BOE Meeting 04.30.26 @ 7:30PM

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Test, test, test. >> Mhm. >> I would like to resume this meeting of the Evesham Township Board of Education. Please rise as we say the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Okay, [snorts] thank you. At this time, Ms. Buchholz will read the mission statement. The mission of the Evesham Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences. Have families and community, the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to achieve their unique potential, embrace self-directed lifelong learning, develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making, respect themselves and others, problem-solve

002individually and collaboratively, become contributing members of a diverse global society. Thank you. We'll start the evening off with a presentation from Mr. Justin Wright from New Jersey School Boards Association. He had facilitated our strategic planning sessions that we had, three of them in the fall, and tonight he's going to present the results of those planning sessions as well as some action plans for our district moving forward. Thank you. Thank you. And one of the things that I was able to do was to have the honor privilege to partner with Evesham Township School District on their strategic planning. So, first I just wanted to say thank you to each board member here tonight, even the previous board members. There were some that are not on the board anymore that got the process started. And I just

003I appreciate your your partnership, your hospitality. I think we had about 60 members So, you had 60 people, different representatives, parents, any types of stakeholders from the community that came out and had a voice in this process really just to um to recap. We wanted it to be a very open and transparent process. Each of the results along the way were posted online. So, part of my role was just recapping the process and how we got to the finish line, and then I'm going to kick it over to Dr. Smith to really get into the nuts and bolts. So, again, I just put that out there just to make sure that there was a big thank you. I I gave each board member a booklet. Um there's a couple of binders that will be on

004file in the central office. There's a whole acknowledgement page. Every single member of the community's name is in there, not that anybody did it to get their name in a booklet, but it's really important to honor the people who had helped shape this really important document. So, our purpose is behind Um if you don't know this, always a good reminder for the public and for the board, the board is responsible for the strategic direction and vision of the school district. They are the visionaries in tandem with the superintendent. The school board is they are the ambassadors of the community. And what's really great about strategic planning is it it's supposed to bring the community together. You know, sometimes I'm just being honest as someone who used to be on a school board and just a

005member of the public, sometimes it's hard to get enough opportunities where voices are heard and the strategic planning was a great opportunity, especially in these times, um financially and otherwise right now. We know we're in a a very tough era. Um it was a great opportunity um to kind of have a a reset and kind of a new direction. Okay, this is where we are right now. Where do we want to be in the next 3 4 5 years? And we need to do it collaboratively collaboratively and that's part of the purpose of strategic planning. Um great stakeholder participation. Again, you know, you always want to have more people come, but the 60 who came, um they were the ones who really got to to shape this document and really get to shape um the

006direction that Isham's going to go over the next 3 4 5 years and I really appreciate that. One of the great things and I think as you're learning that um with the budget, um we're entering an era where you're expected to do more than ever before with less than ever before. And what this process will help do is really give the school board and the district, okay, here is a North Star document that we're going to try to follow and adhere to. While we we we know we have limited resources, and the resources that we do have, we are going to do everything in our power to ensure that they are going to support this new strategic plan over the next 5 years. Because inevitably as time goes along, there's a lot of voices in

007town, there's a lot of ideas, there's a lot of opinions. Some want to go left, some want to go right, some want to go in another direction. And this document is going to be something that the board can say, "Hey, we partnered with the community, we put a lot of work into it. This is something that we're going to really see through." And it really is the responsibility of the school board to ensure that it is followed through over these next few years. Some of the components of it, um the the first night back at September 15th, it feels like a very long time ago already, the beginning of the school year. The first night we had the community out, Dr. Smith gave a great kind of like state of the district, um gave a

008wonderful overview of just all of the happenings, a lot of the numbers, the inside look from the staff to the the children, to the great programs, to the budget, and whatnot. And then we had a conversation of where are we now? And we had a wonderful conversation where we were able to talk about what are the strengths of Isham uh school district, and what are some of the challenges that we're facing. Then we moved into meeting two, a month later in October. We want to give the process a few weeks to breathe, to be able to work on the information. After meeting one, there was a report that went out, was posted online. And then we had a discussion over some visioning and looking ahead of here's where we are now, um where do we

009want to be come 2031, and how do we get there? Meeting number three, we had a deeper discussion surrounding around some big area goals and writing out some objectives. And then after we were done that meeting, that information, that's kind of where the the board and the public, if you will, that's where their job ended, and that information was handed over to Dr. Smith and his team to be able to work on the how. I kind of call it like the battle plan. How is this going to be carried out day-to-day, week-to-week, month-to-month, year-to-year over the next 3 to 5 years. One of the things that we put in there, I would hope you have seen this before. If not, we put this in all of our presentations and I am going to read it,

010but I'm going to move fast. You know, this is the kind of the guiding beacon of of Evesham every day when we the the students and staff show up, here is the mission of what we're hoping to have happen. To promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences. In partnership with students, staff, families, community, the district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to achieve their unique potential, embrace self-directed lifelong learning, develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making, to respect themselves and others, to problem-solve individually and collaboratively, and to become contributing members of a diverse global society. Because that was a great mission statement. And so, as we were working on a strategic plan, we wanted to make sure that we captured the essence of

011that mission statement as well. Um I know you can't read that. All of this information, just so you're aware, this whole presentation will be posted online. Correct, Dr. Smith? This will be posted online, so you'll be able to in detail go online and read all of this, even the fine print. All as I was doing right there was giving you some snapshots and that was just a little piece of the information Dr. Smith provided. Much more information to that at that meeting. Um and he'll be getting into that a little bit a little bit on, but those were some of the highlights for the people that came to meeting one to have an understanding of the things that had been happening before we dug into the strengths and challenges. So, meeting number one, they worked

012in in groups after we heard the the state of the district. I think that night there was about seven different groups and each group was able to come up with um what they believed was the top 10 strengths, the top 10 challenges, and then we had to have a conversation to then whittle down all that information into um a final consensus agreed upon top 10 strengths and challenges for each. That was just a little snapshot. Again, the full information is online, so you could see every single idea that was shared, and then how we kind of whittled it down. Meeting number two, just to get people to think cuz sometimes I know it's um I don't know, maybe some people are just natural visionaries where they're able to dream and think some people are just

013more concrete like me. Sometimes it's very easy to live in the day-to-day, and that's one of the traps of a school and a school board. It's easy to get so focused on what's right in front of you today and next week and what's happening right now, and it's really important to be able to dream a little bit. While yes, realizing I joked around with them it'd be awesome if we had a billionaire drop in and and wrote a blank check and said, "Here's all the money, and you could do everything that you wanted to in the entire world, but you also have the understanding of you have finite resources, finite staff, finite money, but we still need to be able to dream and kind of create a picture of where we want this community and

014our students to be in 5 years, and what do we want to provide for them? So, we would do an activity, you know, you were we did not create an actual podcast, but let's say New Jersey came in and said, "Evesham, it's the year 2031. We think you were this blue ribbon star school. You have done phenomenal work. What would the things that you have done over these past 5 years to get you to where you were in 2031 to be this model award-winning school?" And it allowed kind of to break down the walls a little bit, so people get away from the whole idea of like, "Well, we've done that. Well, you we can't do that. Well, we can never do that." And it tried to just break down the walls a little bit,

015so people could just freely share ideas of, "Wow, what would it really look like if there wasn't these barriers, while realizing there are very real barriers, and try to dream a little bit of what that would look like?" And so, based off that um we would work in groups and I, you know, we had them come up with a little fun name. There was one group, just a little snapshot. One group named their podcast Excellence in Evesham. And they came up with in the year 2031 for us to be this award-winning school, here were some of the things that that particular group thought that would be some of the wonderful things from SEL to the early childhood foundation for all, passionate staff that's invested in um a ton of extracurricular activities, there was something for

016every child in this in this town and school district, you know, beyond the classroom experiences, STEM innovation, modernized facilities, strong community partnerships, and comprehensive curriculum content. So, as you can see, that's one snapshot, a lot of really good ideas were shared in that. And so, from that when you had, say, information like this and you had all the different groups there and say, "Okay, based off those ideas what are some of the like the big bucket ideas where this can really flow into?" Because that was to really help us set the table for meeting three where we were going to actually create goals and objectives. And out of that meeting, we came out and said, "All right, here's the big five over the next five years that we're going to really hone in on." Culture

017and climate, mental health and wellness, curriculum, student achievement and success, and communication and community collaboration. I'll get into that a little bit more and Dr. Smith will get into it much, much more. But over the next five years um no matter what happens, and again, I will say this, it is a living, breathing document. So, you know, things do happen, there are changes, no one can predict the future, especially in this uncertain time. So, the document is a living, breathing document, it's not rigid of like, "Nope, this is the document, we can never shift." Because if there was some kind of massive change that heaven forbid happen, for better or for worse the school district would have to be able to pivot. That being said, these are the five main areas that you're going to

018really see time, money, training, you name it. This is where the the little sliver of the pie that is left anymore is going to go to drive the district forward in these areas. So, they at meeting three, they they were able to come. I had five tables set up based off of these five categories. Somebody could come and say, "Oh, I want to work at the culture and climate table." They sat and they worked with a small group of people and then they were responsible came in, I coached them, I talked through here's what a strong goal statement looks like, uh here's what objectives are, you know, because we needed to give some specifics to Dr. Smith and his team without um getting into the day-to-day. There's there's very um strong lines delineation of what

