001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all may we have a roll call Mr Gorski sir Mrs kapano here Mr Chella here miss antelis here Mr Braverman Mr calman here Mr kle here Mr Larry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon here Madame board president you have a quorum thank you and 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 January 13
0022012 one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality at this time we will have a reports from our student board members good evening everyone the events that took place or will be taking place this month are the following the DECA Regional competition was on January 10th many people plac states there was a half day on January 13th for staff and service school was closed on January 16th for Martin Luther King Jr and also winter dinner theater is January 19th to 20 in the cafeteria College Planning night is held January 26 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium and the second marking period ends on January 27th very good thank you this time we will go to public forum anyone wishing to speak to the agenda
003please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record uh good evening Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court actually if I could just give this to Dr Hamilton from our for the refreshments for tomorrow okay thank you for the budget steing committee eight seminal Court um question I had is on um item F the annual school election resolution um I wanted to know I know at the last meeting it was discussed has the governor signed into bill or signed into law the bill that would give Board of educations the um right to take away the vote on the school budget the governor signed it into law yesterday he did will the this board of education will it be considering that this evening we will be big you will so if you so
004if you pass F you can then decide after that to take away the election of the well we couldn't do both so we would probably have the resolution for the change of um uh election dates and then if that passes then we would have to eliminate the other we would have to eliminate f and g and G G NF is there another resolution in the agenda to do that uh we we have a resolution that we will be reading during the meeting oh okay well as a concerned um taxpayer I just wanted to uh speak to that for a second then um I'm concerned with that resolution to eliminate the yearly school budget um if and that would not allow the taxpayers to come out and voice their opinion if the if it was if
005the school budget was not increased by 2% which means that the Board of Education could increase the budget by 1.6 million dollar A Year Without a vote of the taxpayers and I totally understand the reasons for it um it would make your job easier as a board of education it would make my job easier as the head of a parent organization in town who goes out begging people to support the school budget but I don't think it's the right thing to do for the taxpayers the taxpayers should have a voice and where and how their money is spent just because we haven't passed a budget in our town in the last several years doesn't make it right to take away the community's right to vote and what you're asking us to do in that resolution
006is to trust you to trust that you'll do the right thing with the money and quite honestly with what you're about to do by opening Applegarth school next year it's financially irresponsible you thank you anyone else from the public anyone else from the public okay seeing no one we go to number seven close session resolution be it resolved that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects personnel viws for Barkley Brook principal Personnel Employee number 2966 student matters intimidation harassment intimidation and bulling incidents number 80 through 91 the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such
007time as the matters have been resolved so move second second Mr Mr cman and Mr oh tesler Mr tesler all in favor I I opposed extensions at this time the board will move into close session at this time the board will reconvene into public session and before moving on to number eight on the agenda I believe Mr lry has a um resolution yes give me a moment to just get organized got a little bit of paper floating around here this is a resolution of the Monroe Township Board of Education can you all hear me whereas Public Law 20112 chapter unknown Senate Bill s 3148 assembly Bill a 4394 authorizes a local Board of Education What's Happening Here nice sabotage okay I'll start on this line rather than going all the way back authorizes a local
008Board of Education to adopt a resolution to move the annual school election for school board members to November during the regular general election and whereas the above legislation provides that if a board of education's annual school election is moved to November voter approval should not be required for the Board of Education base budget which is a budget with a proposed tax levy that does not exceed the tax levy cap and whereas the above legislation provides that if a board of education's annual school election is moved to November voter approval shall be required for any proposal for additional funds above the school district tax levy cap and whereas the Monro Township Board of Education sometimes board has determined that the statutory restrictions on the local tax levy increases for annual School Appropriations is appropriate and sufficient
009to control and maintain a thorough and efficient education for the children of Monroe Township and whereas the board consistent with budgetary requirements noted above believes that dispensing with the annual school budget vote will save taxpayers dollars and further the public interest and whereas the board believes that school board members elections in November will attract a far greater number of Voters than typically vote in April elections and whereas the board believes that the elimination of the vote on the school budget and the movement of board member elections to November is in the best interest of the Monro Township community and whereas the board understands that this decision will remain in effect for a minimum of four years pursuant to section one of the aforementioned Public Law now therefore be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board
010of Education that hereby determines that the election of school board members shall take place at the annual general election in November 2012 and it is further resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education hereby eliminates the vote on its annual school budget which shall be within the statutory cap and becomes effective in the 2011-13 budget it's dated January 18th 2012 is that a motion for Mr L yeah that is one motion may I have a second correction on corre on the read uh are we allow discuss before we vote 2011 through 2013 it's effective 2012 to 2013 okay correction it's 2012 to 2013 I think you read 2011 no you had it right I I had I read 2012 2013 budget that's what that's what's written here and if I said anything else it's an
011error okay so it's 2012 2013 that is correct okay second by Mr Mr Kaufman is any comments or questions from members of the Board of Education Mr Klein as I've written in the home news an article in the home news in the Sentinel I'm totally against this bill for two reasons number one because the property tax the largest part of our property taxes are for the schools the voters have the right to vote on the budget it's your tax dollars it's my tax dollars you have a right to vote now I also like the idea the way it was before that if the budget loses at least the Town Council is able to review it the council has choices one choice is we see after reviewing a budget it's right in line there's nothing to
012cut or they could say which they've done in the past cut 600,000 cut a million or what have you so but to me taking the vote away from the people is wrong secondly what I'm afraid of yes if we move the election for the board members to November the board will save money I understand we'll save about $60,000 but what I I am afraid of is not as much in our community but I guarantee you within the first two years of this act taking effect you will start to see political hacks running for school boards winning Schoolboard elections and then starting to do exactly what goes on in the state is start to throw lack of a better word throw business to their buddies um also by not being able to vote on the school
013budget any District any border of bed will have the right to increase it in our case over a million dollars a year also and you can correct me if I'm wrong the 2% cap does not take into account pensions salaries and insurance that's above and beyond the 2% cap so I am I was against the act before it was voted on I was against the act when it was passed the assembly and the Senate I was against the act as of Monday when Governor Christie signed it and I'm still against the ACT Mr gorsky would like to respond to that Mr Klein Mr Klein if I may pensions salaries and insurance costs are all fit within the 2% that's all and I stand corrected but I'm still against it Mr tesler yes um I have
014nothing against uh uh the uh people to vote for budgets but I think the school systems have been unfairly Fe unfairly treated because it's the only thing we get to vote on as a taxpayer monre I don't get get to vote on a municipal budget I don't get to vote on the county budget I never got to vote put on um any uh improvements in the town that was all taken out of my tax dos without dollars without my say so what ends up happening is the school systems end up being picked on or we'll use the term bullied so I fully support this bill Mr Chella this is uh a tough one for me because prior to the governor signing this bill yesterday I thought that I was for it as a board member
015I love I love this bill we don't we we haven't been able to pass uh our budgets for the last few years and this gives us an opportunity to not have to go through that whole process and to have to uh sell the budget and um and then have to worry about it getting getting shot down and then what what what are the sides of the cuts that we're going to that we're going to have to make uh there's a lot of unknowns out there and and that's a nerve-wracking process but last night after I found out that the governor signed it I really thought about it and I really started thinking about um what it means to be able to to vote on the budget and what I would feel like as a not
016as a board member but as a taxpayer because I haven't been a board member all that long and my guess is eventually I'm going to be thrown out or I'll just or I'll uh and that's exactly the point and I'll go home and I'm going to be a TA you know just a regular taxpayer again and I I I really think that the no vote on the budget sometimes or a barom as you know and I agree with you that that is the only thing that our voters get to that the voters get to vote on and so they register their discontent with government in general sometimes with by voting down our school budgets but I also think that it's a barometer and we need to listen to it we need to we need to
017uh take that to heart and into consideration and then and then make adjustments to those budgets because after all these are the people that are paying for these things and if and if they're not happy with paying for those things and our job is probably to change the way we do things uh and that is you know with uh having supported our prior budgets I think that I think that uh our board and our Administration does a great job at controlling costs and doing the right things but that might not always be the case and I you know someday I could be a taxpayer with a with a board of ed that isn't and an Administration that isn't as responsible and I want to be able to register my discontent and I think so for
