Monroe Township Board of Education 09.25.24 Regular Meeting

001no no good evening everybody today is Wednesday September 25th 2024 this is the Monroe Township Board of Education monthly meeting can everybody please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance United States America for IT stand na God indivisible with liy and justice for all Miss Allan can we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez here miss Bora here miss depay here miss Fabiano here Dr P here Mr Piro here miss Ratner Miss Sharma here Mr Tano here Mr ziker here we have a quarum in accordance in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published in electronic notes provided by having the date time in place thereof posted May 10th 2024 and September 20th 2024 at all

002schools on the district website home News Tribune cranberry press and filed with the clerk of the municipality thank you the next item on our agenda is the Clos session resolution whereas the senator Byron and Bear open public meetings Act njsa 10 col 4-6 provides that the Monro Township Board of Education May hold an executive session from which the public is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed section 12b of the act and whereas that the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subjects will be made public at a time when the Public's interest in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental Interest being protected from disclosure now therefore be it resolved by the monor Township Board of Education that the board shall go

003into executive session to discuss the following items additional items may be determined and announced as needed the matters involving Collective negotiations Andor negotiations of terms and conditions pending or anticipated litigation and matters covered by the attorney client privilege matters involving employees and terms of their Employment contract and Hib investigation involving students the further resolve that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in closed session no longer exist action may be taken on any of the items stated above can I have a motion motion second second all those in favor hi hi hi we'll be in close session for approximately 1 hour and we'll return at 7:15 I'd like to call the meeting back to order coming out of close session I do have a resolution to

004be read be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education approves the memorandum of agreement with Teamsters Local 11 affiliated with the International Brotherhood of teamsters related to the terms and conditions of employment of its members by the board for the period July 1 2024 through June 30th 2027 the board president superintendent business administrator and board attorney are authorized to take all actions to effectuate this action of the board can I have a motion motion second Miss can move a roll call please yes questions discuss sorry hold on questions discussion comments okay now can we have a roll call please um Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depan yes Dr P yes Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr zner yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes thank you okay the

005next item on the agenda is our approval of minutes uh the first one is the public Board of Education meeting agenda minutes from August 21st 2024 motion second any questions abstentions all those in favor I I okay any opposed the next one is the closed session meeting August 21st 2024 any all those in favor second all those in favor I any exensions recusals seeing none then the next item on our agenda is our student board members report I'd like to welcome back our two student board members good evening everyone thank you so much for having us um our new Junior Board of aded Representative is Tia Patel and she'll be starting us off tonight hi it's lovely to meet you all today Oak um in this past month oakry welcomed 570 students in grades K

006through 3 on September 4th it was a very smooth opening all students already attended our annual Behavior expectations assemblies at which they learned about the rules we have in place to keep them safe back to school night was held on September 17th students and their families were welcomed by the PTA during an ice pop social on September 11th they are also hosting a clothing drive on September 28th as a fundraiser we're looking forward to an exciting October filled with par parades a week of respect and assembly trunker tree and school pictures moving on to Applegarth apple garth's back to school night will be held tomorrow September 26 2024 um fourth grade is at 6:00 p.m. and fifth grade begins at 7:30 p.m. principls got to know students in conduct conduct assemblies held the first full

007week of September and they discussed the code of conduct and keeping the status as a national school of character by adhering to their fish philosophy of being friendly inclusive supportive and honest teachers honor the memory of 911 through a variety of activities in their classes including breed outs interactive videos digital learning experiences reading interviews and firstperson accounts and sharing about heroism thank you to the social study supervisor Miss drust for compiling wonderful resources for teachers to use teachers also celebrated Constitution Day on September 17th with a constitution themed escape room fourth and fifth grade choir and band kicked off the week of September 23rd the PTA hosted an ice pop social on September 11th which was well attended and allowed children and parents to meet new friends a big thank you to all of the

008parents who signed up to be room parents and volunteers this school year information will be coming out electronically very shortly to confirm participation lastly Applegarth would like to thank high school student AR of Modi for the wonderful map of the USA he and his troop painted in the Applegarth play area they would also like to thank Eagle Scout Pam GAA for the Gaga pit he buil for built for appleg guard school and moving on to and moving on to M Lake mil Lake School is off to an amazing start with staff and students excited to return and dive right into the new school year this year's theme it's always sunny at mil Lake said a positive tone as all staff showed their school support by wearing yellow Sunshine shirts on the first Friday on September

00911th students dressed in red white and blue to honor Patriots Day and pay tribute to Our Heroes the following day on September 12th mil Lake hosted his highly successful back to school night which was followed by a fun pajama day for the entire School in support of pediatric cancer awareness this Friday September 27th 2024 the m the m Lakers will show their support by participating in gold and blue jeans day as we move into October mil Lake will hold picture day on October 7th the school will also conduct bus sa feed drills on October 9th with a rain date set for October 10th early dismissals are scheduled for both October 11th and October 14th the latter due to inst staff service parent teacher conferences for preschool and kindergarten will take place on October 15th with

010additional conferences on October 16th and 17th including an evening session on the 17th fire prevention week will kick off on October 21st ensuring students are well prepared and safe next up is Woodland Elementary School Woodland welcome back students for the 2024 to 25 School year and introduce their school theme we grow together together Woodland and families will provide the necessary strong Foundation to help students Thrive and grow with them this school year students with their families created leaves for the school's family tree which included family pictures words drawings Etc to represent their family's interests in honor of Patriot Day on September 11th all students and staff wore red white and blue classrooms also participated in several different activities to commemorate this very important date students have been given an overview on how to join fifth

011grade character crew and student council their Woodland title programming had a really early start this year with two weeks of early Ela and Mathematics learning with their ready to rise programming at the end of August their program had a great attendance rate and students were excellent contributors to their summer growth before the school year started and moving on to Barkley Brook Barkley Brook has had a wonderful opening to the 2024 25 school year and it is so wonderful to have our classroom and hallways filled with with the smiling children excited for the year had of us on Wednesday September 11th they held their first school spirit day students and staff were invited to wear red white and blue in recognition of Patriot Day the school day began with a moment of silence to remember and

012honor the sacrifices made by the men and women of our country as well as those made by our veterans and Military it was truly beautiful to see mil Lake filled with patriotic school spirit Barkley Brooks back to school night was held on Thursday September 12th we'd like to thank all the families for coming to meet their children children's teachers and visit their school Barkley Brook had their great kid initiative up and running for the new school year we use the acronym great to represent our core values of growth mindset respect empathy acceptance and Trust our students have been learning what it means to be great in all areas of the school each week we will recognize two students from each grade level for demonstrating great behavior and will hold monthly trimester assemblies to recognize those

013students who continually demonstrate our school's core values next up is Brookside Elementary School in honor of Patriot Day the staff and students were red white and blue Brookside school had their picture day on September 18th and brookside's back to school night will take place tomorrow September 26th at 6:30 p.m. to recognize Fire Prevention Week the third grade will visit the fire safety house and the fourth and fifth graders will also have an assembly on October 9th and 10th the Barkley Brook and Brookside PTA will run the PTA Fall book fair and on to our Middle School the Middle School finished fourth and fundraising in the nation for the American Heart Association through their Hoops for hearts program raising $330,000 led by our PE teacher Misty Drake mtms had their annual back to school nights for

014each grade on September 10th 16th and 25th parents had the chance to follow their child's schedule and meet our wonderful teachers on September 24th mtms held an interest meeting for their sixth grade production of Jou a mighty medial musical the play will be held on October 24th more information will be posted and last but not least mon Township High School back to school night was September 18th high school students parents and Guardians had a wonderful night meeting with their teachers and advisers senior night for the parents of the senior class was held yesterday September 24th and provided valuable information for the students college application process throughout this entire week so far students have been actively participating in Spirit Week by dressing up in pajamas White Lies as their favorite holiday in the western theme and

015in purple and gold the pep rally for the high school far City football team is going to be held on Friday September 27th lastly please do come out on September 27th at 700 p.m. to support the high school team at the Hugh Walsh field thank you all for listening have a great [Applause] evening thank you both so much um it really is the highlight of our meeting to have our student board members reports it it gives us really a a great purview of everything that's happening in in the district so thank you both very much and we're happy that you're back the next item on our agenda is we have some presentations this evening so the first presentation that we have is the Apple distinguished School evening everyone good evening hello that Apple education team

016is really pleased to join you all this evening to talk about the Apple distinguished schools program Apple distinguished schools are centers of leadership and educational Excellence that demonstrate Apple's vision for learning with technology and we believe they're some of the most Innovative schools in the [Music] world the Apple distinguished schools program identifies and celebrates the amazing work schools are doing to innovate teaching and learning with apple technology it provides leaders in the community with Rich professional development networking and research opportunities to expand leadership capacity schools in the program work as a community to learn collaborate grow and together Inspire other schools in their local and Global communities as of February 2024 there are 8 89 Apple distinguished schools from 37 countries around the world to become an apple distinguished School the school must be nominated

017by the local Apple team based on evidence aligned with a rubric which is centered on three pillars Inspire imagine and impact the school then completes a written application and produces a short video which is reviewed by a committee of worldwide Apple education leaders who compare evidence to the rubric on Inspire schools demonstrate exemplary practices to lead learn and thrive in our Dynamic world through vision leadership teaching and learning practices under imagine the Apple distinguished schools Empower Learners to discover new possibilities and solutions they show agency collaboration creativity and culture and the third under impact is uh schools in the community commit to leaving the world better than found it by engaging in ongoing research sharing success practicing and promoting accessibility and inclusion as well as equity and diversity being an apple distinguish school is not

018only a recognition of educational excellence and exceptional leadership but it's also an opportunity to collaborate with a worldwide leadership network of like-minded peers schools in the network receive exclusive invitations to leadership events professional development opportunities and further their Innovative work with committed support from the Apple education team so it's with great pleasure that I announced to you tonight that Monroe Township High School has been named an apple distinguished school for the year's 20124 through 2027 so when Road Township High School may be new to the Apple distinguished schools program but certainly not new to Apple after 10 years of iPad in the hands of students and faculty who also use Mac it's time to celebrate this incredible school and their dedication to Leading Innovation students in Monroe High School are engaged in learning they are

019creators they are thinkers they're innovators and they are the future and they're also really great speakers these students are supported by incredible faculty that are dedicated to their students and engage in their own professional learning on a regular basis I'd also like to call out the exceptional leadership at the building and they have incredible Vision they communicate well with their faculty and they share ideas with other schools that are looking to grow so I'd like to share with you the uh P one piece of the application which is the video that was produced and you'll see all of those things um throughout that video [Music] [Laughter] [Music] Monroe Township High School has been using the Apple platform in our school for over a decade we have a onetoone program where all of our students have

020their own a iPad and our teachers are provided with iPads and MacBooks to uh create and content the classroom has really transformed really expanding upon what our students learn what they share and what they can provide not only to their teachers but to their um their classmates and their their peers worldwide [Music] my goal is for the students to uh interact with the text by using color-coded annotating in ey books blue for characterization uh underlining something that may be a question green for setting and it helps them to be able to be more interactive in class and to help uh get to those higher levels of author craft [Music] so the class is called engineering Essentials and it's a class for students of all cognitive abilities to be able to come together and learn about

021different types of engineering this specific unit had to do with computer science so they were learning about coding and they were able to create different codes for either light effects moving distances creating sounds they learned to troubleshoot so if something wasn't working within the code they're learning to solve it on their [Music] own we live in a dynamic world having used the Apple platform in my education has taught me to keep up with rapid changes so I will be able to drive in whatever feel like I to so we recently participated in a film contest and having the one-on-one iPads really helped us share our ideas and bring our Collective Vision to life [Music] so my goal After High School was to create a nonprofit organization and I feel like using the Apple the Apple

022products and the Apple tools that the school has provided me with I got a better understanding of different applications I can use in order to make that like dream a reality I think our responsibility is to teach students how to live in a world that doesn't exist yet the Apple platform the iPads especially allow our students to explore places and ideas that they have never explored before in the future they're going to have a voice in the future they're going to have a part to play in this digital landscape that we're living in so now I'd like to invite Dr principal of Monroe Township High School to say a few words thank you very much um I just wanted to take a moment uh and say good evening and on behalf of the entire mths

023Community I want to thank you for your recognition um as Dr Chanley says success is always a team effort and I want to take a few moments to thank our team at the high school who worked so hard to make our school in distinguished school I want to especially recognize Miss Terry Weiss Mr Boris ladic Mr John mola Mr Elliot Felman Miss Sharon DeMarco and Miss Megan Cobb and of course Dr Chanley and Dr Layman who have been involved in this process from the beginning most importantly I want to thank the students of Monroe Township High School who have all come to embody what an apple distinguished school is I have been part of the Apple iPad and initiative from the beginning and I can tell you that we've come a long way every day

