Monroe Township Board of Education 09.12.12 Regular Meeting

001it must be you good evening everyone welcome to the Monroe Township Board of Education meeting do you please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay uh good evening everyone um this is where our Board of Education usually holds our board meetings so we really didn't expect this many people tonight so we are um still looking for chairs and um hope that we can make you all comfortable roll call Mr Gorski Mrs kapano here Mr Chella miss anelis here Mr Braverman Mr calman here Mr kle here Mr lirry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Ferron here Madame board president you have a quarum thank

002you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monro Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted August 11th 2012 one at all schools two at the home News Tribune three Asbury Park Press and four filed with the clerk of the min IP ality at this time I'd like to um welcome back our student board members Mr aner Patel who is not with us e this evening he is our senior representative from the school to our Board of Education and I'd like to welcome Miss Francesca spranza who is our Junior representative of the board of education so we'd like to welcome you to our board and hope that this is a an exciting and productive

003year for you um do you have anything that you would like to report on the school this this meeting yeah as for upcoming events yes yeah yes um good evening good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Franchesca spranza the new junior class board of education representative for this year um some important events that have occurred in our upcoming in September our um September 5th was the first day of school the school will be closed on September 17th and 18th due to rashishana there's a senior parent meeting in the lecture hall on September 20th at at 6:30 p.m. September 24th is back to school night for the high school September 25th is a 4-Hour session for all schools and September 26 schools are closed due to Yum kapore and that's it okay thank you and

004welcome to the board again thank you at this time we are going to number four on our agenda the Jamesburg tuition update Mr Gorski will give an update on where we stand with the Jamesburg District good evening I would like to start by outlining the history followed by a current status update and finally future considerations of the sending receiving relationship between the Jamesburg Board of Education and the Monroe Board of Education until 1976 when Monroe built its own High School Monroe High School pupils actually attended Jamesburg High School on a sending receiving relationship in 1976 when Monroe pulled its students and related tuition monies from the Jamesburg Board of Ed Jamesburg incurred financial difficulties affecting their abilities to support academic programs and um comprehensive curriculum on April 4th 1979 the State Board of Education determined

005that Jamesburg High School be closed and that from June 30 1979 forward resident students from grades 9 through 12 are designated tuition pupils for indeterminant period effective July 1st 1979 at the Monroe Township High School Monroe appealed to the state board and on May 2nd 1979 the State Board affirmed the closing of Jamesburg High School and the sending of their students in grades 9 to 12 to the Monroe Board of Education on June 4th 1979 on an appeal um to the final determinations of the state board on 4479 and 5279 the state supreme court heard Monroe's appeal and determined that the 5279 State board's determination was affirmed at the state supreme court level since 1979 Jamesburg High School students have been a welcomed and undifferentiated addition to Monroe's student body Jamesburg has paid tuition to

006Monroe including an interest component sharing bond interest cost since 1979 these bonds over the years have included the original 1979 building and construction of the High School 1989 auxiliary gym constru construction 1994 construction of the Richard P morasco Center the 1997 academic wings for Science and Math in 2003 after a revision reducing $24 million of project cost to an earlier referendum to build a new high school on Applegarth Road Monroe was successful in passing a new Monroe Township High School referendum including 67,69 n, in bond issuance and a $15.2 million Grant from the state in 2008 a second referendum was passed for increased costs due to delays in construction from a legal challenge led by a group called Parks Savers $1,900,000 in Bonds were issued additionally payments on the on debt for these two referenda

007began August 1st 04 and September 1st 08 on December of 2007 and again in January of 2009 Monroe's Administration and board met with James Berg's counterparts to outline interest costs which will be shared between the districts as part of the tuition cost Jamesburg requested at these meetings that because Jamesburg was paying for their proportionate share of interest on the original Monroe Township High School that they should not have to pay their proportionate share of interest on the new Monroe Township High School while it was under construction Monroe agreed and began charging interest to Jamesburg on the new Monroe Township High School when their students began enrollment in September of 2011 this is documented in Monroe's minutes now I'll give a an update in 2012 Monroe aggressively refinanced their 2003 series bonds saving interest cost over

008the life of these bonds Jamesburg share will be decreased however their enrollment percentage of the high school enrollment is increasing which will likely offset the benefit of this refunding to Jamesburg the budget law of 2010 created a hard 2% tax levy cap this law eliminated many cap waivers such as costs associated with building a new school that Monroe faced and also a tuition cap waiver which used to be part of the law this would have allowed Jamesburg to budget for tuition amounts exceeding the cap putting tuition outside of that calculation that was eliminated the law without consideration for pre-existing agreements like between Monroe and Jamesburg created a hardship for Jamesburg in their ability to properly budget for tuition and related interest cost however the districts were able to do so with the assistance of the

009County Office of the Department of Education it's important to note that as of this date Jamesburg has always paid their full State Certified actual tuition cost to Monroe in accordance with law they are current they have never been in AAR finally I'll go over some future considerations the previously agreed to tuition in year 1314 will contain approximately $600,000 of high school bond interest which will be charged by Monroe and collected from Jamesburg this is not a one-time charge but an annual sharing of Monroe's interest costs for this facility mechanically it will be very difficult for Jamesburg to budget for and raise these additional funds under the current budget law I have now concluded with my report and I would like to offer the Board of Education an opportunity to introduce any action at this time

010to deviate from the current agreement sharing bond interest cost on the new Monroe Township High School with Jamesburg based upon the percentage of average daily enrollment thank you Mr Gorski so the only question that the board has tonight well is where we stand with the percentage of the yearly payments from Jamesburg for their interest portion of the new high school the Monroe board has already taken action on and approved an agreement between the Monroe and Jamesburg um Board of educations where they would continue or they would pay mono $600,000 in their interest course for the new high school yearly for the life of the bonds so the question is does this board wish to go in another direction or do we want to continue to honor the agreement we entered into last year Patrice I

011first like to say on behalf of the James Board of Education I'd like to acknowledge Darren Lon our past president who died suddenly of a heart attack August 28 22nd at the age of 46 contrary to comments made by community members at the Monroe board meeting it would have been totally inappropriate to discuss any topic related to the J Jamesburg Monro tuition issue that night as he had literally passed a few hours earlier I I thank the board for their sensitivity he left behind his wife Karine who was employed by runroad Township as a bus driver and five children in Darren's short life he gave of himself his time unconditionally his Focus was his children all the children and their wellbeing and their education he was motivated and fair-minded and was a sounding board and

012a voice of reason when many had become completely unreasonable in this tuition issue I thank him for his time and compassion we will will miss him over the 17 years I have served as the Jamesburg rep to Monroe the rumors have run rampant I have tried to stay focused on the main goal to give Jamesburg children an opportunity for an excellent education here in Monroe we've never owed Millions we have never been asked to leave because of late payment or non-payment we have been timely and Cooperative in all Financial dealings we have also contributed greatly in the area of student achievement such as past valedictorian exceptional athletes musicians Scholars and just well around students I want to thank the Monro board members and administration that have been here since I started to navigate through and

013steer clear of all the negativity I want to explain in the simplest of terms that it is clear to everyone and no one walks away here tonight once again confused or still scratching their heads we have paid tuition to Monroe since 1979 we also pay specific Transportation costs separate from tuition which already has which the tuition already has Transportation built into it we have paid interest on The Debt Service to Monroe for 32 years on the property that is now the Monroe Township middle school and we have no claims to it by law Monroe may or may not charge the interest on this debt service we are basically tenants to Monroe we pay a rate which increases every year for our children to attend the high school we don't owe the building we have no

014say in What Becomes of the building but we have helped pay the debt down on the building when you rent an apartment or a store front you pay rent which has building upkeep and other factors built into it you don't pay a fee on top of that because you don't own any part of that facility we have helped PID down the high school for 32 years and it is now the taxpayer of Monroe Monroe Middle School Monro now has a new high school and we pay a tuition and we pay transportation we are also asking to pay again once again on the interest on The Debt Service which Monroe by law may or may not charge we don't have it the state in its inequities for logical Fair funding has always shorted Jamber Jamesburg in

015its ability to provide for special education general education and its tuition to Monroe we the board I myself have contacted assembly people commissioners of Education Senators Governors such as Linda Greenstein Rush Holt Chris Christie to no avail while I understand Monroe must do what's best for their taxpayers when does it stop becoming excuse me when does it stop being about the dollar and become about fairness and what's morally right and most importantly the children of Jamesburg thank you Patrice is there anyone else from the Board of Education wishing to speak Mr L I support Mr gorsky's proposal that we continue up I propose that we support Mr gorsky's uh analysis and recommendation that we go forward with this and uh try and maintain some kind of a harmonious relationship but there is a long-standing precedent

016for payment for infantry store and construction and also for the use of facilities okay thank you is that a motion no we we've already made uh had action on this so if it we wanted to go in another direction we would need to make a motion so unless somebody makes a motion we're going to continue with on honoring the agreement that we entered into last year just want to make one point Mr Klein as far as inequity and funding in Jamesburg we also have inequity and funding basically most most of you have read in the newspaper or saw it on Channel 28 we're getting roughly $500 per student I myself have contacted and had letters to the state supreme Court New Jersey Department of Education Chris Christie I've spoken to him not only at Town

017Hall meetings but oneon-one to no avail uh to be flat out honest with you I don't think the state gives a damn about us and I'm very happy to see the turnout that we have here perhaps the um the taxpaying organizations will get together and start raising hell with Trenton so I I want to thank everybody for coming thank you thank you Mr Klein okay um we will be going uh actually I have something to an item to add on before public forum that um the agenda had already been written up before this came into effect so I just want to uh take a few moments to go into something um this past Monday September 10th myself Dr Hamilton and Mr Gorski met with council president Jerry Tambora business administrator Wayne Hamilton uh Municipal Employee

018George Lang Senator Linder Greenstein and a representative from Congressman Wayne D'Angelo's office the conversation centered around the recent tax in increases on our community and how we can work together the Board of Education the township the community and our elected officials to get the state and the Department of Education to fully understand the uniqueness of mon Ro Township and the unfairness to our citizens to not fully fund the school funding reform action of 2008 so at this time I'm going to let Dr Hamilton um go into the meeting that we had Monday and a resolution that um he's going to be reading thank excuse me thank you um this this meeting was uh an outgrowth of of concerns that we've been voicing for a while now particularly as it relates to our Quest um to

019get additional funding and get support behind our efforts uh to get additional funding and of course there's criticisms that the argument is not about additional money but being better stewards about the money that we do receive but nonetheless I believe if we are unified in our efforts to um recoup if you will money that the district is entitled to we would be in a better position so with that said excuse me with that said I've prepared a resolution that i' like the board to consider and following this resolution if the board should approve this resolution um we will ask that we enter into a um process where we engage our community members into signing a petition that would help us um follow this this Quest and I'll I'll share the the outline of that um

020petition as well Joyce if you would mind giving me a copy of that when you when you get a chance but the resolution reads as follow so this is item J on your agenda it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the following resolution whereas the Monroe Township Board of Education attests that the state has failed to fully fund the school funding Reform Act of 2008 and whereas the state's failure to fully fund the school funding Reform Act has resulted in a decrease in state aid to Monroe Township and whereas this decrease has placed the Monroe Township School distri District at a disadvantage and whereas the Monroe Township School District has pursued all reasonable Avenues to reverse this pattern and whereas the board of the board in collaboration with the superintendent of schools and

021the Monroe Township municipal government believes a concerted effort between these two bodies May generate better results and whereas if the state fully funded the school funding Reform Act and did not defer payments Monroe would have received an additional $ 6,924 and whereas if the state continues to fail to fund the formula it could severely stress the property tax Reliant model to a point where taxpayers would no longer be able to support the high quality education and supplemental Services currently provided to to Monroe students and whereas if the state had fully funded its obligation to Monroe Township residents in the 2012 2013 school year the Monroe Township school budget would have resulted in a slight School tax decrease now therefore be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education put the State Department of Education

022on notice through the distribution of a community wire petition that the citizens of Monroe have demanded action by the State Department of Education to fully fund the formula in order to offset the impact of the school budget on the local taxpayers so moved second second miss anelis Mr Mr tesler any comments or questions by members of the board Mr ly uh I really think this should be directed to the governor and to the legislature they're the people who control the money the uh the State Department of Education is an executive body and they just Implement what the governor tells them to do and what the legislature directs um we have on on the petition Mr L it is in fact directed to Senators Greenstein um Benson and assemblyman D'Angelo I think we should talk about

023the uh Senator swing and other leadership and go to uh Christopher Christie uh and put them on notice that hey the people in this Township are really really up in arms we could add them to the to the petition and send it to them yes um Mr Klein we had the opportunity last year um when uh Mr skiera who is the head of the Newark Law Center he's the one who brought the original Abbott versus Burke for the Abbott decision for what wound up leading to 60% of total State funds for Education going to now 31 school districts um after Governor Christie made his huge cuts to us very little in proportion to the inner city schools at 31 school districts the Supreme Court appointed a judge in norc to hear complaints from superintendents that

024these Cuts affected the quality of Education of their students I asked why we weren't there and what I found out was because we're over adequacy which is a bunch of garbage we could not participate so therefore we had no say in the matter and the Supreme Court who has screwed the Suburban communities on two decisions that they made um voted to only roll back the cuts for the inner city not to the Suburban communities so again Monroe is shot so that's something that you know whatever you try to do your hands are tied so I just wanted to bring that up to the people that are he anyone else on the board I think it should be noted too that there have been times when um the the um State Board of Education when they

025pay who pays us the the state or the township uh both Township and we received state aid from State and the state has eliminated their payments to us um on on occasion where they'll take a million and a half dollars a million and a half dollars out of our budget and then we have to eliminate a million and half dollars um that have gone to the kids so we we have worked within our budgets to the best of our ability um in the past when the state not only takes away our money yearly but they'll take away an individual payment so uh if there's no more comments or questions from the board we'll have a roll call on supporting this resolution Miss antelis yes Mr Bron yes Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry

026provided uh the modifications I suggested are and cooperated I yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs kapano yes Madam board president motion unanimously passes okay thank you madam Madame board president the petition just for for the record reads as follows and I'll ask Joyce uh Mrs Sweeney if she would begin for those who are interested in signing our petition um we have copies available but the petition reads as follows dear Senators Greenstein Benson and assembly mangelo the Ro Township middlex County Board of Education unanimously passed this resolution in partnership with its Community we submit this petition demanding that the legislators put forth all reasonable effort and resources to demand that the New Jersey State Department of Education fully fund the school funding formula as evidenced by these signatures we are a community that believes

027that the state must fulfill its obligation to the children of Monroe and enclos therein is the resolution previously read for the record may I say something please Mr Klein sending it to the senator Linda Greenstein Wayne D'Angelo Dan Benson you're knocking your head against the wall where it should go New Jersey Department of Education and Chris Christie I think that's what Mr uh ly suggested and we're gonna we should show that on it well we we will we will um make that add that as a cover now they're signing tonight so it's stated on that yeah and we'll do it in a cover letter to the governor exell thank you okay at this time we are going to um I believe it's number five on the agenda public forum and I've noticed a very large

028crowd here this evening and I believe that many of you are here to speak to the board we've always encouraged our community to attend our meetings and have and have welcomed comments and questions from all our members of the public as you know can can we please have it a little quieter as you know our meetings are tape so that many of the community have an opportunity to watch us including our students and I'm asking this evening as we move through the public forum that we all treat each other with the same respect and politeness that we would like uh others to treat us and that includes our board members and I'm asking them to refrain from making any comments unless they're called upon um usually our per first public forum is limited to comments

029or questions addressing the agenda I am suspending that for this evening so that you all have an opportunity to speak to whatever you would wish to seeing so many of you we will adhere to the three minute Rule and limit our first public forum to 1 hour there is a second public forum at the end of the meeting I am requesting that all your comments and questions be be asked during your 3 minute time limit and answers if needed will follow after the 3 minutes at this time anyone from the public wishing to speak please come up to the microphone and state your name and address for the record Anthony foso at a question way I have a few questions about the Jamesburg tuition how much does it cost to send one of our students

030in Monroe to the high [Music] school do you want to ask all your questions at the same time and then we'll answer you because it'll go quicker excuse me if you answer ask all your questions at one time okay and uh how much does it cost how much are the Jamesburg students paying to go to the high school has it cost comparison the the high school tuition cost that was budgeted in the 20 2012 2013 budget was approximately $5,350 that's for a Monroe student that is a high school tuition cost which is also assessed to Jamesburg students on sending receiving relationship they pay $155,000 per student to go to high school and in the budget they pay that on installments every month so it's not costing the taxpayers anything to have a Jamesburg student come

031over to the high school it is not costing the Monroe taxpayers anything to have Jamesburg students attend the Monroe Township High School that's correct another question uh about the iPads how many were lost stolen or damaged during the return Mr Dr Corman do you have an answer to that or should we get back I I don't have the the numbers at at my fingertips well I mean if it's a couple of hundred then it's the the bill on the insurance is going to cost a couple of thousand so I I'm sure you know how many were stolen or lost don't you I think we we filed and I don't have an update from uh Mr Good Mr Washington but I think there were eight police reports in total filed under that piece out of over

0322,000 so that went through the process that we had set forward in policy and procedure before you stole them though you had before you sold them in the auction you had to repair them didn't you is that how it worked we didn't have to we chose to um put out the most enticing bid for them to as is as is when it went to bid yes okay so we didn't have to hand in any to get fixed by the insurance company there is no insurance company that that we're dealing with for the iPads okay so they just sold them as is is that that's the answer no there were damages and repairs as we've articulated in other board meetings to you um what did that cost that's what I was curious to find out what

033did that don't have the numbers at hand for this meeting but we've reviewed this in both curriculum public meetings and in Board of Education meetings specifically at the end of June as we the board considered the refresh that it took this year okay thank you Robert roach J team efield Boulevard I have one statement and a couple questions one I hope if you based on these petitions the board rece the school board receives additional funding from the state that I that M that money should be used to offset what taxpayers pay not to increase the budget uh the question is that uh for the interest aspect of it what is the total interest that we paid on the bonding for 2011 and 12 which was the first year we were in the high school here

034the interest for the high school one the bonding for the the debt for the high school that Jamesburg is responsible for a portion of it Mr Ro we went over those numbers in my office last week I um I think it I think the number you gave me was four uh $ 4,838 18 that sounds correct okay and what is the percent of students from Jamesburg that make up the high school that that figure you gave me was 20% it's approximately 20% it's based on actual average daily enrollment that's calculated at the end of the school year and uh obviously the percentage of Jamesburg ad in the total average daily enrollment would be multiplied by the interest cost to determine their share So based on what was indicated earlier Jamesburg is paying $600,000 thereabouts in

035interest that's an approximate number that's correct and 20% of the 4.8 million is $962,000 764 why are they paying $300,000 less than than we're paying Mr Mr Ro they will not be paying anything less than their exact calculated ad as a percentage of the total enrollment I can assure you that that will be the calculation it's an approximate $600,000 number that we're using because we don't know the actual ad yet um now the the to F that they've incurred uh interest expense for the 201122 year is that correct they've they have incurred interest costs in that year that's correct however the interest costs are not a component of the department of education budget software and as such they are calculated manually with the previously mentioned ad calculation when you adjust the actual costs which are

036certified by the state of New Jersey has that been done yet for the year ended June 3 2012 it has not we have not completed our comprehensive annual financial report where our Auditors have um audited those figures and we wait for that to prepare the report so that in other words uh it's an estimate and that's why it's being paid not until 2013 2014 because you don't have the figures for this year's budget is that correct Jamesburg has not been assessed that interest charge yet it will be a component in the 1314 budget which is the next one that we're working on that's the law for the a41 a42 calculation and how it flows to subsequent years so the 600,000 is just a projection it's not the actual figure that will eventually be charged yes

037sir that's how we've always um disseminated that number as an estimate thank you anyone else from the public Mike Salinger 12 Cabernet Court my question is since it seems like we've lost a lot of money we're going to lose a lot of money wouldn't it be in our favor if we hire an attorney it can't cost as much money as what we've lost U Mr Gorski um sir I respectfully take exception to the comment that we have lost money or we are going to lose money we have not received money it's a proper amount we have never lost money J as I mentioned before very clearly Jamesburg has always paid their talk certified cost I'm not talking about Jamesburg I'm talking about the amount we've gotten back for each student state aid state aid why

038don't we get an attorney we have uh consulted with a board attorney and also representatives from the New Jersey Educational Law Center and we are following their directive in action to get our fair share of state aid does that mean we're we have a lawsuit going we could that's correct a lawsuit would involve a Consortium of other districts as well and uh we are following their guidance in that matter thank you good evening and thank you for this moment my name is Joe galob I live at 106 gasy Avenue of Monroe uh I was at the board council meeting last week I'd like to ask you the same questions I asked them um number one to come out and say your language you're using that we strongly urge we very strongly urge you can say

039whatever you want it seems that everybody on this board committee here here on the council that we spoke to last week their minds are made up we have I represent a lot of people out here that are senior citizens a lot of people that are on fixed income I made a statement last week saying when I moved in here in October of 09 I was supposed to pay $5,400 a year in tax the company my company who I sold my business to went bankrupt on me less than a year after I sold I lost 10 years of payment I'm now facing $111,000 in tax next year where do you think you're getting your increase out of my rear end it ain't there it's not out of a lot of people here Monroe senior citizens can't

040take hits after getting hit with $2,000 in tax increases uh for a lot of things for mistakes with this iPad that we sell it an 80% loss I would have been happy to pay you and buy some IP kids for my six grandchildren and give you 80% of the value why weren't we made uh knowledgeable that this is going on I'm want sure a lot of people here have a lot of grandchildren that would have been happy to purchase it but this is things that we don't normally hear from you but you guys have rattled our walls severely and we are coming back at you severely we are going to try and get people on this committee immediately because we don't understand how your budget of $88 million ain't enough I'm sorry but that's a

041lot thank [Applause] you Manny Silverman HC Ingram Drive I'm I'm just going to um add to the previous gentleman because he has had most of my uh stuff that I was going to going to talk about all I know is is that I had 32 years with New York 31 years with New York City Fire Department my wife had had 32 years with New York State income tax and when they didn't have the money to PID them it was one of two things either and they and I'm going back to like 1973 to 75 they were laying off firemen and cops because they couldn't afford them but what happened was is they stopped the layoffs when they when they added a a uh phrase that should be very very popular to this school board with

042with what the gentleman just gave us which is a wage freeze until the uh State you know does right by Monroe Township why can't we get a freeze why I understand tell me if I'm wrong that we just got they just got uh 2% raises for the next four years why if there's no money here yeah I want to hear an answer I I'll let I'll let Mr Gorski answer the question regarding salaries sir that's a very valid point and I would just like to give you a little information about what the board and some of our collective bargaining units have uh offered over the last few years uh number one in 2010 where we received a loss of $4.4 million in state aid Administration took a salary freeze voluntarily that year in addition to

043that the principales and supervisors Association took a six-month salary freeze voluntarily and one of the biggest units that we have is our Monroe Township Education Association the teachers and bus drivers and the three-year contract that was just negotiated with the board had has salary increases of two two and 2.25% increases in salary but when you look at the overall compensation and the give backs in health insurance the board of education is netting actual savings over those threeyear contracts 0% impact on the budget then why is our uh taxes going up according to the uh Town Council it's all on you guys South it's not them they can't do anything they keep telling us when we come to them go to you here we are well taxes is a little more complicated than just the one

044component being salaries and I'll be happy excuse me um I'll be happy to go over a couple of those factors right now the rable base shares the tax levy for the last two years we've had a decrease in the rateable base by 71 million and 78 8 million respectively what that has caused in the 2012 budget year alone is an automatic 5.27 C increase in the tax rate without any consideration for Appropriations in other words if we didn't raise Appropriations $1 there would have been a 5.27 c tax increase automatically what the board of education has tried to do to offset that was to allocate about $230,000 of additional state aid wward and apply $2 million of unspent bond referendum money Against The Debt Service Levy and as Dr Hamilton had mentioned before another significant

045factor in the tax rate is state aid if the state was to fund their model called the state uh funding formula Monroe District alone and this is right off of our state aid award sheet would receive an additional $6.9 million of state aid that's not money that would be automatically spent in most cases that would be returned to the taxpayers off the levy and would resulted in a school tax decrease in the year instead of an 8.7 C increase doesn't work I think it doesn't work because because we read I read and it was sort of confirmed and we were talking about it before like Oldbridge people they're getting 44 something million dollar we're getting uh 2 million or something it's a joke so if you keep talking about 6 million where I'm talking about

04644 million you're 38 million in the Riz before you open your mouth what are we talking about the point is that we've that we that we get off our rear ends and we make waves that's the only way you get money in this world I think Mr Klein has been asking for that for three years and outside of the Board of Education and a few handful of of parents um it's been very hard to get that that backing that we need to um to to get the fair uh share from the state which is why we're asked to have the petition done so that you could support us in that endeavor well hopefully now you'll get some backing from yourselves the teachers the Town Council and every and everybody else has to form this whole

047Coalition you just can't say well Mark Klein is going to go up in front of uh Governor Christie and say give us our money not happening we understand that it seems you don't or you haven't until now you you really haven't I have been raised my property has gone down my property has gone down in value 55% but my tax hikes has have been uh with the exception of one year when we won with the lawyers have been 15 and 20% you bang us for taxes like like we're ATM machines enough [Applause] already meeting down in Trenton talk about the meeting down in Trenton yes hi uh my name is Mike pedo I live at 33 Brandon Avenue um I have three kids in the school system um and to be transparent I own an

048iPad and I like it okay so uh I'm here to talk tonight about um a situation that was brought to my attention about a complaint that was raised about one of our coaches here at the high school pateron um and I'd like to address that for my three minutes tonight and and show you that there are plenty of parents out there as well as players all dressed in purple that are here to support coach terone um you know my father coached in Middle sex County for 30 years I coached in Middle sex County in sumerset County he was an athletic director at Oldbridge high school he had three state championships at Oldbridge High School he became a superintendent of Athletics in another school system and the one thing I've always learned is that parents are

049going to complain you can be a great baseball coach you can have championships somewhere along the line somebody's going to be unhappy okay and I'm sure there are a lot of unhappy people here right now with Joe gerardi of the Yankees but there's no coach that can ever be perfect okay and I'm one of them I am far from perfect and I know even the parents that I coach have complaints but I would urge the board that if we could that coach complaints should go to the athletic director Greg berer okay because there's never one coach that's ever perfect okay and for what I heard about pateron whether it was playing time or some other accusations I've seen Pat jerone volunteer with our coaches in the town I've seen him work with these kids right

050here and many of these kids right here have been coached by Pat Jeron and several of them just came back from the Babe Ruth World Series in Seattle where they took third place in the country Pat jerone had something to do about that so I would ask that we allow Pat to do his job to get what he has to get done and if we're going to use this time to talk about baseball on a board meeting I'd like it to be about how we can improve our fields and make them look like the football fields Lacross fields and field hockey Fields because our baseball fields in this town stink okay thank you thank you for your comments how do you do ma'am uh Richard Gibbons 418 Schoolhouse Road uh it seems like everybody who's

051come before this board in the past uh has always requested you guys to spend more money for one reason or another well I'm not here to request that in next year's budget I'm ask going to ask you to spend significantly less I've had to do it in my own business in The Last 5 Years losing money and still maintain my business it looks like from what's been said here tonight you're not going to get this money back from the state even though I wish you would so that's basically I'm going to coin that as a request tonight that in the next year's budget find a way to spend less significantly less thank you thank you good evening my name is Patrick Flynn I live at nine crcket stick Place uh I need your help in

052understanding something I'm like a lot of people here I've been been in the township for six years I haven't been very ProActive at going to town meetings or to the Board of Education meetings so I think after that large tax increase most of these people are out here probably for the first time like myself I need some help what is the average teacher child ratio in the school room do you have that information Dr Hamilton it VAR it varies from grade level to grade level the high school would be very difficult to give you that number because of AP level courses where the enrollment is small and PE and health classes where the enrollment is very large at the elementary level we're generally about a 1 to 23 this year about 1 to 24 um

