001e the open public meetings act that good public notice has been given by the secretary ofation in the following manner post noce on the official office email Brown here Mr here thank you m whereas NJ 12 will ask for a public body to close session during a public meeting and whereas the board of education is deemed it necessary to to close session to discuss certain the public and whereas regular meeting of the Board of Education will reconvene following the session at approximately 7:30 p.m. now therefore be a result ofation Clos sessions to discuss the following as2 items 2.3 through 2.4 do we have a motion to enter executive session motion by Mr Thompson second by mrar Mr G please call Executive session M yes Mr Marcy yes Mr Thompson yes mrman yes Mr yes Mr
002yes motion thank you Mr we'll see you back approxim 7:30 e e e e [Music] sh e [Music] for e for for e for [Music] e [Music] sh [Music] e for [Music] for [Music] would all those who are able please rise for the pledge I pledge allegiance to States of America and to the Republic which stands nation under God indivisible Li and Justice thank you Mrs buter MO is going to read our mission statement tonight the mission of the E sham Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff 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
003responsible decision-making respect themselves and others problem problem solve individually and collaboratively and become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Mrs buter Mo it's a note on the board Personnel tonight board member jiren Brown is in attendance he has been called up and is currently Ser he has been called up and is currently serving our country as such we have allowed him to join this meeting remotely he can see everything that's taking place as well as uh he he will be voting tonight but just to note that that Jen Brown is in attendance tonight um right now we need a motion to move up item 15 to the top of the meeting uh what we're going to do here is we are striking our second public comment for any items of interest and
004moving into the beginning of the meeting to allow everybody talk on any items of interest at the top of the meeting um so motion to to strike item 15 to the top of the meeting motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr dearcy any questions or comments from the board I just want to real quick make clear that we'll be doing so the way we're going to do it is we're going to do the recognitions uh we as you can see we have a lot of students here today so we're going to do the recognitions we're going to do any presentations then we'll do the public comment on all topics it's just going to be one public comment um and then once the public comment's done it's when the action items will happen that's the set
005normally we split public com first of all there's not going to be yelling and asking questions um but item 15 is the second public comment that normally we split it into public comments on agenda items only and public comment on all items but we're just going to do the one at the beginning of the meeting so any questions or comments from the board seeing n Mr Yates roll call please roll call on moving public comment to any topics of Interest public comment one Mr Brown yes Miss Boer MTZ yes Mr dearcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes and Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates I'll hand the floor over to Dr Smith now for recognitions some entertainment from our Willy Wonka
006Jr group they want to come on up we we'll do the recognitions afterwards but um first uh just enjoy [Music] [Laughter] [Music] he [Music] [Applause] second [Applause] take their um papers I know you had certificates for them a bunch of the kids are not here so instead of calling them out for not being here we kind of the parents kind of wanted us to just okay take them all all right all right yeah yeah yeah all right thank you aot much gosh that's so awesome okay that was so fantastic can we give him one more round of applause [Applause] so normally we hand out certificates with as many kids as there are the staff in our theater program have taken the certificates and going to pass them out to the kids um later so just
007um their names are in the uh agenda tonight and um it's just been amazing to watch the theater program at Dei grow each year we will also here at MMS the theater program is fantastic and we will and May at our May 22nd meeting we plan to do something similar for Maron middle theater so uh if you're a Mustang family member out there uh please make sure you come back for that and um want to give a a sh a shout out as well to miss green for the idea to recognize the Dei theater program that was wonderful so thank you everybody we're going to move on to presentations now families who were here for uh the presentation for the theater presentation are welcome to stay if you'd like to leave you're welcome to leave
008um we have a full agenda ahead of us tonight starting with our tentative budget presentation for 2526 [Music] thank you sir all right so we are going to talk about the 2526 budget this is the third Public Presentation on the budget we presented in at the end of January at the end of February and now tonight there have been um updates each time we always start with what our goals are with any budget and obviously to maximize the effectiveness of what we do for children with ever dwindling resources right and we we know from this context which we've talked about many points over the years that is a very dismal context that we have over 7 million lost in state aid since the first year of S2 Rising costs our budgetary cost per pupil being
009over $3500 less than the state average which factors out to um when you multiply that by our enrollment is over $16 million less in our budget than if we were had an average budget creates tremendous stresses and pressures on a district to be able to continue to maintain when you have less to do so with update since our February 27th presentation so we discussed at the last presentation that we would be taking the full enrollment adjustment that's over 2.3 million uh we said at that time you know more would be conveyed in terms of what we were going to do with that so that is the update we are going to use that money to maintain these positions which were previously identified for reduction they were identified as such in the prior presentations that would
010be one music teacher position one tier three teacher position two Elementary Spanish teacher positions three reading recovery intervention teacher positions one librarian position position one counselor position one related arts teacher position and four teaching assistant positions in terms of taxes the difference between taking the enrollment adjustment and not taking it works out to a little over $12 a month for the average assessed home in eam now I'm going to turn over to Mr Yates all right good evening everybody and welcome back so if you have not already done so I would just urge everyone to take a look at our uh January February board meetings that are available on YouTube at that time we started our budget discussions and in January we talked about where we are and how we got here and during that
011meeting we spoke about E Shan being an S2 District so what that means for us is back in 2018 when the state revised the school funding Reform Act Eve sham Township Schools was slated to receive about $7 million in an annual state aid reduction they were going to take that over the course of seven years we're now in year eight so that means for us annually we see $7 million or a little over 50% reduced from our state funding from what it was pre 2018 over the course of that same timeline we have absorbed over $38 million in cumulative total reduction and each year that we pass a budget where we our state aid is not restored to its levels pre 2018 we will continue to absorb $7 million roughly in additional uh funding reductions
012at our February meeting we talked at about our revenues and we talked specifically about our limited ability to uh generate Revenue sources for us our single largest revenue source is tax levy we're going to talk about that tonight um but at that meeting meeting we also talked about the competing pressures that our budget faces every year a limited ability to increase our revenues and an increase on our we see an increase of our expenditures each year that outpace our revenues putting us in a position where we have to each year face a structural budgetary deficit and we have a need for crost cutting measures all right so I wanted to include this slide again this is a slide that I had at uh the February um presentation a lot of questions have come up about
013the additional authority authority that our uh District or Township has provided in tax levy so you'll remember back in 2023 we approved a budget of 66,1 41,7 that is the number in the far left column in November of that year the voters of eam Township uh approved additional Authority for our district to provide full day kindergarten and mental health services for students that was an amount of $290,000 that increased our tax levy in that very same year increasing our tax base from 66 million to 68 m231 71 that's the number in Gray above the second column where it says 2023 24 revised that number the 68,276 number is what we used at that we can use as our tax base to increase by 2% in the subsequent Year's budget so 68 million at 2% last
014year when we were developing our budget at this time we believed we only had tax levy that would amount to 69 million $595,000 tax base that year to$ 7,892 183 that's the amount of money that is funding or supporting our budget for this current year from the taxpayers that number inflated by 2% we arrive at the number in the 25 26 column second from the right that is the the current year base tax levy inflated by 2% this year we are also given additional Authority with an enrollment adjustment to increase on top of our 2% % by 2,336 320 you can see that in the far right column and that's how we arrive at our total tax levy for the 2526 proposed budget of 74 m692 971 so uh this chart I I put it
015in here twice just because I wanted everybody to clearly see where the additional Authority is didn't go anywhere it's currently just available in our tax base all right so I also had this slide available at the February presentation I just wanted to show it again because in February we talked about the structural budgetary deficit that our district faces each year and you can see in the column on the left this is our revenues $85 m5859 198 what we told you at that time was we can most accurately predict our revenues it's the number we can we're fairly certain about each year we know what our state Aid's going to be when they provide it to us we know our tax Lev is going to be inflated by 2% with few exceptions we are able to
016most accurately predict our miscellaneous revenues we know what our other state funding is going to be so the number in the far left column is all the amount of money that we have to spend we cannot spend a penny more on the right in February we talked about when we when we estimate our expenditures next year if we take everything that we have today and we add an increase to it what do we anticipate that we need to spend next year that number for us is the $89 Million number let's call it 90 million we also said at that time you we must produce a balanced budget so this board and the administration have the legal responsibility of prod producing a balanced budget that means our expenditures must equal our revenues not the other way
017around so it was the job of the board and the administration to take the $90 million and to fit it into the $86 million you cannot spend $90 million when all you have is $86 million all right so let's talk about where we are today our revenues Chang slightly some things to highlight but this is what we are asking the board to approve as our preliminary or our tentative budget this evening we have a total revenue number of 85,681 se6 our tax levy as we highlighted is the [Music] 2,971 is our largest number it makes up over 87% of our total budget we are withdrawing $400,000 from our uh fund balance we're not going to go through line by line we did that at our February meeting but you can see our state aid numbers
018and our miscellaneous local revenues the only number that changed from the February meeting we do pick up some tuition revenue from local school districts who send their children here to Eve sham schools so we picked up $ 58,7 there arriving at our total preliminary Revenue number at the bottom again this is all we have to spend next year cannot spend a penny more all right so I wanted to show year over so on this slide you'll see our final 2425 budget in the left column there with 88 mil 69388 in total revenues compared to our preliminary numbers for 2520 6 our revenues are down about $2.4 million total revenues some things to attribute to that are you can see that our tax levy went up by 3.8 million inclusive of the uh enrollment adjustment but
019our budgeted fund balance this would also include our excess Surplus our per the audit from 23 24 we arrived at $ Zar in excess Surplus so last year we had over 3 million and we withdrew about 1 and A5 million from fund balance this year we don't have that money available to us so you will see that our budgeted fund balance is down substantially over $4.1 million state aid was up slightly although we did see some reductions in categories like semi semi Revenue was down almost $200,000 and our miscellaneous local revenue is down and that's attribute attributable to us no longer being able to collect uh full day prek tuition in our miscellaneous revenues number that's now in our tax levy number and then just going down we are not withdrawing reserves to the same
020level that we did last year um last year we withdrew significant amount of money from the reserves this year we're only withdrawing uh $283,000 and that number has to be included as our Revenue all right so let's look at our preliminary Appropriations for 2526 again I won't go line by line but as you can see Staffing is our largest number making up 58% of our budget or almost $50 million look at this number and think this is not just this is for all of our salaries so this is just isn't for the salaries of our teachers or our support staff but this is going to be for the salaries of your administration of your custodial staff your maintenance staff um and our substitutes par professionals um clerk typist anybody who works in the main offices
021this is all of the salaries of the district and it's about $50 million for us or 58% the associated benefits that we have to provide for those very same staff members would be things like our medical prescription dental coverage uh Social Security uh taxes we have workers comp and other uh employee benefits make up an additional let's say 18% or over $15.1 million you can think of it this way for every $1 we collect and spend 76 cents of every dollar goes towards salaries and Associated benefits so before we've even begun talking about educating children in classroom 76 cents of every dollar is accounted for then we have to take into our other obligations that we're legally obligated to provide things like the pur obligation so our employees who qualify for the pur pension the
022school district has to make a contribution on their behalf towards the pension that's an additional 2% we have to ensure our facilities against risk and loss that's an additional percentage we have other District costs that we have to account for legal fees debt reduction so paying down our leases we also have debt that we have to pay back to the ECC and the TBA teddy bear Academy ran um ran a net loss the board or the general fund is responsible for covering that loss we have to account for that here in other District costs we have to account for postage and supplies necessary supplies not erroneous supplies and then we have our school resource officers we fund a portion of the school resource officer that is in every school building that is accounted for here
023that's an additional almost 3% we have to educate our children we want to provide a robust curriculum for them we want to provide uh updated technology that's an additional 2% special education cost an additional 7% this would be educ ating the the associated costs with educating children with IEPs this is also inclusive of placing students out a district and the associated tuition related expenses that's an additional 7% operations and transportation almost 10% so we have to operate our facilities this would be where some of our utility costs are located we have to maintain our facilities this is where we budget for the required maintenance of school facilities we have to transport our students those numbers are going to be here so when you if you were anybody's keeping math if you were to Total all
024of this up you look at ele and middle schools which is 0 41% in clubs and activities and additional 12% 50 cents of every dollar is our discretionary spend so 99.5% or 99.5 cents of every dollar that we collect and spend is already accounted for in obligations 50 cents is our discretionary spend of every dollar excuse me 50 cents of every $100 um and then so capital projects just to highlight what that is for the board and for the public we're withdrawing $283,000 of uh capital reserve for identified capital projects the township has come to us identified two capital projects that we are required to fund one of which is the sewer ejector pump station located at the campus of Mees and MMS think of this like all of the waste that leaves MMS so
025this building an Mees goes to the sewer ejector Pump Station it's then pumped to the main so it can be treated by the municipality that station is on end of life requires replacement we also have um the fuel pump station there our all of our Fleet goes and and refuels its vehicles at the mun uh municipality we are responsible for a portion of that expense so that's capital projects it's just the two totaling $283,000 and then looking at our expenses year over you'll see where we had some increases and decreases Staffing salaries we saw a decrease in Staffing salaries there as proposed by the cuts from uh the administration we our salaries are going to go down about $3.8 million our district um benefits we saw a significant increase in District benefits although you're not
026seeing it reflected here this is for a couple reasons one is we're essentially flat in this this is because we were able to take roughly or count for roughly over $900,000 attributable to uh Personnel who work now in the preschool education um program those expenses have come out of our district expenses for benefits um and additionally when we reduce staff we also reduce our benefit cost so we really didn't see a significant increase in benefits year over we did see an increase in benefits um just in the cost of benefits themselves the $200,000 is our con that is the exact amount of money $200,000 even that we're contributing to from the general fund to clear the debt and the ECC and the TBA um let's see what else on here would be important we see
