001you good morning the meeting of the Monroe Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance it is I think we take it away I'm okay I cancel the meeting we can't get to the flag where's the flag good job Michael pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all may we have a roll call Mr Gorski yes Miss antelis Miss armenio Mr Braverman Mr Chella Mr calman Mrs K Pano here Mr noin here Mr poy here Mr proso here Mr zareski here Madame board president you have a quarum this morning thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe
002Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted August 15th 2014 one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press four filed with the clerk of the municipality and at this time we will go to our public forum anyone from the public wishing to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone and give your name and address for the record and we will adhere to our 3 minute time limit okay seeing none we will close the public forum and we are going to reverse the order of the district goals and the budget philosophy so we are starting with the budget philosophy because that will influence our district goals and I will turn it over to Mr Gorski thank you
003good morning um is Devin here do you have the clicker for the PowerPoint thanks good morning for those uh who haven't U been at the last board meeting I would like to introduce Dennis ventrello interm superintendent of schools morning and on behalf of administration uh my name's Michael Gorski and Dr Gorman's not with us this morning he's leaving leaving the district taking another position and we'll be filling that spot shortly Board of Education members are Kathy kapano Doug po board vice president Amy antelis Michelle armeno Marvin Braverman Ken Chella Lou cman Tom noin Anthony proso has the important role of Finance chair and Robert zareski our welcome Jamesburg representative let's begin by talking about budget resources the budget has always been resource defined and resourc driven last year we were able to apply $2.5 million
004of bond Surplus there was ax imately $8 million surplus when we constructed this school on time and under budget and in accordance with law we've been using that Surplus towards the question that the voters approve with the referendum or turning it back for tax relief the third option is to refinance the whole uh bond issue and put that towards a reduction of principle we refine refinance all the high school bonds already and it's not optimal environment for that just to use that Surplus so we are returning it through the budget by reducing what you would have to raise otherwise through principal and interest Through The Debt Service Levy there's only $250,000 of surplus remaining as of July 31st 14 and um we are going to be closing out that referendum very soon and applying any
005residual monies Against The Debt Service tax levy we had talked about the application of the Surplus before it's a stimulus for reducing the tax rate instead of uh raising monies Through The Debt Service Levy for principal and interest we use the Surplus raise from bonds instead and it reduces the tax rate we could have applied $8 million in one year that would have had a major reduction in taxes that year however the following year would have resulted in a tax spike so we did it on installments and the extinguishment of that Bond referendum Surplus was designed intentionally to coincide with the um firming of ratables in the township when I became ba we lost $71 million in ratables followed by 78 million followed by almost an equilibrium and last year there was a slight increase
006in ratables so with ratables increasing it will will more than offset the loss of stimulus through Bond referendum funds the next category is general fund state aid uh we were awarded $2.7 million of general fund aid for the 1415 budget it is prudent business practice to build the next year's budget based upon the same amount of Aid you received in the prior year only one year did we really get burned earned on that and that was when the state cut us 95% and left us with $238,000 of funding for this whole District uh but since then it's been a fair practice to build a budget anticipating that amount of state aid um which could vary slightly and proprietary fund considerations um the board members have been recommending that Administration consider the development of an in-house
007before and after school care program uh currently that is outsourced to a outside organization who pays us $100,000 a year as a lease agreement for our facilities to construct construct the same program what I'm hearing is that the board wishes to construct the before and after school program have more of an educational orientation um more of a of a learning environment uh to better prepare the kids for their forthcoming school years and Not only would that be good for the students but that has the potential of being a large Revenue generating activity and that Revenue that's generated through that fund can be used to offset taxes and finally there's an issue with revenues pertaining to Jamesburg we have been budgeting the full amount of tuition costs that are calculated with our a41 a42 tuition calculation
008and I don't want to go too much into that but that includes an interest component which is Jamesburg share of the bond interest on this school and there is a disagreement on that so the district has not recognized that money which has created a shortfall in the budget um which has to be planned for to find things to offset it with but we will be building a budget that will include an interest portion from Jamesburg that we probably will not recognize by this budget year resources Define the budget you add up your state aid your uh general fund tax levy your debt your debt service tax levy your income from tuition which is still substantial from Jamesburg and does offset a lot of fixed costs in the district and then income from miscellaneous sources and
009that's all the money that you have and all of your appropriation needs must match that we can't run into a deficit situation where we spend more than we have revenues for and we never never have next we'll talk about appropriation considerations based upon the recently performed enrollment study by White Hall and Associates 150 new students are projected for the 1516 school year an average student is about $115,000 that's a general cost of about 2 two two and A4 million dollar of additional birth that the district is going to have to absorb because of the new students I think that number is conservative it will probably be higher and as it was said before you know this is just a general statement here that it'll cost approximately that much of course if you have the facilities
010and the infrastructure in place to absorb them without uh additional construction or trailers or teachers it wouldn't be so much but I think it's fair to rely on the average so you could see that and this is an important factor you know we've heard from the public that everybody else is making Cuts why can't you cut why can't you do more with less this is one of the reasons why it's hard to do so because there's additional demands there's additional students to educate every year and and not every one of these students is is an average student at $155,000 there are some special ed placements that could be $100,000 or more just for one student and unlike in the business environment we can't turn them away we have to receive everyone and educate everybody uh
011and and make them uh into the best citizens that they can be an important consideration for 15 16 is school construction um we have an enrollment problem and a capacity problem at the Monroe Township Middle School we are at capacity and as you may know the Monro Township Middle School used to be the Monro Township High School and it was converted to the Middle School a few years ago it is not the optimal design for a middle school some of the classrooms are bigger there are science labs and things that are not really appropriate for a middle school in dealing with some of the enrollment issues that we have uh Mr T has come up with a wonderful plan to renovate some of these underutilized rooms to make more classrooms a total of about nine
012which according to the demographer should serve the district well into a six or seven year down the road time frame these are called stop Gap measures and they involve knocking down walls getting permits and um making additional classrooms here's what we're looking at for next year the total project renovation budget is 2,317 $88 there was 250,000 that was budgeted for in the current year 1415 and that's in process now that leaves a balance for next year of $2,675 188 as we are asked to work on these projects within the general fund budget and the general fund budget cap limitations we are unable to put $2 million in for construction costs it is recommended to break it up into two phases phase a is this designed to work over the summer of 2015 to renovate the
013second floor creating three new classrooms and two small group classrooms at a cost of $867,500 the Deferred portion would go to the summer of 2016 to renovate the first floor at a cost of $1.2 million additionally we have several schools in the district that need roof address this is not uncommon there are a lot of schools in the state that are suffering from budget cap limitations where Capital needs have been kicked down the road um and and the board to their credit has been picking up a roof project of a significant amount every year in the budget and we have um just recently as you see coming in renovated the instructional wing of the Monro Township Middle School roof and did some site work projects within our budget cap next year it is recommended that
014we do the Woodland roof at a cost estimate of 673 th000 of which $155,000 design work was already um commenced and and approved by the board that leaves $658,000 remaining so the $658,000 for the roof the 867,000 for the Middle School Renovations is a $ 1.5 million new Need for the 1516 budget these are critical needs if you uh in the Woodland roof in particular with was one that we were monitoring for a while it had a longer term Outlook as far as a need for a dress until last year's winter it it had a very uh tough toll on that roof it caused warping and it expedited the need for replacement well what happens if we don't do these construction measures and we take the philosophy to push it down the road immediately at
015the middle school the trailer that we sent down the turnpike to get rid of we're going to have to bring some back to accommodate students the annual cost for trailer rentals is is anticipated to be about 462,000 if we have to go back down to that road trailer rental for instructional classroom use is extremely inefficient and and it is certainly not a recommendation for administration to go that route at one point we had over 90 classroom trailers in the district uh we have gotten rid of all but about 10 of those the only remaining ones are at Barkley Brook and the Applegarth trailers we got rid of just recently so there is an urgency to do the Middle School Renovations other budget appropriation considerations curriculum has recommended to replace a math series for K to8
016which due to budget cuts has not occurred to stay current with the Common Core content standards this is imperative at a minimum of grade seven six s and8 um and accelerated program the cost of that $100,000 we will also need additional funds for Park Readiness and the onset of online courses to provide further opportunities for students I was unable to ascertain a cost for those two with Dr Gorman um and it's it's unclear if the state's going to give us more Park Readiness funding in the budget they did give us about 58,000 in the current year budget to help with that which was insufficient as part of the Middle School renovations if you create five new classrooms you're going to need an additional team an additional team of teachers is five and the total cost
017of five teacher salaries and benefits is $327,450 another consideration for the 1516 budget is just normal salary increases we have in the budget 2% uh in in 1415 for salary increases we're currently in negotiations with the mtea and I don't want to disclose any any content about that but just a 2% increase in salaries is a $1.2 million increase to the aggregate budget and health benefits the State Health Benefit Plan recently went up over 133% we have a private plan and we do much better because we can negotiate it ourselves and our increase for the 145 year was 8% and I'm anticipating that again next year that's a $1.6 million increase to the budget we are a uh a Personnel uh salary and benefit driven business the majority of our costs go towards salaries and
018benefits and uh with regard to benefits we are in full compliance with chapter 78 which is the requirement that employees make contributions toward health benefits we are now going into tier four of that for the 1415 school year which will be the maximum amount that's that uh individuals are going to pay up to 35% of their health benefit costs that has CED about $2.7 million a year from staff members to offset increasing health insurance costs the law was designed to give money back to the taxpayers but unfortunately the the result of this has been that all of the money collected through chapter 78 has only gone to Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield for their increases in health benefits which are uncontrolled at that level so no one's looking at the costs that are being passed
019through to the district just collecting from District employees es to make up for that in what was supposed to be a relief for the taxpayer but not has not materialized to that Transportation another uh large area of expenditure in the budget it is recommended that we replace some fleet for safety and enrollment growth four 54 passenger buses with cameras this is 396,000 316 passenger vans with camera those are not required but we're talking about vehicles with over 200,000 miles that are rusting and and in need of replacement uh also a versatrans uh e-link software program for $8,000 which would uh lead to more efficient routing and communication through um the busing and two additional contracted drivers for total cost of 66974 here's a summary of all of the immediate needs that are coming about in
0201516 construction 1.5 million curriculum minimum of $100,000 salaries related to the expansion of the Middle School directly related to growth $327,450 salary and benefit increases $28 million Transportation increases $669,500 for a grand total of $5.4 million well let's talk about the cap now for next year uh when the governor came out with limitations on the cap he said I'm capping your taxes at 2% well that's not the whole story what he meant was he's he's capping tax levy increases to additions of of 2% compared to the preceding year with some adjustments for enrollment in healthcare and pension ours went up about 3% but that has no correlation to your taxes at all taxes are mostly driven by ratables and uh to a lesser extent Appropriations so what people have seen is large tax increases that
021the cap really has not affected starts the calculation starts with the pre-budget year general fund tax levy there's an automatic adjustment for enrollment the state gives us a generous $20,000 for our 150 new students uh the adjusted pre-year Levy then gets multiplied by 2% to uh inflate it to 9,657 there's an adjustment for health care costs of about 500,000 that takes the general fund cap Levy to 91 million 157 and if we use the bank cap which carried over from 1213 where the board did not go to cap that would add another $239,999 so the maximum you could grow your tax levy in 1516 compared to 1415 is only $2.5 million our immediate needs are $5.4 million so obviously even going to cap we have a problem off the bat a challenge for administration not
022on like we had in in 145 where we're going to have to make some efficiency changes to existing programs and services to be able to fit that difference it is undetermined at that time what we're going to do we're going to have to wait for the budget guidelines to come out and see exactly how much revenues pan out but uh we are going to be fac with another challenge to go through the budget to make a list of all non-mandated programs and and consider those that would have the least impact on students and and recommend those to the board for potential cut let's talk about taxes a little further ratables are the most significant variable in determining the tax rate preliminary reports are that rable growth will be slightly higher in 1516 than 1415 what
023are ratables they are the property values throughout the district that share and pick up the burden of the tax levy as there's more sharing of the levy the rate inherently goes down my first year as a business administrator we had a $71 million decrease in ratables and that resulted automatically in a 5 A5 Cent increase to the budget without a dollar of Appropriations being added that's how important ratables are it's a double-edged sword and one extent we're getting the students we're having to deal with facility issues related to that but on the other hand it is it is assisting in in reducing the tax levy and this is important and we are very proud of the following um picture in the 1112 budget the average tax for the average assessed home in Monroe was a
024$316 increase for 1213 the average home incurred $145 increase in 1314 it was a 4 $2 increase and for 1415 the current year that we're in we had the first average home tax levy reduction in 17 years of $114 for an average assessed home now circumstances vary that's an average assessed home if you've lived in your home for a long period of time and you went through the reevaluation it's most likely you were undercharge for taxes for a period of time and now you're having an adjustment that's causing an increase but it is is 100% fair and defendable to say that the average home in Monroe had a tax decrease last year of $114 this is another slide that we're very proud of this shows the reduction in over adequacy spending in 1112 we spent
025$13.6 million above the state's adequacy model what is that that's where the state put together a think tank of individuals to come up with what it should cost to run an average school and they based that on a whole bunch of anticipated costs um special ed numbers and they came up with an average cost per pupil and they inflated to a degree for atrisk students and so on for 1112 we spent $13.6 million above that adequacy model for 1213 it dropped to under 8 million 1314 it dropped to about 6.9 million and in 1415 it would have dropped to under 5 million had the state used a consistent um model unfortunately with the limitation on the amount of money that they were going to give out in state aid they changed the model and froze
026your adequacy budget to the price year but compared it to your new Levy which caused everybody to increase and then be over adequacy and have limitations on categorical special ed aid but had they used a consistent method we calculated that it would have been under $5 million which shows a clear decreasing Trend in over adequacy spending if you look in our comprehensive annual financial report last year if you go back five years the per pupil costs in this District have increased under 2% each year there are very impressive efficiency standards that are being met in this district and and this isn't something you can do in one year this is a work in process and we continue um to make Trends in that area so based upon everything that I just presented it is administration's
027recommendations to dedicate all remaining Bond Surplus to tax relief and close the referendum as far as immediate construction needs it is recommended that the board proceed with the Monro Township Middle School stop Gap measures phase one and also replace the Woodland roof it is also recommended to keep current with the core content curriculum standards to have a textbook adoption added as related to the construction there will be an immediate need for a new Monro Township Middle School team this has been considered before because of the um number of students to teach a ratio but with new classrooms it's it's an absolute essential item now salary increases and benefit increases trust that this board has engaged in negotiations with the mtea more aggressively that they ever have in the past and that the outcome from that
028will benefit not only the students in the community but also the taxpayers and that's all I can say about that at this time because it's still confidential but the fact of the matter is you are a Personnel driven operation here and salary and benefit increases are to be expected transportation we need additional buses and vans and software and it is strongly recommended that the board authorize Administration to budget to stay within the constrictive state budget C cap we already have a multi-million dollar deficiency even going to cap that we're going to have to make adjustments and cuts for and create more efficiencies to accommodate to budget anything under cap with the increasing enrollment with the immediate capacity needs you have at your schools with the requirements for changing buses with the core content curriculum standards
