001foreign I would like to call this meeting of the Eastern Township Board of Education to order pursuant to the open public meetings act adequate public notice has been given by the Secretary of Evesham 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 Courier posts filing written notice with the municipal clerk of Eastern Township may I have a roll call please Mrs Capello here Mrs Everhart Mr physicaro here Mr tanfin here Mrs Knoll here certainly has a lot of Miss Lee here Mr Meegan here this is Ryan here we have a quorum okay at this time I will ask for a motion to go into executive session and a motion to approve items
0022.1 through 2.4 whereas in njsa 10-4-12 allows for a public body to go into closed session during a public meeting and whereas the Board of Education of Evesham 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 closed session at approximately 7 30. now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education will go into sessions for the following reasons as outlined in njsa 10-4-12 items 2.2 through 2.4 do I have a motion motion by Mr canthan second by Ms Capello any questions or comments roll call please this is Capella yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs null yes Miss Lee yes Mr meekin yes this is Ryan Yes motion
003carries thank you we'll see you at approximately 7 30. foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I would like to resume this meeting of the Eastern Township Board of Education please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance the mission of the Evesham Township School District is to promote excellence in an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students dedicated staff families and Community the district provides a strong Educational Foundation that will Empower our students to achieve their unique potential Embrace self-directed lifelong learning develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision making respect
004themselves and others problem solve individually and collaboratively become contributing members of a diverse Global Society at this time there's no presentations and we are going to move on to item 5.1 public hearing on the amendment of the superintendent contract the state of New Jersey enacted PL 2007 c53 which requires New Jersey school boards to provide public notice at least 30 days prior to the scheduled action by the board to renegotiate extend amend or otherwise alter the terms of a superintendent contract and provide notice of a public hearing on the action with at least 10 days notice of the public hearing this notice was provided in the newspapers Courier Post and the Burlington County Times on November 1st however before we open up to the public hearing I think it is important to understand the backgrounds
005and responsibilities of the person involved Dr Smith is our district superintendent Dr Smith oversees the administration and coordination of the district's educational and extracurricular programs and assists and interpret interpreting the program's philosophy and policies of the district to all staff students and the community Dr Smith ensures a continuous professional development program for our faculty staff and administration to meet the state and federal mandates the curriculum requirements and the high quality Professional Standards expected by the Eastern Township Board of Education and the community Dr Smith serves the Board of Education as the administrative consultant and confers with administrators teachers students and parents on school matters at all grade levels Dr Smith has been superintendent in our district since July of 2020 and has served as an administrator in local districts for over 12 years combined in
006total Dr Smith has been an educator for over 26 years this is a public hearing and the board will open up the meeting to accept comments specifically regarding this position and the renegotiated contract the person whose contract is up does retain certain rights related to the fact that this is a Personnel matter as such the board will not comment on their job performance or evaluation or other areas of their employment rather the board may be able to answer only those questions which specifically relate to information which is otherwise public record however that information which is not public record under the open Public's record act will not be discussed with this introduction I now open the meeting this is public hearing and the request of a record to reflect at minutes of the meeting to reflect
007that the meeting has been so opened and it has been duly noticed as required under law at this point we're going to move to 5.1 public hearing on the admin Amendment of the superintendent's contract this meeting is now open to the public referencing Amendment of the superintendent's contract please limit your comments to three minutes per person please state your name and address for us welcome good evening good evening board my name is Evan Scott I live at 106 Williamsburg Court I'm here tonight to speak in favor of amending the contract of the superintendent uh first I think it's about leading with accountability leading with consistency so as a matter of accountability first I just wanted to comment that I I believe that this sitting board has the most working knowledge of the performance of the
008superintendent I would also say that as a matter of fiscal responsibility I would say that if we were to not do this or you were not to renew the uh or approve the amendment to the contract so first and foremost as a matter of fiscal responsibility going out and finding a new interim superintendent plus the cost of going to the open market and trying to find a new superintendent would be more costly than approving the amendment tonight I would also argue that as a matter of fiscal responsibility and consistency most important consistency we all know and I am truly aware of all the Optics surrounding this so we are you know we have a lot of State reductions let's just put it that way we have a lot of State reductions that are not born
