001call this meeting to order. For those who wish to provide public comment remotely, a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. >> Those remote comments will be addressed in the second public comment section. This meeting, which is hereby called to order at 7:01 p.m., is in compliance with the notice requirements of the law. Public notice was posted in the office of the board of education and communicated to the municipal clerk and the daily record on January 12th, 2026. If you please all stand and join me in the flag salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with all. Miss Asavdo, could you read our mission statement? >> Certainly. Working together as a community,
002our mission is to welcome all and provide opportunities for our students in a safe and accepting learning environment to become creative, empathetic, resilient, and who choose to make an impact. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Suedo, >> present. >> Mr. Mor, >> present. Miss Phillips, >> here. >> Miss Penales, >> here. Miss Skates >> here. >> Dr. Center >> present. >> Miss Shower >> here. >> Miss Son >> here. >> Mr. Miller >> here. >> Okay. At this time, I'd like to open this portion of the meeting to the public on agenda items only. The board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters. To ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment,
003each statement shall be held to a time period of three minutes. Public comments limited to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. Please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board may or may not respond to public comments. However, all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees. Please be advised
004that you are commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liability for defamation. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to address the board on agenda items? Okay, not seeing anyone. Uh, I've closed the public the first public portion um and entertain a motion for the approval of minutes of April 28th, both the regular and executive sessions. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any comments or questions on the minutes? Roll call. >> Mr. Suo, >> yes. >> Mr. Mor, >> yes. >> Miss Phillips, >> abstain. Miss Penelis, >> yes. >> Miss Gates, >> yes. >> Dr. Center, >> yes. >> Miss Shower, >> yes. >> Miss Son, >> yes. >> Mr. Ma, >> yes. >> I believe there was only
005one whole board comment uh communication on transportation issues. Right. Okay. >> Okay. Uh student representative to the board report, Miss Garcia. Good evening, members of the board. [clears throat] Not feeling my best. I apologize for this, but um I hope everyone has has had a great month. Um, to start with the May highlights, Dover High School has had a busy and exciting start to May, and I'm happy to share a few highlights from AC across our community. Our dance department, led by Miss Almo, held its annual dance concert on May 5th to a full house of more than 350 attendees. Senior dancers were recognized, including e seven graduating with honors. And the evening in concluded with the induction of nine students into the National Honors Society for Dance Arts. Staying with honors and achievements, Dover
006High School hosted its National Honor Society induction ceremony on May 7th. 19th, 11th, and 12th graders were inducted into National Honor Society. 17 10th and 11th graders into Mu Mui Alpha Theta and 10 students across grades 10 through 12 into the Spanish Honor Society. I'd like to congratulate all our new inductees. Today, fine and performing arts teachers from across the district gathered at Do High School to prepare for the district art show, which will take place tomorrow, May 13th, from 5:30 to 700 p.m. in the cafeteria. Immediately following the art show, the Do High School band and chorus will perform their spring concert in the auditorium at 700 p.m. We hope you all you'll all join us for an evening celebrating the arts. Dober High School has also partnered with Vision to Learn, an organization
007providing free eye exams and potentially free glasses to eligible students. Representatives met with 9th and 10th graders during gym and health classes last week, and families can find more information in parent square message from Miss Ross. In athletics, Mr. Bullock and the department are already preparing for the 2026 through 2027 school year. A briefformational meeting was held after school today and for sports physicals will take place this Thursday, May 14th, beginning at 2:15 p.m. in the gym. Students interested in fall sports should have their parents or guardian complete the fall sports Google form as soon as possible. The administration would also like to recognize the work of SGA communications committee for producing the student weekly digest which continues to grow as a reliable source of information for students. Thank you for the committee for your
008consistency and creativity in keeping our community informed. AP students have spent the last two weeks completing their AP exams. Congratulations to all the students for their hard work and dedication and thank you to the teachers and proctors who supported them throughout their testing period. Our ninth graders have been attending NJSLA and NJGPA tutoring sessions for math and English on Wednesdays and Thursdays after school in preparation for the testing on May 18th, 19th, and 20th. Students and families can find schedules in their detail and details in their emails. parent square and the student digest. During the first week of May, we celebrated principal's day, nurses day, and teachers appreciation week. Students had the opportunity to write messages of gratitude to show members to staff members, and we thank everyone who helped make the week meaningful. Finally,
009our seniors are looking forward to several upcoming events, including senior prom on May 21st. The class will also be creating a senior signoff video. We like to thank Naomi Ramos for her idea to create a collage of student signature clips as a memorable memorable farewell for the class of 2026. Thank you. And that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Miss Garcia. I hope you feel better. Uh does anyone have questions? >> I just have them something to say. I want to thank you for and everybody that's part of the Tigers in Christ for the beautiful evening and thank you for praying over us. >> Thank you so much. I know that's outside of school. Um well our club is inside of school but it was an outside of school event but thank you for recognizing
010me for my little moment I had. >> Of course. Thank you. >> It was beautiful. >> Thank you so much. I didn't realize so many people saw it. >> Of course you took a picture of you. [laughter] Well, I'm glad to be representing not only Tigers in Christ but Dober High School. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. President's Report. Good evening again. Uh al although it's only been two weeks since our last board meeting, there has certainly been no shortage of activity across the district. Uh during that time, I attended two board committee meetings as well as the Mars County School Boards Association meeting. It was wonderful to see members of our own board of education recognized for their commitment to professional development and leadership. Congratulations to Miss Asavdo and Mr.
