001foreign [Music] foreign Township Board of Education to order a pursuant to the open public meetings at academic public notice has been given by the secretary of the Eastern Township Board of Education in the following manner hosting great notice on the official bullets award at the Board of Education Office emailing written notices to the Burlington County Times And The Courier Post filing written notice with the municipal clarification Township may I have a role called please Mr Bob foreign Mr Thompson during a public meeting Stephen necessary to discuss certain matters which are executive from the public and whereas the regular meeting of the board were reconvened by the end of the closed session at approximately 7 30. now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session thank you thank you any questions
002or comments roll popping Mr Bach yes excuse me Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Katherine yes Mrs null Miss Lee yes this is Ryan yeah Mr Thompson motion carries [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] assistant thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you [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] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign
003[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] all right [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign thank you foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] risk-taking and responsible decision making respect themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society thank you Dr Smith the floor is your recipient presentations yes yeah it's nice to go without the mic but um the mic helps um so just acknowledging first that we're at Marlton middle school tonight which is um a change of venue for a wonderful reason which is that lovely blonde Junior the demisi musical will be tomorrow and two two showings on Saturday and I'll give the times later and my
004superintendent comments but um that's why we're here tomorrow middle tonight that's why we see so much maroon in the house um and uh those at home can't see but one of the wonderful aspects of the space here is we have flags of the countries of our families of our basically our families and kids um heritages uh stretched all the way across the wall and it's just a great backdrop for everything we talk about because um you know at all times we're talking about our entire community so tentative budget presentation very exciting a lot of work has gone into this presentation through discussions from our Board of Education our finance committee our many meetings as a cabinet and our full administrative team curriculum Department special services department other staff involved to be able to get to
005this moment tonight and we're going to start with the um I'm going to start with a dead battery I think I'm going to start with separate proposal question number one full day kindergarten so the variable that's different this year from any other budget year is we are doing separate proposals we're doing two actually so the first one is full day kindergarten I'm just going to read it and this will be uh basically up for Community vote November 7 2023 so this year 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 24-25 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
006tax levy these proposed additional expenditures are in addition to those necessary to achieve the New Jersey student learning standards it's so exciting to get to read that this is the number one District goal for the three years from 2022 to 2025 we determined using a separate proposal as the means to achieve it through board discussion Community discussion um and this also want to thank the um the Community Voices that came out last spring to help bring emphasis to this issue we are good at so much we do so much well in Evesham in etsd this is an area where we can do a bit better you know and this this is a great opportunity for um are all of us to take that step so there are only eight districts out of 600 in the
007state that charge tuition for full day kindergarten so that's a very small group um and we charge 5500 a year for full decay and that is set at that number because we want bullying kindergart we want our kindergarten program to basically pay for itself that makes sense the the the problem is that puts full day kindergarten Out Of Reach financially for many families you know and it is hard to to limit Educational Opportunity based on a family's income so this is fantastic it will cost annually about ninety eight dollars a year which is um I would phrase it as a can of paint and accessories is one way to think about it I definitely think there's nothing anyone can buy in Lowe's or Home Depot that'll increase property value as much as passing this question
008there truly are people who moved to the Other M towns around us because they don't have to pay extra for full Decay there so we will talk a lot more about this question as we move forward it's still not finalized until the final budget passes on April 27th that's when really when the work will start in Earnest but um the uh for now it just feels great to finally be at this moment where we're talking about it tonight moving on to question number two so mental health services so the reason that we held off and we didn't do the full day K question last November is because we knew that this budget cycle preparing the budget for 23 24 school year was going to be the most challenging yet right we weren't a seven year
009long Saga of state aid reduction we're currently in year five preparing our budget for year six each year has gotten harder because we can't cut what we already cut so we held off in case we needed to have a second question for things that we could we we need but would be too difficult to pay for out of our regular budget and Mental Health Services I'll read it but this is an area of extreme need everywhere and in schools to provide Mental Health Services for elementary and middle school students shall Evesham Township School District be authorized to raise an additional 190 000 for General funds in the 24-25 school year and then it has the same statement underneath that the prior question head okay and we would use that directly to serve kids this slide
