Monroe Township Board of Education 03.22.12 Regular Meeting

001good evening the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all Mr Gorski may we please have a roll call Mrs kapano here Mr Chella here Mrs antelis here Mr Braverman Mr calman here Mr Klein here Mr lirry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler Mrs frony here Madam board president you have a quorum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted March 16th 2012 one at all

002schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality and before we go to number five I just like everybody to know that Mr lry is going to be um part of the meeting on speaker he had an accident where he fell and broke his hip he's in rehab but wanted to participate so John if you're there we're hoping you're feeling better I'm feeling better thank you so at this time we'll go to the student board members report good evening ladies and gentlemen several events took place this month hespa testing for juniors was on March 6th to March 8th the makeups for hespa was on March 13th to 15th also the college fair is today from 6:30 to 8:30 also the event Mr Monroe was on March 16th

003where six seniors were competing against each other in several categories to win Mr Monroe okay and on that note um congrats to Jared hussy he's usually here maning the cameras but I guess he's not here uh this evening so congrats to him um so uh over the past week or two we got a chance to participate with um Dr Gorman and Dr Hamilton in a meeting that they cordially invited us to and uh truly open our perspective anyway um to like the different thoughts that not only them as a faculty had but as a student body and we truly got a lot to learn um student input on different things such as busing and um how the student body would feel about the extra days that we have from um not using any of the

004snow days and iPads and such so um yeah I just want to thank you thank you guys again thank you that's all thanks okay thank you at this time we will go to number six the presentation and Adoption of the 2012 2013 school budget with Mr Gorski uh good evening next to the agenda upfront was a summary of comparative revenues illustrating the sources of revenues that support the entire school budget operations for the year compared to last year and also a sheet of Appropriations um as required by the state of uh New Jersey minimum chart of accounts and the only changes that were made to this budget as compared to the tenative budget that was uh previously introduced was that an appropriation line item for the PS pension contribution that's required by the district was

005released by the state and we had to add approximately $30,000 to that line item and we felt comfortable transferring the money from a neighboring account for social security benefits which was earlier projected to include staff that never materialized in the budget um everything else Remains the Same the size of the budget Remains the Same as I'll read shortly in the resolution um the tax rate as previously presented Remains the Same and it's an increase of 8.73 cents as compared to last year's increase which was 18.66 C and that was after the municipal cut um to refresh your memory the reason that this budget increase is lean in our opinion is due to conservative uh budget approaches that we took with the principles um through a series of defense rounds screening out Appropriations to make sure

006that what was in the budget meets The District's orchestrated e uh effective effort and District goals um we also appropriated $2 million of unspent bond referendum money which is in a segregated account for the construction of this school and related aperatures Against The Debt Service Levy as permissible by law you're either allowed to spend the money on the project or return it in the form of tax relief Against The Debt Service Levy which we did to the tune of $2 million there's more money remaining we're still expecting a $3 million Grant from the state upon our final submission and uh that will be recognized and appropriated in future years so not to recognize a spike in the tax rate the district last year also appropriated about $236,000 of additional state aid money that we had

007received late in the budget cycle against tax relief for this year so ultimately it's a very responsible conservatively constructed budget that meets the needs of the student students um while still being responsible to the taxpayers and and uh I will read the resolution at this time it is recommended that the members of the Board of Education approve the following amounts and resolution for the 2012 2013 budget be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education that the 2012 2013 general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 95 m332 518 and a general fund local tax levy in the amount of 82 m177 667 and a special Revenue Fund in the amount of 913,256 m281 520 and a Debt Service local tax levy in the amount of 7,572 846 whereby the 201223 budget total

008is 106,50 27,467 and whereas the Monro Township Board of Education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for the 2012 2013 the categorical special education Aid is 2 Milli 71,1 162 and for 2012 2013 categorical security Aid is 86,1 160 and for the 2012 2013 year the categorical Transportation Aid is $48,600 the estimated extraordinary Aid amount is $214,400 and whereas School District by law 0147 policy 3440 policy 4440 and njac 6A colon 23b hyphen 1.2b provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for such travel and expense reimbursement for the 2012 2013 school year now therefore be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district maximum travel for the

0092012 2013 school year at the sum of 8,422 and be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and now therefore let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required document ments with the county executive superintendent of schools have so mov by Mr tiella and Miss anelis are there any comments or questions by members of the board Mr Klein one question you mentioned um an additional $3 million owed to us from the state isn't that from the original 15 million that's corre the first referendum that's correct thank you anyone else Mr L do you wish to comment no it's it I've gone through those numbers and I absolutely agree with them

010okay thank you before we vote um if anybody from the public would like to speak to the budget please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record good evening my name is Richard P 8 Drake Avenue Monroe I just have a question here we're going to adopt the budget before the public forum or public meeting tonight there's been many emails out here about the Cost Cuts on the transportation which are affecting many families and we wanted the opportunity to address these before you adopt the budget which I believe the deadline is March 29th this is the this is the that time to speak to the budget okay well it seemed like we were ready to adopt it and then we come in and we argue about it or we talk

011about it but my question is okay are we ready to go on this then yes all right and since there are so many people here in the audience today we're going to adhere to our three minute limit we are both working parents and there are many in the township that have working parents that have no way of picking up our child if they don't have that late bus and this is a real big point of contention I myself and my wife sent through an email to all the board members on March 7th never got a reply I commended you on using the funds that you're saving from the bond referendum to offset the tax levy but I believe there's another $3 million coming in and I believe you use $2 million to offset The Debt

012Service so my question is how are our children going to use the after school help my daughter needs help with mad the activities how's she going to get home we don't know a lot of people in the town we're constantly working it's very difficult and if I read the budget correctly it looks like you're only going to save about $140,000 versus prior year as I look at the trans ation numbers here for 2012 it's 5,364 let's say 5.3 mil versus 5.2 mil over uh for the next year it's actually dropped so your savings your net savings $140,000 this seems to be the only area in this budget going towards 2013 where there's really been a drop with the exception of The Debt Service I see here and maybe one more item I mean that's a

013drop in the bucket $140,000 and you're going to cause chaos and Havoc with all these parents and how we're going to get these kids my question is you're saving 140,000 what about all the teachers that are after school that are supposed to help these children I don't know if they get compensated or not are you going to cut their pay are you going to send bus drivers home are you going to cut their hours what happens to the the vehicles you're leasing them are you paying for them what happens does that sit on the sideline you have to pay the insurance you can't have idled Vehicles sitting there unless they're leased I don't know what the situation is it says here Le purchase so I'm assuming you lease him with an option to PCH to

014purchase so this is not right and I think there are a few other people here that would like to speak about this but before they do I have a few more questions I'd like to ask uh it's kind of coincidential that the meeting tonight takes place when there's so many events coming on and there's very few parents here so that's my number one observation and I think that's terrible if that was done or planned so just to let you know about that I guess my first question here was how did you come to the decision of knocking off the late buses what was the protocol for that what were the steps did anyone ask the parents take a survey how many kids are going to be affected because not you know not every not not

015every parent has one parent working there's many here that have two parents working so it's not fair to these children someone has to look at that so my question is how did how did they arrive at hey let's cut this out I'm going to have Mr Gorski respond to your questions in regard to Transportation um thank you for all those questions I I believe I've taken enough notes to address uh all of them number one for the last few years our budget has been suspect uh subject to review by the county executive superintendent of schools and the county executive business administrator they're ultimately The Authority that approves our budget and we were were reminded Dr Hamilton and I and John liry chairperson of the finance committee last year that our budget was approximately $13 million

016over what the state deems an adequacy budget and we were strongly advised to make steps to reduce that over adequacy spending and get more in line with other districts what was specifically recommended by the county executive business administrator was to end the courtesy busing um called the late runs and also the previously eliminated zero period transportation services that were cut last year and then subsequently reinstated when we had received an additional state aid award for that one year um those monies have since been um appropriated so recognizing that this Authority has recommended this for the last four years at least and that these late runs have been on one or two phases of cuts for the last probably five years uh Dr Hamilton and I and the finance committee uh recommended that uh the transportation

017late run services and the previously cut zero period Services uh be eliminated from the budget this was first uh presented as an an option in October when we began the preparation of the budget it was presented at uh numerous finance committee meetings where the budget was discussed and it was also discussed at the budget defense round uh excuse me the budget steering committee where members of staff and the public participated in um providing options and alternatives for the budget this year and and giving input into such um a figurative correction the the cost cut and aggreg for the zero period transportation services as well as the late run busing totals $450,000 that's what was cut for those two programs and another point of clarification uh if your child was to stay for basic skills or

018remedial help or tag talented and gifted program there will still be busting available to them to take them home basic skills runs and tag are still being maintained maintained um so again in summary this was a strong recommendation from the Department that approves our budget uh they recommended that this will bring us in line with other districts throughout the county I I had someone from my office call every District in the county to confirm what aspects of courtesy busing they allow and that's consistent with the County's representations so I I hope that addressed all of your questions not totally again my question is how many children are going to be affected who were using the service that are now not going to be able to use it how are they supposed to get home what

019about their safety if they're I know what's going to happen these kids are going to hang out here and wait something could happen to them and you have an issue because there's going to be no choice I mean a zero period at least for me I don't know about other parents probably easy to cut out because you can get up a little earlier take your child do whatever after two but who gets out at 3:00 sometimes I work 20 2 hours a day and my wife works as well and she gets home at 7:00 at night what does my daughter do does she not go to help classes does she then start failing her classes then she cannot take her literary uh she's taking literary magazine she has to cut that out now has anyone

020thought about that and what are the numbers how many children did anyone really look at how many children were affected by this cut that will now not be able to use the late bus services because they don't exist what we' have and and your three minutes are up so we have to go to the rest of the public but what we have found in other districts is that they have other districts who have cut late run buses have not found a um that there have been a loss of students in the after school activities that's fine with the other locations but we're talking about Monroe so if we speak about Monroe we have to know what these numbers are I don't think you can make a decision not knowing how it's going to affect people

021and that's why I'm saying I think we should postpone the adoption of this budget until we can postpone the adoption of the budget is there anyone else from the public who wishes to speak so then basically you're not going to address is there any reason why we can't we can't postpone the the budget needs to be adopted this any reason why anyone did not respond to my email any of the board members there was an email sent on March 7th addressing these issues don't tell me you didn't read your email because I I worked in Corporate America 17 years so I know and things can be changed we know we can there are always exceptions to be made why the transportation took the hit maybe it was the easiest thing I don't know I'm sure

