001I'd like to call this meeting to order. I'll put that back a little bit. The mission of the Freyel Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse global community. A notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freel Township schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the Freel Township Clerk, published in the Asbury Park Press on January 11th, 2025, and sent to the Star Ledger on January 8th, 2025. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which
002it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Can I get a roll call? >> Mrs. Bran. >> Dr. Casey >> here. >> Miss Crosby here. >> Mr. Ro here. >> M Lambert >> here. >> Mrs. Spieler >> here. >> Mr. Williams here. >> Mrs. O. Sullivan >> present. >> Mr. Chair Maroso >> here. >> Warm. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of the October 28th, 2025 regular meeting minutes? >> I get a second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Any abstensions? Is anyone out? >> Nope. Everyone was here. >> Okay. Communications. >> Uh, the only communication we have this evening is enrollment. In September of 2025, we had 3,345 students. In October of 25, we had 3,353. And compare
003that to October of 24, we had 3,417. And that is all. >> Thank you. >> Uh, president's remarks. I'll be brief because tonight we have a Speizzel present and we're going to get a presentation and a little preview of our referendum work that's going to be going on. I did want to mention after reading the agenda, I'm happy to see all the corrective action plans on our attendance issue at the different buildings and I wanted to offer any support that this board could give to raise awareness to the community, to parents, to staff, to students, the importance of attendance because all the work that we do in the district is for not. If we don't have attendance, it's a very basic thing. we lose a lot of time. Um, at school boards, they even went
004over some of the lost amounts of time, like even like a minute a day, how it can just add up to loss of instructional time and it could really set our students back. So, if this board can help you, Neil, in any way, you let me know, but we will try to get the word out. Um, with that, I want to remind the chairs of each committee to keep working on your board goals. Uh, we only have one meeting left. I can't believe it. One more meeting in December. So maybe that's a good time to do a little update. So I'll be emailing our the board chairs and then we can maybe have a little update at our December meeting on where we are with our board goals. Uh with that I'm going to move
005to the administrative report. Uh much of the report tonight is going to be done by Ola from Speasel presenting the architect uh the architect version of our referendum projects and overview. So I'm going to uh do the bullying investigation report. Since our last meeting we had uh eight cases of harassment, intimidation and bullying. Four were founded and four were unfounded. As Mr. Amaroso had mentioned on our agenda this evening or corrective action plans for chronic absenteeism. Just to give you a background, New Jersey publishes school performance reports. Unfortunately, they're not timely. So, we are working on the 2324 school year. They uh performance reports are released to the public in the spring of the next school year. So, last spring the 23-24 reports were released. Based on that data, any school, regardless of whether they
006met their target for chronic absenteeism, meaning they reduced it to a certain amount, any schools that have 10% or more of students that are chronically absent are required to do a corrective action plan. That corrective action plan begins with the parent survey that uh we try to get to the bottom of why parents believe their children should stay home or could stay home. Um and we use that. We sat as an administrative team and came up with a template of strategies because what works for most what works for one works for most. And then schools went back and met with staff to personalize it for their schools if appropriate the the action plan steps. Um, and that's all in this in each school's document. I do have to point out of all of our schools
007in the district. Uh, ECLC does not have compulsory attendance, so ECLC isn't considered, the only school that did not require correction corrective action plan was the lower Donovan school. Uh, they did not have they had well below 10% of their students uh chronically absent in the 2324 school year. Um, so congratulations. It's ironic when last year we started um we put out the we tried to reinforce a stronger message about attendance and we were a little bit more strict on what was excused and unexcused and um we received some phone calls and the phone calls what I found in the theme at least the calls that got to me our administrators are in our schools are always dealing with attendance phone calls uh the ones that got to me I found a theme I called
008Mrs Ben Brook I said it's your parents it's Donovan and those at Barklay who came from Donovan and what I learned when I talked to those parents it was emails I chose to talk to them on the phone. Every time I brought up one of their children, they didn't have an attendance issue. They didn't have a a schema that there are people who actually keep their children out for 15 or more days a year discre for discretionary purposes. They just couldn't understand why a parent would do that. And those are the calls that those are the ones that got to me that I spoke to. Um I do think that we worked really diligently on strategies. um our most uh our are those with the most unexcused absences will move to a process similar to
009what we do with students with whom we have academic concerns. They'll move to what we used to call INRS teams now Epic teams for referral to determine a strategy that we can use for that individual student. Um what I'm happy to report though is I was able to from our student management system our student information system pull more current data. So for the 2425 school year, uh there were only two schools that exceeded 10%. So we knew this data in 2324 and we started to do some work on it without a corrective action plan by changing our policies and being a little bit more strict, improving communication at our building level. And we saw the we saw the results in 2425. So when it's time to do the corrective action plans in the spring when