019the board can and can't do and then what Dr. Smith and his team is responsible for. So, the board is responsible for the what? What are we doing? Where are we going? And then after that directive is given, then Dr. Smith and his team is responsible for coming up with the the the daily battle plan, the action plan, the day-to-day, the actual how it's going to be carried out. And then it's going to be up to the board to hold the superintendent accountable to ensure that those goals are being hit. So, when we were in this group time, the first group created a goal statement that said they wanted to cultivate a safe and collaborative environment where students and beyond feel connected. And then under that, um we create objectives cuz I call it like

020kind of giving feet or legs to the goal because the goal, you read that and go, "Wow, that's really really vague." So, we have to then give some objective specifics without actually telling Dr. Smith and his team how to do their job because they're the educational experts that the board has to rely on. So, you can see under that there was four we recommended between three and five. Um this group did four and they said under that culture and climate, we want to have a focus on valuing um individuality, fostering a sense of district-wide connection. You have a really big district with a lot of different staff and schools and getting them to be basically, you know, uh one Evesham, one Marlton school district and pulling in the same direction. Creating environment where people want

021to be involved. And then expanding um opportunities. The next one was mental health, not surprising. That's a big topic in education right now uh for good reason. Um and this group said that their goal statement was to enhance opportunities to positively impact student mental health and wellness in a effort to promote self-advocacy, belonging, student success. They put seven, so they were they were not good rule followers. I'm just kidding, that was fine. They they put a few more, which was totally fine. Um the reason we say, you know, three to five goals and three to five objectives is because if you had 20 different objectives, if everything's important, nothing's important, and there's only so many directions that you can go, and it's really best to keep it to a limited amount and really make some

022deep inroads. Um they mentioned maybe having, you know, a district-wide SEL screener, you know, uh expanding their tiered supports, training opportunities, targeted social skills instruction, um and so forth. Curriculum, again, there's a lot of information there, so I won't read it because it's online, but this new next group, and when I walked over and I saw this, I said, you a lot of you at this group are teachers, and they all shook their head. I said, I could tell by what you wrote. Um it was very very well written, but this group wanted to focus on developing and strengthening cohesive, evidence-based curriculum that's data-driven, grounded in research, designed to meet the academic, social, and emotional needs, ensuring every child is supported, challenged, and inspired to reach their full potential. And then you see under there,

023they have a pretty intensive list of objectives that Dr. Smith and his team had to work through and create an action plan on. The next one was student achievement. It's The group said they were able to create more equitable and inclusive educational opportunities that attends to diverse learning needs and provide strong educational foundations to promote promote student success. Um and some of the objectives was a focus on special education. Um using data and analysis um to support student learning and everything pointing to student success. And I would just say I'm glad that's one of the categories because the reason we're here tonight the reason that everyone does the work that they do, everything should always be pointing how is this going to help the students? All of the work, even down to the mundane, even

024when you're talking about budget and all of the different topics that can be strenuous [snorts] work at times, the reason this work is being put in is because everyone wants to see every single child succeed in this school district. And the other one was communication and community collaboration. And their goal was to improve communication across all group groups, non-school community as well, internal, families, school community. I tell schools no matter what, um whether it's in the strategic plan or not, that even if communication is excellent, that you can always go higher, you can always improve communication in this day and age cuz as you know, no matter how hard you try, someone feels left out or they weren't heard, and you have a lot of different stakeholders across different backgrounds and different ages, and you

025need to try to go above and beyond to try to communicate um the great things that are happening in this school district. So uh after that, we we had to we passed it off. I told everyone thank you for the work. We had the last meeting. We've done all that we can um by providing the what, and then there was specific directives, and then there was a few months that was needed by Dr. Smith and his team to go through and really till through the information and figure out how we were going to carry that out. So there was a lot of things to consider. What was already in progress? What resources do we have available? What funding is there? So there that is true, there are very specific um I don't want to handicaps,

026but things that are in place that can be prohibitive, but they had to problem solve and work through that and find out ways how can we achieve these goals based off of the staff that we have, the spaces in school that we have, and the dollars and cents that we have coming in. So, they they did a really great job working through that, and you'll hear more about that in a little bit. Something for you to just uh more of like an FYI, as I told you, there's Let me shut this off. I'm going to talk I know it's buzzing, so it's probably annoying everyone. So, this last part is >> Thank you, sir. Thank Thank you. And I don't get to say this often. Thank you, Mr. Wright. All right. So, uh you get

027way more mileage out of that than Mr. Smith. So, uh just great. But, Justin, thank you. Um And uh thanks, Mr. Keys, for getting the microphone back. Um >> [clears throat] >> so, we're moving on to the action plans. The um I'm going to talk a bit, and then I'm going to pass the microphone over to Ms. Regulick, and then Dr. Bland, and then back to me. And this is picking up where uh Mr. Wright just left off with uh the action plans piece. Um Our approach here, as an administration [clears throat] and and all administrative hands and heads were involved in this. Um We split into two teams with some overlap. Some administrators were on both teams. And then from there, I split into sub-teams. Each sub-team had two or three members, worked on

028a designated objective. And then we met as a whole team to review the work. What we found going through was And this is probably a natural outcome of having the different committees working in is that there was some overlap or redundancy among the um the goals and the objectives. And to make it um more successfully manageable, we we polished out some of that redundancy, kept the meat, um which you can see this all this is going to be on our website tomorrow. So, uh, for anyone who wants to go in there, there's a crosswalk showing, um, you know, the, uh, objectives and how where they ended up in the wording of the, um, the polished objectives as well as, um, in the action plans themselves since as, uh, as administrators we were working to make

029sure that, um, the the wording and the, uh, intent behind the objectives was, um, baked into the action plans. So, there were two though that we, um, weren't able to really develop, um, the, uh, establish reasonable class sizes based on research to maximize student success and hire certified mental health providers to provide direct support for staff and students. Uh, that those are tough just because they're so budget dependent that it's, um, it's it's it's just not, um, a feasible, uh, plan to base something on such a, um, dynamic variable as, um, budget resources. So, and then I'm going to pass it over to Ms. We'll talk about goal area number one, student achievement and success. Thank you. Okay, um, so as Dr. Smith said, we did kind of look at all the different goal areas,

030objectives, everything that was developed and really saw one overarching umbrella as it related to, uh, student achievement and success. So, we really capped that as like the one big goal area and then came up with kind of a statement about that really to increase student achievement, enhance overall success in order for students to reach their unique potential. Cuz every single one had flavors about that and as Justin said over there that we want it all to be about kids, right? So, within that, five different objectives were fleshed out into action plans. The first objective connected with curriculum instruction and really related to the overall core programming. Um so, again, the objective in that area strengthen curricular programming in all areas that were inclusive of state national standards, best practice, and data analysis, which was reflected

031throughout. The second big area was related to MTSS. So, where kids aren't or having struggles with some of the core programming, now we're going to take a deeper dive and look at So, how can we help them prior to any kind of special education? So, that's our multi-tiered system of supports. So, the objective for that particular one build capacity within the MTSS process to deliver data-driven, evidence-based interventions that are monitored and responsive to the different student needs. The third one was connected to to technology and not necessarily technology as it relates to curriculum, but just that whole idea of creating that safe, ethical, and age-appropriate learning environment where technology and AI, which is a something that's just so big in education right now in the world, um in order to authentically integrate to enhance and

032extend student learning. The fourth one, cuz it can't just be all about academics. Student achievement and success is based on the social emotional side as well. So, that idea of mental health. Um So, we looked at and we combined SEL as well as that experiential learning, meaning What are the opportunities that we can expand for kids related to both SEL and academic content? Promoting those experiential learning and fostering that collaboration among schools and community partnerships. And then the last one is specific to special education. So, creating appropriate inclusive learning opportunities and least restrictive programs for students with disabilities within their home school whenever feasible. So, just again, brief, won't go line by line, we promise. >> [laughter] >> Um so, this just kind of shows you and I'll talk through the first one and then

033kind of show you the rest. So, the goal area is at the top. So, again that broad goal area for us is student achievement and success. The first one we're talking about is those curriculum and instructional core programming. And then the objective, which I already read, it will not read to you again, I promise. So, if you look at this is just a couple parts of that action plan. But, the action plan kind of fleshes out if you look from left to right. So, what are the steps? Who are the staff that are responsible for that? What are the resources they're going to use? What are the timelines? What are indicators of success? And then as we move through these next 3 years, you could kind of keep track and mark that off as you

034continue to reflect and modify and change. So, the two things I wanted to highlight as it relates to all curriculum areas is really how we start our process. So, that idea of developing a needs assessment surveys or we're looking at what's currently being done, identifying strengths and needs. From there looking at different research, administering that assessment, talking about best practice. So, that kind of starts your process to go all the way through to meet stakeholders, feedback, work in the summer, revising a units of instruction. So, kind of outlines that. The other thing I put on here just to kind of highlight because ELA is a little bit different. So, we do have in addition to what we did with all the revisions 3 or 2 years ago now. Um we also have an audit being

035done, which we've heard at our meetings a couple different times. So, we fleshed in there the idea of we're using that ELA audit is being done now. That's an outside um consultant who's doing that. She's in phase three of her process. Um and then really she'll be making and presenting some recommendations as well. But, we also put in there the idea there's different things that we've been talking about as a committee, as a curriculum department that we've been doing this current year as well. So, the idea of we did different things with i-Ready this this year. We did different things with decodable texts this year. So, the idea of looking at what we've currently done, looking at the audit and when that's done, what are the other things that she's recommending? And then we would

036go into that next stop step in the process moving forward. So, that's a quick snapshot of that. Um in the second one, so this one was the one that was connected to MTSS. So, again, this one has 12 different action steps. We just put up there that first main one to kind of talk through. So, we're looking when we talk about MTSS or supports for students who are not or struggling in the classroom or might have challenges. It could be academically or it could be socially. Um looking at different pathways in literacy and math, looking at um updated resources that they're using based on the path a child needs. Uh looking at we were able to add some additional resources on the mental health side through an ER team. And how are they supplemental services?