024our students discover new possibilities new Solutions and commit to leaving leaving their educational environment better than when they arrived as the Board of Education you are often asked to put a value on education what our students commit to and produce cannot be measured with a price tag you have continued continued year after year to provide our students with the best possible education so I say thank you and I congratulate you too because this recognition is as much yours as it is the high schools I want to thank our partners at Apple professional learning who have been working hand inand with our teachers and students since this all began in 2011 the committee who approved our application questioned why mths had not been recognized sooner I'm not sure what the answer to that is but moving

025forward we will make it a priority to show recognition to all of our students and our staff accomplishments in doing so I would like to recognize some of our staff who have recently completed a professional program and are now individual members of the Apple teacher program some of them are with us here tonight miss Sharon DeMarco teacher of language arts Miss Lissa Miller teacher of video production in the back Mr Paul Spinelli teacher of biology and also who cannot be with us tonight Mr Tom lion teacher of psychology and Miss Paulina Pereira teacher of math we look forward to continuing our work with APL and have uh and and having more teachers work through this program so I just want to say thank you thank you all for your time and we appreciate all that

026you do for our children um at this time I would ask that that if you could join me and other members of our high school and our high school team and our high school students in the front uh so we can take a picture um with we have an apple distinguished sign that we've had in front of the school since the first day um and we have a beautiful plaque that we're going to hang in an area of prominence so if you would join us in the front maybe we can have the we can have them take a picture um ask our students to come up you can leave your iPads on the table um but our teachers as well in the front that way m e e [Applause] ready yep thank you Dr Higgins

027and the high school team that is an amazing accomplishment and we are so proud and so honored that we could be here to celebrate it with you tonight so thank you very much the next presentation we have is our strategic plan okay I'm just waiting for it to come up on the screen welcome everybody this evening a nice warm welcome back to school although we are welcoming you back we are already ready to start October next week and fall is upon us so I don't really know where the back to school went but it came very quickly so for purposes of the Strategic action plan and it's a good thing I'm wearing glasses one of the things that I always say and it's not just a mantra I truly mean it is success is always

028a team effort nothing exists in isolation whether it be the support of the community inclusive of parents as well as those who are not parents uh support of the Board of Education the administrative staff staff the teachers the children I say the children last but in my book the children really could be first because they are the reason why we're all here so the Strategic plan was a conversation that was started last school year and couple of things that I want to bring to everyone's attention is the Strategic action plan which is a five-year overview of where we are going in this district is not a requirement of the state of New Jersey it is something that a district may choose or choose not to pursue it is something since I have been here for

029the last 22 years that we have done and what we like to do is we like to look at what we accomplished and what we' like to continue to accomplish and it is a living document a strategic plan should not be a check off of compliance but rather a pathway and a journey for where we'd like to get where we'd like to be with our children and in order to do that we need everybody's collaboration we were very fortunate that on the initiation process which was February 5th as you can see from the screen we Bard into the New Jersey school boards Association they are one associ Association that can be utilized that we do um ask to work with us we go ahead and we get approval from the board just to let you

030know the process because there is a fee involved and then they work directly with us and at that time we then set up dates in which where we meet and we ask the public to join us so we had meetings three specific meetings with the public March 20th April 25th May 15th we had in general between between 20 30 and 40 individuals come we were very fortunate that we had a really nice array of those people that came we had board members that joined us the administrators came we had teachers we had some parents we had some community members from our our active adult communities we had just a really nice array of people because we want to hear everybody's voice and during that meeting and those meetings rather we were fortunate that we had

031Mrs Patricia ree at the time work with us she came with a plan and we allowed everyone to have a voice and everybody worked and we worked with the end in mind so when you begin with the end of mind we want to say what is it that we want to end with and we want to end with our children excelling we want to end with our children being successful in various areas it could be high level of academics it could be vocational regardless of where it goes we want our children to just rise to their highest level and our highest level of expectation so we were very fortunate to be able to do that as I turn the program over to Dr Layman to continue I would like to also recognize Mr morala because

032as our director of communications and various other things he worked instrumentally with Miss Reese with us to sit down and work to have a a plan one of the things that Dr Layman's going to go over is that and I said this and I'm going to repeat it it is not a check off sheet this is not a compliance this is a living document this is where our children are where we are whether it be in facilities operations leveraging technology and students excelling and it's where we want to go so one of the terms that you're going to start hearing a lot is the portrait of a graduate I had an opportunity to go to the school boards last year and the administration some of our leadership was with us as well and we saw

033what does it mean what is the portrait of a graduate and all I can say as we continue is we need to always do what is best for our kids and set them up for Success Through facilities through technology through Excellence through our staff through our Administration and through the support of the board so welcome I'm glad you're here and Dr Layman if you'd like to continue sure uh and whoever's running the slides I'll give you the heads up when we're ready to go to the next one um I'm going to build a little bit on what Dr Chanley said the sense and the purpose of the the Strategic plan is to develop a common Vision shared priorities and ultimately have this document have this Vision as our North Star as the district so when

034we look at whether it's board goals school goals administrative goals even down into the classroom teacher goals if we're all pulling in the same direction we can move this District forward um and this is the overview of how we can do that and our uh the outcomes of this come from several meetings with our community our school Community uh in terms of identifying areas of of focus which are on the screen uh all the way down to a goal statement so uh the outcome of the first three meetings we have three areas of focus uh goal areas one is facilities and operations one is leveraging technology and another is students excelling uh what the final meeting in our strategic planning process did was Define a goal statement so you can move to the next slide

035as we go through each goal area I'll go over the goal statement and then I'll also explain what some of the other uh information on the slide is so in the area of facilities and operations the goal statement is and again this is an outcome from our community participation uh in New Jersey school board's strategic planning process the Monroe Township School District facilities department and you will see the initiatives and focus areas under here uh stretch Beyond just the facilities Department uh they're much broader than that uh we create and maintain a safe efficient conducive learning environments for staff students and the community um what we did over the summer administratively is we took these goal statements and we turned them into action init initiatives you can look at them as priorities and projects um

036under defined Focus areas so I'll take you through our Focus area so in this facilities and operations goal area we have an operations and Logistics optimization Fus Focus area we have a facilities optimization Focus area operations optimization in the area of human resources and business operations a transportation optimization section as well as District advocacy and funding underneath each of those Focus areas are highlighted projects tasks uh initiatives that we can engage in over the next several years some of which are we're engaging currently some of it which we are going to research and develop partially Implement and some of some of which we uh are probably going to put a bow on and wrap them up by the end of the school year so um for instance Operations Logistics and optimization the first one there

037is Energy savings Improvement plan that's the EIP plan we've been talking about that for several months um we've moved beyond the development and research piece of that we're in the implementation piece we're getting our ducks in a row to develop a scope of project uh to be addressed through our esip program once we do that the actual construction projects that are outcomes from this will span over the next few years so that is an ongoing piece that we will engage in for the next several years but we're currently engaged in now another theme that you'll see there uh and you're going to see some of these projects they're linked to multiple areas is our demographic study that's another area we've been talking about we're going to engage in that within the next board meeting or

038two we'll bring on a demographer um the timeline for that is to be completed end of January February and that is and you'll see later in some of the future slides that is a foundational piece of information for us to use uh moving forward with many other things on this list many other things within this project um one of the themes that we thought was important to have spread through all of our goal areas is the advocacy and funding piece you're going to see that that same Focus area is in each of the three goal goal areas the reason we find that that's important is no matter what we are doing within the school district um we're always have a responsibility to advocate for us whether it's financially whether it's representation uh at a legislative

039level um looking for different funding opportunities because the common theme with everything in a strategic plan is for the most part it's something new something EXP expanded something growing and there's a financial piece associated with it so we want to make sure this advocacy and funding piece is a Common Thread regardless what we're working on uh next slide please so our second goal area is leveraging technology our goal statement is the Monro Township School District will create and maintain safe efficient and conducive learning environments for students staff in the community again that's an outcome of our strategic planning process with school boards the community pieced together and formulated that goal statement what we did is we took uh a look at some Focus areas over the summer we categorize one area as instructional technology in

040terms of accessibility and curricular integration and you'll see a list of some things tasks that um we naturally reoccur every few years uh as well as some stretch opportunities uh in the in the realm of what is mtms technology look like in the future uh what does k to5 technology access look like in the future in addition to what we're already working on in terms of refreshing the High School Technology as well uh another Focus area is digital presence and Communications we started a total overhaul and refresh of our website that's one of the projects like I said some of the things we're working on uh we'll be able to put a bow on many of many of these projects are going to be things that we will stretch for in in years to come

041uh another project that will occur at some point this year but it's directly correlated with our website refresh is the total overhaul of our notification system um it was an outdated notification system both the website and that notification system are sunsetting so we uh are transitioning to this new notification piece and the foundation of our communication with the community is really through this communication system through our website through social media um we we're don't really have a lot of print media anymore that's you know not something that we generate very often and you'll see most of this uh technology focus is expanding and refreshing and updating our digital presence and again you'll see District advocacy cycling back through here uh next slide students excelling uh and this is where you see a lot of the

042meat here the goal statement is Monro Township School District will establish comprehensive inclusive and Innovative learning opportunities for all Learners again that statement is an outcome for from our strategic planning process so what are our Focus areas in the next five years curricular and co-curricular programat programmatic Evolutions portrait of a graduate uh that is something that we've talked about that is something that provides the foundation of what our educational programs can look like moving forward um and that is something that is a priority for us to uh work through with the community that's a community- based process very similar to the Strategic plan in the sense that our community the entire uh Township will be invited to participate and the end kind of outcome is essentially what it looks like a portrait a description of

043what a graduate of Monro Township potentially is envisioned for us right now and in the future some other areas um an expansion of our Orchestra potentially to an orchestra program in music digital music and audio and Engineering um comprehensive K12 compai programming that is something that has exploded since covid um if you talked to us five years ago computer science was there was an interest to it and it ramped up extremely quickly uh as an interest as well as a need in in the career Fields um that's something we need to focus on another area of focus for us is the Continuum of programming to support all learners you've heard us talk in curriculum quite a bit and you see on the board agendas we uh have a lot of resources allocated mostly federally funded

044and Grant uh towards multi-tiered systems of support clinical mental health supports that's a new opportunity we have again it's a grant funed piece uh that is a gap that probably most schools could say that they uh they need to fulfill our traditional role as a school district is not to provide clinical support we are more of a counseling uh kind of approach in schools this is a clinical opportunity to help students and we have a foundation that we're putting in place this year and the goal would be to sustain and grow that opportunity to support our students uh full dayk is something that's uh been a a conversation uh and there's Community interest surrounded around that you'll see a list of tasks and or projects and initiatives associated with um researching and getting that opportunity

045uh to a point where we can look to implement it or you know whatever the design study leads us to if we takes us to a funding opportunity or a referendum or something you'll see demographic study Cycles back again that's a foundational document that will drive a lot of uh decisions regarding these programs Personnel optimization specifically recruitment retention and development uh there was a tremendous interest in uh instructional coaches that's something our district uh currently has as a staff uh as a staff line item um and they are they are certainly common in our field so that is something where we would begin to look into what is the best practice for instructional coaches what's the optimization of that and then at some point if we can financially support uh bringing on and developing a

046position like that it would be welcomed in our district um we want to take a look at our uh EV staff evaluation model we've talked about that um Genesis human resources that module actually has kind of cycled through a little bit already um and that kind of doubles back to the uh first goal area where we're looking at optimization of human resources department and again you'll see that District advocacy and funding piece cycling through again uh if you can go to the next slide so we thought it was important to prioritize this year so what can you expect in terms of our priority actions for this year under the facilities and operations area we talked about demographic study the longrange facilities plan is something that is founded in the demographic study um and it's something

047that is a part of that facilities and operations Focus area the Energy savings and efficiencies our continued work on esip and getting action in terms of taking those projects and putting them uh in place District advocacy again there's our theme of of ADV ating for ourselves under students excelling the portrait of a graduate what does that look like how do we Implement that there are companies that we can bring in to facilitate the process similar to school boards um so we will be and we are in the process of identifying funding sources for that as well as who's the appropriate uh company or partner to to uh work with in terms of putting that portrait of a graduate in place um I don't believe we would be finished with the portrait of graduate by the

048end of the school year as it is that just like strategic planning a a uh comprehensive CommunityWide piece many times involves surveys to our parents surveys to our students about uh gathering information about what they Envision student a portrait of a graduate looking like so um we'll get the ball rolling on that we will get it in place and that is something we can anticipate probably finishing up next year uh beginning the R&D for full full day K and prek that's grounded in the demographic study that's grounding grounded in after the the demographic study identifying what the scope of work is needed to identify spaces in rooms uh or construction projects or Innovations um and then budgeting funds for that uh and planning for that in terms of engineering studies and stuff for the following