010uh the 2425 performance reports are released um the only two schools that will require corrective action plans at that time will be Barcelo by8%. Uh so just missed it and Ericson and I think it's important to know even in the prior um when we were looking at chronic absenteeism that'll be now two years in a row that Ericson had our highest levels of absenteeism. So, we're um going to be working try to work collaboratively with the parents and that PTO to determine why and see if we can reinforce our message. Um so, that's that's chronic absenteeism and our corrective action plans there. Any questions on that? Okay. Um turn it over to >> first. >> I did it four and four presentation. I'll do my Ford certification. I, Rob Dvita, the school business administrator secretary,
011certifies that as of October 31st, 2025, no line item has been overextended in violation of NJAC 6A23A-1610C3 and that sufficient funds are available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the year. Set up This should be good to be able to not have to be to the side. Yep. >> All right. Good evening, everyone. Um, so I was thinking about this before. We spent a lot of time at our board meetings last year from the fall up through March 11th when we had the referendum vote talking nothing about other than the referendum. And then once we passed referendum, it seems like it's been quiet for a while. Well, it hasn't been. Um, I can tell you that from the moment it was done, we've had countless of numbers of meetings and hours
012spent with Speasel um with our administrators and with everyone else on our internal team um to get the bid specifications and this presentation ready for you today. Um so if you recall when we passed the referendum, there were two major components. The first component was replacing all of our existing equipment from roofs, uh, UVs, HVAC controls, and fire alarms. The second piece and very critical piece was focused solely on security. That included creating security vestibules for all of our buildings. And then for our uh for Ericson and for Applegate for the three wings in each of those buildings that did not have permanent uh walls or doors on them was to create a typical classroom space. So tonight's presentation is focused on the latter part, the school security piece. If anyone really wants to spend
013two or three days in my office talking mechanical equipment, come on over. Um I think this is the piece that the board, the students, the staff, the taxpayers will all see. Um everything else again we've spent an equal amount of time on both. Um but tonight's presentation is solely on the security piece. Um what I will tell you is that what was helpful is that Dr. Breath Hour was in the process of doing security audits audits with homeland security. So when we first met back in August with speed were there for two days as they were going through different options for doors and hardware. Diane had a lot of recent information from Homeland Security to bring to the table uh for us to make decisions on what would be placed in our schools. Um we
014then returned in November. The principles came out both times too, gave us great input on um functionality of their space, what they needed, what they didn't need, what they would like. Um we got to spend plenty of hours on colors. Um not the important part, but um so it was a team effort to get to here tonight. So what you're going to see is a lot of the security pieces. Ula Panchchow who you've met before from Speasel. She's our architect. Um she's going to run through you're going to see some of the security hardware and then she's going to give you the renderings of all the buildings, what the floor plan looks like currently now, what it will look like and then you'll get the opportunity to see what the storefronts and new um fronts
015of the office space will look like as well what it will look like inside the offices, the nurs's offices and then the classrooms themselves. So, I'll turn it over to Ola and you guys if you have questions, you can wait if you want to the end or if there's something you're confused about because I know we had a hard time too sometimes when you're looking at the plan orienting yourself to what you're seeing versus where the front entrance way of the building is, raise your hand. >> Great. Thanks, Bob. So, for those who haven't met me before, my name is Ala Panchchel. I'm a project manager at Spizzel Architectural Group. We are working closely with freehole board of education on the referendum project and today I'm going to share some update about this beautiful you
016know interior alteration and addition projects that some of you are anxiously waiting to see. So hopefully you find it in line with your expectations but there if there's any comments or questions I request you to hold it until after the presentation. Our team has worked very hard in putting the renderings and you know the designs together for you to see all eight schools today. So, I'm going to go quickly and then we'll open up for any questions or or or comments you may have. With that, I'm going to start uh with the renovation scope. So, as Bob mentioned, the referendum not only included um security upgrades, but there were also uh a lot of like renovation items that were included. Uh this slide just summarizes what the renovation part of the project included. Uh this
017varies from like roofing replacement to HVAC upgrades, controls upgrades, uh window replacement at this school. Uh you know there is fire alarm system upgrades, electrical upgrades as well as CCTV cameras. And biggest piece in this renovation scope is to replace all interior and exterior door at all all eight schools with security hardware and you know some security upgrades in terms of glazing and and and the current um specifications that we're putting together for for these areas. So the interior this is just example of the classroom door. There are also other exterior doors throughout the district as well as there is other toilet room doors and the storage room doors. But we're we're basically focusing on the office and the classroom doors which I have a picture of uh on this slide. As you can see
018the the the end light which is basically the window that goes on the classroom door which is required by the code uh is being cut on the hinge side. And this is what the actual installed door looks like. uh just because we wanted to keep the window away from the hardware side to to to make it more secure and this is something we had discussed with the admin team and you know this this was acceptable we've done this in other other districts as well so this is the installed photo of a door in other school districts um here in Mammoth County um the other picture of the window in the center is the security check-in window that would go outside of your secure vestible like the security like the main office between the main office