027a reduction in clubs and activities reduction in uh capital projects as we discussed before and then we are seeing significant increases in in the tuition related expenses for out of District placements it doesn't matter if we were to maintain the same number of children out of District just the cost of doing business to send them out of District increases substantially year to year and then some notable increases so our salaries went up roughly $1.7 million you're going to say wait a minute you said it went down 3.8 just the salaries that we're keeping the $50 million we have to account for the increases associated with that that for us is L $1.7 million our benefits increased by 1.1 so something to note about benefits we are in the State Health Benefit Plan the state plan
028renews its benefits in January they don't provide us our rates until the summertime so we don't know right now what the state health renewal is going to be I can tell you this current year it renewed over 14% two years ago it renewed over 23% we've seen years where it hasn't renewed and we've seen single digigit renewals from the state so we have to account for 6 months of an unknown renewal in our benefit costs when we're budgeting then we also have to account for plan changes so we might have a staff member who's single and gets married and qualifies for a husband wife plan that's more expensive or conversely a husband wife plan give birth and now they qualify for a family plan we have to account for those plan changes which are largely
029unpredictable to us we also have our tuition related expenses for out a district place placements we talked about that at our January meeting we went in pretty extensively on the expected utility cost and electricity that all of us in New Jersey are going to experience in your July Bill you'll see a 20 to 30% increase this is due to the fact that there's a decreased supply there's increased demand and there's a higher cost of delivery of electric service so we are accounting for us that's about $230,000 in electricity Alone um we talked about the ECC and TBA deficit our net position there is we are uh at a loss of $888,000 it must be cleared we worked out a plan with our auditor we plan to clear this over a four to five year schedule
030this year we're making a contribution of $200,000 to clear that that uh net position again we have to ensure our facilities against risk and loss that was an increase for us of almost 10% or $90,000 and then there's other required costs that we face each year these cost would be things like right now we're carrying an extra Administrator salary for an indefinite period of time we don't know when that salary is going to come off the books we have legal judgments known and unknown that we have to plan for in our Budget prior year tuition adjustments to our out of District placements we talked about about this at January as well where that where we send schools at a district in the middle of the year can increase their rates by up to 10% if
031the prior year costs exceed a certain threshold uh when we have one-on-one uh placements at special services and that one-on-one fails to show up to work for the day and special services has to place a one-on-one on our behalf we get build for that service and then we have seen since postco a massive increase in our substitute costs conversely we also have some notable cost efficiencies we're always striving to find cost efficiencies in our B budget in whatever way that we can one of the largest cost efficiencies that we find is through the use of shared services so we participate in the lenpy trash collection Consortium it's where all the lenpy regional districts we go out and secure trash collection Services together and that provides those services at a reduced cost to us um we
032provide in-house PD and reading recovery we do participate in the federal eate program for internet services which provides us some money and some discounts on internet access for students and we uh we do have share cost of the the uh school resource officers the township pays about half we pay the other half the pur contribution because we see some of our more senior staff retiring or vacating positions we do see a reduction in the pur contribution we don't just budget those things flat we try to anticipate who left count for them reduce our total contribution we are always striving to become more efficient and cost effective so in uh several of our software conver versions We are going to realize an annual savings about $43,000 it's big for us we do we will always look
033for the elimination of unnecessary contracts and then the EF is always supporting us greatly appreciated they provide $35,000 annually towards uh Middle School counseling services and um we also share Professional Services so specialized teachers things like teachers of the DEA if we have neighboring districts who need these services and we can provide them within our schedule do receive some uh revenue for providing those services or sharing those services with neighboring districts and then of course donated services and funds this fluctuates yearly for us um so it's hard to put a dollar value on that but things like what the PTA is consistently providing for us year after year in each building it's greatly appreciated and they always come through and then private Source donations a time and a good example of this would be the
034donation of um let's call the the rehab of our Middle School softball and baseball fields by tuao Turf Farms that just took place over the past couple weeks um and that's David Betts not David Bach I want to correct what I said at the February meeting but that much appreciated David bets and tuo Turf Farms but that would be a good example of the donated services and funds that our district uh always finds cost efficiencies by working with these vendors and through the PTI and that is it for me [Music] thank you Mr Yates so this this slide we've talked about this uh this is now the third presentation it only gets harder to talk about these steps uh it is when we look at the reductions we're talking about tonight A number that I
035don't know if was mentioned in a prior presentation but it Bears saying just to try to give all of us a sense of the scale but in total we're talking about a reduction of 83 positions which is about 10% of our entire staff and that is a Monumental number that is very saddening and is part of why we began talking about this two months ago hoping people would would would hear you know hoping people would hear we want people to understand in a positive way it's reflected in the turnout tonight thank you everyone for coming and for those who are turning on tuning in at home um the uh I'm going to talk through each of these steps not in as much depth as in January but just for anyone who um is maybe watching
036or or here for the first time tonight number one Outsourcing our transportation department an estimated Savings of 800,000 reducing Transportation burden that involves basically looking to increase walking zones we've done that every year for about the past four years that is patient work that we do in collaboration with the township so that's a that's a number that's not entirely up to us um but that's what we hope that's that's what we're aiming for uh number three Middle School sixth class in place of Team time so essentially that's as any District in our situation has to do we are having to find efficiencies so for example a teacher currently a middle school core content teacher if you have six teachers teaching five classes each that's 30 sections by replacing team time SL independent study Duty with
037the six class now you have five teachers teaching six classes which makes 30 sections that's the efficiency and it's incredibly saddening but it achieves 900,000 in savings it also makes possible the Second Step there underneath it which is Middle School class size increase again another efficiency if you have if you have 10 teachers teaching class sizes of 240 kids in a Grade if you increase that class class size to 30 now you have eight teachers teaching class size of 30 that's 240 kids in a Grade that that is not where any of us want to be and I and I understand people should be upset I am upset so let's move on to the next piece here Elementary class size increase 640,000 you everyone will have a time to talk during public comment but please
038out of out of respect please stop the back and forth let him finish the presentation and then everyone is going to get a chance to speak [Applause] yes Elementary class size in all right so we we heard that and and I agree it seems almost like we H it seems almost like this has to be a waking nightmare right because we've been here talking about Cuts every spring since before 2020 but all Every Spring I've been here and well so I'm I'm I in my heart and I and again you look at these cuts and you think that can't be true but I'm very sad I'm very sad but I have but I have to get through this because you need to hear this and if you if you have heard it before I'm sorry
039you haven't hear it again but there's a lot of people in this room who haven't been here before and we all need to understand this story so okay all right Elementary class size increases eight positions we're going to phase out pa professional health benefits on December 31st um maintaining for those with 20 more years of service Elementary extracurriculars eliminated we will continue to try to explore a cost neutral approach for that but but um again we can't get can't guarantee that but we absolutely are going to continue to talk about it um and we want to make it happen use up the shift dividend these are the uh the total numbers okay that's the damage it's in it's maddening okay 83 positions 10% now on to questions this meeting will now be open to the
040public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments PR everyone please be quiet the president is [Applause] speaking the president is all [Applause] right this is fine what [Applause] okay everybody obviously there's a lot of people that have been been here before everyone will have 3 minutes to speak the timer is up there um please do not yell out I understand everyone has something to say the board wants to hear but you are here to address the board for public comment it's not a back and forth um so please be respectful to each other and to the board you'll have your three minutes um and obviously one person speak at a time um face the board uh once the timer goes off you know please wrap it up um and I would just
041I don't know never mind okay so we're going to start now state your name and either your residents or I know a lot of you are just are teachers or students so just say what you do okay um if you don't live in town you can you can just see you know your relationship to the district I am sorry I miss I just saying that if you don't want to say where you live you can say that you're a teacher I was saying that if you just want to say that you are a teacher or that you are a parent you can also just say that okay all right we can start go ahead my name is Marissa Dori as a secretary for the ETA I present this vote of no confidence in superintendent Dr
042J Smith on behalf of the ETA the leadership of Dr Smith has demonstrated a persistent lack of transparency in decision-making processes failing to provide clear and timely communication Dr Smith has systematically dismantled a once thriving School District leading to a decline in educational quality staff morale and Community Trust the Administration has repeatedly fail to engage with key stakeholders thereby neglecting the principles of open governance and accountability Dr Smith has not included stakeholders in the decision-making process disregarding the voices of those directly impacted by his policies and actions Dr Smith has employed divisive tactics pitting employees against each other fostering a toxic work environment his leadership has exhibited an ongoing inability to effectively communicate policies changes and District initiatives leading to confusion frustration and a loss of trust among all stakeholders the skills necessary to successfully
043manage the complex operations of a school district including Financial stewardship strategic planning and responsiveness to community needs have not been sufficiently demonstrated the failure to provide adequate leadership has had a detrimental impact on the morale of Educators and staff the quality of Education provided to students and the overall functioning of the district be it resolved that we formally issue this vote of no confidence in the leadership of superintendent Dr Justin Smith out of 576 eligible voters 494 cast a ballot of those votes 4789 7% expressed no confidence in Dr Smith's leadership therefore we call for immediate remedial actions including but not limited to resignation or appropriate measures to restore confidence accountability and transparency within the district thank you members of the Ean Township Education Association [Applause] you cut your your salaries hello my name is
044Elizabeth Miller everyone calls me Ellie I live in ravenscliff I am a sixth grader at decy middle school and I attended vanz Elementary I'm a tier three student who plays both flute and violin I am very sad and concerned about about the proposed changes to eam Public Schools increasing class class sizes due to the elimination of teaching positions will greatly impact a teacher's ability to help all students teachers will also need to be moved around in teach classes they do not ordinarily teach this will heavily impact the level of Education we receive additionally both the tier three and music programs offered have greatly impacted me as a student and a person today I played at row University with the Dei band it was a great experience my goals in life is to become a lawyer
045and then eventually become president I am now worried about how these changes will impact my education and my ability to get into the colleges that would make my dream a reality I have a younger sister in third grade she's also in the tier three program and plays the cello she participates in Little Feet yoga club and Science Club she loves attending her after school clubs next year she was hoping to start playing the champet and attend even more after school clubs these programs May no longer exist for her I'm sad and concerned that my younger sister will miss out on these experiences I understand that budget cuts happened at the level But please understand the damage and the long-term implications that of the decisions that you are making thank you for the time I hope
046you are having a good [Applause] evening hi my name is Quinn Johnson and I live at in Westbury Chase I'm a student at the Macy middle in sixth grade in red Hall there are lot lot of things that you have talked about that I don't agree with especially inre increasing class sizes taking away independent study and renting Green Hall out the Y first there is no way that classes will be able to get anything done with 35 kids in a room my teachers already have a hard enough time teaching classes at the sizes they are already if you increase class sizes you'll be asking for complete chaos and for no one to learn anything secondly you can't take away independent study independent study is a time for kids to get work done and for teach
047teachers to help kids and plan for their lessons this is also the time that tier three meets independent study only happens once a week taking with independent study will force kids to rush through the work many kids in Dey do sports or extrac extracurriculars so they won't have time to make up work at home teachers also have to make teachers also have kids make up tests during independent study if you take away independent study then you are setting all kids and teachers up for failure lastly you cannot under any circumstances rent sixth grade out to Green Hall rent sixth grade Green Hall out to deacy already has too many sixth graders in his classrooms currently I know this because I see it every single day if you rent Green Hall out to sixth grade then
048you are take then you are taking away the space that sixth graders and teachers in deacy desperately need in sixth grade the sixth graders in Green Hall won't have anywhere to go so how do you expect them to learn also classroom sizes will be way over 35 students if you run out six green then if you do this then you are denying all sixth graders the proper education that they need thank you for your time and consideration [Applause] [Music] pleas hello my name is Caitlyn defa I live in Westberry Chase and I am a sixth grader at the Macy we should not increase class sizes because of the following individual attention to students if there are more students it is harder for the teachers to give a good amount of attention to all of the
049students in the class the greater number of students leaves less time to help each student number two why not to remove Halls it would be harder to get to the next class constantly having to go back and forth between Halls it became it becomes even harder if more students are added to already crowded hallways number three why independent study is beneficial it is helpful to students who have fallen behind due to an illness or some other reason to catch up on lessons or quizzes it also is time we is also the time that we have to get personal help from teachers finally why not to eliminate clubs in school they give kids time it gives kids opportun unities to make friends build social skills possibly get exercise and keeps kids engaged in something other than
050G other than electronics and g into trouble I also hope that the drama club does not get taken away because it was so much fun gave me confidence and allowed me to make new friends I hope you consider all of my points while finalizing the budget thank you [Applause] please hi good evening I'm Gabby tars I'm a fourth grade hi good evening I'm Gabby Tavaris I'm a fourth grade student at vanan elementary school I live in Ravens and I am Olivia lumbo also a fourth grade grader that goes to vanzan elementary school and I also live Ravens Club we are here this evening to talk about the clubs being gone next year when we found out that all the clubs in the district were going to be cancel next year it was heartbreaking during club
051students can get some can get more skills that may not be taught in class such as social skills teamwork and better focus in school according to child. f.org students who participate in club sports or other activities of regular classwork tend to have high higher grades better attendance and improve attitudes toward learning and the second graders that will have a bigger amount of Club opportunities next year in third grade it wouldn't be fair to take them all away when some kids some of the kids didn't even get a chance to try any clubs oh kids could discover new interests through trying out different clubs that could go into favorite hobbies or even towards a career in addition clubs can be better to prepare elementary students for certain activities in middle school and in high school for
052example chorus Orchestra and band help students learn the basics so they are ready to part participate in middle school and high school level performances thank you for your time and we hope that you take our speech into consideration have a good [Applause] night do I move it up students if you don't um you don't have to identify where you live you guys are you know kids so if you just want to say what grade you're in that's fine you're good everyone has 7y time the same hi my name is Addison Langston and I'm a seventh grader at decy Middle School in New Jersey since the pandemic there has been a significant decline in test scores the elimination of independent study will eliminate the time that students use to study and stay organized and prevent them
