001thank you foreign Mr Edwards Mary roll call Miss Siebert yeah Miss Kennedy yes Miss bakala Miss Diana yes Mr blandina yes Mr Benedictus yes Miss will wrap is he not ready oh goodness you think by now I would have it memorized I've probably read it 500 times or more New Jersey public speaking while I was enacted to ensure the right of public bodies who have advanced notice of into attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest or discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act The Brick Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted on the administration of a spooling board the official District website and channel BTV 20 incentive to Asbury Park Press the brick time Star Ledger and Municipal Clerk's
002Office and I have a motion in a second to go into exact session open and Ally second Michael whereas The Brick Township Board of Education has performed pursuant to applicable New Jersey statutes and whereas the board is charged or responsibility of Performing all acts and doing all things consistent with the law and rules of the state board of education necessary for the lawful and proper conduct equipment and maintenance of the public schools and public school property of the Brick Township School District and whereas section seven of the old Public's meeting act permits the exclusion of the public for my meeting of the board in certain circumstances and the words the board is determined the circumstances exist for such an executive session whereas the board has found the action described below to be necessary and proper
003now therefore be resolved by the board on March 16 2023 that the public shall be excluded from the discussion of an action on the executive session here on set forth the session shall be approximately 15 minutes and the general nature of the subject matter to be discussed is harassment intimidation and bullying reports it is anticipated this that is anticipated this time that the above stated subject matter will be made public if and when it is deemed to be in the public interest to do so and the need for confidentiality is no longer required by the board Arie Ms sieber yes Ms Kennedy yes Miss ayanaroon yes Mr blandina yes Miss D Benedictus yes foreign motion a second to return I'll make that motion second alley Barry yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss dianarone yes Mr blandina
004yes Misty Benedictus yes please stand for a salute to the flag in a moment of silence I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you please be seated often it may appear to members of our audience that the Board of Education Act with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous unanimous vote please understand that before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting the Administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with the superintendent of schools discussed it in appropriate Boe committees and only then if the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the full Board of Education it is placed on the
005agenda for Action at a public meeting Board of Education members are given advance notice to review the agenda and through the chair ask questions or voice concerns in rare instances when necessary matters are presented to the board of education for discussion at the same meeting that the final action may be taken Miss McNamara will you introduce the student reps thank you Mrs Hubert this evening we have Ava Scanlon from brick memorial High School Ava so first we want to thank Mr McKnight our supervisor in the guidance department and all the counselors Club advisors colleges and students for coming out in support of brick and Beyond on February 15th it was a great way to engage with colleges coming from a student standpoint congratulations to Mr Bloom as he had a very busy last couple of
006months he was honored as the 2023 teacher who rocks on the radio station wjrz he will later attend a banquet to celebrate his amazing accomplishment Mr Bloom also is a third time winner in the SGA annual student teacher Jeopardy which took place on March 2nd Miss Levine finished in second and Mr so finished in third we thank all of our generous students and local businesses that donated prizes and Jenna Vada won for the student round Alyssa cucarella and Emily wojak represented brick memorial as members of the 2023 New Jersey All-State treble chorus as they performed at the Atlantic City Convention Center on Saturday the 25th then performed at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on Sunday the 26th congratulations to these Mustangs on February 25th the ROTC flew out of Lakewood airport with
007Civil Air Patrol the USAF auxiliary and and worked with the ROTC to provide the cadets their first experience in civil aviation we would like to thank the Brick Township Lowe's and Mrs willrob for their generous donations to our special service department and the brick memorial Mustang Marketplace to keep our workplace and learning program going a refrigerator and a blender was donated the class of 2024 wants to share your time wants you to share your talent in the talent show with them the talent show will be held on April 26th anyone is who is interested can sign up in the class of 2024 Google classroom thank you to Madam schwester and the Multicultural club for creating a very beautiful display this month's theme was women's History Month in honor of the Teen Arts Festival we had
008a spirit week March 6th to the 10th featuring mix it up Monday Tuesday Tunes Wacky Wednesday theater Thursday and favorite band Friday on March 10th National Honor Society volunteered to help future mustangs from midstreams in their mother-son International themed dance the volunteers came together to represent various countries including activities and food from the countries for the kids to participate in on Thursday March 9th Brick Township District gathered to celebrate art in all its form thousands of students participated to celebrate the culture of art we would like to thank the visual and performance arts department and the teacher who gave up hours of their time to make sure the students were prepared for the art show we would like to thank Miss Jennifer lean for the organization of a wonderful event thank you to the gardens
009department and our Juniors and all faculty for their care in a successful week in NJ GPA testing this week we know our Juniors did an amazing job SGA is holding a spirit week from March 20th to the 24th including country versus Country Club Surfer first biker soccer mom versus barbecue dad Jersey versus Jersey Shore and green versus gold and now for the sports report with all of our winter seasons officially over we would like to recognize some accomplishments from our winter sports season congratulations to both our basketball teams who both won games in their respective state tournaments into our wrestling team which made it which made its way all the way to the sectional championship our hockey team made a great run the team of dragons and Mustangs finished the year 18 Ford one in
010the shore Conference tournament we made it to semifinals where we lost where we lost a tough one to the eventual Champion Saint John Vianney and in the state tournament we lost in the quarterfinal to a very good Colonial Woodbridge in the JFK Islam Co-op all in all we are proud of the tradition that was brought back to the hockey program and look for great things to come in the future our boys bowling team won the shore Conference tournament championship and finished second in their sectional Championship congratulations to wrestling sophomore Harvey Ludington for winning his second straight region Championship Harvey went all the way to the finals in the njs IAA state tournament before losing a very tough match 3-2 also placing in the regions and earning a trip to Atlantic City for the state championships
011where ninth grader Mike Napolitano 11th grader Mason pernick 9th grader Trey Tallmadge and 10th grader Ben zuba but the major accolades go to our girls bowling team and one of our senior wrestlers Anthony santinello congratulations to our 2023 brick memorial girls bowling team the girls had an amazing 53-1 record this past season 2023 a South Shore conference South Jersey group 2 and overall group two state champions not only did the girls did our girls win the group 2 Championship but we were the highest scoring team out of all of the groups every one of our five Bowlers finished in the top 18 of the individual state championships and they all earned first or second team allshore Leah Varela is in 12th grade Michaela Carter is 11th grade Faith parent in 11th grade Olivia Salvador in
01210th Grade and Emily Hair in 12th grade congratulations to brick memorial our 12th grader Anthony santinello as he is in the top of the NJ solastic wrestling world once again after winning the 132 pound state championship Anthony is a four-time district champion and one of only eight wrestlers to win four region championships and one of those eight is his father and brick memorial alamvin santanello he is a four-time state finalist taking second place his freshman year and junior year and of course a two-time state champion having won his sophomore year and now just recently as a senior completing a 40 to nothing perfect season and an amazing 138 to three career record we wish good luck to all of our spring Sports as they officially just started their Seasons yesterday as always please stay current
013with all our news and updates on our brickschools.org website subscribe to our Mustang Weekly Newsletter and follow us on Twitter and Instagram at bm's dang Sports thank you Ava next up is Andrew Kelly from Brick Township High School Andrew I'm Andrew Cali your Brick Township High School representative the students at Brick Township High School are enjoying the last days of winter as spring is just around the corner we are halfway through the marking period through marking period and progress reports were posted in the parent portal last Friday this week 11th grade students have been taking the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment the tests are given in ela and Mathematics looking back bths was part of the brick and Beyond event held at brick memorial on February 15th there were many clubs activities and college there
014colleges there it was a great success for all family game night was hosted by the National Honor Society at bths on February 28th many different age groups from for all the school and the districts came out and to enjoy an evening with their families there were board games dance rooms karaoke rooms sand art basketball volleyball and much more all students in attendance had a great time overall Battle of classes was held on March 2nd each class battled in a fun competition of games such as tug of war group dances three-legged race races and in the end the senior class prevailed and won the big trophy if you would like to see the highlight video check it out check out our school Twitter bths hosted the district Arts Festival show on March 9th which was extremely
015well attended and a successful and was successful for all participating schools students artworks from all of the districts ranging from preschool to high school were hung all over the school school bands and choir members also performed as a part of the evening bths is happy to play host to this event as it brings together the entire District to recognize out of our communities to the Arts this path this past month several several physical education classes participated in the Army fitness challenge the results were tremendous as bths was recognized as the winner of the army fitness challenge being recognized as the fittest School in the Mid-Atlantic area along with the presentation of a plaque and a trophy the words of accomplishment included your kids were respectful they give it their all be proud to be teaching
016and coaching such wonderful students and athletes last week from the south side of town joined together to participate in a vertical articular at the South Side District Band Festival the bths school students led the production modeling and the behaviors and performance measures expected of the bths future dragons the there was a high rate of participation as over 250 students from Drum Point Elementary School Emma Havens elementary school osborneville elementary school and Lake Riviera Middle School came together to practice collaborate and perform this event continues to strengthen the committee and experience of our band programs The Brick Township High School band and choir are on their way to Nashville Tennessee the march in the city's upcoming St Patrick's Day Parade the band Inquirer will also perform in various venues and competitions while on this trip the
017drama club has been rehearsing seven days a week for their upcoming spring musical the SpongeBob musical which will be held on April 28th and 29th there will be a life Orchestra for this full-scale production this will be a show not to be missed and we hope you can all attend and come out and see it looking at sports Jade Huerta recently placed third overall in the njsiaa girl State wrestling tournament for her weight class she will graduate as the most decorate decorated wrestler in the program history congratulations Jade spring Sports will begin this week all of the students are super excited for their season to begin looking ahead on March 30th the 13th annual bths special education resources and transition Fair will be held from 5 to 7 PM in the bths library on March
01831st bths will be hosting two events first during school hours the department has organized our annual career day that evening we will be having the brick hero Awards event where we will recognize our Local Heroes within our community additionally we would like to let our parents and students know that we will that we will be hosting the Ocean County prosecutor's office on Wednesday April 26th to speak to our students and parents about the dangers of cyber cyber bullying social media trends and overall Internet safety measures this event is open to all bricks school students and parents across the district creates five to twelve this will take place at the lrms multi-purpose room all students attending this event should be accommodated by an adult be sure to stay connected at bths events and inside information by
019accessing our school website SGA Instagram bths SGA and our school Twitter at bths dragons you can always see our happenings through through Dr cajun's Dragon review thank you again for this opportunity and I will see you all next month hashtag go dragons thank you Andrew finally we have Cadet Corporal Gianna gubatosa from the brook schools Air Force Junior ROTC Gianna [Applause] Gianna gubatosa I'm the group Commander for nj822 Brick afjrotc I'm happy to address you this evening with the Air Force JROTC update since we last addressed this body afgc has had two major events on February 25th 12 Cadets participated in orientation flights aboard a Civil Air Patrol aircraft at Lakewood airport five Cadets were able to have Hands-On control of the aircraft under the supervision of the Civil Air Patrol instructor pilot this is
020the first opportunity for Cadets to fly since 2019 and everyone is looking forward to the chance to go up again the annual military ball was held on March 11th Cadets gathered at The Brick American Legion Post to celebrate military Traditions honor our prisoners of war and missing in action and enjoy an evening of camaraderie and dancing I want to take a moment to thank our distinguished guests from The Faculty from Bick Memorial High School USMC retired lieutenant colonel Earl Mosley and from Brick Township High School former brick af30 AF JROTC Cadet Charles pasmino we had an amazing time and it was a great night to remember as always thank you for your support of our program have a great night [Applause] thanks guys miss McNamara presentations thank you Mr Stewart as the students mentioned uh
021we recently had a wonderful event take place in District called brick and Beyond of the two high schools joined together to provide a great deal of information to parents and students alike about moving on to post-secondary experiences so we have a brief presentation to show regarding brick and Beyond [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] and a huge thank you to Mr Kevin McKnight and Mrs Angela Smith for putting this event together thank you Mrs Heber no thank you um can I have a motion in a second for the approval of minutes I'll make that motion a second at Madeline any more comments being none Mary yes Mr blandina yes Mr Stephen addicted yes superintendent's comments thank you Mr Siever I'm going to try to start off on a positive note uh this evening um
