Monroe Township Board of Education 03.01.12 Regular Meeting

001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all may we have a roll call Mr Gorski Mrs kapano here Mr Chella Mrs antelis here Mr Braverman here Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr lirry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon Madame board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted February 24th 2012 one at all

002schools two home News Tribune 3 cranberry press four filed with the clerk of the municipality at this time we will go to our student board member reports yes okay good evening everybody uh first to start off I'd like to start with the mention that uh here at the Monro Township High School library we had a one book read um the particular sadness of lemon cake by Amir Bender was the book that was discussed uh in terms of testing the Juniors will have hesus uh March 6th through March 8th and for events that are coming up on the 16th of March we have uh m Monroe and for those of you who are unfamiliar with what that is it's basically a beauty pageant for the senior boys uh it's very comical and the students get a

003chance to uh display the talents and I encourage all of you to participate I mean all of you to come not participate you could participate if you want on February 28th uh this is noteworthy that Princeton University visited our school for uh Mr John Allen who is a World Language uh teacher he was a finalist for the distinguished teacher of the year award and in the process uh students Mr Goodall and teachers were uh interviewed on behalf of his performance as a teacher and he will find out if he won in April and I believe that I'm speaking for the mths faculty in student body when I say that I truly wish nothing but uh success and goodness for uh Mr John Allen and looking into next month the beginning of it April 19th through

004the 22nd uh will be the monra Township High School uh drama production you're in town and uh thank you okay thank you for your report number six he's got a second um number six on the agenda has been postponed until our next meeting so we will go to number seven the presentation and Adoption of the 2012 2013 tenative school budget Dr Hamilton okay while Mr Washington is is setting us up um Dr Gorman and Mr Gorski and I will be presenting the preliminary budget to the board um this budget is one that we are extremely proud of it reflects what we believe are the sentiments of the board it keeps students first it responds to our commitment to return uh money to the taxpayers and uh it's a budget that is very conservative and maintains

005the Integrity of the valuable programs that the board has worked so diligently um over the years to retain um I'm going to do a brief overview on Dr Gorman will talk about the curriculum related slides and then of course Mr Gorski will speak to the uh slides on the projector relative to uh state revenue uh expenditures and the bottom line which everybody wants to know the impact on the tax levy at the first slide um of course our board members um and our finance committee which uh these are the the members of the board who have worked closely with the administration to build this budget Mr lirry who is the chair Mr Kaufman Mr Klein um IRA tesler and Patrice Fon who is the alternate and this is the budget philosophy these are the principles

006that were uh embraced in order to develop this budget we work to create a budget that maintains the Integrity of a high quality Progressive School District um maintaining competitive programs that will produce a high yield for students enhancement of effective and efficient operations uh which looks at shared services and uh joint ventures with other districts and uh middle sex County in particular reducing costs wherever possible maintaining class sizes reducing the tax levy Trends the trends as you know have been that the tax levy has been increasing and we're working to bring that down uh a reflection on our core beliefs and our district goals and a continued look at our long range Vision so although we were working on this current budget we also have to think about the impact on the district in the

007future and how future budgets will be impacted we looked at some projected enrollments which is the the basis for how the budget gets gets uh constructed and we had a um budget steering committee meeting earlier this week and these numbers have have morph since then we were initially anticipating about 200 uh new students in for next year that number has been downgraded a little bit um because we we used enrollment from last month's enrollment report and made our projections from there so we anticipate 138 students which is still a remarkable influx of new students and still the highest in Middle sex County in terms of increase enrollment what programs are in this budget and these are curriculum related this is a curriculum related slide and I'll have Dr Gorman speak to this these slides sure

008and I'm going to keep the cck I know you are good afternoon everybody how are you all right cool all right so um what's in the budget this year the the highlights that I I spoke on I'm going to elaborate I just um picked some of our key components um instead of uh going through a three slide list item by item because I'd have you guys uh here for a long time tonight um last year when the Board of Education gave back money to the district we implemented our K to5 science program so we're going to dedicate more time to further implementation because it's been um in its first year of actual usage with our teachers we have an incredibly extensive extra and co-curricular programs um for all of our children especially at the middle

009school and the high school and I'll speak a little bit on that um and the primary reason for the um large number is to make sure that that our kids are competitive with those throughout New Jersey and all high school kids and colleges especially um these days look at a very eclectic approach for children to see what different venues they're able to um get the themselves involved so they could help the the roundness of their college experience um you see the core requirements um those are include the national common core standards so the federal government has implemented new um standards that are that sweep through the nation now that are not independent to state so we will be focusing a lot of our work on curriculum in aligning to those National common core standards and

010they're very solid oh you clicked on me all right so um here are some other pieces that are in the budget besides those pieces um we need to maintain our technology initiative so um off of last year's one to one initiative there are some outcomes that we want to make sure that we sustain at a very high L level of implementation and we want to continue on our on our track with all of our programs that are in place now but so here are some uh here's an example of um so all of our Sports this is two slides worth but it's a very comprehensive list of inter Scholastic Sports at the high school level and here is a very extensive list of all of our co-curricular programs at the high school as well and

011the Middle School sort of feeds up so they're not as extensive and again it there's a very large range in the types of activities that close to 1800 kids can get involved with and that'll be I believe close to 2000 next year in the building corre what does our balanced literacy initiative look like well that's what how we want kids to read write listen and speak and that's a very comprehensive approach that blends um a workshop methodology with Writers Workshop readers Workshop Words Their Way um and other areas that make a total literacy a total balanced literacy approach to a classroom in all of our schools so we'll be focusing a lot on that next year and our AVID program that Dr Hamilton um has brought to our district three years ago um I couldn't

012be prouder of it as it expands to uh to where it was intended to expand which is um approximately 10 to 20% of the student population for the elective class but that has the ability because the strategies are so powerful to affect the whole entire um district from grades 4 to 12 so we are continuing our push to expand the AVID program and um the testimonials and the evidence has been overwhelmingly positive as our first group of Advocates are going to be seniors next year so I'm really excited about that graduation some other highlights include our advanced placement courses so we want to again stay competitive with the best in New Jersey currently we have 20 advanc placement classes in all of our contents um that range over different subject areas which enable students to

013have the opportunity to get to the height of their High School career and um and and whatever path they choose we want to make sure that the best have access and everybody in between as well so what's new in this budget includes and I'll get into more detail a little later on um Applegarth staff some facility maintenance uh technology Staffing high school middle school and a new transportation van the engine view blue in one of the vans that needs to be replaced so that's included in this budget so um so the oneto one initiative is well into its fourth month October November December January February entering our close to our fifth month of our one to1 initiative at the high school and um one the lessons learned through the first year um is that to

014maintain 2,000 machines we are going to need some more um resources um meaning technology research people so we've budgeted two people there and um the vision is for them to really help maintain and uh and support um the many um technology devices that we have in the school these new positions include as Jeff Dr Gman just mentioned technology staff custodians and Staffing of Apple grth we wanted to make sure that we had the staff and resources in place at Applegarth so that it was comparable to all our other schools Al include a principal secretary nurse guidance counsel security person teachers Paris oak tree will be spreading some of those youngsters out to reduce class size there um adding an algebra another algebra level at the middle school and because of a anti anticipated uh hund

015and some new students at the high school uh additional teachers to accommodate that the slide is not very visible but what it shows is those items that were removed from the budget the first two items are the only things that were actually taken out of the budget the other items were items that were requested that never made it into the budget they didn't survive the budget defense round uh existing zero period transportation and courtesy lat run Transportation will be eliminated from this bus this budget with the exception of buses that are provided for students who need after school support through the basic skills program these other positions or positions or programs that were requested that did not make it in the budget and this PowerPoint will be up online for you to review uh once

016the the board has had an opportunity to express uh their thoughts and views on it and Mr Gorski will talk about the revenue slide and there are handouts available for these slides with the numbers because we knew you wouldn't be able to see them on the screen thank you dror um good evening this illustration which is available up front illustrates a comparative review of the sources of revenue that fund the operations of the district compared to 2012 the tenative 2013 budget shows an increase in general fund balance being appropriated from prior Year's budgets that's as a result of efficient purchasing and approvals of purchase orders um including a purchase order freeze that was initiative during the year that comes forward in the excess Surplus calculation to Future years um next is a very important item