018that reason I'm going to vote against this two points Mr L the taxpayers have another point where they can vote near fire district in February the second point is we are elected if you don't like what we do run for office and kick us out I have stood in 2006 where there were nine candidates for three seats so you got your choice but I will tell you you take a look at the performance of this school district particularly on the basis of what it costs for per student because we have gr almost damn near doubled and then you fold in the fact that we had number one a 25% increase in cost of living over the period that I have been a board member number two that we have had a population of 89 trailers
019because of the finagling over by our neighbor across the street and all the you can look at the expenses and you can see each one of the bumps that caused by having to purchase another dozen or two dozen and when you take a look at that we have done a remarkably great job and that's supported by the auditor's reports and therefore I am totally in support of this resolution anyone else Mr Masters those are actually good comments I I have mixed emotions about this and it's going to surprise me people I actually agree with some with Mr Klein was saying um I some people that's more than a a big statement um I like the idea of moving the election but I think the whole idea we're going to the whole reason to move the
020election is to get people more people out to vote and more people involved in this but then on the flip side we're going to take away the ability of them to vote on our budget so we want more people to come out and vote but we want them to vote on less things that's what I see this as and I think it's a real slippery slope um when we start taking away people's right to vote or what people can chime in on by saying that and I I don't think we would say this we know more or as long as we stay um below some set limit set by government that could change that we don't need to ask the the public what they think that's all I'm going to say Mr I live in
021Rossmore I have lived in Rossmore for 20 years I was the president of Ross Moore for three years you take a look at the results every April you've got a consistent pattern all of the plan retirement communities vote no my good friend Mark his organization goes 80% negative and they all vote 36% of them come out and vote you people who are parents you don't don't come out to vote and then that's why we have to go through the Herky jerky of going over to the Town Council get out and vote or you should have but you didn't now we got this and let's live with this that's a legal term right Mr Larry hery jerky anyone else M Miss Miss antelis I won't touch the mic okay um yeah there have been some very
022good comments but I have always been um of the mindset that it really wasn't fair that we never voted on a municipal budget or a federal budget or a state budget and it's really unfair to be picking on the school budget while I do agree that it is right for people to come out and air their opinion you can do that by voting for candidates if you don't like what the candidate did and you think they're overspending or wasteful then it's up to the voters to come out and replace them just like we do with the municipal budget what we end up doing here is only 15% of the population are coming out to vote and most of them are uninformed about the budget and why I say that because people don't show up at
023the budget meetings I have sat in a community I've watched people vote as an observer and seen them come to the voting booth and just say what am I voting on and hearing people say just vote no then we put our Township officials in a precarious position by then having to cut things that they really don't know about so now we're putting them in an awkward position so I think it's really time that we just combined this election save the money and and just got rid of the budget vote anyone else Miss Fon um I have mixed emotions about that as a Jamesburg board member for 16 years in a Monroe rep for 15 um I agree with many comments that people are not educated I know that Jamesburg has failed zero% tax increases because
024it's the only thing they're allowed to vote on and they do not come out with the knowledge of where the money is going we we have a very small budget compared to Monroe and we work really hard to put it together and use every dime so to have it voted down when there's no tax increase to me just it's it shows a great lack of knowledge and the turnout in both districts are not supportive of what the board and the Administration has done to make that process um happen success I know it's hard we we do not get to vote um in Jamesburg on Monro High School although I support the referendums we don't get to vote on the issues that do affect our students so I do understand that that area of it but
025um I think it's a complex issue but I I do agree that the boards work very hard to give the school and the community the best for their money and people are just not educated in that area um I don't necessarily say that I want to vote for Monroe I I may abstain but I know um it's very difficult decision um and both sides are both viable add one more thing that this is not a permanent vote correct this is only years fouryear vote so after four years if this is not working out or the people are not happy we're replaced then this can be overturned Mr Hoffman I'll be brief I promise only because I haven't said anything right you got to have to say something uh I think for the board members that
026are kind of on the fence about whether or not to support this or not a couple of things need to be considered um in the past few years we've had failed budgets um last year specifically we actually came in below cap which is something that we all kind of wrestled with but we did do that and it's and the budget still failed uh there's a lot of people that feel like if we vote for this we're kind of losing control that we don't have control of the process anymore um that really isn't the case in addition to being able to vote for board members which clearly control the process we still will be having budget reviews that we still are required to be below cap uh there are are checks and balances that are in
027place to ensure that uh there's not going to be excessive spending uh in the previous years as everybody knows if you've been a frequent um um Community member you've seen uh different Community come members come up before the board and challenge us on many many many things that are line items specific in a very thick 6in binder of 110 10 something million dollar budget down to items that are very very small so we fully expect to be evaluated as we move forward I would strongly recommend given the past few years that we've had with challenges of trying to get a budget past and explaining in exhaustive detail why we're doing what we're doing if we cut any significant amount of money to the actual taxpayer we're talking about you're going to be able to find
028uses for a couple of more cents per year it's negligible to you the end consumer where us as a board of education we're cutting an entire science program or an entire educ educational stream which will impact children for years so at the end of the day the while you may feel you have control and we're going to get a couple of dollars saved you in your pocket you're not going to you're not going to see that money um and I would urge the fact that this is a four-year commitment that at the very least we give this methodology a try because what we have now is unfair to Boards of educations as was mentioned earlier we can all vote on Board of Education stuff which carries the largest piece of your property tax dollar granted
029but it's not the only piece there are other things things that we have no control and no vote on whatsoever but I'd also say it's the biggest piece and everybody in this room is a stakeholder every one of you okay so I urge the ones that are kind of on the fence to rethink that and support this if nothing else we need to give this a four-year test run and if it doesn't work we re-evaluate it in four years anyone else seeing no one we have a roll call Mr Gorski Miss antelis yes Mr cherella no Mrs crony yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein no Mr lry yes Mr Masters no Mr tesler yes M colano yes madame board president motion passes thank you [Music] this time we'll go to number eight on the agenda
030approval of minutes for the public meeting of October 12th 2011 Motion in a second motion Mr Masters Mr Chella any comments or questions all in favor I opposed abstentions stain on uh public meeting October 12th and close session October 12th okay so maybe approval of the meeting uh the minutes for the meeting the closed session meeting of October 12th 2011 motion and a second Mr Kaufman I second Mr Klein comments or questions all in favor I opposed abstentions miss an tell us you're abstaining from that one too and Mr Kaufman approval of the minutes for the public meeting of November 16th 2011 so moved second M Mr tesler Miss antelis again comments or questions all in favor I opposed extensions Miss Fon is abstaining approval of the minutes for the closed session of November 16th
0312011 second miss antalis Mr tesler all in favor I opposed extensions Miss Fon so this time we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton thank you uh first and foremost I like to thank everyone for your calls cards emails text messages and the many many fruit baskets that I received while I was out it was very much appreciated uh to know that I was on your thoughts and prayers um and I also would like to publicly give kudos to Dr Gorman and Mr Gorski for carrying the ball during my absence the district was in very good hands and and I thank you for that um before I move into my report I would like to ask Mike Gorski to provide an update from our advisory committee meeting regarding the status of Applegarth where
032we are currently and then I'll move into my full report uh the status from the last report that the board has given to the public is that the EPA which regulates asbest remediation has issued all the applicable permits for the Applegarth remediation project and on Monday the asbest removal project had begun four of eight rooms are completed and according to Mr T all has gone well with no unexpected problems or conditions that have Arisen during the process we have a full-time monitor uh in mcab environmental Associates and environmental Safety Management two separate firms monitoring the air quality at all time to uh check for any contaminants and so far um I have no knowledge about any uh POS positive results from these tests um our maintenance crew has worked very hard and has painted four
033classrooms the main office the ceilings in the 60s Wing which will precede the lighting installation we've removed the lockers and we're putting the lock the old lockers up for sale we've disconnected all the utilities at the science labs um the science labs are going to have asbest remediation and are going to be left um with the status to be determined architectural and Engineering uh new lighting design is underway for the classrooms and hallways and uh subsequent to that we will apply for permits to the township we will also apply for a grant through jcpnl for energy efficient lighting which we are intending on installing through the school hopefully this will pay for the majority if not all of the lighting projects which are currently in the 1112 budget we are also uh have estimates from
