001Welcome to the Egg Harbor Township Board of Education's regular business meeting for December 2025. Call the meeting to order. Mr. Smith, please read the open public meeting statement. On Thursday, January 9, 2025, notice of this meeting was emailed to the press and the Mainland Journal. Notice was also delivered that day to the Egg Harbor Township Clerk and posted on the Bulletin Board in Township Hall. Roll call please. Mr. Byers? Here. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Here. Mr. Ireland? Here. Mr. Price? Mr. Price is here. Mr. Sepe? Here. Mrs. Sullivan? Here. Mrs. Szilagyi? Here. Mrs. Hyman? Here. And Mr. Delbarca? Here. When we stand for the flag salute, will we please remain standing after the flag salute for a moment of silence for Mrs. Marie Scully. Mrs. Scully has been a longtime secretary in our district and she passed
002away just recently. Ready? Salute. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, individual, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you very much. May I have a motion, please, for our minutes for 4.1 through 4.2? So made. Mr. Price, I'll second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Sloggy? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabarco? Yes. Dr. Guccio, it's all yours. Okay, here we go. Just telling the board about an hour ago. It's our last meeting of 2025. I don't know where it went, but this is where we are. We have to focus on what's ahead of the next couple of weeks.
003But here we are highlighting what has happened over the last month here in the district. I'm going to try. Just so everyone knows that for the month of December, we're working real hard to lift others to soar with our character ed words of compassion and empathy for this month. And hats off to our students and staff for a great job that they're doing, you know, expressing how important it is to have compassion and empathy at this time of the year. Under student achievement, one of our district learning goals, congratulations to our Agarbor Township Middle and High School All-South Jersey musicians. This just came in the other day. Students from Alder Fernwood in the orchestras and in the band. So a little bit of talent there in our fine performing arts. Moving on to athletics, our
004Cape Atlantic League All-Star, first team All-Stars in cross country, boys and girls, field hockey, football, boys and girls, soccer, tennis, and volleyball. So great job for those who... sweat it this this fall another way I could put it that they put out on the fields representing a Carver Township High School so many things that are going on Eagle Academy's work program our students are in the cafeterias throughout the district our wingman workshop our high school wingmen went to the middle schools and this right here is a picture of kids at Fernwood sharing their knowledge and expertise and winter sports in middle school and high school have started Our Atlantic City Press Team of the Year was our high school girls soccer team. And the Soccer Play of the Year was our high school Brielle Van
005Collen. And for NJSIA National Girls and Women's in Sports, our representative will be Casey Velarde. She's a field hockey and softball player, and she will attend a dinner in January. Quest Bridge National College Match Scholarship recipient was Lydia Bonsu, and she will go to Colgate for four years on that scholarship. So some proud moments for us that I'd like to share. Under climate and culture, lots going on. Lots of festive things in the schools of holiday concerts and parties and spirit weeks and positive referrals, students of the weeks, door decorating contests, cultural traditions being celebrated, toys and clothing drives, and our junior ROTC visits to the middle schools. Krista Delaney, congratulations to her for being selected as a 2025 New Jersey Exemplary Educator Recognition Program. As you know, she was our Teacher of the Year
006for the high school and also the Atlantic County Teacher of the Year. So she has compiled some great accolades and again representing the Egg Harbor Township School District. Community partners, we thank the Village Grand at Ingus Mill every year this year. They really... up their donations for 172 gift cards for students throughout the district of $15,700. So we thank them for their efforts and we will bring Mr. Sakin here in the spring to give him a certificate. Atlanticare are partners with us. They're doing presentations throughout the district, and one just recently at Eagle Academy. Mrs. New Jersey, I didn't know there was a thing, but there is Mrs. New Jersey, Kelsey Rosenberg, came and presented to the kids. It's a picture of her right there. EHT Teen Center, EHT Police, just recently the e-bike training.
007And as the board knows, that's one of our goals and objectives this year, to spread the importance of e-bike safety. So that occurred at the high school, all grades 9, 10, 11, and 12. I listened to a presentation from a corporate township police department, Mr. Brian Page. Thank you, Brian, for getting that off the ground. Mr. Page put together presentations and did a lot of research and really got folks together from the prosecutor's office, police department, and really got this off the ground, sharing the importance, what it is to us, not only meeting the goal, that's one thing, but to have the children knowledgeable in bike safety. And it's complicated, and it's dangerous out there. So hopefully they understand. And Perry Mays, thank you to him, who is the foundation of the Teen Summit, and
008those meetings occur here at Egg Harbor Township High School. So I wanted to share this. Through our strategic planning process, it came to our attention that it was important that we had one tool where we can share information and communicate with parents. And we got that together really quick. We didn't think it would be off the ground until January. We gave it a try in September, and each month it's used more and more. And I just wanted to share the statistics just for this past week that I received for the month of December. 543 posts out there. But look how many direct messages, communications with teachers and parents. Seven alerts, that usually involves that there was a fire drill or an emergency drill in the school. And we're at 99.3% of parents contacted. And I
009have that .7 that I'm working on to figure out who they are. But if you know someone that is not connected, just have them give us a call and we'll get them connected. This is what's happening from today on. Just some dates for parents and staff to remember. 23rd is a half day. Our January theme, when we come back on January 2nd, will be Fly Like an Eagle Motivation. And we have a professional learning day for our staff called Problems of Practice on Friday, January 2nd. January 5th, our students return. And on January 6th, right here in this room, the Board of Education will reorganize. Sharing out our 2026 Teacher of the Year and ESPYs of the Year. Here they are right there for our teachers and ed services professionals. So congratulations to them. In
010the spring, we'll have a ceremony here to recognize them. And I wanted to share with the Board of Education, remember that grant we applied for, the phone-free schools grant? We are one of three Atlanta County school districts that received it, $32,513 to be used on either lockers or education, professional development when it comes to phones. So we'll figure out what we need to do, but we are recognized for going no phones, bell to bell. And I had some discussions with the Atlanta County superintendents. and the grade schools coordinator, and he asked, well, how'd you do it? I said, I just put my foot down and said, we're not having them. And they said, well, that's what schools are going to have to do now, and I thank the Department of Ed for recognizing school districts
011that do that. Just say no, we're not tolerating them. Okay, it's time for some recognition, and I'd like to bring up Dining Services, Mr. Parvesh Patel, and Registration, Cynthia Hendrickson. And Kristen Dougherty. Is she here, Kristen? No, she's not. I'm just going to move to this. So we're recognizing not only good character but generosity, and I'm going to have them explain how it all came up. But this is Operation Gobble Gobble, right? You've got to explain it for me. Operation Gobble Gobble is, you know. The knowledge of folks who are in need comes through the registration department and their close connection and relationship with our families and our food services director who knows how to make turkey. So what they did is they provided meals for the less fortunate. So just share your experience because