010kind of tells the story of why we need to ask these questions so districts can only raise the local tax levy cap two percent a year now inflation right now is over six percent so that gives a little indication of how there is an Ever widening gap between what it actually costs for things and what districts can actually raise in terms of Revenue and the two numbers at the bottom that are highlighted we want to draw a particular attention to that lost tax levy Revenue almost three million dollars so basically what that means is that over the past years our district did not take the two full the full two percent tax levy that it could have it could have we could have just taken it but in good faith and being fiscally prudent because
011we are at the end of the day stewards of taxpayer resources we let those resources remain with the taxpayers and went without them had we taken that money we would not even be asking these two questions we would not we would be able to pay for free full Decay and the mental health services we did not need that money then we absolutely need it now so in good faith again we are coming to our community to ask for money that we could have taken previously but we didn't need it that at that time we def we definitely need it now there are districts all around us that are expanding preschool full day preschool using state aid because it's a state goal to provide free full day preschool we're going to miss that that opportunity if
012we can't get old AK for all our kids first a little bit of History you can see from this slide just our budget has barely budged in the past six years this slide tells the story of the law state aid so our state aid that we're getting is less than half of what we received just a few years ago and so we've lost we went from almost 14 million in state aid to just over 7 million that actual number here so for this the budget we built for the 23 21st school year was crafted despite the loss of 737 thousand dollars in state aid which um adds to that estimated total when the dust settles after the seventh and final year next year um when we go through we build the 2425 budget of over
013seven million dollars in lost aid if we translate that into positions budgetarily we figure seventy five thousand dollars for a teaching position that's step one teacher Plus benefits so every 1.5 million is essentially 20 teaching positions so six million dollars would be 80 teaching positions and we're losing over seven million so to to pull that off means fewer people fewer hands fewer hearts working harder than ever because kids need more now than they ever have and I just you know acknowledge our staff for continuing to provide Excellence every day despite that number dropped on us from the state budget goals same as they always have been these are the primary colors of how we develop our budget maintaining effectiveness of our Educational Services while costing less money adjusting staff positions for enrollment we'll talk about
014that a little bit later continued focus on student achievement of course because our mission is student growth and that's what we steer by with all we do including developing a budget and I'm going to pass it off to Mr Ashanti to talk a bit about the proportions good evening everybody this first slide is the appropriation side the expense side of the 23 24 budget and as as in past years you can see that Staffing the first line and benefits the second line is the majority of our budget it's almost 80 percent of our total budget um then operations of transportation that that's up seven percent over last year and a lot of that's due to that word that nobody wants to hear inflation but that's you know it's affecting us like it's affecting everybody else
015the uh things that we buy the surfaces that we um pay for are all up um then then the next line is the special ed um budget and that's that's up a little over uh a little under six percent and then goes on with all the other items which are relatively flat compared to uh um where they were okay so on this slide we're gonna we're looking at the uh current budgets that we have right now the 2223 and comparing it to the 2324 to see the increases and decreases um through the lines and you look at obviously the Staffing and the uh District uh budget at the top with the with the benefits um they've been pretty relatively uh the same slight increases in in both areas so we were really you know happy
016with that that really helped us balance this uh budget um the next line down the operations is transportation um is extra is up really a lot compared to uh last year it's up over a million dollars it increased to 22 percent and um part part of that is last year when we when we put the 2223 budget together what we projected the transportation's costs to be for this current year um came in a lot higher actually the the contractor did not renew the contract we had to put it out the bid again and uh the the bid that came back was much higher so that helped drive that uh huge increase in the differentials between the two years because obviously we had to you know include the shortage from last year on to this year's
017budget and also include how much we were going to project that the contract will go up again this year um so that's you know the the Big Driver there on the on that increase special ed if you look at the two years stuff like seven hundred thousand dollars that's up 17 uh compared to uh last year and then from there most of the other line items are relatively uh flat and minor changes the capital projects line which is uh the third from the bottom um that's down but we're just we're doing less projects and that comes from uh funds outside of our operating budget they're um funds that are set aside only to be used for Capital uh projects so this year we only have two projects so that's why that's down click twice all
018right um now the other side of the budget obviously is the revenue where where's the money come to pay for all the expenses um and this this slide we're comparing the 2223 to the 2324 budget um our miscellaneous Revenue was up this year we're projecting would be up 191 000 which is good um the amount the next two lines together combined together the amount of fund balance our budgeted Surplus we're putting much more in than we did last year so that that also helped balance our budget and then from there everything else is pretty much about the same all right so when you when you compare the revenues against the Appropriations for we're projecting for the 2324 budget um you know people say well we don't want any tax levy increase we want to we
