Board of Education Meeting - April 27, 2026

001We'll begin by reading the statement of adequate notice. The New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Mountain Lakes Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, place thereof posted in the Mountain Lakes Municipal Building and sent to the following newspapers, the Daily Record, the Citizen, and the District website. Can we please rise for the pledge of allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

002all. Okay. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Don, >> here. >> Miss Foreman >> here. >> Dr. Herszville. >> Mr. Johnson, >> here. >> Mrs. Cole Carney >> here. >> Mrs. McVey >> here. >> Mrs. Parker >> here. >> Dr. Sheth >> here. >> Dr. Silva McIntyre >> here. >> Miss Barkowskis >> here. >> We do have executive session. Be it resolved that the Mountain Lakes Board of Education enter into executive session. We need a first and a second, please. We have Dr. Sheth and Mr. Johnson. Thank you very much. All in favor say I. >> I. Thank you. The motion is approved. Be it resolved by the Mount Lakes Board of Education on this 27th day of April, 2026 at 6:33 p.m. as follows. The board shall recess into close session in accordance with the

003open public meeting law NJSA 104-12B1267 and 8. the general nature of the discussion including matters of personal confidentiality rights including but not limited to staff and/or student discipline matters and specifically legal matters. These matters will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer applies although the board cannot guarantee it. The length of the executive session is estimated to be 60 minutes after which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business. Action may take place and this resolution will take effect immediately. We'll see you back in about an hour. Thanks. Um, we need a motion to leave executive session. So, we have Dr. Don and Dr. McIntyre. Thank you very much. Um, the motion needs to be approved. All say I. >> I. And the board

004returns to public session at 7:31. Thank you everyone for being here. We were pretty close, so thank you for being patient for us. I promise we were doing good work for the district back there. Um, but we have really good things to talk about tonight. Um, so we're going to begin with the budget hearing. Should we go out of order? Are we we starting in this order? All right. Yes. Okay. We need a public budget hearing for uh 2026 2027. Do I need to have a first? Help me out. A first and a second to open this part of the meeting. Yes. All right. So, to open this part of the meeting, the hearing on the budget, we are going to need a first and a second. So, thank you, Miss Colarnney. And we have

005Dr. Sheth. Thank you very much. Um all in favor of opening the public budget hearing portion of the meeting say I. >> I. All right then we're ready to go. I will turn the meeting over to Dr. Seagull. >> So um in an unusual year regarding the budget, we have an unusual arrangement for presenting the budget. This is a full team effort. I want um even though it has been a challenge, it's been a great experience to really get to work closely with all the individuals who've contributed to the development of our budget. And tonight uh we will present the official hearing uh that was approved by the county department of ed and we will highlight some of the features for you this evening. So just a little bit of background and context um this

006is the time of the year in which the budget for the fiscal year uh ahead which would be 27 will be approved. Um we have spent months uh constructing this budget and working out uh a way to manage our revenues and appropriations. And as you will see, there were some, you know, major uh constraints or factors that influenced uh where we are tonight. But uh I can't speak about enough about our committee, our finance committee led by Dr. McIntyre, uh Miss Colarnney, Dr. Herszfeld, Miss Foreman, um really uh provided a lot of knowledge about the district and the community and have gone through a lot of budgets before. But I think the key information here is that we don't have a full-time business administrator and we haven't uh since December. So in the audience here

007we have Mr. Robinson who is a financial consultant and a longtime and very successful BA who had helped us go through a period of time where we didn't have a business administrator. And right along next to me we have Mr. Brennan who is our interim BA working three days a week. uh and everybody in that group contributed heavily to get to the point where we are today um while maintaining all our other operations. So I want to thank them and the rest of the board uh for all your support. Um so just a few points here and we don't have a lot of slides but we want to highlight the key information. So the Mars County Office of the Department of Ed has approved our tentative budget. Um this is our official hearing in front

008of the community for you to get an opportunity and give public comment and it's up for approval tonight final approval uh by the board of education. So just and I and I am going to share tonight uh with my much better half uh counterpart Dr. McIntyre who is our finance chair. So we're going to share the slides um and I'm going to turn it over into a minute. Just as an overview tonight, the uh what we're going to offer you are our budget goals and our objectives. Uh give you a highlight on our revenues and appropriations. Uh we're going to talk uh mostly about the impact of health care costs that are increasing not just uh educational systems but all across the world and what impact it has here on us. Uh we will discuss

009some of our key capital and maintenance projects and lastly finish off with the tax impact on the community of Mountain Lakes. >> Hello everyone. Um so in this has been a challenging budgeting environment. You may have been reading in the local press that um what school districts are kind of going through and we're not alone in that. Um so in this challenging budgeting environment, the administration and the finance committee has worked together to achieve the following goals for the 2627 budget. Fully funding highquality academic enrichment and extracurricular programs. Funding security and safety initiatives. Financing facilities infrastructure and capital maintenance and improvement projects that are considered of highest priority in the long-range facilities plan. all while keeping as a priority the long-term fiscal health and sustainability of the district. So, here's a breakdown of the budgeted

010revenue. The tax levy will increase just under 6%. That's the top line there. For comparison, most school districts in Morris County are raising taxes in the 5 to 8% range this budget cycle, while some are also making significant cuts to programs and staff. You may be aware that New Jersey school districts are subject to a 2% cap on tax increases and wonder how taxes are exceeding that. In recent years, due to increasing health care costs, the state government has allowed for essentially a healthc care waiver that permits districts to go over the 2% cap. The Mount Link School District has utilized this waiver in previous years, but has never increased taxes by the full amount permitted, or in other words, only partially utilized the waiver. This is the case again for the 2627 budget. Healthcare

011benefit costs for staff are increasing at what at what one could argue are unsustainable rates for all districts. Mount Lake School District was permitted to increase taxes by 8%, but this was a priority for the committee and the administration not to use the full waiver. Additionally, the 5.9% increase you see is the effective tax rate that is net of a reduction in the district's debt service. More will be explained on this in a coming slide. So the next line there is tuition which is a significant source of revenue for the district and this includes several categories. Lake Drive student tuition received from sending districts Bin Township high school students as per our send receive contract out of district students staff's children who attend Mount Lake schools before and afterare Ivy Hall pres and Ivy Hall

012preschool. The 1.9% increase in our tuition revenue for this budget reflects assumptions built in about enrollment and students graduating. The Benton Township tuition rate is set for the contract and other tuitions will increase at rates commiserate with the budget with an average of approximately 4% increase. So the next line there is state aid. Um our school district will see a reduction in state aid of just under 3%. Um, our next slide will show you and illustrate how small state aid is relative to our full budget reserves. So, our school district has three reserve accounts, tuition, maintenance, and capital reserves. The tuition has built these reserves prudently in recent years in order to fund maintenance and capital projects. The planned withdrawal from these accounts in this budget will fund earmarked projects that Dr. Seagull will describe

013in a coming slide. Then, budgeted fund balance. This is essentially the savings from the previous budget year, the previous fiscal year which the district will be able to generate for the following year. Again, interest and other sources complete the revenue picture. Adding it all up, total revenue in the general fund is budgeted to increase by 4.8%. Thank you. So, this pie chart shows the contribution of each revenue source to the 2627 budget. Unsurprisingly, taxes is the largest source at 56 at 56%. The district is unique to many other districts in that tuition is the substantial portion of our revenue at 34%. And it's cut off there, but the um parentheses it's supposed to add up the Lake Drive, Bin Township, all those other sources of tuition that I listed on the previous slide. Um and

014here's a point that the committee wanted to highlight about state aid. If you see that yellow pie there, piece of the pie, um, it's a very small proportion of the bud budget at only 2.8%. This has been the case for many years, so it's hard to see that changing, but worth pointing out that Steve Robinson uh, has consulted and worked in many districts, and anecdotally, this is the smallest proportion he's seen. I don't know if Steve if you want to add to that but >> the average school district again that takes into account is roughly 40% over 40% and you get 2.8%. It is by far the smallest and I worked in Livingston. I worked in wealthy district and this is by far the smallest. >> Okay. >> Good. >> Thank you. So the other

015side of this uh for all the money that we generate through revenue uh has to be balanced when we present our budget with regard to appropriations. So you see a dollar amount that is equivalent for what we've budgeted for revenue and appropriations. And I think I will go back and forth here between the figures and the pie charts, but you will notice um the first two lines here being significant are salaries and benefits. And I can't reiterate enough when you're a school district and you're in the world of education, your primary goal is to be able to support the education of students through contact with teachers and other support staff to make sure that our students learn and grow. Um you see here uh close to 30 mill $29 million in salaries that um accounts

016for a lot of different individuals um who work in different capacities. It's not just teachers. There are many people who work in a school district. I know that a lot of you know like the custodians and the secretaries, but beyond that, there are many other people who contribute to all the work that happens and close to $30 million. Um you'll also notice here that the difference um is minimal. Uh even though contractually, you know, we are um meeting our obligation, we do have some breakage with teachers who have retired uh and teachers that we have hired to fill them. But I can tell you that we have not made any cuts uh to staffing and that is significant in this time period where many school districts are faced with cuts. Um so we are it

