Board of Education - Regular Meeting - February 17, 2026

001Good evening to everyone. We'd like to call our meeting to order. I'd like to welcome you to our regular business meeting for February 17, 2026. On Wednesday, January 7, 2026, notice of this meeting was emailed to the press and the Daily Journal. Notice was also delivered that day to the Agarber Township Clerk and Postal and Bulletin Board in Township Hall. Roll call. Mrs. Byrd? Present. Mr. Byers? Here. Mr. Della Barca? Here. Ms. Hyman? Here. Mr. Ireland? Here. Mr. Sepe? Here. Mrs. Sloggy? Mr. Price? Here. And Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Here. And Mrs. Sloggy was here, but she wasn't feeling well, so she won't be with us this evening, but she was trying to make it, but she wasn't feeling well. We're going to have our flag salute. And also during our flag salute, we're going to have

002a moment of silence for Mr. Lee Berman and also for a former Acorba Township student, Denisha Gunter Adams, who passed away. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. We'd like to have a motion to approve the minutes. So made. Second. Items 4.1 through 4.4. Roll call. Mrs. Byrd? Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. De La Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gribble-Foyt? Yes. At this time, we're going to have Dr. Gruscio. She's going to share with us the superintendent's report. Thank you, Dr. Gruscio. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to do that. Okay, here we go. Anybody see the weather report today? Just when the snow was melting, there was a talk of snow. But we won't talk about

003that anymore. Anyway, welcome to our February meeting. And we're two months into 2026, and lots happening in our school district. Very exciting in the last couple weeks. For student achievement, we had the academic triathlon team gaining first place in Atlanta County. Our girls basketball team undefeated. Writers workshop going on at Davenport. And Camry Bird won the wrestling tournament at Central Regional. And Casey Velarde was our Egg Harbor Township representative for Women's in Sports Day for NJSIA, which was held up at Rutgers University the last couple weeks. And our mock trial champions, we have two sitting right here in the room with us, Carter and Ava. What a great looking group these folks are practicing at night. Really had a lot of passion and interest in this mock trial, right? You want to share your experience

004real quick? Was it great? Was it awesome? Was it relevant? Oh, okay, I'll wait. All right, we'll wait. Sorry. You have your section, I have mine. All right. Under the Climate and Culture, Black History Month, we're still in Black History Month, and great activities going on that I'm going to share in a little bit. Martin Luther King projects that went on, the Week of Service our students participated in. We have Students of the Week, Students of the Month. We celebrated in our schools Valentine's Day and President's Day. Students were educated. On the Chinese New Year, which is the year of the horse, and National Counseling Week, our counselors were recognized, and World Kindness Week occurred as well. And you can see the kindness and love being shared amongst our students and our staff. We celebrated

005a birthday party. It was Happy 50th to Davenport School. That was last Thursday with a pep rally and a former principal there, Mr. Della Barca, who spoke to the students. All students from the primary and elementary schools were in the elementary school gym. They learned a little history about the school. They got to see the girls' basketball team, boys' basketball team, the cheerleaders, and the band perform. for them and it was a great time. The principal and her staff were very, very pleased with the participation of the students and the enthusiasm of all. So it was a fun time. Staying with the climate and culture theme, our Chinese New Year was celebrated at Miller School. It was a great time. I had the opportunity to attend with Dr. Graham and I. I got to taste

006some food and meet some families. That was last Thursday night, and Ms. Moss and I and Mr. West as well read some stories at Davenport, and we had a guest speaker, an assembly for our middle schools. Eddie came and talked to students about self-confidence and how to be positive and how to stand up for yourself and promote a good climate and culture in our schools. But I have to tell you, the most impressive... event that occurred in our schools was last Friday. Mr. Perez was there and he can vouch for it as well. It was a student-led assembly on Black History Month and the African Americans on biographies and lessons and activities and they presented from the different classes. for Black History Month, for the AP and honors classes, the CP classes, and they shared

007music, they shared different literature and different stories. It was about a 45-minute presentation. It was absolutely amazing. So I want to thank Mr. Campbell for putting that together and for the other history classes involved and all the students who were involved. It was very impressive. Here's some of the other... topics they talked about, black women in Congress, the Harlem Renaissance, the Jim Crow period. So it was very thorough and educated the students. Awareness is important. Speaking about awareness, we learned about what healthy smoothies are at the Alder Avenue Middle School. Our food services director, Mr. Patel, did a little experiment for the kids. They got to participate in reading food labels, particularly on a can of soda. That a can of Coke, we learned, has nine teaspoons, almost ten teaspoons of sugar in it. And

008the students got to spoon out. the teaspoons of sugar in a container. And then they were asked, would you consume these 10, nine to 10 teaspoons of sugar? And the answer was in no way. Well, you do when you drink a can of Coke, a can. And then we looked at vitamin water, which has seven teaspoons of sugar as well. And we finally got to the smoothies, which are much more healthier. And the students got to put, to make their own smoothies with strawberries and blueberries and kale. And they learned that kale, You really don't taste it once you blend it with bananas and fruit. So overall, we had a little contest. One was dairy-free and one was made with yogurt, and the yogurt won. So that was Mr. Smith's choice. I look at him.

009He was there. I picked the non-dairy, but to each his own. But anyway, a lesson learned. Our community partners, Read Across America is occurring. It started last week at Davenport. Our innovation team met, and I put this on their community partners because right in this room are a very talented and educated innovation team who has been researching artificial intelligence and technology over the last two and a half years. But this month when we met, Neighbor schools enjoyed it joined us and it was Galloway Township enjoy it joined us Northfield School, I'm gonna forget the other one and Greater Egg Regional School District So they had representatives in this room. They learned from us. They were impressed by us and You know, we were proud to share what what we do Andy green artist was in

010our elementary school sharing her work with students. Atlanta Care is a great partner. Every month, Reed's Farm came to Eagle Academy. And just a notification for the board and the public, our eighth grade dialogue is going to be held on March 23rd at Mullica Township. As you remember in the past, we have one representative from each of our middle schools, and they participate in a question and answer session. February is Love the Bus Month, and we've been loving our bus drivers. On the 11th, our staff and students wore yellow in honor of our bus drivers, wrote notes to them, gave them treats, and, you know, still thank you and recognize the work that they do over the 60-some square miles of A. Carver Township. And as you can see here, Miss Betty, always a smile

011on the face because... You know, they're the first person that our students see each and every day and the last person that they, you know, say goodbye to when they walk off the bus and, you know, begin their journey home. So they're a very important piece to our school district, and we appreciate all that they do. Just, again, sharing the importance of our cultural event. That was the first time in a long time, but Dr. Graham and the equity team put this together on March 25th. In fact, we have a meeting, I believe, tomorrow. March 25th at the high school, I encourage everyone to attend. It's going to be a great event as we explore the culture through music, dance, fashion, food, art, games, and more. It's going to be food. Friendly reminders for March.