022reiterating some congratulatory messages to some of our Champions and some of the events we had on but I'm going to reminisce last week or two weeks ago March 1st I started my fourth year in the district here as superintendent actually my 11th year overall and I want to say that I um really love brick schools despite the challenges we have amazing students fantastic staff that are hard work and very dedicated to education and involved parents this community in all its stakeholders constantly come together to support our children and their education Rick and Beyond one of my favorite events I was able to attend again it's collaboratively coordinated and hosted by the guidance Department to Brick Township High School and brick memorial high school for our students and parents it has over 40 colleges and universities
023technical trade schools and Military representatives in attendance in addition they have a bunch of workshops like how to apply to college how to apply for scholarship job application support that are available to parents and students and it was a fantastic turnout so great job Mr McKnight and Mrs Smith districts Arts Festival I always reminisce because my first event here in March 6 2020 I went to the district Arts Festival Miss McNamara and must have thought saw thousands of people I joked maybe it was like a super spreader because a week later we were closing schools but it's really really a wonderful event if you get a chance we hold it on this month I'm told by Dr Anderson because it is the youth Arts month in March I was held at Brick high school and
024all our schools pre-k to 12 were representative represented in a community-wide uh celebration the music talent and creativity were on full display for hundreds of families who attended kudos to our supervisor Miss Lane and our talented staff for this awe-inspiring event a side note I know one of our brick memorial art students is going to looking at some tremendous schools for design digital design created the panels that are going to be put up in the Warren Wolf Pre-K and they have all the different learning programs in our tools in the mind curriculum there I was just floored and some of the vases we looked at I mean you could buy an antique show there it was it's just a really really cool event state championships as end state champions As We Know we're actually going
025to have our wrestling state champion Anthony santanello and our brick memorial bowling team here in April to be recognized um the brick memorial girls bowling team and I've seen them now a couple times I know Mr slook is over there too but I don't think we know how good they are two years straight in a row overall I was told overall all groups number one two years straight that's what I was told by the idea but it was a sectional I think right not an overall all groups the year before they did away with the tournament and actually our Brick Township pies girl I think lost to them and they were like number two in that in the group um there were 53 and one this past year now I watched a couple of matches
026and uh I'd like to think I'm a decent bowler not even in the same hemisphere um as these young ladies and by the way both boys and girls teams at both schools are phenomenal and not only did they win the group too they were the highest scoring team in all the groups ever and they were first team in first All Shore first all groups in all state and congratulations also brick memorial senior Anthony santanello top on the Scholastic wrestling world again after winning the 132 pound state championship it's his second uh State title and he was also received this year the most outstanding wrestler might be one of the best careers ever in the storied history of brick memorial wrestling four-time District Champion four-time region Champion two-time uh state champion even one-time finalist and he
027was 40-0 this season and his total four-year career career was a hundred and is a hundred and thirty eight and three so and we'll they'll be here I hope in person I'm told for the April meeting to be uh recognized okay onward uh to the 2023-2024 budget as I stated at last month's board meeting we're in Dire Straits with our budget and lack of available Revenue sources unfortunately as I previously indicated we anticipate job cuts to bridge the gap with the continued loss in state aid S2 as I've said over and over again has deeply impacted our already underfunded District please know that what every cut made we're doing our best to minimize the impact on our students and our staff we are grateful for all of our staff contributions and appreciate their understanding and
028patience as we move through this difficult process during these tough times I assure you that we are looking at all avenues that are in the best interest of our students with an understanding that we are making decisions that will impact thousands of lives opportunities and futures being entrusted with making these decisions is an arduous and extraordinary responsibility and I'm here to tell you that we both the Board of Education and administration don't take this lightly unfortunately I wish I could say the same about our state and the Department of Education tonight we have a resolution to approve the tentative 2023-2024 budget because the filing deadline of the tentative budget to the executive County Superintendent is uh Monday March 20th for our 2023-2024 operating budget the net tax levy increase is only 1.77 percent due to
029decrease in debt service similar to last year I think even though the tax levy can only go up and we're mandated go up two percent can't go higher can't go lower when you re retire some Debt Service your actual tax levy is actually less last year I think we retired where it ended up being 0.8 it was the net because we retired 1.2 or vice versa this year we're retiring Debt Service so it'd be 1.77 the public hearing on this 2023-2024 budget uh with its adoption and will finalize it is scheduled for April 27th and the user-friendly budget should be posted to the district website shortly thereafter the final deadline for the 23 24 budget is May 15th this is that time of year again where the state budget is proposed and legislators determine when
030our state's funding priority should be inevitably they're winners and losers as I've said often I feel like I've been on the circuit the last few weeks actually as I've said we're in The Perfect Storm fiscally state aid to us affected S2 districts has been reduced at an exorbitant rate which far outpaces what we can replenish annually and put back these are distressing times financially and brick schools is bleeding budgetarily due to inadequate funding the state constitutionally requires what's called a thorough and efficient teeny education for all students in all districts there are set inadequacy budget dollar amount by the state brick schools will be 23 million dollars under adequacy with this upcoming budget cycle according to the state it's not even close to the state average and way below the state average cost per pupil
031who would oppose all students across the state being within a regional reasonable range for their constitutionally required thorough and efficient education certainly not our Supreme Court lest they be in violation of our constitution equal benefit clause in the current state budget more than 12 billion in taxpayer dollars will be distributed inequitably to local school districts as required by our state constitution the Aid comes from our income taxes and so for nearly 50 years most New Jersey residents have been paying twice for schools property taxes for your local schools and income taxes for someone else's schools State believes that our communities local fair share is high enough and that we should pay more I say what about the state's fair share this community's money is going to Trenton and it's not coming back we're simply running
032out of time the time is now for all of us to come together and advocate for our efficient and effective School District that has been left behind by the S2 formula for inadequacy I encourage everybody to read my white paper report on the Paradox and the Jersey school funding and help support brick schools I want to thank board president miss walrob and Board member Miss ayanarone for communicating our budget plate to all anybody and everyone that will listen and that can help they really took the torch and ran with it and we're starting to see some traction by the way as much as a few hours ago in a recent book I was reading it talks to business organizations and organizations in general that in order to take the next this next step and raise
033the bar as an organization two major factors can help sharpening focus and aligning your people to sharpen and increase Focus think about strategic execution in terms of sequential efforts instead of parallel efforts work on fewer things but at the same time alignment of people increases in importance alignment is about making sure everybody is driving in the same direction and knows what the priority is I say this because our rallying cries just this with our budget crisis and with the state of school funding it's important that we as a community come together and stay focused on this priority of advocating for the students of brick for fair and Equitable State funding our unity and messaging are so important at this time quote Maddie stepanek Unity is strength when there's teamwork and collaboration wonderful things can be
034achieved thank you Dr Farrell committee special education Ms Granger thank you Miss Siebert so the special education committee met on March 6 of 2023 myself Dr Farrell this is wall wrap this is Siebert Mrs Benedictus all attended some of the items we discussed are agenda items for new hires and recent resignations we discussed the use of idea carryover funds which are on tonight's agenda wanted to remind everybody that our lottery for preschool has opened uh February 27th and closes soon on March 24th and we will be pulling the lottery for the preschool on May 4th would like to acknowledge our special superheroes for the month of March Sarah white and Kavita Patel these are two District occupational therapists that have been nominated for the award this month on Monday March 20th uh I will be
035hosting coffee with the director so at 10 30 in the morning here in the PDC you can come sit down have a chit chat with me and a cup of coffee and discuss anything you'd like I will also be hosting coffee with the director because I drink coffee all day everybody knows I walk around with a DND cup uh from 5 30 P.M to 6 30 p.m here in the PDC so I will have fresh coffee and some snacks for everybody who would like to come by and say hello CPAC held their meeting on March 14th this week and the focus was on transition and again our transition fare will be on March 30th at Brook Township High School from five to seven with absolutely want to thank multiple people for the donations that they
036have given to the Mustang Market Mrs walrop Lowe's Walmart Buffy City soaps have all donated items to the Mustang market and the donations are continuing to roll in so I just want to say thank you and we truly appreciate everything that you have done to support the students that is it for my committee thank you Miss Granger isn't there a um one of your superheroes isn't there a nice picture of someone in the front seat of the bus yes so um my husband every month uh my husband every month does a picture of the superhero and puts their face in a superhero outfit holding so last month was Mr Jago and he is holding up a bus in front of the board office and Dr Farrell's faces in the bus so uh every month he
037uh does a picture and I provide the staff member with a picture of themselves with the School logo so thank you Miss Granger curriculum admin instruction Miss Anderson Dr Anderson sorry not at all I gotta see that picture that's all I have to say eight by ten so the cni committee met on March 6th at 4 30 PM in attends Where Mrs bakala the chairperson is Diana Rhone Mrs Kennedy Dr Farrell Mr Cuts Mr Thompson and myself um first I reviewed the March agenda items for approval so under training and travel there were several Workshops the tesol conference strengthening student learning in the block New Jersey speech language hearing Association conference and an SD conference for Saint Dominics we also then reviewed field trips there's a student leadership conference at OCC and a field trip
038at four lanes Mill Elementary School student teacher placements we have student observations and internships with school counselors and occupational therapists why Always during my committee report do you find a need to pass out cookies he just asked me to make sure you weren't paying attention unbelievable thank God I'm an Italian father or I would have a complex two speech language practicums and one rescinded student placement we also have a book love Foundation Grant request for a thousand dollars to add to a classroom Library when terms of the Green Schools a report Mrs pakala gave us an update regarding the Brick Township 2023 green Fair she explained that the green Fair will be on May 20th at the Bob anstedt Cultural Arts Center on Herbertsville Road from 10 to 2 this year's theme is environmental personal
039health and wellness there will be a focus on water air and food quality and each school's Green Team Will participate in the green fair and more information will be distributed as we get close to the date in fact on tonight's under operations we are applying for a climate grant that will give us 6 660 dollars to purchase Hydroponic and aquaponic units and supplies and next we had an update from Mr Cuts who's our secondary language arts and social studies supervisor he provided an overview of the secondary Lincoln middle of the Year assessment data he identified strengths and the interventions that are in place to address weaknesses in the data these interventions include professional development aligned to data analysis and best practices spare me these interventions include a professional development aligned to data analysis best practices
040and unit designed to Target the literature strand njsla tasks in social studies basic skills support after school programs like our Laker pride and green and gold as well as school-wide contests for achieve three thousand next we had Mr Thompson provide an overview of the secondary middle of the Year math data he identified areas of strength and growth and identified the interventions that are in place to support areas of weakness in the data teachers work in plcs to analyze and respond to the data the math coach has developed resources designed to Target those to Target the skill of inequalities and provided ngsla practice that can be vetted into teachers lessons additional interventions include professional development basic skill support after school programs and school-wide contests for iready in terms of family engagement um we are we will
041be soon releasing the next brick Bridge which will focus on enrichment and support which is aligned to our second cni goal and the brick bridge will showcase the Excel program which is a program for our gifted and talented students and after school programs important dates I previewed the following dates we had the district Arts Festival it was an incredible event and celebration of the Arts and I was so in Town express impressed with the talent of our students and the creativity of our our students I was equally impressed by the support of the community it you could the parking lot was full full circle 360 it was amazing our community is very supportive of the Arts and we are really grateful I know that Mrs Lane Miss Lane is very grateful for that she was
042our visual performing arts and secondary science supervisor progress reports were posted in Parent Portal and on March 15th we had an early dismissal for our district professional day our kindergarten teachers were able to visit our Pre-K programs to strengthen our transition from pre-k2k teachers explored strategies for improving phonemic awareness which is an important early literacy skill an important component of the science of reading grade one to five elementary teachers were able to plan for small group instruction using i-Ready classroom mathematics Middle School teachers worked in their departments to review strategies and resources to help prepare students for njsla our special education department offered several sessions for teachers teacher age and therapists to choose which they'd like to attend at the high school level our teachers looked at our standards-based exams and looked at patterns and