012it's – I'm impressed. That's why you're here tonight. So thank you. So yeah, so our food service department decided that they were going to service come on up Kristen our families within district who are in need of and We compiled a list of those families and I shared it with them and the rest I'm going to pass with him because they did all the food Oh, thank you so much. What a what a perfect opportunity to give back to our community to our students and it was just a rewarding experience knowing that we are helping our students out and that's what it was all about at the end of the day. In all we did about 12 turkeys. We were able to help out a little over 20 students with eight families so it was
013very very nice. So a great gesture, and we appreciate that. I told Professor, thanks for making us look good. So we appreciate that. But better yet, thanks for feeding the students and their families. So much appreciated by you all. So with that, that's why you're Soaring Star Staffs of the Month. I should say of the trimester. Oh, that's not you. That's Kristen. Kristen, thank you. Thank you. And this is Professor. Thank you so much. There you go. And Cindy. And we have certificates. Where's my van of white up here? Here you go, Cindy. All right. Laura. There we go. And Kristen. Thank you. Girls first. Absolutely. Of course. Of course. And Prevech. Thank you so much. You're welcome. So you stand as a Soaring Star. Wear your shirts with pride. And thank you for all
014that you do. I just want you to know it's absolutely recognized and appreciated. And I know the board appreciates it as well. So thank you. It's going above and beyond. Above and beyond. Thank you. And our next soaring star is Laura Feinstein for Director of Transportation. Come on up. Laura is new to the position, but not new to transportation. But Laura has done amazing work in terms of hiring more and more bus drivers. So we praise her for that. But also coordinating a food drive along with her staff in transportation who have raised, what, 600 pounds, was it? Yeah, it was like 600 pounds. food donated for the less fortunate. So Laura, you two are Soaring Staff of the Month. Here's a certificate for you. We appreciate all that you do, and you've got to
015tell us a little bit more about it. So our food drive started. We had a bus driver who passed away a few years ago, and it was something that was near and dear to her heart, and she did it every year. So we continued the tradition, and every year we get more and more food. So this year, 642 pounds. Good job. Thank you. What a nice thing. Thank you, Laura. Great job. Keep up the good work. Again, folks going above and beyond. All right. Now, at this time, I know you don't want this to happen, but Marita, you've been, you served on the board for nine years, and we appreciate your service. I know Mr. Della Barca, do you want to come on down? Ms. Hyman, would you like to come down? And Ms. Sullivan,
016would you like to come down? So from administrative point of view. perspective I should say we thank you Marita. Marita said I absolutely don't want anything but someone who volunteers their time you know and I mentioned this last week you know when you volunteer it's it's self-fulfilling but it's also also an unselfish act. It makes you feel good but you're doing it for others and in this case serving the students of Egg Harbor Township. for nine years and that's not like one meeting a year. That's three, four months in activity. So on behalf of the administration, students and staff, thank you so much. There's something special for you. I had to write this down because I wanted to make sure I said the right thing to Marita. Thank you for your dedication and passion to
017our district. Over the course of your years, especially this last year, your dedication was shown in a very special way. You made every effort not to miss a regular meeting or our committee meetings. I'm sure that your fellow board members were heartfelt in their understanding of your very difficult situation and understanding if you needed to miss a meeting, yet you did not. On behalf of all the members, I wish you all the best and know that you will stay involved in the happenings in our district. My sincerest appreciation for your dedication as a member of our Board of Education. Thank you again. We apologize, but we appreciate you. So thank you. And from all of us to all of you, happy holidays, whatever you celebrate. Celebrate it to the fullest and enjoy your family and
018friends. And we will see you next year. But we've got to get through the meeting, but that's done. That's done for the year. Here we go. Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring-ting-tingling too. Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. The snow is falling and friends are calling you. Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. Kitty yap, kitty yap, kitty yap, let's go. Let's look at the show. We're riding in a wonderland of snow. Kitty yap, kitty yap, kitty yap, it's Glenn. Just holding your hand. We're gliding along with a song of a wintry fairyland. Hot cheeks are not... Rosie and comfy cozy are we. We're snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be. Run before us and sing a chorus or
019two. Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. Let's look at the show. It'll wonder like it's grand. Just holding your hand. We're gliding along with a song of a wintry fairyland. Hot cheeks, hot feet, and comfy and cozy our way. We're snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be. Come out before us and sing a chorus or two. Come on, it's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. Right together with you. Stay right together with you. Stay right with you. Okay, good stuff. I did fail to mention that the greenhouse is now officially open. I don't know if the kids are going to mention that tonight, but it was a great ceremony. I was driving home from Robbinsville this afternoon. I'm like, Mr. West, I
020said, can you get me pictures? But so much happened by the time I got home until now. But students are going to tell us about it, right? All right, thank you. All right, Mr. Delvarca, that concludes my superintendent's report. However, our business administrator. Does have some words as he will educate us all on referendum process. All right. Thank you, Dr. Gruccio. So tonight we're going to do a quick presentation on a bond referendum. So this is not intended to be very detailed with our specific referendum. It's just to kind of give you an overview of the process, where we're at as of today and where we're going to be going in the next two months. So we'll talk about what is a referendum, why are we doing a referendum, project overview of what we're planning
021on doing, the effects on the tax levy, and our timeline. So in order for a school district to secure financing long-term debt, we have to go through the bond referendum process. So it's a special election held in the township, so all the registered voters have an opportunity to vote on the referendum. Then that, if it passes, that allows the district to go get financing. So we have a vote in March. If it passes, then we can sell bonds. Usually 60 days later, they'll close out, and that's when we would receive the funds to do the project. So the funds in the bond referendum can only be used for capital improvements. So it can't be used to buy seating for the boardroom or paint for the walls. It has to be a capital improvement. there is
022a direct impact on the taxpayer. So right now we have our debt service tax levy. So what we're doing is we're asking the taxpayers to authorize additional funding to increase that tax levy. And it's a simple ballot question. So the ballot question is the district wants to do X, Y, Z. This is how much it costs. This is what the debt service aid is. Do you vote for this? Yes or no. So it's a simple yes or no. There's no, you know, multiple steps or if you vote yes or no, then you do this. It's yes or no. And the majority wins. So if the yeses win by one vote, that counts. So there's no percentage that it has to win by, just majority of the votes that are taken. So the biggest reason districts
023do a bond referendum other than spreading out costs or years is for debt service aid. So any of these projects that we would do through the referendum, if we were to put it in our normal annual budget, we're not eligible for any debt service aid. So it's 100% strictly on the district to secure those funds, pay for the project, and complete it. So right now, our... district aid percentage, our DAP, is just over 46%. So all of our projects that we submitted, with the exception of the Slate Ball primary addition, are eligible for that aid. So the state kicks in a portion of the cost. So we finance the total amount of the referendum, and then when we make those annual payments, that payment, the principal and interest, is broken into kind of two slices.