012Athletics begin, spring athletics are ready. High school begins March 9th. The middle school is March 9th as well. Registration for preschool is March 2nd. And the referendum, which we will talk more about this evening, the vote is March 10th. Okay, you're invited to our Atlantic Cape Educator Job Fair. So if anybody out there in the public, in the audience, interested in obtaining a position here in Agarwood Township School District, we will have a job fair on March 6th at the high school, 1 to 3 p.m. And Agarwood Township High School, we always like to advertise them with their next musical, In the Heights, and that will be March 13th to the 15th. Where's Alan? Alan's been very busy this month between making videos for the referendum and the budget and for me, so thank you,

013Alan. Okay, I was hoping for a little bit of volume because I love Michael Jackson, but there you go. That is my first portion of the superintendent's report. We're going to move on now with Mr. Smith, our business administrator, and sharing where we are with our budgeting process. All right. Thank you, Dr. Gruccio. First up, we have our annual budget development video. Thanks, Mr. Vargas, for putting this together. So we'll play this first. Over the past several months, our school nutrition program has grown in meaningful ways. Currently, our department consists of 70 amazing contracted staff along with 10 substitutes. We currently provide a little over 6,200 meals on a daily base, including breakfast and lunch. Our free and reduced percentage is currently 50.57%. We've also created a meaningful partnership with students and teachers by providing

014fresh produce from our greenhouse when available, along with supporting students in the culinary program. We've also improved support for students and families experiencing food insecurity. No child should go hungry under our watch. We are experimenting with scratch cooking to provide less processed foods in our cafeteria, along with procuring items locally when possible. Here are some of our budget highlights. We have upgraded kitchens in multiple schools to enhance food safety and efficiency. We've increased breakfast and lunch participation year over year. We have expanded our menus to offer diversified choices such as Latin, Asian, and Italian cuisine to name some. Breakfast is free and there are no lunch price increases. Here in our Transportation Department, we have about 82 bus drivers, 28 bus aides, 195 vehicles in our fleet, including 127 school buses. We travel 1.3 million

015miles per year utilizing 210,000 gallons of fuel. We've implemented a new routing software program, a new GPS system for all of our school buses. We're actively recruiting bus drivers, replacing our bus fleet as necessary, and we have no new budget items for 26-27 school year. All of our vehicle maintenance and repair work is completed in-house. Our 25 and 26 budget year highlights are the deployment of ParentSquare, our freshman orientation Chromebook deployment, our upgrade to Windows 11 for all district-wide computers. At Fernwood, we completed a switch replacement of all our network Ethernet switches. We've also been completing a Wi-Fi access point upgrade project across the district, and lastly, some network security upgrades. Our department goals for the 26-27 school year are integrating our paging system using SIP into our phone system. We also plan to continue

016our Wi-Fi access point upgrade plan and focus on the Miller School. Phone system enhancements such as AI integration tools, device replacements for both teacher devices and computers, and we'll begin a projector replacement plan focusing on interactive flat panels. In Aspire, we have moved from a no-bake culinary experience to now a hot food and baking experience with kitchen a la carte. We've had successful parent engagement activities and our student retainment is at 87%. Our goals for next year include adding a performing arts academy and strengthening our climate and culture. TALENT's 2526 highlights include expanding TALENTs to include pre-K at Davenport Complex, increasing student enrollment from 425 students to over 500, and enriching professional development and training to meet licensing regulations. Our 2526 major project overview, we had some architectural improvements to our facility, IT office, suites

017relocation. several preschool rooms added, HVAC upgrades and equipment replacements. Our upcoming budget year 26-27, our planned projects are the Eagle Academy relocation new building, significant renovations to bathrooms at two of our elementary schools, as well as the addition of a second new chiller at Alder and HVAC improvements at the high school. In our department we handle registrations, transfers. We also do community service with assisting our McKinley-Vento families. We assisted in food distribution with Shopperate, Thanksgiving meals with our food service department, and we worked with getting engagement kits for our McKinley-Vento families. We also have our truancy residency department within my department that handles residency investigations as well as truancy and trying to assist students in coming into school and removing the barriers for their attendance. For our future goals, we want to improve our application

018process, improve our residency investigations through new resources that we have obtained, also continue to work with our families and improve student attendance. Continue to provide as well resources for our McKinley-Vento families. As we look into our current security program, we are staffed with a Director of Security and 29 security officers. We have three class three officers that are able to respond to any incident within our district and we currently have an after-hours security officer that is responsible for a variety of security related tasks. To ensure that we are following best practices, we have implemented certain security measures throughout the district and over the past year we have completed some projects that are crucial to our overall security goals and we will be continuing with them. The future of our security program is equally as important

019and I'm constantly looking at new technology, I would also like to add additional security officers in the future to help support our growing community. Ultimately, the goal is clear, to build a future where safety is proactive, technology-driven, and deeply integrated into the daily operations of our school district. For the 25-26 school year we have approximately 651 preschool students. We're planning to maintain those numbers for the 26-27 school year. We are spread out currently over six buildings. We have 49 preschool classrooms and roughly 142 staff. We're looking to add a playground to the Davenport complex and we're really focusing on targeted behavioral support and professional development for our staff. We now have all the preschool classes utilizing creative curriculum for instruction and Teaching Strategies Gold for their assessment. We're focused on those pre-reading and writing skills

020as well as math in all learning areas. And our Tier 2 instruction has been a huge focus for all of our staff. For professional development, we're going to continue to unpack those essential standards and really dive deep into that instruction. And we're using the new resources within Teaching Strategies Gold for our data analysis to improve and facilitate the development of the whole child. This year we're going to focus our curricular updates on independent living skills, our health classes, and community-based instruction. This year we're going to continue with our programs while adding goal books so our teachers can infuse Universal Design for Learning into the classrooms. We have also expanded our CBI locations. We have two additional locations. We are improving our student safety. We are also having targeted behavioral supports, and we added a copy

021center at the high school for our students. Our goal for curriculum this year was to align our standards to CTE state standards as well as establish essential standards that would be used across the department. Some of our key budget highlights included expanding our equipment, professional development to support all learners, included summer and enrichment programming for students. In the future we plan to do the same, additional PD, expanding our technology, and aligning our coursework to meet workforce needs. Department goals include incorporating literacy in CTE, expanding our equipment and resources, CTE programming and enrichment programming for all students across the district, and targeting our instruction. In 26-27, our goal is to continue to update our programs, adopt new CTE AP coursework, and also integrate AI technology into our CTE courses, while expanding apprenticeship and internship opportunities for

022students. Our language arts goal is to ensure all students receive a quality Tier 1 instruction in literacy as the foundation for all future success. To accomplish this, we're going to continue to align instruction and refine our expectations for proficiency in grades K-12 by grade level. We're also going to be investing in high quality instructional materials in grades 4 to 8 and continue to provide job embedded professional development and evidence-based practices that will help improve student success. Finally, we're going to be working on strengthening the use of our common assessment data along with universal screening to help our teachers design effective Tier 1 and 2 interventions that will help move our students toward grade level proficiency. Our mission is to support all students academically, socially, and emotionally while advocating for their success. We are grateful to

023our community partners who support K-12 career events, academic programs, high school academies, and scholarship opportunities. Our anti-bullying and school climate initiatives empower students to be upstanders and teach them to seek help when needed. At the high school, we offer approximately 60 AP and dual credit courses that allow students to earn college credit. We also provide practice SAT opportunities to help students prepare for college admission testing and meet state graduation requirements. We are incredibly proud of the work our counseling departments do and appreciate the opportunity to share a brief snapshot. The 2026-2027 Fine and Performing Arts budget is informed by activities and accomplishments and achievement that occurred during the 2025-2026 school year. We continue to make our students career ready in the digital arts, recording studios, and animation, and our instrumental music programs and our performing

024arts programs continue to grow. Our curricular and extracurricular opportunities for our students are best in the region. Set designing are now all OSHA certified to ensure safety. There are some big ticket items that we're looking at. A new kiln for our ceramic studio, getting new uniforms for our marching band for the first time in 20 years, and making sure that our audiences at the football stadiums can hear everything loud and clear. We look forward to a great year in 26-27. New New Jersey Department of Education social studies standards are pending. Professional development is focused on data collection tools for our essential skill, which is document-based question writing. The department goal is to continue to analyze and support students with the essential skill of nonfiction writing. For the coming year, our curriculum updates are aligned to

025the revised New Jersey student learning standards with a strong focus on coherence, conceptual understanding, and student engagement. We are strengthening our professional development through vertical articulation, aligning common assessments to essential standards, and using data-driven decision-making to guide instruction and the implementation of tiered supports. These efforts promote equity, effective formative assessment, and meaningful mathematical discourse, ensuring all students are prepared for success as they progress through our math courses. This year, our science program continued to move forward through intentional, standards-aligned innovation. We strengthened three-dimensional science learning and refined lab experiences while expanding with the Engineering Academy and sustaining the rigor of the Medical Science Academy. Through the Greenhouse and STEM Bus, we increased access to authentic, hands-on learning and integrated sustainability across multiple grade levels and courses. Professional development focused on curriculum alignment, assessment design, and building