029would be very hazardous um for future performance in the district thank you very [Music] much introduce you want to introduce I'll turn it back over you Madame President Madame President yes sir uh could I ask a question of Mr Gorski sure okay uh Mr Gorski in terms of the over adequacy spending I have some idea of what that involves but could you uh briefly just uh enumerate in some way uh what causes the over adequacy spending like what kind of things if we were not over adequate what kind of things would we be uh talking about not being able to do again adequacy is a model that's been created by the state and it creates what this Think Tank think think tank perceived to be an an adequate School District how much is an average
030teacher salary and benefits uh in that regard I will say that Monroe has a more senior staff than compared to most districts we have more teachers who are higher on the guide and therefore demand a higher salary than other school districts that's just demographic information so we are at a strong disadvantage there and that is a big contributor to why we're over adequacy there's a benefit to that of course students are getting a more educated teacher uh a more experienced teacher excuse me um in the classroom and that's why the guides are designed to to pay more over time um as you know special ed is another big area um about a third of our budget is spent on special education and when it was compared to the special education costs within the adequacy model
031we are far in excess of what the state considered for special education costs um and basically it's every other thing in this District in in the aggregate that is is above what the state put together in their model it could be uh gifted and talented programs it could be the million dollars of additional monies that we spend each year in transportation um because we have to provide transportation to students under the state requirements to walk because of infrastructure limitations um it could be due to you know in the past our our Reliance on portable classroom units uh Stadium lighting turf fields athletic programs all of these added together add to why we're over adequacy and again it's it's comparing your actual spending to this hypothetical State constructed model of what a school district should cost
032is it fair to say that uh any non-mandated programs fall into that over adequacy piece yes y okay yes um before we continue um I would like to just introduce our facilitator for the morning I was going to say evening Mr Alan nanat he's our Schoolboard field service representative and he's going to be facilitating the rest of this discussion you Michelle came late Michelle what kind of resolution cabinet accept Adra wouldn't wouldn't that be com after the discussion yes I want to do it now I at before we move on to the next agenda item oh yeah I know that [Music] okay Michelle first of all I'd like to apologize for being late we just drove 160 miles to be here cut our vacation short so I want to thank my husband for his community
033Spirit um the only question I had is the close referendum on could you just explain that please yes um when we built this High School thanks to Mr Tag's management this project was completed $8 million under budget and on time um if you look at other school districts Montgomery being one when they built their High School I think it Not only was it delayed but they spent more money than the referendum uh allowed so here we had $8 million left over from the sale of bonds which was uh upfront to fund the school's construction so the state law allows that $8 million either gets turned back as a reduction of principle by refinancing the bonds which again is Impractical in this interest rate environment be spent in accordance with the question that the voters approve
034with the referendum I'm talking about the actual ballot question or number three return to the taxpayers by reducing the amount of principle and interest that you will raise through The Debt Service tax levy in the next year and that's how we've been proceeding on an installment basis so not to overstimulate one year's budget by having a big tax reduction followed by uh the elimination of that Revenue Source in the next year causing you to raise more money and also there was an intelligent plan at the time to design these installments so that they coincide with our anticipated return to normaly with the ratables in town if the ratables are growing they will more than offset the lack of stimulus coming from the application of bond Surplus okay my my question means closed referendum means we're
035done with that we we don't have any more funds left yes ma'am and the reason that it was kept over uh this long was just to make sure that all warranties uh if we had any problems that came out of uh you know the operations in the first few years were covered by warranty that the contractors lived up to that if not we had some Reserve uh to make sure that the the function was maintained um and and for any unforeseen uh things that may come up that are again in accordance with the question also you know we've had some some growth issues that have required a little bit of expansion um again still in accordance with the question and approved by B Council that is an appropriate use of money for that lockers is
036a perfect example you know we had to expand the Lockers in the school because um what we had initially wasn't enough so some Bond referend of money was used for that not much but the Lion Share is going back to the taxpayers but but we don't have any more bond funds left right we we have less than 250,000 so basically it has all been returned and now it's just the formality of closing everything out and giving the residual remainder back okay okay thank you so at at this time what we would need to do is um have a a motion and a second to I I yeah well we'll have a discussion we need to have a motion and it's a second to approve the um administration's recommendation to go to cap for next year's
037budget then we can have a discussion on the budget philosophy so would anybody like to make that motion to go to cap make a motion make a motion that we go to C next year yes sir um May I actually read the entire uh recommendation resolution um it is recommended to the members of the Monro Township Board of Education um that the budget philosophy be established to number one dedicate all remaining Bond Surplus to tax relief and close the referendum number two to include the construction projects of the Monro Township stop Gap measures as delineated on the slide es design costs and Woodland roof replacement to accept the curriculum recommendations for new textbook adoption to include an additional Monro Township Middle School team to include Transportation additional requirements and to stay within the state's constrictive
038budget cap miss an Tellis do you still make that motion is there a second second by Mr Braverman now we can open it up for discussion to the board members Mr noin I'm going to have a hard time seeing you the story of my life I just and today we're going to do it a little bit more informal I'll just call you by your first name so that would be Saturday morning I I just have a question on the uh the enrollment um last year's meeting we had estimated 600 students over three years so we averaged 200 per year and we were based on a course a cost of 15,500 last year now I realize that our costs per pupil have been has been going down as as Mr Gorski has told me um how
039accurate was that 200 student uh increase last year I know we're at 6,217 uh as of last uh headcount and I know in October you get the real accurate headcount but let's just go based on that 6,27 number where Did We Stand uh as an enrollment gain from September 1 to June [Music] 30th comparing the October 15th Assa application for state school aid report from October 15th um 13 to 12 we increased 188 students over a five-year Trend we have averaged 200 additional students a year over those last five years so now we're only estimating 150 going forward yes I think that's conservative but I will never put a number out there that I can't defend this I can tie right to an enrollment study and say this is where I got the data from
040um I wouldn't at all be surprised if that number turns into another 188 or somewhere around around there um our general fund is 91 million based on the calculation of 15,000 per student our general fund should be 93 million I'm not quite sure how we can correlate the fact that an additional 150 students equals 2.7 million when it really probably doesn't equal that that uh that's a general accent that's been provided it's not included in the resolution it's not a cost that you could really nail down but it is fair to say that if you're anticipating x amount of new students and your average cost per pupil is 15,000 or in that vicinity that there is an extreme requirement for anticipated costs well in excess of $2 million on the district um that is a
041fair use of Statistics to present the cost relationship to increasing enrollment I mean the reason I bring that up is because that's a big number and I know last year we basically used that number to say that's without even any addition to the budget we need to go to cap I'll share with you what my father told me when we first got married kids are expensive you know increasing enrollment puts an extreme Demand on the budget and um that may not hit all one year maybe they can be absorbed in the classroom maybe you won't have to hire a new teacher maybe you won't have to buy new buses maybe you won't have to expand the facilities um but on average it's fair to say that a student costs approximately $155,000 and that's not even
042considering um a special ed component to this where special ed per pupil costs are well into the $30,000 per pupil this is just a figure based upon uh a general fund regular program average um okay thanks Mike I know you did a lot of work on this and it's it's much appreciated so thank you thank you and the other thing too is our special ed population is about 16% which is way higher than the the average school district in um New Jersey so you would assume that out of that 150 new children that 16% of them would be have special education needs so that that's in itself could take up most of that money anyone else Mr presio or my understanding now that we don't vote on going to cap it's just Mo Anthony can
043you please speak into the microphone uh we're not voting to go to cap anymore it's just a recommendation Madam yes as as part of the development of a budget philosophy uh there is a a motion on the floor to go to cap to produce a 1516 budget to live within the cap allowing for a $2.5 million expansion of the budget to deal with all of the previously mentioned demands that are new we were had finance and we discussed maybe going to cap but we would not include state aid because we never know what state aid is going to come out to be that is true I talked about that a bit if you were to construct a budget that was $2.7 million less because you uh did not anticipate state aid and then in in
044most probability the state aid award came in in line with the previous year you would then have to do a major overhaul of the budget to include um programs and services that are being carried over instead of on a cut list um from the previous year um I will say this as far as you know programs and services that are within the budget um I think conditions now are ripe to go through the budget and um for administration to do a value assessment on programs and services a cost benefit relationship and with with a new Administration coming into place you know maybe take the The District in a slightly different direction that way we were talking about reviewing programs and seeing attendance and what's working what's not so we need to see that we need
045to somehow save money what we do is keep on going forward you know Madam there's there's one perception that um you know we'll spend as much as we can spend uh I hope I've demonstrated that we're not going to the cap for the sake of going to cap to expand the budget to as much as we can to be the biggest spender uh there are there are very very big demands upon this District um if the construction's not done at the middle school to expand for the enrollment that's coming trailers are coming back that's a requirement and that won't be a board discussion that'll be something that we have to immediately get into because it's an emergency type thing um if we don't replace the Woodland roof after the beating that it took last last
046uh year here you're going to have leakage you're going to have um a compromise of the Integrity of the system you're going to have mold indoor air quality issues you don't expand the transportation Fleet we could put a van with some Rust and over 200,000 miles on the road but that's going to lead to um Panic situations when it's stuck on the side of the road very expensive Towing you know rescuing of children and putting them on another bus late to school administration is the one responsible for managing all of the schools operations I believe they're managed very well and have been and in order to keep them managed in that capacity what I presented to you is what's needed for next year in order to keep the district that uh going to cap cost
047us 2.5 million right going to cap will expand the general fund tax levy by 2.5 million correct and we used 2.5 million from the bond last year correct so we're actually we're going to need more money an important consideration for that is the bond money did not go into the budget in terms of expanding programs and services all it did was reduce the amount of taxes that you would have to raise through the community it was not a fortification of the budget for additional Appropriations and spending it was simply a reduction of how much money you're going to have to go to the taxpayers for we're also looking to take over Basque do we know the revenue that they produce and will it cost us to expand by another building and more office space um
048couple about a year and a half ago um the board asked for basically a projection of what the bask program brings in based upon the enrollment that we know and um and an estimate of the varying services that they provide because it's not x per pupil uh it's a whole poy of services and it could be a varying uh amount of money per student um we also estimated the expenses and I feel comfortable that if the bass program was to be brought inhouse that it would be a profitable endeav uh I put an estimate up there between 200 and 300,000 a year yes and as far as the program expansion I do not believe it would require any programs or any um infastructure to be expanded to H host it because right now Basque is
049using our facilities to conduct their program and if we were just replacing their program presumably it would sit it would still fit within our uh our capacities because you had mentioned you want to incorporate more education into these programs are we going to be hiring more people more teachers no uh it will come from the hiring of um the staff to run the program but we will include a a curriculum element that will teach um in conjunction with caring for do you want to explain a little bit about how the budget is created and the budget defense rounds and yes because that would probably help the board who is not familiar with that process and probably the public briefly the budget begins um in about September October um after the philosophy meeting has been determined
050and an Administration has a a a parameter to go ahead with we meet with uh the principles and we ask that the principles prepare zerob based budgets and if you're unfamiliar with that term that means start from scratch take your current enrollment your projected enrollment numbers for the next year and determine how many staffing needs you're going to have how many supplies you're going to need and construct a new budget from scratch principles are emphasized that they have to defend these budgets to Administration who goes through them with a great deal of um cynicism and there's inherent cuts and revisions that have to be made and then the principles come back with a refined needs not want based budget then over winter break I I uh take back all of the schools budgets and I
051consolidate them into a districtwide budget U also taking into consideration uh Staffing increases throughout the board uh energy costs Transportation costs a lot of the fixed costs which Define the budget and then we get the state aid award um that that defines some of the revenues a little more clearly and then we generally have a budget that's overcap um by about2 to3 million in the past it was $45 million which we have to make the list of non-mandated cuts as I said before go through and management who understands how a cut will affect programs and services makes the recommendations to the board to make those cuts and presents a preliminary budget there's there's a great deal of care professionalism and expertise that goes into the budget creation thank you and the taxpayer is always considered
052throughout the entire process and um that won't cease Tom another question um I know at the finance committee meeting um Mr Gorski mentioned that we had a very efficient budget last year so therefore our Surplus will be less going forward for the for the next budget round um I didn't see an impact of that on the on the uh the slides is that accurate yes um thanks for bringing that up we calculated inhouse what our excess Surplus calculation is for the year ended June 34 an excess Surplus is simply calculation of revenues in excess or not measuring up to the amount that was in the budget plus the amount of appropriation spending compared to what you had in the budget so if you recognize more revenues than you had in the budget that adds to
053excess Surplus if you had a shortfall because of tuition not being collected or things like that you would have a shortfall in revenues that would take away from excess Surplus um we rarely spend the full amount of Appropriations that are budgeted for in the budget because um we we take a a special interest in procurement throughout the year and um you know we create a great deal of budget efficiencies through purchasing and and consortiums and so on to save money so for the year-ended 145 we had about a $4 million excess Surplus calculation which will carry over into 1516 that is a million dollar less than the excess Surplus from the 13 I'm sorry the 1415 budget what does that mean the excess Surplus carryover to the budget being a million dollars less means that
054you have a a constriction of the budget with this carried over money of a million dollar so in addition to having a $2.7 million uh shortfall in anticipated revenues and Appropriations we will also be making um some some um eliminations of programs and services to afford that million dollars less to spend um also on the Basque projection um I realize it's just a projection but you mentioned 3 to 350,000 does that take into consideration is that above the 100,000 that they're already paying us is that in other words is that an increase or uh is that the actual amount that you're anticipating that's the actual amount we're anticipating if you knock off the 100 you know it's uh it's 100 less it's a very rough estimate sure um but what you should take out of
055this is that we have an opportunity to please the board and create an in-house proprietary fund for before and after school care program that would potentially better serve the students with an educational element that's um yet to be chosen and we'll also create a um a an income that could use to offset taxes or anything else so so the bottom line is if we had no additional construction costs if we had no additional costs whatsoever if we had no teacher increase in in pay basically our enrollment growth alone would really necessitate us going to cap is that your uh expert yes sir opinion the enrollment growth alone necessitates the cap many districts are having great difficulty just budgeting to cap uh accounting for salary and benefit increases and just normal operations we're doing that and
056we're fixing roofs we're renovating buildings we renovated the appleg guard school years ago um and we're doing all that within cap which inherently proves a great efficiency in operation if we didn't go to cap and if we actually couldn't make these cuts the next progression would be a referendum that would have to go to the voters for any increases over cap is that correct I don't believe so I think if we did not make the Middle School renovation the next immediate step would be trailer procurement I think there you would immediately need trailers you couldn't just pack that many kids in there any longer so I again I think the immediate decision here is to uh do the Middle School Renovations as recommended or get trailers thank you Michelle uh is is the enrollment increase