019and the secure restible uh where the visitors would be able to check in through that window. There's a there's this pass through uh kind of like a tray um at the bottom of the window through which they can they can pass their identity and there's also a little amplifier in the glazing itself for you to speak through without having to open the window. This is supposed to be a fixed window with with some sort of ballistic rating on the glazing in case if you know the visitor is not um not fine kind of like a safe to be to be in the building. And the last picture is for the door hardware for the classrooms and offices where the occupants are expected to be in the building all day. uh this door hardware the the
020picture is from the in interior side of the of the door meaning when you're in a classroom or office this is what you see. So currently the door is in the unlock position. So you'll see the green color the indicator shows the shows the green color. So if the teacher is in on the other side of the classroom and if you know there is there is a situation where she needs to make sure the door is locked, she can easily tell just by looking in the hardware that it's not locked and they can certainly make sure it's locked. You just have to twist that key to the right to be able to lock that and the indicator will turn red. So this is just a summary of like the door related items. Um you know
021everything that goes under the renovation. And now um you know we enter into a little bit more fancy kind of like exciting part of the project which includes addition and alteration scope. Uh we'll start with so I have slides for all eight schools. We'll start start with Applegate school but as you know Applegate and Ericson schools are similar in terms of like space planning for the original section of the buildings. So whatever I'm presenting for Applegate is also applicable for Ericson school except for the colors and exterior design which I do have renderings for which you'll see. Uh this is the overall plan for Applegate school. Uh as you can see the entire school is getting some sort of upgrades in terms of renovation, alteration, addition. This is a typical classroom pod. We have three
022pods um at Applegate and three pods at Ericson in the scope. This is just just a typical classroom pod showing uh the existing condition versus the new proposed plan in blue. As you can see, the classrooms are getting bigger. Uh you know, the the permanent walls, doors are being proposed. The exterior doors are also being replaced. Uh spaces are getting um new case work in the classroom side. You'll see that in the rendering. and the common space um that we currently have in these pod areas are remaining for collaboration use that some of the stakeholders we speak we spoke with um really wanted to keep and and kind of like continue using them. So we're we're we're saving those spaces. Uh this is another pod where we do have uh toilets in inside the classrooms.
023Uh this is this this slide is from a special ed uh classroom pod at Applegate school. As you can see, these classrooms will also accommodate ADA compliant toilets which are required to be in the special ed classrooms as well as a common room for uh you know the special ed uh classroom purposes. One classroom that requires a padded wall with a comm room which is shown in yellow. That's the only difference in pod. Besides that, the design is similar to the other pod and this this is applicable for Applegate and schools. Uh this is the main entrance area. Uh if I could um so if you look at the two double uh one double door and a single door at the bottom of the slide that's going to be the main entrance now which is
024currently an overhang outside the Applegate school. So we're basically infilling that overhang to put a new main office and the secure vestibule. The entrance vestibule will be divided into two separate vestibules. Uh one is meant to be for staff where they can use their card access to be able to go in and out of the building without having to check in. But for the visitors, we have that single door entrance. Uh which is where they would go in. They they'll have a security window that we we saw in the previous slide to check in, make sure they're okay to enter in the building. And once everything looks okay, they'll go to the pink area, which is the waiting area in your main office, which is where they'll wait until someone escorts them inside the building
025if they actually have to be in the building. If not, then they'll leave from there. So that's the idea with with this addition. There's also other alteration required in the building. So, the principal's office is now moving to the new addition because we wanted to keep the principal close to the main office area to make sure they provide some sort of additional oversight through the window at the exterior and can just make sure everything is uh safe for for for the students that are in the building. Um the existing main office is in the top right area of the plan currently. There's also a nurs's office there. So, there as as Bob mentioned, we are renovating nurs's office. It's it's getting a little bit bigger. It's getting private exam room. Uh two CS with private
026you know areas um which would uh include partitions which you'll see in the renderings instead of curtains and of course two desk for the two nurses that we currently have in the building. Um and there's additional space that we're gaining by moving the main office and adding this addition which would be converted into style SGI classroom which is needed for the school which is shown in the mustard yellow on the top right. Uh so this is the common theme for all eight schools. As I spend a little bit more time on this slide, just wanted to make sure you know we we we discussed how the secure vestibules are are supposed to function, meaning staff and the visitors are separated and visitors have to be in the main office before they go in the in
027the in the building. That's that's basically the common uh theme that you'll see in all rest of our plans that I'm going to show you today. Um this is the exterior rendering of that info edition. So this is for Applegate school. Um the red canopy that you you see on the addition is where you currently have the large overhang but we're implementing that with those walls and two windows where the new office is going to be. And on the right side under that canopy where you see the rendered uh you know human bodies there is a double door for the staff and there's also a single door for the visitors uh which is where you would enter uh in the milling uh we use the school colors for the exterior design. So Applegate has red
