001welcome to the a harvard township board of education's meeting for january 2025. um mr smith please on thursday january 9 2025 notice of this meeting was emailed to the press in the mainland journal notice was also delivered that day to the a 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 here. Mr. Sepe. Here. Mrs. Sullivan. Here. Mrs. Szilagyi. Here. Ms. Hyman. Here. And Mr. Delbarco. Here. Would everyone please rise for a flag salute? The United States of America. Before we continue the meeting, I'd like to bring the public up to date as to some of the arrangements here at the dais. At our reorganization meeting at the beginning of the month, Mr. Louis Delbarco
002was elected president. Mrs. Juanita Hyman was elected our vice president. New member Chad Byers was installed as a member of our board. Mrs. Szilagyi and Mrs. Hyman were reinstalled after the re-election as members of our board. So that's why you see maybe a different person leading the meeting this evening. Going on with our agenda, we need a motion for the minutes from minutes for items 4.1 for 4.2. So made. 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? Yes. Mrs. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delbarco? Yes. At this time, Dr. Gruccio, Superintendent's Report. Good evening, everyone. First board meeting of 2025. and lots of things have gone on already. Gone on already, I feel like it's February and
003we're already looking towards graduation. But anyway, we'll stay right here right now. Regarding student achievement, I'll just say again to the public, every board meeting I update the board on what's going on under the board goals, district goals. We had a professional learning day. Mr. Vijay Rishisi was here. to deliver his message to the staff and the staff will get this when I say we all want to look to be that Mrs. Pig. He shared a story, Alan's giving me the signal here, he shared a story when he was a student and how he was inspired by a teacher who took interest in him and respected him and made him a better person. Spirit of MLK Award, Beth Israel Northfield along with the Atlanta County NAACP awarded an award to Ethan Hurst from our high
004school. And our PEP project's going on at Davenport with students involved in that. And PEP is a precursor to our GT program, speaking of GT. Lots of fun things going on with the students in the GT program. If you follow our district newsletter, there is a link to the Gifted and Talented program. And Miss Addie Elko, under student achievement, broke an egg-covered township record in the 400 freestyle, 4 minutes and 26 seconds, point one. And she broke the record of our director of guidance, Samantha Shabitor Elko, who happens to be her mom. So, very emotional moment. Both Addie and her mom, but all in all, like I told Sam, kept it in the family, so you can't go wrong with that. So congratulations to Addie and to mom. Climate and culture, the things we're doing
005in our school district. I got cut off a little bit here, but we had MLKT at Swiss Label, and at Miller School we had MLK, fun fact, Scavenger Hunt, and the different lessons and activities going over through the district prior to the holiday and after the holiday. Our students being engaged in, like I said, lessons and activities, learning about the great work of Martin Luther King Jr. Students from high school spent time. why is this like bigger or smaller than the screen but students at the high school spent time at Stockton University their program a day of service in our interact club participated so kudos to them for representing a big harbor Township give it a try All right, Cam also was awesome when he visited the middle schools of Furman and Alder. And he
006was a former, that would be fun right there, he was a former boxer who shared his story that his greatest triumphs come from his toughest failures. So he sent a message to the students. And what I understand, it was a great presentation. The technology? No? I'm gonna do my best remember what I wrote hey 80th day of school thank you I was celebrating 80 style throughout the district so students and staff had a lot of fun addressing up in their 80s attire and letting everyone know that 80 days of school have been accomplished already students of the week we continue to honor students of the week students of the month but these are our recipients in the various schools and it's all based on our SOAR program um where students were shining stars this week
007so kudos to them and just a little highlight with marvelous marty um you've seen charlie who's been around the district but marty's going around the district as well to the elementary schools and part of our program where our students get to meet the dogs and pet them and Ms. Krugno shared a story where there was a student crisis just the other day and Charlie went in, was it Charlie or Marty? Marty went in and you know gave the student some time and the student calmed down and the crisis was you know downgraded a bit so it's working we love it the kids love it and you know we will continue with this program So community partnerships, thank you to the Acre Harbor Township Police Department for partnering with us and always supporting us, particularly in
008the last event that we had last week regarding the Miller School evacuation. Also EHT Public Works, thank you for communications with me during those snow days, whether it's in the middle of the night or during the day, conditions of the roads. Interact Club with their coat donations with the public, and again, highlighting the MLK Day of Service with Stockton University. Family Night at Miller was just held this past week through our Title I program and funding. And it was great for parents to come out and share story time with students and their parents. And thank you, Howard Isaacson, for your 30 years here at Eckhart Township School District. He got to show off his talent by playing the national anthem at the basketball game last week. Good guy, dedicated, and very talented, so thank you.
009A few reminders for the public. We are in the week of conferences that run from Monday through Thursday. They alternate from daytime to nighttime, so for parents to be sure to tune in. Communication with your school, particularly your teacher. And just for the public to know that it's going to be a busy year for us. And for the Board of Education. a lot of work to do starting tonight with the presentation of snippets of our budget mr smith giving an idea where we are that's january the state of schools i will present in our february meeting and then we move on to strategic planning so our strategic plan is uh coming to its sunset and it's now time to develop a new one and we will have public meetings march 25th april 30th may 21.
