001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] Board of Education supporter pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the Secretary of Eastern Township Board of Education in the following manner posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the Board of Education Office emailing written notice to the Burlington County Times and the Americas filing written notice please [Music] Mr Bob here Mr President Miss Fox Mr Canton Mrs Knoll here Miss Lee Mrs Ryan yeah Mr Thompson we have a quorum okay at this time I will ask our motion to go into executive session and motion to approve items 2.1 through 2.4 whereas an njsa 10-4-12 allows for a public body to go into closed sessions during a public
002meeting and whereas the Board of Education of Eastern Township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are Exempted from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately 7 30 PM now if therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 amps 2.1 YouTube or do I have a motion Mr Thompson Ms Capello any questions or comments real copies Mr Bach yes this is Capella yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes commission carries thank you foreign [Music] foreign right now [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
003me um [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] with me [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] me ant [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] guys [Music] foreign [Music] Township Board of Education would you all please rise to the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of
004America to the Republic of which it stands under God invisible repeating justice for all at this time board member Tracy Fox will read the mission statement of the Eastern Township Board of Education the mission of the HM Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engage with students in meaningful learning experiences and Partnerships 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 foreign contributing members of the diverse thank you Dr Smith the floor is yours to begin presentation [Music] thank you Mrs Ryan and if if all of our staff and our student who are being honored this evening could please join me up front here along with our board president Leah Ryan
005and our vice president nishkanthan thank you foreign [Applause] so I'd like to thank I'm going to read a little bit and I'd like to thank Allison Baumer and Russ bulls for sharing details with me about that day March 15th that has shaped what I'm about to read the entire demacy team standing here before us worked together to accomplish something that was truly life-saving on the morning of March 15th at 10 50 14 a.m one of our teachers Stephanie Schuler experienced a medical emergency here in the cafeteria at De Macy while supervising students at lunch Mike probe still one of our custodians noticed students Gathering and founder on the floor as Mike notified Mike Romano our head custodian also in the cafeteria DMS student Isaac Flanagan to my right immediately ran to get help as well
006Mike got on the radio right away and asked for help for us Bulls Allison Baumer John Denning Susan Gagnon Brad Haldeman and SRO Steve Giordano all members of the AED team rushed to the cafeteria arrive within one minute and began to administer treatment a shelter in place was called Maddie Goldman along with other staff entered the cafeteria from the staff lounge and helped guide students safely out of the cafeteria after determining that she was unconscious no pulse or breathing Russ and Allison directed that 9-1-1 be called Kim DeLuca from Princeton foods made the 911 call at that time Allison Russ John and Officer Steve performed CPR AED application an artificial ventilation until pulse was regained and our staff member Stephanie Schuler started breathing Pat Bree directed EMS where to park and made sure students were
007away from the scene EMS arrived at 10 21 am and Steph was taken to the hospital the quick actions of every person being recognized this evening was an important part of the success that morning providing assistance all along the way from retired Evesham Police Officer Brian labetti to Janine Baptiste to Gene desort Rich glass Linda Klem Julian Roman Chantel Schneider and Karen serembis on hand this evening to join us in recognizing their efforts our Evesham Police including Chief Miller and ibsham fire rescue including Captain Freeman and other members of Houston police if you wouldn't mind coming down and joining us [Applause] and and lastly the most important person with us in the room tonight Steph Schuler and her husband Mike is here too and uh he's he's on standby in case you need to come
008down front too okay we'll read the certificate names in alphabetical order and if each person could please step forward to receive your certificate Matthew Armand [Applause] Allison Balmer [Applause] Janine Baptiste [Applause] Russ Bowles [Applause] Pat Brie Kim DeLuca John Denning Gina distort all right [Applause] Isaac Flanagan and are his parents here I think he's parents are eyes experience oh that's fantastic so glad you could joining us [Applause] Officer Steve [Applause] Rich glass Maddie Goldman Brad Haldeman [Applause] Linda Clem [Applause] Ryan labetti [Applause] Michael Mike probsto thank you Jillian Roman like Romano Chantel Schneider [Applause] Baron sarambis [Applause] and I I just want to add um and in hearing this from Russ meant a lot because you have so much experience with through your ENT work but how how common is it for this to be
009as successful as it was I have to say I just say very very rare right yes very very rare all worked out the way it should very very rare yeah I just think uh just a perfect illustration of how practice and preparation is in action you know and and everybody here um just from our whole board from our Administration from our town from everyone thank you all very very much thank you [Applause] thank you okay foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] saving a person's life we are bound to do the final budget presentation tonight and this is the next item on the agenda so I'm just gonna switch gears to the final budget presentation the uh this is the second budget presentation the first was at our March
010board meeting March 16th um there have been a few adjustments not many but um we will go over those and it's due to some supplemental Aid that the state released to school districts since um our last presentation so uh there is a very exciting new variable to our budget process this year that has not existed previously in any budget presentation and that is separate questions so we have two we're going to look at each one of these first because again they are what is new and different about this year's budget the uh goal of achieving tuition free full day kindergarten is our number one District goal for the years 2022 to 2025. that is a very exciting goal and so it is very exciting by extension to talk about this means for achieving that goal
011which is through a separate proposal question which you will be voted on on November 7th 2023. I'm going to read it to provide tuition-free full-day kindergarten for all students shall Evesham Township School District be authorized to raise an additional 1.9 million dollars for General funds in the 2024-2025 school year these taxes will be used exclusively for free full day kindergarten approval of these taxes will result in a permanent increase in the district's tax levy these proposed additional expenditures are in addition to those necessary to achieve the New Jersey student learning standards the state only funds districts for half Decay meanwhile as I did a little research since the last meeting 96 percent of students in the state of New Jersey in kindergarten are in full day kindergarten so the state is winning on that one
012because districts have figured out how to get 96 percent of kids into full Decay with only half day kindergarten's worth of State funding and we are among that four percent right of kids that are in half day okay some of them are in our district so great goal great means to achieve it and we'll talk about why this is um a great means and a few slides later but what it results essentially in is 98 a year annually in additional taxes for the average assessed home in Evesham 98 a year which um flat out there's nothing a person can do to increase their property value for 98 dollars a year that's better than approving this this separate question because right now we are the only town anywhere that charges tuition for full Decay so when
013people are moving and they have young kids and they're looking at fifty five hundred dollars a year for full day K with us they are looking at other towns some of them start with m that don't charge tuition they tell me they're doing that I hear that um the reason is fifty five hundred dollars is because our full day program is designed to be financially self-sufficient that's good reason for that right so it so it doesn't have a budgetary impact um but this is you know uh going to eliminate that additional cost as a reason for people not to move to town and um that's from the financial aspect so you know for a can of paint and some brushes 98 there's nothing more a person can do to improve their home value besides passing