049school year so that is what we're looking at for pre full dayk and prek this year uh and then we continue to expand our Continuum of programming that's everything from our enrichment programming to our music and arts program as well as our curricular programs then leveraging technology as you'll see uh our tech department has been working on a tech plan for several months um I would expect to see that come through before the holidays Mt mths technology refresh that's another thing we are uh actively engaging in quotes and identifying prices for Apple uh devices but also we always look at other devices to see uh what makes sense but what meets the needs curricularly of our students um and that's what everything is grounded in another piece we're going to take a look at is

050begin to look at what the technology situation is at uh mtms so we know we know devices um but what do we envision potentially that looking like in two three years um are we looking at a one to one what what are we looking at in terms of instructional needs for technology um so we're going to begin that work and then again at at its core advocating for ourselves um in terms of the district needs and then next slide we also have and and um I'm going to cycle back but we have our strategic plan website it's uh current and up to dat with all the notes all the uh outcomes from all three meetings uh at uh some point tomorrow this presentation will be uploaded on our strategic plan website so you have access

051to this this is just a summary sample timeline of what we're looking at in terms of what's potentially in that research and development stage partial implementation and implementing stage and then next slide again thank you for the community and participating in the Strategic plan development process um we truly value your input we held true to the work of the committee and using it as a uh kind of like we talked about the Northstar The Guiding uh principles under which we designed and we uh identified those Focus areas we just reviewed and uh I invite you to visit our website it had like I said it has all of the minutes notes and outcomes from the three Community meetings and this will be posted up there uh by tomorrow morning so any questions thank you thank

052you Dr Layman does any board member have any questions or no Miss Bora sure thanking all the community members that came out um and participated in this process um this is a beautiful document it it's not something that you just it's it kind of puts together all the hard work that has been ongoing in different areas and gives it a future Direction um I absolutely loved it I don't see anything missing in this document uh and what really excited me uh was the minute you started talking about the portter of a graduate um I just want to recall it was Dr Chanley myself and Mrs scurby at the workshop last year njsba workshop last year and we attended the session and it was like a light bulb lit in our heads and we said we

053we take so much pride in being Falcons um that whatever that presenter was talking about at that point it just lit such a light bu we want that Mt you know MTSD Falcon to actually have a qualitative quantitative description that starts in prek and goes all the way to high school that our little babies can associate with but at the same time a graduating seniors can look up to so the north star that you kept talking about Dr Layman it's like giving that North Star uh a it's like personifying that North Star with the with the you know portrait of a graduate so I'm very excited about that project and like I said everything else is is work that has been going on and it needs a direction and it needs to be prioritized and

054as a result of this plan I see us actually gaining momentum in all of those aspects so thank you for all the hard work that everybody involved put in this thing very appreciated and I'm looking forward to your committee G you know flying with us and actually getting us more momentum in areas where our citizens uh community members can contribute thank you thank you anybody else any comments questions yes I just wanted to add I completely agree with Mrs Bora and as a student who's graduating this year um seeing the future for so many of the younger students and I have a sister a younger sister in the Middle School seeing that this is going to be you know her future at monor Township High School and the middle school is just amazing it's a

055very fast growing world and seeing that you know this plan has all the content needed and all the plan needed to make it a better and amazing school for her and for all the other students alongside her is amazing especially like leveraging technology it's so important in this day and age so thank you for making this plan thank you uh just like Miss Boris said I'm also very excited to see where the citizens advisory committee will now take this and that we as a board can also use this now to help formulate our goals going forward um and thank you to all of the community members that participated in these it's evident that your input is invaluable and we really do appreciate everybody who took the time out to come to those meetings so um

056here we go 5year strategic plan everybody thank you very much um the last presentation that we have tonight is the board discussion on the budget philosophy okay um it's back to me so couple of things I would like to say on the onset of this presentation budget philosophy is just that it's philosophical in nature it means what are our expectations what are our goals what are our priorities it usually is not inclusive of numbers and it usually is not embedded in numbers however with that being said the Board of Education entrusted myself along with my team Dr Layman Miss Allen and of course always our leadership team to put the C before the horse I'm going to say the term because that's exactly what occurred and let's get a better idea of where we're going

057to be financially the reason I want to explain this to the public is because it's very important that you have an understanding of what information we are working with so under normal circumstances over the years in general in general the budget philosophy usually occurs November and then in March we usually have our budget presentation based upon the numbers and the reason why we have that time frame is because currently everything that you're about to hear is projections and estimates for example we have budget formal defense rounds that include our entire administrative staff our supervisors work hands inand with the principles as well as Dr Layman and myself and D the other directors to come up with their wants needs and mus haves if you remember that term that was something from the referendum and we

058still abide by it I put it in my confidentials and comments all the time because we'd like it all but we know we can't have it all right so that usually occurs in October November and then we have a better idea of the building level needs inclusive of when I say building level it includes curriculum um projects it includes um programming because everything winds up coming back down to the buildings so we have not done that yet we have no state aid numbers our state aid once again I always talk on approximations was 12, 600,000 that was what we got last year so we are just going with what we what we had last year we are hopeful that that will not only remain the same but will increase we do not have a magic

059wall so we are going with those numbers lastly but very important Miss Allen is tasked with the responsibility of taking lots of data and lots of information and plugging it in literally to a formul within formuls that is a a state driven program that state program is not even available yet so you sitting here in the audience at home and for those that will go back later on and watch it if you're not watching it live you have to have an understanding that we want to be transparent to the public the board of education's directive to myself and my and to me as the leader of the administration is we want if possible not to have to go out for another vote to the public if Poss possible we would like to be able to

060meet our needs and say that we're able to stay within the camp everything you're going to hear this evening and Miss Allen will do the part with the numbers is based upon the things that I just listed for you we do not have state aid for next year we have not done our defense rounds with our administrative staff we do not have the program because it is not open yet in order to place the information what we did was we took what we do have we took base upon previous expenditures we took based upon last year state aid we took based upon natural attrition natural program audit we are tasked with making sure that we are fiscally and fiduciary responsible as we should be to say what it is that we must have for our

061children what are the areas in which we want to continue to excel if possible and one of the areas that in which we see no longer are needed that's what an audit does so I wanted to take the time to give this preface so that we all understand that we do not have that crystal ball we are hopeful that as we move forward throughout the school year that things remain as we believe they should be as we hope they will be and as they are today every slide you will see says projection every number that we've utilized is an estimation and I think it's very important that we make that statement and I'm recorded saying it because that is what we did for this presentation so on that note I wanted to thank the Board

062of Education because success is a team effort we want things supported we make recommendations based upon what we believe is important for our children and we try to be fiscally responsible and still give our children the best possible education that we can we're going to go through the numbers and at this time there is not a recommendation to go out for a question at this time based upon the current information that we have based upon the projections and the estimation as of today the recommendation is not to go out for a question next slot thank all the members Board of Education our student Representatives next slide so a budget philosophy and this is the part that you used to this is what you'll normally see usually in November and I'm not going to read it

063to you but basically we establish the annual school budget it should entail framework if you'll notice it says appropriate funding students solid Financial base Paramount students the last thing a budget philosophy stat should be macro focused rather than micr focused refinement will be required and implement the future through the rigorous budget process the rigorous budget process is not only myself Dr Layman speaking with Miss Allen because Miss Allen is not going to say get rid of this Embrace this make this more she's going to work the numbers and we as the instructional leaders of the district working in compilation with our administrative team our instructional leadership team we're going to say what our wants needs and mus haves are because our end result is the portrait of a graduate so the one thing that you're

064going to see in a budget philosophy is that we are educationally sounds with fiscally student planning excuse me fiscally prudent in our planning we want to understand we want you to understand that we are aware that it's not just the dollars it is the Nickels it is the pennies it is we bear the responsibility to make sure that every single Penny Nickel Dime quarter dollar and so on is spent and is spent wisely and that is why we like to go through a rigorous process so we have had some conversations absolutely with our administrative team we have to have an understanding of what programs look like and attrition looks like but we have not gone through the process that we will go through because we think it's very important and that will occur within the

065next 45 days next slide so items to consider in budgeting so you have educational programs District Vision negotiated salaries some things of what you call um what's that word when you say that they of status like you have to have them every year fixed course thank you so some course are fixed course that's the term that I always hear Miss Allen say one of the things that I would like to bring to your attention because I I really do not want to read to you because I know everybody sees it in front of them the reason why we we wanted the Strategic plan to come first and then the budget to come next is because the budget is not just about numbers it's not yes it is important to be fiscally responsible and prudent but

066it's about what we need need to achieve the vision to achieve the goals that we set forth for our children for our students your children our students our children and that is why we consider these items in our budgeting process because we always want to give the very best that we can afford to give to our kids so these are the items in which we look at and we consider in budgeting priorities always first and foremost student staff safety a must very famous philosopher from years ago and I am not one to throw out names but I am a maslo girl I've been saying a few years anybody who was my teacher when I was a principal knows that I say this not because he's someone famous you could know him you don't have to

067know them it's all about starting at the foundation if we do not provide a safe environment where our students and our staff feel that safety nothing else can occur you have to feel wanted needed respected your opinions considered and be in a place when you come to school this building every one of our buildings all eight of our schools our pup Personnel building our transportation department we want all staff and students for those that have the buildings that have the children in it to feel safe then when you feel safe we want to maintain our current programs and staff are we at a point fiscally to be able to grow the programs sometimes we have some excellent programs that have grown out of grants that then turned into self-sufficient self- sustaining we is it do

068you always need money yes but the way we get those Source funding is in different ways currently though for purposes of this budget we are very prudent so if you'll notice it says maintain we want to maintain our current programs and staff and we want to address our Capital Improvement needs and that's through a wants needs and must haves we're very excited about moving forward with our Apple goth project as we partnered through our share service agreement with the township we are we are very excited that we're continuing to move forward and spending that money as we need to make apple goth what it needs to be and now that we have partnered and we were I'm going to use the word partnership but we have employed and approv the EIP program we will look

069at ways to be able to address these Capital Improvement needs without having large and large and large sums of money at all times within our budget next slide and now at this time I turn it over to Miss Allen to talk about the categories and the numbers and like I said under normal circumstances this would have been presented in the springtime late late late winter early early early spring for for purposes of being transparent and for purposes at the directive of the board of education as a team we wanted to give you as much information as we could based upon projections and estimations Miss alen okay so I will probably repeat a lot of the things you just said because it really is important that um you're aware that these are estimates so our goal

070for tonight was to determine whether we feel comfortable with the preliminary information we have available to us now that we will have to be able that we will be able to balance the budget for 2526 without a separate proposal question this was not meant to be the budget hearing which will take place in March we can say that with all the information that we are aware of now at this point in time we believe we can balance the 2526 budget it's much earlier than usual by about five or six months so there are many assumptions and estimates being made which would be expected to change as we continue our normal comprehensive budget process it's very important to note that the NJ doe state budget program where we all we enter all of our budget data

071will not even open up until the end of January the budget program provides pre-populated amounts various calculations edit checks Etc that we do not have the benefit of having available at this point in time um we only do this um estimate some of these numbers with the disclaimer that these that the uh that these are very preliminary projections um so we will proceed with our normal budgeting process where there will be collaboration and me meetings with principes supervisors and directors and budget defense rounds will be held this process takes several months to complete and there will be many tweaks along the way with that being said tonight we are discussing the general fund the special Revenue fund and The Debt Service fund will not be presented as they are Standalone and have no bearing on

072our operating budget or the issue of a separate proposal question preliminary projected general fund revenues for 2526 total 146 .8 million which is an increase of 4.7 million over the 2425 budgeted revenues this consists of projected general fund tax levy in the amount of 124.5 million which is an increase of 4.7 million over the 2425 tax levy um this will be explained on another slide general fund state aid is um budgeted at a flat amount of 12.6 million the breakdown state aid will be shown on another slide tuition from Jamesburg is budgeted at a flat amount of 4.2 million subject to calculations based on audited numbers certified by the state transportation fees from Jamesburg are budgeted at a flat amount of $256,000 subject to the drtr add calculations that will will be reported to the

073state and certified by the transportation director in November federal aid which consists of semi- reimbursements remains flat in the amount of $83,000 miscellaneous revenues consists of interest income use of building fees integrated prek tuition athletic admissions Etc and are conservative conservatively budgeted to remain flat at $850,000 um we would anticipate transfers from other funds to be $275,000 which is two Which is $125,000 less than the 2425 budgeted amount um this represents the Falcon care and ECE excess summer school and after school enrichment remains flat at 135,000 um excess Surplus which is subject to final audit is anticipated to be $2.8 million excess Surplus is just that it's the excess of the 2% of Prior year expenditures as adjusted the 2% is considered to be the maximum unassigned undesignated unreserved fund balance that we are allowed