022that there are other areas but that's important to our children this was again we adopted the temp tentative budget I believe March 1st this this um issue was brought up with the finance committee last week the finance committee agreed to continue with the cuts for late period busing and today we have the um the so basically what you're saying is even though we're here to discuss our concerns it's of no concern you're just going to pass you're just going to adopt the budget is that what I'm hearing well we'll listen to what everybody says and then we'll have a vote because this is not the way to do it here this is not a democracy I mean this is not the way to do it just you're going to hear me then this is the

023final budget adoption this October and and as board president said we we need to end this one more quick question was this published in the paper of course as required by law well I saw the the monies that you were putting back for the tax levy and the 3 million and all that but I didn't see anything about cutting Transportation no mention whatsoever we've been talking about it at board meetings for the last no but it wasn't in the paper I believe you have to publish everything in the paper I'm not new at this aded from law in the paper that's a fact okay I'll have to find out which paper it is but I suggest that you hold the adoption of the budget we can't hold the adoption of the budget by there has

024to be way I don't know what way there is but I'll find out I'll tell you that I could find out is there anyone else from the public who wishes to speak thank hi Liz prer 29 Spruce Meadows Drive um I was on the budget steering committee and um my question Mike for you is um I I I gave information to your office about and you guys said you called now it didn't say in these districts like I I couldn't find a district that didn't have some sort of busing when I looked around because when I brought the information back to the ptas they were like oh I work in this district and we have busing and I work in this District so I did do research and I couldn't find anywhere where there were

025any towns East Brunswick South Brunswick I I gave the information you saw it um I did not call to see what they were doing about it my question is did we look is there a way that yes we can adopt this maybe take it out of the budget but can we get like a I know South Brunswick does a pay to ride system that works really wonderful you're you're shaking your head oh I'm sorry um something along those lines so we can make a compromise that we can move forward with this over adequacy but we can provide transportation um for those who need it but maybe for a pay to ride and I understand I was speaking to somebody from South brunck and I don't know how many of these districts do do that I

026I don't know whether they just offer it flat out or we can provide maybe if we have a 515 or a 615 run a zero period maybe we can make a compromise and not get it it be black and white like maybe not all or nothing and um I was watching the Board of Ed that's one comment that you can answer but since let me just get my two questions out um I did feel when I watched the last budget meeting um the Board of Ed meeting I somebody came up and spoke to about the um tag and I understand that it is going to be provided now I feel as a parent that if we're going to take it away we're not mandated to provide it for anybody I don't think that um basic

027skills or tag would deserve busing if we're not going to give that to our athletes and we're not going to give that to our drama students and we're not going to give that to our middle students who require extra help after school or honestly the clubs are wonderful and I love that you defended the clubs because my son is in a club and he the after school clubs that somebody came and said well let's get rid of the clubs to provide the busing and it's very important that they have these clubs my my kid comes out of and and unfortunately the woman spoke of rock band and my son comes out of that rock band club and he's on such a natural high it's the most wonderful thing to say and I love that and

028I would just love to see if we can make a compromise like maybe if we need to pass the budget and take it out is there a way we can be creative that we can come up for a way to do this okay thank you we'll take that into consideration anyone else from the public we should Jennifer hijack 12 Sycamore Court we all want our children to be happy independent and thrive in their environment the variety of clubs and sports offered through the district enables students the opportunity to explore and determine where their interests lie the students gain self-confidence and a sense of belonging excluding students who cannot arrange their own transportation makes these students become dependent and diminishes their sense of individuality and personal preferences if I need to rely on my neighbor for

029a ride then my child is limited to whatever sport or club that child chooses to participate in not the ones my child may want to participate in for example if Paul is on the soccer team my son has to try out for soccer even though he may hate it or choose not to be in a club because I work and I cannot leave him sitting on a street corner in Monroe and feel comfortable about that uh for example and even if he did participate in the same thing that my son did for example they might not have practiced the same day for theater depends on the roles you're Miss many people who I know would be here because this meeting was moved to opening night of Peter Pan my daughter has been involved in theater

030for years they don't all practice the same day it depends on your role it depends on your song your dance your skit that you can't just say you have to have a carple what are you going to say to your teacher sorry I can't come because my neighbor doesn't need to go today um National Honor Society I was just picking classes for my daughter and I was reading the program of studies National Honor Society requires not only excellent grades but participation in at least three extracurricular activities are you going to wave this or are you going to offer more clubs at night such a showcase uh show choir just started this year Thursday nights great for working parents one of her teachers said to the class what does it mean to be a falcon and

031she she responded it it's a pride in belonging to a larger group I belong in the school play I made it I came home I tried out for the Bob go team I made it I'm on student council I can make a difference it's not a sense of belonging to Second block Spanish or I'm in Miss maser's uh geometry class that's not helping them this typical school day can only provide so much you need to allow our children the opportunity to belong not just to come to school and due time I understand the over adequacy thing over adequacy is anything above bare minimum I don't want my kids to go to a school that just offers bare minimum I hope here everybody here pays attention to how these board members vote on this issue their

032votes today will greatly affect my vote and hopefully all of your votes in the future we will see if they really put our kids first all of our kids not just the ones who are lucky enough to stay have stay-at-home parents in the Sentinel on the 8th it was quoted that this budget is one that we are extremely proud of it reflects that we believe our sentiments will keep the students first I ask you whose students not mine not the man who just spoke I'm sure not everybody who's in that play or the one that will be in this play Just reconsider do something I'm sorry I did not know about this from October I found out about 3 weeks ago I sent a letter to every single board member I also sent a letter

033to Administration one person took the time to get back to me do our comments fall in deaf ears thank you anyone else on the public Hi Megan hijack 12 Sycamore Court we're moving the after school buessing is is unfair to most students within the district I'm currently a freshman at mths and involved in the photography club and drama club both my parents work and I don't want to give up my life at mths just because I can't they can't pick me up I love getting involved in clubs and activities that mths has to offer and if I cannot participate in them because the removal of after school busing I will be devastated this not only applies to me though this applies to most of the students at the high school another point that applies to

034the after school blessing is the after school subject help and the testing center what if I for example was absent from school one day and this a history test my only option would be to make up that test to stay after school now remember that both of my parents work and they get home around 5:30 so I would be stuck at the AGS for who knows how long because there is no after school busing it's just wrong for the students that do not have stay-at-home moms to risk taking zero on their test and getting the help that they need in a subject or giving up all their activities what about sports too wouldn't singly athletic students have to give up their dream in sports or athletic ability just because their parents work and can't pick

035them up the whole idea is wrong we need after school busing to make sure that each and every student can participate in whatever they want and not give up something they love thank you thank you is there anyone else from the public is did you wish to speak okay hi Gail karica 27 Spruce Meadows Drive question for you when you talk about basic skills busing at the high school level it's not considered basic skills it's after school labs they have will they be having busing for that the basic skills and the tag programs are basically at the elementary level right so what are you providing for the high school kids who you have all these wonderful Labs at the high school no no what I'm saying right now at the high school level you have

036these wonderful Labs these teachers who stay after for these extra periods for kids to come for voluntary help is that considered under the basic skills category or not no it is not the Bas tag and basic skills programs are are as required by code are at the middle and elementary levels great so at the high school level you going to pay these teach teachers to stay for these classes and expect kids to go to them but not have any busing for them to get home correct we have a criteria in place where if students are not attending those teachers would be released from those duties after how long of kids not coming or like how long I don't know off the top of my head but but we do have a policy that governs that

037okay because teachers get paid a nice Penny to stay after for those classes so I'm just going wondering how long does that take a month six months you know do we do the contract year for that but it's not through the contract year okay all right so so any of those extra help classes are not considered for busing so there's no there's no bus saying that is correct at high school level that's correct okay would you consider like someone else suggested right now we have a 415 a 515 a 615 bus we've got buses coming out the Wazoo here at the high school why not just do one at 5:00 something that kids can be offered would that be a consideration at any time or not has we we explored that as an option and

038our recommendation to the board was to follow the strong encouragement we got from the county level okay and zero period is staying in zero period is not staying in zero period is also being you meaned the busing for zero period the busing has been removed the zero period program will remain in place parents would have to assume responsibility for getting getting youngsters to the zero period programs and that's starting with this coming school year September 12 2012 yes okay so that's being T so it's just basic skills and tag yes ma'am and is there any mandate for busing for any of those programs no ma'am so neither basic skills nor tag there's a state mandate that says they're required you're required as a as a district not required to bus no required to offer the

039program required right so then how did you come to that determination that those are the children that you want to service rather than the middle of the school you know the middle of the the group you know student who's not down who's not up who's kind of in the middle how do you come to that determination as those are the kids that you want to provide for because of the structure of our instructional day we have to offer those programs currently after uh the traditional school day and because we're required to offer that program we're required to provide some services for those young we're not required to provide the Ser the transportation but required to provide the service right so my question is how did you decide that those are the children you want to

040help even more rather than the athlete the the drama student all those other particular students because we're not required to offer that program we're required to offer tag and basic skills okay all right thank you you're welcome anyone else from the public good evening Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court um I just wanted to reiterate something Mrs prer said um she mentioned the budget steering committee I was on that committee as well and it was made up of representatives from all over the community and as Mrs prer um and myself did we represented parents and at several of those meetings the parents in the room um expressed that we did not want Services cut specifically um zero period busing or any busing Services we were asked at those meetings to go back to our parent groups

041and to do some research and to find out what our parents wanted we came back at the last budget meeting and we reported that parents felt very strongly about the busing Services it's very disappointing that that was not listened to or considered you have a room full of parents night that came out and again you're you're not listening I understand the adequacy we're an above adequate District we should be proud of that we're trying to get to be like a West Windsor Plainsboro Princeton we're not trying to get to be a below adequate District I really ask that you please reconsider this for our children's sake thank you anyone else from the public Richard p8 Drake Avenue the $3 million where's that going to go when it does come in those from the state the

042$3 million is part of a section 15 grant that the state awarded us for the construction of the school to offset taxpayer costs and that money's required by law to go back uh for tax relief against the Debt Service Levy or to be spent specifically on the construction or apertures related to the school strictly those two items that's it you not say I'd like to take 400,000 and bring those Transportation items back absolutely not it's it's either spend it on the project that was voted on by the um the residents or return it for tax relief against the very Debt Service Levy that raised the money okay I mean I'm not trying to be antagonistic here I mean I've been here 12 years and you guys has done a tremendous job but on this one

043it's wrong it's not right and in just reading what Mr Kenneth Hamilton said here in the paper that you know it keeps students first this is not keeping students first on this one you're absolutely wrong and the fact that you know we're going to offer these still for the tag and the basic skills which are not mandatory or mandated that's kind of like you're being selective here and I don't think that that's fair at all because it's either for everyone or it's for no one that's how it should be thank you again I just want to I just want to say that both basic skills and tag are mandated by the state we have to offer not the transportation not not the transportation but the the programs anyone else from the publico 48 Linwood Drive

