001call the meeting to order. Good evening everyone. It is always lovely to see a full room of bright and shiny faces and all of these lovely kids from our preschool. Um we will rearrange the agenda so that the preschool presentation can go first and then we can let you guys all head out. So you are not um you don't have to sit here and listen to the budget which I know is everybody's favorite meeting. Um we are going to start with the normal public notice pursuant to the open public meeting act. Public notice of this meeting has been given by the board secretary in the following manner. Posting written notice on the official bulletin board at the Vorhees Township Public Schools administrative building on August 4th, 2025 and February 27th, 2026. sending written notice to
002the Courier Post on August 4th, 2025 and February 27th, 2026. Filing written notice with the Kirk Vorhees Township on August 4th, 2025 and February 27th, 2026. Posting on the Vorhees Township website on August 4th, 2025 and February 27th, 2026. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Sorry. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Will the board secretary please call the role? >> Mr. Bryce, >> here. >> Mrs. Mon, >> she's she just stepped out for a second. >> Mr. Rosen, Mr. Rosner >> here. >> Mrs. Ruer >> here. >> Mrs. Smith >> here. Smite. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Mrs. Smith. Uh, Mrs. Stewart >> here. >> Miss Ktover
003>> here. >> Mrs. Watson >> here. We will not be going to executive session in this round. We will do it later. Um, can I get a motion to approve the board minutes of the February 25th, 2026 regular meeting? >> Second. >> Right. And I'm not signing in. Online voting is open. So, we'll see if I can get >> I'll have to voice vote. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Mrs. Mon. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosen. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Eight. Yes. One abstension by Mrs. Broer. >> Okay. So, we are going to skip ahead to the student presentation. Um, so I'd like to have invite Principal Lewis and Mrs. Tadley to please come up. Well, yes, Miss Lewis will go first and Mrs. Tadley will go second and I'll just turn it over to
004you. Okay. Good evening members of the board, Dr. Hackey, superintendent of schools and Vorhees community. Each morning at the Vorhees Early Childhood Development Center, we begin the day with our building morning announcements. This is a time for our school community to come together, share important information, recite our school motto and pillars, and start the day focused and prepare to learn. Tonight, our students will give you a brief glimpse into what a typical morning sounds like in our building. As a part of this routine, the pledge of allegiance is included. We recognize that the pledge has already been recited this evening. At this time, I would like to thank my staff, students, and families for being here this evening. I will now turn it over to Miss Carde, our building social worker, Miss Sipalone, one of
005our preK teachers in her class to share our school's morning announcement routine. >> Good evening, Vorhees board members and families. My name is Kate Denise Carde, the school social worker here at Vorhees Early Childhood Development Center. We are going to reenact our morning announcements. I hope you all enjoy. Good morning ECDC cups and good morning Gibsboro Spartans. Today is Wednesday, March 18th, 2026. Can everyone please freeze and stop where you are and stand for the pledge of allegiance. Cubs, find your heart hand and put it over your chest and face the flag. I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Before we continue with our announcements, Miss Balone's class will
006be singing their welcome friends song. Welcome friends. Welcome friends. Welcome to our school today. We are glad to be together as we learn and work and play. Come and join us. Come and join us. Join us now to start our day. We will learn new things together and have fun along the way. Now, let's continue with our morning announcements. If you are celebrating your birthday today, happy birthday. And now let's say our school motto together. I am enough. I am confident. I am determined. I can do it. Together we are ECT Cubs. Thank you for being such great cubs. And remember to be kind, responsible, and safe. Thank you, Cubs. You did a great job. And have a good evening. >> We have We have a couple of presents for you. So, will you guys
007stay up here? Thank you. I mean, I don't know how we continue the meetings after that. That was pretty exceptional. Um, what Principal Lewis is doing with these children and the self-confidence that you are building within these kids, I they're going to do amazing things in the future. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, we're gonna call up Principal Tackley. >> Good evening, board members. Dr. Hackett, I can't believe I have to go after the preschool students. That was really, really cute. But I have my own cute kiddos here tonight. Um before I call my kids up, um I'm going to tell you a little bit about my presentation and any of um my amazing ET Hamilton staff members that are here that are um a part of the win program. I'm going to