057an exception to the cap however um it is a ex they they give you um a 2% tax levy increase over the preceding Year's Levy and then they allow for adjustments for there's an automatic adjustment for enrollment um Monroe had about a $14,000 cap expansion in in 1415 for enrollment I don't know what you're going to do with that but that's what it was last year now I think in this slide I estimated at 20 or $30,000 said 20 but it's uh it's minuscule as far as affording any more room for enrollment the state does their own trend line analysis based upon uh their asssa and they come up with that limitation and you have to live within it so can and and you may not be able to answer this is there is there
058a way so what would be the difference between what they gave us the minimal 20,000 and your an 150 enrollment projection how much difference it's like what did you say a $3 million millions millions millions so they're giving us 20,000 for an enrollment increase when St the state is not helping with enrollment um the the burden from the enrollment falls on the taxpayers um that's why we should be going to zoning and boarding meetings but anyway U not boarding planning board meetings and zoning board meetings because that's where we're getting it from um the The Basque you're is that an Enterprise would that be an Enterprise budget yes and then it would go into proprietary fund yes so are we allowed to take Surplus from that and put it into the general budget yes we
059are we are yes so we can but is there a limit to the percentage of profit we can take unlike the cafeteria fund there is not oh okay cuz that's the only thing I was I had an experience about and I thought that we would be limited to take the profit from the cafeteria fund which receives Federal monies is limited but not these funds so anything so we can use this as a profit making yes Enterprise okay yes but the um the the budget would would there would the budget be taking all of the teachers and everything that we would have to hire and benefits out of that budget first or would would the teachers be going into the general cost of employees you know what I'm saying are we separate if you have the
060Basque program are we separating out all the costs with the teachers and their benefits from that budget or not yes the uh The Basque program would not be included in the general fund budget whatsoever okay it has its separate uh chart of accounts it has its separate fund and it's accounted for completely separately benefits and all salaries and benefits absolutely yes so that anything beyond that would be a we would be able to use say yes same as the mecca fund right now everything is completely segregated and separate from the general fund with the exception of one loan of monies for seed to start the operation years ago and how would and we would be calculating the cost and use of the building in in that budget or would it be in the in the
061general budget for B the building would be the facilities used would be depreciated in the uh The Basque fund it's self okay all costs associated with that endeavor would be captured within that fund okay thank you anyone else have questions well it in looking at it it appears that we we have to fix the roof you know we can't ignore that or we're going to have even higher cost um the middle school is at capacity and I recall having walked through the middle school at some point last year when it was in session and seeing how crowded uh most of those classrooms were uh so we need to create some additional classroom space there I don't think we have a choice um the k to8 math program uh I I this is just a personal
062note but I took some time uh after the curriculum commit committee meeting the other night and the following day I went on to the website and uh as a former math teacher I was curious in terms of those park tests and so I took the sample test at the eighth grade and was a bit shocked at what students were going to be you do Doug responsible for and then I decided I would take the algebra 1 which all students will be taking this coming year and the algebra 1 Park test I sent an email to Jeff Gorman saying you better get a big supply of tissues because you're going to have a lot of kids crying during that test there were items on that test uh that Algebra 2 students would have difficulty with uh
063so what I'm saying is I don't think we have a choice in terms of replacing uh or updating our math curriculum K to8 because there's just been radical changes there in terms of uh what kids are expected to know how to do uh and the the program that we probably have in place presently is not up to that uh up to that preparation uh salary increases health benefits uh you know we we we I don't think it's realistic to well the health benefits we really don't have much control over and salary increases in my opinion it's it's not realistic to say that we we uh are are not going to have any salary increases the only place uh so what I'm saying is all of those things not including the additional students that are coming
064in all of those things when I add it up that that comes to over $3 million which is more than the cap growth that we're allowed so just in terms of the things we need even if we didn't have any student growth exceeds what we're allowed to do under cap and and and and these are not in my opinion these are not things on a wish list these are Necessities uh it it's and it's Necessities in a district that is not necessarily experiencing student growth because I've taken that out of the picture um I do have one question though it and it's only a small part of this because it's $327,000 it says that there would be in an a need for an additional uh team at the middle school um and that that requires
065uh five additional teachers uh help me to understand that a little bit better wh why is it that those those kids couldn't simply be uh uh uh uh uh couldn't be sorted out to the to the teams that are already in existence because the teams that are already in existence um have a less than ATT TRC Ive pupil to teer ratio right now there was a request for an additional team in the 1415 budget that did not get through the defense rounds and in speaking with the very fine principal Sher Shanley and um Dennis villo superintendent there's a need for an additional team even without the expansion of additional classroom space so this is a conservative addition to staff under the circumstances some of those class Doug already have over 30 kids in the class
066yeah I I know there I I was shocked at how crowded the classrooms were and even the physical limitations of the classrooms obviously you know is a detriment when you think about it because they're not that large uh so over 30 you know and some of us may think that okay that you know well we can go higher Etc but you know after a while is that then learning is ineffective as we know based upon the numbers teacher and student ratio any more questions comments you know before before we just end the session is I just want to recognize Mike absolutely I'm sorry I just want to recognize as far as you know what Mike his presentation it was actually a combination of of the business end but also as the superintendent and um making
067up obviously for for my lack of experience in this position but I can say this is that uh Mike is such a professional guy and you should just know this is the fact that he pours over this information his presentation is so factual very professional very knowledgeable and it's indicative of obviously who he is as your board secretary and you should just know that um everything that he presents to you is very factual and it's based upon obviously information that he gets either from the administrators the principls uh from all the different sources uh who better than he then obviously that knows the history financially of the district I can say this is that and I would just like to share this I understand full well I guess and maybe because of the fact that
068I'm using my position as a short termer uh to say this I understand that there's need from the community as far as you know we're looking for fiscal responsibility how can we increase um uh the programs or maybe as far as accommodating you know the kids that are coming on board and you do have that but at the same time how can we restrain ourselves as far as making sure that the taxes don't go up that we're not spending money foolishly Etc the best that you can do then is to work together as a board with the administration with Mike um and with the building principles and a new superintendent as you come on board is then to have those honest conversations about okay what what can we do uh because I think that if
069you felt that there was some satisfaction maybe taking a look at some of the programs and cutting back some expenses you might feel better about the fact that obviously you still have to provide the education for those kids that are coming on board we know I guess if you had to somehow um compare the district maybe to your own household we know is the fact that obviously is as you plan the mortgage the pay the bills the utilities this and that build an addition accommodate the kids is that you have a certain set of expenses everything becomes a little bit um held to Skelter only because of the fact that obviously if Aunt Sally or Grandma comes and you have nieces and nephews or maybe you have an addition to the family and that's basically
070our enrollment we're not maintaining the enrollment is still going up Monroe is still a very thriving community and I think you would get that information either from the school boards from yourselves uh from Administration is the fact that you have to deal with that enrollment and provide those educational programs that's your job at the same time there's nothing wrong with then asking for some fiscal accountability from the administration or from the superintendent or from Mike Etc but I think it's really important is the fact that you understand is that there's there's nothing underhanded in the developing of a budget there's uh certainly it's it's altruistic it's idealistic you have to move forward because of the fact that you are a growing Community you need to work with each other is what you need to do
071and have a sense of trust and ask those questions with honest agendas is what you really need to do and again good job Mike and I think Mike has shown um that fiscal responsibility because I we had a presentation the other day about Verizon and how many years it took to um get a what did we get back a I don't know how much money but um we got back money from Verizon but it took a lot of work a lot of hard couple years to get that money back so he's doing everything he possibly can in the board office to look for efficiencies or inefficiencies that can be fixed and ways to enhance our budget um just an idea Michael and thank you for all the work you do and I mean you low
072our Co you lowered our costs a ton of times but uh getting back to the Basque program when we rented the space for the pupil Services how much are we paying a year for that I think though we came up with a cost of about 17 18,000 annually for those trailers this is just a thought today off sell the building TOS your pardon were we able to buy that building by any chance Anthony which which building that where pup service is now oh okay I I gave you wrong information the uh monthly rent for that facility that we are now hosting special services in is about $5,600 a month uh was there a an offer to buy yes we could have purchased the building um however there's some there's some uh ramifications of that that
073did not allow management to recommend that to the board number one we check with legal counsel and because there are other tenants in that building um there was a very awkward situation where the Board of Education would become landlords and engaging in those rental activities which according to our Council go beyond the scope of what we're entitled to do as a tax exempt School District my thought was since we're taking over Basque and they were going to make a profit and that's separate that would be separate from the Board of Ed or we would be running that program that that would be ours we're running a business aren't we yes sir so to buy the building would not be feasible and put them there so we wouldn't have to waste space we're going to spend
074two a, 500,000 to expand the rooms in the Middle School yes that that's for enrollment uh student enrollment in the school that's that's irrelevant from um the Bas consideration but but but Basque is not occupying any classrooms during the school day that's an after school program right correct so it's it's not requiring any additional space that's correct it's before and after school so they use those facilities but not during the day yes anyone else so seeing none oh Tom just a question on the vote um is this required a uh a majority simple majority or do we need six full board no a majority of the members present just like the budget okay so seeing none we will have a uh roll call Mr proso no Mr Po yes Mr nosin yes Mr zareski yes
075Mr Braverman yes Mr armenio before I vote I just like to briefly say I'm I'm very distressed at having um knowing the numbers this is not a um an indictment I I think Mr gorsky's done a great job and the administration does as best as they can um but I'm I'm concerned about the growth in the community and how we are compelled to adjust to that growth and put the burden on the taxpayers I think uh certainly the curriculum is necessary anything that has to do with the educational process and and transportation is completely necessary but um at least for this year I can't I am I I can't vote for going to cap so my vote is no and I apologize for that because it's not something um uh it's it's it's very difficult
076but I think I'm I have to do it so sorry no so noted Miss anelis yes Mrs kpano yes madame board president motion passes thank you and I just like to um add to Michelle's concerns about the the zoning board and and the planning board because the board of education does not get involved with Township political issues um they it's the Township's creation of the of the master plan of how this this Township is supposed to look that we do not get involved with them and I'm sure we would be they appreciate that we don't have that input and I'm sure we appreciate them not being involved in Board of Education business we have had I know I have I know Mr Gorski has has met with the mayor and the council to discuss the
077um the issues of the how the development of this community affects the school board um we also know that we have they have added the township a former member of the board of education on the zoning board we also have a current member of the Board of Education who is on the planning board so we hope that that input is um helpful to get everybody on board as to what we can do to this town and how that increase of student population and the school board and the increase or decrease of taxes affects the the community and and the taxpayers so um I I agree that there should be um we there should be be in input as to zoning and uh planning board well Michelle I'd just like to finish that my only disagreement
078with you is that we are citizens of this community and even though as a board member I I agree with your position we certainly can't have influence however as a citizen of the community it's it's the big picture that we all have to be concerned with and thus um the reason for my decision and I and I agree with you as a citizen we can attend Council meetings Board of planning board whatever as a Board of Education meeting we don't a person we don't have that that right to do that so um let's go back to the agenda and we have Madame President yes Mr bo uh I move we take a five minute recess before we go on to the next phase hey is there a second to that second all in favor oppose
079I guess everybody's taking the recess we'll make it minutes okay the board will reconvene into public session after that recess and I'm going we are now going to be discussing District goals and I'm going to turn this over to our inter superintendent Mr vello Dennis call you Dennis well yeah I think so was this sent to us don't we get oh going to say can you use the microphone I cuz I wrote it down you busy okay you giving a presentation at that [Music] time couple of the district goals as as I introduced um and it's Alfred anada correct is that correct and Al Al Al is Saturday from the school boards it's Saturday from the school boards Association and he can give us an overview as far as the development and the establishment of
080the district goals Al right thank you Dennis uh good morning everyone thank you for having me and New Jersey school boards in um a little bit about uh myself and then I want to give you a quick update on what's happening at your organization New Jersey school boards um as Dennis said my name is Al Nuna a I am a uh retired uh School administrator I am superintendent for 10 years shared superintendent for two years Middle School principal Elementary School principal high school vice principal director of special services teacher and Coach um everything but Mike's job I have not been a ba so um I have a lot of do you know that we have a position open for a superintendent uh I heard that yes and New Jersey school boards wants me to stay
081I don't know I didn't uh so uh bottom line is um I can offer you some suggestions from my experience uh my territory as a field service rep is the entire County of Bergen we have 77 districts and three Charter Schools I additionally have three other districts outside of Bergen so I have 80 districts 60 UH 60 to 65 are regular users so I'm in a lot of districts on a regular basis and I want to commend uh the board uh for the way in which you conducted yourselves as a group and how thoughtful and focused you were in terms of understanding what you were deciding on today um I thought it was an excellent process I want to commend you for it I have to tell you I don't always see that kind of
082thoughtfulness and courtesy and respect and I have to tell you that that presentation that Mike I've seen hundreds of these and that might be the best one that I've ever seen so you guys are in excellent shape in terms of that so I want to say that right up front um what we're going to do today and I want to start with just a little bit about school boards I gave you some handouts there's a little card that says save the date that's our uh annual workshop and in case you did not know we're having our 100th anniversary we actually already technically had it in April um but we're going to celebrate it uh in Atlantic City um we invite you to come and we have lots of great programs uh if you need training
083mandatory training either gov two for your second year three for your third year year or four for the first term of your second first the first year of your second term they will all be available on the 30th the last day Thursday uh in the in the late morning early afternoon we advise you to get it in person it will be available online beginning September 1st we've been put we've actually shut that down for a couple of months because we are redoing it all uh so that will be available and while I'll tell you it's good online it's much better in person I think the opportunity to interact with with other board members and and our staff makes it much richer uh for those of you that have go one training coming if you're a
084new board member I highly highly recommend you go to new board member orientation we will have two of those we resurrected them we used to do them all the time uh we got away from it uh partly because of the state regulations in terms of funding and we didn't want to uh really have to have the school boards pay so what we did uh was we got grant money and ran one weekend two years ago two weekends last year it's in the first week I believe in January and then the midweek in March it's a Friday night all day Saturday Sunday morning it is the Cadillac of training that we do at New Jersey school boards it is terrific I've been at three of them since I've been with school boards which is two years
085and uh it's just a terrific program um it's no cost to your board and uh it's a great it's a great way to start off um if you can't do that we also offer gov one uh for a Saturday a full Saturday at various places around the state so um you can check our calendar for that as well the other two sheets I wanted to bring to you uh one is about negotiations I heard you speaking about negotiations are coming up we have two training sessions we're offering in September and October on negotiations and then the other one is Advanced spsm we ran this last year for the first time in several years the same day we advertised it was over subscribed uh we extended the registration uh enrollment and ran it and then we
