001everyone, and thank you all for being here tonight. Tonight's one of those special nights for us as a board, but most importantly for all of our students. We get to recognize all of our um senior students in theater, music, and all of our athletics. So, it's a special night. This is one of those nights where it's it's fun to be a board member to see the results of all the all the hard work of everyone involved. So, we will open tonight. We already opened in executive session. Our first item on the agenda is the general meeting. The report from our student representative. So, welcome to the board. Good evening, everyone. My name is So Long and I'm serving as this year's student council secretary. I'm here to share what's happening on our school and what's
002coming up next. Starting with old business, spring spirit week is finally underway. We're dressing up each day in our class colors that are bringing high energy to our building. We're going to wrap it up this Friday with the school wide field day. Teacher Appreciation Week is coming up tomorrow, April 24th, and similarly, spring sports teacher appreciation will be taking place tomorrow, March 8th. Our school musical, The Lightning Thief, the Percy Jackson musical, is going to be performed this Saturday, April 26th at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be available either at the door or in advance, so be sure to come out to support our cast and Also, picture day order forms and contracts are currently on sale to support public education versus private. Now, moving on to new business. NJ SLA testing will begin on April
00327th for freshmen, followed by science testing on April 30th for the juniors. The VR just graduated will take place on May 1st. That same day, seniors will be on to participate in Aspire Higher by wearing something that represents different colleges. Senior portraits for the class of 2027 will be held from May 1st through May 7th, and similarly, prom tickets for juniors and seniors will be on sale from May 1st to May 8th. Class officer and student council elections are taking place on May 14th. And we also have some upcoming senior nights for spring sports. Track on April 13th, soccer on May 1st, and baseball on May 21st. Additionally, April 6th is our exact graduation date, so mark your calendars. Congratulations, seniors. Finally, in contesting one from Monday, May 4th through Friday, May 8th. That's everything
004tonight. Thank you all for coming. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. YES, I'M GOING ON OUR AGENDA, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN. I HAVE the public forum. This is the public forum that is for agenda items only. Just to make sure everybody is aware that if you wanted to speak, there was a sign-up form that was set up at the door. That's When? Okay. Um the best part of the night, um agenda item G, recognition and presentations. Um so, Dr. O'Connell, I think we're handing the floor to Mrs. Sneddon. Okay. Okay, hi everybody. Uh so, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Michelle Sneddon. I'm the new principal here at the high school. Uh thank you everyone for having me. Thanks. It's nice to be here. Uh I'm proud to stand here tonight to recognize the incredible
005achievements of both our performing arts students and our winter sports athletes. On behalf of the Bordentown Regional School District and the Board of Education, led by Dr. O'Connell, I'd like to express how proud we are of each of you for your dedication, perseverance, and outstanding performance. Before I call up our students, I would like to take a moment to thank the coaches, teachers, and families who continue to support our performers and athletes every step of the way. Your encouragement and guidance are instrumental in shaping these students into the exceptional individuals they are today. Students, as I call your names, please come forward to receive your certificate. Please stay standing until I call either all the members of the band, the performers, or the members of your team. Okay. And we are going to start with
006our All Burlington County Middle School Honors Band students. So, when I call your name, please come up. Um first, we'll have Fiona McMen. Next, we have Rexford Ajay. And next, we have Owen Leikner. Next, we have Tristan Mayhew. Brendan Mallon. Quentin Maloney. All right, Mason Hines. I am Lulu. Abigail McBride. So, Sauvelder And then we also would like to recognize Maggie Fischer being a member of the All State Jersey Orchestra. All right, so those are all our middle school performing arts students. So one more time, round of applause. Okay, next we would like to recognize our high school members of the All State Jersey High School Chorus, River Skalski. And then we would like to recognize Bryn Bauer as a recipient of the 2026 New Jersey Thespian Arts Advocacy Scholarship. Riley Evans as the recipient
007of the superior award in the category of solo acting. And Joshua Moore, the recipient of the superior award in the category of play writing at the New Jersey State Thespian Festival. And then we also would like to recognize the DRHS International Thespian Society Troupe for receiving three awards, the Thespian Cornucopia Award, the Thespian Harvest Award, and the New Jersey Thespian Golden Harvest Award. congratulations to them. Okay, thank you. Congratulations once again. Now we will move on to our winter sports. First we will recognize our girls basketball team under the direction of coach Bill Lloyd. We'd like to call our first team Freedom Division students, Sierra Knight and Addison Zuback. And our second team, Corrine Arnold. straight year. Congrats. Boys basketball, first team entry division we'd like to recognize Chase Martin. All right, thanks guys. Great
008job. >> Smile, smile, honey. I would like to mention under the direction of coach Curry, I'm sorry. I am a uh I'm sorry. Sorry, coach Curry. All right. Next up, boys bowling under the direction of coach Ron Jones. We'd like to recognize first team, Gavin Hughes. TYLER BROWN AND RYAN WOOD. Second team, Peter Sakola and Kenny T. Boys bowling won their division for the fifth straight year this year. Go in there, go with them. Go with them. Also Gavin made the top 100 in the state. All right, girls bowling under the the direction of coach Kim Petrie. First team in transit division, Gracie Tyler. Nadia Figueroa and McKenzie Hershkowitz. And second team, Kaylee Monograsso and KAYLA PARKER. THE GIRLS TEAM WENT TO THE SECTIONAL finals in South Jersey Group 1. All right, boys wrestling under
009the direction of coach Glenn C. Watkins, we'd like to recognize the first team, Jeremy Watkins. >> Second team, we'd like to recognize Austin Jin. Hayden Pitt and Derek Enslin. Congratulations. And now we'd like to recognize our girls wrestling team. First team, we'd like to recognize Anna Nakamura. And it was also named a 2025 Scholar All-American by the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Anna is a member of the wrestling team with a 3.5 GPA while also performing at a high level on the mat. Congratulations, Anna. Continuing first team, we'd like to recognize Madison Blumenthal. And we also like to let everyone know that Emma and Maddie are the first two girls in program history to make the 100 wins club. And first team again, Oriol Luet and Ayeyemi. And second team, we'd like to recognize Maya Trinidad.