074the excess of the 2% that is not otherwise legally restricted assigned or designated which is excess Surplus must be included as a revenue Source in our 25 26 budget for the 2425 budget we used an additional $1.7 million of unassigned fund balance to balance the budget is our goal to build our fund balance back up to be able to increase our capital reserve fund as well as to establish a maintenance Reserve Fund in order to do that we need to continue to look for ways to reduce spending to sum this up the preliminary projected general fund revenues are anticipated to be 146.820 35% increase over 2425 um the next slide shows the prel preliminary projected tax levy for 2526 we are allowed to grow our tax levy by 2% each year plus any allowable adjustments

075included in our 2425 budget was the separate proposal question as approved by the voters this was a permanent adjustment to the tax levy the 2425 tax levy cap increased by 2% is 122.6mi Healthcare cost that exceed 2% of the pre-budget year the allowable adjustment cannot exceed the average percentage increase of the State Health Benefit Plan that is determined annually by the division of pensions and benefits which is 14% for 25 this is calculated by the state budget program because the budget program is not available it has been calculated manually and is subject to change once this program becomes available this is a very preliminary number at this point and will be recalculated in January with more current information however we know that there is an increase in healthc care costs of 14% which is 12%

076higher than the 2% so there will be a healthare adjustment um finally we have state aid and we have um as I said we are not budgeting for any increase or decrease we have um special education Aid 7.5 million um security Aid of 681 th000 Transportation Aid of three almost 4 million um an extraordinary Aid of 397,000 for a total of $12.6 million of state aid um and then finally I would like to mention also that the rod Grant projects are accounted for outside of the operating budget and the grant is very beneficial to our district in allowing us to complete the appar projects without any effect on our budget I can't thank the township enough for their $5 million contribution to these projects we could not have done it without them and also of

077note are the EIP projects that the district will benefit from by allowing us to get energy Improvement improvements without increasing our budget Mr T has spent a great deal of time on both the rodr projects and the E projects and that concludes my report are there any thank you you um I just want to take a minute and thank Miss Allen and administration I know this is very very early in the process but the board uh truly appreciates your efforts and the information that you're able to give us from this so thank you very much I know this was not easy but we do appreciate it so thank you very much um did the board members have any questions or comments Miss Bora of course I have a comment thank you um I want to

078Echo what uh Mrs Fabiano just said um Miss Alan this is a time of the year when you were busy closing the books for the previous school year and we tasked you with this um with this enormous task of projecting and estimating because there was pressure on us to make a decision about next year's uh budget question um I want to let the public know that the administration Dr Chanley Dr Layman Miss alen and everybody in their team has been involved in this process for almost 4 months uh every week they've literally been at it every week so that they could come to us with a recommendation tonight and this was the reason I was asking urging everybody to wait one more month let them come with their presentation before we make any decisions about

079the question in April um this um has been a huge sigh of relief for the entire board to find out that um we are in a place where we don't anticipate going out for a budget question and I know you have stated it separately and together but I still want to reiterate the EIP program that we got into effect is going to help us meet our numbers for our Capital Improvements um the the voters the community members that helped us pass the question for 2.7 million have contributed immensely to give us more wiggle room in this budget because not only do we have that permanently in our budget we also that we go 2% over that every year so it's been a huge help so it wasn't for nothing that we went out to a

080question and you guys approved it it has really helped the future Year's budget process um it's a huge uh relief to know that we are where we are and I I I want to on behalf of the board as the finance committee chair thank you and let you know that we understand you don't have a crystal ball we understand that these are as it stands today and honestly that was our ask as it stands today how does it look so thank you for all your effort it was a humongous effort but thank you for doing it any other questions or comments okay then we're going to move on to the next item on our agenda which is our committee reports are there any committees that are wishing to give a report Mr Pay yeah yes

081thank you I have um two committee reports this evening I'll be reporting on the legislative advocacy Community engagement committee meeting uh since Miss Ratner is not here this evening we met on September 18th board members present were Miss batner myself Miss Sharma Dr peek Miss Fabiano District administrators Dr Layman and Mr morala the first item discussed were updates to the district website Dr Layman and Mr from around the provided features we can look forward to such as an integrated calendar and a more userfriendly format we can look forward to the website being launched shortly as they continue to work on moving over 500 individual teacher websites while creating a better better website experience the next item on the agenda was a recap of the letter we will be sending to our legislators Dr Layman shared

082that he has been working with Mr tag and other administrators to calculate a rough estimate of the cost of full day kindergarten based on numbers if we were to implement it today which was September 18th we are hopeful that we can get this out to them soon along with an impact fee resolution which will be on the njsba resolution committee meeting in December um from Monroe Township I request for support on Bill s248 and concerns over preschool Grant restrictions next we discuss two recent legislative updates Dr Layman shared how the district is handling updates arising with the new Oprah legislation including a new form that is on the agenda for approval tonight we also learned that bill s 2837 was signed into law in early September this bill will allow districts to hold annual elections

083in November and special elections only if there's a specific need to ask taxpayers similar to how referendums have been handled in the past though the committee would also like to see s248 passed which would allow districts to place an additional spending question on a November ballot for the following year we agreed that this bill enables us to save money by moving the election back to November without eliminating the ability to go out for an additional spending question if needed the committee also briefly discussed how we can create a better channel of communication with our aacs which are active adult communities there was a suggestion of placing an article in each of the newsletters of the various communities which would include also their HOAs which could also include those HOAs that are not restrict age restrict

084restricted excuse me we also discussed the idea of getting our Jamesburg families to sign up to receive Monroe district emails and news before entering the district which would allow them to get emails about various activities such as sporting events and performances so basically we want everybody to be informed through this committee from our legislators all the way down to our community members in Monroe Community members in Jamesburg and um hopefully that can be uh accomplished we're working hard on it I do have my other committee if you don't mind does anybody any questions does anybody have any questions or comments for the end of the um legislative action Community does anybody have any questions or comments for for the lace report anybody no okay now you can do your next one um the cic meeting

085was held on Tuesday no um November my September 17th president Dr Layman Mr moraldo Miss Fabiano Miss Alvarez Miss Ratner myself uh Mr moraldo presented the committee members with the list of applicants for committee membership we had received as of that date 26 applicants for the 12 positions that we are going to be putting on this committee uh we're also including three students on the committee too that's 15 with the actual committee members who are part of that committee committee we extended the date to apply to September 20th all those who are chosen or not chosen will be notified by September 30th uh it was discussed that Dr Layman will present the Strategic plan to the committee when we meet at our first meeting on October 8th at 700m Dr Layman and Mr morala presented

086the committee and actually this is it that we actually received that evening which was phenomenal to know that we're going to handing that out to the uh citizens advisory committee members also so that they know where we want this District to go within the next five years um if you notice every page says citizens advisory committee so it looks like we're going to be pretty busy um uh the meeting dates for anybody who's listening tonight for this committee are October 8th November 12th and December 10th for 2025 their January 7th February 11th March 18th and April 8th and thank you that's the end of my report thank you does anybody have any questions or comments for Mr Pay citizens advisory no okay any other committees wishing to give a report Miss Alvarez okay um the

087Personnel committee met on Wednesday September 18th 2024 in attendance Dr Layman Mr Pio Mrs Fabiano and Mrs depan there were three resignations all of which were certificated staff three exit interviews were conducted and of those three two reses accepted positions in another school district and one resign listed their reason for resigning was to stay home with family the administration continues to work diligently to fill vacant positions 13 of the current vacancies are for school bus drivers bus driver shortages continue to throughout the state it's not just here in Monroe also on tonight's agenda for approval is the job description for supervisor of Transportation the description is being amended to include additional responsibilities this concludes my report any questions for Miss Alvarez okay do you want to do your next one um policy policy didn't have

088a committee so no policy report uh any other committees I can go two two of mine I'll start with the finance and shared services committee minutes it committee met on September 18th uh the first uh item discussed was the attorney invoice for the month of July for porio and the month of August for Bush Law Group uh we reviewed uh and had no questions the committee then reviewed the bill list which at that time of the meeting was approximately $8.9 million with an addendum expected closer to the public board meeting uh clarifications were sought on a few checks for um ID purposes sports equipment purchase and legal services next on the agenda was a software proposal for the Genesis uh module for HR this will cost the district $25,000 for the first year uh with

089setup and then $5,000 every year thereon this has been discussed uh by the board in the past year but a decision was not made Dr Layman shared how our district is still very manual in a lot of our HR processes using Excel spreadsheets for data entry for many of the individual employee data this centralized automated system is commonly used by many districts around us for a very long time uh presently we use a tool called CSI which handles these HR tasks and payroll and the proposal was to continue using CSI for proposal for payroll but transfer the HR part to Genesis while the committee agreed that we must get this module the decision has been postponed for another month to get some clarity on the cost of bringing even the pay role to Genesis um

090or the possibility of doing that and eliminating an additional Tool uh we would like to see if this would serve our systems and staff better while bringing cost savings with consolidation so that's where this um um software proposal stands right now no decision no recommendations from the committee to the board um next the committee discussed the shared services agreement between the township of Monroe and the U mtbo due to an issue brought up in the last board meeting about the gap between the understanding of security terms in the shared service agreement and the regulations requirement for security in our board policy and regulation 7510 as per the agreement we do not charge the township for security and expect them to ensure safety of the occup occupants and the structures while they are using it but

091the regulation requires a minimum of one security guard paid by the Board of Ed during the use of the buildings the committee has requested the administration to have the lawyer review the agreement and suggest modifications to regulation 7510 which could then be brought to the policy committee um lastly two renewals were discussed that were related to the cheer team and the swim team practices any questions no questions I will say that um we did receive the updated information from Mr Weiss and that's going to be discussed next month at policy with regards to 751 Z thank you um do you want to do your next report can I take the Cel yeah next yeah um the curriculum committee met on September 17th the agenda for the September meeting uh just like August was packed with

09217 curriculum documents that were discussed and are on agenda for approval today Dr Roselle started with the grade six Spanish curriculum which has now been added as one of the four cycles that the students go through in the first year of middle school this course will be taught for one marking period the other three Cycles are computers General music and Industrial Arts only students that are in chorus do not get the opportunity to do the cycles Dr Layman shared that any sixth grade uh any sixth grade chorus parents wanting their child to get a similar Spanish exposure in sixth grade can reach out to the administration and something could be worked out to ensure their needs are being met um Dr Roselle then discussed the honors Latin 3 curriculum and shared the overall structure of

093the Latin program in our high school and the excellent opportunity that our students have in this department uh three language arts curriculums were then discussed Advan grade 7 Ela Advanced grade 8 Ela and AP language composition Dr Roselle shared the qualifications and the level of content in these high rigor language art courses um next she presented the media literacy curriculum for kindergarten through 2 grade and grade three through five uh this curriculum includes the maker space learning that our students are exposed to in in their Elementary years um Mrs Gasco after that shared the detail uh shared in detail the grade 2 math Algebra 1 and honors Algebra 2 curriculum she highlighted the updates were based on the 2023 New Jersey state learning standards she also explained the progression through the various levels of high

094rigor maths courses we offer and how some become prerequisites for advanced science classes following that Mrs druss shared two um AP documents for AP Physics 1 and the calculus intensive AP Physics C and highlighted all the prerequisites and the content differences between the two um Mr Snider then presented four documents he started with Elementary General music in grade three which is the introductory class before the students start band in chorus in fourth grade he next discussed a very popular elective in high school piano 1 which is first of the three uh such classes offered in high school and this helps meet a graduation requirement for five credits in Performing Arts next he shared the highlights of a very interesting pop music history class um lastly he discussed the structure and content of the strength and

095conditioning course which so far was only offered to Juniors and seniors for starting this year we are now offering it to sophomores sophomores as well um option two uh has allowed for this to happen next on the agenda was the Athletics emergency action plan presented by Mr Steven Branda this comprehensive plan is the first of its kind for the district and will be reviewed every year going forward for any changes required various parts of these procedures and protocols sat in multiple documents in our system but it helps to have one goto document for any type of athletic emergency and that can now be used to train all involved departments atletic security facilities Etc this plan list protocols for injuries of several types it talks about weather related emergencies shows the fastest route to all of

096our fields from nearby police and EMT locations and it also addresses the locations of AED um and as shared by the ad while putting this plan together they determine the need for two outside building locations for AED which are not locked and are now included in the plan um as usual despite the extra 15 minutes that the committee got this month uh it's a 1 and a half hour committee now uh we still ran out of time for Mr meralda and he only got uh 5 minutes for his update on enrichment programs he shared how we have hit the ground running with the advanced enrichment programs which are qualification based entry and offered uh during the school day which includes the morning zero period in all three upper elementary schools um this year we will