026teacher capacity for science education. Moving into next year, our focus remains on refining common assessments, expanding hands-on learning, and supporting consistent, high-quality science instruction across the district. The Intervention Department is focused on supporting the whole child through a responsive system of academic and behavioral supports. This year we strengthened core initiatives such as SOAR and Wings of Character and Achievement, expanded developmentally appropriate play-based learning in kindergarten, and implemented SEL and Life Skills curriculum across grade levels. We also invested in new Tier 3 math and ELA intervention programs and an early literacy screener to ensure students get the right support at the right time. These initiatives are supported through focused professional learning as well as our PD pathways. Looking ahead, our priority is to strengthen Tier 2 interventions and continue building the impact of SOAR and WINGS

027so every student can grow, thrive, and succeed. Looking back to this current year, we continue to host over 1,100 events for 2,500 rostered positions on 58 teams and 18 sports. We continue to upgrade our facilities to match our students. including the stadium scoreboard, the gymnasium event light programming, the gym floor resurfacing, wrestling mats, pool starting blocks and portable streaming cameras. Coming into this current year we're going to continue to upgrade our team training equipment, uniform rotation, storage solutions and organizations. We are also looking forward to replacing our stadium sound system for our event access and safety and as well as replacing our gym mechanical controls. Our Bargantown campus has 16 PSE classrooms and our Slaball Primary has 16 PSE classrooms and two PSD. Our PSE classrooms have a teacher, paraprofessional, and a maximum of 15

028students. We offer a six-hour comprehensive learning day and we offer before and after care to meet the needs of our families. Our WINGS program helps build out our climate and our culture, and we're going to continue to use SOAR to implement and help our social and emotional development. At our complex, we serve approximately 1,150 students in grades K-3. We have 60 homerooms with an average class size between 20 and 24 students. We continue to recognize student achievement through the efforts of our WINGS program along with building-based incentives. We expanded supports with an additional SEL interventionist position this year, allowing us to address important areas such as self-regulation and responsible decision-making. As we enter year two of welcoming our self-contained classes to their home school, we have added an eighth classroom. Our school has also been

029awarded a three-year grant with the NJ Inclusion Project. Our school goals align with district goals aiming to increase learning in math, language arts, and all content areas through strong instruction, progress monitoring, and targeted interventions, while offering hands-on learning, STEAM, and career exploration. We will maintain a welcoming, inclusive environment through SOAR and practices that support positive behavior and well-being, all while strengthening partnerships with families and community stakeholders. This year has been one of growth and positive momentum. We proudly welcomed eight preschool classes serving 92 students and we continue to support eight homeroom classes in kindergarten through third grade, strengthening our early learning foundation. We continue to focus on positive school climate, strong student engagement through programs which promotes family engagement. Our students also benefit from enrichment opportunities which supports strong attendance. Our budget highlights support both

030academic and social and emotional growth. These include little spot SEL program, interactive whiteboard tables and math tools, updated technology for our media specialists, new cafeteria tables, and a fenced-in play area for our preschool students. Looking ahead, our goals remain clear. We continue to focus on increasing student achievement, all content areas through hands-on rigorous instruction. We will continue to strengthen our SOAR expectations, maintain a welcoming school climate, and continue building meaningful partnerships with families, community organizations, and local businesses through events such as Career Day and after-school family events hosted by our Davenport Parents Club. We are excited to see what the new year brings. Our current enrollment at Miller School is 1,006 students with 503 in 4th grade and 503 in 5th grade. We have 231 students enrolled in our special education program as well as

03150 students with 504s. Our average class size is 24. Our program offerings include daily classes in math, ELA, science, and social studies as well as weekly classes in PE and health, art, music, Spanish, and technology. Our SEL programs are offered during our win period, and our activities and programs include areas of STEM and music lessons. Our budget goals for 2026-2027 include supporting classroom individual student desks with tables, incorporating an alert notification system in the cafeteria and the gymnasium, and supporting SEL goals with activities and events during the school year. The total enrollment at Alder Avenue Middle School is 921 students. Some of our program offerings are daily instruction in English language arts, math, science, and social studies that are aligned to the New Jersey State Learning Standards. Students study world languages such as French, Spanish,

032and Hispano-Hablantes Heritage Program. Students can choose from a variety of electives and clubs to enrich their education. Our goals for next year is continue to expand and strengthen SEL supports and student engagement. Build upon strategies for our 5th through 6th grade student transition. We want to continue to improve our climate and culture through programs such as positive soil referrals and wings. We are continuing to utilize student data to drive instruction. For our enrollment data, 6th grade has 260 students, 7th grade 284, and 8th grade 274. Some school highlights include daily instruction in ELA, math, science, and social studies. We have supplemental instruction and reinforcement in English and math. Students study world languages such as French, Spanish, and Hispano-ablantes. Convocation and focus 40 times for social-emotional learning, study skills, and organizational skills. And students can choose

033a variety of electives and clubs to enrich their education such as robotics, media, steam, and esports. Our goals for next year are to continue to expand and strengthen SEL supports and student engagement, build upon strategies for the 5th to 6th grade student transition, improve climate and culture through programs such as Eagle Achievers and WINGS, and utilize student data and feedback to improve instruction and the entire middle school experience. This has been a very busy year at Eagle Academy. We have a lot of wonderful new programs. We have expanded our work program and now have Eagle Brew where we are teaching our students how to be baristas, teaching them financial literacy and customer service. We also have a new whole program for our PLTs where our teachers are actually focusing on academics, discipline, attendance, and socialization

034of our students, which is very exciting. We are continuing with our school-wide student support framework and our school economy to help our students with discipline and social skills. And we really hope for the next year to expand on all of these wonderful programs, reach more students, reach more people out in the community, and educate as many students as possible. Our school is a comprehensive high school comprised of more than 2,200 students supported by an academic and social-emotional framework designed to ensure every student can succeed. Academically, we are proud to serve our diverse learners through a variety of academic classes including advanced placement courses, dual credit offerings, and career and technical education classes. Last year alone, we had a 75% rating of our AP tests and 89 seniors earned a seal of biliteracy, reflecting our commitment

035to rigor and opportunity. Meaningful relationships and individualized instruction remains the core focus of our academic programs. Equally important is our focus on the whole child. Through a variety of academic and SEL support programs, we emphasize our commitment to ensuring students are fully engaged and learning through all experiences. We support our students' social, emotional, and mental well-being on a daily basis. Looking ahead, our goals are clear. We will strengthen our talent time to build student ownership and resilience. We will embed social-emotional learning and life skills. We will improve student behavior through consistent expectations, targeted support, and meaningful family involvement. And finally, we will increase learning through engagement, critical thinking, real-world applications, and data-driven interventions. Together, we'll ensure that Egg Harbor Township High School continues to empower students to lead with integrity and confidently, ready to make

036meaningful impact on local and global communities. Thank you. Thank you to our administrators for putting that together, and Mr. Vargas, they did a great job. Okay, sorry about that. So Mr. Manna is with us in the audience tonight as well, so again, thank you for the administrators for putting that together. I do have to apologize. Usually all the administrators are here this evening, and I failed to notify them to put this on their calendar, so that's completely my fault. We do have a couple administrators with us this evening, so if we have any questions for them, we can get to them. All right, so we'll do some quick updates. Really not a whole lot to report. We wanted to talk about the tax levy, the federal entitlement grants, salaries and benefits, and potential or our

037budget reduction plan. So first, this is a slide from our last presentation. We just wanted to illustrate the general fund tax levy. We see we have some changes over the last few years. And really the one thing we want to point out is really just the current year in 25-26, we had a slight increase. So the other two years, 23-24 and 24-25, those increases were strictly from rateables. So the tax rate did not go up. We generated new revenue because rateables went up. And then obviously in 22-23, the board... gave back to the taxpayers and reduced the tax levy. So right now, rateables are going up about $83 million, which is great for the township, great for the school district. Our average assessed value has increased to just over $215,000. So our tax rate of