011McCort uh for completing their new board member certification through the New Jersey School Boards Association. Your dedication to learning and growing in your roles reflects the strong commitment to the students, staff, and community we serve. I also want to extend special congratulations to Dr. Sainer on receiving the prestigious certified board leader certification. This is a tremendous accomplishment that reflects a deep commitment to educational leadership, governance, and continuous improvement. We are proud to have such dedicated leaders representing Dover. So, let's give him a round of applause. [applause] Thank you. Um, and it's hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away from Memorial Day and only a few short weeks after that, we will celebrate our middle school and high school graduations. This school year has moved quickly, but it has also been filled
012with progress, accomplishments, and opportunities for our students. As we look ahead, there is a great deal to be excited about. Next year promises to bring even more opportunities with the open opening of a new educational spaces and the introduction of new programs designed to expand learning experiences for our students. These efforts continue to reflect our commitment to preparing students for success while responsibly planning for the future of our district. I want to thank our administration, teacher, staff, families, and community members for their continued support and dedication throughout the year. Together, we continue to move Dober public schools forward. So, thank you again. Administrative reports, the superintendent's report, Mr. Haimey, no. Good evening, everyone. Uh [clears throat] first I want to I want to just reiterate what uh Miss Garcia just mentioned regarding the dance concert.
013It was a great success. I unfortunately wasn't able to attend that evening. Uh but the pictures I received of a full house and the amount of community uh families that were there uh was amazing and again uh thank everyone for coming out and supporting our students and performances. I know that Miss Almo uh puts a lot of work and rehearsal in with her students and they put a lot of dedication in. Uh, and it was great to see all of the fruits of the labor come to together that evening and really show everyone uh the work that they've put putting in. And if I'm not mistaken, I think right now the group of dancers is up to about 75 students. So, it is a huge huge undertaking. And again, I couldn't appreciate more of the
014work that's being put into uh our students performing out there. Uh, I do want to do some recognitions. uh as uh we just went this past couple of weeks, we've had the administrative assistant day, uh recognition of nurses day as well as our bus drivers. Uh teacher appreciation week was last week. Uh and also on Friday of last week, it was also principal day as well. So again, to everyone, I appreciate all the work it's doing and not just on that day, but all the work that's done throughout the year because again, it's always a team effort in providing the service to our kids and supporting our community and not one person than the other. It is truly a team effort when it comes to our students. Um so the testing uh NGSLA testing at
015the elementary schools and middle schools has been u finalized. They are doing some makeups now but it has been a success. Uh which again I know that it always becomes a little nerve-wracking for everyone when it comes to taste taste state testing and the work and the effort that goes in. So I do want to thank all the technology department. I want to thank our teachers. I want to thank our administration. Uh also Mr. Pandolfo who's our district test coordinator uh for all the work that goes into it because it is a laboring intensive uh preparation and it does take a lot of detail and information needed from all parties. So again I want to thank everyone because it does become very stressful situation. I know as a former principal I knew what it felt
016like and you didn't want that be that person that had an irregular report to the state so I never wanted to be in that part. So again thank you to everyone being part of this and and making the process as as smooth as it went. So I wanted to appreciate that. Uh we have a lot of uh evening events coming up and I want to uh ask the community to please stay informed. I'm going to do my best to continue to send out parent squares and remind all of our families and our community of uh the events here happening at the end of the school year. And right now we have a lot of spring concerts. Uh we have our art festival coming up as well. Uh there's going to be other recognitions and and
017c ceremonies coming up. and and as I always refer to uh the Super Bowl of of the school district which is our graduations and orientations and moving up ceremonies. Uh so again to our community please stay attentive please visit our website uh please uh check your emails and parent square as we're going to continuously keep sending out information. Uh but here are some dates just so that everyone can uh keep in mind. So, um, the all the art show is tomorrow, May 13th at 5:30 starting at DHS, followed by the DHS spring concert. Uh, ED's, uh, spring concert will be on the 19th at 6 p.m. Uh, DMS will be May 14th at 7 p.m. and the spring concert for North D will be May 20th at 6:00 p.m. Um, so again, to our community,
018please come out and support all of our uh, events, our programs. is very important that you see all the hard work that our staff and students are putting together. We just recently received a $70,000 grant for a uh a academy uh playground which we're very excited uh that playground everyone has visited and need you know it needs it needed some upgrading uh so I'm excited that we were able to get a grant to really upgrade the the use of a playground for our students over academy. This is very exciting. Um so we're looking forward to that. So again, I want to thank all those involved in writing the grants and putting that together. Um, we had an unsung hero ceremony again uh to acknowledge Elena Thompson and her dedication as a student here at in