034contractors to paint the Copa and to paint the exterior paint this is going to have to be professionally done and it will be done so through the bidding process to ensure that the best prices are attained and we have the most qualified vender um Ross haburn Associates is doing a demographic study to determine the actual enrollment um impact on the school particularly considering the Monroe Manor contribution in the next couple years design ideas group is also producing educational specifications for the school this will determine the school facility actual need based upon the educational goals set forth within the committee County Executive business administrator uh pursuant to our invitation Mr John neemo has visited the school and has issued a report and uh I I beg the uh consideration to read a brief letter to the
035public and introduce it on record it's from the state of New Jersey Department of Education middle sex County Office of Education and it's addressed to Dr Hamilton regarding Applegarth School dear Dr Hamilton I participated in a walkthrough of Applegarth school on December 20th with m Mr Gorski Mr T the district architect and the district environmental consultant the purpose of the visit was to review the plan asbest removal work assess the facility compliance with applicable safety regulations and the renovations to open Apple guard school as a grade four and five in the 2012 2013 school years the planned environmental project is consistent with the district's asbest management plan and the required procedures and protocols required by the state of New Jersey for asbest removal projects the environmental consultant will provide an additional level of supervision and
036the assurance that the work is performed per bid requirements including closeout activities the maintenance to the instructional areas will improve classroom Aesthetics and provide a sound instructional environment for students and staff as we discussed it is imperative that you obtain the required approvals from the local construction officials in addition though not required I would recommend the district review the egress plans from and to the original wing of the school please keep this office current on your project in this project sincerely John neth executive County School business administrator thank you for that update uh moving on to the superintendance report the enrollment data is listed there and I continue to call your attention to the growth in our community at 204 students on comparison from last year to this year um the outof district placement information
037is contained in your report stable at 48 students and our home instruction report is also listed along with the fire drills and lockdowns at our elementary middle and high school moving on to the Personnel report um Madam board president and members of the Board of Education it is the recommendation of the superintendent that Personnel items a through are be a move be approved by roll call vote second Mr Chella Miss antelis are there any questions for the superintendent seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes col Pono yes Madam board president Personnel items a through R passes in addition to your your current report uh additional recommendation list to be listed as
038item s on the Personnel report it is recommended by the superintendent that the board approve Aaron Mahoney as principal of the Barkley Brook School at a salary of [Music] $16,400 2012 second Miss anelis and Mr Tesla any comments or questions then we will have a roll call Miss an Tellis yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr kelman yes Mr Klein absolutely Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs K Pano yes madame board president motion unanimously passes thank and if I can pause to congratulate Miss Mahoney she [Applause] we like we'd just like to congratulate you and welcome you to Barkley Brook and we know you'll be a really good addition over there uh and one additional item to be listed under the Personnel report as item T it is recommended by
039the superintendent that the members of the Board of Education approve the transfer of Dennis frilla as principal of Applegarth school at his current salary of $148,100 Plus longevity effective April 1st 2012 through June 30th 2012 so move second miss antelis Mr Klein comments or questions clarification about this since this was late um how are we going to handle we're going to post I guess now for oak tree effective April correct that is correct okay so we'll incur more salary though because now he'll be at the other school that is correct okay under the current budget just he's moving over for for April yes April till June yes anyone else roll call Mr Gorski Miss anelis yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr
040tesler yes Mr phano yes Adam board president Personnel item passes thank you very much you and congratulations to you Mr V we just better hope we don't open any more schools after this because you keep going from one to another uh moving on to board action items Madam board president and members of the board of education is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through L be approved by roll call vote Mr tiella second second by Mr Klein any comments or questions for the superintendent if not we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr cherella yes Mrs feron Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes P yes Madam board president board action items a through ra passes thank you uh additional board action items
041Madame board president for consideration it is recommended by the superintendent that members of the Board of Education approve a revision to the 201122 school calendar to include halfday sessions on Wednesday February 88th 2012 Thursday February 9th 2012 Wednesday February 15 2012 and Thursday February 16th 2012 in order to provide inservice training for district teachers for the excellent Educators for New Jersey pilot program for Teacher Effectiveness evaluation system so moved second Mr cherella Miss anelis comments or questions roll call please miss antelis yes Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr kle yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano Madam board president board action items for half day passes thank you item in to be included under board action items it is recommended by the superintendent that members of
042the Board of Education authorize the superintendent of schools and the school business administrator board secretary to explore the creation of an in-house employee child care Center Mr Masters Mr cherella comments or questions Mr cherella yeah I just want to say that I think this is an excellent idea and I know we're just exploring it but I we we talked about it at the buildings grounds and transportation meeting and I I just think it's a wonderful idea and I'm happy to uh be a part of this exploration thank you sir Mr Klein as we mentioned in the committee meeting my daughter works as a occupational therapist in Stewartsville School system and they have it and her cost is $600 for her daughter whereas she was paying $1,200 per kids for the two kids and one of
043them now started kindergarten so that's that's saved but I think it's a win-win situation for our district and for the staff anyone else roll wait one com is there any cost to this the exploration um there may be application fee that we may need to incur which I suspect will be minimal but I I don't anticipate incurring any additional costs uh if that should happen I will come back to the board and and seek authorization for that roll call Miss anelis yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano Madam board president board action items for in-house employee Child Care passes thank you you and one last item for the superintendent's um board action um it is recommended by the
044superintendent that members of the Board of Education authorize the superintendent of schools and the school business administrator board secretary to explore the creation of an in-house before school and after school Child Care Program second miss antalis Mr Masters any comments or questions then we will have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr cherella yes Mrs frony yes Mr cman yes Mr Klein yes Mr ly yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president board action items for in-house before and after dat school care passes thank you and that concludes the superintendent's report okay then we move on to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski Madam board president and members of the Monro Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through p with the exclusion of items
045f and g be approved by consent roll call second Mr Mr Kaufman and Mr Chella are there any questions for Mr Gorski I have a question Mr Masters oh could you just explain that what that means you said oh correct okay um may recall that about this time last year due to favorable public Municipal interest rate environment that the Board of Education refunded the 2002 series colable bonds uh was approximately a $20 million series saving $1.4 million of Interest costs over the remaining 10year life of the bonds um I've been along with our financial profession um monitoring the interest rates environment since then and they've dramatically fallen in the last couple weeks creating a unique opportunity for the district to refinance all of the colable bonds within the 2004 original High School issuance um the
046Total colable Bonds in that issuance are 62 mil $849,000 when refinanced at today's rates that will save between 2 million and $2.5 million of Interest costs over the remaining life of the bonds so it's a it's a prudent action at this time to refinance that series and what you have before you is two items one to make application at the local Finance board in Trenton uh for their approval on the refunding and number two to introduce the ordinance to the public any that will be the second reading right no this is the first reading I know but we will have a second reading yes by by law we're required to have a second reading yes anyone else that's Owen P just to clarify yes yes okay seeing none uh roll call Mr gors Mr anelis
047yes Mr cherella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president board action items a through p with the exclusion of FNG passes thank you very much and that concludes your report yes ma'am okay um we'll go on to the board's president's report I'm going to keep this um short um last Thursday January 12th we had an opportunity to have representative brush Halt and Dr Susan hildr from The Institute of museums and Library Services visited uh oak tree School library um representative Halt and Dr hrth were in monreal visiting with Librarians throughout the area they were promoting their skills act which stands for strengthening kids interests in learning in libraries and um approximately they were saying approximately 9 ,000
048Public Schools Nationwide have lost their libraries due to budget cuts among other things and in New Jersey four years ago we had about 2,000 school librarians and now it's down to about 1,500 so the goal of the skills Act is to have a library in every school Nationwide um Republican halt uh they spent about a half an hour mixing with the kids visiting with the parents and and getting to see what they thought was a quality library in tree so I believe they came away very impressed and it was a good exposure for both oak tree and our district um the second thing is the E for New Jersey Grant or excellent Educators for New Jersey is continuing its work throughout the district um piloting a new teacher evaluation system we are one of nine