017called transfer from other fund due to the efficient and effective management of the construction of this high school and according to our auditor update of the two non referenda accounts pertaining to this school there's a surplus as of January 31st just in excess of $7 million which includes a $3 million receivable from the state the finance committee recommended an appropriation of $2 million from that Surplus to reduce your debt service tax levy for the 1213 year that's like having not to make a couple mortgage payments on your home during the year it offers relief to the budget the local tax levy is under cap and the cap calculation allows you to grow your tax levy in the general fund um with including an adjustment for enrollment which Monroe had an automatic adjustment for by 2%

018uh inflation and also allows for slight adjustment to increases in health care costs other Revenue includes tuition from Jamesburg School transportation fees from Jamesburg school they send their 9 to 12 students to our district misscellaneous income from adult education and renting of our facilities for private uses and that's followed by state and federal revenues which although increased from last year are still quite disappointing um we had spent a great deal of effort Dr Hamilton Mr Larry Mr and I in state meetings all the way at the level of the governor's office to try to get more fair funding for our district because more state aid funding offsets your general fund tax levy and Monroe is harmed in this regard because of two metrics property wealth per puple and income per pupil and we certainly have

019argued that the property wealth per pupil is a very skewed metric when it comes to Monroe because 60% of the residents in town live in planned retirement communities and the most recent ones have high high valuations high assessed values but contribute no students so it skewed that metric to make it seem like everybody in Monroe has a very high home equity when in fact that's not the case and federal aid is just under 1% the total revenues uh are increasing 3.38% from the prior year and this slide shows the budget Appropriations SU Iz by account category more detail could be provided if if you're interested um these reflect a very conservative approach to the budget as Dr Hamilton has mentioned uh the principles when they submit their budget are subjected to a defense round where

020they have to justify everything in their budget to meet the core goal initiatives and orchestrated effective effort which Dr Hamilton introduced to the district when he started this slide illustrates our per pupil High School costs which came to a climax in 2011 2012 partially due to the 82 trailer units that were rented throughout the district and the cost associated with that those are essentially all removed from this 1213 budget and that combined with an increasing student enrollment dropped the comparative spending for High School per pupil to 15,264 that's a major Improvement and that helped Jamesburg also budget for their District because they face a much tighter cap than we have um and share the costs of the high school per pupil costs administrative expending is always a hot button issue and our district is 21

021% below the regional limit for administrative costs and the way the state calculates the administrative cost limit is you're limited to your prior year adjusted budget or the regional limit so basically we are not allowed to increase administrative spending at all please and here's a slide that illustrates a general fund state aid Trends in 20082 2009 we received just under $5 million 200920 it decreased the $ 4,668 th000 but in the middle of the year the state recognized the revenue shortfall in taxes and cut off payments to us even though we had an approved budget in place that caused a great hardship to The District in 2010 2011 we suffered a catastrophic 4.4 million cut in state aid that left us with $238,000 $696 for a district with approximately students in 201122 the state aid

022increased including the additional award that came midy year to just over $2 million and that we were expecting to remain flat to next year but in fact we got a small bump to $2.6 million of state aid but it's it's grossly understated compared to the state aid per pupil that our neighboring districts with the same district Factor group receive and we're still continuing to fight for more this slide I'm sure you'll be interested in shows the tax rate trends for the district in 2010 2011 the budget had an increase of 15.1 18 cents and that's after Municipal cuts 201122 which was the current year we're in the budget increased at 18.66 and that again is after cuts it when it was rolled out it was 20 over 20 cents the 2012 2013 tenative budget which

023you'll have before you tonight is an 8.73 C increase and that is not all due to referendum money being applied there's very conservative approaches to this District we set a goal from the Inception focusing on the tax rate and we achieved our goal while still maintaining a a very above average educational provision the average home assessment was 255 and 1011 that was the increase in taxes and that's for a home assess that the average Township assessment we don't come up at that number 201122 it peaked to $344 it's now dropping to an increase of $60 here's a chart that better illustr atates the falling off the cliff effect when it comes to the increase in the tax rate and also as evidence to our efforts to control costs and create efficiencies you've heard the state

024refer to a model called adequacy This is a barebones assessment of what a school district needs to provide a minimally satisfactory thorough and effic education items like parking lots and lighting are not included in this budget last year we were 13.7 million above adequacy again partially because of the trailer rentals which are about $2 million in aggregate in the budget this year we've cut that almost in half to $7.5 million that's a major Improvement and we're still maintaining our efforts to drop that even further because as you may have read the governor's Initiative for distri distribution of state aid penalizes districts who are above adequacy so we were focusing on that and this progress gives us cred greater credibility in our quests to seek more state aid from the State Department of Education that's correct

025what is the cap how does how do it calculated my taxes went up more than 2% I thought they were capped at 2% we hear this all the time the cap is not the overall budget it's the general fund tax levy that's capped to a 2% increase from the prior year with adjustments for enrollment in healthc care the district passed a resolution to eliminate the budget vote and extend the term of the existing board members to December 31st that vote allows us to go to cap with Provisions for an item called banked cap and Bank cap is a complex calculation but basically it means any years prior preceding year where you didn't go to cap including the Township cut you could roll that on top of your 2% and use that this year we chose

026not to um so our conclusions are this total budget represents a 3% increase which includes salary adjustments um General operating costs benefits Professional Services all those things that um are normal part or those things that are fixed costs are included in that 3% we've made aggressive reduction in order to minimize the impact on taxpayers um our ratables are lower than expected at $78 million and Michael elaborate a little more on what that means in terms of dollars and cents in in relationship to the full picture as the previous slide Illustrated the tenative budget is going up 8.7 cents and although the ratable environment in economic conditions are certainly beyond our control and the control of the municipality a $78 million decrease in ratables is decreasing those who are sharing the cost of the tax levy

027and when that happens to that magnitude of 2% it automatically increases the taxes by 5.25 cents without an extra dollar of Appropriations in other words if we kept our budget exactly flat to Appropriations from last year you would still have a 5.25 Cent increase because those sharing the burden of the tax levy are the minished and with this budget includes the allocation for additional students and although we are um have this increase in enrollment we will not actualize the state funding for that until next year when the October 15 count comes in comes in um we took a careful look at Staffing it was very important to continue to be a comprehensive School District because in order to get on the top 100 list you have to be a comprehensive school district and that includes

028the the programs and services that are part of the calculation for the above adequacy designation we made sure there's a balance between our budget our program and looking at the future for our children looking at student and staff needs a large part of what we've been committed to includes professional development for our teachers uh we can't very well expect our teachers to provide quality services to our children without providing them the training to do it technology which is a big initiative opening of Apple Reviving Capital Improvement projects we really have to be more aggressive with allocating money for Capital Improvement projects in our district so that as our buildings become um older and in need of repair we have some Reserve there to to address that generally what happens in the budgeting process that's the

029first area where money is removed because people don't see that but when you start hitting potholes in the parking lot and the roof starts leaking it becomes more evident uh and go ahead mik I just wanted to mention also we have a very fine Grant coordinator in the district who has reached out for every opportunity to bring in any external Revenue sources possible um and we've recognized uh great gains in Grant monies this year also um we've made sure that we we maintain the academic programs at average or state median costs and working aggressively to close the gap uh as the state defines over adequacy so that concludes our preliminary budget presentation [Music] we need a motion a second um yes first first first session by the board public and then so you don't have

030to make the motion question want ask the on the [Music] agenda okay at this time I'm going to open it up to the board if you have any questions or comments in regard to the budget no one okay then I'm going to open up the to the public to come up to the microphone to give your name and address for the record and this is in regard to the the tenative budget not the public forum so if anybody has a question in regard to the budget please come to the microphone and state your name and address 15 ofel Street uh just a couple quick questions um on the items that were left out of the budget the first two look like trans Transportation I believe that there was some uh courtesy busing is that going