019Dober and she is a true representation of what it truly means to be a Dober Tiger and uh she also received a CCM tuition uh voucher which is exciting. All right. Um again, I want to congratulate her. She was my former student at the middle school. So to see her flourish into the student that she has, it is a very proud moment for myself and we should all be very proud of the work she's putting in as a student again representing Dover at a county level. Um during that evening I wasn't there but I was informed that also there was a other recipients uh new board uh member uh boardsmanship certifications uh Miss De Rosavo and TC McCort were there that evening uh certified board leader certification to Dr. Chrisa Ser. Um I also uh
020want to inform everyone that on May 19th we are going to have our uh working together with Rotary. We're going to be delivering dictionaries to our elementary students. Uh thanks to uh Miss Valdez, my administrative assistant who has already scheduled and put all that together. We're going to be going together with student representatives from each of the elementary schools to drop off dictionaries and again community service and provider service to our students and the elementaryaries. Um as Mr. Mr. Miller had mentioned regarding programs and we did a site visit at Elizabeth schools and again I just want to talk about the AVID program and the work that we're putting in that's really to support our students growth and opportunities and we're really really just met recently to really discuss what the next steps are going
021to be uh in order for us to be able to support our teachers support administration in this new endeavor and it is a very exciting program that will provide our students a lot of supports in organization note-taking things that are going to be useful whether they're applying to colleges trade schools or even uh into the job force. Uh [clears throat] we are also proud to share that we h we have a very talented third grade third grader from North Dover who earned the recognition of MCMUA cleaning communities sustainability art contest for an outstanding sticker design. So congratulations to Santiago Diaz and his teacher uh Mr. Default as this wonderful achievement was a great highlight to for Northover and our students. Again congratulations to all parties involved in that dedication. And then the last piece I
022want to share with everyone is uh Miss Lucas, the new principal for Dover Bridge Academy and I met recently to really talk about some of the next steps in getting some information out to the community. So, we are going to be working on a virtual tour of our new DBA to really show the community the progress and the work that's being done at the building. We're excited. I myself did a a soft a tour of the building. uh and SS off because I wasn't able to see all the other areas because there was still construction and I you know I find myself going out workman's comp. Um so with that I really saw the the the sizes of the offices, the nurs's office, the gymnasium and the classroom and it's truly amazing. I I know
023it's one thing to see it on paper. It's one thing to see it uh at the design but to have the ability to walk in there and truly see the space and what that space is going to mean for our community is truly amazing. So, Miss Lucas and I were really talking about creating a a virtual video of the school to once again share with our families. Um, of course, if we do have an opportunity before school ends and we can do a a school visit with some more students and if it's safe, we will definitely try to plan that. But in the event that we can't, uh, we are also looking to do a, uh, a grand opening on August 8th, and more details will be coming out to everyone. And we're really looking
024to celebrate, invite all the community to come out and participate, and we're going to have tours of the building and opportunities to really interact and have conversations because this is an exciting time for Dover. And we want to make sure that we celebrate this excitement with everyone within our community. So, we're really looking forward to that. So, again, mark your calendars for August 8th, and more details will be following as time progresses. Uh, so that's all I have for this evening. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you Mr. Haimey. Does anyone have any questions for Mr. Haimey with his report? Okay, Mr. Sabahulu. Good evening everyone. I'll be talking about finance and facilities uh agenda items. Item three, the district has received the 2026 27 health insurance renewal rates which show an increase of nearly 30%
025over the current year. This is part of national trend not unique to our district or New Jersey. A 30% increase represent approximately 5 million in additional costs and with state a decreasing this will require close monitoring in the future budget planning. Item five, the 2026 267 tax payment schedule for do and Victor Gar's presenter for approval. Item seven, eight and nine. These items include two out of district terminations and one new out of district placement or requiring board approval. Item 10, the transportation agreement for 2026 27 regular school year and ESY programs are up for approval by contracting with Mandom Township instead of education service commission. The district realizes at this savings of $100,000. Items 11 and 12. These items represent two small grants award received by the district this year. Item five, 14, 15,
026and 16. These items request approve for construction of a retaining wall uh installation of a playground at Academy Elementary School and the purchase of kitchen equipment for Door Bridge Academy. Item 17. The district has received a resolution from NGSBA which we talked about earlier during the uh training seeking seeking relief for from rising health insurance premiums. Uh this item is presented for uh uh board consideration. Item 18, school lunch prices for 2026 27 are up for renewal, reflecting a 15 cents increase per meal compared to the current year. Item 19, as discussed in the finance committee meeting, the district will move forward with contracting a company to collect unpaid lunch balances which now exceed $140,000. Actually, when I report to the board, it was $130,000. I just got the report today in one month, it