014this question of course there's also the the ethical and educational component of providing more investing more in our youngest Learners will pay dividends every year of their Journey with us and Beyond and it will provide equal opportunity to education for all students regardless of their parents and their family's ability to pay and those are wonderful wonderful goals that are embedded in this question all of which mean that truly at its heart this question with this question is really asking is who are we as a community and who do we want to be it's so exciting to get to have something of such vital importance as a community to work towards and I'm really excited to get to answer that question together over the next month leading up to November second question and the reason we
015didn't uh the reason we didn't do this separate question for Floyd kindergarten last November is because we are one of the lucky 150 districts in the state of New Jersey that has had its state funding reduced for seven years straight right we're currently in year five this budget is for year six of seven years of reductions um next year will be in year six and then planning for year seven uh we held off because we knew this year's budget development was going to be harder than all the rest because we you can't cut what you've cut before and it the cuts get harder and harder and harder and we thought if we hold off and we're cutting something that we want to keep we would still have the option to use a separate question to
016keep that item whatever that was um there there was going to be an educational program in this question and there was until a few days before the tentative budget because based on the projected State reduction we were going to have to cut an educational program it was family consumer science and at the last minute the state reduced our I could say like reduce the reduction they took less data from us than they said they were going to take and we were able to preserve family consumer science but the other part of the question is still there which is mental health services so I'm going to read the question to provide Mental Health Services for elementary and middle school students shall Evesham Township School District be authorized to raise an additional one hundred and ninety thousand
017dollars for General funds in the 2024-25 school year and then it has the same verbiage underneath that the that the full day K question had and that that those funds would be for each year moving forward Mental Health counseling these are services that are vitally needed right now and we have been able to provide some additional services using Federal relief money over the past few years but that is running out and we will we will lose that hence this question to try to preserve that moving forward because kids needs are greater than ever so very positive very hopeful that this question will pass as well we wouldn't need to ask either of these two questions and this slide tells the story of why so a district any school district in New Jersey can only raise
018the local tax levy two percent a year it's the two percent cap our district did not always take the full two percent each year and you can see on this graph how much we left on the table those expired numbers in red is what we left on the table that we could have taken without asking without a vote and we didn't and the reason we didn't is we didn't eat it at the time and at the end of the day any school district and we firmly believe this we are stewards of taxpayer resources our charge our mission is to maximize those resources for kids that drives our entire budget and it's the star we steer by with decisions we didn't need it at the time we didn't take it to the tune of almost three
019million dollars lost tax levy Revenue almost three million dollars which would be enough to cover full Decay to cover mental health to cover other things as well be great to have that now that's why we're coming again in good faith to our community with these two questions our community has benefited has not had to pay those additional taxes for the last 10 years so everyone's paid less the last 10 years because we didn't ask for it then we didn't take it then um and uh and I would just say as an underline to this is our district spends sixteen thousand six hundred dollars per pupil annually the state average for a K-8 district and there are 73 K-8 districts in the state of New Jersey the state average for K districts is nineteen thousand so
020we're spending two thousand four hundred dollars less per student each year than the average K-8 District and we provide a lot on a lean budget and we need to provide more and that's why we're asking these questions a little bit of History just to kind of illustrate in just on the in the spirit of lean budget how little our budget has budged for the last six years and that of course is against a backdrop right now of over six percent inflation right so there's forces at work always changing that make it increasingly harder to keep a budget lean this tells a quick story of the Lost state aid about we've lost about half of our state aid that we received since 2017-18 from almost 14 million dollars to just above seven million dollars and it's
021dropping more so it keeps going down right because that projected 2020 324 that's next year but then we lose more for 24.25 and there's no telling what comes after 24.25 because the state won't release their formula for how they calculate Aid so there's no way to predict you know it's based on three things student enrollment so our student enrollment has dropped 19 percent since its peak our state data has dropped 49 percent makes no sense the other two factors of the aid formula are commercial rateables we know that commercial real estate and Eve sham has increased in value and the third factor is um residential property value we also know that the poverty values in Evesham have increased a lot over that time span so basically we're punished for our success as a town as
022a district losing Aid and having to make do with less this breaks out that loss just year by year so you know and there this there's a happy story and a sad story on this slide happy story is that 23 24 reduction of 367 thousand five hundred ninety four dollars is a lot less than it was in the tentative budget because every S2 district is receiving back 65 percent of the aid it was supposed to lose for the coming year through a recently signed bill by Governor Murphy which was a it was a co-partisan bill Republicans and Democrats working together but it's a one-year it's a one year of reprieve right so so we got we gained back about 486 thousand dollars so that number that 367 is about 486 thousand dollars less than it
023was in the tentative budget but that is just a reprieve and what it means is that the 2425 number of 602 thousand is 486 000 higher than it was in the tentative budget so the bill will come due it's just delayed by a year um and uh yeah so that's the happy story sad story but it's more way more of a sad story budget goals I mentioned um so this slide not many words in this slide but it really really really really really really represents a lot of work and conversation so to achieve these goals means starting on our budget basically at the beginning of the school year talking as an Administration talking as a board talking as a finance committee talking getting feedback from all kinds of stakeholders to be able to figure out
024to chart the best path forward balancing that multi-armed scale because everything in a budget is on one multi-armed scale weighing pros and cons against these three goals to figure out what's the best path forward it means and you can't lose State rate a without there being a loss embedded in that process the loss is unavoidable but the effort is to try to mitigate it and cushion it to preserve what we can for students so maintaining the effectiveness or Educational Services while costing less money adjusting staff positions for enrollment and continued focus on student achievement we that enrollment piece I'll just mention we one of the key one of the bigger slices of the budget reductions the past two years not this year but the past two years were increases in Elementary class size so when
025we began that process our Elementary class size was below average compared with surrounding districts now we are on par with surrounding districts and we really want to hold firm on that we looked as we'll see in a later slide at Middle School class size this year but um we have not touched Elementary class size this year and I'm going to turn it over to Mr bashanti for a bit good evening everyone um the first slide here is showing the changes to our budget since the tentative budget presentation we did back on March 16th there's just a few changes the first is on the revenue side the additional 486 thousand dollars that we're going to receive um so that that'll be incorporated into the 2324 budget and then on the appropriation side where we're going to