010Right now they'll start at 6 and we're looking at the high school cafeteria where we had them in the past. But that could change. But for those of you interested in participating in strategic plans, here are the dates. We welcome you. And then a referendum, which you'll hear more and more about. That will be talked about and rolled out in July. And then New Jersey CUSAC, which is the evaluation of our school district, how it's run, through its operations, its academics, its facilities. And that will happen beginning in September by the DOE. So lots to do, lots to prepare for, and please join us in our journey. So we're moving to recognizing the Board of Education this month for all that they do. January is New Jersey School Board School Board Recognition Month. And we
011want to thank you all. Those who have been here many years, those who have just joined us, for your dedication to the children of Lake Harbor Township, to the staff of Lake Harbor Township School District. We appreciate all that you do. It's a noble job. You know, you don't get a paycheck for it. It's on your time, and we appreciate that you do. So we have a... certificate for you all and also know that the governor signed a proclamation and I also signed a resolution it is on board Doc's you can see that unless you want me to read both of them but basically it just covers all that you do and that we appreciate you thank you with that it's now time for our video that Alan put together capturing all the great things
012that happen from the last board meeting until tonight work thank you very much appreciate that and we are going to move now to the next part of the agenda it's something to have you can Harvey okay which will be our audit so mr. Smith you wanted to take over the introductions and explanations of where we are at this point of our school year Yep, so as the board knows annually we have to report out on the district audit So mr. Kako's is here from Ford Scott. They're our district auditor So he'll provide the public presentation on the audit you have the synopsis if you have any questions Feel free to to ask mr. Kako's at the end of his presentation and we can go from there Good evening Happy to report first and foremost, I
013had no findings in my audit report that I issued for the year ended June 30, 24. We did have one minor issue in your management report was that your net cash resources exceeded what the federal government allows in your food service. What this means is your food service is making money and you aren't spending it as quick as the government believes you should. I don't consider that a bad thing, but unfortunately it is in the guidance. For the year ended June 30, 24, your budgetary fund balance increased about $4.1 million. This leaves you at $30,810,000 of fund balance as of June 30, 24. This fund balance is broken down into six categories. First is your excess surplus. As you know, the state of New Jersey limits the amount you're allowed to keep. You have a
014total of $6.6 million. Of this, just under $3 million was included in the 24-25 budget that you're operating in, and just $3.6 million will be needed in your 25-26 budgeted fund balance as per the state statute. Next is your capital reserve. This is $12.5 million. This money is used for future capital needs of the district that are in line with your long-range facilities plan. Just under $400,000 in your maintenance reserve should any unforeseen situations arise. $1.8 million in your unemployment reserve for any future claims that come in. These funds are available. You have $4.1 million for encumbrances. These were orders in your 23-24 budget that weren't fulfilled by year end. They were done in the subsequent year and that was then included in this new budget. And what's left over is $5.3 million. This is
015the most that you are allowed to keep based on the state's calculations. Your food service fund had an increase of $38,000 this past year and ending in that position of almost $2.3 million. Your food service program has always run well here, and I hope to see that continue in the future. The Talons program, your after-school program, had a decrease in its net position of $23,000 this past year, ending at just over $700,000. And just one other thing I had noted in your audit report is that you had one of your bond issues was fully paid off this year. Your 2012 refunding bonds leave you three open bond issues currently at just over $33 million of principal due. After that, were there any questions on the report? Thank you, Mr. Caruso. Any questions from anyone? Mr.
016President, do I have a question? Mr. Coccoza, going back to the food service item, I don't see it listed on my report. The synopsis does not. The state requirements in the synopsis is what is called the B1 and the B2. The PDF report, I assume, went out? So in the there should have been a PDF that was sent out if you look for the schedule b4 and b5 There's a good percent out to the board members or it would be a PDF document Okay, I don't believe I received that document. So maybe I could get a copy of it And the other question I have were plus 39,000. I think you said in the food service. Yeah 38,000 38,000 and the other thing I had is we're not allowed to keep more than three months
017cash in the food service fund. How much cash is that then? So it's three months of your average expenditures. Which would be? Just to give me an idea. So you can have just under $1.3 million. $1,274,000 last year. And you had $1.6 million. So you were over about $353,000. And what it picks up is just get your cash and your accounts receivable or less your accounts payable and any money due back to the general fund. Right. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for any board members? That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Price. All right. Seeing no other questions, thank you very much for your report. We appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. Smith getting ready to present a budget video, I believe. All right, so we're going to go through, this is a
018really quick presentation on revenues, just to kind of give you an update of where we're at right now, then we'll be followed by a short video on some of our appropriations. So tonight we're just going to go over some key dates in the calendar, a couple of revenue topics, some of our content areas, special education and CTE appropriations, and what our next steps are with the budget. So February 27th we get our state aid figures so between now and then really kind of up in the air we're trying to gather as much information as we can. March 20th we'll submit our preliminary budget to the accounting office and then sometime in the last week of April and first week of May we'll hold our public hearing. We'll have board meeting presentations January, February, March. We'll
019have discussion as a whole and then also at the finance committee level we'll have more in-depth conversations about the budget. So for our revenues, state aid, so the current budget year is the last year of S2. So if you recall eight years ago, the state enacted that. The district did receive a large amount of new state aid over the last seven years. So that was really a huge benefit to the district. But we haven't heard any news since then. So as far as 25-26, the state is not changing the funding formula. They have been working on it. And they are looking to make changes, but but not for this year. So we're kind of banking on flat funding We haven't gotten any indication from our County business official to say, you know where we're at
020Everyone's kind of budgeting the same status quo as far as state aid goes so one factor in our state aid is our enrollment. So that's something that has changed for the district. You know, we look at regular enrollment versus weighted enrollment. If we look at our two, our last two ASSA counts from October of 24 and 23, you can see our on-roll students kind of stayed the same. So we were down by 10 from the previous year. But if you look at our economically disadvantaged, went up by 428 students. So as our enrollment has kind of stayed steady, the needs of our students has changed based on this information. So We've never been over 50% free and reduced lunch. We're right on the cusp now because that number does fluctuate depending on how you count
021the students. But it is a big change over the last, say, 10 years. And just if we want to compare back to October of 2020, you see our on-roll students did go down. Again, these numbers do not include preschools. We didn't have preschool counts in October of 2020. But even if you look at, again, the economically disadvantaged, there was a big increase from 2020 to this. past October. So that's something that will get equated in our state aid formula. We're just not sure how that's going to work out as of right now. So this is our current state aid. We're at $82.1 million in state aid. We're going to estimate that that's going to stay flat. And again, we won't know that information until February 27, 2025. So regarding the tax levy, again, this is