053at the middle school level that number is lightly slightly higher that number is probably closer to 31 to 30 all right uh what's the average teacher salary just general uh average teacher salary is probably around 60,000 60,000 okay it's not as high as Chicago then well we have we have many teachers who make their careers here in our district and so a lot of teachers are at the top of their guy we are seeing a starting to see a roll over now where many of our teachers are beginning to retire and most are being replaced with beginning level teachers okay um the percentage of the budget that goes for administrative costs Mike you know that number I had that number presented um when we had our preliminary budget hearing and I don't have that committed

054to memory I'd be happy to provide it to you if you want to give me a call once I get 20% 30% I mean just a general average2 million so we we generally don't like to because what happens is we give General numbers and then they get printed in the paper and people say that's what you said so we like to be as accurate as possible all right I'll get your telephone number I welcome you to uh give me a call and I'd be very happy to provide that information to you tomorrow I'm in the office in the afternoon after a meeting at the County office okay um I heard a story about the iPads I don't know if this is true but that U the board had two $2 million to spend that could

055have been returned to the taxpayers to lower tax ratables in a haste like most government agencies they wanted to spend the money not return it they spent it on iPads they've got all the iPads and they found out didn't work they had to return them Apple hit them hard out of $2 million I understand you only got 400,000 back if that's correct you just flush down the toilet 1 million $600,000 of taxpayer [Applause] dollars if this story is correct I'd like to understand what the board is going to do to repay the taxpayers $1.6 million Mr Flynn the story is not true so let me start and explain the process that we took help us understand when we built a new high school there were funds allocated for technology it was one of the last

056things that we had looked at because technology today is very different than it was 5 years 10 years two years ago so through much research consultation with companies corporations educational firms visitation to schools we decided that the best technology at this time for our students was a onetoone learning environments with this I had learning tool that was a decision we could have made a different decision and we could have put laptop carts desktops and other Technologies and spent the same money for that what historically what has happened is that that technology outdates itself very quickly and is worth nothing in a very short amount of time therefore in subsequent budgets we then have to reallocate expenditures for new technology this technology is a little bit different the financial plan from the onset of the purchase

057of the iPads was to enter into a lease so we would not necess or at least purchase option what happened is the B excuse me Mr Dr Gorman has the floor the initial year due to the bond referendum we had to purchase we were not allowed to lease for the high school so the next plan was to refresh the iPads into a lease we chose to refresh this year because financially responsibly in two years we were told by several sources that the iPads would depreciate to even a more minimal piece and we would never get to the financial plan that was proposed to the board two years ago so now we are happy to say that we did recoup $470,000 for this first batch and applied it to the first year of a new lease

058subsequently there is no impact this year in the budget at all on taxes because iPads were not budgeted in there so that is a rumor that has been brought to me sometimes that the tax ta are going up in the community because of the iPads so that is one rumor that I would like to tell you is not true so this year we have paid the first part of that three-year lease the budget has then the board of education has then committed expenditures in next year's budget and subsequent budgets to sustain the other payments on this financing plan this is very this is different than the old model which I explained where we used to buy technology and then we found out in 5 years that it was outdated and it didn't work and if

059you look at some of the laptops even in this room they're incredibly different than what the technology is the technology is changing instantly in addition um and I appreciate you letting me um articulate this this plan in addition there was a lot of thought that this technology could possibly eventually become an asset for the district financi in addition to being the best educational practice to make our kids competitive with the best going to colleges so I'm taking the educational component out of it which we are passionate about that we believe that this is the best educational path for kids all right and we could go into that as far as what the learning tool can do we could have bought laptops we could have bought other tools but this environment in a onetoone where every

060kid can have it 247 and do things um that are really Indescribable in a lot of ways 10 years ago when or 20 years when I went to when I went to school um but that's another topic for another conversation educationally financially already in the first year um we've started to see a couple of things and and the initiative was always a long-term initiative to measure the effects both academically and possibly financially also um last year we saved over $133,000 in paper from copies from the use and that we believe is a direct impact to the iPad this year we are offering a course in iOS development to our students we are developing policy right now that if a student under our domain while they're in school develops an app which is um if if

061you don't know um apps are are what H what happens on the smartphones they they um there's millions of apps created every day and kids and people can download it for 99 C do whatever it is if a kid develops an app while going to school here they would enter into contract with Monroe and Monroe could either reap some um Commodities in the future for it or half or part but we're we are developing policy for that piece in addition the textbook industry has drastically changed and is transforming right under our right every day um the newest technology that works for the iPads is called I author and I University where kids and teachers May create their own content that was one of that was one of the first visional highlights is that kids would

062create their content which in the longterm could could supplement or reduce other supplies and materials because when kids create and share it's much more meaningful than just acquiring or being told what content is those are just some of the possible Financial ramifications that we're looking at that could generate Revenue to us but the the the what I believe or two the best things is that number one we're always going to have the best um the newest Technologies for our kids as they compete in a very Global Society so the iPad has the ability to communicate with a classroom in China right now or India instantly those are the types of academic advantages we want for our kids to be competitive with all students in the United States all right the other thing I understand all

063that you're blow can we have it a little bit more quiet in here please so that we can hear the speak you spent over $700,000 to refresh and and a leasing program what was the initial outlay expense on the iPads I think the iPads cost about 1.1 the first batch 1.1 million correct plus the 700,000 no no excuse me what 700,000 I'm sorry what 700,000 are you referring to you said you were leasing it you you had budgeted 700,000 you have budgets for the next two years the first year we bought for 1.1 this year we refreshed or sold the batch that in next year's budget following budgets there will be the board is committed to expenditures for technology and so because they believe that that is an important piece to kids learning and that

064will be where the funding comes from in the general budget which is a commitment by the Board of Education to support 21st Century Learning so if that either pushes other pieces out or we have to reallocate how we budget then that is something that we are internally developing our new budget forward as we progress through the years to come okay so we spent about 1 million eight on iPads for the high school no that's not correct hey you said you refreshed it and you spent 1.1 million okay I've I've um if you would like to continue all the conversation with me I'd love to sit down with you I've explained and articulated the best I could at this point um I'm not it's not about me against you and all my job predominantly is to

065give the best tools for kids to learn so I I really do appreciate your comment but I I don't that's not what I'm D I think the people get the message um excuse me we're blaming the state I got one more point I want to make we're blaming the state and everyone blames the state what part of financial responsibility don't we and Monroe understand the state is going broke the country is going broke we have a$ 16 trillion deficit our GDP is only $15 billion we are going broke what is the plan for this this committee okay to work without state aid do you have a backup plan well your time is up so we appreciate your comments no I'll take it I mean well we have to have a backup plan because you know

066what we not going to get any money from the state we have been working without state aid for the past how many years so we we look through the budget we have made our cuts and and I think one of the one of the points that has been um not talked about tonight in the last 10 years our student population has grown 2800 students we still have to educate those students we have to find a place for them to to sit in a classroom we have to find a desk for them a chair for them a course for them we have to put them in a classroom we have to find a teacher um these things are all part of our budget is educating the the people coming into this District well I think if

067you ask the seniors of this community I'm sorry but if you ask the seniors of this community how their budgets are going the rise in taxes cut that they have to accept okay they a lot of them went without Social Security increases for a couple of years I mean there's got to be some type of physical responsibility here you need to understand that you can't get more dollars thank you I appreciate your comments hi good evening my name is Susan infuso I live at for Dana Drive I just want to say that I have an older daughter Erica who graduated from Monroe six years ago she got a wonderful education here I have a freshman in the high school and a sophomore in the high school and they too are getting a wonderful education but

068I do hear a lot of complaints about the iPads and I think that if everybody was made aware of what you your goals were what did you foresee as the usage for the iPads because I have to say my son was the first class to get it last year and at the time with all the meetings they said they would be able to download textbooks which was not the case at all basically it was used as a um an assignment planner he put his assignments in it was very rarely used any for anything else now my daughter is a freshman this year she has it and she was given textbooks for every single one of her classes which I have brought with me my husband has them over there there are five of them they

069weigh over 40b she sleps them back and forth to school every single day in her book bag along with the iPad and again I check the iPad and listen I'm a realist I'm a teacher I'm off of 21st Century Learning if it's used properly I think that if everybody here is aware of the plans when you went into this initiative what were your goals for using the iPads in the classroom Dr Gorman do you wish to respond no I I mean I think it's a valid question if if you have you know valid answers I think it'll put everybody's mind to so so the technology are changing quickly um 16 1,600 of our students Algebra 1 algebra to Geometry are receiving a new technology called an iBook an iBook is different than electronic textbook or

070a paper textbook because it interacts with you kids can take notes on it they could form study gues there are interactive videos and supports it's a very different way of doing business and it's a very new technology there's also things called ebooks which are basically just scanning a book in and and putting it in and there's also PDF files and subscriptions the iBooks we are entering into a research project an independent research project to see the educational benefits of kids being engaged in student academic achievement for that um our goal has our goals have always been could we please have a little quiet so that we can listen to Dr Gorman our goals have always been and remain student achievement critical thinking skills creation of content sharing content through Wiki's 247 um environment here's th

071this was always a long journey and the start of it was backed into the spending of the U opening of the high school so by the time we actually received them it was a couple days before the first day of school and we did not have time and we've talked about this to prep our staff our students all onard so the first six months were an exploration period and we clearly told people that now as we move into year two back to school night from Principal you will hear clearly clear observable indicators that all students should be using this for a number of things and I know that the crowd doesn't want me to go on but there are lots of educational values but they came home last week with a supply list that they

072needed binders for every single one of their subject areas or notebooks and folders when if if the iPad has the capacity for them to do their note taking and homework and everything there why do they still need to have the oldfashioned binders and notebooks and carry the textbook so s so Susan a a couple things that I want to really genuinely tell you um one one of the one couple of things that moving forward we are going to do um we we need we are in the plans of a new strategic plan um looking at technology and creating educational technology committee um we tried to Showcase it as much as we could last year I will personally tell you that despite that we have to better um show and demonstrate we used the kids at

073several board meetings I wanted to bring them here but we had a feeling that it might not be the right environment for it they've been out in our community um they're working with several they've gone to rossmor and presentations um community of women League of Women Voters I met with today we will do everything we can to set up during the year ways to communicate to you how it's being used for um for service for creation for all kinds of awesome things that the kids are doing that's fine if I may let if I may let me just jump in one second ma'am um we have been this this iPad initiative is a huge initiative as you can imagine and we have had several conversations meetings public meetings about our status report on on the

074iPads ultimately we're in the process of developing expectations for teachers expectations for students consistent with the national standards for the use and implementation of technology so some of the experiences that we had last year yes in some classes the iPads were underutilized you're absolutely right but our we learned from that that we have to provide more professional development for our teachers and and that's a part of the district professional development plan we also know that we have to provide more training to our students so that they have better understanding about the use and care of that equipment so we do have those plans in place okay and I appreciate that but I think that before you spend all this money shouldn't there have been a pilot program and followed no follow a group of students

075over a course of 2 to three years to see if there's any advantage to using this technology in the classroom before you spend you know the money that everybody's in an uproar about and I think that's where I I I have to say my taxes are very high at least I feel I benefit I still have two students you know utilizing the school and the facilities but there are many people here who don't so that money is is really a big chunk and when it's not being used properly thank you I will say that um Dr Gorman and the administrative team did spend about a year doing a lot of research on the iPads um excuse me um also we have had many demonstrations during our curriculum meetings from staff and students who have been

076using utilizing the iPads last year our committee meetings are always open to the public so if you'd like to have an opportunity to come to a curriculum meeting when we're doing an iPad demonstration because there are some kids that are and some staff most of them who are doing amazing things with our iPads we we've seen them thank you for your talk thank you hi hi uh my name is Nancy Poland and I reside at 8 Mitchell Drive first of all I would like to thank the board and administration for their efforts on behalf of our children I am here this evening with other parents of children who play baseball on the various Recreation and school teams in our community over the past 5 months or more there have been accusations made against our coaching

077staff at the high school level we are here this evening to let the board and administration know that Patrick jerone and his coaching coaching staff have our full [Applause] support the accus the accusations that have been made are unsubstantiated without documentation false and without Merit in addition they are based solely on hearsay and opinions we are asking the board to dismiss the accusations and show support for our coaching staff thank you for your time thank you 15 minutes yeah quar it's good evening my name is Charlie lurman I live at 11 Dural Drive 11 Dural Drive uh the the iPads uh I'm I'm really confused in that you spend what $1.1 million and didn't have a clue how to use them um and now and now what I hear you're going to develop a committee

078to look into how better use these IPS I don't want you to comment because you've comment with all do respect we've heard we've heard enough with all do respect now um but that's that's my feeling that from and I'm this the first I've heard from a a resident who had uh uh in the school complaining about the function of the ipid which is amazing uh secondly uh are you aware of the recent study made by uh New Jersey monthly in which they they they chose the top 100 high schools in the state and I looked very closely and monreal Township was not included in the top 100 now in my in the middle in middlex county in middlex County mouin was 19 Highland Park was 67 and JP Stevens was 80 and I I looked

079and my eyesight maybe it's not that good I had a magnifying glass a small print and I didn't find my real Township which is also very disturbing um we we you had a meeting at the Moresco uh regarding the budget some time ago and at that meeting uh Dr Hamilton you said that and prompted by the residents that the salaries that the salaries um for for educators uh will be Frozen no not frozen but we putting it on the table as a possibility that they will be Frozen um and it appears that you said that to Plate the residents that were there because that never happened not only that not only yes it did I would have the the administrative salaries were fro teach teacher salaries not the teachers that's what I'm saying Educators I'm

080saying Educators sir that's a negotiable item the board does not have the you negotiated you negotiate another contract in which you give 2% raise you cannot unilat unilaterally freeze salaries on collective bargaining units that defeats the purpose of having a bargaining unit but but you had a you had a why why could you say no to the 2% increase considering that the the entire country and the state is is finding a problem in supplying you money and you're saying well to to the Educators 2% is okay it really is it really is not okay uh any increases at this time as Mr Gorski stated in his comments a little while ago the 2% raise that we gave them was offset by the give backs that they gave back to us with all du respect with