024A slice that... the taxpayers are responsible for and a slice that the state will give us state aid for to make those principal and interest payments. So we get the funding up front so that we can complete all of these improvements. Usually it takes about three to four years to complete all the projects. From the time you have to vote to the last project that's completed, it is a long process because there are different milestones that we have to hit along the way in order to continue going on. We spread the cost over 20 years. So when we, if If we are approved in March, when we go to sell bonds, they'll be 20-year bonds. So districts have an opportunity to do 20 or 25 years. We're kind of gearing up to do 20 years
025to save on that interest expense for that final five years. And then it replaces existing debt. So as we have debt falling off, the referendum will replace that. So our goal is to not have a tax increase. So whatever the tax rate is now for the debt service levy, we're looking to continue that so that there's no increase. So projects that are included, so at Fernwood we're looking to do a chiller replacement, auditorium renovations, and a locker room conversion. So obviously the first two are pretty self-explanatory. For the locker rooms, we're looking to convert the current boys' locker room into half boys, half girls, and take the current girls' locker room and convert that into three classrooms. At the high school, BAS upgrades, which is our building automation system, so that will control all the
026HVAC throughout the entire building. It's a massive project that we just haven't been able to do just this year because of the cost of the project. The weight room and A-wing air conditioning, the system was designed for air conditioning, but the project was never fully completed, so we're looking to kind of do that project here. And then track replacement and athletic upgrades, including irrigation, paving, drainage, field configuration. And those two we kind of threw in. They're not projects that you normally would get debt service aid on, but we were awarded debt service aid, so we're going to try and move forward with those projects. Slaball Primary, we're looking to do a 14-classroom addition for preschool, and that would replace the Bargantown Preschool. So if we are successful and we complete that addition, those students would
027move over to primary, and we would terminate the lease at Bargantown. At Miller, we're looking to add four small group instruction classrooms in the media center. So if you kind of picture the media center on kind of to your left and your right, we're going to construct two classrooms on each side for small group instruction to free up classroom space throughout the rest of the building. Then here at Alder, a roof replacement. And then at Swift, a roof replacement and boiler room repairs that are much needed. So the tax impact. So the general fund tax levy is what we talk about with our annual budget that gets approved in March and then public hearing in April is separate from the debt service tax levy. So regardless of what we do on either side, they don't
028affect each other. So if voters approve the referendum, doesn't affect the general budget. If they decline it, doesn't affect the general budget. So they're independent of each other. So here's our existing debt service for the next five. five years. And you see that $5.4 million in the current fiscal year 26. That's been our kind of steady debt service tax levy that the taxpayers have been responsible for the last few years. And it's fluctuated by, you know, $100,000, $200,000 per year. taxpayers it's kind of been steady because rateables have gone up so there's really been no change it's been steady for the most part then you can see in fiscal year 27 it goes down to 3.8 million that's because in the current year we're paying off one of our existing bonds and then we have
029two left that we we pay on through 27 to 30. and as you can kind of see the number goes down fiscal year 30 would make our final payment so if we don't do a referendum as of june 30th 2030 we would be debt free. We would have no debt service. That tax levy would go away until we did a referendum in the future. So our goal is to maintain that $5.4 million tax levy over the next four years with this referendum. So right now, the average taxpayer pays about $277 per year on their debt service tax levy. So our goal would be to kind of keep that consistent through fiscal year 30. Then in fiscal year 31, which would be the first year with the new debt and no old debt, it would be...
030Excuse me, the levy would go down to about $2.4 million or roughly $125 per year for the average taxpayer. So that's kind of our plan. Working with our financial advisor, that's been our goal from day one is to not have a tax increase. So what we're kind of... planning on is keeping the tax levy steady for the next four years and then it would go down. Now fiscal year 31, it gives us options, right? So if we are successful, we go through the referendum in fiscal year 31, we can not do anything and let that kind of debt service tax levy kind of stay steady for the next 15 years. We could do another referendum depending on enrollment. We might need to do additions. We may not, but we'll have options to kind of figure
031out what we need to do as a district at that point. So our timeline, so March to June of 2025, we completed our needs assessment. We updated our long-range facilities plan. We had our strategic planning. So all of the projects that we put in the referendum have links back to the strategic plan. Excuse me. We engaged our professionals, so our architect, engineer, bond counsel, financial advisor. We went through with all of them, you know, what are our options, what do we need to do, what do we have to line up now to have a vote in basically a year later. July to August, we did project design. construction estimates, submitted everything to the New Jersey Department of Education. So through the referendum process, you have to submit a schematic design and a lot of other
032paperwork to the DOE. They approve it, they give us our funding, and then that kind of funding authorization is good for 12 months. So we can then take those letters and complete a referendum with that information. Currently, December 25, we did receive all of our approval letters. We're asking tonight for the board to approve our resolution to move forward in the process. And then if we are successful tonight, the next step is submitting all of our documentation and information to the County Board of Elections. So that's due by January 9th. The County Board of Elections will receive it. They'll verify everything, review it, and then they'll create the actual ballot that would be used in March. January to March, that's the important part of this. So it's marketing, advertising, getting the word out. So we'll
033be rolling out information on the website using ParentSquare. That's going to be a big tool for us. Creating some videos with Mr. Vargas to kind of outline what projects we're doing and why we need to do them. Email, regular mail. We're planning on doing a town hall at the end of February. But in between now and that town hall in February, we'll be doing some smaller public presentations with some community groups throughout the township. Then March 10th would be our public vote. So at that day, any registered voter in the township is able to go and vote. And it's like you said, a simple yes or no. So you read the ballot and you vote yes or no and you're done. That would be March 10th. All right, so I went through that pretty quick,
034and it was just kind of a general overview. I know we've been working on this in the finance committee. So going forward, each month when we have our finance committee, we'll have an update on the referendum, and then we'll report that out to the full board. All of our documents that we have so far assembled are in the Google folder. They're there for all the board members to access, and that's where we're at today. So do you have any questions? Mr. Arlen? Thank you, Mr. Smith. I just have a question with the Slay Ball primary, the 14 additional classrooms. Is that going to bring all preschool back to our district and not out of district at all? And if not, can it? No, no. So that's going to bring the majority of classrooms over from