086ran a second one and that was immediately filled so we wanted to start the school year in September off by offering Advanced boardmember 27th and I recommend that to to uh any board member who's been on the board for any period of time it's a great way to kind of get some tuneups um I think that's about everything from school board's perspective uh what I'd like to do now is uh really um oh there is one other thing and I mentioned it to Mike and and Dennis and Kathy as well uh our advocacy group is looking for representatives from Boards of Education there's 21 of them in the state we've identified that would be willing to participate on an an advocacy group to work with the legislators about funding schools that have an increased spike
087in enrollment you are the only District in Middle sex County that's on that list of the 21 um so we would like to invite you to do that and if you are okay with it I will give your name Kathy as a contact person to Sharon cesler who's our advocacy person setting that up because it would be a great way for your board to have even a higher voice we think with the legislators in terms of funding for districts that are seeing a a tremendous spike in enrollment okay all right goal setting if you can shift to just kind look to the right there we're we're going to go through this and by the way I have packets for you that have uh not only the handouts from this PowerPoint but additional information so if
088you want to take notes it's fine but you you'll have everything that I'm going to speak speak about today we talk about uh data informed decisions as opposed to data driven it's good to look at data and information and then decide how it could influence you not necessarily how it would drive you so um setting goals why would you want to set goals well here's a few reasons why we think it's a great idea first of all it's good for policymaking and as you know that's one of the main functions of the board is is is revising and editing policy secondly allocation of resources I think you heard that from Mr gorski's presentation earlier um once you have a plan in place you have to figure out how to provide the resources and funding um
089and allocation of resources a way to go uh planning of programs deciding on what you're going to run and how you're going to run it um a board self- evaluation is also another option and while it's not required under qac anymore I strongly suggest that boards complete an annual self- evaluation all of our materials are online you can do that uh you can do it just as you do with a superintendent's evaluation and then uh Miss Miss Thorton who I'm pinch hitting for by the way um will gladly come in and and and review that with you um boards hold themselves accountable so uh a self-evaluation is a great way to see what needs the board may have at any particular time and to work towards continuous Improvement the uh fourth area there is effective
090communication it is essential in any effective District that communication exists on all levels board member to board member board member to Administration Administration to each other Administration to supervisors and and staff staff with students staff with staff so you can see effective communication is a critical piece excuse me accountability I've already spoken about and I've already spoken about continuous Improvement we like to talk about a systems approach we look at different components or aspects that when put together in the right sequence and the right timing provide you with a process That's essential for planning implementing and then evaluating your programs and your budget and your goals so we're going to we're going to look at this in a very simplified manner um if you look at 11 o'clock oops sorry hit the wrong button if
091you look at 11 o'clock here um I'm going to move up I can't do that without the mic all right we'll see if I can do it from a distance uh goal setting is at 11 o'clock and that's what we're really doing tonight that's why I want to start with that one we're going to talk about a little bit about the differences in goals people use the term goals interchangeably but we actually talk about District goals separately from board goals separately from CSA goals and then you have another level which are called Merit goals if you so choose to do that with your superintendent if you move to 1:00 the next step in that process is developing action plans for those goals um as you know when you set District goals each year which you've
092done you turn those over to your Administration and your superintendent and his administrative team create action plans uh that's usually done anytime between July and September you would then hold the superintendent accountable for progress towards those action plans as part of his evaluation it's required by Statute every year that the board evaluate a superintendent and one of those areas has to be on progress towards District goals if you move to 3:00 the reporting out process this is where many districts stop stumble uh it's very important to set set times that you're going to have the District administration report out on progress towards District goals we suggest you do it every quarter since you'll see November January and March and of course at the end of the year as well uh when you're doing the evaluation
093process you can do it more frequently you can do it verbally you can do it in writing or a combination of those whatever you and your Administration decides is the way to go that that's a critical component and then the last item at the bottom uh at 6:00 or second to last item uh it says you begin the evaluation process and that is uh the board as you know has one employee of all the people that are here and that you actually are employers for you really only have one employee and that's a superintendent and that superintendent is the only person the board evaluates and through the superintendent and his team he will evaluate every other person in the district so what it is important it is statutory the state changed the date last year
094it used to be April 30th forever and they changed it now to to June 30th so that must be done by that period of time um we recommend because of that time change that the superintendent input the data in our system if you use our system and I know you have April or May then the board do their input in May then you have the board discussion with the CSA conference in June particularly before June 15th and then written summary and then you once you have signatures you're on your way and that's a requirement not only of qac but of the state state regulation State Statute um a little later I'm going to talk about one of the other changes they made for the professional development plan for superintendent but at this point I want
095to continue with the cycle and then the last one is at 9:00 and that's your board self AOW and we spoke about that a little earlier here's another uh similar way to look at this um you start with 11:00 that's the Baseline information your enrollment which you've talked a lot about today your environment your student outcomes and then if you look to 1:00 it's resources funding facilties Staffing and then you look to 4:00 and it's programs and practices that's the way in which the vehicle in which you you uh Implement your programs and then the final area uh is in the dark print is your outc should be improved student outcomes so you look at test scores graduation post High School Success Etc and you see the cycle continues so boards always say what what
096can we use for data when we do goals well here's a here's a list I have two pages actually of of data items the first one uh we suggest is your school performance report uh it's extensive the state provides that for you you have to input information throughout the year for it it's a good way to get a lot of information in one place proprietary assessments and that would be any assessments that the district uses that's not required by the state uh benchmark assessments in-house assessments um vendor assessments that you use to examine student achievement enrollment projections which you've already spoken about extensively today graduation and Higher Education data staff community and student input and qac Report uh whether you're going through qac as a three-year cycle or you're using your uh statement of assurance
097which is done annually there's data in there that help you decide on district and board goals and then the final item on this page is the nclb waiver requirements if it applies to you and then the other items the other four that we we talk about are suspension and uh discipline data this this speaks to your school culture absentee rates for staff and students as in case you don't know the state now requires you to track that and return that information to them and then your violence and vandalism report which you know that you've done annually for quite a period of time now and then your your Hib reports which are done twice a year once in January and once in July so there's many sources of information that will help you determine where your
098needs are uh in terms of instruction uh core benchmark standards are listed here I won't read those to you I think they're pretty straightforward and the state also requires for districts that have a school considered a priority school or a focus school they're required to apply these turnaround principles uh many effective districts and many highly effective districts I work in use one or more of these in terms of their own management so goal development let's talk a little bit about the different goals if you look to the far left the green one that's the board goals the board goals are really two areas it's how you operate and your procedures so it's process and procedures how you run your meetings how you set up your committees how you interact how effective are you as a
099board and that's all really measured through your board self- evaluation we have a very detailed process with that we we ask you to look at yourself in nine specific areas that the board's responsible for if you look underneath the larger circles District goals almost every other goal will be a district goal this is programs student achievement instruction staff professional development which is your vehicle to grow facilities and finance so any other area would fit into a district goal area now District goals are determined by the board the board determines the what once you've identified them and you've discussed them you vote on them once you pass them you will do two things you will post them on your website and you will hand them to the administration so they can then write the action plans
100because while the board's responsible for the what the administration's responsible for the how everybody owns District goals the board the administration the staff the students the parents the community everyone needs to be on board with District goals board goals again are separate the board is suggested and we recommend that you also post your board goals online but also write action plans for them now the administration wouldn't do this this would be done by the board but my feeling is and what I've seen in districts is um if you uh failed to plan you plan to fail so just having a goal and then posting it and looking at it 10 11 months later and deciding did we do it when you hadn't even talked about it throughout the year pretty much is going to guarantee
101uh non-achievement um I I I liken uh checking in on goals as a doctor would uh a doctor doesn't do an autopsy to find out how the patient's doing you you would want to check in periodically to do that you don't wait till the patients has passed uh CSA goals are developed by the CSA there could be a result of the board self of the board's evaluation of the superintendent or the the superintendent's ideas of goals that they want to do that are personal and professional and then Merit goals or options if you in fact are going to um seek a new superintendent you're going to develop a contract with them if you decide to do Mir goals you must have it in the contract it doesn't mean you have to do mer goals but
102during the course of that contract term three four or five years if it's not in the contract you cannot Implement ceric goals so all it does is give you an option by having it in once it's in you can decide with that superintendent annually whether or not you want to have goals how many and for how much how much uh dollar amount and miracles honestly are really extensions uh if they're done right they're very meaningful they're very valuable and they're above and beyond the job description of the superintendent and they're above and beyond the district goals so what do we want to consider when we get to goal setting first your District mission statement what's in that that's your underlying principles of how the district operates your strategic plan and Gwen did share that with
103me so I've seen your work on your strategic plan data we've already spoken about and then previous goals how did you do in last year's goals so essential questions you want to think about I'll give you a chance to read these now if you read those you'll see a theme they're very Broad and they're very basic kinds of questions but they're appropriate for the board as you know one of the other board's functions besides policy is oversight and I like to tell boards that you really need to be looking at things through a telescope broad view far away that's your role you're a state agency as a board of educ ation and your job is to be involved in oversight but not in the details from a from a distance the staff's job is to
104look at things under a microscope CL close and the superintendent gets the opportunity to do both he or she has to look at things sometimes through a microscope and other times big picture through the telescope here here's your goals your District goals from last year you had three and we recommend that you always have three to five depending on the board's needs at that time and and the district's needs uh one of which always has to be and you can certainly have more student achievement so if I could um kind of get a sense on two things from you as a board and also from the administration how did you do on these goals last year where they achiev D was there progress made no progress made and then the second part of the question
105is does the board want to continue them doesn't mean you're going to I just need to know if you're considering it because when we get to the next step of the goal setting process I need to know if these are going to be on the list at all as possibilities okay so the first one to adopt a strategic plan implement the goals articulate articulate in the plan over the 20134 school year sure well we had a strategic plan but I'm I'm not sure how how often we reviewed it and implemented it right so you're it's unknown from your perspective correct um no I think I mean we we talked about it but I I don't know if we''ve our Al if I may also yes please address Michelle's concern as well too I think the
106Strategic plan as was left by Dr Hamilton up I need that microphone if I may take that sorry can take it up okay the Strategic plan uh is on the website as a matter of fact and that throughout the course of the year I know that Dr Hamilton worked with the various administrators uh we all were assigned various committees I think matter of fact we even I think we even met on a Saturday so we had some times where we met based upon the committee's uh expected outcomes we met with the the Committees the members those members Etc were probably parents Community residents Etc so those committees were ongoing throughout the year Michelle might not have been aware of that I was on well what was your committee be I was on the Strategic plan
107committee and then I and then after the election as a as a civilian so as a but we're talking about this as a board to adopt a strategic plan no we're talking about did there was an action plan written for that goal and my question is was the action plan achieved was there progress made or was there no progress made so was there any movement in that area yes there there was there was some yeah yeah I think there was some progress made Dr Hamilton had given us an update on the Strategic plan and those that had been able to been implemented at certain times through the next 5 years because it's a fiveyear plan were implemented now my second go ahead just a question uh would uh even though we have very small members
108of the public here today uh some of those some of the members of the public that are here were involved in some of that strategic plan work uh is it inappropriate if they should want to comment on that at this meeting at this point yes they could comment on in public forum oh okay so I'm I'm hearing certainly progress made the question is did that particular topic I would assume since you have a three to 5e plan you want to continue with that or do you feel like it's been met yeah on okay to continue second one same question review evaluate and assess current programs and structures identify and develop a schedule for review for the up for the coming near coming near the focus area I'm I'm I'm lost on that one it should
109be for the coming year coming year I'm sorry yep I just took it right off the the plan that was on there we'll be extra and extra in co-curricular programming so now you've got components here you've got review evaluate assess current programs then you've got identify and develop a schedule for review and then you had to look at your co-curricular your extracurricular programming Melle could you explain a little bit in more detail about what the boards should be I mean that's sort of broad too and who's evaluating what's our responsibility on that okay uh the review and evaluate and assess programs the administration will take care of the evaluate and assessment your job is to review it to review their assessment right there they should be submitting I think Mike had me made a um
110u a comment about co-curricular programs possibly and there was a study on it but we you haven't it hasn't been turned over to the board yet um it it has been we did it in through curriculum I believe yes um be the appropriate went through the extra and co-curricular activities there were no recommendations by the administration to cut remove or but they were looked at okay so but that's in committee and then it could be um you know some things you may do as a board of the whole I mean tonight today uh this this morning you looked at doing uh discussing a philosophy for Budget um that's a board of the whole decision but other things you'll do in committees I'd assume a district your size you operate mostly in committee um and that's
111appropriate to tie these goals towards appropriate committee and should there be time frames on that well there would be in the action plan I yeah I don't have that detail here all I have is the the goal itself but what's appropriate like or what's normal for the action plan it depends on the topic um you know maybe Dennis would want to comment on what he would consider appropriate amount of time for that thank you Michelle uh I think as far as a couple things as far as board members my understanding is that you have some concerns about some of the individual programs that are out there this would be the time as a board then if you have those questions about an individual program to bring that forward as far as you know discussion at
112the table amongst yourselves and then make that as part of you know an action plan as a response let's say being responsible by the uh superintendant probably every 3 to six months you probably could have something as far as a review of those programs and I'm thinking is the fact that you're looking for some sort of a fiscal accountability of the program the success of the program not just the quality educationally of the program but also you're looking as far as the fiscal responsibility of implementing that program so as a board this would be your time and as a superintendent and certain doesn't have to be me and it won't be me uh but I would think of the fact that it would be maybe like every three or six months probably you know the
113superintendent in dealing with the administrators would then come up with some sort of the action plan but also review of well what's going on with those programs this is this is all for you now so this would be your time as you develop those plans today so on the first one what are your thoughts first part of number two I I well I I believe it needs to be ongoing uh it it has started but but uh there's more work to be done there Anthony uh to see how many uh children are using the programs if it's coste effective and also these new programs uh we have an avid program uh I've been asking for a year the course per student and what it entails and I haven't gotten any answers so I'd like to