031to help us achieve the over adequacy uh problems that we have experienced in the past with budgets it yes um it will absolutely and that was a strong recommendation because we as the principles go through budget defense rounds we have to do a budget defense round also with the county um office that was a strong recommendation for them from them for us to begin to bring that that number down so it absolutely has an impact on that over adequacy spending okay thank you hey anyone else from the public I just have a few observations without going into detailed questions on the budget um the thing I'm I guess most concerned with is the uh uh the fact that the $2 million which was reduced uh removed from the Debt Service that we have to pay

032and fortunately the the total tax revenue the income that's needed for this budget is stays basically the same for 200 um 11 and 12 and 12 and 13 uh my real concern is um that the fact that we went to cap except for a couple $1,000 without giving a lot of consideration to the long-term impact of the s that $7 million that we're going to be having as we go out and let's say next year we have a $2 million the year after that is 3 million that that fourth year well maybe some of you won't be on the board so it's not that important but a lot of us will still be taxpayers and then we're really going to get hit with that figure um I would have preferred to see maybe we had

033an additional Grant from the state of like six million so I think that's right uh but maybe we could have limited that use of that funds to two 2% and put four uh 400,000 roughly back instead of U you know as a savings to the uh the general tax levy if we keep just raising that general tax levy by and keep coming the cap it's it's going to be very difficult I would like to see a concept where we say and maybe you have the concept but that all right here's let's look at our what we can afford to get from the taxpayers in the most conservative way and then say okay this is the figure and then work with other your other source of Revenue and use that as your basis for whatever your

034expenditures are going to be and as I say you may do that I just don't know your processing doing this um the as regarding the uh the state funding the state allocates probably uh not probably they do because I run the numbers ntion Statewide 80% of their funding goes to U Equalization Aid in Monroe in Middle sex County there's three districts Monroe and two others that get zero Equalization a so if if 80% goes to Equalization Aid unless they raise those other those other categories we're going to get nothing now I understand that we've looked into this ability to get Equalization aid but maybe we should look again because that's that's killing us from a from a state standpoint that's it thank you okay do you want to talk okay Mr Gorski thanks Mr Ro

035um in response to the question about the application of the bond referendum money if we had not applied the $2 million it would have resulted in an 11 A5 Cent increase to the budget instead of 8.73 what the board could have done was to appropriate the full $7 million of surplus this year and you would have received the tax decrease that I'm sure everybody would have appreciated but then next year without that infusion without that one-year stimulus you would have a tax spike that you certainly wouldn't appreciate the planning that went into this by the finance committee and the board uh as and whole was to use an advertised approach to use $2 million of the 7 this year also allowing the state Grant Monies to be received by the district and to U Iz

036the remaining $5 million over the next two years hopefully and it's we're not e economists on the board to the extent that um and I feel comfortable in saying this but hopefully in two to three years down the road the economy will stabilize enough that we won't be recognizing a 2% decrease in ratables which is an automatic 5.25 C increase to the budget that by itself should be enough to offset the stimulus that's being introduced by the bond Surplus money um with regard to the um um the other item that you brought up Equalization Aid thank you um Equalization Aid is based upon the number of LEP limited English proficiency students and students that are at risk or low income as reported on our Assa Ivory October 15th um Monroe has very low numbers in

037the these regards especially the low income calculation so therefore we are not eligible according to the state's calculation for that under the state's model regarding that issue uh Jamesburg gets $4 million and Equalization Aid we take Jamesburg students in high school now you know are all the students who uh are qualified for this in eighth grade or below I don't think so I think we get them as they come in so why aren't we getting credit for that um and regarding the um the issue on the the Inc the 8 cents theoretically if uh if the equalization went down equally throughout the uh the town even though we would be paying a higher rate we wouldn't be paying any any higher in income tax because you have to get X number of dollars I don't

038care whether we got a 20 billion Equalization rate or 10 billion if you still need the same dollars I don't care what the tax rate is it's not going to change the CH tax rate will change but the total money that each taxpayer has to pay is not going to change anyone else from the public good evening Doug poy for tamarak Road excuse me uh I have some questions about this particular document I I don't know what to call it but it's that document appropriation summary okay all right that one uh under special ed instruction uh and really I'm just wanting clarification of these items uh there's new staff which almost accounts for the uh the million dooll increase in that particular uh category um which leads me to believe that we're hiring quite a

039few new staff uh in special ed uh is is that understanding correct and if so why such a an increase in new staff um there are we do have an increase in the number of special Edge students and we are also being aggressive with returning students to our district who are currently placed out of District so while that account goes up we're trying to reduce the outof district or tuition category by bringing those students back and in order to do that we have to provide the services that are required by by law stipulated in their IEPs so yes there are a number of new special ed staff resource center staff uh speech um providers that are are considered Professional Services okay then then that would tie into my next question which is on the second

040page tuition where the uh outof District placement tuition is decreasing by about uh 3/4 of a million dollars and that's because we're going to be bringing so many of the outof district students back into District that is correct okay um all right Mr P to elaborate on that that's that's mostly correct it also um is some of that at a district tuition is being offset with idea grant money which will pay for that so not the full 700 but a good amount of that will be is is recognized by District efficiencies by bringing students in but an equal part is by charging off the monies um to idea okay thank you um student related Services uh at new staff uh where it appears that we're I would it looks to me as if this is

041one new staff member but it does uh increase the percentage increase for that category considerably could you just elaborate on what that that particular position is this is on I don't know which page but it's under U student related Services yes we have to go the big book that's probably the behavior what it may be Behavior yeah um it's a it's a behavioral specialist um that's needed to be employed by the district okay thank you um and for school administration a new staff uh it's almost a quarter of a million dollars for new staff for school administration uh that's certainly more than one person could you just elaborate on what that covers most of that if not all actually is related to the opening of Applegarth principal secretaries are charged to that account um who

042else principales and secretaries that's it and that's offset by savings recognized through other administrative accounts as I mentioned we're not we're not enable to increase our aggregate administrative spending at all and under transportation there's something called the new FCC mandate uh it's almost $200,000 could you explain what that is that's a a new Federal Communication Commission I believe that the acronym stands for uh mandate that the districts are supplied with radios that communicate and directly communicate with the police departments and the dispatcher in a more efficient fashion so we had to upgrade is this required of all the districts in the state yes okay and the final final one Capital outlay uh basically what caught my eyee is the fact that it's going up almost by 200% if you could just elaborate on why such

043a big increase yeah 200% is certainly an exciting increase but it's a small account base um to begin with so it's easily swayed by anything uh what's in that account is the district's ability to replace and repair a roof at Brookside school which is extend Ed past its useful Life by probably um 3/4 of a decade or more and is leaking and in need of replacement the roof itself is going to be about and we don't have a bid or a spec yet but I would estimate between $6 700,000 and there's also engineering costs that are associated with its replacement generally an item like this would be uh a bond referendum type item because of its magnitude but the additional state aid that we received and some other maneuvering with the budget enabled us to

044fit this within our cap address our school's needs facility related and not hold it off for a bond referendum or Kick the Can down the road we're hitting it right now in the budget and we're going to provide for that school's uh future fine thank you anyone else from the public preso atrian way I'd like to thank all the board members that got in touch with me over the weekend uh I appreciate that will there be any discussion to take place in the budget for the iPads in the resource room and up in the upcoming discussions um so a as Miss ruella has um put together her budget for special education students if the needs are appropriate and um and can and can match it's a necessary outcome then we would include that type of

045Technology but to have to fully Implement that level of an iPad component we're not ready as a district to put together the infrastructure and designate to just one subgroup we are starting to get feedback from community and constituents about the usage of of IP ads in in the schools so we're starting to formulate a plan on how to expand that piece but it doesn't it goes it's more than just handing the kid in iPad and loading up individual apps on it there's a lot of security behind it infrastructure and that um rolls into more complex funding and we're going to be looking at that the following school year as we get ready for our first refresh here at the high school okay this would be just something that would be in the resource room so

046the special needs kids could get it to jump on how to use something not to take it home just to have it in the resource Room 5 minutes a day is going to help them move into the next level in in high school because they'll be able to use it then some of these kids are very uh kids today are techsavvy and our children are very very behind and we need a little boost to get them up there the resource rooms you're talking about three or four resource rooms to have these kids just to get a leg up and it's not everybody else just the special needs kids in the resource rooms or the kids that need it so it's not a big deal so I I would hope that the board would decide to