0381.9779, we're proposing to keep steady in next year's budget. So the average assessed taxpayer pays about $4,254 per year in local school tax. So that should remain the same going into next year with that tax rate staying. study. So there are three options that we discussed with the Finance Committee and internally. Option A, rate remains the same. That's the option that we'll be proposing in the budget where the levy is increasing 1.98%. So we have the 2% cap. There are factors that allow us to exceed that 2%, but we're going to stay at the 1.98. It gives us an additional $1.6 million in new revenue to help fund next year's budgeted appropriations. The change is zero. And then with the debt service change, that's going down by $5. So the average taxpayer will see... annual

039decrease of $5 with our next year's budget. Again, we looked at option C, tax neutral. The board committee held steady with their obligation to not increase taxes. So we're being respectful of that. We're going with option A, the 1.98%, which again is strictly just from an increase in rateable. So it is not a tax increase in the general fund. Federal entitlement grants, so at our last presentation we presented 70% would be our budget for 26-27. We've gotten some additional information that the federal grants may be flat funded, so we're going to increase our budget to 85% in next year's budget, and that helps us fund some of these programs we spoke about last time that are essential to student achievement in the district. So salaries and benefits. So we wanted to kind of point this

040out this evening. So our district-wide salary increases are just under $4 million, and the general fund is $3.6 million. The difference is made up of special revenue and food services, which are outside of the general fund. And that accounts for retirements. So all of the retirements that Dr. Charlton has received, we plug those into our position control roster. And if that... Staff member is leaving in June. We replaced their salary with a step one of whatever guide they're on. So if they're on the BA guide, the MA guide, we just plug in step one for July 1st, which we're required to by the county office. That's one thing that they check during the budget review process through the end of March and early April is we have to verify that any... vacancies that we would

041have on July 1st are budgeted at step one. So we have that $3.6 million increase accounting for those retirements. As far as benefits, the other big piece of our... budget. Our dental is no rate increase. We're locked in for another two years with our current rates. Prescription, we're looking at a 15% increase. I think that actually may be higher. So we are meeting up with our health broker next week. We're just waiting to get all of our January bills in to do a really good analysis of the last 12 months and where we're projected to go. So in prescription, we are in a shared fund. So we are in there with other school districts. that helps mitigate the increases a little bit because we have some good ratios right now. But like I said, that

04215% is a very probably low number, and I won't be surprised if that goes higher. As far as vision, that's included with our medical coverage. And then medical, we're looking at a 10% increase. or approximately $3.9 million. There's a lot of school districts that are seeing major increases in medical, some over 25% or 30%. We are in a different group. We're self-insured, so it's based strictly on our own claims of our covered employees and dependents. So there is some shielding that goes on because we're not... kind of picking up the slack for other districts who may have higher losses than we have. So we've been pretty fortunate. We've had some high claimants over the last couple years. It seems we've been kind of steady the last 12 months, so we're hoping that trend continues. Again,

043we'll update that as we go through each month. So if we take our salaries of $3.6 million, our benefits of $3.9 million, if we subtract the new revenue from the tax levy, that gives us a budget gap of about $5.8 million as of today. So that number is changing each day as we go through. We get more information from whether it's the state or the federal government. So that's kind of what we're basing our budget on. So that includes flat funding with state aid. So as we go through all of our budget meetings and look at what we're doing, keeping that number in mind is that that's the number we need to get to as far as budget reductions go. So our non-salary items, we've decreased those the last couple of years in order to

044maintain as many FTEs as we possibly can. With personnel, we are looking through attrition. So any... Positions that are going to become open as of July 1st, whether it's due to retirement, resignation, whatever the case is, we're looking to utilize those vacancies to make budget reductions. And whether it's the actual position that's open or whether it's cutting another position and transferring a staff member to that open position, our goal is to reduce FTEs through attrition. We've done a good job of that the last couple of years. So we're hoping that that continues as well. And as Dr. Charlton noted earlier, he's getting retirements every week. So the numbers changes. So this is kind of a fluid thing until we get to our submission. And the other item that we're looking at is equipment. So the

045last couple years, we've been able to budget some bigger equipment purchases, whether it's in the facilities department or athletics or student equipment. We're looking to reduce those items in next year's budget. So our next steps, again, the top bullet is from our last presentation. We're continuing to do the same thing. We're looking at what we do and how do we do it better, how do we improve financially. We are really getting deep into the data. So Ms. Moss and I have a handful of meetings still set up with other administrators to really look at where we stand, how can we improve, and how can we continue to offer the same thing to the students that we offer today. State aid notice, we're kind of in a holding pattern until last. So we did get some

046news today that it looks like the governor's budget address will be March 10th. So we'll get our state aid on March 12th. And then we'll meet here on March 17th for our March board meeting where we'll ask you to approve the preliminary budget. So it'll be a really quick turnaround. We're going to have some plans in place. And then once we get that notice, we'll determine how deep we need to go on that reduction list. So that's all that we had for the budget this evening. Does anyone have any questions on that? I have a question. Mr. Smith, great presentation. I appreciate it. I understand you have everything laid out there, but we're still waiting on numbers for the state and so on and so forth. But our budget right now is at what, about

047$203 million? What is our budget at right now? Yeah, about $200 million. About $200 million? And this next budget will be at about what? What do you think? So it'll be actually around the same amount, a little higher. So the one thing that skews that is our capital reserve. So in next year's budget, we'll have almost $10 million in capital reserve funds to complete those projects that Mr. Woodrow noted in his presentation. Right. So that skews the number a little bit. So it'll be roughly the same number. Even though our appropriations will go down, our capital reserve will go up and it'll kind of balance out. Okay, so the overall budget will remain about the same then? Correct. Okay, that's good news. The other thing, you mentioned in the beginning giving back to taxpayers. Could

048you run that by me again? When you say giving back to taxpayers, is it something that we actually give back or is it something that we add? Put towards the next budget. How's that? No. So in that instance, the board voted to reduce the tax rate in that one fiscal year. So with that reduction in the rate, it then reduced the tax bill. So in other words, the tax rate wouldn't increase then. The bill wouldn't increase. That's because you put that towards the bill. The savings. No, so the board took that budget and just said, or they took that prior year tax levy, decreased it by $1.8 million, and then put that into the next year's budget. So it was a tax levy reduction. I got you, because I'm looking at figures right here, minus

049$5.53, minus $4.89. With these minuses, they'll be plugged into the next, the following budget. Is that right? No, so they... Minus $5 is for the debt service tax levy. So the debt service is strictly based on principal and interest. That's outside of the general fund. So when we talk about going up to 2% or surpassing that and going to 3% or 4%, that's totally outside of debt service. So that's just the general fund. And finance and operations, and I know you worked hard on it, everybody, with finance and operations. What is the option that you say that? That the committee is leaning towards option A? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. Just a quick question. Can you put the presentation into our Google Drive just so that we can go back to it?

050Thank you. That's all. Thank you for the presentation. The options A, B, and C that you gave, 1.982 and 2.12, depending on which route we take. Will that percentage impact our equalization aid that we get from the state? Will that impact it in some way? If we take the lower number, does that reflect to the state that we don't need? to go to CAP, you know, how does that impact it? So it does impact when the state looks at how, whether you're at or below your local fair share. Unfortunately, we won't know that until March 12th. So that number changes as the state adjusts that figure every year based on district wealth and income, based on what the tax levy is, based on what your tax levy cap is. So I don't think it will.