035Bargantown. So, you know, there's, we're not looking to kind of overload Swift Slay Ball. So right now, like Swift Slay Ball and Bargantown are in two different areas, right? So right now. the majority of Bargain Town preschool students would go to Davenport Complex. So we're trying to avoid, number one, busing students across town. Number two, the state just changed their preschool regulations where they're now requiring us to try to work with private providers. So previously, we didn't really have any providers in the community that met the facility requirements. The state has relaxed those in hopes that districts can contract more with private providers. So that's an option. One of our current providers is constructing a center. within EHT so they will have rooms available for us and we're also there is another community organization who
036may be looking to kind of take over Bargain Town when we leave so that would be an option as well so our goal is to not decrease our preschool classrooms but maybe spread them out a little more. Any other questions? Go ahead Mrs. Tamika. Thank you so my question I just wanted to make sure I was clear on so I know what you said busing students You're avoiding busing students across town. You can just kind of... clarify what you mean when you said most of the students would go to Davenport? Well, right now. So right now, those preschool students, when they age up to kindergarten, most likely they're going to be in the Davenport sending area. So we want to avoid bringing all those kids over to the Swift Slate Wall Complex just to avoid
037longer bus rides or having to add additional buses. That's part of it. That's kind of a small part of the plan. You know, Bargain Town right now obviously was designed as an office building. We've renovated some classrooms, and the classrooms we've renovated are extremely nice. They're great. But it's not a school. You know, so it's not a long-term facility for us. So we did explore other options. We explored purchasing the building, renovating it. And financially, the best option is to just do an addition at Slateball Primary and house the students there. This is Salagi. So Bargain Town students would be coming either to Davenport or Slaball or out of the Bargain Town building? So we would be saving the money that we pay? Because we pay a lot of money for rent there. So we
038would terminate the lease. So right now... There are parts of the preschool program that are charged to the general fund. One of them is a big chunk of the lease for Bargain Town. So the program should be kind of self-sustaining between state aid and our contribution from the general fund for inclusion, and it's not. So we do have a big chunk going to the general fund, so it would alleviate that. So another benefit of doing the project is it frees up. funds in the general fund that can be used for other purposes. They can be taken out of the budget if we need to make a budget cut, things like that. So there's a lot of factors going into it. Obviously, financial is the biggest one. And overall, like I said, it's not a school.
039It wasn't designed as a school, and it's just not the best fit for the program. But it's a lot of money that we pay for rent. It is. It is. Any other board members have questions? I just have a comment, Mr. Price. Mr. Smith, I just wanted to make it clear tonight that the board knows we're not involving EGLE on this referendum, EGLE Academy, and the project that's going to go on with that is not going to be involved with the referendum. That would be a project. outside of the referendum. But by money that we'll save by going through the referendum, we'll be able to put money towards the new building for Eagle Academy. Is that about right? So, correct. Eagle's not in the plans for the referendum. It originally was. When we received our
040approval for Eagle Academy, we didn't receive any debt service aid for the project. So part of the review process with the DOE is they look at how many seats you have available, how many students you have, how many students are housed versus unhoused. And since Eagle is the grade span of 9 to 12, it gets linked into the high school during in its review. So even though, you know, the high school might be full on paper, when you look at capacity and how many students can fit in the high school, you know, the state saying, well, those. those 50 kids that you're planning out on Eagle Academy can go to the high school. So we're not going to give you any funding for this project. So we did, we pulled it off the list. We're
041going to scale it down a little and then do it through capital reserve funds in next year's budget. Okay, fair enough. Thank you. And I know this is something we have been monitoring very closely in finance and operations and will obviously continue to do so. Thank you. Any other, any other board members, any comments or questions? Go ahead, Mrs. Hyman. So we're going to put this on to be voted on in March. March 10th. March 10th. So is that a cost to the taxpayers to have a special election? There is, yes. Yet we're waiting on the price from the county. So that will be a cost for the district. Okay. So it couldn't wait until the general election? It could. You know, we could delay it if the board wants to do that. So the
042one reason we wanted to get it in, get a vote in by March, so we could have done December, January, or March, was that we want to be able to get that first interest payment in the fiscal year 27 budget. to avoid the debt service tax levy being at $5.4 million, then going down to $3.8, then going back up to $5.4. So we're trying to keep it consistent for those four years. But you're correct. So there's four times you can hold an election. It's December, January, March, September, or on Election Day in November. I was just thinking you would be able to reach more people, more people be voting during that time. So you have a better response. Yeah, I would agree. I would think more people would vote during a general election. Any other
043board members? Yes. Go ahead, Mrs. Salagi. How much is the election going to cost us? If I had to guess, it's probably about $20,000. But we haven't gotten the pricing yet from the county. The last I knew was $40,000 to have the general election for the budget. in April was over 40,000. Yeah, and it depends on how long the polls are open. So that was something that we've been discussing. So the polls have to be open until 8 p.m. and minimum of four hours. So the minimum window is 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The maximum window is 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. So originally we were thinking four to eight to minimize the cost of the election, but we didn't want to exclude. anyone um especially employees i we thought four to eight would make
044it hard for our own staff to go and vote so we expanded that to 12 to 8. um so that that may save us a little we're not you know we're not having the polls open for 14 hours it'll be eight hours um so like i said we're just waiting on the county to get back to us go ahead mrs gilbert floyd i just want so if the the time frame that miss um hyman spoke of that would be Is there no charge for November? Yeah, I don't believe there would be a charge if we did it at the general election. Okay. Thank you. Any other board members? Go ahead, Mrs. Hyman. And can you just explain to everyone this referendum is $36 million? Yes. And then we also receive state aid. Correct. How much
045is that? So the state aid is about $9 million. So the Slaball Primary Edition is not receiving any state aid. Last year, the state stopped giving debt service aid for preschool projects. So that project is not receiving any debt service aid, but the other projects are being funded at 46%. Any other board members? Thank you, Mr. Smith, very much. Thank you. Moving on with the most exciting time of our agenda. We look forward every time to hear from our students. Carter Chu and Eva Nye, it's your turn. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We hope you're all having a good night. So just want to touch upon what Ms. Gruccio was saying about the greenhouse. The two of us actually park right in front of it, so we get to see it every single morning. I
046personally haven't been inside. I'm not in environmental, so I hope that in the future maybe it'll be something that's open up to a lot more students. Yeah. I will literally just see some of my friends walking across the hallways with trees and plants and flowers in hand. And I'm like, huh, okay, yeah. I take it as a sign that the greenhouse is thriving, though. Yeah, I want to be one of them. All right, so starting off today, we have the high school spirit week. This week, the high school is celebrating the holiday season with our annual spirit week. Tomorrow's theme is going to be winter wonderland, and Thursday's is ugly sweaters, and Friday is wear your favorite flannel. Spirit week is extended to next Monday and Tuesday as well. Monday, we will celebrate ski season,