009here in Evesham Township they're born from the state now we have authorized and approved salary adjustment salary increases for both the former superintendent as well as for teachers all while receiving state aid reductions I know that's a weird way to say it but we're taking state aid reductions so I would say as a matter of consistency that we maintain that consistency tonight if we were looking to claw back any kind of money from you know this approval tonight then I would ask the board to take again a leadership position and go back to the township and ask the township to fully fund the sros not partially fund the sros but to fully fund the sros because as we all know we're not receiving money from the state for our sros and that's a municipal initiative
010and I believe that they should fully fund that Municipal initiative so I want to just say once again that I fully support the approval for the salary adjustment to the superintendent thank you very much is there anyone else that would like to speak please come on up good evening please state your name and address please I'm Jonathan Schmidt from 13 Wayne Drive okay a wise man or woman once said stand for something or you will fall for everything each one of you signed a code of ethics form stating that desired changes shall be brought only through legal and ethical procedures I don't see doing a board vote 153 days in advance as being very ethical in my opinion I'm a product of Evesham public schools and then went on to Cherokee and then loved my
011public education so darn much I even chose Rutgers and saved a lot of money doing it I was always hold Evesham public schools in high regards however did John bigley ever try to push for an amended contract using a client attorney privilege to do it behind closed doors what exactly are we scared of why does your contract get special treatment sounds a lot like rules for thee but not for me I've seen a lot of dumb stuff on Facebook but this was easily on the Mount Rushmore for that month I don't know if you qualify for a 6.52 percent raise I would need more information for that luckily for the township of Evesham I don't have children causing a ruckus in the hallways of MMS yet that could be on the behavioral list that you
012guys discussed at these meetings I did notice that there are not even test scores due to covid as of 2021. so how exactly are we grading your performance I noticed math did not even meet the federal standards in 2019 and there was no covid then I don't know what is driving that score and maybe you could said shed some light on it but that seems unacceptable to me so with that I will leave a little math lesson for someone I do not approve of the 62 000 increase in salary from now until July twenty thousand twenty thousand twenty seven I wish everyone could get a raise but unfortunately there were budget cuts in Evesham good evening's name and address please good evening Bruce Albright 582 Hopewell Road you know it was my understanding that the
013current superintendent already had a contract for the 2020-23 school year and I'm wondering why this contract is being renegotiated less than six months after the start of the current contract and I've never heard of such a thing before Additionally the extension of a contract for four additional years should not be considered by a board that has less than a month left to its term why not wait for the new school board to be sworn in and let that school board make the decision about negotiating the superintendent's contract that is who we voted for isn't it and I don't understand the rush with the current District budget crisis why is there a renegotiation of a contract that was already negotiated it seems to me something nefarious is occurring when a board whose term is expiring is
014making decisions that will saddle a new board preventing that incoming board from the oversight that is essential to the role of the Board of Education and was voted upon the residents of our town I mean it just sounds like cronyism to me thank you thank you their comments I can address some of the questions and concerns of the public the first of why some feel it's being rushed through um the action hasn't been rushed rather we've been discussing it for several months and there's a process which has to be employed and um the executive County Superintendent needs to approve it which he received it and did approve we felt that this board was also in the best position to make the decision since we were the ones that have been working with Dr Smith for
015the three years that he's been here as opposed in relationship to the 2019 test scores Dr Smith wasn't here then um we are not opening up his contract to amend it six months into it it's two years into it so um this is a decision that we felt would be the best per his evaluation and things that we discussed in executive session nothing nefarious is going on we're not trying to hide anything it's been public knowledge that we've been discussing his contract in executive session as we do all Personnel matters as well as new administrators and new staff um that is where Personnel is discussed an executive session away from the public that's stated in my executive session statement at the beginning of every board meeting that's what we do that's where we go matters