028and black as their school colors. So, we put some of that on in the exterior design by keeping, you know, like just just the canopy and the letters, those logos, and you'll see that in all renderings that I'm going to present today. But, we're trying to keep the rest of the building kind of neutral just just because the existing building is quite neutral brick and stuckle facade that we wanted to kind of like complement as part of this design. This is the interior view of the lobby. when you enter um the through that secure vestibular and everything looks good when you enter. This would be the renovated lobby. We have to renovate a little bit of a ceiling space. We're adding some accent colors and sophets. Uh we do have some duct work going on
029above the ceiling. So, we have to replace the ceiling anyway. So, we were just using that opportunity as as, you know, something that could bring in some some um kind of like a color element and lighting in the building. Um there's previews of inside of the main office. So, when you're in the main office, there are renovated spaces. There is there's a reception counter, waiting area, and there's the door in the back is where the principal's office is going to be. This is the rendering of uh one of the pod classrooms. Uh this is the common space in pod one. Um so as you can see the walls are permanent walls. You you see the doors to the classrooms and the walls but the common area which is currently there is also being renovated for
030collaboration type use um in both buildings. Uh this is the view of the classrooms. Uh so inside the classrooms uh there are some new finishes. There's cubbies for kids. Um of course the furniture and you know larger classrooms with good amount of space for the number of kids that we expect in these classrooms. This is another pod. Um the common space in this pod has a little bit different color. Uh, we thought putting different colors in different parts helps kids identify where they are and it's easy for teachers to kind of like help them navigate through the building. So, this one has some slightly different colors on the other pod. Uh, again, it's a collab area, open area that they could use for um some activities like a group activities and so forth. And there's
031this last plot with toilets which has very narrow corridor uh which is uh shown on this slide just a corridor rendering because this is different than the other two where you do not have the common space where kids use. Um with that we'll go over go over the Ericson school. Um pretty much same scope overall plan. This is the exterior of the Ericson school and Erikson has blue and yellow as their logo colors. We are using blue. We're awarding yellow of course, but so currently these both schools have uh similar entrance areas. They're they're kind of like a twin buildings, but with these secure vestible editions, we we tried to give them their own identity and kind of like tried to do something different for both this way. Ericson is different and Applegate. Um so
032that's the approach we took. Um obviously the designs are different. It's not just the colors. So this is slightly different. Same materials just different colors and you know as you can see the canopy is slightly different. The logo placement is slightly different than Applegate but it it's similar in concept when you enterable and the the staff entrance and the visitors entrance and of course the main office layout is exactly how we saw for Applegate. This is the lobby for Ericson. Um it's the same concepts and design. It's just different colors uh that match with the school theme, blue and yellow. Uh we kept the yellow very light. We didn't want too bright. Uh this is the main office. Um same design as Apple Gate School, just different colors. Um you know, this one has a
033blue color at the counter. The other one had gray just because red is a little bit too bright for for for the counter. Um there's nurse suite granding. So this is where Ericson but Applegate will also receive the same same design. So as you can see in the first picture the cut areas instead of putting curtains um the partitions are being being installed here. Uh they will have sliding doors with with kind of like obscure glazing. This way nurse can still provide an oversight, but the they're a little bit secure and something that protects uh the kids who are in the waiting area um to kind of like avoid getting infected from whatever may be happening inside the hot area or the private exam rooms. Um neutral colors, finishes, and this is just one example
034of the pod at Ericson School. Um pod one similar to Applegate, just different colors. So this has obviously blue and yellow as their theme. So we we carried that um classroom same design different colors. This has gray and yellow and blue. And then this is the pod 3 which we saw in Applegate which has a very narrow corridor as well. Um ECLC um which is this building. So this is our existing entrance. Um again overall school the school is getting a lot of MEP upgrades uh especially in the older section of the building we have steam system and so forth. Um but the blue is the addition where currently you have the existing main entrance and we are infilling that area to capture some area that we need to expand and add the secure vestibility
035related areas that we need and the two doors and the office and so forth. I'll show you the plan. This is your existing plan. And again the double door and a single door at the bottom. Same concept. Staff and the visitors. Main office renovation. Currently the main office is actually set back. You have to go through the school corridor to be able to get there. The principal's office is also in the back of the building. So we're bringing all of that out in the main entrance um where the you know windows are placed so that they can provide some additional oversight. And the nurse's office, which is currently in the front, is going in the back. So, they're basically kind of like being swapped in terms of their location, and we're also capturing some more