022our... current year and the prior four years. And one thing that I wanted to point out is if you look at the levy in 22-23 when we gave funding money back to the taxpayers, we went down 1.8 million. That really kind of looks at our, we look at our last five years, we're only up $237,000. So of course that's solely because we had a big influx of state aid, but that's something that the board was focused on that we've been able to accomplish. And it's been a 0.3% increase over those years. And even in 23, 24 and 24, 25, those increases were because rateables went up. So we didn't increase the tax rate. We generated new revenue just because the township was growing and had a higher value. So the other half of the tax
023levy is for our debt service. So this levy amount is based on our outstanding bonds that we have. So this number does fluctuate a little bit from year to year. As you see in the current year, we're a little bit higher than the prior year, but it's all based on our debt schedule. So if we look at that. We look at 25 fiscal year 25, excuse me. So I have $8.8 million budgeted and that's our fund 40, our debt service fund. So when you see the budget, you'll see 8.8 million in that fund. But one thing that I wanted to point out is fiscal year 27. So I knew Dr. Gruccio mentioned possible referendum. If we are. going to move forward with that and we do have a vote at some point that new debt
024would come online in fiscal year 27. So our goal is to be tax neutral. So as we go through that process over the next 11 months for the development of the referendum, getting it approved and getting to a vote by the taxpayers, our goal is to be tax neutral. So that's kind of where that will fall out. So if we look at them combined for the current when we're building the 25-26 budget, rateables did go up by about $9 million, which is helpful. That generates about $170,000 in new revenue for the district that we'll put into next year's budget. If you look at the average taxpayer, currently they're paying about $4,134 in school tax for the district. And the debt service portion is about $282. So combined, we're about... $4,416. So again, if we left
025that the same and did not increase the tax rate, we would generate $170,000 in new revenue and the tax amount for the local taxpayer, the average taxpayer, would stay the same. revenue piece we wanted to talk about tonight was federal entitlement grants. So we've gotten a lot of information from the state regarding this topic. A lot of districts are bracing for a cut in this aid. So for us, if we lost 30%, that's what we're going to budget next year, about 70% of our current allocation, it would be $1.3 million less revenue in next year's budget than we currently have. So that's a big number to think about. Again, that's something that's up in the air, we're going to budget for that. And the worst part with that number is we won't have our allocations
026until June at the absolute earliest. So we'll go through the budget process, have our public hearing, certify the budget for tax purposes, and then we'll get our federal allocation. So it kind of throws a little bit of a wrench in the planning process. So again, I know we went really quick. This is a lot of just basic information, but state aid, we're budgeting that to be flat for next year. The federal grants will be reduced. And then the tax levy, I know that the board's goal is to not increase taxes or increase as minimally as possible. I think that's something we're going to have to have conversations about over the next month and a half before we strike the preliminary budget. Because if you recall from prior years, that March 20th deadline, the biggest point
027in that budget is the tax rate. So whether we have different revenues or we... to have different appropriations, make different reductions or additions. We can do that up until the public hearing. The biggest topic for March 20th is the tax rate to have that locked in so we can continue planning. So tonight we're going to do a little bit different. Usually we have our content supervisors and our directors come and present to the board. So we changed it up a little based on feedback from the board last year. So tonight we're going to look at our content areas, special education, and career and technical education. And we have our staff is here also in the back. So if we have any questions at the end of the presentation, I'm sure they'll be happy to answer
028whatever questions we might have. Hello, my name is Greg Ryan. I'm the district supervisor of mathematics. Today I'll be providing a brief overview of some program and budgeting highlights for the upcoming school year. On the program side, our curricular focus revolves around a few key areas. At a foundational level, we're looking to build number sense in our students at an early age. This includes developing an understanding of numbers, their relationships, and how they fit into certain complex mathematical concepts. Along with that, we're looking to develop math fact fluency with students starting at the elementary levels and going up through all the grade levels even in the high school. This is to ensure that students have the key baseline skills necessary to solve more rigorous math tasks as they go on throughout the year and also
029in the future math classes. And once we have those foundations set, we will start to notice that certain students have different strengths and weaknesses in different topics and areas in math. To provide the supports that they need, we're looking to enhance the teachers' abilities to provide responses to interventions and also to build up proficiency and enhance their mastery to make sure that we're meeting all students where they're at and being able to get them to the maximum potential. On the budget side, you'll notice that a lot of our big ticket items do align with our program goals. As I just mentioned, one of our focus is to continue to enhance our response to intervention, just to make sure that each student is getting their individualized needs met, and that we have the programs and resources
030to support those learning gaps and be able to push them and really go above and beyond in their academic achievement. A couple other focuses that you'll notice is we are looking to promote active student thinking and also collaborative problem solving. For the active student thinking, we really want students to be up and engaged and at the forefront of their learning and really actively participating in each of the lessons. As for the collaborative problem solving, we're looking to equip all classrooms to have the setup and the environment to have students working together and collaborating and really being the drivers of discovering. all these different solutions and answers to the activities and projects that they're working on. This might come in the form of vertical whiteboard spaces, collaborative seating arrangements, small group centers, differentiated interventions, and so
031on. Hello, my name is Ms. Eileen Hannigan. I'm the supervisor of social studies. Our program highlights for this year in social studies is that we added two courses, AP African American History and also Latin American History, which is a dual credit with Sotkin University. With the AP African American History course, we were able to secure a state grant of about $12,000. With that money, we bought books and other resources, but we also had many experiences for the students. They went to three museums, the Harriet Tubman Museum in Cape May, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and also the African American History Museum in Washington, D.C. We also brought in a show for both the middle school and the high school called the Amazing Black History Show. Both high school and middle school students were able
032to attend that show. Latin American History is a dual credit class with Stockton University and we did lots of election lessons this year due to the presidential election. The budget highlights for next year is I have one request which is to renew an online resource for grades 4 to 12. The resource addresses many of our multiple tiers system of support with annotations, changing of Lexile levels and translation within that resource. Next are a few slides that I wanted to share. The first is the high school teachers. That's our whole department on the top right. is all the AP African American students along with the performers from our show, the Amazing Black History Show. The lower left is our Latin American History course for the Day of the Dead near Halloween. They engaged in a project.