081all du respect the give backs you talk about medical insurance I'm health insurance health insurance now what I'm what I heard not maybe not recently but maybe at that meeting was that the Educators were paying 1.1% of their gross salary towards medical which which comes out to be on a $50,000 income $750 I know that before I went on Medicare my wife and myself were paying $1,200 a month so what you talking about giving back now now how much does the Educators pay towards the medical insurance what percentage of their income um I'll let Mr gsky handle this sir the the law stated originally that it was 1.5% of salaries for school district Personnel the law then changed under chapter 78 to begin a phas in Period of up to 35% of the actual health

082benefit cost that some of our staff are paying right now so that information you just presented is a bit outdated it's quite steeper than that average staff employee is paying about $900 um at least a year on their health benefit a year a year a year yes in the real world in the real world there is a real world outside outside the uh but that's a phas in that's right now that we're in the second year of the phas in also lastly make it lastly what I like to say is that you see many residents here it's unusually huge unusually huge amount of residents here listening to this I'm sorry but your time is up we have other people that expect we expect you to go over every line item going forward and reduce as

083much as you can and do not plate us with increasing the budget by and and knowing that the budget's going to be defeated and then you put 1.5 million in the budget that you know is not going to you don't really care about so you give it back to the residents and you say that's good we expect you to go over every line item and reduce it we do not want any increases in taxes going forward thank you for your comments uh good evening my name is Joe calucho at 20 Ashley Court in mon excuse me before you start I just want to let the public know that there's 15 minutes left in our first public forum so at at that time we're going to go into the rest of the agenda okay your your

084announcement doesn't cut into my three minutes though right no it doesn't okay thank you um start them over about about a about three or four weeks ago um when I went to my mailbox and saw my tax bill um obviously I was not happy with it spoke to a couple of my neighbors and as a result we wound up finding that there were about 50 to 60 people that had the same problem and didn't like what they saw um hence we created an organization and I want to make it very clear to the parents that are in this room and I'll read our mission statement we're not anti-education as a matter of fact I wish every dollar that you got from our taxes went for Education we're against waste we're against uncontrolled spending and that's

085what we're against we are a nonprofit nonpartisan group of citizens in monre Township we're dedicated to restoring fiscal responsibility back into government we need an adult in the room our government has lost its way we need to focus those in office on balancing budgets by reducing spending and eliminating waste we will only support those in office and those running for office that understand that austerity is first and foremost simply SP stated you can only spend what you can afford we have watched elected officials use taxpayers as if they were an ATM machine this time is overdue to stop this insanity and The Time Is Now Insanity as you know we use it as what's the definition of insanity it's doing the same thing over and over again the same way and expecting different results I

086hear everyone here and I heard it on the council talk about how it's Alban's uh excuse me Trenton's fault and how it's Christie's fault it's always somebody else's fault but you said before which is very true you've been here for 10 years you say how long have we been doing this for 10 years 15 years you know going in you know going into your jobs that you're going to meet resistance from people in Trenton and you know what these laws are and you know how to wiggle and waggle we hear we talked about iPads today matter of fact I'll give you my spin on iPads if I have the time but the point is that spending is the problem not revenues we could talk about revenues all day but it's spending what we have going

087on here is unsustainable we have a $16 trillion deficit in this country there are cities that are actually going bankrupt states are having problems and they're borrowing money this is a broken system and we need to fix it we you have a budget in your own home what do you do you have to spend it on mortgage or rent you have to spend it on food and utilities all the rest is a want those are needs we have a problem here with boards that say wants your clock is running fast that wants are a problem we give everybody minut and we have to understand one thing that when we go to the mall and we want to buy something we need and there are 10 items on sale and we decide to buy those 10

088items we can't go home and tell our wife how much we saved that day we didn't save money we spent more and we have to do that here every time you get an opportunity to save money you spend it and you have to stop the spending thank you you're very welcome what I want you to do is shoot for every dollar you spend you cut $2 the system's broken when you have something broken in your in your home you get a repairment and if that repairment doesn't fix what's broken you get a new repairment the elections are coming [Applause] Jerry Kowski at three Glen Eagle way that's a hard act to follow uh let me let me say that first of all I want to thank Mr Gorski he's been really helpful to me in

089trying to understand these issues concerning funding and uh with some telephone conversations and some emails he's really made it a lot more understandable to me thank you publicly Mr Gorski is the best now that that being said you know my opinion and shame on us is that we've allowed this whole funding debate to fog the real issue of spending and spending priorities by this board shame on us it's not as the gentleman before me said a funding problem it's also a spending problem I'm one of these people that believe if you didn't spend it funding would be a heck of a lot less of an issue now let me ask you you you mentioned last meeting that this board was going into a meeting on a Saturday about the setting goals and objectives how many

090of those goals and objectives talk to the economic issues of running this school system how do we create more value for our educational dollar how does that happen we had um we which will be adopting tonight under Dr Hamilton's report three schooled goals two of them have to do with um finances be more more speciic Dr Hamilton will give that report under his um superintendent's report you know I I look at this budget and you a lot of times when we talk about spending and spending cuts it gets down it's going to hurt the children now depending on how you slice and dice this budget and these numbers are certainly open to some discussion and debate but there's some probably $40 million that have nothing to do directly with ch children it's maintenance it's Transportation

091it's custodial Services it's uh uh Administration a whole lot of things fringe benefits that have nothing to do with kids zero that's where I think we've got a zero in and start looking in areas that have no direct impact on the children and that's to me what hasn't happened in the past because the debate always gets back to every dollar you want to cut it's going to hurt the the students looking at this numbers that's not what these numbers in this budget tell me now this is a very people intensive budget so let me ask you a question is it possible a lot of this is wrapped up in Union contracts to get a bound copy of the Union contracts that this board deals with with it's negot you know with with its unions up

092in the library so some of us can go through these contracts and try to understand better where some of these costs are and and what some of the issues may be in these contracts we have Union Union contracts if you would opener it from the the business office you will be able to get a copy of the Union contract I don't want a copy I'd like to have just a copy put in the library so everybody can look at them one bound copy in the in the reference section of the library that's there for anybody who want to come read them and understand what goes on with the unions is that possible can it's a public document I I believe we can do that we'll check that out make sure one other quick question it

093was my understanding that this board uh elected out of the state funded uh uh health health plans is that true do we participate in the health SP the state sponsored health insurance programs we've never elected out of the state health benefits plan we've always had private insurance which I negotiate each year very competitively last year our percentage increase in the health benefits was about 7% on average H if we participated in the State uh sponsored programs would we save money no the answer to that is no so it's actually cheaper for us to do what we're doing on our own yes in fact in fact we just the Union was just kind enough to enter into a sidebar agreement with the Monroe Township Board of Education to wave a very costly HMO insurance plan and

094adopt two cheaper alternatives so the Union in concert with the board is doing everything we can to save money thank you okay at this time we have um time for two more people and then we will have to save um everybody else for the second public forum so um the next two people hi uh Chrissy scurby 8 seminal Court um I just wanted to say I've been coming to Board of Education meetings now for the past three years or so and I sat on Dr Hamilton's budget steering committee meeting this past year as a parent of two children in Monroe Schools and the head of the PTA for the oak tree and apple gorth school I can say that the money in the budget is not fluff it is what is necessary to educate the

095more than 6,000 students in Monroe Township and the board has made several cuts over the last several years for as long as my children have been in Monroe Schools the budget has been defeated every year and it had they've had to make Cuts some of the cut Cuts in the past couple of years have been after school busing busing for Arts programs such as band and chorus World language teachers in the elementary schools the Strings program busing for field trips for elementary students assistant principles are now shared among schools the science program in the elementary school with was delayed four years due to budget cuts Library assistance were cut full-time power professional positions are now made halim to save on benefits and pensions and there's been reduction in secretarial positions throughout the district the real

096issue in Monroe is the dramatic increase in the students and that as a result of the constant approval of residential communities by our planning board eight years ago you drove up and down Road there were no communities there were no houses the community has grown by Leaps and Bounds we have we we had no room this year we had to open up Applegarth school to deal with the Overflow of oak tree last month the planning board approved more residential communities which is going to crowd our schools even more we have no money to build another school we have no room for the schools we have no room for the children to educate them we we can't ignore we can't ignore the problem of the increase in the community we have to educate our children the

097the problem here is you know the taxes went up yes it is not a result of the school budget that is not what happened this past year 10% of your excuse me we will be as as um respectful to her as we were to the rest of the public if I could ask how how much did the budget increase and how much did that affect our taxes School District budget which is on a split year with the municipality and that's an important concept to understand half of the tax impact this year is carried over from the school budget last year so efficiencies are lagging to get into it but the school budget went up on the tax levy 3.6% this year that's an increase of about $145 for the average assessed home that is a

098very minority part of the overall tax increase that you're facing the majority impact comes from the municipal side this year and it was affected dramatically by three components number one lack of state aid funding to the municipality was cut again number two the significant decrease in ratables due to the economy and number three most significantly was the uh successful appeals of one one third of the Residential Properties in Monroe requiring rebate checks to be issued from the municipality to homeowners thus increasing the tax rate 11.4 million okay you have 30 seconds more I just want to end by saying I moved to Monro Township because of the upand cominging school system we've had students graduate from Monroe Township High School they've been accepted into Princeton University and other IV leagues if you look at the

099scores the test scores in the elementary level oak tree School Woodland School were recognized in the paper for their over proficiency levels our schools are thriving and we do need to continue to have them funded and if it's it's through the taxes that's a state issue the state mandates that the schools are funded through the taxes I beg this board not to cut our programs we need that our children need that the children over there sitting there dressed in purple deserve a proper education not to have it cut thank you thank you uh we yeah I know we'll have one more person and then we'll hold up everybody else to the next public forum hi my name is Raj pwani um I live in six Mitchell Drive um and I work in technology cutting at

100technology um I have a question um most people here they are here uh for the tax increase and uh I think most people here in the public they agree that uh the problem is not funding or Revenue the problem is spending so in the in the real world outside this uh we before coming up with Solutions like you guys said you know getting more funding from the state and stuff like that in the real world we first Define the problem so in in the opinion of the public the problem definition is uh spending irresponsible spending fiscal irresponsibility in your opinion what I have heard so far um you know lot of deflection towards Trenton and you know other sources what is the problem definition part of our challenge in our district really has to do

101with the growing uh student enrollment as Mr scurby just indicated and as a result unlike a budget at home we have to have teachers who stand in front of those kids every day we have to transport them so while one could argue that there's a percentage of the budget that doesn't impact kids everything we do in the district impacts kids everybody has a job that they do that directly impacts instruction safety and making sure that our staff and students have the best services that we can provide for them so we have to make certain that we have rooms heat utilities all those things go into the calculation of why our budget is expanding it's important to keep in mind that even though you've you've recognized an increase there have been considerable constraints placed on this

102budget including renovations to Apple Garf to accommodate student increases we've also refunded bonds that save the district millions of dollars we've also in within the C within that that budget made accommodations to staff that building so it's was not just about opening that Applegarth we also had to staff that building so all of that was done within the confines of the general operating budget we've also included a new roof on Brookside school all these things were part of the general fund budget that we made happen without going out and asking for additional funds and there are everything that we do in this this district is directly related to student instruction and safety why um the lady before me she just mentioned there you know the number of students have increased why don't we consider the

103corresponding increase in number of housing units who are paying additional taxes for the additional students why is why are we speaking only half the truth where's the other half what about the additional Revenue you're getting for those additional students first of all our Revenue our our revenue is based on count that goes in on October 15th so students that come in after that time are part of the current budget you don't reap that if you will until the following year that's number one and number two the state does not adequately fund and I hear what people are saying it's about being a better Steward over the existing of of the funds that we do have but there are many things that happen in our in our educational system that we have no control over and

104that those things have to be absorbed in our budget we have I'm not going to get into all the the intricacies of the budget this isn't a forum for that but the fact of the matter is while while your your taxes are going up our demographics are changing as well in this community our geography is changing in this community and we have an obligation to provide for those Services one of the goals that the budget the board is adopting is really developing a budget philosophy we have two different sets of marching orders we have constituents who are here this evening who are saying our taxes are going up and we want you to cut the budget and we have a group of parents who represent the 6,100 kids in our district who are saying to

105us we want the best education our kids can get we want the services and we want those things that provide our children the opportunities and the advantage that will get them into those schools those competitive colleges and those scholarships so we have an impossible balance to create and the philosophy is essential and lastly I do want to make a correction on a comment that was that was made uh the Monroe Township Public Schools was in the top 10 schools in the middlex county as recognized in the New Jersey schools New Jersey magazine so that that information is misleading and false we are in the top 10 in middlex county in in inside Jersey yes okay so there was a there was a uh comment about one Jersey correct thank you for that correction Mr Larry

106there was a comment about onethird of the people appealing for um tax decrease um do you foresee a scenario where the other two3 of the people appeal because the property values have gone down and their uh tax should go down uh theoretically so uh what what do you uh plan to do in that case if everybody appeals we don't have any control over appeals or what happens in that process over the spending we have nothing to do with your tax appeals with the municipality that is not the role of this board we're not even a part of that discussion so I couldn't even begin to answer that question with an intelligent response okay uh one question about the iPads how much did did each iPad cost us 537 537 initially no not not the initial

107value after paying the bonds and interest for 30 years how much will it cost us oh I don't know that number what do you think $2,000 I'm not going to guess sir I'm not going to just give you a number to of my head if you're asking a question I'm going to give you the best answer I can and the best answer I can give you for that number I can't tell you what the iPads will cost us over 30 years when can we get Mr Gorski has the answer to that question you know that specific answer would take a little bit of research but I can quantify that by saying that uh the the iPads are going to last anywhere from three four years that's their expected useful life and the bond financing that

