greater tolerance as we see from these essays I also want to make a personal comment it's one thing to read the essays it's another to stand here and he the students themselves read it and I can't tell you and I think David also expressed how touching it is to hear the students there were four questions the first question was what would you do or say if
020you came into contact with the Holocaust denier and the two people we've selected were Adam ginell and mro sasher please [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you very much the second question could something like the Holocaust ever happen again in the United States and the people we've selected were Amanda centino and Luchia Fernandez if I'm not pronouncing the names right please forgive [Applause] me the third question what would you have done if you were living in Eastern Europe during the time of the Holocaust and the people we've selected were Victoria jet that you've heard already and Alexa [Applause] cuts and the fourth question we had so many answers we've selected five names why is it important for students to learn about the Holocaust Alina Capel Sarah Muhammad parth shinry Matthew Earl and Megan [Music] [Applause] Fitzgerald and
021a thank you to everybody who participated we appreciate it [Music] [Applause] [Music] um I'd like to uh first I'd like to say that our our students always make us very proud and and these essays are very touching and moving and very emotional when we read them and when we hear them from our students um I would like to acknowledge Amy Andis and she's a a an active and vital member of the Holocaust um rickless the Henry rickless Holocaust Memorial committee Amy just like to say as president of the Henry rickless committee how proud I am of our students as a board member and um as the president I've read through these um I'm amazed at at what our students know um I think you guys are great you're you're the future of this country and
022if we could get rid of all the hatred maybe one day we'll actually have some World Peace so thank you I'd also would like to acknowledge Dave Rothman who's been doing this for years um thank you Dave to Matt d philippus uh one of our out standing teachers here who has run this program thank you Matt for everything to Ronnie Lori thank [Applause] [Music] you at this time we'll go to a for Forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record good evening my name is Frank agle AI I live at 18 homes Avenue Monroe Township I've been a uh taxpayer and Resident for over 30 years first I'd like to take the opportunity to thank these young men
023and young women and congratulate them they're are credit to their school credit to their teachers thank you very much that was a fine job however is this on the agenda oh I'm sorry it's it's uh it's not on the agenda but I was uh I was invited to uh right and there will be a second public I'm sorry sure I will I will do that thank you very much I'm sorry no problem anyone wishing to speak to the agenda it's a personel matter I know Robert roach 18 your field Boulevard um on page six of the uh agenda ran numeral 4 number B talks about uh Dana walker uh resigning I wonder if that position has been F filled Dr Gorman we just posted for it um two days ago I believe so we're waiting
024two years ago two days ago oh okay the posting went out after the resignation so we will be engaging in a process to find a replacement for that position one second is there an assistant principal there are two assistant principls that serve five of the buildings so there is not one that is um that is stationed at that building on a daily basis okay then so F uh two principles serve so each building has a principal and there's five o two others below it that assistant principal that Ser serve the other five buildings schools okay um page 55 H can you explain to me the uh the funding and Who provided the funding and what the purpose of the funding is whether it's dedicated funding Mr Gorski will handle that yes the educational jobs Act
025is a federal program and and at the beginning of the school year we received $154,700 which the board offset in the 201122 budget some new positions that were added for the Monro Township middle school and the Monro Township High School those costs were offset with this grant money we received an additional award recently of $ 4,848 bringing the total to $159,500 with the The Limited uh use of $4,440 we apply that to benefits for those previously mentioned positions when those costs were offset when you received the $154,000 is that a permanent offset or have they been used for something else it's it we don't believe it to be a permanent offset it was an 1112 Revenue source and it was reflected in the budget as Revenue I understand it was used as Revenue which would
026be but I'm saying have you use that revenue for something else or is it just being will be Surplus at the end of the year the board has directed that money to be used for new salaries in the 1112 budget which those salaries have been appointed and they're for new positions at the middle school and the high school that were all Incorporated in the 1112 budget so there's no Savings in essence well had it not been for this money that uh additional 15473 for would have had to been appropriated in the 11 12 budget because we needed those two positions so you knew the money was coming in yes we did know the money was coming in and one was a guidance counselor okay and I believe the other was a security guard all right
027uh K on the same page yes uh they talk about an attached information is that available to us I don't see any attached information yes I I'll make sure it gets posted to the website thank you anyone else from the public good evening Tom not Stein 15 atth Danel Street um I have a question with regards under the business administrators report 10 R is in Robert uh could you please elaborate uh on the Jamesburg tuition contract and also um this also says uh that it was going to be with this as far as the posting so I guess maybe we could see if we can get that on the website also please letter r is a formality as also part of the 1112 budget which is the current year budget we have the tuition Revenue
028Source from the Jamesburg schools and this contract just formalizes that uh previously agreed to and approved by the executive County Superintendent of Schools um tuition amount okay so this isn't resolving the send receive issue between Jamesburg and Monroe certainly is not this is just a formality for the 1112 tuition rate which has already been established and approved where do we stand with the sen receive um issue um we have solicited the help of Senator Greenstein on more than one occasion Dr Hamilton also has just written a letter to um Governor Christie informing him of the problem and the supre the state supreme court has demanded that Jamesburg High School students be received by Monroe and this goes back to 1979 um it also stipulates that they are to come here on a tuition basis we've
029never had a problem uh before but with the 2010 budget law it established a 2% tax levy cap which was prohibitive for Jamesburg schools to incorporate the tuition and their proportional share of bond interest on this facility within their budget um we have an agreement that was drafted up by Council which establishes when those monies that were not able to be incorporated in the budget are to be paid and looking forward uh we're working with the county superintendent of schools to and also Jamesburg schools to try to work out a tuition rate and another amigable contract for the 2012 2013 forthcoming budget with that 2% cap though Jamesburg could have gone out for a referendum correct no no not for that purpose okay so there's no way to get around that 2% of what you're
030saying no we we looked at hundreds of different options literally with Jamesburg to try to pass the cost to the Jamesburg taxpayers through the budget mechanism but it simply wouldn't allow that because the one- siiz fits-all law did not understand the pre-existing relationship with the tuition that Monro and Jamesburg had and that was addressed in Dr Hamilton's letter to the governor um for which we got a call back from the county executive superintendent of schools so we're hopeful that we could rectify this um the in my opinion one of the best Solutions right now is a tuition cap waiver which would allow for the previously established tuition Arrangement that was uh ordered by the state supreme court and would allow Jamesburg to go above the 2% tax levy cap to um pay Monroe the fair
031sh amount of tuition as of the 200 uh 10 2011 school year Jamesburg and Monroe had been completely um reconciled with tuition okay thank you very much anyone else from the public good evening Christy scurby 8 seminal Court I had a question on page 54 number seven um where it's asking to approve the professional Engineering Services of Harrison Hemet what services are those Mr kski Harrison hamnet is a structural engineering firm uh that's specifies in stadium and bleacher security um structural security so they come out annually and um inspect the structural Integrity of the stadium and also the interior bleachers of the school to make sure that they're safe and can accommodate the proper amount of weight okay what what is the cost of that I believe it's under $10,000 and they inspect all the
032bleachers and stadiums throughout the district I could get you the exact number I don't know it off hand okay and under uh number eight it's a design ideas group yes uh what services will they be providing design ideas group is the board's architect of record and they provide a multitude of architectural services to the district such as this build designing this building they were the Architects if we need them to do any architectural work that is the firm that we would be that we would be using are we hiring them for Applegarth I don't I I don't believe I don't believe we have not hired them to use to have we no we have no we have no contract with them specific for Applegarth at this time oh okay so the um the document that
033they drew up last year outlining all of the recommendations for Applegarth we're not you're not using those that was a previous study that the board contemplated and this doesn't you're not getting them to do another study for Applegarth the board has not requested them to do another study yet okay and under the um school supplies the bid award for school supplies yes do you have a cost for what the supplies will be to open up Abarth the 2012 2013 budget is is currently being completed um Dr Gorman and I met with the principal of the school today of oak tree school and uh he was facilitated us with drawing up some parameters for next year and that is far from completed yet do you have an estimate for how much that will cost not at
034all there's no estimate for how much it'll cost to open up Applegarth for supplies no no okay thank you anyone else from the public seeing no on we will go to the superintendent's Report with Dr Gorman okay um did I skip eight oh before we go to that I'm sorry no there there is a a um public forum again at the end of the agenda the approval of the minutes for the public meeting of October 12th 2011 motion uh Mr Kaufman second second by Mr kleene any comments or questions all in favor I opposed abstentions okay the approval of the minutes for the closed session of October 12th 2011 yes Mr Klein Mr L again any comments or questions all in favor I opposed extensions Asain um miss an tell us okay at this time
035we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Gorman okay um you'll see in front of you the enrollment figures U we're up to now 5,933 students in the district compared to 5,687 a year ago so that's a difference of plus 216 next piece is the out of school placements and then a recap of fire drills and lockdown drills during the month at the various schools Madame board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended that Personnel items a through GG excluding item s under the superintendent report be board approved by consent roll call is there a motion in a second so moved second miss antelis Mr ly any comments or questions Mr Masters under CC the four security guards for Apple what would you like to know um that's now no that