016of the personnel and staff are not discussed in public unless they so feel that they want to that's why a rice notice was issued I'm trying to think of the other questions um oh he is not getting a 6.2 percent increase I don't know where that information came from oh that that's a timer for myself but um I will say that we have negotiated the etea contract we've negotiated the superintendent contract and we're in the process of negotiating the etaa contract and I will I will tell you that um Dr Smith's um comparison of bumps and lumps will be come out to 3.4 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 for the entire five years starting in 2022-23 um and that is a 3.08 over the five years um whereas the etea over the three years is 3.15
017if you take out the bumps and lumps um his contracts starting with 23 24 will be 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 when obviously that averages out to a 3.0 whereas etea is still 3.15 so um I just want to make sure that everyone is aware that I don't know where the 6.25 number came from but that is inaccurate um okay so another question um according to the potential or all the cuts the district is facing um these are trying financial times we understand that um all the District employees have seen yearly increases I think could I personally think and I'm just speaking for myself I think it's appropriate for Dr Smith to receive the same consideration in particular given his leadership and steady guidance for the district during which has been like two of the hardest
018years and we've suffered a pandemic and everything like that um this action is in line with all the what all the surrounding districts are also doing I'm sorry that the public feels that this process has been rushed and hidden from you we've tried to be as transparent as possible it has been on the agenda for at least two months and Personnel matters are discussed in executive session if there are no other questions from the or comments from the school board Madam president I would also add that the contract was available first I went to the notice that was in the newspaper for a month that the contract has been available for you upon appointment so anyone could have came and taken a look at that contract thank you is there any other questions or comments
019from the board huh I know at this time I'm going to excuse me I think Mr Fritz oh I'm sorry Mr physical sorry I just want to clarify on one thing in terms of an expiring board uh the board itself is not expiring uh in fact in the presence of who we are right now of everybody on this board only one board member will be leaving by January the rest of our terms are still going at least for two more years so I just want to clarify that this is not a lame duck session um nor usually ever is is it a lame duck session for us our business continues from January 1st or January 3rd all the way until the very end of the new of the of the year so there is no
020such thing as an expiring board we conduct the businesses we conduct business in our ability and authority to do so goes throughout all year we don't take months off we keep governing thank you Mr there's a Cairo spoken like a true history teacher appreciate it any other questions Miss Noel so in contrast to Joe I just want to express my apprehension about this vote tonight um as you know Dr Smith's contract does not expire until the end of this school year so I do feel it's premature to renew now from the information I was given it appears as though past precedent has been to renew in February or March when the superintendent's contract was set to expire in June the only time that I am aware of in recent history when a superintendent contract vote
021took place in December was when the board voted on John scavelli's first contract in December in um I can't remember the year 2009 maybe but and that was only because the superintendent Mrs Pat Lucas was retiring earlier and that was going to happen in March so um amend opening his contract and extending it tonight for five more years also with a retroactive increase in pay I feel is not appropriate um I know it's within this board's legal right to do so but um I just it feels too much to me like just a clever way doing it retroactive is clever to kind of circumvent that well-known principle that an outgoing board should not bind the hands of a new board when it comes to big decisions like this and here we are doing this in
022the last month of the year so and a third of the board will be replaced but I want Dr Smith to know that my vote is not a reflection of your performance so thank you for all you do for this District I just can't support the timing of it right now thank you Mrs Noel I just want to clarify one thing um this isn't this meeting was supposed to be in November so it's not the last month of the year but I understand your point I just want to clarify any other questions or comments from the board and I would also add that we will have questions and comments when we actually go to the motion after this too so okay all right seeing none I need a motion to approve um the 2022-27 annual
023salary schedule for Dr Justin Smith superintendent of schools as recommended by the negotiating committee and approved by the executive County Superintendent can I have a motion Mr canthan second it Mr physicaro any questions or comments from the board okay seeing non-roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll no Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries this this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any um any agenda items sorry now we're going to public comment just in case anyone is not aware we have enough to additional public comments first public comment is for what is on the agenda and the second public comment which happens later in the evening is for anything you wish to discuss the meeting will now be open to