108supported these iPads was up to a 28-year period there's individual bonds sold throughout that whole year so you can match those three or four year periods with specific Bond funding over the three or four years that's according to our bond counselor at mcarter English so you're not financing these iPads over 28 years there specific Bond maturities matched with these three to four year useful lives so you would have done that calculation uh beforehand right before getting the bond and buying the iPads could I have could I have antip anticipated that question beforehand no the cost not the question the cost of the iPads yeah total cost total cost of ownership total cost of ownership is the price you pay initially and at the end of the term what you pay throughout that's called as the

109TCO total cost of ownership okay the initial ipid purchase was $538 for 2,000 units or $1,766 th000 just for the units that was the initial purchase we then sold at public bid those 2,000 units for a total of $415,000 plus Dr Gorman negotiated a $70,000 rebate from the warranty so the actual cost and I refer to the word budget cost instead of loss is $591,000 for the initial year of iPad Initiative for this District why did we sell the iPads I'm sorry but your your time is time's up is up um you want to answer huh no no no no no nope I'm sorry your time is up and since we've gone way over our hour public forum I'm going to close public forum which I stated at the beginning of the meeting if you'd

110like to make more comments we will be glad to listen to you at the end of the um at the end of the board meeting there's another public for no no no oh you want to go to the bathroom oh jeez the bathroom oh what um I'm sorry there is no public forum is closed public forum is CLO comments questions it's over Kathy at this time Mr G at this time Mr Gorski has a ladies ladies and gentlemen I'd just like to make one profound point for everybody to understand about the budget Dr Hamilton has stated that every year our district is growing by beg a pardon no please no I'm sorry ma'am I'm sorry I'm sorry you're out of order I'm sorry I cannot let her speak please the point I was making is

111that the district is growing 250 students additionally every year at an average of $115,000 per student that's costing the Monroe Township Board of Education $3,750 th000 just to educate the enrollment growth every year last year our overall budget grew $3,182 th000 so we're absorbing these additional student costs and making aggregate cuts to the budget if I haven't properly explained that because of the disruption please give me a call because that's an important point to know um I know Mr Klein would like to make a comment and then we'll go on before everybody leaves please I think you'll be interested in this first of all the way Jersey funds their schools is aric there's very very few states that fund the schools via property taxes now I'm going to read my statement as I mentioned a

112number of months ago when we tried to make cuts and parents were against it I said that some states allow all handicapped disabled residents and residents over 65 to pay no school tax I disagree with that some states give a 50% cut to these groups as I looked into this I understand that there is a bill in the state senate and the State Assembly giving true tax relief for residents over 65 though I would add handicapped and disabled to it according to the bills residents over 65 would re would receive a 50% discount in school taxes but it's been in the files for years and I tried to look it up and I can't find it but we'll definitely check it out now by doing this yes it would raise the taxes of families much

113higher but it then would force the state to change the way education is paid for it should be by Lottery income and sales taxes and not property taxes in the state constitution I paraphrase the state is responsible for providing a free public education to all residents of New Jersey between the ages of 5 and it then states that the SL the state legislature is responsible for setting aside funds to pay for free public education for its residents in Monroe Township our residents are paying roughly 95% of the total cost of Education that is not a free education and it is definitely a violation of the State Constitution and those of you that get involved with these tax groups start to write letters now you write your letters to your senators and your assembly people and

114the and the governor you want those bills brought up discussed and passed and if it is not a bill that has prolonged through this the uh the series of years then somebody one of our elected officials has to sponsor it and get it back up it's the only way you could do it and force the state to change the way they fund the schools and not property taxes and not on the backs of people 65 and over thank you Mr kleene Mr ly I I uh want to make a statement because I have been the chairman of the finance committee for over seven years now in that as has been stated you go and you take a look at the latest cfra on page 136 it shows that in that 10-year interval we had a

115120% increase in the general fund that sounds wild the reality is we had a gigantic increase 2800 students when you go on a per student basis it is 36% now that sounds you know but then you talk about what is the consumer price index and that is what we are a people intensive process and it turns out the cost per student per the Consumer Price Index is 4% we live in New Jersey where we're getting hammered every way you can think of by state mandates we are doing a superb job not a rotten job and put that in your pipe and smok it thank you Mr L excuse me excuse me you're out of line excuse he's a excuse me you're out of order excuse I'm sorry I'm not the public forum the public forum

116is over I'm asking you to please take your seat he is a board member he excuse me at this time we're going to go to the superintendent Report with Dr Hamilton okay okay uh a few things before I get my begin my report I want to thank the entire staff for a smooth painless School opening even with the new school opening and New Student enrollments our opening was very successful I have to especially acknowledge Jerry take who is in here this evening for the exceptional job at Applegarth and for the rest of the custodial crew for the work done to ready our buildings along with Mike Gorski for all the behind the scene work that goes into getting the school ready excuse me Dr Hamilton is giving his report so I'd like to have some

117quiet in the room [Music] please why don't we go in a close session Although our enrollment data is not included in this report until next month I want you to know that our current enrollment as of today is 1ou 6,125 students in June we closed at 5,961 also want to commend the board for an excellent board retreat on Saturday August 25th I know you give so much of your time on a voluntary basis and to commit to a Saturday to work on establishing new goals is really appreciated tonight there's a resolution that will formally adopt the board goals one of which includes the development of a strategic plan that includes six design teams in the following areas Comm Community communication Community engagement in business Partnerships instruction facilities technology and the Arts we're asking members of

118the community if you have a particular interest or wish to serve on a design team that you indicate sold by signing up on one of these committees tonight Mrs Sweeney has uh those signup sheets um and I Al also ask the board members I'll include in my Friday update if you would identify a committee you would be interested in serving on that would be great so moving on to the superintendent's report it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through X be approved by roll call vote so move by Mr Kaufman and who second that Mr Masters is there any comments or questions for Dr Hamilton one Mr Klein my only question is on L microphone where it says uh following Personnel for school goals committee uh at a steepen stip stipend of

119286 that's without my glasses mic I don't talk loud enough on L um isn't this something that they can do during the course of the day as compared to having to pay extra I know it sounds like a small amount but wherever we can cut we can cut um we generally try to avoid opportunities that will pull teachers out of classrooms because because ultimately we got to put somebody else in there so there would still be a cost asso associated with that to cover those classrooms okay thank you anyone else from the board seeing no one we'll have a roll call Mr Gorski Mr calman yes Mr CLE yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mr Fon yes M anelis yes Mrs Bano yes Madam board president Personnel items a through X

120passes thank you um moving on to board action items Madam board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through H be approved by roll call vote um J was already read and I will be read separately okay is there a motion in a second I second it I didn't get a first I first it Mr Klein Mr Lee comments or questions for Dr Hamilton I is going to be a separate I is going to be separate taken separate okay seeing none we'll have roll call Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs feron yes Miss anelis yes Mrs phano yes madame board president board action items a through H passes thank you and moving on

121to item I it is recommended that the Board of Education approved the following resolution whereas the Monroe Township Board of Education participated in a board Retreat on Saturday August 25th 2012 and whereas this retreat was facilitated by New Jersey school boards Association field representative Gwen Thorton and whereas each board member in attendance was able to express the many things the district has accomplished within the last year and whereas the board believes considerable progress has been made on the currently established board goals now therefore be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education formally adopt the following board goals one to develop a strategic plan around the following six key areas to engage the community and maintain instructional Excellence Community communication Community engagement in business Partnerships instruction facilities technology and Fine Arts and fiscal accountability

122two to review evaluate and assess current programs and structures including identifying and developing a schedule for review this coming year the focus will be on the technology and structures in establishing standard operating procedures and three to develop a budget philosophy and parameters and framework for developing the 2012 2013 budget and hereby formally adopt these goals and authorize the superintendent to implement strategies necessary to accomplish this goals and a correction on item three that budget philosophy fee should really govern our next budget cycle should be 1314 and I think it would be um not formally formally formally yes thank you okay uh Motion in a second second Mr M Miss antelis comments or questions on the school goals okay seeing none we'll have a roll call Miss an tell us yes Mr Tesla just real quick

123we spent uh you know that entire morning on the 25th going over these goals and you know we uh we hear the issues of the taxpayers including myself my taxes went up almost $2,000 a loan and one of our goals and one of our our for the next coming year is to start reviewing every single program and see what's successful and what's not and where we can make Cuts but you everybody has to give us this time to go through the process and make educational decisions uh on what we can cut not just cutting things just to cut things so we hear you and we are going to be working on that anyone else he roll call Mr Gorski people missis Mrs fron h i abstain as I wasn't in attendance so noted Mr calman

124obain same reason Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes Mr tesler yes Mrs col Pano yes madame board president item I passes thank you that concludes the superintendent's report okay we will move on to number seven 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 n be approved by consent roll call second analis Mr lry any comments or questions for Mr Gorski seeing none we'll have a roll call Mr calman yes Mr Klein yes Mr Larry yes Mr Masters yes but I have to recuse on uh I3 I3 so noted Mr tesler yes Mrs Fon yes Miss anelis yes Mrs K Pano yes madame board president board action items a through n passes okay

125thank you um regard to the business administrators report starting with our October board meeting through Mr Gorski we'd like to introduce you in installments uh to the budget process and the calendar that our school district must follow um in regard to passing our budgets and what has to be in the budgets and what we do how we do it why we do it so um do you have anything to add to that or uh no ma'am we look forward to uh introducing that at the next meeting and I think we're going to start with um what a cap what a cap is and what we have to follow what we don't what's mandated and what's not so we look forward to that report in October um at this time we're going to the board president's

126report and I only have one thing um in uh 2012 this year when we opened up our school oh no I have it wrong in 2002 our St total student enrollment was 3,393 students this year we open the doors with a little over 6,100 students as Dr Hamilton just mentioned for an increase of approximately 288,000 students the past 10 years 2800 what did I say 28,000 woo we need to build new schools no 28 800 students in the past 10 years we are still a growing Community we are expecting to increase our student enrollment about 200 students per year for the next 5 years which would give us another thousand children in our district we need to start looking at where we are going to house all these kids we also need to look at

127our facilities and the maintenance needed for our schools for instance many of our schools need new roofs there are sports fields and courts that have to be addressed some of our schools are nearing capacity so we need to figure out how to how to move things around so that we have a place for every child the boiler and apple Applegarth Elementary School needs a lot of attention if not a replacement as board president I'd like to put in place an adhoc committee on growth and Facilities which would include members of the Board of Education Administration staff members of some students parents members of the adult communities and people in our our community who don't even have children in the school district the purpose of this committee would be to look at our school growth in

128the next 5 years and our facility needs and come up with a plan on how to address these needs that the public could support the committee would begin um work in October and meet for approximately six months the meetings would be scheduled at different times during the day and during the week we'd have a weekend meeting a day meeting a weeknight meeting so that the community members would have who wish to participate would have the opportunity to attend at the end of that time the committee would make a a recommendation to the board on the direction they would like to go I know the board has been talking about this for a number of months so I just wanted to open this up to the board if they have any comments or questions or concerns

129or if it sounds like a good idea I think it sounds like a great idea okay it is an Emin good idea idea and we should go forth as rapidly as possible as you say We are continuing to grow and growth has uh requires uh many many considerations and the quicker we get on this the better off we're going to be thank you I want to join thank you Mr Larry I'm sure your participation would be much appreciated so if if there's anybody we're going to open this up to the public if anybody wishes to be a part of this committee join this committee we're going to ask that you call the board of education office or Dr Hamilton's office or me um with your name address phone number and email and we will get

130in touch with you when this committee is ready to be set in place and start working and um the help of this community uh would be very much appreciated so at this time we'll go to committee reports is there any member of the board who has a committee report to mention Mr thank you very much um believe as was yesterday we had a Personnel committee uh there was just a few short things on the agenda Dr Hamilton brought us uh a revised job description for the assistant uh to admin the assistant admin to the superintendent and in order to save money uh we decided um to go uh task Dr Hamilton with trying to either split those tasks other ways or creating some smaller part-time position I that wouldn't um cost as much but also

131would help with the these duties that now are burdening other people uh in the central office such as Dr Hamilton and um Jeff Corman uh we got a status update um on the central office support staff negotiations and that process should be complete soon and I'll report that when that's process is complete U we also were presented with a non-affiliate contract uh sample contracts were viewed and reviewed Again by the committee each non-affiliate uh employee now will have their own contract which delineates all their entitlements and and and benefits and what they uh what they get and that will be uh renewed each year that concludes my report thank you Mr tesler anyone else Mr Kaufman sure we had a curriculum committee meeting this evening uh we went over some curriculum documents for economics 3D

132Arts social studies for grade six grade 8 um prevention and care of athletic injuries and we also went into a deep Pro discussion on the district's chemical hygiene plan uh over the past uh few years we've been spending uh a certain amount of money to uh support our uh chemistry program in the district uh recently we've gone over the past couple of years of spending approximately $1,100 for chemic chemical equipment back in 2009 to what appears to be on this chart for 2011 2012 school year to be approximately again it's a bar graph and their regions in it um what looks to be about $30 uh We've re-engineered the program got tighter controls over the types of chemical experiments that we're using and the type of chemicals that we're buying to be a little bit

133more uh fiscally responsible uh for our chemistry program as well uh in addition to that we uh heard a presentation by our director of per uh pupil Services over our screening of our uh kindergarten students as they come into the district and the processes that they go through in the uh uh what's called the brigin program for uh uh screening of students that might have special needs uh the philosophy here is the earlier we get on to prevention and uh special needs students the uh less expensive it is over the duration of a uh students education um and not just Monroe but in really any school um additionally we spoke about a uh program that's going to be offered uh to our district uh students who are on free or reduced lunch Comcast will allow

134or provide a service uh to our uh uh families who are on free and reduced lunch uh internet service at their cost not Monroe's cost or the board's cost uh of $9.95 for uh unlimited uh use of Internet to their home homes uh which will help facilitate some of the uh things that we've talked about earlier this evening um that's pretty much it thank you so any other committee reports Mr Masters we had a buildings and grounds and transportation meeting the 28th uh after an excellent tour of Applegarth uh on that agenda there was a county request for a bike path trail that actually connects the uh soccer new soccer complex to Thompson Park I believe uh we reviewed the bleacher structural update uh that went really well we had a an update on Applegarth