036was um that was those people were employed at Applegarth and moved to the Middle School um and with the increase in staff um I do believe there's a total of five alog together how many security guards are at Applegarth now they're five all Applegarth Applegarth is vacant right now the middle school is where they have moved to thank you Mr Klein the Personnel first B um I wish Dana Walker a lot of luck um after she leaves in January and I'll I'll drop that at that the last thing is and this is more for the people that are here on W double I would gather that would be the new steps based on the new teachers contract correct okay I'm fine thank you anyone else maybe we have a roll call Mr Gorski Miss anelis
037yes I recuse myself on item BB and item X BB and X so noted Mr Braverman yes Mr Chella Mr Bron yes calman yes's on W so noted Mr Klein point to correction um there was no announcement that s yes yes he did that was made I didn't catch it when I apologize then my my um vote is yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes M kapano yes madame board president Personnel items a through GG excluding s pass thank you Madame board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through L under the superintendent report be board approved by consent roll call move Miss anelis is there a second second second by Mr Masters is there any comments for Dr Borman this is on
038board action yes okay if I may on D student suspensions um I was very happy to see that uh the meetings that I had with the um the principles and assistant principles of the high school followed through with some of the thinking that we had in coming out with stiffer suspensions stiffer penalties for violations by the students so that was gratifying to see um on F would approve two of our inter interactive distance learning courses is that mandated by the state it is and now the stupid question are they paying for it of course not thank you as and then we got a l that's the harassment intimidation and bullying as we can see this is the second meeting that we have a tremendous amount of violations that in reality are not really violations but
039because the state law is so lacks and liberal that all the student has to do is look the wrong way at another student and it's considered harassment um I think it's ridiculous we have to follow through because that's what the state mandates but uh I think it's it's bad for the children for the students I think uh mentally it's got to affect them if all of a sudden for something minor they're held out as harassment and be and sent down to the principal's office I think it's pitiful that's all I have to say anyone else okay then Mr Gorski will'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes CH Mrs Fon yes Mr calman Mr Klein yes yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes m kapan madame board president board action items a
040through L passes thank you and that concludes that concludes my report Madame board president okay then we will go to the business administrator Report with Mr Gorski Madam board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through R be approved by consent roll call second Mr Mr Kaufman Miss anelis are there any comments or questions from members of the board of education for Mr Gorski um before we uh have the roll call could you just go into a little bit more detail about the asbest bidding that came in yes Incorporated in the budget is a project for asbest remediation at Applegarth school there have been previous asbest remediations projects in different wings of the school and this is the final one that will rid the
041school of all asbes that's known and suspected um the the Board of Education through the building grounds Transportation committee intentionally delayed the bidding process beyond the Summer where all the other school districts in the state go out to bid for the same project uh by delaying until now we have approximately $125,000 budgeted for aestus remediation and we awarded the bid the bids on the agenda tonight to be awarded to the second lowest bidder the lowest did not have a proper bid Bond and they had to be excluded and the low the second lowest bidder came in uh in the mid $40,000 range so we recognized about $80,000 of money savings by delaying the project till now it will have no impact on the Project's duration and it's anticipated that in the middle of February the
042project will be completed where then inspections will be performed by the EPA by pe oia by mcab environmental the board's environmental firm a second redundant uh test by environmental Safety Management to ensure that the air quality is safe and free from any contaminants thank you are there any uh comments or questions for Mr Gorski okay then we will have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cherella Mr Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mr phano yes madame board president board action items a through R passes thank you at this time we will go to the board president's report and I would like to take a a few minutes to talk about Apple gort's School and um try to clarify some of
043the information that I've been hearing first I want to say that this board of education and this Administration would never put children in a school that was not safe and healthy for both students and staff we are being very proactive in making sure that all safety security and health issues are being addressed and I will have Mr Gorski speak to that in a few minutes second Dr Hamilton has informed the staff by a letter dated November 23rd 2011 that he has initiated a nonessential purchase order spending freeze not a pay freeze but a spending freeze effective immediately to ensure that we are proactively planning for any state aid shortfalls we will not be cutting any programs in any of our schools for the duration of the school year and all principals and teachers will be
044able to get what they need to continue to educate our students with the programs that we currently have in place for them this non-essential spending freeze is anticipated to save the district approximately 500,000 to $700,000 and if the board so desires they can utilize this savings to further Advance the work that's being done at appleg Guard School also as Mr Gorski has explained with the ASB bestus bidding coming in so low we have another approximately $80,000 extra that we can use for work at Applegarth which would include painting tiling carpeting lighting Furniture Etc in the wings outside of the eight classroom Wing that we are currently planning for we want to be proactive in making sure that there are classrooms ready in place for an increase of students for resource rooms for conference conference rooms
045Etc at this point is it anticipated that we be we will be using the entire building except for the 1930s Wing the science labs in the 1970s wing and the industrial art rooms there will be a cafeteria a library a gym a music and art programs furniture and Staffing will come out of both the current budget and the 2012 2013 budget if so desires the board can make the cost of opening appleg goth a priority in the 2012 2013 budget as it did last year with the cost of opening the new high school the new middle school and the asbestos abatement of Apple Gard it is also expected that we will be sharing some staff between oak tree and apple gorth as we do with other schools in our district it is true that the
046boiler and Applegarth is old and the roof like many of our others in our district will eventually need to be replaced these big ticket items can't be put into the yearly operating budget but alternative sources of covering those costs have been and will continue to be looked at the boiler is checked out and serviced regularly and and is is working fine it has been the plan of the Board of Education it has always been the plan of the Board of Education to use Applegarth as a sixth elementary school last year the board closed the school not because of safety or unhealth issues or health issues but because we wanted to address the ASB bestus issues that were not addressed years ago when they should have been it should be noted that we started the process
047of updating appleg Gart School approximately 5 years ago when we hooked up the school to sewer and water at a cost of approximately $300,000 we would not have spent that amount of money if we had any intention of closing the school approximately two weeks ago the Township Fire Department did their yearly checkup at Applegarth and everything was approved and was considered safe for reopening our plan for reopening algar is a working document a pro a work in progress just as your personal priorities and finances change during the year so does the districts costs go up costs go down sometimes there's an unanticipated Revenue sometimes there's an unanticipated expense and priorities change and while we don't have all the answers today we will have them as we move along and we will keep you informed of
048them so at this point I want to turn it over to Mr Gorski for some further input and then to Dr Gorman for some thoughts from the administration thank you I I would just like to express that um I've been with the District 12 years and uh Dr Gorman's been here even longer your Administration is comprised of licensed professionals who entered this field because they have a a deep interest in providing for the children of our country and the Board of Education and administration are committed to that very project of Paramount importance to all those mentioned is the safeguarding of students that will always come first it always has come first and we will ensure that Applegarth is safe and appropriate for every grade level that we put into the school we have invited the
049following organizations to come in and do inspections within the school the Department of Education I have an appointment scheduled with the executive County business administrator who comes out and visit visits our district for different facility uh needs he also was engaged in all the trailer approvals and work we have an appointment with the Department of Health to come review the depart the the kitchen and food service areas we have submitted an online request to PE oia to come and inspect the school and perform air testing services they were shocked and we were the conversation of their their building because they said they had never been invited into a school before um also the EPA will be involved in air quality testing as required by the asbest remediation project as Mrs K Pano mentioned the fire
050district was in a couple weeks ago and uh all the fire um systems have passed the building will be code compliant for its construction and type of building and the time of construction that it was made made the fire alarm system will be completely inspected and operational and will respond to both heat and smoke throughout the building we have two boilers in the building both of them are on right now and operational and are functioning fine the district has in its long range facility plan a desire to upgrade especially the the older boiler for a more efficient model this is an onoff type boiler it functions fine it might get a little hot on the second part of the school building as it always has and again it's not the most efficient model but it
051functions and will continue to function it's inspected annually by our insurance carrier and also a licensed boiler operator is on staff uh at all times as Mrs kopano mentioned the water sewer have been upgraded years ago and what Applegarth will offer um will be basketball baseball on the field softball tennis and soccer and those are Endeavors that may not even be available at some of the other schools as far as American with Disabilities Act the board has always ensured and will always ensure that any disabled students um will have every program available to them within the school or they will be um provided an alternate setting where the program will be brought to them and that concludes what I have to say okay thank you Mr Gorman would you like to add to that um