010As far as coaching goes, this time of the evening we would like to recognize our team with the highest GPA for the winter season. Being a student athlete requires an incredible balance of time management, focus, and commitment. Over one quarter of our BRHS student body were active in winter athletics this season. Our athletes had a combined GPA of 90.38. Excelling academically while also dedicating yourself to your sport is no small task. It speaks to your character, determination, and ability to set and achieve goals. These are the qualities that not only make you successful in your sport, but will also carry with you in life. This year's top three teams were separated by less than 0.1 of GPA. Third place was our boys bowling team with a 92.90 GPA. Our second place team was our girls
011bowling team WITH A AND OUR WINTER TEAM GPA WINNERS ARE girls track team with GPA averages of 93. So, to all of our students being honored here tonight by the Board of Education, it's not just recognition of your talent, but a celebration of your commitment and effort. Take a moment to soak in your accomplishment because it because it is well deserved. As you move forward, may this recognition tonight remind you that your excellence comes not just from your talent, but your dedication and heart. Congratulations once again to both our performing arts students and are also our athletes. We are all so proud of you and can't wait to see what you achieve next. Thank you for what you bring to the Boarding Town School District and the community. AND NEXT STUDENTS AND FAMILIES, IF YOU'D
012LIKE TO JOIN DOWN in the foyer for individual team photos, you're welcome to. But, thank you all for coming. All right, pics guys downstairs. We different, right? Congratulations. >> Good job, Mason. Yuan We just need to recognize that Yuan Lulu because he was also a member of the 2026 All Burlington County Middle School Honors Band. I apologize. Take a nice photo. Great job, Mrs. Panetta. Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Send everybody back in. Nice job, everybody. Nice job. Thank you very much. Uh thank you, everyone on the board. And thank you to the audience members who just stick around with us. It's nice to have you here for the full meeting. Um we still do have one more presentation um in agenda item G. It is the
013presentation of the energy savings and improvement plan. Um which will be presented by um Mr. Brian Magaro from SC Energy Services. Okay. Thank you, everybody out there in the room. So, I'll let him in the floor as soon as he's ready. Okay. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the board. And ladies and Dr. Bella. And Mr. Peck. Good to see you. Um it's nice to be here this evening with you. My name is Brian Magaro. Uh I am with Schneider Electric and I have been in a first career, which is very similar to what you're doing tonight. I have I was a business administrator for 26 years and a teacher for 6 years in New Jersey public schools. So, very familiar with some of the things that you're going through. I retired from that and
014entered into a career with Schneider Electric in the energy saver business. Great career. Great second career, I should say. Before I continue with that, I do want to introduce my partner this evening, Mr. Joe Billick, and he can tell you a little bit about himself. Good evening. First of all, thank you for allowing us to present this evening. Before I go on, though, being married to a secretary for 42 years, I recognize that this is Administrative Day, correct? So, we'd like to recognize all the efforts for the assistants and the secretaries over the years. They keep the engine going. So, if I didn't make that statement and I went home, my wife asked, "Did you recognize the secretaries?" Yes, I did. So, my name's Joe Billick. I am the president of Brandywine Consulting Services. Brian
015and I have worked together for many, many years in the same district in Medford. The BA, I was the director of operations and technology. I was a board member in my town for 8 years, 9 years. Served as vice president for 7 of those years. And I've been involved in ESIPs, a number of ESIPs from the operation side, the administrative side. I do project management for and consulting services for Schneider Electric. I'm also a consultant for the Joint Insurance Fund, which Voorhees Township is a member. So, I provide a wide range of services for a number of different clients and clients. And I was fortunate enough to be involved in E-Save from both the board member side, and again the administrator side, and from the traffic management side. So, I'm here to provide assistance services
016for Schneider Electric. Thanks, Joe. I appreciate it. Um brief 20-30 second commercial, who is Schneider Electric? We are not the electric people who come out and service your home or anything like that. Our name is a little bit misleading. We are a global and We are located in over 125 countries throughout the world. Our business is energy, period. We're all energy. Uh we service our particular part of the business, my particular part of the business, again, is energy and sustainability. Specifically, servicing public entities, school districts, municipalities, water and waste, all those types of And we look to save you money on your utility expenses, like electric, gas, water, so forth. And everywhere where we can save you the E-Save program Energy Savings Improvement Program. Um you're going to hear various acronyms, hence the side sheet
017I gave you. Glossary of Acronyms. Just like in education, okay? You have a series of acronyms. We do in our industry. By no means is that all the acronyms, but as I say them, I may highlight what it means, okay? So that you know what I'm talking about. So, we we appreciate that. Uh I'd like to get started with you on Oh, thank you, Dr. Eppolito. I appreciate it. I'd like to get started with you real quick. Every Board of Education has a mission. It has goals. You had visions. Um meeting with uh Ms. Henry uh about a month or so ago and um Lisa, uh the facilities director. They share okay, your missions uh your mission, uh some of your visions, your goals that I know you you take very seriously and how to
018implement them. I'm going to pause there for a second and maybe ask anyone or if you'd like to elaborate on um your mission, your vision, your goals as a board. Just take a few minutes to do so. If not, that's not a problem. That's fine. Appreciate it. Uh we Shavonda gave gave us a good overview of that. So, uh we're well aware of that. That's one of the things we try to do with this school. Try to address and help you achieve those missions, the vision, goals of your district uh because listen, it involves dollars and cents and savings. If we can help you reallocate some of those expenses into other parts of your budget, that's what we're looking to do. As well as building up and enhancing your facilities infrastructure in terms of energy
019efficiency. Okay? That's our goal in trying to help you help yourselves. Um we're going to talk a little bit about what ESCO can do. Why you know, why are you exploring it? And then thinking ahead, you know, what maybe would be some possible solutions. What is By the way, I'm not going to read these slides to you. I won't insult your insult your intelligence. I'm going to give an overview of the slide. You certainly uh at your leisure uh impact areas of ESCO. Infrastructure capital improvements. It addresses that. Okay? ESIP can address that from an energy perspective, energy efficiency perspective. Efficiency in operations. I think Mr. Billick can talk momentarily on how ESIP can help address that. Well, the concept of ESIP, the the primary structure of ESIP is not a concept that is new.