008introduce them when I get to, but you guys are welcome if you'd like to come stand up here um so you can get your shout outs too. So this evening I'm here to talk to you about the wind program and I'm going to talk about what wind looks like at ET Hamilton and Miss Gumto. I might be hitting the wrong button here. Thank you. Um so first I want to talk a little bit about what WIN is and then I'm going to look a little more about what WIN looks like at ET Hamilton school. So board members I'm sure you have you know heard us talk about Dr. packets talked about it. Um the WIN program here in Vorhees. So we started WIN last year. So we're in our second year of WIN and WIN
009stands for what I need. WIN is a dedicated instructional period where students receive targeted support or enrichment based on their individual learning needs. In second grade, WIN allows teachers to differentiate instruction beyond the whole group lesson. Our win groups meet three times a week for about 30 minutes a period. Students can work in small groups, partnerships, or independently during that time depending on what's planned that week in their group. So the purpose of win um it's really almost the beauty of it is it's almost as simple as it sounds, right? It's giving students exactly what they need. So it can address learning gaps, reinforce key skills. It can also provide enrichment for students who are ready to extend their learning. It uses data and teacher observations to guide the instruction and it ensures that all
010students get exactly what they need to succeed. So these are some of the staff members that are um involved in win at ET Hamilton. And this might look slightly different at each school. Um, I want to start by saying WIN is something that I certainly help with at ET Hamilton, but I don't want to take the credit um for win. I'm here as a support. WIN really started as a district idea. Um, and u, Miss Morgan and Miss Ross oversee WIN. This was really something that they helped get off the ground. They meet with the teachers in all of our schools. um like as the cycles change for when they're the one overseeing it, sitting in the data meetings, supporting the teachers as they have questions. As the school principal, my role is a lot
011of supporting the teachers and also building a schedule that allows all the staff members involved to be available for the win period. So, the staff members involved on the left hand side here, we have um Morgan Burns, Caitlyn Greenwood, Alyssa Pinto, and Stacy Reeve. They are all here tonight. This is my amazing second grade team. They do deserve a round of applause. >> They took on, you know, a big challenge. This was something new and in the beginning there were some kinks to work out and, you know, we had to kind of decide what worked, what didn't work, what had to be tweaked and they have been such troopers through the whole thing because they've seen the success of win. So, I really appreciate their patience and their hard work to get this off the
012ground. They've literally never complained about it. It's been so positive and I'm so appreciative for them. Um, supporting them on the other side there, the right hand side. Um, not everyone could be here tonight, but Ellen Carbonaro is our reading specialist. She's a huge factor in win. Sandy Demo is our EP teacher, so she sees her EP students during this time. Um, Kelly Gallow is a special education teacher. That's new this year at ET Hamilton. I was able to arrange her schedule that she's free during the win time, so she's able to do another level of support for a small group during win. and Casey Stevens is our basic skills teacher. So that's all of our staff members that participate in WIN. So what does WIN look like in second grade? So the focus areas
013often include reading, that can be phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. We have groups that focus on writing skills. The groups are flexible, which is such an amazing part of when um they change based on the students progress. The instruction is targeted, intentional, and responsive. So a big question is how do the students get placed into the groups? We look at quite a few things. We have a lot of data that we can use. We look at the instructional groupings in I Ready. I Ready um gives us groups that students are placed in by um their ability level, but also students that have similar learning needs. Um and that allows us to group them together. If we know a group of students is all kind of having a particular challenge, we can get them together and
014work on a skill with them. So that really helps us with our groupings. um their overall I Ready diagnostic scores, the Wonders assessment, so our curriculum assessments assessments help us and also classroom teacher input, what they're seeing in the classroom, the informal assessments and what's happening day-to-day in the classroom helps us to create our groups. So the impact of women, this is the best part. It promotes equity by meeting the students at their current level. It really supports academic growth for all learners. Encourages student confidence and independence because they're working at their level in their small group. Um, and it maximizes instructional time without removing students from core instruction. It's so amazing that they can get exactly what they need and they're not missing anything that's going on in their classroom at that time. We