114hear from the superintendent and to see what it if it's if it's costing us too much or if it's a good program or just some information so we know what's going on I'm looking for cost efficiency we're trying to make up some money here so if there's not enough kids going into a program then we should review it and take a look to see if it's it's worthwhile right and make sure there's no variables that would that would preclude you from eliminating that program and and and just to add to what Anthony's saying and also is is the program accomplishing what the goal of that program should be yes you know MH and now if I may as well too I think uh my I can put it is that I've gotten feedback from the
115board members as far as the two programs I guess of concern would be the IID program Anthony and also as far as maybe the AP program just taking a look at that is that a concern as far as being and Al if I have that correctly that this would be a district goal which means that it's Board of Education as well as Administration as well as the superintendent absolutely is that is that acceptable we're not presently defining which programs we might want to focus on are we we're just I mean that can be open for discussion today we can leave the goal written that way and then you can determine that later oh absolutely all right how about the second part identify and develop a schedule for review I think that goes to Michelle's question
116what is that an area that you we unclear on yes okay Al it's important to note that these are short-term one-year goals so that schedule should include benchmarks during the year to to to determine progress and see how you doing but basically this is a one-year goal that you're going to evaluate the superintendent on [Music] correct I I just I I want to make it clear I don't want to put an undue burden on on the administration I mean they have a lot of things going on but I think that actually having them written down and I would take the you know the superintendent and the administration's um consideration and and what they think the time frame would be because they are burdened a lot I mean my I I appreciate that and I tell
117you what the best way to do that most districts do when you identify the goal and you want to continue it when you get to the action plan piece you simply ask the administration could you include period report out times and then they can work that out to meet their needs and also yours right yeah I would I would like that to come from the people were asking to absolutely what their what their time frame and schedule their comfortable schedule is that's that's a terrific partnership that's how it really should be and then the LA the LA last area talks about focusing on extracurricular and co-curricular programming so there's a more specific focus on this one how how did you think you did on that we did do that we we've done yes we had
118a couple discussions during a curriculum meetings and as I said before there were no recommendations coming from Administration go Melle can you give an example of micromanaging in this category because I I'm unclear as sometimes I feel I just ask a question and it's considered micromanaging and I don't want to get into that Quagmire it's it's that gray area right yeah here's what I tell boards you de you determine a job description for your business administrator and your superintendent and you know what that job description is because you've voted on it and it's published and you could see it anything that's in the job description it's not in your job description um I gave you the concept of the telescope and the microscope the third one which I spoke a little bit about the what
119and the how when you start asking how questions if you're asking for information it's fine if you're asking because you want to follow up with Direction then it would be considered micromanagement so if you're just saying you know how did you arrive at those numbers not a problem but if you say how did you arrive at those numbers and by the way this is what you need to do that would be micromanaging so a a simple example but the other thing I tell because it is such a gray area for board members administ I encourage the administration and the board to be honest with each other and when the administration feels that you are stepping in that area they need to say something to you you know privately you don't have to do in public
120or anything but let the person know that they've gone into that area um some places have that level of of communication and others not so much um Dennis is in interim so he I'm sure he can he can do things a little differently uh than than a permanent CER uh uh superintendent would um so I think he'll be pretty candid with you because of his role um and that might be a good thing to to get yourself going with that level of communication so that when you have a permanent person come in the board already there it's just a matter of getting the superintendent to do the same um so I'm hearing we want to continue pieces of this although parts of it were complete correct very good and then the last one um I
121don't know if I have to ask that one because I just witnessed it but how did you feel you did you did it you did it you did it very efficiently very effectively and very thoroughly um it doesn't it doesn't have to be a goal for next year because it's already completed it is um now remember just because thank Mike for that yes you do have to thank Mike for that no no that that that's a board and a complete Administration and central office um process um I can't take credit for that no but it should be part I think it should be part not as a goal but as part of our our um budget process during the whole year perfect and that's what I was hoping you would say Kathy because the other
122piece of this is you don't have to make something a goal to make sure it happen happens again there's many things you're going to consider for goals but you're not going to pick them all you're going to pick three to five so if you've gotten this procedure in place and you're comfortable with it and it becomes part of your culture with your Administration you don't need to make it a goal it's just going to happen annually so if it doesn't then you need to revisit but at this point I I think everybody's committed to it um certainly the administration is because they've invested so much time in it so I would say that one was a aeve too based on what I saw but I wanted to get your feelings on it okay all right
123um I'm going to take you through a couple of more slides and then I'm going to put you to work I've been doing all the work you've been asking questions but I'm going to make you work a little bit okay next steps once we're done with this process what I do is I write a narrative of the of your memo and I will send it to the board president the ba and the superintendent along with attached templates several attached templates that will help you accomplish this so the board will adopt the annual goals you won't do that tonight you're going to have a draft in probably a week or so from me then you're going to revisit it at the next meeting make sure you like the language make any revisions and then hopefully a
124pass it either that meeting or the next meeting turn it over to the administration who you know writes the action plans and the administration will share the action plans with you and and if he so wants to he can invite your input but you do not vote on the action plan just the board the district goal and then the superintendent uh will Implement those and and as you said before an important piece is right there establish States for frequent progress reports that way you know you're getting the information periodically and again the best way is how Michelle uh articulated it to do it with the administration M go ahead should those be discuss that they can be discussed in public right absolutely me so so the it should be remember remember I said in the
125beginning that everybody owns District goals well everybody is the public and the students and the community so you really want to do that in public just as you're posting them on the website for everybody to see you want to know how you're doing now I did this because I I did a little research and you really haven't done board goals now that you know the difference and we talked a little bit about it earlier um I recommend that you have board goals I think they that you don't need to have a whole lot of them but I think you really should have some um because it really shows that you're committed to The Continuous improvement process you're asking the administration your staff and your students to do and you're the leadership team so the leadership
126team needs to practice what they preach so I really think you need to come up with some board goals today as well um what I'll do is we we get into the brainstorming which is next I'm just going to ask you to give me topics just the whats we'll write them down and then I'll come back later and tell you which one Falls where and why okay if you're not sure because sometimes people get confused which one's really a board goal um so if you're ready for that and you've got your thinking caps on I'll roll out the the paper in pencil we're going to go low tech for this Tom has a question no I'm ready ready I wrote I wrote some stuff down he's fired up he's ready he's been taking notes he's
127taking no prisoners itive oh I'm sorry Tom I'm being I can't see you I know I I just want to ask a question sure would Dennis be the one who would be creating those action plans for the goals this year yes whoever your superintendent is now and within next month or so would be responsible to do that um if you anticipate pay Dennis leaving in a month maybe not but if he's going to be here longer than that oh he will be you really need to start the process and I'll tell you why because if you wait that gives less time for the staff and the rest of the administration to try to achieve those goals including the incoming superintendent so Al if I may with all due respect to the Board of Education that's
128here today is that probably one of the most primary and first goals should be to hire a new superintendent they could do that action plan are you making a suggestion that's that's a very good good goal that's an excellent goal it is yeah and that's one of the most or is the most important responsibility a board of education has is hiring the superintendent you are you are absolutely correct there there's of all the things you do tasks that you do that's the most important right behind it is evaluating the superintendent remember I just told you you only have one employee right so everything Personnel goes through the superintendent so that's where all of your eggs in one basket in regards to that I'm going to run over and get my markers go ahead well I
129just have a question about that I mean since that is something that we know is going to happen you know it will be done is it appropriate that it be a goal I I I mean it's it has to occur no it doesn't um I would recommend it to a board if you're a not doing it on time or B I unfortunately have to share with you that some boards don't do it at all then I would say make it a board but hiring a superintendent is going to be a process so I always tell boards consider making something a goal District or board goal if it requires significant amount of work personnel time resources and I can tell you having done superintendent searches it will take all of those so cold so I have
130one recommendation for fire new CSA Tom said he has to I have a a board goal okay which would be to complete a selfe evaluation as suggested by the New Jersey school boards Association as a a board goal and I have a a district goal um that I kind of worded but the wording is not that important mainly the fundamental issue behind the wording I'd like to ensure that the district operates in a fiscally responsible manner and Implement budgetary guidelines to principles that affect that goal say it again slowly so we can all digest ensure that the district operates in a fiscally responsible Manner and Implement budgetary guidelines to principles that reflect that goal and when I mean principles I don't necessarily mean building principles I guess stakeholders might be a better word So Physical
131responsibility to to operate in a fiscally responsible Manner and Implement budgetary guidelines to principles Andor stakeholders that reflect those goals any others Tom um I have another one promote and practice good steward good stewardship for all district resources in a manner that supports safe and healthy environments and optimizes student learning I'm trying to think is that that's a facility slash student student achievement yeah say say it again I'll get the key words promote and practice good stewardship for all district resources in a manner that supports safe and healthy environments and optimizes student learning the wording is not important mainly it's just the the idea that I want to promote uh you know a safe healthy environment and student learning that's one of my thoughts stupid okay Michelle what do you got right now I'll passed
132okay we'll come back none nothing okay I'm not going to let you up the hook that easy though I'll come back I'll let go this way okay Doug uh we're putting up there these are district goals that we're listing either or just anything yep whatever you got because I I I in some cases I uh I have some ideas but I don't know if it would be District or you know whatever um but I think we're going to need to uh Implement and evaluate uh the preparation of the students uh for the park assessment and the administration of that assessment and I really see that more as the uh superintendent go absolutely a district go and uh I I think this get gets into what we were earlier discussing um I think we need to
133continue the implementation of the five-year strategic plan uh with particular and and I'm just simply trying to put it into a one-year situation with particular emphasis maybe on the communications and the community engagement because they had five or six different goals two of which were Communications and uh Community engagement okay any any other stuff well and we mentioned this earlier uh and that is the uh continuing to uh evaluate the various programs that we're operating now you just stepped on my toes oh I'm sorry and some of those are coming from goals that we had set this past year y because they those goals really weren't fully accomplished that's why I'm going to bring those in when we're done okay so it's already here then I won't have to so if I captured it right
134Doug help me out evaluate programs for academics ESS and cost Effectiveness yes he's still yours yeah but I have another one that uh since technology is such a large part of our budget today uh I was thinking maybe we could have a program or a committee designed to move forward with technology okay we that's an excellent question I'm going to give you both sides of the coin and then we can discuss and decide how you want to go technology tended to be years ago when it it first came in in the 9s it tended to be its own thing uh like a separate entity because nobody had any and then over time we started looking at goals and different topics and realized that technology really is embedded in everything so while you can make technology
135a topic if you're going to do a big purchase one-on-one laptop initiatives or something like that if it's about the way in which we use technology you probably need to make sure it's embedded in the action plans on everything that you do that to me is the most effective because we need to look at technology in the classroom as a tool for learning not a final place of learning just technology learning it used technology for student outcomes in that particular subject area so it's really a classroom instructional piece so I'm not sure which way you are with technology whether it's a big purchase item kind of project or it's more about how are we using technology if we're in curriculum and they want to get things on the iPads and the iBooks it's going to
136cost them uh an amount of money the finance committee is left out of that until the rest the the whole Board gets it I don't know if I'm explaining myself right but we're we're disconnected when we do this discuss these things I mean it could be in the minutes but the rest of the board is not involved in it if it could be discussed in one group first finance and everything or how they're going to go about using these this technology and then be presented to the Committees I think that might be different that might be better so really you're looking at examining the use of technology and then making a recommendation to that committee yes right and it you know it should be both when it's when finances are involved it's perfectly appropriate to
137have if you're putting the technology under curriculum and instruction it's perfectly okay to involve the the finance committee as well now which one does it go to first I think you can make an argument for either one um I would make the argument probably if I had to pick that you would go to the curriculum first because you want to determine what the use is for before you determine how much it's going to cost and how the finance committee could be involved but it should definitely go through both can go to do the other way too to see if we could afford to do that before we even start well technolog is like anything else and and what Mike proposed today you can have an idea of what you want to do and if you
138can't afford the Cadillac maybe you can afford the Chevrolet so it doesn't mean you're not going to do something it might mean you do it differently maybe you break it out over two or three or four or five years and pay for it or maybe you scale it back and you buy less devices and share them I mean there's there's all kinds of ways for the how and remember we talked before you guys determine the what the administration does the how so stay focused on the what and then let it go through its process with the board and the administration and see where it goes also on this committee that I was thinking about suggesting are these things working of course is it helping our kids or is it just another course so and if
139if I can piggyback on that I I think with and I don't know if you know this or not Al but uh we've just completed three years of a onetoone initiative with iPads and so I think we now are at a point where we have to ask ourselves you got data is this improving student achievement now there could be other things that are improving student achievement but if you don't see an improvement in student achievement then you can certainly conclude that the iPads did not help help to improve student achievement okay but there could be other factors all right so I think you have to evaluate is it improving student achievement and secondly uh is it helping our students to be better prepared for college so you want student achievement plus Park Readiness yes our
140college readiness College thank you Doug and you want particularly the one-onone right well that's what we have presently you okay did you have any others Anthony not right now okay fli that page over complete board self-evaluation in D in doing that myself past many years and also helping others in doing their own self- evaluations I think it'd be imperative if that's our board goal we need to take that a step first and maybe get more training on not only board functions and how to follow proper procedures and possibly ethics training because all that what I just mentioned those two training sessions are linked directly to board self evaluation you can't do a proper board self- evaluation either on the board as a whole or yourself if you don't understand the basic procedures and ethics that
141follow along with that so I think maybe we start something we had talked about that in the past and having school boards come in here and do that kind of training M and this way everybody knows what's going on how to not only conduct yourself but how a board should be conducted on daily operations and then how board should function here in this room yeah so you're talking about board operations and Effectiveness which are two of the components uh in the self-evaluation but yes the board then would generate through that what your menu would be for professional development and that's very comp uh we have lots of boards that are doing that on a regular basis so and I do agree with you I see it as a perfect extension of the board self- evaluation