019want a zero increase well for us that's the the first First Column for us to be able to to do that we'd have to cut another 1.3 million from the budget if we only want to go with a one percent increase we'd have to cut about 650 000 from the budget and then at our two percent that we're allowed to increase the budget that's that's where we're at where that that gives us you know the zero difference and then the next column of from that is um if we had any uh Bank cap which we don't or if there was any waivers which was like the healthcare waiver which we didn't qualify for this year so we couldn't raise any additional monies there so that that that's basically that's where we ended up our the
020last column our uh our uh balanced budget at all right so I guess the most important slide to to the the community as well what's it going to cost me you know all those numbers sound great but what's it going to cost me so when you look at the calculation now our budget is is a fiscal budget it's July to June where taxes are raised on the calendar budget from January to December so the First Column is the second half of our current budget the tax levy then you take half of that amount then you then the the proposed budget for 23.24 is the tax levy with the two percent increase to it half of that for the uh for the calendar year to get your 23 calendar tax levy so you add the two
021numbers together that gives you the 65 million 492 629 that gets uh divided into the rateables you look at what last year's tax rate is compared to the new tax rate the increases a little about two and a half cents and for the average homeowner what it means is and the average home assessed in Marlton right now is at 272 628 so the person that has a house in that range is going to pay 69.45 more a year when we do the final budget presentation there'll be a slide that will give you different ranges on on you know what your house values are but for the purposes right now because it's only a tentative budget we just use what the average home value is right now thanks Mr Ashanti so we're going to move on
022to uh non-staffing savings we always we wish we could pretty much balance our budget just through non-staffing because with 80 percent of our I mean our staff our greatest resource and eighty percent of our budget goes to Staffing salaries and benefits which makes it really really hard to to generate Savings in non-staffing areas especially when um non-staffing costs are increasing it due to inflation at such a high rate so uh four bus routes I'll talk about those in a moment eliminated and that is a savings anticipated of 120 000 which is a sizable amount given the circumstances we're in it also is driven by the fact that um and I've said it many many board meetings that we we will provide all training all licensing fees for anyone interested in becoming a bus driver for
023etsd it is extremely competitive right now and will continue to be well into next year and probably Beyond to find bus drivers and to even just be able to continue to bust the students that we have committed to bus means tightening our belt in terms of the courtesy busing that we do provide the second item activity fee increase bumping up a bit I would just point out for that that um I would invite anyone to reach out to me if they think they can find a more robust extracurricular program at elementary or middle school anywhere I'd love to know because if we could when we could see what they're doing and maybe add that too okay but there are districts some districts that don't have any Elementary extracurriculars and our elementary creatures look like Middle
024School extracurriculars in some places so there's a lot of value for that activity fee but we do need to increase it a bit so on to the the bus route changes so fans ant and I will share this uh entire Presentation tomorrow in my update my weekly update so everybody can see it we want everybody to be aware um this is the part of Woodstream that's a cross green tree from Van Zant um and we are in communication with the township including Township engineer and police about all these changes and we have been actually for for over a year now going back to last spring and before and as we as we had studies done on different changes around town as we tried to prioritize of course keeping safety in mind foremost always those 33
025students represent a bus route so that's thirty thousand dollars saved um there may need to be additions right so like crossing guards different other improvements as we go through these changes and those are still being determined through our collaboration with the township the second piece for Van Zant is that Fox Chase neighborhood that's next to the slide I just showed those students are also on the other side of Greentree from Van Zant and there is a cut through sidewalk that they can take to not have to walk out towards whole Tech they can take a shortcut through to get to Greentree directly from Fox Chase jaggered so this is uh area of dominions that's south of brick and west of Evans and you can see in the lower corner of that slide there's a crosswalk
026across Evans that goes to Arendale which currently has a crossing guard for high school students so uh and and those kids can we use that and of course that means again in conversation with the township talking about crossing guard hours and things like that just below that still on the west side of Evans south of brick is the other section that's a that's contiguous to what I just showed that's 24 students at 24 plus 8 is about about a bus route about another thirty thousand dollars in savings um Briarwood so we have 33 middle school students which is about a bus route they um not Elementary so the reason why just middle couple reasons but when students walk when they exit Briarwood there they reach Tomlinson Mill there's a sidewalk there they can walk down