047discuss it that's all thank you anyone else from the public hamita tanala 11 L Dorado Way um question I understand we are you're um recommending that buses for zero period and for tag is going to be cancelled for the next school year can you tell me how much you're saving in doing that Mike in aggregate it's uh a little over $450,000 okay um the benefits that our kids get out of the zero period and the busing is immense um I don't um my son is in in science tag L tag and math tag if the busing is not provided he's not going to be able to accept all of these talented and gifted programs because we are working parents and we don't have um a driving Nanny there are other kids out there who stay

048I know after school with their grandparents they don't drive some of them just are at uh other families because their parents are working so I urge you to think about what you're taking away from our children and if you are keeping busing for basic skilled kids which are on one side of the spectrum I urge you to also keep that same facility for kids on the other side of the spectrum because as much as you don't want the basic skill kits to stop learning you don't want tag level children to stop being at the tag level and um the 450,000 that you're saving can you please just convince me that you haven't thought of any other programs out there that you can cut and keep the zero the zero period and the late busing um

049ma'am you may recall that last year the zero period busing was eliminated from the budget and it was only through a one-time gift from the state in the in the form of one year's extra state aid that the board was allowed to have the resources to reinstate that program those monies are now depleted and um as Dr Hamilton previously mentioned our budget goes through a great deal of scrutiny and analytical procedures at the County office and our County Executive business administrator and the county executive superintendent of schools has been pointing out that we're over adequacy far more than our peers and that we offer a great deal of services beyond what our peers offer this is one item that sticks out and we hear every year after year that should be cut it's in it's

050been on the cutting block probably for the last seven years and um eventually when you cut something from the budget it's going to offend someone in some manner but it was the finance committee's decision to eliminate this and you could I may let me just just and you raise a valid point regarding basic skills students and and tag students and we're going to double check and and I can give you a call offline but I'm almost certain that they will still be accommodated through the same busing um protocol as the basic skills students but I'll I'll double check that so what I hear from you Dr Hamilton is that you're telling me that the tag children will not be affected I'm saying I'm going to check you're going to check but I'm you're making me

051very hopeful because that is my big concern valid concern okay and um thank you I I'll wait for you to call me back just something away from busing um my daughter came with this she C she came home with this flyer she's in middle school she's in seventh grade and there are clubs that you have in the Middle School um how much do you spend per Club do you do you have any idea no okay it it varies tremendously because I'm sure you're paying overtime to the teachers and you have supplies and you have busing of course again so let me tell you why I raised that point in the list is and I was a bit surprised to see these clubs nail art Club rock music fan club jewelry Club why are we spending

052money on this I don't see a debate Club I don't see a Performing Arts Club I don't see a computer Graphics Club what are we going to learn out of nail art I will teach my daughter how to polish her nails [Music] so yeah I can speak on this um the catchy names are for the middle school kids as an attraction to engage them beyond the academic day going from all types of Middle School philosophy research the external component that you address that that we joked about is a very important piece of pre-adolescence um the cost is not nearly as extensive as you as you think it's 10 sessions for an hour and a half times 30 clubs so that's not an overly over amount for that that piece it's going to be affected however

053by the busing which upsets me personally as an educator and a middle school educator at at the core of what I do but that's an incredibly important pre-adolescent component to those tween years between 12 and 14 years old and um interacting socially and um there are mathletes and different types of academic clubs there that might not be captured in a volunteer piece on the club list there that exist in different in different venues and there are two separate sessions one that runs in the fall and then one that runs in the spring I'm a so don't hang don't get caught up on on the glitz of the name it's attracting the 10 11 12 13y old kid to try to attract them to go past the school day a little bit and get that um

054that social piece which is so important um and it's it's called developmental responsiveness to that age group in Middle School philosophy and research Mr Gman if I may I have spoken to kids that go to these clubs they are kids that are my daughter's friends there is a director's chair club and she said she was thoroughly bored because all they did was watch movies and critique the films and she said I can watch movies at home if I wanted to so I I do I do I do and I'm not taking this away from you I do understand the importance of clubs and like I said if you're spending the money please spend it in a meaningful way give them a debate Club give them a chess club give them a computer Graphics Club something

055that they can use and have the social skills they'll all see each other but they learn something meaningful that's all I'm saying the mechanism for clubs at the middle and the high school level is usually student interest driven that's usually how how it comes so like at the high school if a new club wants to be introduced a students can um sort of recruit a teacher and then they would try it for a year and then if it if it holds then it becomes a a permanent Club the similarly at the middle school they're driven four kids now quite honestly if that person is Bored um and we should go offline with this also because I I want to talk about that specific Club but that kid shouldn't go to to the club because there's

056not a mandate on it and and we do my message here I hope you get my message my message is let's spend the money meaningfully our kids are going to clubs let's have meaningful clubs definely ma'am uh for your information the supplies that are related to these clubs are raised by the students participating in the club the only costs associated with these clubs are for the advisers coverage okay for the jewelry making Club I don't think they pay up any anything additional for the supplies for the jewelry yes they certainly do okay all right but I hope you get my message my message is let's have meaningful clubs thanks okay anyone else from the [Music] public all right my name is jeffa I live on for mfield uh I have one comments to make very

057encouraged to see Dr Gorman presented that AP exams are mandated and I also like to not understand if do we have any budget cover the AP exams if we do what are the costs they cover they are included in the budget um and they are about $95 a piece so in other words the Monroe Town stre high school students if they take AP exams those $95 fee will be waved uh by the Monro high school well they they're they're not necessarily waved but they're covered by the the school budget yes okay thank [Music] you es Gregory to Kelly Court uh just a question on what Ida is individual disabilities Education Act it's a it's a pass through program through the federal and state governments where we're provided um revenues to bring up the standards of

058those classifications of students and that falls under new staff for special education there where are you referring to the first page for special education instruction special education instruction does not correspond with idea at all okay idea is covered under uh special projects on the very last page okay there's another section for school sponsored Athletics uh for other objects the breakdown with that is there's an increase for 4% that's mandatory um dues for athletic organizations membership fees and also um costs associated with various inter Scholastic Ed uh athletic events student related Services purchase professional Educational Services what that is in detail that's Provisions for um um Services related by Professionals for students in an educational format such as speech therapists and some other account categories in there that's Falls specialist speech therapists um people who are

059not under the employee of the district who come and provide special services for special needs students with IEPs okay because there's a section for special education on the front so you duplicated it no hardly there's several different um categories here that are different nothing is duplicated I could assure you that and student services uh I'm not sure if this was covered already but it said employee specialist you were talking about before per purchase professional Educational Services for student services after guidance student services again is uh special education components and which line item were you interested in purchase professional Educational Services those are for um licenses for educational programs used in that that um category but not an employee specialist not for not an employee specialist no not not in that category some more you have

060just other for curriculum it falls under other purchase Services other what's the other other objects is professional memberships to curriculum organizations um fi Delta Kappa for example is one of them that provides a wealth of resources um through the internet to improve the curriculum process is that just for high school no District white my other one is the last page for Capital outlay it's equipment is that all for Applegarth no no the Capital outlay Equipment includes the van that's over 15 years old and has a blown engine and it also includes beg pardon busing is that it's it's a new yeah busing van uh to accommodate uh I think it's a 16 passenger van and it needs replacement um the other items that are in that category are special education auditory enhancing equipment is that

061for the new high school no room no it's not for the new high school no no the what you're referring to is what the board approved at the last meeting to equip the room at the high school for the autism program that will be paid for from the bond referendum funds which are not part of this budget okay so the van is not for that the van is for student delivery within district and that is a general fund expens expenditure okay so what equipment it's broken down to each School uh equipment is this is a general category that covers the whole District I have the detail for the school if you if you should Desire with or without the Oprah form pardon with or without an Oprah form uh without without this is your budget

062you're welcome to any information in here just have the courtesy to give me a call and uh like other members here could attest you're more than welcome to come in and review anything you'd like okay for the equipment thank you you're welcome anyone else from the public okay then we will close the public forum budget part and have a um a motion and a second to accept the tenative school budget Mr coff the budget and Mr ly and we've gone to read it oh you have to read that it is recomend amended that the members of the Board of Education approve the following amounts and resolution for the 2012 2013 tenative budget be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education that the 2012 2013 tenative general fund budget be adopted in the amount