049districts in New Jersey selected to come up with a fair and Equitable evaluation system for teachers and to provide feedback and guidance to the New Jersey Department of Education for a Statewide implementation um evaluation uh system um the districtwide committee met yesterday to continue the conversation on what their goals are and to discuss ongoing training for teachers and hopefully our district will make a positive impact on any upcoming teacher evaluation system that is put into place throughout New Jersey and then finally I'd like to congratulate Mr Chella and his lovely wife on the birth of their beautiful New Daughter Mary um as I I mentioned um a few months ago with Mr Masters had his little son that it was the first baby born to the board in I don't know how long and now
050we have a second so I hope this is not a trend of Bo board members having babies so um just congratulations sure thank I just thank you I want to thank all the you know everyone who uh sent ulations and and the wonderful flowers we received today from the board I thought that was uh that was very nice so thank you and I just want you know look into the camera and say hello to Mary that's my daughter's name she was born on on uh on New Year's Day New Year's Day so welcome to the world and and thank you very much you're welcome and she's really beautiful um we'll go on to committee reports anyone have a committee report they'd like to talk about Mr caufman uh sure uh this evening we had a
051uh uh curriculum committee meeting uh some of the items that were discussed this evening were the chemical hygiene plan Bonnie Burke went over the uh the new program that we're instituting here at the high school to control how we use chemicals how we dispose of chemicals and how we acquire chemicals um it was very informative and it was a very good presentation uh Mr Washington uh head of our Mis Department also went over um a new web-based locker system that will be used here in the district um if some of you are familiar with Blackboard technologies that are used in colleges this is very Sim similar to that where students can use this uh this um methodology to be able to post some of their work to their classroom teachers uh and not having to
052use email it's basically like a portal for for lack of a better term uh also Pam Garcia went over uh a very interesting plan that we're working uh some uh Kinks out of but we're going to be partnering with the College of New Jersey to get some student teachers in here to cover some uh gaps that we have in instruction at the uh grade one and two for World languages uh we're going to be looking to some of these student teachers to uh enhance the uh delivery of instructional material which is now primarily a video-based system to be more oneon-one with a uh instructor and actually expand the amount of time spent on this item from I believe it's 20 minutes now to uh 30 minutes so we're going to get some more instructional time
053at the K1 and two and also be able to leverage these student teachers at the high school as well so um that's it for me thank you Mr caufman anyone else Mr Chella yes we had a buildings grounds and transportation meeting yesterday much of what we uh covered yesterday was covered today uh the in-house Bas program um exploring the employee Child Care Center uh but some of the things that weren't mention that I'll mention quickly here is that uh we were looking at a 2-year extension uh with a discount for the uh trailer at Barkley Brook um which would which would provide us with about a $10,000 uh savings uh over what we're currently paying and um that two-year extension would give us the ability to uh absorb any you know extra extra students and
054uh provide for any any future needs that we might have while we're while we're we're working on Applegarth and uh going through our transitions that we're going through right now um we also we also looked at the configuration of Applegarth and um there were there were some changes so we were looking at uh the use now of seven fourth grade classrooms five fifth grade classrooms with a an estimated 25 or 26 children per classroom um and so uh one of the things that we also talked about that I know was touched on here by Mr Gorski was that uh we're doing uh testing a lot of testing for uh for asbestos in the air um one of the one of the good things is that we've ordered extra sampling uh and Dr Lynch has been
055present to uh to make sure that our air is clean and uh so far the reports have been great so we we we're just going to keep up that extra sampling to make sure that we have a uh a safe environment and I think that's it thank you okay anyone else seeing no other committee reports um is there any other business by members of the Board of Education okay oh Mr Masters um the diff the policy diff um that you sent me the um talking on my or uh basically when I when I look through the policy changes I kind of put them next to each other and try to see what's changing by paging down and see with a lot is there any way we could produce that diff even for members of the
056public um yes Mr Masters is referring to the the difference between the existing policies and the ones that are being modified or changed and presented to the board for approval we could certainly address that at the Personnel committee policy a policy excuse me policy committee yeah we could do um the policies that are under revision or consideration for revision are posted on the website we could probably do a markup version of that between the first read and second read where that's appropriate and other instances it will only requires one read so we we would need to come up with a protocol for that just a suggestion anyone else okay at this time we will go to the public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name
057and address for the record good evening everyone oh sorry sorry um good evening everyone my name is AR ra 19 Dominic Drive Monro T of New Jersey I'm actually a senior at the high school presently and I'm here to speak about um an event that occurred 2 months ago that affected all of our Lives we all applied to competitive universities such as the University of Pennsylvania Princeton Harvard M and while we concede that though we got we got rejected some of us got deferred deferred in this case means um when we applied early decision to these colleges and these colleges did not could you please speak into the microphone these colleges these colleges did not these these colleges didn't admit us um early decision and they're putting us in the regular decision pool I actually
058got rejected from the University of Pennsylvania and I feel like although I admit that um there are other factors that contributed to my rejection I'll admit there there sometimes admissions are fluky in that sense but we feel that we have a beautiful school we just participated in this iPad initiative we have class A teachers we have a great board of education but I feel like we could improve in some ways the import of Education in our district schoolwide and I feel like if we improve overall the quality of Education in our district which I believe is top-notch as it is right now but I believe that if we improve it to stay competitive with schools around us all across America even even across New Jersey I feel like we'll be able to place our students
059in the future um into a better position to stay competitive with other students and get admitted into these colleges do you want to reply to that my name is Nish Patel and um I'm from 63 Bay Hill Boulevard um okay um while like we we're here to try to get some change for the the school system we do admit that there are some some kids in our grade that got into competitive colleges like myself I got into the Cooper Union in New York City which is one of the top engineering schools in the country but um even with that like some even though some kids got in with even to Ruckers like some people got full rides we still think that it's it's much easier for other kids around us like in other schools with
060the different um like say Princeton they have a much higher chance of getting into different colleges like Princeton or the Ivy League schools because our our uh the mindset that our our students are with are here they have in our school district isn't the one that can be said for success like for example some kids that they don't feel like they should they need to strive for excellence and that's from uh like when they're when they're in elementary school it's not taught to them that they should try to do their best like they can get by with doing basically nothing and get good grades so they don't they're not pushed hard enough and that's what we think should be changed in our school I will comment on that okay go ahead my name is Sam
061athman and I live at 8 mcfarling Circle my name is AD Didia Patel and I live at 81 Jeremy court and we wanted to talk about how we believe that although we have a good school district we're not the worst we have a long way to go in order to be the best for example at uh our uh one of the townships near us West Windsor every year they get at least up to 15 to 20 kids accepted into IV and other competitive colleges while on a some of our best years we only get maybe five like uh this year they already have up to 10 uh people who uh got accepted into Princeton and other places on full rides and scholarships at another school nearby East Brunswick they have well documented budget problems yet
062they're still every year they're able to place students at competitive universities and like ad Didia said we struggle to do that every single year how is it that they have less resources but they can still affect itively Place their students at top colleges are we not as intelligent as the students at other colleges no we're just we're just as intelligent but like our job and nich Niche touched on our our quality not our quality our standard of Education might be a bit lower at these colleges for example they can take Cal BC and ab in one year but we're forced to do it in two years they can also go a step up and take multivariable calculus our school doesn't even have that class so so we believe that we need to be pushed harder
063and this change need to needs to start at the bottom it's not just a high school thing we need to learn from a young age from the elementary levels that we need to be pushed a lot harder than we already are now okay may I make a comment just in a minute Mr [Music] ly uh Leon thle from three Shindler Lane and hey I'm Jonathan du from 132 prola Avenue and you want to start first all right so our topic was basically we wanted to hone in on the teachers and we we had some good stuff to talk about like the AP teachers very good and then the honors and regular teachers they're very good as well and one particular key point we have is um the evaluation that the the um the school gives
064to each of the teachers every year so basically what is the evaluation the evaluation is when the one of the principal steps into the classroom and sees how the teacher is going to teach the class and um evaluate them based on how they teach and how good they are and when is it done basically like once a year so what do we think about it we think that um basically actually let me ask you a question first so is the eval is the evaluation done randomly or is it done like they um the the principal will tell tell you in advance that you have the evaluation first of all I really appreciate you guys coming out I'm I'm enjoying this immensely and um I think it would be worthwhile for for the the group of