053from getting the additional help that they need the new ideas implemented by the board want to put 30 to 35 kids in one classroom this is appalling because the occupancy for an average sized classroom is 26 people confining 35 kids to a classroom is a safety hazard kids should not have to dislike the overcrowded inconsiderate and challenging learning environment that our school will become imagine having 35 kids in a classroom and what monument Soul effort it would take to get them to all listen at once this won't be possible teachers are sculpting the future of the world they should not be neglected while the school administration claims to prioritize student needs these changes indicate a concerning neglect of the vital role that teachers play in our education the relationship between students and teachers is crucial
054for a positive learning environment kids should be able to feel safe when they go to school thank you for your time [Applause] [Music] thank you you will mostly hear parents and teachers speak tonight but the changes you're proposing affect the students just as much has anyone ever asked the students how they feel about these changes hello my name is Evan Ball and I currently a seventh grader at Dei Middle School I'm here to give you my perspective as a student I've had a great two years so far at Dees if you go through with these changes our school will run completely differently which is not for the better for example getting rid of Halls why would you want to get rid of something that organizes and positively impacts students and teachers socially and academically it
055is very assuring to know that I have teachers who know each other and can collaborate to make sure that I'm the most successful learner I can be and who are very close by so I can talk to them whenever I need anything knowing my locker is 10 steps away from my classroom and that I have enough time to get all of the materials I need is very comforting to know next year is my last year at toi Middle School I'm not only speaking for me and my grade but on behalf of the hundreds of kids that will come behind me and won't get to experience the Middle School model that has worked so well for me as a student thank you for [Applause] [Music] listening hi my name is Sloan schwager and I'm currently a
056seventh grader at Dei Middle School since there there will be a whole other school program in the building more utilities will be used which will end up costing way more money in the long run teachers should not have to teach sub J that they have little to no experience with you can't just move teachers around like chest pieces this is affecting real people combining Halls would make it harder for everyone to get to class classes could be very far apart if the Halls get taken away which would cause way more students to belate for their classes which matter also firing one of the guidance counselors can turn into a problem for students that need to talk to them and let let their feelings out it would be more difficult to find the time to talk
057to a guidance counselor if there is only one for the entire school which is crazy because there are hundreds of students how can you say you are putting students first when you are putting teachers last thank you for [Applause] [Music] listening hello I am Analise tney I'm speaking here today on behalf of Dei Middle School students um I'm going to address the changes that are being brought to our school my main topics are going to be raising class sizes and saving independent study after listening to to the last meeting I realized that increasing class sizes isn't right there are many reasons why firstly class sizes right now are 26 people per class the maximum occupancy says 26 people per class how is it safe for students and teachers to have around 35 kids in a
058class when the maxim maximum occupancy clearly states 26 people so how is adding more bodies in the classroom and not having the room get bigger safe for everyone secondly one-on-one time all kids benefit from one-on-one time with teachers how is it going to be possible for teachers to meet with everyone and to actually recognize and help kids who are struggling and falling behind you're setting up our younger generation for failure my next topic will be indep independent study so many students use independent study for different reasons for example last week I was absent for 4 days and I an independent study really helped me get back on track seeing as I missed five tests and and had one coming up that week um students also use independent studies for meeting with teachers when they're confused
059on questions or studying that can also help with raising class sizes seeing as they're going to meet with need to meet with teachers because teachers can't meet with them during class um taking independent study away is another thing you're doing to setting us off a failure all these problems could be solved if we think about it and work together for example we know other schedules that can be designed that could save independent study you need to you have to be willing to compromise [Applause] hello my name is inmar colion and I'm a student in seventh grade at Dei Middle School our school's proposed changes bigger class sizes getting rid of independent study cutting staff collaboration and reducing staff could seriously harm our learning environment and Student Success these changes that are based on budget cuts
060will likely create more problems than they solve in inreasing class sizes to 35 class in classrooms meant for 26 will make up hard for both students and teachers it will be difficult to give personal attention and many students will feel frustrated and disengaged a crowded classroom may also lead to more behavior issues and interrupting The Learning Experience eliminate an independent study is a big loss this program help struggling students allows for makeup tests and supports group projects more most importantly it provides important resources for students with special needs without this support many students could fall behind and those needing extra help would lose valuable assistance cutting out collaborations among students is not a smart move for Effective teaching teachers need time to plan together share ideas and discuss the needs of their students without this
061teamwork lessons may not connect well making it harder to help each student succeed finally reducing staff including bus drivers support staff and teachers will impact student safety and the quality of Education with fewer staff members there will be fewer supervisors larger classes and more work for teachers which can lead to burnout and less effective teaching in conclusion these changes will create a less supportive and productive learning environment we might see lower student achievement more discipline problems and lower teacher morale our school should be a place where all students can succeed but these changes would move us further away from that goal we need to stand together for a school that truly supports every learner the definition of school is an institution for educating children according to the Oxford dictionary but that is not what our
062school would be like if these changes occur due to the need for more money hello I'm Natalie Rogers a seventh grade Green Hall student I will not lie I'm scared for the Social and academic future of our business sorry I mean school but it's hard to tell when teacher and students pleas are being overlooked and pushed aside and the Greed for money drives all of these changes our teachers are the foundation of our school and many of them have truly shaped me as a person so listen to them when they say students grades will go down if they're crammed like sardines into a classroom kids cannot walk all the way around the school to get from class to class pods are very crucial to learning independent study is necessary for children's education we cannot have
063strangers strolling around our classrooms and cutting teachers and bus drivers is not the solution listen to the cries of the people you claim to be helping where there is a will there is a way please let us help you find it this is not the answer [Music] oh hello I am Addison locks and I'm from deacy middle school I would like to touch base on a couple of things that I'm not happy with like the music program I've played an instrument since fourth grade and I've personally loved it my sister who is also coming to the Macy in 2 years also really enjoys it if you were to take this away me and her would both be devastated I also would like to talk about the expansion of classes classes are already big enough especially
064gym in gym class there are up to 60 kids in a class which is hard for the teacher teachers to manage and for the students to manage as well I will admit that students do not behave and are immature and teachers trying to get them to listen is not working last thing I would like like to mention in my little Spiel is independent study this is one of the most crucial parts of my week and helps me with catching up on with with school workk and asking help if I need it I don't have time in class most of the time to ask for help if I really needed it so independent study really helps me to connect with my teachers thank you good evening my name is Julia Taris I'm a 7th grade red
065Hall student at decy middle school tonight I will be talking about the impact of enlarging class and the dangers that could come with this the room occupancy is no more than 26 students in a classroom I know there's signs in the classrooms that state this we already are exceeding this limit what will happen when you throw five or more extra kids in a classroom teachers will have an overflowing amount of papers to grade questions to answer and students to take care of even if there are 32 kids per class in Middle School regular teachers have five periods to teach I'll save you the math 32 students Time 5 periods equals 160 kids being taught if there is an additional period like you're planning there will be 192 students a day can you imagine grading 192
066tests 192 homeworks with that many kids the stress levels in teachers will be Skyhigh not only that if teachers are being cut that's more weight on the shoulders of the teachers who are not cut what will happen when a teacher has to take care of 30-some students and the fire alarm goes off I will repeat the classroom occupancy specifically States no more than 26 students should be in a classroom since when has the safety of students and staff become a suggestion since when has the safety of students and staff not been the top priority as a student in this district with one sister also in the district at vanan elementary school as a fourth grader and another entering next year I fear for the safety of them and their peers the safety that is supposed
067to be provided from the Educators in classrooms the parents and homes and the board sitting in front of me thank you [Applause] hi I'm Maria Ibrahim from Seven Reds EMS and I'm Emma man from eight red zms even though I won't be at Dey school next year I still care about the students including my younger brothers who'll be going to Dei Middle School after I graduate today we want to talk about an important issue that affects our classrooms and our learning experience having just over 30 students in one classroom is a significant concern for us it impacts our education and our safety first let's consider how crowded classrooms can affect our learning when there are so many students it can become challenging for us for our teachers to give us the attention we need we
068all learn differently and in a large group some of us may feel lost or struggle to keep up this can make it tough to stay engaged and excited about learning safety is another issue is another serious issue in case of an emergency like a fire drill or a lockdown having too many many students in one room makes it harder to evacuate quickly and safely everyone deserves a safe environment where they can focus on studies without worrying about their safety as a seventh grader I understand how important it is to have a supportive learning environment addressing these concerns would allow us to connect better with our teachers each other and create a more positive School experience in conclusion we believe it's essential for us to come together and address these challenges doing so will not only
069enhance education but also ensure safety thank you for your [Applause] attention dear board members I'm SARS deepok from deasi middle school and I'm in seventh grade Green Hall the changes you're planning to make next year will change how students look at our school for Generations after I leave which is why I want to make sure that this school doesn't make any wrong decisions the next idea that is being planned is increase the number of children in class to 35 which is outrageous the maximum capacity for each classroom is around 26 yet the board has tried to exceed it not only that but how are students supposed to learn and ask questions when 34 other students are also willing to how will the teachers get to each student and make sure that they understand a given
070lesson as well as graded assignments for increased amount of students this puts pure stress on the students and the teachers another idea that is being brought up is stopping Sports and musical activities this is very depressing for the elementary students and middle schoolers who want to students who play instruments have the same feeling since they put so much effort into learning the instrument just to be told that the musical activities would be gone the school district has already taken FCS away from we won't get to know our bus drivers like we used to who knows if and who knows if and not having a signed bus driver is dangerous in a in few ways because we don't get to know our bus drivers like we're used to and who knows if the bus driver we
071get are careful or Reckless teachers being cut is also something that shouldn't happen because the teachers have put so much effort into learning how to teach students throughout the years but firing them could cause the teachers stress and confusion all the things that were stated must not happen for the school to be the best that it can be I have heard that the school district gained $2 million and can sell one of the administrating buildings so I hope we can put that money to good use these planned School District changes might ruin the reputation of how students teachers and parents will view our school thank you for taking the time to understand my [Applause] concerns we were fixing the clock and the internet just went out out for a second so we were fixing that
072hello my name is pushkar and I'm a seventh grade student at the Macy Middle School you seem to put an emphasis on the quality of the education that is being taught in this District but you are completely contradicting your words with the actions that you are taking students who are transitioning from elementary to Middle School will have a very tough time adapting to the changes on top of that you are decreasing the number of teachers and increasing the number of students that will be in class this change will lead to kids not being able to properly grasp the material that they're being taught as the teachers will not have enough time to get to each and every kids questions which will lead to a negative impact on the children's grades while we're on the topic
073of class sizes this idea is absolutely outrageous in the majority of my classes which is only roughly 22 students I feel very cramped also the maximum capacity is written in all my classrooms as 26 with only room for 26 students fitting 35 would be a mad house I've talked to many my teachers and they have said that they don't know how they'll fit 35 kids in a classroom on the other hand cutting independent study is another bad idea high schoolers have independent study every day to catch up on work and US middle schoolers only have one day this period is something that many students use to catch up on work and projects and taking it away will be a major disappointment for all students also cutting independent study means that tier three would have to
074miss a period uh so that they could go to tier three tier three students like me already miss a period to catch up on work and having to catch up on extra work for the period that I miss would be overwhelming I know that we have to take action to reduce our budget but there has to be a better way than worsening the students work environment if the board proceeds with this actions they will be SE there will be severe backlash from students teachers and parents thank you hi I'm Jacob peelman I'm in seven green at decy I want to start by acknowledging my peers who wrote speeches and shared tonight I know we've all had a long day and I'm grateful to all the kids who spoke tonight and for their parents bring them
075here to share their concerns I apologize for all of you who have heard this already but I think it needs to be said again I understand enough for these slides to know that we have a huge deficit and the budget has to be balanced somehow so I'm sure some things we all don't like are going to happen next year I would like to ask for two promises tonight A promise that the administration will Advocate on the state level to get these funding formulas to change please set up trips for parents and kids I would love to go and speak on behalf of the kids and also promise from the board and administration that if painful Cuts have to happen that you will be creative dedicated and leave no stone unturned to restore all of the
076best things of the school district kids deserve small class sizes to learn and Thrive Transportation they can count on clubs where they can go make peer connections and additional supports that they need need to have great educational experience I promise that I will keep coming back to meetings and bring more students with me each time until action is taken to restore cuts that are made thank you good evening my name is Brian whitz vice president for the eam township Education Association I've been an eighth grade teacher at Dey for 22 years the changes you about to make to the Middle School model will be very drastic this will be the most profound change of the Middle School Concept in the entire time I've been at DMS and probably in the school's entire existence dating back
077to the 9s I hope you have done the research and done the homework to justify the impact this will have on our students but like many of my colleagues have said at this microphone I worry that some students will slip through the cracks and not get the attention and support that they need the loss of independent study as you've heard while only once a week will have a negative impact on students they've said it themselves they need all the time they can get to finish homework take makeup tests and get extra help from teachers this is always a good catchup period for them the rising class sizes is is a concern for student achievement our elementary school teachers are already stretched thin with the current class sizes they have especially in the primary grades and