097be offering a large variety of fee based after school enrichment programs and the committee is discuss how those would work uh Mr moraldo shared that we may not have enough time to do a prep class for the October SAT test date but there are they're working towards starting the fee based uh SAT prep classes for future test days the district is in the middle of a website overhaul but the administration is making all efforts to have all enrichment program updates and information accessible to the community members through the old site and our social media pages that concludes the curriculum report any questions any questions for Miss Bor okay thank you the last one Mr Pio building and grounds Transportation so the committee met on September 18th uh in attendance was Mr T Miss Fabiano myself

098M Ratner Miss Bora Dr Layman Mr sby and Dr CL from the high school we talked about several different things Mr T informed us that day the administration confirmed that the flashing lights in front of the high school for the crosswalk walk that we will be transforming them to solar and on that day we received them and I believe they started working on them uh so we will have a solar flashing lights we had lights inside the the ground when you crossed and over the years they go out they go out they go out so um Mr Tay came up and also the township is doing the same flashing lights in front of milake school and center for the crosswalks there so um that's under the installation plan right now uh the appar uh 1936

099building roof replacement project U Mr T informed us that and the committee that the project is substantially complete and they're pleased with the performance of the contractor we're working through the punch list and the warranty inspections and the project finished on time and under budget so the first phase of the ra Granite appar school is complete the next part of the appar school new electric service upgrade project Administration shareff photos of the construction work and emphasize the complexity of the conduit installations that are ongoing the project is proceeding well and provided jcpnl delivers us the new service Transformer by June 25th that project can be completed success successfully on time also um just so parents know any work being done at Apple School uh there will be no contractors working inside the school dooring the

100school day uh a lot of the work will be conducted at night in the in the HVAC projects and stuff which we're going to talk about next so um the administration also advised us that um the arch is completed review of the bids there were 13 biders picked up bid packages and eight bids were received uh they were comparative bids right now the bids are with the attorney's office for attorney review and once that's under attorney review will'll proceed there with that project uh the way it looks now though the um installation of the HVAC is going to be about 500,000 over budget um for what we anticipated but we will be getting 300,000 State age which will go for that towards that we could use and also uh we're hoping that the other projects

101like the root project will come in under budget and that money will make the other 200,000 up but we won't know at this time um any additional in the forthcoming budget if needed we could put in or the leech Pur monies therefore um hopefully the way it's looking at what appor school um Mr to take got everything on schedule to um be completed in the time frame you given us the next part is the esip project update that's the uh efficiency project with Honeywell administrators shared a draft resolution that will be be presented at tonight's board meeting the resolution provides Administration to work with Honeywell to secure quotes for solar power purchase agreements this information will guide decisionmaking towards potentially proceeding with solar projects under the esip this does not uh commit the board to

102any contract or any cost at this time that the resolution has been reviewed by the bush laaw firm is currently in review with our bond Council and the last part of tonight is the um School opening Transportation so we had some uh issues with Transportation the opening of school Dr lamman provided an overview of the school opening indicated that although we were a few minor issues with uh primarily contracted drivers with confusion on day one uh by day two there was a big Improvement and it appears now that we are proceeding well with transportation uh we're adequately staffed at this time and our athletic events are being adequately supported with school busing so far this year uh the transportation did have a problem and is worked with the ed Service Commission to address uh root

103conflicts with our Magnet School students so apparently there was uh issue with the pickups of a lot of our Magnet School students and the administration along with the ed Service Commission and the transport portation Department has worked diligently and I believe now every issue they had with the Magnus schools is corrected and we have no more Transportation issues but just so we know uh as of this time we're not doing any double routes it's all single routes and uh keep our fingers crossed that you know we are able to maybe get a few more bus drivers and everything will run smooth through the school year uh that concludes my report thank you does anybody have any questions Mr P I have a question um Mr you said the magnet schools had an issue the busing

104now does that include any children that are going at a district say parochial and all any other different schools no no it was only the magnet school only the magnet okay thank you and for those who don't know the magnet schools are the vocational schools they changed it from votch to magnet a lot of people ask what's a magnet school they changed the name any other questions okay then we're going to go to the next item on our agenda which is our public forum for agenda items only any member of the public wishing to speak you have four minutes to do so please come up and state your name and municipality for the record good evening uh Chrissy scurby Monroe Township um I want to thank the administration for um um the presentation this evening

105for the budget philosophy um in Dr Chan's words this was putting the cart before the horse it's never been done this way a budget philosophy meeting like this um I just want to ask does the budget include any new student programs as of today in that budget that you the the the numbers that you presented does that include increases or new programs for students so what we did is we uh projected the current years budget and as we go through the events the budget events process that's when we'll there's uh programs that fall off programs that may be new um but we haven't gotten down to the detail of uh program by program we're just looking at we're looking at everything everything is being the same as it is this year and you said you

106didn't have budget defense rounds yeah and you do not have the State numbers for state aid currently and you do not have the township gradable numbers which were very significant last year when we did the budget correct that that hasn't come out yet Miss Allen that comes out in February um yeah around there yeah okay and you don't have the state program to utilize to put the numbers in that actually calculates the budget and the adjustments correct we I think you said that you didn't use that correct correct okay so thank you for your words of warning that this is really um a guesstimate right now based on on some numbers that you have but largely the numbers that impact the budget you don't have and you did not use you don't have that to

107figure out what you have so here's my question if this guesstimate doesn't work out for you and we have a deficit like we did last year what will you do will you make cuts to the budget or will you go out to the community for a vote what is the Board of Education committing to because that is what a budget philosophy is the board directs the administration during the budget philosophy what they want to see done the board says like we did last year as a board we do not want to see massive Cuts therefore when we couldn't stay under the 2% cap we went out to the community so truly what is this board committing to are you asking the administration to come under budget and make cuts or are you saying increase our

108programs don't cut anything and let's see where we are and go out for a question to the community the board is not making a commitment at this time to anything we ask the administration to come up with a philosophy based on the information that they had so that we could make a decision on moving forward with an April election if we felt necessary or if we felt that it would be okay to go back to November given the legislation that has come out the board there is a resolution on the agenda to move the election back to November um and we will continue talks with Administration to see where we stand well see that's the problem is a board philosophy and the Board of Education members are supposed to come up with their philosophy what

109do you want to see are you willing the Administration has said that they have at this point are saying that they will not be going out for a question that's where we are right now it's not the administration decision where we are right now I understand but you don't understand your role as a board member because that is not the role of the admin the administ that we asked them to put forth and we are making a decision based on the information that they have which is none of the numbers none of the projections we're going with the information that no that's fine so I'm just asking again is this board committing to not making cuts to programs as presented right now right now you said everything stays as is and there's no Cuts if

110the numbers and the estimates are not by we get to March and they're not there and now you come and say we cannot stay under that are you committing to not cut program your time is up thank you are you committing to not cut program is up thank you that speaks volumes uh my name is Dominic toito I don't live in town but my children do um I guess since she ran out of time I'll ask um and to follow up it's philosophy is just a big nothing if the numbers don't really match um it's just a big proposal of nothing with fake numbers and fake ideas um and the budget philosophy um Dr Chanley uh we're not including numbers you said that you said we need our wants our needs and our mus haves

111and we have to start at the foundation um you had a lot of things on that screen in the presentation that cost hundreds and thousands and millions of dollars and not one of them until it got like closer to the bottom was full day kindergarten um and if you want to start at the foundation uh you know you don't build a house on Sand so why is that not a higher priority also um Mr Payne I wanted to know if you could expand on your committee meeting about full day kindergarten if what was actually discussed I wasn't there and uh at the meeting and uh if you could maybe fill us in with some dates so at the committee meeting I I don't know so Mr pain chairs the citizens advisory committee right um the

112citizens advisory is a committee that will be formed of members of the public that will use the Strategic plan to develop something she brought up full day kindergarten is mentioned in the Strategic plan it may be a topic of discuss mention in the Strategic plan I I understand that so it may be a discussion in the committee but the committee hasn't put anything forth with regards to BU kind I read two the yeah first one yes the legislative action different one yeah the citizens advisory committee will be meeting for the first time um with the chosen members on October 8th okay so I we can't answer anything about kindergarten that's not open to the public it well it's open to the public to join to sit out in the audience but members of the public

113participation all of our committee meetings are open to the they are open to the public the other one was the legislative action committee so there was nothing discussed on kindergarten and there was there a piece of legislation that let me see um we had spoken about but we we can get back to you on that yeah we'll have to get back to you was she mentioned a few bills Mr P Dr Layman can also talk on it yeah Dr so you you brought up the kindergarten piece the board is putting together a letter to give the legislators about estimated costs of implemen I guess that's where I was for advocacy of this is this is the kind of number we're looking at ballparks or not really we don't the last time we pulled the number

114together it was uh approximately 15 to $16 million 156 milon so we're updating that number based off of this year okay um uh I had another question um as far as a legislative you're going to you need we need money I mean this whole meeting you know has been about we need money we don't have money we want money how do we get the money through the legislative action committee or I mean asking legislators asking money because we we we just went through an hour and a half of all these big plans about how great everything is going to be really just a big pat on the back and there's no money and there's no plan to get anymore so um we were talking about we're getting to get electric school buses a half a

115million dollars a piece that don't work in January but we don't have full day kindergarten I I think we're putting the cart before the horse over and over with what actually matters to the people the consti of the people who are right here on the St do you want me to address that the CAC or no no we don't okay no um good I stand by what I said I am a proponent of f day kend just like I am a proponent of pre full day preschool but we have a responsibility as administrators As Leaders to work alongside with our board to say what we also have a responsibility too you cannot be responsible to put in a new full day kindig program until you meet the needs of what we currently have we are

116not going to I would not be my recommendation let me say that because they vote I recommend it is would not be my recommendation to remove current programs that exist to remove current Staffing that exists to remove current um needs for certain initiatives or projects or um updates on buildings to put in kindergarten kindergarten is important 100% and it may wind up being as we work through the research and development as part of the Strategic plan that we wind up going out for a referendum I don't know but all I'm saying is and I know I was a teacher first and foremost I understand how important kindergarten is but the bottom line is we are tasked with the responsibility of putting together a budget we were tasked with responsibility we put the C before the

117horse because we didn't have a choice we wanted to be able to have something that we can at least move forward with it may be projections it may be estimations but you have to start somewhere because if we knew based upon the conversations that we had and the numbers that worked we were $5 million over it I'm just coming up with a number out of nowhere of course my recommendation would be president Fabiano board members we need to go out for a question at this current time that is not the case kindergart is not something we could just throw out there and say we want kindergarten as we continue through the Strategic plan because we know it's very important it may be something you won't see for five years it may be something that we

118see in three years one of the things and I think this pertains to what um Mr P say I'm aware that it won't be tomorrow right I I I get that right but I I just want to end with one thing which is so important one of the things that we noticed is they have lots of money in Trent to give now for preet so when we said okay we want your money we'll take the money and we reached out to say how do we get some of that money and their answer was well you don't have full day kindergarten so we don't have full day kindergarten because we can't afford it but you're not going to give us the extra money that's available for pre-k so I think one of the things that we'd

119like to say and we would like to talk to our legislators about is what about the money now because everybody except for how many of us don't have full day kindergarten how about you say you know what Monroe and District X District y District M also does not have full day kindergart and those monies that they're allotting now to create a full-time pre prek for those districts that have fullon kindergarten we'd like some of that money so that's where I think the Action Group comes into place where the legislative action committee I think that's important because I don't want to say that we don't have any money that would not be a true statement we are a district that is trying very hard to be fiscally responsible and to look at as I said the

120pennies and the nickels and to be as prudent as possible but we still have a budget that is comprehensive and includes a lot of opportunities for all of our children I don't mean to say that you're not making every dollar count it seems like it thank you ma'am I don't mean to say that you're not making every dollar count but it's something that's important and I understand you make recommendations but the people that really recommend to the people that vote and the people that live in this town and everybody I talk to that has children that are my children's age it's always the topic of conversation thank you Brian Fabiano Monroe is this on it's been a few months um so I'll say a couple of things first and foremost um I don't think we

121should undermine our Administration they get paid a lot of money to come up with a budget uh and what we saw tonight although preliminary we have experts that have seen this budget year over year after after year and I know Miss Allen has been here a long time working on this so I think we know where we need to get but to come up here I mean and it's expected you know when you lose you're going to come here every month and try to undermine the board and you know just be resentful for your loss but the taxpayers you know they spoke when they voted but um this administrative team has a job and they came here tonight and showed what is preliminary and what you believe can be done and I think that's responsible

122on your part for the community this year past year was the first time in over a decade that we had to go out to the public to ask for more money so to sit here any of you all 10 of you who are elected nine that are Monroe elected to sit here and think year after year after year you can go out to the taxpayers because there's a couple people or one person that comes here for whatever known reason you know was just disgruntled to think that you can go out every year and ask for more money you should just resign it's it's it's ridiculous you have a fiscal responsibility to balance the budget you see what's going on in all the towns around us East Brunswick South brunwick thank God we're not in the