033And the last picture is the women of League voters who came to the high school to show the students how to use a voting machine. I'm Dr. Michelle Schreiner, and I'm the supervisor of the Multilingual Learners and World Languages Department. So first I'll begin by discussing some of the program highlights in my department. This fall, during Hispanic Heritage Month, we celebrated 25 years of our Hispano-Ablandes program. With the population of EHT being more than 25% Hispanic, this program plays an important role in strengthening our students' literacy skills. Our Hispano-Ablandes program is currently under consideration by the New Jersey Department of Education for Model Program. We hope to hear the results of our application in March. Our focus in the ML department is to assist our students in acclimating to the American public school system. Our
034ML teachers provide newcomer families with a myriad of resources to assist them. We use formative and summative assessments of the students' progress learning English. Students' English proficiency is measured annually on the ACCESS assessment. In the World Languages Department, our focus in every grade level is guiding our students to use the language that they're learning. By the end of eighth grade, we measure students' ability to meet the standards. Students who are able to do so are recognized in the Pathway to Biliteracy program. During senior year of high school, students complete assessments to measure if they are at the intermediate, mid, proficiency level or higher as part of the sealed by literacy program. And so next, I'll discuss some of the requests in my budget. My budget requests focus on two technology areas. You'll see a variety
035of requests for subscriptions at all different grade levels. And this is because the subscriptions are a fantastic way for our teachers to monitor our students' progress and for them to provide specific feedback to help advance learning. Next, you'll see requests for additional Chromebooks. Hello, my name is Dr. Mark Kadecki and I'm the supervisor of Fine and Performing Arts for the Egg Harbor Township School District. I'm very excited to share with you some of the program and budget highlights going on in our department and I'm excited that this is just a representative sample of all the great things that are going on. Our choirs in grades 3 through 12 are open to all students and very active and high achieving especially when compared to other programs in the region. and our orchestra and band continue to
036be by far the largest in the region for grades 5 through 12. This year we had significant representation in the All-South Jersey and All-State ensembles and again more so than comparable schools in our district which keeps us at the forefront of student achievement. In terms of technology and stream Our digital music and digital art animation labs continue to be at the forefront of today's workforce technology, giving students artistic opportunities, but also giving them great employment opportunities when they leave EHT. This past year, our kindergarten theater and speech program was visited by the New Jersey Department of Ed, received a lot of praise. And for the second year in a row, all of our students who work on stage sets, builds, moving things, anything, are now fully OSHA 10 certified from grades six all the way
037through high school. So we're glad to keep our students safe while they're creating great products. Our students in AP Portfolio Art and AP Theory continue to score well on their tests and earn college credits before they get there, in addition to just learning great things about music and art. And our Drawing and Painting elective, which used to be a simple graduation requirement, has taken on a pop art turn that's made it one of the most popular electives at the high school. The National Anthem Project in its seventh year is still a big ticket item with hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of students showing pride for our country and our school district on the football field, remaining the largest performance of our National Anthem at any New Jersey school event. At Miller School, we have over
038100 students in choir, over 100 students beginning in band, and 100 students beginning in orchestra, as our farm for our middle school and high school continues to be very robust. In terms of professional development, we're continuing to do great things with Rowan and our music department. various universities and our conducting students. But this year we've extended it so that our visual art teachers are able to have some outreach events at the Noyes Museum and doing such innovative things as art restoration and a lot of hands-on things to give our art teachers inspiration and motivation to keep our students cranking. Our band and our choir are leaving for Florida about two weeks and two months after this taping, and all of our middle schools are competing and touring and seeing great things in New York City.
039As far as things that are highlighted in the budget, our continued competition schedules require a lot of transportation and a lot of personnel, with hundreds and hundreds of hundreds of students playing instruments. Maintenance and repair of those instruments continues to reoccur, and we're very excited about all the technological upgrades. and our digital art and music labs as new software and new products become available. We make them available to our students as well as enhancing our auditorium for sights and sounds at Fernwood and Alder. And we have the best clubs and activities for the fine and performing arts in grades six through 12. The next slide will just give you some pictorial anecdotes of all the great things going on. Hi, my name is Rodney Velarde and I'm the supervisor of science for the Ag Harbor
040Township School District. I'm going to give you a short overview of some of the program highlights and science. Two of the major activities we have going on are number one the STEM bus. The STEM bus is a hands-on exploration mainly right now for elementary school kids. It's interactive learning stations on the bus. They get to see some real world connections and our goal is to inspire future innovators on the bus. students get to work with robotics, coding, some augmented and virtual reality. Students will rotate around the stations so they get the opportunity to explore anywhere from 10 to 15 different STEM activities. Alongside that, our second major project that we have going on is the completion of a state-of-the-art greenhouse facility here at the high school. It's a 4,000 square foot complex where students at
041the high school at all levels will be able to go in and work on some real-world applications, STEM integration, career readiness, and one of the more important keys, some community engagement. A lot of the products that will be growing. in the greenhouse we'll be able to use and give out perhaps in our cafeteria with some of the vegetables some flower plantings around the campus for beautification as well as local farmers markets on the weekends be able to give some of the products that we may give those out our budget highlights you know some of the things that we're looking to do in our budget is to support our programs and our hands-on learning in science. This includes digital materials that align to New Jersey student learning stands for science, online programs that promote equity across
042the district so students have access to the same materials, and of course the hands-on component, you know, science. is best learned when you're doing science and not just sitting there reading about it. So we have to support a lot of our hands-on experiments and activities with the purchasing of equipment and consumable materials. And the last thing is we want to try and you know, support our students with a lot of opportunities outside of the four walls of the classroom. And that includes field trips to the Rutgers Cadaver Lab, Stockton's Simulated Hospital, Rowan's Athletic Training Facility, as well as local offerings such as EHT, Nature Reserve, and the ACUA. The next slide I'm going to show you just kind of is a collage of pictures that shows everything I spoke about in action. Hi, my name