037How are they creating their caseloads? Um and then looking at different interventionists. So, we have a literacy interventionist and a math interventionist in terms of really supporting phases two and three. So, again, that kind of same process, action steps, staff, resources, timelines, and success. Um the next one was technology. This one is really tied to the long-range technology plan. So, every 3 years we have a long-range technology plan. We are new for a vision. So, we are finishing up the final year. That will be this June. So, we'll start the long-range technology plan and it will kind of work in conjunction with the strategic planning. So, the idea there'll be surveys involved. There'll be um looking at different goal areas, something connected to students, something connected to infrastructure, something connected to staff, and working through

038the process of these 12 action steps through that. The fourth area, um so this one was again that social-emotional and that experiential learning. So we just were highlighting some of those experiences in terms of the first uh action plan. And so wherever we can write something that's, you know, going somewhere or doing something with authentic audience in the curriculum, we do that. That's kind of like talked about in the resources. The second one was connected to service learning. Um, so for that one, as we revise social studies, we have a we have a service learning project starting in preschool and every grade has one. What are we revising or how we're changing that over time? Field trips. We were super excited to be able to bring back elementary field trips this year. Um, and looking

039to extend that next year to continue. Um, so again, those opportunities for doing things not just in school, but outside of school as well. And then this one we'll flesh through. It'll also talk about responsive classroom that we use in all our elementary schools. It'll talk about um engagement and what are some lessons we're going to create around that social-emotional piece. And then of course, the mental health piece is there as well. So those are a couple quick highlights as it relates to the first four. And then the last one I'm going to turn over to Jen. Okay, as it relates to special education, the last part of of the of our student achievement goal area, you'll see that there are six action steps. And what was most important for us as a district, as

040one of the largest special education districts in in in the county, uh was to really build our capacity to meet the needs of our students in in their home schools. And often the perception is that that's the sole responsibility of of special education teachers and related service providers. So we're really working hard to kind of shift shift that mindset and build our capacity to meet the needs of all of of a greater percentage of our students in the general education classroom on the front end. Um, by incorporating the principles of universal design for learning, considering how students best access their learning. How do they express their learning needs? And just uh in planning for more variability on the front end. And even though if you're if you're wondering, does that take a lot of time?

041Yes. Is it time better spent on the front end than the back end? That's an absolute hard yes. And that's not to say that uh a placement in the general education classroom is is necessarily the least restrictive environment for all of our students because one thing that we are really proud of in our district is the range of specialized programs that we offer. So to that end, with respect to space and just the sheer number of students that we have, it really it is impossible for us to have every specialized program in in every building that we have. Of course, we would love to be able to do so, but that's just not a possibility for us. So So this is where we were really wanted to focus our focus our efforts on building the

042capacity in the general education classroom and and really focusing on what is special about special education. Uh disability or a diagnosis alone doesn't necessarily mean that a student is eligible for special education and or related services. That the line in the sand or that or the difference is is really that the extent to which a student requires specialized programming to access their their educational program in in the public school. So that's where we're going to focus our efforts and and also building our capacity to incorporate different programming in the general education classroom. So what that is going to look like on our end is increased opportunities for professional development focusing on what does co-teaching look like? How do we really make a difference when we it's it's so much more than just having two professionals

043sharing space together in the classroom. So incorporating ongoing professional development and and support for for our teachers as well as support with lesson planning, curriculum design, expanding our inclusion support to also, as as Ms. McCulloch mentioned, we are in in the middle of an audit of our language arts curriculum. We'll also be expanding our inclusion support for teachers to encompass word study this year as well. Thank you, Dr. Bland. All right, we're going to move on to goal area number two, the the four C's, culture, climate, communication, community. These words threaded through all of the goals within this area. Objective 2.1, valuing individuality, value individuality through exposure, education, and acceptance. Objective 2.2, communication, improve communication among staff, parents, and administration, including by implementing direct communication means, for example, for emergent transportation-related matters. Objective 2.3, involvement,

044foster district-wide connection and involvement among students, schools, and staff via multi- multiple means, including increasing communication, e.g., social media, website, email. So, just again, not to go through every action step, but just to give you a few here for objective 2.1, value individuality, we have in there increasing the ability of our libraries to reflect our students, reflect our community. So, increasing the diversity of books by authors from historically underrepresented groups, and have classroom libraries reflect the demographics of the school population. And just like we saw with the first goal area, we've got the staff involved, the resources, the timelines, and the completion status columns. The the second action step, just to give it another sample, is to emphasize visual displays representing the school population. And and as Mr. Wright said earlier in his piece, like

045sometimes we can be talking about things that we want to that are ongoing, but we want to improve on. You know, when it comes to communication, we can always improve. So, we do we do have both of these elements, we just want to get better at them, continue to get better. Objective 2.2. So, we this is about improving communication among stakeholders. We had seven action steps for this. Just going to highlight a couple. Identify a new and improved website platform for district and school web pages and a new communication platform. So, we are looking at that right now. That's a very exciting process. We do anticipate in the summer making that move from our current website to the new website, which will also bring a move to a new communication platform. We currently use School

046Messenger. Um I am excited about this. Um very excited. School Messenger, for example, only enables PDFs to be sent, which is a little limiting. Um Second row there highlights student achievement positive stories and community impact events in part by converting similar content across multiple platforms. So, the new website we're moving to has the capability to connect to social media. We want to try to um kind of ameliorate the ability to with in a with a time efficiency get the same info out in multiple ways. Right now, we don't have that sync between our website and Facebook. I do want to thank our board for their encouragement of us to to sort of dust off our Facebook. We had a couple recent posts on there. Um that's always that's it's it's always an interesting thing cuz

047you know, I think there's there's so much room to grow there. So much room to grow. Um and [clears throat] uh the um I would say just just as a little example there, like um even as we've been working on the strategic plan, I have noticed it's left its fingerprints on me. For example, um you know, go back to February. I think in one of my updates I sent out um sort of a description of everything our school a sampling of what our schools are doing for Black History Month. And then in March did something similar for Read Across America. Um today's update I had a school spotlight on MES and the naturalization ceremony. Amazing that they hosted earlier this week. Um so those are just some examples of like concretely what that could look

048like. Only imagine it pollinating exponentially. You know, there there's really no ceiling with that. Uh objective 2.3 Five action steps for this one. And you can see even, you know, as we tried to uh create a more um efficient wording, there's still some overlap. Like this one has social media as well, highlighting the joy. Good phrasing. Um and uh to you know, it has the indicator of success, a quantification of that success, which would be one new post per week to the district Facebook. Um and then similarly in that next row um about um using social media and the newsletter to get more information out. And it's got um also the the quantification of one district and one school highlight per week. Next step beyond here, so we've we have a little radio button on

049our homepage called strategic planning. We've used that in the past. This fall we used that. We were sharing out Mr. Wright's um summaries of the different meetings. We will add a dashboard to that. You can kind of see probably you know where the dashboard's going to go. It's going to have um that completion status. It [clears throat] will will be the kind of the matrix for it. And it'll be very fun to update that as um different pieces are accomplished to continue to show growth in those areas. Um and I would just uh as a a last thought I was having and again just coming back to something that Mr. Wright said in his remarks um when he mentioned CSA goals and different things like that. And I thought um in terms of the timing

050of this I think there there there is a lot of potential for a superintendent search in the strategic plan because it does provide some raw material for questions interview questions for um work samples work um kind of demos that a that a a person could do that would provide data on how that person's vision can align with ours in in the strategic plan. Um lastly I just want to thank um all our administrators for their work in the action plans. Thank our board for not only their time in uh the process but their vision going back about a year initial conversation Mr. Pielman and I had that led to some other conversations that led to meetings over the summer community engagement committee that led to um connecting with Mr. Wright and the NJSPA which led

051to um interest forms in the fall, three meetings, work on the action plans, and then tonight. And then the work continues. The work always continues. Um and then the last thank you would be to all of our stakeholders who came to those meetings. Um I emailed all the people who RSVP'd for those meetings um to share the information about this um strategic plan and uh so hope that they will either be watching online or check out the uh final product online and um we continue to welcome ideas. I going to mention the living document aspect of this. Um And and I would define that as living in two senses. One, that there can be variables external to our district that may impact aspects beyond our control of this strategic plan. But then there are also