043Trends in the datas we also had a virtual intra-district Department articulation collaboration with our Visual and Performing Arts physical education media specialist World Language Department counselors Excel department and ESL Department this week was NJ GPA it's concluding tomorrow and that's occurring throughout the state and our next meeting will be April 17th at 4 30. thank you Dr Anderson seriously I'm excited to see the aquaponics program grow I've seen it at the high schools and everything and at the elementary and it's I need to borrow them to use in my backyard because they're better at gardening than I am right we've been it's so exciting to see like more and more of the funds available we hope to do more field trips to the absolute high school for that it's really great absolutely and the Arts
044Festival the amount of on Twitter everything was wonderful oh uh we have to give a shout out oh this is where the cookies came from all right then I'm okay now you have to eat well they came from the same spot last time I didn't tell them yeah the cookies were made from um erasmos and Mrs Boyle's uh class they are part of the multiply disabled program in our district and part of um how do we explain that part of their life skills program is to cook and follow recipes so they were gracious enough to provide the cookies for this evening and I was told because I have a special little character in the top left corner is mine um that I took them four hours to bake their cookies they were able to miss
045art they got extra snack time out of the deal they were able to bring home two cookies themselves but she took three and they had extra chocolate chips for each so while it might seem easy for you know you and I to make something you know this process took four hours and they were covered in flour and thoroughly enjoyed themselves it's awesome yeah thanks guys Miss McNamara policy and planning thank you Mrs Seibert the policy and planning committee met on March 8th at 4 30 in attendance for Mrs Kennedy Mrs Diana Mrs de Benedictus Dr Farrell Dr nicastro and myself Dr nicastro was an invited guest the committee had asked that he attend and he explained to the committee the process by which Strauss s May takes in order to bring about the different policies
046and regulations that we are voting on at this time on this evening's agenda are the following policies and regulations for first read the 6000 series both policy and regulations for finance and the 7000 series both policy and regulations for property the next meeting of the policy and planning committee is April 18th at 4 30. thank you thank you Miss McNamara facilities and finance thank you so uh the start I think we figured out a way to solve our budgetary problems if we can continue bringing those cookies to the meeting and sell them for about 150 000 a piece yeah Revenue they're good right alternative Revenue March 7th was the committee meetings for facilities and Finance in attendance was for facilities was Miss walrab Miss pakala Mr blandina Dr Farrell myself Mr York from natal Architects
047Mr Siegel from spiesel Architects Miss goliadi from spiesel Mr rupka from spiesel and Mr peculio first item discussion was the Energy savings plan Mr pecorio informing the committee that's substantial completion has been met on the district-wide energy management system and the boiler replacement and combine heat and power at brick memorial high school so that project is complete yay one one done one done um brickmore High School Penthouse CND replacement of air handle and replacement of the cooling tower Mr urine formed the committee that this essay has demolished and replaced the cooling tower new steel support structure has been created and the contractor is currently working on pipe connection controls and electrical he also informed the committee that no significant work has been on the penthouse project actually says in a minute it's Pet house project
048but it's Penthouse that's a typo um I don't think we have a pet house there except for some piping and electrical preparation Lake rural Middle School air conditioning Mr urine from the committee that thermal piping is conducting preliminary work surveys and beginning prep work to the condenser pads and electrical piping Veterans Memorial Middle School boiler Replacements and air conditioning Mr you're informed the committee that thermal piping is conducting the preliminary Works preliminary work surveys and beginning prep work related to the condenser pads and electrical piping he also Mr corio and filmed the committee that a co-op vendor has been on boarded to oversee the asbestos monitoring for this project and the other projects that are in queue he indicated that the district is currently awaiting a proposal for the asbestos abatement and mohaven's Young Elementary
049School air conditioning Mr you're informing committee that preferred is conducting detailed work surveys and beginning prep work related to the condenser pads on electrical and piping Mr pecoria also informed the committee that the detailed criteria was laid out to prefer regarding site access during in session hours and the district could not accommodate any Interruption and learning environment for motorized gas or power equipment Veterans Memorial Elementary School air conditioning ditto to what I just said about Veterans Memorial Middle School for both save a little time on that one Drum Point Elementary School boiler replacement and air conditioning Mr urine foreign committee that the sa is conducting their preliminary work and surveys and beginning their prep work for the condenser pads on electrical and piping he indicated The Boiler Room abatement is scheduled for spring break Mr
050procorey informed the committee that the co-op vendor that was onboarder Will oversee that work I informed the committee that the asbestos monitoring project budget numbers are critical to determining the remaining contingency funds and thus the availability for future capital projects Mr you're informed the committee that a BPU Grant application related to the project has been submitted and finalized by NATA on behalf of the district Lake Riviera Middle School boiler plant Emma Havens young boiler plant and midstream's boiler plant Miss galliardi informed the committee that there has been no movement including final punchless items on the boiler project due to Long lead times on the OEM parts needed for closeout the current ETA on the parts is the week of 313 with installation and review by 317. Lanesville Elementary School air conditioning Miss Gallery informed the
051committee that the switch gear has finally come in and currently scheduled for installation in the summer she indicated that the contractor is expressed moving up the timeline to accommodate the district I inform the committee that the proposed schedule and Logistics plan for this work to be done during in session of the school year would need to be submitted and reviewed by District administration for consideration Lanesville Elementary School boiler replacement Miss Galileo inform the committee there's been no movement in completing the final punchless item on the boiler project due to the lead times on the OEM parts the current ETA for the parts is 313 insulation by 317. Rick Moore High School parking lot reconfiguration I informally committee that the district met with Suburban engineering on March 2nd for final plan review prior to going out
052to bib with the award at the April 27th board meeting the project would start the last day of school in June with substantial completion the last week in August Lanesville Elementary School playground Mr precorio informed the committee that the current sitewalk and pre-construction meeting is tenantly scheduled for March 23rd additional project considerations midstreams air conditioning and inform the committee that based on the reviews of both Architects submitted project budgets with a verbal confirmation that both Architects included application submittals for any applicable grant opportunities related to these projects as part of their fee that spiesel should be selected for the project design and oversight the committee concurred and requested that that speasel proposal be placed on an export agenda which it is receiving OES air conditioning ditto to what I just said about midstreams I also
053informed the committee on both of these projects that they are both contingent upon contingency funds that are now tied up on the summer projects that Ned is working on and receipt of SDA grants from the Department of Education Warren Wolf Elementary School I'm sorry Warren Wolf early childhood development center ecdc AC DC air conditioning and Herbertsville AC DC air conditioning said that on purpose I know I did that on purpose too I informed the committee that the project budgets have not yet been received by The Architects but they are priority based on the potential for the submitting of funds for the 350 million dollar Rod Grant Pool and the 150 million dollar in preschool Grant funds this is your Mr Siegel inform the committee that they are finalizing the scope and will have that generate
054proposals for our next committee meeting Herbertsville and osborneville parking lot reconfigurations informing the committee that I've asked Suburban ncme our engineer records to provide conceptual plans with budgetary numbers for the solve traffic issues at both of these locations Dr Farrell informed the committee that there may be some relief at osborneville and that we have an upcoming meeting with the Town and County to discuss uh potentials for that school Veterans Memorial Middle School solar removal for warranty roof repairs Mr mccoryo inform the committee that the cost estimates from tremco have been provided for the Veterans Memorial Middle School roof replacement out of warranty end-of-life Roof Systems which total three million 231 795 plus the cost estimate of 537 thousand forty dollars to remove the solar Dr Farrell indicated this work should be included in a future
055project planning as the district could not afford to put that amount into the current operational budget Veterans Memorial Elementary School Mr broccoli informed the committee of the cost estimates for from tremco for that roof have come in um uh three million one hundred forty nine thousand four hundred and thirty dollars for the roof replacement and 876 000 for the solar removal and replacement he also indicated they received a quote to only address the warranty repairs and that amount for solar was 405 768 which doesn't make any sense to do because in a year from now when the roof warranty is over we'd be spending another 876 000 to take the solar back off again um Dr Farrell again indicated this should be considered for a future project as it would not fit into the operational
056budget osborneville kitchen Edition I informed committee that based upon the reviews of both Architects committed project budgets and verbal confirmation on Grant applications that the um project as proposed by special Architects should be considered committee concurred and requested to be placed on the agenda so that's on this evening's agenda to finally put on a kitchen out of osbornville so the kids will have to be served lunch off of a folding table in the gymnasium that will be very nice uh and I will talk about that a little bit later as to how we're funding that uh Osborne field nurse office location inform the committee that this project is related to issues with the current layout and Logistics of the building's operations we asked both Architects to give us a project proposals once they're received we'll
057be discussing them hopefully by the next committee meeting BPU funding I informed the committee that Netta is assisting the District of the application process it relates to the awarded projects the Drum Point Elementary School application package has been submitted uh we're waiting on the tab reports which is uh a technical term that I'm told for air quality control in those schools for the other two schools Federal funding to support infrastructure and Green Transportation I informed the committee that the 80 billion dollars that was available to award nationally we received a notice based upon our concept submission and initial application that we were recommended not to proceed with the full application process the recommendation takes into consideration the cost to the district of requisitioning the detailed application for the process PE certifications independent balancing reports certified
058energy audit the Federal grant program is based upon socioeconomic demographics and we're informed that Brick's potential wealth would make us a low candidate for award NJ SDA grants 350 million dollars Statewide inform the committee that we are going after every Grant application we can with our projects to try to obtain 40 funding from the state preschool Grant 120 million Statewide I informed the committee that this grant opportunity will also be small sought with the submission of the architect however in its current wording there is some trouble with it in that it probably would only fund about five percent of a project um and I got into with the committee on how that how that mechanics of that would work five alarms fire alarm system repairs Mr pokorio informed the committee that open systems is fully
059on board and has performed work at Lake Riviera middle school and Lanesville elementary school he indicated that additional POS are being issued for brick memorial Brook High and vets Elementary School and the work is currently being scheduled the Laurelton shared driveway easement that was requested Mr Montenegro has indicated that he's heard no response from the new owners attorneys so that issue has been tabled at the current time and the parking lot request epic Moore High School the the contract that has been drafted has been submitted to the uh to the to the user of the facility and we're waiting on a response and that was a lot of fun at the finance committee then we I'm sorry facilities committee then we moved into the finance committee uh first was the bell schedule analysis we discussed
060a proposal that received from cesco it's on this evening's agenda for consideration the idea behind the bell schedule analysis is to try to look at any type of efficiencies that may be able to be achieved for cost Savings in the future 2023-24 budget um Dr Farrell covered that already but we discussed that also at the finance committee in regards to the state aid that had been reduced um you know we didn't lose as much as we anticipated we were going to lose so I do feel like a degenerate Gambler I told the committee at that point because when you anticipate you're going to lose 2.9 you only lose 2.5 you feel pretty good about it it's amazing I did inform the committee that we do have a potential to increase the tax levy above the
061two percent because of our health care cost increases but we need the actuaries final report to make that final determination the tentative budget does not reflect that as Dr Farrell indicated but the final budget May if the actuary report shows an increase in medical costs health benefit costs promoter Services I inform the committee that Mr Montenegro has written an opinion that the services can't be procured through utilization of competitive Contracting so that's on this evening's agenda for consideration jogging for John use a facilities request uh informed the committee that we had received a request from a former teacher Regina Doros to waive the fee for this fundraiser event committee concurred and asked to be placed on the agenda supervising accountant position I informed the committee of the position within the business office for the supervisor
062and accounting it's a replacement of the of the vacancy position that we had committee concurred to place that on the HR agenda Green Cove Marine assigned lease I informed the committee that the new owners of Green Cove Marina would like to continue to leave space at the warehouse on Princeton Avenue the committee agreed and asked that I discuss with the new ownership an increase of fee just as a side note to that for the committee members if you didn't notice we previously had been paid 600 a year for that sign being placed there when I called the new owner and asked what they thought about that they said they would like to double it so it's 1200 now a year so that was pretty nice on Ocean First Bank former committee that Ocean First Bank