027that sidewalk and again we were talking with the township about different improvements which will certainly include um a safe way for students to cross and they can move across staying the entire time on sidewalk so they're on sidewalk along Tomlinson Mill on the Briarwood side then they cross perpendicular across Tomlinson Mill and they step onto sidewalk on this on the MMS side of Tomlinson Mill and then they stay on sidewalk the whole time as they walk down Tom Munson Mill hang a right into the MMS Zone and just follow that sidewalk all the way down not having to cross the parking lot in any way around to the school for mes kids would have to cross that entrance to wear MMS mes kind of complexes which is why one reason why we're going incremental and
028just looking at middle school for next year I was just reading a letter from a student an mes student actually wishing he could walk to school he'll be disappointed but he'll be at MMS before long and onto Staffing reductions so we started we actually had meetings we did something a little different this year we we had meetings with staff to talk about Staffing impact before this budget presentation and the reason for that this year was those separate questions which were the first two slides in the presentation um we're going to have and did during those Staffing impact meetings had a program in them okay and you can see there's a line through two positions Ms FCS that stands for family consumer science so that was in the second separate proposal question we were able to
029take it back out it was in there because it was going to be out of our budget and it was going to be out of our budget because we were projected to lose 938 000 in state aid we lost about 194 000 less than that still still lost over 700 700 000 but it was less bad than anticipated we've also had um more breakage through retirements than anticipated which have allowed us to put FCS back in the budget which is a wonderful thing that's why it has the line through it okay and I want to just on that note thank um as I stated at the beginning all the different um folks stakeholders who've been involved in developing the budget and for that item in particular I want to thank etea for providing some feedback
030that helped us with our thinking about how to be as strategic as possible with that adjustment the um the Middle School general education I'll talk about in a second we'll kind of go through all these pieces the reason there's a line through five paraprofessional positions is also because of that 194 000 Less in stated reduction and the uh additional breakage that we got so we talked a little bit ago about adjusting Staffing for enrollment that was one of the three goals on an earlier slide we have done that every year a sizable chunk of each Year's budget has been looking at class size and unfortunately but necessarily that is meant class size increases in elementary each of the last two years when we started that process our class sizes were lower than average for our
031surrounding districts and now they are on average not higher but on average with surrounding districts but it has gotten to the point where our Elementary class sizes in certain instances may even be higher than some of our Middle School class sizes younger kids need smaller class size more so for our budget this year we are achieving some savings with an incremental New Direction in sixth grade to Macy and the highlighted number there 206 so the way our middle schools are structured and this is uh rare because we have a house system it's wonderful both middle schools have two houses so it's almost like four schools four buckets you could think about each of those houses has five sections so ten sections per grade per Middle School 206 divided by 10 is a class size of
03220.6 which rounds to 21 which would actually be less than fifth grade fourth grade third grade second grade which isn't right it's not so that will change and I'll talk about that in a second before I switched off this slide you can see MMS in two years is projected to have an enrollment of 208 so what we are doing for DMS next year in sixth grade we will learn from it as we do with everything we do and it will probably end up serving as a model for what we might need in future years at either School so what I'm talking about is and this is a sample I just want to make sure that's really really clear right sample sample sample we're going to eliminate a section in each house so each house will
033now have four sections instead of five what that does is the four remaining teaching positions in the core content areas in each of those houses our teachers our core content teachers teach five sections so they will have a free section every day and they will use that to pick up a section of the eliminated position and again those arrows are just samples this is we are we have worked this out vetted this and it and and it works in multiple different ways key variables are teacher interest certifications and other factors you know and and I would say among that the chief is uh probably teacher interest you know because this is new right we have many teachers that can teach more than one subject but maybe have not ever or in a long time so
034you know it actually is we talk about turning challenges into opportunities this is the epitome of that an opportunity to you know kind of embody that to teach is to learn and to grow it's um it reminds me as I look at it like I taught seventh grade about 25 years ago uh language arts and social studies in Eugene Oregon great little Middle School Shasta Middle School I also had a section of PE health class of 35 kids that's just to illustrate like there's a reason why jerseys there are many reasons why Jersey is number one in education um you can imagine one of them would be if you had to teach a class of 35 kids um four subjects in a day um I loved it though I loved it wouldn't you know those
035are things I look back on finally I did go on the website for that school recently because I couldn't remember the names of the houses they were named after mountain ranges in the in the Pacific Northwest and uh the houses are gone the houses are gone uh they are now more of a traditional Junior High model which is a budgetary move most often it's one that we are trying we have avoided with a move like this so by doing this because we have talked every year about our house system we can achieve savings by modifying it of course the most savings would be achieved by just flat out eliminating it but because of its value and its place in sort of what we try to do for kids using that team model we've preserved it