044um you said that 13 we're 13 million over adequacy and the county executive recommended we eliminate these busing can you explain to me how that affects our adequacy and what that affects because I'm not quite following the money Mr Gorski we are as a district subject to a very uh detailed efficiency review every year when we submit the budget it takes into consideration administrative cost costs per pupil costs and um one of the figures that's most highlighted is the amount that the district is over adequacy that's the the bar that's set by the state to determine how much you're spending and um how much it's above what the state considered a base model and um ours is one of the highest districts above adequacy from last year's numbers in the county so for the last

045few years the county executive superintend the schools and the county executive business administrator have recommended that we eliminate courtesy late run busing to be consistent with other districts um and also to alleviate liability that the district is assuming by delivering students on a lat run basis where you don't have a roster of students who are on the bus you don't know where the students are supposed to be delivered you don't know if they're take you're taking them home to the right place and ultimately the courts have found that the district is liable for those students um So based on all those premises we had a strong recommendation again from the person and the people in the department who approve our budget and have approved our preliminary tenative budget to eliminate those and as part of

046the efficiency worksheets there's a very lengthy checklist of answers that you have to uh provide as far as what's in your budget specifically new question right on the top five is does your District still offer courtesy busing uh for late runs but what's the what's the goal in having him recommend we eliminate this I'm not quite understanding the the goal is that these are elective programs and that uh the district should not assume additional costs to provide the degree of transportation services that uh that we have and and that parents have become accustom and does this affect our insurance cost too by eliminating these two yes the other thing oh does it also affect our funding and what I was going to bring up we're on near adequacy the more funding we get and the

047lower the taxes go and and I believe that that's that's what I was trying to get with my question and I think people misunderstand adequacy it's like they hear adequate oh you're not giving an adequate education adequacy is not based on your quality of Education it's based on other factors right it's based on the extra things you give your students and the more you give them the less funding you get from the state anyone else from the public hi Michelle Jones one on tile Court Monroe um you mentioned some options before that were discussed at these other meetings the steering committee and name what exactly were those options that were discussed by parents and the public um maybe you can Enlighten us as to those that parents that are here what maybe they can look

048forward to and also what is your plan for students that uh rely on these buses and now need to wait for a parent for a ride home or to pick them up are middle schools going to be per middle school students or high school students going to be permitted to wait at the school for a ride until their parents can come and until what time can they stay can they permit are they permitted to stay inside the school in the library to do homework or in the cafeteria are they going to have to wait outside for the parents to pick them up roaming the streets there's a Jenkins court case that has determined that the district is liable for the uh safeguarding of students until they're returned to their residents and because of that we

049will make new procedures and policies to ensure that students who participate in the late run uh the clubs and sports are safeguarded until they have been picked up uh we will have the take the responsibility for that so that would require you to hire or pay staff members to stay longer in the building for that we'll have to review that but uh it's it's unlikely that that would be a material charge one of the things that will happen in that regard is as parents uh decide which after school programs they want their children to go to they will be asked to make sure that they understand that it is the parents responsibility to pick those students up so we are not going to be providing transportation and the parents if you elect for instance for

050your youngster to be in a program and it ends at 4:00 then students are supervised until that program ends at that point it becomes a parents responsibility to make sure that those youngsters are transported home so then you're saying if a parent is unable to pick up that child at 4:00 then that child essentially is excluded from attending that program because they won't have a ride from a parent home well that could be one outgrowth the other outgrowth of that would be that parents would help share that responsibility because ultimately we certainly could not provide a babysitting service for lack of a better word for an after for for parents who couldn't get to school till 5 o'clock or six o'clock or 7 o'clock even so it would be the parents responsibility okay thank you

051anyone else on the public directly was when I did my research you please give your name and address 29 SP met Drive part two I asked the one question um you said you had somebody from your office call I also did go online and I didn't I couldn't find that how we're consistent like how are we consistent with these other school systems I found that everybody provided something I I didn't I could not find a school system the only school systems I found were ones that didn't have busing period I found like um Highland Park and Spotswood didn't have anything but I printed it out and I gave you the information and I didn't find any anything so what did you find in your fact finding well respectfully uh we called up and we asked

052specifically the question does your District provide late run courtesy busing um that's the key question to ask not does your District provide busing because districts are required to provide busing no I did all the late run only late run it says it in did I I have found that more than 50% of the districts in the county between 50 and 60% do not offer late run courtesy busing approximately another 20% have a limited capacity either for one school or on an as-needed basis if there's no rides available from the parents or in many instances that that 20% that offers some form of latrun courtesy busing in a very limited form is being phased out the other 20% provide similar uh uh system like we have had here where we've had tiar of late run busing

053did you okay because I I I found different like I actually printed out their roots and everything and and it was similar districts like South Brunswick East Brunswick Woodbridge Edison sarraille Plainsboro um in our county middle county is Plainsboro Plainsboro actually is the town of Plainsboro I'll be happy they go they go to West Windsor I'll be happy to go over the data with you if You' okay I I would I'm just I took being on this committee very seriously and I and I brought the information back to the ptas and I feel a responsibility when they ask me questions to answer the questions so I really I could be wrong that's why I'm bringing this in that's why I brought the information and I want to be informed when when people come to me

054about it because it's important and I took it very seriously thank you anyone else from the public just a clarify what you're saying for the Jennifer hijack 12 second war court for the children who will not have a ride arranged and to say we can arrange with neighbors you know it's a reciprocal thing Monday through Friday I work I can't reciprocate unless for some reason you start to offer nightclubs or weekend sport clubs activities um for extra for for colleges don't they want a well-rounded student on their applications will they consider the fact that I work and I'm sending my child to Walltown sh to Good Sports to play on their travel volleyball team because it's on the weekends or I'm paying my daughter to go to kids on stage which is a travel theater

055company which is available on the weekends do they consider that extracurricular or no it has to be in the school because if the school is only offering stuff right after school there's a whole percentage of children who are going to be excluded and I cannot reciprocate with my neighbor so I'm becoming very dependent on her hoping that she's going to have the same interest her child has as my child which I don't think will happen um also for the high school kids obviously they're old enough my daughter could probably walk to the library if she so chooses I'm sure she has friends who walk to stop and shop I don't feel comfortable with that but I guess I would cross my fingers and pray that nothing happens to her on the walk to the library

056until I can get there my biggest fear is my son my son will not have the opportunities as he is younger he's going to be entering the middle school soon I don't think those Middle School teachers allow them to walk off property on their own I hope they resend that because would like him to be able to walk to the library and wait rather than just sit home and come home on a bus and play video games until I get home um the bask program which is the after school care program my child currently attends my son who's at Woodland now I know that there's talk about changing it and maybe Board of Ed taking it over if they do in fact do that could you please consider having the Basque program at the middle

057school level actually housed in the middle school so then those middle school children could return to their program after their Club is over right now those children who are middle school children who are attending the bass program get shipped on a bus to one of the other elementary schools um if in fact we are without busing for our after school clubs could we move that program to be housed actually in the middle school so that that's an option us working parents we could pay for our children to belong to that after school babysitting service so to speak so that they can participate and as you were saying about the after school clubs um extra help the average child who is not identified as being top top notch tag the average child who is not identified

058as being basic skills at the high school level if they're having trouble we were told at back to school night as parents if your child is absent they must go it's to their best interest that they go to this math lab that's how they that's how they address the needs of children who are need a little extra help in math they don't have B basic skills math in high school they go to a math lab or they go to a science lab where teacher explains to them what they missed if they were absent because they say one absent day is like two classes that you missed so they're encouraging that and you to make up a test you have to go to the testing center otherwise you get a zero they don't make up a

059test in school time so those are things to consider did you want to respond Mr uh with respect to your question about the location of Basque if the district should decide to um continue with its uh initiative to bring the Basque program inhouse the reason that Basque is not currently at the middle school is because bass doesn't have a license issued uh to be in that school as they're a private organization we wouldn't need such so we could consider them have to try can you can you speak into the microphone it would be very nice if you could give us working parents some options pay to ride like South Brunswick offers I'd be more than willing to pay to give my children the experience that one of my child one child of mine has had

060the opportunity to have have and I've seen such growth in her and I'm so excited for everything she can do but I fear so much that my son will never ever have those opportunities just because he was born too late so give us some options pay to ride limited busing bask at least high school kids cross your fingers go to Starbucks buy Stop and Shop hope you don't get buy a car and I'll pick you up when I can but to tell her not to participate I can't do that thank you anyone else on the public wish to speak to the budget is there anything new that you have to add something of the student population in the high school Richard P A Drake Avenue of the student population in the high school how many

061students will be affected by this does anybody know that number we don't know that number because the number of students who attend programs it varies from not just program to program or week to week even day to day which is part of the hazards of of courtesy busing so a student may stay after today for one club and not be here tomorrow so it's very hard to ascertain the absolute number that that you've asked for now but there has to be an approximation I'm sure that you must have figured out that is it going to affect 400 students a thousand 20 someone has to have a number on that because I don't think you can make a valid decision Without Really knowing what how it would affect and how many would affect and then you

062could go back to the county and say this doesn't work for us because you can't have a cookie cutter all the time there are exceptions to the rule let's face it and my last question and I'll leave you all alone I know you hate me already um how many of you here have any are any of your your your uh Sons or daughters affected by this here right now with the decision you're making tonight if you do go if you make the decision to adopt this budget with the cuts and the transportation you you do you would Mr L has grandchild children who would be affected and you're you're both you and your wife work I guess I'm I'm going to assume that yeah K yes but my son does track he's the Pres of

063his class so he's uh very involved and has a lot of after school activities well least someone here knows and to Jennifer's point I think there should be some options given and there were no options given I think that was a very valid point Thank you again is there anyone else who would like to speak to the budget oh then I will close the um public portion of the budget Mr cherella I just have a quick question it's on paay to ride because I didn't even I didn't realize that that was even a possibility but I'm wondering if maybe we could put that on the next buildings and grounds Transportation um agenda and maybe we could discuss it I think we actually have talked about and and I believe the county also oh yeah I

064believe I asked Mr Gorski to check into other districts that do Aid a ride and I believe I did and according to the county executive business administrator there are no other districts in Middle SE County that offer a pay to ride or a pay to participate busing system and and when I when I asked that question it was discouraged that we consider that option by the county office anyone else from the board I I'll just make a comment Mr Kaufman um after after one of our finance committee meetings because I was I'm on the finance committee I sent an email to some of the other board members to talk about thinking out of the box and things that we can do that Poss possibly address the gap which will be produced by you know doing