015have had a lot of great feedback um from all of our second grader grade teachers, but now this year we've had great feedback from our third grade teachers that they're seeing the difference in having those students who had win for one year come up and a lot of those learning needs have already been addressed by the time they get to third grade, which is amazing. Hi, my name is Luke. I'm in M. >> Sorry. Um, I have some students that are going to talk to you tonight, but first we have a few um virtual students who recorded something. We asked them to tell us a little bit about what they do in win and what they like about wind. So, here's a couple of our second >> I like learning about morphology. Morphology is the
016structure of words and it helps me get better at reading. My name is Addie and I am so I am in Miss Stevens win group. I like win because I like learning new words. My name is Ellen McKibben and I am in Miss Gallow's win class. And the thing that I love about in Lynn is I have a teacher that is very uh kind and helps me with work. Hi, I'm Oakland and I am in Miss Greenwood's class. I love when we go and have buddies and all. I love learning new words with my partner. >> My name is Jordan and I'm in Mrs. Stevens wind. I like win because I learned things that I don't normally learn in class. >> Hi, my name is Kelly. I'm in my reading group and I like reading
017the chapter book Goon Bird Green because it helps me read big words. It helps me understand the story better and how the character is thinking and feeling. Hi, I'm Emmy. I'm in my screen. Um, and what I like about when is that um we take reviews um about like um spelling words in the past and stuff. >> My name's Adriana. I I'm in Miss Galla's win group and the thing about I like about win is um when I learn more. >> Okay. And I have five special students here to help me tonight. So if my students can come up here, I have Blake Boozer, Avery McHugh, Zayn Solomon, Avery Kuk, and Luke Snder. Come on up. Yes. My name is Blake Booa and I am in Miss Pento's wing group. In my wing group, we
018work on reading stories and ask about questions in the story. We also we also wrote our own stories. My name is Aver McHugh and I am in Miss Pinto's wing group. In my wing group, we work on our reading skills. First, we read a text, then we write about it. We even write our own text sometimes. Now I can use more difficult words which helps me understand my reading. I hope others can learn from their reading mistakes too. My name is A Solomon and I'm in Miss Burns's one group. I work on non-fiction paragraph writing when is school because I get to meet students from other classes. When is one of the best parts of my day and I hope other schools can get to do it. Hi, my name is Avery Kenoke and I
019am in Mrs. Pinto's wing group. In my wing group, we work on readers theater. Our play was named Snow Day. I performed our play for Miss Steven's wing group. Hi, my name is Luke and I'm in Mrs. Conor's win group. In my win group, we work on reading and spelling different words and we um practice sounding out all different vow sounds. I have become a stronger writer and win. As you can see, it really is a favorite part of the day for these kids. And I think they also touched on the really fun part that makes them feel like big kids, which they get to switch classes, which is really neat for besides all the good academic areas. They get to go to another classroom, see different students, be with a different teacher, and that's
020really a neat way to mix up their day. So, thank you very much. We're happy to take any questions you may have about Win. >> We are incredibly impressed, and we thank you guys so much. And we have presents for all of you guys, too. So, >> can I can I say one thing? >> So, last year my son was in win at Crescent School and not only did he love it, but it's such a great program and it helped him with his reading so much and um it also is just aligned to one of the district goals. It's not often you see like a goal and like the tangible impact that like trying to meet that goal um is and and this is that right now and and it's great that we have this
021here. So, thank you and thank you for speaking to all of us. Good job, guys. Thank you. See? We'll give you guys all some time to exit if you'd like to. Thank you so much for coming to a board meeting and sharing. Okay. I don't know how we're supposed to do work after this. Um I have no additional president's comments. I may make some comments at the at the board um during the board comments, but I I just have to again say thank you so much to Principal Lewis, Principal Tadley. Thank you for the presentations. I know it takes a little bit of extra work to get the kids ready and here and um that it's the best part of being on the board. Um that is what we all look forward to the most
022is basically seeing our education system in action and it it really doesn't get any better than tonight. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, fire drills and safety drills on the attached, harassment, intimidation, and bullying report also on the attached. Suspensions on the attached, bus evacuation drills as shown on the attached. We have two um three Oprah requests, two from Mr. Forte and one from Miss Verie. Um, they are all one is still open, the rest are closed. And now I'm turning it over to Miss Haley for the board secretary report. >> Thank you very much. I'm going to go up to the podium >> do a presentation on the 26 27th. >> Awesome. Thank you. Well, good evening. It's that time of year again when we get to go over the budget presentation.