027went up $10,000. So this represent the final step for after all other actions have been exhausted. Uh this concludes my report. Thank you. >> Any questions for Mr. Sabahulu? >> Okay, we're going to move on to board of ed reports. The Mars County Services Educational Services Commission is meeting tomorrow. So I do not have a report uh legislative report. Miss Gates, >> there is no new update since the last meeting. >> Okay. Thank you. uh Mars County, New Jersey School Board's report. Mr. McCort. >> So, I um I won't repeat the things that have been said, I think, twice already. Um other than just to say the latest meeting of the Morris County School Boards Association was held on Wednesday, May the 6th at West Morris Mendum High School. The purpose of this meeting was
028our spring celebration where select unsung hero recipients are recognized and awarded scholarships. As Mr. Mr. Haime mentioned, we were especially proud to see Dozone Elelliana Thompson honored as one of the recipients. She received a tuition voucher for the County College of Morris and we congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition. Um, the only other thing I will mention is that the meeting also included the announcement of the winner of the 4th annual Irene M. Lefave Excellence and Boardsmanship Award. And while our own Mr. Miller was not selected as this year's recipient. I would like to echo Miss Shower's sentiment that she made that night, which is that Mr. Miller, you are always a winner in our hearts. >> Oh, yes. Uhhuh. >> The [laughter] the Morris County School Boards Association is now off for the summer
029with our next meeting scheduled for Thursday, October 1st. That concludes my report. >> Thank you very much. It was fixed. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Okay. Okay, on to administrative approvals. Uh, do we have a motion to approve items one and two? >> So, move. Second. >> Any questions or comments? Dr. Ser, no. Oh, I saw you moving the mic. I thought that was you were getting ready. Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mor? >> Yes. >> Miss Phillips? >> Yes. >> Miss Penales? >> Yes. >> Miss Gates? >> Yes. >> Dr. Center? >> Yes. >> Miss Sher? >> Yes. >> Miss Son, >> yes. >> Mr. Miller, >> yes. Okay. P personnel. Miss Solenus, >> I would like to make a motion to approve personnel items 1 through 35. >> Second. >>
030Sorry. >> Any comments or questions from anyone? >> No. Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mor. >> Yes. >> Miss Phillips. >> Yes. >> Miss Penellis? >> Yes. >> Miss Gates? >> Yes. >> Dr. Center? >> Yes. >> Miss Shower? >> Yes. >> Missos? >> Yes. >> Mr. there. >> Yes. I just waited to get through all the pages. It takes a little while. >> Pages. >> Okay. Negotiations. >> There's no report at this time. >> That's what I figured. Governance, Miss Asdo. >> The governance committee has not met since our last board event meeting. The next meeting is scheduled for June 19th, 6:30m at the Belmont Administrative Building. The Board of Education goal review report, which was supposed to be done today, will be uh given uh during the June 24th
031meeting. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Uh student achievement and curriculum. Dr. Ser. >> Thank you, Mr. Miller. Uh the student achievement and curriculum committee met at 5:15 on May 5th with all on the committee present. Um we discussed the proposed changes to the do middle school schedule um which involves uh changing math and um ELA blocks uh to 47 minutes allowing um two electives for students. So, we have four new courses that we will be offering um in the fall for those for those students. Um as well as a big change that u many people have been waiting for that band and chorus will now be offered to students within the school day. Hopefully increasing participation um now that students don't have to arrive early. Um, this will also open up the East
032Dober elementary schedule to allow a later lunch and allows common planning time for Dober Middle School teachers. We looked at the ESL kindergarten curriculum. We uh learned that four social studies teachers from our middle and I believe middle and high school um possibly I'm sorry and the high school um were accepted to the NJ250 professional development program from Montlair State University for the next three summers. Um this includes a six-day summer institute and five online sessions. Um and so I would like to congratulate uh the teachers both for applying it but also being accepted. uh Mr. Bronson, Miss Kiglio, Mr. Derritter, and Mr. Hada. We learned that Jose Castellanos um uh received a special award at the Dover High School achievement awards ceremony. Um he had a passion project uh where he was giving Arizona
033iced teas through a um a raffle program. Um and he was just doing that to generate good cheer amongst his classmates. And as part of that, Mr. Derritter sent a letter to the Arizona T headquarters which happens to be in Edison, New Jersey. Um and they sent some swag um and we're going to ask that uh Mr. Castellanos attend a future board meeting. Um it's just another it's good to see another side of our do students. Um he's you know that what a creative idea just to bring goodwill um to students and I'm sure that it did. Um we discussed the districtwide walkthrough program that happened this year. Um looking at some of the data that was collected as well as um talking with admin uh looking at um improvements and changes to make it
034even more effective next year. We learned about the end ofear benchmark assessments um that district level as well as school level as well as teachers all the levels will be looking at as they uh plan for the remainder of the year and for next year. We learned about the uh gifted and talented identification through the nagleary assessment that will be given to all students um within the May 18th through May 20th window um as we move forward with that program. We learned about the Academy Street playground. Uh we are approving tonight uh dual enrollment and CTE partnerships. Those are on the agenda. Um and we were warned that uh curriculum planning and is um ongoing and approvals will be on the June agenda. And then finally, I would like to echo Mr. Haime's um shout