063has notified us that they are going to break our rate lock and increase it to 2.75 percent of retroactive the March 1st and that that rate Rock will then be reviewed again on May 31st so it was very nice motion first to actually increase our rate lock outside of the agreement that we had with them school funding resolution we discussed that Toms River School had submitted and we had this the committee decided not to move that resolution ahead primarily because the due date for New Jersey School Board Association was March 9th which was prior to the next meeting where we would had to have adopted it partnership Health Center uh share with the committee and also then sent out to the full board the graph that displays the increased utilization at our health center it's
064it's really a success story in our district in regards to the number of Staff members and their dependents that are utilizing the health center it's a real win for our district Food Service revised budget inform the community that Miss Richardson would like to revise her budget once again um and I don't I I joke with Miss Richardson about her revising her budget she got more grant money and because she got more grant money she wants to of course spend more money to spend that grant funding so she's asking the reviser budget for that so we can't knock her for that and then but however on the next one I do teaser as well we did get and I know Miss Piccolo is probably out there listening we did get an audit recommendation for our 2122
065audit it's the first one in a long long time breaks a streak uh I'll take this audit recommendation however because the auto recommendation is that we have too much money in our food service operation so we made too much money we're holding on to too much money so the auto recommendation is we got to somehow figure out a way to get rid of it as you heard me indicate earlier one of the ways we're trying to get rid of it is by putting an actual serving line in an Osborne Elementary School which will take a big chunk of our cash rich food service program down to where they won't get Auto recommendations anymore so yes we do have an auto recommendation we have a corrective action plan as you can imagine the corrective action plan
066basically says we're going to spend the money pretty good corrective action plan so that is on this evening's a general consideration and next meeting for both committees is April 18th thank you Mr Edwards I think I have a couple people that are requesting that salad bar back possibly salad bar I am saying they asked for the salad bars back oh okay yeah yeah we took those away right after covid yep yep so they want us to put the sneeze guards back on them or leave them off they're gonna sneeze on it anyway public comment on agenda items this will be the first opportunity for public comment and will be for agenda items only the board invites thoughts and reactions on agenda items each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making
067a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or perspective or current employee and or students do we have anybody for public comment uh just John siluka 950 Sylvia Court just two quick questions well two areas anyhow let's say the first one is operations number 32. explain this I don't really understand what the green team is it's six thousand dollars which is next to nothing compared to what we spend but what do they do and does it save us money or cost us money you know that type of thing and then the other area is in the
068cni area uh one under these internship things one says internship one and like Ampersand one is that two different things or is that one thing I wasn't sure what that was so I didn't know what it meant and then somewhere right below that maybe number four or five the other is why do we have student teaching I don't understand the student teaching in July and August is that a student teacher that's doing specialty things and that's it thank you so I can answer the first part of the question and so there it's an application for a grant for sixty six hundred dollars to support hydrophonics and aquaponics equipment um in regards to what that all means I would have to defer to Dr Anderson because it's really at least two but it is a great
069team that does save us money so a lot of energy savings they go around and they learn from it whether it's um what are those um thinking of the switches and the hours safe thank you go ahead all your finish you can finish that thought on that so we actually use federal funding title IV funding to fund green teams at each of our schools and those are kids that come together as an after-school club that focus on sustainability conservation they actually attend the green fair in the one that I mentioned in may they come and they do their presentation about how they can serve they work the the grant is to preserve and and expand our relationship with the brick mua to protect Bonner to get Bay to protectacon Bay and we're going to be
070using the supplies to buy additional like replacement because what a hydroponic and aquaponic Garden is it grows vegetables we actually the one at the high school we Harvest them and send it to seeds of service our students do that it's it's just such a nice way for them to give back to the community they volunteer there we bring food that the vegetables that we grow there we also bring field trips there from our elementary school to see how they grow and they do Labs I've I've seen labs done there so it allows our students to be stewards and make plants and grow things we've actually used it when I was at the middle school in our cafeteria we had like a title one parent night and we use the spices that we grew and the
071vegetables that we grew in the title one night so it's an opportunity for the kids to be leaders in in those in addition just to add there's the town's green Fair May 20th that this team helps work and operate we also last year we were at a big what was the we got some big award and I want to say was ocean no it was Verizon for the rain water barrel contest through we won it and we got some uh money it's uh it's really educational plus we get some grant money in it uh continuing on I know you asked about the student teaching as well first of all let me say student teaching is so important to us and it does not cost us anything we do have summer programming and I want Dr
072Anderson to continue on that but we do have summer programming um what we call it last year was our spark on our special day spark but it was really the summer interns are in the extended they're in the extended school year therapists they they are there are therapists our OT um counselors uh and speech therapists each School calls it a different thing some call it practicum some call it internships that's probably a typo it should probably say internship one and two one in it should say one and two it's um they're they're required to do two semesters of student teaching and we call them clinical interns now uh so if you're coming on board as a counselor or as a teacher you have to do two semesters of internship if you're coming on board as
073some of the other areas you may have to do additional time an observation or interning so the summer programs provide them with those additional hours in order to get their certification thank you any other public comment see sorry Mr Campbell okay that's Mr Campbell age before Beauty one after you finish there's more all right first off it was nice to see brick memorial Auditorium with that presentation and it covered all the spectrums I congratulate you on that Brook Memorial Fair job fair so to speak college so forth it's about time about time but what I wanted to tell you there we built or did that thing over you Jim air conditioned it for one reason only and it's not being it used at its full capacity and that's Revenue you get 750 something like that
074Jim I think a shot for uh outside people but and you got a little going into summer we need that place going all the time we spent the money to get money and that's the name of the game so and that art thing that was another thing I really like that too however in Brick Township High School we need to upgrade four art rooms to the modern era and there are ways to do it and needless to say Mary I got a package for you to run off for the board members okay now can we go to uh number 26. I think that might be the 60 40 split with uh midstreams is that what it is I'm not sure if I understood the questions yeah 26 is midstreams midstream's HVAC what was the question
075f13 looking at it again my thing was all these schools should had a minimum of three boilers in that unit minimum now I look on The Ledger and I'm looking dang it because Jim you told me too that was it I look on The Ledger in this room they mentioned three we can't get in a sense wise and dollar foolish attitude I'm sorry Mr Campbell but so the boilers were done on their previous project this project is not for the boilers this would be for the air conditioning of the building oh I know but I'm going to bring that in fold here now in addition he States the architect States that he's using the boilers to run our domestic hot water heaters in there I was going over his proposal and his other proposal for
076midstreams but what I'm going to give you it just happened to fall in my lap when it looked at the agenda the other night I have a whole schematic of what has to be done to Midstream school because that's the stepchild of the school district they need a cafeteria they don't need kids walking through one classroom to another classroom they need another faculty room they need to finish the front it looks like a veterinary school in the front or a hospital got to change the canopies I'm sorry that I'll give you this and you can take a look at it and the last one I guess I'll save it for now how many you cut cutting on uh support staff not the teachers anyway instead of cutting them set up a SWAT team of about
077three or four of them and do these bats throws over and all these schools they need it accessibility as well as cosmetics and you take instead of putting it all right one more thing instead of taking money and putting on a parking lot take about a mill to keep these guys and keep them employed hey that's an easy way we can't get people let alone cut people but it's not you know try you got to think outside the box and the other thing one last thing we have a new mayor okay go to her and Stephanie go to her and go havasis put in a tennis court at brick memorial like they initially intended there's five adults and two youth put them in there it used to be 633 but I imagine it's up to
078now uh 735 750. the money is there more Revenue and the reason you do the town involved in it and you involvement is control over it otherwise you'll have every person known to mankind going through there I didn't learn my lesson down to Traders Cove all right that's it thank you Dad thank you Mr Campbell I want you to know I took two questions off for every cookie I ate have some more cook more a lot cook more cookies you'll spend more money in the kitchens a couple quick things before I get to my questions I just got a message here and I'll read it says state senator Vin Goble I hope you pronounced it right who chairs the state senate education committee said he hopes to a deal will be in place in the
079next 48 hours to address state school aid cuts that could districts and they're talking about Don't Clap Don't Clap yes didn't get it but but Monday you might know if you're getting part of the 100 million dollars good luck with that thank you thank you okay and uh now for my good thing before I start uh documentation and the thing you did with the high school students I think that's great I have one question I know that you you included trade schools did you also include the trade unions that have apprenticeship programs and everything that's okay so my clock is running yeah yes later yeah okay good uh okay here's my questions and I already crossed out some uh on the cni number one five thousand five hundred and seventy dollars to send three people
080from Saint Dominic's to Philadelphia trade school we budgeted for that are we paying for that or did they pay for that uh number two four more field trips I'm keeping count no response required under operations and I try to understand this you have a student coming in from Wall Township right and if I read it correctly coming in from March 2nd to June 20th charging 104.50 a day that comes out to seven thousand one hundred six dollars but in but in the documentation it says they only have to pay one tenth a month is that correct and if so why uh you know I would become a bank and we lend money I don't know okay so you owe me that one number 11. uh the same thing you've got a joint transportation thing going
081on with plumstead which I spent half my life in right you're all stomping grounds and and and and and I try to understand just what it is and I don't understand it so maybe you can explain it it says 52 brick students I was born school one one student 743.69 from 11 30 to 6 30. what that is how can explain what that is how that works or what we're talking about number 25 34 500 for transportation operations assessment please tell me what that is and what what why we need that number 29 what is the sponsorship promotion promoter Services sponsorship promoter Services I know it's going out to bid I just want to know what that is number 31 you're now getting 5 million eight hundred nineteen thousand dollars for Pre-K are they are
082they how much of that are they funding the Pre-K is it still the same as them as what it was how much is it costing the school district for the Pre-K and on that same note I noticed that last year's on preliminary budget there was an entry for the fair share it says hold on a second I'll find it the third third it's item number on the preschool right and oh yeah and here it is less local share for preschool one million three hundred and thirty three thousand dollars that was on last year's budget but it's not on this year's budget and my next question Mr Edwards kind of got into but not sure he answered my question so I'll ask it last year's Debt Service was 601 thousand dollars on the budget this year's
083Debt Service is two hundred and three thousand dollars so it really went down and I'm just curious as to how you how you did that and it's a lot less debt or did you just decide not to pay as much debt because you're strapped for money and uh number 36 an increase again of legal counsel for special education up by another forty nine thousand dollars to a hundred and sixty eight thousand dollars just for legal counsel for special education and he is not even over isn't there something we can do about that that amount of money equals three teachers and I know that she's going to hire and eight more teacher aides are they new or replacements and the last one just a knit but I'm curious some nurses and salary went from 150 a
084day to 190 dollars a day and realize that's only forty dollars a day difference but it's a 27 percent increase why was that done thank you Mr finale all right so say help yourself please you could take more than one the fifty five hundred dollars for Saint Dominics as we tell you every year is a pass-through right it's title funds that gets passed through we have to kind of service them because we're the district they're in um that is not costing us anything uh regarding the student um and you asked it was the one the student payment I think you said it was a wall it's a tuition paying student what night item number was that one that's the number number nine my only question I'm not questioning the amount or the time frame I'm
085questioning is is it correct yeah because it's 110. one tenth is ten months correct that's yes they have to pay the school year is 10 months yep okay so they paid every month even though even though the students only here for three months yeah they're gonna be paying one tenth of the annual tuition so they're gonna pay March April May June they'll be paying one tenth of the annual number okay this month they're here so once a month so so actually we're we're fine we're lending their money we're financing it because they owe us seven thousand dollars but they get ten months to pay no no no no no no monthly payments yeah wine dividing our salary one tenth of the annual amount we're dividing our tuition into tenths one tenths that's all so there's