052besides that very thorough report um if you don't know I I was housed at Applegarth middle school for from 1996 to 2008 as both the assistant principal and and the Middle School principal there I got there there's about 375 7th and eighth grade students and there's nothing on all four sides of the school well lo and behold we grew and we grew and we grew and um I think last year they had close to 900 and so the swelling that you felt was due to the um trailers and the students and the continuous student growth the plan to open to reopen Applegarth is driven by maximizing facilities for students um we've done several visitations gone through many um board committee processes um had all our checks and balances and um feel that opening or moving
053along as as planned is the most responsive process uh for our kids um and being the person that was knows basically every in and out of that building um it's solid I mean yes like every school it's got its nooks and crannies but it's solid and actually it's going to get more attention um in the near future it's technology ready um projectors uh mounting projectors are are in every classroom carpet is relatively new um the facilities need definitely an upgrade as being detailed but um definitely ready to house fourth and fifth grade students um that's basically the the process we're following as recommended by the Board of Education and I would just want to say to to conclude this that Doc it's Dr Hamilton's recommendation that we continue to keep that school open or we
054reopen that school in 2012 September so at this time I'd like to go to committee reports is there anyone on the board who has a committee report they'd like to talk about Mr Kaufman okay um the curriculum meeting or the curriculum committing Comm meting I'm sorry it's a long day for me the curriculum committee met this evening and we had a very interesting discussion I haven't had a such an interesting discussion since technology committee so you'll have to bear with me I got some very interesting things to talk about tonight um we went over some curriculum stuff which was kind of interesting we talked about the family and consumer Sciences curriculum the symphonic band curriculum wind's Ensemble curriculum and an introduction to Art curriculum all were very interesting and for board members and the public
055we have information that would be available to take a look at some of the things that we're um looking at to expand the existing uh curriculum items that we have today we also looked at an overview of a K1 and2 World Language project which we'll look to bring in some um students uh as teachers to kind of work with our staff exist existing staff and students to do some World language education at the K1 and two uh grade levels we also had a overview of the Rosetta Stone uh implementation and the technology plant and the usage of the equipment and the schedule and uh looked at how they're being alternated between Class rooms and uh the utilization of all the equipment to make sure that uh the the machines are are charging appropriately and and
056available for uh teachers to use when uh the uh uh equipment is ready or needed for the uh um particular lesson um we also had a very interesting uh update on technology relative the iPad program um as you know we started the iPad program here at the high school at the beginning of this year so we're a couple of uh months into the program and we had some very interesting statistics that uh were brought before the board and then I'm going to uh turn it over to somebody to talk a little bit more about some statistical information we've gathered but uh suffices to say uh believe it or not we have had no repeat no lost iPads out of the magnitude that were handed out so far um we've had about 20 repairs that were
057done uh because the iPads were dropped and the glass have cracked but they did not need to be replaced they were just repaired and um we we had a very interesting statistic that was reported to us because of uh privacy laws I can't go into too much detail but uh we've actually used an iPad to locate a student that for a couple of reasons went uh what's the best word to say it Mia yes so uh we actually used the technology to locate a student instead of the other way around so that was a pretty interesting statistic to report on um um one of our vice principles here at the high school has done some uh very interest interesting statistical work on some of the uh uh uh surveys that have been sent out and
058some of the utilization so I'm going to invite um Mr Higgins to come up uh he didn't know that he would be talking this evening uh but I thought that the information that he provided to the curriculum committee was valuable enough to come and talk to uh everybody about it and the information that we have or he has presented to the board will be available a on the district website tomorrow so I'll turn it over to Mr Higgins um thank you um the information that I presented to the committee is uh pretty much raw quantitative D data that was put into qualitative form um It Is by no means an analysis at this time it is just some base data taken from surveys of parents students and teachers the parents took the survey on the
059iPad at the deployment night or at home through the uh the website uh in that data some basic numbers that over 96% of the respondents are pleased that the district has undertaken this technology initiative 93% of the parents either agree or disagree that technology helps their children with schoolwork the same percentage 93 either agrees or strongly agrees that technology helps their children learn new things the student surveys were taken in their language arts classes after the iPads were distributed we found that our students are not very organized before the iPads 53% did not use a calendar or an equivalent to take down assignments and 52% admitted that they often forgot their assignments before take undertaking the challenge before students had the iPad 72% used the internet to learn 71% used computers to read and write
060and only 40% learned from books the teachers took their survey through the district website and my learning plan which is the professional development platform for the district they believed 89% that their students were dve in class however they were um they do not believe students easily grasped academic content 55% of the teachers however they the students are able to engage in difficult questions and content they believe they are instructional coaches and advis advisers to the student 79% they also believe they are able to meet the individual needs of their students 88% there are some conflicting numbers that as we use this Baseline data and we compare to a sixth Monon assessment we will be able to further the analysis of the numbers that we have um the teachers and the students will take another survey
061I believe we decided in February or around that time March um the parents will not take a second survey that was just Baseline data for that area but hopefully I'll be able to return with with some good news in March or April thank you very much thank you that was a very interesting survey that um very very interesting information came out of that survey um are you going to post it on the website okay we're going to be posting that survey on the website so you'll be able to see it there is there any other um committee reports Mr lirry yes uh we had a finance committee meeting last night and a lot of it has already been covered by Mr Gorski I just want to amplify on what my colleague Mark Klein has said
062uh last year we went through the uh CAC process came out with flying colors the bureaucrats down in Trenton don't like that so now we have to have an annual statement of assurance and everybody and his brother has got to sign in blood that everything is hunky dory I think this is a waste of taxpayers money does that conclude your report Mr that concludes my report thank you very much anyone else Mr tesler just a comment going back just a comment going back to the iPads um I just want to reflect on my own personal experience I have two daughters uh who go to the High School freshman and a senior uh my freshman daughters in the AVID program and I see her using the iPad every night uh for Cornell notes and she's a
063very one of those disorganized students and I see where it's helping her organize her thoughts and uh she's on that every night doing her work and doing our notes and you'll see my older one working on keynote presentations also for classes and I'm probably going to get in really big trouble to say this but one of my daughters is one of those 20% that broke the [Laughter] glass thank you anyone else we had the report it was $160 any other the committee report reports M Masters yeah I I have two actually for buildings and grounds what everybody's waiting for I guess so we had a special buildings and grounds meeting on November 30th um we also requested it toward um of Applegarth um so uh Miss kapovich Ken cherelle myself Jerry tag Dr Ham Mr
064V and that architect guy which I never remember his name guy who's that guy that's sit next too thank you um we toured uh Apple the sections that Mr Gorski was on that sorry um we did tour the sections along with the entire school including the basement uh had some mixed emotions about the 60's Wing uh I was impressed at the amount uh of work that's starting um the state of the buildings and a little bit of disrepair as we were talking about I'm sure that'll be uh addressed we went back and at the meeting we actually discussed some of the options open to the uh to the board uh I'll just go over them right now I'm not going to discuss them in depth number one is to open it on schedule which is
065the option that we're following so far uh number two was to move the trailer over to Oak Tree uh And Delay the opening for one or more years that was also we talked about coupling that with a referendum request to repair all the the um uh the boilers and and the roofs at all most of the schools and then the third one which is a little more out of the box was to demolish all or part of Applegarth and then re build all are part of it um the board or the buildings and grounds committee was taking it under consideration right now we're we're staying the course uh we're reviewing the situation we're monitoring the safety as we said uh we requested a demograph requested a demographic study um which is which has already been
066approved I believe and also an educational specification that will let us know or give us a hint at what uh the architect thinks you can correct me from wrong Mr Gorski uh the best use of the building would be um so he might come back with a different uh solution to our issue than than we already have so that concluded that meeting we also had a buildings and grounds not a special buildings and grounds meeting yesterday uh we talked about the bid review uh the 446 which is excellent came in a lot under budget we can use that money for something else that something else at Applegarth uh all the requests for safety and health inspections we're going to have a lot of different um inspections there make sure everything's okay the demographic proposal um
067the architector record the educational specification uh we also discussed the TV studio we had an extra work order to fix some of the TV studio issues and to upgrade a couple of the things uh and we also discussed upcoming we didn't have to do anything yet Motorola radio upgrades um for some of the new technology and linking it in with the rest of the district um that is no no cost to us so far but it might in the future that was buildings and ground thank you very much anyone else okay then we will go to number 13 is there any other business from any member of the Board of Education this evening I have something I'm sorry mine's quick I attended the uh New Jersey school board's delegate convention a lot of fun uh