036room by putting an addition. This is the exterior rendering of ECLC. Uh addition, uh they have blue colors that was identified as their kind of like a primary color. So, we're using that in the addition. Rest of the facade is pretty neutral. We have a lot of like brick facade on this building. So, we wanted to carry some of that, but we're introducing like a couple new um colors with the panels just to kind of like make it stand out. Um so, it's pretty simple in design. Um and then this is the interior of the main office. So, reception counter, waiting area, um you know, thin lighting and sophets. We do need sophets for mechanical systems. So, we're using that for kind of like a design purpose here. This is the corridor um you know
037between the nurses and the main office getting some new finishes. This is nurs's office again same concepts private exam room and uh two nurses desks with some storage and of course ADA compliant toilet school. This is another school um which is also getting an addition just because the entrance at Gatina is um very tight in terms of the space that's available. There's also a media center door which currently opens right into the main main lobby as soon as you enter. So there's some modification in the lobby to make the media center secure as well as the main entrance. Um this is the existing plan for that area and this is a proposed one. And as you can see, the media center door is now being placed past the second vestible door um at the bottom
038so that they're secure and there's a window for check in before they enter the building. Uh there's of course nurses area renovation and the main office recreation at this building. And this is the rendering of the addition at Katina School. So we're carrying the brick um you know metal color is a little bit different. We we we're using the logo color slightly. It's it's quite dark green. And you know, we still wanted to introduce some of that. So, it's less than like the other panel colors, but I I think it still stands out quite well. And the windows over there are clear anodized. So, this these panels are slightly different color. But, as you can see, the double door is where your current main entrance is. And then in the addition, we're adding a single
039door for the visitors. So visitors would go there and they'll have a security check-in window and they'll go to the main office before they enter the building. Um this is the interior the lobby area for Kina. Um very simple concept. We currently have ECT. We're just adding a sophet just bringing some light and colors and kind of a new paint colors. Uh it didn't office. They're putting some glazing there just so that the school staff can access the main office um through that quarter that's currently there. And this is the reception at Cina. Um again similar concept some counter space colors uh sophets and you know we're putting school colors um slightly you know wherever the opportunity is like the green the blues and and some neutrals that we're carrying. Uh this is another view
040of the nurse's office. Same concept. Two cotss in the back and two desks. uh private exam room. The best freehole elementary school is one of our newer buildings. Uh this is actually the school where there's very minimum amount of work required just because they do have uh quite a bit of lobby space. We just had to renovate like couple things to make it more secure. So in this one all the work that we're doing is at inside the existing lobby. There is no addition needed at this school because we do have space available. We able to put security check-in window and a secure rest in that existing lobby itself. And there's some modification inside the main office to accommodate the new desk layout and the mail slots and so forth. So although it's interior, we
041just we're just using this opportunity to kind of like highlight the lobby at the school as well. This has very minimum work, but like we're just bringing some school colors and those two doors that you see is where the staff and students would enter and then there'll be a security check-in window through that single door. Um this is another school where there's no addition needed. uh but we are renovating one classroom and existing main office um to provide main office and nurs's office with sufficient space uh for for you know the ADA requirements that have to be addressed as part of this alteration work. Um this is the new plan. Same concept, staff and the visitors entrance, nurs's office. We are able to capture a conference room, you know, second office, um, by making some
042alterations here. So, that's also included in this plan. And then this is the interior view of the reception area and the waiting area in the main office. Uh, this is the view of nurse's office. Uh they have yellow and blue as their colors, but we're c we we introduced a little bit of a purple in the main office. Apparently there's a study that the purple is probably more appropriate for such locations. So our design team came up with that idea. So >> yeah, it was it was an easy sell I have to say with the group that we had. They they all loved it. So that was there was no change in here. What's your deal if you participated? >> Um, our middle school, Buckle, uh, again, interior alteration at Buckle, their existing lobby and
043the main office, uh, is laid out quite well. So, there was not a lot of work needed, but there is interior alteration work that is being proposed similar to the other schools. So, um, you know, two offices, work room, and of course, the nurs's offices where the layout is changing quite a bit, but the office is pretty much in the same space they are currently. It's just interior alteration work. Um, this is the rendering. Of course, Barklay has um two different blue color in the colors in their logo. So this is the theme that we came up with um the paint colors and some cabinets. And then this is the nurse's office at Barker which again carries the logo color slightly and then rest is neutral. Um Eisenhower uh again similar to Balo everything's happening
044inside the building there's no addition but Eisenhower school currently has the main office kind of like next to the STEM center which is the media center which is not close to the main entrance. So the existing classroom which is next to the main entrance is now going to be the main office so that we can bring both principles and the main office staff closer to the main entrance to provide better oversight on who's entering the building. And then we're capturing additional classroom which uh we need of course um where the current principal's office is. So that area is now going to be the classroom which is the top right corner of this plan in blue and then the orange on the left side is where the current classroom is is going to be main office.