052internal intrinsic ways that we may see we want to adapt and add to and further articulate this plan as we move across three years. Three years is a long time, right? One year is a long time. And um excited to see where that story goes. So, thank you, everybody. Any questions? It'll come back There we go. All right, we're going to >> [sighs] >> move on to budget. Uh Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you. Final budget presentation. District mission Just as with the strategic plan this is our North Star. I'm hearing the echo from the strategic plan description of it, but that is true. North Star, true north. It's what we follow and what we steer by. Budget goals These remain true year to year. The work on the 27 28 budget,

053can't believe I'm saying these words like 2K feels like yesterday, but the work on that next year's budget starts. It's already ongoing, but it officially starts tomorrow. So budgetary context This is This is one of my drums to beat. So people here We talked about this in our testimony before the state assembly budget committee, before the state senate budget committee. And uh that was Everybody here is in that Everybody there was in this room. So Mr. Mason, Mr. DeMarzi, Mr. Wiskowits and myself um and uh cuz the state needs to understand this. There are districts that spend twice as much twice per pupil what we spend. And are 99% funded by the state. So I'm sorry, 99% funded by by the state. Meaning yes, meaning partly funded by Evesham. Um seventh leanest There's so much

054data there. Anyone can go look. It's it's a rabbit hole, very interesting and very important to understanding where we are. And I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Eights. All right. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Uh so, we'll get right into it. Thank you. So, um this changed slightly from our tentative. There were some changes. We the board held a work session um in a couple weeks ago. At that work session, some of those changes were we were restoring late bussing to its full capacity. We were able to do that by increasing our revenue target on clubs and activities by accounting for some breakage. Um And let's continue. So, final budget total next year $102,395,600. And here we can see our revenue year over from fiscal year 26 to 27. Won't bury the lead.

055We're looking at local tax levy with an increase of 2% or just about $1.8 million next year. Um some highlights here. You all can see those. I won't go through them line by line, but tax levy incentive aid, that is the aid that we received last year as a result of taking the additional tax authority. So, the state said you can take uh your 14.2 million roughly, then we're going to give you $710,602 to go along with that. That represents a fiscal cliff for us in this year because that money is not available to us. It is not aid that we are receiving in the fiscal year 27 budget. Um And oh, extraordinary aid. I wanted to highlight this one for a second. We are budgeting extraordinary aid at $700,000 to budget to balance the

056fiscal year 27 budget. And um you might say, "Why did you increase it over the prior year?" But if you look down at the bottom, you can see that our actual extraordinary aid received from fiscal year 25 was $780,000. Um we typically don't want to budget extraordinary aid that high or close to actual. Um I would prefer this for this number to be much less, but we do need it to balance next year's budget. And we do have a withdrawal of capital reserve of 1,023,000. We will go through that project list a little bit later. Some revenue highlights. Um projected revenue is going to show an increase of 1.47 million or 1.47% on a $100 million budget. Our state funding did increase this year 6%. It was capped, however, but for us it represents about

057$430,000 from the prior year. And then local tax levy is increasing at 2%. Uh okay. Um so, here we have state funding. What I wanted to show in this slide was just funding by category going back to fiscal year 2017 and comparing it to what we are receiving in the current year, fiscal year 26, and what we're expected to receive in the subsequent year, fiscal year 27. Um some of these categories we still receive aid in, the majority of them we do. Other aids we used to receive or school districts in New Jersey used to receive um various state aids. One of them would be called the park readiness aid. Um the park was an assessment that is no longer um provided for our schools in New Jersey, but that was other aids. So, when

058you see 130,000 there, that is what that was referring to. The big takeaway for me um on this slide is that if you look at our enrollment going back to fiscal year 17, you know, 4,452 kids per the ASA, ASSA, or application for state school aid. Fiscal year 27 next year, and that is based on our October 15th count from this school year, 4,439 students. So, our our enrollment has remained relatively flat, you would say, but our state funding has been reduced by about 6 and 1/2 million dollars over that same time period. So, flat enrollment, but state funding reduced almost in half. Miscellaneous revenues, this is a little bit hard challenging to see and I apologize for that. Um but miscellaneous revenues is a big category for us that we use to um help

059balance our budget. So, some of these major categories are um building leases and facility rentals at the top there. So, we do lease the Evans um school as we're aware. We did have some lease space this year that we won't have next year in MMS and DMS. Um and we do receive facility rentals. So, uh the MRC rents um facility space from us and and several other organizations around town. Um we do sell surplus assets. So, things like school buses can be used to offset or include in this kind of catch-all category of miscellaneous revenues. Bank interest continues to generate uh significant revenue for us. We earn over $500,000 a year from banking interest alone. Uh and then clubs and activities fees help to offset the cost of those programs. And then insurance surplus also

060helps to offset the cost of our insurance premiums. We are members of the BCIP JIF, so it's pooled insurance. So, we pool our risk with many other districts across the state. Um when the uh the collected premiums exceed the total output, that's called a surplus and the JIF will return surplus back to the member districts. And here we have our summary of appropriations from fiscal year '26 to '27. Then our dollars and our percentages on the right. Um nothing particular here that we haven't already discussed. Uh you will see that staffing has gone down 2.5 million. That is not in actually staffing reductions. That is partially it. That is really reflective of the state having us put the tax levy incentive eight directly into salaries and benefit programs last year. And that happened in July,

061that notification from them. Um big major category increase for us is benefits. So, that's going to go up about $4.2 million next year. And that's on a 25% projection for the six months. Um all indications are in the state employees health benefit program that they missed the actuaries missed their targets. They came out with their report um at the beginning of April. So, the state employees health benefit program is uh audited by Aon. That's the actuarial company. And Aon released their mid-year report. You'll remember at several of our meetings we've talked about how the premiums increased over 31% for us in January of this year. They their goal was with that 31% increase was they wanted to restore the reserves for the state. So, the reserves are meant to be two and a half months

062of total premiums in reserves. They were down to less than two weeks. Um so, they had a massive premium increase in January for all member districts. And that was over 31%. The mid-year report they just released, they said they missed that target. They should have increased it by 18% more. So, um they were hoping to have I think uh don't quote me on this, but I know it was 120 um million dollars in reserves or 160 million. And they were only able to achieve about 40 million dollars in reserves. So, we're expecting massive increase in the state employees health benefit program next year. We don't know what it's going to be. The state doesn't tell us and we won't find out until 6 months into an approved budget. Um and then just our kind of

063general increases across the board. You will see that uh curriculum that curriculum personnel and technology that line on is going up, but that is reflective of a new math program. Thank you. All right. And then where does your tax dollar go in Evesham? Again, this this hard to see, so I will fix that and I apologize everybody. Um but you can see that I've chopped the dollar up based on the major categories so you can see it broken down in dollars and cents. But uh the big takeaways about 75 to 80% or let's say 75 to 80 cents of every dollar goes towards the salaries and benefits for our staff. Benefits alone count for about 22 cents of every dollar. And then all the way on the far right where it says schools and it's

064pointing to a little less than 1 cent. Schools Our schools in Evesham on a $100 million budget have less than 500 500,000 dollars combined. So, that's like our principals budgets in schools. That's like our true discretionary spend. That's 50 basis points of $1. So, our schools account for less than 1% and that is our kind of true discretionary spend. And then our key expenditures so we've we've already talked um about health benefits. You know, that's a 30 to 40% increase for us um when you combine it over the course of the entire year. Our salaries annually increase by about 3 and a half to 4%. Transportation is going to renew at CPI. It's the state designated consumer price index for transportation in New Jersey. That's 3.58% for us next year. And then special education, we

065continue to see mandates without funding. Um highlighting all of these things, 3.5% 30 to 40% on health increases, 3 to 4% on salaries. We don't know what our out of district tuition rate increases are going to be just yet. Um Our tax levy can only increase at 2%. So as a percentage, we're exceeding that before we've even started. Uh tax levy for us is 1.7 or 1.8 million dollars. That's the true number that we can control to increase. It is our largest revenue source, but it is not 100% of our budget, but our benefits alone are going to account for 4.1 million dollars. And then of course, we don't do nothing about it. We do have cost savings and energy efficiency measures always. We're always looking for how can we become more efficient and how

066can we save in the district? We do have energy savings initiatives. So we are exploring the idea of an energy savings improvement plan or more commonly referred to as an ESIP for long-term utility savings next year and many years after that. We participate in the direct install programs that um uh South Jersey Gas and uh PSE&G offer. And we're members of the ACES, so we participate in um leveraged energy savings. It's similar to how we joined the JIF, we joined the ACES to capture um gas and electric with member districts. Operational efficiencies, we're always looking for is there a way that we can be strategic with our full-time equivalencies through restructuring. Maybe we have an a a retirement and that retirement for us might trigger a way that we can become more efficient. Um and

067we're always reviewing our staff to see that uh um we are aligned to our enrollment and our program needs. Technology and software review annually, we're looking at the softwares that we are using and the technology we're using. Is there something better out there at a competitive rate that makes us more efficient? Transportation optimization. Can we restructure our routes? Can we utilize our vendors in a better way? Every single year. Um and that work goes on constantly. It's not just an like a one-time thing. I can tell you that our transportation department is constantly looking at route restructure. Um and then purchasing and procurement controls. So, we will leverage cooperative pricing. So, we'll go out to organizations that have already done the solicitations on a broad scale to reduce cost and or using state contracts. Um