017goes back to our first goal. Our first goal is preserving a highquality academic uh extracurricular enrichment experience for our our um students and our community. And that's our expectation. And given the confines of the budget, um we have decided that we are not making any cuts uh and maintaining it, but we are not adding significantly either. I will talk later about the potential of adding one staff member. So, we're trying to weigh sort of the fiscal environment to make sure I mean we could always add staff. There's always more that we can have to support u teaching and learning and all the work that we do. So those two goals while seemingly contrary were taken into account to arrive at that salary number the benefits number here and I could you know there's not a

018color bright enough to highlight this to show and you will see it in multiple ways uh just in over the course of 20 FY 26 fiscal year 26 and 27 um you see a 21% increase in health care costs um I will talk about it maybe Dr. McIntyre will talk about it Mr. Robinson will definitely talk about it. Um but what we have discovered through analysis of our budget that 90% of the increase in the cost to the total budget are due directly to healthcare costs. Um and that is a condition of the environment that of school systems. We are in the state health benefit system. Um regardless schools that are not in the state health benefit system, they're seeing costs that range between 25 35 or even higher. Um, and it's also not just

019been for one year. So, you'll see a line later that shows a two-year cost. And that, um, as a result, you'll see on the next page, constitutes a significant part of the budget. Um otherwise here we have a few other categories uh purchase services uh supplies and textbooks and miscellaneous which co cover covers uh a lot of our utilities um uh transportation other costs that are um >> supplies thank you um that's a big one uh that fall in that category um there but if you look at this on the pie chart uh having close to an 80% or just above 80% combined salary and benefits. That's commonplace for school districts to have that breakdown. But what is not common place is how significant the benefits are in relation uh to the total cost for

020the district and the amount that it has grown. So for our and this is why I really commended the work of our finance committee and our VA team and our administration is managing a very tight operating budget while also dealing with these health care costs. Um not having to cut staff, not adding staff, um still being able to do some of our long range projects which we'll talk about. Um that is a significant feat. So I will turn this part over. Mr. Robinson is um has a lot of expertise in this and I think can explain more about the healthcare. >> All right. I just want to make some very very point in uh points here. Number one, you can see one year just in health insurance $1.5 million is what the increase is in

021health insurance. Now let's go what that means to your budget. If you take in consideration including debt service that your taxes are raised are being raised by 1.587. If it was for health insurance, you'd have is pretty much a 0% increase in this budget. That just shows you just how important how big the health insurance is on this budget that everything else is hurt pretty much flat except health insurance. And and what Dr. Seagull said is absolutely correct. It's not like you're in a creme to the creme plan that everybody else is thriving for. You are in the state health benefits. You are in a plan that a lot of school districts are in that is run by the state of New Jersey. So, this is not unique to to um Mountain Lakes, but it

022is definitely a problem that has to be rectified sooner than later because this is not a one-year issue. This is multiple year issues and unfortunately, I don't know where where it's going to go after this year. It's definitely not sustainable and we talked about that last meeting. But um as you can see this is the the really not not only not not the primary the only really cost driver in this budget is health insurance. >> Yeah. I just want to re look at so you saw some different numbers here and they were different. So the original you see 7.6 million. Um we were told last year going into the year that we would expect higher rates. It ended up being higher than we even expected. So you see here a revised number of 8.25. And

023the issue with the health care costs, they run on the calendar year where schools run on they schools do everything differently. They run on a school year. So that means the health care costs go into play January 1st. We you could only anticipate. So we've anticipated another increase for next year. But again, this is something that year after year, this pie, it can only uh fit so much pizza. And we're, you know, that's uh for us the the healthcare benefits disproportionate to the rest of our typical operating structure. And other districts, all districts are facing this dilemma uh on how to move forward. And I think um we are very active in our different associations to better understand and advocate uh for controlling cost. There's a lot of things um that we understand the impact

024for unfortunately um we don't have that much uh ability to drive decision-m but we will explore all possibilities to minimize that cost as much as possible and certainly um on the topic of review for the finance committee for years to come. So the last part of this is uh while you know operating uh costs are set here, we also have infrastructure projects that in our December board meeting which we laid out uh through our long range facilities plan uh some also part of our regular operating budget that have been planned out over years. So in front of you uh we have some things that really highlight our district goals around uh improving instruction and also maintaining safety and security. Um, so we have shared with the public that we have an interest um in adding

025additional uh school resource officer, a retired officer. We currently have two. We're interested to hire a third one. Um, we need to work closely with the bureau in order to make sure that that happens, but that is something that we have advocated for and feel that is necessary uh for us to be able to add to our safety and security at the district level. that uh will require us that we continue to work with the burrow to make sure that we're able to do that. Um we've also planned, I think for more years than I've been here to uh work on the vestibule situation at Lake Drive. We have a plan and you can see it really small on the right uh Mr. Dunn's handwritten version of it to bring a vestibule to Lake Drive

026which currently doesn't have one. We also as part of our long range facilities projects that we're looking to use capital uh reserves for to also work on the uh reconfiguration of Briercliffe to move the uh vestibule close to the main office and a minor revision to the Wildwood um office as well so that the safety and security is ensured by having the vestibule be the point of contact with the first people. Um we also uh have a big plan to overhaul our communication system and this is uh for efficiency but also for safety and security and that involves our telephone system rewiring across the district. Currently we can't have um complete access uh by landline across the district. We can within buildings uh and there are a lot of other safety features that we can

027enact by overhauling our communication systems which also include two-way radios. So that's something that we shared in our long-range plan and have set forth that is not part of that operating budget that is capital and then uh the last part here of course we want to focus on the classrooms and we have Mr. Manily in the audience who's been a leader in this way in trying to revamp the classrooms for uh the ability to have more mobile seating and for students to have greater collaboration in the classroom. This is not something that's going to get overhauled in one year. It's a process. Uh we also need to do the same at Wildwood. A lot of our classrooms are outdated and the way in which instruction takes place has changed over time. So for us to

028be able to meet the needs of uh today's learner. So those are the major uh long range plan uh operating budget and I'm going to turn it back to Dr. McIntyre to finish up. >> Great. So this table provides more detail about the tax levy. Um in particular I want you to look at the debt service. So um the district has referendum bonds which it pays interest and principal on and recent in recent years as these bonds have been maturing over time the debt service costs have been decreasing. So taking into account the tax revenue from the general fund which is the top line there and the reduction in debt service the effective tax levy increase for 2627 budget is 5.9%. So what does this mean for the taxpayer in Mountain Lakes? If you take

029an averaged assessed home price of 1.14 million, uh, this budget will add approximately $84 a month to that home's property taxes. So, knowing where your home falls in relation to that average assessment can give you an idea of what the tax impact will be for you. Yeah. So, I just, you know, this process started in November and there were so many people involved as Brad highlighted. So, I just want to thank everybody for getting us to this point. Um, I think, you know, we're really fortunate in this district to to be able to present a budget like this given the climate. So, um, it's, you know, still a lot of challenges going forward that we're going to have to work out, but, um, this one's a good one. >> All right. Before we open this

030up to the audience for any comments or questions, is there any board member that has a comment or question at this time? Let's start with Mrs. Foreman. First of all, I want to thank our finance committee leader, Lauren McIntyre. She has done >> That was my comment. >> Well, I stole it. She has done an amazing job with a lot a lot in front of her. Please, everybody, yes, Lauren, take your credit, please. And um the rest of our committee, I mean, we have been meeting non-stop about this. And you know with our interim and our special BA in the audience >> consultant >> we really our special consultants in the audience we appreciate all the work that you have put forward to to be part of this process to make sure that it has

031had this favorable outcome as favorable as we could have hoped in this condition and >> I just want to say thank you for all the work that you guys did too and of course our administration. So >> thanks >> Dr. Hersshfeld. I stole your thunder. >> I was gonna uh say the same uh uh glowing uh words about um our chair of the committee, Lauren. >> My goodness. >> Not and everyone else, but >> you know, she's a volunteer. >> Any other board member? >> That's a fair point. Good point. >> Yes. And and I I I definitely want to say this is um this is a responsibility this board takes so seriously. The the charge we're given to do our budget to look at our our responsibility with with great um I think responsibility

032for our taxpayers and for our students and our staff members and we we look at this and and to to ask this of our finance committee. I will say all of you you have shown up always willing to make um hard decisions and have real conversations and come prepared and come early, stay late, all that I say all the time. you you you've done that consistently for a long time without you know expecting anything other than to come to a good result. When you add in people like Mr. Robertson, Mr. Brennan, you know, Dr. Seagull, our administration who's, you know, done a lot of hard work behind the scenes, these are are critical decisions that you all have made with the best interest of our students in mind as well as our taxpayers. So, you've

033done um really fine work under really difficult conditions. We know more difficult decisions are coming and that's why we want to talk about it and be upfront about it, but we couldn't have been here without that collaboration and that true professionalism. So for all of you, thank you for what you give to us for our district. Um we'd like to see if there are any um members in the audience that would like to make a comment or a question on the budget presentation only. We'll have more time for more conversations later, but is there anyone that would like to speak to the budget presentation? Okay, then we get to move on at this point. We get to close the public uh budget hearing. Do I need a first and a second to close it? Mr.