023Um, so I will start with this first page that shows we bridge the gap. Anyway, okay. So, we'll let you know what the different steps that we went through in order to balance our budget. Um, step one of the budget process, we always start with the worst case scenario on the revenue side, which would be flat state aid, 2% tax levy increase, which is the amount that you're allowed to do, and revenue at last year's levels. And then the best case appropriations really is um like anything that you can put in the budget, you would put in the budget. So there's no reduction to current appropriations. Anything requested is put in there. contractual salaries are funded and an anticipated increase in health care, transportation, utilities, and insurance. When we did that, unfortunately, the gap was
024$6.4 million, which was pretty scary at first. Uh, it's always pretty large. We have not seen it that large. Do I push the button or do you guys push the button? Oh, good. Thank you. All right. Step two. Okay. The next step is we started to uh I usually work on the revenue side and Danielle Cury works on the appropriations expenditure side. So on the revenue side, what we did is we took a look to say what could we increase the budget for? Meaning we we do earn more interest than we budgeted. Like we would always budget about 500,000 for interest, but we earn more. So we said we can let's raise it to $750,000. If you don't budget for something, it becomes surplus that you can apply to the next year or put in
025reserves. But we're like, we know we'll get 750. Let's increase it. Um, we also have um rental income that we get at at the ECDC because Gibbs Row rents five classrooms from from us. So, we budgeted for that. And also, we have two buses that we lease out that are on used on our routes, but they're leased from us by TNL Transportation. So, we budgeted for that. So, that increased the revenue side of the budget. And Danielle went through the appropriations expenditure side of the budget and she reviewed every single line item and reduced wherever she could reduce based on actual results from 2425. And then she um we we know that we had some retirement. Sometimes you leave the retired positions in just because it's a little bit of you know just cushion just
026in case. But she went through and removed everyone that we knew was retiring. And we have to budget for that position for the open positions at step one. That's what the state requires you to do. So that freed up some money on the appropriation side and we adjusted the health care amount to what the insurance providers had told us it would be. That reduced the budget gap between revenue and expenditures to $3.8 million. Still not enough. Then we went on to step three. So we knew we had to make cuts at that point, but we did not want to make we made we didn't want to make any cuts that would impact instruction or district staffing. So we tried to be very very creative to see what we could cut without hurting any programs or
027staffing uh classroom staffing. Um so the appropriation cuts that we did is because our our preschool program is around I think 290 students we we estimated for uh plus our providers. We're we're nearing the cap not capacity nearing the universe that they want us to service. So, we're allowed to move more transportation costs into preschool. Initially, there was only a small amount of money that we could trans that we could we could fund by the PIA money. We had to fund most of it from our regular budget. But because we're at that high number, we can move more in. So, we did. So, we allocated more expenses. I'm just going to call it PIA to make it easier. We allocated more expenses to PIA, meaning transportation and utilities. Because the ECDC is its separate building,
028we can we can account for their utilities in that funding source. If over at Crescent, we cannot. So the grant does not allow you to prorrate utilities within the building, but if it's a separate building, you can. So we put them in there. And then we have enterprise fund. An enterprise fund is our CER program and our food service. Those are run like a business. They're not funded by taxpayers. They generate their own revenue. So, we allocated some utilities to them because they do use some of our utilities. The other thing we did is we do a lot of financing uh like short-term financing over like three to five years for technology, HVAC, textbooks, and so forth. And some of them again are three years, some of them are four years, some of them are
029five years. And they're tied to the economic useful life of the item that we're financing. And we get a pretty good rate because we go out to bid typically for the rate or if it's Apple they give us 0% financing which is on the agenda tonight which it's never 0% like from an accounting standpoint there's always imputed interest so we have to disclose what it is it comes to about 1.7 or 1.8%. Anyway the way these loans were structured um we had very high payments this year and next year of like $1.2 million and then it it dropped off some. So I approached Apple and I said rather than paying four years of equal payments, can we pay a low amount in the first two years and a higher amount in the second two years
030because that'll smooth out my payments, level my payments over the next four years. So instead of it being 1.2 million, 1.2 million and then drop to like 500 million or 700 million, it's now about 900,000 for three years and 700,000 in the fourth year. So that it's still over the same amount of time, but it just smooths it out. So, for budgeting purposes, we don't have it like this, tying up money now that we can just pay over the life of the of the loan. Um, I did approach several of the agencies that we deal with. Um, some just said, "No, we can't do that." Um, another some of them weren't worth doing because they dropped off next year. I'm not just going to push something to next year. But the ones that went out
031two more years, it made sense to smooth it. So, I had uh Apple were just going with right now. They said, "Sure, no problem." Because this is a new agreement. and one other place said yes, we will do it. I don't have the paperwork for that yet. That'll be on the May meeting. But nonetheless, that helped our budget because it just smoothed it out. Now, going forward, if we have to finance anything in those years, we should keep that in mind to keep things level. All right, so that helped on the appropriation side. In addition, um we reduced contracted vendor usage for substitute staffing and registered behavior technicians, RBTs. We have a lot of our own staff that is now being trained to be an RBT so we could reduce some of the vendor RBTs.