068We prioritize preventive maintenance always for our districts for our excuse me, for our buildings. And I as I indicated, we are participants in the BCIPGF that pools our risk with other districts, helps to stabilize our cost, and reduce long-term exposure to significant claims. Um and then continuous budget monitoring. That work is constantly going on. And you know, as you know a school district, we don't have the luxury of not opening the mailbox. So, our bills go out usually twice a month at this point. So, we are early to the trends. And then let's talk about our capital projects for next year. So, we're going to have some investment and that investment is going to happen through a withdrawal of capital reserve of 1 million 23,000. We're looking at security enhancements across uh multiple buildings, but

069we're going to upgrade some security systems and access controls. That work does kind of go on at each year. Our annual toilet room renovations looking for improvements for functionality and compliance water flow standards. We will have classroom refurbishments across the district. Mr. Hoffman's going to be glad to know we will finally get that abatement he's been asking for, I believe. Um and then the big one that uh for this, the big ticket item this year is going to be some paving projects. In particular, the Macy staff parking lot that is in a state of disrepair. It is not at a point where we can patch and reseal it. It will need a mill and replacement. Um, so we will be looking forward to undertaking that project. That work has already begun with our architect and

070engineer. And then uh WSHP stands for water source heat pumps. And has been as has been exhaustively talked about, our uh climate is controlled in each room in our district through the water source heat pump. And those water source heat pumps are aging and expensive to replace. So, we'll be we will be looking to replace many of them. I don't have a total number cuz it really depends on how the other uh projects really shake out, but we'll we'll do as many as we can. And then finally, the tax impact, what this looks like for everybody. I know this looks complicated, but if you bear with me, up in the top uh right there in the gray where it says NVT, that is net value taxable. So, um that is the total ratables of the

071town of Evesham, right? So, how much tax dollars can the town collect? You'll see that our ratables went up. So, when our ratables go up, that spreads out a tax impact across more people. Think of this like going to the pizza shop and you're splitting a a hundred let's call it a $50 pizza, um which might not be unrealistic in today's world, but a $50 pizza with five people, you'd rather split a $50 pizza with seven people. So, that's what your ratables are. When they go up, it helps spread out the tax impact, um and so effect effectively lessening that impact. Um, and then on the uh middle there where you see the yellow bar, that's your sliding scale. Property uh assessed values is on the left. The average assessed home in Evesham, per the

072New Jersey Division of Taxation, is $273,254. This is not the market value of a home. This is the tax assessed value of the home. And that is what your taxes are based on. And then you'll see your proposed tax for 26-27 in the middle column there. And then just to the right of that was the actual tax from 25-26. That difference, that's the annual number of our tax impact for the average assessed home. $89.39 annually, or $7.45 a month. If your home is not worth the average assessed home, you say, "My home is valued at 600,000." This is a sliding scale, so it would be a 32 or $33 increase for every $100,000 of assessed value. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Yates. So, when we left off the last budget presentation, which was

073the tentative budget presentation in mid-March, we had at that point we were talking about what's struck through in red there, which was eliminating late bussing. $505,000. And we said that we were continuing to have conversations as a board, continuing to work, continuing to look, talk, and we had a work session um special board meeting work session shortly after that in late March. The outcome of that meeting was the bullets in red that I'm going to go through there, but and I communicate we didn't have a board meeting until now to talk about that publicly, but I did share it out in the ETSD update right after that uh work session meeting. So, um to just talk through this So, this is the alternative path. So, late bussing then is preserved. Uh step one, we increased

074the activity fee revenue estimate. So, not not increasing activity fees, but increasing the revenue projection, 150,000. There is a slight reduction to elementary late bussing from four to three days per week. That will save 50,000. Um and those buses will run every day that extracurriculars run. So, that means that the extracurriculars will be three days a week as well for elementary. Um the um um that still does though, based on our data and from districts around the county, um maintain a very robust, by comparison a very robust, um extracurricular programming here in Evesham compared to districts countywide. Um eliminate one an additional elementary gen ed teaching position through class size. That's one position. Um utilize one-time revenue source, out-addition out-of-district tuition credit, 168,000, and then break due to retirements since March 19th tentative budget, uh

07537,000, brings us to 505,000, our alternate pathway. Other steps, and these are um >> [clears throat] >> have been in prior slides, prior presentations, right? These are things we um continue to do. I just want to highlight like um the school resource officer shared service agreement with Evesham Township. We're grateful for that, um as they take on the full cost of that very valued program. And support um the presentation will put This will be posted on our website tomorrow. That link there goes to the testimony that I referenced earlier in this meeting that sparked about a 20-minute live conversation in the you know former state Supreme Court in Trenton with the state assembly who were listening and acknowledge that you know something has to be done. So and hopefully soon. Um suggestion box lid tossed

076aside. Um you know we've been in this position for years. Um the additional tax levy increase was so important this year to prevent more red on this this slide would have been multiple slides were it not for that additional tax levy. I am grateful for our board for our community for that additional levy. It is our mission for kids. We look at this mission statement. That tax levy helps us achieve that mission. So thank you to everyone for that. Questions? Thank you. >> I just want to clarify one thing that you said about curriculum and the added cost for the math curriculum. You stated that it's a new math program. I just want to clarify that it's an update to the current program, right, Danny? The newest edition. Okay, I just want to Right. Okay,

077I just wanted to clarify that for the people listening that it's not a new program cuz I think a revised edition to what we are currently using. Any other questions on the budget from board members? No? I have a question as I always do. Mr. Yates, you talked about the um Burlington County Jeff. I didn't I didn't hear what you said. Are we getting a dividend? Do we We don't always get a dividend. I didn't hear what you said about that one particular topic. Yes, ma'am. We received a dividend um and we're using that to offset premiums and bear with me one moment. I'll tell you exactly what it is. $39,318. And uh last year was $39,401. Okay. Another question. You talked about that state health benefits plan and then now the actuary came back

078and said, "Really, we need another 17%." Is that like June July 1? I don't I'm confused about that. >> No, they they can't mid-year increase the premiums. I shouldn't say they can't, it's the state. They seem to do whatever they want, but um it's not our expectation that mid-year they will increase premiums. We expect that to be baked into the January renewal. Okay, so in the January renewal they we should expect >> Yeah. about 17% or it's going to be more than that? Uh we've been told to anticipate I've heard So, we we don't know, right? Our brokers don't know. The state does not release that information. The actuaries will make a recommendation. Um and and then I believe that happens in the late summer and then in the fall they release the rate information.

079We've I've heard numbers as high as 40%. >> Right, you were saying that. Mhm. And then just for the record, you know, I have spoken publicly about this. I have delivered presentations. I have shopped our plan or it's In other words, you could say I've gone to market our plan three separate times since I've been here. We've been in the state health benefit program prior to my tenure here in Evesham. Um and it was one of the first things I wanted to get out of. My history, just my professional experience as a BA, I've experienced where the state will have um attractive premiums in their plan to try and attract healthy districts in. When I say healthy districts, I mean districts that have a uh less than one experience rating. Um and in effort to

080offset the districts who can't leave the state plan, the state's plan is the plan of last resort, meaning they have to accept everybody. And so if you're a district like Evesham where you have nowhere else to go, you end up in the plan where there's it's filled with everyone else who has nowhere else to go. So, um I've shopped this three times. All three times we've received the same response, and that response has been that every major carrier has declined to quote us um because our experience rating is too high. Experience rating being for every dollar you put in, how much do you pull out in premium? Our experience rating is north of 1 and 1/2. So, and and if you remember my January presentation of all the the they call it souls. Of all

081the souls that are on our medical plan, 32 of them account for over 50% of all premium claims. So, I you know, I don't I don't know what option Evesham has, but I explore This is something I'm I'm constantly looking at for alternatives for. >> Okay, thank you. So, seeing no other questions from the board, now we will open it up to public [clears throat] comment on the uh final budget presentation for school year '26-'27. Oh, is anybody getting up? But before you do, I have to say this. We have um two public comment periods. We're having two public comment periods tonight. We'll have three. So, we'll have public comment on the budget, then public comment on agenda items, and then general items. >> What he said. So, So, um we There are no public

082comments referencing um student or personnel items or negotiations. We ask that you see superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person. Please state your name and your address. I am Congresswoman Bonardi. Uh 10 Halifax Court East. Um I'm here to talk about the budget. Uh first off, my question is last year you came to the taxpayers you came to us as taxpayers and said hey, we have to raise uh the tax levy. It was $14.2 million and you know, you guys voted to do that. You know, the taxpayers are paying that fee. Um and for the average assessed homeowner, I believe it was probably around $1,000 last year. Now you're coming to us and again out of the 14 million, it

083was uh presented to us that you know, half would go to instruction and then the other half would be for capital improvements. I've been to this meeting in the when you did the tentative, I went to your special work session and again, I still am unclear where what happened to the 14 million because out of that, I should have 7 million really to play with um for the tax increase that you're proposing for the 2%. You're proposing to raise another 2% to the average taxpayer um to the taxpayer which um I just don't understand after you asked for $14.2 million. So that's my first point. Um one issue I understand the state, you know, we have been shortchanged from the state regarding the 6% cap. Um I take offense to the one slide that had

084about we're talking about state aid back in 2017 or whatever it is versus now. The numbers have changed um the the formula behind the scenes. So the state actually is holding back $2.1 million or $2.2 million in categorical aid which is your special education aid, your transportation aid, etc. That is really on the table that the state should be giving us. And honestly, that is the only thing that we should be asking for. The equalization aid, honestly, we should not be applying we don't really qualify for it without the 3-year equalization the averages of the property value and the equalization and income. So, categorical aid, we need to go to the state. Um the question I have is really in the presentation, you're still eliminating staff programs or staff um for general education. But yet,