045Um there's also some toilet alteration work versus office and in the existing main office area we're able to capture conference room and a work room which is needed um for the main office function. Initially we were hoping to get like two classrooms but we avoided uh you know taking over two classrooms for main office and some of the main office areas were kept in the area where we currently have a main office. This year we're only using one classroom and not both because there's also construction phasing that comes into play when you will probably not have classroom while there's some construction. And the nurses office stays where it is, which is in the blue and the pink at the bottom. Uh we're just renovating that to fit, you know, required uh private exam room, the
046cut area, nurses desk and storage, and the ADA toilet. Um these are the renderings for uh the main office at her. Uh this is currently a classroom, so it's completely been renovated. You put new reception counter and two offices. The three doors that you see in the back, the two doors on the gray purple are for principal's offices and the other one is for like the printing area where the printer is going to be. And there's of course reading area in front of the desk. And then I think this is the last room. This is for the nurses area at Eisenhower. Again, um they have similar colors as Donovan. Um but as you can see, the partitions are equipped like they they have some glazing to see through, but there's also like a privacy sort
047of glassing installed uh with the sliding doors. So this concludes the renderings, but now I also want to update you on the timeline. Um so we passed the referendum in March and then we started working on the existing condition surveys. We have we had two meetings with the admin staff facility staff and the principles uh schematic design in August design development in November just two weeks ago and now that designs are pretty much finalized with like few you know open comments that we're working on uh the next step would be to start the construction documentation for this entire project. especially for the addition and alteration work. And goal is to bid this in February of next year to be able to begin construction in June, the summer next year, 2026. Uh this is a two-phase
048project of course. So we have two summer work. So there is some work being done in the summer of 26, but there's also a phase two when you know the equipment which has long lead time. uh that that part of the construction work is going to be scheduled for summer two which would be summer 2027. And of course the additions would run simultaneously just because they're outside the buildings. They don't have to wait uh for the summer. They can be done while schools have uh other functions going on. Um we also had roofing replacement work as part of the referendum project um which is separate from this bid. So there are six schools getting roofing upgrades. Two of them have been documented. Uh one is actually under construction right now. Um the other one we
049have the pricing being worked on right now and it's expected to begin um weather permitting maybe spring break or June of next year. And then the remaining four school moves are being documented right now in my office and we we're hoping to get the pricing to the board sometime in January so that we can lock in the price before the large projects are bid. This way you know we have better understanding of like where the referendum funds stand before we award the bigger projects and kind of like navigate through that process. So this is where we currently stand. So basically we're we're plugging for February. We of course have to submit for a lot of permits um you know state reviews or DCA and OC reviews which we're submitting this month. Um they do take
050long time. So we're pushing for that now that the design's locked in. And um you know we'll we'll we'll work on the construction documents and hoping that uh by the time that's done we'll have the permits needed before we build the project. Um, and with that, you know, I think I covered what I had. If there's any questions, I can certainly take now. >> Yes. >> That is going to be uh equipped with security film. So glass is breakable, but the film will protect the glass to shatter and harm any occupants inside the building. It also gives you additional time when if somebody's trying to do that, it gives you good amount of time to take action and you know try and safely escort the kids out of the building. So that's the intent here.
051Yes. >> Someone just changed to that. >> Yes. You don't go in there and lock. >> Yes. The teachers don't have to unlock. >> Yes. teacher key that locks the internal mechanism. Teachers and students in a classroom have just flipped and be locked in from the outside. It's still a keychain keys for the outside and for the inside. >> Yes. >> Yeah. I have to make sure that my key is >> locked to. >> Yeah, >> we upgraded a lot. So, we moved to an internal mechanism, but as we've seen when something's really happening, >> right, >> sometimes nervous and the key. >> This will allow person, >> right? So, this also involves like part of training to like maybe middle school kids could be trained to like, you know, try and be prepared. This
052is what you do when there is emergency, something like that. You know it it there's there's options like if teacher is further away from from the door and the kids are closer like they can certainly help too but like that involves another level of training and kind of like safety drill system. >> So that mesh in the window is that like like a wire or something? >> Uh no there is no mesh in the window. It's a clear glass but there's oh the film. So film is clear. you don't really see anything. But what it does is it has a thickness. So when you're trying to break in like that film would not allow anybody to kind of like break the glass. It would hold for like a long time. So eventually it would break
053of course, but like it gives you enough time to take action. That's the idea with the security. So the films come in lot lot of different specs and the one that we typically use for school buildings is like 23 mil film which has worked for most districts which is what we're trying to spec here >> think about in terms of like >> yeah exactly it's kind of like a lamination >> break agree Yeah. >> Mhm. >> Any other questions? >> Yep. So, Alco gave a it's we gave a very brief overview of the schedule. Um, we spent the last couple of hours, the last day we're at Spis's office just kind of brainstorming what it might look like in each building. Remember, Ericson and Alaggate are going to have to at the end of next