043is Mrs. Samantha Elko and I am the Director of Guidance. Our goal and mission as a department is to support all students in their academic behavior and social emotional growth. This is quite a process and a challenge at times, but we are committed to being advocates for our students. School counselors are extremely thankful to our community members who support programs such as our K-12 career events, our high school academy programs, CTE programs, and our scholarship partners. The relationships we have with our scholarship partners result in thousands upon thousands of dollars being given to our senior students every year. And the list could go on and on. Our school counselors and student assistance counselors work to support and implement positive school climate and multiple anti-bullying programs each year. Our anti-bullying lessons are meant to educate students
044about what bullying is and what it isn't. This also includes teaching them how to support each other by being up standards and how to reach out to staff if help is needed for themselves or for a classmate. The high school counseling department runs several different programs to support students in the college application process, as well as programs for students seeking career exploration and military opportunities. There is no better place to experience such a wide variety and such high quality curriculum than here at Egg Harbor Township High School. There are countless stories of students returning after a year at college or a year in the workplace and we hear over and over that they were so well prepared and sometimes even annoyed that their college classes were easier than some of their high school classes. That's
045a win in my book. If they can get a head start on a good first semester GPA while figuring out how to do laundry and how to feed themselves, then as a mom and a staff member, I'm happy. Lastly, I want to highlight our high school PSAT, AP, and dual credit programs. Through PSAT testing, all students have multiple opportunities to prepare for college admission testing and meet the state testing graduation requirement. Almost 200 seniors last year were able to use PSAT scores to meet that graduation requirement. Our AP and dual credit programs are second to none. Every year we offer over 30 AP courses and over 30 dual credit courses with Stockton, Atlanta Cape, and Rowan. All in the areas of math, social studies, media, science, fine and performing art, world language, and CTE. These
046are opportunities for students to earn college credit, spend less money on tuition, and even graduate early. These courses provide the experience, the rigor, and the opportunity to improve analytical skills needed for success after high school. Last school year, our students collectively saved almost $1.5 million in tuition compared to what they would have paid without AP and dual credit. Hello, my name is Mrs. Linda Santiago. I am the ELA Supervisor for K-12. I want to thank the board for supporting the ELA budget in previous years. With the board's support, we've been able to revise the ELA curriculum with a focus on grade level goals and progressive skills that all students should know and be able to do by the end of each grade level. These defined expectations helped our teachers use data to plan lessons using
047strategies based upon the science of reading. We've also been able to invest in resources specifically designed for reading foundational and writing foundational skills to provide a solid foundation in K-2. Our program highlights for the ELA department, we have designed our budget to embrace, engage, and educate all students in Egg Harbor Township on critical literacy skills necessary for success in any future endeavor. As you can see in the photos, literacy skills are critical to developing a student's voice. It is the department's goal to teach students how to learn to read, read to learn, and use critical thinking skills to share their own thoughts and ideas with others. Literacy provides the means to advocate for their needs, their goals, and their future. We intend to embrace all students by investing in diverse literature, hands-on instructional tools, assistive
048technology, and learning platforms that can provide individualized instruction and immediate feedback for students who need Tier 1 and 2 support and prerequisite skills in the classroom. We plan to engage our students by offering expanded elective options at the high school level, continued community and district level projects and partnerships through the Communications Academy, and meaningful learning opportunities for all grades. We want to educate our students in critical literacy skills and include a continued commitment on professional learning. We want to continue to invest in letters bridged to practice. All K-5 teachers have had initial training and we want to continue our support with independent study and job embedded collaborative application of instructional strategies based upon the science of reading. We would like to request professional development and resources as listed. In K-3, we would like resources for
049reading foundational and writing foundational skills that would include letter sound correspondence, decoding, spelling, comprehension, and writing. In 4-8, we propose investing in writing assistance software and writing resources to help improve writing skills from elementary through high school. And in 9-12 in the Communications Academy, we plan to broaden our curriculum offerings, introducing new topics and electives to cater to diverse student interests and needs. We also intend to maintain and upgrade technology and related resources for the Communications Academy and expand and improve their functionality. This includes technology resources for coursework, EHTTV, and the growing multimedia room. These proposed investments will significantly enhance our ELA program's quality and effectiveness across all grade levels. We believe this comprehensive approach will lead to improved literacy outcomes and better prepare our students for future academic and professional success. Hello, my name
050is Mrs. Karen Semet and I'm the supervisor of health, physical education, and nursing. So I would like to first start off with our nursing program. Our nurses recently wrote grants for stop the bleed kits and they also received training in tourniquet application. This was made possible through our Atlantic Care Healthy Schools grant. Similar to the AEDs and Narcan kits, this stop the bleed kits will be in our building lobbies by the end of the school year. The purpose of the stop the bleed kits would be to assist anybody with life-threatening bleeding. In our PE area, All juniors are receiving CPR instruction. All sophomores are currently in our driver education unit and they also will be receiving instruction in mental health first aid. Our yoga class is underway which teaches self-regulation skills and our seniors in
051the spring will be outdoors learning project adventure activities which teaches team building. Our budget highlights is that the nursing department again received grant funding for all the Stop the Bleed kits, which values over $7,000 in grant money. And we're very appreciative that we have that great relationship with Atlanticare. Some photos of our kids in action will be our adaptive PE students at Kingpin Bowling Lanes. We have our outdoor project adventure wall. We have our yoga class. We have our CPR instruction and we have a photo of the Stop the Bleed kits, what they will look like come the end of the year. Hello, I'm Pamela Henley. I'm the Director of Special Education. Some of our program highlights that we were able to do this year is adding clinical associates in some of our classrooms. We
052did continuity of curriculum and supports across the district for our various programs for students. We did training with patterns of strengths and weaknesses for our child study team to help improve our classifications and modifications for students. We also created a district wellness team that is servicing students throughout the district not only with behavioral needs but also emotional needs. For next year, looking at some of the budget highlights that were budgeted for, we want to continue with the clinical associates to keep our students in district and support them with their needs. Make sensory rooms available in five schools, the three elementary schools and the two middle schools to help our students. Continue with professional development with our curriculum that we have implemented and also more data collection materials and reinforcers for students. Also to improve some