065away with curacy busing um I understand that there's no other districts in the county that have the pay to to to to ride or or whatever but um from my perspective there probably AR aren't too many other districts in in Middle SE County or the state that were able to put a high school on Parkland so just because it's not done elsewhere doesn't mean we can't think about ways that we can do to accommodate um not just the courtesy busing in this particular situation but the whole adequacy issue as we mentioned before this is not an issue about whether or not your child is being adequately educated it's about the things that we do in the community that put us at that Plateau so I made a recommendation to the committee and I think I'm

066hoping maybe we'll talk about it and see where it goes but I think things like pay to ride and possibly pay to I don't want to say participate because that's going to have other connotations but as we take a look at the programs that we offer and uh this happens to be the courtesy busing issue happens to be uh a Forefront today but in the future we don't know what could potentially be uh uh subject to potential removal I think we have to think smarter and think about how could we if we're required by the state or the county not to provide something in order to give us more funding to get closer to that Plateau where we have a balance between what the district can provide and what the state feels comfortable about reimbursing

067as far as Aid we have to put things in in place like a framework which will adapt and allow us to do things like pay to ride or pay to participate in a club or pay to participate in a um Advanced proficiency program that may also be subject to cut at some future date we just have to think about how we can incorporate that kind of flexibility in the program and our infrastructure to allow people who need who can afford to pay because you know we would love to be able to keep doing this and while some folks would like to have us put a number to how many students this affect I have to tell you this would still bother me if it was only one student whether it's hundreds of students or one

068student at the end of the day we know that there are parents that are working all day and it's going to be an inconvenience but we as a board have to balance these decisions of of adequacy and how much we get for funding to be able to provide things like money coming back as far as lowering the tax rate and and providing tax relief to taxpayers as well so it it it really is riding a fence and trying to figure out the balance of both hopefully we'll be able to come up with something we all in the finance committee supported the elimination of courtesy busing and and the other other things um but I think we can still possibly keep the door open for figuring out ways to get around these things and you know

069we'll work and with my other fellow members of the finance committee to see the things that we can do but that doesn't guarantee that we'll have something in place for next year it's something that we'll keep open and figure out if there are things that we can do um you know as a community to get to get past this so Mr Klein our students and our parents have to suffer for course of the state and again you're going to say I put everything all the blame's always on the state I see her shaking her head there was a article in the home news yesterday um Governor Christie gave a speech and in his new budget he's turning over something like oh I think it was $20 million to go towards continued education college for the

070inner city poor children the reason why I brought this up is one of the things he said was that you have to understand and I'm quoting the governor now you have to understand that the parents of these children are working two three and four jobs to keep their heads above water where's his head let him come to Monroe let him come to the suburbs where both parents have to work and in some cases it's three jobs yet something like this is over adequacy um I'm sick about it and something else that I was going to say later on is you know what my stance has been those of you that have either watched on8 Mr Klein can you hold that statement till later only because Miss Ferron has to leave to go to is it

071something to with the budget I'm done because she has to she has to go to Jamesburg to vote on Jamesburg budget you're going to go J lucky girl okay go ahead so we'll bring we definitely we'll let him bring back as soon as you can speak as soon as we finish the vot it's okay all right I got a short so we'll have a roll call Miss anelis yes Mr Braverman Mr Chella yes Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr kleene yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes even I heard him Mrs kapano yes Madam board president resolution for the 2012 2013 budget passes thank you Mr Klein would you like to finish your comment wait did I leave up can I start over again no no no my point is is it they contradict

072themselves and exactly exactly what you said is true why do we have after school activities if we can't get the kids home but then we get penalized by the state and they're giving us nothing and I heard the young lady mention East brunswood when you see how much money they get Oldbridge how much money they get I don't want to cut the busing I think it's the worst thing to do we have no choice what I would like to see is perhaps some of the ptas get together if I may ask a question am I to believe that after school busing would be separate buses for each school or is it basically just middle school and high school I believe it's separate buses for all schools you can't afford it what I would like to

073see is perhaps the PT get together and see about contacting these Transportation companies and if we cannot get um pay to ride perhaps you could start your own what I would like to see is we have no choice with the budget at this point because we have a specific date that the budget has to be in allow us on the finance committee and the other committees to discuss possibly other ways that we may be able to get around it I don't know what else to say we are penalized for doing the right thing and that's what hurts I feel for you I agree with you but I think at this point we have no choice I'm sorry thank you Mr kleene um at this time we'll go to number seven the revise public meeting schedule

074approval for May for April and May 2012 is there a motion in a second so move Miss anelis and Mr Coffman um the in case you I don't know if there's a list out there um the Wednesday April 18th 2012 meeting will now be moved to Wednesday April 25th 20 20 2 the May 9th 2012 meeting will stay May 9th 2012 it should have been our reorganization meeting but because we voted to um not vote on the budget and uh have the candidates elected in uh November the organizational meeting will be moved to January so is there any comments or questions from the board then a roll call oh Mr Mr Coffman to address concern what do you oh here there you go um a little earlier resident addressed the concern about you know board

075meetings and the dates of when they're scheduled and you know what dates we pick the board picks their dates pretty well in advance so we pick our dates in advance of a lot of other things that doesn't stop other organizations from planning around the same time so we we plan our things pretty far out just so that everybody's clear about that Mr Chella what would the the April 18th meeting was moved to what April uh Wednesday April 25th and May 9th will stay May 9th get this okay we'll have a roll call um it is recommended that the members of the Monroe Township Board of Education approve moving the April 18th public board meeting to Wednesday April 25th at 700 p.m. and acknowledge that the May 9 meeting will no longer be the organization meeting

076okay and that was U moved by Miss anelis and second by Mr Kaufman roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Chella yes Mrs cron Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mrs kapano Madame board president motion passes thank you uh number eight public meeting schedule approval June 2012 through Jan January 2013 again may we would have been doing our reorganization meeting but because we're not doing it to October we now had to have uh meetings scheduled from um May through uh January of 2013 Mr Klein second by Mr Kaufman do you want to read the motion uh therefore it is recommended that members of the Mona Township Board of Education approve the public meeting schedule for June 2012 through January 2013 making notice that January 3rd 2013 is the new organization

077meeting there any comments or questions by board members then we will third or 23rd third I'm January 3rd roll call Mr borski Miss antelis yes Mr Chella yes Mrs uh Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mrs colano yes Madam board president motion passes we will now go to the public forum anyone who wishes to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record Michelle Michelle armini 9 ethaniel Street um on 8 the public meeting schedule and the new organization does that four year you voted which by the way I object to having voted to take away the Public's right to vote on the budget so unfortunately you guys did that very quickly and you didn't get too much public input

078um but my question is that that's a four year you voted that for that and it's four years um I guess it's like a test case so when does the four years start 2013 or 2012 to as of the time you voted for because I'd like to count down those four years 2016 it it begins uh Jan January 2013 and continues to 14 15 16 17 in which case it comes up for board vote again yes that's correct that's how the law is currently stated yes okay so again unfortunately and I made a a statement prior to uh that vote the the meeting before that the legislation was pending and that I objected to any any vote on either legisl legislator's uh or the board taking away the Public's right to uh vote on budgets

079and financial issues and I'm sorry that some of you voted and I applaud those of you who voted against it thank you is there anyone else from the public hi Kimberly Toto 29 Fox Run um the lighted up blue campaign is a way to shine a light on Autism Awareness April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day and in honor of that day student staff transportation and administration should be wearing blue which has been approved by Dr Hamilton thank you uh mayor pooi is doing a proclamation for World Autism Awareness Day at the council meeting on April 2nd he has approved the lighted up blue campaign and is allowing uh blue ribbons to be put around the trees along Municipal Way in the rec center the mayor Jamesburg has agreed as well and blue ribbons will

080be placed along railroad AB uh Learning Academy is on board as well and blue ribbons will be placed at Old Monroe school entryways as well at tree so you can all show your support by wearing blue or letting your house up blue for the month of April thanks thank you anyone else on the public okay seeing no one we will have we will go to the approval of the minutes for the public meeting January 18th 2012 so move second miss antelis Mr kleene any comments or questions all in favor opposed abstentions no one close session for January 18th 2012 Mr Klein miss analis all in favor opposed extenstions the public meeting of February 15 2012 so moved Miss antalis second Mr Masters all in favor I opposed abstentions Mr is abstained and Mr tiella so

081noted I think the Clos session of February 15 2012 so move Mr Masters all in favor I opposed abstentions Mr Klein again hold on and Mr cherella so noted might go back to that last motion what was the count on the last minute on the uh public meeting February 15 I don't know if there were enough votes to pass it that's what I'm checking seven yes okay okay at this time we will go to the superintendent's report Dr Hamilton um before I begin my report I'm going to ask Mr Goodall the principal of the high school if he would come up I ask Mr Goodall to just follow up a meeting before last we had a few students come and speak uh in reference to their exposure to AP courses and I asked Mr Goodall

082that just provide us with a brief update on the followup to that meeting thank you and I'll try to be as brief as I can um I got word a couple of meetings ago that some of our high achieving students in the building came to express some concerns about how uh uh how we schedule the building and some of the course offerings and progression in those course offerings May prohibit them from getting into the most competitive schools that are out there those of the Harvard's the mits the stanfords um I had under Dr hilon suggestion we had uh a meeting with them I met with them for two and a half hours after school we had a great meeting they made some great points and uh I also gave them information that they were not

083aware of of where we've come as a district and some of the things that are put in place to ensure that they're very successful in the courses when they're taking AP courses here um they're making those comments based on some of their peers from other schools and they may operate a little bit differently at other schools uh and we feel very strongly that in the last 10 years we've come a long way especially in AP offerings for those of you in the audience who don't know what AP classes are they're the most rigorous courses that we all offer here in the high school um they are at a college Pace in many instances students who take these AP courses get college credits uh when they attend certain universities um we mandated uh to improve the

084rigor of these classes that uh every AP course culminates in the AP exam um in the past few years since 2005 2006 you see we offered 11 AP courses and now this year we currently off offer 21 AP courses all of those courses have been reviewed uh by the AP audit process and approved you submit your course syllabus and they have to be approved by AP in order for the kids to get credit for those classes um the board was also gracious and supportive enough to provide the funds to mandate and pay for the AP exams so in 2005 we only had 73 students participate in taking AP exams and last year we had 323 and I know that number is significantly higher this year those are the current AP course offerings uh and besides