024the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions pertain to student or Personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person and it's also crucial please for you to give us your name and address before you speak up and also limit your comments to one time per public comment period is there anyone that wishes to speak hi good evening Mindy Crawford 25 South Maple Ave on behalf of the Evesham Township administrators Association I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome our new colleagues Beverly green welcome back and Tracy Bowles Beverly Tracy we look forward to working alongside you to support the amazing staff families and students at the
025Macy middle and elementary schools at Marlton Elementary School please do not hesitate to reach out to any one of us for anything we welcome you and look forward to your collaboration and collegiality thank you any more public comment anyone else wishes to speak okay seeing none we're going to close that portion of the meeting there'll be another public comment session at the end um at this point we'll move on to move forward with the approval of the minutes I need a motion to approve item 6.1 and 6.2 do I have a motion Ms Capello second Miss Noel thank you any questions or comments regarding the minutes okay roll call please Mr Ashanti Mrs Capello yes Mr Carroll yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes this is Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes
026motion carries thank you at this point we'll move on to item seven superintendent's report and administrative items do I have a motion to approve item 7.137.6 motion Miss Capello second Mr canthan before we get into questions and comments I'm going to give the floor Dr Smith for his superintendent's comments thank you Mrs Ryan at first I'd like to highlight a few points of light among our schools since our last board meeting our district-wide Winter concert schedule started today with jaggered followed by our other schools throughout these next few weeks leading up to winter break I'd encourage all our families to attend I'd like to thank our District's entire music department for their efforts in making these events possible and absolutely so wonderful today was also the opening day of our full day kindergarten registration big
027day the deadline is February 17th more information is available under the parents welcome tab on our website and just a reminder that our District's number one goal for the years from this year 2022 to 2025 is to make free full day kindergarten that is no more tuition-based kindergarten to make it a reality for all our district families for the start of September 2024 via a ballot question next fall in 2023. our district will share more information about the ballot question and the next steps in this effort after we finalize our tentative budget this this coming March another point of light since our last meeting was de Macy's first ever Thanksgiving dinner for the demisi ESL that's English as a second language students and their families right here in this cafeteria held on Tuesday November 22nd
028special thanks to our ESL teachers Allison Spence Sarah Smith and music teacher Rob Fox for making it happen as well as other staff including paraprofessionals and teachers such as Dr Maria crudslow for uh pitching in and huge thank yous to the demacie staff as a whole for generously donating the food to be there was absolutely wonderful the from smiles and togetherness felt that evening among the families was the best illustration not only of what Thanksgiving that special American holiday is all about but also a great illustration of what demisi and all the schools in our district are all about and that ends my public comment this is Ryan however I would like to reserve a bit of time for two later spots in the agenda when we get to donations and to personnel questions or
029comments regarding the superintendent's report so are you seeing none roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries thank you moving to item eight curriculum and instruction I would like a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.8 do I have a motion Mr physicaro Miss Noel questions or comments from the board about curriculum and instruction Miss Noel I just wanted to talk about the eve Education Foundation um I believe this is an item under eight uh this was a request for funding that Miss magulic put together to the Evesham Education Foundation and I just want to since this week was giving Tuesday I believe and it's time that's our reviewer they do so much for us and I
030especially love this um additional mental health supports we're asking for funding for that for our middle schoolers which is fantastic so anybody out there who's listening you can donate to Evesham Education Foundation if you don't want to go to their cigar party or whatever it else that they do I believe you can donate through their website at Evesham educationfoundation.org that's all any other questions or comments regarding curriculum and instruction seeing none roll call please Mr Cindy Apollo yes physicara yes Mr canthan yes Mrs Noel yes Mr Lancelot yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries thank you moving to item nine finance and operations I would like a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.12 do I have a motion Ms Capello second Mr physicaro any questions or comments pertaining to