047and Tuesday, Christmas with red and green. Moving on to Alder, the students at Alder Avenue Middle School are filling the hallways with a bunch of festive decorations. During convocation, like the period right before the school begins, students have been expressing their creativity by making these homemade ornaments and jewelry and other fun treats and so much more, and that they will take these to then be sold at their holiday markets during the lunches. Eva? And at the preschool, the WINGS program has been hosting a holiday decorating contest where all the classrooms will compete to see who can create the most festive door. At the elementary schools, a bunch of the holiday parties are happening this Friday, upcoming the 19th. And here the students are going to have a bunch of food and fun activities planned. And
048of course, parents are welcome to attend with their children. So we hope that they have a lot of fun. For the arts, all the schools have been having their winter concerts. High school just had theirs last week. The choir and I think orchestra band concert is tonight. And the middle school choir concert was also last week. So yeah, every single year, it's always something very fun. I'm in choir, so I look forward to it. Yeah. Moving on to CTE programs, our very own Mr. Adam Swift from the high school, alongside some of his AP computer science students, including myself, we visited Fernwood and Otter Avenue Middle Schools last week to promote the high school's computer science offerings, namely CSA, CSP, and cybersecurity. Our Egg Harbor Township High School child development students also had an amazing
049day visiting our elementary schools to lead the High School Heroes program. Oh, big, big, big congratulations to Uchenna Udema, who was selected as the 2025 Congressional App Challenge winner for the New Jersey 2nd Congressional District. So his app he had to create and code an app from scratch His app was designed to analyze brain scan images using artificial intelligence to predict potential brain bleeds and then guide the users to nearby medical facilities This will be displayed in the United States Capitol building and featured on house.gov for the next year Uchena has also been invited to attend the House of Coding event in April of 2026. Continuing with this theme of STEM, at the preschools this week, Ms. Jen and Ms. Brooks' classes made butter. How fun is that? Turning butter. And they were even able
050to taste their own butter that they made. They also discussed which type of favorite cookies that they had and tasted other cookies to discover if they liked them better. Ms. Abrams' class also enjoyed a wonderful time this week with their festive sing-alongs and gingerbread house party. We appreciate all the families who contributed supplies and joined us for this special celebration. At the high school, the honors biology students made chemical models of water, H2O, out of balloons to demonstrate polar covalent bonds and hydrogen bonds. This helped them understand the unique properties that water possesses to enable survival of organisms of everyday life on Earth. Gavin McNatt and EHT alumni. Janelle Jim Jimenez Jimenez yeah from Stockton University presented to our Medical Science Academy's senior clinical research one cohort about Stockton University's Master of Communications Sciences and
051Disorders they explained speech-language pathologist careers and opportunities in the diverse allied medical health science field All right, so now we're going to talk about social studies. For the APUSH classes at the high school, which is AP United States History, their class made basically fake restaurants, and they got to create menus themed around the American Revolution. A lot of the students actually brought in their own food, and they presented their menus. I was in APUSH last year, and so was Carter, and I know this was one of the most fun things that we did. Yeah, and... For AP Gov, their class visited the Museum of the American Revolution. So got some American Revolution theme going on here. But in this museum, they got to learn about the war. They got to learn about the principles of
052our United States Constitution. And they even got to see George Washington's tent that he actually lived in during the Revolution. And our AP and Honors African American Studies class visited the African American Museum in Philly, and they actually got to see the Afrofuturism exhibit, which is something new. Now we're going to talk a little bit about just events that are happening in our high school. We want to give a huge congratulations to Casey Velarde, who has been selected as the E-H-T-H-S 2026 representative for the N-J-S-I-A-A National Girls and Women's in Sports Day. This recognition is given each year to one senior female athlete who exemplifies excellence, leadership, and the spirit of girls' and women's athletics. Casey was chosen not only for the for her competitive drive, but for the quiet, meaningful impact she has on
053younger athletes who look up to her. She will be recognized at halftime at the Rutgers basketball game in February. Last day was also a special day for our wingmen as they were able to welcome about 20 of the EHTHS wingmen to Fernwood to participate in a wingman workshop. The middle and high schoolers were able to participate in team building activities and interact with one another. And then the high schoolers were then able to give advice and inspire our middle schoolers to help improve the wingman program. Now I want to congratulate another one of our high school students, Lydia Bonsu, who has earned a four-year scholarship to Colgate University through QuestBridge National College Match. So basically QuestBridge matches finalists nationwide, so it's a very similar college application. And they connect students. with educational opportunities like Lydia.
054So we just want to congratulate her on all of her hard work, her dedication, and just how hard she tries in school. Last Tuesday, 55 students from our adaptive physical education classes, which was led by Mr. Platt, Mr. Smith, Mr. Belinsky, Ms. Dunlap, and Mr. Tridente, they got to take a trip to Kingpin Bowling Alley, where the students got to bowl, enjoy lunch, and also play arcade games. So the day was filled with just a bunch of teamwork, sportsmanship, smiles, everything that they've been developing in class. And we want to give a special thank you to all of the teachers who made the trip possible and also thank Kingpin for making all of this happen and the nurses and Eagle Nest Store for always supporting this tradition. Another big congratulations to all those who have
055been named Educational Service Professional of the Year and Teacher of the Year. My turn again. So something that I always love to talk about is the community service that happens in EHT. I think that it really is one of the things that defines us most. So in the high school, FBLA, which is our Future Business Leaders of America Club, is still having their winter coat drive. So if you guys have any winter coats, hats, gloves, anything that you're not wearing anymore that could go to somebody that needs it. Please get your donations into Mr. Bryant in room B116 in the high school. And the drive is going on until break starts, so you have plenty of time. Student Council also had their blood drive this past week. They were able to collect 30 units of
056blood. I'm not sure how much that is, but it seems like a lot. Yeah, and so students and teachers all got to participate in this, and the blood is going to be used in a lot of ways to save many lives. So thank you to everyone who participated in that. And lastly, for community service, the Student Council is hosting a toy drive starting December 8th and ending this Friday, December 19th. So not only do they have their blood drive, but they're also having this. And anyone can donate unused toys to Mr. Bell's room in F215. Thank you very much. Oh, yeah, that's sorry. But, yeah, like Ms. Gruscio said, this is our last meeting of 2025, so we hope everyone has safe holidays. Happy New Year, and we'll see you in January. Thank you, Ava
057and Carter, for your great report. The details are appreciated, and thank you so much. Happy holidays to both of you also, of course. Moving on at this time is the public comments for agenda items only. I'm going to read the guidelines. 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 and personnel items, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board does not discuss these matters in public. Depending on the nature and complexity of your questions, the Board Secretary may 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