085we had the presentation ahead of us that really talked about adding staff um and class sizes and reducing the class sizes. So, I don't see how that's jolling with, you know, your priority. So, I have a question about that. Um and again, the state health benefits plan is staggering that we're spending so much money. I believe it was 12 million this year and I think you guys explained at the session it was about 15 to 17 million. That's a staggering amount of money. And if you're a employee living in district, you know, you're paying your your premium and then you're also getting hit as a taxpayer. So, I feel that we all should be going to the state health benefits plan and advocating for that. Um the other thing I want to say, transportation, I

086am a little lost. You know, we went out to bid, I guess, 2 years ago. We outsourced transportation. We were supposed to have an $800,000 cost savings. However, transportation costs between 2024, it was 6.5 million. >> minutes, so just >> Oh, sure. I will wrap up. And now we're at $7.6 million. So, between '24 to '27, that's about um a million-dollar increase in transportation. So, that's staggering when we're supposed to have a cost savings. And the only thing I will just ask, since you're doing paving projects, could you please fix the pothole at Rice? Thank you. Good evening. Brian Wisniewski, president of ETA. Um, I like to start by saying we are appreciative that there are no major cuts to program or staffing. Um, but still even to see seven positions, seven elementary school positions,

087and I know it's not people or staff, but positions, but still with um raising taxes last year to see that is a little disheartening. And I'm aware of the state aid challenges. I was there in Trenton. Um, but still just reducing those positions will put a strain on our current staff with class sizes. So, again, with raising taxes, we thought we would be good. So, that's all. Thank you. Hi. Patty Meeker, 10 Blanshard Road. I'm a little perplexed, um, cuz last year when I sat Well, I watched it at home, actually, the budget presentation. Um, and you voted to raise it the full 25% with around, I believe it was $8 million of that going towards capital projects that we were told were emergencies. So, now again, I'm seeing heat pumps up there. Were any

088of those 700 heat pumps from last year that were was an emergency Have any of those been replaced yet? Does the board, you know, have you looked into that? Um, also, the paving projects, Demarest and Royce specifically were mentioned last year to come out of the capital gains or capital projects, this $8 million, and apparently that hasn't been done. So, why are we now Where did that money go? I I don't understand. I think we were owed an explanation after raising our taxes 25% last year. You didn't have to go that whole thing. And and now you're asking for the same things again, so I I think we deserve an explanation. Thank you. Now, we will go to the public comment period on a I'm sorry, no. Mhm? No, I believe that comes later. Okay.

089Moving on to public comment on agenda items only. If you wish to comment on agenda items only, please step forward. Um if your questions pertain though to student or personnel items or negotiations, we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person. Is there anyone who would like to stand up and comment on any of the agenda item specifically? Oh, hello. Oh, nice to see you, Janice. >> State your name and your address, please, Mrs. Everhart. Mrs. Everhart, 25 Derby Court. Nice to see you banging the gavel there. Uh congratulations. Okay, I'm I'm here to talk about um finance uh under the finance section of the agenda, there was a line item for awarding a contract for

090superintendent search services. So, I sat on the board and we did two superintendent replacements or um searches on our own. We didn't need to go out for bid. I would like you to consider the possibility of doing this on your own. I think maybe New Jersey School Boards does offer the resource and ability to do that. Is that for a fee or is that for free? Um I would like to just have you consider doing this search. It can be done with the board without an outside fee incurred. So, I just implore you to reconsider that. I know it's a daunting task and I wish Dr. Smith a lot of luck in his next chapter, but I I do think with the financial constraints that you have ahead of you that you would consider doing

091that. Boards have done it successfully in the past. That's it. Thank you. Now moving on to the approval of minutes. I need a motion to approve. Is not now? Oh, I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. I wanted to say one more thing. Did you already close public comment? I apologize. I just want to say something with the >> for you. Oh, no. I'm sorry. I just want to say I want to wish some retirees uh some good luck tonight. So, good luck to uh Dr. Smith on your next chapter. Uh thank you for your service. Also, Gaetano Lucibello. I sat and worked with him on the board many years ago and I wish him a lot of luck in his next chapter. And I also want to wish this man here. Uh we go way back,

092sir. >> [laughter] >> I came here to uh congratulate you on your retirement and to wish you the best of luck. We sat together. Uh me as a board member, me as a parent, and me as a PTA member under your tutelage. So, I'm going to miss you and I wish you a lot of luck in your next chapter. Okay? All right, thank you. Good luck. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Okay, so now we'll move to the approval of the minutes. I need a motion to approve item 6.1 to 6.3. Do I have a motion? Mr. Massing, a second? Mr. Fischer, thank you. Do we have any questions or comments on the um approval of the meeting minutes? Seeing none, Mr. Yates, could I have a roll call, please? Roll call on the approval of

093minutes, Mr. De Morrissey. Yes. Mr. Fischer. Yes. Ms. Iannelli. Yes. Mr. Pielman. Yes. Ms. Butera-Matus. Yes. >> Mrs. Knoll. Yes. The motion carries. Okay, thank you. At this time, we'll move on to the superintendent's reports. Do I have a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.7? Uh my apologies, I skipped Mr. Massing on the last. >> Oh, did you? Oh, I didn't even notice. >> Yes. Motion still carries. Okay, great. Anyway, okay, we're going to move on to seven item 7.1 through 7.7. Do I have a motion to approve those items as superintendent's report? A motion? Mrs. Iannelli, do I have a second? Mr. Massing. So, at this time, am I handing it over to you tonight? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Knoll. Um I will keep my superintendent comments very brief. We've

094had two presentations. First, I just wanted to share we recently received notice that our from our county office that our district has been designated as high performing by the New Jersey Department of Education in all five NJQSAC categories, including in the category of instruction and program, based on our most recent NJSL test scores from last spring. I'd also like to Yeah. >> [applause] >> Congratulations first to our students for that achievement and of course to the the the staff in all roles, classroom teachers foremost, who support them in all their achievement including state assessments, although that's ultimately not what we're about, right? The greatest achievement is their success in years that we will in beyond the walls of any school. Um also would like to congratulate Mr. Hoffman and Mr. Licciardello on their retirement. Um

095I've known Mr. Hoffman since before I sat in this chair um many many years and um just uh wish him health and happiness as we retire his shoes. You can't fill those shoes. Um And then for Mr. Licciardello, um wish him very well. It's uh it's been a pleasure to get to work with him and get to know him. Um And uh and then for me, this is my first board meeting since my retirement announcement. Uh I just like to publicly thank our board and our administration and all our staff as well as our students and families for their work to make our community so wonderful and special. It is has been and continues to be the deepest honor to serve that community as superintendent. And thankfully, the happy distraction, the work continues now and

096tomorrow and beyond. So, thank you. Thank you, Dr. Smith. Let me just get back to the agenda here. Um so, at this time, do I have any questions or comments from board members on 7.1 through 7.7 anything under the superintendent's report? Any questions or comments? Seeing none, roll call, please, Mr. Yates. On administrative items, Mr. De Marzio. Yes. Mr. Fisher. Yes. Mr. Iannelli. Yes. >> Ms. Iannelli, excuse me. All over tonight. Mr. Mason. Yes. Mr. Pielman. Yes. Ms. Buttimer-Mowatt. Yes. And Mrs. Noll. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. We'll be moving on to item eight, curriculum and instruction. I need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.6. Do I have a motion from anyone? Ms. Buttimer-Mowatt and seconded by Mr. Fisher. Are there any questions or comments for item eight, curriculum and instruction? Anything

097under that? I have one, Janice. You have one? Okay, go ahead. I wanted this So, under curriculum and instruction tonight, Dr. Smith did touch on this as part of the strategic plan, but I wanted to call out um 8.5 because I think it's going to be a big positive change for our district. We are approving tonight a new website design, new communication system. I think it ultimately entails a new phone system, messaging within the building, all the above. It will all be implemented some soon, some over some time, correct? And I wanted to call out these gentlemen right here, Frederick and Mario in the IT department, because they put in a lot of time to vet these systems and you know, test them and figure out what's the best the best thing for Evesham as

098well as, you know, different stakeholder involvement. So, um positive positive point of light, Dr. Smith, Um on the agenda tonight. So, we're excited to see some new revamps really soon. And that will be rolled out in the fall? I think it starts in the summer. Yeah, I think the plan is in the summer, at least the website and some of the other communication pieces. Some of it will take a little longer. But the the PA PA system will take a little bit longer. Any other questions or comments on curriculum and instruction items? I have a question, if nobody else has any. My one question, and Ms. Magoulick, you have to forgive me because I don't remember everything, but can you please speak about the 8.4 focus grant? Sure. So, as a continuation last year, we