065you that are pres present this evening to uh start a focus group with me because I'd like to exchange some more ideas with you but one of the things that you need to know regarding the evaluation process is we are involved in a pilot that it actually will change how teachers in New Jersey across the state are evaluated so the EV valuation there are certain laws that govern how evaluations take place depending on whether or not a teacher is tenured or or non-tenured a tenure teacher does get the one a year and a non- tenure teacher gets three a year um some principles use a clinical supervision model which means they conference with the teachers first they announce when they're coming in other times they are completely unannounced and by most standards a surprise a
066surprise visit but the one thing that you should know about our district is each year we are seeing increase in the number of kids who are getting into the more competitive ivy leaf schools but it takes a we have a system in place that is designed to improve the quality of Education systematically over several years so the implementation of a lot of the district initiatives like balance literacy and the inventions math program that was started three years ago it will take time for those things to catch fire so that as those those Elementary youngsters move through our middle and high schools the intent in the design of these research based programs is that we will see kids become more competitive I'm very good friends with the superintendent in West Windsor we are quite competitive and
067uh we call each other every year and talk about the number of kids that we got into the competitive schools and how many got scholarships and we are also collecting data not just on how many kids get into colleges but how many kids get scholarships and remain there I am on The Advisory board with etss which is the educational testing system um where we are collecting data that will help us determine not just how well our children do when they get into college but the data that will help us determine how successful they are in the workforce after they get out of college so there are a lot of things underway that I'd be glad to share with you in a focus group um so please make sure that um Mrs Sweeney Joyce if you
068would be sure to get these students names so that we can engage in further dialogue thank you thank you um so I guess going back to my question uh is our school um doing random evaluations or do we actually prep for uh prep the teachers for the evaluations I did answer that oh well okay so um It's a combination of both that's what I said so I think or we think as a group that the evaluation should be random at all times because um when the teachers know about the evaluation then they sort of prep their their students to like make them seem more up there you know and then they Chang their Chang a little bit of their um the way they teach to sort of uh make the make the principal seem like
069oh wow this is a really good uh good teacher you know and then maybe like teaa yeah so anyways what we think was basically you know we should have random evaluations every for like the 10year they should have one year of uh random evaluations and then three years um three times a year should be random for the teachers who don't have tenure all right thank you um as a student here I Look to teachers as a role model of my life and because they teach me many very uh good lessons that I'll be able to use uh constantly but uh sometimes I see during random po moments of time where um teachers don't truly abide by the rules I I know authoritative figures do not have to abide by the rules because they're sometimes seen
070above it uh but in a sense uh Sometimes some teachers pull out their phones in random places and you can see them texting or something and it's somewhat disturbing to me that these people that I respect with great much respect and looked for them as a role model for my life uh are doing this and it's sort of somewhat hypocritical almost in a sense to the student and it doesn't provide a good image to them I would agree thank you I just thank you for coming here and um it's great that you're asking the Board of Education to raise the bar for all of you for from the littlest kids up to you so that you can have a better future and get into better colleges so we appreciate that this coo excuse me we're
071still in public form uh I'm stepen ignar I live for Allison Court my name is Shion Roy chatterie and I live at six Pinehurst Court as as both John and Leon pointed out uh our teachers especially our AP teachers are some of the best they consistantly give their students the opportunity to learn and provide provide them with a great uh sense of belonging in the class where they keep learning and completely prepare them for the AP exam um majority of the class of every AP class gets the highest score of five almost every year and that's a good thing uh and one thing that we want to focus on is the the disparity between standard classes honors class and AP classes uh as you all probably know uh honors classes receive an eighto waiting and
072AP classes receive a 10-point waiting which is pretty close but in reality when it comes to the content of the classes it's an an honors class pales in comparison to the difficulty of an AP class honors classes don't really amply prepare us to take AP classes and the people who take AP classes do so to challenge themselves to do better in like to get uh better grades to actually learn something to prepare them for college and another a part that the teachers have difficulty with is where to set the bar in each of the different classes like in standard classes teachers often struggle whether to set the bar low enough where the lower average level kids can actually pass but the smarter kids breeze on through or if they set it high enough so that
073the smarter kids have to work to pass but that leaves the lower level kids struggling to pass and this disparity just it lets they often set the bar too low and it ends up being the smarter kids can just breeze on through without much effort and this applies to the honors and AP classes as well or mainly honors not so much AP actually but in honors class depending on which one a lot of them prepare like AP phys or honors physics for example prepares us for AP it teaches us very well but other honors courses don't really set the bar high enough for everyone to get their like full education um because some of them set the bar too low so that the kids who are just barely honors level students can pass but the
074ones who are maybe AP level students just go through really easily like especially as the next couple students are going to bring up the the scheduling conflicts play a huge role in this and especially with the honors classes I know a lot of us have had scheduling conflicts we wanted to take maybe one AP class or another one but instead because of scheduling conflicts we had to move down drop down to an honors class and there's a huge difference between in the Spectrum like you have the AP level kids in the classroom whereas there were also these a these um the average student who maybe moved up from the Lower Class A year earlier and between the two between the top student and the lowest student there's a huge gap and as he said it's
075hard really hard to place the bar which causes it to be like difficult for the student to do really well okay thank you hello my name is arthy SES um I live at 20 Tall Oaks Drive hello my name is babna Cala um 219 Morning Glory Drive uh hello my name is POS turko uh I live at a Cooper Avenue and before we go into our topic of scheduling cing I would like to further uh support uh Steve and Shan as they pointed out uh myself being an immigrant from Poland I lived 12 years without knowing the English language and I been living in Monroe since six sixth grade and as I entered High School I began with honors classes and I didn't feel extremely challenged through these honors classes it was up until the
076AP point that I felt uh more of a desire to challenge myself and go to a higher level as uh honors class especially English itself being my second language it didn't really show it didn't really give give me much of a challenge I managed to pass through as Stephen pointed out so I could be classified as one of those students who is not challenging those honors classes it manages to pass and now uh our topic is scheduling conflicts um as we look on the different uh admission sites we noticed that uh they require us have many they don't require us but they look uh they prefer they don't prefer but they look sorry they um your they they uh admire the rigor of your uh AP classes and of your uh uh the difficult difficulty
077of the class that you take bless you thank you and uh the scheduling conf in Monroe we noticed that uh most of the harder Advanced AP class are piled on third block and we can see in other high schools they are able to take so much many so many more AP classes that we just can't because it's in the same block so uh um as Paul just stated um I believe that this year we've had some of the most serious scheduling conflicts in related to AP students um for example AP Chemistry AP Physics AP Lit AP Spanish AP Calculus AB and AP Computer Science are all third block and if you take an AP science or AP Calculus which is double block um you're unable to take the other two classes so you have to
078drop it for example I myself was in AP language last year and was unable to take AP Literature even though I should have because I'm in AP Chemistry and um if you go on college board or any other college website the first thing they look at is your transcript and they look at what classes You' have taken and how hard you've challenge yourselves and if the scheduling conflict like persists it prevents us from taking um challenging classes that are in essence required for um top colleges such as MIT Harvard Yale upen um and it hinders us because these other students from schools around us are taking all of these classes and we are unable to and we are forced to take these classes out of school for example as arthy will say um she has
079taken chemistry his geometry and AP Calculus BC out of school um Sammy who came up before has taken physics out of school Shion has taken chemistry out of school I myself took AP biology over the summer just this summer and tarica has taken physics out of school too and this just makes this should not be the case because if we go to a public school we should be given all of the opportunities to take all the classes that we need to get into top colleges without having to compensate for the differences ourselves yeah so i' I'd like to touch on um um College admissions and if you know how they work uh like babna mentioned um if you go on collegeboard.com uh one of the top criteria that's listed under the um the the tab
080that's uh for the office of admissions the criteria that they look at it's consistently across different schools of different levels um the rigor of your academic record so that is the most important thing that colleges consider so they get your transcript and what they do is they they understand that different schools offer different opportunities some schools um don't offer as many AP courses so they can't compare apples and oranges if you go to a school that offers 16 AP courses and another student goes to a school that offers two so they do account for that by um comparing your transcript um seeing the courses that you take and comparing it to what's offered at your school now now that avoids the problem of comparing apples and oranges but the problem is when we have scheduling