026plan to use that money by increasing Elementary Staffing and then also the benefits that would go along with those positions the last two lines are just a minor change in our budget on purchasing of some equipment instead of outright purchasing it we're going to lease purchase the equipment that's the thirty six thousand dollar change there so really the uh the main change is the additional uh stated that we're going to receive to allow us to address uh Staffing okay this slide is similar to the slide from the uh presentation in March the the main difference is the additional monies that were received in the Staffing line which shows that the increase there and then in the the second uh line the employee health benefits which shows those additional dollars in there so this is a
027side-by-side of uh last year's budget uh compared to this year's budget the uh the two columns to the far right show the increase or decrease between the uh to budget years and then what uh what percentage of an increase or decrease that is so most of the lines are pretty well flat the the main two lines that you know have the biggest increases are the special ed line where we've had to increase that budget by 730 thousand dollars and then the operations and transportation line which was increased by a little over one million 1.6 1.063 million which is the biggest increase which is 22 percent increase and the the main reason for that increase was the um 2223 budget when we had put that together we we actually under budgeted the transportation budget for our
028uh out of um our subcontracted uh bus routes at the time when we put the budget together we believe that the contracts were going to get renewed and then after the budget was put together the contracts were not renewed and we hadn't put them back out to bid and it came in at a larger number so that's why it reflects a big increase uh this year that's the major part of that increase okay um this is the the same slide uh that we had from last month on the revenue side the the only change is the Top Line the additional um Aid that we're receiving is actually coming through Surplus budget to fund balance what the state did is they're giving us the money as part of our 2223 budget obviously we're at the end
029of the year we're not going to spend it this year so we're going to move those dollars forward to help address the 2324 budget so that's that's just really more of a counting thing we did get the 486 000 uh 787 an additional state aid however they didn't give it to us as part of our 23-24 budget they gave it is to us as part of our 2223 budget so it gets moved forward through uh Surplus through fund balance so that's the the main change there let's see all the all the other lines are still the same okay so um the slide here is the tax calculation the tax levy calculation we were already at two percent on our tax levy and the Tenant of a budget presentation that hasn't changed we're still at two
030percent on the tax level calculation so this slides the dental close to the slide that was shown previously uh last month you the tax levy has calculated um on a calendar year our budgets on the fiscal year so you take half of last year's budget the current budget we're in for the first half of the 23 calendar year and half of the budget for next year the 23.24 um you add those two halves together which gives you the total tax levy increase in dollars and then the the we got the updated rateables and then you uh compare what the new increase is for the 23 year compared to the 22 year and it's 0.0255 cents which comes out to on the average assessed home of 272 thousand six twenty eight an increase of 69.45 which
031is the same amounts that were on the attentive budget presentation so what does that really mean this is really the slide that tells what it means to the homeowner the property owner in the township so the First Column gives you the different values the the yellow row going across is the average assessed home in uh ifsham at 272 628 I believe that number is uh and I and then if you fall out all the way across to the right that's the 69 so 45 cents that the average person will pay now obviously nobody's house is exactly on that number so we give you additional numbers above and below based on whether your house is assessed at 200 000 or if your house is assessed it um 300 or 400 000 you just would follow those
032column those rows across and then the last column will give you what your increase would be thanks Mr Ashanti so non-staffing savings so eighty percent of our 80 million dollar budget goes to salaries and benefits eighty percent of 80 million and that is logical and is I mean ultimately our staff are the greatest resources full stop that we can provide for kids we try to find Savings in non-staffing areas when possible the first item there the four bus routes eliminated so we project 120 000 in savings we Mr shinty mentioned that we do contract out bus routes we contract out about a third of our bus routes we only have one bus company that bids on those routes it's Hillman bus company they're based not far from here and um it costs about thirty thousand
033dollars to the district for every bus route that is outsourced we would love to hire more more drivers to keep more routes in-house and as I plug all the time if anyone's interested in becoming a bus driver with etsd we provide benefits to all bus drivers who can drive more than 30 hours a week and we try to give we give all of our drivers that that amount of driving if they want it um so please just feel free to reach out to me we will cover all fees and training to get you uh onto our team um it has been incredibly difficult to find bus drivers everywhere it's a national shortage um and uh just a daily daily struggle to um reliably transport the kids that we're committed to transport um activity fee increase
034it's a small amount but we included it on here just because it's a it's a real amount because it affects people um the increase of five dollars per year for middle school and Elementary activity fee I would say when it comes to those costs and if anyone knows please let me know I am not aware of another District anywhere in the entire state of New Jersey that provides the extracurricular programming that we do here in etsd both at elementary and middle school level our elementary programming some districts provide none not a single after school activity for kids in elementary and as you can just take a look at the I know we've got more approvals in the agenda tonight and it really goes back to it the heart it's our staff you know it's those
035Human Resources it's our staff stepping up taking their passions taking their time applying it forward for kids you know and um tailoring it to what kids want to do it's just amazing and I just thank our staff for that because um the the dollar amounts don't equal the amount of time and preparation and care that go into that work we're going to talk about the bus routes so first up uh VanZant we're looking at the uh I guess the north side The Swim Club side of Woodstream and um this section of the neighborhood used to walk some years ago that is part of why we looked at it again and all of these changes including the two last year so last year we made a change to uh demacie Elementary we increased the number of
036kids walking there and to Rice we increased number of kids walking at Rice those two changes as well as the changes here have all been part of conversations with the township Evesham Police um as we move forward and and work on uh you know where are what lends itself best to uh to look at as increasing walking zones there will be more details provided in terms of what additional safety measures will be added for these changes like crossing guards and and more and that is part of what the Township's working on 33 kids that is a bus route another one from Van Zant kind of the Fox Chase area uh 27 kids that's another bus route and um there's a a walking path that goes from Fox Chase to that green belt that kind of
037in the lower left hand corner which takes the kids to uh to Green to Green Tree and then there's a cross crosswalk right there at Conestoga and Greentree jaggered there's two two slides for jaggered this first one is the area of dominions that's um south of brick road and west of Evans there's a crosswalk you can see in the lower right hand corner kids currently walk to Cherokee from this area so they're already crossing guards the township will find crossing guards for the Vans and changes but for the crossing guards here at jaggard they are already in place and then this section which is just basically continuing Southward from the prior slide 24 students plus the eight on the other slide so that's 32 which is a bus route those kids can walk down Arendale