020It's been around for a number of decades. And it's a structure and strategy called release and reallocate. And essentially, for budgetary purposes, it's identifying, mining, and releasing funds that already exist in fund the letter of operation. And then taking those efficiencies and funds associated with those efficiencies and applying them to capital improvement projects for 12, right? So, we're not talking about new money. As an example, years ago, I conducted an audit of all the telephone lines with Metropolitan Nashville. And I discovered that they had 501 telephone They were only using 26. So, of all those lines that they were paying monthly service fees on, when you close all those lines, terminate all those lines, the $50,000 that you release helped fund a equipment lease program to put security cameras in all of our schools at
021no additional cost to the taxpayer. So, what we're talking about is identifying existing budgetary expenses that you're applying to technically utility, electric, natural gas, water, telecom. Identifying those efficiencies, improving those efficiencies, and then taking those available funds to support goals and projects that the district may identify. HVAC projects, lighting projects, window projects, anything that has to do with energy efficiency. We've already talked about talked about that. So, we're looking at a program and a strategy that releases existing money to improve infrastructure without burdening the taxpayer. When I was a board member, my personal approach was as a board member, we're responsible for two primary uh possessions of your community. And those primary possessions are the children and the money. Right? So, we're here to protect those two precious commodities, and this program helps enhance or
022support those types of projects. Thank you, gentlemen. To sum up the financial part of it, reallocation of resources, right? Reallocate existing resources, okay, to efficiencies. Um safety, security, and building and and resilience. Uh funding, procurement, facility management solutions, communications, and data. ESIP addresses all of these areas in some form or another, depending on your goals, on your vision, depending upon what is available, okay, in terms of being able to upgrade, to make more efficient, to save those dollars. Okay. Uh next Advantages of ESIP, okay? First and foremost, um many people think that it's necessary to do a referendum to do any type of capital improvement project. Not necessary. In the In the case of ESIP, okay, in terms of funding, you don't need to pass a referendum to fund. Now, don't get me wrong. I
023want to be clear on this. ESIP does not take the place of a capital referendum. Okay? Referendum encompasses many areas. Okay? Could be additions, could be whatever the case may be. ESIP does not take the place of them. Okay? But, if you're looking at doing energy efficiency projects, looking at savings, etc., ESIP can support a referendum and take some of that load away from it. Okay? And do it in a non-tax impact way. Because with ESIP in New Jersey, the savings must cover the expense of the ESIP over time. Usually, that time is 15 to 20 years. The savings covers the expense over the time, which means there is not a tax impact Okay? So, we can go to our community and tell your community we're looking at every option before we actually, you know,
024enter into a, we'll say, larger referendum pool. Okay? That's just New Jersey. So, there's no no referendum involved. Positive taxpayer stewardship? Yes, mention that. Why? It does not have an impact on the taxpayer. Later on in this presentation, which won't be too much longer, I know your time is valuable and you're busy. Later on, I'll give you an example of a a recent project we did for a school district and and how it worked out with that. Usually in an ESIP, 10 to 40% savings. We average somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% savings. When I say we, uh Schneider Electric. Schneider Electric is an ESCO. It's on your sheet. Energy Services Company. Okay? So, if you hear the term energy services company, we are an ESCO. All right? That's That's who is permitted to provide
025the services in the state. An ESCO. Less risk. I'm going to address that. And I'm going to let Mr. Billick address the comprehensive solution and include and and construction services, but I'll address the less risk. ESCO allows you to pick your partner. By picking your partner, okay? You know how you do a traditional design bid build, okay? And the low the low bidder gets the work and that's who you have to work ESCO flips that on its head. ESCO says, "You get to pick who you want to work with." All right? Schneider, okay? You do that through a competitive process. That's through an RFP process under the law. Okay? And since this is governed by the law, as long as you're regulated by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, in other words, NJBPU on
026your sheet like that. Okay? So, it is we have to follow the rules. Less risk. How is it less risk? Well, in a typical project, you go out, lowest lowest bidder, lowest responsible bidder. And that's the keyword, right? Uh but then you come across this problem that Oh, that's a change order. Oh, that's a change order. Okay? Or this Henry is is is pulling her hair. Okay? My god, how are we going to do this? How are we going to handle it? Okay? You the board is saying, "Oh, we got another change order this month." One of the things that Schneider Schneider as an ESCO in this process takes away from you is some of that risk. We take full responsibility for your project, whatever that project may be that we develop in coordination with
027you. We take full responsibility. Now, once we sign that contract, construction contract, the project goes into place, we put out the bids. We hold all the contracts. So, between us and we'll say a mechanical thing, us and maybe an electrical thing. Okay? Those contracts that they have are with us, not It's our headache, not yours. Because in our contract, we give you a fixed price. And all the headaches, all those things that happen on the job, okay? That's on us. We work them through. You're certainly part of the process, we keep you informed, but that's the risk we take away from you. We absorb the risk. Okay? Is that Is that clear how that works? Okay. One other aspect usually in an ESIP is that there is an option to have a guarantee of savings,
028an option. It's It's additional cost under the law. There There's a We'll call it a premium or an upcharge to get a guarantee, but you can do that. If you choose to sign, you don't have to. What does that guarantee say? It says that you're If we're guaranteeing you $100,000 worth of savings in a given and you only get $85,000 worth of savings, we write you a check for $15,000. And then we come in and fix the problem on our dime. Because we don't want to keep writing you checks, we want you to be saving. You want to be saving. That's how the guarantee works. Okay? Who Who determines the savings? Well, the savings are monitored by the BPU, the savings are monitored by an independent third party, which I'll go into details, and the
029savings are monitored by us. So, you have three entities that are looking at those savings. Okay? So, it's not just taking more money. All right? Joe, you hit hit the solution in the in the construction service. So, let's say for example, McFarland needs to have all of their unit ventilators and they just wore out and they bought them. So, about $100,000 a year. Those are the what I call this ballpark. Budgetary pressures are enormous for districts like this. And it's not uncommon for managers to be deferred in the near future. But these units are not self-healing. They will not get any better. They will be worse. So, typically, what happens districts are faced with making very difficult decisions. If your state share is reduced, your healthcare costs go up unexpectedly high. CSAE contracts or not
030CSAE contracts, my apologies. Your association contracts require increases in salary. These are all financial burdens that we're having to deal with. And when I was on the board of education, we had to make some very very difficult decisions. With an E SIP, E SIP give you a little bit of breathing room. And by that I mean, the E SIPs will identify, as I said earlier, efficiencies and savings opportunities that you use existing funds to improve or to support improvements in your capital infrastructure. So, rather than having to make a decision on replacing only one or two unit ventilators at McFarland, you may be able to replace all of them. And package these mechanical, electrical, building envelope projects in a more uniform way and consolidate the bids, rather than having to face diminished improvements in your
031mechanical infrastructure year after year, and then find out that 5 years from now you have a significant roof issue or a significant issue with your HVC system because they're not providing the appropriate amount of outside air or the heating system's having to fail. Absolutely time after time where uh deferred maintenance becomes an issue and rather than having a program to replace it on a sequential or a scheduled basis and that will work things for sure. Very very costly. So, one of the benefits of of an ESIP is to through an LGEA which is a local government energy audit or if the board would have decided to move forward and selected SO and do an IGA, that identifies programs, packaged uh repair or replacement systems under the ESIP that allows you all to uh get more
032work done for the same amount for for the money that the uh district would typically allocate for utilities, uh water, sewer, those types of uh fundamental projects. So, packaging these capital improvement projects under ESIP, again is a no cost alternative to the taxpayer and it allows the district to address all of these long-standing maintenance issues that very common for school districts to have to grapple with. Thank you, Jeff. Uh Dr. Cromwell, very briefly, this is how ESIP works. Simple. Let's say you have a $5,000 $5,000 $500,000 annual energy spend. Okay? ESIP, we can knock that down with the typical 8:30 30% saving. By the way, this is not your scenario. This is a general scenario. So, I don't want you to think this is your situation. Uh so, we ESIP said we can knock it
033down to a $350,000 annual energy cost, okay? Saving $150,000 with with that average of a 30% savings, which in turn you can we just highlight some things. As Joe mentioned, HVAC solutions and efficiencies, lighting, IT energy, all those things that you see there, you can take those savings, put it into those items now, okay? Which in turn you pay for it over time, which in turn that savings covers the cost. Okay? That's how the program works. Not going to go over this in detail, but we in turn Schneider Electric as the ESCO, we in turn we do the design and engineering. You are part of the process each and every step of the way. You don't leave you out of it. You're part of the process. We collaborate with you each and every project. Okay?
034And we design and engineer based upon our conversation. We manage the construction. We in terms of financial services, okay? We don't do them. We don't finance the project, okay? But we help you in any way we can. You normally have a board of FAs that you work with, etc. We we help in that process in terms of giving the FAs what they need, what the project is all about, okay? So, we help in that. Support services for the project, performance guarantee, I mentioned that. Outreach and engagement. One of the things we do in Schneider is you'll see this in a couple of slides. We are a large company. One of the things we pride ourselves on is supplying you, the client, is when we're doing a project with you, we have a vast team of
035public Okay? Whatever you would like to do, however you would like to put out information, how you're doing, our team of PR people will provide that service to you. That's part of what we do. I would assume most of you do. So, we know you don't have the ability to have a whole PR So, we help in that respect. We have our team work with you. You'll see some examples. Sorry. E-sub process is a process. Joe mentioned a local government energy audit. Okay? That is something that the BPU requires that every public entity do prior to being able to do E-sub. A local government energy uh the local government energy audit through TRC, which is the only entity the state has contracted with to do a local government That is of no cost to you.