135great job to inv vaol looks great uh we discussed purchasing or possibly purchasing some of the trailers to offset some costs we had an meca update it also looks excellent the Brookside roof Project's going well it's on schedule and we had a traffic flow change which I almost ran over that sign outside so I wasn't ready for it to the outside because of possible safety issues that's it okay thank you Mr Masters anyone else okay then we'll go to number 10 is there any other new business or business by any member of the Board of Education Mr Klein just one statement while the gentleman is here um about two meetings ago I had lost a bracelet that my wife gave me gold bracelet and she had passed away and I came back the following day

136and I asked one of our custodians Mark Lupo whether he found anything in the room and the answer was no so I basically rode it off figured it's lost you know Let it go I was pleasantly surprised by a phone call the Friday before Labor Day Friday night that Mark and Mark is right over there in the corner had found the bracelet when they move furniture now anybody else would have taken a gold bracelet and cash it in that's an honest man and I thank you so you know what my feeling is and I just there's no words and not only that when I went to give him a reward he refused to take it so God be good to you and your family thank you anyone else Mr Co Miss analis I've heard a

137lot of things here tonight about the board um I'm probably the board member who's been here the longest about 20 years and I just want to clarify some statements um as long as I've been on this board this is not free spending I just want to go over some things maybe that people are not aware of for instance if a juvenile in this this town is locked up in a Juvenile Detention Facility we have to pay the state 28,000 and it might even be more by now each child we don't spend that for children but the state says we have to do that we have so many mandated costs over the years somebody passed some legislation that said mandated cost state pay state mandate state state pay in 20 years I've never seen that happen

138they came to us and said you must Now teach all your children a second language but we're not giving you any money to do it it's up to you to do it time after time we had to remove gas tanks once we had no choice they didn't like our gas tanks at Transportation over $100,000 but this board has managed to work within those parameters we've had budgets go down that's okay every year and we work within those parameters if any of you have been to Applegarth school it is absolutely beautiful and every bit of work that was done inside that school was done by our employees we did not ask the public for any money for renovations in fact as long as I've been on this board only once did we go out for renovations

139and it failed we never asked again we belong to consortiums of gasoline so that we purchase with the whole middle sex County to keep the cost down somebody mentioned the state health plan I'll tell you why we don't have it because they mandate that you give everybody full family benefits we don't do that here we wait until your tenure to do it we save that money do we lose employees yes we do but we want to be fiscally responsible and we felt that was the best way to do it when I started on this board there were 2500 children now there's over 6,000 and yet we've only Built two brand new schools so we try to accommodate them the best we can and what I would like to ask I have a real problem that

140when developers and I don't care what they're developing whether it be senior housing whether it be single family should be giving to our schools now I know it's against the law but what would happen if the township said you're not building here until you give 30 acres to that school district take us to court if you don't like it that's how we should be I've heard of other districts that have done this theyed they have yes and other and and it's time for the township now I heard Dr Hamilton talk about getting together with the township trying to work things out this is something that should be worked out for us I'd like to ask you Mrs kapano to please send a letter to the mayor requesting that a board member sit on the planning

141board at least then we have a voice we can't keep absorbing at one time it was 350 students per year the houses you I mean just drive around you see it they were going up like that yet did we get anything one time the township gave us the land for oak tree school that was it that was the only savings we've ever had we've put solar panels on we've put water gathering with this board tries everything we can to stay fiscally responsible I've had three children go through the school my baby's 25 right now but I still pay taxes I don't live in a retirement community yet but I will and I I feel the same way my taxes I live in a condominium off Route 33 my taxes went up over $700 I don't

142even own a piece of land so please don't sit here and think that we tell them just go ahead and spend whatever you want it's not that way we we refinance bonds we sit hours in meetings we were just talking about how to start generating Revenue because now we're allowed to do that that's important let's start bringing in some money let's start selling some signs out there let's start owing our own daycare centers let's bring the revenue here into Monroe to give to the taxpayers we've had to have trailers at a cost of millions of dollars when we got rid of it now what's happened is our schools are getting crowded again so I just wanted to explain that you know um I understand your frustration for those of you who don't know me I

143run a committee for Holocaust Survivors here in town these are people who came to this country because they lost their entire families okay I've interviewed them on Channel 28 I feel what they feel okay they struggle hard to make it here I don't want to see them tax like this we are doing everything we can and we're going to try to do more to get this budget under control and these taxes to stop but we do need you um I've said this before I try to talk to Senator Rush told three times tell you what's going on every other state in this country gets about 15 to 21% of funding for special education New Jersey gets 12 you know how much money that is I don't understand it he's on the education committee why are

144we not getting more money you know what that I've heard up in Washington when I went a New Jersey's rich I don't know about you folks I'm not rich I can't afford this either you know these are the people that we also have to talk to the last meeting people oh don't complain about the funding but the funding's important give us our fair share thank [Applause] you thank you Amy anyone else Mr Kaufman uh yeah I just have a couple of things I want to bring up uh just to duvail on what Amy was saying before um 10:30 forgive me Joel I believe okay um as we go through the next few Board of Education meetings I think it's a good idea that we start addressing some of the the real basic factors of what

145really does make Monroe unique and and the situations that we have in this town because while we like to say and try and move the monkey or the blame to say oh it's the state or or it's it's it's not us but it's somebody else right there are some mitigating factors which you cannot Escape living in the township of Monroe some of those things while they may seem insignificant ific or small they actually come with an extremely high price tag item number one busing uh busing has been a target for for many many years in our budget and um wh while it's it some might say well because we have our own bus fleet there's a lot of cost involved with that well I I grew up in a different town I grew up in

146Union and and in Union you could walk to your schools because we had things like sidewalks you can't walk to the building that you're sitting in there are no sidewalks that you can walk on to get here there are no sidewalks that you can walk on to get to the school directly next to us and these are even for buildings that older kids can get to so we have to bus our kids to our schools because mon also happens to be 43 square miles large so even if you have families that live very close to schools we bust them why do we bust them also couple of reasons it's much safer if you've ever gone past any of our schools in the morning when The Fleets Arrive especially at the elementary level it's a highly

147efficient process no child gets off any bus until they all arrive and then they get off at the same time and it's done in exactly the reverse at the end of the day why is that better can you imagine if we have schools with hundreds of children to have you know we live in Monroe let's face it my wife God bless her used to drive our kids to the bus stop and you could see the bus stop from our house so forget about sidewalks right we live in Monroe that's what they do right can you imagine all those parents driving those kids to school even the ones that live close it's just an accident waiting to happen with thousand thousands of little children coming into that very small confined area when we I went to

148school the buildings were separated by vast diff you know distances the elementary school is one side of town Middle School is somewhere else so you only had a small amount of buses that come in Barkley Brook Brookside two shared areas many buses I don't know how many show up there in the morning but I'm going to say at least 30 buses show up just between those two schools so we also happen to run and Mike could talk about statistics a very highly efficient process here with running our multi-tier busing so we get a lot of bank for our buck but it does cost money no doubt we also do something in the district that is overtime had a disproportionate effect to Monroe Township and that is to save money for the many many years we've

149been around since I've been on the board we've been doing a lot of special services for our students who have special needs in the district district and I have to tell you children with special needs the price tag of that goes up a little bit because they need other things uh maybe aids to walk with them or other special services or other programs it cost a little bit more for a student that needs special needs and students that don't the reality is because that became such an incredibly good program we brought a lot of those students back that we were sending out to out of placement District which actually cost even more money and that netted an un unforeseen situation we got to be so good at it people were moving to Monro because we

150did that so Monroe also happens to have a disproportionately high number of students compared to the state average with students with special needs so Joel I invite all of you as we go through the next few weeks to talk about the things that really go into making the school budget what it is and and how the money is spent you have to understand that this we are all in this together this is not a Township issue this is not a board of education issue this is not a retired citizens issue this is not a parents issue we are all vested interests here and we all pay taxes year and we all want the best for our kids as was articulated by Joe a little bit earlier so please understand over the next few months we'll

151go over a lot of the things because a lot of you are new to the process trust me we have other board members that are senior citizens that were on the other side of the fence and over time have come to realize that there is a lot of there's a lot of mechanics in what makes this school district run it's very easy to point the finger to the school board that's across the street on how much money we spend for the taxes we are 10 times the size of the municipality they have a couple of buildings we have like 10 we have a bus fleet okay they have dump trucks and stuff we have teachers you know they kind of don't have that so there's a lot of things that come into the costs that

152are on this side of the fence that are not on the other side of the fence so let's just say we're all in it together and leave it at that lastly um over the past this is the second opening for this High School right um and over the past few months we've had buildings and grounds meetings um I've asked repeatedly to try and get the issue about a dedication plaque put on this building this is the only building in the district that we do not have a dedication plaque we've opened open the building up and here we are second opening so I'm going to make this real short and simple I would like to make a motion that we put on this building a dedication plaque listing the names of the board members that were

153part of the initial uh approval of this building and the additional funds that were produced um or or required um just as the past practices that we've done on the other buildings the same format I believe it was the board and the The Architects and the and whatever else that we use in the format for oak tree and I'd like to make a motion that we do it and just get it done I seconded I second also oh okay okay so there's a motion on the floor from Mr Kaufman to um do you want two plaques for both referendums be on the same one whatever as long as it's as long as it repres sitting board and administration at the time of the ref Sting the board and the administration at the time both issues

154were voted on and approved by those boards okay and there second by Mr kleene uh comments or questions I want to rise to a question of privilege and register a complaint this has gone through buildings and grounds several times and I think we actually have it taed in the buildings and grounds committee to be discussed again at the committee level so I think this is totally out of order I agree with Mr committees make recommendations it's not Deb we've come up with question privilege is not debatable different design if you want to usurp the committee process feel free to usurp the committee process we have in the past can we do this I agree with Mr Masters I think this needs to go into committee um just like it always did checked with Mr Gorski

155that the motion can be um we can vote on the motion tonight it's a motion I mean it's the uh the Committees the Committees make recommendations to the Board of Education upon the deliberation that occurs in those events but I don't believe that would prohibit the board from introducing a resol uh a motion with a quorum present at a public meeting because I think we've done that before yes we have yeah okay uh any other comments or questions then I would respectfully resign from every committee on mine privil Mr Tesla did you have a a comment or just a comment when when the committee decides because I agree with Mr Masters when the committee decides whatever they have to do for the plaque I would like to uh have the Board of Education solicit funding

156maybe from PTA so it doesn't we don't to pay taxpayer money to do that or the even the Monro Education Foundation just a recommendation just a recommendation Mr tesler that would come out of the referendum for the new high school the money slipped over from the referendum you well I mean we can return that that back to the taxpayers and we can solicit that from ptas or the monary Education Foundation to pay for the plaque pla are the school yeah M Patrice just for clarification because it's been so long I know the initial discussion and there was no uh common decision or rather uh consensus of the entire board it's going back is it what you're saying Lou it was supposed to go back to committee did we have a time or there was there

157was a consensus at the committee level the original buildings moral by the Comm Mr gor at committee level for something very different from what Mr Coffman is recommending that was I guess tabled for more discussion it's hasn't been discussed again I I believe it's been discussed a few times in buildings and grounds and and there Sor it's never been resolved so we have a committee proposal that we're now altering in my opinion well I I if it's never been resolved we never had a proposal I I disagree with that okay with all due respect okay okay so I I apologize I I just I didn't I clarify there was a recommendation by the committee but there was not a consensus or motion to it was to appease the majority of the board it was a

158consensus at the committee level yes that's correct and I I know that at the time my opinion was stated that I do understand everyone's individual opinions but in the past and it was just typically policy whoever was sitting on the board for whatever school is built the sitting board the sitting Administration was put on the plaque and I didn't we agree to do a separate P plaque of who came into play afterward well we had talked about doing had two referendums yeah but we're we were talking you mean other people besides the sitting boards well I know the problem became the now existing board had some issues with that being the process when had been the process in the past yeah CU I had talked about doing a like the MEF has a tree in

159all of the um different um schools so taking the tree with the leaves on the trees and putting um the members of kids first and the members of the freeholders and the members of the township so that everybody could be represented but the plaque would still be um the sitting board I know I know I brought that up to the buildings and grounds committee okay Mr Clin I understand where Lou is going I was at the meetings when they discussed the plaque and we spoke about what Lou said and then other people wanted the current um people on the board and superintendent and whoever else was involved to be on it just going to make one statement which I said then no matter what you decide on and if it's decided that you're going to

160put all the people that are on the board as of today on the plaque I want it on record I do not want my name on the plaque because I had absolutely nothing to do with the building of this school so whatever is decided and if it does come out that you're going to put all the current members on I want my name left off anyone else okay so there's a motion on the floor by Mr Kaufman to um have a two plaques with the sitting boards at the time time of the 2003 and 2008 referendums is that your motion Mr and and that's second by Mr Klein yes okay we'll have a roll call Miss anelis no Mrs Fon yes Mr calman yes Mr clein yes Mr liry yes Mr Masters no Mr tesler

161no Pho yes Madam board president the motion passes okay thank you that put was is there any other um business by members of the Board of Education okay Mr Mr Masters just wanted to clear up something I heard today um the conversation comments from the public is great uh somebody had insinuated that Mr Gorski might be pading the budget intentionally in order to give back tax money later on and I think that's totally out of order Mr Gori would never do that and Mr ly would never even let him do that so I just want to make sure I clear that up somebody did say that um the other thing that somebody said was maintenance Transportation things such as maintenance transportation and custodial don't directly affect children and are fringe benefits I I don't know

162how you can actually say something like that when they're some of the most important departments we have here um and as Lou said before the increase in children the number of children is is a bomb that's waiting to go off here and I really think we have to start looking at what we're going to do um if we don't address that I mean they're building my house 6 a.m. they're up nailing stuff in my development so they are building and putting people in as fast as they possibly can and these are four bedroom homes so I I think we have an issue we really have to address and this adoc committee is going to do it right it's got to be started right well to add on to Mr Masters um we have some very