034Brennan, do I need a first and a second to close the the discussion? >> No. Okay, then we get to move on at this point to the student government report. >> Awesome. Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Well, students are very busy right now balancing spring sports, AP testing, and school events as we move closer to the end of the year. First off, spring sports are in full swing right now. We have baseball, softball, girls and boys lacrosse, girls and boys golf, boys tennis, and girls and boys track. Instead of focusing on only the records, students are proud of their effort. teams are working hard and showing strong dedication, teamwork, and school spirit. Speaking of that, AP testing begins next week on May 4th. Students in AP classes are preparing heavily right now. Everyone is

035working hard to earn their best scores possible while balancing the sports projects and end of the year responsibilities. This is one of the busiest academic times of the year. Speaking of AP testing, on May 4th, the class of 2027 is also hosting another one of their fundraisers at Chipotle. So, please go and support that. Our wellness summit was on April 21st. Mountain Lakes High School hosted the second annual Lakers Health and Wellness Summit supported by the home and school association. It included interactive workshops and activities focused on mental and physical wellness. The student feedback was very positive. Many students appreciated having the time and space focused on mental health. And students felt that the event was helpful and engaging and a good reminder that wellness is just as important as academic success. So overall, the

036students are staying involved. They're working hard and supporting each other as we approach the final stretch of our school year. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> I know we love we LOVE WHEN YOU PRESENT. ANY COMMENTS OR QUESTIONS from the board? >> All right. Thank you so much as always for being here. >> You're gonna do fine on your AP test. >> I hope so. Start my fourth. There we go. We're ready. >> We should invite her to say that she can go home and go to sleep. She doesn't need >> She knows that she like sometimes it's awkward. >> Now I need to see Mr. Mulan's presentation. I know what she wants over there. She's got it. >> All right. Then we get to move on to the um Mount Lakes School District student

037comments. Are there any students that would like to make comment at this time? Okay, >> then we move on to comments and requests from the MLEA co-presidents. >> Well, we're glad you're here. We always love when you're here. So, thank you. All right, then we get to move on to our next presentation. I will turn the meeting over again to Dr. Seagull. >> Well, Bianca did the introduction already. She gave an overview. We have uh Mr. Miley and Mrs. Cino. Did I pronounce it correctly? You didn't name change. Congratulations. >> It's not even that recent at this point. So they uh this is the second year of our wellness summit and as uh Bianca mentioned this is something that is done very collaboratively with the HSA. Um I had a chance to participate last year

038and this year I did not. But uh this is really a great addition to our program and what I want to give uh Mr. Miley a lot of credit for is he's had a lot of years in education as a principal but he's always looking uh to enhance the student experience. uh and Mr. Casino has done a great job as a partner to really go out there and try to find the best uh opportunities for our students to have wellness uh opportunities and for them to learn uh educationally, spiritually, emotionally about what resources are available to them. I I can't uh stress how important this is. We have a district goal around. I know that both Mr. Julia and Msino believe that this is should be embedded in the full experience of of the child

039not just on one day but this one day can be a launching off point for a lot of other activities that resources that kids can use. So we are going to hear about it tonight. Oh I'm going to give you the space. We'll see. We'll see how it goes. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. First of all, I want to thank Bianca for that wonderful introduction of our wellness summit. I could put in the set. We don't even need us here. >> I know. Um, I I I want to first start off by saying that our wellness summit, and this is the second one we've done, we actually did it on April 2nd, right before we left for break. Um, and I can tell you that it is not to be confused with the

040wellness fair that we do in early October, uh, where we have vendors come in and the kids go through the great hall and they're talking to vendors and such. This is much more, uh, of an interactive workshops for our kids. That's really what they are. Uh surrounded by the goals of the district in regards to SEAL and insight into students needs and effective practices. Um we partner up with a lot of community members uh that are diverse. It's relevant and uh de developmentally appropriate uh topics for our students. So I can tell you that it is much more uh involved for our students when they have the wellness summit as compared to the wellness fair. Okay, let me give you a little background about student structure and how we do this day. It is a

041big lift. Uh and I can't say enough about the woman to my left here, uh Misssino. uh we start working with um the HSA very early on in the in the um school year, closer to October, beginning of October with the plan of it being towards the beginning of the springtime. Last year, I think we had a lot more energy and we were a couple years younger, a year younger and we tried to and we did it in February. This year, we wanted to do something a little different, so we pushed it to April 2nd this year. I will tell you what it is is we have 550 students in our in our building. Okay? And what we do is we cram our morning classes and our afternoon classes into just the morning session. So

042we take the afternoon session and we put it in the morning session as well. So instead of the students having their six block day uh throughout the entire um morning and afternoon, it's all combined to the morning. So each teacher gets to see their child or their their kids before they leave for break uh for about 22 minutes. So what we do is we have our students attend afternoon sessions from roughly 11:53 which is the end of lunch okay to 2:41 which is dismissal. What we did differently this year uh is is we had a keynote speaker that we used for each grade level. And if you take a look at the handout that we provided you, it'll provide you with an understanding of what our keynotes were for each of our grade levels from

0439th grade to uh to 12th grade. Uh what we like about the keynote is it really uh kept the kids there. Usually our blocks are 25 minutes, but the keynotes were all 50 minutes. So what that said is students had no matter what they had one keynote, whether it was stop the hazing for our seniors. a mind of an athlete uh for our 11th graders, breaking the vape myths in uh 10th grade and lead you which is very popular with our students. So they all had that for 50 minutes. From there they had the opportunity to choose amongst other workshops uh a total of four being for 25 minutes each. So the students were organized into about 25 groups per workshop and they were designed to be small, engaging and of course discussion based uh

044topics focused on as I had said anywhere from mental health and coping skills and strategies, healthy relationships and decision-m and we also have physical, nutritional and digital wellness as well. I'll turn it over to you. So the whole process when we sat down the beginning of last year we said what could we do different so the students can get something where they're not just sitting for an hour two hours and listening to someone speak at them and we wanted to make sure it was something that they were able to take home these skills with them and know what to do when they were feeling overwhelmed stressed things that we see commonly in all of our students. So we started planning last year we had our first one in February but this year we wanted to

045shake things up a little bit. So we started back in October with uh Mrs. Scarpati. She's part of the HSA and she helped us. It was me, Mr. Manilli, Mrs. Scarpati, um Mr. Surles would pop in and out and um Mrs. Cortezi. We would be on these meetings and we would talk about who should we bring into this community. We used last year's uh student feedback form to kind of see what were the popular ones, which ones we should definitely be inviting back, maybe which ones weren't the most popular with the students that the kids weren't engaged with as much. maybe go a different direction. Um, we also wanted to make sure that we were using people from the community. We had staff members who participated this year. We actually had student representatives run a

046workshop. We try to look around the community to see who in our local area can provide these wellness um, workshops for our students. And then we wanted to offer the keynote speakers per each grade level. So that was something that we spent a majority of our early um, meetings trying to discuss. So, we really thought the stop hazing was something important for our seniors as they start to venture off to a community that's very different than ours. Um, they're going somewhere where they don't know everybody as close-knit as we are in Mountain Lakes, and we wanted to make sure that they could tell the difference between healthy relationships um in larger and different communities. So, we used that. Um, something that we've been noticing, you know, too, is the substance use that has occurred in

047certain grade levels. So, we wanted to make sure our 10th graders were able to learn and experience about that. Um, lead you, we had in the beginning of the year for our seniors and last year all students got to see Leu during the wellness summit. So, this year we thought our ninth graders should be targeted because they're the only ones in the building that have not utilized them yet. And then we went with u mind of an athlete for our juniors because we know sports and organized um groups are very important in Mountain Lake. We wanted to make sure our students could balance that as well as um their academics. Um so like Mr. Melie said, after we kind of put all those meetings together and finalized who was coming and what was going to

048be offered, um we then had grade level meetings and I talked to each grade level um about what was being offered and what the system was going to look like this year. The year prior we used a different forum. This year we used Google form for them to sign up. So we just wanted to communicate how it was going to be processed. Um, we explained the special schedule for April 2nd like Mr. Mulie said earlier with the morning being all of the classes and then lunch and then the afternoon being the wellness summit. And then I sent out the Google form signups. Then we got the night before after a lot of organization and planning, I sent out a final email with the final schedule so the students were able to access to make sure

049they knew where they were going the next day. And then when we returned from spring break, I sent out the student feedback survey. Um, I did not send it out the day of because they had just taken the survey for Panorama that morning and I didn't want to give them survey fatigue after just giving them all that great skills for wellness. So, that was uh right when we came back from spring break, they were able to give me some feedback on what they thought the day was like. >> Uh, one of the things uh that we also did is we met with each grade level and we went over very similar to what you have in front of you. Um, we went over the um descriptions of each of our uh workshops. So, they had

050an opportunity to see this before they signed up, which we thought was important. Uh, the student data that we received this year is that 74% of our students rated the wellness summit a four or a five out of five. Uh, and 67% reported that the workshops that they selected were helpful. Now, uh, what we're starting to learn more and more of as we do this is the student favorites from the wellness summit was balance bites that Miss Terresa Fina was outstanding with and the kids flocked to her. Squish the stress and that was, believe it or not, we had two students that stepped forward, three students, I'm sorry, that stepped forward uh, and that wanted to do a workshop and that was a big hit with our kids and this is something that we're looking

051to eventually get more students involved in if they're interested in doing that. We had yoga and pilates that were run by both teacher by teachers in the building. Uh breathe for change and all children's art center. If you notice what we have here is we have highly interactive workshops. We're starting to find more and more that our kids they don't want to be talked to. And one of the things that we struggle with is when we bring people in, we're not quite sure how good they are when they're doing that talking. Because believe it or not, the people that we bring in are not teachers. Uh teachers know how to teach. They know how to engage the student. Some of this uh that we have here in the results that we're getting from our survey