036It is covered under the societal benefits charge. That's on every electric I think it's covered by TRC However, there is a backlog to go through. So, if you haven't done a local government energy audit and you want to go through with TRC, there is a significant backlog, okay, to do that. Uh or the BPU says, "Hey, you can do it yourself." Meaning, you can go out, you can hire your own uh uh energy auditor and do your own It's called ASHRAE Level Two audit. ASHRAE is on your acronym list, okay, and what it's kids for. So, uh you have options. If you want to go quicker in the process, then you do it yourself and guess what? E-sub's going to E-sub's going to pay. When I say pay, you're going to make up that cost
037of that energy audit by doing the E-sub through those savings. Okay? So, time is money. The longer you drag it out, more expensive things get. You move quicker, you get lower costs, okay, and possibly uh get your project done much, much quicker. Okay? Uh with that, I'll let you review, but there is a process that you go through. That process takes, roughly speaking, going through it, you know, with the with the general probably takes about 12 12 months maybe go through that that process. But, selecting Schneider Electric, we're going through that process with you. Okay? And by the way, so uh so Marketing services, what I talked about. Here are all the things that we would offer you, that we offer all of our clients, okay? And appropriate. All right? We PR media. That's press
038releases. That's social media. Uh you know, custom branding of your project, message support, digital tools. I mean, our We have some of the best in the business. What we call solutions. What's out there to help show your community, to put out to your community, what what you are doing, okay? To benefit your students, to benefit your efficiencies throughout the district. We help We help you get that message out, okay? In a very professional manner. Next one. In terms of now, we've we've spoken with your administration, uh and um we uh we'd like to come in and look at a business case. And I think we're we're set up to do that. That costs you nothing, okay? Where we come in, we do a an evaluation of your facilities, very brief, high-level, okay? We would come
039in the number of facilities you have, probably a day or two, just to look and see what's there, and see what opportunities you may have for EC. Okay? Um that is in the works right now, okay? That costs you nothing. We do that for a row. That's what we do at Grace. And we would present to you something like the illustration after we review, develop a report we put together what we call business case and say this is what we see as your opportunity at a high level. What we see you can do if you wanted to move forward looking at these prices. Okay? So, no there's no uh you know, you're you're you're not obligated to do anything. It's no risk. You're just doing that more investigation to see what opportunities are there for
040you. Okay? Uh and then as I said, the executives and the LGPA application for your part of that next steps. Sorry. Okay, I have two two references just to show you. One just down the road by the way. We just completed a project at the Florence Township public schools. Uh it was just under a $5 million project overall. Uh these are the things that they that they received in that project and uh I invite you to know anybody from Florence Township or from the school district, uh you know, fellow administrator uh administrators or members, please feel free to ask them but very successful project. Uh excellent excellent project and great solar system. Thanks. By the way, that project this is just closing out. Florence. Okay, we just we just entered the process of closing that
041project. This is the one I just want to spend a minute or so. Paulsboro schools down in Gloucester County. You want to talk about the epitome of what an ESCO should look like. When we first went into the Paulsboro schools, they had about I'm going to say they had about a three three and a half million opportunity for the district, okay? Meaning that's what they could do in terms of energy savings, etc. that could be paid for. Then we went we tried or we went to a a seminar and we found that there was a schools and small business loan program. Uh I shouldn't say loan, uh grant program. That they just opened up a second time with an additional $70 million. We jumped right on that with the district and we said, "Hey, let's
042go after this." We got them another $5 million. Okay? They also had some capital reserve that they wanted to put toward the project with things that savings wasn't covered but they still wanted to do. That was about half a million dollars that they had. They got over $10 million project at no impact to the taxpayer. The ESIP was covered by savings, okay? Those upgrades. The grant covered the cost of other scope items in the district. And the 500,000 of capital reserve, well that was money they had, okay? So there was no additional money raised. So $10 million of a project with zero impact on the taxpayer, they were able to put all new unit ventilators in all three of the buildings. Plus air conditioning. Okay? One of the buildings. To get rid of all of
043the window units in that building. Okay? Uh plus other scope items, lighting included. Okay? You talk about what ESIP was putting. And I apologize to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. That was a mistake. Uh to qualify for that ESIP from another project, that that's my error. Anyway, that's what Paul's firm uh was able to experience. That project we just closed out 1 year ago. That finished up in I apologize for a little bit of a lengthy part of it, but if you have any questions, comments, I'm happy to answer them before I make the time to and we thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. I'll open up the floor to the board members if there's any questions. I have a few questions. Okay. The The energy audit fee that you guys
044mentioned in your presentation, um that's separate from the fee that we would be paying which comes later. Yeah, right Right now there's no fee consultant at this point. There's no no cost in that respect. The energy local government energy audit you're referring to, yeah, if if you were not to go with a TRC and you were to put something out, um you know, an RFP for example, to get an energy audit done, an LG GA done, after a little bit, yes, there would be a cost. We do not do that. We can't do it. We want to be your ESCO, so we can't do that. But there are companies out there, energy auditing firms, I believe actually there are like 49 listed under the There's a department D- DPM City. And what would be the
045reason why you would do the latter instead of going for Yeah, we are not permitted under this legislation to do a local government program. If you select us down the process and selection later to be your ESCO, we're committed to do what we have to do. Investment grade. That's the type of That's the type of The LG GA is a requirement of the personal abilities before you can do the type of work. And then my other uh question was um the receipt So, you mentioned the savings with the paper itself. It would come out of the fee for Schneider would come out of the savings. Is that on a yearly basis? Is that how you assess or how does that work? How does Schneider get paid? Very simply, if you select us as your ESCO,
046we develop your project, you approve, this is what we want to do, you sign the contract, okay, to implement that project. All right? We get paid like any other any other significant contract in the state. It's a five-year contract. Let's say it's a Let's say it's a $7 million. Covers all these different submittals. Our contract would say fixed price $7 million, which will do X and list that everything. That's how we get paid. Schneider has the project fee. Okay? Just so you know. That's how we get paid. You don't pay us anything unless you're really happy. Does that make sense? I'm still kind of trying to understand. So, let's say under the scope there's six projects, right? So, we would Would we be paying a portion of the fee with the assessment to each project
047in the in the scope or is it as a whole? As a whole. As a whole. As a whole. Portion of the possible What is the How is it possible that it's five years and we haven't worked with them with Schneider? What would that be? What portion of the Okay. Yeah. All four of your projects was I I said it was 10 plus million dollars overall, okay? Yeah, that's what we got paid. Okay? That's what we got paid to implement all of your projects, too. So, you're taking the 10 million and you're getting those contracts. You're working You're taking some of it. But you're implementing it and paying those contractors and vendors to do the job, but you're taking some of that as your fee. Absolutely. Right. Yeah, cuz the contractor would Right, but that's