163old schools in our building that are in the great shape they are because of our maintenance and custodial staffs and I think without them we would be in a in a bigger problem than we are now any other business gy uh Mr Tesla just another point on Brookside School uh my wife is the um uh chair of the Barkley Brook Brookside memory book committee and she's in the schools all the time and um we didn't just put a roof on bar on Brookside School this year because we felt like spending the money uh miss alage or Dr alage used to have to put buckets all around the school to when it rained to get catch the rainwater that's how bad the the roof was so when we do these projects we do it because there's

164a need to maintain our buildings uh that roof was the original roof when the school was built in the early 90s and it was desperate need of prep of repair I wasn't part of the buildings in grounds Community but from the reports I understand they could have kept a similar roof but they went with a different type of roof which saved how many a lot of few hundred, if I'm wrong on that so when we put on the roof we we wanted to get the best bang for a buck just like when I had to put new roof on my house a few years ago anyone else I seeing no one we will go to our closed session resolution be resolve that the Board of Education of the township of Monroe hereby moves to go

165into Clos session in according with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 njsa 10 colum 4-6 through n 10 colon 4-21 to discuss the following subjects Personnel Employee number 90 and legal advice the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved motion to go into close session Mr Mr Klein I'm moov second second by Mr Larry all in favor I I opposed extensions at this time we will move into Clos session at this time the board will reconvene into public session and we go to our public forum again anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to our microphone and state your name and address for the record and we will still adhere to our 3 minute um r

166sorry that you had to wait so long my name is Lex I'm a senior I go to Monroe I'm a student athlete I'm taking a full course load of AP classes I participate in mock trial National Honor Society French Honor Society Youth and Government Model un the conference on National Affairs and I'm sure I can come up with a bunch of other things I've been a three-year Varsity athlete I left my house at 7 o'clock this morning I haven't eaten since my 10:30 lunch and I've been waiting for you for an hour and 25 minutes I'm bored and I'm ignored you cannot ignore your student body when they come to you I understand that you have rules that you have to adhere to and procedures that you have to follow I had come home from

167an away game at South Playfield it's pretty long drive two games it was a double header varsity and then JV and I wanted to just just bring up a few points about busing and the troubles that we're having with that as athletes as students and iPads from a student's perspective and I was rudely shut down and ignored and I believe that I was mentioned as a disturbance as a student I feel that the Board of Ed does not care about our student body and what we have to say I'll leave my points that I had initially wanted to make for later because there's not really anybody left to hear me we're behind you I appreciate it I will be back maybe because I have two jobs that I have to work to and I'll make

168my points then have a nice night waited all that time folks this young lady waited could you please give your name and address my name is Jerry berganti I'm from the Renaissance of Monroe that young lady I have to give her a hand I think that you all disrespected her you could have given her two minutes of your time and there's always rules that can be broken okay and you could have broken that rule for that young lady and I I totally disagree with all you for not doing that now now I just like to bring up a point I am a senior okay and for my recommendation okay 40% of the Monroe Township is 55% adult communities what would you people do if we did not exist who would pay all these taxes right

169now we are actually paying 60% of our taxes go towards the Board of Education we do not have children if we did boy oh boy are we lucky to have a young kid going to school at the age of 70 or something like that but 60% of our taxes are going to the Board of Education why is that we don't mind supporting the board of education but not at 60% have a heart uh like Mr Klein says we should 50% of our taxes should not should only be paid not 160% of what we're doing I think it's a crime we are being raised constantly we are on fixed income and I'm going to tell you something that if we get raised again many people will lose their homes because they cannot afford it they will

170move out of Monroe and that will be a disaster we need people uh communities are still being built here we still have 55 adult communities being built and people are moving in and when they move in and all of a sudden they took a look at their taxes it's unbelievable they're better off staying at Staten Island where they had a big home and paying $55,000 for 4500 square feet of living space come on folks let's think about this here look at the seniors we support the board of education but we can't support everything thank [Applause] you good evening Howard con uh 82 Country Club Drive in Monro Township it's been a real eye opener for me tonight I've never been to a Board of Education meeting in my life um I've never been to a

171town council meeting in my life and shame on me so tonight was a learning experience and the learning experience was very interesting I listen to you the board I listen to the public comments and everybody has a valid point but I but I come away from this thinking about one thing it appears to me that there's only one way to make a point either with you or the county freeholders or the state government or the federal government and that's based on numbers apparently the more people that you have that are going to sign a petition the more attention you're going to get so I ask you this question in all sincerity and it's a problem throughout the state of New Jersey but I'd just like to know what the board may be thinking could be

172thinking or would be thinking have you considered as a board to get together with the other school districts either in middlex county or in central New Jersey or in the state of New Jersey to consolidate in order to accommodate in order to cut costs because apparently the only thing that's going to make some type of impact is we the voters significantly banding together to get rid of all the Rascals the laws I hear are archaic and I understand that and I understand that there are laws that you have to comply with and I sympathize with you but I'm a taxpayer I like living in New Jersey I don't want to be forced out of New Jersey as I honestly believe some people will be forced out because of the high costs so I just ask

173you this question have you thought about and or have you considered consolidating with other school districts yes twice and we did a feasibility study and it would have cost the Monroe Township taxpayers an additional $400 a year and so we decided not to do it thank you Amy hi my name is Javi Burkin I'm 71y old techie uh what I don't understand is the iPads uh the technology that I know and I'm aware of is that the life of our computers and laptops is usually about four years and after that you can give them to the kids for free and buy new ones right now laptops are going for about say $3 $400 a hit and iPads are going for about I 800 the new ones ahead why didn't we consider and maybe you did

174consider buying laptops because with the laptops you're able to insert additional memory in there at minimum cost you're able to do more than what you could do in an iPad that's the first thing the second thing is what have you looked into there are corporations out there that scan books you can go to our neighborhood library and buy any and get any ebook you want and read it on your Kindle and your laptop and your iPad now all we have to do is go to these organizations and have our textbooks scanned in and then we will reduce the weight that somebody said before 40 PBS of carrying because all that technology would be in our computers whether they be a laptop or an iPad have you considered that Dr Gorman do you wish to respond

175yes we've we've actually considered all of that um the technology that we're looking at is not a scanned in textbook um the that industry is changing to an interactive true industry so what kids are doing now is very different with the books that they've done in the past we the board contemplated the laptop one:1 versus the iPad 1:1 um these laptops still cost significantly more than iPads for the capacity of what we want our students to be able to do with them laptops for taking notes and doing those things are may may have been where internet research may have been a past um vision for onetoone learning but the iPads uh Capa education capacity educational capacity so I could bring you the wave of iPads educationally is um Beyond on the rise and the learning

176value associated with them are hopefully being studied and actualized and that was the foundation so this was an educ learning education Forum this the iPad is a learning tool for kids to use and I don't I don't have the ability to to articulate that to you in this forum right here um but if you'd like us to to I I would love for you to come see our kids meet with me and I could really show you what it is and we started doing that last year every month I signed up for the techie thing so hopefully I can help you that's great but what I don't understand getting back why don't you scan the books because presently from an uh a debugging a software brand brand new thing to interact with your letters that

177it sees it and all those things you could write notes on there and things like that it's it'll take two three years in the inum you could scan your books all your books save a lot of money now um I'm I'm a I'm a big techie too and correct me if I'm wrong if we if you have a book and you scan it it's copyright it's illegal just like I'm not saying it's not illegal I'm saying to go and break La I want to do I want to do legal things but it's illegal to take our own our own textbooks that we purchase and scan them just like it's everybody does it they that used to take a record and copy it to a SE a tape way back when I'm dating myself that's illegal

178too you know just because you can do it you know we have to abide by law we can't take our existing textbook absolutely you would have to purchase them you would have to purchase it you'd have to go to a Publishing Company the publishing companies are doing that now and it behooves them to do it so have we looked into it that I'm just saying it's a course cutting method yeah and then yes so I've been in constant dialogue with um high up Executives of Pearson Apple education mcra Hill Lenco um if you go to um the iTunes Store these iBooks are are now the beginning of the Revolution towards interactive textbooks and and if you just as soon as we're done I could show it to you um to help me really get you

179to understand the differences between that and a PDF which you're referring to which we've looked at ebooks and and subscription going on sites but the iBook is really what the major textbook companies are now moving towards and that's have a research team flying in tomorrow from Boston to help us conduct possible research in this District on that technology is this new software or is it has it been used in the field or is this brand new stuff that you have all sorts of bugs with I'm telling you um so constantly revised um I we've been interacting with the the math so we're starting with Mathematics Algebra geometry um algebra too and it will continue to evolve so this is the beauty of it compared to an old textbook so next year right and old textbook

180right adopt by it 10 years later still using the same textbook next year we if they update it we just get an email that says delete your old one update bring up your new one so that's so even through the changes we will instantly have the most current knowledge for our students I understand that my question is is it in use presently yes it is and and I I have the books on my iPad so I could show you right after thank you one quick thing if I can um May I oh sure yeah uh I have some good friends of mine they uh live in West de New Jersey um they give laptops like this to every child starting in fourth grade they do not have books on this so the children are required

181to carry this in a big Satchel with all their textbooks the nice thing about the iPad it's probably the same cost or even less than those laptops and imagine my N I can't imagine my 9year old kid carrying this with a big Satchel every day so we don't give them that early we do it in high school but one thing about the iPad it's light it's a tablet it's easy to carry and it fits in a book bag very nicely and it has all the Educational Tools as well when I was in high school I also carried a 16lb shop foot I'm let Mr um Larry just make a quick comment Mr Larry comment okay when we're talking about the conversion from paper to electronic memory associated with that are licensing procedures in order to

182provide the protection of proprietary information and right to use fees for the number of times you're multiplying it and so it has to be carefully orchestrated there are significant financial requirements associated with those right to use fees and they need to be thoroughly looked at I don't Mr Gorman and his team will be doing that but it it's not uh you know just hey get a grab a book and then copy it and then run away it's not it it it has to be done in a legal Manner and it has to be done with careful thought absolutely you thank you for letting me address the committee a second time a name and address please Joel [Music] galob 106 gas iny Avenue it doesn't like meon Monroe I'd like to thank Lou and i' like

183to thank Amy for their closing remarks before we broke because they brought it down to a low common denominator Amy was just saying to me which I'm not dumb or naive says we didn't talk about what electric cost we didn't talk about what heating cost and yes that's right you guys should have said that starting off because you have people out here who heard um pooie Incorporated saying that you guys take 60 cents on a dollar and you guys have $88 million and he don't know what you're doing with your money so why don't you go back to him don't come to us don't give us a hard time we are on most of people fixed income you tell me you're the president Madam how does a person who gets a $2,700 social security check

184who's paying $324 a month HOA fees live and then go babysit for the children because the mother or the husband is working two jobs and they can't afford daycare that is something you have to ponder when you ask us for more money I'm not a poer I'm not saying I'm a poer but another facet of what I have I don't know what any of you have done prior to your job here I grew up in Brownsville Brooklyn where if you didn't had a fight you had your you know what kick to you daily but I learn Street smarts I'm a college graduate but Street smarts is very important too and don't undersell it I started my own business in 1975 became a multi-million dollar business I partnered with bons & Nobles I partnered with Mary

185K cosmetics and I partnered with 1800 flowers I own the wholesale Flor supply business I got these people buying from me they all said to me how do you write invoices don't you have a computer I said no it scares the hell out of me but have good pens from the bank and they said we want you to have a computer I knew nothing of it I was scared of it I'm good with the electric switch on the wall that's my extent of electric I went out and contacted computer companies which In 1980 this was they were talking $5 $20,000 for a unit for an office no second station no third station one station and they'll bank roll it for you and you'll PID this and you'll PID that I studied from so many computer

186companies that came down to me until I exhausted everybody who was available number one I got it down to 11,000 I got a superior system I got two stations and I got three days a week support for two months I had to ask the guy to leave after five weeks because my four member office staff knew how to operate that computer I didn't they did and that's all that's important I don't know here from your group of people did you do your research for these iPads did you hunt out the best s did you try to get the best deal I don't think so I don't see anybody here hungry I am hungry I'm 66 years old and I'm still hungry I fight to get the best deal for my development for my landscaping services

187for my irrigation Services Pawn services and snow removal and I fight over $50 I I don't think anybody here fights and I think you should consider it thank you uh my name is Mike Bono 38 cruncho uh it was nice the dog and pony show we went through with facts and figures but the bottom line is why we all came here tonight is it's not you have problems but that's why you were elected to the board because you said you could take care of them now the whole deal that we're looking for is to cut SP in now I have a few things which are very confusing to me in the first place you said you gave the teachers a 2% raise mere pittens and then a 2% and a 2 and a half% so

1886 and a half% over three years there's at least 12% of the population that's out of work and they'd be happy to work for the money they made last year okay but we're giving out more money and we got $700 back but gave them $33,000 in increases the next thing that when when Trenton says I want you to cut your budget 15% it doesn't mean raise the taxes 15% that's not cutting your budget that's staying par the other thing that I'm a little concerned with with Trenton many years ago when they decided to put the mafia out of business and get rid of the numbers game they decided we're going to get into the numbers game but how are we going to do it legally so it's legit so they said let's come up with

189with the lotto yeah but how are we going to do that and make it legit let's say it's for schools we're going to take this dollar and we're going to give it to the schools now it's legit we're not making any money which we all know is a lie now you look at some of the mega jackpots and the Powerball jackpots it's 100 million here and 90 million there where is that money why aren't we seeing that from the government now the thing that I want you all to tell me I'm wrong about is I am under the understanding that first of all we get these iPods for every kid in the building which is wonderful and then they still carry 40 pounds of books which is stupid now what is the bu iPod used

190for to write typing stuff if I have no idea I'm totally electronic illiterate okay I just about get my computer on and go to email so you want to teach the kids in today's school how use these this equipment God bless you why not buy 30 have a class part of their curriculum bring them into the class in their computer class and show them how to use the iPod and don't hand it out to 2,000 kids now here's the thing that I want you to tell me I'm wrong on from what I heard every kid gets an iPod beautiful now it cost them $50 Insurance in case they lose the iPod if that's my kid the day he came home he lost that iPod I got a $50 iPod cost me $50 for $800 iPod