038Crossover with the crossing guard walk down the Arendale and then there's a uh like a cut through sidewalk to the back of jaggard Marlton middle Briarwood so 33 kids um not the elementary and the reason we didn't do the elementary here is because there's a couple reasons but one of them is when you exit Briarwood in the lower left hand corner and you follow that sidewalk you'll get to what will be a crosswalk you cross over that crosswalk and you're on sidewalk again on the other side and then you follow that sidewalk and you want you wind right into the MMS School area and You Follow That Sidewalk onto the school you don't have to cross over the entrance to the MMS mes School area right so if it was elementary kids they would have
039to cross over that entryway Middle School they don't so it's a little simpler from middle which is why we're just doing middle Elementary is a a consideration possibly for a future but not next year 33 kids that's a bus route Staffing reductions so I mentioned before FCS the program that we didn't have to cut but um most definitely were prepared to uh not you know against our will all this is against our will because of State data reductions that represented 154 000 so that was put back in at the tentative budget presentation the items in so there's a key down below right so the the strikethroughs in in Black are from uh save prior to the tentative budget the strikethroughs in red are saved prior to this budget through the bill that I mentioned previously
040the 486 787 dollars we got back in supplemental Aid one year aid from the state of New Jersey we use part of that to restore the remaining non-certificated staff positions Elementary ta position custodial position support position the remaining money from that 486 thousand we are holding and we are watching and we are monitoring because we right now have multiple grades in multiple schools where we will need to add another section based on enrollment so we what that means is grade four currently the number of sections we have in that particular school they are maxed out they may be even a student or two above the max meaning the class size there is not at all where we want it we can add a section in to spread those students out because our goal this year
041was really to try to keep Elementary class size consistent with last year and look at middle school and so that's why we're saving that money because it is really needed there that's something we hear from staff as well through conversations is um how how what a difference that makes for them speaking of middle school so um the uh we are the only District in the county 40 40 districts in Berlin County we're the only one with two essentially two middle schools okay and we are the largest where the second largest District in the county the largest K-8 the largest with um middle school and elementary schools the only one larger than us Islamic Regional and they're nine through 12 District right so so we have two middle schools they both have house systems which means
042essentially it's like four schools because each school has two schools within the school so green and red yellow blue and that locks us in a bit to um 10 sections per grade per School to maintain the house structure 10 sections per grade for school so if you look at the projected enrollment for demacia next year grades 6 206 across 10 sections that's 20.6 kids per section 21 kids rounding up which is less than our class sizes in some schools in grade five grade four grade three which isn't right right we you you want we want more resources with the younger kids lower class size if we can with younger kids who need it more and that's where we are now right because we raise class size in elementary but the Middle School we've been locked
043into uh the 10 sections per grade so we're trying something a little different this year which we'll see in in the coming slide but I just want to this it's driven by that number 206. and you can see another highlighted number in two years 208 for Marlton middle that's incoming grade six in the 25-26 school year that could change but if it doesn't change the model that we're going to use with grade six to Macy this year will become I'm sure with uh Improvement as we're always seeking to get better but it'll become the basis for what we may do in two years of middle and it can become the basis for what we do in any grade in Middle School moving forward if the numbers if the enrollment warrants it because again taking this
044approach means we don't have to cut programs and at the end of the day cutting a program means that that program no longer exists for students whereas this approach means every every class every subject continues to exist for students here's what I mean so grade six um we'll have eight sections total not ten which means the average class size to Macy grade six will be 26 25.75 but 26. um this is just a sample sample sample sample imagine that word is like written up there 10 times sample um but just to illustrate so by each house losing a position the other positions will pick up a remaining section from the position that was lost and the way that lends itself well is one in the humanities meaning English social studies and one in the stem
045area of math science and then based on certifications and teacher interest and a few other factors we are uh coming up with our Apollo 8 our lineup of teachers who will Pioneer this approach and the teacher interest piece is absolutely vital right because um this is new not new everywhere you know lots of places people teach more than one subject or have more than one type of class to prepare in a day but new for us here we had this long time ago there are a few teachers who've taught more than one subject in a day or more than one grade in a day but it hasn't been we haven't had it for a long time this brings me back to 25 years ago when I taught seventh grade language arts social studies in a
046house system grade six to eight Middle School kind of like sometimes to Macy reminds me of it because it was out in Oregon and um the uh Shasta Middle School class of 35 kids and I also taught help in PE one section so you just think about New Jersey being the number one state in education which we are U.S news and we'll report ranking for this past year there's a reason for that because we would look at a class size of 35 and say unacceptable and there are many states in the country that our kids are in direct competition with where that's typical and even low I've kept in contact with teachers from out there my brother and sister-in-law both are teachers in the same town out there in Oregon and um there are class
047sizes of 40 now we're talking about 26 here I looked up that Middle School the other day on the web because I couldn't remember that the houses were named after mountain ranges in the Pacific Northwest and uh not surprisingly I guess that they don't have a house system anymore they eliminated it due to budget cuts and now there are traditional Middle School structure so this approach right here helps preserve the house system that has been part of what we what we do in etsd and we'll see in a later slide that may not be possible to preserve indefinitely but with this approach we've preserved it for another year middle school special ed this is a class size um in the theme of class size so uh we will go from 12 in-class support teachers to
04810 per Middle School through all staying still all staying under that maximum class size of 10. so there's a class size within the class size students who have been class support in their IEP there can be up to 10 of them in any given class and that's the class size within the class size so the example there three in class Support classes with eight students that have in class support in their IEPs instead of four with six I left that slide in just to illustrate that was for two positions the lengths that we had to go to as part of that budget development process didn't end up being needed thank goodness but um the lengths that we were willing to go to that we had conversations with those teachers about to save 150 000 dollars
049that would have eliminated a program okay back to uh the tuition-free full day K separate question because this is all connected with the budget so we'll start with the left hand column first a yes vote in November means and this Recaps some things I said earlier everybody every kid every kindergarten in our town gets full day kindergarten full stop property values up etsd joins the rest of the state I mentioned that number before increased student growth investing in younger Learners and state funds for preschool expansion and I put that last just and it says while they last so Governor Murphy and his budget address about a month ago for the coming year said that he's allocating up to what one billion dollars and a couple of the pennies in that billion probably came out of
050our pockets from etsd but he's allocating up to a billion dollars for preschool expansion tuition free free full day preschool for every District that's the state's goal and there are districts around us that are working on this right now and have even started it we have to figure out full decay in order to be able to not be in the same position again in X number of years where every District around us has free full-day preschool and we don't and that's where we're going to be if we can't get full day kindergarten solved and the best way to solve it is with this separate question that's money on the table um if we vote no and people have asked this people have definitely asked this question and they and that is a very understandable question