086a monthly payment think of them rent monthly rent they're paying three months they're paying monthly each month for three months correct not what it says okay um I can be confused 20 25 on Transportation uh this was talked in in our committee and I think it was Finance ad nauseum for a while I think it's actually fantastic because we need to be more efficient effective um with this company um to show routes the software as Mr Edwards alluded to in his in his comments from the committee meeting we're hoping there's a substantial schedule tier uh recommendation that could generate some Savings in transportation we have to look in every Avenue we can in transportation we don't have people in-house that can do that well first of all our director actually drives buses too A lot
087of times with the shortages not only is she on the road a lot um she's doing that but this would know better this this is uh this is a well-renowned uh company I don't know if you want to add to what's in the deal but um I think it's money uh Mr Campbell said before sometimes you gotta spend money to get money or find money I think this could uh really give us a good return on investment I hope so because that's another half a teacher um I'm gonna go back to the question on the wall on the plumstead route number 11. yeah he's going to go back so it's it's um they have once we're the route that our students ride on to that private school is going to pick up one of their
088students on the way and so they're sharing the cost of that one student oh okay so it's it's it's it's not bringing them back the quick schools it's just it's gonna be on the way to that school picking the kid up and on the way back drop them off and the 52 it says for the uh for for Osborne those are all those are the amount of students that are going to another place yes okay so it's that's there that's a good one yeah okay good um 29 uh Jim was about the competitive Contracting solicitation for sponsorship promoter Services which you alluded to in your comments I don't know if you want to yes so uh so what we're trying we're we're piggybacking off of an idea that another district school district had we're bringing
089in an outside agency who's going to promote brick schools to obtain revenue on our behalf think of it as like I want to say I want to say advertising but not really advertising okay they don't get anything they get a percentage of what they make of what we make where'd they get you yes like a big right vigorous like a big for someone who's old-time gamblers vigorous big like a big okay fishing you never heard it okay that's a good thing my dad used to use it so number 31 Pre-K Grant um as I've said year every year best thing we did and just prior to me I just started here was uh established our pre-ks because I want to say 80 to 83 is funded uh through the state uh you your question regarding
090the grant was is it more than last year was that your question or the 5 million no my question was it's more than last year how many more students are you increasing pre-k by and and are we still paying a fair share of that if so how much and why isn't that on the budget so I'll let Jim finish that one but so every year you have to expand your pre-K in order to get the grant just so you know we we educate and I'm proud to say 550 I think in two Pre-K buildings which is more than 50 percent of our Pre-K universe and we have almost 200 on a waiting list I mean we want to educate more we have to expand we're continuing to expand that's why we get more I believe
091the local fair share and I'm going to let Jim add is the portion not paid through the peer grant for Pre-K it's the inclusion part yes it's the inclusion part right how much how much is the pre-k program how many of you you increasing this year is how much is it costing 15 15 more yeah because of space 200 but only 15. yeah well why so low don't have the space um The Debt Service I'll I'll talk to and then Jim can add so last year if you remember I'm unfortunately and we can agree to disagree here we do not have much debt in this school district which really hinders us a lot we retired 600 Grand last year I want to say 601 we retired it meaning paid it off right it's not on
092the books I think what's left is 200. yeah we only we only have the only debt left that we have is from the 2008 referendum that passed for the solar panels on brick memorial high school and that's all we have that we have two correct and what's left what would you think I would disagree with you about I I think we need we we could have incurred some debt impossible Capital Improvements that when we retired some debts to the taxpayer they wouldn't have seen an increase I'm worried a Township makes up for it they got a shitload I'm sorry number 36 um yes we have an increase so uh unfortunately last few years I've seen an increase in litigation especially on the special ed side however I will tell you to Mrs Granger has done
093an amazing job because when she came on I want to say there were 12 outstanding litigations that were 13 that we were pushing towards um alj final litigation and final settlement which means there's a lot more lawyer interactions with the other side because they bring you together and I think we're almost done finishing my hope I shouldn't say My Hope Is that the legal bills to Mr Kalik next year would actually go down but we're kind of cleaning it you got three left um but yes so that is an increase and I'm happy because it will actually complete and finalize litigation for this year which mean there could be three on the books going into next year's budget which I'm hoping there's a decrease in special at legal costs for next year nothing we can
094do you want zero yeah nothing you can really do to keep that in check no like I say with the legal issues um you know most you know parents have a have a legal uh right to Due Process under the law for Ida and special education and uh not unfortunately but the fact is that the majority of our legal fees and litigation come with special education that's just that's just the fact I noticed I noticed two two schools just comment two schools m-o-e-s-c and Alpha that's not a school 152 thousand dollars not a school uh out of District placements mosc is a commission but that's a separate issue Replacements we we do we are not hiring any new positions these are replacement positions on the power as a matter of fact uh we've been talking
095for the last few months I said we basically have a hiring freeze on new positions it would be a shame to hire someone in a brand new position that may not be on the budget for next year right and and let them go so I mean we have some interims and some administrative positions uh any not required by law so maybe a power is a one to one Aid that's required by the IEP we would not um replace these are replacement positions not new positions and last thing is the sub nurse so we use outside agencies for most things except for the nurse I'm right and the nursing rate went up I'll let Mrs McNamara get uh add to that but the rate they were paid which was three years old was equivalent to the
096sub rate and we couldn't attract we just can't find nurses um and that rate went up and it well the rate went up because the this particular placement is for a nurse who's doing a long-term leave for us um they're replacing someone who retired prior to the end of the school year and we needed to bring them in a long-term leave so it's not just a day-to-day they're actually at the school for the remainder of the Year March April May and June when you say the rate went up who made the rate go up three tenths of a nursing salary right now if you hired a nurse it would be a lot more than the per diem rate we're paying but when you when you call in them you're saying they're long-term this one is
097a long term that's why the rate is higher they're not coming in for one or two days no that's what Miss Mack just said coming in for months okay I guess you got to do what you got to do thank you Mr finale thank you see you later being nine um Dr Anderson curriculum and construct and instruction thank you Miss Siebert under curriculum instruction the superintendent recommends that the board approved the following items one through five I need a motion in a second I'll make that motion second Fran any board comment being none Mary Miss sieber yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Diana yes Mr blandina yes Misty Benedictus yes operations Mr Edwards yes thank you this evening the superintendent recommends items one through thirty seven I need a motion in a second oh motion alley
098second Michael any board comment being none Mary receiver yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Diana yes Mr blandina yes Misty Benedictus yes do I have to say the abstentions that I have on this now or next I do that okay so I'm abstaining on number five vendor id210638 operations number six scheduled ID [Music] 210643-210-613-210-724-210-672-210-589-210-638 okay and just let the record reflect that her yes vote was with those abstentions thank you Mr Mr kleisler human resources thank you Miss Siebert tonight under Human Resources the superintendent recommends items one through thirty six you need a motion in a second motion alley second friend any board comment being none Mary Miss seabird yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Diana Rome yes Mr blandina yes Misty Benedictus yes policy and planning Ms McNamara thank you Mr sievert under policy and planning
099the superintendent recommends the board approved the following items one I need a motion in a second motion alley second Michael any more comment thank you for this engrossing reading Miss Mack it's really great thanks being done Mary the seabert yes Miss Kennedy yes Miss Diana yes Mr blandina yes Miss D Benedictus yes public comment this is the second opportunity for public comment each participant is asked to give his or her name prior to making a statement all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer comments shall be limited to five minutes and each speaker may only speak once the board will not during the public portion of this meeting discuss matters involving employment appointment termination of employment negotiations terms and conditions of employment evaluation of the performance of promotion or disciplining of any specific or
100perspective or current employee and or students we have anyone for public comment Mr saluka do you want a cookie before you start there's enough up there for Mr finale when it gets back up don't worry we're going to keep that John Slicker 950 Sylvia Court two things she's trying to Vibe us for cookies and freezers out of here yeah yeah not talk too much yes in a minute I'm going to give Dr Farrell a chance to talk about the thing I sent you about the bullying so you could just you know but before that I was writing some notes you mentioned that Dr Farrell mentioned uh bowling uh just so you know and your teachers already left them principles left it was a big fundraiser for bowling at the ocean lanes for brick brick high
101school Brick grammar schools whatever it was 128 people participated in the scholarship planning I said Dave Thompson did a lot of work but he's one of our normal High School coaches so it's no big deal but all four High School coaches were there and I looked I said maybe they didn't invite the superintendent and his staff or something you know I said but there's no way he wouldn't let it get away with it and the other one is I just want to mention about the bullying I mentioned that town council meeting I mentioned it in a letter to you too you know at the front uh just so you can give us an idea you know because you see it more and more down in Central High obviously and then all over the whole country
102there's more bullying going on you know whether it's because of you know whether it's happening in schools but the buses and fights you know it might be just the people getting back together but I just figured I'd give you the opportunity to talk about it okay thank you thank you Mr Suka as I I said in my email to you um there's some sad and tragic events that happen all across our country and lately it seems more prevalent when it comes to bullying uh teenager and young people mental health harassment and obviously it came close to home locally with a local Mother District unfortunately our our Administration will tell you that when something tragic happens we debrief as Administration and we have weekly meetings and then we have monthly principals council meeting and unfortunately we
103brought and debriefed the central situation and looked and became very reflective of our own practices we do constant training with Administration under Miss McNamara and the principals and and local law enforcement we work very well I'm not going to um opine on another District or another District policies and and unfortunately sometimes hindsight is a lot easier to look back and see things you could do differently and yet for the grace of God you know these instances are occurring anywhere and it could not be in any District but we work very well with local law enforcement and the prosecutor's office and the county office on a regular basis and I believe our practices were very diligent with our principals and our assistant principals on our practices and our procedures and protocols with that we're a firm
104believer and hands anybody if there's any kind of Hands-On Hands-On period law enforcement comes in and I even say to our Administration it's kind of the monkeys off your back because quite honestly when police get involved we're out of the picture and sometimes it's better to err on the side to get local authorities involved right away with that even if it's on uh what I would call like a cyber crime we talk with the board regularly many times in closed session unfortunately because we go in for our hip I've sat here last year the year before I need to do a better job educating the public on the different between what's said as a Hib under the statute is where the law came from harassment intimidation bullying as it Mr Montenegro used it should be
105almost called targeting against someone for a distinguishing characteristic right that is considered hip under statute and typical pupil conflict that would look and appear it's bullying it's just not bullying under the statute where we have to provide counseling do disciplining and act according to our code of conduct uh policy I will tell you uh you you said a year ago and I still have it in my head even though strategic planning is on hold you know you said it's great student-centered teacher-led but parent involved and I didn't forget that Mr silukum because I would encourage and you'll hear me probably say this even a little later and next month I would encourage every parent and grandparent or Guardian be nosy your kid's business be nosy be involved uh you know uh almost you know interfering
106um to to a point where you know what's going on and if you don't know and you have a concern reach out to the adults outside of the home that are in this the students or your child's life starting with the teacher every student needs an adult Advocate outside the home that they build a relationship with and this is near and dear to my heart and schools are supposed to be that safe haven for them but many times we don't know what's going on see bullion is very covert you know we think many times that it's very overt like someone sees a video of someone being physically assaulted in a hallway or on a bus I could tell you not that they're easy but those are cut you know black and white cut and dry
107right they're easy to see that's very overt and that's rare most of the bullion that's happening in our students lives and in people's lives I'm here to tell you it's very covert it's not seen unless we're talking and building that relationship and being nosy with our own students and our own children it's so important to do that it's so under the cuff it's very very hard not only because every student gets due process to corroborate it and have it what we call as a foundative but to get the student to open up and speak to a professional that can help them overcome some of these thoughts it is a crisis nationally State and locally we talk about this ad nauseam and we review and we're very reflective my thoughts and prayers are with Central Regional