051I mean, we're still... Right at adequacy, our enrollment is pretty steady. Our free and reduced rate is pretty steady. So I think our local fair share is going to grow more than that 1.98%. So I think we'll be fine with that. But we'll know for sure on March 12th. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. So next we have a really quick referendum presentation to kind of give an update of where we're at. All right, so we'll just look at our adjusted state aid amount, website and videos, town hall update, upcoming presentation, and just a reminder that there's no tax increase. So if you recall, originally when we started talking about the referendum, when we received our preliminary funding letters from the state, our state aid was $8.7 million. It has since been reduced to

052just over $8 million, a reduction of $685,000. So the difference was that our athletic improvement project, Initially, the state funded that with 46% of that service aid and then revised our funding letter after the 30 days had expired, which we have 30 days to appeal. But then after 30 days, we got a revised letter that said the number had changed. We did make an appeal to the state. Our engineer also already also appealed, excuse me, to the state. We were denied. So that that. final, that preliminary letter became final. That was $685,000 short. So we went from 24% funded by the state to 22%. Seems like a small amount, but it was something we were really hoping to get for those projects. But again, we made our appeal and we were denied. So the website's

053been up and running. If you go to our website, go to Board of Education, down to Referendum. There's a lot of good information on there. All of the presentations are on there. All the videos are on there. Thank you to Mr. Vargas and Mr. Erdbe for that. On our FAQ page, there is a button where members of the community or whoever can submit questions. We've gotten a lot of questions already, and as we're answering those via email, we're adding them to that FAQ page so that everyone can kind of see what questions are coming in and what the answers are. And again, the videos are up there as well. We have our town hall on Monday, so we've been sharing that information out on social media via email, Parent Square, community groups. We have our

054professionals here, so our financial advisor, bond counsel, architect, engineer. They will go over what their role is in the process and where we're at with them right now. They'll be available for any questions that anyone in the public will have regarding their... area. Also, Dr. Gruccio and I will be here as well to answer any questions. Then once that town hall is completed, it will be live streamed. That video will also be on the website and it'll be annotated. So if someone can't make the meeting, can't watch the live stream, and they're just interested in the projects, they'll be able to go to the website and be like, okay, I need to fast forward to minute 28 and that'll be the section that talks about projects. So we're trying to make it as easy as

055possible for people to go to the website and grab this information. All right, so we have some public presentations coming up in addition to the town hall. So this Thursday, we're presenting to the Village Grand Homers Association. We have the EHT Township Meeting on the 4th. We'll be at the United Republican Club on March 5th. We are going to work with the Democrat Club. We're just trying to iron out a date to get that. That probably will be a virtual meeting, but we're trying to get that on the calendar as well. But that is in the works. And again, the last item, just remember, tax impact is zero. So if we approve the referendum, all this work can be done. We can gain the state aid with zero increase in the tax rate. Remember, like

056we said earlier, general funds separate from debt service. So whether on the general fund side you decide to go to 0%, 2%, 10% has no effect on this. debt service fund is independent of that strictly just based on principal and interest of long-term debt so right now the current average taxpayer pays about $277 per year in debt service tax levy we would like like to maintain that through 2030 and then in 2031 our annual debt service payments go down to about 2.4 million which would be a decrease about 150 dollars for the average taxpayer so yeah that's with the approval of the referendum so if we approve the referendum we'll continue that 277 for four years and then it would drop for the average taxpayer or all taxpayers at that time All right, so that

057was our quick update, just to kind of let you know what's happened over the last couple weeks. Do we have any questions on that? But for questions, I just want to add that and make a point and reiterate that two separate items, right? The budget and the referendum, not to be confused the two. And responsible budgeting has occurred here. These two business administrators have put a lot of time and effort in the budget and also developing the referendum. The referendum, I cannot stress, is very, very important to be educated on and to realize that if we are not successful passing this referendum, that the taxes will go up. That next year we'll be sitting here possibly talking about 8%, 9%. And I'll just leave it at that. Christy has one that I have. Thank you.

058I just was wondering if the bond referendum announcements are going out in other languages on our social media or if it's just English so that we can reach, you know, more of our families. Okay. I don't believe they are, but we can look into that with Mr. Vargas and Mr. Urbe. Yeah, the parent square items, we can do that for sure. Items on the website, I'll have to, it's kind of a bad time to open up the new website because we're transitioning to a new website platform. So we've kind of delayed that a few weeks so that we wouldn't disrupt people trying to gain referendum information. But we'll look into that and see what we can do. Mr. Smith. The question, well, I guess it's more or less a comment with some of the questions.

059Why have the special election in March and not in November? I understand it's about timing. We need to get it done because of the time constraints and the budgeting process and everything. But can you just elaborate a little bit more on why we're having it now rather than in November? Yeah, so a couple reasons. First, you know, with our 26-27 budget, the debt service does go down. So if we were to approve a referendum after June 30, 2026, then we would have kind of a decrease in 26-27, and then it would jump back up in 27-28. So by doing a March vote or a vote prior to June 30, we're keeping that. debt service tax levy steady so that taxpayers don't see a dip and a climb and then a dip and a climb. It'll

060be steady for four more years and then drop down. The other part is debt service aid. So once you approve a referendum and you start... you finance your bonds, you have to wait one year before you gain any debt service aid. So if we're able to do our March vote, we would do our financing sometime in early to mid-May, and then that would lock us in to then get debt service aid in 27-28. So 26-27 would be no debt service aid, and then it would kick in in 27-28. Whereas if we held a September-November of 26 election, we'd have to wait another fiscal year to get that debt service aid. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smith. And I just wanted to remind everybody to keep an eye on your mailbox because the vote-by-mails are out, and

061I got my vote-by-mail last week. So it's important to fill out your ballot if you're voting by mail and return it. And I think you'll want to make sure you return it either by postage or to the drop boxes in Egg Harbor Township because I don't know if other towns are having elections. So I think it's important if you're going to. use the Dropbox or use the two that are in the corporate township. I think one's at the community center and one's at the town hall on Barkington. Yeah, and all that information is on the website. And there is a disclaimer on there. If you have questions, call the Board of Elections. We don't want to interfere with giving people advice. That might be wrong. So if all else fails, call the Board of Elections.

062Okay. Thank you. Quick question, Mr. Smith. Did the county allude to the cost of this election by any chance? I may have missed that. Yes, so it runs kind of odd, right? So the county board of elections, they're responsible. They run the election, but we pay all of the vendors and contractors directly. So we're working with them. They're getting quotes, sending them over. Right now the estimated cost is about $38,000. So we won't know for sure, though, until after the election because it depends on, you know, how many poll workers are there and if somebody calls out sick or whatever and the machines and tallying and things like that. But it's about 38,000 is the estimate. I mean, generally for a special election, that is a better number. Just from hearing that, 30 seems like

063a great figure. So thanks. Yep. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Smith. At this time, we're going to hear from our student representatives. So patiently waiting. Hi, everyone. My name's Eva. So we'll talk a little bit about our mock trial experience. We had our first county win in over six years and the second time in EHT history. I know for me, it was just a crazy moment. I've been on the team for four years, and I competed in finals my sophomore year. And I think that, you know, winning this time, I think it really showed me, like, you know, we aren't. just defined by our successes. It's also our failures. I wouldn't be where I am without, you know, like some of our losses. Sometimes we learn better from those, but I'll try

064and keep it short. I'm just very proud of our team and especially all the underclassmen, especially because our team was so new this year. I'm very proud of everyone and everyone that stepped up. But we have our regional competition against Camden County at the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick next week, February 25th. And we'll be competing in hopefully two rounds there if we make it. And then after that, we go to state. So wish us luck. Thank you. And if Carter wants to talk a little bit about it, too. We're bringing home that gold, folks. All right. Also, earlier this month, Eva and I actually had the opportunity to speak at a student-led panel for TechSpo 2026. We spoke about the ethics and the morals and the usage of artificial intelligence in the

065classroom and what we hope to see in the future of AI. Thank you to Dr. Graham for this opportunity. I want to speak a little bit about a freshman, a freshman Julian Andujar here at the high school. He actually this month at our month's staff meeting, he presented to teachers and faculty about his experience living with cochlear implants. So thank you to Julian for providing this insight into his life as well as other students who may be hard of hearing. And speaking of hearing, we're going to talk a little bit about our music department. So both of our school's a cappella groups competed in the ICHSA Mid-Atlantic Quarterfinal competition this month. We have two a cappella groups, Tonal Point and Acquired Harmony. Acquired Harmony was able to place third with their set featuring songs from