068the only thing of record was they're putting forth a a um I guess a policy change a referendum to the uh the policy that requires that background checks re performed and that no school board members can have a criminal record uh what they're going to do is that still stands but they're going to they're trying to allow an appeal if you have a a minor violation right now if you have a minor violation you can't be a Schoolboard member no matter what uh they want to change that so you can appeal it and possibly get it overturned and still serve as a school board member even though you might have minor criminal background that actually passed at the school board delegate convention very good Amy did you yes well first I'd like to thank the
069board of education for continuing the essay program um I think it Monroe has shown um that Holocaust study is invaluable to our children and I certainly thank the board for continuing it um second I'd like to say I noticed on um the uh field trip approvals that our middle school students are going into our active adult communities on 1221 and I think that's great that we're sharing you know music with our our senior um I'd like to wish Miss Walker the best um everybody I know told me what a wonderful uh principal she is I think Roselle is getting um a true leader and I think she'll be missed uh I wanted to um talk a little bit about the Apple gorth Wing um we did a tour yesterday and um I think it's a
070shame that the 1936 Wing is not being used what a beautiful part of the building wood molding a ceramic tile on the wall it is um archways it's beautiful and I think a little paint and maybe some fixing of the stairs it's just a beautiful school um I know you said dis repair I really didn't see a lot of that um I actually saw a building that really just needed some paint um yes it's old but I think that that's the beauty of it it's probably built better than some of the the schools we uh that we have today and of course we we've added to it and enhan has a beautiful gymnasium um my children went there I never felt at any time that it was unsafe we stood in the boiler room I
071didn't feel like that was unsafe um and I think um to talk about ripping it down or closing it for another year um if we can close that school for another year we obviously don't need that school and in that case I think that somebody needs to be looked at that we committed fraud to the public because we went out to the public saying we needed money to build oak tree school because of the overcrowding and we are still crowded and we need that school open thank you thank you Miss an Tellis Mr kleene just in addition to what Amy had said and it's it's repeating what I've said all along and now more so because I'm glad we have a lot of the residents here that are from Oak Tree I want you to
072understand that there are two communities that were supposed to be age restricted and because of an act by the state we're able to convert them over to families those communities will feed students into those two schools uh one Community is 128 families the other Renaissance will be 130 families IS 268 homes minimum actually the the federal minimum is 2 and A2 per household if you take just two it's 536 pupils just from those two communities then you have on the other side of 33 you have Monro Mana which will be quite large you also have two or three smaller communities being built for families so the bulk of all this building will feed into those two schools so we have to be proactive to make sure that we have the space to accommodate these students
073and I also had a tour of appleo and I saw a lot of good things um and like Amy said when we got into the older part and we see ceramic tile floors that extend up to the wall halfway ceramic tille when you see carpeting in the rooms very easy to clean up some painting some vacuuming um I was impressed and that was my first time in the school and that was recommended by uh one of the uh the pto's that to make sure that all of us had gotten in to see the school I was very much impressed with the meeting that we had uh I am not afraid to open up the school it will be highly certified double and triple certified there is no way any of us would allow our children
074our wives and husbands to work in an area that was not safe this will be safe for everyone I would send my grandchildren to that school so I want you to understand that I hope the reason for for the the the people who um outspoken about closing appleo that it's not the fact that they want their children going to a new school and not going to an old school that's the wrong answer that school is safe and will be safe when it's opened thank you thank you Mr Klein Mr Kaufman yeah I just wanted to make uh a very quick comment uh the point of record uh when we did all of the work with respect to the district and planning for the future years and years and years and years ago um it needs
075to be noted that oak tree School wouldn't be where it was or is today if it wasn't for Applegarth school that's site was selected because of its proximity to Applegarth not the other way around and it was always intended to be a sister School relationship between the two buildings and as Amy mentioned earlier I had two sons that went through that school as well and it was a fabulous facility and it's going to be a great facility for years to come Mr ly uh I have three grandchildren who have gone through Applegarth and as you recall several months ago I did a back of the envelope calculation if you make all of the improvements that would require a referendum and we were talking approximately $12 million when you put in all the contingency factors and
076then you look at the cost per square foot of oak tree and the demolition of the existing Apple goth you're talking $23 million we're talking about a differential of $11 million for a perfectly good school I will not support any way shape or form denigrating Apple guard thank you anyone else Mr Master actually the the number I think is 3.4 million to open Applegarth that's the number now we I was told 3.4 million at least I was told to make major improvements about $9 million and then some additional work plus I put a 25% safety Factor on top of that and that came out to 12 that's what I said to renov school to renovate the entire school that's the number it's like 12 million I'm saying just open it in September it's million talk
077let's make a b type comparisons anyone else I have another thing I I take a umbrage with a little thing Mr Klein said um I think there's a lot of characterization I'm from the oak tree area I'm one of those oak tree people as people like to say about us I don't think it's that I don't think it's that people want a new school I think there's a lot of information out there and people get nervous I don't think the school is as wonderful as everybody says it is uh I've seen a lot of work going on so at least this these tours and these inspections and the microscope that we're putting on it is moving people to AC um what I start to get nervous with is the time frames we're talking and the
078amount of money that we're going to need um I know at the meeting I expressed concern about even opening it and I know I wasn't alone with it and we were talking about deferring it another year and trying to use a million dollars from the budget um to do further Renovations on the school um I mean minor things like windows that are sealed up with duct tape stuff like that that 60s Wing again I was when I said that school that 60s Wing needs a lot of work I agree one of the first things I said when I walked into the 30 whatever I said this is we should move the kids into this part of the school it's gorgeous um I was told that can't be done because there's some situ situations the other
079issue which I took um an issue with with the architect was the Ada stuff um I have a problem when we talk about compliance per a certain date um I don't care what you say I think when you talk about ADA with people with kids with disabilities there should be a date and that we're good enough for a certain date there's no such thing as adequacy in my mind when it comes to children with disabilities I think if we're going to do it we should do it right uh if I had my way my personal opinion I would fix the school completely um and I know we talked about referendums and lots of money and stuff like that but I think that's the way we should do it I think if we're going to have
080a brandy new high school with top-of-the-line equipment and technology and all kinds of great stuff like that and some of the other schools that we renovate why can't we renovate this uh Elementary School this four and five why do these kids have to make do with something that's adequate adequate adequate compliance adequate classrooms I know we have techn it's technology ready um but we have to purchase it it's U we have to go through that that list that spreadsheet is huge it's $3.4 million we have to go figure out and we have to figure out where we're going to get it from I know we even talked about that are we going to use some of the payre money um so we can try to funnel some more of the money into Apple AR and
081things like that Mr Larry he's got the floor right now okay we'll talk about that okay so so that's the problem I have the other issue is we're kind of playing in my opinion fast and free with this and we're throwing around numbers yesterday we started discussing busing we don't know what we're going to do for that yet we threw out some ideas um and again it'll get done I'm nervous about the time frames uh we waited for the as best this which was great for over the summer but now we're waiting um hopefully January February we get this done I Know M Mr V has expressed his uh concern about getting his teachers in there early so we don't have to pay them to work over the summertime to try to uh move their
082stuff over uh there's a lot of stuff like that playground equipment um I and I think a lot of the talk that we talk about we talk about compliance uh we talk about asbest and mold you were talking about mold yesterday with all the Leaky roofs and all the black stuff and all that uh we the exposed wiring things like that and we never really talk about the education of the children to make sure they're going to get the best education that we can in that school I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the school it might not be safe and I was the one I will admit it that brought up the um term degrees of safety at the last meeting and that's really we're playing with here we're saying that it's safe to
083a degree as per some compliance spec that could have been in place before World War II you have kids that their grandfathers probably were uh around when these these uh these uh rules came into effect do I think that's a good thing no I've said it before I said it a year ago uh I don't think that we're thinking this through and I I I think I'm not saying it's a problem I'm not being an nayay I'm not I'm playing Devil's Advocate a little bit with this I I think we're going to have a problem um we've abstracted ourselves from this and we're kind of saying it'll get done it'll get done it'll get done we're putting a lot of this on the administration and a lot of on the teachers to to kind of
084move this forward um I don't know it scares me a little bit and yet yes I do have four kids that'll be going into that school I don't mind that I went to a middle school that was 110 years old um in my opinion the middle school I went to looked a lot better than that that school and it's 110 years old so I know it'll get done I know we're not going to risk anybody's safety and the board doesn't want to do that um I just I'm a little nervous and I think we really have to um think it through thank you anyone else Miss analis sorry do you think we should close Barkley Brook School that was discussed actually at the Billings and grounds meeting because Barkley Brook is the sister School of
085Applegarth and everything that's in Barkley Brook is in Applegarth as well and and I really don't feel that there's a safety issue uh we went through the asbest in Barkley Brook and we did it in a summer okay we got all the tile out uh same tile that's used in Applegarth the air was tested and I have yet to hear to this day that anybody from Barkley got sick so um while it is old I I really don't think that there's anything in there you know in the old Wing that would cause a problem um so like I said if you feel that we should close Applegarth you know then then you should be saying really the same about Barkley Brook just that was that actually was discussed about closing Barkley Brook um and I