032And last year we started to reduce courtesy busing for kindergarten students. Whereas we used to bus all kindergarten students on their own buses and we incorporated uh the kindergarten students that were eligible for transportation onto the buses for first through fifth graders. So that was the change last year and we said that we were going to continue to reduce courtesy busing. By the state law, anyone that lives within 2 miles of the school can does not necessarily need transportation. We had been providing transportation for those students. We're going to be cutting that back. However, if somebody is living on what's considered a hazardous road by our police department or they have to cross it and there's no crossing guard, there will still be a bus for those. So, we were able to uh eliminate $500,000
033from the budget for that. In addition, what supports that is every year we have to file what's called a DRTS. It's a transportation report with the state. It's done every October and there's an efficiency rating associated with it. The state wants your rating to beund I guess it's like 1.2 or 120% and we're at like 7 which is like 70%. And that's because we had so much transportation that was not really um mandated. So by doing this, it kind of makes our number better. And the state does notice because they did bring it up to us like, "Oh, did you like we had our mid-year budget review with the county and they pointed out your rates a little bit low?" And we said, "Yes, we're working on that." So that that helped us, too. So
034by doing these cuts again it didn't impact any staff and no instruction no programs and it reduced the gap to 1.79 1.79 million. So then usually state aid is released the last Thursday of February 2 days after the governor's address but when you have a new governor they get extra time which they should you know they get two extra weeks. So the governor's address was in March instead. So our state aid numbers were getting released on March 12th. Um, so we said, you know what, let's just sit tight and see what our numbers are because you just don't ever know where they're going to come out. There's a lot of factors involved. So when the state aid numbers were released on March 12th, we had an increase of $5,795, which is not very much. It's
035kind of like break even, but then it goes along with what we used. We said flat and it came out flat. And if you read any of the articles, a lot of people had cuts, you know. So I know local districts around here had cuts. So we're very grateful, very thankful that that didn't hurt us. and we were like right where our projection was. Again, you can't really project it, but that's our safe bet. So, that 5,000 reduced our remaining gap to 1,786 725. Um, so we're like, okay, now we really have to decide what are we going to do about this. So, on the right side of this thing is bankked cap utilization. There's something built into the Department of Ed uh budget software and they have things called adjustments to your to your
036um tax levy. One of the adjustments is for enrollment and another one of them is for health care. So if you've been reading anything about health care in the state or really in all of our lives, health care has gone up. And there's a lot of schools that are part of the school's health health insurance health schools health benefit plan and their insurance went up 31.7%. We're part of the school's health insurance fund which is a pulled group of school districts and ours went up 6.27 I'm sorry 16.27%. Which is still a large number but not anywhere near the state health benefits. So the 16.27% 27% increase is $2,185,632. So that's pretty large. I mean, so if a 2% tax levy would be a little over a million dollar and just with health care, it
037increased by 2,185632. So that's pretty hard to deal with. But that's why the state builds this health care cost adjustment into it as an option to put that towards the tax levy. Um just for comparison purposes last year our health in 2526 our health benefits went up 12.44% which was about 1.45 million. The year before was 10.26% which was 1 million34. So this year was a lot larger than it had been in the past. So by keying that into the state software it calculates what your health care adjustment amount would be. It compares it to what the state state health benefits is and it calculates it out and says of that 2.1 million your adjustment could be 1,916680 and in addition to that we had a weighted enrollment increase of 54,574. So the total amount
038that would go into our banked cap is 1,97154. So banked cap is really just a a capacity. It's it can stay there for three years. You have three years to use it or you lose it. Um, so we said, you know what, without impacting any staff or programs, we we're going to use it this time. We haven't we we didn't have we didn't have this adjustment in the past other than for enrollment in 2223 when we went to full day kindergarten. We did not use it then because we didn't need to. But at this point, because healthcare went up so much, we said that's why they build it and we're going to use it. So we utilize 1,786725 of that healthcare adjustment. So that came out of bank cap and we will still have 184,429
039going forward to use if we so choose. Okay. The next page shows just a comparison of the adjustment for increases in healthcare. Um the calculation for an adjustment for last year even though our even though we had an increase in healthcare it did not generate this adjustment. It was zero. But this year it it generated 1,916680. So again, we're using the 1,786 on the on the right side. It talks about the local tax levy calculation. When the state aid pages come out on the 12th, they always the state always calculates what your fair share is for your township, for your school district. And it's based on equalized valuation. So your ratables in your township on like a three-year average with with a factor associated with it. And so it looks at ratables and it looks
040at income. So it looks at the income in your town over 3 years averaged with a factor to it and it says based on all that your local fair share of taxes should be 61,871,474. The 2% tax levy would be 54,564797. So we would be below their fair share by $7.3 million. Uh three years ago we were not in that situation. But as time goes by, the I guess the equalized value goes up, the income goes up, and the state is saying that that we could pay more. Um, the only way you can get to that number is if you have that capacity from bank cap. So anyway, they calculate what your maximum could be and it was 56,535. So even that is below the local fair share because you really can't get there in