108in their district and many of the other incidents there was an incident recently last week I think in Upstate New York breaks my heart you know brick is a big District you know we we need parents to be that partner like we always said and be nosy and involved and start with the child's teacher the person they see every day and ask those questions and get involved because we go far outside the school buildings I think you also asked about you know if it's outside of school outside yes the law allows us our tentacles to kind of inquire and and even apply discipline if we feel that impacts the environment coming into school which is a broad lens but we we utilize that in many instances it's very prevalent but thank you and I'm glad
109you reminded me to bring that up in public for everybody Mr Campbell okay um Jim how much can is there a limit on how much you can Bond yes uh I have to research the statute but there's a there is a limit ours is somewhere in the neighborhood of 425 million that we we could issue debt for we're not I think we have outstanding uh three million so we're far out from there why didn't we conduct consolidate all this and just put it in the bond for 20 years are heating and air conditioning are requires the vote of the taxpayers it'll be a referendum oh it's a referendum yeah okay um getting back to these uh academies has anybody bothered to go up to Freehold and get their courses study for law enforcement and safety
110because we had a good run on uh those jobs are they're hard to fill now police EMTs firefighters DH Hewitt you saw that with the U.S Marshals because they were lined up and hardly any of them had any kind of background why aren't we moving in that direction we got about 60 percent of these kids that will benefit by it and then we got a quarter a quarter of a million dollar lab over in brick memorial when I was here I went over there and freaked out because they were using it for storage what they have done with it since I don't know but it would be nice if we got back into some kind of lab techniques or rented it out to Allied Health something of that nature but it's something's got to give
111there insane the CRS program I told you about that is so needed it's just unbelievable every business in town every apartment complex homeowners whatnot they need those kids those kids can make a living for themselves and have a family and it we don't need a lot of money we just converted over the shops I've done it that was a long time ago so I know what I'm talking about there it's just doing it then the visual arts academy everything in this room is related to what one way or another it's amazing people take it for granted I got really ignited I guess when I went over that thing it was snooping around to see what was going on all right Brick Township High School first off you know before you know it we're going to
112need the windows we need an estimate on the windows we have to put a budget up so we're talking a couple years and you might not be here you only got a five-year contract don't you want to give me a bigger one do you want a cookie and it's only a four year and five months but I like working with you I don't want to I've been through I've been through three or four interns here and I wasted my time why thank you you could be my agent yeah okay but anyway getting back to Brick I'll give you a rough example to finish the windows up and brick it was a one mil six hundred thousand but that's five six years ago it's probably up to one eight now when they did the lighting here
113in Brick did they do the hallways because that was the worst in Brick Township High School but they did pick I couldn't find it in the information uh and they gotta hang in the uh in both gyms the Heating the lighting's all done all right now this is something you gotta finish or do or destroy and put a new one in you got to put in a new consent concession stand at Brick High School bathrooms get a nice one 24 by 40. I got the thing here for you precasts I do the work but I I want people to do it I don't want to just keep doing this and doing that I like the way you're thinking Mr saluka let me let me answer some of you I mean Mr Campbell no but you
114know you know it's serious about that concession stand they bring in their own grills with gas tanks so many let me let me talk to the academy because I love the way you're thinking it's Progressive it's you know there's a lot of things we need right now and I I want to I want to hit each one real quickly for you because um the academies is something that we have in our strategic plan we have a STEM Academy now we're looking at a myriad of different academies to go to the Future but that that that changes the operation budget when you talk about these academies the certification is the ctes and you're talking about many of our teachers existing don't have that so it's not as simple as well just kind of don't say Academy
115then it doesn't matter what it's the subject area now law and safety I happen to know about it's actually up in Long Branch Freehold it's through the vocational and we had students when I was at Shore Regional uh that went to that Long Branch program fantastic programs um I love all those programs uh unfortunately many of the things that's why strategic planning there's a pause on in the sense that many of the things we were hoping to start putting into some budgets not long-term things just simple things are now being pushed to the long-term strategic plan to keep on our radar but obviously it's not anytime soon unfortunately because of uh just fiscally wise well but I agree I would love to have all of these things it's needed these kids have to have opportunities
116College isn't the only thing matter of fact who the hell who can afford it anymore lastly I will say I agree we talk about opportunities all the time we're talking about a you know a cost per pupil so you can forget enrollment or anything you take an average cost per pupil of fifteen thousand five hundred and then you have another District somewhere in North Jersey I don't need it that's paying 45 000 cost per pupil and getting far more inadequacy Aid and different AIDS than we're getting and allow them way more opportunities for students where our high schools are not going to be what's considered Comprehensive High Schools anytime soon and unfortunately that's not 2023 that's not the opportunities other students have and that's what's going to happen unfortunately besides class sizes going up you're
117going to see electives we forgot one thing and that it's going to hurt if it comes about school choice that's going to be a Zinger the other thing don't even try to get money out of this state you know why Tammy and Phil are just going to change positions and it's going to be Demi's all the way but you're going to buy me a cookie you know Mr fanelli if we get some money because yeah I got some inside input on just a quick as long as because you know Democrats two to one in this state and he thinks he's going to be president so when he doesn't get the job he'll take Tammy's office and then damn it take but he'll still run the show just like Obama's doing it now it's a Campbell
118ported a 783 million 339 295 referendum we could then borrow because I found our debt limit we'd be able to borrow 470 million 3 577 and the state would pay the rest so you win you win I mean think about what 783 million dollars worth of work we could do a lot yeah I know we bring you on a construction manager it'd be great do you think the Fidelity can be the finance manager I heard that was you volunteering he volunteered no [Laughter] do you think that 60 40 rods are going to come back they are back they're back right now same criteria they'll pay 40 of every dollar we match we put up 60 they'll put up 40. and we can tell if we use it in one area we can take the extra
119and use it in the other area no thank you Mr Campbell yeah who's next Mr finale you give them the cookies at least you didn't call or Mr finale that's okay all right keep it on the light side for a minute before I get a little more serious I wasn't here last month I saw just me I saw your heart rate Elevate when I mentioned a 470 million dollar issuance fell off the chair okay I wasn't here last month but you know I have the Mandate of the month program well we're updating that now to the Mandate of the week program because what we have now is you have the science of reading which you have to implement you have your threat assessment which you have to do this year which I can't wait to
120see how that rolls out you're going to bring in a parent and tell them oh by the way your child's a threatened and identified as a threat that's going to be a really good one you have to incorporate black history in your AP classes now that's a good one and this one you tell me one of the new programs that the Senate is talking about is mental health days for the students and what they're saying is they want to give the students up to five days per year to take off for mental health and it doesn't count against their absences now we know we have a problem with absence in the school district is adding five days where somebody can say I need a mental health day I got to stay home is that really
121a good way to do it you can answer me on that one uh you have to now incorporate Equity versus equality and one of you last meeting mentioned that you got taught that good can you tell us after I'm uh now wait let him finish yeah I'll give you time to think about it what is the difference and how would you play it in the school district because if you watch the town council meeting which you guys all left too early you would have found out huh I see you'll notice that one of the Town Council Members doesn't know the difference between those two and then the one I just read about today very today April 1st is going to be declared the week of the young child month and I don't know what you're
122going to have to do in the school district about that maybe somebody knows more than I do but the reporters are saying yeah so that's another mandate good good for you all right those are the ones so in the end you can talk to me about that um my other question is who is the school that liaison on on the school board right now good maybe she can get them to write a referendum and the referendum should say that the township is going to give you half the money they get from the sports complex for the next 30 years oh okay um I want to talk about your weight paper for a minute I I read your white paper I know you put a lot of work into it I don't think the vast majority
123of people are going to understand it because I had a hard time following it but my question is you did a lot of work you believe what you did was right can you answer that now absolutely okay uh and uh the the last thing I have is I just want to read off I know you expect people to do a lot of things to fight for your budget look around the room they ain't here it ain't happening maybe it's one of the things that you people can do is get your own groups to get more involved with that and by that I mean the association of school superintendents the School Board Association the parent Teachers Association the principals and supervisors Association the Education Association and the association of school board business organizations where they get
124Mr Edwards all of those people are you can get them involved and you gotta you got a pretty powerful group of people you're not going to get it here all right and my my last thing is just it annoyed the hell out of me now if you watch the town council meeting or stay to the end I brought up something because when I went on the website on Monday to look at the agenda was all there I do my thing then Tuesday I go back and I do my thing make sure there's nothing added or changed and make sure my numbers are right so well when I went Tuesday the backup information wasn't there I called up I explained okay we'll fix it in 15 minutes I gave him an hour and back one more
125page was added the 18 pages so I went kind of ballistic you know that several months ago I had to call you up and say that three or four months behind in putting the school board agendas on the thing which I go back and look at okay you fix the problem last month I'm calling you again we're now three or four months behind and putting your hand twice twice in one year yes sir I had to call you again and say that three or four months behind and putting that on the website now my question is why is that I don't want an apology I want to know why after after I'm not going to apologize I'm going to tell you that last month when you called me I'll start with that and I'll go
126down twice in one year yes there's no apology but they are up I actually checked because I heard you asked that at the town meeting so yesterday I think Mr Monday said I go on and our minutes are updated all the way up until tonight's approval once they're approved you're in the wrong place well I'm not talking about the minute all right the videos of the of the media they take there's a little there's a little process with that every time it's brought to my attention we update it we have someone in charge of it we hope there were two times with that I want to get off that and get to a lot of your questions because you didn't answer my question I did ask you a question why is that why is it
127they can't do that that they can't do it consistently yeah I guess we've had mistakes done twice what do you want me to tell you that it was an update on a timely fast I'll tell you what I think somebody's getting no need to do something that's not I'm doing it Mr Finelli you tell me all the time what you think what we should do this job is so hard it's hard enough without people who have never done it telling me how to do it I'm not telling you so I know you are exactly telling me you're telling me that and that that gets frustrating because you know the answer to that people do make mistakes or in the public sector and as soon as it's brought to my attention I try to remediate and
128justify and I'm not going to go through details of where it happened in the in the chain of command or where it happened in the operations because you're a non-deministrator that's all so I'm going to tell you every time you bring it to my attention we make sure we check and we get it fixed I want to get on to bigger stuff that you have here because I think it's important okay um so first of all the mental health days I've sawed its pending legislation I do not deal with hypotheticals when it becomes legislation we get guidance from the state there are many what I call unfunded mandates which I agree with you all the time many are not funded or are not requiring to be funded but they're just topical so like uh you
129know you said week of the young child I actually think that's been around actually I think that was last year too it's just for us to celebrate and address Early Learning and things of that nature but there are unfunded mandates that come often and I am in 100 agreement from you that this happens in education too many times and they never attach a dollar with it so they have a mandate and then you're supposed to implement enact it I'll give you another example there's what I call these fuzzy mandates that are costs that drain our resources we've been talking as a Cabinet Ad nauseam about this budget cycle how hard it is right not only are districts like us hit financially the time and resources we have to spend in order to balance and put
130a budget in place because when you start talking about reduction of jobs it's not as easy as you cut 30 jobs right there's a reduction in force statute as far as certification their seniority who bumps who and all of a sudden you're talking about hours and days of work for those districts that are already hurt financially that's what happens in public sector and public education um I'm going to turn right into public policy I don't know if you're where I went to College Syracuse University my individual College was the Maxwell School of citizenship and public affairs we were all required to take a public policy class public affairs class I don't know if you ever took one but when you you talk about it is Asa involves superintendent's colleague nazbo all them absolutely are so