086believe what the answer to that was was they've done more recent Renovations on Barkley Brook than they have done on Applegarth um Dr Hamilton had the best word it's been this building's been neglected by the board he said it and he knows it's been neglected we're not putting anything into this Mr bran says it all the time in general our maintenance policies are deficient um every building grounds he always complains about why we're not funneling money into maintenance of our buildings Barkley Brook the all how many roofs are Le leaking um the middle school or the new Middle School uh we we sat in board meetings where they had tarps over the the the books in the library which is why this board should do a referendum to do the repair and I agree with
087you 100% we agreed at the meeting and I think that's that's the route to go absolutely and I think we have to do that no matter what Apple's open or Apple's closed we do have to look down that route that's the only way we're going to get these Capital Improvements completed and we just look at our neighbors up in East Brunswick they've floated referendums up to $100 million to bring their schools up to Snuff and we should be preparing for that and we should also be preparing for the tital wave of people that are coming that Mark kleene has identified we and we best start going out and getting land because it's going to require another pair of schools in the southwest quadrant of this Township okay anyone else yeah to that point actually have
088a question for you about that um that Obama uh bill when he was trying to put federal school construction funding I know it got trashed um do we know anything I know they're going to try to push it through again cuz I talked to Dr Hamilton about that and we thought that would actually benefit us we're in New Jersey we got the dubious distinction we're in deadly competition with Connecticut who gets the least money from the federal government far better for us to do it ourselves Mr kin concerning that topic with the Federal Government Can you can you truncate this what did she say I took up all your time she said I he gave you 30 seconds okay I'm done okay say something huh anyway um if you remember year and a half ago
089when a lot of teachers were laid off throughout the country and the federal government came up with I don't know hundreds upon hundreds probably billions of dollars that they distributed to the states to hire the teachers back and you know how it was distributed the same way your state aid is distributed we received $125,000 enough to pay perhaps one teacher and fringe benefits or a teacher in a par and fringe benefits all that money goes to the 31 Title One school districts whatever Obama is talking about now whatever we do get in the state I guarantee you you we're not getting it any funds that come from the state we're on the short end of the stick we don't get grants a lot of this work should be grants from the state like they've done
090for redison they've done for South River they've done for Woodbridge who gets tens of million dollars $15 million more than we do in state aid and they get grants but we can't have grants we're not able to get grants because the stupid excuse that's used is we have too many retired people without children but they don't look at the retired people on fixed incomes who can no longer afford to pay the school taxes and I've been complaining about this I've written letters I'm not even going to go through it because I said I would drop it I needed help from the residents I needed help from the leaders to do what I've been doing and it falls on deaf ears and any money that Obama wants to talk about don't even count on it cuz
091what you're going to get is going to be so small you won't be able to do anything with it anyone else amen uh religion we can't bring religion seeing no one um the close sess resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects um student matters harassment intimidation and bullion incidence number 73 through number 79 the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved is there a motion Mr Coffman second all in favor I I opposed extensions we are at will be going into close session but
092I do not believe that we'll be taking a long time at this time the board will move into public session we will again go to the public forum anyone wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record crazy good evening Doug boy for tamarak Road uh I've got four questions uh I'll ask all four and then you can respond if you like uh I noticed that the board approved a vision care for District employees uh is that part of a negotiated contract and what is the cost so that's one question um I was also looking at your data on uh harassment and bullying and uh when you look at the various schools in the district uh it stands out that uh there's been more reported incidents at
093Oak Tree than any other school in the district uh that either implies that there's a problem unique to Oak Tree or that there is not uniform uh implementation of the policy across all the elementary districts uh I think uniform uh implementation uh is important because then as the kids rise through the system there should be fewer and fewer cases but if you have one school enforcing it at one level and a different School enforcing it at a totally easier level than when those kids get into Middle School uh they're going to possibly continue to do those things um on the iPad program I listened to Mr higgins's uh report uh and what I want to basically know is uh has the board decided how they will actually determine if the implementation of the iPads uh
094is effective in raising achievement and you can't do that at the end of one year of course but I'd like to know what that plan is and uh then finally there there was an awful lot of discussion about the Apple gar School uh and it sounds to me because I have not been privy to all of the conversations on that topic but it sounds to me as if there are possible thoughts of not opening Applegarth and I just would appreciate it if the board would lay out all the various options that they are looking at and what the cost of each of those options would be whether that would include redistricting uh demolishing the school building a new school whatever uh because there's talk of boilers there's talk of roofs things of that nature and
095so I just think the public is entitled to know what are the various options one of them being to keep Applegarth open and open it next year and others being to do something otherwise thank you okay um let's try to work together on this one um the Hib we will have our Hib coordinator Sharon bigs look into the discrepancies between oak tree and the rest of the the elementary schools in the district because at this point I I don't have an exact answer for you on that um Applegarth school um the board last year probably in um October of 2010 decided to close appleg Gart school for ASB bestus remediation um I we have I don't think we close the school in the past but we have done remediation projects in the past to get
096rid of some of the asbest we just wanted to make sure that the rest of the asbest was removed this should have been done by a board maybe 20 years ago and it never was so this board decided to be very proactive in making sure that all the asbest in appleg Guard School um is removed at that time it was indicated that the board the board indicated the board agreed that we would be opening that school in in 2012 in September so there were no issues other than the asbest issue that we were looking into to reopen Applegarth school right now we just want to make sure that that school will be ready it will be safe and it will be healthy so that's where we stand on um alpor the iPad program do you
097want to discuss do you want to um as far as assessment um it's part of our um evaluation plan on the effectiveness of iPad based on the why why are we doing this um and clearly it's for to raise student achievement um many methods of data collection you s three qualitative methods this this evening um we are going to tie into um grades um standardized test squares College admissions success in college admissions um and then there's talk in our planning stages about acquiring a um a researcher because this is sort of leading the way this technology so there's not established hard data on this technology but bringing in an independent researcher and um the preliminary conversations have talked about his Services being rendered for free accessing the data because it's such intriguing data on whether
098this actually does improve student achievement and learning um so some of those are the qualitative and quantitative um data pieces we will continue to tell you exactly what our assessments are because if it's not working then we don't want to do it um so we have many me me many quantitative and qualitative measures and that Soft Data and the hard data are both incredibly valuable pieces um so feelings and those are measurements also that are very important in perceptions and and engagement as well as um our students um achieving at a higher level academically okay and your last question about the Vision Care yes it is part of the new it's a new piece to the negotiated contract and the cost of that is $120,000 okay Mr cofman uh yeah I just wanted to add
099a possibility for the oak tree situation with the bullying numbers um although Doug presented a couple of options I'd like to submit something else I don't have the statistics in front of me but we could certainly take a look at it keep in mind oak tree is the only case five uh School in the district all the other schools are split in half essentially so by raw numbers there are more students at Oak Tree than there are at the other elementary schools so that could also be a a at least a more probable explanation as to why the numbers are skewed to the school but that's just me thank you thanks Lou anyone else from the public wishing to speak he um jod Desai to Northwind Court I first off would like to applaud this
100board for making some great decisions affecting our children oak tree is the state of an art school this high school it's the first time I'm in it is extraordinary um every student has received an iPad and so far no real big problems it's an impressive accomplishment due to the fact we received no State funding or very little um my concern with apple Garts our Applegarth school is as a parent my daughter eventually will be going there um I was happy to hear that at um this the special buildings and ground meeting that I did attend for a small period of time Mr Gorski stated that if the trailers were moved over to oak oak tree for um the $1 million in savings that we would have from actually Staffing the school we could put aside
101and actually make the real changes that would need to be made to to make it a great school um and it is my understanding that the the real need right now is only eight classes my questions are I'm happy to see that we're inviting all these offices into the school to say it's very safe however do we have a plan for if they do bring up any issues that need to be addressed immediately um will there be continued construction on this on Applegarth as students are there because that was brought up at the buildings and grounds meeting um and one of my last questions is um for the uh remediation plan should does the bid provide um any surprise costs that if a a wall we discover more species does the bid provide that that
102would be covered and that's all I have to say thank you I'm GNA have Mr Gorski answer this at the last U building and grounds Transportation committee meeting where you um participated it was discussed how much money could be saved if Applegarth school was to remain closed for a year what would those operational costs total and um how could they be used they are operational cost or the cost of running that school for a year and with the growth that's in that area some of those costs would be absorbed by oak tree class sizes would rise the um there was a consideration and we have approval from the board to have uh the Architects put forth the necessary permits to move the trailer across the street as a as a plan B in case of