036but it means getting creative a bit like this um so it's very exciting to see what's going to come out of this um and uh you know just just uh anyone who's ever taught more than one subject knows that by doing that you're able to teach what you've always taught so much better right uh horizontal articulation between those subjects we're able to embed like frame the learning and language arts better for kids because you know social the social studies and praying it better in math because you've taught science because those disciplines are in effect artificial right the world doesn't like in in the job world in the everyday adult world no one says okay now I'm going to do math for 45 minutes a day and I'm not going to do it again the rest
037of the day you do what you need to do to get the job done whatever it is you're doing this embodies that a bit a bit better um so it's and it actually just one of the positives of it look we you know here tonight we're actually talking about curriculum right we're talking about teaching we're talking about pedagogy through a budget that's a positive um and uh so we'll we'll you know keep working the details through through our team meetings with this but again um very exciting so far and um it may serve us well in future years special education so if we go back to this slide uh there are there were four positions listed there and this is again about class size so um within certain classes there is a class size within
038the class size in certain instances so when we have students who have in-class support in their IEPs their individualized education plans the cap the maximum cap on the number of students with that support with that program placement in their IEP is 10 in Middle School we traditionally have had 12 in class support teachers per Middle School we've run the numbers we can make it work with 10 it would mean for example instead of having foreign class Support classes with a sick students each we only have three with eight students each it's always staying under that Max cap of 10. I left this slide in just struck through because this kind of gives people a little window into like all the ripples that would have come out of eliminating this program we have talked each year
039about how at some point programs might be touched as we continue to get affected by stated reductions obviously as you can see this year became the closest ever so close to that it was in the budget until like basically last week um the and all those ripples you know and you think well is it that's a lot to go through for 150 000 in savings and absolutely correct it absolutely is a lot to go through but when there's when when you're we're living on the margins to the degree that we are right now those sorts of steps are necessary it's like why are we doing a separate question for mental health services for 190 000 it seems like so little but we don't have 190 000 for that you know and we need it so
040yes we are doing a separate question for that because it's that important and we know that next year we're going to lose another 230 000 in state aid projected plus the extra money will run out all the federal uh relief money that districts got which we got a lot less than other districts as Can Be Imagined because our stated has been reduced um and it will run out and we've been using it for for those services so this slide is maybe the toughest slide in a way and the question will come up and and I I have full faith that about the separate question both separate questions will pass because they are important and they do help kids and if it doesn't appeal to people even on sort of the the moral ethical level on
041the personal financial level it's also well well worth it the uh but nonetheless we need to just Broach that conversation a little bit right now in anticipation of the inevitable question what happens if it doesn't pass how you know how would we pay for free full Decay through a regular budget because it's set at 1.9 million a year so that's a lot of money right we were just talking about family consumer science which is 150 000 a year so these are just some possibilities with some dollar figures just to give people an idea of what um what that represents um I would say I mentioned earlier about limiting the Middle School House system 525 thousand dollars uh that could be a standalone change it's one we're reluctant to do right we haven't done it um
042the other two changes would have to happen in tandem so fifth grade centers at middle schools can't happen unless we had more room at middle schools especially at the Macy because demacia also houses to Macy Elementary School and to close to Macy Elementary School would mean needing room for where those students go which means getting fifth grade out of elementary schools big that would be big right we don't want to do that um don't even want to talk about it but feel behooved to mention it because more information is more awareness and we want maximum awareness for the ballot questions ultimately backwards design what we don't want is we don't want anyone anyone anyone coming and saying if I had only known you know but only known so just those are some selling properties for
043development country farms Cambridge so those are the two properties um that we have been in conversation with the township about purchasing for a few years um it's it's a hard thing to put on a ballot side I I I one point live next to uh a place that was going to get developed and you know I I can remember going through that um in my role now I mean it's it's hard to not put it up there because at the end of the day it's what is our mission is our mission to have land that is we have to maintain and mow but which doesn't actually serve kids or is it to provide free full day education in kindergarten for our youngest youngest children you know investing in them as much as we can as
044early as we can so it pays dividends every year of their Journey with us a Level Playing Field for everybody other steps the last bullet that's a big umbrella right it's a big umbrella I would just mention like one tiny little example just because there's that white space is just so empty it's calling out for a little example um would be uh busing for after school activities right so some districts don't provide but they have after school activities but kids have to parents have to find their own way to get the kids home you know we provide that busing that's not going to get us the 1.9 but that's a that's something that not every place does um budget timeline March 20th budget due to the county office April 27th we're gonna that's our regular