052show that some of the people that came in workshop wise weren't as uh let's say attractive to the kids in during the workshops as we thought they would be because it wasn't very interactive. Uh teaching is an art and you can't convince me of that otherwise. you have to be the sage on the stage and find ways to hook kids. And that is a talent that teachers have. Uh these right here were interactively involved. Kids are up moving around, finding things, using their hands, uh yoga, pilates, big big hits with the kids. Student data that we also received was, "Did you learn something new that you can use in your life?" 72% of our kids said yes. I can live with those results right now. we can do better, but I can live with those

053results for now. And another 20% said maybe. So, we're looking at 92% that maybe we affected their lives in some way or shape or form. >> So, one of the uh questions at the survey, I just kind of gave them a free response to give any positive, negative feedback that they had. Um, and these were just some of the quotes that I thought stood out. So, the first one being, "Pilates was the best. I wish I could do that again." I started doing YouTube classes at home. My favorite part was learning about the different experiences everyone had to share. It made me feel very inspired and was the highlight of my day. And then the last one being I really liked the variety of choices in each workshop that you could choose from and I

054think the amount of time for each session was perfect. I also think each workshop was very relevant to high school students and was very help was very useful for us. So again, those are direct quotes from uh students who participated in this day and I think it just shows the the great participation that we had. Also, I wanted to show some photos from the day. So up in the top corner, we had Pmptonian um our food service. They brought in their dietitionian. So we had a lot of kids in there. They also had some food offered for the students, which I think is a big hit. Anytime the kids get to have a snack, it's amazing. Even though it was after lunch, they still found red. >> Yeah. >> Um in the middle is lead

055you and that's even Mr. Valley's and a student in the middle um playing rock paper scissors which is one of the interactive um activities they have the students get up and lead you is probably my favorite thing we bring into the wellness summit. Um I'll talk a little bit more about it later, but they are so engaging and every student in there is paying attention. Nobody is glancing at their phone. No one's trying to go to the bathroom. Everyone wants to be there and see what's going on. It is so high energy and just being in that room like shifts your whole day. Um, right here is the three girls. They're all juniors that participated at to run. They're uh the presidents of Let's Club and the Stress Less Club. They came collaboratively to run

056a stress the squist squish squish the stress club. Um they've had students um making stress balls which kids love. they are students popping in all day long down to guidance asking for a needle or a squish ball and now they all have their own which really been helpful. Um so that was awesome and it was really cool to see the students get involved. I hope some students seeing this this year wouldn't um make it more attractive for them to come to me with an idea next year. How can I get involved? What can I bring to the table to help with our students? Because I think you know as much as we bring in really interactive people and the teachers help learning from your peer is one of the best things these kids can do.

057Um on the bottom you can see um it was just a little clip that we took from Stop Hazing who came in and talked to the seniors in the auditorium. In the middle was a social worker who came in who has her own practice to talk about the kids of what is the right path. Um we wanted to make sure kids know that whatever the right path for them doesn't have to be the norm if that's not what fits your what is right for you. So, I think a lot of kids enjoyed that one because I think, you know, they're all so overwhelmed on what do I have to do? What did my sibling do? What did my cousin do? What are my peers doing? What's right for you? Um, and then the bottom, you

058can see right here we had uh Pilates where all the kids, you can see, are on the mat and interactive and listening. They really loved being physical and being able to get a workout in. 25 minutes doesn't seem like a lot, but when you're in the here and you're getting screamed at by an instructor, you're definitely working. I think a lot of them said they restore the next day. >> Okay. Our biggest challenges and um Alyssa will will also uh talk about this as well is the decisions that are guided by maximizing student attendance engagement. Uh our key factors are our presenters and who are engaging who are not. We really use the feedback from our survey from our students that we give them to really find out who they like. You know what engages

059them you know you the high energy that lead you has. We would love to welcome you to come in and see them. They are amazing in regards to what they do and our kids are definitely attracted to that scheduling immediately before breaks. We're not quite sure how to do this and it's something that we need to continue to talk about because of the fact that we did it before February break uh a year ago and we lost about 82 kids uh to um to vacations, early vacations. This year we walked in and it was about 72. So I thought yes, we cut the number down until 50 kids left to have prior to the wellness summit. So it brought it to about 122 out of the 550 that we had. Still very good numbers. Uh

060you you're losing about a quarter or maybe you know 20% of your school. It's still a lot. Um but at the same time we have to figure out a way when to have it. Uh you know we talked to the faculty during faculty meetings about it and they say put it in May. I think we wouldn't have anybody in May at the end of May. I I do I have a I have a concern about that. So I think the biggest challenge that we have is when do we want to really have this where we keep our kids and the importance of it. Listen, we talk about seal parents will talk to us about mental wellness and so on and we were pushing this out to parents at the same time. Um but I just

061don't know what works best for our kids to be here. However, it goes back to the first bullet point where it says presenters. If you're bringing in the quality, they're not going to leave. So, this is more work. And when I say we can do better, I mean it. We can do better. There's people out there that we just haven't uncovered yet. We had an opportunity to talk to one of the counselors from Parill about a week ago that happens to be in the audience today and that person gave us some tips as well. So, there's other things that we're looking to try and do to improve what it is that we have. This is only our second year. Uh we need to invo also avoid the conflicts with the testing windows when we create

062this. So, we can't do it. Forget the month of May. I mean, it's shot. We can't do it. Um, and we want to try to also maintain balance with instructional time and schoolwide priorities. And that's tough, too, because you don't want to shut your school down prior to AP testing because that's not going to make our teachers uh very happy with what we're doing as well. >> So, um, as much as me and Mr. and Jill have kind of made this our passion project the last two years. We could have not done it without all the other district administration. The HSA is amazing. They gave us a budget. We were able to use the full budget and we got the the um wellness summit to a great place this year. I'm really happy with where

063it is and I can't wait to see where it continues. Um the workshop staff and the students that participated Pmptonian them reaching out and saying they wanted to get involved just I think that was amazing. Um, all of our building staff, all of the workshops had staff supervising it because again, we want to make sure our students are being respectful to who we are bringing in. So, all of the staff had their afternoon and you know, it's not easy being told, hey, you only have 22 minutes right before a break to work with your students. So, we wanted they were great with working with that. So, it really was a complete Mountain Lake school district team effort. And um I can't wait to like I said I can't wait to see where it's going to

064go next because I know that we can really nail the perfect way to do it so the students get the full and best experience. >> That's it. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, thank you. >> Is it would it be all right if I asked if some people have some comments or questions? Thank you so much. Let's start. I see Dr. Hersfeld. So, I know there have been some health and wellness um so social emotional learning. Uh I know you brought in some like dogs sometimes. >> Yes. >> So, was there were no I didn't see any pictures of dogs. >> No. So, we >> So, when is the next like when are you guys planning? You could do a whole >> We didn't think of that 25 minutes petting a dog. I mean,

065that's not going to keep the engagement there. However, you could do that for 25 minutes, but I don't know how about 25 students would like to pet that dog or that bunny for 25 minutes. >> I did reach out to Creature Creature Comfort, who is our partner for the uh pet therapy that they come in once a month, usually during lunchtime. Yeah, they come in once a month. They actually were just here last week for bring your child to work day and they were able to participate with the students and the little ones. They really enjoyed seeing the bunny. Um when I reached out to them about this specific um wellness summit last year, they said that that's not something that they normally do. They like it when it's more freestyle and the kids can

066kind of come and leave. They like I said the engagement level after 25 minutes just sitting in a room with the dog as well. I know some students would really benefit from it. We just don't know if it would be the best to keep it in for the wellness summit. But it is something like I said we do once a month in the district uh in the building. >> Yes, Mr. Johnson. So, I I want to start by thanking you for all the uh the time and the the passion, dedication you put into this because I think students now are exposed to so much negativity. Um if they're filled with more anxiety than ever, so I think it's really important to put them in this immersive environment of positive ways that they can, you know,

067improve their mental, physical health. Um it's just it's it's fantastic and and to help deal with the anxiety and those issues. So, I think that that's fantastic and it's something I think we need more of. So, I really appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Yes, Dr. Chef. >> I'm going to second exactly what Mr. Johnson said. I was literally going to say the same thing. I feel like two and a half hours is about that is not enough. >> Love to see a wellness something every month, but >> because they're they're stressed and and I feel like I wish they would all learn that like the beginning of the school year because by April they're stressed because now testing is coming up. So, I love that you're constantly looking for ways to improve and that

068you move the date. So, I'm going to keep encouraging to keep doing what you're doing. >> Well, well, listen. I'll tell you, it's a two-way street, though. I'll tell you, our kids get out of it what they put into it. And a lot of our kids put a lot into this because they're into this. So, I mean, they're the ones that are it's really up to them, you know, and just like anything, you get out of things what you put into it. And our kids do based off of the surveys and the results that we showed you tonight, they are putting their effort into it, too. So, we just got to find a way to kind of tweak things each year. >> Yeah. And I know you said um in the beginning of the year

069could be a good time. We do have our wellness fair that Mr. Majilli mentioned before um that we have in October and a lot of the same vendors will come. It's just a different setting where they're kind of just they have to kind of come up to them and speak to them and kind of engage which I think this is a different setting. They're able to go and sign up. And sometimes when it's um a large setting like that, they go where their friends are or they're walking in circles and they just keep walking. um something like this they get to pick and they get to sit and really learn from. So it's two different experiences but they're getting the same information in some way. >> Was that the one with the smoothie station? That's