035out to the Dober High School dancers and Miss Omo. I was able to attend. I left another meeting early. Um it is always a tremendous night. The students are so supportive of each other and obviously the dancers are quite talented. Um and it is one of my favorite nights of the year. So that concludes my report. I would like to move that we accept items one through six. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments or questions? Mr. Um, I just wanted just for just for clarification from the last meeting, there was a there was a an issue with the certificated staff graduate course um item that was blank. I just wanted to know if Mr. Sav could clarify um or could for the public say clarify why that was blank. Um
036>> actually there we had some uh issues with board ducks as a software but sometimes when we remove the item it comes back. I think that was the issue. So the issue was it wasn't that we didn't approve anybody. No, there was nothing to approve. >> Yeah. I let the board know that there was no attachment. That would just stay by mistake. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Mr. Miller, if I may. >> Sure. >> Um I would like to extend a thank you to our school district for um always facilitating the clinical placements for future educators. I think that's a very important thing to do for um for future teachers. >> Yeah, that's Thank you. Anyone else? >> Roll call. >> Mr. Esto. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mor? >> Yes. >>
037Miss Phillips? >> Yes. >> Miss Penales? >> Yes. >> Miss Gates? >> Yes. >> Dr. Center? >> Yes. >> Miss Shower? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes. >> Mr. Miller? >> Yes. >> Community relations. Miss Gates. >> Well, I will not repeat what everybody else has repeated multiple times. We we attended the dance recital last week. Um, amazing performances. Um, we saw Josh receive his his Arizona iced teas. Um, but uh the other thing that I would like to uh bring forward is over the years the citizens uh advisory committee has given the community another way to connect within the board of education and share feedback. There have been many productive conversations, thoughtful ideas, valuable perspectives shared um to support the district. As we look at the citizens advisory committee and how it has been functioning
038recently, we note that participation and attendance have declined and the committee has not uh consistently operated in the collaborative communitywide advisory role that we originally intended it to be. We remain committed to maintaining uh open communication with the community and residents and will continue to have many opportunities to share feedback through public meetings, direct communication with administration and board members, district district events, and other uh community out efforts. We also look to host additional public forums throughout the year to give community members another opportunity to share comments, concerns, ideas, and feedback in a more formal and open setting. After careful consideration, the community relations committee believes that this is the right time to conclude the citizens advisory committee rather than review it for another term. With that, I move that the board of education conclude
039the current term of the citizens advisory committee effective June 30th, 2026 and that no appointments be made for the 2026 term. That concludes my report. >> Okay. And you just made that motion. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All right. Discussion. Any questions? >> Okay. Roll call. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mor. >> Yes. Miss Phillips, >> yes. >> Miss Penelis, >> yes. >> Miss Kates, >> yes. >> Dr. Ser, >> yes. >> Miss Shower, >> yes. >> Mr. Unes, >> yes. >> Mr. Miller, >> yes. >> Uh, policy committee, Mr. Shower, >> yes. Thank you, Mr. Miller. Um, the policy committee will be meeting on the 19th next week. So, unfortunately, we will be unable to attend the Easttover concert. Um and uh we'll be reporting on the items that we
040discussed at our last meeting two weeks ago. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Finance and facilities. Mr. McCort. >> Good evening. The finance and facilities committee met on May the 5th in attendance for Dr. Sainer, Miss Sher, Mr. Miller, and myself along with Mr. Sabahoglu, and Mr. Toe. The committee reviewed several facilities updates at Dover Bridge Academy. Construction on the entrance is nearly complete and facade work is expected to take place over the month of May. Classroom flooring has been delivered with installation scheduled for the end of this month. The gym air conditioning units have been installed and the building's bathrooms are complete. The high school courtyard planter box project is nearing completion and is expected to be finished in the next week or so. The North Dover Elementary cafeteria lighting upgrade is also be
041expected to be completed uh shortly. In addition, the bus lot lighting project has been completed with light poles now installed. On the finance side, the committee discussed lunch pricing for the 2026 2027 school year. The recommendation is for a 5% increase across the board, which is up for approval this evening. >> 5% I'm saying. Yeah, not box. Um, the committee also reviewed the district's analysis of the community eligibility provision. At this time, the district uh looked into the possibility of enrolling, but the high school's reimbursement impact would cause the program to run at a negative reimbursement level. Um, in my report a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned the need for this board and for the community at large to use our voices to make sure that those in positions of power don't let Do