103emergency um the the time consuming part of the process is all the the permits leading up to the move not necessarily the move itself excuse me so um that that's the trailers as far as the dollar value of savings that would be saved it would uh probably be around that figure that you mentioned but it would not be necessarily a savings but a deferral of the cost and it would not properly in our opinion address the the issues at Applegarth that remain um by taking this first step and moving the 10 to 14 classrooms to Applegarth school with this planned renovation that is in the 12 uh the 1112 budget it is the first step in in moving forward to making the school on par with the other facilities it will be clean it will
104be operational and it will be safe uh as far as asbest goes we have had other projects to remove asbest in the building previously no other additional asbest had ever been found in those areas once they had been um remediated and we don't anticipate that there would be a need this time because we have a adhera plan and that identifies all of the known and suspected areas of asbest within the school building all of those are being being addressed whether they're suspected or actually known in this remediation process and it should be um complete when it's done and anything that may be found you could never tell if there's something around a a pipe in a building but that would have been generally identified as suspected because that's a very broad category and uh it
105you know it would probably be very immaterial if there was something in there already and would probably not present a problem there wasn't a problem with the spus before this remediation process it was it was all non-friable and it would only be disrupted if construction was to place take place in a particular area so the risk after this remediate remediation process is extremely slim anyone else from the public Joanne Cardone 11 Gravel Hill Spotswood Road I have two questions that relate to security I know a lot of the topics discussed tonight dealt with thousands and millions of dollars and of course this is not going to be one of those but my first question is what is and correct me if I'm wrong Kathy what was the rationale in putting five security guards in the
106Middle School on the day shift and four in this High School considering that we have approximately 375 students more and a lot of more square footage um I think the the impetus for that is the state-of-the-art security system in this building um there's nothing like that at the existing Middle School also the existing Middle School gained an extra 400 kids so they're close to 1376 kids when they were at the middle school before at Applegarth before they added the sixth grade we had four guards so the natural move from a facility's place be with absent that type of security system was the impetus for that piece um and then um because of the extensive cameras and security system that's in place here um the physical Manpower was not um was seen as not needed extra
107and the cameras are within all the hallways everywhere yeah okay um I haven't been to the last few meetings but I noticed in tonight's minutes the uh M maternity oh he would Jo the matern um medical leave for Mr mcneel um I know it's costing us quite a bit of money for overtime for that shift approximately $41 an hour because we're using our top ofth guide security guards to cover his shift is there any plan to hire a permanent sub for him question no it's not really since we have no idea how long he's going to be out well that would but that would be a medical question and we don't have an answer for that I we don't I don't know how long he's going to be out and and I think it also
108has to do with contractual security issues because I think we we sorry I just wanted to add that uh that's the same practice that would be the case in any other position in the district if somebody was to go out on leave you would have to have coverage and there would be additional costs incurred and we usually don't hire a full-time employee to cover any leave so there wouldn't be a permanent sub then for that position no but yet they'll use substitutes substitute teachers to cover a security position during the day uh I don't believe that Mr Gorman do you do Dr Gorman I I don't believe that they they don't MH they cover locations and stations yes they do I I don't know we'd have to find out that answer and get back to
109you okay anyone else from the public good evening Tom notesin 15 Nathaniel um question on the the administrator's report under item S's and Sam I noticed that that was not voted on unless I might have been dozing at that moment um is there a reason for that and if so what um we we removed that from the agenda and we it will be uh discussed in closed session at the July July the January meeting when Dr Hamilton returns okay okay um also with regards to Applegarth school um I know that there is an essential uh spending freeze that uh you mentioned this evening uh are any of the items under Applegarth considered non-essential and will they fall under that non-essential spending plan fore um do you want to handle that one sure I'd be happy
110too all of the projects that were previously budgeted for the asbestos remediation the lighting and the floor tile for Apple Gart School were budget priorities for the 11 12 school year they are currently in the passed and approved budget so they um will be procured um the non-essential purchase order free refers mainly uh to as the term describes um not no program essential items because generally we find that all of those items are ordered in the early part of the school year um with the exception of like Spring sport Sports they will still be able to outfit every Every Spring sport in every category like that this is mainly for like professional development and um any other non-essential type items and they always have the appeal to uh the superintendent or the assistant superintendent um
111if they feel that they would like to argue otherwise thank you um also I know um Miss Kathy katovich you mentioned that the Apple gr school was closed initially primarily just for asbest removal is that an accurate assumption or did I hear you wrong no the board last year uh decided to close Apple for asbest remediation and that was the only reason it was closed correct um why are now we at this Crossroad why are we at this Crossroad now where we're looking to do other things um if the asbest removal is done why don't we open the school well the asbest removal will be done and after we do that there was we also closed that was a major reason but we also said we would paint and um re make the lighting updated
112and put in whiteboards and get rid of the chalkboards that are there um the the question now we had planned to do that for eight classrooms now we need more classrooms we're anticipating a growth over there so we we need to have more classrooms ready so it would the additional money would go towards the extra classrooms that would be needed okay because it's kind of scary when people are throwing out the referendum word um we can barely get budgets passed here uh I don't think it's realistic in this economy to even be considering a referendum um Monroe as you mentioned last time has over an 11% unemployment rate this is not the time to be asking anybody for more money so I think that has to really be kept in mind um when we're talking
113about in particularly Applegarth yeah I think I think we're aware of that and we know that to even have a referendum would take 18 months um we're not anticipating that if we did that it would pass and um it would take another two years to get another referendum in place and this um Applegarth School cannot be closed that long so we we have in place the money this year to do what we need to do to open Applegarth and as we move along in the next few years we will continue to put money in the budget to renovate some of the other things that would need to be done additional classrooms things like that excellent okay thank you hi uh Christy scurby eight seminal Court um I would like to just say in light of
114the last comments we have not passed a budget in this town in many years and I think what we're about to do opening appleg Guard School is financially irresponsible as a district what we're talking about is taking 10 classes 10 sections out of oak tree and putting them into Applegarth opening an entire school for 12 classrooms leaving 10 vacant at Oak Tree if you add a section at Oak Tree to kindergarten first second and third grade that will remain four open classrooms at Oak Tree you could put krap in there you will still have three open classrooms you're going to open a school that we've heard Mr Master say has severe problems $3 point something million dollars to open for September when it was discussed in a buildings and grounds meeting that the trailer could
115be moved over for free the trailer is beautiful we are paying for it and we are not using it I went to a meeting over there it's bright it's Airy it has air condition move the trailer over to Oak Tree Mr ventrillo spoke at our PTA meeting and said that is a viable op option for us why are we rushing why are we rushing Mr ventrillo said he needs that building to be opened by April to start getting his teachers and students acclimated with the building the asbest won't even be done till maybe mid-February if all goes well how are we how are we going to have it opened in April why are we not considering a plan that is cost effective why are we in insisting I am not saying close Applegarth school forever
116I'm not saying demolish it I'm saying why are we rushing if we can save money what is the immediate need to open the building I'm just going to say that it has always been the intention of this board of education since we passed the referendum to to build oak tree school to keep Applegarth open as a sixth Elementary School and as Mr Kaufman said the school um what's the word relationship um between oak tree and Applegarth Applegarth was always meant when we when we did the plan to hold fourth and fifth graders and that's exactly what we're doing they're going to it's was going to be open the only reason we closed appleg school last year was for as best's remediation and it closed an entire year and oak tree is not overcrowded our class
117sizes are on average 25 and if you move the trailer over for free for no cost to us or a very minimal cost you will add eight beautiful classrooms to Oak Tree it's financially the responsible thing to do we are not going to pass our budget what happens when it fails and we go before the Town Council again begging for money and they say no we're sorry you're out of you're out of luck this year you're out of luck then what do we do how are you hiring one one $1.2 Million worth of Staff how are you paying for the supplies to run that building where's the money coming from we have an option to save this this District's money and you add the trailer you'll still have three open classrooms at Oak Tree and
118you will reduce the class sizes till about 22 why are we not considering something financially responsible I believe that this board has did that last year when we talked about closing Apple school no that wasn't about finances that was about safety that was about safety it was but it also and you know I have to I wanted to correct what was said earlier it was said that this board would never put our children In Harm's Way I'm sorry this board last year voted outside of Mr Masters and Mr Chella who said he wouldn't send his own kids here you voted to send our children into a building during asbest abatement so don't sit here and tell us that you would not do any anything unsafe for our children you all voted to do it last