081conflicts um and we aren't able to take the courses that we sign up for the colleges don't know that we haven't taken certain courses because of scheduling conflicts they are not in you know that's not indicated on your transcript that's not indicated in your guidance counselor recommendation they don't know that so in the eyes of the admissions officers they may be thinking that look at the opportunities that the school offers and look at what she's taken she hasn't taken all the opportunities that her school offers so given that given the importance that the rigor of your academic record is given in college admissions and given how it's evaluated by admissions officers scheduling is a huge problem and that really needs to be addressed um and like bahava said um last year we faced a problem
082of having over seven courses I think chemistry um physics literature Spanish Cal computer science all AP courses in the same blocks and I think everyone here um who's who's presented has um faced a problem in the past year uh they've had to sacrifice one or two courses and the justification that uh guidance counselors constantly give is you have to compromise you have to compromise and of course we can't always get um what we want but at the same time it shouldn't be that we have to compromise every single year I've had a scheduling conflict every single year of high school I've had to sacrifice some some course or another I had to sacrifice um AP US History to take AP Calculus I had to take um I had to sacrifice AP Physics to take AP
083Literature and those you know one or two compromises you know that's okay but every year um happening to a lot of people that's it's a problem and another thing is that guidance counselors often say the master list has already been created and we can't change that um I'm not sure who creates the master list but it seems like it's not being created in the most efficient way the way that accounts um for uh or that minimizes that the uh the number of scheduling conflicts so I think maybe the process of creating the master list really needs to be evaluated um maybe the students can choose their courses first and then a master list can be created um based on what arrangement of classes uh minimizes the number of scheduling conflicts um what also um speaking
084of AP Calculus um I think the way that Monroe uh teaches calculus is very inefficient um other schools take one block or uh one class period rather uh for those schools that don't have block scheduling so they take one class period out of eight class periods to complete all of calculus so that's ab and BC calculus for those uh who don't know uh about how calculus is taught it's divided into a Ab and BC but many schools allow students to go directly to BC um so in and what our school does is we have to take ab and then take BC and ab is a double block block course so two out of eight of our classes go to taking AB so in essence um three we're taking three times as longer um than other
085schools to take to learn all of calculus and that's that's not fair um that that also contributes to the fact that we um are not we're not able to take as uh many rigorous courses as we should be able to take um and yeah I think that's it thank you speak now oh in one minute Mr ly all right and um to sum it all up uh we have a beautiful building we have great board members we have great teachers we have great students all of us right here and um I believe that everything here is in place for us to succeed and we've all taken we've taken the right steps for us to succeed and everything's here we just have to grasp it and I think if as Dr Hil said these programs are
086starting to get put in place and I myself didn't realize that until today but um now that I know that uh I realized that the board is acting um proactively to ensure that we remain competitive and we just wanted to raise awareness because we felt that um we have the best perspective on the school because we go to the school every day and we see what's going on around in the school we see the teachers we talk to each other and we talk to other people from other districts and we felt that if we could raise awareness of our qualms and we could talk to you guys about how possibly we could improve the mindset that our teachers create in the school or perhaps um influencing the way elementary schools um challenge their students or
087perhaps overall just having an environment of Academia then I feel like we can can I feel like we can we can improve overall and thank you for listening thank you for listening thank you for taking out a half an hour I apologize but um thank you for your time have a good night and thank you thank you Mr lry you may speak now let's get found a couple of things first and foremost this is a comprehensive High School it is not a specialized high school if you ladies and gentlemen want to go to specialized high schools go up and take the exam to get into the engineering and Science school that's part of the votch and has its campus on middle sex County College and there you'll have plenty of competition and you will go
088and work your ass off this is a public session isn't it not it's not not the board session I don't like those comments well fine goad please please sit down and we'll call on you when when it's just want Mr Le wait a minute this is the this is the public portion not the board portion this is the public public portion yes and it's not the boards to talk it's the public to talk i i r directed Mr L to ask his question those kids were great let me tell you that and you should not deme them I say one let me just say one thing Miss Fon I understand what you're saying I just want to tell you kids I commend you for taking the time to come together as a group exchange information
089I am so impressed by all of you and so proud that you came up and and gave such an ightful view into your perspective excellent Mr Klein do you need to make a comment because you you could take you could take all day and and I really would like to get on with the public portion make no Mr L no you don't have to say she does she's the chair excuse me is it going to be very short it' be very short very short thank you um just just one what you say about the scheduling absolutely do we want more AP courses absolutely we want the best teachers of which we probably have many absolutely where our problem is one of you had mentioned that East Brunswick has less resources than we have and yet
090they Excel and they're able to get into the better schools uh for your own information they receive upwards of 14 million a year in state aid we get $1.9 million $291 a student but that's not a reason to cut courses the problem is with the amount of money that we have and the amount that we're able to raise in taxation there's a limit to what we're able we want to give you the best unfortunately when you have a mixed population of levels of students I'm not an educator I don't know how how we can reschedule it other than doing the scheduling like you said instead of having it in the third block make it where it's more accessible to all of you but let me tell you something you knocked my pants off I wish
091all our students were like you and I congratulate that was almost short all right yeah that was really great not too many people knock his hands off no Mr Larry we're going to continue with public forum so if there's anyone would like to come up to the microphone Bob roach 18 mfield Boulevard I would just I'm so impressed with these kids I would like to give them another round of applause and you know I think Dr Hamil's got a problem he's got kids coming here to a Board of Education meeting talking about problems that should have been corrected at his level they should never have felt that it was necessary to come come to hear they've raised outstanding questions and I think the board should be dealing with those issues with Dr Hamilton great job
092kids now I'll go to my my mundane things because these kids were so great I almost don't want to even talk but um it's very mundane I came in here a little late you have a great crowd but you don't have the agenda printed up and I saw it on the website I didn't look I think you should have more agenda here when the I believe they're in the back no there's not they're gone well that's because we had a big crowd that's what I'm saying if you have a big crowd have a lot of agenda how do we know 7 you've been having a big crowd for the last couple meetings I've been here because you've had interesting guy normally there's 10 of us at most you know but uh he said it's better
093to have a few extra than uh than not enough um it's right there Paul Al you got him in your hand H it's too late okay they're there they're there there sorry yeah that's the policy thing I'm not interested in the policy okay can can can you ask your question well I'm getting uh questions from the uh the board uh Mr Gorski you talked about the uh the new bonding you're where you're converting and you're going to save uh 250 2.5 million on interest uh is there a change in the uh the the age of the bonds are they are they going to come do at the same time or are they going to be extended same term right Mike we're anticipating that it's going to be the same term and this the state requires
094that you recognize a 3% Net Present Value savings on the refunding or it's not it's not uh practical to do so um our our recognition of Net Present Value Savings in this instance is is right on 4% at the current time but it's a moving Target as you know um what was the interest rate on the old bonds it it's variable every different uh maturity has a different interest rate the non so it's a group of bonds beg pardon it's a group of bonds it's not just a single Bond it's a composite of different bonds the the cable bonds have a higher interest rate than the non-cable it's it's very variable and there's different maturities throughout the whole thing ranging from as early as 3 years up to uh 29 years I think was but
095the net effect is the interest rate will be the Principal stays the same but the interest rate was is uh the interest that you're saving is 2.5 million the principal was slightly increased due to the refunding cost how much is slightly um in this instance we were estimating estimating about $400,000 and that includes Bond counselor um underwriting basically $2 million savings printing of the bonds uh no the the savings that I gave you were net after all expenses and again that that's between 2 million and if you wanted to be aggressive at current rates it could be as much as uh $3 million in Net Present Value savings okay thank you um actually and I'm also glad to see that Mr Masters who I voted for based on what he was promoting at the last
096election that he was going to be a businessman and and go with the attached go as a business person he finally voted no on something so I want to congratulate but Bes I also want to congratulate both of you Mr Sho and Mr master and both of your kids what do you have grandkids is really going to be great and the other thing is that I want to talk about is is uh Mr Kaufman Lou you make a nice speech I'd like to see some factual things once in a while from you my my uh my my uh taxes have gone up 100% in 10 years and the rest of the the portions of the township uh my tax rate has not gone any up with anywhere near that so let's make sure when you're