048how it works. Just as any other con- contractor works. That's how we would work on that end. Do you understand? We Up until the time you would sign a contract with us to say, "Here's Here's our project scope. Here's what we're going to do. Blah blah blah." Up until that time you would pay us nothing. We're not billing you every month like, you know, other person. Pay us something. You sign You sign the energy services contract, okay? Do an ESA. It has right on there fixed price contract of whatever the amount. Once that contract is signed and we mobilize and we start and of course you're aware of all this. We explain all that in the agreement, but that's when we start billing you. Station X percent complete, okay? That's when we start billing. Up
049until that time you have not paid us anything. So, that's how we work at Grace. Okay? That could take a year year and a half the whole process and the development and so on, but you have to pay us nothing. Until that contract Is it fair Is it fair to say that I'm telling the scope The scope of Fallsburg is $10 million worth of work. Yes. So, is it fair to say that if they were to do it outside of the municipality it would have been it would have cost them 30% more to do the work? Potentially, yes. And over the lifespan of the savings of by using or going through the ESA, you're talking about 30% coming from fund 11 and fund 12. So, if they were not to have done that scope of
050work through the ECEP, it would be fair to say that it would potentially have cost them 30% more to do the work out of their operating budget. The point of being in the ECEP is that it allows us to reallocate dollars out of fund 11 into fund 12 over both the short and long term for every one of the projects that we roll into in this Right, because it's taking It's taking those utility dollars that you're paying PSE&G No offense to PSE&G, but I think it works better. Okay, it takes some of those dollars that you're paying them because you're saving those dollars and you're reallocating them towards this. So, and then once we if we were to engage in and align ourselves with Schneider Electric on the ECEP, it is not a one-time, one-project
051situation. We are aligned and we can do a $3 million project here this year, 3 years from now we come back and we say we do a $4 million project that's what we're going to do with fund 12. Every time we engage If we do a $3 million project and it's and we close it, Schneider's done getting paid. We're continuing to see the savings. Absolutely. A year from now we want to reengage on another scope of work, we come back to you, we go through the process again, we present, we say we move forward, you tell us it's a million and a half dollars, we engage with you, you get a million and a half dollars, we get 30% guaranteed with the guarantee of savings. So, once we engage with an ECEP, we'll be fine.
052It's not a okay, ECEP one big scope of projects can be a big scope, small scope, medium scope, it's whatever we are comfortable with. The majority of what we would want to do when we come out of that energy audit when we come in with TRJ or whatever it is is going to come in and do a full-scale audit of where savings can be found from energy perspective. And then the projects that we will be building are around those energy savings. Yes, and to get to your point, it's interesting how you lay that out. But if you were to do it in those stages, like a year later or whatever, okay? You could do phase one, phase two, phase three. Yes, you can do it in that respect. And we would we would set up
053your energy savings plan to accommodate that in that initial design. Okay? Typically, if you so desire, sit quietly and do what you need to Then typically, yes. Yes, but as you as you laid that out, you could do it in in phases if you so desire. We would just need to work that out at that time. Usually, that energy audit holds true for how long? That's a great question. And I say that that is a great question because the BPU, as I said, the local government energy audit that's mandated by them to do, whether we would do Okay? This is good for 5 years. 5 years. If you get it done today, hypothetically, and you don't do anything with it, and 6 years from now or 7 years from now, you say, "You know what?
054Let's do a new study." And we did a local government energy audit, the BPU would say, That's it's fine. Okay? That's it. I hope a lot to comprehend, but it's more time. You've done a great job. I appreciate your, you know, giving us the time to do this. And appreciate you giving us the opportunity to at least get this ball rolling and see what you may want to if anything. But I thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for your time. Yep. Okay, that concludes agenda item G. Um we do not have anything on agenda item H uh, for unfinished business. So, I will move on to the agenda item I, the consent agenda with 14 items. I will ask for a motion to approve. So moved. Second. Thank you,
055Ms. Glatz, and thank you, Ms. uh, and Ms. Mann. Any discussion on agenda item I, 1-14? Seeing none, Ms. Mann, please call the vote. Ms. James? Yes. Ms. Glatz? Yes. Ms. Mann? Yes. Ms. McCarty? Yes. Ms. Mazur? Yes. >> Ms. Katz? Yes. >> Ms. Rivera? Yes. Ms. Soler? Yes. Ms. Chenault? Yes. Close vote. We also do not have any report on agenda item J, so I will ask for a motion to open agenda item K, 1-3. So moved. Thank you, Ms. Mann. Second. I'll second Ms. Soler. Thank you. Discussion or questions on agenda item K, 1-3? Seeing none, Ms. Mann, please call the vote. Ms. James? Yes. Ms. Glatz? Yes. Ms. Mann? Yes. Ms. McCarty? Yes. >> Ms. Mazur? Yes. >> Ms. Katz? Yes. Ms. Rivera? Yes. Ms. Soler? Yes. Ms. Chenault? Yes. Close vote.
056Thank you. Uh, Dr. Soler, floor is yours for three minutes, sir. Thank you. Welcome back, everybody, from spring recess. Uh, as we turn the corner into the final quarter of this school year, uh, I would like to say that I think there's a lot to celebrate about across the district. Um, I continue to see strong instructional focus in our classrooms and and positive student engagement at every level. I think tonight was a was a prime example of that. Hundreds of students here being recognized not just for what they do on the stage or on the field, but also recognizing what they do in the classroom, which I think is a good thing. Um we are preparing for the statewide NJSLS assessment. The window opens April 27th. I'm sure you're getting a lot of information from
057the buildings on that. We do look forward to the DRHS theater program production of The Life and Death of a Jackson musical, as well as uh continuing to cheer on our ongoing spring sports seasons uh here at the high school. Looking ahead to the summer, first time I've said that word publicly. Uh reminder to families, registration is open for the CBA summer program. Uh as we move forward, our focus as a district will continue to be on uh not only stronger structural practices and supporting the students, but continuing to try and find new and innovative ways to engage with our families and our community. Uh shameless plug, tomorrow night is our next CPAC meeting. Uh it is here in the library. Span will be here to present, so we're looking forward to that. Hopefully you
058can come out. And finally, uh as someone else said, today is Administrative Assistant or Administrative Professionals Day, and I would be remiss if I did not thank all of the administrative administrative assistants who work here in our district for all that they do for the students, for all that they do for the school, and for all that they do for our communities. So, that'll be all, and that is my report. Sarah, is there any questions for Dr. Griffin? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move on to the agenda item L, curriculum, with 16 items. Let's put them in order. So And that's Lynn, and the second one is Isaac. Thank you. Any questions regarding L1 through 16? Is Is there a reason why it takes so long for them to get tuition adjustments for families? Dennis, is
059this No, so I'm sorry, Excuse me. The uh we are continually reaching out to the out-of-district placements for their updated tuitions and for back billing. And it takes them this long to process that on their end. So, uh every every And I can just tell you, having been here for 10 years, every week we have a meeting where we are getting updates from the director of student services on where they are with that information. Cuz from budgeting perspective for Ms. Henry, it's important to know where we are in managing those accounts. So, we are consistently It does. We are consistent consistently reaching out to the out-of-district placements seeking quality updates, especially back billing, so that we can be uh diligent. But we have no control over when they do or do not issue that to
060us. But we do prepare for it. Thanks, Ms. Henry. Thank you, Ms. Henry. Any questions on 501-316? No, I just want to say that I'm really I don't know if it's a new trip, but it's an additional field trip for the old baker girl trade site. I think that's all that they're like opening it up a little bit. Showing the girls the baking. Make that money. Mr. James? I just have a few notes on some of the earlier ones are from the same school. And maybe it's a problem with that school that they're in the education department of education. Yeah, it's like 50 It's like over 55. That's on that later in the agenda. It's not a nice to see. Any further questions on L 1-316? Ms. James? Yes. Ms. Mack? Yes. Ms. Mack? Yes.