051because every coin has two sides and we can't truly understand a yes without understanding a no and vice versa we don't want to have to talk about this but it is prudent and logical to talk about it since it is part of understanding the ramifications of this question we don't intend it in any other way other than informational working backwards simply trying to avoid we don't want anyone like after that November vote to say if I had only known that's the last thing we want to hear if I'd only known how would we pay for tuition free full Decay through a regular budget well we discussed so the ballot question is for 1.9 million that represents about 1 million in in tuition Revenue so we'd bring in about one million dollars in tuition Revenue each
052year for full day kindergarten and we put that right out to pay for the the Staffing that we need for that program the other 0.9 million is to add the staff that we would need because of course with full AK for all that's going to mean adding teachers those aren't it doesn't include one year costs there's there's one time costs of adding bathrooms things like that all that we're going to cover through our our regular budget but 1.9 million in recurring costs to provide tuition free full Decay through a regular budget would be incredibly difficult everyone can see what we went through just to cut less than four hundred thousand dollars and we lost less than four thousand dollars in state aid and we can see what we went through for that it will mean
053it will mean difficult conversations possibilities include reducing educational programs we looked at the family consumer science is just a sort of a it's a real example of what it takes to save money in a budget that was a program 154 thousand dollars eliminating Middle School House system we were just talking about it 525 000 that can happen on its own as a standalone step there isn't another District in the county that has a house system anymore and the reason is partly budget cuts closing demacie elementary school again just a possibility that has to be included because of that dollar amount it's a last resort we don't want to have to do that and again that's only in the column that says if if a no right so I mean I have to have to talk
054about it but don't none of us want to creating fifth grade centers at the middle schools so that step can only really happen in conjunction with the closure of the Macy Elementary because fifth graders we don't have the space at Middle School to accommodate fifth graders without creating space and the only way to create space is to close Des so you have to think about those a little bit in combination um selling properties for development we have two properties country farms in Cambridge we've been in communication with the township for over two years now about selling those properties um we're still in communication uh if it comes down to choosing to have property that we maintain and we mow and we take care of the trees that fall down on people's fences from that property
055or turning that property into financial resources that can support equal educational opportunity for our youngest learners the answer is to sell them the answer is to sell them and if the township and to someone you know but those properties are intended ultimately the reason a school district comes into possession of property is that it benefits students and those properties right now are serving no benefit to students and then other steps which is like a really big umbrella uh to give that's just a small example after school late buses you know and again it's a journey of a thousand steps to get to 1.9 million but some districts don't offer after school late buses we have such robust after school programs that we need our late buses we have a lot of late buses that run
056we don't want to get rid of our late buses We love kids participating it would be I mean just you know it's all just different degrees of pain talking about each of these things but you get rid of after school late buses now maybe you're actually preventing certain kids from participating and we want to open doorways wider we want more kids involved in everything we do so we don't want to have to do that but that is a step that districts take Step Up journey of a Thousand Steps that's one of those thousand steps is eliminating after school late buses um and again something we have to talk about as a list but only um in a forced way so that everybody understands the 360 degrees of this question as we walk around and consider
057it speaking of questions um before we do that I just want to come back to this for a second to the end where we started back at the full day K question just because we just talked about the yes and the no but I just want to put it back on there on the front burner of everybody's Minds what the wording is and some some number I didn't share yet somehow it didn't come up but opportunity we're one of only eight districts out of 600 in the state of New Jersey that charge tuition for full day kindergarten we do a lot of things really well for kids this is an area this is an area it's our number one goal for the next three years we're we want to and we need to get better
058and we need everyone's help to do that and by helping us you'll help us help all of our students all of the children in the town I have such strong faith in our town that this question is going to pass the story I told about Oregon we moved back I grew up right around here we moved back to New Jersey my wife and I when we had our first child because I wanted our kids to grow up in the best place for education in the country which is New Jersey and we moved back to South Jersey because I knew the school districts here and I knew that would be true and I know that the reason people move where they move is based on schools so many of us have a similar story that's how
059we ended up living in Evesham my family and we paid the the full day tuition you know but that doesn't mean like everything changes always and while we've Stood Still on this topic the rest of the state has changed we weren't always one out of eight out of 600 districts it was used to be more but that's only going in one direction that number is only getting smaller and smaller and smaller and and this is a tremendously positive opportunity for us to say something really powerful and positive about who we are and where we're going and it also unlocks opportunities for preschool so it's incredibly exciting complete faith that it's gonna it's gonna go well anyone with questions please reach out now that you know if we've come to this moment of the final budget
060approval and we got approval from the county for the wording of the two questions we're going to be ready to move forward with promoting and trying to increase awareness about the two questions that we're that we're working towards um you know but that starts now so anyone with questions or thoughts were welcome all voices appreciated on any topic and I look forward to lots more conversation as a community as we work to getting this done together um thank you very much to the board for listening and any questions just uh I just want to do some clarity uh things here in terms of questions but also some understanding here and let's let's focus on full day kindergarten um first off again thank you for this thank you for this presentation thank you for everything you
061guys have done here uh and I've related that before and uh I'm very appreciative of it um I want to make sure that we're we're seeing things together here because in terms of the the the no scenario all right those are if if we've if the community decides that they don't they want to vote down question one those are simply if we decide to plow through with this decision even after a no vote these are just clearly options I don't want to go out there and I don't want the Assumption to be that we're holding schools hostage for for full day kindergarten and the reason I I just want you know I want that to be out there that these are just clearly options and not definitive steps of what's Happening am I we're on
062no you're absolutely right and I'm thinking like you know that word possibilities on there because I used some yellow highlighting on other slides like I'm throwing a yellow highlight up on that word based on your question you know possibilities possibilities how would we like how would we pay for it not that here's how we are going to because that's that's a thing that like that could scare people if we we don't clarify that enough like no matter how many we bowled it we italicize it we you know we we highlight it a thousand times they'll see and I now I know this because of the experience of what I've been through sitting here on this board about really honestly 10 years ago um that that phrase close a school that phrase alone can can scare