058for a public setting and made in a respectful manner. Please come up to the podium and state your full name and address if you have any items for agenda items only. Thank you for letting me read all of that. Thank you. We should move on to finance and operations. Mr. Smith, any updates? No updates tonight. Thank you. All right. Our chairperson, Mr. Price, please. Thank you, Mr. DeLaBarca. I'll read the committee report. The day and hour was 12-9-25 at 6 o'clock p.m. Length of the meeting was 45 minutes. Board members attending, Mr. Byers, Mr. DeLaBarca, Mr. Price, and Ms. Sullivan. Administrators attending, Dr. Grucio, Mr. Holt, Mr. Smith, and Mr. Woodrow. Subjects discussed, Transportation Department. The department was happy to receive one of the three new wheelchair buses that have been on order for over
05918 months, and other two are expected in the very near future. The office and staff are continuing to work on athletic busing for spring, including crew, and they are also finalizing staff professional development for January 2nd. Food Services Department. Mr. Pettel and Ms. Hendrickson and their staff assembled Thanksgiving meal students in need on December 26th. The department is preparing for the Atlanta County School Board's meeting on December 11th, which we had. Thank you. The Facilities Department. The committee reviewed the outside use of facilities linked to the agenda, awarding the high school school barn pole barn project and a bid authorization for bathroom renovations at Slayball, Swift, and Davenport Elementary. The referendum. All preliminary funding letters were received by the NJDOE on December 8th. The committee will review the final project list that will be used
060to create the referendum question that will be submitted to the voters. Next steps, the boards will approve the authorizing the resolution at the December 16th board meeting, which will allow bond counsel to submit the necessary documents to the County Board of Elections. The district will begin its information campaign in January leading up to a town hall meeting in February. Business Office, the committee discussed the annual audit, which will be presented at the January board meeting, a natural gas services auction taking place on December 17th, the addition of legacy benefits group to employee insurance offerings, and the NJEA sidebar, which was pulled from the November agenda. Mr. Smith noted there was one hand check on the bills list issued to NJDOE for a project review fee. Several items on the agenda were reviewed for approval, including
061monthly reports, various tuition and transportation contracts, professional service contracts, and grant acceptances. Mr. Smith noted that the district completed its annual mid-year budget review with Atlanta County Office of Education and received compliments and great feedback from the county office. Committee recommends moving forward on the action items discussed. Next date, time, and place of the meeting, February 10th, 2026, 6 p.m. at the Board Office. Topics to be discussed, possibly, possible topics to be discussed, the upcoming referendum. And I would just like to add one thing that I did speak to Mr. Smith about briefly. He attended a meeting last night. I think it was the planning board meeting at Harbor Township. And he's just going to give us an update on what went on there, just a brief update. So if no further questions of me,
062that concludes my report. And I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Smith. All right, so as Mr. Price said, I was at the planning board meeting last night with our engineer, Mr. DeCosmo. So when the district does major projects, there's a courtesy review that happens with the planning board. So we submit our project to the board and their engineer. They review it. We go to their meeting and do a short presentation. So it was the Slateball Primary Edition and the standalone Eagle Academy building. So we present the project. We discuss it, we take their feedback, and then we try to incorporate those within reason into the project. So it was a good meeting. We got some good feedback, some safety concerns from the board that we can incorporate, some landscaping ideas just for aesthetics.
063So I think we're in the right. right direction. And then what we'll do when we, once we, if we incorporate any of those suggestions, we'll, we usually let the planning board know to say, you know, items one, two, and three we've incorporated, or if we didn't, this is why. So they'll, they'll follow up with a letter to us saying that we were there presenting it and what their kind of suggestions are. And then we, we take it from there in the design phase. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Smith. So that concludes my report. And thank you, Mr. Smith and Mr. Price. May I have a motion, please, to approve finance items under 8.2? Byers, motion made. Second. Ireland. Any discussion? Go ahead, Mrs. Hyman. Does that include 18.18? No, that's the next vote. Okay, I answered
064Mrs. Hyman's question. Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Sloggy? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Della Barca? Yes. Now I have a motion for finance item 8.3 through 8.19. Mr. Price, I'll make that motion. Second. And the second. Is there any discussion? Mrs. Hyman? Yep. So right now our natural gas pricing expires in April. So with gas and electric, we do an auction where it's a public auction where companies bid on supplying the natural gas to the district. So right now we've been kind of monitoring the markets with our... advisor, the Mantis Group, who's involved in utilities and things like that. And the prices have dipped down a little. So we thought if we did it now in December
065versus like March, we will get a better price. And in the resolution, there's different prices per term. So if the prices come in low enough, we can extend the contract. So the minimum we can do is 12 months. The max is 36. And depending on the prices we get tomorrow, we'll decide what term to sign up for with that prospective bidder. Any other questions? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes to everything except 8.3, PO 600722, and 601272, for which I'll abstain. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Slogge? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabarca? Yes. Moving on to curriculum. Ms. Moss, any updates? All right. Chairperson, Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd. Good evening, everyone. The curriculum committee met on December 9th at 7 o'clock p.m. The
066meeting length was 40 minutes. The board members that were in attendance were myself, Mrs. Salagi, Mr. Delabarca. Administrators that were in attendance were Mrs. Moss, Mr. West, and Dr. Gruccio. excuse me the subjects that we discussed were field trips and professional development were shared with the committee policy 2530 resource materials 2535 library materials and 9130 public complaints were shared and discussed by the committee The grants on the agenda for IDEA supplemental and the Perkins grant were shared. Also updates on professional development at Miller School for the literacy pilot programs were given. And also discussed the surveys for parents, teachers, and students created by the grading committee were shared with the committee. Some of our possible items for discussion for our next meeting will include the Miller pilot, the data from those pilot programs, our winter
067universal screening, and also an update on the talent time program at the high school. And the next date of our meeting will be to be determined at our reorganization meeting. And that's it. Thank you. This is Gilbert Floyd. Any questions? All right. May I have a motion for curriculum items 9.2 through 9.3? Motion. Second. Ireland. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Sloggy? She just... Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delbarca? Yes. Moving on to policy, Mr. West, any updates? I do not, Mr. Delbarca. At this time, Chairperson, Mr. Harlan. Good evening, everyone. I'm going to give out the Policy Chair Committee report. We met on Tuesday, December 9th at 5 p.m. It was about 30 minutes long. Members
068that attended were Ms. Juanita Hyman, Mr. Nicholas Seppi, Mr. Lou Delbarca. Administrators were Mr. West and others was Ms. Amy Halkalco. Subjects that were discussed were Bylaw 0173, Duties of Public School Accountant. Policy 7441, electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds. Regulation 7441, electronic surveillance in school buildings on school grounds. Policy 1648.15, record keeping for healthcare settings in school buildings, COVID-19 abolishment. Policy 2530, resource material. Policy 2535, library material. Policy 9130, public complaints. All right. The conclusions that were reached were bylaw 0173, duties of public school accountant was reviewed and discussed by the committee. The bylaw has been revised to include the administrative code section that outlines the responsibilities of the accountant and the board. Bylaw 0173 is recommended for revision from Strauss-Esme and is up for one reading and waiting board approval.