061Ms. McCarthy? Yes. Ms. Mosley? Yes. Ms. Staff? >> Yes. Ms. Ware? Yes. Ms. Solar? >> Ms. Shaw? Yes. Good. We're now on agenda item 10, personnel, 12 items. So moved. Thank you, Ms. Watts. Second. Ms. May will second. Thank you. Questions on personnel, 1 through 12. I guess number seven is it just a typo? It's Mr. McGuire. Yes. Okay. I mean, I know who it is. I just I saw the first name and I'm like, then he said McGuire, so I'm like, is it Is it Mr. McGuire? It's correct in mine, it's wrong in yours. Oh, this is But I'm sorry. We'll take full responsibility for the misspelling. And thank you for allowing us to put that on. That was an emergency situation. We did need coverage for the baseball team, otherwise we would not
062have had a full baseball team. So, we apologize for it having to be retroactive, but we can't control when something like that happens on our personal time, so thank you. And he's feeling better? He gets to be on the team? Yes. So, if you have any further questions, Ms. Henry, please hold the vote. Mr. James? Yes. Ms. Marks? Yes. Ms. May? Yes. Ms. McCarthy? Yes. >> Ms. Mosley? Yes. Ms. Staff? Yes. Ms. Ware? Yes. Ms. Solar? Yes. Ms. Shaw? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We're now on agenda item 11, business, finance, and operations, with 24 items. So, that's for approval. So moved. Okay. Second. And Ms. Solar will second. Thank you. Um Discussion on 11 1 through 24. Um I'm just going to say that I've gotten a lot of things on the swimming program.
063Um the community and the parents of our incoming high schoolers are very excited about it and it was a long time coming for them. So, thanks for getting that done. And that's Northern Burlington program. July to park. Agreed. So, Northern Burlington has their board meeting tonight where this same motion will be on their agenda. So, I would like to thank uh you know, Mr. Zuckerman who I worked you know, worked with and thank the athletic directors and the parents for advocating for us. So, just so uh just so everybody knows uh we are going to attempt to co-op with Northern Burlington. Northern Burlington High School's swim teams actually practice and hold home meets at Team 85 which is right here. So, we don't have a pool and we don't have a swim uh team but
064we did have interest. So, we've applied to NJSIAA to allow us to co-op which they will allow us to do and then swimming is a winter sport. So, we will come into next year and we will survey our students to see who is interested in doing it and then we will pay a per pupil expenditure to Northern Burlington to allow them to swim but it gives our kids access. Both boys and girls will be able to swim and they've never been able to do it before. So, we're excited about it and we uh we do thank Northern Burlington for for allowing us to co-op. Is this sort of like the the wrestling co-op but in reverse that you're the primary and So, then really the cost is the pupil and then the transportation. Correct. So,
065the Northern Burlington will be the primary. We are co-oping with them where it's the opposite with wrestling. We are the primary and Florence is very much yes, exactly. So, that's awesome this is this is gaining momentum of course since The next request was lacrosse. Just so that is out I was going to say that. lacrosse? Cuz that was when I brought this up to some parents when it was on agenda, they're like, "So, what about the frogs?" I'm like, Have those students expressed that >> But Northern has a program. If I correct that, Miss Jen Martino was going to ask a question for that. She did a lot of the background. >> Yeah, so there was there were a couple of parents who had active very active youth swimmers that are not in high school
066yet that were to be honest with you, one of the things that were they they had indicated to me is that there are some kids who choose not to come to Bordentown High School because it does not have a swim program where other local potentially private schools do and and that would be a a defining factor or something like that. We can fix. It's just how do we get creative to do it because we can't build a pool and we certainly don't have enough students who want to participate where we could have our own our own team, so that's why we started to explore the idea of co-opting. So, again, credit to Northern Burlington for being the willing to do it and I think that if we are successful with swimming and it is smooth,
067which I assume it will be, I do not see any reason why we couldn't try and continue to co-op with our local partners on and offer more a more extensive program to our students. Thank you. All right, let's go. Any other discussions 1 through 24? I just have one more question to ask. Sure. Um, can we just can we see the playground plans? Yep. Yes. When can we I have a question. Yeah, I want to take all the way. Uh, yes. Um, we had just gotten them back very recently for phase one of the playground plans and we can certainly show them to the board. We will not yet show them to the public until we are done with final design, but we do anticipate and look forward to if the budget is approved by
068the board. Right. Comments so far? Right. When the budget is approved, we can do it. look forward to moving forward into phase one I just want to say you know thank you for the donation of the trailer for the from the band booster and booster association. I did not have a student that was a band person but a lot of friends that were and I understand how much equipment is involved with moving in. Uh it's really nice to see that you know that they were able to to fund raise and and donate to us a a trailer for using for transportation. So that thank you very much to the the booster association for getting that done. And and to the credit of both the boosters and the the the band director we were we had
069actually had a meeting to talk about the logistics of where the trailer will be stored and then how we will on mornings when the trailer has to be go so to make sure that our bus drivers will be able to drive one of our facilities trucks that can actually tow the trailer and all of that we've put in place already so that it won't be an issue when it starts and the trailer is here of how we're going to do it. So we've already put in place when it will be loaded, how it will be loaded, who will be driving it, what truck will be used. It does have a trailer hitch. All of those pieces have been taken care of. So we thank we thank them for the donation and we have worked the
070logistics out to make sure that it's easier for our band students and band transport equipment efficiently and effectively actually on the first day. Thank you. Is there any further questions? Is there any public comment? Ms. James? Yes. Ms. Box? Yes. Ms. Mann? Yes. Ms. McCarty? Yes. Ms. Lawson? Yes. Ms. Bell? Yes. Mr. Bear? Yes. Ms. Zora? Yes. Ms. Shonkwiler? Yes. Mr. Peters? Thank you. We're now on the bottom of policy with the second reading on my list. I so move to open it. So moved. Thank you. It's been Second. Seconded. Thank you. Um any questions about policy or number one? I I'm sorry. It's okay. I meant to turn a page. Sorry. I have a question going back. It's okay. We've already voted, but you're more than welcome to ask a question. >> that's not
071going to change anybody's vote, but I wanted to ask the superintendent um regarding uh the high schools meeting with Maschio's about the food and that type of stuff cuz I mean here we're voting to re-contract them, and I just wanted to get more information on how the high school kids were received. So, actually it was a great meeting. It was held in here, and we had not only did we have the head of uh Maschio's for the region, we actually had the new uh head of the head chef of Maschio's here. And we had multiple students who came down, and they brought samples of food, and we spent about an hour talking about what foods were offered versus what foods they would like to see. Uh and I have to be honest, I was proud
072of the students cuz they weren't asking for more french fries and fried food. They were actually asking for better quality grilled chicken, things of that nature. So, to Maschio's credit, they took down all of the uh all of the information from the students. They've made changes to their menu. That's why we're sharing out now on on a monthly basis not only with the families, but we're sharing out directly with the students so that the monthly offerings so that they know what is available. One of the things that came up for here is sometimes the students because there's two access lines. There's the essentially the the the cold access lines, which is your sandwiches and things like that, and then there's the hot access line, two different places, and sometimes kids are not realizing what is