070what I >> That's the wellness. >> She did she did bites this year instead of smoothies. So >> yeah, she did protein bites this year. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Yes. >> Just want to acknowledge a member of the HSA board in the audience who had probably something to do with this. So thank you for your support for this because this is great. >> Thank you. Anyone else? Thank them again for their effort. >> Well, I I I definitely want to say I this is this is an amazing opportunity for students to to complement wellness with all the other kinds of achievement and work that they're doing. But something like this doesn't happen without people who prioritize it and make this important for our district and our staff and our students. For

071what the hours that we don't see, for all of the meetings, for all of that effort, thank you sincerely. This is this is transformative for a district and for kids and and even for our staff. Everybody walks out with something that that is is better and good because of this and and that's what you gave us. So, thank you sincerely for all of that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. All right. Then we will move on at this point. like >> we have the board president report at this time. Um what I'd like to talk about and just say again it's it's I guess a real night of gratitude. We had our um our ribbon cutting ceremony for Flintfield this weekend. In fact, we had several events that surrounded the support and the

072excitement and the the real positive reception we have for for Arflyn Field. If you had an opportunity to go >> Friday night to the ribbon cutting ceremony, you would have seen >> Florida >> so many kids and so many families and so many staff members and so many members of our Laker community, some newly here, some who have been here a long time, some who came back for this celebration, um who took an opportunity um not just to thank the school district for this field, not just to thank our community and our town council for their partnership, but to really celebrate um what this field would do for our entire community in the name of the Flynn family and Tim and Betsy Flynn. It was one of the most um joyful experiences that I've had

073here for a long time because it really was the celebration of service and of education and of legacy. And it was something that honestly it was um it was a really wonderful to be a part of. So I have to say to everyone that had a hand in this, to everyone that had a a hope for this, to everyone who was there just to celebrate this and Betsy and Tim Flynn, I sincerely say thank you. And if you haven't seen this field, go go look at it. It's a wonderful addition to our wonderful community to celebrate a wonderful legacy in in Tim Flynn and of course Betsy as well. So to everyone, thank you. It was wonderful. Um, okay, we can move on now to the superintendent and assistant superintendent update, please. >> So I

074look forward uh M Mr. Manilli was able at with Mr. Cino to give us a snapshot of one aspect of our wellness goal at the May meeting. uh we will do a more comprehensive overview of all of our district goals. I also want to uh share with the board and the public that we will have a presentation around recommendations for anal framework for K to2 in June that it again this is a snapshot of a much bigger picture. We will have a STEM learning presentation uh that has been in the works for two years in June but at the next meeting we will have a district update and that will be it for now. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay then we move on. Um we we had quite the budget presentation but is

075there anything else to share in this from the school business administrator update? >> No. >> All right we can carry on. Um we have no minutes to approve at this time. Um, so we then move on to comments and requests from members of the public on agenda items. Is there anyone who would like to speak on an agenda item? >> The budget is kind of like everything. >> All right. So, we'll carry on then. Are there any communications to share at this time? >> Okay. So, we can move on to the Bin Township report. >> Just two quick items. Um, Dr. Panero provided an overview on referendum training because we are looking to go for a referendum this year. So, we've been working diligently with that, having interactions with the community. Um, we updated the

076referendum tab on our homepage, so anybody can go check out information on where we are. >> Um, and this upcoming Wednesday, we have our public budget hearing. Um, so, uh, that's that's it. >> Sounds great. Thank you for that. Any comments or questions over there? We always appreciate hearing what's going on in Bon Township. So, thank you so much. All right. Then we can move on to committee and liaison reports. Let's begin with committee reports. Is there anyone who has anything they would like to share at this time? Dr. Chef. >> Um, we had our student services committee meeting on the 24th. Mr. Sturles updated the committee members on Panama survey that was administered to the students in three of the four schools. Lake Drive students will participate in the near future pending the development

077of an appropriately tailored survey questions for them. So in collaboration with CST members, counselors and teachers, surveys were created and distributed to Wildwood, Brier Cliff, and the high school topics included emotional regulation, perseverance, school climate, school safety, social awareness, and supportive relationships. Participation level average about 80% across all those three schools. And the next steps will include data analysis at each school led by the counselors, CST members, and other relevant staff. And the survey's purpose was to uh assess progress towards the district goals and identifying any priority areas for social development, social emotional development. It is intended to be administered annually so that the district can track changes and measure growth over time. So yeah, that's it. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions there? Okay. How about any other committee reports? >> Um, we

078had a brief meeting on long range planning on Thursday, April 23rd. Um, it was a just to discuss the strategic planning and um the proposal on that. We'll the committee will have a recommendation at the second May meeting. Um so just something to um you know we're just kind of fine-tuning some of the options. Uh the administration will get back to us uh with a recommendation. >> Thank you. Any comments or questions there? Any other committee reports? Okay. How about any liaison reports? We got Mrs. Foreman. >> I have two. Um very quickly, Lakers Sports Club is um currently um there's a lot of flyers around. I hope everybody checks it out. There's going to be a cornhole tournament that they are sponsoring in place of the golf outing and it should be really fun.

079It's the first time we've done it in Mountain Lakes. Um it should be a very very fun day for the family to come out. It's for all ages. Um there will be like different levels of competition. So if you are a very serious cornhole player, you may have serious cornhole competition, but if you are like most of us and are not that serious, like it will also be not that serious and fun. Um, and all of the proceeds that um are collected from the cornhole tournament go to all of the sports um in the school. And I can't stress the all even more because there are a number of grant requests that our um coaches have put into Lakers Sports Club that we definitely want to be able to fulfill for them. So, um please

080come out and support the Cornhole tournament. That's the Laker Sports Club update. Um oh, also Lakers Sports Club. Yes. Do you do you have the date on me? >> I will I what I was going to say is I have a flyer which I would like to share with you and then if you don't mind, could you share it with the rest of the board? Um, and so the second update I have is that Laker Sports Club is also partnering with the Mountain Lakes Alumni Association um toward another project with the Wilkins Field School Board um to have it be completely privately funded on the outside so as to not because obviously as we just had our budget presentation tonight, there's not there's no fat to trim. So, um they have a very ambitious project

081that they've put forth and if it's okay with you also I I will send the flyer for that so that everybody can look through that and um see if it's something that they might want to also support. Um and then the second um I I just want to read out the um burrow recreation report from Miss Steer. She sent it to me this morning. Thank you, Miss Stepper. Um there was no April meeting for um the rec commission, but they have an April report. Um, and it's very exciting because um, the Rock and Rings opened up on April 7th and as of the 14th there were 97 requests and um, so it's very exciting that everybody's getting ready to go out on the lakes again. Um, there was also a first ever astronomy night hosted

082by Burough Recreation on Saturday, March 28th, and over a hundred people showed up to observe the moon and Jupiter, the International Space Station. And, you know, with everything with Artemis, and there's a lot of excitement, especially among younger kids in town around space. So, the more that we can do to encourage these type of nights, I think the better. Um, there was a successful egg hunt on Sunday, March 29th for Easter. over 200 people and their families participated. Um, Easter Bunny was there. Um, and also the Burough Recreation Committee wants to thank the 20 high school volunteers who were able to support this event because without them it would have been difficult to pull it off. Um, finally, um, there's a couple of upcoming events that, um, everybody should put on their calendars. July 1st

083is going to be our sesquid centennial celebration here in town. um marking America's 250th birthday. Um there will be a movie night at Island Beach and on the 2nd there will be a community barbecue and band um all part of the celebrations with the fireworks happening on July 3rd uh with July 5th being the rain date. Um also um my personal favorite I just want to give a shout out to the Block Toms. If you haven't seen the Block Toms perform, they are two Mountain Lakes dads who are incredible musicians and they will be performing on July 23rd at Island Beach. So, that's the update for now. >> Thank you very much. Comments or questions there? A lot of fun stuff. >> Yeah. >> All right, Dr. McIntyre, did I see your hand up, too?