053of our technology to replace some of the outdated Chromebooks that some of the child study teams are using. We have tablets for some of the evaluation tools now are on tablets and also we budgeted for some Chromebooks for some of our self-contained classrooms where they are lacking. Hello, I'm Christina Kapsinski, the Career and Technical Education Supervisor at Egg Harbor Township School District. As we plan for next year, the budget for the CTE department will focus on several important areas to support the student growth and career readiness. We will allocate funds towards enhancing our STEAM programs, which will include purchasing updated technology and equipment to keep our students on the cutting edge of industry standards. Additionally, a portion of the budget will be dedicated to professional development for our educators, ensuring they have the latest training
054and resources to deliver high-quality instruction. We are also investing in enrichment programs that provide real-world, hands-on learning opportunities for our students. Items budgeted for include advanced tools for our trades program, new software for our design and engineering courses, and professional certification materials for our students. In the final slide, you will see some of the department's recent achievements such as students earning industry certification, excelling in program competitions, and securing valuable work-based learning experiences through the local partnerships, apprenticeships, and internships, relevant courses, and co-curricular additions including our eSports, game design, and a classroom innovation space allowing our students to access multiple trades. all right thank you to our supervisors for putting that together uh and especially mr vargas uh for for helping with that all right so before we move on do we have any questions our
055supervisors and directors are here to answer anything specific you might have i do and i have one for you dan do you want yours now or later yeah no good okay going back about grants federal grants Anything new in the way of grants are we applying for? I know we've applied for grants before. Is there anything new? Obviously, ESSER is not something that we'll be applying for. But anything new in the way of grants that you're applying for? We did have a couple opportunities that we've applied through. Actually, Dr. Graham, her office has applied for a couple things through AI. We're still waiting to hear back. There's really nothing. We're looking more at entitlement grants. So when grant opportunities come up, we are trying to take advantage of all those. But we're more focused on
056the ones that the entitlement grants because we already have things that are charged there, whether it's a program, software, supplies, whatever the case is. So we're really focused on that right now. But we are always on the lookout to supplement our budget through other grant opportunities. Yeah, because that would be very helpful as we see the grants come along. And I know they're competitive and we have to apply. we do have a pretty successful rate when we do apply for grants. So hopefully some more grants will come in to kind of offset some of the costs. Okay, I have a few quick questions for some of the department heads. Dr. Michelle? Hi, how are you? I just have a quick one for you. As far as languages go, are we still at six or seven
057languages, world languages? That we're actually teaching as we all yeah, how many? Now did we go down and we look gonna go up Well, I did not budget to add any additional staff. You're not looking to? If that's something that would be supported in the future, I'd love to have a conversation about that. Okay. I was just curious. Thank you. Okay. I appreciate that. Also, for Mr. Valari. What grades do we start? How early do we start the science programs? Where do you start, what grades? Kindergarten. Start at kindergarten? Yep. Okay. And all the way to the 12th grade? Curriculum in place and standards in place starting specifically at So it does start as young as kindergarten. Alright. And one for Ms. Elko, Sam Elko. Guidance. Is there any talk about a two-year associate's degree?
058Some area high schools we have in Atlantic County actually have a two-year associate's degree. When the students graduate high school, they also have an associate's degree when they graduate, so they have two diplomas. Is that something that we've maybe looked into here? Yep. In the corporate township? Yep. regarding that. There are definitely some pros and cons to those two year degrees and students coming out with them, but we are looking to always add more dual credit courses, which can get them to that path in a similar way. So yes, we are in talks with Atlantic. But we don't have a program right now that offers the actual associate's degree. We don't. Okay. And I guess the last one is for Ms. Sennett of Health and Physical Education. How are you doing tonight? Lifeguard training, would
059that be under physical education? Do you have any type of program to look at, maybe lifeguard training to some of the programs for gym class? We can, but we have to hire somebody to do the instruction. So that would be a budget item that I can discuss in the future. Okay. Thank you very much. That's all my questions. Go ahead. I just wanted to say I really appreciate and enjoy the format. the presentations my question was for the special education department just wanted a little bit more information on it when you say the district teams could you just kind of elaborate on that a little bit more like with what that exactly isn't what they're yes to the team so it's a team of seven and they meet every week and go over the students
060and the needs and then create their schedule so they're addressing needs all across the district very nice and um i'm looking to see i know miss did i see miss hannigan oh i didn't even oh i didn't see i didn't see you back there with hannigan i'm sorry um just in reference to um The social studies department, and I'm not sure if this is going to have an effect or not, with the DEI changes and adjustments, do we think that's going to have an effect on the courses that we offer, or is that more of a state and district? I think that's more of a federal thing right now. District or federal, okay. Right now in our state there's many mandates to address that. We have a mandate to teach African-American history, a mandate to
061teach, I'm sorry, disabled history, LGBTQ history in the high school, and I know there's one more mandate. Amistad, yeah, but that's the African-American one. I'm sorry, I can't remember the other one. Asian Pacific Islanders. Okay, because I was asking about the state level versus federal. I didn't know if. If that was going to change, and I guess that's not a question you can really answer, but I'm just saying I just hope that we will be able to maintain the courses that we have that address diversity, equity, and inclusion as far as with our social studies and history programs. So that was it. Any other questions from board members? Seeing none. Thank you. Mr. Smith. Thank you to all the presenters We really appreciate everything and all your efforts this evening and then what you do
062all the whole year long and our planning and of course The budget process will continue as scheduled Thank you again I'd like to echo Mr. Delabarca's sentiments. Thank you, staff, for participating tonight, for the video that you made, and for the Board of Education to see and really appreciate the great and phenomenal things that go on in our school district. And we are extraordinary. We really are. What's offered to our students from social, emotional learning to academics to athletics to activities. you know the budget is huge i know and there have been requests here that are minimal but they um are for the betterment of the district as you know i always i tell staff and they'll stand up and attest that you know let's work to be extraordinary you know what are you going