041one year, you know, and they I think last year they gave schools an ability to get there and some schools took that ability. We did not. We stayed at the 2%. Um but this year we decided in order to because of the healthc care so much that we will use some of our bank cap anyway. So by taking the 2% and adding the healthcare adjustment that would have been in bank of 1,786 that got us to 56,351522. So we're below the local fair share that the state is saying is our fair share by 5,51952. So we didn't go all the way by using all of our bank cap. We used some of it. Okay. So the tax impact of that um the the increase is 2,85623. So from last year's tax levy to this year
042it it gives us 2,8856,623. So it does cover the health care. Usually that range is about a million dollar. Um that's a 5.34% increase. The average home in Vorhees Township is assessed at $455,56. Uh you may recall that there was a valuation done in October. So that is the new value of homes. The impact on an average home if it was a 2% increase would be $11743 and the annual impact with this with this increased tax rate of 5.34 is $18942 which is an increase of $71.99 over what it would have been at the 2%. So the what you'll see on your agenda is on motion uh 16.12 is the approval of the tenative budget. So the way it works is that we do this presentation and then we have to submit the budget to
043the county for their review. The county reviews it. They may come back with some questions. We have a whole bunch of supporting documents we have to send to them. and then we advertise the budget and then we come back in May and we do a public hearing and we vote on the final budget. So this is considered the tenative budget to submit. Um the whole budget itself, the general fund budget is up by 2,604,743 which is a 4.9 4.09% increase from last year. Um and again the increase is mostly due to healthcare. The other items on here we have to mention using the healthcare adjustment of 1,786. Um we're taking $200,000 out of capital reserve. If you take out a capital reserve, it's only used for capital projects. So it's a one for one. So
044the 200,000 that we're taking out does not really deplete our capital reserve by very much. We want to we want to maintain what we have in there. and we're using it for a new playground uh valued at about 140,000 and hard surface flooring that we're continuing to replace hard surface flooring in the district 60,000. Uh we're taking $454,199 out of maintenance reserve that goes towards general maintenance, required maintenance. Emergency reserve can only be used for health care or safety, but we only have $91 in there and that's really just the the final amount that was interest. And we also have to always say what the travel regulations are, what we put in the budget, what we've spent. Travel is not really travel. It's really professional development. But they require us to disclose that. So that
045once that is voted on, then we will submit it to the county for the review and we'll just, you know, wait for them to say something and then we'll be back with it again in May. Do you guys have any questions? >> I do. Thank you so much for the presentation. I My first is a clarification. So that increase of 5.34%. That is not to taxes writ large. That is to the portion of taxes that goes to the school. Correct. >> Yes. >> So it's not like >> within our budget. >> It's not for the whole people's for all of our taxes. It's just for the portion, >> right? That that 5.34 is what it means within our budget. So within our budget, we went from 53 to 56. That's not necessarily what it means
046to the taxpayer. And again, that is the school piece, not your whole piece. >> Okay. And the second is what is the impact? So that you're talking about the increase in health care costs which I think we all understand viscerally. Um what what is the impact on the staff to that? >> Okay. Um with the adoption of chapter 44 several years ago there if people opted to go into chapter 44 the calculation of their healthc care deduction was tied to their salary. So nothing changes for anybody that's in chapter 44. Nothing changes because there's a set percentage that comes out of their salary. Um the school district bears the brunt of the increase. Chapter 78 was different. Chapter 78 was tied to a different calculation. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >>
047Any other questions? All right. Thank you. Superintendent report, please. Good evening. I want to first um commend ECDC and um ET Hamilton. It was a great job. Uh please extend to your students. I thought they were absolutely wonderful. So, thank you. Uh my present my uh report tonight is very brief. Um first, I want to follow up from the February 25th board meeting. Uh there was a question asked about Thomas Rutder's Clear ID residency program. The question um indicated that the program may only be um used by families who have a home. Um but this program verifies the residency of any parent or guardian, not only those who own a home. Basically, the system confirms the address provided by the parents or guardians by cross-checking information among multiple databases. And so we are now working
048to with the um vendor to get this program up and going so that we can use it for resid residency verification. There was also a question asked about whether um we need assistance for our um staff who take care of snow removal. I I think that question was asked because someone observed uh the use of shovels. So according to our director of buildings and grounds, the district is well equipped overall to manage snow removal operations. The department currently has three utility vehicles. However, depending on specific conditions or locations, a shovel may occasionally be the most effective tool. And my one announcement for tonight is I am pleased to announce that two VMS students qualify for the state level of the math counts competition. This is the first time we have had students qualify in the