084Go ahead. >> Yes. So, the Mountain Lakes Education Foundation, they have a big event on Thursday, this Thursday, April 30th. It's spring fling. So, at 7 p.m. at Rockway River Country Club, there'll be music, open bar, food, and also bingo, silent auction, prizes, and a 50/50. So, um, please come out and support that. Um, I also, you know, was in touch with the president there, Jennifer D. Pompeo, and on a slightly less happy note, um, they wanted to communicate that this might be the last event. they're really having trouble getting participation even to come to the event or to get volunteers to plan things. So, um I think some of the people on the board that have been there for a while are feeling discouraged and um I don't know the future of the education

085foundation is is a little bit up in the air right now. So, um it's too bad because they're a very important partner to us. So if there's any way we can support them to support us, we can put our heads together. But she she wanted me to share that. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. >> Any comments or questions there? >> I want to just say also just to piggyback on that, even if you can't attend the event, purchasing a ticket to support the event um is very very helpful to MLF. It goes to fulfill all the teacher grants and the teacher micro grants. And they want to be able to fully fund everything. And so even if you can't make it, just buy a ticket and >> Be a sponsor. Show support. >>

086Everybody who's a sponsor, raise your hand. >> Oh, very nice. Around >> like a family. >> I mean, there's family sponsorships. There's It's not just individual. But I I also just want to echo Lauren put in a plug to support MLF since they do so many amazing things. >> Thank you. Important. >> Um any other liaison reports? We got more. Got >> friends of the theater arts. We had a meeting on the 17th. Um Mr. Henry provided an update. As you know, spring is a super important time. All things musical. So, uh Frozen was an absolute success. I think it was one of the best uh turnouts that they've had. Um so very happy with that. Um but so was 101 Dalmatians was wellreceived and Willy Wonka got too. So they were super busy with

087all of that. Um we um I don't know if everyone knows this, but FOD offers scholarships to students um that are graduating um high school students. um applications are due on the 7th of May and um by the 13th they make a decision and it it varies. It's like $1,000 or $2,000, but it's um it's it's great that they get to do that. Uh our membership, we have 48 members in FOD this year. Um but not as much as a year ago, but we've actually raised more money because people have joined at a higher level. So that's exciting. Um and then in terms of um well some exciting news um photo might be featured in the next we're waiting to see which one but the next Mountain Lakes um and Bhin Township magazine they're going

088to interview Mr. Henry and he's going to talk all about the program so that should give us some really amazing press which will be exciting. >> Um and then finally there's just I can't even read all of them. There's so many events coming up between the balance of this month which is almost over but into May. Um, lots of concerts, lots of orchestras. So, just stay tuned for stuff from your kids that comes home. >> Super comments or questions there? >> Okay. Did I say Miss Lee? Go ahead. >> Um, there was an HSA meeting on Friday the 17th. Um, just a couple quick things. on Friday, uh, May 2nd. Uh, so this Friday, the HSA is sponsoring a firstofits-kind family fun night where we're actually having students from RVS come. Um, there's going to

089be a dunk tank with rumored participants sitting at this table um, along with Principal Higgins. So, it's going to be very cute. Um, next week is teacher appreciation week. Um, the theme is friends. So, they're hard at work there. Um, bake sale gave a big update. I won't delve into the nuts and bolts of it to keep this streamlined, but they're proposing um several uh pretty big changes uh to the HSA's biggest fundraiser, some of which might require board approval. Um so stay tuned there. Um and finally, the teacher appreciation lunchon is scheduled for May 28th uh at the Null Country Club at 11:30. So mark your calendars. >> Any comments or questions there? >> Can Julia just repeat that last event? >> What's at the mall? >> Sorry. >> The teacher appreciation appreciation for

090the um recognition for the retirees and your >> Yeah, >> it used to be at the mansion, right? >> Was it? >> Yeah, it's been like at all over. Never mind. It wasn't at one. >> It was at Barka last year. It was at Hap Goods the year before, >> I believe, Mount Leaks Club the year prior. So, it's been bounced around, but it's at the null this year. >> They do a nice job. >> I I This is the one meeting I missed. Could you expound just a little bit on this Friends theme? Like, because we're trying to coordinate all our efforts here. >> Sure. Um I mean, so it's it it's just taking the theme of the show Friends like the one that Got it. >> So, each day is different thematically, but

091it's the same general concept of >> um Exactly. like, you know, uh, one day there's going to be, you know, special snacks. One day I think it's a shopping for for supplies that they I don't want you to have to disclose any surprise. >> I need a flyer to check on the >> No spoilers. >> Yeah, it's going to be great. And the committee, the committees every year are wonderful, but these two are very, very creative and they also are um our big sale chairs for next year. So big sale, there's some big ideas out there and I think it's going to be interesting. >> Great. >> All right, that's exciting. Comments or questions there? >> Turkey. >> Okay. Any other liaison? Okay, then we can move on to report and recommendation of the school

092business administrator, please. >> Sure. We have a pretty straightforward uh agenda here except for the fact that we have our uh what we just presented as our budget uh public hearing uh which includes um all the provisions and requirements to meet the timelines. Uh it also includes the withdrawal of capital reserves which we've talked about at a previous meeting and maintenance reserves and tuition reserves um and our our aotment for healthcare benefits to exceed uh the 2% cap that the state has imposed. So that is the first part here. Uh and you could see the actual uh table here which highlights the general fund local tax levy and the breakdown uh to the total. Number two, we have the presentation of bills. Uh we have our budget transfers and treasures report and board sector report

093which are all attached. We have two additions of Lake Drive students. Um right now just as u that's something that we monitor. Uh we're somewhere between 125 and 130 uh for Lake Drive students uh for the course of this year. That's a very healthy number for us. Number seven, we have our uh time to sewer rates for school year for school year 2027. It's broken down by Wildwood and Ivy Hall. You notice that the prices are different because the amount of time is different for each of the programs uh both on the AM and the PM and that's reflected proportionally in the rates for the different days. for professional services. Number nine, we have uh the use of a new vendor to do our athletics and calendar um athletics calendar and facility usage. Uh and

094this is at a lower cost and apparently a better product. So our central office and our athletics team are very excited about uh Vantage Sports. We have the need for a speech therapist at Lake Drive. Uh, and I will tell you that this is due to the fact that we are fully stretched out late drive with speech. Even with all of our full-time staff with the addition, as you see, on different agendas with new students, we can't meet the needs of all the students. So, we do have to hire um consultants to do part-time work. Uh, and that's a consideration as we move forward with Lake Drive. We have a home instruction um assignment here under number nine. Number 10, we have several travel um for uh administration and staff. We have two fundraising events

095uh at the end of the year at Mount Lakes High School. And then we have our facilities use for uh Lakeland YMCA. We have the burrow with uh some wreck events that are planned. And we have uh preschool graduation that is scheduled uh at the end of June or middle of June. And that covers the uh finance and the whole financial section of the uh agenda. >> Okay. Thank you very much. We need a first and a second in order to hear these motions together. We have Mr. Johnson and we have Dr. Chef. Thank you very much. Any objections to hearing these motions together? Any comments or questions at this time? Dr. Hersshfeld. So, the the French club is has a fundraiser. Um, and I don't have a problem with the French club doing French

096activities, having selling French pastries, but there the donations are the organizations don't have anything to do with French in particular or French themed things except that Doctors Without Borders has a French name. But both of these organizations are have kind of become politically charged unfortunately. And I would propose tableabling this uh one fundraiser approval pending maybe a some kind of discussion or thoughts of you know there's a lot of French things that could be donated to that are not politically charged organizations. Okay. So, are you at this time making a motion to table that? >> I'm going to make a motion. Yes, I would like to make a motion to table that one approval of the French Club fundraiser. >> Okay. So, I'm going to pause on comments or questions on the rest of the

097items. What I'm going to do right now is to ask if there is So, we have a motion to table that one item. It's going to need a second in order for us to move that motion. Then we will have a conversation on that motion and then a vote to see whether or not we table it. Now, to vote on whether or not you agree with that motion, but a vote on whether or not we table. So, the first thing I'm going to say is we have a motion. We would need a second. Is there a second? Sorry, I have a question on like when you say second, is it just to have a conversation whether or not it should be motion >> necessarily to >> Nope. Just to say should we table this? That's

098the only thing we're discussing. >> Second the discussion to table. That's it. Just a discussion on whether or not we should table. So now is appropriate to have a conversation on whether or not we should table this motion. So does anyone have a comment on whether or not we should table this motion? Dr. Sure. >> I have a question because we're approving the fundraiser and then is it the beneficiary that you're >> questioning. So could we can you can we do one without the other or because that time's coming up and so that was >> unfortunately >> you can't >> no this is a motion that we either table well right now it's either table or not >> and if we you can vote no on this but it goes together. You can't have a

099fundraiser without the thing. So, hold on one second. Mrs. Parker was first, then I'll get to Mrs. Borman. >> I just have a question on I mean, I appreciate what you're saying, but I also question whether this is our purview in the sense of a board. This is a club. They made a decision. They can be guided by their maybe we but I just don't know that right now in this setting this is our >> like this is I feel like we're overstepping our bounds as >> well Dr. comments than you >> like I appreciate what you're saying about it and I appreciate it. It's it's a topic of conversation for the club to have but I feel like it's not our club and for us we we look at the fundraiser and they want

100to have >> it's probably going to be $10. >> It looks like some sort of snack table. Is that what we're going >> and that's our what we are approving is the fundraiser what they use it on. To me that's unless it's wholly inappropriate for a school I think it's not perview that's just my comment >> Dr. Harfeld hang on Mrs. >> Anyway that's it I'm done >> sorry okay Mrs. performing. >> I actually think we did the reason I just Pervika brought up a point. We did approve a fundraiser where the beneficiary in the past um we had a fundraiser that we approved where the beneficiary was TBD but we approved the fundraiser because of the date >> right but what the question was can we say we'll have the fundraiser but we don't

101approve your this has >> okay fine that's a different question but we have approved I just want to make sure people know we have approved something that was a TVD >> right but this since this has it there this is the motion we either have to approve I just want to make sure that that fear that we have done that. >> Okay, Dr. Herschel, I feel like you would like to make a comment. >> Um, I mean, I think it would be reasonable to, you know, our role as oversight and I don't think the French club is looking to intentionally wade into highly charged, highly controversial areas. And it might be reasonable in a role of oversight for someone to nicely of course have a conversation with the appropriate person or people and say, you