085the traditional AP courses that most high schools offer in physics and Cam and biology we also offer uh in different other uh interest areas in World languages in studio art music theory art history European history psychology computer science and we're in the uh early stages of offering Italian AP uh so that goes across to give opportunities to all of our students to be involved in these rigorous uh classes um we also moved a number of years ago to block scheduling typically in a traditional bell schedule in which perhaps some of you in the audience went to high school Under uh me included you had seven courses you had lunch and with a possibility of taking 140 credits during your high school career uh under our new Ab block schedule which is not that new anymore

086we've been doing it for a number of years uh you can actually take 160 credit opportunities so those were more opportunities for our students now to take those AP or other elective courses um so there was a lot more variety that the kids were exposed to and when we went to block scheduling and we added all of these AP courses we felt that uh it was so important for kids to be successful on the AP test we mandated that uh a number of these courses specifically in science and calculus a that the uh AP courses be of the double block 420 minute per week instruction so that gave them a great foundation for them to be very successful not only with their grades in the class but also with the AP test at the end

087of the year uh in addition we've um implemented in 9th and 10th grade and looking forward to implementing it in the 11th grade the Academy's uh format in which kids take elective choices in their interest level this will also be much more efficient in scheduling kids schedules uh when they pick their Academy because the strength of the uh schedule is dictated to their area of interest and the kids will have uh less conflicts during the scheduling period those are just some statistics about how we're trying to really uh expose all of our students here an emphasis on college readiness we've seen the gradual increase of our SAT scores over the uh last few years also with the addition of many many more students at the high school uh We've mandated with the board support they

088pay for these tests that all of our kids take the PSAT in the 10th and 11th grade um and you see some statistics we were talking talking about it right before the meeting uh even during a poor economic climate uh you see an increase in our students who are attending fouryear institutions and then the additional 25% uh going to the two-year college so we have an 88% uh attendance at some sort of college or university U those were statistics from last year's graduates those are I know some of the comments were uh from the group that um we're not getting enough of the students into these universities we would like to see more kids get into these better colleges but uh statistically we are having kids get into uh the Wharton School of Business at

089Penn our valid dictorian last year got into Princeton and decide to go to West Point so many many many of our students are going to these prestigious universities we would definitely like to see more kids going to these universities I'm not satisfied as building principal uh that we're at the uh number we want to but we're going to keep with the board support working hard to get that done okay this this was the key slide from the kids and their suggestions in speaking to their peers um we offer AP Bio AP chem and AP Physics to our 9th 10th and 11th graders um we we mandate before that they take those courses that they take an honors level uh course to make a strong Foundation before they take AP Bio let me be a little

090bit more clear what I just said a ninth grade student before he takes AP Bio has to take the honors biology class to give them a strong Foundation uh same goes for chemistry and same goes for physics in other schools uh they allow their students to uh use the AP courses in uh to fill the requirements not only from the state level but also your school district's uh mandate on what you need to uh take for graduation uh we could start to explore that if our students are now at a point coming out of the middle school if they have that strong Foundation but initially when we tried to uh ramp up the rigor in the AP class classes and AD AP classes it was thought that our students at that time needed the honors

091classes to build that strong foundation so they could be successful in the AP courses and on the AP test uh in doing so you can stay right there Dr Gorman thanks this is the last slide um the feedback from the kids were that in order part of building their resume to get into uh some of these prestigious universities you also have to be part of internships and I mentioned a couple on this slide Partners in science NIH ran Bay Medical Center these are all internships that the kids do on the weekends and the summer uh and they put those on the resume but one of the qualifications for them to be in these programs is to take more AP courses on your resume so if we were able to provide those opportunities as uh the

092first point on the slide perhaps we'll get more and more kids into these programs which in turn would put more and more kids into these higher presious universities uh they they made some suggestions about um moving the AP calab course I don't know uh how many kids would qualify to only take that as a five credit course and be as successful uh the Double block from the Math teachers seems they really endorse the fact that it's a double block class and then they've also made some suggestions that we add these Advanced courses that typically now they take at the college level or at middle middle sex County College through senior option and that would be uh AP Physics C multivariable calculus and AP economics so we will be looking and exploring these as and uh

093you know make some suggestions to the curriculum committee on how to move forward and making these adjustments if they're warranted in the program of studies for next year and Beyond yes sir I just wanted to um I just want to thank you not only for this presentation but for everything that you do cuz I know you've never been shy about advocating for the kids you know if you think that they need something that I know you've you're always quick to come to any of us and and and you've never been shy about it and also that you've you know I think you've done an excellent job in pushing that envelope to keep us progressing towards Excellence so I just want to thank you for what you do any any other questions for Mr Good want

094to make a comment I remember when you came uh and we discussed the block scheduling and I remember how we were told students get into the class put their books down sit down and then they're looking at the clock 5 minutes before the bell rings they're picking up and literally the students were in the class 15 20 minutes and that is not conducive to learning and and I think that that's one of the reasons we went with the block scheduling was to make sure the children were really getting that full educational uh experience so thank you for what you do robt yeah I'm really going um since Mr goodle came we've gone from good to great and now we look like we're going to excellent so it's it's under your leadership that this um high

095school has blossomed I appreciate the compliment to uh it's a collective effort from all the administrators the community and the Board of Ed being supportive any time I've come I need this we need to hire this staff to run this program you've always been supportive so thank you very much about that thank you thank you rob uh moving on to the superintendent report the enrollment data is enclosed for your attention um I continue to point out the increase in our student population 220 students over um our enrollment at the December 28th count the outof district placement and home instruction reports are enclosed as well as the fire drills and lockdown drills at our schools um at this time I'd like to move on to the Personnel report so Madame President and members of the board

096of education is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel action items a through S be approved by roll call vote so second um Mr caufman and Miss antelis are any questions for the superintendent seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr Chella yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr ly yes Mr Masters yes Mrs kapano Madame board president motion passes and last item under uh the superintendent's report is the board action items Madam president members of the board of education is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through K be approved by roll call vote move second Mr Chella Miss anelis um I just want to clarify F that that's the 2012 2013 school year not the 2012 2012 school year any questions Mr Klein G how many students are

097involved in that you have a ballp uh I can tell you in a minute and why are they going uh to these schools as compared to staying here um this is a this is essentially a performing arts program um that students who have particular aptitude they audition for this particular program and if accepted they they go there the district has had a relationship with middle sex County Arts High School for several years now okay you don't have to give me the count okay that's okay thank you you're welcome any more questions any other questions then we will have a roll call on the action items Miss antelis yes Mr cherella yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr lirry yes Mr Masters this is K Pano yes madame board president board action items a through

098K passes thank you that concludes the superintendent's report now we will go to the business administrators Report with Mr Gorski Madame board president and members of the Monroe Township Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through K be approved by consent roll call so moved second miss antelis Mr Klein is there any comments or questions for Mr Gorski seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss antelis yes Mr cherella yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mrs Cola Pano yes madame board president board action items a through K passes thank you that concludes a business administrative report okay um board president's report I really don't have that much to say this evening it's been a long night so far so we will go directly to

099our committee reports is there anyone who has a committee report they'd like to um give a report on sorry we had an awesome uh curriculum meeting right before this you missed it it was really good uh we toured the industrial Arts area of the high school it was pretty impressive um basically they were showing us how some of the ideas how the collaborative ideas come together and go from a t a 2d model all the way to prototyping we have a rapid prototyping um machine and actually to a working model so the so the EM almost said kids these students um can actually progress uh what they're working on all the way from um design all the way to they actually hold it in their hands it was pretty impressive we also uh viewed the

100construction room that's why I asked you what it was called for lack of better term we saw a lot of The Woodworking and stuff like that um the e- mill where they do actual Milling in the school of of metal uh Plastics glass and the computerized router program so it was a really uh nice overview and it actually showed um some of the um I don't some of the tools that the kids are using to learn about what goes on in the real world and I believe it was mentioned that this was um one of our high school is one of the very few high schools in the United States that has this program um for our students so they have a step up against anybody else who is um wants to do the same

101kind of engineering that that we're already um ahead of the curve with thank you anyone else who has a committee report Mr Cher we had a buildings grounds and transportation committee meeting this week uh we we talked about a couple things but one of the things that we uh we did was uh we approved or approved to send to the board um a part-time or a mechanic that will replace a mechanic a bus mechanic who is currently ill and so uh that'll be a replacement for the period that he's at until he comes back so uh to take up the slack some of the uh some of the work pressures that are going on there with having a reduced uh reduced team the other thing that we talked about is we had a uh substantial

102presentation by Dr Lynch regarding Apple GTH and the CO2 levels and some of the um some of the prior reports that um he took he took part in regarding CO2 and uh we also we also talked about um any any lead and any you know and that's all in the works right now where he's going to be testing uh for lead in the soil and in various parts but one of the things that we did talk about and that we asked him with was uh was um testing the air quality of Applegarth before opening the school so that we could test for a baseline see what the air quality is without the children there and then test again when we have children in the school so that's one of the things that we're we're uh

103that we that was different from what we were going to do before but uh we thought that it was important to to get ahead of that and do an air quality check prior to opening also thank you anyone else have a report okay seeing none number 15 is there any other business member of the Board of Education Mr Klein here I go again I want to ask a question of the parents that they here uh in my three years on the board and you've heard my outcry at every meeting how many of you have sent letters to the state concerning the uh inequitable funding that we receive that's nice two [Music] people now I as the governor say that again I asked the governor right at the meeting at the town hall meeting then also

104the the bit with apple how many people contacted the state concerning either closing or opening of Apple go one person don't you think it's about time that the pto's and the parents tell the state and I'm talking about the uh acting Chancellor of New Jersey Department of Education Christopher Surf and Governor Christie that we've had enough of being underfinanced we have to nitpick to try to give the best to the kids and because because of the type of school we are we can't just give everything you had a woman here last meeting wants everything for rap we have to handle all segments of the student population all levels we try the best we can when I see the amount of hundreds of billions of dollars going to 31 school districts it's a killer because they're

105getting way more than what they can spend you have rooms full of computers and this was witnessed by a friend of mine who's a teacher in nor unused store rooms of new brand new textbooks unused they have after school activities they have night activities they have morning activities what are we bored we're nothing our children are nothing so what I'm asking you as parents and this is only a a very small segment hoping that there's a lot more watching on TV you're angry enough to get the busing back why don't you get together and start bombarding the Department of Education the New Jersey Department of Education in Trenton and the governor's office now it's starting to affect you and your children start writing letters make phone calls get together and start to raise hell that's