063of 95,3 32,5 and a tenative general fund local tax levy in the amount of $82 m177 667 and a tenative special Revenue Fund in the amount of 913,256 181,182 1846 whereby the tenative 201223 budget totals 106 million $27,400 and the 201223 categorical security Aid is 86,1 160 and the 2012 2013 categorical Transportation Aid is $48,600 and whereas School District bylaw 014 7 policy 3440 policy 4440 and njac 6A colon 23b - 1.2b provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allocated for such travel and expense reimbursement for the 2012 2013 school year now therefore be it resolved that the Monro Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district travel maximum for the 2012 2013 school year at a tenative sum of $158,400

064unchanged and be at further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and now therefore let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the county executive superintendent of schools okay so it is had been moved and second by Mr Kaufman and Mr ly and I'll ask again if there's any comments or questions by members of the Board of Education and seeing none we will have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes PA Pano Madame board president motion unanimously passes and if I just may have a moment moment absolutely I would like to very

065much thank the board for their diligence and reviewing and helping to prepare this tenative budget like to thank Dr Hamilton and Dr Gorman for all their hard work and effort i' like to thank the principles many of which are in the back tonight for the preparation of many of the documents that are included in this very large book and I'd also like to thank the business office staff including Mrs Romano who's a member of our team here in the audience tonight for their help with the budget and lastly will like to thank Mike for his hard work and time that he spent writing that book okay uh this time we will go to the public forum so anyone who wishes to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone state your name and address

066for the record okay seeing none we will go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton okay Madame board president and members of the Board of Education it is my recommendation that Personnel items a through Q be approved by roll call vote Mr Kaufman and Mr braan is there any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes yes Personnel items a through Q passes thank you moving on to board action items Madame board president members of the Board of Education it is my recommendation that the board approve board action items a through G by roll call vote so moved second miss anelis Mr tesler again is there any comments or

067questions Mr kleene on a there is um I don't know if he's a high school student or he's a a teacher uh is going for I guess professional development at the cost of $3,845 can you tell me what that is that supporting documents I do believe that's a Project Lead the Way um Mr Klein which is part of the stem Academy it's uh it was approved last year as part of the high school program now is this a student or is this no it's a teacher okay I do if that's just talking hearing the number um when you said professional development we're just going to double check to make sure that's the right person is there any other questions no I'm not finished yet he's looking up oh I know but while while he's looking

068it up yep that's what it is that is Project Lead the Way and that is a teacher okay and then we got a d d is and dog um eight high school students $6,500 this is for Middle sex arts and education center and 24 middle school students what is that that is a Performing Arts uh program that our children make application to and they audition for and if they are accepted in um they are the tuition is covered by the district so we pay that yes and then lastly on f um new curriculum uh we had high school students here two months ago asking for more AP courses uh the laboratory biology I guess I can understand that the 3D art and the studio art is is there a need for that was pres last

069um that was presented in curriculum last week and that was finished curriculum that was written over the summer that was previously adopted in the previous budget so it's part of the learning and transition to the new high school program thank you L uh I'm intrigued by item e says it's recommended that the board approve student number 86 813 and four wrestling coaches to attend the wrestling region five championship in Atlantic City why does a a single student require four coaches Mr Good am I correct in saying that this is a championship um tournament yeah he's he's representing the state he's the best of the best so we're sending our coaches with him um and he's representing Monroe Township in in the state finals I believe that's all yeah and that and that is typical of

070all districts on on on um how they proceed with the elite in this area yes he won the 120 PB West wrestling region five Championship Saturday night uh he now advances to State uh competitions he will we need two rooms and two coaches yes that is accurate it seems a little excessive yeah we questioned uh when that came in we question the uh the amount um and we double checked those were the cheapest rooms the coaches are not putting in for transportation reimbursement or anything that any of those other expenses or their meals for that matter um that that is the cost I have a a test it's the smell test that does not pass the smell test thank you Mr anyone else from the board okay then um we'll have roll call we didn't

071do a roll call board action roll call for board action items a through G Miss antelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes with the exception of item e so noted Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes M yes mam board president board action items a through G passes that concludes the superintendent's report then we will go on to the business administrator's report Mr Gorski Madame board president and members of the Mona Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through C be approved by consent all call second Mr miss anelis Mr Masters you're not reading B are you um are there any questions for Mr Gorski seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman yes Mr cman yes to all recuse

072on c section two that's the refunding ordinance yes so noted Mr kleene yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Paul Pano yes Adam board president board um board action items a through C passes and that that conclude your report yes ma'am okay thank you this time we'll go to the board president's report and since we just met two weeks ago I really don't have much to report I know there's going to be an an apple um update and um at the last meeting I know there was a request from the human relations commissions to have a board member sit on the commission and i' just like to thank Amy and Telles for volunteering to represent the board thank you um at this time we'll go to comme reports anyone from the board

073who has a committee they'd like to report on N I'll for Mr [Music] Masters we had a buildings grounds meeting yesterday it's not just an Applegarth report I don't want to be the Applegarth guy um lengthy uh buildings and grounds meeting uh we did discuss progress with Applegarth um we have a pretty lengthy I don't want to call it a punch list of items action items is better things were were um moving through with Furniture painting flooring projects things like that going along quite well um we also talked about the renovation generally how it was going uh we've had some State inspectors on site Pian I think the state EPA if I'm wrong correct me I think that's who it was um we decide to do an overlay on the roof um and save the

074rest of the the roofing money for Brook side I'll discuss that in a second um some of the lead paint testing uh started we did I think all the testing on the inside it's out it's being evaluated uh the outside hasn't been started yet they did find some preliminary Le paint in three areas um The Boiler Room big surprise uh the kitchen and one of the stairwells um that's pretty much it for Apple I forget anything no uh the trailer Plan B update's been temporarily postponed we're still discussing that uh we discussed the demographic report um and decided to uh Implement an an hoc Comm Community Committee uh we discussed naming of the mono Township High School Performing Arts Center we're still discussing that uh we discussed the daycare program at mil mil Lake uh

075no facility updates are needed that's actually going away quite well going along quite well uh we had a bass update um we're just we're discussing Personnel I think if I was here I would ask him I would tell him to talk about uh we're going to actually ask Personnel to talk about hiring a new coordinator for the for the in District Bas program um some legal issues we also decided to do some radon testing person uh in all the schools and and the main office we briefly discussed maale detectors in light of recent events that's still being discussed um and we approved as you can see in the budget um the re another roof not really another roof another layer of a roof for Brookside School of a cost of about 800,000 again it hasn't

076gone out the bid like Mr gorsky said before I think we're looking for an overlay picture that we that right yeah what was that picture was of the of what the roof like because we're actually going to cover the roof the current Brookside roof is red and there's a good chance it's not going to be red when we do the roof when we redo the roof any other um committee reports okay seeing none we will go to any other board of education business is there any Mr Klein couple of things um if you read in the paper about a week ago when the state announced the additional uh school aid that they were issuing also in the article was that the State Department of Education hired somewhere about somewhere around 50 some odd other employees

077to work in the different counties my opinion is political jobs so that's where that money is going you've heard me talk about the State Constitution before here is exactly what is said and written in the State Constitution and this is uh section 4 paragraph one the legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools you heard free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the state between the ages of five and 18 in other words kindergarten the 12th grade remember I said free public education then we got a part of paragraph two which I'm going to paraphrase the fund for the support of free Public Schools shall annually appro the state will annually appropriate funds to the support of free public schools and

078for the equal benefit of all the people of the state when we have to pay 97 to 98% to educate the children that is not a free public education a letter I sent you here all about my letters and some people make fun of it I finally broke down and sent the letter to Mr skiera he's the one from the Newark education Law Center he's the one who brought um the uh Abbott versus Burke to the Supreme Court he's the one that also um brought a suit for the state formula and he's also the one who just recently um brought the suit to have the money that was cut from the 31 Abbot Title One school districts um reversed and won so I wrote a letter to him and in the letter I explained how