031finance and operations seeing none roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr physicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Noel yes Mr Lancelot yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries thank you sure can go ahead thank you Mrs Ryan I'm gonna I wanted to uh the donation on here I just want to highlight for a second it's from Jacob's music This is actually the second donation they've made this fall so September 2022 they donated additional equipment for our DJ techniques program and just he's to help make it more concrete the the very layered and long lasting positive effect of donations and a donation like this I just wanted to read a portion of a letter that Mark White who is um music director at MMS and mes wrote to Mr Rob Rinaldi
032who is um not only District dad but um you know plays a very important role at Jacob's music and here's what the letter says Dear Mr Rinaldi thank you for your generous donation of three brand new Mac mini computers and monitors to the Middle School DJ techniques class your generosity has made such a difference to the continued success of the program with these amazing gifts we will we were able to have three more DJ stations up and running the very next day this allows six more students to have more hands-on experience using the Roland 202 DJ controllers which were also donated as well that was part of the September donation just recently students were able to use newer technology with the DJ controllers and the use of stems in the Serato DJ program The increased
033development of the class has been single-handedly transformed by you and your love of music myself and the school can't thank you enough for your support and it's beautiful and beautiful donation from a very beautiful family his daughter Juliana is an MMS and his wife Kim she organized the October abilities awareness recognition month which our district was really uh uh to participate in and I would just add like we have so many amazing businesses in town um and sometimes the businesses even overlap with our district family and for anyone out there who um you know has resources either through the business or in some other capacity and is wondering you know what effects what positive effect it could have on kids please look no further than um this donation from Jacob's music and I would encourage
034everyone to imagine what impact your donation could have for more kids in more ways in our district and we would love to talk with you and partner with you and be creative with you about what that could look like please just reach out to me um and uh and we can we can talk and work so thank you very much one through 10.9 do I have a motion Mr physicaro second Miss Capello I know that there'll be plenty of comments and questions in this section so I'm going to give the floor back to Dr Smith as you wanted to say a few words okay okay so we're wonderful time for a personnel and I first just would want to thank when you look through the list and you see all those names each and every
035person listed there under appointments makes a huge difference for us you see staff shortage everywhere you've probably seen it in my updates you know just the needs we have from drivers to AIDS so I just want to mention if you look down that list under appointments you'll see new support staff members new ECC counselors new clerk typists new lunch AIDS new teddy bear staff members new classroommates new a new bus driver new computer technician new custodian we thank each and every one of you for joining our district and for serving others especially children in these important ways thank you now thank you tomorrow and Beyond and we're so glad that you joined with us that leads into two very very very important new uh folks joining with us which are um we have with us
036Tracy Bowles sitting over there and Beverly green sitting over there and um Tracy Bulls is going to be the new principal of Marlton Elementary School effective February 1st and Beverly green is going to be the new principal of the Macy middle school and Macy Elementary School effective February 1st and we're so glad you could be here Tracy had to battle through not feeling well to be here and to get to this moment just so everybody understands they had to shine their way through multiple levels of search and selection so first a paper screening then an interview with our cabinet then an interview with staff and parent stakeholders from demacie middle to Macy Elementary and Marlton Elementary I see Mrs Butch sitting there she was on our committee as well as well as um cabinet and
037other people here um the and right now just a little couple little bio blurbs and then I'm going to turn it over to the two of them to say a few words but I just um they both come to us with current and past administrative experience they're both currently principles uh Miss Bowles is in Lumberton Township and Miss green is in Logan Township and uh so their diverse range of experience working both in middle and elementary problem solving strong work ethic deep deep care for kids and staff and our community and so it's just a wonderful day and I'm so glad that Mr Manelli could be here too to sit next to miss green and we already have like the Baton passing underway for both of them so that's what we dreamed when we set
038out in that search process and I remember we talked about it as a board um is to try to be able to find two amazing people to be approved on this day so that they could have the time to overlap with Miss romanelli and Mr Feldman and because of the you know all the amazing work that they've done over the years and be able to make sure that that that work gets gets carried on and added to in the best way um and uh so with that I'll say Ms Bulls if you uh wouldn't would care to share a few words first I hope recovery protocols I'm so excited to be here and to be joining the team um it's it's an honor and a privilege to be here I was so thrilled when I