123position that they're in because they're down Millions you guys actually got more this year so let's try to live within our means it may be preliminary but even if we get to the point where we can't make it happen there may be cuts that Dr Chanley Mrs Allen you can find and it doesn't have to be teachers there is always something that you can tighten it up a bit so that that's my first point my second point is um when I look at the agenda one thing it always has stuck out to me and I've talked about it well before that kindergarten I know it's talk been talked about I've been talking about kindergarten for the longest time here in Monroe we have to stop kicking the can down the road we have to come

124up with a plan to make it work how do we get there and if we can cut other programs you know not the you know other things to be able to make it happen or tighten it up to make it happen let's do it let's talk about let's not just have these meetings and talk we're going to bring kindergarten let's brag about the money we make in ECE let's figure out a way to bring kindergarten we could have brought kindergarten last year on the budget that we went out for more money that it could have been another question it wasn't it wasn't done but let's stop talking about it but actually make it happen the last thing I I wanted to talk about is and I've talked about this before when I see a a

125agenda and there's a word retroactive it always pequs my interest in what is being asked from the board to go back and approve that may have been already you know accomplished or done in the district and I know a lot of that is when you look at resignations or people go out for family leave uh but there's a there's an agenda item here ay uh so this uh question is for Dr Chanley it's recommended by the superintendent of schools the board approved the following back to school night supervision at mtms at 2 hours per night blah blah blah can you explain what that is and why that was done retroactively so first and foremost um as our attorney has said and and he can um share this it is um I I have the ability

126to do that so it is being done appropriately I received a document on September the 4th so before my time runs out I'll let you answer again so can you I I'd like to know where your limitations are when it comes to approving things retroactively because we've sat I've sat in this meeting for many months and last year and the year before and I remember one thing precisely your time is up okay right but I remember one thing precisely and that was they wanted to fire the previous Bo board uh business administrator because he was approving things retroactively so can you tell me where the limits are when it comes to retroactive approvals so I want to just clarify that I think that's important um he was spending money by allowing checks to be cut

127okay so can you tell me what this is then and where your limitations are yeah but I would like to stop because your time is up so I'll just answer so go ahead no it's not a back and forth your time is ask you get you have my questions go ahead your time is up shall I answer or or you're not answering of course I'll answer okay so um something was brought to me from the Personnel committee as you may have heard everybody stated who was present I was ill very ill so I wasn't present at any of the meetings so I showed the respect and courtesy to the Personnel committee to respond to exactly what this was so apparently and this is maybe the third or fourth year that it's been approved the middle

128school has um three or four teachers and I think in this particular case it might be four teachers at the hourly rate of 46 or 45 don't quote me and change um and what happens is we ask parents to please come we want you to be at back to school night however it's recommended if possible you leave your children home because we want the attention so apparently I guess under the principal ship of Dr Higgins because this was something that was changed because I guess more and more parents bringing in the children they had teachers working um to supervise the kids because as was stated by our attorney you cannot have children in a classroom or in a building if they're not if they're not accompanied by their parents without having a certificated individual so

129when I saw that this occurred I immediately reached out to M to Dr Higgins and said can you tell me what this is and why this is being proved retroactively I said to my secretary can you give me the document I received it on September the 4th I signed it on September the 5th as we know there was no Board of Education meeting prior to that I asked him why it was retro and why it wasn't provided to me in advance and he said this was a situation in which we weren't sure of the date so we couldn't post the position over the summer teachers do not go on their email nor are they required because they're 10-month employees and therefore that is why it became retro I take my job very seriously and I

130take being responsible prudently and fiscally responsible and I do not like being compared to the previous business administrator I just want to make that statement clear and due to that fact I go ahead and I make sure that examine and read everything that I sign it was brought to my attention that they had three back to school nights the last back to school night which had two teachers names on it the other ones had already performed the duties was going to occur I reached out to Dr Higgins and I said it moving forward I do not think this is a fiscally responsible opportunity for us I rather I think this is a responsibility for us to be fiscally responsible and I don't think it's something that we should continue he said absolutely Dr chandley that

131would be a problem I was going to pull the recommendation from it if I would have pulled the recommendation from it that means a the people that did the work would have already had to be paid anyway and B those individuals that had set separated time to do this would then not be afforded to be paid for something that they had scheduled for so I made the recommendation as a superintendent that it should be moved forward however I do heed that that is something that should not have occurred we have a fiscal responsibility however when something does occur that the teachers or whomever the staff members do get paid that is not the same situation that occurred and I'm not going to go into any further conversation or detail regarding what was going on previously

132I take my job very seriously and I don't like any comments that would ever assume that I'm doing something unethically since I have become superintendent as acting and regular we have saved more money in this District we work very hard to make sure that we eliminate things that are not that are frivolous and should not be going on and now I am finished thank you very much right so Madam president respectfully Mr Fabiano's time is over approved money without is there anybody else wishing to speak that is not what I said but thank you thank you very much for your comments thank you very much for your comments back to the next go ahead good evening everyone BP Allen I Mar Township uh just want to first thank everybody who worked on the Strategic plan

133and the uh budget philosophy a lot of work and very much appreciate the kind of things that all sound effective organizations do um just uh comment on the Strategic plan and it was difficult to see the slide maybe I just missed it but you know one of the things I usually look for in a strategic plan is to try to see some measurable independent objective data that kind of talks about where you are today versus where you want to be in five years at the end of the Strategic plan so I'm hoping that that's kind of in there because in trying to understand the goals you had up there that seemed to me a little vague in terms of there things that everybody in this room might have a difference of opinion on in five

134years whether you made those goals or not but if you say we want to be 10% better in our graduation rate or 15% better this we want to be in the top 10% of districts in New Jersey something that's measurable and objective that we could all understand just ask you to give uh some consideration to that um as far as the budget philosophy completely understand all the qualifications perfectly reasonable understandable um I would just say and I apologize for making more work for you miss Alan but you really want to try to marry now up to the Strategic plan is this at a high level to try to take a look out on where you think you're going financially because the question you answer one question for right now you don't think you have to

135do anything but the other question is when will you have to and as the other speaker noted reasonable you know while miss Al was doing all the work reasonable for the board members to think about you know when you going to go to the public and when you're not you know what are the parameters for that and something you know you may have prare talk about tonight but something you should be thinking about and really looking at your strategic plan and looking where you think you're going so you know when you may have to go to the public and when you going to go to to them for but uh a lot of good work and it's very much appreciated thank you thank you are there any other members of the public wishing to speak

136okay seeing none we will close the public oh this is for agenda items only yes um we'll close the public forum our next item on the agenda is our assistant superintendent report sure uh I'll make it quick because we had a lot of talking to do earlier in the meeting about good stuff that we have in front of us um and I put this in uh one of our weekly emails to the board but I just want to recognize our uh music program at the high school the foundation for music education has announced their awards for 2024 and for the first time in school history the Monro Township High School honors wind onsemble and honors percussion Ensemble have been named state level winners the foundation for music education annually with me [Music] [Applause] the foundation

137for uh music education annually recognizes outstanding performing ensembles from across the country through their mission to support the advancement of music education congrats congrats to our music program and the entire vertical teaching band staff for this [Applause] [Music] accomplishment and we just want to say you know welcome back to the staff uh we are up and running every day I feel like we Sprint faster than we did the day before that's the time of year September is extremely busy for parents and students and our student athletes and us as board members and sitting at the table here um so we'll keep our head up we will uh keep forging forward we're going to have a quick turnaround to all of our October meetings we've been talking about uh you know agend uh committees are not

138next week but the following week so we're already starting that cycle again and uh we look forward to an ex excellent school year and uh good luck to all of our students this year and we look forward to celebrating your accomplishments as we uh move throughout the school year thank you Dr chy you're next sorry superintendent report thank you very much president Fabiana so I want to start off as I always do with our retirements we um are pleased to wish well one of our bus drivers Martin Poco he has uh driven our children your children for 16 years in this District I always make the statement that we wish our Falcons a a fabulous Journey on the next segment of their uh of their life as they go into retirement and uh we hope

139that he has um health and happiness in that Journey on that note I will begin with my recommendations first under Personnel under the 10 member vote it is recommended the board approve the attached Personnel items a through a motion second any questions or comments discussion Miss alen can have a roll call yes Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depay yes Dr pck yes Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr dner yes M Fabiano yes motion passes thank you very much under Personnel nine member vote it is recommended the board approve the attached Personnel items AG through BL motion second any questions or comments discussion can we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depay yes Mr PIR I'm gonna say yes and abstain on ay

140uh Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr ziker yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes thank you moving forward for board action 10 member vote it is recommended the board approve the attached board action items a through L motion second any comments or discussion make a roll call please miss abz yes Miss Bora yes Miss depan yes Dr P yes Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes M Mr ziker yes Miss Fabiano yes yes motion passes thank you under nine member vote under board action is recommended the board approve the attached board action items M through R motion second any questions or comments he have a roll call Miss Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depan yes Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr ziker yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes

141if I may as I conclude my report I would like to thank um all of the staff members and all of the leaders in our district principal supervisors assistant principes directors for their hard work and um their diligence in opening our schools uh including our uh custodians secretaries maintenance workers we um success is always a team effort we could not provide the fabulous opening that we've had if we did not have everybody working together as a team Transportation as well transportation is always that one area in which we have some hiccups but we really try and work diligently because we want our children to be able to get to and from school safely we had um a lot of activities occur I did visit all of the buildings and a lot of activities did occur

142for Patriot Day 911 is something that should never be forgotten um you know not because just because I'm a New Yorker but in general you know we had truly many many people that were patriots that wanted becoming sick that lost their lives that lost love ones it's something that can easily become really far from our thoughts because of the age of our children and a lot of our children weren't even born so I really do appreciate and I know Miss druss is our supervisor that provided plethora of resources I do appreciate that it's something that we continue to show the courtesy and respect to in our schools because we all live here together in the United States of America and I and I do really believe that's very important for those that celebrate the Russia

143Shana holiday next week is the Jewish New Year so I wish you lanota for those that celebrate and I thank you very much um for the continued support and that concludes my report thank you next item is our business administrator's report okay just I to mention um two things on my report um one is the um the uh additional state aid for the 2425 school year of $300,000 there is a resolution approving that um to be used for Capital Improvements and the other is the resolution to um uh change the election date to November okay so with that um is recommended that board action items a through o be approved by consent roll call by a 10 member vote motion second Miss Bora yes I um I have a few questions on the addendum um

144U Miss Allan okay the first two checks uh 01366 and 01367 uh are those part of the rod Grant payments um there big big numbers and that's why I just need to get some idea um 0136 66 is um for custodial supplies um and that is that is for the year for the school year they order this entire for the school year typical amount okay 1367 is is part of the rod Grant um for the partial roof replacement okay and then there is a um there was a vendor in here multiple times mobiles modular space mtms um there two I think there are two checks to that could you explain what that is please yes that's for the trailers at the midle school um is this are we doing any specific work right now on

145them that that's the rental that is what we pay a month oh this we pay the8 $8,000 mon both of those are so two trailer two rent numbers different numbers MH okay MH okay I also um if I may miss Madam president I had two comments on the agenda items one was on the EIP resolution that's here I want to commend uh Mr T and his team for working diligently through this and putting the first resolution in place and I know this is not going to cost us anything but it could result in a project that would that would be climate friendly and help get us some money to uh fund other projects and my next comment is on the resolution to move the elections and this is um I just want to say this

146before I vote on it to uh address some of the concerns that have come from the public um ideally I would have liked this this election date change to happen later maybe in January by the time you would have had a better idea with the DAT numbers and we would be 100% confident we don't need another you know election that's going to cost the Board of Ed and not you know not the municipality but given what has been presented on the budget today and um given that that there is a new law in place that allows us in the event that things don't go things completely go against whatever we have projected and estimated guesstimated we have the opportunity to go out for a question um at this point we are not seeing that for

147the year 25 26 and so I feel confident to go ahead and support this resolution even though I would have personally liked it to come later but my stand as a board remember my promise to the community of not allowing program Cuts is still true so if the worst imagine scenario plays out and we are short of money and the administration does put up cutting programs I will be the first voice saying we have the opportunity to go out to a question yes some members of the community think it's a shameful act to do but in my opinion there are taxpayers in this town and I want to emphasize this there are people that live in Monroe that pay a lot of taxes and have a right to decide whether or not that tax money

148can be increased by a small percentage to support continuing the standard of Education we are providing to our students today many of those community members cannot even vote but they're paying the taxes just as much as others I don't think it's a decision to take lightly about making program cuts when you compare us to other districts other districts have been getting far more money than us and unfairly so we have managed in less money by burdening our taxpayers but we have provided the level of Education that we have here in Monroe and there is no reason to not give the public a chance to decide whether the program should be cut I understand our fiduciary responsibility as board members which we perform in every board meeting in every resol every little thing that we approve