119year there is no barrier-free access to bathrooms there are no fire partition walls I understand you meet the codes of what before World War II that is not acceptable we sat in a meeting with a an engineer saying there's degrees of safety not with my child's life there's no degree of safety I want him in a building that I know God forbid there's a fire that there are partition walls to protect him fire partition walls are mandated in buildings now to make sure that fires don't spread through the ceilings it's great that there's cinder blocks but what about the ceilings this building has it oak tree has it I'm sorry I demand that my child be in a building that meets the same codes as all the schools in this District well thank you for
120your [Applause] comments Michelle sh or min9 ethaniel Street um this is really mundane considered the important things that have already been said but I'm going to ask it anyway uh the digital neon sign that's out in front does that have uh and it was looked very lovely it had nice graphics on it and it was telling the weather and the time how about we put the meeting dates on there for the Board of Education meetings sign we we could do that okay is it could the could the yes thank you I think that's very important let's get people the dates are also on the website but we can have it how about on that sign that has just nice Graphics it would they just connected it today so they will do that but they literally
121I know but there's other things on it there could have been I I would like a commitment from the board members to put the date and time and place here of the meeting on that sign can I hear a yes from everybody we can ask them to do that have the day of the meeting I think that would be very good there's good participation tonight but I'd like to see all the parents do I'm sorry we would have to go contact the principal because it's his sign okay I don't think he would object I think it would be a good thing that all the people in the district know when the uh meeting is it's another opportunity for you to give transparency and openness to this board and this uh the educational system um I'd
122also like to uh ask about teacher proficiency on iPads did teachers did teachers get iPads as well yes yes they all the teachers in the high school got iPads and how was the proficiency of the teachers in the with the iPads that's a great question so um we have an extensive professional development plan in place where teachers throughout the year and throughout next year will and ongoing will receive professional learning from it um we have a set of standards and what we've asked them um as we continue to move on is assess their own usage of where they are and then there's a model to go up and what is the plan to through a professional growth plan to improve and learn and become a learner towards improving that piece we've also used some um
123identified Vanguard teachers or a group of teachers that are sort of early adopters and we've done given them some extra training and they're going to be then internally building capacity and teaching and helping others um up that piece so so so there's still a learning curve of teachers abolutely okay could that have not been addressed like before the children got the I bads because there seems to be a time frame and a waste of time perhaps um if the teachers aren't proficient they're not really helping the students become proficient so we may be losing a full semester or maybe even a year of not being proficient on and teachable moments with a very expensive technology we don't we are not seeing that right now because what part of the learning on the iPad which is
124a little bit different than say giving a laptop is the concept of inquiry so the process of figuring things out on your own um is a very powerful tool so the teachers can ask the kids how to do it is what absolutely absolutely but isn't that where learning occurs say that lightly but but that's really sort of not the point I mean I think it's good that the kids know and proficient but if we're bringing children into the school system to be learn taught I think that the the professional should be proficient on the on the uh techn in the technology before it's distributed um also there seems to be legislation and this may be more for the public than for anybody else there seems to be legislation in the state of New Jersey um
125that I think is a very serious concern for parents and for um at least for Monroe and in my opinion that they're trying to pass a law that would eliminate budget uh voting in communities they so there's people that they don't want the public to participate in voting on budgets so I would urge all the parents because I'm sure the board thinks that's probably a good idea so you'd have you know I don't know I don't know how the board feels about that but I think that um voting on how our taxes are raised and how the budgets are done is is an essential uh component of our democracy and we should not give up that right so anybody in this in this room tonight should call their state legislators and say that we don't
126want that bill to be passed because I think it's a detriment to um our democracy thank you and Michelle that would that the would only eliminate the vote if you um don't exceed the 2% cap doesn't matter we should never eliminate an opportunity for taxpayers to have a say in how they remember and I don't know if you still teach Civics but remember taxation without representation I mean that's a a something from from the early stages of our country so it we should always have a say in what goes on in budgetary processes and taxable issues so it doesn't really matter what the just clarifying that for the public too that that's what the law is we should never be eliminated the public in in a democracy should never be eliminated from making determinations about
127how our taxes are raised and spent thank you anyone else from the public Joan Cardone live in graval Hill Spotswood Road you mentioned the minutes being on the uh not the me minutes the meeting dates being on the website yes uh but could they change the address of the where the meeting is to Schoolhouse Road it still says 1629 Pineville we will check into that okay thank you high school hi Karen rap 44 El Dorado Way um one of my questions is about busing with apple GTH and Oak treay I've heard several things that the kids are all going to be on one bus and then they're going to be dropped off at Oak Tree and then bust over to Applegarth I've heard that there's going to be 30 minute delay between the openings of
128the school um so I just want to get some excuse me some clarification on that that was brought up at the buildings and grounds transportation meeting last night and discussed um there has been no resolution it's something we're looking at it's something that's going to go to the director of transportation for his input before the board makes any decision okay um also on this the code issues we've updated our you know curriculum we've updated everything else I don't understand why fire codes from 1930 or 1960 are not being updated I understand it costs money but these are our kids we update everything else so they have the best educational advantages around but yet we don't update fire codes Mr ly uh you're addressing the wrong Forum go to the Department of Community Affairs that controls
129the fire we have no control over that matter right but you have the ability to update the codes if no we have to not upate the codes make the building again I will just tell you that the fire department comes in every year they do a complete evaluation of not just they going by the codes of the year the building they deem that school to be ready to be open and safe sorry for those codes of that year yes but not of today's codes yeah that's all I can tell you right now I know Mr Klein did you really want to say something I'm afraid to no actually two points something that Michelle said which I go along with 100% is the fact that microphone can't hear me I'm so loud something that oh something
130that Michelle said that I totally agreed with is that the taxpayers have a right to vote and to voice their opinion and yes it makes it a lot easier to have a budget go through if it's up to the 2% cap but I feel that I would want a say in anything that's spent whether it be with the council or what's done here so there I definitely agree with that as far as um the uh the president of the PTA oak tree um first of all when we had the meeting and by the way I was one who was not here for the original vote but when I came back from vacation I was for closing appleo if you look at the transcripts but uh at that time we were talking safety having work going
131on at the same time even though they had it um uh plasticize they had the plastic sheets closing everything off having workmen around the kids what surprises me is the fact that at that point everybody knew Apple goth was opening up in 12 months now all of a sudden a lot of these parents don't want it opened according to State mandate if thato if that school is closed for two years and we go to reopen it the total School must be brought up to today's standards amen right which means oh yeah that's all well and good do you want to pay for it what happens if you can't float a referendum and then your class sizes are going to be well either we go for more temporary uh trailers and what happens when the classes
132become 30 and 35 are we going to have complaints oh the kids can't learn there were too many kids in the school well let me tell you something my opinion and believe me I respect everybody here I expect I I respect everybody's opinion opion but a decision has to be made based on not what's happening today what's happening next year or what's happening three years down the road it's what's going to happen four years five years six years up the road if the market ever opens that these people are able to get mortgages and that's what we spoke about yesterday in Monroe Mana there are plenty of people want to buy they can't get mortgages what happens if Apple is closed and all of a sudden we get the influx of all these kids where
133we going to put them my thinking is at appleg goth yeah I would love to see a brand new school I go into New Brunswick I saw $1 187 million High School built totally by the state for 14 or500 kids sure I would love to put a new school up we can't afford it we can't keep going back to you the taxpayers or the retired people on fixed incomes and have raises of $11,200 a year my taxes went up $11,000 last year the adult communities the older ones like Clearbrook and can Cordia went up um anywhere from $400 to $600 these are people on fixed income I would love to do everything I tried everything in my power and finally the administration is is doing to get off fair share from the stinking state but
134we don't what are we supposed to do what I saw there was that the first section will suffice ideally for classes the second section that they looked at which we can expand from the money we save it's excellent what do we supposed to do if you wind up with 30 or 35 kids to a class you'll all be here complaining How Could my child learn in a class with 35 kids how can a teacher teach 35 kids what are we supposed to do where is the money going to come from that referendum is not going to go through if you took all the parents and instead of 7% and 11% showing up to vote and they came out in forced do you think the adult communities are going to vote for it based on what's
135happened in the past the answer is no so if if I'm open we're all open to any suggestions you have I am truly confident and you heard me when I came back from vacation and the vote was changed to close the school I told you at that point I wouldn't be a worker in there when the work was going on nor would I have my my grandkids there what I'm telling you now based on what I've seen what I've heard the reports the double checking triple cheing for certification Not only would I have my wife and my daughters working at school I would send my grand kids at school when everything is done the way it's going to be done now I'm going to add one other thing we're going to work on perhaps the