078now we are going to add more students creating less individualized attention and small group instruction our elementary schools are already struggling to meet the needs of their current special education populations increasing class sizes will further strain resources and hinder our ability to meet IEP requirements thank you for restoring benefits to our power professionals who have 20 plus years of experience in our district you cannot replace that experience and we believe given the years of dedicated service they have given to this District this is the right decision both morally for their families and for students we wish this could have been extended to other power professionals with Benefits who have spent many years in this District some of them have close to 50 years combined working with our autism population crucial positions that are hard to
079replace we have fought this long and hard for many years in order to keep valuable hardworking Paris in our district who love and care for our students many of whom live in town and are your neighbors we would love for the administration and the board to consider extending benefits to more of our poers Who currently hold them finally I would like to address finally I would like to address the Outsourcing of Transportation this is a drastic step and in my 22 years in this District we have only outsourced one Department cafeteria staff I hope Dr Smith and the board have considered what some have mentioned at this mic in the past few weeks the potential Rising contract cost with hman or whatever private provider the district chooses this could be an unknown factor that may
080hinder future budgets and how do we know it is likely Helman has the board already met with them isn't this something that needs to be put out for a public bid in closing please take great care and consideration of the drastic measures this budget proposal will have on the makeup of this great School District both for our staff and students you're about to unleash changes changes that will harm our students that cannot be easily undone thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Russ BS president of the IAM Township Education Association I know I might sound like a broken record but I hope that eventually some of this starts to sink in based on tonight's event so far it's clear that our issues go far beyond just the budget as I said last month it
081has been devastating to witness the decline of this District in just five short years the challenges we face today stem directly from decisions made at the top a lack of strategic Financial Planning and failure to prioritize student centered funding have left our schools in crisis last year the Board of Education left Millions on the table we wouldn't be in this position if there had been foresight and careful planning however I don't place this blame solely on the board it was the responsibility of the superintendent and business administrator to explain clearly and explicitly why securing those funds was critical they should have outlined the long-term consequences of passing up this once in a-lifetime opportunity to offset S2 losses and yet here we are last month ETA leadership requested a copy of the district's working budget and
082asked to be included in discussions to better understand the district's Financial landscape we wanted to work alongside you however we were informed by Dr Smith that this wasn't part of the standard process but that he would be happy to discuss it after the budget was presented to the board and made publicly available well maybe it's time to stop following the standard process sometimes thinking outside the box and prioritizing transparency can lead to real solutions last year ETA didn't uncover $1 million and shift dividends until after the budget had already been created perhaps if we were been included in those discussions earlier we could have found it sooner potentially preventing individuals from worrying about whether they would have a job or not if the district had dedicated as much time and effort to preserving what we
083already have as it did to expanding what we didn't we wouldn't be in this situation I would have loved I would have L to see the same passion that was poured into the passing of full day kindergarten in preschool applied to protecting the benefits of our hardworking power professionals safeguarding programs and departments and saving careers it's time for a change in priorities before it's too late thank you good evening my name is Tracy Brown I'm one of the vice presidents for eam Township Education Association and also a teacher here at MMS for the first time in the history of ETA we put forth this vote of no confidence we had 86% participation from our 576 members this is significant we can't even get 86% participation when we give away free food and baseball tickets for
084real so what does that tell you we've all had enough Dr Smith 97% of our voting members your employees do not have confidence in your ability to lead us effectively we do know that many of the budget cuts have come from the state level and legislation needs to change many superintendents in in the state of New Jersey are facing similar budget deficits however you Dr Smith are the only one in New Jersey facing a vote of no confidence we've asked time and time again for communication collaboration and transparency your own administrators in this District are often kept in the dark they are not part of the collaboration process as they have been with past superintendents we had hoped that members of the esam township administrators Association were also going to speak tonight however it seems
085that they as well as many others fear possible repercussions from you Board of Ed members I strongly suggest you attend one of the administrators meetings and hear what they have to say just like you visited some of our classrooms this vote of no confidence goes way deeper than budget cuts a lot of problems stem from your agenda you wanted to have free fre preschool and free kindergarten at all costs no matter who asked questions no matter who shared concerns you just kept moving Full Speed Ahead it also appears that you want our middle middle schools switch to a junior high model at all costs even though it goes against best practices for adolescents even when alternate Solutions and compromises have been offered it is baffling even the children came to say so maybe you miss
086your day work at the high school in town but that model is not best for etsd middle school kids what we need right now is for the current children in etsd schools to be the number one item on your agenda Board of Ed members I hope this is a wakeup call for all of you the staff is not happy the public is not happy heck even the kids aren't happy I mean wow that's a record attendance for children and any parent in here you should be so so proud of [Applause] them so my question as Board of Ed what are you going to do I know some of you really do care you need to start asking questions and I hope when it's your turn tonight we hear you ask him some tough questions hi
087uh my name is D Jolene and I am am proud to be the union treasur um this Groundhog Day doomsday scenario that we replay every year is indicative of a larger issue when deciding how to move forward with a strict budget the question you all should be asking yourselves is what do students really need to become successful young adults I would encourage everyone up there to do the research but I can tell you that it isn't another new math program it isn't fontas and panel it isn't even the preschool program that we're touting lately having trusted caring adults in their lives is the single most important factor in young people overcoming childhood adversities and learning to grow up strong and healthy in body and mind and so consider the cuts being proposed here tonight do
088they encourage student and adult relationships is creating a situation where we have even greater par turnover going to support our special needs students is having bus drivers who forget to pick up students creating a feeling of Safety and Security is doing away with the independent study period the one period a week that students have to get caught up and connect with teachers going to help I can tell you that in many districts including my own daughters they have a period every single day where students can de-stress catch up on work and ask teachers specific questions in Eve sham we can't can't even keep that period once a week is putting 30 plus students in a class going to Foster student teacher bonds I mean have you ever thought about where these Cuts might end are
089we going to keep cutting until teachers are teaching 40 kids 50 or until chat GPT and robots are teaching you have to come up with better than just cutting workers the kids as they've shown tonight are depending on you too I think everyone here tonight is longing to be respected listened to and approached in a manner that encourages working together not dismissed out of hand as we have been tonight we're wishing that we had leadership with a vision that would try new approaches listen to Fresh ideas so that even if some hard decisions needed to be made they would feel like shared losses because right now when whenever I hear someone up on that stage say that this is difficult for them I feel sick in my stomach it does not feel genuine so perhaps
090a class in communication skills is also warranted above all please don't say that in Eve sham we do what's best for kids because as someone who's been here longer than I think everyone up there I can tell you that we used to but we don't anymore [Applause] my name is Laura Maxwell and I am an eight yellow science teacher as non- 10year teachers we are advised not to speak we are advised have somebody read it for you but my conscience will not sleep if I do not look at all of you in the face and let you know what you are doing is a mistake not only are teachers losing their jobs we are going to class sizes of 30 to 35 I first want to start by saying that I would not be the
091educator I am today without my amazing team words cannot even describe the amount of growth that I have had here and everybody that I've worked with knows it the invaluable knowledge years of experience and confidence they have given me has made me into the educator that I've always wanted to be for myself but also for all the students that enter my classroom the time we spend discussing student needs struggles and everything else in between makes our classroom a better environment for all students secondly I want to talk about us non- tenure teachers who live in fear year after year after a year just hoping and praying we don't lose our jobs we are starting families buying ounces not in Marlton due to the fact that I want my kid to be in a class size
092of normal and to be able to read at an appropriate level and really getting our feet wet into the real world despite all of this being at the back of our minds every single day we show up with smiles on our faces and teach without a hiccup I love coming to work and being a teacher but I am I [Music] love um if all of us non get cut you will see to regret it what happens when all of the tier one folks are able to retire I came from a district that someone last meeting described as trash and I can 100% back that statement up because you have a building filled with brand new teachers trying to figure out everything on their own and that is not realistic to anyone involved I teach eighth
093grade science and allow my students to use chemicals acid and fire do you think any person in their right state of mind would allow a classroom of 30 to 35 children do that I'll answer you right now because the answer is no we teach our students and our own children stand up for what is right and speak up for yourself so here I am on the brink of losing my job I work so hard for telling you that if you go through this what is proposed you are ruined the lives of families and students alike I am here standing up for what the students in this Township deserve and normal class sizes I am here standing up for the non- tenure teachers who live in fear and most importantly I'm standing up here for myself
094and and to give an example for my daughter don't go down without a [Applause] fight hi my name is Amanda SHI I'm also an eighth grade yellow Hall inclusion teacher standing with my team teacher Lauren and many of our other team teachers who just spoke before me um I'm back at the mic again I told you I would be last month I have spoken to all of you about the importance of our team models at the middle school level what gets accomplished during independent study time and how we use team time to help all of our students but especially those who are struggling with academics functional skills behavioral needs and other social emotional needs throughout the day I struggled to even put my finger on what to focus on as I Was preparing to come
095and speak here yet again however while everything we do is so very student focused and it should be I think it's important I spend just a little time telling you how our teams benefit the teaching staff we discuss it in our PD sessions often that teachers who are happy who are taking care of themselves both mentally and physically and who also feel supported in their work environment simply put will be better teachers we are when we are feeling our best we can give our very best to the students and that is what makes for the best classrooms and the best schools teams are those support systems they are our work families and our lifelines when we're just having a bad day or you're struggling through a problem you can't solve on your own I started
096as a first year teacher in this District 12 years ago Ean was my dream job for all the things I thought I knew there were a million more I didn't it was my team who helped me along the way they have been there for every Victory and every hardship no matter how big or small they have helped me be the teacher that I am today I wouldn't be here without them dismantling this team structure is about so much more than dollar signs or seats on a classroom map apparently that cap out at 26 teams and the structure provides are the essence of what our middle schools are about they create a culture amongst the staff that is then shared and passed along to students in numerous ways every single day a culture that you cannot
097create with this proposed Junior High model it's not going to happen how could we begin to really know 190 plus students although the N the number I heard today was 230 so I guess it keeps climbing how um we will barely have time to know each other anymore we're moving teams will not just change a bell schedule or a class schedule we're moving teams will forever change the culture and climate of the eve sham Township School District and it will not be for the better I hope this is a decision the board is willing to car on your on their shoulders all of your shoulders if you decide to move forward with this proposed budget thank [Applause] you you said it right good afternoon good evening good night I belong in bed I'm a teacher
098my name is Shela I'm a parent in this District um first thing first those kids behind me you're setting them up for failure but you don't care about that first thing first Dr Smith aren't you a parent you have kids do you think if you held the same position you would feel the same way being in our shoes back here wouldn't you be fighting you said earlier that you're sad you don't show it you're showing that you don't care what's happening with these kids that's first thing first didn't you come from another District that the same thing happened happened to and you're at this district and it's happening again are you going to leave this this District after when it happens all the way through that's one of my questions for you um I may
099not know much about what goes on in the school but I have a kid that's in again in this district and when I asked him tonight hey R come with me you know what he said no Mom I'm going to stay home where I know I'm cared about at home because they don't care about my future in school a seven-year-old said that to me tonight um you're trying to do with busing um let's see my kid was late to school a whole week cuz my bus driver was out sick the bus driver told me last week I don't care about this rout because it's not my route that's one thing he doesn't care to get to learn the route and it's a safety hazard because if you don't want to learn the route how are
100the kids going to be safe getting to and from school um and that was that that was kind of like a a punch in the face but are you still sad about that um also increasing class sizes I'm a teacher again I'm a teacher I'm only allowed to have 20 kids in my classroom in my district I work in Lumberton um you're going to increase it to 35 Plus kids a fire hazard a safety hazard God forbid the a fire breaks out we want them to scramble to under their desk I also want to know why do you think it's okay that you're going to increase class sizes that stops the kids that's in specialed from getting the help that they need that stops the kids from other grades that's not in special education from
101getting the quality time that they also need I'm an upset parent I'm a Fed Up parent I'm the one that said I came from a trash behind district and this is turning into a trash behind District I shouldn't have to feel that my son is not safe in school because of a safety hazard of adding extra kids and that he's not going to get there proper um care that he needs when it comes to his learning again you said again you are sad tonight that this is happening show up and show out that you're sad don't just say you're sad cuz you're not you look pretty happy to me and as a parent I'm pretty pissed off if you ask me so make the right decision and don't feel our kids good evening my name
102is Donna danis I'm a math teacher here at Marlton Middle School my eight yellow team is here to support me as well I'm also an e sham resident and I've had two students who've gone through our district um I'm really apologize I'm not feeling that well but as a teacher I'm used to getting up in for a million years but the time has come that we have Prime real estate Evans school and our administration building must be sold and it can be that is a solution to our problem I have numerous numerous ideas of what we can do if our administrative staff comes to our schools we can believe it or not reduce class size we can increase our our decrease our teacher to student ratio what would a beautiful model Middle School look like
103where we have administrators teachers students collaborating on a daily basis let's put the model of middle school that we want here in e Township should be a model that every other District looks at and says wow look what they did let's take our administrators who I value they are very hardworking and very thinly um sliced as well and let's start taking the duties of administrative staff and creating chair Department committees instead let's have our teachers be department chair share the duties of our administrators let's put our curriculum super supervisors back in the classroom let's have them teach a class teach one class a year one just one so our our parents who are concerned about our curriculum that is a solution to that as well let's put our expertise in the classroom to practice put