131I want to go through why the white paper was written it was not for the the audience of just our community not even close so when you look at legislation and public policy and how to affect public policy there's actually a game plan part of the game plan is writing what's called a white paper a white paper I could give you the historical perspective it comes from actually Britain and Parliament from I think I gave this to Jim Edwards when he challenged me because they would put a white cover on it in Parliament to show how important was but there's a format to a white pepper which gives the white paper that gives you a purpose and a call to action the first start in any kind of policy or legislation change or amendment in
132the public sector is to do that research to actually provide the state and that was the audience who was written for our legislators providing them a mechanism or them the research and document to then run with it I know I wrote it and I posted it because I want it out and everybody and I know it is academic so I didn't write it for the audience of our community members I wrote it for legislators now I want to tell you the plan so about two months ago because we we've been doing this plan since S2 when I first got there we've done the testimonies we've done that and then quite honestly the last two years with Federal money it's kind of masked and even the extra Aid some of the state it's kind of mask
133the you know what I call DEFCON 5 which is happening now now we anticipated this cut and we're prepared it doesn't make it any easier and it doesn't make it any more right but we we don't find out information on state aid the way it works until basically two weeks ago we get a seven page document from the state with our budget report now to share are some of my and I'm going to go on here and I'm apologizing but to share some of my iron the state you you can't find out all the district you can look at all the districts and see what they get in Aid you could do that by counting online you'll actually see that on the brick it will say Equalization aid for last year we don't qualify for
134Equalization actually the state tells you where to park like stabilization at another age in certain areas ludicrous get with the computers you don't have to do that but if you asked for a list of all the districts and what their local fair share is right what their adequacy budget is and what the comparative budget is you can't get that you'd have to Oprah every District I'm starting to wonder I'm not I guess I am idealistic enough to think there's not I guess I'm idealistic enough to think that it's not by Design but I'm not naive enough to Discount that that that that that's the way I want to say it so the plan about two months ago and I spent a lot of time was I said you know what you know I I am
135a finance type guy and I'm really into I'm going to do a real lot of research and I'm going to go back and get a historical perspective and I don't want to bore everybody here and I'm going to write an actual white paper I'm on behalf for the board right I wrote it in my time superintendent here but then we're going to take that white paper and we're going to circulate it to everybody and everybody legislators community members the people and that's going to be our call to action from the white paper I actually wrote a condensed version as an article from that we'll start with What's called the those plan is to start with editorials and comments for that from that go back two weeks I met with our County group I've been call
136I guess the de facto face of what I call our fab five districts in Ocean County the biggest losers um and we met as a group we met with the commissioner of Education I don't think she told me some things I wasn't happy with and called her to task how it's in code it's codified and I called her out on what that code was because I had it dictated and she didn't read my report she ended up reading it we met with the county soup and then we met with all the local legislators uh gosh was that Tuesday or last Tuesday down in Berkeley this week um from them because they're on one side of the aisle and with the help of some board members they were able to actually attract didn't go pile on
137the other side who I talked to a hundred times he uh encouraged me about the report uh he actually was one of the ones that told me what you read today I knew about actually last night uh yesterday I was asked by uh director vicari and the Board of Commissioners to come speak at their session talk about the white paper talk about the article I've been on the radio last night been to other board meetings um I was thinking kind of what we all were thinking ah at least I could show to public we are attacking us doing the best we can but I I don't have much hope that has changed for me the last 48 hours in talking to some top level uh legislators you know I was under the impression that when
138the governor's budget does Because by the way when he puts it out the next day they give us our state aid numbers they don't vote on it for a while if they were to change it we would have already probably reduced a ton of jobs and affected people's livelihoods which I lose sleep over um that is not going to happen now we're I'm being told that I don't know to what extent I am being told that there's three possible scenarios that may come out within the next week to two you're saying Monday I I was told differently not as cool soon as Monday I know what you read um but I I get that but I've talked to uh Mr gopal I've talked to many legislators um it's exciting for a couple reasons and and
139I got some because if you really read the white paper and I I encourage you because you like tell us what the three things that could happen one is there's no chains another change is there's a hold harmless or a pause and the third one is the budget gets 100 million put back in that's dedicated districts that's not it that's not no the the all three stipulations have an assembly and Senate uh legislation pending that I helped write with vinco Paul to create a committee uh to review the funding formula and I'm actually asked for a seat on that committee because they want local super you know State superintendents and Bas I'm hoping to get a seat on that committee and part of all these three I don't know if you call them compromise is
140that that legislation that they pulled it went through the assembly but pulled from the Senate I guess they were waiting uh would get passed and they would create a committee to review uh the entire funding formula and sephra from 2008 as well as Senate Bill 2 which revised it along those and there's a bunch of different statues or I should say Administrative Code that are linked to it that are in my white paper that were revised along the line but I bring that out because if you I tried to write it excuse me Jim but not in business administrator speak don't is that why you can understand and not even in superintendent speak not too academic but to a point where I could give a historical perspective kind of say and ask the basic question
141like well why is adequacy Aid on the books but there's no application process but 84 million is given out right now to seven districts in New Jersey and has been frozen since Senate bill 2. trying to give the state legislators a way out a mechanism for us to get relief and not putting the onus on the local taxpayer because it's it's not right the way they do it um that's that's the big argument uh you know in there is that the Paradox is the state and and for some of you out there that have may not have read it or don't understand to really try to simplify when the state creates a budget for school district the state comes up what's called an adequacy budget a baseline budget dollar amount for a thorough and efficient
142education which is constitutionally required and how do you do that is we're not getting all the numbers they say in elementary students weighted 1.0 Middle School is 1.4 High School is 1.8 The Vocational is 1.9 you get another weighted for an ell student another wait for um Title One or economically disadvantaged and then they actually in the original your first part of state aid they weighed 14 point 15.9 for special ed a state average is 20 and that was just revised a year or two ago we're at almost 20 percent so that's the first part and they come up with a number let's say hypothetically it's a hundred and fifty million they say is your adequacy budget for Brick schools okay now they say how do we pay for that they now have the formula
143which everybody's been talking about the last three years sent it to what's the formula the formula for what's called local fair share how we pay for it that formula which has been given through litigation still hasn't really been explained because they have factors wealth factors income factors real estate evaluation factors in your community with like four decimal points in the algorithm that they really haven't explained and they come up with what the community can bear and in Brick's case let's say we're they're saying it's 150 million your adequacy budget they're saying your local fair share should be 170 million you're wealthy you should be paying that okay if it was the inverse there are some districts like Toms River was until this year that their adequacy budget and many urban districts years ago was above
144what the local fair share was that Gap that inverse is called Equalization Aid that's a non-categorical Aid that's required under a code you would get that we do not qualify for Equalization Aid because our adequacy budget is under local fair share now you create your budget your comparative budget so let's say again in Brick your local fair shares 170 million they're saying you should budget adequacy for all students to be like all the other districts that are at adequacy and there's only about two dozen districts under adequacy and negatively affected by S2 and a half a dozen of them are in Ocean and Monmouth County I think seven or eight then you go to what your budget is and let's say bricks about the comparative budget 130 million so we're like 23 million when next
145year's budget below that there's no mechanism this is the Paradox of the funding form and then they say you should be here okay they say this is here for your community and here's your budget they don't fill the gap for those under adequacy like they do at Equalization Aid and we have obviously a tax levy cap of two percent that was put in when the inflation rate was 1.5 percent so there's no mechanism there's nothing we can do now people can talk and I know you said about enrollment so I wanna I wanna deal with that because when you talk cost per pupil forget enrollment it's the average cost per pupil when a district that's paying 45 000 cost per pupil is getting adequacy Aid there are over adequacy they're under their local fair share
146and they're they're even getting waivers to go over to two percent property tax cap that's just not fair and it's inequitable that's number one when you talk about enrollment Senate Bill 2 and I I said I think you said this into my email Senate Bill 2 was in 2018. when I in my white paper I talk about the state budget since Senate Bill 2 went up 40 percent apartment Nevada 32 percent our budget about six point something percent right and our state age since 2018 was reduced 49 percent our enrollment did not drop I think I have an actual from 2018 drops 2.5 percent that's from 2018. if you go back to sephra where they had the adjustment Aid in right our enrollment dropped 17.4 percent the number you gave me 11 000 to is
147not even in our system since 2005 so it has to be prior to 2004 full time you were getting the full budgeting when you were losing all this is not the funding formula the funding formula what I'm trying to tell you is equate remember I always say statistics are comparative you tell me you know what football lost yesterday and I say fine they lost but I tell you they only lost by a touchdown to the Giants it's different I'm comparing the budget and state age from Senate Bill 2 to our enrollment decrease which is what was the mechanism of Senate bill 2. it's not comparable they're not Equitable and if you say let's go back to sephra 2009 which talked about the first funding formula that has those enrollment numbers in it our enrollment from
148that time only went down 17 percent yet our state aid has decreased 49 percent so when they say Senate Bill 2 is commasurement with enrollment deductions it's a false statement by the state that's what I'm trying to tell you you can argue that in 2000 we were at 11 200. your white paper said quote unquote brick School enrollment went down 10 percent that's what somebody reads that's what somebody hears you didn't say in the last five years you didn't say anything I'm gonna quickly enrollment went down 31 and you were getting funded for the monies for the whole time you were losing students until it caught up to you I have never heard anybody in this room said you all lost 3 000 students I've never heard them say that I've never I know enough
149about your paper I don't want to talk about it anymore no no no no no no no no no minutes to talk the mic's mine I am the superintendent I want to share you because I actually paper clipped it so let me read to you so when you tell me and you quote my paper let me read to you it's worth noting over the last five years the state of New Jersey's fiscal budget went from 36 billion to 53 billion the doas want this taxpayer monies increase brick school's budget went up 6.9 percent Abiding and our state aid of 40 decreased 49 and over the same time our enrollment dropped 10 percent and that's higher than what it is so my comparison is over a five-year period now regardless whether it dropped you know 17
150percent from 2009 my point of this if you read something in context and you read it in context is that it's not comparable to what the reduction in a date is and the reason why I get heated about this because what the state is doing is so wrong it's as wrong as it can be your money in Brick is going that's going to the state is never coming back to our students and I am imploring everyone here if we don't get that I'll get you the details I'll get you the facts if we don't get through to that that money is being wasted somewhere else and the students of brick are getting a disservice and they're not getting the same education as people in Essex County or somewhere else and it's a hundred percent you're
151in the same boat that we are right as a taxpayer you raise my taxes I can complain I can write letters I can do everything I have to do but in the end I have to pay it and if I don't pay it I have to find a place to cut the expenses that's right what you have to do we do know don't you again you're telling them thank you no thank you thank you Mr fanelli you're telling me what we know we now have over 200 jobs over 200 jobs since 2018 have been cut in this District over 200 we've done this work we're up to 186 before we have Cuts coming over 200 there's going to be 400 jobs cut in four districts you're not telling me what we don't know what you're
152saying is you don't think anything will happen I'm a little more optimistic I think something's going to happen from it and I'm excited if something happens because we're going to be the leaders in actually implementing a change in the state for districts like us thank you doctor Ally would you like to discuss Equity versus equality I would okay so Mr finale just the the definition because I Googled it quickly is equality means individual or group of people given the same resources or opportunities and Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome so the example that they had at the class that I was in is and I'll use my children my daughter is five feet five inches tall my son is six
153feet there's a tree with hanging fruit they're both given the same ladder and they're standing to reach equal fruit hanging my son at six feet can reach that fruit easier than my daughter at five feet five inches okay so Equity would be giving them the ladders needed so that they can both reach the hanging fruit so Charlotte would have a taller ladder than Jack would have because they need different items to make it Equitable okay equal is the same ladder Equitable is the latter that allows them to each reach the fruit give them what they need in the classrooms and Mrs Granger correct me if I'm wrong here you have children that have special needs that have IEPs that maybe require a little additional time on a test by them being allowed to have that