079it affected our district in other words everything that he won and all the money that he wasted how it affected us and I was happy to receive a phone call from his representative I was on a phone with the young lady for over an hour I explained everything that was here and she said the same thing that I have said now for two years we are entitled to sue the state for our equal funding and our Fair funding that Monroe Township does not provide free public schools for all the residents and I've asked at the board meeting to contact and see what we have to do to sue to get off fair share um well I'm going to leave this out I'll handle this to the board meeting that's basically all I have to say

080thank you Mr Klein anyone else from the board okay seeing none uh 14 close close session resolution be resolv that the Board of Education of the Monroe town the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into closed session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-2 21 to discuss the following subjects student matters harassment intimidation and bullying incidence Number 103 and 104 the discussion conducted in closed session can be discussed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved uh motion to go into close session Mr Mr Kaufman Mr Klein all in favor I opposed okay then at this time we will go into um close session I do not think it's going to be a very long one

081okay at this time we will move back into the public to the public portion of the meeting and go to the public forum again anyone wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record Tom noin 15 Nathaniel Street um just a quick question at the last board meeting um someone came up and asked about the resolution that was discussed in Clos session and I believe Dr Hamilton stated that he was not allowed to she wasn't able to disclose the employee that was being discussed now I checked and actually you should have been able to disclose the employee that was being discussed as part of the open um you know the Sunshine Law and the open public records act that is correct um and I did um follow

082up with that as well to double check with our attorneys and although the employee number was utilized if a question came up I could have disclosed that and would not have breach confidentiality so who was that employee that Sharon bigs that was to her okay in a minute um also with regards to the um the send receive agreement with Jamesburg I noticed that we are now the number that came across as what we're spending now per pupil is that in fact the number that Jamesburg is paying for the send receive privilege close that's the number that Jamesburg is budgeting for Appropriations to Monroe uh to offset our costs the budget is based on an estimated number of students and an estimated tuition rate which is calculated by the Department of Education software at the conclusion

083of the school year we'll calculate the actual cost and the actual average daily enrollment of Jamesburg and we will settle the difference accordingly with a due to or due from Jamesburg and Jamesburg is current on all payments of the differences on previous year's calculations well when you do it though how do they know what to budget for in their budget for that well the county office makes sure that what we're budgeting as revenue from Jamesburg matches exactly what they're budgeting for Appropriations there must be a match or we get fatal budget errors and again it is based on a very accurate estimate and I do not expect a big Dev devation this year from those figures and the number that you stated before now um it was probably just misspoke you mentioned that was the

084high school course but that's the course for districtwide students pupils correct the figure that was on the screen was uh Illustrated of the most material cost that we have that was for a high school student and is it is it that the same for a middle school no middle school is less okay and that but that High School number is what Jamesburg obviously would be looking that's exactly correct thank you very much anyone else from the public right uh this is jeffon again from for mly Boulevard and along with me a couple of parents we have common issue that's why we come up here it's not overwhelming the board and superintendent but also our issue I think is not only the current issue but also it's going forward so that's why we want to have

085this open Forum to discuss about it and hopefully going forward have consistent policy to deal with this situation uh the situation is this uh the parents here were Monro residents our children grew up from Moro from elementary school to uh to the uh to middle school and now the only difference is right now they attend middle sex uh County Academy in Addison so they didn't go to Monro high school and right now they're planning to take the AP exams and uh unfortunately this year uh for whatever reason so far the information we know is they cannot take AP exam at our home school district and their school is too small they cannot offer but the other St students they always go back to their home school district take AP exams but our Monro School uh

086for whatever reason this year was not able to offer the opportunity and I know we reach out to uh uh our superintendent and he very uh kind reluctant look into this issue but still we want to take this opportunity to uh wise Our concern and and get to know more information get to be educated and our recommendation how we can do better going forward so that we can reduce the ground reduce the future issues so that's that's just the my open comments and then I allow other parents to uh have their say hi I'm uh Jam Minish sha six Camelot Drive um I'm here for my son and the other children where there are nine students um from the academy uh they they like he said they all grew up here Mr Gman Dr Gorman

087you took us camping when they're in seventh grade so you know our children they're not strangers my other son attends this high school right now um in the past years um all the students have been able to take the AP exam in this district and uh the districts in Middle sex County they are allowing the other students in the academy to go like for Edison Piscataway um meachin all the townships their high schools are accommodating them there's only nine students that want to take the AP exam every year they've been taking it in Monro high school but this year at the last minute I don't know why um maybe you can explain that they said no this year while we were submitting the application instead of last year if they couldn't accommodate them um to

088give us more time apparently there's not going to be another District that's going to take our students so they have been studying all these months for these exams and uh we don't want to say no to them well I appreciate all the emails um I received from you over the weekend um because it was not on my radar I wasn't aware of it and and I appreciate the the time you you all took to to email me um and I did look into that and I'm reasonably certain we'll be able to accommodate those students after we've investigated and we're also looking to see how we can help uh middle sex academy uh get in alignment with the college board so that they will in the future be able to do the administration there but I'm

089reasonably certain we'll be able to accommodate those students and I will respond to you um through email and let you know our status but we're hoping to have a definitive answer by early next week that would be great because we have a new guidance counselor this year at the Academy so she may not be familiar with all the processes because she just came to the students and said well Monroe High School said no so you are the only kids who won't be able to take it this year so the kids were very upset because as I said they've been studying all year for these exams but um you know uh I really do thank you for looking into this and trying to help us there there is no reason why we we have to say

090no to these children and I'm sure you agree that we cannot discourage them from doing this absolutely okay did you did you wish to speak um uh my name is ying Le I'm 15 Lea Court I'm also one of the parents that I want to express some um uh thank thank you uh Mr uh Dr Hamilton that I emailed you and I I think you take a quick response and investigate on this case and I also noticed in one of your uh uh item here you talk about Bus Transportation uh for outside of District which actually you form some rules and some policies I'm hoping for AP exams you can you can work together with out of District school to form some kind of uh policy in the future so parents don't have to worry

091and last minutes I agree and we're working on that absolutely just add one more comments the reason why we brought up because we want cons create a consistency policy because we know from past he can take the aps so that's why those children they take the the online classes and the uh outside classes the parents invest financially the kids invest time and resources they work very hard up to midnight to prepare for exam last minute they can out take it so that's why we're recommending going forward is there any way internally externally with the board some consistent policy written somewhere so that we can have a law have a a policy have a procedure to go about so that will be consistent practice and then people can plan things out all right the uh I

092have two more quick questions is um I believe when I asked my first question Dr Hamilton mentioned that the exam fee $95 per course would be covered by the St District so we want to understand whether that apply for those kids who are not currently going to the monal high school that's the policy we have to we have to investigate because I don't want to I don't want to say something that may be no no that's okay we just a question throughout there and then then that you uh any qu any other questions um the the reason uh the middle sex County the academy they said that they can't uh hold the exams there is because they only have like8 nine classrooms and there's only 150 students in this school so literally you can stand

093in the foyer and look at all the classrooms that they have they don't have that many classrooms so they have to hold regular High School classes at the same time um administer exams or Proctor exams so they don't have enough people as well resources and the classrooms okay well that's probably conclude now specifics uh we know Dr hammilton he has a large responsibility and I hope this small issue we can direct working closely with specific individual so if you have any other um official that can work directly with we would love to do that we don't want to bother you with emails and you have a big big ship to guide so we don't want to bother you with the small little issues and probably oh go ahead right after you emailed me and I

094responded to all of your emails over the week I forward them to M to Dr Gorman and it'll probably be something that we would look at and through policy committee too Mr lir you had a point of clarification really quickly are you in the middle sex Regional Educational Service Commission domain it's are you in the academy Learning Center over within Monroe Township or are you in the middlex county Academy Mid County no it it is in Edison within middle sex County College it's a small high school there and it's through their votch so this is the math and engineering high school okay you you are talking about the stem type of work it's right next to the uh the South entrance mhm that's the high school yeah congratulations we finally are doing something good and

095I'm very appreciative of your work thank you also to all the school uh teachers Middle School elementary school to educate our kids that they're taking more challenge acemic yes thank you thank you very much thank you thank you anyone else from the public [Music] Doug poy for tamarak Road uh there's been various mentions of policy tonight A and actually the whole system has to run according to policy I would simply ask and I don't know if this is possible but when uh a person when a member of the public goes to the board's website and attempts to find a policy it's a very laborious process you essentially have have to wheel through all of those policies to find the policy you're looking for there doesn't seem to be any quick way for the computer to