104the theory in practice to see if it really works let's work to build building eam Township better not making it worse I'm proud that my kids went through eim Township I'm approaching age where I'm going to have grandchildren I want my grandchildren to live in this community the number one question that families ask when they move to a community is what's the school district like do we really want our Realtors to say well sadly we had a 7 million deficit so instead of making good decisions to keep our community going we we caught teachers in positions let's make each [Applause] better Carol Larson Baron 114 dear Carol Larson baron4 Deerfield Avenue I'm also a power professional here at Marlton Middle School um good evening Dr Smith and the board I come to speak to you
105once again regarding the power benefits um Dr Smith I received your uh email on Friday afterno afternoon and I was totally devastated to learn that my benefits were going to be cut my benefits are very crucial to my husband and myself I've been with the district for 19 years and I was the first name on the start of the cut list um I am one of three Paras who work in the self-contained autism class here at moralta Middle School whose benefits are being cut I wrote to all of you on Friday evening after receiving the notice uh thank you Mr peelman and Mr deari for your response I really do appreciate that um I detailed all the continuing education that I've received I have to assist the classroom teacher through direct instruction to educate our
106autism students the knowledge and the training that I have in order to reach our students is very essential the knowledge uh depending on the day today how the students are acting what have you um the approach that you take on a skill today doesn't necessarily mean it's going to work tomorrow uh that means the delivery of instruction needs to change at that moment you're in that instruction you're doing that onetoone instruction and you have to look out too because you don't want to lose the momentum and you also don't want to create a behavior at the same time as an Autism Aid we are expected to make educational and behavioral decisions on the spot without assistance the continuing education that I have received supports me to make better decisions confidently um reflecting on the day-to-day
107activities recommending And discussing changes whether it be educational or behavioral happen constantly in our room constantly we meet every week to review anything that need to be done are handled as a classroom losing trained staff will be de detrimental to our autism students education and the success of our program I ask you once again to please consider my play thank you hi Wendy Beach I'm a bus driver from Transportation um I want to put all my uh concerns in emails to the board and I just wanted to say thank you to those that answered um I also want to ask a question as to um eliminating Transportation except for four drivers um you're saying it would be cheaper just to eliminate us so I just want to find out um if this is about the
108money where um where are Roots put out for bid if so for those bids to use in comparison to keeping our transportation as it is now of the information any other time our runs were put out to bid we were always cheaper I think that's very important in making this decision and I suggest also I put it in my letter to the the um email to the board um I suggest that you watch the Board of Ed meeting from August 5th 2020 uh time Mark is 6 colon 28 colon 05 and here what Mr ficara had to say about Outsourcing Transportation it might be some of help um I asked that the board that voted you in to please or we voted you in please do your due diligence by looking at all aspects when
109making your decision regarding our livelihood thank you [Applause] my name is Linda masterman and I'm a teacher at Marlton Middle School I don't need a crystal ball to see eam Township school's future my almost 30 years at Marlon Middle School helped me foresee what will happen if these program programs are cut let's look at this time next year in the middle schools come join me on this less than magical journey into the future retiring early moving to other districts and abandoning the profession several teachers have left due to the unsustainable workload of six classes with 190 plus students those who are unable to leave will face physical and mental health issues as they drown in work as they take much needed six time there will be no substitutes since the substitutes have gone to the
110neighboring districts where there are less students per class leading to less behavioral problems and stress likewise new hires will accept teaching positions elsewhere sadly the only teachers willing to work in eam will be those dismissed from other districts due to poor poor performance unfortunately the students will not fair much better in overcrowded classrooms with overwhelmed teachers since there will be no teams of teachers collaborating many students will flounder academically socially and emotionally of course some will be fine but too many will not without teams these students concerns will take longer to identify because teachers will not have the opport opportunity to discuss the students issues or notice patterns of behaviors across classes or from year to year there will be no independent study so those students who used to receive intervention services or ask for
111one-on-one reteaching and explanations from teachers will miss out the student who was absent now will have to make up missed Assessments in class missing even more instruction intervention services for our struggling students will be cut dramatically with the loss of teams and independent study as teachers try desperately to keep track of it all inevitably something will be missed parents will begin to wonder if their children's needs are being met and if the education that prompted them to move to Marlton hasn't changed Beyond repair after much consideration parents will decide it's time to move to one of the neighboring towns for Sal signs will appear on lawns sadly for those sellers word has spread that e sham schools are overcrowded and lack Services young families will decide to move to those neighboring towns instead I have
112literally one sentence this the for sale signs will begin to fade as months pass this is the future if you pass the proposed cuts to our schools I'll try to keep this short um I'm Leah Anderson I am a marriage and family therapist I also did a year of um of contracted um School counseling in the middle schools uh when I was a kid and getting ready for school my parents even though we kind of grew up right underneath the poverty line just you know we my parents bought us crayons papers erasers for me in such a a highly taxed and and highly valued area I'm also putting in paper towels tissues hand sanitizer disinfectant soap more markers for the the teachers to use because they're running out and I don't blame them I blame
113how the system is working this is ridiculous we bought our home in 2018 it is more than doubled in value so we are paying more taxes now and I assume anyone else who has decided to put their roots in here as parents wanting to raise their kids in a great school system that you guys are also paying more in taxes too now now when you talk about the S2 I'm I'm not a lawyer I'm not a legislator I'm not a teach future but if the system is not working then we need to challenge the system if there are schools that need our tax dollars to help fund them so that they can get just as good of an education as our kids I am for that and I that might not be everyone else's opinion
114but I am for that but that does not mean that we just give and drag ourselves down as well it's obviously not working so we need to organize go to Trenton and and demand better for all of our students parents are already picking up the slack picking up everything that isn't being paid by by taxes we are I send in extra money for students that maybe their parents can't afford that field trip maybe the parents can't afford for their child to buy books from the Scholastic um uh fairs The Book Fairs I as a kid I wasn't able to I had to go in with my my classmates everyone looking at all the really cool books colorful books and posters and and pens and markers and I couldn't even afford to buy one myself and
115that's not the fault of my parents either so I decide to give extra money to help other kids as well and I don't know what else you want us to do you're supposed to be leadership lead lead by example and help organize us so that we can tell our state representatives our we can tell Governor Murphy This is not working sorry I didn't keep it short enough thank [Applause] you hi my name is Shane heran I'm a concerned citizen I just want to say a few things here um came up here with no prepar speech or anything like that I I was thinking to myself coming up here what should I say but you know what I I said to myself um the children are our future we should be doing everything in order to
116make sure they have a productive fruitful future as well unfortunately I don't think that's the case I want to thank everybody that came out here parents teachers you know kids that came and played the with this boort but we already know what you guys going to do you came up here listen to us watch us plead our cases and then you go guys probably going to vote on the budget and that's sad but that's the truth and I have seen this before I know I know what what comes up here you you look at us and say hey let them speak and then at the end of the day you guys going to do what you think it's best but do you guys really know what what's best for all of us I don't think
117so you guys been elected to do a job but unfortunately I don't think you guys are doing your job how who has stor the lines in terms of salary Cuts have any of you decided to take a salary cut but you ask teachers bus drivers support staff to cut their cut their their their salary got the system as well that's not fair what are you guys doing in order to change that I don't think you guys are doing a job I don't have kids but I know you guys should be doing what's right are you guys prepared to to the line are you guys prep prepared to do what's necessary in order to make sure we preserve the proper school system you guys are asking teachers to add more students to the classroom where we
118already have limited budgets there is a ratio to teacher to students asking um teachers to do more it's stressing the teachers out giving them more giving them more to do which is little to do we need to do better as a as a community forward uh for each each of us as as well why don't you guys lead properly as a leadership team you've been elected to put the best foot forward whether you you vote for whatever or whatever is at the end of the day we should come together as a community as a as a in order to make sure that Isam education all the T every everybody that lives here have a reason here it's because of the great school system but they have but unfortunately can we continue to say that one
119one person said out when when you want to sell your house you want to buy a house here you ask about the school system what are you going to say the Rel is going to say well we had a great system um unfortunately I don't know but I just want to come over here to give my peace but thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Colleen Ellis I live in Westbury Chase I have two children in the district uh I'm also a speech and language pathologist in a neighboring district and uh the other day I was sitting in an IEP meeting for one of my students who's transitioning from fifth grade to sixth grade and the parent was understandably nervous and uh the case manager for the Middle School said oh well you know
120we're really lucky here because we have this house system where kids are really given individual attention and it was like taking a gut punch because I had just sat through last month's board meeting where you're talking about taking it away all these cuts and not one administrative cut and I know the argument I know the arent I've seen the spreadsheets that you know we spend less per student for administration than all the districts in the area that's all well and good but what kind of job are you all doing because uh there's a special education director who takes weeks to return an email there's a director of curriculum who refuses to see the fact that the reading program is failing these kids and we have a superintendent who is CA playing at despair while cutting
121people's jobs but had no problem negotiating a contract extension and a salary increase for himself during these S2 cuts that you blame for all of these issues this budget is so shortsighted and the overcrowding that it will cause is so detrimental to our students I have a child who is in Mees in a self-contained classroom he is autistic he has ADHD he's dyslexic he's a very complex learning profile he's also doing really well in school right now well enough that last year he was able to be mainstreamed out to general education for math this year we had to pull him back because the classroom's so overcrowded that he can't concentrate and the teachers don't have the time to give him individual attention still sad he can't concentrate in that environment and if you continue with
122these increased class sizes you're cheating kids with special learning needs out of their right to learn in a least restrictive environment for them one of your budget concerns was legal fees maybe you would have fewer of those if you did write by these kids members of the board you have a duty to vote this budget down and demand this man's resignation because enough is enough thank [Applause] you hi my name is Anastasia trellis I am a resident I'm in alumni vanzan deacy and Cherokee high school so the reason I'm coming here today is Mr Smith was interviewed recently and he was asked about being a superintendent and the one thing he said is it's not about the role it's not about the position it's about making a difference and I can tell you right now
123the Educators in this room they didn't become teachers for the big paycheck or to get to the top of the corporate ladder show of hands how many teachers here are teachers to make an impact on students every day to grow and to make a difference in their lives thank you Educators students have increasingly complicated academic and mental health needs when you put 30 or 35 of them in one classroom it's impossible to meet their individual needs I'm not even going to touch on the capacity because we've said it a hundred times fire codes I guess we don't care meanwhile the national teacher shortage means educators are frequently giving up their planning time to cover additional classes they are overworked and exhausted teachers now needing to teach another period reading Specialists teaching math science teachers working
124on writing blocks many teachers have a specialty and you hired them for that specialty you don't ask your opthalmologist to do heart surgery they have a specialty at least that's what my insurance company says while teachers will tell you it is a no-brainer smaller class sizes would help students this would also help the teachers today's Educators again are exhausted a study from National Education Association said that the average teacher Works 54 hours no overtime not an increase in their pay staff are resigning to preserve their own mental health teaching feels more difficult than ever with the shortages they're regularly giving up their planning time to help out and again the students needs have skyrocketed what will happen with less support and larger class sizes nothing positive I'll tell you that 83 positions We Said Today
12510% of your current staff this is not the direction eim Township should be going in I was here last month and I cried listening to parents talk about their children not being able to read bus drivers losing their jobs power professionals losing their benefits the families of student students and members of the community who support their local schools should stay in engage speak up for the programs buildings and staff you support Educators thank you for making a difference every day I stand with [Applause] you I'm Kimberly Hensen I live on metaview Circle and I am starting by reading a letter from my daughter um dear Dr Smith and Board of Education my name is dorothia Hensen and I am a 10-year-old fourth grader at berer elementary I understand that there are a lot of cuts
126this year because of funding and I would respectfully like to ask you to reconsider some of the cuts that you are considering my biggest worry is the cutting of all of the Middle School teachers and increasing class sizes to 32 to 35 kids that is going to be chaotic I am one of the few deaf kids in the district and I get overstimulated easily but I know I'm not the only one kids with ADHD anxiety and anyone who gets overwhelmed easily are going to struggle this will be a huge disruption for kids who need calmer environments again I am respectfully asking that you vote no tonight and reconsider what you cut and what it means please consider not only student passions but also student accommodations I didn't intend to speak beyond my daughter's letter as
127since last year I have been speaking at these meetings and saying the exact same thing and quite frankly it is exhausting the language and Trust are in my opinion the biggest problems I see here tonight after explaining staff salaries and benefits it was said that those numbers were before we even start talking about educating children I strongly disagree with that statement as ensuring that we have highly qualified trained staff that we are taking care of and supporting is the most important thing we can do to educate our children while I'm sure that was not the intent of your message as our board and top administrator you need to be more conscious about the meaning that your words take on I also speak again that coming to us in January and explaining the devastating effects of
128lost aid is far too late last year we put together a group of community members and stakeholders who were desperate to help come up with Solutions we were and would have been willing to start campaigning in our home schools in the fall to start communicating with legislators and we would do anything to ensure that the quality of an eve sham education stayed quality we we were dismissed so while I helped my daughter rewrite her letter to not be angry and it was angry I helped her understand that when money isn't there it has to be found somewhere the truth is that these cuts at this point are insulting you have lost our trust and you are not showing good faith to the incredible staff that you serve please remember when you vote later who you
129represent and that everyone on this side of the room opposes this budget hello uh my name is Brian Connelly I'm a teacher at thec and a resident and a parent um quick story uh 2017 I moved to eam uh I didn't want to move here because of the taxes were very high my wife convinced me I said I'm a teacher I don't want to pay those taxes but I was convinced because of the schools then in 2019 I welcomed my daughter and I got a job at dcy and when I started working there I found everything about the schools was amazing I loved working there I loved the staff I felt supported then the budget cut started happening and Dr Smith since the last few years all I've heard is About Preschool kindergarten two things