063to be What are you going to do extra for Egg Harbor Township School District? So thank you again for attending, and thank you all for listening. It is just the beginning of the budgeting process, and we hope we continue the great education that we offer students of our community. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is student representative from the report on school current events and so forth. Tonight we have one high school representative with us. Would you introduce yourself to everybody and go on with your report? Thank you. Yes, good evening everyone. Nice to be back in the new year. Hi, my name is Osweimo Noipe, if you haven't seen me here yet. And yes, today I'm the only one. Marcus is competing in a mock trial competition. And yeah, I'm going to start
064with Swift's Label Complex. So at Swift's Label Complex, the student chosen for Principal of the Day, Lily Sikorek. wanted the students to feel comfortable and included, so she ruled that all the students wear pajamas last Friday on January 24th, and the students got to enjoy playing board games and card games during class. Then at Davenport, since the students in the district had off on the actual holiday, several classes celebrated Martin Luther King Day on January 15th. Mrs. Hoy and Mrs. Blair's kindergarten classes joined together to learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. and his impact on American history. And Mr. Cohen taught his second and third grade computer classes about MLK's life and work and also taught many lessons including the importance of nonviolence, equality, and justice. At Miller School, as a way to give
065back to the community and show students the importance of community service, they're hosting a hats and glove drive through the month of January. And additionally, Miller continuously collects clothing donations throughout the school year. At Alder, motivating students with the core message that failure is not the opposite of success, but an essential part of it, as Dr. Gruccio previously mentioned, Cam Awesome spoke to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade Alder students about his transformative journey of resilience from being bullied to being a boxer. And he encouraged reframing failure as an opportunity for growth and learning. Then at Fernwood, the District Deaf Education Department's Reading Buddies took a field trip to Fernwood Avenue Middle School, and for January, the students worked together on winter-themed STEM activities. Each group consisted of one student from the different grade levels, high
066school, middle school, and elementary school. The students collaborated on how to make an igloo for their penguin with toothpicks and marshmallows, and also a parachute to deliver their penguin's gift with a cup, a coffee filter, string, and tape. And then finally at the high school, the seniors who take language classes or speak another language at home have the opportunity to take the Seal of Biliteracy. And this recognizes their proficiency in speaking, hearing, reading, and writing in a language other than English. And during the week of January 13th, the class of 2025 seniors took their Seal of Biliteracy assessments in the library. Students tested in 15 different languages. I took the Spanish one. Some other students took French, Cantonese, Latin, and German. And this year we have 17 seniors who tested in two languages. And that
067is my report for January. Thank you very much. Great job. Thank you. Appreciate it. Next item on the agenda is public comments for agenda items only. I'm going to read the full statement since it's my first time and then maybe for the rest of the year I won't have to. 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
068a public meeting, and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful manner. If you have any comment tonight, please come up to the podium and state your full name and address. On agenda items only. Oh, I'm so glad I read that. Thank you very much. I continue on with the agenda. The next item on the agenda is finance and operations. Mr. Smith, any updates? Yes, there were quite a few updates that went out today regarding the bills list, the board secretary's report, the audit, some professional services contracts. If anyone has additional questions, just let me know. I know it was a lot to send out in one email. Anyone else? Thank you. And then we need a motion, please, for finance item 8.1. Mr. Price, I'll make that motion.
069Second. Mr. Byers. Yes. Are there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers. Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd. Yes. Mr. Ironman. Yes. Mr. Price. Yes, mr. Sepe yes, mr. Sullivan. Yes, mrs. Slaggy. Yes miss Hyman. Yes, and mr. Delbar Yes, need a motion please for finance items eight point two through eight point sixteen. I'll make that motion second our no one. All right Thank you very much any discussion Roll call please. Mr. Byers. Yes. This is Gilbert Floyd Yes. Mr. Ireland? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Szilagyi? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delbar? Yes. In the area of curriculum, Ms. Moss, do we have any further updates? Thank you. We need a motion, please, for 9.4. Motion. Hyman? I mean 9.1 through 9.3. Thank you. We have a motion. Do we have
070a second? Mr. Price, I'll second that motion. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Byers? Yes. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd? Yes. Mr. Ironman? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Mr. Sepe? Yes. Mrs. Sullivan? Yes. Mrs. Szilagyi? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabar? Yes. We need an area personnel. Dr. Charlton, any further information? I do not, Mr. President. Thank you. We need a motion for personnel items 10.2 through 10.8. So moved, Barbara Szilagyi. Second. Second, Sullivan. Thank you. 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. Szilagyi? Yes. Ms. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabarre? Yes. At this time we're going to ask Dr. Grucci to do the highlight of the evening, introduce our new employees. Alrighty, my pleasure. Okay, so... like to introduce to you
071for first time as a Nick Harper Township school district employee I'll start from the bottom up Shawn lady custodian for the district Yasmin Gonzalez Ramos custodian for the district Syra Castillo's Cardenas custodian Vaughn Howes armed guard for our school district Luann Brooks, the secretary of Fernwood Avenue Middle School. And no stranger, Mr. Adam Prime, promoted from 10-month assistant principal to 12-month assistant principal at Carver Township High School. So congratulations, everyone, and thank you, thank you for being with us tonight. I think you learned a whole lot about the district in terms of what's going on right now as well as what's been happening financially and what's being requested. So with that said, you know, I suggest you go out and celebrate. My congratulations on behalf of the board, and you may leave us if you'd
072like. Thank you very much for being with us tonight. See you in the halls. Is that coffee going to keep you up? Tomorrow comes quick. Moving on, we have new business. Under new business, we have the district calendar. It was revised due to the snow days that we already had. So the last day of school now will be June 23rd. Hopefully no more snow days. And then we have the two other items. So I need a motion to approve new business items 11.1 through 11.3. Okay. Any emotion please so made and a second fire second. Thank you any discussion. Yes, go ahead This is a loggy. One of the questions that I had sent in was if we could take March 7th and have a half a day and Not have to go back to
073school on Monday Yes, it was on the Because of that it was in the in the box that The mistake from all the double personnel stuff. Barb, repeat your suggestion. My suggestion was take March 7th, which is supposed to be a P-Day day, and have it a half a day for the students. And that way they don't have to go back on March 23rd. I've had a couple people ask me. I guess they saw it posted. if we could do something like that? Especially project graduation. Yeah, I know. Well, we do have speakers planned for March 7th, and professional development is very, very important to staff at this time. We don't have enough of it. So, yeah, I don't know. That's going to be tough. It would be tough. Well, visit it. I always like