054year move one of their wings to another location to start the school year so they can start to do that renovation. All the other schools will have to hopefully find us two or three swing spaces for interior work because not all the work can get done during the summer months. It's too short. There would have to be second shift work that was done when uh students aren't in the building. Um so once we again we did a quick draft of it. Um I know Neil wants to think about it a little bit more. ask if you want I don't want to speak for you but you know >> we want to then go back and talk with the principles and then once we have a final plan we'll then share that with the board in
055terms of what this going to look like because it's going to be a very busy May and June here uh once school ends we're going to have to empty out spaces whether it be the front offices the nurs's office wherever that construction started from the front and then we'll have to then start in the at Ericen Applegate moving one pod and then be prepared to at some point in time um start another pod during the school year so there's more details file. We just didn't want to present anything tonight because we were just not 100% certain. We don't want to say something tonight at the meeting and then it changed six months from now. You say that's not what you were told or someone in the public sees the video and says, "Well, that's not
056what we've heard on the video." >> So, there'll be more to come. And then once we settle on that plan, I do believe Mr. Dixon and I will start to do meetings with the schools to prep them all for what's happening over the next 12 to 18 months. >> Right. It's a lot. It's but it's this is the beginning and then Thank you very much. I don't know about everyone else, but I found that very satisfying. >> I really did. Maybe because I love construction, but >> but also also I mean we're creating state-of-the-art infrastructure for decades to come for thousands of children. It's very satisfying to see the community come together and upgrade our buildings and make safe spaces. Um so I want to congratulate everyone that was involved, board members, administrators, guests, Speasel.
057Thank you to everyone and our taxpayers for trusting us with this referendum and we're going to do great things. We'll be the envy of New Jersey when people see our schools. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um we're going to move on to item six. >> All right. Um, as you recall from the last couple meetings, we we had discussed that uh there was a series of bonds that we were going to refinance. Uh, the refinancing was done last week. Um, and you'll see there if you look at the attachment to the administrator report and we had one, two, three, we had seven companies actually submit bids and FHN Financial Capital Markets is the winner uh with an interest of 2.36% and that actually came in a few basis points less than what the market
058had uh the week before. And we're still I don't have the whole schedule in front of me yet. Um, but we're still going to save the taxpayers close to $1 million by refinancing the seven-year section of the bonds. Every little bit helps. So, it is uh the bonds will close on the 20th, which is this week. And then I'll update the debt service schedule with the DOE. And then when we spin our budget or actually before we spend our budget, we'll find out what our at some point what our new uh state aid will be for the debt service. So, >> okay. Um that's only the length of the >> it's only seven years. So >> the remaining >> correct. Yep. So we refinance finance the entire seven years and it's about a million dollars
059of savings. >> That's good. Excellent. >> So the last refinancing that we do because the other this new set of bonds can't be called for I think 15 years 10 years. So it'll be a long time. >> Okay. So um with that um we will move to the first opportunity for public participation. This would be on agenda items only. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet and state your name for the record. Statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene, or defamatory in nature. Do we have anybody that would like to approach? Okay, seeing none, we'll go to personnel policy and communications. Mrs. Spieler, >> good evening everybody. Building looks great, those plans. Can't wait to see them. Um, we did
060meet as a policy uh committee and um myself, Dr. Breth, Dr. Casey, and Mr. Williams and we discussed, excuse me, some policies that are coming down the pipe that we're going to have a first reading hopefully in December. Um uh doc um excuse me, Mr. Dixon will be uh attending um some learning process there. So uh these are regarding resource materials and libraries and library material as well as um the public process of a policy should there be any grievances against the material. So that's upcoming. And um with that I'd like to move on the following items on the agenda. And number three, uh, I'm sorry, number two. Um, no, I'm sorry. Number three. Yes, number three. First reading of the policies which I just discussed as listed and uh corrective action plans for chronic
061absenteeism as listed, retirement as listed, resignation as listed, adjust uh start date as listed. Number eight, position control as listed. Number nine, new employment as listed. Number 10, change of assignments and salary adjustment as listed. Number 11, temporary change of assignment as listed. Number 12, transfer of assignment as listed. Number 13, extend long-term assignment as listed. Number 14, leaves of absence as listed. Number 15, PTO honoraria as listed. Number 16, unpaid days as listed. Number 17, mentor as listed. Number 18, revised termination of unemployment as listed. Number 19, student teacher practicum observation placement as listed. Number 20, summer ESL high impact tutoring as listed. Number 21, affirm bullying investigation findings as listed. Number 22, volunteers. Number 23, certified substitutes as listed. Number 24, non-certified substitutes as listed. And that's it. >> Okay. Thank you. >>
062Thank you. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Questions? >> Yes. >> Um, you said you were reviewing policies that are coming in December regarding um resources and what a parent process would be. Is that due to a change in the law, Neil, or are we refining our current policy because it's old? >> It's to align with the Freedom to Read Act. >> Okay. >> Any other questions? >> Okay, seeing none, can I get a roll call? >> Mrs. Brand, >> yes. >> Dr. Casey, >> Miss Crosby, >> yes. >> Mr. Garulo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lambert, >> yes. >> Mrs. Spieler, >> yes. >> Mr. Williams, >> yes. >> Mrs. O. Sullivan, >> yes. >> Mr. Amaroso, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Curriculum, Mrs. Brandt. >> Okay. Good evening.