154extra time on their test that is Equitable to the child whose general education who can take that test in the allotted period of time okay I don't see I really did learn I'll give you an example thank you Miss Kennedy and then and then I'll get down right Equity versus equality and what the state example was you have two students in the class one is an ell student one is not an ell student you're going to give them a test you give them both the same test so that equality is there they're both getting the same test no equalness is that it's there yeah it's it's equal it's equality right but it's not fair correct that's the equity part correct so now you're going to make this fair and this is this is a real
155thing in your school district so now how do you do that you the Spanish child should have a Spanish test or the other language child should have a test in their language or have someone that is able to help them with the test to understand it is that a doable thing in the school district where you have say four different languages into one class you can get four different tests and you can get four different teachers to uh to uh correct it I do not know officially but I am fairly certain that our incredible special services department does allow our students to receive tests in the language that's their first languages there's another option what's that you don't have you're going to come and take the test to the to the student that's that's not
156really viable and the one I'm talking about really isn't viable either thank you so I think it's the third option and the third option is I don't have a clue neither do they right but you're gonna have to do it right thank you thank you you're wrong and you shut me down about the uh things on the website right somebody has you shut me down cut me right off at the knees I'm gonna cut you off now yeah in the public access there's a message there you need to get it no I don't need to do anything Mr Finelli I do not and and you know what I'm sorry I apologize you come to a public meeting and you take you hijack a public meeting and the public venue for what you I believe is
157your opinion when you walk in my shoes I hear over and over what I should do what I need to do what I have to correct and it's this job's hard enough without people that have never done it I never said anything you got up here okay okay thank you Mom I'm not right thank you finish the discussion outside hey you're wrong I'm words in my mouth that I never said Mr finale thank you for your comments yeah you don't do it I know you don't do it I know it's somebody else's job but there's a message there the message the first time is they weren't doing it I had to go there and then it was the second the finale you're out of order thank you is there any additional public comments yes ma'am
158before we start I was here last Tuesday by mistake but to put the microphone down you can't hear you I was here last Tuesday by mistake and I walked through this whole building and there was nobody here your offices are awesome by the way um it was open I thought the meeting was last week I walked through the whole office I was in my office two Tuesday night almost seven o'clock I went all the way down to the back and went into every office seven o'clock and I even yelled out in the hallway last Tuesday not this Tuesday last Tuesday last Tuesday today is Thursday last week last week but just for safety reasons everything was wide open and nobody thank you for bringing us our attention um I listened to your response less from
159January 17th when I was the last time I was here and you said that I misquoted information and falsehoods because we were talking about sexuality with the little ones two and three years old and five years old and about the coding and I I wasn't misinformed um and I'm not fake news um I understand that you're caught in the middle between the government and the parents that are on the right you are the authority here and if you don't take a stand you will be held responsible which we both know I go by the Bible Ezekiel 33 16. you are considered a Watchman and if you see or wrong and don't do anything against it you're held accountable not by me okay um Martin Meyer m-a-w-y-e-r is a journalist and founder of Christian Action Network
160to protect religious and moral Heritage through education and politics he's working with the speaker of the house Kevin McCarthy on several bills we live by a moral code it's called The Ten Commandments that was set in stone thousands of years ago if millions of parents are raising their children to be humble live out quality values be intentional on what they do practice self-discipline and be accountable millions that follow a moral and commandment code then see someone let's say a child diverting to a new plan that we are instructed as as adults and as children we we tell our children in Ephesians 4 25 we speak the truth to that child or to that neighbor Zechariah 8 16 says you speak the truth you're not judging them you're just telling them the truth so they will
161have peace or the seeds planted Galatians 4 16 if I tell you the truth and you and you don't hear it and you become my enemy so be it I've done my part so has our children so now when we come in contact with someone that has been subjected to let's say Andrea Queen and there's a drag queen that goes to the White House his name is Marty Cummings that is teaching children to sing or suck and I'm not going to say the next word if you have a Dre if you don't think drag queens are coming to your school into your libraries think again because I'm sure you heard in January of 2023 the CDC is now involved they started testing schools and sending out pamphlets cooperate you must cooperate with LGBT inclusivity in
162schools they will test teachers principals School nurses and staff members on their willingness to indoctrinate children into that lifestyle in nineteen sorry if a student is talking to a transgender and they are using pronouns if they're not using pronouns and the teacher is told to hassle the the student they're supposed to use partner instead of mother and father or husband and wife they're supposed to use body with the penis not a boy to use body without without a penis instead of using the term girl each classroom must have rainbow and pink triangles must have pamphlets and posters on LGBT in each classroom allow boys to use the girls room and vice versa students are to be taught all different sexual acts so in 1955 President Eisenhower said without God there can be no America and
163there can be no government or an American way of life man will start making up his own rules their own morality their own right and wrong recognition of a Supreme Being is the first to most basic expression of americanism now that we have all these man-made rules my first question is do we have rainbows in the classrooms do we have transgender and posters and pamphlets if not they're go they're coming do we have the ten commandments so that the children have a way of looking at both sides do we teach there's a Supreme Being how do millions of young adults raise to morality agreed to disagree because most adults try to do that the character of someone that is swayed so far you've got one on the left and one on the right how do
164you bring that together it's been a fight since for thousands of years I'm done thank you for your comment any other public comment seeing none will close public comment uh board comment Ally would you like to start sorry that's okay um first I wanted to congratulate all of the art show participants from the paintings to the drawings to the choir and the band and everywhere in between thank you to the advisors and the teachers who put the show together it was really fantastic um I just wanted to do a shout out for one of our seventh graders over at vets Middle School Morgan Bland Morgan belongs to an organization called run for Heroes and she runs one mile in honor of Fallen law enforcement she's been here to our meetings before Sunday night she just
165completed mile 25 for a fallen canine Officer Morgan you're doing incredible things honoring Law Enforcement Officers super proud my kiddo is friends with you and we are very very proud of you so keep up the good work um Tuesday night my fellow Board of Ed members and I joined Dr Farrell at the Town council meeting I wanted to publicly thank mayor Crete and the council for your support in in fighting for our funding loss congratulations to all the winter athletes and good luck to all of our spring athletes congratulations to the retirees thank you for your years of service and welcome to all of our new hires and thank you to everyone for watching online you really should join us because we have cookies that's all thank you Allie Fran so every time I get
166more and more excited about all the new things that are added I love that we're actually getting together and doing all those things that we couldn't do for so long and now we're bringing the fun back and with that I feel like there was a a thing that kept going tonight and that was parental involvement and it is so important I mean we all see that their parents are upset with certain things maybe a book maybe something that has gone on we need you here we need you to speak out I mean we're here for you by you and we need you to be here and to speak up because we're trying to gauge what you feel is best for your child and what we can deliver to you but we can't if you don't
167tell us and we need your involvement because we're here we're all here and we don't have to be we're doing it because we really care about all of our students and we really care about our staff and we want to be here because we know it's so important that these are our future leaders and our future our future generation and we need to come together and that includes all the parents so I want to see more of your little booties because we have cookies thanks guys thank you Fran Madeline well first of all I'd like to say what a wonderful time I had at the Drum Point uh PTA gift auction they had a lot of great prizes and the event was run beautifully I was very happy to see the support of a principal
168and teachers and everybody did a great job it was really a fun night next of course I want to say kudos to Anthony's Anthony santinella what a great job he did and I'm very proud of our hockey team also now I'm going to go on to something a little bit different about how I feel about certain things um and as I go along you'll understand where I'm going as you may remember when I was elected I always said I would be a woman of action not someone trying to make a career out of being on this board or using this board for political reasons one of the most important reasons I was running was for transparency immediately after I won the election not sworn in yet I was sent to a class and told this
169might not be the board for you I would not be able to keep my promise I made during my election about transparency I have and always will have a problem with parents of underage children not be notified of changes that are happening in their minor child's life during school hours yet policies are sent to our board for adoption that are blocking parental rights on the policies they are mandated and approved by the State Board of Education now they're expecting us to adopt them I must say Mrs McNamara has worked very hard on changing the wording on a policy to soften the blow but I feel we can do more in my feeling that we could do more to protect the parents rights she also brought in an attorney and the person who was involved in
170the policy writing to the committee meeting to discuss further and to explain the reasoning that we had to take these steps for the policies I would really like to thank her for taking that extra step for us but it seems to boil down that we need a majority to vote for policies to change the wording further I'm sure this is not going to happen it really upsets me to think that others just feel that we just need to say yes and not fight for what we feel I'm very sorry that I cannot get past this personally but my feeling is that a parent should not lose any rights to their minor child especially when they are aware they aren't even aware that this is happening School Board must do better and not be held to
171the fire by what is being sent down by the State Board of Education our town is not even given the proper funding yet we have to follow through what they are sending us on another note in a series of other policies it states that a parent is responsible for any vandalism or Damage Done to a school property by their minor child the parent does not pay for the damages in 30 days civil action can be taken against this them I feel this very contradictory that a parent is not given information on one hand but is responsible for the minor child on the other I'm told and I am told and understand that policies are written to protect the schools but who's protecting our parents I know we're trying to keep our children safe and the
172school board is trying to do whatever it can do our hands are tied by the state board and no matter how hard we try to change an end or an or can't do it without everybody coming together so again I'm going to say to all of my parents that while I can paint campaigned I said you need to talk to your children you need to ask your children everything that happens in school you need to ask your children what they were taught today because every day it's different you need to ask your children what book was read to them or what books are required to read this way you have a voice a lot of people say they can't come here and speak there is a way to go about it you first have to
173go to your teacher from your teacher you go to your principal from your principal if you don't get answers there you go to the superintendent and certainly if you don't get answers from the superintendent please send me an email because I will talk to him he talks to me quite often and I want to thank everybody and please come to the meetings we do need your help Thank you Madeline Michael uh first of all I want to thank those who did come out Echo many of the statements that our board members especially what Madeleine just said about uh but it's been something that has concerned me since I've been on this board uh you feel like your hands are tied and it's and they don't want to give you the tools to do the job
174here at the state level and uh I think it's time uh those same parents were talking about that should have the say with their own children should also be now helping us with this issue with the state aid so I'm calling on all parents out there tonight to send a little note make a phone call to the governor's office tell them it's time to give us back our funding and it's time to give the towns that have been cheated the last five six seven years back the money that they deserve instead of sending it somewhere else where the monies quite frankly I think being wasted so I think parents a little note please send the money back to our town that's what we need our parents to do out there and hopefully with the help
175of the Senate uh chairman gopal and the other Senators on that committee Senator tester and so forth we can reverse this inaccuracy for us here in Brick Township and hopefully other schools on the same uh situation right now so I urge your parents just write a little note or call the governor's office and tell them it's time you give us our funding back thank you I want to thank you all for being here tonight those of you who are here every month I want to thank you and I'll send a special uh no one acknowledged it but I'm going to acknowledge it because my friend Mary Lou out here tonight uh tomorrow is St Patrick's Day I asked her where the Irish soda bread is so congratulations to all our friends of Irish descent and
176happy St Patrick's Day thank you very much oh and thank for the delicious cookies I hope we can get a tray every month and make sure Mr fanelli gets some people do Irish soda bread next month to make up for this one what was that I'm sorry Royal Farms I gotta get him his chicken thank you Michael okay thank you uh calendar um the schools are closed for spring break from April 7th to April 14th and the next meeting is the public hearing on the budget uh which is on April 27th at 7 pm here can I have a motion and a second to adjourn motion friend Ally second Mary here yes Kennedy yes a cyaniron yes Mr blandina yes Misty Benedictus yes happy St Patrick's Day everybody