106all I can ask I've tried to do the best I can in my three years and some of you make faces when I bring up about the the money situation it is it's fact you got people in this um this community on fixed incomes that can no longer afford to pay for their their property taxes on their homes we can no longer we're supposed to be the state is supposed to be providing a free public education to all residents of New Jersey paid for by the state it's in the state constitution you're paying and all the residents of this town are paying 97 to 98% of the cost of Education that's not a free public education I think it's time that all of you get angry and start to raise hell in Trenton thank you

107anyone else from the board seeing no one the number 16 close session resolution be resolve that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go into Clos session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 197 75 njsa 10 col 4-6 through 10 col 4-21 to discuss the following subjects student matters harassment intimidation and bullying incidents 107 through 109 the superintendent evaluation framework and the oak tree principal search the discussion conducted in Clos session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved any Motion in a second second Mr cherella miss anelis all in favor opposed extensions at this time the board will be moving into closed session John uho yes uh we'll have to switch this uh telecommunication line and

108I'll work uh to get in contact with uh the appropriate people at your end and we'll uh reestablish the link in the new room okay thanks John all right thanks John four five maybe six at this time the board will reconvene into public session we will be going to number 17 the public forum if anyone would like to come and speak please come to the AG if anybody wants to speak please come up to the microphone state your name and address for the [Applause] record how you doing uh Mike m 17 Linwood Drive um I understand the board is in the process of um evaluating whether or not to move the Basque program inous I was wondering if you could tell me where you are in that process Mr Gorski will answer um the board

109has uh passed a resolution directing uh Dr Hamilton and I to prepare financial projections on the viability of bringing the Basque program inhouse as some other districts including East Brunswick have done um quite profitably and we've also reviewed our facility and staffing needs for the program and um we're meeting with representatives from Basque next week uh to consider one final option before the board it is anticipated will probably go ahead with moving the program inhouse okay can you tell me if uh the KP program will be offered at Oak Tree school as opposed to Barkley Brook and then have kids bust you know to Oak tree that is a a part of the plan that we are considering Pro very probable okay do you know when you'll have a decision on that um we're hoping

110to be able to make a full recommendation to the board at the next meeting okay thank you Joe homoki Hoffman Road I I think it's very good news that the number of students who are taking AP courses is so high a dramatic Improvement last couple years the question I have is every student who is in the AP course there's a test at the end of the uh whatever the uh the courses so does every student have to take the test yes because we have mandated the test the board now pays for that test so yes they do take that assessment every student takes the test at the end of the uh every student enroll in an AP course yes that's good because not too many years ago they just signed up for you took the

111course and they opted out of taking the test and that's certainly a credit to the high school because they look for students taking the test after the experience of the of the course exactly thank you thank you anyone else from the public good evening everyone Dr Hamilton my English is not very good could you please um give me your name and address oh I'm sorry um and you might want to put the microphone down a little bit sorry I'm short thank you one burn qut Lina Cal Wong my English is not very good so please be patient with me 10 days ago on March 12th before 2:30 p.m. I was with my son in the Maru Township High School parking lot I was in my car and he was standing in the parking spot next

112to me talking to me instead of parking one of the many other spots available a teacher almost hit my son with her car trying to park my son told me the car hit him and forced him away I told the teacher she said okay I did this on purpose on the same day I emailed both the principal Robert Goodall and you Dr Kenneth Hamilton you both told me to go talk to the police since the incident occurred on school property involves a student and a teacher I believe the school system should take action should take action I have seen the school's surveillance tape it doesn't look looked like my son was HD my son didn't get injured but that is not the point the teacher needs to be reprimanded when I told her that she

113hit my son her first response was okay I did this on purpose that is not the attitude of someone who should be a teacher this the school is not taking this situation seriously it has been 10 days and still the school has not taken any concrete action do you think this attitude behavior is prop for a teacher especially towards student in the school where she teaches if this happened between two student or from a student to a teacher will you just tell the teacher go file a police report I believe a student would be suspended already or more what will you do about this Dr Hamilton thank you thank you Mrs Wong um the matter is being investigated it's being investigated by the police once the matter has been reported to the police our hands

114become somewhat tied because further investigations by the school sometimes taint their investigation so we have a what's called a memorandum of agreement with the police department in matters such as this where we agree that we will allow them to complete their investigations now once they complete their investigation they will share that information with us Upon Our request and if it if we find that the teacher in this instance has conducted any Mis misdoing or behaved inappropriately well then we would certainly be obligated to take some appropriate action but our hands are somewhat tied until we get that in that report from the police and we they are able to review their surveillance tape as part of their evidence I had the police report today beg your pardon I had the police report today and they

115just uh call her the teacher who's this thank you s Kelly you can't speak to the you sorry shouldn't call the teacher's name all right then um they they just call her and she said she didn't hit on my son but it just say you know she say I being very I don't how to say the word I'm being very like uh talk to her uh By the time like uh kind the what is that the word says like a mean something like that but you know I hope you guys understand where I my feelings come from because she doesn't put the children's safety in first she's not considered that if by by accident she uh put her feet on the on the guess then my son will being hit so he's we will request

116the the copy of the police report I didn't know as of this morning that the report was available frankly um do anything for for this then I think you know this happened in the school property the school have to do something for consider about this situation now if there's if if there's a breach in the if someone is breaking the law doesn't matter where it occurs the police will still be involved and and they will investigate of the report is complete I'll request the report and follow up on that but I have to also let you know that even if the report finds that the teacher did something egregious um and the board takes action the superintendent makes a recommendation and the board takes action on that I would not be able to report to

117you um what that action is at that point because of teachers confidentiality then how do I know um you could probably get that information from the police once that happens CU we would then report that information back to the police as part of their investigation okay thank you you're very welcome is there anyone else from the public hi Karen WRA 44 Eldorado way just want to see if there's anything going on with transportation for oak tree Applegarth if there's been a decision made if we're doing one busing are we had a mock run this week to see how the traffic flow would be uh Doug Gillian our director of transportation is looking at routes right now and we should have some definitive routes on how that will work very soon now if it is one

118bus is there estimate about how much later the buses would be getting home we're probably going to end up changing the start time of one of the schools if not well there's no change to Apple because that schedule would be new but uh we'll probably end up having to change the time by maybe 10 15 minutes but we're still working on that because my concern is most likely my son will be in PM kindergarten he'll be on the bus close to 45 minutes to an hour if that's the case now I thought the reason why you guys didn't the Early Education one of the reasons why you voted down was because you didn't want the small kids on the bus for that long no the board didn't vote down kindergarten that was one of the

119concerns was that the kids would be on the bus for 45 minutes to an hour now if we do this with Applegarth my son 5 years old will be on the bus for close to an hour I don't know the impact it's going to have on on kindergartens for example so I'm really not comfortable with commenting on that but something to think about absolutely absolutely um like I know in my development I have 96 homes excuse me we have two buses that go through there one bus could do Applegarth one bus could do oak treay very easily CU it we don't have enough I don't know even why we have two buses all the kids in one development can go on one bus and we wouldn't even fill the bus um but just some options

120because that's a concern he'll be on the bus for almost an hour that's a fair concern so thank you you're welcome anyone excuse me Esther Gregory to Kelly Court um I'm glad to hear that there's talks about the bass KP program for oak tree uh can't wait for that next meeting to hear that um actually going to talk about curriculum or ask questions about for Applegarth Elementary for the fourth and fifth grade um if we will have a science lab art classes and what languages we will have we'll offer the same programs at Applegarth that we have at our other schools our other upper elementary schools same science labs if they have that if they have that but our elementary schools don't they have art rooms but they don't have science labs okay um and

121thank you Mr Klein so now we know where to address our concerns thank you gel arm Min 09 ethaniel Street can you discuss any resolves of the um items in the Clos session um at this time uh no there have the there we have not resolved any of the issues the superintendent evaluation is an ongoing process we discussed the framework and the oak tree principal search um is um as doing dealing with Personnel we can't discuss that okay it is not clear what superintendent evaluation framework is why is that A Private Matter are you talking about an outline of what the superintendent framework should be for evaluation we we were in the process of talking about his evaluation yes okay you're talking about the superintendent's evaluation or you talking about the framework of the superintendent

122evaluation we're talk because one has to do with the other how how we had a discussion with Dr Hamilton on how he sees his evaluation going and how the board um you know just a discussion on how well it doesn't seem to rise to the level of an exemption under the open public meetings act you could discuss the framework of how you're going to evaluate the superintendent in public I I believe any discussion that has to do with the superintendent evaluation is discussed in closed session you're talking about the framework of I mean it has to do with the evaluation okay again I think it doesn't rise to the level of something that can't be discussed in public there's nothing personal about discussing an outline of how you're going to evaluate the superintendent I mean

123if you're evaluating the superintendent that's a different issue but you don't say that here you're saying you're de you're talking about a framework my my p uh perception of that means you're developing an outline in which to evaluate the superintendent and I don't mean to be semantic here no it has always been my impression or my my personal that anything that had to do with the superintendent's evaluation was discussed in person in um in well there's been a lot of things that have been the impression we did have the evaluation there that was part of what we were okay but we there's been a lot of things that you've gone or suggested going to the close session for that have been inappropriate so my question again is I would like you to re-evaluate the fact

124that I don't think that talking about the framework has anything to do with something that should be discussed in private um and I'd like to know an update on the solar panels for the uh High School any have any update on the solar panel at the school no that actually hasn't been on the um B bg& agenda uh since I think probably the January cycle that's correct and I don't think there's been any uh movement at the at the county level where this project um is is being managed is there any study going on or being evaluated in Monroe Township I believe we had ask for some information from the county and I don't think we've ever gotten anything back from them yet that's correct so is someone going to follow up on that uh

125Ken yeah we're wait we're waiting for some information to come back but I also would like to address to your first point because I think it's valid I think that um you know we we should look at some of those things and I can tell you we were we did have uh evaluation points and questions on that but your Point's valid too because some of the things we talked about I I think one of the one of the topics that I brought up in there is that I thought that I could use training uh as to the how to evaluate a superintendent better and there are some new board members that um you know probably would do would would need some training too so things like that but those are things that we sounds pretty

126generic to me and that was going to be public well now it is public yeah but there's nothing that that doesn't rise to the level of an exception I mean there's nothing private about that discussion I mean we if you're talking about the superintendent clearly we know it's a subject of the super we're not talking specifically about negotiations you're not you're talking if you're going to say this is how we would like to evaluate our superintendent or our teachers or that is a generic situation that the public should be party to not everything is a secret I mean this is should be a public for I mean you talk about the the township here paying 97% of the value of our the education here we should be well informed at about how most things go