069Policy and regulation 74 for one electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school grounds were reviewed and discussed by the committee. The policy and regulation requires the Board of Education shall enter into an M.O.A. with local law enforcement providing authorities with the capacity to activate equipment and view live streaming video during an emergency situation. Policy and Regulation 7441 are mandated revisions by Strauss-Essme and are up for one reading and waiting board approval. Policy 1648.15, Recordkeeping for Healthcare Settings in School Buildings COVID-19, was reviewed and discussed and would like to be abolished by the committee. The Department of Occupational Health confirmed the state of New Jersey will no longer be enforcing recordkeeping and reporting requirements for COVID-19. Policy 1648.15 is up for one reading and waiting board approval. Policy 2530, resource material, was reviewed and discussed
070by the committee. The policy has been revised to include recommendations, rules for management, and selection of resource materials to meet the district's educational goals. Policy 2530 is a recommended revision from Strauss-Esme and is up for one reading and waiting board approval. Policy 2535, library material, was reviewed and discussed by the committee. Policy 2535 has been developed. in response to the passage of the Freedom to Read Act. The policy includes the new statutory definitions, the process for reviewing, selecting, and removing content, library material. Policy 2535 is a new policy mandated by Strauss-Essme, is up for two readings and waiting board approval. Apologize. Policy 9130, public complaints, was reviewed and discussed by the committee. The policy has been revised to establish procedures for complaints concerning staff, educational programs, instructional or resource materials, or the operations of the
071district. Policy 9130 is a recommended revision from Strauss-Esme and is up for one reading and waiting board approval. The next meeting is TBD. Mr. West, did I mess anything up? No, thank you. Mr. Ireland Mr. Delbarco. I just want to say one thing. I just want to say thank you to every committee person that sat on the policy chair the committee That's miss Hyman. Mr. Sepe. Mr. Delbarco. Mr. West and miss Amy Helk Elko You guys truly brought everything to the table You guys did everything and we made sure we embraced engage in it educated in every single policy or regulation that we did So just thank you. That's all I have. Thank you. Mr. Ireland I have a policy and motion please for policy items 10.2 through 10.8 So made second any discussion go
072ahead. Mr. Byers in 7441 the description of emergencies when will that be? Coming to the board to analyze 7441 there's the MOU with the description of what emergencies might call into question Yeah, so that has already been established in the MOA. So it was just something that we just had to make sure we had in the MOA and make sure we brought it to the board. So any emergency situation that the PD thinks they feel like they need to have video surveillance of an emergency situation, they're able to plug in and view it. And where can the public get an understanding of what those conditions are? I think I explained it right now. I don't know what you mean. Okay, so it's up to the police to determine when. We would work in conjunction together
073to establish if that's something we need to do at that time. So like everything else, if there's an emergency situation, we meet, discuss, and then we decide if we have to move further with any type of action. Thank you. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Byers. Yes, this is Gilbert Floyd. Yes. Mr. Ireland. Yes. Mr. Price. Yes. Mr. Seppi. Yes. Mrs. Sullivan. Yes. Mrs. Sloggy. Yes. Mrs. Hyman. Yes. Mr. Delbarca. Yes. Moving on to personnel. Dr. Charlton, any updates? I do not, Mr. Delbarca. All right. May I have a motion, please, to approve personnel items 11.2 through 11.9? So made. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Sloggy? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delbarca? Yes. Dr.
074Guccio, you're a privilege. Yes, it is a privilege this evening to welcome 12 new employees to the Egg Harbor Township School District. And I'll begin with our new school counselor at the Alder Middle School, Kelly Machado. Secretary of Fernwood Middle School, Angela Dennis. Secretary of Davenport Complex, Lauren Ciambrone. I should know that, that's a EHT kid. She left? Okay, maintenance mechanic, Henry Acevedo. Welcome. Moving from part-time paraprofessional to a full-time paraprofessional, and we'll work at the Davenport Complex, Mahmouda Sultana. Hired as a paraprofessional at Davenport Complex, Rasheed Page. Paraprofessional at the Swift Slay Ball Complex, Gina Carfagno. Paraprofessional at Davenport, Misty Jennings. Paraprofessional at Davenport, Leah Kanam. An armed guard for the entire district, Francisco O'Neill. And a bus driver for the school district, thank you, Daniel Martinez. And another bus driver to join Daniel,
075Juan Sedano. Congratulations to you all. You sat tonight and learned a whole lot about our district, so that was part of your orientation. So, again, welcome. One more. I don't have it on the list. Please stand up, Dr. Charlton. Dr. Charlton. Did I miss one? What did they say? If you could just stand up and let us know your name and your position. Okay. There we go. Welcome. Might have started a trend now. We'll have people introduce themselves, make sure I cover everyone. Well, welcome to you. So it's 8-10. Why don't you all go out and celebrate, right? We'll see you next year. Moving on to new business. We have a motion for new business 12.1. Motion, Ireland. Mr. Price, I'll second that motion. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes.
076Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Mr. Price, yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Salagi? Mrs. Salagi? Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabar? Yes. Under old business approval, may I have a motion to approve old business item 13.1? Motion. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Mr. Price, yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Szilagyi? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Del Barco? Yes. Under communications, Mr. Ireland, would you like to report on Atlantic County School Boards Association? Yes. I'm proud to say that we held a meeting here December 11th at Alder, and the district did not disappoint at all. I think we destroyed every other district that we go to, and that's the little coach in me. I'm sorry. But we had this
077whole room out here, and the presentation by the facilities, by the custodians, every single thing was just immaculate. The food was just amazing. I cannot, there's nothing negative at all. Every single person that attended was just. Just astonished about the presentation that we had here for the county meeting I think we set the bar above other districts and I appreciate that for every single board member came to the meeting and Every administrator came to the meeting that is not normal at all in Atlantic County So I want to just say thank you very much and we had the best presentation little biased But it was miss Amy Helke Elko that did legal services for us and a lot of people were happy. Thank you so much That is all I have sir. Thank you. Congratulations.