049last five years. So, I'd like to congratulate Henbin Lu, grade 8, and Victoria Oyang, grade seven, and the math counts advisor, Miss Jessica Belco. and we wish the students the best of luck as they move into the state competition. Thank you. Audience participation. Anyone wishing to address the board, please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet. While the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel litigation, negotiations, and attorney client privilege, the board will now hear comments from the public relating to the items on the agenda for this board meeting. Comments are limited to three minutes. The board will not take action this evening. You will be notified at some later time by letter, electronic mail, telephone, or
050in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take. Uh good evening. Uh my name is Major Pace Brown, retired US Army and um I'm a resident of Vorhees Township and also I have a uh children who also attend the township as well. Um first I would like to thank uh the board of education superintendent, the teachers for the work that they that goes into educating and supporting our students. I know the responsibility to running a school district is significant and many parents appreciate that commitment. My comments tonight focus on two issues that matter greatly to families. Parent communication and school safety. Recently, my daughter Taylor was out of school due to an excused illness absence. During that time, she missed several assignments and quizzes. Uh when she returned, there
051was not a proactive communication regarding the work she missed or the time necessary to review the material um before assessments were given and negative grades were recorded for work tied directly to that absence period. Um I appreciate that the teacher later allowed her um allowed a retake once communication occurred. However, situations like this raise a broader question about whether consistent procedures exist across the district when students miss school for legitimate circumstances. Um to that end, I would respectfully ask that the board um for clarification on a few points. First, does the district have a formal policy requiring teachers to proactively notify parents about assignments or assessments that will have that will or have an impact on grades after an excused absence? And if so, how is this policy implemented consistently across schools? Second, does a
052district have a standardized time frame for students returning from excused absences to review missed material and complete assessments before grades are finalized? And if such a policy does exist, would the board consider opting one um adopting one so expectations are consistent districtwide? Clear commun um pardon me. Clear communication in situations like these helps ensure students are evaluated on their knowledge and preparation rather than on circumstances outside of their control. My second area of concern relates to school safety and student well-being. Across the region, we have seen incidents where law enforcement in has had to intervene in school related situations. These events remind us that many challenges students face originate outside the classroom. but can affect the learning environment inside the classroom. With that in mind, my third question um revolves around the board is whether
053the district could provide the community with information about early intervention programs, behavioral support systems, or counseling resources that help identify students who may be struggling with external pressures before those issues escalate into safety concerns within the school environment. I believe proactive communication with parents and early support for students are two of the most effective ways to strengthen the academic success and school safety. When communication is strong and support comes early, small problems never become big ones. And I believe that's how we protect both our students and our schools. Thank you >> and thank you for your service. Seeing no additional comments, we'll move into the business meeting statement. As we move into the business portion of our meeting, we want to recognize that it appears as if the board takes action with very little comment
054and it may in cases and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before an item is placed on the board agenda, it is thoroughly reviewed by the superintendent administration. The superintendent then presents the recommended action to the appropriate board committee and works with the committee to ensure that the members fully understand the recommendation. Once the committee is satisfied, the item is placed on a board agenda for discussion and action at a public meeting. Board agendas are made available to the board several days in advance of the meeting, giving us ample time to review the agenda and have all of our questions answered. Further, we are kept up to date between meetings and on the ongoing work of the administration and the important issues in the district. All of these efforts ensure that we are well informed
055and prepared to take action in our meetings. With that said, uh, Miss Branch Stewart, can I have a policy committee report, please? >> Certainly. Good evening. The policy committee met on March 3rd. Mr. Moscowitz and board member Crystal Manion and I were present. The committee discussed and recommends full board approval for all policy items on tonight's agenda. There are no first read policies on this evening's agenda. So, the majority of the committee times was focused on the second reads as well as reviewing policies and regulations recommended for abolition. The committee recommends that those policies be removed because they were either specific to COVID era requirements are no longer required under ESSA or the or every student succeeds act or have been incorporated or replaced by other policies. With respect to the second reads, much of
056much of our discussion centered on our cell phone policy, formerly known as policy 5516, use of electronic communication devices. The committee does feel that this revision not only aligns with the requirements of the newly enacted state law, but also strikes an appropriate balance between supporting student academic performance and recognizing the practical need for parent student communication. Our next policy meeting is currently scheduled for April 28th. Thank you. >> Thank you. I get a motion to approve all of the items under policy. >> So move Stuart. >> Second cut over. Online voting is open. >> The motion unanimously passes. >> Rder, can I get an academic excellence committee report, please? >> Good evening. The academic excellence committee met on Monday, March 2nd. It was myself, Julie Kettover, Allison Smi, Jennifer Branch Stewart, Dr. Hackett, and Mr.