096identify the policy that you need uh so it really is very very timec consuming and hopefully within a year or so they can make some kind of improvement on that so that it's it's easier to get to those policies I I think we've always been trying to approve that yes that's that's a good point on the leftand side on the top left there's a what looks like a pair of binoculars and if you click that there's a search feature where you could type in the text and it'll search the entire policy and show you all the references within the whole policy where those that text applies and it's very specific you can adjust it however you choose saves time okay I wasn't aware of that that's probably because I'm not so tech-savvy but but then

097in light of that comment it might be helpful to the public if that information could be provided uh on that screen that simply talk about the policies uh but doesn't really get into any of them I just think that would be helpful and I do want to commend Mr Klein for his continued efforts uh working to uh try to get more money coming from the state to Monroe Township uh I mean he's just tireless with that and I think that's great thanks thank you okay anyone else from the public oh now you broke it Jennifer Marcus 15 Harvest VI Drive individuals in schools with elevated CO2 concentrations report drowsiness and a decreased ability to learn breathing stale air with a high concentration of carbon dioxide can lead to something called sick building syndrome since it

098affects everybody in the building Studies have shown that a level of 1,000 parts per million carbon dioxide will reduce the ability to concentrate by about 30% and Trigger serious medical issues in children with asthma and other health problems on February 21st 2006 the air quality inspection report of the Applegarth School signed by Richard Lynch identified that classrooms 23 22 5 6 15 11 T4 and t7 contained levels of CO2 in excess of 1,000 parts per million in some cases the levels were in excess of 2,000 parts per million CO2 levels were reported to be low in the morning and and increased during the day my questions are how was the problem fixed were the teachers met with to discuss indoor air quality why was Lysol being sprayed how did the school notify the parents was

099a status report of the HVAC equipment provided as per page number five of the report and were the nonfunctioning unit ventilator fans repaired I think what we will do is take a copy of your questions and get the answers for you cuz I'm not sure that we will be able [Music] I pretty sure I could answer um most of those questions um because I was acting principal there so I know um so if you want to take them one at a time I'm pretty sure we have because we took all types of steps exactly like that you're mentioning there appropriately to respond to those I am so you want to I could I could give you some quick answers to because you when you set them all I just the first one was how was

100the how was the problem fixed okay so we changed out the ventilation units in all of those um rooms that were identified with lower oxygen units okay were the teachers met with to discuss the indoor air quality as we discussed Lynch actually came to several faculty meetings we educated Q&A and when you talk about the Lysol that was specifically why one of the responses on why we educated the staff so extensively on it why was the Lysol being sprayed um that was just a um that was an inappropriate action that we found by one individual how did the school notify the parents I do believe it was by letter but I don't I can't speak on the specifics of it okay was a status report of the HVAC equipment provided as per page number five

101of the report my belief it is but I don't have the report and the update to it so I can't I know Mr tag was extensively involved with Dr Lynch and we did update the HVAC report there a followup indoor air quality test done yes there was on Friday at 5:00 I was told this was the most recent report done could we see an updated IAQ test I can't provide that for you right now but Mr T told me at 5:00 on Friday this was the most recent indoor air quality test done it was dated 2006 so if we could see a more recent one oh past that so past that incident is that what you're for past 2006 do we have a more recent indoor air quality test because we were assured that there

102has never been a problem with the indoor air quality at Applegarth okay and the the non-functioning unit ventilator fans were all repaired or replaced the best of my knowledge as the acting principal at that time yes the parents were notified that their children were exposed to high levels of CO2 and that they could experience drowsiness dizziness lightheadedness and stomach aches I don't have the specific answer to that question do you know anybody that would are there any parents whose children were in Applegarth maybe on the board who had children in Applegarth during those years that would have been notified your your your questions really in order to answer them appropriately and with the level of expertise that requires you need we need Dr Lynch who conducted that that survey and did that inspection whose reports

103who could speak to those reports with a greater level of expertise Mr T said this was the most recent indoor air quality test he had on Friday at 5 o'clock thank you anyone else from the public that's Robert Road JT Newfield Boulevard I would just like to thank Mr Gorski for his efforts in um re refinancing the bonds and will eventually save us uh substantial money over a substantial number of years and also uh Mr Po reminded me of something as he was talking I've had problems when I've tried to go on the website and get the um uh dates of uh committee meetings specifically the finance committee uh a month or so ago I went on and clicked on the finance committee meeting site and the curriculum came up as the agenda item which

104you know was of no avail uh only recently did I find out that there was a finance committee last night when I was at a meeting on Tuesday and Mr Gorski told me about it I went on the website and the only reference it had was February 9th meeting but eventually I did find a little note behind that below that that had the agenda I you know I think it would be helpful for the public if we were had I don't know who was responsible for that but be a little more uh careful in setting up the information so that when public goes on there they can get the accurate information thank you yeah we'll look into that because I know they're supposed to be posted every time we post a meeting it's supposed to

105be on the website under I think it's under Board of Education it is okay and um we had a change of meeting dates so therefore we had um the like we should have had our committee meetings next week so they were changed really quickly to coincide with the meeting today so I think there was a little conflict allow to await Gravel Hill Road um well this is the first time I'm seeing this report on the uh HVAC system and the carbon dioxide I have a question is back on the state in 2006 were any of you board members during that time and if so then you should have knowledge that this took place and I would think that you would be part responsible to make sure that it was fixed but yet there's a lot

106of speculation saying we're not sure maybe this is very disturbing to say the least because nobody knows if this was fixed and if some of you were on the buard I'd like to know if you were aware of this and why should we have to wait for Dr Lynch because Dr Lynch has made a very elaborate report that I'm assuming all of you well not all of you I the ones the individuals if there are any my children are young so I were didn't have children in the system back in that in 2006 but was there is there anybody on the current board that was a board member during 2006 my children were in the school were you notified I believe so I believe so were steps taken to resolve this problem healthy today just

107like Mr gorm is okay well you're I I'm glad your children are but or have I ever heard of anything from like the Center for Disease Control that we had some outrageous amount of illness or anything like that what were and and were any nurses reports ever taken to do a study to see if the children were reporting any elaborate headaches or vomiting or if there were reports to the nurse it would be a confidential report we we can't we can't um share information on other asking you to sh I'm just saying I mean in general and we're hearing here that we're not sure if this was fixed this is six years ago I can tell you that anytime there's been a problem with air quality in our district right away we handle it we

108get the people that need to come in to test the ER and then it it's we remediate if there needs to be a remediation Mr Gorski yeah I would also like to assure you that we will have all appropriate air quality testing done before a student is placed back in that school or a staff member is placed back back in that school the oxygen levels the CO2 levels the radon levels everything you can think of will be tested to make sure that that building is safe for students and staff go ahead I'm sorry uh I have three grandchildren in this district and I had a grandson who was going through at that time down and we rely as members of the board we're unpaid elected officials we rely on subject matter EXP like Dr Lynch

109and he is a marvelous man he has testified in so many hearings other things like that and we had recent uh what was it uh Tuesday uh Lou Masters he made aine presentation and uh we are monitoring that using the subject matter experts we're not a subject matter I'm an electrical engineer I don't know the first damn thing about indoor air quality but we rely on Dr Lynch because he's got very high credibility in this district and and I do understand that and I'll leave Mrs margus just recently just said that she's asked if there was tests done and reports submitted after the state she was told that this was the last report we had a report what Tuesday Lou this passed yeah yesterday yesterday yeah they had the um that wasal yeah the federal

110we've had all of the different monitoring organizations OSHA EPA the whole schmir state and federal why aren this record why isn't this part of record then if this is should shouldn't those follow-ups be in the record along with this one we would have to go and ask because I don't I at this point don't know so we would still being done well we know right now the air quality is being tested six years ago and we'll we about what they're do today we'll look into [Music] it good evening Tracy Riley 228 day Grove Road I was at the last grounds meeting at Oak Tre school and I brought up to Dr Lynch about the lead in the school and he stood there and he said there is no lead in the school well we were