149but that's a big question making big cuts to program so at this point it's looking good my fingers are crossed we don't have to worry about this but worst case scenario if something happens the law allows us to go out to a question without an April election we can go out to a question and hopefully by the time the next law will pass and in November when we go out for Schoolboard election we can add the question for future years so to address Mrs skur's concern my commitment to the commit Community has not changed I will never support cutting programs to to manage the money that we have I would rather go knock on the doors of our legislator continue to advocate for money and then come to the community members and ask them for

150money we have that opportunity and so right now we don't have to sign up to spend more money I'm going to support this resolution um and um I I also want to emphasize that one of the things that you went back and forth with um with Mr Weiss and Miss Fabiano was involved in that conversation this does increase the board term for board members myself miss tabiano and miss Ratner and I think everybody else eventually everybody else so I when I went and fought for the April elections I increased my term by three months now when this changes I will have to serve a whole year more than I was elected to serve it was a major concern for me I did bring it up to Mr Weiss to understand that there are no legalities

151against it you know it's not unethical and he confirmed for me as per the current statutes current laws we are within the law so it is going to be a natural collateral of changing the election dates whether or not I'm happy about about another year of serving years so I just wanted to comment on that before I voted yes on this resolution thank you anybody else I have a Mr I just again i' like to make uh two points uh one is number one the budget was pre preliminary that's all it is and I think we're making more out of it than we really should we're just giving you additional information but I would also tell you that no one wants a cut programs thank you I don't believe anyone in this board wants to

152cut programs but we also know that there's a lot of money out there in terms of grant money many of the districts North Brunswick for example they use grant money to fund a prek program all we need to do is go out there and find it and write the grants so there there is plenty of money out there for that purpose second item is a resolution I cannot begin to tell you how delighted I am to see that resolution number one it's from my perspective and this is very important one thing I don't believe was mentioned about this resolution and if I'm wrong please correct me but the most important thing about this resolution is to give citizens of Monroe an opportunity to get out to vote and get out to vote when it's an

153important time November is the best time for people to get out and V it maximizes people's opportunity to get out to vote we want to get people out to vote we want as many people out there voting and actually going out for that franchise the right to vote they're not going to remember in April many forget many don't know the issues but most of them go out in the month of November so I think I'm just absolutely delighted to see it happen so good for the board thank you thank you I do just want to Echo Miss bora's statement about extending our terms because I think that's a legitimate concern for a few of us here because in the end you myself Miss Ratner and then Miss Alvarez Miss depay and Mr tufano will have

154a a whole extra year which is not what we signed up for so um anybody that thinks that that is a motivating factor behind this is very mistaken at least on my behalf not looking for an extra year I promise you um so Mr I want the extra year uh I like being here knowing that the children that I'm part of this group and that the children of Monroe are being taken care of in a positive way our budget philosophy our strategic plan that's all coming down the pike and I want to be on this board when all that is put in place and makes this Township look as if we're the best one in Middle sex County we are so well I know we are but um I'm just saying that there these are

155things that are going to take a few years and I'm glad I'm going to be around and when that time comes to run again I'm going to run again to make sure that that kindergarten is here and everything that we've talked about is in place for Monroe Township so I have to say that's fine with me um I'm retired I can give give the time that I want to um and I don't mind giving it it it's for me it is a a job that is enjoyed and I would keep doing it until maybe I'm Mr zener's age at 83 so um Charles I hope I I'd make it another 11 years to reach you so uh that's my state I I I want to stay so thank you Mr pay on that note can

156we have a roll call please yes Miss Alvarez yes to all recues on items related to The Learning Tree for Item B okay Miss Bora yes for all I'm going to recuse on item k for myself okay Miss depay yes Dr P yes to all accepted stain on n see on N okay um Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr ziker yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes okay um it is recommended that board action items p through R be approved by consent roll call under a nine member vote motion second second any comments questions okay the roll call please M Alvarez yes Miss Bora yes Miss depan yes Mr pero yes Miss Sharma yes Mr Tano yes Mr ziker yes Miss Fabiano yes motion passes that concludes my report thank you um

157I'm going to keep this very brief um welcome back to the 2425 school year I hope that everyone had a smooth transition back and that you have all been able to adjust to the new routines um I kind of wrote this as I was sitting here tonight because I felt like tonight was um a reminder of why we as board members do what we do um we had the uh presentation of the distinguished Apple recognition for the high school we heard about our 5year strategic plan which I know a lot of us almost all of us um participated in and really had a lot of thoughts on even as we were campaigning board members um we heard our budget philosophy and it just kind of felt like this is why we're here this is our

158job um it's to see these things happen it's to watch these plans come into place um we heard our student board members sharing all the things that are happening in our district um and it just kind of put it back into a little bit of perspective uh for me because of feel like we so often hear so much negativity happening that um tonight was a nice reminder of why we are here and why we are here to do what we do so I just want to thank um everybody I want to thank administ ation our staff our students our community members for all of their efforts and collaboration with not just the Strategic plan but with the start of the school year um and we appreciate all of your support so with that being said

159I'm wishing everyone continued success as we push through to the end of September and we are looking forward to see what October brings then the next item on our agenda is other board business are there any other board members wishing to speak Miss I'm want to follow up on your high note here I do agree to everything you said I want to say this number again from the first presentation tonight 800 schools in 37 countries we're one of them it's not 800 schools in America it's 800 schools in 37 countries are Apple distinguished schools and that video was so impressive and I personally know with you know my third child going through high school what they do on those little iPads and the the Mac the iMacs that they have in the graphic design lab

160and stuff so it's it's an incredibly proud moment one that we should all take glory in um thank the high school administration for their hard work and I also want to uh publicly speak to something that I did speak last um board meeting about the change in um parking spaces in the high school and I had told Dr Layman then Dr Chanley you weren't there that I'm going to come back and ask for an update end of September I don't think I need to come back and ask um I am observing as a parent and as a community member that drives by kidss are are waking up early to get there early which is a great thing because as a as parents dropping off the lines are smaller um it it did seem very scary

161uh when I had first thought of it that they were not going to have assigned spots but I have over the period of the month observe talk to talk to the kids of course they're not happy about having to wake up early but it's definitely working out uh in terms of the issues that they had with the assigned spaces not happening and no other issues happening there's there doesn't seem to be a safety concern with traffic and the kids are not driving around they're just managing time better so I just wanted to let you guys know that I do not have that concern anymore and I appreciate um the fact that I was heard before and um given the time and the opportunity to revisit it but I think it's it's working out very well

162so uh and the school athletic season is going beautifully um I want to wish all the teams good luck we're getting into the MC season it's very exciting as a Sport parent and last but not the least uh congratulations to the High School win ensemble in the honors percussion program for their first ever in history award it is incredible thank you thank you anybody else wishing to speak yeah I'd just like to bring up a couple things um you know I think it's great that we're back starting everything up um I want to address a couple issues that I see out there in the public um for one is I wish people would just if you have a question or want to know something about this board please come up here and ask the questions

163please don't go by a lot of things you see on Facebook there was a Facebook post recently saying that we were gouging the parents on lunch prices um Monro lunches are very cheap they're $310 which is way cheaper than most other schools and you know we do our best to keep prices down and make it feasible for everybody so I I just ask people that you know there's a lot of sour grapes out there and we would just like people if you want to know the facts please come up and ask us we're not a board of one we're a board of 10 everybody votes together thank you thank you anybody else okay seeing none then we are going to go to our next public forum um any P member of the public wishing to

164speak you have four minutes to do so just please come up and state your name and municipality for the record the warehouse hi my name is Ganesh sasta uh my address is uh 283 Morning Glory Drive Monro uh to save time I'm just going through read my notes for the the public forum okay respected Bo chair Bo members school superintendent and principal I have important safety issue to bring forward to the board as a vocal parent of middle school going child and on behalf of behalf of all Middle School parents I want to share below the upcoming new Warehouse near Route 33 Wawa and apple guard Butcher Road in a residential neighborhood poses significant concern regarding saf of school bus routes and the overall well-being of children in the area it is crucial to address

165these issues proactively to ensure the community safety remains a priority recommendation I did send an email to the Boe chair uh but was told that we had to reach out to the planning board but just for the record I just want to come here and uh speak up what I recommend uh to the board I strongly urge the bu chairman chairperson and The Bu school superintendent uh number one send requests to the mro township planning board that any application for the warehouse should be approved with strict conditions prohibiting School traffic in residential neighborhood thereby safeguarding school bus safety it is it will be very helpful if the school superent can come to the planning board meeting on Thursday which is tomorrow September 26th and speak during the public for second point with the warehouse plan

166our local community road which is morning low Drive which is my driveway okay where my child takes a bus will significantly increase traffic and and endangering School Bus rout thank you and looking forward for an answer from the bo board and the school superintendent thank you very much um Dr do you want to address this Dr Chanley or Dr leem or do you want me to speak on it so thank you very much for bringing this to our attention we have been made aware that there is a warehouse proposal to be built over on that section of Applegarth and Route 33 um please know that safety is always our biggest priority for our students um Dr Chanley and I have spoken about this and we will be happy to you know set up communication with

167the mayor so that we can you know inform him you know to be mindful of safety for our students um unfortunately the building of the warehouse is not in our purview we don't we can't address that but we will certainly work with the township to ensure that our students are safe I just add like two things like I know it is not preview of the board here but as a concern parent right if you can send a note to the township and the planning board say hey whatever you do please do and don't compromise safety of the children I think that's what I want you to tell tomorrow is the meeting at September I really want any any of you on the board right can come to the meeting and tell if you can't at

168least convey that on the record so that way we are at least assured that okay something the Boe board is doing about yes we can absolutely do that we can sub we will definitely send something to the mayor communicate with the mayor um and the planning board to ensure that our students will be safe all right thank you any other members of the public wishing to speak see oh I'm go ahead I'm chak Kwal I live at 8 LOD mro Township New Jersey so I bought the house 2 years ago in the Monro Township I was residing in Edison and still I work in Addison my wife is working around that areas like sou clean field we decided to live in M Township because of the the way it is a green it's a Suburban

169but not too Urban and uh the the less traffic the law of probability the statistics in USA St that when there is a more Urban Development the more traffic comes and more more traffic comes that creates a safety issue so and the right to life is the fundamental right in the constitution of USA so under right it is a in the Declaration of the US Independence it was the return so the right to life of the kids also depends upon the our action I know that as a board you cannot work on the application which is going through the planning board was as a Monro resident and us as citizen you my colleague my friends told you that what asked that please as a citizen if you are you are allowed to be present tomorrow

170to Advocate the right of life and right US Constitution right to for the kids because kids cannot still they are studying the subject of this right and all this in the school they may not have studied they are depend upon us so I am urging that allow because the law probability of the traffic will fatal accident can occur the this Warehouse is a 28 loading dock so and they are asking for 16 variant on and this is against the uh like master plan because 16 variance is not one variance two variant and I think so they are doing it this variances because of the their plan is 16 22 loading docks and this is not and it's we are in the 21st century 50 years ago Edison was planned Jersey City is planned we this

171part of the area is a newer development if we are this is a new part of USA where like Hillsboro and some of the other Township to took care of it they shut down the application why because they are like working in the 21st century 2024 their mindset is not 1974 or 2004 so it depends upon all these board members to work in the mindset of 2024 this new part is developing is a 2000 is a newer USA newer New Jersey and it depends upon all this board members so my request to all board members as a citizen please take a initiative please communicate to the mayor please communicate to the council board that even the not only this application should be shut down they should also change the master plan this master plan cannot

172be there is no logic that in 21st century 2024 adjust to the neighbor the public like residential area there is a after 10 10 fot across the road there is a warehouse being built up this is United States of America which is we are leading in USA whole world and like we are INSP inspiring about the democracy and all this so we are not we cannot do this in 2024 and it is not acceptable this is not 1974 this is not 2004 this is 2024 and as a citizen please take take initiative and please work on it that is our special request to you we I didn't know that this type of Master Plan exists because now I am active and I know what is Council board what is education board and all these so

173please work on it you are also citizen not only us thank you very much thank you very much good evening thank you thank you for the opportunity uh my name is sudhir mamdapur uh I live on 271 Morning lri Drive mandro and as my friends and fellow residents spoke about um the concerns about Warehouse that's proposed right by our area uh it's a matter of grave concern to us because uh it's going to impact all the communities along Applegarth Road uh Butcher Road nor dispo Road DPR Hill Road there are at least about 8,000 8,000 residents impacted because of this and as you all know there are many school buses that ply around these areas so we just request that you know as board you represent uh you know the Boe tomorrow in the planning