127I'm not asking you about the harassment I'm not asking you about private things with with people or you know I'm asking about simple generic things that the public should should be apprised of how do we evaluate our principles how do we evaluate our teachers or or our our superintendents why is that a secret it's not a secret it should be a discussion that's held in in front of everybody it's all okay thank you anyone else from the public um Dr Brian Marcus um Harvest few Drive um talking about the indoor air quality of Applegarth um Mr Gorman you had said that there was a letter went out in 2006 after that report came out um telling the parents that there's a problem with this E2 all the parents that we have spoken to were attending

128the school at that time no one recalls receiving any letter at all um so the issue was never addressed um can we get a copy of that letter if it does exist um I had prefaced my answers that evening that I would do the best I could to recall some of the details of that evening um after following up the issues with Mr T and Dr Lynch what I was referring to was the report that you guys had received um but there was not a specific letter out to the public on that issue so parents so children were exposed to high CO2 levels and no one was made aware of that issue um that is not my I can't really I'm not an expert in the field so I can't really comment on that piece

129so how are the parents notified I just said I'm not really an expert in that so I can't notify I can't really talk on that topic have notification I don't know how to answer you differently um I'm not an expert on the findings so I can't really speak on the topic of the notification okay so we have a report that says there's high levels of CO2 in the school it was never retested parents were not notified of this um so children were exposed for years if not long long times of high CO2 levels we had an explanation from Dr Lynch about what happened and the reason it was never tested again was because he explained to us what happened and then the problem was resolved how was it resolved it was resolved because the teachers

130were turning something off on their radiators that was causing all this CO2 so when they open their windows and Mr T put fans in the problem was resolved no one was ever sick no one there was no ambulance call there how do you confirm that it was resolved if it was never R tested well we have in each one of our schools is an IAQ coordinator an indoor air quality coordinator these people have been um trained to um if there's any problems that arise these are the first people in each of our schools that take care of the problem if the problem can't be taken care of then they call in Dr Lynch but once the problem is resolved unless there is another problem we don't test the air yearly at every school that's what

131the IAQ coordinators they get a stien for they are the people who um check the air quality and have deal with the issues and the problems at each particular school so after 2006 um there was no problems that were was brought to the IAQ um coordinator's attention mentioned the fans were repaired um first they we were told that their fans were replaced the the ones that needed to be replaced were replaced the ones that needed to be repaired were repaired okay um you had one teacher decides not to use it you you had once said there was never an IND air quality problem at all now we have a report saying there was how do we trust what's going on is the best thing for our children can you repeat that you had said one

132at one point that there was never an indoor air quality problem at all um if we're getting inconsistent results from from the board members how do we know if the best thing is for our children's being done Mr CH I don't know if you were here earlier Dr Marcus but I gave my report from the buildings grounds and transportation committee and CO2 levels are not accurate before the school opens because there's nobody in the room to be blowing off the CO2 so that's a waste of a test it needs to be done well it's not a waste of a test because if there are CO2 issues in there now in a stand in a standing B building then we know if we have a CO2 problem now that we're going to have a CO2 from

133ex we know that we will have a CO2 problem then when children are in the building so do you understand why it's important to test beforehand so we're going to test beforehand and then we're going to then we're going to test when the children are in the school so we're going to do two tests if we find if I if we find that there are CO2 levels that are high now before children are in there that's a problem in my book I you know I'm not a doctor but I could tell you that I would be concerned right but it won't be when there's nobody in the building to breathe off the CO2 so the test once the kids are in the classroom then it's too late to deal with the problem you already opened

134up a new and I'm happy that you're recognizing that this that CO2 was caused by by children exhaling and teachers exhaling so um you know and that's that's part of what they were saying the issue was Dr Lynch gave us a report saying that part of the issue was they had they had everything closed up they weren't putting on the fans there was no ventilation the the uh the the outside air from the ventilation system wasn't being drawn in and that was causing increas CO2 levels in the classroom so but on top of that no one got sick there were no no children went to the hospital we haven't hital since 2006 in oport there has been no that I can recall no issues that have been brought you don't go to the hospital when

135is high CO2 levels you have headaches you're tired you don't learn well that's not reportable no reports of that right because no one's going to realize why they're having headaches why they're not would if if somebody had a a headache every day at 2:00 I think that would be reported cuz that's an issue if my kid came home with a headache every day from school then that's an issue but you wouldn't think you wouldn't think of blaming the school I I I would look into everything I possibly somebody would have all of a sudden recognized gee there must be a problem you have all these children who were sick and that never happened all I can tell you is that if an issue occurs at Applegarth after September when the kids are in school we

136will deal with it as as it comes who going to be redoing the testing though Dr Lynch and the IAQ person in the school right can we have another party coming in someone who's not being paid by the we don't need to have another party Dr Lynch has been with us for 10 years and we trust the work that he does right but he's getting paid by you to do this testing can we get a thirdy pay somebody else to say that Dr Lynch what we're paying Dr Lynch is somebody impartial we'd have to pay them too yeah but they would give you something accurate not something that's was once done before and hidden is there anything else um no I mean just we can we're afraid to bring our own children into this into

137the school Applegarth um parents come to me asking me is it safe and I can't sell them it's safe um we can tell the kids not to drink the brown Water we can tell them not to eat the food that's Bust from another school we can't tell them not to breathe in the air thank you anyone else it's not hi uh Christy scurby a seminal Court I just had a question um again I guess going off of Dr Marcus what is the plan for next year um the unit ventilators as uh Dr Gorman said last time that all the unit unit ventilator fans were replaced they were not replaced um we really didn't address the issue from 2006 teachers were told to open the windows the teachers were told to put the unit ventilator fans

138on in the report by Dr Lynch it mentions that the reason the teachers shut the fans off was because of excessive heat what is going to be the protocol next year at Applegarth are the teachers going to be mandated to keep the fans on and to keep the windows open as the report from 2006 explains by Dr Lynch Mr kski yes um just to help with the question surrounding uh your concern currently the district has engaged a company and I believe their name is Dome Tech to do a retr commissioning study of Apple guard school and what that is is of all the hardware equipment such as the furnace such as all the unit ventilators uh to make sure that they're up to par they're operating efficiently and we'll receive their recommendations once the Retro

139commissioning study is concluded um the unit ventilators in the rooms are designed to always have a fan propelling fresh Air Supply from the outside into the classroom they don't necessarily promote heat um they promote fresh air use and in the instance that we're talking about here where the CO2 levels were temporarily and unaz hardly raised uh it was because there was some contaminant odor that was caused by a teaching staff member uh leading to the unit ventilators being shut off and Dr Lynch came in and identified that the unit ventilators had been circumvented to remain off when they should be running constantly and that was addressed and put back on and Dr Lynch said there was never a health hazard there could never been a health hazard from a temporary high CO2 levels in the

140classroom and that he was satisfied once the unit ventilators were operational again that the CO2 levels would have been normalized as designed by the equipment usage but he also said that in Hind s it you should have retested to make sure that the problem was corrected correct he said that at the buildings and grounds meeting right I don't recall that anybody on buildings and grounds recall that that he said it probably should have been retested not that I recall what I recall him saying was that he didn't feel that it was a that that it was a hazard at that point and that that the reason that the the the what Mr Gorski is talking to is that the and correct me if I'm wrong but the janitor was spraying Li saw no that was

141only in one room no no through the ventilation system and it according to Dr Lynch's report that was in one room it was one room in one teacher but 46% of the rooms tested had high levels according to Dr Lynch's report anything over a th000 parts per million there were several classrooms with over 2,000 parts per million and his recommendation was to keep the unit ventilators on and in his notes on the comment section it said teachers close these fans due to excessive Heat so what I'm asking is next year it's the same building the same circumstances are the teachers going to be mandated to keep them on and to keep the windows open because that was in Dr Lynch's report as well that the windows should remain open and Dr Lynch he he recommended

142that we do that at our last at the buildings and grounds meeting and will that be communicated with the teachers next year that those units need to be on at all times and the windows need to be open yes and not only that the air will be tested uh the CO2 levels which are not designed specifically to test for carbon dioxide but what according to Dr Lynch the CO2 test performs is the amount of fresh air ventilation because CO2 is a natural byproduct of human exhaling right it it's a test of stale air not necessarily anything hazardous it's more so determination of fresh air flow and we will test this to your everyone's satisfy I think we're on uh Shaky Ground trying to interpret the report from someone who has such a sophisticated level of

143training and specialization um we have asked Dr Lynch to meet with teachers at Oak Tree who will ultimately be the teachers at Applegarth and he can respond to that at that point if Dr Lynch provides a report to us that makes specific recommendations it would behoove us to follow those recommendations those recommendations were included in that 2000 the late the latest air quality testing from Dr Lynch those are the recommendations there was never another IQ test that dealt with CO2 those were his recommendations where those unit ventilators should remain on at all times and the windows should be open and if that was the L the last thing that he recommended on Applegarth and we've not changed anything we've not changed the HVAC system that should be the protocol then going forward but there have

144been students and teachers staff in that school from 2006 to 2011 we never got any other complaints about any ER have you checked the nursing records that I've been asking for 6 months about it's confidential it's confident so you don't know if at 2:00 we would know if this if this teachers had a problem with air quality in that in that school we would know right away Miss Kirby to your question the Retro commissioning study will determine the effectiveness of the univ ventilators and the equipment designed for the airf flow and that's and that's what we're asking I want to know that tested and that's fine and my I'm not standing here to be argumentative I'm not I don't come here month after month to be argumentative I want to we want to our PTA

145wants to work with the board we we all want the best for our children you have to understand where we're coming from like Dr Marcus said Kathy you've told us time and time again there's there's never ever been an air quality issue and lo and behold we find out in 2006 there was high levels of carbon dioxide it was double the amount of the recommended what should be in a classroom and we have reports that Dr Marcus has over a thousand parts per million concentration in students decreases by 30% that's an issue temporary enough Dr Lynch is also on the Dr Lynch is also on champions of Education this month and he talks about that so if you get a chance view view that if you don't have access to the the cable station you

146can get it online but he talks about that a little more on champions of Education this month F and and again like I said we just want to make sure that the same protocol is being used if that was the last thing that Dr Lynch reported was that those unit ventilators should be on at all times and the window should be open that needs to be communicated to the staff at Oak Tree which I'm not sure it it has been because I've asked questions and I've been looked at like I'm crazy no you know we have to all be honest and we have to do what's right and we we have to follow that protocol that's the latest report that he had and we were told last month that there was in fact a letter