045board meeting we're going to combine it with our final budget approval meeting kind of like we combined our regular March meeting with our tentative budget approval meeting today and then the big date November 7th general election day etsd separate questions vote um really really like just so excited that we're that we're talking we're finally talking about this and getting this process started and if I jump back because that is ultimately like kind of the end of the presentation but just to end where we started um you know the opportunity to um not a lot of communities have such an authentic meaningful concrete opportunity to talk about Who We Are and who we can be and that like whatever that question says the question behind the question is who are we as a community and who
046can we be as a community what can we be as a community that's such an important powerful question and to get to ask it in a way that can ultimately benefit kids I can't imagine a better scenario it's not theoretical it truly is it's visceral and impactful for thousands of lives um and uh I look forward to all of us trying to answer that question together over the next six months as you work towards passing that question and on the speaking of the word question any questions Dr Smith thank you I thank you for this presentation um all the time that that you and and your team is put into this not even just this year but over the last several years all right that we've been impacted greatly by State a reductions and yet
047we've done you have done and your team has done and everything in in the power to try to make that impact not fail and I I'm very impressed by that a couple things really um just had a a question for you in terms of question one uh about question um when we talk about that one of the fears is probably going to pop up is the idea of if this gets passed what happens to my kid are they going to go to the school in their full day kindergarten school that be the school they're going to go to first second third fourth fifth grade I'm so glad you asked that because I actually wanted to mention that so there will be no there's at this current time there is no rezoning needed okay for a
048free full day Okay so I knew that would be a fear yeah because rezoning scares people yeah and the idea that their kid can be uprooted it it's good to have that out there to know that a vote for full day kindergarten does not mean a vote for redistricting their child at that correct correct and we've we've looked at this it's um it is you could say so we remember recall um last year at this time I was talking about Barton run would be attending mes starting this past September right we did that which was had multiple purposes but did have kindergarten was one of the reasons for that and then we moved a few classes from jaggered to Rice again to free up some some space that jaggered VanZant is currently our tightest school
049for space but can also accommodate free full day kindergarten awesome um second thing and I think this is more of a comment than as a question when I look back at this at this uh look back at this presentation and I think it's on slide it's an early slide I think it shows it shows the increases and it shows increase in particular transportation and it shows it at a 22 increase um I I just want to uh when I say this every year so I feel like you know this is still something that's really important to me and I I don't know I'm not really addressing you Dr Smith as might be addressing the public more uh but it's it's important if you're somebody who has the skill set to drive who has the skill
050set to drive a bus I should say that has that license and has that ability to do so all right and there's no reason not to apply for this we have a 22 increase in transportation that in all intents and purposes has nothing to do with us all right it has more to do with a a contract that was canceled on us that we had to go back into rebid and off costs that are out of our realm of what we can deal with we are hot Tied by a private entity but every time that we have the ability to hire a bus driver correct me if I'm wrong on this one that actually saves us by reducing the costs on that end correct so so when we every Transportation if we hire a driver
051it means we have to Outsource fewer routes if we reduce routes in terms of what we're like with the transportation changes the increased walking that means fewer routes that we have to Outsource now that's assuming that our driver pool is staying consistent correct but the whole time through we're constantly in competition with companies and and to your point about the uh the rates increasing like we live on a fixed budget you know our budget can only increase two percent a year in local tax levy cap that's it a private company that that can can raise its rates on us to pay for their increased wages for their drivers so we're competing against Private Industry in that sense and are always going to lose like a company can out pay us for let's say support staff
052positions you know um like the and you see we see it throughout Society where hourly wages are increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey's increasing companies can increase those wages and then pass the costs onto customers through increasing the price of their goods or their services we cannot we can only increase the tax level two percent a year so we're always going to lose in competition against private bus companies yeah so you know I just and I appreciate that because I just want to drive that point home uh and I I'm always a believer that it's better to have homegrown and I believe it's better to have your own people in your own Fleet and have them serve the community have the people in this community be hired to serve the community I think is