057Muskowitz. Um, we don't have any actions that require um anything to be done by the board. We did have discussion about technology use in the classroom. We talked about the schedule for NJSLA for 2026 that is upcoming. Um, we had a conversation about the cost to live stream fifth grade graduations. Uh, we are looking into that. We have received one quote so far. And we had a discussion about the articles um written about the Mississippi miracle where Mississippi is increasing their literacy at a uh very impressive rate. Our next meeting will be Wednesday, nope, April 27th. Thank you. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve all of the items under curriculum? >> So moved Rosner >> second rudder. >> Online voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. >> Mr. Razner, can I get a
058personnel committee report, please? >> Yes. Personnel committee met Thursday, March 5th at 6 p.m. In attendance, myself, Miss Watson, Miss Ruer, Mr. Rosen, Dr. Hackett, and Mr. Moscowitz. We discussed two VTEA matters. We discussed the resoning um from Hamilton to Oage. There's no action at this time for the board. Uh we discussed a personnel matter and we discussed a litigation matter. Thank you. >> Make a motion to approve all of the items under personnel as recommended by the superintendent. >> So moved. Rudder. >> Second. Rosner. >> Online voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. >> Mrs. Munan, can I get a finance committee report, please? >> Yes. The finance committee met on Wednesday, March 4th. um was attended by board members Richard Rosen, Julie Kadover, Jacob Rosner, and myself along with Miss Haley, uh Miss Carrie,
059and Dr. Hackett. We discussed all items on the agenda under finance, transportation, and building and grounds and recommend for approval. We discuss we did the preliminary discussion of the 2627 budget review as presented by Miss Haley tonight. Um, we discussed the professional services RFPs and recommended a new RFP for the auditor, but to maintain the remainder of the professional services RFPs. Um, the RFP is in process for the food service contract. Um, and solar conversations are ongoing with additional data being collected for review. We had a follow-up meeting tonight before the board meeting to review the finalized uh budget information and our next finance committee meeting will be on April 29th. >> Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve all of the items under finance? >> So moved Rosen. >> Second Mon online
060voting is open. Motion unanimously passes. I'm sorry. Did you say you have an I >> motion? Uh, can I get a motion to approve all the items under transportation? Totally missed it. So moved. Vona second. Stuart. >> Online voting is open. motion unanimously passes. >> There are no items under buildings and grounds. Public comment. Anyone wishing to address the board, please approach the side table on the right and write your name and address on the login sheet. While the board is limited in its ability to respond to the public on matters involving personnel, litigation, negotiations, and attorney client privilege, the board will now hear comments from the public. Comments are limited to three minutes. The board will not take action this evening. You will be notified at some later time by letter, electronic mail, telephone,
061or in the context of a later board meeting of any action the board does take. >> Uh, good evening. Um, wanted to thank Helen for taking the numbers um to have no staff reduction. And I just wanted to congratulate we have the three retirees Lean Binkley, Karen Montgomery, and Barb Andrews. Um, so but thank you. >> Thank you. >> Comments from the board. Um, we will be going into executive session. Um so I will read I will read this part where whereas the open public's meeting act authorizes the board to act of board of education to meet in executive session under certain circumstances whereas the open public's meeting act requires the board to adopt a resolution at a public meeting to go into this private session. Now therefore, be it resolved by Vorhees Township Board
062of Education that it is necessary to meet an executive session to discuss certain items involving number seven, matters involving anticipated or pending litigation, including matters of attorney, client privilege, and specifically legal advice on the superintendent search. Number eight, matters involving personnel issues, including but not limited to the employment, appointment, termination of employment, terms and conditions of employment, evaluation of performance, promotion, or discipline of any public officer or employee. Be it further resolved that any discussion held by the board which need not remain confidential will be made public as soon as feasible. The minutes of the executive session will not be disclosed until the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Further be further resolved that the board will return to open session to conduct business at the conclusion of the executive session and action may be
063taken although I do not believe we is oh there could be action. Okay. Um I don't know if we have an estimated Yeah, I 30 minutesish. Um can I get a motion to go into executive session? >> So moved. Rudder. >> Second. Rosner. >> All in favor? >> Okay. Can I get a mo I guess a motion to return from executive session? >> So move. >> All right. Can I just do it that way? >> Uh I need Who's the motion? >> I did the motion. >> Oh, okay. Sure. You need a second, but >> I said the first one. >> So moved. Rosmer. >> Second. Cut over. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> Just leave that. >> Yeah. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Um, can I get a motion to approve the
064appointment of Hazard Young Attea and Associates to perform the superintendent search for a total of $21,500 upon receipt of all required paperwork to be approved by the um school businesses administrator. >> So moved. Cut over. Second Bryce, >> I'm going to do a roll call vote. >> Mr. Bryce, >> hi. >> Mrs. Munan, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosen, >> yes. >> Mr. Rosner, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ruer, >> yes. >> Mrs. Smite, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stewart, >> yes. >> Metver, >> yes. >> Mrs. Watson, >> yes. Motion unanimously passes. >> Oh, hold on. I guess I do have to close this out, huh? Okay, next meeting will be May 6, 2026. Everybody enjoy spring break and all the holidays. And can I get a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> So, yep. >> Second,
065Roser. >> All in favor? >> I She's safe.