073actually in the hot offerings to go in. So, we're working on that. And then the Maschio's also put out a student survey to every student middle school and high school which we sent out last week shared with all of them to get feedback from every student in the district on what they would like to see added or changed inside of the food offerings. And once they call that data and they come back to us, we'll let you know, but they've been very receptive. They are happy to continue to meet with students because as they said, the better information they get from their consumers, the better products they can put out for the students. Also, I'm happy to say that the vending machines have been readily addressed which was a concern raised by students to me
074directly and they've done a good job of making sure those are are up to snuff. I haven't heard from the students again on the vending machines. >> Is that their responsibility as well? They do. They manage the vending machines. So, we will continue to have dialogue and discussion and and speak with them, but I do think that they are committed to not only improving the food quality, but maintaining open relationships with the kids. One of the things that they would like is increased numbers of kids buying lunch because that's good for them. I said, "Well, you have to give them something that is an offering that they that they find enticing." So, they are working to do that and I think that opening that communication and communicating monthly with the kids so that they actually
075know, even the families, that the menu changes online in real time. So, if there's a change to the menu tomorrow, it will be changed tomorrow for you to see. But, I think that us being more proactive in communicating with students, especially middle school and high school students, will will sort of give them an idea of like, "Oh, okay. I like taco bowls. I want to make sure I buy lunch on this day." But, they may not realize that it's today. So. Thank you. So, they don't think they're going to see something like that. We did that already. Okay. Any questions on Is this Gins? Yes. Is this Watts? Yes. Is this May? Yes. Is this McCarty? Yes. Is this Watson? Yes. >> Is this Matt? Yes. Is this May? Yes. Is this Orr? Yes. Is
076this Schorr? Yes. Is this Gins? Yes. I'm Jennifer E. Public comment. Um so public children are reminded that they should attempt to resolve any and all problems through the administrative contact with the program administrator. Generally speaking, following the chain of command. Um any member of the public who wishes to speak should uh state their name, address, and then address the board. Um we have two people signed up to speak. Um so we have 5-minute time limit. Uh the first speaker is Remi Ackerman. And um I believe you're a student. So for students, you just uh state which school you attend. You don't have to state your address. My name is Remi Ackerman, and I'm a fifth grader in McBryde Intermediate School. I'm here to talk about how the fifth grade dance is being turned to
077a fifth grade celebration. Um this is something that kids have been looking forward to and that we heard about in the past and it's sort of like a tradition that we've heard of and that now it's our turn and we're like Excuse me. Um we're really excited to like actually have got like got a chance to have it. Um some people like as soon as they heard, they've already started like planning with their friends on what they're going to wear and like different fun stuff like that. And this is showing how like we're growing up and that there's independence and how they're we're going to have more trust now cuz there's not going to be like parents there. It's going to be just all fifth graders and shoppers. Um that we're now more responsible, we're
078now going to make more better decisions, and it's one thing from when you go to elementary school to intermediate school cuz it's like right across the street. Um it's like right across the street, but there's a huge difference from going from intermediate school to middle school. And that something with this dance, we can express it and how we're like being able to do that. And that we've this in the beginning of the year, you guys know how pure mutual joined McFarland, and part of Claire Barland went over to Peter Mutual. Um now the entire year, it's sort of we've all combined, and we became instead of just two groups that now just run the same school, we're now like one big community. And this is showing us moving together into the future, and showing that
079we're going to be together, and we're going to continue working together. And just to end the year, these are just like a few reasons on me why me and other fifth graders here at McFarland are wanting to have a fifth grade dance. Please think what I said and take it into consideration how other fifth graders may feel about what's happening and how this is being shown from a dance to a celebration. Again, I'm Lenny Ackerman, and I'm a fifth grader at McFarland. Thank you for your time. Ms. Ackerman, thank you so much for addressing the board. We always greatly appreciate hearing from the student body. You did a phenomenal job, ma'am, and I thank you so much for your time and for your your bravery to approach and speak to the board. I stood at
080that podium at one point, and I spoke to it. It's um It's not easy for everyone to do, and you did a commendable job. Thank you so much for being here today. Um we also have Mr. Scott Ackerman um signed up to speak, so the floor is yours, Mr. Ackerman. Scott Ackerman, uh one Civic Arena, I think it rubbed off on her. Sorry. But, I'm very glad she went before me. However, I'm talking about something else. Um I do have a question. Didn't I even attempt to even come here to talk about and stand up here and speak for her. But, I have a question about the group that was here earlier about the um energy savings program. Um I guess the two questions I had is why were they coming in, and would you
081be going to entertain any of the ESCOs that exist in the state to give presentations? Because it seems like they're going to be able to have a look under the hood, and having worked in state government for way too long. Um seeing somebody who can see all the details first, so when you do the RFP, I know many people in this group already know that, but those out there don't, and people over here that don't, and people might be just watching the video later. Um they already have a leg up in knowing exactly what's on that RFP. And then so I wonder whether or not other companies are going to If you decide to go this route, and I know that's part of the process, whether or not you're even thinking about it, even thinking
082the concept, but the fact that they were here today means that this is at least likely. So, I'm just wondering whether or not you plan I know you can't answer that now. I know. But, just putting that out there that they're one of at least He said 49, it's probably about 62 um that are out there that are approved with BPU's in addition to ones that will state with you in addition to ones that aren't ESCO, but are still can do the same things under the uh the uh E-Temp program. So, just wondering active. Thank you. Mr. Hammond, thank you for your comments. We will uh take your comments into uh our consideration. Uh I do not have any other uh public signed up to comment. Is there anyone in the public that would say
083anything? Okay. Seeing none, I will open the floor to board comment. Just a couple of quick announcements. Um yesterday, the ASBO I released their Capitol Watch uh for spring 2026 quarter. Uh should have received You should have received it in the email. It's a fantastic resource um to see what what legislation is out there, what the uh whether the ASBO I supports it or not, and where it is in the process. Um so, if you haven't had not been to me and you should look it over, it's one of the few spam, I will call them, emails from the ASBO I that I actually like to read and pay attention to. Um in addition, they released um some of their upcoming webinars. Um on April 30th, they're offering a webinar on student success through collaborative
084technology leadership. And on May 20th, um they are having one of their What's Brewing in Educational Law Coffee Talk. They have those pretty regular, and I find them very very uh informative. It's usually on YouTube, and you can listen to them and just get an idea of recent case law that passed and where it stands. I always find them entertaining. Um I highly recommend tuning in if you can. Um I also gave everyone a legislative update spreadsheet uh well, handout for uh April updates. Um just a quick summary. Yeah, school funding formula reform discussion is a hot topic right now. Um some possible areas of change are adequacy calculations, enrollment methodology, geographic cost adjustments, hold harmless, aid stabilization, divisions. Um So, obviously, the district should continue to keep our eye on uh that, especially with