078It was a wonderful evening very proud of our County's organization At this time we have comments from the public on Any item I'm not gonna read that whole description again But if you have any comments that you would like to make this is the time to come up and talk to us Okay We have someone coming. Oh, yes. Come on up. Oh, who could this be? Hi, Christy bird central. I have a EHT It's on Can you hear me? Hi, Christy Bird, Central Avenue EHT. First, I want to say, Ms. Sullivan, thank you so much for your service to our community. It has gone, you know, it has not gone unnoticed. Nine years is a huge commitment, so thank you. I look forward to working with everyone, and thank you for welcoming me. I have
079a few questions about the referendum. I waited for it to clear out a little bit because I didn't want to bore everyone. But I have a few questions. I noticed that Eagle is off the bond referendum due to not receiving debt service aid, if I'm understanding that correctly, because they're counted in the high school figures. But Slay Ball also didn't receive debt service aid, and they're staying on the referendum. So I just was seeking a little clarification on how we chose which school to keep on, why that addition stayed on and the other did not. My next question is with the vote in March. I might be misunderstanding it. It is a little confusing. But we are having the vote in March because we want to have a continuous interest payment to keep. To keep
080our amounts the same in that five million dollar range or something like that. I'm sorry my notes aren't that clear But I think you noted that you know, it was because we wanted a continuous interest payment to remain the same My question is how does that interest payment compare to the potential twenty to forty thousand dollar bill? That we're going to receive for holding a special election in March If it equates. And my last question is regarding the classroom space. 14 classrooms are included in this referendum, which will cover not all of our preschool classrooms, but most of them at this point. We have a lot of incoming residential projects. So are we going to have the same problem in two or three years when we have these influx of developments? So is this project
081as large of a scope as needed for what's coming down the pike? And I would like to know how much office space is included in the plans, if any. I didn't see that noted. So obviously you don't have to answer my questions now if you want to get back to me, but Thank you for the information this evening. I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks Thank you. Thank you. This is bird anyone else from the public at this time Seeing none. Yeah, go come see one. Come on up I think this is still on, is it? Okay, Barbara McCoskey, A. Carver Township. I just want to reiterate always, I love to hear your character education and things that are going on in the schools with our young people. Loving that compassion, empathy
082were the themes recently. We're in kind of difficult times right now, and we need a lot of compassion, empathy. So loving that we're teaching that to the kids. I'm also excited about the phone free schools. Thank you superintendent for that because everything I read tells me that kids are not social anymore. They're reading their phones, they're looking at their phones, they're looking down. And some of the studies that I've read about things that are happening in other school districts in other states, kids are becoming more social. They're looking at one another, they're talking. And I'm hoping that's what's happening here in Egg Harbor Township. And it's exciting to know that you were recognized for that with a $32,000 grant. And my last thing would be also the referendum, just a little concern about March. That
083was my first question that I wrote down, why March? I am concerned that when you have a vote, an election for just one issue, you're going to get a lot of people that come out to vote no. I think people come out with being upset about maybe raising taxes. I don't know. I think we get more people, hopefully, in our general election. I don't know how that could work out with the issues that you were talking about before, but I would just strongly suggest maybe not a $20,000 to $40,000 special election that might even be turned down. So thank you. That's it. Thank you. Anyone else from the public at this time? Seeing none, any board members have any comments at this time? Mr. Byers first. Yeah, I just wanted to say, even though the
084schools are phone-free, having Parents Square on the phone has been really a fantastic ad. Having been in software implementation as long as I have, to see that much adoption at such... a quick time without much complaint. That's fantastic. So thank you very much for that. I look forward to the next phase where we're rolling it out to helping parents connect with the boosters and each other to help with school activities as well. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Mr. President. Mr. President, I would just like to say it's our last meeting of the year. I want to wish everyone a happy holiday season. And I want to say thanks to Ms. Sullivan for her many years as a board member here in Eckhartford Township. And we're going to miss her. We certainly appreciated
085her service and her wisdom and her experience over the years. But I'm looking forward to working with new board members in the upcoming year to keep the district moving forward. So thank you, and good night. Laura, go ahead. I'd like to wish everyone peace and God's blessings this season. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, may your days be filled with love and joy. Happy holidays, everyone. Mrs. Sullivan. It's a difficult time for me right now, but I just really want to tell or say thank you to not only my board members, but also the community and the teachers who have not only supported me, but have supported my children. And I really, really appreciate that. And I hold that dear to my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Arlen well ditto everybody said everything
086so I'm not gonna have free Resay everything but I did want to say miss Sullivan though It was a pleasure working with you on the board as long as I have been You've been an asset to the community and the district and the students just wanted to say thank you. It's hard So I just wanted to say thank you. That's it and ditto to everything else Anybody this is so it's a loggy Yes Your wisdom will be missed. Mrs. Sullivan even through tough times, you still made our students your priority. And look forward to you coming back when things calm down in your life. Anyone else? Go ahead, Mr. Sepe. Marita, I'll tell you this. As the youngest member here who came on as the youngest, you were a tremendous teacher. I know you served
087so honorably here. You were a wonderful vice president of this board. And I know you'll stay involved in this community and do great things. So God bless you and thank you. From a young person, you're an inspiration. Thank you, Marita. Anybody else? Anyone else? May I take a few minutes then, please, for the fellow board members? I've been associated with our school community since 1970. Over the years, I've had the privilege of sharing how wonderful our schools are on a local, county, state, and national level. I hopefully have shared my passion and love of education wherever I have served. My sincerest appreciation and sincerest thank you to my fellow team members for their dedication to our students and their support. Thank you to our Vice President, Mrs. Hyman, for her service this year. Thank you,
088Mrs. Szilagyi. Thank you, Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd. Thank you, Mrs. Sullivan. Thank you, Mr. Ireland. Thank you, Mr. Price. Thank you, Mr. Sepe. And thank you, Mr. Byers. Thank you also to those of you who served as committee chairs. Thank you to Central Administration, Mr. Smith, Mrs. Germana, who's not here this evening. Dr. Charlton, Mr. West, Ms. Moss, and our leader, Dr. Grucio, for your dedication to our district. Thank you to Mrs. Hal Calco for her great advice and always saving me. Thank you to our support staff, maintenance, transportation, food services, facilities, security. Before I forget, thank you to our two student representatives. Thank you to our building administrators, directors, and various supervisors. And to our real heroes, thank you to our teachers and paraprofessionals. Finally, thank you to our community for your support over the years.
089I look forward to three more years of service. It has been the honor of my life to have served as president of the Ague Harbor Township Board of Education. Merry Christmas to all. Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa, the happiest of New Years and healthiest of New Years. And may I call for a motion to adjourn? Motion. Is there a second? All in favor? Opposed? Thank you very much, everyone.