102know, we tabled this approval. These organizations are highly controversial. They don't particularly have anything to do with uh, you know, French culture. and perhaps you could find uh like an a French some kind of non-controversial French charity uh you know here or elsewhere. >> So here's my next question. >> Wait, I'm sorry one sec. >> Hang on. I'm I'm going to jump in with a comment of my own, which is to say we're voting we're having a conversation or not whether to table this. I am not going to vote in favor of tableabling this. This is what they're putting. >> You can do whatever you wish. >> I'm giving you my two cents. You don't need to tell me ahead of time. You can >> because this is a conversation we're having. >> So to

103me, I I perhaps don't know as much as you and I always defer to your expertise, but I do not find these highly charged >> and you're you're I will politely say that I recommend that you read up on this. And if you have not, then perhaps you would consider tableabling this and educating yourself. I say so respectfully. >> I do. So thank you. Just I'm gonna jump back in only because I I'm gonna finish. I I don't agree with your particular assessment and I don't feel the need for the outcome of the fundraiser to be something Frenchbased. I'm comfortable. >> It doesn't have to be French-based, but maybe it doesn't have to be super controversial. >> Can I ask another question? >> I'm just going to keep going though because that's the second time

104I got interrupted. So, I'm going to finish. So, what I'm saying over here is for me >> from the cheap seats. from the cheap seats. I'm good with this, not tableabling it and letting it vote up or down. That's different. So, >> I encourage a down vote for you, >> Pier. I get you. But my point is I'm not going to table. I'm going to let it go yes or no and then stand. But I say that respectfully knowing I'm one vote of 10 and I get outvoted and that's okay. But that's my two cents over here. So, I'm now going to let Mrs. Parker continue. >> I am apologize. I don't really finish. question is, if we approve it as is, can the French club change who they're giving it to if they choose

105to go in a different direction or because we approve it this way, does it have to go in that direction? >> Good question, Dr. >> I mean, we do retro approve things like in like their dates are changed, the methods are changed, the beneficiary could change. The other thing here is it's an or. It's not an and so there are two organizations here. Um I will tell you that um you know this is something that the students uh part of the club they did the research they supported it. It was not it was just presented as a recommendation. I don't know what discussion happened at the school level which is I think totally appropriate but um I think that is a possibility especially since we have a track record of retro where we would allow

106for various reasons for things after the fact to be approved. So, if we approve the fundraiser and they decided to change it, we would then just reapprove it at the next meeting, which I am noting this is an April 30th fundraiser and we don't have a meeting before that. >> But we could even retro they could have the fun. >> Go ahead. >> We could have they could have the fundraiser. they could elect to change the beneficiary and we could retroactively after the fundraiser took place uh approve a different non-controversial beneficiary >> we discouraged >> and we've done that before I just want to say we have done that seagull's point >> any other comments or questions >> then we are now at a point where we're going to vote to table or Not we're

107not voting on yes or no on this thing. We're only voting do we table it or do we not table it. >> Roll call, please. >> Sorry. Can I I'm sorry. I need >> a question. Hold on. >> Ask a question. >> Yes. >> Because I'm sort of thinking back to what Mrs. Parker said. >> I guess is it really our purview to determine what organizations students should give money to like or or fund raise for? because yes, I'm aware that there is some controversy especially around doctors with well with both of them but I don't know that we should be waiting into that discussion. I mean I because then then what's to so we're going to dictate what they can raise money for? I don't know that that's our job. >> That's just where

108I'm struggling. I'm like hung up on that. >> Dr. I mean I think that there may be a lack of awareness >> from the chief >> you know >> on part of kids you're saying >> on the part of the kids of of you know so this could be an educational opportunity >> for a lot of for for kids for adults >> the cheap seats >> cheap seats >> so I mean I'll just say that you know in the interest of kind of not being too heavy-handed I will plan after this discussion with the thought that perhaps there might be some discussions that might take place that I'm not going at this point based on everything that's been said. I'm not going to vote to table this at this time. >> Are you withdrawing? >>

109I'm well I don't have to withdraw it. I I I could just vote no. Sort of with the thought that maybe this discussion alone has been sufficient to affect the outcome. >> Okay. Since there was a first and a second, I think we actually have to have the vote at this point. So, roll call, please. >> All right. Dr. Don is table. >> Exactly. >> Not to obviously don't miss >> not to table. >> Dr. Mr. Hfel, >> not to table. >> Mr. Johnson, >> not to table. >> Mccarnney, >> not to table. >> M. McVey, >> not to table. >> Mrs. Parker, >> no. To table. >> Dr. Chef, >> not to table it. >> Uh, Dr. Silva McIntyre, >> no. >> And Mrs. Barowskis? >> No. >> Thank you very much. So, we

110are not tableabling this, but that brings us back to any other comments or questions on the rest of the motions or even that one as well. comments or questions at this time? >> I have one question. >> Um, for the Chipotle, I mean, maybe Bianca can answer this. Is that okay if I ask her? And she would probably know better than anyone. For the Chipotle, is there like a time? Is it like a time of day? What's the time of day? >> It's after school. So, it's >> close or something. >> It's so on the flyer, we have a junior class or class of 2027 Instagram account. Be sure to check that out and follow um because we have all our fundraisers on that. Um, I'm pretty sure I have to just double check it

111was made and created today. It's from 4:00 to when it closes. >> Okay. I just was wondering because I know with some of them it's like not all day or you can't go for lunch. >> And if you go you have to um >> you have to say it too, right? >> Yeah. You have to show the flyer. And also for this one in particular, um if we don't get at least $150, um that they make, then we don't get anything at all. So definitely be sure to check that out because last time when we did Buffalo Wild Wings, we only got around like 180ish, so it wasn't as like big of a show up. So, but I feel like Chipotle would be a little better. >> And and you said, what is the name

112of the Instagram account where you can show it? >> Class of 2027. Junior class of 2027. >> Right now, I I feel like I should know this. Um I feel like Jen should know this. >> It's a good question, though. >> We don't know this. So, thank you, Bianca. Of course. >> Any other comments or questions at this time on any other motions? >> I have no idea. >> Then, roll call, please. >> Dr. Don, >> yes. >> M. Foreman. >> Yes. >> Dr. Hersburg. >> Yes. >> Mr. Johnson? >> Yes. For all high school it >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Miss Parker? Yes, >> Dr. Sheth. >> Yes, >> Miss Silva McIntyre. >> Yes, >> Miss Barkowskis. >> Yes. >> Okay, then we can move on to report and recommendations of superintendent.

113>> Okay, we have under our personnel, we have one resignation of a par professional part-time at Lake Drive. We have several uh revisions to leave absences uh including a teacher, social worker, UT um and then one short leave for an interpreter. We have additional compensation uh for at at Briercliffe uh as we were unable to fill a vacant um leave position for a social worker. So that is the reason for that um academic support program here. We have additions to the Boston trip in terms of one being a resin one being an ad for under substitutes volunteers interns. We have an intern in the counseling department and we also have additional substitutes here. Number two under substitutes is uh being recommended to fill a leave replacement position at Lake Drive, but the individual is completing

114her certification program and therefore is operating as at the long-term sub rate of 190 a day. But that is someone who will be that's Melissa Ratukio who will be a lee replacement um at Brier Cliff in the late dry program. We have two field trips. We have tuition reimbursement for staff. Um we have the adoption of the Brier Cliff course of studies which was briefly re reviewed uh last week in curriculum committee uh with only minor edits. Uh, so we're essentially putting forward the same program study and that is it for what seemed to be a small section. >> Thank you very much. >> Hopefully we didn't miss anything. >> We need a first and a second. We have Mrs. Foreman over there and we have Dr. Sheth. Thank you very much. Any objections to

115hearing these motions together? Any comments or questions at this time? >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Don, >> yes. >> Miss Foreman, >> yes. >> Dr. Herswell. >> Yes. Mr. Johnson, >> yes. For all high school, >> Miss Carney. So, let me skip back. Okay, I'll come back there. Uh, Miss McBe. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Parker, >> yes. >> Dr. Chef, >> yes. >> Miss Dr. Silvin McIntyre. >> Yes. >> Miss Barkowskis, >> yes. >> Thank you very much. We'll vote when she comes back. Okay. >> Is there any unfinished business at this time? >> New business. I have one. You all maybe got an email under the heading of Operation Bagel. It's exciting. So, check it out. All right. Just leaving it like that. Little bit of mystery right there. Okay. Any other new

116business? >> Oh, can you go back to oper? You didn't have any times listed on >> of when I need help. Yes. How about we talk after? >> Yes. Cool. Can I >> ask a question about You're not doing like orange and blue bagels. Please tell me you're not. >> Please. >> First of all, that is an excellent idea. Second of all, >> oh my god, I see the teachers now with bagels and I will see what they can do. I'm just saying that is an excellent idea. >> Oh my god, they're going to have bagels of some kind. >> All right. Any other new business? >> The blue food dies. >> How about pending legislation? >> No. >> How about any comments or requests from members of the public? >> Okay. >> I need

117to read the statement. So, can you give me just one sec to read that? >> Gone up when it was >> Yeah. When you had your >> Why didn't you go up when it >> Okay. I don't know who made his choice. This is his journey. All right, let's go. Okay, so uh public comment is set aside for the board to hear feedback and questions from members of the public. The board will take all comments and suggestions from the public into consideration. If you have more than one question, we request that all questions are asked within the time provided as public comment is not intended for back and forth dialogue. If the board is unable to answer your question in this time, we'll explain when and what format the answer will be communicated. We request