130that as a parent with a preschooler and now kindergartner I had no interest in but besides the point and that we need to go to this junior high model I've been hearing about the junior high model for years now the thing is our staff has been making suggestions a staff member tonight just made many suggestions that I've heard throughout the years one being the selling of Evans and the administration building the selling of the administration building was brought up at the last meeting as well and one of the excuses given early on was that there was too much paperwork in the basement it couldn't be sold because there was paperwork that's ridiculous now I've heard other things since then and I understand selling those buildings might be a one-time short-term fix it won't fix things
131longterm where the Middle School model might I the junior high model might fix things long term I understand the difference but we're bleeding out here it might be a Band-Aid but if you're bleeding out take the Band-Aid sell the building take the Band-Aid and we'll keep calling we'll keep calling the state and try to get the help for next year but we need to keep this together for another year even if it's a short-term fix we need to look for those short-term fixes we need to take the staff the union let us work with you it shouldn't just be you doing this we are a team we should all work together the last thing i' like to say is as a parent I don't want this many kids in the classroom I my daughter is
132going to get lost in there and that's not okay with me and just a side know if you've been to decy which I don't know who's been to decy there's triangular classrooms that first of all with I have 26 kids in one of my classes I have to adjust myself constantly so kids can see the board you're asking me to fit a whole another row further closer to the board in this triangle they won't be able to see anything if I'm going over something they won't be able to do it we've had um staff meetings where we don't have enough room in the classrooms there's not enough room in those triangular rooms for 35 kids it's not going to work but that's all I have to say I really hope that we can find some
133even a short-term solution get us through another year we'll keep calling thank you my name is Megan Boer I have a third grader and a kindergarten at van I was raised to not make waves so it took a lot to will myself to come up to speak but as an adult I've come to realize sometimes you need to start some ripples sometimes you need to make some waves which is how I try to raise my children to advocate for themselves and for those around them I grew up in a school district that faced many challenges not the least of which included economic challenges as a student I've been through the cuts and I've felt the impacts first hand I've been in the overcrowded classrooms with not enough support I've been through no clubs I've been
134through through the teachers and staff being asked for too much all of it while I did have many standout teachers throughout my schooling who did the best they could despite the circumstances I know that I and my fellow students often missed out on opportunities for as much growth as we could have had both academically and in the many less qu and in the many less quantifiable ways that schools can provide when properly funded and properly managed in middle school I had no art classes as that program of course didn't make the cut Middle School schol is hard especially for an awkward and kind of dorky art kid like myself who then didn't even have that one class in which I could really feel at home my husband grew up in Marlton just like our girls
135he went to VanZant and eventually to mecy Middle a major part of why we chose to buy a home in Marlton was because of his great experience going through the district and we hoped for the same experience for our daughters please help keep the Integrity of this District we have such caring amazing staff but they need the proper tools they need the prop proper class sizes they need the proper support to give our students the best education [Music] [Applause] [Music] possible uh hello my name is Dan forcier I'm a teacher here at MMS and a former student of MMS class of 2010 I had something longer to say today uh but I decided it'd be better to cut it down and get to the main point so what I will say is this I'm proud
136of the education I received 15 years ago lending thanks to the hall system teacher teams and class sizes I'm proud of the education IED by a number of teachers who are still here in this room today I've greatly benefited from the education so much so that I was glad to come back and give and give to this district and town that helped raise me my parents worked hard to ensure we could live in a town that prided itself on its education my biggest fear and it's clear that it's also the fear of the current students parents and staff staff that when our current students are my age they won't be able to look back and say they too are proud and benefited from the education they received thank [Music] you hello my name is Alex
137Andreoli I'm also a teacher at MMS here I'm a social studies teacher in yell Hall um I was going to say something but most of the students that spoke here today already said it and were way more articulate than I could ever be about it um but I would like to point out also and take this moment to acknowledge that I'm as a social studies teacher it warms my heart to see these kids engaging in this kind of activism on behalf of their school district so I just want to say thank you um but also I want to point out on one of the slides you said that the goal of this district is to educate students while costing the least amount of money but education is worth that investment and investing in teachers and
138para professionals and bus drivers who care about the students that they are our future and that's worth the investment um and it is really sad as a teacher who when I started teaching here six years ago most of the people in my life were like wow like you're teaching at eim like that that is great I don't know how you got that as like your first job um but now uh as a mother and since six years ago I've become a mother and I am very honestly going to say that I'm glad my son's not going [Applause] here hi hi good evening my name is Nicole Lombardo and I'm a parent in the district I have students at jagard and rice we have heard from The Amazing students that shout out to the teachers the
139amazing teachers that have educated them and encouraged them to speak tonight but we've not heard from as many parents as I would hope and I wanted to voice my grave kid sir my kids have had an amazing foundation with rice preschool both as a paid tuition and also state funded as it is now there are also many preschool par professionals who have been there a long time with extensive experience some of whom will lose their benefits next year these are some of our most valuable people that help all of our students learn I would hate to see them leave if you take their health benefits away as we have already seen so many pray professionals going to competing districts that offer this I'm worried about the increasing class size as my children move throughout the
140grades how will my children get the indiv individualized attention needed in rooms that have to manage the diverse needs of so many students I also have grave concerns about busz safety as Dr Smith knows from my emails um we were on famous rice number bus number one before I had to rearrange my work and child care to get my son safely to school and it really has tainted his experience to ride the bus however I know that that is also related to administrative failure and operational planning and I'm not sure that all of the proposed Outsourcing of busing will cause lower costs as previous attendees have highlighted we are losing talented teachers and I wanted to come here tonight to speak for those parents who are just starting out in the district and have younger
141as kids my six four and two-year-old I want to retain these amazing teachers and talent and these amazing Paras that work tirelessly For the Love of their children and always end up picking up what gets left behind by the budget cuts please put students first and consider the pleas of all of us tonight vote no hold on one second let I don't know what project needs to do hold on good okay go ahead hi my name is rosmary bori um I just want to um say how ex I don't know what the word is but the children are the students when they spoke it was so encouraging um to see them articulate the loss of their programs they were able to articulate uh the impact of the class sizes it was just really refreshing and
142it's it's it's going to be sad to see what the impact of these changes will be on our future students so um just kudos to the students and the their parents uh who brought them here tonight and thank you to the um teachers the Educators the staff members uh the bus drivers the par professionals who are here because everyone here cares everyone in this room cares we're uh everyone wants to be collaborative they want to solve this problem um and I think it's really great 's a very caring collab cative Community I always say that you know when we come together we can solve a lot of problems and we have in the past you know we have uh bill smithman from the e office here uh we have esham parents United um so you
143know the ETA found additional monies last year so there's subgroups the ptas everyone's willing to pitch in um and it's great to see the numbers uh thank you um Mr Yates for actually giving me Dollar figures um so that we can actually um solve and research and do more things so I just want to give people a little bit of Hope tonight is just the tentative budget adoption we still have time we have until May uh I believe it's 14th to uh for the final adoption I have been in contact I I mentioned last time Ean fiscal allies I've been in contact with councilman I'm sorry assemblywoman cats's office um two things one we might be able she's writing a bill to give us additional time like we did last year at least until the
144budget adoption so hopefully that'll give us additional time also two um we need to advocate for the state aid money the school funding formula actually worked for us this year we were supposed to get $8.4 million if they ran the numbers and they did run the numbers and they said isim should get $8.4 million but here's the problem they put a cap on it a 6% cap so they limited us to uh $450,000 well we had increase in the number of students from last year to this year and also kindergarteners came online so kindergarteners per pupil cost instead of being 05 it's actually a whole P whole Pur pure pupil person um cost so anyway we I I don't understand why the school district has not really advocated for that particular item with the doe
145and the governor so thank you to all you in the rooms have made the calls to the governors about this specific issue with the state funding to get our $8 million and thank you for Andrea TI for making my graph because not everyone understands this is issue but we are leaving $1.3 million on the table so um I apologize but here's the other thing too three years we as taxpayers are paying at the end if you guys adopted tonight $8 million in a tax levy for the past three years you went from a $66 million budg tax levy to a 74 million tax levy tonight we are paying $8 million the state needs to pay that 8.1 or 8.4 million also thank you good evening uh my name is John Andrews I'm a parent and
146resident of Marlton um as a parent I just want to say I'm proud of the kids that came in today and spoke for themselves elves um I'm here because my two sons can't um they're part of the autism program here in the district um we are a diverse Community um and each family has its own needs um mine's no different uh today I want to talk to you about the concerns that my family has with the proposed cuts to the transportation department um we love our bus drivers we love our AIDS uh they know our kids uh we wouldn't trust them with anyone um my youngest son has some OCD issues and he has a poor job uh communicating verbally um his Aid on the bus and his bus driver work with him to get
147through that um his older brother has uh his triggers just like any student does and his bus driver and his Aid know what uh to do to uh get him uh to school safely um my concern with Outsourcing the buses is well my children still have that high level of care that they get today we've already heard one parent today talk about um outsourced bus drivers talking about not caring about the routes well that is not going to fly with me um the other thing I want to talk about are the uh benefit cuts to our PA of professionals um they have it hard enough I mean I have two autistic kids at home I can't imagine being a room full five or six of them um we've heard from one of them today he's
148been here 20 years and now you're just going to say sorry oops and cut her benefits the district has slashed benefits for per Professionals for a few years and it just seems that these caring people who have a difficult job already are not treated with enough respect to be deemed worthy of being paid benefits by this District thank you [Music] hello my name is Skyler Lord and I'm a student here at MMS I just wanted to say that even though I'm only a kid I'm still worried about the effects of this budget I have a younger sister who will be going through this system without independent study individual help in her crowded classes and without extracurricular activities to improve her school skills outside of the classroom even though I'm leaving soon this will affect my
149neighbors friends and siblings I've heard teachers worrying about these changes and what it will mean for future Generations all of my peers and teachers have touched on this and I just wanted to reaffirm it all to you and really hit it deep on how it will affect us I understand the cuts from the state but understand but I also understand that there has been ways stated before me to fix this I didn't come here with the intention to speak but because of my fellow students and my peers and on behalf of my friends and the other speeches have encouraged me to say this you say it's for the students then you should make it for the students and I would also like to thank the other teachers and students that came before me to say
150what I have said here thank you hi I'm Kim pidala a teacher here at Marlton Middle School I'm here to ask for your careful consideration regarding the proposed changes to our Middle School structure I understand the difficult decisions you face but I believe there are alternatives that will have less of a negative impact on our students and all options need this school year our team in six yellow was moved to what you call a four bucket model we Face the challenge of losing two teachers one content teacher and one inclusion teacher but despite this we have successfully maintained our team structure and continue to support the same group of students while it has been difficult at times we have proven that this four model can work it allows us to maintain a team-based approach and
151provide independent study that is so crucial to our Student Success without independent study there is no time to catch up with students for misw workk provide extra help interventions and IEP mandated extra time the current proposal however would reduce staff increase class sizes eliminate independent study and ultimately harm the educational experience of our students why make such a drastic change when we've already shown this year that another another model can work effectively by applying this four bucket model across grade levels we can avoid dismantling the team structure therefore I ask board members to reconsider the full elimination of teams at the middle school at this time I urge you to take another year to evaluate the impact of these changes before implementing such a significant restructure the changes as proposed would affect all students in
152the district and we need to be sure they are in the best interest interest of our students future please meet us in the middle thank you good evening Dr Smith and uh the school board uh my name is Marne Benjamin I am the PTA president at Marlton middle school and the PTA vice president Marlton Elementary School I'm not here tonight in my capacity as a PTA president or or member I'm here as a concerned parent I have an eighth grad and I have a fifth grader um I'm here to share their stories um very briefly you've heard so many wonderful reasons or useful reasons for why none of this makes any sense and and why we need to find Alternatives I just want to share a personal uh story so you can see another side
153of it um my son my eighth grader is on the autism spectrum um he has fought every day to succeed and to get to where he is today he went from 30 words at 15 months to losing his whole vocabulary by the time he was 18 months old he did not regain his vocabulary until he was four and a half years old it was very hard for him he struggled a lot but if it wasn't for his incredible teachers at Marlton Elementary School um Mrs hop Mrs Atley Mrs Osborne Mrs Francesco so many other teachers there working with him oneon-one seeing him as a student and being able to give him individual attention in a inclus in an inclusion classroom that he was able to succeed this year his incl and his this now he's
154in eth grade I apologize I'm a little tired and a little nervous I've been running the book fair over at Mees uh today so my brain's a little fried but um in middle school he's had absolutely incredible teachers his inclusion teachers Mrs fudala Mrs stanevich and this year Mrs Taro have absolutely single-handedly gotten him to the point where he is now he is doing incredibly well he has gone from a student who was in pullout math in sixth grade to algebra he's in algebra this year in e8th grade through all of his challenges and everything that he has done he would not be where he is now if it was not for the time and attention that the teachers have been able to give him as an individual 35 students in a classroom is not
155going to make that possible you need to understand I get your position I realize that we're you know we have you know a deficit and a budget that needs to be dealt with but we need to look at the bigger picture which is not just that there's 35 students in a classroom which is terrible and I keep saying to my husband what what are the repercussions of that what what are the fire codes and so many students got up and made the you know voice those concerns so eloquently but it comes down more to what is going to happen to our students if they don't get this attention what is going to happen to the aand of the world who are just going to fall through the cracks because they're not going to get that
156attention our students are going to suffer at such a level that it's it's just going to be terrible so um thank and I just really quickly want to say thank you to all of the parents and all of the teachers and all of aon's teachers who are here tonight who I wanted to call out but thank you thank you thank you for being here fighting for the students and you guys are incredible so thanks you're welcome good evening my name is Kelly Huber last month I spoke about the importance of keeping the team the team Concept in middle school I'm going to keep that Focus as I uh make you aware in case you do not know that we are currently using the four bucket model model here at MMS in sixth grade yellow where