042students suffer as a result of increasing pressure on school budgets with a large emphasis placed on the continued rise in health care costs. Tonight, we are doing just that, as Mr. Sabahi mentioned, with a resolution up for approval that I would like to read into the record. This is a Morris County joint resolution for healthc care cost relief. Whereas at a time of continued fiscal uncertainty and mounting challenges, local boards of education from across the state of New Jersey continue to suffer under the growing crisis posed by the rising cost of health benefits and are desperate for relief. And whereas despite record levels of state investments in public education, these school districts are facing fiscal pressures similar to those confronting the state budget, including the unsustainable growth in healthcare premiums and the mounting insolveny of
043the state's public employees health benefits programs. And whereas both within the school employees health benefits programp and the private market, year-over-year double-digit increases are placing tremendous strain on district budgets and local taxpayers alike. And whereas Governor Cheryl and legislative leadership have publicly acknowledged the urgent need to address rising health care costs and the challenges facing the state's health benefits plans, including both the state and local portions of the state health benefits program and the SEBP. And whereas the seriousness of this issue is underscored by the mid-year SEBP analysis released by the Treasury Department in March 2026, which concluded that based on these projected losses and building in future trends, active premium rate increases for 2027 are likely to be in the double digits. And whereas these projected increases would follow a 31.9% premium increase that
044took effect in January 2026, further exacerbating an overall premium increase of nearly 74% in the preceding 5 years. And whereas this growth in health care costs far exceeds inflation, state aid increases, and the fiscal capacity of local communities. And whereas rising healthc care premiums are consuming an ever larger portion of already constrained school district budgets, forcing difficult decisions that directly affect students, staff, and educational quality. And whereas these cost pressures also have significant consequences for taxpayers as districts are often compelled to utilize the full extent of their available tax levy even after which many districts remain unable to fully offset these increases due to the constraints of the property tax levy cap despite the limited healthcare exception. And whereas for the families and students these districts serve, the downstream consequences, including district deficits, program cuts,
045and school closures mean the loss of community stability, continuity of services, and in many cases, access to the specialized support that our most vulnerable students depend on. And whereas there these are also precisely the conditions that erode student achievement and weaken the family engagement that is central to strengthening New Jerseys public schools. And whereas implementing real sustainable solutions to the rising cost of health benefits and reforming how benefits are delivered through the SEPPP would demonstrate the governors and legislaturator's leadership and continued commitment to New Jersey students, educators, and families, which directly advances our shared goal of affordability and effective, efficient government for all New Jerseyians. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Dober Board of Education and the County of Morris calls upon the governor and state legislature to provide immediate short-term relief from the
046unsustainable increased health care costs experienced by school districts in recent years. And be it further resolved that the Dover Board of Education and the County of Morris urges the governor to engage in meaningful engagement with all affected all affected stakeholders to develop and implement practical long-term reforms to the state system of delivering health care to its public employees in order to generate meaningful long-term savings. And be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Governor Mikey Cheryl, State Treasurer Aaron Binder, Senate President NicholasQatari, Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, State Senator Anthony Mbuko, Assemblywoman Ora K. Dunn, and Assemblywoman Marissa Sweeney, and the New Jersey School Boards Association. The next finance and facilities committee meeting is scheduled for June 16th at 6:30. That concludes my report, and I would now like to move
047adoption of items 1 through 19 under finance and facilities. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Any comments, Dr. Ser? >> Um, just two, uh, thank you for the new payroll register. Love it. Um, and then second, a thank you to Dr. Kina for her grant submission for Fairies, Fables, and Legends for first graders. That sounds amazing. Um, thank you. >> Anyone else? >> Mr. Miller, I just wanted to say um it it these times are unfortunate when we do have to come together as a full board here with all of us uh agreeing to vote yes on a resolution to complain about something that seems quite obvious to the rest of the nation even not just our state. Um, but I I also want to remind our board that this is where we
048come together to finalize the work that we do and that our our committees are in essence workshops and we don't make our voices heard in the workshop, we make it heard here. So, um, thank you board members for coming together and voting tonight on the resolution here at the table. >> Any other comments? I think your time was up. >> Yeah, stop. Um, no, I just I wanted to um address um uh item 19 um the um the the resolution that would approve a contract um with Cedars Business Services. Um and I just want to to sort of echo and clarify what Mr. Sabahogu stated earlier is that um this will be a last resort. Um we discussed in committee um the need for this considering our ever growing um unpaid balance and the difficulties
049that we continued difficulties that we're having in getting um that money back. Um there will be a system put in place. Um you know sort of a we talked about a echoing a three strikes policy. Um but this is something that other districts do. Um we are not reinventing the wheel here. Um we are simply trying, you know, in a district like ours, as we talked about repeatedly in the budget process, literally every penny matters and we have to recoup this money somehow. Um this is not something any of us, you know, are were screaming for, but it was an option presented and and one that we found um necessary given the circumstances. Thank you for that. Any other comments? Roll call. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mort. >> Yes. >> Miss Phillips. >> Um,