097talking about what's happening that you're you're being factual thank you thank you anyone else from the public I dist because I'm ask some questions about this next board meeting not tonight because you wouldn't be prepared for it thank you thank you what I did is it's a uh it's a study it's objective completely objective unbiased uh based on the uh 201 2011 taxpayers guide uh in education for educ spending put out by the New Jersey uh State Board of Education and it essentially Compares uh school districts of 3,500 students or more to Monroe that are here in middlex County uh it it does it somewhat along various indicators but as I looked at it without drawing any conclusions it certainly raised some questions and to to help you know where I will be going next
098month with my question if you would look look at um indicator number four indicator number four shows that uh the Monroe School District spent more for classroom General supplies and textbooks than any of the other high schools in Middle sex County I I I I don't I I I do not want any answer tonight but I would like to know why is it that we're spending $423 per student and East Brunswick spends $176 per student student uh we're we're spending you know more than double what the average is being spent so there's got to be a logical explanation for that and I would like to hear what that is uh another indicator that raised my curiosity was number five where we are at the top of the list and spending $417 per student for classroom
099purchased Services whereas if you look at the list most of the schools spend less than $100 per student and yet we're spending over $400 per student there's got to be a reason for that and it does impinge on the budget but as I said I I'd like that to be looked into so you could provide the public with an answer to that and then finally uh number 13 this is the second year in a row where Monroe is at the top of the list on extracurricular cost per pupil uh and and all of this data is for last year's budget not this year's budget uh but last year we Aver uh we were averaging 300 $38 per student whereas uh out of the 12 high schools that I have listed here uh the median cost
100is somewhere around 175 so we're almost double in extra extracurricular cost uh once again I think there's a logical Mr ly Mr ly okay now to to deal with tonight's budget though uh tonight's agenda um there was in the business administrators report items m in I I don't know what those items are about I I I think the public would appreciate some brief explanation as to what items M and N are all about because I read it and I simply couldn't make heads or tails out of it uh on board action there were items K and L uh one of them deals with a high school graduation requirement uh to me that's a very very important issue a and it does uh tie in with what these uh young students have spoken about tonight I
101I don't know if that's a change in the graduation requirement uh I don't know what it is but I I think the public uh would like to know exactly what does that policy mean in terms of the graduation requirement also I have a question because in the packet of of uh policies some of them are called regulations and I do understand the difference in those two but then there's something else called a policy guide a a and I've never heard of that so I would just like some clarification as to what that's all about and regarding the policies you do have a policy about school volunteers I I read it as quickly as I could because tonight was was when we had it and then subsequent to that is a policy about athletic volunteers I
102may have missed it but in the athletic volunteer policy there's nothing specifically stated about a criminal background check it is mentioned in the general volunteer part of the policy but but I do think it's quite important that that be specifically mentioned for the athletic volunteers because in many cases a coach an athletic director they may only look at that specific policy and not realize you've got to have that criminal background check um also I you approve Mr ventrello going to the appleg gar School April 1 uh I would appreciate it as a member of the public knowing what the reasoning is for that uh because that means he vacates oak tree uh Apple Gart does not open until September I know there's some some preparation has to be done but if he's under a 12-month
103contract I don't quite understand why we're having to transfer him as early as April the first um and I need a clarification I know I've got a lot of questions but you had a lot of stuff in this agenda uh you approved a resolution to move the School elections to November does that go into effect this year in other words there will be no budg no vote on a budget this year in Monroe right and School Board elections the new members will be elected in November okay thank you so those are all my questions okay we'll try to answer as many as we can I'll have Mr Dr Hamilton talk about um Mr ventrello no hey I could give a nice simple Mr no I'm having Mr Dr Hamilton answer we're moving Mr vent trillo
104because there are um activities hiring transfer staff uh things that are required statutorily in terms of notification of Staff members whether they're tenured or non-tenured that have to happen by a certain date um we also want to get parent orientations uh scheduled student orientation so that our fourth and fifth grade students who are currently our third and fourth grade students have an opportunity to get acclimated to the building become familiar with staff so we believe that this will provide us with the transition that necessary to make that successful the summer months will be allocated to those duties and responsibilities generally associated with uh 12-month building uh administrators so we wanted to give Mr ventr an opportunity to get started so uh we think this is the most uh proactive way to avoid uh not having
105uh the opportunity to get the students and staff acclimated to that building because essentially it's a new building do you have an answer to the policy I can respond to some of the policy questions as best I can uh some of the policies are mandated updates so they come from uh service that we use called Strauss smme and some of those policies we've been going through our policy manual and reviewing them according to to their series and updating them if they have not been appropriately updated our approach over the last year and a half has been pretty aggressive with updating our policies so where you may see a policy update or a policy advisory that would be something that would come from the state directly versus is one that comes from Strauss ese um the
106volunteer policies and the criminal background check those items are always up for discussion in terms of who pays for those and whether or not we want it to whether or not the board wants to adopt that as a a a general procedure however the policies are posted on the website prior to the policy meeting so that members of the community and our staff members have an opportunity to provide input uh prior to the board reviewing those policies and that happens each month as as we revisit these these Cy this this cycle so um if you like an opportunity to see these policies before they reach the agenda that would be a way to do that Mr Po I'm going to have um Mr Gorski answer your questions in regard to the business administrators questions that
107you had uh Mr P your questions were specific to letters m and n in the business administrators report but also related to those two items is letter L which I'll also address uh if you allow me the state of New Jersey under the new health insurance law requires school districts to administer a flex spending plan also known as a cafeteria plan prior to this law the district had enacted a premium only 125 plan the premium only 125 plan is now going to be rolled into the flex spending plan and what this allows is for employees to have pre-tax treatment for required health insurance contributions and is expanded under the flex spending plan FSA by allowing individual employees to um elect pre-tax treatment for such items as medical expenses that are out of pocket and also
108child care expenses I specifically molded the plan to work well with our anticipated um Child Care initiative so that employees would have the benefit and the option of having a prepaid debit card taken from their pay treated pre-tax and could satisfy the obligation for the child care to the district with said card um item L refers to the insurance carrier who will administer the card and keep track of the expenses and issue checks if somebody doesn't want to use the card and issue duplicate cards if they lose a card and so on okay is there anyone else from the [Music] public jod decide to Northwind Court Dr Hamilton I'm glad to see you're back thank you Mr charella I'm I'm interested to meet your little daughter and to these extraordinary are you all seniors thank
109you because you've opened my eyes to some things now that I can look to for my little children that are two and a half and five and that leaves me to refer to letter T Dr Hamilton on your report that was added in terms of Mr V's transfer as a parent I support Mr V being the principal at Applegarth his expertise and experience I believe will be what this school needs Congressman H visited the library at Oak Tree to Showcase its Effectiveness in order to support the skills Bill Mr V created this environment therefore I fully believe that Mr V can get Applegarth to the same place in order to remain competitive I like that do I think this school should be open this year to Mr ly and Mr Klein you consistently refer to
110money that we do not get do you believe we have the money to open up this school for two grades this year when we have in the next couple of years we have the ability to keep the school closed get some money and do it right um I firmly believe that that this this district has facilities in place that could take care of these overcrowding issues that we have right now we have the trailers that can be moved in order to make those changes in a timely fashion again in accordance with money that we consistently hear that we are a district that doesn't get much from the state um again I think that we really need to ask if we can afford it the questions I had in terms of um the classroom size it
111was mentioned that we would have seven fourth grade class classes and five fifth grade classes at 25 to 26 students a classroom that seems fairly big for an entire school to be open to have that large of a class size my question is shouldn't be shouldn't it be lower and then what is Oak Tree going to look like are those classes class sides going to be lower um these are just concerns again as a parent I I smile upon you because these are questions we need to ask in order for our future seniors to be competitive and I want to make sure that that happens for my children I believe that's all I have thank you thank you anyone else from the public if I can just respond to to the I want to speak
112briefly to the um enrollment numbers at anticipated numbers at um Applegarth um we an participate there will be about 290 students going over to Applegarth um we do have somewhat of an anomaly in terms of how we generally um plan budgetarily and for class size uh oak tree presents somewhat of an anomaly we generally know that in first grade there are a cluster of children that we can't anticipate because parents elect to send their children to private kindergarten programs so we have no way of really predicting first grade numbers so we we do a good try to do a good job with estimating that based on trends however at Oak Tree the trends are very unusual in that we have an influx each year in all the grades not just first grade so we have