147that was sent out to the parents now is that incorrect there was never a letter is that what we heard tonight is that what we're I'm not familiar with what happened in 2006 honestly I'm asking Dr Gorman he gave the answer he said we sent out a letter to his recollection at a at a when you brought a question in his recollection was that there was a letter when he goes back and and I'm just saying so there wasn't we didn't find one is that correct no what I was speaking about because I was on spot during that meeting no I'm talking about tonight yes from when I went back to my emails there was not a formal letter out to the parents I was referring to the report that you actually articulated about okay

148so the parents were never informed question is been is that correct there was answer the question okay so there was never a report okay anyone else from the public follow up on that um at one meeting you said you got a letter I never said I got a letter I I don't think I had kids in the school at that time I I didn't have any children sorry M anel you said you got a letter I didn't yes you I didn't even have children at that meeting is there any other questions besides a we know we know that there was no letter sent out is there any other questions and I'm sure that any time in fact I'm going to go back to 2001 when we had air quality control problems at our high school

149where teachers were getting sick and we closed that school for 10 days and yes every parent was notified everybody was told what was going on every step of the way Dr Lynch is that's when he was hired was brought in took measurements this and we corrected all the problems and haven't had a problem since then and that's at the now Middle School are there any rooms in the school that are not on an outside wall with as a ventilator fan I don't know I don't know would we know that you know the school I mean if if this ventilator fan we're counting on to blow blow away the CO2 or bring in fresh air if you're on an inside room there's no fan again I'm just going to go back i' I've been on this

150board uh for 19 years only the incident in 2001 or two is the only time that we ever had a problem and it was only the staff was not feeling good I never remember a time we probably might have not even been notified about it because it really wasn't a big deal no one got sick it was a high level we knew what the problem was the problem you're a physician okay you you know what happens with CO2 you're telling me nothing I I'm 911 dispatcher I know what happens with CO2 people pass out they go to the bathroom and they're P I know car monoxide not dioxide okay isn't it the same is similar not at all okay but you're telling me people don't get sick from it you die from C monoxide you

151don't die from carbon dioxide okay but do they get sick from what from carbon dioxide is there is there any other questions they can but no one did people come in all the time complaining of headaches and and I understand that but that think blaming how come nobody came to the school or nobody alerted us or nothing because it wasn't a problem let me just make a I have to I can't sit here with my mouth chut the schools that I went to many moons ago every classroom had to have the windows open in the middle of the winter it could be open 2 Ines we had very big Windows during the summer 12 in 14 in it was a must pole they had a long Pole thank you you know it already they had

152a long pole with a hook on it and one of my classes I was responsible was the last class of the day of shutting it we I called cuz everything that was brought up at the last meeting I followed up on I spoke to Dr Lynch one of the statements Dr Lynch made was the fact that you had more danger in the trailers with mold building up from the Heat and moisture than what you'd ever have in appleg and of CO2 and he said that they had identified now I'm only here for three years this is the conversation I had with him privately on the phone and in our committee meeting that they identified what the problem was in 2006 and it was rectified there were new filters before the school will be opened new

153filters every unit will be working I suggested that we have a a a like um a poster in each classroom instructing the teachers that the ventilator must stay on and I think we should have the windows open also doesn't hurt us that's because you can't control the heat because the HVAC system so old now you see now you're playing games I'm trying to give you a decent answer and you're trying to play semantics with me okay Mr Klein I don't go for that I'm trying to give you the facts that you don't want to listen to besides the fact why would this board ever want to send children into a school where we think they might be poisoned we do not get any extra money for opening Applegarth School nobody on this board is connected

154with any construction with Dr Lynch what reason would we have I don't know why you want to open you go okay why I want to make a motion and ask them Mr Mr I'm sorry Mr ask that the kindergarten child has to be busted all the across town for an hour Mr I'm asking you I've heard enough I've heard enough do you have any other questions cuz if not your time is up that was good thank you to what I just want to say just one thing quickly just that that word you know sorry I know that what thought I was talking to my wife for a second yeah the um that that you know I if letters letters should have gone out I guess if there if uh if if there was a problem

155back in 2006 but I can tell you I wasn't on the board in 2006 we didn't have Dr Hamilton here 2006 Dr Gorman was a principal of the school in 2006 so you're asking us to recollect things you know for and to come up with explanations for things we weren't even here for um if there was a letter or if there was some kind of communication or if there was a robo call that went out we wouldn't you know we wouldn't know that right now and that's something that there were no Robo calls back in 2006 so that would happen I would also like to say the reason that we need Applegarth opened is because this Board of Education went before the public and said please give us the money to build another school we

156need another school we are filled up and if we can close appleg school then this board has committed a fraud to the public and that's why appleg School needs to be opened up are there any other questions that have nothing to do with the air quality and apple GTH because I think we've heard everything that we could possibly hear there's nothing new for us to tell talk about the state do you want to talk about the state should we talk about the state you want us to go to to ask the state for money for fund you please give your name and address Esther Gregory to Kelly Court we'll talk about the state that we want to ask for money is that what we want to do we want off Mr K Mr Klein no

157Mr kle okay then we want to ask for money we want to ask for taking care of our schools we'll ask for money from the state take care of our schools we understand where the curriculum is everything is working for that if you cannot you keep opening up a School 2002 you decided we need a bigger school we need to open up this lovely Place let's push what was it Apple GTH aside right no no no no not dise it was the public that told us to disregard Apple because we're in the 6040 Community the fixed incomes so this is where we stand it's it's a democ where we stand so you want us to ask the state for money should we call the state and say we want an inspection with Applegarth we've have

158the state come in and expect inspect Apple I don't have the the last time you pulled a permit for it just Rec we had the state come in they came in when where's that report the asbest and everything was perfectly cleared for asbest only what other permit was pulled we're not we're not going to go through this again do you have anything else besides Applegarth I'm sorry but Applegarth is the main no you need to take care of that facility you can be excused thank you okay good night Mr you want to ask the state for money of the night Sharm min9 a thanel street I am compelled to get up once again the the thing that's gets emotional from members of the board is when they say does anyone think that we want to

159hurt the children well let's get real of course not but that doesn't mean there are members of the board that are that are not ignorant of the facts that there are members of the board that don't pay attention to certain things we know that no one's trying to hurt the children but neglect can hurt the children whether you mean to or not so I'm you know let's not throw out that ridiculous rhetoric about H hurting the children no one is intentionally hurting the children but neglect of the facts not being aware of things not following up on certain things can hurt the children whether you mean to or not so let's get over the emotional stuff and do the right thing for the children by paying attention to things by getting expert advice and by

160listening to the parents who have very legitimate reasons instead of dismissing them disregarding them and disrespecting them because if you do that to the parents you're doing that to the children of this community thank you anyone else from the public hi my name is Christine Lester I live at 261 cranberry h Road um I know you don't want to talk about the Applegarth air quality and other issues again I've repeatedly come up here and said that my child has multiple birth effects and he has lung impairments breathing issues um that he's like one of five kids in the the country that have this am I going to be excused from sending my child to Applegarth until all these levels are sufficient enough to say that his the number one pulmonologist in the country says that

161my child can attend now I know that most the kids haven't had issues and I know Amy keeps saying that but in my child it means life or death so I can come up here and I've said repeatedly I come up here there's back talk there's rolling eyes I have a legitimate concern about lead about air quality about mold about the water quality it means my child's life I am fighting day after day after day taking to Children's Hospital Philadelphia researching doing anything I just want to know that it's safe I worry about my my daughter too but I really worry about my son cuz he gets one little particle of asbestos or lead or anything and he's done and it's not something to to push aside it's something I am fighting for my child's

162life so if the O2 levels haven't are going to be checked now and when he go when the school opens is there any like disclaimer that excuses my child from school until those levels are proven safe my child misses school from surgeries and things of that nature and they're pushing for homeschooling all that stuff even though it's academically I don't want him to miss any more school but if it means his health I have to well you should if your child hasn't been assigned a case manager that's certainly something that should be resolved at the case manager level including uh perhaps a a revision to the IEP Andor development of a 504 which would provide the necessary accommodations for a youngster who has uh in um who needs accommodations in order to be able to

163be appropriately educated and he has that but my issue is is I want him to be as normal as possible there's nothing about his life that's normal but I want to make sure that I can I could hom School him I could do that but he needs a social inter interaction and Oak Tre is an amazing School the staff is remarkable I can't say enough things about how wonderful the school is but I'm concerned about his safety he needs to be among peers and I don't want to put him in another school but I need to know that he's safe so this is why I come to the meetings I mean we were at Children's all day yesterday I come to these meetings cuz I'm concerned and it's insulting when we come up here and

164we just have legitimate concerns where people just they mock us and they roll their eyes and they're like oh it's you again I have legitimate concerns I'm trying to keep my child alive so if there's one little speck of ASB bestus you get it and you're fine my child could die this is serious stuff and I don't think it should be discounted so I just want to make any I mean he could go to any other school and there could be an issue that we're not aware of but we know that there's problems I just want to make sure that it's safe so I don't know if there's any recommendation I know there's children with asthma and things of that nature what if the windows are open what do we do about them I mean

165the seasonal allergies are flaring up now what do we do about that kind of stuff so those are my concerns I don't know if you can address any of them or not but it it sounds like your case may be very very specific and I don't know this is appropriate arena for that frankly and I don't have enough information to give you an intelligent response to the kind of environment that's most appropriate for your youngster but I don't want him the thing is is I want him to stay with his his peer group of of teachers and his classmates they are are remarkable people but I want to make sure that the setting that we're not rushing this prematurely that's been my concern from the the GetGo I have so many other things to do

166I need to do a therapy tonight I need to do us medicine but I'm here just wanting to ask questions as parent because if I email I'm not really getting response and I know that you guys you guys are just board members you're not scientist and this and that you guys are doing the best you can but we have legitimate concerns and it's just not something that we can fix later if something happens to him there are repercussions and I know it's just you know I'm talking you know in regards to my child but there are other children that have compromised immune systems like my child and things of that nature it's one thing it's just something we can't we we can't undo it if it's been done and that's my only concern and I

167just really hope that the board can really listen to this we do this for repeatedly I'm not trying to you know bombard you with questions or you know be anti-ar that's not my situation I just want to make sure it's safe and if it's not safe keep the kids at Oak Tree and make it safe bring it up to cold everything so I mean I know that you just keep saying that there haven't been any reports but you never know if there's been asbest somebody could have asbest in 10 years 20 years down the road you know so I know that the asbest is gone now but you know it's the air thing it's it's everything I just want to make sure it's safe thank you anyone else seeing no one our next scheduled public

168Board of Education meeting will be Wednesday April 25th 2012 7:00 p.m. at the high school um motion to adjourn Mr Mr Kaufman Mr Chella all in favor opposed extensions meeting adjourned