050I will recuse myself from payments to vendor 1950 and yes to everything else. >> Miss Finales? >> Yes. >> Miss Kates? >> Yes. >> Dr. Ser, >> recuse myself from payments to employee 90014855. Yes to the rest. Miss Shaw, >> yes. >> Mes, yes. >> Mr. Miller, >> yes. >> Okay. Someformational uh meetings uh not listed uh is a special board meeting on June 10th that will be held at the Belmont Administrative Building for the purposes of deliberating on our superintendent evaluation uh which is required yearly and we have to have complete by July 1st. So, we'll be using that time to have that discussion and then to um vote on the final evaluation on the June 24th meeting, which will be um the next board meeting, and then July 28th and August 25th are
051the other meetings. Do we have any old business? Okay, we'll move on to new business. And I know Mr. Shower is going to talk about the delegate assembly that's coming up. >> Yes, thank you, Mr. Miller. Um, I will be attending the delegates assembly in um, Trenton on Saturday from 8:00 am to I think approximately 2 o'clock in the afternoon. And I did send an email to all board members asking you to review the resolutions. There are six resolutions this year. There were several that did not make the cut through New Jersey school boards. I think there were four. Um, so there are six that we will be voting on that day. Um, and and they're lengthy. Uh, I think some of them are more important than others, but they we do have an issue
052uh that relates to every single one of them. So, I think it's important for us to voice our opinion. Um, if I could just take an overall consensus, are the the easiest question would be, are there any resolutions that a board member has a question on or would like me to vote no on? Okay, that makes it nice and simple. Okay, very good. So, um I will report after the meeting. I'll probably send out another email with the result of the resolutions and also there's an election for an open vice president seat um that will take place on Saturday. And I did want to again mention that I did uh attend the spring conference which was virtual all day but virtual um last Friday. It was very interesting some of the topics. Um there was
053one topic uh that was uh what was it called? Uh conflict resolution dealing with difficult people at board meetings. And I thought it was a very interesting view of what to me seemed like very common sense and calm issues. Uh we have as a board luckily over the past few years have not had a lot of conflict at our board meetings but we have in the past and those examples that we were given on Friday pald in comparison to what happens in the real world when you are in the heat of a conflict. But going through the training does give you a little bit of a tool to uh fall back on. Uh there the only other one that was really interesting was an update to Robert's rules of order and I have to say
054that um as a perfect example with Dr. Sainer and Miss Phillips just recused themselves on two items where they were conflicted on we don't have an issue that a lot of schools must have with the use of recuse or abstain when we vote. We seem to be pretty clear on that and I was pretty proud of that. Um I mentioned earlier the uh Westfield presentation from uh Dr. Gonzalez the superintendent there was excellent and I I look forward to that information going to both you and Mr. Haime. um Skungul finance, state aid, facilities and transportation. The the presentation was sort of there was a snafu with with technology so we didn't get a lot out of that but it was also something that we did um receive in training already. So um that I believe
055was it the the there was another futureproofing your school through energy planning and tight budgets and rising risks and I am very proud to say Mr. Sabagul takes advantage of every cost-saving opportunity that comes before his desk. So, I appreciate that. So, that was the end of that. Um, and that's the end of my report. Thank you. >> All right. Very good. Thank you. Does anyone else have anything for new business? Okay. We're going to move on to our our second public comment uh section. The board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters. To ensure fair and orderly expression of such comment, each statement will be held to a time period of three minutes. Public comments not restricted
056to items on this agenda shall be entertained for approximately 30 minutes upon the discretion of the presiding officer. For those who wish to provide public comments remotely, a Google form was posted on the district website at 6:30 p.m. Remote comments will be read by a member of the board of education. The board of education will alternate between in-person and online comments. Please understand that public comment portions of our agenda are not structured as question and answer sessions, but rather they are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board may or may not respond to public comments. However, all comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when providing comments. Uh comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or
057irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees of specific specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not permitted to respond in public to comments about students or employees. Please be advised that you are commenting at your own risk. Any public comments that are directed at a particular individual or individuals could subject you to legal liability for defamation. Is there anyone from the public that wishes to address the board? >> Good evening everybody. John Kiglio 24 Taylortown Road Montville. Uh being that we do not have a board of ed meeting until late June, I would just like to take a moment to recognize one of my favorite upcoming nights of the year. Two very special recognitions taking place at Dover High School on Thursday, June 11th at 6 p.m. It's the seal of biiteracy recognition and