066Beyonce, Yeva, and so many more. And we also want to give a big congratulations to Sarah LoCassell for winning Best Choreography. We're very proud of all of them. Keeping in theme with the arts right now, the Indoor Percussion Ensemble placed fourth at their first competition of the season at Old Bridge High School. Thank you to the EHTHS Transportation, as well as to all of the band directors and instructors for making these competitions and performances possible. Dr. Gruccio actually alluded to this earlier, but our students celebrated Lunar New Year this last Thursday. It was so inspiring to see all of the love and the dedication that our language department and student volunteers put into this event. Students celebrated their Asian heritages with games and food. And oh my God, members, I'm telling you, the food was

067delicious. Thank you to all the parents who made that possible. Parents were also encouraged to join this family event so that they can learn more about Chinese language and how they can continue to foster their culture within their homes. And continuing with the language department, we have a good flow going here. Our high school students received their results from the Seal of Biliteracy exams yesterday. So in order to pass the exam, students had to score higher than an intermediate three in speaking, reading, listening, and writing in order to be considered biliterate. So big congratulations to all of our students that passed in the languages that they're learning in school, as well as some of our students who tested in their own native languages. We also want to give a big shout out to Dr. Schreiner

068as well as the entire language department for giving all of us this opportunity and for always feeling the importance of language. And for Black History Month, we had many different events that happened. First, in the high school, we had our annual Black History Month presentation with Mr. Bell and his honors in AP African American Studies classes. The entire presentation was student-led, and it was centered around love through music. And along with the African American Studies classes, students from Art History, AP Gov, Latin American Studies, Philosophy, as well as our Vocal Ensemble and Acapella group presented. In the preschool, students also learned about Black History Month. They were introduced to the culture and heritage of black communities through songs, stories, and discussions with their teachers and classmates. Some other classes in the district celebrated with fashion

069shows and they showed off their cultural attire with their classmates and some other classes made posters that explained their own heritage and where they're from. But overall students got to embrace their own culture while learning about their classmates. And for Valentine's Day, Fernwood Middle School had their Sweetheart Dance this past Friday, and we hope that all the students that attended had so much fun, and also a big thank you to the volunteers and the staff for making the dance possible. In some other classes, students were making Valentine's Day mailboxes that they decorated and went around and filled with candy. Students in pre-k also worked with staff to make heart-shaped pretzels and it was a very cute way to spread kindness and appreciation through a small treat. Alright, our school held the annual teen summit with

070students from across Atlantic County this past month. These students collaborated on shared goals surrounding technology and other student issues to create projects that will be showcased at the Atlantic Cape Community College in March. The academic triathlon also took place this month. We hosted many schools across the county, including Cedar Creek, who placed second, and Absegami, who placed third. A big congratulations to our very own EHT team, who placed first. Our winning team were members of Brooklyn Bilge, Cheyenne Bilge, Casey Kramer, and Tan Lam. Oh, remember a few weeks ago when we mentioned that the preschool students were actually doing like studies on light? Well, it's actually starting to come to an end now, right? So as their unit on light is coming to an end, the preschoolers are actually making what's called thunder cake. So

071the preschoolers are helping measure, pour, stir, batter, and literally create cake based off of a recipe derived from the book Thunder Cake by Patricia Palacco. Mr. Goodwin's convocation class had their first annual chess tournament after weeks of preparing strategy and practicing their skills. Congratulations to Cash Belvin for being their first annual chess tournament champion. Our first graders at the Swift Slay Ball Complex also enjoyed a visit from Andy Green a few days ago. She's the author of the book Worry Woos, and she discussed the process of actually writing a book. She showcased the students how she illustrated the characters in her books and was even kind enough to come back at night to meet the students' families and participate in fun indoor activities. And now a little bit about our sports. So in both the

072high school and the middle schools, the winter sports are wrapping up. Girls and boys basketball continues, though. They head into their final rounds of the Cal tournament. And we want to wish our athletes in winter track good luck as they prepare for states and also to all the athletes that are preparing for the spring season. We also want to congratulate the Fernwood girls basketball team on their undefeated season. All the girls had something valuable to bring and we're very proud of them. The boys basketball had their last game this past week as well and they continue to show us the importance of teamwork and communication. On a larger note, Jason Kelsey, a player on the Eagles team, was spotted repping Alder with a bracelet that was made by students and he was spotted at the

0735k run for autism this past week. All right, and finally, this is a week of celebrations. We hope that everybody enjoyed their President's Day. Eva and I would like to extend a very happy Lunar New Year to anyone who celebrates it. Gong Xi Fa Cai, Gong Hei Fa Cai. Ramadan and Ash Wednesday are also coming up, so we wish you a very happy one of those to all those who celebrate. All righty, thank you very much for your time. Carter, I just want to elaborate a little bit on the Teen Summit. I had the opportunity to stop in the meetings, and the Teen Summit is hosted here in Acrobat Township High School, and it's high schools from the county. And I just went to board to hear the story. The other day they presented the

074topics for the summit. Stand Up, Speak Out is one group's presentation. Know Yourself, Grow Yourself is another group's presentation. But the one that really resonated with me and with our board is Reconnecting from Scrolls to Souls. And a group of students are going to share the importance of leave your cell phone at the door and let's reconnect and build relationships as teenagers because it's so important to them. So I figured our board would want to hear. how it's resonating with the students and that they are now sharing out the importance of no cell phones in schools. So I was happy to hear that, and I wanted the board to hear that as well. So thank you. That will occur Friday, this Friday at ACCC. All right, and thank you to our student reps. That was

075a great presentation. I really enjoyed it and your enthusiasm. And to have two celebrities here with us on the mock trial team, you know. Should have a picture we can get your autograph. But you did a great job. Really, really did. And thank you for all the presentations for the budget. And thank you, Mr. Smith. At this time, we are going to have our public comments for agenda items only. The board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents. This meeting will now be open to public comments, three minutes per person on agenda items only. If your questions pertain to litigation, student or personnel items, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public. Depending on the nature and the complexity of your questions, the board secretary

076may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner. Please come up to the podium and state your full name and the city of residence. And there's a button right on the microphone that you can push if anyone has any comments on agenda items, only can come forward now. Seeing none. All right. Okay. I just want to make sure I have a motion. Next, we have our finance and operations. So, Mr. Byers, would you like the chairperson to share your report? Thank you, Madam President. You're welcome. Finance Committee met on February 10th at 6 p.m. The length of the meeting was 60 minutes. Attending

077was Mrs. Byrd, Mrs. Salagi, for myself. For the first half, we had Mr. Price. For the second half, we had Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd. We had no halftime show. Administrators attending with Mr. Smith. We discussed the transportation department planning for 2026-2027 preschool, registration and routing, replacing the visitor entrance door at the bus garage, preparing for school bus purchases and the budget we just heard about. Food service department. Committee discussed the purchase of new cafeteria tables at Alder, Fernwood and Slaball. Potential equipment purchases to upgrade Alders serving lines in the cafeteria at the high school. Thank you for spending that surplus. In addition, we're taking steps to recoup outstanding lunch balances. Facilities department. Committee reviewed the outside use of facilities linked to the agenda and discussed revisiting the fees that are charged. We discussed the referendum. Small group

078meetings were held with board members to review the current information. All paperwork was finalized with the County Board of Elections. The next step, advertising has already started. If you haven't seen the video, it's fantastic. We're advertising through Parents Square, district email, community groups, and we will host the town hall meetings that were spoken about. A mailer has been created that will reach every residential mailbox in the township around March 2nd, directing residents to the website for more information and the referendum and voting instructions. The business office, the committee discussed the current grant opportunities available to the district reviewed pending legislation that requires municipalities to discuss the pilot programs with the local school district. Several items on the agenda were reviewed for approval, including monthly reports, various tuition and transportation contracts. The committee discussed the estimated