063people and when we when we did that in when that happened in when we when we when we committed to that that was a that was in a whim right it wasn't a whim for us that was a four-year very calculated very thoughtful agonizing decision to do and I just wanted to be clear sorry I just wanted to be clear to people that we're not whimsically throwing that throwing that out as hey we're doing this if if you vote if you vote no that's I just want to make sure that's clear and I apologize if I'm beating that I'm beating that bush down a little bit but I just want to emphasize that that that's not what we're doing here we're just doing options correct we're just we're just answering the possibilities possibilities you know
064um and with ultimately the greatest possibility of all is the left hand column the yes column you know and you know going back on that I that's another thing that always gets lost because there is a there's a group of citizens in Evesham who will clearly benefit from full day kindergarten those are new parents parents that have kids in the district they will benefit from it they will see they will see the benefit the the other side of the coin is always the it's always the people after the fact after the situation right and sometimes it gets lost improving home value gets lost all right and it's funny because in in class the other day we were we were talking about this this idea of of push and pull factors like the reason why people
065move is because they get pushed out for a reason why they come to a place is because they get pulled in the more attractive things that a community has the more people get pulled in your housing market becomes a simple supply and demand issue the more wants that are in the town the more demand there is the lower the supply the better those values go up the more things that we offer as a community makes that Community ultimately better makes that housing market ultimately better it climbs the values of those houses and I want that to be clear here that when we make a decision like this we don't want to just cater to one particular group even though this is important to those to those students it's incredibly important to have that we don't
066want to be isolated as that only is that only town around here that doesn't have full day kindergarten but sometimes it's just when you're another part of that Community who doesn't have that kid you don't realize the impact that'll eventually have eventually all of us will leave here we will all move from this town and we all hope that our property value and how we sell our home is stronger than when we bought it and a lot stronger than we bought it because it's our greatest asset and I'm a believer I'm a believer that the number one reason why people move places why young families move places who are always the buyers in these type of communities is because they're looking for the best school district possible and if you really want to sell your
067home eventually at a high rate you want to Intrigue that young family or that young couple that's looking to build a family to show them and prove to them this is the place you want to be because we have the best school district we offer the best things that's the number one thing they're looking for they're the most likely group to move here so I understand I understand that part and sometimes I feel like that gets lost but in the terms of this I really believe it's important to understand the value of what even if you do not have kids in the district the value that it will ultimately provide you won't feel it right away like it's not an immediate feel for those people but that value will will be important down the road
068it's hard sometimes for someone who's tight for cash or or is worried about the raising of their taxes or you know they're on a fixed income that's a hard pill to swallow but that's the ultimate gain there and if I can just uh piggyback on that for a second and I think we're all you know listening to Mr physical we can all think about individual kind of vignette stories that illustrate the largest teams of what he's talking about people that live near us in town are stories about how we came to live in Evesham I'm thinking right now of families who live in Evesham who I have seen their friends from other towns move here to to move in near them you know so so like there's a exponential positive compounding where as people move
069in more people want to move in and that also includes grandparents and other Generations right so and I mean my kids are in college but I'm already imagining wherever they end up that's where I'm going to end up you know as a grandparent hopefully and and I know we've got 55 and up communities here that are designed for folks in that stage of life and they and there are a lot of people who want to follow their children and their grandchildren wherever they go to be there to help and if they're coming to Evesham again the compounding positive effect yeah thank you for that question anyone else questions are oh it's not yes yep we've talked about specific pieces since that's since that's the role of the township to ultimately determine I haven't really wanted
070to speak preemptively about something that is an ongoing area for them if that makes sense uh just yeah I mean we we definitely talked about each of the changes and different things that could be added and um so I know it's on their it's in their uh working uh considerations what would what would be put in place but um since that's not really Arlene isn't we could have conversations but Arlene isn't ultimately to make those determinations so I just I love answering questions so I feel like I wish I could answer it more specifically but I I feel like if I would do that I just wouldn't want to step on the toes of anything that might be in the works if that makes sense yeah we we truly appreciate and I'll just add one
071more pieces we appreciate that very communication with our Township we really appreciate the work with them over the last two years to vet out these changes and talk about not just the transportation but things like the SRO shared services agreement which saves our district half of the cost of the sros which we know are incredibly valuable and we appreciate and I'll just say you know tonight we saw Officer Steve Giordano the SRO here at the Macy who we think of the S Rose as providing security he also helped Save a Life and um so thank you to our Township for that uh shared services agreement that's in place I just because it's on my mind all the time so I just say every day every day I'm thankful for that yeah thank you yeah that's
072her I think it's a really helpful illustration of the similar situation for a lot of people so I appreciate that Miss null mrcaro let me bounce off that for a second um when we talk about full day kindergarten we you know I focused on the I focused on the cost and the cost benefit analysis there a little bit in terms of push and pull but also that's the key here about what we do because my daughter we paid for full day kindergarten for her and we paid that tuition for her and look it's not an easy pill to swallow it isn't it's not an easy pull to swallow at all all right it's it's definitely costly and you really got to think about how you're going to do it um I'm so very glad we
073did and one of the things that I think is a strength about what full day kindergarten can provide here which I really hope that every kid has the opportunity to do so here how we handle full day kindergarten we don't provide a half of day of of Services of education and a half a day of play time and rest we give kids here a full day of school I can't be said everywhere that does full day kindergarten all right there are places that that's not like that but here what you're you're going to get that money's worth because and I've seen it with my own eyes as a parent and as a board member it's not just a half a day of of of of school and then a half a day of well we're
074going to take a nap and have a snack it's not that full day of activity it's a full day of learning it's a full day of experience it's a full day of prepping that kid the right way to get to first grade and to get them to succeed later on it's amazing at a time period in a child's life where they grow the most it's important to fulfill that and like we said not everyone has that opportunity to do so ethically we talked about here the value to talk about the ethics of it that's also incredibly important as well thank you any other questions all right thank you good evening can you hear me good evening hi this is Amanda prito I live at One Yorktown Drive I'm a member of the wood stream neighborhood
075um I have a Saturday [Music] this evening said that there is nothing more important than security preparedness and the value of a life and to that end I am here representing many wood stream families this evening with serious concerns about the removal of bussing from the poolside neighborhood I would like to read for my notes so I am sure to cover all of the uh the notable highlights that I've been collecting from the neighbors many of whom are in the room tonight so first of all underscoring the safety of our children busing was offered as you mentioned to Woodstream several years ago as a means for students to get to and from Van Zandt Elementary School in a safe way therefore safety should never be compromised even in consideration of budget I would like it