174board meeting and raise concerns about this uh proposed location for the warehouse again as residents we are not against the warehouse in you know Monro but it is against the location that's been proposed so we request that you please represent the board either as board members that's you know that's better or if not you know as private citizens if you're able to come up and represent and just express your concerns about the safety of the you know school buses and children so that's what we asking for so my question to you now is are you able to represent as Board of members actually in planning board meetings to raise his concerns no I'll answer that um board members cannot speak on behalf of the board without being authorized by the board to do so so

175to the extent that any board member wishes to attend the planning board meeting or the zoning board meeting they absolutely can do so as a private citizen okay um and they can also address the planning board and address the zoning board but they would have to make it very clear on the record that they are a member of the Board of Education and that they their what they're saying U their views that they're expressing are solely their opinions and do not represent the opinions of the Board of Education no I appreciate that yeah so how many of you are able to make it tomorrow and how many of you plan to attend the meeting tomorrow as private citizens because this should concern all of you as other residents after all it's about children's [Music] safety

176well that sound very encouraging I really wanted to hear some positive um you know SES here and I would really appreciate if you all can come and you know stop by and just express your concerns you know as private citizens I know you you know one of the members lives in in our community us Sharma um but you know yeah so S I don't know where you live but you if you don't live there at least you should drive around and see for yourself you know how narrow roads are actually how narrow these two roads especially Butcher Road and North East roads are and you'll really understand the grave concern that we have okay thank you thank you very much are there any other members of the public wishing to speak uh my name is

177Dominic toito I don't live here but my kids do um uh I have asked before and uh I'd like to ask again in it is supported by the New Jersey School Board Association the freedom to read act which uh passed the uh assembly in New Jersey um it is in Committee in the Senate and based judging by how it was voted on in the assembly which was down Party Line it will pass in the Senate uh it allows to it it takes a responsibility off of librar and staff members for putting obscene material in libraries including School libraries I was wondering if this school board supports that um not because you can do anything about it but in case anyone here accidentally finds himself in a voting booth they will know whether you are about

178giving pornography seen Oben and age inappropriate material to children so I I haven't read about this act I know you did bring this up last month twice yeah um I'm not familiar with it I I know Mr Tano had also mentioned last month that until we have a document in front of us there really isn't anything for us to take a stance on because we don't know what what it will entail right but through this whole meeting I've seen we don't have this and we don't have that but we're going to take stances on things that don't exist yet so I was just wondering if you had a stance on this one yet um if if that's possible no we don't have a stance on no no one okay all right well I'll keep asking

179thank you okay good evening again Chrissy scurby Monro so far in 2024 there have been over 135 incidents of gunfire on school grounds resulting in 42 deaths and 91 injuries nationally sadly school shootings have increased over the last decade regardless of all the safe guards put in place as a school district this has to be the one most important issue that you face keeping kids and staff fa safe it has always been the procedure to not discuss safety protocols publicly and especially not areas of concern I was horrified that a discussion was prompted by Mr pero at the finance committee last week as he questioned why the district had a shared services agreement that says the town must provide security when they use the school facilities the town and the district negotiated this agreement and

180yes security was brought up and was almost a deal breaker for the town myself and Dr Chanley attended a session at the New Jersey school board's conference back in October of 2022 at that meeting the New Jersey Department of education's head of security that goes around to all the school districts in New Jersey to give recommendations for how to increased security said that any time a school facility is used whether it be for school after school programs or Recreational Sports there should always be a security guard present his examples of why a district must have security anytime a child is in the school facility made sense and from there Dr Chanley Mr Selby and the board had conversations about this as it was said in finance the district currently does not have the money to

181provide security for every time the town uses a school and that is why it became part of the discussion with the mayor while Mr Mr Pio said the town has always used the buildings free of charge he was incorrect the town entered into a shared services agreement back when the township paid for the tennis courts at the high school that agreement has ended and the district was no longer obligated to allow for free use of the facilities any longer that became part of the negotiation like the shared services for the track in the football field the district negotiated allowing the town 15 years to use Applegarth free of charge and 5 years for the rest of the facilities however the town would have to provide the security it became a very heated discussion and honestly

182the shared services agreement almost did not get settled because I refused to back down on the safety of our kids hearing Mr pero say he did not feel Securities necessary in our facilities when kids are there for sports through the rec center made me wonder was he speaking as a board member or an employee of the town the same town that made that same argument during the negotiations meeting Mr pero you disclosed that there is no security present at any school while wck basketball uses the buildings and by saying that you put a huge bullseye on every single kid now that goes into those buildings at night for sports where there are no security guards I hope this board and the district will honor the legally binding agreement that was made to ensure that the

183town provides security either pay for our security guard guards or send a police officer to those schools when they are being used that means for wreck Sports wreck Camp performances shows Etc our schools need to be secure we are no longer a oneor town anymore where the example Mr pero gave about custodians calling him when he was the head of security who he then called the head of recreation and told her to get to the school to handle this situation this makes me so very thankful he is no longer our head of security any other members of the public wishing to speak Sarah aiz I live in Monro Township yesterday the Middle School administration sent out a welcome back school welcome back to school letter from the MTM M parent staff Association on what appeared

184to be official Middle School letterhead this organization is also known as the mtms PSA or PSA unlike the long-standing mtms PTO the mtms PSA has not been active for over two years after it became the subject of an Ethics complaint against a former board member in 2021 in fact I don't recall the PSA having any public elections for officers since then today the Middle School administration sent out a welcome back letter from the mtms PTO that was not on official Middle School letter head this gives the public the impression that the middle that the administration endorses the mtms PSA over the mtms PSO I know that the mtms PTO is a 501c3 tax exempt charitable organization however I did not see the mtms PSA registered as a 501c3 tax exempt chable organization on the IRS

185website did the Middle School administration check the IRS tax exempt status of the mtms PSA before sending out its letter to all Middle School families the did the administration check the bylaws of the mtms PSA before sending this letter out uh why is the middle school the only School in our school district that has two different parent organizations with the same Mission does the Border Administration favor the mtmsa mtms PSA over the Mt Ms PTO if so why um so I don't have an answer for that I don't know why there is two organizations um I don't know that is there what Dr Chanley do you know why we have two organizations in the middle school I have no comment okay um and excuse me I'm going to make this statement I'm going to double

186check with the attorney because because I don't know I am no longer the principal there you are more than welcome to write an email directly to Dr Higgins I have not been the Principal there for 3 years as far as I'm concerned I was told under the previous attorneys this is an old old situation that any parent group that follows the thank you for shaking your head that any parent group group that follows the proper procedures and whether or not there are 501c3 I don't know that they are permitted to become an active parent group Mr yeah thank you I don't know anything else about it the the uh parent teachers associations or PTO or hsas or whatever um we we we're going to call them are not um School organizations they're organizations that are

187separate and apart from the school district the school district has nothing to do with them other than interacting with them on occasion whether it be fundraisers accepting donations from them etc etc it's not within the pview of the school district to invest investigate the bylaws governance um or financial status of any organizations that would like to represent parents in the district um given the the charitable nature um there really isn't any you we're not going to say no we're not taking your money because we don't like the way you do thus and such at the end of the day um what it comes down to is a donations being made to the district for something uh from an HSA and it's up to the board to accept or reject the donation with regard to um

188active involvement in in the in the programs in the school um we would have to look to board policy to that to see what if anything um there is on that but typically 99% of the school districts in New Jersey um view those organizations as separate entities that are not controlled by the district or by the board of education but entities that nevertheless have a nice symbiotic relationship with with the district thank you I just want to clarify since I did not have the information um I was I I just received information that neither organization was sent on official letterhead that's all I know that was shared with me good evening I'm Gregory narian from M New Jersey I during these precedings here I have heard the word the phrases school bus safety and um

189yeah school bus is safety and children come up I have worked here and I just want to say that the drivers that you have and the staff that you have in Monroe are among the finest that I have ever worked with in the last 48 years of my driving um they are a good group and you can rest assured that they will do the best that they can for the sh safety of the children and your equipment that you have very thank you thank anybody else wishing to speak see so a couple things I'll go back to uh my question before about the retroactive so Dr chandley said said state your name and address sorry Brian Fabiano Monroe Township um so Dr Chanley said I want to paraphrase and correct me if I'm wrong I

190was out sick my principal made a decision to spend money without board approval so when I came back then I went to the board to get it approved but then I said we're not going to do that anymore because I don't think it's right I think that's what I heard no not at all I think that's what I heard because because at the end of the day the law says that expenditures are supposed to be approved by the board and this board and you when you were superintendent sat here in previous years and said that everything would come to the board I I sat in the audience in the other building right everything would come to the board with the exception of emergencies or things like keeping the lights on Etc right and the board

191would would approve them so something smells really funny there and you follow it up by saying we're not going to do it anymore when you do something and say we're we're not going to do it anymore it's like an admission of guilt the other thing I want to uh address is is Miss bora's hypocrisy she sat here and she said well I I I I'm going to vote on this tonight but I think we should have waited longer because we're not really in a rush and you know we don't know what we're going to need with the money and we may need more money and about two years ago year or two years ago we in another other building she sat and casted a vote Yes to and I'm a taxpayer so I can talk

192about this everything you guys spend is my dollar because it comes to us as taxpayers she casted a vote to extend the superintendent's contract Dr Chanley 18 months early before it even expired so she sits here tonight and says well we don't have to rush because we have time but she at that time when she was Voting out a contract that was millions of dollars for the taxpayers to foot there was a rush so you can't sit here and say we're going to rush when we want to rush we're not going to rush when we don't want to rush I mean that is hypocrisy at its finest sorry I have to call it out I'll call it out for anybody that sits here uh you said your your term also was only extended by three

193months no it was extended by five months when the previous board president Mrs scurby who was the first board president in more than a decade that ever went out to a budget question because she ran the school district and ran our Surplus into the ground um so let's just be clear with that it was 5 months and and and it's because essentially we were out of money the school board here and what I'd like to hear and what I haven't heard from Administration yet is not only how you're going to balance the budget and it sounds like you're on your way to not have to go out to another question but how are you going to start funding the Surplus that we had prior to miss scurby coming to the board and running it into

194the ground I think it was about $10 million that point the last thing I'll address is for anybody here especially sour grapes um the the the the last board president that lost in the last election just seems to not be able to get over it to accuse a police officer who was almost 30 years in this town a police officer almost 10 years as a security director in this school district to put our kid of putting our kids at Jeopardy you are a I I can't say any other way that is there is no other way to describe it when a man Works in this town goes out on crimes you don't know what you're getting I come from a family of law enforc you don't know what you're getting when that call comes in

195and when I saw Mr pero as a director of security here the kids loved them the parents came up to him the teachers came up to him how many people asked for him to be on this board the last question I'll ask is this how many board ethics complaints or affidavits has Mr scurby signed against this board costing us tax respectfully his time is over she didn't cut the last person off let me finish my question I was because you are let me finish my question how many how many ethics complaints or affidavits has waste of taxpayer money no point in wearing be kind t-shirts when you behave like that y thank you I I would like to clarify specifically what I said since everything I said was taken out of context I was not

196at the Personnel committee due to illness it had nothing to do with the time frame in which the document that I signed was provided normally I'm a personnel with the president with the vice president with the chair and because I was not physically there there and I know that Dr Layman spoke on it there was a question that came to be via email that is normally not a question bya email and that question surrounded the payment and I'm going to make something else specific because I don't have a time clock the payment was surrounded for teachers being paid for a middle school event that they supervised at I did not say we did anything wrong what I said was in evaluating that particular program like we evaluate many perhaps we should change that so that

197would be another four savings but the one thing that I absolutely would like to say is I have no idea why you would like to make things personal there is nothing personal here it was professional and if it wasn't personal you would have taken note and I read specifically under Personnel 10 member vote items m n r and s all have the same exact verbage with regards to retroactive pay for events that teachers will be at and already were at and I think it's important for the community to see that it's not personal with any school there are many schools I don't mean disrespect Mr Fabiano all I want to say is whether the supervision is for children in our school whether it's for an activity to be with the children when they come into

198a testing center which some people would call babysitting I think it's valuable but everybody has their own opinion or to get a teacher trains we sometimes and I am going to ask the lawyer to just speak on this at the end we sometimes are tasked with approvals after the fact and I wanted that clarified for the public thank you very much would you please it's it's not uncommon for school districts in their reorganization meetings or their annual meetings to pass a resolution that says that in between board meetings the superintendent can hire if a need arises um so it does happen it's it's you know not something that we would like to happen often or on a regular basis um but it's not necessarily uncommon are there any members of the public wishing to speak

199hi John Zaki Monroe um quick here just quick comment it's very clear what you heard tonight Dr Chanley said it uh you're putting a cart before the horse and it was done for one reason that there's people that want to extend their terms on the board and it's my turn please thank you but that's all I have thank you great have a good night anybody else wishing to speak seeing none we're going to close the public forum we do not need to go into a second Clos session our next schedule Board of Education meeting is October 16th 2024 can I have a motion to adjourn motion second all those in favor I I I