074to visit places. I'm sorry you missed that on my questions because I didn't see it in the answers. I did send it in. Okay, we'll visit. Go ahead, Mr. Price. In regards to the calendar, I know we hope there's no more snow days, but in the unlikely event or in the event, say we're snowed out for a week, just hypothetically. Is there any way to switch to virtual by law? Can we go to virtual so we don't lose days? We have to have three days. With virtual instruction, you have to be out for three consecutive days before you can go to virtual. So if it were to be a week, you could, legally. Okay. It depends. You would have to have a plan. Everybody has to have a plan in place through the state. You
075have to be in a state of emergency. And you would have to make sure everybody has the capability that they have Chromebooks, laptops at home. Like during COVID, we made sure everybody had that access. Since COVID, a lot of districts I know have gotten away from that because of resources and whatnot. So I think there would be a lot of factors looking at that. But legally speaking, it is possible. to do something like that and most of the students do take their Chromebooks home now no no no they don't any other questions roll call please mr. Byers yes this is Gilbert Floyd yes mr. Ireland yes mr. price yes mr. seppy yes mr. Sullivan yes this is sluggy yes miss Hyman yes and mr. Delbar yes Under old business, to affirm the Hib determination report,
076we need a motion, please. Motion. Motion, Ireland. Is there a second? Hyman. 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. Salagi? Yes. Mrs. Hyman? Yes. And Mr. Delabar? Yes. Moving along to communications. Just for information, New Jersey School Boards Association, Mr. Ireland. Hello, Mr. Dahlbarka. I can give a quick update from our last meeting that we had. Last meeting, I talked about how we're electing new state leaders for the NJSBA. I went to Trenton on January 11th, and we roughly had training for about six and a half hours there. We're scheduled for two more trainings, February 7th and February 14th on Valentine's Day. In Trenton, so I'll be there for that day. My wife is very happy. And then
077further on, we'll have our interviews for that. But I'm going to hold off on the details for those interviews because I don't know. We haven't received the packages yet for that, so I don't know if anybody on this panel is going for any positions. So other than that, Mr. Delbarco, I have Atlantic County stuff, but I think that's you, right? you can go ahead awesome go ahead so for atlanta county um we're meeting uh february 10th for the county leadership uh that's going to be held virtually the topic of the discussion is going to be the possible attempt to search for immigrant students and parents that's a hot topic item that's going to clarify that's a state meeting with all all representatives from all the school districts in the states correct thank you mr albaca
078and then uh march 20th is our eighth grade dialogue and that's going to be in app seeking last year it was held here in ehd this year it's going to be held in appseekin and then after that we're going to have a may 8th meeting at great bay and that's just going to be recognizing board members for their certifications and their milestones so that's all i have right now mr del barco thank you very much for the state school boards association their next meeting for the board of directors is this friday evening so i'll be able to report on that at the next meeting mr delabarco go ahead mr price I'd like to make a comment about some New Jersey School Boards Association stuff that I think might be of interest. Just a couple of
079brief things. We're talking about grants, as you heard me mention before. New Jersey Department of Education announces grant awards to support artificial intelligence in education. The New Jersey Department of Education recently announced... The award details of two grants to foster the use of artificial intelligence in school districts and the county vocational schools throughout the state. Grant opportunities available for improving public school recreation facilities. Governor Murphy appropriated $20 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget to the local recreation improvement grant to support improvement and repairs to public school recreation facilities. So that's interesting. Also, we talk about NJDOE, Department of Education, announces Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act webinar series. There's going to be a series that you can tune into and learn more about the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act, which I think is of interest
080to all of us. And we have some other talk about the U.S. Department of Education releases ESSER. FUND SUMMARY REPORT. I THINK THAT'S INTERESTING. IT MIGHT HAVE USEFUL DATA FOR US AS WELL. THAT'S ALL. I WON'T HOLD IT, BUT I APPRECIATE THE TIME TO MAKE A FEW COMMENTS IN REGARDS TO THIS. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, MR. PRICE. JUST FOR EVERYONE'S INFORMATION, MR. PRICE IS VICE PRESIDENT FOR LEGISLATION FOR THE COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION, AND MR. IRLAND IS VICE PRESIDENT OF THE ALLANDA COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION. SO THAT'S WHY WE HAVE SO MUCH INFORMATION. AND THEY'RE STUCK WITH ME BECAUSE I'M ON THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE NEW JERSEY SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION. So, Acarpa Township is pretty well represented both locally and around the state. At this time, we have the open, the public comments
081information, yeah, guidelines for public comments. I'm not going to read the guidelines, but this time it's on any topic. So, if there's anyone in the audience who would be interested in coming to the mic and making a comment, please do so. State your name and address. Don't all rush up at one time. All right. Thank you very much. Seeing none. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Myers. Apologies. This is on the last topic. I thought it pertinent to the subject. From January 24th to 26th, I attended the New Jersey School Board Association new member orientation training, where I learned a lot about what not to say and what not to email, and learned also that I should have a lot of pride in this esteemed board because we seem to have a lot of lessons learned
082that's are being taught to school boards across the state of New Jersey that have not learned them yet. So I'm very proud to be part of this, and thank you very much for your support in allowing me to have that training. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Barsch. He spent the actual weekend up there in Princeton area on training. And from my knowledge of the New Jersey school boards, it was pretty intense and thorough and detailed and all the good things. As those of you in the audience know this, we have members of this board have been here for 30 years, for 15 years, for 12, 15, 10 years. So it's quite an experienced board of education. So Mr. Barsch, we're going to look forward to learning from you also during this time. Thank you. I
083believe there's all comments from any other board members. Mrs. Gilbert-Floyd. I just wanted to ask Mr. Ireland if he could just, you said that during the meeting that one of the topics was searching for immigrant students. I just wanted to get a little more clarity on what, was that the topic or was that, what is that? Yeah. Will you help me? Yes. School boards. Email to that. That's a legal issue right now. Yes. There's so many mics on. Okay. That's a legal issue right now. The Department of Ed put out a broadcast memo about what to do if ICE comes to a school district. And so they're just going to talk about those topics. All right. I just wanted to make sure I was clear. I was like searching for it. I know that that's
084a hot topic right now, but I just wanted to get clarity on. And you're living with it as a school principal, so yes. Yeah, they just sent an article. As a matter of fact, it was the school superintendent association. They sent out a... memo basically that's in the school boards you know what we need to do any other that board members any comments motion I need a motion for adjournment motion are made is that okay all in favor the second but oh my meeting is adjourned thank you very much I said thank you