039got the news and so impressed with the process as I interviewed for Eve sham the dedication of the staff a panel of 21 stakeholders who came out in in order to find successful candidates for their school just speaks to the dedication of everyone and how much you care about your school district as intimidating as it was for me to be interviewed by such a large group it really did send a strong message about what kind of District this is it's been about a week since I accepted the position and as I share the news with people I I'm in awe of how many people have stories about Evesham school district and positive things to say almost every single person I've told has something positive to say about this District whether they're a parent with children
040currently in the school or they went through the district themselves or they've worked with Dr Smith or some of the other staff members and it just increase my excitement I'm so thrilled to be joining the team and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of you so thank you [Applause] and it is amazing to have two appointments of principal in the same night I mean that's may never ever ever happen again is green yeah if you wouldn't mind excuse me with my voice uh hello everyone I wanted to say um it's with great excitement enthusiasm and also humility that I am so glad to be offered the position of principal of the Macy schools I started my administrative experience here under the leadership of Mr Gary Hoffman who taught me so many things about
041the fundamental pieces of being an administrator collaboration professional development developing relationships with community and also teachers and more importantly spending time with students to get to know them I also agree that the process was rigorous but it was really it helped me to see that all voices are heard in this district and that was really important to me to see everyone represented there and to decide on the best leader who would be able to lead the school district moving forward the school moving forward I'm excited over the next couple weeks to be spending time here at the Macy schools getting to know the teachers getting to know the staff getting to know the students and also getting to know the parents in the community so thank you again I'm so honored to be offered this
042position here at the Macy schools it's full circle for me to come back so thank you so much again [Applause] okay um I just wanted to say thank you and welcome to Evesham Township school districts I wasn't part of the process of selecting you ladies for those positions but I will say as an outsider hearing the excitement and the support from the parents especially they were very very excited and on board with the decision for each of you to join our schools in in different in the two different schools and as a the mes PTA president is here she can attest to that too they were very specific and so it just is a very very good thing to see you both here and thank you so much and welcome to eacham and if there's
043anything I could do please reach out to any member of the board any other questions or comments regarding Personnel from the board okay Miss Noel I also wanted to say welcome we are so happy to have you here in our community I am an mes mom so I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot of you miss wolves and I hope to see a lot of you as well if you come to these board meetings because I'm never up this way and I also wanted to um say congratulations to Mrs cindoni um mes music teacher who was retiring at the end of this school year she really has touched so many students at Marlton elementary school so I want to just say I wish you the best in your retirement you have earned it and enjoy
044thank you Mrs Noel anyone else have a question or comment regarding personnel seeing none roll call please Mrs Capello yes Mr visicaro yes Mr Canton yes Mrs Knoll yes Mr Lancelot yes Miss Lee yes Mr Meegan yes Mrs Ryan Yes motion carries item 11 . I would like a motion to approve items 11.1 and 11.2 do I have a motion oh there's no policy changes okay okay no new policies first or second reading sorry um almost had a heart attack there I know sorry it's the policy sorry president of the policy committee sorry I didn't mean to scare you um moving to committee reports any committee report chair wish to share with the best of the board Mr physicaro policy has nothing thank you I appreciate it you know Mrs Noel has already touched on
045what the Evesham Education Foundation does for us they have several great events throughout the year they donate a all their proceeds to our school district and we thank them immensely for all that all they do we meet once a week or once every other week and we've been meeting lately about the Double Down it's called the the Double Down fundraiser and it's held on in at the mansion in Voorhees it's going to be on February 25th you can go on to www easterneducationfoundation.org to buy tickets it's a night full of dancing and uh you know gambling they do have gambling but all the pros again it's not real gambling it's gambling for tickets that will end up in baskets and fundraisers and it's just a really nice event um and entertainment throughout the throughout the
046evening drinks and food so you know I encourage all everyone to go out and please uh you know have a good time that night and because all the proceeds go to our school district which is a huge help so thank you Mr lanzalotta and you've done an amazing job with community outreach so thank you for all your efforts anyone else wish to speak about their committee reports none okay seeing none um now we're going to move to Old business which we don't have any old business and we moved new business to 5.1 so at this um time we're going to move to open public comment the meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of Interest however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or Personnel items or negotiations we
047ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public we ask that you limit your comment to three minutes per person and also that this section is meant for one comment per person is there anyone that would like to speak name and address please yeah my name is Evan Scott I live at 106 Williamsburg Court I just wasn't sure if the mic was still on so I come up here and flick it off uh so very quickly I'm still going to beat the drum for the municipality to fully fund its own initiative regarding the sros uh back uh earlier in the spring when we had the budget presentation it was mentioned on there that there was going to be land cells I think approximating six hundred thousand
048dollars and I do believe that the um the municipality was going to purchase that land to provide some relief to the board would you be able to give any updates on the status of those land cells and additionally uh I wanted to just speak about something uh a little bit different but the ties into a lot that we're talking about here and I think everyone is aware of two things we're experiencing state aid reductions simultaneously okay we're experiencing a huge amount of inflation how does this affect our kids so I think a lot of people in the room a lot of people watching don't understand the full extent of of how this all works and how we could maybe find some relief so that's what I really want to talk about tonight uh every three
049years the governor of New Jersey as a mechanism of surfera has to issue What's called the educational adequacy report and if you were ever to read that report you'll notice in the last time I read it CPI Consumer Price Index we're talking about inflation is mentioned 17 times now what does that document do that document establishes the Baseline per pupil spending amount now historically we've never really seen you know CPI rise above two percent which also happens to be why probably we are capped at the two percent mark because we really have an experienced inflation like we are now with that I would say and and request that this board increase its advocacy efforts in a joint effort with the township I think we need to amplify our voices together I think that the township
050with its voice I think with your voice ringing the right Bells we can actually affect some positive change that'll have a positive outcome on the education of all students not just here in Evesham but everywhere let's remember the governor announced that there's a 40 billion dollar Surplus that's a fact it's a fact that we are experiencing state aid reductions it's a fact that CPI continues to be held at that eight percent or above and we reach 9.2 percent over the summer but yet we're not seeing any relief as our costs go up I think that we need to have some kind of effort that requests that the legislature fix this structural issue instead of every three years when CPI rises above a certain threshold maybe we need to have some type of emergency you know
051relief so that we can help cover our costs and then a lot of these things that a lot of people you know want to argue about and debate go away because once again I don't think there's any enemies here in this room I don't think there's any enemies in this town There's No enemies in the state we just need to get onto the same page thank you very much thank you thank you thank you you want to I could if you want to okay thank you Mr Scott just to your question about the properties and where those are at so um currently uh Berlin County uh has done is doing and has done some appraisals on the properties and um as possible uh Green Space purchases and we are waiting for the uh the appraisal
052results to to be shared but that's it's still in process it does take some time but that it's at the county level at this point right now thank you and just to address one more thing our finance committee and the rest of the board as well as cabinet always has the best interest of the students and making sure that they receive and are not um neglected in any realm of like their educational um situation and success so we are always searching for creative ways hopefully to meet budget constraints so I guess we have to wait and see how that goes in the new year so thank you to the finance committee and the cabinet this time we don't need to go into a second executive session but I would like to ask for a motion
053to adjourn if there are no closing remarks from the board if there are please speak up okay okay well more from doctors this is my record for for talking but I I just as my last comment I just wanted to thank the board for their support in renewing my contract and I look forward to going to do together as a board as a district as a town over the next five years together it's been an honor and a privilege every day every minute for the past since July 2020 you know as some people say a covid year is like a dog year you know accounts for seven and we've we have navigated a lot of a lot of waters together through covid through budget true inflation through many many challenges and I just want the
054town to to know that um that when we say study said he you said study guidance you know um in your comments Miss Ryan and that guidance is steady when word is steady and I thank our board for being so steady and smart throughout and supportive thank you Dr Smith okay at this point I'm going to make a motion to adjourn Mr physicara with authority and quickly any second Miss Noel thank you all those in favor I will see you at the next board meeting