063And uh the curriculum committee did meet this evening. In attendance were Miss Montgomery, Miss Crosby, Miss O'Sullivan, and myself. We discussed the items on the agenda. We discussed the fall IR ready diagnostic review. We discussed the NJSLA field testing and we discussed the early literacy universal screening. I'd like to move the following items. Number three, home instruction as listed. Number four, home instruction update as listed. Number five, course reimbursements as listed. And that's all any that's it. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> Any questions for our curriculum committee? >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? No extensions. Okay. Finance, facilities, and transportation. Mrs. Lambert. Um the finance facilities and transportation committee met this evening and attendance was myself, Mr. Dvita, Mr. Armoroso, Mr. Barulo, and Miss Williams.
064Um we discussed the construction update uh specifically the presentation that you just saw and um determined that once we know how many rooms are available for the SP swing spaces, as Mr. to be to just explain we'll have a better timeline of what uh specific buildings are going to look like on a month-by-month basis. Um we discussed the need to go out for RFP for our PCNL and health benefits broker. We're happy with our broker, but after a certain number of years, we're required to uh go back out with an RFP. So, we need to do that. Um, we discussed our emergency generators and a transfer on the agenda uh to replace them. Most of our emergency generators, which will uh keep our lights on and the phones going in the event of a power
065outage, are at the end of their useful life. Some have no parts available for replacement and are not currently working. So, the first emergency generator to be replaced will be Laura Donovan School. Kina will be next. Each generator cost between48 and $60,000. So um the after Laura Donovan and Cina the others will probably be in the next budget. Mr. Devid is considering a lease purchase on them. So it gives us 5 years to pay them but it's just time. They're old. Um the audit should be received by Friday. So uh after that you'll have u more of an update on that. And um Joan, you mentioned Angie's position was that it will be >> Yeah, we're going to you'll see a posting uh for Angie Castalto's position as transportation coordinator. She uh submitted her letter
066to retire was back in June, July. So we'll um put it out in December the posting and then we'll probably start the interview in uh January. >> When's she retired? Or she's >> June. >> So we want to get we don't want to wait till the end. >> Yeah. So, it's better to find out who the person's going to be and then, you know, potentially give that person some time to work with Angie before she goes and enjoys her retirement. >> So, with that, I'd like to move the following items. Number three, Secretary and Treasurer's report. Four, uh, bills and claims in the amount of 3,692,7786 approved by Neil, >> Mr. Gulu. Job uh travel and related expenses for the district as listed in item number five. Um item number six, transfers. Um item number
067seven, the PTO honoraria um as listed for the CINA school. Thank you for the donation by the Cina PTO to fund that honor area. Item number eight, disposals as listed. Item nine, the nursing services contract for 2526 as listed. Item 10, specialized evaluations and services for 2526 as listed. Item 11, title three, summer ESL high impact uh tutoring. The amounts uh to the title 3 grant as listed. Item 12, extraordinary unidentified services uh for the insurance broker. That's what I just mentioned in our up update. By the way, um item 13, amend the change order for the HVAC replacement at the West Freehold School. Um the revised contract total is reduced to a different amount. So that's what that's for. Um we previously approved a different number at the previous meeting. Um and that is
068all I have. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we have a second >> questions for finance facilities? Okay. Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? No obstensions. Okay. Um, old business. >> We have any old business? New business? >> No new business. I'll be sending out a draft of the calendar for board meetings for next year. Um, probably right after Thanksgiving. Take a look at it and then if you have any comments, let me know. Or at the December meeting this way, remember we have reorg couple days after we get back into the new year and then we'll adopt that calendar and have to advertise it. >> Perfect. Thank you. Um, president's remarks. Um, just on behalf of the board, I speak on behalf of all of us. So,
069happy Thanksgiving to everyone next week. Enjoy the time off with family and friends. Um, and we're going to meet again one more time this year in December. That'll probably be a packed agenda. Um, that's all I have. And with that, there's the second public participation. I don't know if is anybody want to approach before I read my statement. Looks like none. So, with that, I'm going to ask for a motion for adjournment. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. Thanks folks for coming out.