076to be noted that we have contacted the Evesham Township Police Department and we are waiting a response to our open records submission we're requesting data on traffic stops speed tickets that were issued on Greentree Road other traffic and accident related data that we are certain will support the hazards and our concerns about Crossing Green Tree Road in addition we are looking into information around sex offenders in our area the reason being that children are now going to be expected to navigate on familiar streets near unfamiliar houses likely unsupervised at various hours of the day another Hazard that we've discussed is not only Greentree Road but the surrounding areas specifically close to the VanZant building which was built to have hold 250 students and now is around 600. we saw this in covid that the parking
077lot the surrounding streets cannot accommodate the number of increased volume of pedestrians and vehicles that we will see as a result of limited transportation from buses again we have a petition signed from Woodstream neighbors over 35 signatures from concerned parents who will be affected by this and we would like to state in addition to the other highlights that similar to how Colts run handled this situation we are prepared to amplify it through local media if needed thank you very much hello my name is Lauren zacconi I'm at eight Valley Forge Road I also live in the Woodstream neighborhood and I have one child currently attending Van Zant who does also take the bus as my neighbor stated our biggest concern is the safety of children Crossing Green Tree Road children as young as five going
078into kindergarten expected to cross that busy road as many of you know you likely travel that road it's a major cut through between Route 70 and Route 73 and it's often heavily trafficked and there are many times that police presence is there due to speeding other types of activity unfortunately very recently there was a story of a dangerous person who allegedly committed a very serious crime and stole a vehicle and was driving down Green Tree Road and was stopped [Music] um install another vehicle but regardless of all the details it was in the middle of the day which would be when the students would be at school leaving from school so that's with a heavily trafficked area Our concern is crossing that major roadway in the presentation there was mention of crossing guards we would
079like to know some more information about the other safety measures that would be implemented would there be more than one crossing guard would they be at multiple points along the Route because there's a large presence of students that would come from the Charter Oak Side of Greentree also the Brandywine side and also the neighborhoods in the Fox Chase area The Meadows would there also be additional crossing guards in the other streets because once our children cross Greentree then they're also expected to cross through other streets and navigate through the different neighborhoods to then get to the school um there was mention of a shortage of uh crossing guards previously which was one of the reasons that led to the busing what if some of the crossing guards are absent due to illness or anything like
080like that or their ample substitutes to take their places to maintain the safety for our children similarly in Colts run um a situation was presented where busing was proposed to be removed but the an agreement had been made to prioritize student safety and that bus had been preserved so we would like the same consideration in the Woodstream neighborhood because again we're just concerned for the children's safety on that busy road thank you seconded Mr Thompson any questions or comments regarding the appointments okay seeing none no coffee Mr Bach yes Mrs capella yes Mr physicaro yes Miss Fox yes Mr Kathy yes Mrs null yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson motion carries a motion to approve item 7.1 do I have a motion Mr Thompson Mr physicara any questions or comments regarding the minutes seeing them
081I'll call please Mr Bach yes Mrs capella Mr physicaro yes Miss Fox Mr Canton Mrs Knoll yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes motion carries we're going to move point one through eight points facts and Miss Capello thank you before we get into questions and comments I would like to give this more to Dr Smith once again thank you president Brian um we've had a couple big items already this evening a recognition of staff to save to life with one of our staff members plus our 23 24 budget presentation [Music] so big news we have even one more item I want to talk about tonight and uh [Music] and at least what happened [Music] foreign [Music] to determine the best path forward and the pros of the district calendar updated to reflect and embrace our
082community of amazing students today is a vital accordance to the success of our students today and for all tomorrows to come kids that are seen kids that are hurt kids that have belong feel better perform better and grow better I'd like to thank everyone for parents staff and students who've reached out to me about the possibility of having particular holidays to our calendar and I have heard from people over months in the past all those voices matter your voices matter and thank you Dr Smith any questions or comments regarding the superintendents report okay seeing them rock all things yes Mrs Fox yes okay yes yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes the commission carries okay moving to item nine curriculum instruction I would like a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.3 so I have
083a question Miss Nolan Mr Thompson thank you any questions or comments regarding curriculum instruction okay sorry under field trips I'm very interested in the Black Run Preserve special event field trips Marlton middle debasy middle who exactly can just tell me a little bit about that since I I'm so interested in that yeah yeah well there's a lot to say on that and I'll just give a teaser and then yeah yeah so um Watershed Alliance is working with our tier three programs in Middle School to provide opportunities for kids to basically put science into action for in a real authentic context and practical purpose personalized to their local community and what that means is they're going to go to the black run Reserve which is the gym the environmental gym that we have here in town
084in the southern town if you haven't been out to see it I've watched that preserve grow and sign into Trails which is improvements every year here but they're going to measure basically the biodiversity of the water and different key spots throughout the reserve see how it's changing most importantly is it being negatively impacted by essentially what is a growing Community all the time right and the data that they gather is going to become part of a database that guides playing in the decision making for the practice Watershed and there's also a tie into the University of Pennsylvania a graduate student who's doing the registration involving the same work so just a huge shout out to Mr John volpa president of the president of black run as well as the entire friends the black run for
085their support including a donation made today of two water barrels one of the MMS monarch butterfly project which I'm looking at two people right now it's bakulik for seizing the moment to apply for the grant for that project and Mr Hoffman principal of MMS for spearheading and overseeing like all the great things that happen in this including uh the idea for that project in the first place so um yeah any other questions or comments regarding curriculum instruction okay Mr Bach yes Mrs Capello yes Mr roscaro yes Miss Fox Mr Canton yes Mrs null yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes Mission carries Mr campaign second Mr any questions or comments regarding any of the items in finance and operation yesterday yeah I just wanted to applaud the finance committee for all the hard work over
086the last couple months to budget together especially Mr virginity and his leadership in that process um I said it last year you'll kind of just sit up here and say we need things for me right if it would be five percent off this we need 10 off this and then it's really the building level staff the principles of the leadership there that get it done so actually anything we just kind of made this stuff up so um I just wanted to again reiterate the fact that the finance committee is more than just the three of us who sit in that room every month um for every couple weeks I wanted to come in to build a global staff membership for really making it happen thank you Mr Hampton any other questions or comments regard okay