111just advised they tested and in three spots in the school they found lead I just want to know are they going to test more for more things because we were told he stood there and said there's no lead and I said to him the school's been painted the School was built in 1936 they've painted that school numerous times how can there not be any lead he stood there and said there's no lead in the school we were just told 45 minutes ago they found lead in three spots in the hallway in the boiler room and in the cafeteria kitchen kitchen I'm Sor I'm sorry in the kitchen are they going to test in more spots in the school I mean I'm being told one thing at one meeting and one thing in another meeting I

112believe he said that he didn't know if there no he said there was no lead in the school I don't think he said that um but he they tested I believe every room in that school for lead and they only found possibility of lead he didn't say there was lead yesterday he said there was he he believes there might be but they they need to do the testing and get the results back the results are not back yet um so if there are that would be the only three p places in the school that would have the a possibility of lead and he advised us to go ahead with the painting and the lighting and the flooring um in the areas that don't have any problems he also said yesterday that they would be testing

113the outside for the possibility of lead that those tests have not gone on yet but they will be to do so my other issue is is the radon you said you're going to be testing testing all the schools for Radon when do that when do those when are we going to be testing and when will we get those results that decision was just made last night so we have a process we have to go through so I can't give you an absolute date yet and the third issue is um fire okay I know the school's been grandfathered what are we going to do about sprinklers what are we going to do about firewalls what are we going to do about issues that God forbid there's a fire in that school we're going to follow the

114guidelines that we are required to follow whatever that means in terms of meeting code as it relates to those issues will be done okay even though we had somebody who was a firefighter standing here saying that the school is going to be unsafe for those children without having sprinklers without having firewalls my my answer is not going to change we're going to follow all the guidelines that we're required to according to the state we've had the fire department come in and and check that building we've had every no I understand that because it's grandfathered which means it's saying that it's safe because it's grandfathered I see sprinklers all over in the school here because it's a brand new school we're talking it's an old school I mean I'm not I'm not comfortable putting my child

115in a school that has no sprinklers we don't have sprinklers at Barkley Brook either no I understand that it's an old school because it's a grandfather law I mean you're talking putting kids in kids are going to have a fire drill okay when there's no fire they know what to do with the fire drill when there is a fire kids are going to panic and you only have so many teachers to Le to lead a kid out to where they're supposed to be what happens to that kid who runs to the closet or goes under a desk and doesn't know what to do is there money somewhere I don't think most of us here are experts in the fire but we have to trust the experts to give us the answers that we are looking

116for and when we ask them and we have them in more than once and they give us a report that everything is safe in that school I have to trust into in those people well there's they're saying it's safe because it's grandfathered that's what they're saying they're saying it's safe well let's just hope God forbid there's never an incident in that school I hope there's never an incident in any school in our district kids will be kids okay and one kid's going to come in with a lighter and they're going to play or they're going to come in with matches and let's just hope there's never a problem because I don't want it on anybody's heads because it was grandfathered if there's a way to look into the budget to maybe put some extra fire

117um sprinklers in or to do something else to make that school a little bit safer because you never know what's going to happen he brought in documentation and he showed you what can happen when there's not sufficient uh you know sprinklers thank you so let's just hope something never happens in that school anyone else from the public oh here we go good evening uh Christy scurby 8 seminal Court I just had a question on um what Jennifer Marcus gave uh the information about the unit ventilators and the carbon dioxide issue that Applegarth had um I know it was stated last night that testing will be done once the children are back in the school that's the only way that you could test carbon dioxide levels how is that acceptable if we've never tested we had

118we know we had an issue in 2006 Jerry T is saying that there's never been a test since then how do we know that the problem was rectified because in Dr Lynch's report it's based on inadequate Air Supply caused by an old HVAC system so how do we know that that was adequately addressed if we have no test we we'll we're going to be checking into it we're going to be doing air quality tests before we had said we will be doing air quality tests after the kids cannot test for carbon dioxide unless the school is filled with individuals the school starts so we're supposed to put our children in there there were still children in that school in 2007 in 2008 and we have no idea we have not heard of any problems from

119there was a problem in 2006 exactly and you never retested to see if what you did solv the problem there was never another IAQ test done and now there's not children there so you can't do one so you're telling all of us parents put your children in there let's hope in ' 06 we rectified it by unit ventilators not a new HVAC system that clearly states why there's a lack of flow of air put your children in there and we'll hope that we corrected at 06 and what happens if what happens if it comes back with high levels of carbon dioxide then we will do what we did in' 06 rectify the situation and by rectifying it said that the Dr Lynch's recommendations was to have the teachers open the windows is that how you're

120going to rectify it I can't tell you because we don't have an issue you do have an issue we don't have an issue you do have an issue you have no IAQ report since 206 and that report stated a problem okay matter of fact there was a significantly higher number of students in that building at that time than there will be for the fourth and fifth grades that reenter that school we will test the air quality for CO2 for Radon and everything else that the officials feel is an appropriate test before the students come into the school and during occupancy to make sure that the levels are safe while they're in there but you can't get an accurate carbon dioxide level if students are not there the only way you could rectify the problem is

121by putting a new HVAC system in and that's what the parents have been begging for is there anyone else from the public V Stein 15 ethaniel Street it appears every meeting I come to there's a certain contingent of people that are going to not be happy with moving their children into appor no matter what um as far as the air quality I know one thing about this board they would never ever consider putting children into an unsafe environment so I want to state that unequivocally right now um as far as air quality you do not have to have children in to measure CO2 it's a simple airf flow test that's performed constantly in Office Buildings it's not that they're going to have to put children in danger to do this test um I think it

122might behoove the board to get the expert here at one of the meetings to maybe address these concerns we just did that we opened up a buildings and grounds meeting at at Oak Tree school to answer any of the questions we had all the experts at that point to answer questions well it was a good idea um it was a good idea while it lasted um and I think it's important to know when we talk about grandfathering um that's really not a good word to use um it's meeting the code I I'll guarantee you if all these people that are complaining about Applegarth they go home they do not keep their their houses up to the fire code every single year uh I I wonder how many parents have sprinklers in their home system because

123that is the safest according to what they're saying so I I see um I see a certain amount of people that are wanted both ways I appreciate the board we have to watch out for the tax dollars while keeping our kids safe which I know for a fact this board is doing so I thank you thank you thank you anyone else from the board from the [Music] public hi good evening my name is ma from 16 elado away in 2006 you were the Madam president of the board you knew about the situation you did not notify me I did not get anything in the mail I as I recall that my daughter was getting sick in the school with stomach problem and headaches if there was a problem I just found out I just found

124out at this meeting that Jennifer Marcus has notified us with the carbon dioxide it would not the report or the letter home would not have come from me it would have come from um probably Dr Gorman at the time who was the principal of the school it would come from the principal of the school not from the Board of Education president I am so appall um from the board what you guys have not done notify me of my child of the the the ear she's breathing I have another child that that is going to be going to aboth are you going to notify me are you going to remediate everything before you send my daughter to that to appleo all I can tell you again is that we have the because you have no children

125in that school right now you don't care thank you very much anyone else from the public seeing none can we say something Dr Lynch has been in Monroe Township for how long 11 years 10 years at least 10 years volunteering or paid he gets paid he gets paid for how many years 11 10 years 11 years 10 to 11 years so for the 10 to 11 years you never second guess just because he's called Dr Lynch I would go for a second opinion if it had to do with my kids if you're not if you don't have the knowledge you look into it that's what I'm doing I'm looking into it I'm second guessing a Dr Lynch that what did he say 100% did he say 100% he cannot guarantee it I'm looking into it

126as much as I can are all of you looking into this paid or unpaid I know you'll sit there and be quiet you don't have the knowledge you need to rely on other people for it I'm relying on you I'm relying on all of you so I need to have a degree or I have to be a doctor to sit here and say this will be safe I have to go through all my little emails and everything to send everybody I don't know what you want me to tell you because I said this don't say Dr Lynch said so and that is it that's not it what about no fine I know it's not going to make a difference so thank you anyone else from the public okay seeing none our next scheduled public is

127it Thursday March th Thursday March 22nd 7 o'clock motion to adjourn mellis Mr Koffman all in favor thank you