053always more important and I think it's important also to the idea that it can help us reduce this so and I said this is not a a comment towards you Dr Smith it's to anybody who's actually listening to us uh and is listening to this presentation online that if you're someone with a skill set that can handle this job please and if I can just just add to that for a second I'm so glad you brought that up because it really ties into another topic which is just staffing needs in general you know so so we've done we did our first ever District staff District job fair this year we've talked about um staffing needs a multiple board meetings over half of our staff live in Evesham so so when you were saying about the
054chance to serve the community you live in that's lived out on a daily basis by over half of our staff and for many of our drivers and I'm thinking of their faces right now um they are grandparents of kids in our district they are parents of kids in our district they are driving for us because they care about serving the community that essentially serves them and that is sounds a bit rosy-eyed but it is ultimately the a greater reward in a lot of cases than um making an extra x amount somewhere else why thank you Dr Smith I I thank you for putting this together I thank you for this presentation and uh answering and my questions and my statement so thank you any other questions okay we'll move on with our agenda like I
055said this uh presentation will be shared um with everyone via my update tomorrow thank you speak up and to also limit your comments to one time in Republic comment period is there anyone good evening how are you good evening hello hello my name is Brian whiskowitz first vice president for etea I would like to thank the board and Dr Smith for working with us to reconsider the proposed cut of the family and consumer science program at both middle schools Dr Smith as you mentioned it was discussed with us at building level Staffing meetings this month this cut would have had many negative trickle-down effects for our students it also would have eliminated a class that teaches our students important life skills and quite frankly one that they truly love thank you for meeting with us
056and reconsidering and I look forward to continuing to be a tough judge at Future muffin Bay Golf competitions thank you there'll be another public comment section at the end at this point we're going to move forward with the approval of the minutes I would like a motion to approve item 6.1 6.2 and 6.3 do I have a motion Mr Canton Miss Lee any questions or comments regarding for the minutes Mr Block Mr Beckham excuse me it's fine I get of all time sorry yes Mrs capella yes Mr physicaro yes to six more abstain from six two okay Mr Kathy yes Mrs null yes Mrs Lee yes this is Ryan yes Mr Thompson yes Mission carries thank you at this point we're going to move to item seven superintendent's report and administrative items do I have
057a motion to approve item 7.1 through 7.6 this capella Mr Thompson before we get into questions and comments I will give the floor once again to Dr Smith thank you Mrs Ryan I will keep my comments brief this evening as I talked to plenty during the budget presentation I can't resist though plugging two exciting District Events first to Macy Middle School's great Swiss Musical Legally Blonde Junior with three performances tomorrow Friday at 7 pm and then on Saturday next week on March 22nd 6 30 to 8 PM in Tennessee this event is designed to promote the overall health and well-being of adults and children alike students and their families will have opportunities throughout the night to learn about healthy eating participate in Fitness or mindfulness activities to read to our district therapy dogs they are
058serious celebrities and talk with various Health experts covering topics such as Dental Health Mental Health Nutrition child anxiety and more hope to see you all there one last note related to Wellness March 16th this is an auspicious day as it was three years ago the very first day that all schools in the state of New Jersey were closed due to the pandemic three years ago today and our district administrators teachers support staff leapt into action to make that worst scenario of remote learning as rewarding as possible throughout that spring and then when we came back in person in September 2020 at the earliest moment possible with full days of school and live stream instruction from day one and throughout and it just again every day I'm grateful to all of our staff for their incredible
059work throughout the entire long period every bit of effort that then matters so much to kids today and everything in their lives and I just feel everybody's who is involved in that should feel good for the rest of their lives about what they did because we know those experiences have impacted our children in ways that will linger for years to come with that knowledge I'd also like to reinforce for all of us staff families in our community the importance of showing kindness and keeping a Calm Mind we can be sourced to Wellness for each other through how we treat each other through the kindness and calmness that we share and model thank you any questions or comments on the board regarding the superintendent contract okay see none of our properties in the sufficient team Mr
060Bach yes Mrs yes Mr President yes Mr yes thank you any objections from the board to moving forward with the consent agenda okay seeing the United motion to approve all items included in sections eight through eleven Ms capella Mr Thompson any questions or comments regarding items eight through eleven I just want to acknowledge the Evesham Education Foundation there's another two requests this month thing we had requested funding last month for some of our summer programs and also some mental health support so the money that is raised through their events or directly to our students this month we are asking for which is wonderful frames for the art show eyes on art and then also for two active boards so I do want to acknowledge that group they were very hard and thank you to all
061the community members who participate in their events thank you Mrs Noel anyone else on the board have any comments or questions regarding items eight through eleven okay seeing none roll call please Mr efficiency Mr Bach yes Mr yes yes Mrs little yes Miss Lee yes this is Ryan yes moving on to committee reports does any committee chair have a report they wish to share this time Mr physicara I'll be extraordinary brief with this for finance and operations because we just spent the last hour really honestly discussing finance and operations but I want uh you know to just talk a little bit about the work that went into this and we spent clinics and operations you know just talking to Dr Smith and Mr rashanti get on a constant basis about the budget and we're getting