157I am a science teacher and now also a social studies teacher last year DMS started with this same model which is now used in their seven red this is a fully functioning and working model that could be adapted by all 10 teams across both buildings for the next year and could be a Middle Road for this budgetary dilemma we are facing we will unfortunately still have to lose some teachers but it would also enable us to save teachers while still fulfilling the need to increase class sizes and give some budgetary relief but most importantly of all we will be able to maintain the team concept and program that is so beneficial to our students with the class sizes needing to unfortunately increase the 32 to 35 kids per class teachers will now see up to
158190 students per day and these students need to have this team program to enable success emotionally and educationally coming into Middle School these students need a home base where they have the place and time to catch up on work get extra help when needed see teachers for reteaching and for teachers to fulfill the IEP modifications and iron RS legal obligations of retesting and assisting students with their work can all students benefit from this time yes this is also a time for our gifted and talented students to get their enrichment lessons in tier three this school year came with challenges but this is an effective way to maintain its structure and give the students the support they need this four bucket model would still be a reduction of staff and increased classes but we but would
159be much but would be not such a drastic change when we have shown that this can work providing independent study and team time that is so crucial to the success of our students I'm asking you the board to at least try this before completely eliminating teams and the middle school at the middle school and making such huge impactful changes that will have negative repercussions for all students in the district thank you for your time and consideration good evening my name is Tom sea I'm uh VanZant and Dei alumni um and a uh a parent uh who lives in town now um when I went to school uh I didn't I didn't enjoy School uh when I was real little I just uh I didn't didn't fit in I didn't really like enjoy learning um and
160then in in first grade Miss Shermer van an she took me aside and she helped me do some uh Advanced spelling and um you know a couple grade grade levels ahead and it turns out I wasn't you know I I didn't not like education I just uh I was a little bored and she helped me learn to challenge myself and uh she only was able to do that because her class size was small enough that she was able to recognize me and um now that my son is in in prek at at rice and my daughter will be headed there soon uh I want to make sure that you know they also have teachers who are able to you know see what they need and help them be the best they can be um I
161believe that some of the budget cuts proposed are shortsighted I believe that I think it you know by cutting teaching positions adding kids to classrooms and also reducing the uh the benefits for par professionals you're reducing multiple support structures for students at the same time and those uh effects are going to Cascade and you know become a parent very quickly um you know I don't want this for my kids I moved back to marleton because I'm proud of the education I got and you know I would really like them to have that same education thank you hi U my name is Kelly um I have four children um I live in Mayfair I my two oldest go to deacy elementary I'm going to share three quick stories about my children both me and my husband
162went through the Marlton School uh school systems elementary middle and um high school so my oldest he's uh seven he's in first grade in kindergarten he did not accept with reading whatsoever um he did have to do the reading recovery program which we didn't really talk too much about the elimination of that tonight um so my son did do the reading recovery program um in the beginning of first grade he was reading at a below uh kindergarten level um he tested out of the program he is now reading at a second grade level um just from that program alone so he was pulled out of class spent a ton of individualized attention with that teacher um she's been abs abolutely phenomenal for his development um we even now have her tutor him outside of the
163school just because of that individual attention I could not imagine where he would be right now I have four kids I can't spend every hour when I get home with them so having those great teachers in those special programs are super important um my my uh daughter who's in kindergarten she's doing fantastic she's a middle child so she very much just excels at what she does and that's it so not really story to share about her however I would want to share a story about my four-year-old who is autistic he attended the rice special needs program and when I say he attended I had to pull him out um he was not getting a one to one Aid I was not finding that out till the end of you know the end of the week
164that he didn't have somebody with him all week I had many cancelled IEP meetings and I pulled him out I didn't sit there and go through the steps to try to get the you know eam Township to pay for him to go to a private school I pulled him out I'm paying for that school for him because I didn't want to see him suffer and I guess the point of my message I have nothing formal planned is using your village you have teachers here who have offered to help you you have the community that's offered to help with Solutions and at the end of the day when we need to get things done we have to Rally together but you're causing a divide here and it's really sad for our children I'm really sad for
165my three children that are currently in the system and I don't even know if I want my fourth te to go to the system I'm starting to explore the options as I know a lot of parents are out of District homeschooling because what's going on right now is not okay so I just urge you to think about that think about the families think about the teachers and hopefully tug at your heartstrings a little bit and not your pockets thank you hi uh my name is Drew Wilson I live in country farms uh I am the parent of two kids in the uh em education system right now first grader and a third grader um my wife and I moved to Marlton after growing up in camon county in different areas um how many years ago
166now in 2013 so quite a few years ago specifically because of the schools uh we had friends we had a lot of people that we knew who were buying big giant houses in other areas with poor school systems and the thing that we continued to fall back on was that well at least we're going to have a great education for our kids at least we're going to have that right um I have not regretted that decision for one second it was worth every single penny that we paid for a much smaller house uh on a much smaller piece of land to get a better education and a better Community for our kids everything that's happening here tonight is exactly what is right with eim Township I recognize that it's tough for you folks on the
167board and and for you Justin but this is exactly what is right about the community here and the parents here in Asian Township this type of advocacy is exactly what I love to see I also think it's important that we address the root cause of the issue it's important for us to take some of this energy and some of this advocacy and direct it towards our elected leaders in Trenton our legislators our governor the people who have put together the S2 bill that have caused us to lose millions and millions of dollars in funding over the last several years have put us in this position it's a position that is going to cause severe deficits for the students in this District it is causing severe problems for the Educators that work their asses off to
168make sure that our kids come out with the best possible outcomes I don't want to see anyone get cut I want to see everyone stay here I want to see everyone who's put their heart and soul into this education system continue to be able to thrive here and continue to be able to help our kids here we need to make sure that our school gets the appropr amount of funding that it deserves and that all of our money does not go to Trenton and does not go to other school districts in this state where it may or may not be needed we are losing money to other districts because of the rules policies and procedures that have been put in place by our elected leaders in the state government and this advocacy needs to be
169directed towards them if anyone has questions about how to do that I am happy to help uh if anyone would like to put together people to go to Trenton and advocate for our students I would be happy to help I will drive us there I will fit as many people in my car as I can um give this board and our school district the resources that it needs to help our kids and to make Eve shim the place it once was and I know it can continue to be thank you Bruce Albright resident of Eve sham and I spoke at the last meeting and I wasn't going to speak tonight but I I had to come back up here because of some things that were said Mr Smith you're sad you know who's sad the
170power professionals families that are losing their benefits the bus drivers who are losing their jobs they're sad the lowest paid workers but yet do more with less but I don't see any Administration cut I don't see you losing your benefits or Administration losing their benefit benefits it's hypocrisy what you're doing I walked through these doors 48 years ago when this school first opened with the new model that they had for educating students 48 years it's been a success and you're thrown it away without really any reason why other than that you think your idea is better and that and and and that's a travesty it's a joke this whole thing is a joke these families they're sad have a good [Music] night hello Dr Smith and Bor um I'm sure you are bored I know
171we've been going on for a long time many many hours I'm I don't know you're looking at your phones you know whatever you're doing up there but just know how important this is to all of us standing here before before you um I know that so many kids spoke tonight and they did that of their own wanting they wrote their essays um they spoke from the heart because they as children see what value all the adults in their everyday lives have on them um so they care about us we just hope that the rest of the adults in our lives also feel the same and and see our value um many kids emailed Dr Smith and they on their own 12-year-olds 13year olds recognized the fact that his responses were copied and pasted and told
172them what minutes of last month's board meeting to go to to listen to that same slideshow budget presentation I'm just going to say I don't know what happens to me after I speak so if you never see me again I I don't know you know again there's always punishment um I'm going to reiterate um that cuts never come from the top you always start with your teachers with your support staff now with your bus drivers it's not okay without us these schools cannot run try to run a school without all of us I like what someone said earlier come into our buildings spend some time in our classrooms I know Mr demarcy you said at the parent meeting last month that you're worried you would make us nervous if you come into our buildings we
173welcome it come and see what we do we don't want to see you once a year once a month if we can come to a board meeting come and actually see what we do with these children and how much they value US uh Dr Smith you've mentioned a suggestion box every suggestion we've ever given you you shoot down you you basically laugh at us you smirk at us yes sell the admin building yes if you don't want to sell it lease it out why are we leasing out a sixth grade pod to another school to the Yale School kids who I feel for but they're in a different placement for a reason why are we adding them to our own kids who have their own needs the last thing I want to say is just
174as a reminder to anyone who missed it 97% of your staff who voted have no confidence in your leadership Dr Smith I am hoping and I think all of us are hoping there would be some response to that because that's pretty huge that's a statement thank you good evening my name is Evan Scott uh the reason why I came here is because I've been watching these uh meetings for some time now and what I've learned is that no one here is an enemy we came together a couple years ago to get full day kindergart because it was the right thing to do we worked together we got it done but the meeting after that I came in front of this board publicly to say great win we will be here again and we will be
175here over and over and over again until we rise up together and take care of some business up in Trenton so here's the facts that are demonstrably true objectively true when you look at the state aid notice the uncapped Aid is the formula Aid that we should be getting that's $1.7 million but because of the 6% state aid growth limit cap we're only getting 45,000 in change all right for those people that are writing down that's 1.3 million right there that we're not getting that the law says you are supposed to get that money H if we're trying to say power professionals sounds like we should be going after that money we're trying to say other programs should be going after that money oh by the way if you look at the governor's educational adequacy
176report there are other deficits there look at CPI for energy they say we're going to have a negative energy growth when we all sitting here listening to 17 to 20% rate increases how is this possible the last thing the geographic cost adjustment for Surfer to be con constitutional the court said you have to have mechanisms in place must have mechanisms in place to review the economic data that Geographic cost adjustment the last time it was updated it's supposed to be updated every five years was 2014 this is 2025 that was 11 years ago it grew from 2008 to 2014 2.4% % if I go back in there and make the same adjustment just that one and I'm being conservative I just allow for 2.4% increase from 2014 to now that's just another $1.3 million so
1771.7 and 1.3 we've got $3 million that the state is saying can't have it when is it going to be time to rise up together and go up to Trenton and take care of business thank you hi my name is Christine rora and I'm a teacher at Demi Middle School um I have nothing prepared but I come to speak from the heart after hearing some of my students speak really touched me and my colleagues and so many parents and I just want to br bring it back to perspective I teach because I want to make a difference and Eve sham actually helped me become I think the best teacher I can be you did I really wish I could have a redo and go back to my first year of teaching because if I knew
178then what I know now I know I would be more effective however I worry am I going to be effective with all these changes I don't know I see this year after year and the things we have been through what we have conquered together we have gotten through covid together virtual learning so much but now so much is being taken away what matters are these students the children I'm a mother of four and Dr Smith I remember your girls I remember them and how they were their best they were through the tier three program I remember Ora Lee and how impressed I was by her and she was at her best because of what we provided for her now we're taking these things away what matters are the connections I am in a unique position
179I am a reading specialist but this year I am also a Lead Teacher for reading and writing in sever red with the four bucket model am I at my best yes because I have a class of 20 students the same students in reading and writing I can differentiate I do meet with them oneon-one I do have guided reading groups I can't imagine doing that with 10 to 15 more students I can't I tell you right now I put all my heart into it and I wouldn't be able to do that with such a large class size it's what matters the students the connections I am School mom to some of these students that I work with through inrs as a reading specialist it's those bonds that matter these kids have been through a lot covid
180has changed the social media has changed them they need these people these adults these teachers to be their mentors to be their school parents because that's really what matters that's when true learning takes place when there's trust and caring and now when we have these large cast sizes when we can't meet their needs that's going to be the demise I'm not going to be at my best they're not going to be at their best I can't bring the best out of them it's the teachable moments that matter not the curriculum so please really take that into consideration you're going to have to revise your mission statement that you read tonight I just reread it on my computer this is not going to bring out Excellence we need to keep these class numbers at a manageable
181size because that's what's important the students [Applause] please hi my name is Aaron Gerson and I didn't didn't plan anything either so I just picked up this sign that says put our kids first I'm sitting here in this room I want to remind us is it still Monday it's St Patrick's Day it's Monday night it's almost 11 o' we all are getting up in the morning and I'm sitting here seeing my friends my neighbors teachers that my kids have had I have a child who's gone through this District we have two that are still in it and as a parent I left my glasses in the car I wanted to see each one of you because if you do not deny this budget tonight and you are accepting putting 35 kids in a classroom and
182putting that burden on our teachers not only does that academically provve to be detrimental for them it is also a safety hazard and I can't believe in the world that we live in with the kind of threats that are on the table when we send our kids to school every day that you would even possibly consider 35 kids in a classroom to even be an option you have a room of teachers you have a room of parents you have students here and we are all saying that if we band together and turn our attention towards the state level then we could do different things here so each one of you on this board it is your duty and your responsibility tonight to put our kids first and do not accept this budget do whatever you
183have to do to get a stay on it to figure out another way you cannot accept it as it is with what it will do to everyone in this room in this community in this District it is unacceptable hi my name is Bonnie marpel and I've lived in this Township for almost 50 years and it looks like I'm going to be the last one to speak so I just want to look around this room and look at the faces that I'm seeing here tonight and tell you I am very sad I am sad for the faces that I see on these people out here that are going to be losing their jobs they're losing their benefits I have been a bus driver in this Township for 47 years and I've I've been retired for 19
184years and I am still working here because I love my job and I love the people that I work with I love these teachers because they are great to our kids my kids went through this system here my kids went to school with several of you up that are sitting up there my grandson went to school with another one that's sitting up here I want you guys to think when you vote what was it like when you went through the school systems here you had had a good time you got a good education right and you can all relate to it I can see a few of you looking at me but trust me when you think about it tonight you think about how you vote for this because it's going to affect all these