087Miss Noel I just wanted to comment on the student transportation contract with Noel since we weren't talking about transportations here 10.15 student transportation contract renewal this is the contract with Hillman's bus company and so they have agreed to um continue with the contract for another year at the increase of the CPI grade which is wonderful that they agree to that but I just wanted to point out to the public that the total amount of the contract is 1.9 million so that is quite a lot of money and Joe I will always remember when you said that to Macy classroom about they may have won the battle but we will win the war and I don't want you to forget that so any bus route that we could take back whether um it'd be bringing in
088more full-time bus drivers is very helpful that's awesome thank you any other questions though Mr President I mean I haven't forgotten it um I mean I don't really pay attention to half the things I say anymore but um no but seriously um no I I loathe these kind of contracts I don't like them um and you know it's and it's one of those things where you have no choice but you have to go with it until you can find the internal solution I look I I applaud The District in its efforts to reach out to find drivers and I I made my statement on that last meeting and I was very clear about that that that is something we need people that are around this around here we're talking about you know we're talking about
089safety of kids and we're talking about all that stuff but I'm a big believer that you have people from around this region who come in you have them in-house you train them the way you want them to be trained you have them in a system where you want them to be I think that's more important I think that is prevalent for for our for us to have in transportation I think the transportation department needs to grow I think the money is better spent growing the transportation internally than it is spending it on some free agent who's going to constantly raise their rates on us I feel like that all the time so no I have not forgotten that um but I am waiting so ever patiently for those people who are willing to step up
090and take those jobs and be a part of this culture in this community and I hope that again the the petulance of people who may be listening to us now maybe there's somebody out there who says you know what maybe that might be me maybe I'll do that and I think that will be a phenomenal idea because every time I spend a dollar on somebody who comes in here and wants to be a part of us is a better dollar spent than spending it on a free agent that I don't know what's going on over there who's going to constantly raise their rates however we if we don't think it's copacetic to say just okay just I'll tell you [Music] well driver safety is okay to say I'm just one of this okay put your
091money evham drivers are top notch and because I've been near Hill mix um you know I see how they drive and they're not coming to our schools I know other school district's higher levels but I've seen how some of them drive and you know that also is hard to swallow normal pain so much as well and any any time our students can see the same face over and over again it creates you know an inner safety thing once in a while so so we can get this number down to almost zero because that would be great any other questions or comments regarding guidance and operations Mr Bach yes Mrs Mrs Cavallo Mr physicaro yes Miss Fox yes Mr canson yes Mrs Knoll yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson yeah yeah motion carries I would like
092the motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.9 do I have a motion capella is tax thank you any questions or comments pertaining to personnel miss them okay retirements so I don't know if the moral to medal people very well but I been communicating with you Pond delandolfo who is so wonderful I'm sure she's touched many lives of the families in Marlton middle blue Hall I've only known her for a year and three quarters but she's always been very helpful and I want to wish her the best in her retirement and everyone else who would retire at the end of the year anyone else regarding personnel okay that's right that's right I uh I just wanted to congratulate uh Mr in this on his retirement and thank him for his uh many years of service to
093students um we wish him all the best and the next chapter I think um yeah I need to understand do you guys notice um I but I did want to shout out Mr Moyer at MMS and his retirement when I look back at being at MMS for me my most fun experience was getting the apartment the choir there and something that struck with me until today and I think Peter Cherokee and it was a very formative experience Mr Moore was required director of money so a heartfelt 19 to prevent all the lives that's touched over this process any other okay seeing none of coffee Mr Bach yes Mrs capalo yes Mr physicaro yes Miss Fox yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thompson motion carries [Music] on your policy so we'll
094move on to um committee reports does any committee chair have a report they wish to share power we met foreign [Music] draft and I also want to remind everybody that some performance reports are working out and find School reports on the district website it is by school it's also by District you really are curious you can go to the doe website and see every school in the states take care any other committee reports we're going to move into Old business which we do not have new business we do not have and now we're going to move into open public comments the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any ideas however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel personal Lighthouse or negotiations we ask that you students superintendent after the
095meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person and off is meant for one comment s is there anyone that wishes to speak during public comment seeing none includes public comment are there any questions or comments to come to board Mr physical I just want to uh I want to talk about something real quick the we weren't here last last meeting we were over at moral to Middle because they were putting on a production of Legally Blonde in in this I will call it a theater in this theater because that's what this this is really to me um I came to see it I came to see it I brought some of my uh my Cherokee actors with me and I have
096to tell you to watch this program grow see how not only has it flourished but watching watching these these middle school kids get serious opportunities to do legitimate musicals I I can't tell you how how important that is um not every kid is a sports kid not every kid can play football or play basketball some kids they just use the other side of their brain all right and to see that opportunity here and to see this place jam-packed to see them and to see everything they did that um as a theater guy myself and as a member of this board that warms my heart and I am extraordinarily proud of of those students I hopefully look forward to seeing them someday on on a bigger stage but I also want to say that the staff
097that puts on that production when there's it's a large staff I mean they bring a lot of they got a lot of Volunteers in there all right all the way from the top but married all the way down they have really built something special here and I am very willing to move a board meeting in March for them any any uh any year they were really really spectacular and I wish them all the best in their in their future Productions or comments because it's not just the performers it's also the behind the scenes truly something for everyone that wants to get involved absolutely 100 100 correct I should have mentioned that and that's that's my bet uh but the uh stage crew the lighting design sound design students run those things they run those things
098they built those things they put those things together they put their time in stage crew's a funny group I mean they put a lot of work into what they do all right but they don't want the Adoration they just want to know that their job is good I know that from my stage crew I mean that's they operate they operate in the shadows all the time but those kids deserve as much recognition because they put together beautiful set pieces beautiful lighting design um and they should be really proud of that I'll just end by saying thank you to all the administrative assistants in our district I know I'm a daily but they do a lot of work behind the scenes and they do a lot of work that's not noticed so thank you very very
099much and last week was volunteer Appreciation Week so to all of our volunteers parents staff and our board members sitting thank you for all your time very very much appreciation week and every school has some wonderful things planned and you just reminded me because um parents are asked to donate if they can to make that food even more special so yeah I just want to give a shout out to the teachers yes I was going to say that next week is Teacher Appreciation Week so thank you in advance to all of our teachers and staff throughout the buildings we appreciate you the students appreciate you and the parents any closing remarks I think we can end it on that note at this point I'm turned Mr physical Miss Noel all those in favor aye