099received funding when we switched to the universal literacy screener in the primary grades. We received that focus grant roughly for like more like 18,000. Uh recently, the state released the second round, so that we'll have that for next year to continue using i-Ready in grades K through 3. Okay. That's for the continuation of i-Ready specifically in K through 3. Okay. Okay, thank you. Seeing no other questions or comments, may I have a roll call, please? Mr. Yates, on curriculum and instruction. On curriculum and instruction, Mr. DeMarce. Yes. Mr. Fisher. Yes. Ms. Cianelli. Yes. Mr. Masson. Yes. Mr. Pielman. Yes. Ms. Butrymowicz. Yes. Mrs. Noel. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to finance and operations. Do I have a motion to approve 9.1 through 9.17? Mr. Pielman, and seconded by Mr. De Marce. At

100this time, do I have any questions? Any board members have questions or comments on all of the finance and operations? Mr. Peelmann. Yeah, I just wanted to point out that um based on conversations we had earlier, I'm sorry. I just wanted to point out that based on conversations we had earlier tonight, if you had refreshed your uh agenda for the evening, 9.8 was taken off of it, that we are not um uh selecting a superintendent search uh group today. So, that's not happening today. It's 9.9. 9.9 Oh. Whichever it was, it's not there anymore. It's completely gone. >> new 9.9. Thank god. So, just wanted to point that out. Okay, thank you. Do we have any other questions or comments for finance and operation items? Including Oh, I'm sorry. Mrs. Iannelli. Um I just wanted

101to comment in regards to the budget presentation. Um I just hope our administration team is dedicated to staying true to our mission statement and promoting excellence and ensuring that the environment, starting at the educational foundation, which is our elementary schools, that we are continuing to look at the class sizes and making sure that it is achieving that excellence that we promote in our mission statement. So, I hope that we continue to look at the class sizes. I know that there was some positions for the elementary level, but I know that our team is dedicated and will continue to monitor to ensure that we have environments that are achieving the excellence that we're dedicated to in this district. So, I just wanted to comment that because that was discussed and and I think that we have

102a strong administration team that's going to look at that. So, I know that they will do the right thing in ensuring that especially at the elementary level that we will continue to be dedicated to that excellence. Thank you. Mr. DeMarzi. Thank you, Ms. Knoll. Um first, I just want to open up by saying thank you to everyone who went to Trenton about a month ago, Mr. Wiskowic, you know, Shawn, Justin, everybody was there. John John, you were there, I think, right? Were you there? >> Last year. Last year, that's right. Okay. Had to jog the memory. Thank you. Every year, I get on my soapbox and I'll spare you guys this year about how truly the only fundamental solution to education funding and or affordability in this community in the form of taxes comes through

103change in the school funding formula. And I don't think anybody's a stranger to that fact, but you look at how it operates where certain districts in New Jersey get some obscene percentage in state aid and then we we get the shaft with 7% you know, and and we're just kind of trying to figure out how our community has to face the burden of funding an entire system of education with countless employees. I mean, you know, it's you saw tonight 80% of our budget is salaries and benefits, right? I mean, and and that's money that ultimately has the biggest impact on any kid. I mean, you think back to when you were in school, you don't necessarily remember what kind of textbooks you were using, you remember your teachers. You remember the people, the personnel. And

104so it ultimately is a game of dollars and cents. Um of of just trying to balance the budget every year because of the lack of support we receive from the state. So to again to Mr. Wisniewski, uh to Sean, to everybody who was there in Trenton, um every time we go up there it seems like we make a little bit more progress and just bend in their ear trying to get their attention. And it's not just us, it's a lot of other towns in the whole state of New Jersey as well trying to communicate this that again taxes aren't going to go down, education is not going to have enough funding until they change the SFRA. It's not going to happen. And we're going to continue to have to sit here and have these conversations

105year after year. Um I say this not happily. I think all of my fellow board members will probably tell you I'm probably, you know, biggest tax hawk on this board. I don't know if there's there's much of a much of a debate there. Um but this year there was a significant amount of compromise. Um you we see, you know, not only just with the 2% levy, uh which I wasn't happy about from last year seeing the massive tax increase we had, but we also, you know, had to get a little tightening of the belt. So I think seeing both of those things show that we're looking forward to a future that tries to take multiple factors into account when meeting our budget obligations. So um I'm I'm I'm happy with with with the product we

106came up with. Um we're going to always continue to try to be as efficient as possible. I think that's very important, you know, for all future boards. Um and that's ultimately what's going to help us stave off, you know, the future challenges that the state's going to continue to impose on us. If you could go next year, please do. Uh I look forward to seeing you guys there in Trenton, so thank you guys. Ms. Knoll. Um I just want to add to that as well. I know this is exactly what we need little fuzzy thing on the end. But um So when I decided to come to the school board, our job, right, our mission is to make sure that the schools we don't run the schools, we make sure they're well run, right? Um

107and the work is not done. The work is not completed and we said that before. We said it during the preliminary budget and we're saying it now today that we're continuing to look at ways we can cost save, cost share, cost, etc. I want to appreciate and and thank the members tonight that came up and spoke about the budget comments. Um all valid points and we're looking again continuing to figure out what we can do right, what we can do better, what we can do to improve. Um Aiden, your point was my first time going to Trenton, going to the State House. It was kind of a humbling experience walking through that and not like the new security center, but also all the way up into the sitting at dais. Um and I that what

108was amazing to me is I think all of us know we sat there for about 4 hours. They were about 2 and 1/2 hours delayed and that was before sitting a day prior that they were 2 hours delayed on a Zoom call. So it was 2 hours delayed. We had Senate the first day and the Assembly the second day. Um and it triggered a dialogue for about 23 minutes. Right? So you only have 3 minutes. Those in perspective that never saw or watched it before, you're given a 3-minute block whether you have one person speak or four or six. You have 3 minutes and your mic cuts off and you got to get out of the chair and keep moving. And our conversation collectively with the four of us, with the ETEA representation, the board

109members, and Dr. Smith triggered about a 23-minute dialogue from various members across the aisle, right? Um political affiliations aside, it how was a joint conversation about recognizing the issues we have, the challenges we have, and what do we do to improve. And it was just a very refreshing conversation, I would say in my opinion, um to to the facts and there were districts there and people there that did not have necessarily all of the information available. And Dr. Smith are doing the homework and having the facts and having the knowledge and information, um, I think it was very helpful, um, and it triggered a lot of conversations, and I've seen a lot of things publicly since then about conversations and more people realizing in Trenton both state and assembly of what needs to be done

110in order to support our students cuz every one of us here is to support our students and support our, you know, our community, and community thrive based on the school district, and East Brunswick is known, well-known, for an amazing school district, and that is not going to end today, tomorrow, next week, or next year. So, thank you. Well said. Anyone else would like to comment? No? Okay. Um, for me, you know, going for 2% on top of what we had last year, really I felt nervous because of the health care increases that we're seeing from the state with Jonathan, Mr. Yates had explained, and we don't know what's going to be happening next year with the health care premiums, and we have to be very, very careful and make sure that we have enough, uh,

111funding here for that, and I'm, I just hope that something is being done at the state level. I know a lot of us have been elevating that concern that these increases are unsustainable. I know the governor knows about it, the legislature knows about it. So, I really hope there's some movement because it can't continue like this. It's unsustainable. So, um, we're in contact periodically with our state legislators in discussions with them on how they can help us as well. So, um, we will can keep you posted on that. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Fisher. You're welcome. It's okay. I wasn't going to say anything. Oh, go right ahead. Um I I just want to say I'm I'm a s- I heard what everybody had to say um that in regards to classroom sizes and I have

112to say I'm still a little conflicted on that because if we're I'm just looking at you know goal in um our strategic plan, if goal number four is in there to establish reasonable class sizes based on research and if the research is saying that smaller class sizes equals greater student achievement, I don't want that to get away from us um especially on those kindergarten through third grade when it is um I would say more important for them to get more attention. So um that you know I I hope that doesn't you know once this this is approved, I hope that if that happens and we do see it that we can go back on that. Thank you. Thank you for that comment. Seeing [clears throat] no other questions or comments, let's go to a roll

113call, please. Mr. Yates. We have a very long list, board members, 9.1 all the way through 9.17. On finance and operations, Mr. DeMarce. Yes. Mr. Fisher. E- Yes to everything but 9.16. Is that a no to >> to 9.16. Ms. Iannelli. Yes. Mr. Masson. Yes. Mr. Pielmeier. Yes. Ms. Boutureira Watts. Abstain from 9. 5 and yes to the rest. Your abstention at 9.5 is noted. Ms. Noll? Yes. The motion carries. Okay, thank you. We will be moving on to section 10, personnel. >> [clears throat and cough] >> I need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10.11. Do I have a motion from anyone? Ms. Saianelli. And second, Ms. Buchermaults. Thank you very much. Do we have any questions on or comments on personnel items? Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Massin. Go ahead. So, once again,

114I just want to personally congratulate Dr. Smith, Mr. Licciardello, and Mr. Hoffman. You dressed very appropriately for your retirement celebration this evening. So, uh just the work that's done to our administrators and all the teachers this year who have already um provided their retirement notices. It's a it's an amazing world of change as when new people come in and and the seasoned leave. Um just really appreciate all the work that's done to East Hampton School District and thank you for all your service of all the years. So, we really really appreciate it. So, thank you. And since they're sitting right here, I think we should congratulate Ms. Kelly Cam to her appointment to the director >> Appointment. Yes, we got to Yeah. of curriculum position. And to Dr. Morris for Yes. Um taking over for