058the senior awards night. For those of you that are unaware, the seal of my literacy is an incredible achievement from the New Jersey Department of Ed that honors students who have demonstrated proficiency in English as well as at least one additional language. We are extremely proud of the students earning this distinction and the educators and families who have supported them along the way. In addition, senior awards night is an opportunity for us to celebrate the hard work, growth, and accomplishments of the class of 2026. From academic excellence and leadership to service, and extracurricular achievements, this evening highlights the many ways that our seniors have contributed to do high school and to our community as a whole. Congratulations in advance to all of our award recipients and seal off by literacy honores. We look forward to
059recognizing your success on June 11th at 6 p.m. at Do High School and I look forward to seeing you then. Thank you very much. Good evening, Board of Education members. Robert Brangan, one Fred Terrace, Dover, New Jersey, class of 1975. Last time I was at the board meeting, it was my suggestion that there are a lot of residents in Dover who don't know what's going on in their schools. A lot of the accomplishments that the superintendent had mentioned about schools and students, a lot of residents in Dover don't know about because they don't have kids that no longer are in the school system and therefore they have no knowledge what's going on. It was my suggestion that a school newspaper or some information be sent out to the taxpayers of Dover so that they're aware
060of what's going on in their school in their school system and in their schools. But nothing happened. It was also my suggestion that there are a lot of resident taxpayers in Dover who no longer have students in the school system who don't know about the school budget. They're not that they're not computer savvy. The only people who have copy of the school budgets or the parents of students are in school. It was my came to me that part of the reason or the main reason was that there was no money in the budget to pay for the postage of the mailings to the taxpayers of dover. Being a former postal employee, I know the do post office does offer or the postal service does offer a program called every door direct mail in which they
061give uh companies a break on the postage uh to mail, you know, mailings out to uh to the residents in Dover. So perhaps the board might uh contact or go to the do post office and find out more about that program and that might be a solution to the taxpayers to get a copy of the school budget. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I've been out of the loop for a while, but I understand that part of the increase in the budget is has to do with uh the purchase of more school buses. Back in the day, it was my belief that the only people who students who got transportation to schools were those who live in Mill and Victory Gardens. And those parents paid for that transportation. If you lived in Dover, unless you
062were disabled, you either had to get a ride from your neighbor or you had to walk to school. I don't know what the increase is for the school buses, but if there are students in Dover who are getting transportation by buses, then it would be my suggestion to have those parents of those students pay for that transportation and uh and not the taxpayers. You know, taxes keep going up every year. Seniors depend on their social security and you know, maybe they have no long no longer have kids in school. maybe they can get a break on the tax portion where the school budget is concerned. That's all. Thank you. >> Uh thank you for your comments. I just want to mention that we actually had that conversation today about trying to find a way to
063get information out to all the taxpayers and trying to determine the time a year that would be most relevant because if we were able to do it once, when would we do that? But um that's something that we are working on. We do have an electronic newsletter that goes out to all the parents of the district. It goes to Mine Hill uh students, but of course we don't have emails for the rest of the town. We do provide the newsletter to the town to, you know, they can put on their website, but like you said, not everybody is online. So, but that is something that we're looking into. And I appreciate the every direct postage. Maybe that's like a friends and family type discount, which would be nice. Um, and I do know that with
064the the bus transportation, there's students that go out of district that we are trying to save money by transporting them ourselves. Um, and so that's part of it, but also when we have to take students to different events and whatnot, we have to provide the busing. Is there anybody else from the public? Hi, me again. Sorry, I forgot one thing. Um, John Kiglio 24 Taylor Road Montville. So, I had it written down on my paper. I didn't have it on my computer, which is why I failed to mention it earlier, so my apologies. Um, teacher appreciation week. So, thank you, Board of Education. Thank you for your well wishes. Thank you for the baskets that you dropped off. It's much appreciated. I heard a lot of good things from our staff about that, so that's
065much appreciated. Thank you, PTA. Thank you so much for everything that you did for our staff during teacher appreciation week, administration, um and everybody else that um you know send well wishes to us or you know uh I know some businesses in town came to drop some things off so that was very nice as well. So much appreciation from all of you and thank you so much for everything that you did. Thank you. >> Thank you. I I also just want to mention I don't think I thanked the Academy Street uh PTA for giving us the t-shirts from last week. So there >> I I I thank them on our behalf. >> Oh, I know. I just wanted to say it again because it was it was really nice. Anyone else from the public? Are
066there any online comments? >> No. >> Anyone else? >> Okay. With that, I close this portion of the meeting um and entertain a motion to adjurnn. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? I >> I have a good night everybody.