142did you have any others I was thinking maybe accountability for uh supervisors and uh people that run the programs okay to see if they're working and is that a what or a how how could we put that well whose job is it to make sure that happend job that's right if it's a superintendent's job it's not yours ex it's a superintendant job it doesn't belong on this table yeah yeah see what you're saying is you want you want him to make sure like any board would and any Community member would and any citizen would you want to make sure that everybody's doing their job right but that's not the board's job that's the administration's job so in if he does his job with his job description that will be taken care of so you wouldn't
143need to list it as a board goal that would be my interpretation Kathy we talked about the excuse me under uh what did we do budget philosophy um with the Basque program so I think it's important to have the uh development and the imple implementation of bass program I you've used that term and because I'm the Newbie here just tell me what the bass program is I don't know before and after school care gotcha that is a district goal involves students involves Finance involves operations just picky backing on that it should be realistically looking for anything that brings Revenue into the school district Enterprise fund recommendations are it just brought something that I know is going on in plenty other places let him finish writing I didn't hear what Tom said I just say you
144could just word like Enterprise fund uh you know search all right yeah I think any additional that that's really broad enough it covers that one but I think you want both because you're really considering this one right now and it would be good to do it right now as opposed to long term so I think if you make it a separate goal you can really focus on it my problem is we're listing goals and so forth do we set a percentage to know when we're successful for example I mean we have all we have over a thousand kids in this building if only 50% of them are doing well with the iPads do we get rid of the iPads or do we keep them and maybe 60% next year will do well with them that's
145one of my problems I mean are we taking care of all the kids or just a percentage of the kids and if one kid is taking advantage of something that we're offering and only that one kid do we say the hell with the kid we can't afford it it's only one kid I remember years ago some guy came to the board of education and he needed a summer camp for his kids we put it in now there are very few kids in it but we still have it because it's helping a few kids and that's important that's the business we're in we're in business of helping kids one of the one of the ways to evaluate this district and I don't know if you're aware of this yet but New Jersey monthly came out this
146week with the 100 best schools last year we were 124 this year we're 82nd wow which means we're on the right track can we accept that we're on the right track and keep doing the right thing I don't know other thoughts Kathy did you have any others and you gave me the one but I didn't know if you had any more um not off the top of my head right now yeah um we certainly don't want to overwhelm Mr ventrillo with a million goals either well it isn't always the number it's the it's the volume of a goal too you can have one goal but it could be overwhelming you know this goes falls under a lot of aspects not only finding Revenue sources but helping children for the bigger picture part of our discussion
147during the budget philosophy was special needs children's and the cost associated with each child sometime can range 3 four up to 6 7 times the amount of Education of a basic service child a lot of districts today are now looking into not only Revenue sources but enhancing their education of these children inhouse we started a program years ago here that seems to be pretty successful on a small setting possibly looking into expanding that not just trying to get more kids from our district to stay inhouse but expanding that to other districts in the future again that's something that's not going to happen next year but I think that's something that needs to be looked at two three four five years we got to remember things in the school district don't happen overnight they happen over
148years did you want to make it as a recommendation for a district goal well yeah piggy backing on the Enterprise thing I I I think that goes falls under the same thing you know that may being letter B or C you know however many other programs that we can group in there and that also goes with professional development because we have such an excellent professional development how other districts want to use that that that somehow can be um turned into another way to bring in revenues if we enhance that and we do have a good program running sorry did you want then that brings forth more professional development not only for staff teaching staff but Administration also on how to manage something like that okay anybody have anything else I want to make sure the
149menu is good and when I always tell boards is look it's it's really important what you picture but it's also really important what you leave out because you know you can't have a district goals you know that would you do too many things you don't do them well so you need have between three and five now we need to make sure we get the priorities so that's that's the next step in this process here they are I'll read them to you because I know my handwriting is not the best um and then we'll decide on each one whether it goes over here before we do you had the two from last year that you were going to consider right number one and two and actually just not the last one on number two just the
150first two so they also get included in the mix all right so what do you think bu do fall into number two to begin with a bunch of a bunch of those District goals there are already fall to number two a lot of our goals up there that you have listed will fall under number two already all right so you're I think we just need to just read through those and then keep in mind what our second goal is already and then put those under that but you're recommending then we absolutely have the second goal listed for a goal making the final I I thought the majority of us earlier had said yes to that you you definitely did but that was before we listed everything else and that's why that's why I'm pointing out
151a lot of those I believe will fall under number two now last year the the discipline Focus was extracurricular and co-curricular programming is it still the board's desire to focus on those two or should the discipline be expanded to other areas that's basically what I was suggesting by looking at those and keeping it under the same goal but now you're going to have the superintendent forming other action goals in accordance with that there some that are in there now aren't going to need to focus that maybe one or two of these will well that would be your AP testing and your um I believe AVID program so that would that could come under that goal too or the AP programs not the AP testing what was the other program Avid Avid AV ID yes and
152I I thought they were just examples though I thought we we thought we would look at a broad range of things is that correct these are some I understood it these are things that the superintendent will take and then prioritize and then give us a feedback on these whatever time frame that we choose or he gives for us yeah Al do you think it would be better to keep that goal broad so the superintendent who comes in May uh find their own Focus as as opposed to being pigeon hold into perhaps yeah I I do as well I think that would be one approach and you can do that um I don't know that it's a problem though if you list ones that the board has a particular interest in I don't think that that's
153an issue because you're going to look at all the ones who have the smallest class sizes and I would assume that those do that's why you listed them and those two were have been brought up many times during either um public meetings or uh um committee meeetings right and that's appropriate to do all right so if we do that can I just clarify something sure you you said something in there which I don't necessarily know if if if it's accurate because it sound like there's an assumption that those courses have small enrollments that's not the case oh they don't okay no no okay those those courses have I think fairly adequate enrollments so you're not looking at it for an enrollment costeffective reason you're looking at it from a student achievement reason is that M
154well an overview of the whole thing it's probably a combination of both uh for Avid it's probably definitely both uh and for the AP it's probably in terms of student achievement and and I'm not sure where we stand on uh remember there was some discussion about whether or not the district would continue to pay for for all of the AP tests this coming year and I'm a little confused exactly where that stands I remember talking to Dr Gorman and there was a a phase in schedule of parent contributions toward those tests okay but is that being be is that starting this year do you know I'll I'll be stting to check on it oh okay because that would be the financial aspect of that and now I just I just want to add on as
155far as you know what doug was saying as well too and and the other board members I think there's a combination of a couple things that are uh that that people would like to know about that board members would like to know about regarding those two programs and Doug is absolutely correct as far as you know the average program it's basically class instruction so it's not about the numbers for that particular program the AP classes obviously is that you might have you know reduced numbers in there based upon not only the course offering but also is the number of kids that are interested or that you know would be interested in excelling in that particular class so you could have low numbers there where you have a you know very low teacher and uh student
156ratio you might even have a one to one based upon you know the particular course that is being offered so you know but I think as as Michelle even said is that we're just looking for an overview of those programs certainly a superintendent coming on board if that's a concern of the Board of Education members just to give an overview as far as you know the success of those programs overall and I'd also like to ask in addition if we um adopt this goal is it ever at any time appropriate for any board member to question anyone about them other than the superintendent say walk into the school talk to a principal maybe make some phone call parents is is that ever appropriate no remember I said before you have one employee who is it
157the superintendent right so if that's the case where does the chain of command go superintendent through the superintendent now you may say to the superintendent at a committee meeting if he's in that I would assume he would be in the committee meeting some of the committee meetings maybe student achievement or uh student uh curriculum instruction you may say can you get us this information perfectly fine then it's up to him to go to the principes and the staff and get that information now why do you think it's not other than the chain of command why do you think it's not appropriate for board members to check in with staff members yes now the remember when you're elected to the board immediately the staff the parents the community see you as a board member first even
158though you were a parent first and a Community member first because of that you don't want there to be an illusion of collusion we don't want people to think you're stepping over your bounds or any staff member reports to you because remember one board member has absolutely no power the only time you have any Authority as a board member is when you're in a publicly advertised majority meeting of the full board that's it this is the only time you have any Authority other than that you're a Community member and you're a parent so you have to act as that at all times so does so does that mean we um we would talk to the assistant the superintendent yes and the ba because he's our board secretary correct we wouldn't have access to the assistant
159superintendent of curriculum unless the superintendent made that available to you in some districts that happens larger districts the superintendent yes yes I would even go further to say if you're visiting a school because you have every right to visit a school as a parent you may be called into to the guidance office or meet with a teacher or you might be seeing a play or a concert or whatever it might be perfectly fine but if you're going in for any other reason than business with your child you should contact the board office and talk to the superintendent why because remember everybody sees you first as a board member that protects you the board and the administration and allows the superintendent to let the principal know that you're there for a particular reason than you've checked
160in right and then when you check in what do you do sign in get a name tag you follow every regulation app parent us because you have to everybody's watching you now just to clarify if you if your district is operating a program is it appropriate or inappropriate for the board to say would like to know how well that program is operating is it accomplishing its goals you have every right to ask that question but you ask it like as a district goal or you ask it in committee to your superintendent absolutely remember that's your job oversight yeah oversight okay how about when you're at committee and you your micophone is off you're at committee and you're giving an invitation to ask a question at any time here uh is that appropriate if there's assistant
161superintendent or maybe director facilities he's at a committee and he says you you could speak to me any time is is that appropriate well I make sure I understand the question you're on a committee on a committee and the administrator of liaison is there yes and you want to ask them a question right but if also at the committee that person that's representing whether it's assist superintendent or director of facilities uh you could ask me anytime any question well that would be up to the superintendent if he sets it up that way that's fine if he doesn't then you can't however you can ask any question you want but the person may not answer so and and again also depends on what the question is you know the question if you're saying to let's say
162the director of facilities if you say to the director of facilities how's the custodians doing are they doing their job would that be an okay question ask no because that's a silly question yes but I'm making a point just so you understand there's a difference this this is something should be handled if you want to ask school boards through New Jersey school board's legal council not here to view it this time we're here to set District goals I mean we all to Saturday we all have other things to do yeah and we did take a little time to talk about procedure but it's important because it is all professional understand but this is getting a little deep for what we're trying to do here okay everybody good I have one more goal that I'm just
163kind of thinking about and uh Mr Gorski is not in the room and he may I would like to know whether he feels it's appropriate because I don't know where we actually stand currently but one of the goals I would like to see is to uh uh conclude we have a we have a legal I don't know if it's a legal issue or we're in negotiations with uh Jamesburg a send receive District uh we saw on there they they're currently uh a million dollars uh I think in the re um I'd like to see a resolution as a as a district goal of that issue by by next next year what what is it that you want what is it that you want to accomplish i' like to have that settled all right so you
164want to uh successfully uh resolve right Tom I we we are working on that and I think that it won't be in the near future that we will have some kind of a an answer but would it be bad to put it on a district goal because that would be something that we could if if it's a legal thing we never know how long that could take to do and I don't know but it doesn't matter a goal doesn't necessarily mean we're going to guaranteed to accomplish it either but I think it does put it on the top of our list where I think it needs to be that's all I'm kind of thinking yeah and if we did and if we did put it this question is going to go to Mike if we
165did put it it would be a board goal Mike um we we have a unique uh issue between the two school districts um stemming from a problem with the cap uh we had a pre-existing arrangement between the school districts to pay tuition and the amount of tuition to be raised was hindered by the caplaw of 2010 creating a problem for the districts that the state has not adequately addressed and and uh as an example of how the districts have always collaborated so well together um the board presidents of Monroe and Jamesburg and the administrations have worked out an agreement where we're probably on the eight yard line of completion now and it probably just requires uh another meeting and then there's a resolution uh that's right in our Mist so I don't know if I
166would recommend that to be a goal because it's so close to being completed already okay um and I'm putting it up and and also it involves litigation right which I think is beyond the board's control right um I'm just putting it up because remember I said you're brain storming we're just throwing things up we still have to decide on board goals but I did want to include it cuz Tom brought it up so we'll come back to visit it in a minute stay back on District can I sure our lunch is here oh is it 1:00 well no but it came early and since we don't want it to get cold uh could we take a lunch it's a fine break point because you don't want to eat pizza cold so let's eat the pizza
167hot get refueled and then we can finish the priority much long are we going to be here I mean like we could it could be a little while but um we eat at our table cuz I'm going to have to go otherwise I'm not I can't waste time with the lunch unfortunately but time with me if you want toat we can have an eating working lunch that's fine we can do that I just wanted to let you know that the pizza was here and um we go get your pizza and come back and we why don't you get your pizza come right back and I'll keep going we're going to go with number two and then add two additional programs and take out the co-curricular piece and then number one was also mentioned that you
168wanted to continue and that was about to strategic plan um and the reason I put that one up because I think it was Doug that brought up the one about um continuing um the Strategic plan for communication and engagement that fits into number one yes so if you're agreeing I will keep number one up as a goal from last year and then that will cover this item here yes now if you can hear me can you hear me okay if you can hear me what I'll do is I kind of grouped a couple things and we started to do that before um the one here was about before and after care seeking sources of revenue uh examining special ed for students coming in and your professional development in terms of as a resource option we
169can combine those and I can Wordsmith that into seeking the resources and then I'll list those in there so if you think that that's a viable goal that way what I can do will pick me up now so okay what I can do is I will um put it up on this board yes no okay I think that's important all right um the other thing I did while you while you were getting pizza was I looked at these two one was evaluate programs for academic success and coste Effectiveness and then combined I was thinking of fitting them together examine the technology used to one-on-one because it really is this only you're focusing on the technology so if I put those two together that makes sense rise to a level you want me to put in
170on this board yes yes yes yes yes anybody say no that's part of the Strategic plan all right so what you have left from the list was operate a physical responsible manner promoting practice for good stewardship uh for application of resources for a health safety environment and student learning and then the park preparation um you you've got three you've already got three four on the board right now could we combine as far as you know uh Tom's suggestion for the first one is part of number three over there on the left hand side so that top one could that somehow be implemented or incorporated into that one because it seems to me like what we're looking for as far Asing both I agree that good idea okay those are my notes cuz well when I