079revenues in the 2026-2027 budget, noting federal grants may remain flat funded. rateables have increased and everything else that we heard a little bit earlier in this evening where we'll generate new revenue without increasing the taxes. The committee also discussed budget additions to the security department which will be discussed when the preliminary budget is presented. We discussed potential personnel reductions and the goal of making those through attrition and the annual department and school budget video will be presented at February 17th at that board meeting. We recommend moving forward with the action items discussed. There are no ongoing issues still under consideration. The next meeting will be March 10th, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the board office. Possible discuss topics will be the referendum 2026 budget. And please ask me, call me for more information with any

080questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Byers. You did a great job. Mr. Smith, are there any updates? We did receive a couple questions regarding two checks that were sent out today with the board responses, and we received a third one regarding the Eagle lease, which we've already discussed. Okay. I just need a motion to approve Finance Item 8.2. Mr. Price, I'll make that motion. I'll second that motion. Okay. We'll have a roll call. Mrs. Byrd? Yes, mr. Byers. Yes. Mr. Della Barca. Yes. Miss Hyman. Yes. Mr. Ireland. Yes. Mr. Sepe. Yes. Mr. Price Yes, and mrs. Gilbert Floyd. Yes. I need a motion to approve items 8.3 through 8.14 Second Ireland mrs. Byrd. Yes Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes to everything except purchase order 600722,

081600989, and 602734, for which I'll abstain. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Next up, we have curriculum. Mr. Sepe? Thank you, Madam President. Well, on our wonderful curriculum committee, we had a fantastic meeting on February the 10th at 7.09, and it lasted for a glorious hour and 15 minutes. Present were Vice President Price, President Gilbert Floyd, and myself, and the administrator attending was Assistant Superintendent Miss Moss. And our subjects discussed were as follows. Field trips and professional development were shared with the committee and we'll continue to update with you on that in the coming months. The high school program of studies and new CTE courses within it. I'm very happy with CTE. It's always been a passion of mine, so now that we're expanding on it, great news. The application for

082foreign exchange student. was also shared and it's on the board tonight for your approval. That's a very important thing the district's been doing for a long time. We received an update on the Miller pilot. We discussed that at length. An update on the universal screening was discussed with a full data review to happen in March. Updates on committee work throughout the district were discussed. Opportunities... through the National Association for Wireless Radio were shared. And supervisors, you'll be... seeing that in the time to come. And finally, the cursive mandate set forward by the legislature and Governor Murphy was discussed shortly before he left office. And once state guidelines are put forward, the committee will figure out a way to implement that over our students. So for the coming month, we'll be looking at data updates on

083our students and how they're achieving everything. Our next meeting is March the 10th. busy day around here, at 7 o'clock at the central office. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me. Anything you can add, Ms. Moss? Anything with Nate of Newt? No. We did have a few questions that came in regarding the program of studies and just some changes with courses within it and realignment. a lot around CTE and movement there, as well as just questioning the structures in the other buildings. So those answers were sent out, and if anyone has more questions, I'd be happy to elaborate. I think it was Ms. Bird and then Mr. Price. I just wanted to comment. Oh, I think Ms. Bird had a question. I'm sorry, Ms. Bird? That's okay. Then you'll be next. Go

084ahead. Thank you. My question and comment centers around the program of studies. I understand we're dropping off one of our languages with Latin due to enrollment issues and a retired teacher, but I am concerned that we're dropping a language without adding a language. And I know for many students who have learning disabilities is a way to complete a language requirement. So I am a little concerned to be losing that option. I know for, you know... I would have liked to have seen, rather than just dropping off Latin, maybe picking up Mandarin, picking up sign language, something that we could complete that language requirement in a different way for kids who the traditional route maybe isn't as streamlined. Okay. Excellent comment, Ms. Bird. I was going to discuss that topic as well, that we are going

085to be down to three languages, English, French, and German at the high school. But this doesn't affect the other schools. Spanish and German. I'm sorry. English, French, no, Spanish, French, and German, right? Okay. Spanish, French, and German. I'm sorry. English is a given. But this is only for the high school. This isn't for the other schools. Is that correct? We have always just offered Spanish at Miller, and then we have Spanish and French at the middle schools. Okay, so this would only primarily affect the high school. Latin. Latin, yes. Latin is it? Yes. Okay. And the other thing I wanted to comment on, I like the improvements on the committee reports so far. I think we discussed it, too, where we like to hear a little additional information. This way it kind of fills in

086the lines between the lines when we're working on different projects. And I appreciate that the committee reports are a little bit more. detailed now, so I just wanted to comment on that. All right? Thank you. Any other questions? I just wanted, I did want to ask one, when I was at the curriculum meeting, so I just, would you be able to kind of like maybe elaborate a little bit on maybe like how many students are currently in Latin classes? Currently in the Latin classes? Like, right, so reason what, some reason also. As far as do we have enough students who are interested in the language? So there was a, if you remember last year, this was part of the budget conversation. It was multifaceted as far as the filling of it. So we currently have,

087I think, 35 students. I don't want to misspeak, so I'll go back and look. You know, can I get, I mean, I don't want to hold up the meeting. No, you don't have to hold the meeting. I just was, the enrollment for French. German and Spanish. I'm just asking if they are higher enrollment than versus Latin. Yes. Moving on from curriculum. And we are now going to head to policy. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm pushing it along the way. I apologize. I'm rushing. Okay. I was making sure you were all paying attention. All right. So I need a motion. to approve curriculum items 9.2 through 9.5. Motion to approve. I didn't hear the first one. I think we got Mr. Byers. All right. Roll call. Mrs. Byers? Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. De La Barca? Yes.

088Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Now we're moving on to policy. Ms. Hyman, would you like to share your report? So we met, I'm sorry. We met on Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 at 5 p.m. The length of the meeting was 39 minutes. Board members attending was Mr. Louis Della Barker, Mr. Patrick Ireland, and Mr. Michael Price, Vice President. Administrators attending was Mr. George West, Assistant Superintendent, and our board solicitor, Mrs. Elko. Subjects discussed. Policy 5516, remotely activating communication devices and electronic devices. Policy 9150, school visitors. Policy 9160, public attendance at school events. Bylaw 0142.2, nepotism. Policy 1552, sexual harassment staff. Regulation 1552, sexual harassment staff. Policy 3362, sexual harassment. Policy 4352, sexual harassment. Conclusions reached. Policy 5516, remotely activating communication devices and electronic devices, was

089reviewed and discussed by the committee. The policy name has been renamed to personal internet-enabled devices to mirror language in the new cell phone law. In addition, the policy has been revised to allow school administrators the ability to take further action regarding repeated cell phone violations. Policy 5516 is up for one reading and pending board approval. Policy 9150, Schools Visitors, and Policy 9160, Public Attendance at School Events, were reviewed and discussed by the committee. It was agreed by the committee that no changes are needed for these policies at this time and will be revisited next month. The committee agreed that schools should work to maximize opportunities for families to attend school events. Policy and Regulation 1552, Sexual Harassment Slash Gender Discrimination, which is a new policy, was reviewed and discussed by the committee. The newly developed

090policy and regulation provided through Strauss-Esme are mandated to address current legal requirements related to sexual harassment and gender discrimination. Policy and Regulation 1552 are being presented for two readings and are pending board approval. The approval of these policies allow for the abolishment of the current sexual harassment policies 3362 and 4352. Bylaw 0142.2, Nepotism, was reviewed and discussed by the committee. The bylaw has been readopted without any material revisions. This revised mandate provided through Strauss-Esme ensures compliance with legal requirements. Bylaw 0142.2 is being presented for one reading and is pending board approval. The next time place of the meeting will be March 10th, 2026. Possible topics to be discussed at the next meeting, Regulation 5516, remotely activating communication devices and electronic devices, Policy 9150, school visitors, Policy 9160, public attendance at school events. That concludes my