115Ms. Wallace. >> [applause] >> Ms. Noll? Just real quick. Mr. Morrissey, go right ahead. I don't want to beat a dead horse. I Mr. Massin said pretty much everything I I could possibly say. Um but Mr. Hoffman, you were my principal. So, I just had to men- You were my principal. I remember walking the halls and I used to see him coming. Whatever you were doing, you straightened up and you were pretty good. So, he was pretty damn good at his job. So, um just everybody who's retiring, uh Dr. Smith, Mr. Luccibello, Mr. Hoffman, um you know, just thank you for your years of service to to the district. Um it it it it you know, MMS community is you know, we're losing a we're losing a legacy, but we got Dr. Morris coming in

116and it's going to be fantastic and she's going to do great. So, looking forward and excited to having you. Um but, you know, it's uh this is a school my my my two siblings, they attend here. Ken is graduating this year. Layna's coming in pretty soon. And uh you know, we're just thankful to have you. That's all I wanted to say. So, thank you. Anyone else? No? I'll just say um congratulations as well to our retirees, Mr. Hoffman. I'm sure you'll be enjoying your retirement. And thank you for your dedication to our district for how many years? 20-something now? About that? >> [laughter] >> And um also to Mr. Luccibello who is not here. And I don't think I'm missing anyone other than Dr. Smith. I want to thank him. It has been what, 6

117years now? And I want to commend you on number one, coming in as COVID hit, which was not easy. And you remember, we were working side by side, late nights trying to prepare to get the kids back in school. And that is something that um not a lot of districts were doing at that time. For example, my my and nephews up in Montclair, they did not go back until April of the following year. And you were insistent that our kids were going to be in the classroom in September, and I will never forget that. And also, you've implemented here our full-day kindergarten, which we did that bond um a ballot question together. People here in the community who helped work on that. So, you know, under your tenure, there have been changes for us positively

118bringing preschool here to the district. And how many students are we now educating in preschool? Almost 500, I think. Yeah, 500. Yeah, so many, many good things, and I want to sincerely thank you for your dedication to Evesham Township. I know your children went through the schools, and you lived here, and you were happy to raise them here. And here you did give back to us, so thank you. And um also on that note, the board is still deciding at this time what direction we are going to go in terms of searching for a new superintendent, and more information will be made available once we make that decision. So, I really ask for your patience. We will move as fast as we can, but September 1st um start date is not likely at this point,

119but we will give you more information. We will try our best get somebody to come in here as superintendent September 1st. Um but it's not looking likely. So, more information to be shared as we move forward in the next couple of weeks. M- Ms. Knoll, I just want to thank you Me? >> for your words. Yeah, and but and I and I just want to What was going through my mind as you were describing the things that have happened in the past 6 years is >> So many, and I left so many out. >> Well, and I what I was all I was just thinking is uh it it only happens through team, you know? And then and like team Evesham is an incredible team. Whoever's superintendent and uh that continues, you know? So, I

120just think that's and and that person will will need the Evesham team 1,000%. So. Right. And you you are handing off the baton with that beautiful strategic plan. So, we do have that road map. So, thank you. So, I'm sorry. Are there any other questions or comments? Now, let me see where we're moving on to here. Got to get back to my agenda. Roll call on personnel. Oh, I'm sorry. We didn't have We didn't have a vote. Okay, we're done with questions and comments. Mr. Yates, may I have a roll call, please? Mr. De Marci. Yes. Mr. Fisher. Yes. Ms. Ainello. >> Yes. Mr. Massen. Yes, abstention to 10.6. Your abstention to 10.6 is noted. Mr. Pielman. Yes. Ms. Buchholtz. >> Yes. Ms. Knoll. Yes. The motion carries. Thank you. Moving on to policy, it

121looks as though we do not have any new policies to be discussing this month. And then we have committee reports. Do we have any committee chair that would like to discuss their meetings this month? Anyone? Oh, Mr. Massen, thank you. So, Ms. Buchholtz spoke a lot about the technology. As chair of the technology committee, we sat through uh went through a deep dive into what the new website would look like and how it's interactive and be able to be used by not only the parents and staff, etc., but also the students themselves. Um and have a multitude of ways, mobile-friendly, um yeah, and going back to an app-based system that's very popular and grabs some quick information, etc., as well as a comprehensive communication plan to be able to as Dr. Smith mentioned earlier, uh

122strategic planning to be able to quickly communicate um dire need situations and things of importance as well as school closings and all the other alike. So, no, uh maybe one day no longer looking at the phone waiting for the phone to ring. Maybe it's going to come on an app ding or something else, but um as well as obviously security, safety, phone system communications. As as most parents know when you walk throughout a building, there's hundreds of rooms and hundreds of phones, which equal thousands of phones for a district and be able to make sure everyone works, making sure that communication is spread throughout the building eminently uh in the in the effort of um potential issues. At the same point in time, being able to uh be communicate inside and outside the building effectively

123and properly is is critical. So, um those infrastructure improvements will definitely help all of us throughout the district. Well said. Thank you. I just wanted to follow up on the technology piece. Last night, Beeler had their math and technology night, and I was able to attend with my three kids, and I just wanted to compliment curriculum and technology and math and all the teachers that were there. There were so many creative stations and the ideas. It was Olympic themed, and there was a really good turnout. It also was book fair family night, so it was really amazing to see all the families. The The students were engaged, and the things they had these little robots. The technology piece was awesome, and my kids had a blast. I kept saying we have to get home, the

124Flyers are playing. They did not want to leave. So, I had to peel them away, but shout out to technology, curriculum, and math. It was a really, really great night to see and attend. And also, the teachers just going the extra mile with staying late night. Mr. Malman was working the book fair. So, it was really cool to see just the Beeler community and and the curriculum department as well. It was just a highlight. So, I just wanted to note that. It takes a lot from a hockey family to not go home to watch a game, so. It took a lot to get me there, but all three kept pressing. So, but go Flyers. Thank you. Anybody else have a committee report? Seeing none, we'll go into old business. We don't have any old business.

125So, we will move on to new business, but we don't have any new business. >> [laughter] >> She's like At this point, we will move to the open public comment period. Case you are not aware, the I'm sorry. The this public comment period is for any items that you wish to discuss. However, you may not discuss personnel items, student items, or negotiations. We ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public. Please limit your comments to 3 minutes per person. Please state your name and your address. Thank you. Hi, Rosemary Pennotti. It is a personal comment, but I just wanted to make a note. I wanted to thank Dr. Mr. for his service to the district and the retirements with Mr. Hoffman. And also too, I

126wanted to note you [clears throat] have a lot of personnel changing changes that are happening July 1. We have a new preschool a director of preschool. We have a new director of curriculum. We have new leadership at MMS, Rice, Van Zant, Demarest, and Jaggard and we'll have a new superintendent come July, I mean September 1st. So there's a lot of leadership changes. So I don't know if 2027 is going to be the year of change, but I wish you all well on how you move forward with that. So again, congratulations to the retirements and thank you for your service. Thank you. Seeing no other public commenters, we will move to board member announcements. Would any board member like to make an announcement? Yes, Ms. Iannone. >> Sorry, I know it's so late. I just wanted

127to comment about the strategic planning and thank Dr. Smith and Mr. Peelman for initiating that and working together. I started it as a parent and finished it now seeing the finished product as a board member. So it's really cool to see how that process started and being a stakeholder as a parent and now seeing this beautiful plan laid out for us. It's it's just really cool to watch that process start with Mr. Peelman and Dr. Smith. So kudos and thank you for that because this was a really cool product to kind of have a say and a voice as a parent and now getting to see it laid out as a board member. So I'm looking forward to the action plans and seeing these amazing goals come to light. So Thank you and it will

128be the board not this board, but it will be the the who has to make sure to be driving this and making sure this is moving forward over the next what did he say three to five years. So, it is our responsibility to make sure things are getting done. Just a reminder. So, at this time, if there are no other board mem- Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Maxwell. >> got to look this way. Yeah. Um so, first of all, as I always do with every board meeting, I wanted to comment. Um my abstention from 10.6 was due to to family conflicts um with personnel. Um now that it's official, congratulations to Ms. Cam and Dr. Morris uh on their appointments. Um and also I wanted to thank as well um Mr. Pielman, Dr. Smith, etc. from

129the strategic planning to be able to have a living document to be able to um read on, look at, acknowledge, and also adapt as things change. So, um with that being said, I think we're all set. Thank you. Anyone else for board member announcements before we move to adjourn the meeting? Ms. Donoho. I'm so sorry, Mr. Donoho. That's okay. That's all right. That's all right. We're making you jump around. I know you are and I might get in trouble. I don't even know if I'm allowed to do this or not, but um we uh Mr. Brown uh he uh stepped down from the board. Uh he's serving our country right now. Um and so we just, you know, really appreciative of him for, you know, his sacrifices. Um but in the process, we now got

130to select a new board member. I'm good, right? I'm not getting in Okay, yeah, it was public. It was public. All right. It's It was It's public. I I figured. I was like, I didn't want to overstep. Um but congratulations to Mr. Andrew Wilson sitting in the front here. He'll be joining us. Uh so, super excited to have you come and occupy this space next to me. And uh it'll be good times. So, so awesome. Let's do it. Thanks. Thank you. No other announcements? Um then I would like to have a motion to adjourn at this time. >> So moved. >> [laughter] >> Right. Do I have a second? DeMarci, all in favor? I. >> I. Thank you. All