171put it together I'll combine okay it leaves you with two then promoting uh practice for good stewardship and park preparation got four this is a oneye goal right yes ma'am so maybe we should go just as far as number two goes that sounds more like a district mission statement more than a goal that's just my and the hope is that you're doing that by operating the district but you know if this would be a concern if you're not doing it yeah I think a mission statement though doesn't have as measurable goals and that does have measurable goals and metrics so I I I don't agree with that all right so we got to we got to wrestle with these two then right with with the board's permission I would just like to offer as far
172as the park preparations that when you think about it park because of the fact that we're transitioning from let's say New Jersey ask to the park process I'm sorry thank you as we transition from New Jersey ask uh to the park process even districtwide is that there's really no basis uh I guess there's no data comparison as far as the implementation is probably what you would be evaluating but as far as the actual scores or database there's nothing there obviously because it's the first year I would say is that it's almost like that's a given that administratively we'll be doing that it doesn't necessarily have to be a district goal because it's just a given that we will be doing that superintendent ventrillo isn't Park Readiness a state mandate that is correct that we're required
173to comp so whether it's the use of the technology or the instruction preparation Etc and and even the administration of the test it's all mandated anyway so it's almost like I'm saying that's a given we could probably just cross that out if if the board would agree okay okay all right then do you want to add this one as a fifth Tom made the proposal everybody agree I'm okay with that I'll word Smith it you guys are okay with adding the practice go okay you pay for that one Yep this one I paid for I even tipped a guy then you have five um I'll word SPI them as a graft and they certainly can be changed um as you know goals have to be uh reach goals they have to be uh Broad and
174they have to be uh measurable and the wording I'll put in there will have some of that if you feel like it needs more it can be changed but that you should do together with the administration okay goals Al so before we go forward is that could could we just maybe just review those five goals again so everybody's very clear on that because I think some of the wording that's in there might be interpretive and by that I mean is the fact that what does evaluate mean just those sort that sort of jargon okay all work off of this because the first two are up there okay to adopt a strategic plan implement the goals articulate in the plan over 20131 14 we change that to 145 school year right and we're going to add
175uh no just just the way it is the second one up there is review evaluate and assess current programs and structures uh identify to develop a schedule for review and for the incoming year focus on we're going to let that one go but we're going to we're going to replace that with ap and AVID program okay third one um we're going to seek viable resources for revenue and I'll list some examples in it as potential areas because you know they exist and in fact you're going to pursue the one I think with The prea CARE program right um the next one is examine evaluate programs for academic success and cost effectiveness and then the last area is to promote yes would that be would that also come under the pview of number two you could
176list them under number two or make it more General I guess what I'm just trying to do is that sooner or later is that the superintendant somebody's got to do these action plans and if I'm on board I'm just trying to reduce it because I think it I I can see the connection is a board comfortable with that if we work those two together anybody have any reason to say no okay so we're going to marry this one Dennis with two number with number two which is and and included with number two would be the AP program and the aage program so that should satisfy some of the boards you know individual board members requests as well too all right and then the fourth goal that would become the fourth goal now is to promote
177the practice for stewardship good I don't know what that means Tom I have it written down I guess you didn't take it verbatim it basically promote good you know Financial Steward stewardship I forget how I had a word it because I had had a word it real nice I worked on the word you did you did a good job with that uh can you just turn promote and practice good stewardship for all district resources in a matter that supports safe and healthy environments and optimizes student learning um is that implied in number two implied part of assessing think there's a marriage of those two as well too that could be in there if you wanted to add a word or two to that particular goal so this way that would satisfy Tom's needs well the
178one that I was really concerned was ensure the district operates in a fiscally responsible Manner and Implement budgetary guidelines to principles or stakeholders that reflect that goal that was the one I was really felt was a more measurable and obtainable and an action plan planable type of goal so so could we use which words would you like to be incorporated in that and that go fiscal responsibility and also the fact I want to implement something I want to implement or not me I want the board to I'm asking the board to recommend that we Implement budgetary guidelines to principles and state holders that reflect the goal of fiscal responsibility Mr be something that the administration would need to come up with to do that I'm I'm just uh wanted to add this for accent you
179know the state comes by and um gives us budget guidelines every year and there are a lot of efficiency standards in there limitations on administrative cap spending comes to of M for an example plus we have a pretty rigorous program already from the defense rounds all the way to uh administration's processes for dealing with cuts and negotiating health insurance um that that that is to me I think that's either um required already by law or already in practice and and pretty R rigorously defined and it goes through our finance committee so anything that is budgetary and scho goes to finance I'm just more I was mainly concerned with uh implementing budgetary guidelines to the to the people in other words for example let them know that we have a very tight budget give them the
180numbers um instead of starting necessarily with a zerob based budget say maybe work from both ways from the top down and the zero budget approach you know perhaps this is my fault for not thoroughly explaining it but in this past year there was a directive from the superintendent on building level Supply and materials that you will not exceed last year's level so there already are caps and limitations that are strictly imposed on the building level people and the principles already I would hate to scare them with another series of guidelines that it could even get worse because it's pretty tight so you're basically saying that we're already doing this is that is that correct also the finance chair should be giving that kind of information to the public during his Finance um committee meeting but
181I'm I'm mainly talking with the administration I'm not these are not goals these are not committee goals these are district goals which have nothing to do with the finance chair okay these are these are goals that the that the district needs to accomplish not the finance chair right no no sounds like we're already sounds like we're already accomplishing that so let's put it on there and check it off but I thought you were telling about giving that information to the public no no no I'm not I'm talking about just to go back on what I was saying before about board goals maybe it' be essential to have somebody come in and right clarify what's going on here where where stand as far as what goes on what our job is and what administration job is
182that falls under that the conversation go back and for as a short answer for Tom um the bottom line is the board has control over that process because if you're saying to the administration you guys didn't follow a rigorous process to make sure that uh everything's been done efficiently then as a board member um in the committee and then when you vote you can sayl that budget's not what I want you no I'm not even saying that no but I just want you to know there's a safeguard in there for you right so you have control over the board has control over that right but I we I'm just strictly talking the goals I'm not talking about who has control over what but the district goals are something that has nothing to do with our
183committees that's done by the administration and that's that's what we're here for today I know the workings very well um of what what goes where I mean I've been to that your excellent governance school I went for the whole weekend which is the Master's course as you guys say so we learned all all that stuff there so I get it okay I get it gotcha so you're giving me okay to take it off yeah based on Mr gorsky's comments all right with much deliberation and thought which I love you're down to three and we're going to broaden them in a way to include everything we agree to up here is everybody good with that because we still have the option to revise that always always and and also Al I think we have to keep
184in mind that that strategic plan is huge there's a lot of things in there that incorporate student achievement fiscal responsibility so I mean you got to remember that too it looks like it's only three goals but the Strategic plan is tons of goals in fact I'll deviate I have it listed up here I hav't even open for you um I thought we might have to refer to thank you Melle you're welcome these were your goals uh based plan yes remember this all yes Dennis Lear really good you had two objectives under curriculum and instruction complete the curriculum alignment and integrate character Ed and then you had one under facilities and finance talking about communicating with the stakeholders and it talks the the objectives talk about develop and Implement Communications and then the second one talks
185about identifying the finance or the facilities needs and then under Communications which is the one I think Doug uh mentioned before you talk about using a create a friendly system that supports or that provides for stakeholders the opportunity to offer input and then you two two objectives were uh develop and Implement opportunities to solicit input and then create multiple formats for people and then your final one was the Outreach okay so these things can happen and should happen in addition to the goals it doesn't have to be in place of okay and also that's a fiveyear plan is it's not intended to be accomplished in a single year right but you got to keep chipping away at it yep all right so District plans or District goals done you have four suggested board goals I'll
186go through them again you don't have to have four you can have five you can have three you can have less than that if you want um first one I think you would all agree you want to hire a superintendent yes is that staying but we'll think about it okay get back to me a question we'll take a I think Dennis voted for it I think he put us um complete the board self AOW and then uh follow the recommended uh board professional development that pertains yep everybody good with that next one consider board committee for technology Anthony had that one right um it's up to you guys how do you want to handle that one uh you can you can the actually here's how I'll just give you a quick I apologize for giving
187a little instruction here but I got to do that because it pertains to the goal the board can decide on set standing policies or set standing committees that's in your policy however ad hoc committees are at the discretion of the board president so any new committees you add that are temporary are at the discretion of the board president so the question is here do you want to have a goal that says you want to have a technology committee or the other option would be to um put technology on the agenda for a ready standing committee like curriculum and instruction it's already on the curriculum committee it's curriculum and technology but it's just called curriculum is that what you had in mind curriculum could do whatever they want they're going to add but it's it's always
188going to cost down the road to do these things so well how about we do this how about we say um let's uh charge the board committee uh for curriculum to study technology I mean you already have a committee and you have it underneath it why not just have them them study and report it back to you would that meet your need before it goes to the board what all right but but we do that now any any technology that comes up in a committee will be approved by the committee and goes to the board for instance the iPads went through committee load the iPads up it goes before the committee right it did and then it goes to the board suggested to the board right right but the technology department doesn't have that opportunity
189to say Is it feasible to spend this money they do because they come to the technology they come to the curriculum meeting just like we have the director of facilities come to buildings and grounds finance committee though it had gone to the finance committee because I remember John ly asking that iPads come to the Finance on finance committee I don't know how much it cost to set up these books I I I think that what Mr proso is trying to do is try to separate out uh just so for informational purposes and I think that that makes sense just because it's been been done or it's already seemingly included I think we need like get another layer just to understand we just need to make sure that everything that comes to committee goes to the
190appropriate committee or committees well again I I would say that I I think we need to broaden it because the sometimes the information isn't com there there isn't enough time in a committee meeting to to get to it all so maybe we either need another committee or just broaden that aspect because going forward I think technology is going to be so infused and permeate the whole system um like it's already been discussed that it may need to stand alone in its own um place and however you want to do that but if I may just you should just be aware as a matter of fact Anthony May this might actually help you there is a recourse for us as as as a board or board members as far as to find out more about the
191effectiveness of the implementation of the iPads uh Mr Goodall is here as well too I know that Mr Layman you have two principles so there is a committee if you go back to the Strategic plan is that there's one there as far as the the technology and that was shared with all of the residents and the members of that particular committee so if you wanted maybe that say that particular committee to find out something as far as the effectiveness of the implementation of it there's another layer there for you just to let you know are are you talk but I I think again if I don't want to put words in Mr preso but I thought you meant prior to any implementation you wanted an oversight committee before we get to the point of having
192something it's it's not an I mean I think we've covered the evaluation after a program has been instituted I and please correct me if I'm wrong I think you're talking about prior to any any either future purchase or future use of of technology absolutely it's like you're in your home before you make a commitment you have to see if you could afford it first so it would have to go before a committee and then with that committee you say well it's going to cost us this are we going to be able to put all these books in it at that committee can we talk about the curriculum and the cost at that committee as a whole and then it can go to committee and go to uh curriculum and finance at least at that one
193committee you could discuss everything at one time to see if it's going to be feasible to we work as a board of committee and not a board of the whole so if you're talking about the iPads the iPads were were brought to the curriculum committee wait not I'm just they using Tech um iPads but all technology goes through curriculum um and it gets a little Technical and I'm not good if Mr Kaufman's here I'm sure he would be able to elaborate it is approved by the te the curriculum committee and then goes to finance and I know it goes to finance because Mr lry had requested that anything that had a cost to it go through Finance let me give you an example we got the iPads it went through committee and everything but a
194year later somebody was standing up there saying we had to spend a couple hundred thousand to widen the Broadband I mean that wasn't discussed that was something that came up maybe at a committee like this this we could see we could look for the future being proactive we could see what it's going to cost us down the road anony if I just may is the fact that I believe is that lessons maybe have have been learned as far as the implementation of the iPads for educational purposes with that said is that I would still think is that you have to abide by the finance and you have to abide by the committee development and and and procedure so that means as that as it comes up let's say if for concern as part of the
195curriculum and obviously that you know you as member of the uh chair of the finance committee you would be involved in that decision- making as well too uh you also as I said you also have the Strategic plan also as a committee as well too so you have three different committees if someone was to say you know what we need to make we need to implement more iPads there's three different levels there already three different layers that I think obviously is that you know that could be scrutinized that decision could be scrutinized if that helps you Mr technology committtee before um it was always in with curriculum initially when the iPads were first purchased yes an error was made and it and went to the curriculum committee where the value of the instructional use of
196the devices were were established and then it went to the board for a full vote it uh Finance was never considered during that initial purchase uh Mr liry objected strongly and that that process was corrected now any instructional um consideration that comes out of curriculum that's of significance goes to finance and and hits the finance agenda so that the board when it finally gets on the agenda has reviewed all the criteria involved in making an intelligent decision on the matter and I also agree with Michelle that um sometimes an hour is not enough time at our committee meetings and there are always um decisions that we make very quickly at the end of a meeting because there's a time limit so we either need to either have left Less on the agenda or have a
197longer committee meeting or sometimes two committee meetings as we just did with Personnel Kathy could I could I just excuse me a second time could I just propose then that maybe one of our Board of Ed goals be to uh review the structure uh and uh the process of our committees uh because I I think we're talking like you were just saying sometimes we don't have enough time uh sometimes we don't get the feedback in a timely fashion uh we have one member here who's saying that he feels the need for an additional committee and I do know that there are various districts that have uh more committees than we have and so it might it might uh behoove us to see what other committees are out there that well gee it would be helpful
198to have a committee like that that we don't have uh so I'm just simply saying as a goal to to review uh the organization structure and and uh operation of our committees I'll go for that that's you know my whole point will be the biggest part of our budget down the road and who knows what's going to come out from now maybe the iPads will be useless maybe there'll be something else that's going to be we're going to be asking the public to put a big bill so it would be nice to that's a good idea with Doug had I'll go right so antie it was R's original goal we've kind of I've kind of word Smith is let's see if I captured it for everybody uh Review Committee organization and structure and process for
199considering actions that involve more than one committee so it's really a two-parter well yeah my and my suggestion had nothing to do with NE I mean that could be part of that but my my suggestion Global just to review the committee organization structure and process yep is everybody good with that now I will tell you as as a when you do the board self AOW there's a whole section on that so you're going to get good information from board members on individual items that will help you really zero in on that so if you do it'll be a good match to this all right uh and then the last one is um was I think recommended by Tom to uh successfully resolve the Jamesburg tuition question question we don't need that based on Mr gting