062to see the process for you know a couple of life and again um you know this this committee I'm very proud to be on this committee and the people that have served on it and very proud of what we were able to do here because again I can't emphasize this enough I mean the amount of state aid cut we were talking about this year 50 over the last several years all right and this is where we are bloodletting as possible and I'm profoundly proud of them so my my committee report is the fact that we have in the last several months been working on this diligently and in particular to Dr Smith from the super Shanty for president any other person would like to give a committee report this time okay I would just like
063to give a thank you to the board and administrative team for all the work on the budget but also at the last special Board of Education meeting we set aside two hours but we were there for three and a half hours doing the important work on a Saturday so um I would like to thank everyone for giving up their time and being so diligent in your dedication to making sure the best is for our kids coming forward so thank you all right moving on to new business we don't have any new business we do not have any old business and now we'll move into the second public comments the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your questions are comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items
064or negotiations we asked using superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you're living your comments to three minutes per person and also this section is meant for one comment per person is there anyone any questions okay name and address please go from there because seeing the changes that would be made would be really painful to this District so will we go back and talk about it as a Township I mean we've done so much of talking to the state and gotten very little for all the budget changes thank you thank you you're welcome wait we've talked we've told them we need money yes um so we will look at it whatever you say is each district each ham leads to find his own path forward and
065about what a separate question doesn't pass is plenty two just under the umbrella of all um sometimes districts assess how the book turned out the outcome they do that data to drive their decision to move forward you know so um you know what's the what's the market um keeping in mind at the same time you have districts are only going in the direction of visual website and eventually I mean right now um they're expanding people and um it's painful to see that and it's like hearing people having a great time okay right next door and not being able to go I mean because they're getting money from the mistake to do it all right so um our kids deserve that our Tech communities maybe even in conversation with those other eight districts right I am
066you know Financial hard place like we are those places the ones I'm thinking of so that still charge tuition you know um and locally here in South Jersey it's us and Morristown So yeah thank you yeah thank you thank you thank you any questions or comments from the board questions eliminate Middle School houses to 525 000 close to Macy Elementary six hundred thousand dollars the fifth grade centers at middle school so that's moving on fifth graders to the middle schools 225 000 that is 1.35 million dollars we are still 550 000 short if that happens right what does this say they say the valve question has to pass how do we do that with the community right as a board we cannot and will not say that you should vote Yes right without the question
067we can only tell you to go vote so performing the community outreach committee right the community outreach board is on multiple times to talk about the ballot question we've met on a Saturday as a whole board to talk about the valid question the next step is really to involve you all in the community to be able to get that message out to ensure that everyone is informed enough to be able to make an informed vote to come down with yourself I'm looking forward to that and I'll just say on that note Mr Canton um I'll put it in my update again tomorrow but I shared an update earlier this year about anyone who's interested in being part of that committee to get the word out um so the original Club we're always that that offer
068is always on the table anyone is interested um just reach out to me and I'll share that reminder again tomorrow um and we will there will be more information coming out soon to the folks who've uh you know you know showed interest to be part of that effort and we're thankful for them now and we're thankful for them every stage of the way through to November 7th okay at this time I need a motion I'm going to ask for a motion to go into our second executive session whereas an njsa 10-4-12 allows for our public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas Board of Education of Eastern Township has deemed it necessary to go into closed session to discuss certain matters which are accepted from the public and whereas the
069regular meeting of the board will reconvene following the end of the closed session and approximately 9 45 now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into session for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 can I have a motion please Miss Noel second Mr Thompson is this right no action oh yeah I know that was coming next any questions or comments okay roll call please Mr Bob yes this is Apollo yes Mr physicara yes Mr King that's this is no yes this is yes Mrs Ryan yes Mr Thomas yes motion carries thank you we'll see you all approximately 9 45 and at that time no action will be taken by the board foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music]
070foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you foreign um [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] um [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign this meeting of the Eastern Township Board of Education any closing remarks
071on the board okay never mind so at this point [Applause]