191are we crazy are we telling them you'll give me $50 and you could keep the iPod this is madness is anybody thinking if you tell them you lose the iPod you pay for it that's a different story after we gave it to them which we shouldn't have gave it to them in the first place but to give them a second one for $50 this is madness so I want you to explain this insurance policy because I was an insurance underwriter for 40 years there's no way in the world I would agree to this policy you give me 50 I give you an $800 product go Dr Gorman somebody go Dr Gorman s okay I give this a shot um not with all of it but definitely definitely the um the fee the fee is not

192an insurance policy it's a protection plan so we can continue to repair and do whatever we need to um maintain the highest quality for the iPad but is it true if they lose it they get a new one just let me finish go ahead um one of the things with the iPad is it has a basically a built-in tracking device in it so if this thing is in Washington right now I could go on my computer and know that it's in Washington so we have had conversations with the police company uh Department to come in here and partner with them in case vandalism loss theft occurs if it breaks okay if it breaks if it cracks and that can't be that can't be disconnected um the tracking device it can end of conversation no no

193you're not going to well if if you want if you want to just well if it can be then there's no other don't tell me it's in Washington cuz if I'm smart enough I disconnect it it could be next door okay your your your 3 minutes is over I'm I'm gone that's it pleas okay let me let me let me give a quick shot okay this happened to me at work my boss a few months ago has an iPad has nothing to do with Monro school this is an example he left his iPad on the plane it's a Wi-Fi iPad um and he said to me he's got personal business information on it so I went on my computer in the office I locked it of course I messed up I locked the wrong code

194I wrote down the wrong password as soon as that iPad got in touch with any Wi-Fi or somebody to somebody tried to use it the that iPad was useless he actually found it brought it back to the office and there was no way even Apple could do anything with it the iPad is totally useless luckily I remember the code and got out and I didn't get fired that be disconnect thank as long as it for your comments there's no other conversation anybody can so if somebody does that it's rendered useless minutes of finish hi my name is Morley meldon and I live in greenb across the road and uh a couple years ago I suggested to this board that they consider suing the state about their contribution to our funds and I'm glad to say

195that uh there's some progress going on looking into the legal aspect and I uh helped to bring in one of the attorneys that knows the most about the history of the state even though it's a very rugged uh terrible history so you can't blame it on uh the present Governor this is a long history uh at any event thanks uh I want to bring up another angle that is very important that hasn't been mentioned yet uh we tonight there were some very it was a very interesting meeting I found because even though a lot of people are complaining about their taxes it's clear that they don't understand the whole basis of what's happened to them in Monroe and I don't want to go into that except that's a subject that ought to be explained to

196people because it's very serious and it's things that we have to do something about but the purpose that I have is to bring up the subject of publicity because we have a terrible story which is a great new news story and I could just see a huge poster that shows what Monroe gets from the state of New Jersey and what old bridge and what some of these other communities around get and there isn't anybody that could defend that before anybody that's got any sense so what we need to do is find a way to emphasize that to get Mara Kramer from Channel 2 News out here to do a story on television because that's how most people in this country get their news surprisingly but that's they don't read they watch television sound bites anyway

197there's a lot that we can do I've already made contacts with one of the groups and we're going to try merging it and I've come up with a title because there's something about this title to me that that ought to be considered citizens for fair funding of New Jersey schools now there are a lot of things about that first of all the citizens citizens vote and believe me seniors vote second thing there's an alliteration which I love for fair funding okay now and New Jersey schools now that doesn't mean it's just Monroe in other words this could be expanded so all this is flexible so what we need to do is start getting now we must have had 300 or more people here tonight okay okay every one of them would be happy to join

198this organization because what they do is they get a card that says you are a lifetime member and you get this uh this onepage sheet also that tells you you know what the situation is between these different school fundings okay one more minute and then anyway anyway the the 100 100 people each one goes out gets 10 more members that's a, each one of those gets 10 more members that's 10,000 and then you got beginnings of some real numbers and I'm telling you there isn't a governor in the world that can stand the kind of publicity we can get and I know it can be done because we've done this elsewhere so let's do it thank you Mr molden there's a there is a group sorry no we're going to finish our for public forum

199can I respond to that Madam president sure thank you um Mr molden there is a group that we have been uh talking to called save our schools and that's exactly what their purpose and Mission is so it may behoove us to encourage our citizens to be a part of that group as well uh good evening it's Doug PO for tamarak Road uh I've asked that something be distributed to each of you and I'm going to uh reference that in just a minute but I do have a question uh the referendum money that we had have when we built the high school I know there were two essentially two big referendums to get the total amount that we needed uh are we still paying bills out of that money I'll let Mr gsky handle that the

200answer to that is yes um recently for example the Board of Education authorized a change order to renovate one of the classrooms in in this building into an autistic um room and the purpose of that was to bring back in District autistic pupils instead of paying higher out of District cost that's estimated to save $100,000 a year once it gets up to speed okay and how long do we have access to those funds for expenditures five years after the sale of the bonds so it was the recommendation of the finance committee there was approximately $7 million that was surplused between the two Bond referenda um $3 million of which were still waiting from the state grant that I mentioned before so $2 million was used to offset The Debt Service Levy in 1213 and it

201will be recommended to use at least that much for next year to offset the levy and then wrap it up the final the later year the the point of my questioning is the fact that we seem to have rushed into the iPad initiative and we did take a loss uh it's it's clear to me that we took a loss loss in terms of what we paid for it and then what we got back for it and now we have indebted the township to the tune of about $500,000 for the next two years after this one because this year we've covered it from those other funds that you explained why could we not have waited before we rushed into it and done a little bit more research or maybe done a pilot uh program things of

202that nature and I don't really expect you to answer that question but if we had time to spend those funds I don't know why we had to spend them so quickly and then have this what I consider was a very bad uh publicity uh for the Board of Education and I I'm not yet convinced that all of our teaching staff is on board because you're still talking about training uh I I I just think it could have been implemented quite differently along a different timeline and maybe we wouldn't have lost any money uh now I'll turn to this other point um and I I brought this tonight to the to the board meeting because I've had a lot of people contact me either in person when they see me because they know I'm very very

203interested in education uh or they have sent me emails and they and one of the earlier speakers tonight uh was uh lamenting the fact that Monroe did not make the top 100 high schools you can get him some more because do I need to stop yeah we are because some Mike took some of his time oh okay um so I did some research uh from the New Jersey monthly the September issue and I wanted to point this out and I'm sorry that so much of the audience has left because they have left with the bad news and I really think there is some very good news our students have done really quite well and so has our staff because our students don't function without the staff there to teach them and so I will point

204it out to this board and to anyone who may hear this that when you look at the top 100 that New Jersey monthly identified if you look at the variable of combined SAT scores Monroe scored higher than 20 of the high schools in the top 100 that is significant in my opinion if you look at the percent of students that scored three or higher on the AP exams Monroe scored higher than 36 of the top 100 high schools if you look at the number of students scoring Advanced Proficiency in the state's language arts assessment Monroe scored higher than 21 of the top 100 high schools if you look at the percent scoring Advanced Proficiency in mathematics Monroe scored higher than 19 of the top 100 and if you look at the percent of ninth grade

205students who graduated within four years Monroe scored High higher than 47 of the top 100 high schools so the the public might wonder well why is it that Monroe didn't make the top 100 and it's because there were other variables that the New Jersey monthly uses and one of those is class size and on class size Monroe scores abysmally low because we have such a very high class size we have a lot of students on the average in our classes and that was a very big factor with them uh so I wanted to point that out uh and I'm not going to go into these other statistics you have it there but I also compared Monroe to the socioeconomic high schools in the district I wanted to see how they they fared there and I

206think they fared quite well and you have those statistics before you I also wanted to see how we fared in terms of middle sex County there are 22 high schools in Middle sex County and we we fared very well in terms of middle sex County so I'm not saying that there's there's not room for improvement I definitely believe we can make a better school we can build a better school I don't believe it has to cost more money and what I heard the public saying tonight is the perception among the public is that you want us to have a Cadillac and we can only afford a Chevrolet thank you thank you Mr Po Mr P no are are you interested in returning to the workforce no I just have an interest in education and I

207don't mind really spending some time doing some statistical research because I believe it's the data that we have to look at thank you anyone else from the public President Obama's there I guess uh Robert Ro 18 mfield bow Monroe uh two questions I have one is uh about a year ago I requested that the board after we had some discussion with the board that they have the public forum before the close session and I was told that you have to have a Clos Forum after the after the uh Clos session and but there was no restrictions on um having three public forums now I noticed in looking a couple months ago at JB Berg's uh agenda item they had their public forum before their closed session with no closed session after that so I think

208if it's at all legally permissible I think you should have the closed session an open session before the closed session so that the people didn't have to wait around for an hour or so I think that's fairness fairness to the uh the public second question uh is that I know that um my recollection is that there was $9 million left over from the uh construction cost on the bonding 7 million of which was going to be used for taxpayer relief and as Mr Gorski said I know the the the taxpayer portion of the debt was reduced by 2 million this year but Dr Gorman had indicated that and the other 2 million has been said many many many many times that the iPads cost $2 million and we sold them for 4 million and we

209lost 1 1.6 now Dr Gorman is saying that the iPads cost 1.1 million so if that is factually correct what happened to the other 9, 900,000 that of the budget money the bonding money that was used allegedly used for the iPads I believe that we spent 2 millions of dollars of that uh Bond referendum money for technology 1.1 milon doll for the iPads the rest of it went for different technology pieces of the in the high school do you have a yeah there was there was a resolution that the board passed it was2 2.4 $2.3 million in total um the iPads were about 1.3 million as Dr Gorman mentioned earlier and the difference was made up of um some laptop computers for specific AutoCAD programs that could couldn't be run on the Apple devices and

210there was also servers and some other um technology that was implemented throughout the school well was that projection monitors and things like that well you indicated that during the meeting I last year as I recall that you had a legal opinion that the iPads could be purchased under technology did the legal opinion include these other items that you purchased yes thank you anyone else from the public Mr hoki it's nice to see you Joe hoki 61 halfman Road uh a year ago I was here and I spoke about Monro trying to get into the top 100 and I think you said doctor that uh your goal is to be under 100 and unfortunately we didn't make it I'm very disappointed in that even though we had all those good news I'm surprised that we didn't

211make it I don't understand just one thing can disqualify us but I think tonight was like the perfect storm you had a large concerned audience you had issues of iPads taxes state aid petition and I just like to mention Mark Clin who's been preaching for the last three years the same thing over and over again and every board member here could repeat what Mark has said over and over again and I think finally Mark is coming to fruition because we have a petition maybe something will'll get going my personal opinion is that our two assembly people and the senator have not done enough for our district they have not done enough I don't know if you know or not but how much per pupil is Hamilton Township getting does anybody know maybe 4000 me 4,000

2124,000 per y okay and that's there f g just like us okay uh but anyway I don't think they have done enough and I think maybe with the petition that's presented to them and to others maybe something will get going so I really think that Mark deserves a lot of credit even though he bored a lot of people because they the same thing over and over and over again even I could make the speech mark fishing tomorrow we're going tomorrow uh just a couple of observations the plaque I it took you three years to make a a decision on a plaque that's unbelievable and my experience has been over the last 12 14 15 years it was never a committee issue it was always automatic the architect automatically put the thing up we never even

213talked about it it was just up that's the way it used to go and I think that's the way it should go so I think you made the right decision on that uh the other thing is the state aid is established and I think you have to live within those means it's not going to change it's not going to change let me tell you aside from the two assembly people and the senator the others really don't care about Monroe Township they don't care about the problems you have over here they could care less they only care about their own districts they push for their own districts one more remark about iPads the only thing that I would have done differently is not to go wholesale it doesn't make any sense in education what we do

214is since I was an educator you always run a pilot group a small group control group and then you assess evaluate how it worked out then you go big time that would save you a lot of lot of headaches lot of money and a lot of aggravation that you had here tonight so uh that's just the recommendation in future if you do anything brand new so so dramatic try control group first and if it works go big time if it doesn't work abandon it you don't lose too much uh that's about it and it's nice to be on the other side instead of being on that side have a good night night gra after close after public for hi I'm back again hofi Burkin 112 gasy Avenue um again techy question I just overheard that

215you using AutoCAD uh did you consider using solid works solid works is the one of the primary 3D softwares that's being used in college and in the industries AutoCAD is uh an archaic thing that I used way back like 40 years ago but and it's been trying to catch up on technology standpoint from a 3D which the children need now using surfacing and all sorts of things electrical mechanical piping is the way to go or consider and they're can be used on laptops not iPads just uh something to throw out here thank you anyone else from the public no may I wait wait I didn't close the public forum yet seeing no one we'll close the public forum and Mr ly I will let you speak first that thank you approximately the Year 2007 we

216had the libertarian Party come and wage a lawsuit against us and we had The Misfortune of going before Judge Alexander wag in New Brunswick and he is the jaboni who came up with the rule that we have to live by it's a court order so we have nothing to do with it everybody else can be sensible we were sensible before but the libertarian party came in and they gave us the shaft secondly Doug is right on and but the thing is take a look at the inside Jersey magazine that was what 10 days ago or so Dr Hamilton yes sir and it went and looked at the schools on a county bycount basis and remember middle sex county is the second biggest county in the state only Bergen is bigger we have surpassed Essex and

217we come in there and there are only eight comprehensive schools that they look at the other two are specialized schools that are magnet schools they are for engineering and for health science but the of the eight schools the comprehensive schools we're right in that cluster and we have done remarkable and Doug is absolutely right I want to compliment him on that but the uh and again I will go back to my prior statements this board has worked very hard and when you look at things on a per student basis and fold in the Consumer Price Index increases we have done a remarkable job particularly in light of things that Amy was talking about all these mandates that are coming crashing in on our head on a student basis with Consumer Price Index factored in over

218the last 10 years 4% increase and when you factor in all the mandates we've done a superb job end the statement thank you Mr Larry okay seeing that we have closed public forum our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting is Wednesday October 17 2012 7:00 p.m. at the high school a motion to adjourn some moved uh Mr cauan Mr tesler all in favor I opposed extensions meeting is adjourned