136two sections a lot of the other rooms all it needs is some painting a lot of the rooms they took the lockers out so it's an eyesore in the back so they can put up additional shelving do some painting and that can be done it can be done in the winter break it could be done during Easter break and it could be done during the summer a little bit at a time so we can buy ourselves time and there's no referendum needed that's my point I'd love to I would love to knock the school down and build a brand new school I would love to build another oak tree but we can't do it we cannot do it all we're asking is side with us understand our position we're not lying to you don't let
137uh um um rumors spread and to start Panic that's not the answer we can get more trailers if if that's what winds up happening we get more trailers okay fine hey no problem that applea school is closed for two years it's done you'll never be able to open it again because it would cost so much money to open and you could not get a referendum passed for it the school is gone and you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of kids moving in to your areas ladies and gentlemen and then when you have redistrict everybody was against red redistricting I want my kids to say with their friends why should they go across town what are you going to do the growth is over here not back there so what I'm saying is we're not
138trying to hurt you and to start Panic that's not the answer we can get more trailers if if that's what winds up happening we get more trailers okay fine hey no problem that applea school is closed for two years it's done you'll never be able to open it again because it would cost so much money to open and you could not get a referendum pass for it the school is gone and you're going to have hundreds and hundreds of kids moving in to your areas ladies and gentlemen and then when you have redistricting everybody was against red redistricting I want my kids to say with their friends why should they go across town what are you going to do the growth is over here not back there so what I'm saying is we're not trying
139to hurt you it it hurts me and and look this is my first term on the board and I do serve on the zoning board I take it personally when I hear we're called Liars when I hear we're called um we're hiding facts when I hear that we are we are going to send kids into a unsafe area that's a lie there's no way in help and I'll tell you as one person if there was one fault found that would be unsafe for the children I would vote that that school stays closed but I am confident that for the time that we have that we start to use it refurbish it as we can and maybe some way I pray to God that the state changes and starts to give us our fair share and
140allows us to receive grants that are well- needed to do rves when they give it to everybody else but please we are not your enemy please don't look at it that way we're there to help you help the kids and help the taxpayers so please think about it that's all I ask thank you Mr Klein is there anyone else wishing to speak just to correct the fact Mark Mr Klein it's three years not two years the last I heard when it was East brunck was two years that's that's okay you double check on that we discuss at the it's public session we're in public forum we're in public forum three years we're fine we got three years to play the same Administration that's telling you the school saf Mr Masters Mr Klein we're in public
141for okay unparliamentary procedure go ahead please Hamid tanala Hamid tanala 11 elor um I've just been listening to all the arguments from the board and from the audience it just seems to me that there are there's plan a keep apple guard open of St open Apple guard in September and do whatever asist is AB batement that needs to be done do that and have the kids in there and then this plan B where you have oak tree move the trailers over to Oak Tree and um have all the kids in oak tree while you're doing renovations and bringing um appleg up to standards of oak tree and other schools that our kids are going to currently those are plan a and plan B it just seems to me that the argument for plan a is
142one the Board of Ed always wanted it to be a sister school and so now we don't want to change that that need so that's because they always wanted it now when they started wanting it we were not in the economic environment that we are in right now we did not have we didn't have 11% unemployment rate in Monroe so it's okay to change that notion that it must have a sister School B I just heard from Mr Klein where he said the reason why he wants to open up appleg is because if he doesn't open it up in two years which now has become three so it's given us more room thank God but the reason why he doesn't want to open it up is because if he keeps it closed then it's done
143for good because it have to come up to current standards but that's what we want we want our kids to be in a school where it's up to current standards they're going to be going to school in September 2012 why not abide by the standards of September 2012 why go back to the era where I don't know anyone who went to school at that time so all I'm saying is as an audience as a parent I am not seeing any strong arguments even cost-wise Financial wise I am I'm I it seems like there's going to be lots of savings if we do not open up Apple gr apple G in September 2012 use those savings to keep renovating Apple guard keep Oak Tree open for another year because I as a parent of a kid
144who's in third grade I have no reason to complain right now about oak tree my kid is getting in a in a class of 25 he's getting excellent education I don't think it's the building that makes up education it's the teachers that make up education we have excellent teachers in oak tree and let it be take that money and and make your Apple Guard School fit enough for our kids to go there right now as parents we don't think it's safe that our kids would go there thank you well you just said something about the ex the it's not the building it's the teachers those excellent teachers at Oak Tree will be moving to yeah but right now the building is unsafe the Apple guard building is is unsafe because it is not up to
145current code Oak Tre is up to current code thank my kid is going there in September 2012 I need the code to be of September 2012 thank you we appreciate your [Music] comments hi Chrissy scurby a seminal court and you know it was brought up at buildings and grounds about doing small Renovations making the bathrooms barrier free access for children who are handicapped in a wheelchair possibly on crutches um the nurse's bathroom cannot be used because it's so small if a child on crutches falls down the nurse can't open the door because it's so small but we cannot make the bathrooms barrier-free access to allow for handicapped children to be in the school because the minute you do that you have to bring the building up to Cod so that is why we will not
146do anything outside of painting and some lighting upgrades and the asbest because to do one thing to make the building up to standards a child in a in a wheelchair we will make provisions and they will be provided education not there well where what happens to a child that breaks their leg mid school year year are we now taking them out of Applegarth and shipping them to another school because it doesn't meet the standards for Americans with Disabilities but you will not make one minor change to the building because to do that you have to bring it up to code listen to what we're talking about let's not save money because God forbid down the road we don't know there's a study going to be done right a demographic study we have no idea what
147that's going to show it may show that we don't need that building open we don't know what it's going to show there is no plan in place you had one year one year ago this board decided to close Applegarth in that year you have not talked about busing we talked about the problems with busing last year what have you been doing I heard that one of the things out there was that we are going to hire a crossing guard to stop traffic on Applegarth Road twice a day to allow for the buses to Caravan across to drop our kids off that's what you have for a year a year took that there's no planning there's that the building has not been upkept shame on the people that have been on this board for many years
148where's the planning been if you knew this building was that vital why why hasn't any Renovations been made that were necessary it is financially irresponsible to open that building financially irresponsible the budget's going to fail we know that we know it's going to you know I try my hardest Mr Klein I run out there I am begging people to vote for the budget I do my hardest I go out there I hands out flyers at Baseball opening day softball opening day we have our committee chairperson here tonight she works hard to get people educated on how to vote but it's it's the sad fact of Monroe it gets voted down where is the money coming from to run a school for 10 classes for 10 classes wait honestly if I was if I was at
149Barkley brook or brooksite I'd be mad how dare you waste my taxpayer money to open an entire building for 10 classes 200 students okay thank you very much anyone else from the public my name is Christine Lester I live at 261 Cranberry hav Road my issue with Applegarth is I have a disabled child it is not ad8 compliant all I'm asking is you move the trailers to Oak tree that are not overcrowded right now use that time to get that school up to par stop cutting Corners stop like letting the grandfather claws get you caught up if it is not ADA Compliant now it should be and there is no reason that we don't use this year to get it up to code now Barkley Brook they they might have the same issues or whatever
150the other the other elementary school but they're that it's on an empty school we have that right now to our advantage and I'm talking bring out to fire code get the asbest out make sure that the water's safe to drink make sure the boilers are going to work use that time there is no reason to put our kids my child in danger by putting him over there right now when we could put the trail over there and save money and fix it the way it should be that's what I'm asking I don't know if you spend every day at the Children's Hospital trying to keep your kid alive but there are more important things I'm not putting him in danger to get one asbest flake in his lungs and die I'm not doing it especially
151when there's an perfectly good school that's not overcrowded and if you get it what a block of trailers that buys us a year it buys us two years especially if we're going to have this influx of all these other communities why not use the time now to fix this problem because if we don't fix it now it's only going to grow and grow and what are you going to do if you don't get the school up to ADI ADA Compliant we have children in wheelchairs when are you going to fix it then when a child enrolls and then you have to get bathrooms where they can get in it's just ridiculous to think we had a year we talked about this a year ago you guys decided to close it for a year I don't
152know why just the bids are going out now and then you're going to rush and have asked things to get it done by September it's not it's not flying it's it's just unnecessary and that's my issue move the trailer over buy yourself some time get it everything up to code the fire code get the asbest removed properly get everything done don't just throw some paint on it we're not opposed to to Old buildings I live in a 100-year old house I don't care I'm not about having a brand new school I just want my children to be safe if there's a fire I want to know where in the building it is and that my kids's going to get out that's what I'm asking for I'm not asking for too much I just want my
153child to be safe we have the time to do it let's just not rush it there's no reason to rush it when we can have the kids at Applegarth that's fine thank you anyone else from the [Applause] public is there anyone else from the public okay seeing no one um our next scheduled Board of Education meeting will be held on Wednesday January 18th 2012 7:00 p.m. at the school motion to adjourn adj okay who who was first I was first Mr Larry miss antelis all in favor oppose exensions the meeting is adjourned