113to make Provisions particularly because we don't know what impact Monro Manor will have on providing space for those youngsters so we do believe that our plan to to open Applegarth in September uh will accommodate the 290 students that we anticipate and the 25 to 26 students per class is a standard that we've used across the district so those numbers will be comparable in all of our elementary schools anyone from the public hello my name is Eric offenberg 48 Edington Lane uh qu two quick questions first a clarification I I commend the board on passing the 2% cap um on the budget and I think we're all glad that the Voting is going to go away on that um in terms of the effect that's going to have online item issues like I believe in the
114past vote in addition to the board of education budget we had the on line item on the full day kindergarten does that go away as well or is he does the township still have the ability to put an additional funding for whatever purpose anything that ex seeds the cap will have to go to the public for a vote right resolution okay or if we ask for a second question then that would have to go to a vote okay that's good and second question uh regards to full day kindergarten is kindergarten still under consideration in the new 2% cap budget for 2012 2013 no it is not okay thanks anyone else from the public just a quick C question for Mike uh Gorski is the budget cycle for 12 and 13 going to be the same
115as previous years uh yes that's correct Mr Ro the budget cycle is going to be exactly the same I understand we're still going to have to have a uh a uh a public forum for the budget like we've always had the timetable for having an election due to the county office and everything's going to remain the same uh the only thing absent is the required vote if you're under the statutory 2% tax levy cap okay thanks [Music] please hi my name is Karen rap 44 Lorado way any idea what we're doing for the busing for Applegarth yet uh we'll be meeting with transportation department and developing that plan and what impact that will have on the routes as well okay and the classrooms that will be emptied out in oak tree is that what are
116we doing with those have we has that been decided based on the numbers that we are anticipating will be coming into oak tree there won't be a lot of empty classrooms that will you will have the opportunity um Mr vento and I met we we do have an opportunity to reinstate art and music classrooms but most of those other classrooms we anticipate will be utilized based on class sizes going down in oak tree to some extent we'll be right now we're averaging about 24 25 and that's the standard we're trying to use across the district so that all won't be going any lower than that it it I'm going to say no at this time but keep in mind that I don't know because the enrollment projections are very peculiar for the oak tree Community
117okay thank you anyone else from the public which one of you are speaking well I can have him say hi say hi cor Masters n Michaela court it's fine Mark I'm fine I have two questions one is the self-contained special ed class going to go over to Applegarth that's the O Tre now say that again is the self-contained special ed class going to go over to Applegarth that's at Oak Tree now we have not reviewed the special ed uh enrollment numbers yet the only special ed classes that we've looked at are the ones at Barkley Brook we haven't gotten to the oak tree special ed yet okay uh my second question is with the world languages for grades 1 and two what's going to happen with the rest of this year you talking about student
118teachers is coming in is that for this year's we don't know what the parameters of the grant will be yet cuz we're still working that out um some of that may actually be able to start this year most likely most of it will start next year depending on where the students are at the college in their in their course selection process what's going to happen as far as the second graders going to third grade next year to keep them up to kep them kep kept up to speed they have the Rosetta program at those at those grade levels what we're looking to do is augment what um what the teachers feel is a substandard program currently in those primary grades it well it is a quite sub I mean my son's learning more from D
119the Explorer currently than sadly that he is you know when he gets home from oak trees that's why my concern is about you know so is it going to be much harder than he gets to third grade I don't want him to feel like he's missed a year of study then if they're going to bring in you know what I'm saying we have yes I do we have the opportunity to be more Progressive and and aggressive with the um Spanish lessons with the Rosetta Stones teachers have the flexibility to address adjust the level based on uh where kids are okay thank you Excuse me while we know who you are we need your name and address oh you did yeah okay would you like me to do it again we missed it sorry um anyone
120else from the public I he young fellow's name I I didn't either well he is the public Dennis vello principal of witch School uh um I want to say thank you both thank you Dr Hamilton Madame President and I wrote down some notes over here and all the board members for my appointment as principal for Apple Garth Elementary School establishing a new school Community is very exciting and it presents lots of challenges but as a principal being able to use your position to help children staff and parents is probably one of the most rewarding of experiences um although it saddens me to to leave oak tree it's reassuring to know that it's an um and it's an outstanding school with wonderful students supportive parents and an excellent staff plus I'm just across Applegarth Road um
121parents should know also is the fact that as um as Applegarth will house grades four and five many of the grades four and five teachers presently at Oak tree came with me as we moved from Brookside school to Oak Tree school so I will be working with these same teachers and others as we establish and develop the students educational programs this level of trust and familiarity between me and the teaching staff will ensure that the trans transition Abarth will be a smooth one for the kids parents should also know that all the programs and resources afforded students based upon their grade levels and needs at at Oak Tree school will continue to be provided the staff and I will keep the students educational programs and their welfare as our number one priority as we move
122through the entire transitional process so parents and I want to thank you for tonight JY that was very nice of you uh parents I'm asking for your support as we move forward with the opening of Apple Guard School uh the oak tree School community and the PTA have always given up their time efforts for the sake of the kids we need to channel the same positive spirit as we open up apagard school there's a lot of work to be done Now's the Time to roll up our sleeves and work together for the sake of the kids as they transition to their new setting so parents I'm counting on you um also want to say is that I look forward to work with Dr Hamilton and Mr Gorski Mr ters we anticipated gradual moving in and
123that was to get back to your comment Doug just let you know in beginning a late spring and continuing throughout the summer with doors officially opening in September I want to say thank you again to the board to Dr Hamilton uh for believing in me a third time um and that I look forward to working with everyone as we open up Apple sto Dennis Dennis this sport is really confident that if we know that anybody that if anybody could make appleg guard into an excellent educational facility and do it well it's you so we have most confidence in you anyone else from the public hi uh Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court um I wanted to reiterate what Kathy just said um as the president of the oak tree PTA um we know how much Dennis
124has done for oak tree um Dennis was instrumental in opening oak tree he's been a wonderful wonderful principal um I know he's going to be sadly missed at Oak Tree but if anybody is a person to open up Applegarth it definitely will be Mr ventrillo um with that said I have a couple of questions about alagar um I understand that the class sizes are going to be 25 to 26 students next year it's ant anticipated to be 25 to 26 students I thought the purpose I thought the purpose of opening Applegarth was to alleviate the overcrowding at Oak Tree why are we opening the building and not opening enough classrooms to bring down the class sizes to be equivalent with the other schools in the district Mrs scurby that is the standard that the other
125dis the other schools are has 22 kids in a classroom for next year the standard that we are using is to try to stabilize our student population in each classroom using a standard per grade level consistent across the district so you're going to increase the classes at Brook sign right now at appleg guard at Oak Tree there is a kind a first grade class that has 28 students in it at Barkley Brook there's one that has 14 it is not fair for our children to be in class sizes double you've been selling this we going to open up Applegarth to reduce class sizes and we're still being told next year the first grade will have 22 kids in it well how what is what is it going to be a Barkley Brook but when last
126year when we talk CL sizes are going down by year their kindergarten classes are so so small this year it's not right you either need to open enough classrooms on our side of town to make our classes as small or you need to redistrict it is not going to be okay for our children to be in a class with 26 kids at Applegarth the whole reason to open the building is to make the class sizes smaller and they're going to be exactly the same okay are you asking questions that You' like me to answer CU I'm trying to and you're you're talking over me last year when we talked about closing Applegarth the PTA you you represented the PTA that there were no issues with the class size and that that was a compromise you
127were willing to make for the school to be closed this year that so now you're presenting that the class sizes are higher at o at Oak Tree when you knew that that was going to be the case this year by keeping the building by keeping Applegarth closed no we we did not want to compromise our children's health last year to have them go over while you were abating asbest that was what we did not want to compromise there's no disagreement on that and what we were told was when the building opened and our children were moved over the classes would be smaller and now you're telling us that they're not going to be smaller it's unac if you're telling me that the classrooms are at 28 25 or 26 is smaller smaller than what what
128you just described the classes now are between 26 and 27 at Oak Tree to keep them at 26 what are we doing this for what are we doing why don't you move over the free trailer and save all that money why you could add eight classrooms with one trailer for no cost little cost little C you're going to open an entire building and incur all a million dollars in staff alone to run a building to have the same size classes it's unacceptable I'm sorry it's unacceptable Mr ly anyone else from the public okay seeing no one the next scheduled Board of Education meeting will be on Wednesday February 15 2012 7:00 p.m. at the high school motion to adjourn U Mr Kaufman Miss ant Tellis all in favor opposed meeting adjourned