091report. Thank you, Ms. Hyman. Mr. West, are there any updates or anything for policy? Just one thing we're going to add as a topic to be discussed will be the use of facilities at our next meeting as well. All right. Thank you. Any discussion? Need a motion to approve items 10.2 through 10.7? Motion. Ireland? Second. Della Barca. Mrs. Byers? Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ironland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. You know what? I'm going to go back. I'm no on 10.7. All righty. So now we're moving on to personnel. Dr. Charlton, any updates? Yes, Madam President. Just a reminder, as Dr. Gruccio mentioned in her superintendent's report, we're the proud host of the fourth annual Atlantic Cape Educator Job Fair, which is

092taking place on Friday, March 6th from 1 to 3 in the afternoon at the high school. We are always looking to connect with the talented and diverse applicant pool, so please come out and have a conversation with us. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Charlton. I need a motion to approve items 11.2 through 11.6. Mr. Price, I'll make that motion. Okay. Mrs. Byrd? Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Gruccio. Okay, at this time, I'd like to introduce to the public our new employees in the Acarber Township School District, and thank you for sitting through the meeting. It's a very informative meeting. You learned what was going on in

093the schools, as well as our budget and our referendum. So, welcome. I'll begin with our armed guard for the district, Christopher Robel. Custodian for Miller School, Juana Galindo. Custodian for Davenport, Ruben Gonzalez. Power professional for Swift Slay Ball Complex, Rahena Katin. Moving from part-time to full-time, Power Professional Davenport Julie Raymond. Moving from part-time to full-time, Swift Slay Ball Complex, Monica Tennant. Oh, man. Oh, man. And a Power Professional with the Swift Slay Ball Complex, Sharon Hapakuka Nanuha. Okay, that's it, welcome, congratulations. It's been a long night for you. I know you can't wait to go out and celebrate, so I suggest you do that now. You can stay if you want. Who do we have? Oh, there she is. Is that Monica? Monica, right? Monica Tennant, congratulations. Welcome to Acarpa Township School District. Under new

094business. Can I please have a motion to approve items 12.1 through 12.5? Motion to Ireland. Second, Byers. Any discussion? Quick question on item 12.4. I don't know who that would pertain to, but regarding pilot revenues, could someone elaborate on that for the sake of transparency for myself and the public? Thank you. Yep, sure. So there's a couple Senate bills out there right now. Basically, 1807 just requires a municipality to have a conversation with the local school district if they're going to be offering the pilot program, which is payment in lieu of taxes, to any development happening in the township. There aren't a lot of rules attached to it. It's just that we have to have a conversation and just to make the school districts aware of what's going on and help them plan. financially for

095the future. Thank you, Mr. Smith. That's all. And can I have a motion to affirm our HIB report? We have a motion on the table for new business 12.1 to 12.5. Comment? Yep, go ahead. 12.6, the delegate assembly resolution. I was able to click on, I think we all can, and you can read it right on there what you'll be voting on. And it's similar. to the other resolution and it's just that it involves the New Jersey School Boards Association Delegate Assembly rather than the direct Senate. But it references the same bill number 1807. Is that correct, Mr. Smith? Correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Roll call, Mrs. Berg. Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Foyt? Yes.

096For Old Business, I'd like to have a motion to approve our HIB reports. Motion to Ireland? Second. Any discussion? Okay. Mrs. Berg? Yes. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. And Mrs. Gilbert-Foyd? Yes. For communications, we have our board calendar. Any NJSBA upcoming events for the New Jersey school boards? Well, it's about the statewide training that's coming up, but I think maybe Mr. Ireland has something first, so I'll wait. We'll have Mr. Allen go and then Mr. Price. Thank you. I'll just give a quick county brief update. So we had our county meeting February 11th. It was virtually and it was well attended. I think everybody joined and administrators as well from our district. So thank you for doing that support to Atlanta

097County. We had Dr. Peter Hughes of Crestkill Public School District that spoke about the board's role in curriculum writing. His perspective was a little unique because he was a board member as well. And he's an administrator. So he talked about both sides of it. And I thought it was very nice. He brought that up. It was a well-attended one. And we saw both sides. The next board meeting is my favorite board meeting. It's March 23rd. Dr. Grucio talked about it. It's our eighth grade dialogue. It's in Malka Township. So if everybody can go to that one, that's normally a really good meeting to attend. But that's all I have. I am the moderator again this year for the third time, so it's my favorite one. Oh, okay. Yeah, under school boards, I just wanted to

098remind everybody to check the website, actually, for school boards. Statewide training programs. Sometimes they're hard to find, but when you find one, it's a good idea to register. It's online, and get the credit for the statewide training program. You can go and register. The next one is coming up this Thursday. the 19th, 9.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m., and it's online, and it gives you the ability to get credit for your statewide trading programs, which helps you with your certificates going for, you know, certified board member, master board member, whatever. But I wanted to mention that because a lot of times they're hard to find, so I wanted to put that out there. All right? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Price. That's good information. Thank you, Mr. Ireland. I have a question. Oh, we have a

099question? Yep. Sorry. Ms. Byrd? For the... The resolution for the NJSBA delegate assembly, that's due March 8th. It has to be submitted. So who will be submitting it? I just want to make sure. You got it? Okay, perfect. Thank you. So that resolution for the New Jersey school board is on there? Yes, it's on there. Any other questions, comments? All right, so our next is public comments. I did read the requirements for public comments. Is there anyone with any public comments? You can come up to the microphone. You can push the button, and you're going to get three minutes, and you state your name and your city of residence. Hi, Barbara McCoskey, Ague Harbor Township. Happy New Year. Good to see everyone. I just want to say that I'm happy to hear about the district's

100efforts to celebrate the rich diversity in our district through Black History Month and through Chinese New Year. And thank you for wishing us Chinese New Year and Happy New Year in Chinese, I think. Yes. Okay. I would like to suggest, and hopefully we don't have another referendum in the future, but if we do, that a mailer goes out before the vote by mail comes out. Because as Mr. Price said, they came in the mail. And I know there are a lot of people who didn't know what they were. I happen to know because I come to meetings. So maybe a mailer in the future if we were to have something that goes out before the vote by mail comes out, those ballots. Lastly, just to even Carter and your team, congratulations. Mock trial success is

101pretty exciting. I would just like to wish you and your team luck moving forward. So thank you. Thank you. Any other comments? All right, seeing none. It's been a long night. But I just want to thank the public for coming out, my new employees, and thank all the board members for all that they do in administration. And this year... All the committee chairpersons, this is their first year chairing a committee, and I just think that they're doing a great job with getting their feet wet, such as myself. This is my first year being president, and Mr. Price's first year is being vice president. So this year is a year of change and newness, so we just want to thank you all for your commitment and all that you do, and I would like to say

102we have a motion to adjourn. Motion. Oh, I'm sorry. No, we just, Madam President? Yes. Board comments? Oh, okay. Mr. Price reminded me if there's any board comments. Does any board member have a comment, question, concern, statement, poem? Well, they said they're tired, but Mr. Ireland has something to say, and I'm not going to stand in your way. Well, thank you. So I just wanted to say it was mentioned a couple times, but my kids and I attended the Worry Woos event about embracing your emotions. It was such a wonderful event about handling your emotions in a positive way. It was for not only the kids, but it was for the parents as well. So it was a perfect way to gel your parents with your kids in the school setting and that did that.

103And it was perfect. It was only about an hour and a half. And there was different sections to do it. So it was very concentrated on the topic. The author was amazing. The district was amazing. And thank you to the Teachers Association for sponsoring that as well. It was just amazing. It was nice to get out with my kid to go to a sponsored event. And we both learned something. So thank you. That's all I wanted to say. Anyone else? Okay. Yes, I'm reading the room. We're getting ready to go home. So I'd like to have a motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, we. Us. Thank you.