085our our, you know, our growing budget. Um SP NJDOE April State Board Actions. Uh they met on the 8th. Um Key deadline reminders. The The The main takeaways from that were um the HIB grade deadline is April 29th. I see that we have that in our agenda to vote for. Um our actual coordinator special education aid applications due by May 22nd. And And additional NJSLEDs uh reporting updates were issued. Um Not really much for us to do with that. Uh S3382, which is the bill on school construction bonds, is still active and uh hopefully moving. It is still in play. Uh what this would do is again release additional funding um that could help us with with lowering the amount if we had to go to referendum. Uh lowering the amount that we would have
086to go for because there are other aid avenues available to us, so we should keep our eye on that. Um A new bill was just um introduced on April 1st that would recommend a state-mandated spring break, so that all districts would be on the same state-mandated break schedule. Um We will keep our eye on it. And that is Like I said, it was just introduced on April 1st, so no no no idea how that's going to move. Um Right now, there's uh federal education funds are going to continue to flow through the Department of Education. There are some ongoing restructuring conversations that are happening with federal funding to schools. Um Programs such as Title 1, IDEA, Title 2, other federal grants. Uh so, right now, we have short-term stability because they are continuing to be
087released, but we have to keep our eye on it for future budget cycles. Um 27 states are now moving towards a participation in the new federal school choice program. New Jersey is not one of them. Yeah. Uh So again, it's something to keep our eye on to see where it lands. There are some potential shifts coming or discussions about priorities around Title IX and corporate enforcement. So, examples including parental access to student records, Title IX / transgender student guidance shifts, rollback of some prior civil rights settlements. So again, it's just important for us as a district to just monitor and keep our eye on these federal guidance changes as they relate to our current district policies to make sure that we stay in compliance. That was all that I had for today. I will again
088at our next meeting I will try to When I When I presented this, this is just current April stuff. I will try to also provide updates on bills from previous months to see if they've had any movement. I just didn't get that far back today. I apologize. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Beth. Always come with a wealth of information and always keep us up to speed on stuff. It is very appreciated. All right. Any other board members wish to say anything? As the Easter Bunny, I made the brave decision to go into Peter Muschal today as the Lorax. And they loved it. So, I got to change to read to preschool, first grade, and kindergarten as the Lorax. Very difficult to read with that mustache on. Um, Ms. Henry, my daughter said it
089was okay to post a picture. She was waiting for you as well. Yeah. And then they're ready. I can show you where she said, "Sure." So, um yeah. But I do try to go in to Peter Muschal cuz I just I'm closer here to read once a month to them. I ask the kids what they would like me to be depending on the holiday or the events of that month or any of the other elementary schools would like to see me, um we get to our months, so I got a plethora of costumes. I almost had a motion to shut the picture off on the screen. And moving forward, I would like to know when we're going to see you cuz I would like to Sure. No, I mean I I work with um Mrs.
090Crowder first grade. She's She's very organized. She's like, "Okay, you're coming in at this time. You're going to do this pledge. You're going to do this." You know, so she has it all on schedule. It's normally Wednesday. Um so but we try to do it on some type of a event and or holiday kind of And they love to see me. Thank you for Sounds good. I mean I'm going to wear my costume in this coming Okay. What's What's happening? I'll go first. I was just going to say that our schools not just the city schools, but all of the schools here in mutual I know middle school has a production coming up and the community has been a very good supporter recently of our schools and our fundraising and I mean just alone I
091only know because I have I have some personal information that the city schools have raised $49,000 in the last month and the community plays a very big role in that in supporting and giving donations and coming to our events. Not just our parents, not just our families, but all across the community and so um and the kids all of the elementary school kids have all enjoyed a fun run in the last week and had great fun and great success at raising money and also go to the community members, go to the middle school production, too. I mean And so thank you to everybody that continues to support our schools and show up for our kids. I'll agree on that as well, because I mean, again, a lot of the Well, the sports aren't self-funded to
092some respects, they are. And again, going back to what you said about the communities, the softball team raised over $10,000 just by doing their snap fundraiser. Um and that's just every kid fortunately or unfortunately, just hitting up parents' emails and and phone numbers, and they were able to make more than their goal. Um and this also helps with um you know, there are in the year, there's there's senior nights and stuff like that nature. So, Yeah, wrestling also raised over $16,000 in this fundraiser, so it's it passed also. 12,000. What did you say? The check. I I just when you when you mentioned Arbor Day, I thought it was fitting to thank the Shade Tree Commission of the city. Um because we worked um we worked together with the to you know, put on the
093Arbor Day event at at Clara Barton, which took place on Friday, and that's where we planted a tree. Uh and I thank every student at Clara Barton shoveled at least we did. Uh the Shade Tree I was going to come out. It was It was cool. We had We had the mayor the mayor of the city was there, all the Shade Tree Commission were there. Uh we were all there. Every kid was out. Uh nice speech was given, and every student had the opportunity to come and put a little one shovel of dirt onto the tree, which is now is standing proudly in front of the school. So, I do want to thank the Shade Tree Commission of the city uh you know, for that, cuz it was a it was a really nice event.
094It was a beautiful day, and it was just great. So, just kudos to the Shade Tree Commission. That's why I tell our students to try harder next time. Any other comments from the board? Okay. Um just to give you guys keeping items. Um, we had discussed earlier um, our the possibility of an executive session on our next meeting which is May 6th. There will really be an executive session looks like on that meeting. So, our next two meeting dates are May 6th and May 20th. May 6th for the board members executive sessions executive session at 6:00. Um, May 20th stay tuned for any announcements there. And lastly, I'll put in another plug but I already put in one for it. The board retreat on May Saturday, May 30th. You'll already receive a memo from me.
095Um, we are still building the um, agenda for that. Um, we're running out of time for agenda building. So, please I had mentioned in my email um, if you have any requests. I did receive a few requests but there is still probably a little room on the agenda if there's anything else that anybody wants to see covered, please let us know. I have a good one. Um, I need to provide you some information. What it is. Yeah, please Yeah, please email me with that and we will make sure we do our best to get that in. Just the The So, the >> I need to know about that too. So, we have um, Mr. Wright from the SBA who will be running the program for us and then it's all of us. I do There's
096maybe one more member that's not able to attend. Um, just a scheduling conflict but it will be eight eight of us that will be there. And Dr. Go will be there. Is the mayor invited? This is an invite but it's not mandatory um, but you're welcome to be there. Come on. Is he invited? He's invited to spend the day with us but um, there's no no hard feelings if he doesn't. Um, I think I covered everything so um, there's nothing further to come before the board. I'll ask for a motion to adjourn. I have Ms. Blackson and Mr. Jennings. So, all in favor? Aye. Aye. We're closed. Thank you everyone for being here.