118that you limit your questions or comments to three minutes and present all questions within those three minutes. Please state your name and address for the record. The board appreciates and thanks you for your attendance and participation at our meeting. Please begin. >> All right. Thank you. Mike Alves, MLA co-president. I wasn't going to come up until I heard about orange and blue bagels. >> No. Uh, I actually have to thank Miss Karnney because she started talking about scholarships and we would be remiss if we did not remind people that the MLA scholarship is out there and applications for seniors are due by this Friday. Um, all seniors were told by their counselor so they should check their emails and if you have a senior need to help check their email, do that. Um, applications can

119be sent to Miss Alexis Anderson Yuriola by that date. So, please do so. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. That's a great comment or question. >> I love that. Are there any other comments or questions of members of the public? Please state your name and address for the record and Mrs. Parker will begin the timer when you're ready. >> Good evening. My name is Jim Nichols, 8 Maple Way in the Village section of Mountain Lakes. First of all, thank you all for um your service. Um I'm representing I guess a few parents of the of the second grade that prefer to be shy. first grade going >> current first grade going into uh going into second grade um and uh there seems to be well I'll start off with this first uh as parents

120we can be very uh quick to criticize so I also think that we should also be very quick to praise and uh with that I would like to uh thank the board and the school district because we know that uh the amount of students that were in the kindergarten that um was kind of on the bubble of whether they needed three or four teachers in the grade. And uh when it went to the first grade, it went to four teachers. Uh and I can at least comment on behalf of uh my daughter Anna and saw a significant improvement in her ability um and in the learning environment by having fewer students in the classes. Um with that there is uh some discussion among some of the parents and a concern because we know that the

121solution for going to uh four classes for the first grade it seems to be unresolved or at least if it is resolved it hasn't been communicated to the parents about whether four classes will continue into the second grade. Um, so I stand as a a parent here and um seeing the benefits of of having the smaller classes to make a request formally that uh the the continuation of the class sizes from the current first grade at Wildwood to the uh next year the second. What I don't know and I think what a lot of the parents don't know is given the budget that we just approved which costs are going up everywhere. We you know we get it is and I don't know if you're able to answer this but does the budget allow uh

122or is there a structure in place that will allow for four teachers to remain or be assigned uh to the second grade for next year? Is that all of your questions at this time? >> Yes, it is. I don't know if there's anything I've Yeah. No, I'm getting I'm getting thumbs up and nods from the others. So, I I I think we're good. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Dr. Seagull, is this a question you think you can answer at this time? >> I I think partially, but not fully. Uh I appreciate your concern and I think you coming up to advocate for low class size. because I think you made your position clear just respect to the budget um that our current budget does not necessarily uh support all the sections with the

123class sizes if we take into account all of Wildwood and our other buildings and their needs and there are larger sections that are moving up through the building. So that's definitely a consideration. What I would tell you, you use the word unresolved. It is currently unresolved but in motion of being resolved in the next few weeks where we will have to make a determination about how many sections we're going to run at each level. And I think it's important to factor in like how many students are currently in each level looking at the age of the students and you know the class size relative to that. I think generally we have low class sizes in all grades. I I think that that is you know for you know talk about controversial people have different viewpoints

124about like how many students in a class is um best best needed for effective instruction and learning to take place. But I would say that we have to take into consideration all the grade levels the current rosters uh and the budgets. But if we were just to go strictly by the numbers to maintain for going into second while also satisfying the needs at every other level, that is not accounted for in the budget. So if we looked at class sizes being maintained at the level that you're recommending at all levels, we would have to add staff to our current budget. >> I'm sorry, we can't follow up. Okay, >> we cannot unless you can come back up for a second time, but do you mind if I ask if anybody else wants to come up

125first? >> Somebody else can. >> Is there anybody else would like to come up at this time? >> Please state your name and address for the record. >> Hi, I'll meet Vora 67 Bar Cliff Road. So, I guess my question is what is the maximum class size that you would allow? Hold them one thing. Is that your only question at this time? >> And is the maximum class size the same for second, third, fourth, and fifth grade? >> So I good questions. So there I I'm I'm not trying to be frustrating here because I don't think there is a a definite answer because you have to look at the composition, the ability level, like special needs status. There's a lot of factors. But the only thing I will say is the age range, you know,

126in terms of what is acceptable. There is no maximum class size. I think here in Mountain Lakes, we operate with class sizes that are much lower than, you know, what we would consider maximum. I know like some districts have a maximum class size of 30 at the elementary school. We don't have anything close to that and we're not seeking to get to that level. I think that within our current operating budget, we can work with manageable class sizes. So, we don't there is no number specifically like this is the max. The only other thing I will say is that the max or the consideration of a max in kindergarten versus second versus fourth versus the middle school um there they will be different and that would be based on the needs of the child the

127developmental age but I still wouldn't give a number to that. There's a lot of factors that would go into making that decision. >> Can I ask a question? Um, we and this this might even be to some of the board members who have been here longer than Dr. Seagull. Was there a situation where there was a a class that was on the cusp and over the summer registrations ended up bumping it up? Were you here then or? >> So, I think the year that I came in and this is the cohort that I think this these families are talking about. We did in kindergarten um we had um a big bump in the summer. >> Yeah. >> But it's that's also typically kindergarten and first grade you tend to have the possibility of influx late

128because the nature of what they are. Some people come from private kindergarten, go in first grade late, make a decision, and kindergarten itself. There's a lot of choices, but you were right. Um the class sizes for this group in kindergarten um and that was me coming in earlier, they they were high and then first grade it was reduced for this year uh based upon the number of sections. So yes, that happens. Um, and I think you always have to be planning and when we look at the numbers, you know, we always look at the possibilities of moveins and there's no less likely move outs, but there are moveins that happen during the year. >> But I mean that I I I bring that up only because um I remember it. I I I can't remember

129what year it was, but I did remember it. And I just think that's I mean it it it's I don't know how to say this, but it's such a benefit that they're looking at it. It's not like the cut off is June June 30th and if we if if the kids aren't in, we're not going to we're not going to move at all. What I think this is like an ongoing process and hopefully I I don't know that that brings comfort at the moment, but what it means is that they don't stop looking at it. our administration does not stop because summer hits and we don't want to make a change really quick because like I said I remember that summer that we did make a change and I thought I remembered that is >>

130yeah there could have been other times also that I before I was here but yes >> well I I don't what I said time is time is relative so is there anyone else that would like to make comment at this time please come up state your name and address for the record Please. >> Hi, I'm Lisa Sand at 32 Handover Road in Mountain Lakes. Um, just to kind of piggyback on what um the two gentlemen just said, this is my my statement question is going to be in regards to the same thing. Um, so currently you guys have a every grade has four teachers except for one grade. And that one grade Well, no, it's it's kind of like two grades, but they're kind of going there's one grade currently, but they're they're sort of

131like shifting back and forth like between these two classes that have sort of high number, low number, high number, no low. And it seems like you're kind of like almost sharing the the this extra teacher. And I know especially after the presentation that there's probably not a lot of room to get another teacher, especially because of health insurance. Um, is there the possibility though of moving people around that maybe aren't currently teachers but are teaching in the building in some capacity into a teacher position? Is that your final question? >> As long as nobody needs any clarification on what I'm asking. >> Got it. Okay. Hang on. Dr. Sigilson, >> I might need some clarification. >> Okay. Need some clarification. Can I have that? >> So, you know, >> you said they're not teachers. >>

132They are teachers, but they're not currently in >> Okay. >> the classroom. >> I'm well in they're not they don't have a self-contained home room. >> Correct. But they are teachers. Can you just explain this because I have no idea what you >> So people who don't have a home room, people who don't teach first, second, third grade, they could teach specials, they music, they could be teaching other subjects, interventionist, we have other people in the classroom that are certified teachers. Is it possible? It is possible but I that is something that would be you know we are considering all possibilities about how to best allocate our staffing to meet all the needs of the kids to maintain low class sizes but also to support the enrichment and uh specials that we have. So that

133that is definitely a consideration. >> Thank you. >> Is there anyone else that would like to make a comment or have a question at this time? Okay then. Thank you very much. Um then we will move to we do have an executive session this evening. Um so we need a motion to enter into executive session. We need a first and a second. We have Dr. Hersshfeld. Is there a second? We have Dr. Sheth. Um the board adopts the following. All say I to go into executive session. I uh be it resolved by the Mount Lakes Board of Education on this 27th day of April at 9:11 p.m. as follows. The board shall recess into close session in accordance with the open public meeting law NJSA 10:4-12B1267 and8. The general nature of the discussion including matters

134of personal comp confidentiality rights including but not limited to staff and/or student discipline matters and specifically legal matters. These matters will be disclosed to the public as soon as the need for confidentiality no longer applies. Though the board cannot guarantee it, the length of the executive session is estimated to be 60 minutes and may not be. That's just what I say. After which the public meeting of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action may take place. This resolution will take effect immediately. We will go back into exec. Thank you everyone. Everyone did. >> Okay. Are we ready? Um we need a motion to leave executive session. We have Miss McVey and we have Miss Colcarnney. All in favor of leaving executive session say I. >> I. Um the board returns to public session

135at 10:15. We now can have a motion to adjourn. We need a first and a second. We have Dr. Don. We have Mr. Johnson. All in favor of adjourning say I. I. We'rejourned. Thank you everyone. said,