200and pulling it Madam president that's a litigious matter that um probably might not be appropriate for that all right so unless I've missed something you have three goals hire a superintendent complete the board self- evaluation follow the appropriate PD and then review your committee organization structure and process sounds right you like it I like the way it sounds any others I don't mean to belabor this or lengthen this meeting in any way but I think this is really critical I haven't I haven't heard as far as the ad hoc or the reorganization and redistricting I haven't heard any of that yet and that really needs to be a concern because that's a one-year thing probably by Springtime guys we need to make sure as the that the parents are involved in this process that everybody
201knows as far as you know who's going where as far as you know the schools the enrollment redistricting the boundaries Etc that's a board purview is what it is I didn't think that was a board purview I thought that was something the administration did I think that the board would be involved with that only because of the fact that the ad hoc is actually a committee that responds to and reports to the Board of Education I think that's an part of the ad hoc committee and they have not given a that what they're supposed to do is come up with a recommendation to the board and then the board either accepts the recommendation doesn't accept that recommendation I don't know if that's a goal of of the administration or us and and I'm okay if
202it's even not a goal but I just want to bring it to everybody's awareness of the fact that we have to do that though as a well if you have a timeline on it and it's important enough and I'm hearing that it is then you may want to consider making it a board goal so that the board takes action on it you're not saying what you're going to do because you don't know yet but you're going to resolve is it resolve the redistricting yes if if I may it's not just resolving a redistricting we don't have a redistricting problem we have a facility capacity problem uh we have school Capital degration problem and that's what the committee was going to look at enrollment growth the limitations on facilities and the condition of some of the
203facilities redistricting may just be one of the measures taken by the committee to you're right M so can I can I just understand we're just reviewing the issue is is that correct Mr Gorski or review the Ed hoc committee recommendations well I believe what I heard was the the a board goal is going to be to prioritize and um act upon the recommendation of the ad hoc committee because of the importance well how about getting the would it are we in charge of getting the adoc committee going is that is that our goal that's the board president's responsibility and I believe that's we need to move yeah we've been working on that already the the the um ad hoc committee got the latest report and we're working to come up with a date for the
204ad hoc committee to meet and and make a recommendation based on the um latest okay the redistricting report correct so Mike made an adjustment to the goal everybody's good with that if it is I need Mike to repeat it because I didn't write it down when he saw goad may need baris's help with that to rewind the tape um recognizing the importance of the purpose of the ad hoc committee it was going to be a board goal to act upon the recommendation of the ad hoc committee which is forthcoming and and Implement such a recommendation and that implementation could be anywhere from um Capital Improvement to schools a bond referendum redistricting all all tools are at the disposal of the committee's uh to make a recommendation and for the board to act on what's the
205name of the ad hoc committee ad hoc committee the ad hoc committee on growth and fac facilities and growth or growth and Facilities I think it's growth and Facilities all right Michelle I I just want to be clear when you say that we're going to act on the recommendation are are we going to have any input as a board we don't have to actually take the recommendation fully they make a recommendation to the board and then the board will decide how they the board decides okay so it'll read receive and act on the recommendation of the ad hoc committee on growth and Facilities no I you know I understand that the uh the the way our policies are written the board president has the right to make committees have have ad commit ad hoc committees
206etc etc but if we have the right to deny what they're suggesting why have the committee at all we're all elected representatives why can't we just do it of the and if they don't like it they won't they won't elect us the next time if I it's just another layer of of stuff that we shouldn't have to contend with and and and turn and and answer to your uh statement Doug about more committees more ad hoc committees Etc there is nothing there's no subject that can't be entertained by every committee we have I think the problem is we just don't have enough time but and I and whoever agrees with that I you know I I I think that's correct we don't have enough time I think what happened was historically uh in order to
207keep the administrators out only one night a week we we piled it up in one night but there are many Boards of Education where they're out two and three nights a month and and that's the way it is and you just have to make those decisions and and that's a decision that I think is up to the board uh and make suggestions to the president of how that should work and Marv I I largely agree with everything you're saying except you were assuming that I was calling for more committees I simply said that we look at whether or not we needed more committees that did not mean that I was advocating for more committees but in terms of the ad hoc committee I do think that they have an important role because that is an
208opportunity for Citizens supervisors building principles and board members to come together in a discussion that we can't typically have if we're meeting as a board of education but what happens is we get the same people all the time well well that that may be because there is a nucleus of people that have you know a very strong interest in these issues it is unfortunate I agree you you you can probably predict what they're going to come up with every time if if I could to or um just so you're clear and I for everybody's edification the purpose of committees is twofold research and recommend that's it so the idea is to divide up your workload because the board itself won't have time to do all of that and for everything else that Doug said do
209you have something Michelle I just wanted to add that that having an ad hoc committee does fulfill our strategic plan as engaging the community and I agree that sometimes the same people come up all the time but also I think it's still important if people are engaged whether they're the same people all the the time but that was a pretty big ad hoc committee and I saw faces that I hadn't seen in the last 10 years so I was pleased the only thing that I think we have to be careful of is when the same people are put in charge of the Committees over and over again that does sort of gear or or move a committee in a Direction that's predictable instead of really listening to the broad spectrum of people who are participating
210and because you know that that's something the board should always keep in mind when they consider so you know it going in right okay you got four board goals you got four District goals anything I left out I just have to do the word smithing right week to 10 days I'll get copies you can go through it you'll have plenty of templates with additional materials I'm going to hand those out now while I do that I want to cover something that we talked about before I got a head good I the F thank you I'll get you I'll get you we get one of those and then go okay he's not here don't go without the folder because we're going to ask you about it I just like f thank you Amy's not here I
211got to take I got to headit that out thanks for your help Okay um let me go through this because it's information is reference information that's why I didn't hand it to you in the beginning I I work off the right side I'm a little backward with that but uh the agenda is on the right side the next sheet staple that's pink that's the handouts from this power so all the information I cover is there for you oh good then because it's so important I in salmon color that's that's an inational term it's distri go okay because it's you have to make sure you understand the difference to and the purposes then there's a a set of questions that board members can ask and that you know it's not just your board every board wrestles
212with this so here are some ways in which you can ask questions about data um there's an evaluation piece there I I would hope that you would feel strongly enough to pull it out and write me your feelings on the goal setting process we went through today because it helps me do a better job the next time on the left side you're going to get all of this electronically we're almost there the first one is a district go action plan that I'll send dentist can use that or he can modify any way he choose the second one is really important for the board while it says professional development it's your action plan for your board goal read and because we thought it's so important we actually made it a board goal a sample for doing
213a superintendent evaluation because we have many districts that don't do it on time or do it at all so we gave you an example of that again that will come to you electronically now the white one I need to talk to you about the next one is actual web pages from the state department I mentioned early on in my presentation that they made two changes to the superintendent's evaluation one of them was the date moved it back two months the other was the professional development plan prior to this year superintendent had to complete a professional growth plan a pgp submitted to njasa that's how it was monitored boards were never involved in the statute changed so this year what they're saying is unless you're a temporary uh for a short period of time so you're
214off the hook one year is a short period of time well a year he's got to do it if he's less than a year you know but check with your county suit because they're all they all handle that a little different they do um the bottom line is they have to they have to create a professional development plan for themselves based on the length of their contract three four or five years and they have to submit it to you as the board now now the state doesn't tell you what you have to do with it they just say you have to submit it so you can take it give a little feedback if you want to and just put it down in your minutes that you receive it at the end of each year the
215superintendent's now responsible to report out to you on its progress what we don't know is if the state's going to require that as part of the evaluation we don't know that yet but I wanted to give you a heads up because it's going to affect you and the new superintendent going forward so any more detail is in here the next gen are examples of gold written format then there's Merit pay information in case you want some information on Merit pay uh the blue sheet talks about curriculum Benchmark standards essential questions again that the board can ask and I think you asked me that Michelle about what kinds of questions right this is the paper I like then this one is the acad we try to keep up to date on those so these are new
216and not so new AC problem what's the it's a scorecard okay um another one on ated decision making questions and then the pink one I'm going to send you electronically if Mike and Dennis and U um Kathy want to use it you can make it your own it's a calendar of when we suggest you do things so you stay on schedule because there is so much to do then there's a a reference sheet for you on governmental relations um your rep is listed here by county and then by expert so if you need advocacy help this is where you go and then this will be important when you get your board going or your board self AOW this is a list of our sample programs that we offer for training that we come to you
217in this case it would be when coming to you okay um the last piece was there was a question about interviewing and I kept remember I kept mentioning that you only have one employee the superintendent well the superintendent in terms of personnel boards always get confused with this are boards supposed to be interviewing other people and the answer is it depends by Statute you should not be interviewing for the position to hire them however you can be part of an Advisory Group if the superintendent extends you to do that so for example when I became a shared superintendent we hired building principles because we were small districts I invited the full board to hear the see the two finalists in the interview but they weren't sitting there to decide which one they were just there
218to give me inut and I wanted to watch them interact then I made the recommendation of who the principal would be so the are samples of that happening but it has to come from the superintendent the board can't say we want to interview all the finalists for the principal we want to interview all the finalists for uh a supervisor position or a technology person um only if the superintendent allows you to do that and you be part of it and then it would be in a committee format I know lots of PR superintendant when they're hiring a building principal have parents and staff and maybe sampling of the board members maybe the Personnel committee or something as members of that committee but he's not bound by that committee to make the decision that they they
219think is good so it's advisory only I don't know if that helps clarify it does though and and maybe as part of your report if you could just reduce that to writing as well too as a recommendation yep I just have a question sure board goals those goals who is going to be writing the um action plan for those goals the board board in public you can or you can do it in committee you may decide you know what uh we want the personnel committee to do this one hiring a superintendent you may want um actually any committee could probably do this one uh you can decide which committee on the board you would or you may want to charge a group to do it Personnel uh Personnel could be right uh this one you
220may want to do the committee process um you may want to have the president involved in that because it's a governance piece and then Representatives that are interested okay and it's not a long it's not a complicated Pro you could see the format it's just simp simply filling in the you know in a chronological order to get to your desired outcome and then the last one was um the atoc committee um that again can be written by anybody on the board or if you have a committee that's related to that could School boards come back and facilitate another day of sure getting like picking another Saturday and couple hours you wouldn't need a whole day for that one but if you want to do that in conjunction with some professional development you could make it
221a couple of hours most of our programs on the list are an hour to two um there's a couple that could be extended to three but they're really short shorter versions um I'm doing that for a couple of my boards it's an hour in an hour we can go through the action plans and I can give you some help and facilitate you putting that together absolutely final questions good job thank you good job to you because not this is not easy stuff and it's not easy to get everybody's focus and input and and desires on in paper and then really kind of vet them out a little bit and come up with established goals and you did that and you did that in relatively short time I expected us to be done at 2 o'clock
222it's quarter R so that'll tell you A lot of that goes to you qu after three you know quarter after three your watch is broke is it no just kidding I got another thing I got to do kudos to you uh your structure and presenting this uh today in the development of the goals with the board was very helpful exceeded our expectations and kudos to the board we came up with some wonderful goals here that I think we're all very proud of everybody's happy great job thank you and I just like to add to that because I think the conversation we had today as a board was was excellent and got a lot of good ideas out got a lot of um I love everybody participated I have to tell you I go to meetings
223and some people don't say anything and then you know they talk later about it and it doesn't help you know you got to really put yourself out there and and say what you think and I I commend the board for doing that you guys all do that well we are our board who likes to give our opinions give have to give you something than so thank you again thank you very much for your time um we'll go to number eight on the agenda and try to get out of here as quick as possible let's see it on the intern i is there any other business by any member of the Board of Education Mr yes I I I've once again in engaged in the annual review of uh per pupil cost according to various districts
224in the county uh so I've been doing this report maybe three or four years now I just want to give you a copy of that and I would hope at some future uh meeting we could discuss that further uh oh thanks Mike and and I do want to say that uh I I thought today was uh a good day because we really got to focus on on uh you know the board uh what we expect what we're looking for uh I I think it's uh regrettable that we didn't have the full board here but I do understand you know there are sometimes pressing issues uh but uh and I know no one likes to come out on a Saturday but when we can meet like this and not have to worry about approving all these
225various things under personnel and board action and and the business administrator report and all of that and we can just talk and get things out I think that's very very beneficial in developing a stronger board absolutely anyone else have any other uh board business Anthony I would like to thank Doug for doing all of this work this is a lot of work Doug and your dedication shows thank you keeps me out of my it keeps my me out of my wife's hair uh if you have this purple thing uh we'll we'll give those to Al okay or leave them someplace hey let me just public forum anybody from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone which is hidden over here state your name an address for the record have to you don't
226have to couldn't let you get I Tes 11 OT Drive couldn't let you get off the hook with nobody speaking since I kind of stayed here all the time I'd like to congratulate Mike for his presentation on the budget philosophy that was very good and from year to year to year um we constantly do what other districts can't usually for the uh facilities needs uh of other districts they have to go out for Bond referendums and we don't um i' like to while I respectfully disagree on the no votes for that I respect your opinion uh I like uh when somebody says they're going to vote no on something for your reason and I would like to encourage the board if they do vote no on something that big they give a reason why and
227I know you did so I respect that um on the board goals excellent board goals uh I you worked all very well together and it was a good meeting um also what I want everybody to keep in mind uh you talk about a lot of programs the past meetings and the value of programs the value of a program can not only be assessed by its monetary value it also you have to keep um the uh the needs of students uh in mind when you evaluate a program whether there's two or 10 um students in a particular class maybe AP class or maybe an arts class or culinary class uh we're giving those students the opportunity to achieve something they may not be able to do and I know in this country we place a value
228on life we place a uh extreme value on our kids and our education uh I want everybody to succeed so just because a class may have five students in it uh it's you can't just and it costs a certain amount of money I don't think you can just look at that monetary figure and say we don't need it so I would just like to make sure everybody keeps that in mind it's not necessarily about the monetary value it's making sure all our students succeed thank you and good meeting thank you anyone else from the public seeing no one our next Board of Education meeting Wednesday September 10th 2014 7:00 p.m. at Monro Township High School motion to adjourn uh second miss armeno Mr proso all in favor I opposed abstention meeting is adjourned are you
229opposing oh Mr um there's so much more we could do Mr Mr Braverman is opposing so noted he want can I take this pleas help yourself what