185kids out here and all these teachers and all these bus drivers and all these support people so think about it carefully when you've when you put your vote in there thank you [Music] good evening ladies and gentlemen uh I'm in the transportation department and I've been here for over 10 years and I just want to say to the board that we transport the most precious thing in the world your children these drivers and AIDS are so dedicated ated to their profession they're the greatest people I have ever worked with and I've been around a long time and they take care of business and they love your children they say good morning and good afternoon and good evening every day so I would certainly think about I wouldn't go to a subcontractor because they would never
186do the job that these dedicated people do thank you very much [Applause] [Music] is there anyone else who would like to speak seeing none we'll move to the next section moving to item six approval of the minutes we need a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.3 do we have a motion motion by Mrs null seconded by Miss Fox any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on the approval minutes Mr Brown Asain your exstension is noted Miss buter MTZ yes Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes to 61 abstain from 62 and yes to 63 your exstension is 6.2 was noted yes to arrest Mr peelman yes yes Mr Bach yes Mr conton yes that motion carries thank you moving to item seven
187superintendent report and administrative items we need a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.6 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Miss botes I will hand the floor over to Dr Smith before we vote thank you Mr canthon just want to thank everyone who came out tonight um especially those of you who stayed through the whole uh public comment a lot of wonderful perspectives the um I I would say And as far as the uh there's nothing that there's no combination of words that can be said that can take away the pain and the anger from where we are so you know it's it it means understandably little or nothing to anyone here how it feels to be in the situation as a superintendent or a board member right and I
188recognize that um the the but the fact is that single one of us thank you Miss Brown thank you the uh when someone goes into education I did as all of you right there there's no no way to imagine that at some point in the distant future you know I went into education in 1996 uh that at some point in the distant future that that person would be sitting in a meeting where we're talking about what we're talking about tonight it's the last place someone who went into education would want to be right because of what we're talking about um the ideas you know we have a liaison meeting on Thursday this week look forward to talking about ideas there um the idea tonight you know for example the uh the admin building selling that
189you know and each of these can be talked about it's it's difficult to talk about it in a large group because it it could be painful sometimes to talk about the logic of things you know because the emotion is so real the the logic of just that step for example is space right space it's easier to look at that step when there's more space and based on what we're talking about tonight there may be more space and that that is makes that idea more operationally feasible to look at and that's just one example and it and it is good to keep visiting ideas over time because as variables change an idea that wasn't feasible before may become that way I also would say again there were a couple numbers floated tonight one was that the
190idea presented by ETA last year about the shift dividend which was very welcome idea right and we used that last year and we used the rest of it this year the number shared tonight for the amount of that shift dividend was $1 million okay and in fact it was $381,000 Which is less than half and I only say that not not to you know say it should have been correct or whatever I just mention it to illustrate that when it comes to numbers it there are ways it is easy to look at them and and wish they were different than they are and certainly we all wish we could look at these numbers and they would be different than they are but unfortunately the duty of a board the duty of a superintendent the duty
191of an Administration is to recommend a budget that's balanced and as as painful as that is which again means nothing shouldn't doesn't have to mean anything to anyone um so to wrap up thank you for the input tonight including the vote and I look forward to talking more with ETA about it starting on Thursday at least thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call on administrative items Mr Brown yes Mr M MTZ yes Mr Demar yes Miss Fox abstain from 7.3 yes for the rest your exstension of 7.3 is noted yes to the rest Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 8 curriculum and
192instruction we need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5 do we have a motion motion by Mr demarcy seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board sure Mrs no I know it's been a very long night and I apologize and you can tell I'm tired but I see our wonderful Eed Foundation board member standing here and I want to give them a a big thank you for always supporting our students here on this agenda we have uh requests for more funding for the eyes on Art which you do every year uh buying frames for that artwork and also for I don't remember if it's one or two active panels with the teacher laptops again every year you always give us um donations and I appreciate that so I wanted to give
193you a thank you since you're here in person thank you thank you Mrs N any other questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call on curriculum and instruction Mr Brown yes Miss buter mowitz yes Mr demarcy yes M fox yes Mrs NL yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes and motion car carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 9ine finance and operations we need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.15 do we have a motion after after the motion yes motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr dearcy as is the case with all of our motions the floor is now open to the board any questions or comments from the board Mrs null whatever you'd like that pertains to item
194N9 9.1 through 9. please bear with me I I'm not good with a little sleep so I'm very tired but I wanted to talk about what Miss Mrs Bernardi and Mr Scott brought up and that would be additional money that's left on the table I know there is money at the state which you know we could be advocating for and I shared with Dr Smith that there are meetings with the Senate and assembly budget um Bud yeah so that and that yeah the link to those hearings will be in my update tomorrow and I'm speaking in nework on Wednesday and Trenton on Tuesday next week and have spoken at those hearings every year so thank you there's one on Wednesday in person and there is an online um available time so if you can't make
195it then consider signing up to speak online so I wanted to talk about that and um I will start with the budget but there's other things on here so I just wanted to say as some of you know I've been on this board this is my seventh year and uh I do have kids in the district so this is very important to me and throughout all those seven years we were told in the beginning when Mr scavelli was here that years's four and five were going to be the toughest they were going to be the biggest cuts and um you know we cut from teaching positions including special ad and uh increasing class sizes and now here we are with the largest budget deficit that we had throughout all the years and um you know
196through all those tough years we did eliminate a lot of positions and they directly impact our kids in the classroom and um with these additional Cuts I feel like the district is rapidly rapidly moving towards being mediocre I didn't move here for mediocre and neither did a lot of the parents that spoke here tonight and I also want to commend all the kids who all the students who spoke tonight I am so impressed my boys didn't want to come and that's okay but uh they spoke very well all of their speeches and I think a lot of it hinges on what they're being taught in our classrooms and um increasing the class size is is not good it's not good for my child it's not good for any of the kids and I'm hoping that
197there's some way that we can find cutting somewhere else rather than increasing all these class sizes at the elementary level it's been every single year and they're approaching 30 now in fifth grade and it that's difficult absolutely they have to differentiate I don't know how you do it but um I'd like to see not to go so high in some of those classes even if you could just save you know a couple of positions and um so with that I you know I'm I'm I'm urging you to just go back sharpen your pencils please and uh turn over more Stones I hope that there are some they talk about the four bucket model I'm not a teacher but immediately it's shut down and I don't understand why and I just wish that you know the
198board would be more open because there could be a little bit here and a little bit there that could be changed and I wanted to talk to Mrs Benjamin are you here she may have laughed but she talked about her son I know them I know the family they at Mees and I want to say I'm here for the erand of the world she spoke about her own child and I sit up here and I always have for the errands my children are you know somewh what gifted and they've been okay through all these Cuts but the errands you know may not have been and that's a problem we have to meet their needs so and one last thing and this is my hill to die on and everybody should know this and that is
199outsourcing Transportation I feel like this is a financial cliff we have no bid so I can't support it I haven't seen a bid and you say 8 $100,000 savings and you could be right and you could be estimating correctly but I just can't approve it without seeing a [Applause] [Music] bit and you could be correct but without that that bid I just can't do it and also the private provider I'm going to give you numbers here 2020 2021 1 million next year 5 million so I'm worried I am worried because they could I don't know if there's going to be anything in the contract that limits their increase year-over-year it could be you could be thinking of that but I don't know that it's going to be limited so with a bid I might might
200not feel the same way well actually I would because it's the increase so like I said that's my hill to die on and um I just wanted to say like 910 Archway just kids I'm going to have to abstain because I didn't have time to read that summer camp 2025 contract so I apologize and then there's one more that I um reluctant to vote Yes on and not for Yale there wonderful tenant in Evans they're not leaving Evans I don't know if you know that we are keeping them in Evans there has never been a problem with any Yale student they're great tenants however uh I cannot agree to this because I feel as though without you know a final agreement um still being reviewed I I can't I don't want to say yes to
201Yale School um this time not for not for any reason except for it's not a final lease agreement and I can't you know responsibly vote Yes to it I think that's everything thank you any other questions or comments from the board I'd like to make one Mr so I wasn't aware of this previously before I sat up here uh all the time the agenda is laid out in sections so we're in section N9 right now and then there's 15 items in that section the big ones that have been talked about so far for the archway just kids was 910 for uh the Yale School agreement is 9913 and for the resolution to approve the tenative budget is 9.12 so you may hear people voting specifically on specific things tonight those are the things that they're
202talking about just so everyone understands what's happening um for you than you you're welcome um just I just had a couple of comments for the other pieces for 9.13 the L School lease agreement I have some concerns with the lease agreement as written um it we did not have time between when it was given to us and tonight to go over it to have conversations about it I can't vote for something that I can't talk through a a lease agreement that we're signing that is for a significant amount of time going forward um as for the budget itself there are any number of things that are concerning in the budget and it is also true that we as a board have a responsibility to pass a balanced budget we have no choice in the matter
203and that is what has to happen at the end of the day day that being said there needs to be conversation about how we get there this budget also was given to us very late in the day and I know that a lot of that had to do with the amount of time it takes Finance to get things together but there was not enough time for conversation there was not enough time to have questions answered and to go through different steps of the process so that we could feel comfortable with the information that we had and know that we were doing our due diligence without our ability to do due diligence I can't vote for something the the only other thing I wanted to say for the evening there were a lot of people that
204turned out tonight and I'm incredibly grateful for everyone that's here I want to remind everyone that last year the tenative budget was passed and there were still a lot of people that were unhappy with it between various sources within from our educ ators for whatever amount of money they were able to help find for other funding that we got from the state for other opportunities that we had there were changes and there were a lot of jobs saved at the end of the day I'm in no way saying or claiming or guessing that any of those things can happen again this year I have no idea what the state of the legislature is going to be I can say though that it is important to be an advocate and if there aren't changes that we
205as a board are able to make because our hands are tied then please please please follow the folks here that want to go up to Trenton and help make our voices heard up there to try and restore funding from the school the funding models for the school thank you Mr peelman would any other board member like to make a comment Miss bu moitz so I took a little different approach to this I prepared something um just to kind of keep me on track um but you know my running for the Board of Education was a very intentional Choice especially the way I did it right now it was intentional for all of us for very different reasons but one of my reasons was how I felt sitting here last year in this crowd knowing that
206tough decisions had to be made because of the unfortunate hand we've been dealt by the state and make no mistake we are in this position primarily because of the state funding formula and the decisions made in Trend but also feeling like there were so many unanswered questions as to why certain decisions were made over others when figuring out how to balance the budget pieces seemed to be missing and I didn't feel like every stone was overturned what I've learned is that there isn't much different for me about that feeling sitting here on this side of the table versus sitting over there the difference now is I'm in a position to render my approval or not on crucially important issues for our children in our town and I cannot coign anything without feeling like I have
207all the information and proper time for conversation and vetting my position tonight is a reflection of my disappointment in how information specifically on Finance on District finance and operations is disseminated among the board we received a brief summary on a couple of items from Dr Smith on Thursday night um but it was in no way a full report out on all that is up for decision tonight even if it is the tenative budget every question I've asked and answered has inevitably inevitably led to more questions and I will need more time and more information to give proper due diligence to these District Changing Life altering decisions that the community trusts us to [Music] make thank you Miss bootes would any other board members like to speak seeing none Mr Yates roll call please roll call
208on finance and operations Mr Brown yes to 9.1 to 9.11 no to 92 and yes to the rest so no no to 912 is that correct yes and yes yes correct thank you you remote you're no to 912 yes the rest noted Miss buter MZ yes to 9.1 9.2 9.3 sorry just easier this way 9.4 and five six and seven and eight abstain from 9.9 because I don't know what we're voting on there no uh abstain from 9.10 yes to 9.11 no to 9.12 and no to 9.13 your exstension to 9.9 910 no to 912 and 9913 is noted Mr Demari yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null I'm gonna take my time here because I got to get it right I'm going to say yes to 9.1 through 9.9 abstain on 910 yes to 911
209no to 912 no to 9913 and 914 says new agenda item so and there's nothing there so I don't know what to say on that it's a clerical mistake we'll fix that later okay 91 through 93 are the action items you abstained from 910 you said you voted no to 912 and 913 is that correct correct thank you Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes to 991 through 911 no to 912 and 913 you voted no to 912 and 9913 and yes to the rest Mr boach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 10 Personnel we need a motion to approve items 10.1 through 10 point 10 do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mr deari any questions or comments from the board seeing none
210Mr Yates roll call please roll call on Personnel Mr Brown yes Mr Excuse Me Miss buter MTZ yes Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 11 policy do we have a motion for items 11.1 through 11.3 motion by Mrs null seconded by Mr Thompson any questions or comments from the board seeing none Mr Yates roll call please on policy Mr Brown yes Miss buter MTZ yes Mr dearcy yes Miss Fox yes Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr peelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes and motion carries thank you Mr Yates moving to item 12 committee reports are there any committee chairs who would like to share a report seeing
211none we will move to Old business of which we have none moving to item 14 new business we need a motion to approve and uphold the finding of no Hib in the matter discussed in executive session do we have a motion motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Mrs null Mr Yates roll call please roll call on new business item 14 upholding the finding of no Hib Mr Brown abstain Miss buter moitz yes Mr demarcy yes Miss Fox abstain Mrs null yes Mr Thompson yes Mr pelman yes Mr Bach yes Mr conon yes that motion carries every single one of you that accepted this budget after hearing this room you should all be ashamed thank you Mr Yates moving to item 16 board member announcements are there any board members who would like to share an
212announcement seeing none motion to adjourn can we go home motion by Mr Thompson seconded by Miss Fox all those in favor thank you